Guild Wars 2

I’m sure this topic has come up before but here goes!…

Normally I’ve been restricting myself to just PVE with my Mesmer due to the fact that I don’t understand entirely how they work in PVP. That said, I know the Prismatic Understanding (PU) Mesmer is feeling a lot of love; however, ever since I hit 80 on my Mesmer, I’ve been running a 4/4/0/0/6 shatter spec just for PVE content.

The question: Is a PU “the build to rule them all” as far as Mesmer go? If not, what are some advantages and disadvantages of running a PU build vs running a standard Shatter spec in PVP?

Generally, if you’re taking a “PU” spec, you’ll be dealing a significant amount of damage through illusions – whether phantasms if a power build, or clones and clone death if condition, in addition to your personal damage from weapons.

When it comes down to it, you don’t need to trait for PU, or take more than decoy/mass invis as personal survival. So instead if thinking “PU spec”, think "do I want to play condition (through illusions – phantasms, clones, clone death) or power, or a mixture of both – and this in turn dictates the weapon sets you could use.
Then think about how will you stay alive – and while PU (the trait) with multiple stealths is unmatched for staying alive (especially in an outnumbered fight), there are other options, particularly when it comes to conquest where you might want to be able to hold a point.

Shatter is better for quickly bursting targets down, and providing things such as boon removal and other control elements to help your team overcome a group fight.

In my Opinion.

Prismatic Understanding

Pros

• Very Survivable
• Easy to drop focus fire
• Able to win most 1v1’s
• Easier to perform with
• Can play far point assault well against lower ranked/unorganised teams.
  Cons
• Very little team support
• Will get de-capped in 1v1’s
• Low skill cap
• Sub-par DPS vs capable players
• Teammates will have increased focus fire on them due to the amount of time you are in stealth.

Shatter Mes
Pros

• High burst damage
• High boon removal
• Better team support in team fights
• High skill cap
• Decent AOE spike
  Cons
• Requires an organized team to best make use of
• Weakness to condi heavy specs
• Weakness to thiefs
• Often requires team mates to peel for you
• Weakness to AOE heavy specs

Typically PU wouldnt run portal and trav runes like shatter but adjustments could be made. Otherwise shatter is also a lot more mobile.
Edit: Also thought it would be worth mentioning. Shatter is infinately more fun to player

There’s also an important distinction to be made between Power PU and the Blackwater builds.

With Blackwater, you will win basically any 1v1. If you enjoy 1v1, and you are playing to win, Blackwater is the way to go. It’s crucial flaw is that if even 75% through the fight the enemy decides to just leave, you can’t really do anything to stop them. You rely entirely on the enemy wanting to fight 1v1. Granted, most players are too stupid to realize that simply walking by you would auto-win them the encounter.
Power PU trades much of the 1v1 survivability for the ability to stop fleeing targets or engage running ones. In that sense it’s much more of a WvW-useful spec, but do keep in mind that it has lost the crucial point of most PU specs, the insane survivability. Not without good return value, but it’s important to be aware of it.

In any case, both are build around smallest-scale PvP. 1v1 is ideal especially for Blackwater-setups, 2v2~3v3 is possible, above that I really wouldn’t work with a PU spec any more unless the whole team is built for stealth.

Thanks for the posts everyone, I appreciate the insight that a lot of you have given me. I’m not completely decided on my personal spec; however, what I’ve gathered is that PU mesmers gain a lot of survivability through stealth while still dealing moderate-high damage through clones/phantasm/traits while shatter specs provide more on-demand burst that require a peel and play well in organized teams.

I’ll continue to play them both out is pvp and see if I can get more comfortable with a particular one. One thing I have realized with the PU Mesmer is that more fights just tend to be flat out stalemates compared to a shatter spec where it’s basically burst or die. I’m not sure which one I like more but I’ll keep trying them out.

A question aimed towards Jackums although anyone can answer….

You said that shatter specs and PU specs are generally pretty bad in PVE. I can see how PU specs can be inefficient because combat would take so long and the boost to survivability isn’t needed in most content; however, what makes a shatter spec so bad? As far as PVE goes, I’m pretty much talking about map completion/world bosses/a few dungeons here and there.

AAeriaM.7045:

A question aimed towards Jackums although anyone can answer….

You said that shatter specs and PU specs are generally pretty bad in PVE. I can see how PU specs can be inefficient because combat would take so long and the boost to survivability isn’t needed in most content; however, what makes a shatter spec so bad? As far as PVE goes, I’m pretty much talking about map completion/world bosses/a few dungeons here and there.

Shatter is pretty king for open world because it is a quick burst down and finghts do not take longer than 7 seconds. Phantasms are the king in dungeons because they have utility (Wardern blocks projectiles) and steady DPS for long fights (over 7 seconds).

It should also be mentioned that if you plan on playing high tier PvP than you should choose shatter, taking a PU Mesmer would be a waste of a character slot on a team where kittenter brings a unique style and teams will often build there comp around there shatter Mes.
If you don’t plan on playing at a high tier at any time then that shouldn’t worry you at all and it really should only be a case of what you find more fun to play.

AAeriaM.7045:

A question aimed towards Jackums although anyone can answer….

You said that shatter specs and PU specs are generally pretty bad in PVE. I can see how PU specs can be inefficient because combat would take so long and the boost to survivability isn’t needed in most content; however, what makes a shatter spec so bad? As far as PVE goes, I’m pretty much talking about map completion/world bosses/a few dungeons here and there.

Simply put, dungeon enemies have stupidly high hp. Shatter is not built to repeatedly smash one’s head against hp brick walls.

Shatter works against other players because even the tankiest bunker can be dropped with a few well timed/setup bursts.

In a dungeon it’s incredibly inefficient – sure, you can play a dungeon using a shatter build just like with any other build, but you will be much better off with a zerker phantasm build for the sustained damage in pve dungeons.

In open world, you can do what you like – most things work well.

What Neptune said.

Not to thread jack, but how about you try Sword/Focus+Staff with CI? Now THAT’s a fun weapon set and build to use in PvP.