Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! I leveled a Mesmer about a year ago after getting completely destroyed by Osicat. I haven’t met many mesmers lately that I haven’t been able to kill (wether it be on my thief, guardian or ele).

I tried PU, but honestly I don’t like the idea of “abusing” stealth on my Mesmer (got a thief for that). I know that PU is an incredibly strong trait that’s been used a lot lately. I find shatter builds to be more fun to play, but I haven’t met many of those the last few months…

So I guess what I’m really saying is:
Are shatter Mesmer viable for WvW? I mainly roam solo or do some small group skirmishes. Would be awesome to get some feedback from the community about this before I gear myself up again

I think shatter is GREAT for roaming and small group skirmishes. It’s harder to play and less forgiving of mistakes, which might explain why many mesmers shy away from it. As a reward, I think it’s damage is much higher.

That said, I personally shy away from the terminology about PU being “abuse” of stealth. It’s a class mechanic we’ve had from the start and it’s nice to have a solid trait which boosts it, much like some of the ones thieves have.

It’s a trait that’s much more in line what what I think a grandmaster should be and I hope some of our other grandmasters get bumped up to its level of performance.

Shatter Mesmer is probably the most fun/hardest spec to play on a Mesmer.
You don’t see a lot of them lately because people are playing PU ez mode meta.

WTB more Shatter Mesmer

Short answer = yes.

You can play it but you’re moving yourself to the bottom of the food chain. Shatter builds are weak in the condi meta, as are high burst zerker builds in general. Thieves with all their stealth do the best with it, and they’ll use that to get rid of you quickly.

So, you may want to define whats ‘viable’.

Yes, it’s fast and fun, but it requires more practice and dedication than a PU build.

Ross Biddle.2367:

You can play it but you’re moving yourself to the bottom of the food chain. Shatter builds are weak in the condi meta, as are high burst zerker builds in general. Thieves with all their stealth do the best with it, and they’ll use that to get rid of you quickly.

So, you may want to define whats ‘viable’.

Shatter builds are not weak. They are still more than viable, just gotta play it for a while and know when to burst etc.
Yeah its the condi meta, it does not mean that people have to change the way they spec just to beat it. Learn how to beat it with an old school spec and you wont have a problem in most situations. Its hard, but 100% do able.
Unless you come up against perplexity… Then gg.. cuz perplexity.

Mickz.8356:

Ross Biddle.2367:

You can play it but you’re moving yourself to the bottom of the food chain. Shatter builds are weak in the condi meta, as are high burst zerker builds in general. Thieves with all their stealth do the best with it, and they’ll use that to get rid of you quickly.

So, you may want to define whats ‘viable’.

Shatter builds are not weak. They are still more than viable, just gotta play it for a while and know when to burst etc.
Yeah its the condi meta, it does not mean that people have to change the way they spec just to beat it. Learn how to beat it with an old school spec and you wont have a problem in most situations. Its hard, but 100% do able.
Unless you come up against perplexity… Then gg.. cuz perplexity.

So I should bust out my old school confusion shatter build then?

Yeahno… :p

I agree – define your terms

Ye shatter is still viable, for starters sometimes frustrating but also really exciting. Just pick a build that makes the most fun, in the end that’s all that matters

I could never get into WvW shattering… everyone moves so kitten fast and there’s so much AoE flying around that clones tend to die before they reach their target. Buffing them up means buffing yourself which hurts your DPS. I highly prefer using them as minion bombs with clone death traits and spamming them via Deceptive Evasion.

I still don’t understand why they decided the clones had to run all the way to the target for the shatter. I understand the shatter skills would need adjustment to be an instant hit, but I’d prefer lower damage over praying every time that just a single clone will make it through the instant clone death AoE zone to its target.

Yep the shatter mesmers are still viable, I even have all the vids/evidence to back it up since 9 months ago.

easyface.8064:

Ye shatter is still viable, for starters sometimes frustrating but also really exciting. Just pick a build that makes the most fun, in the end that’s all that matters

Exactly.

Most fun builds can be viable in a number of situations. Some might have more hardcounters than others, some might be optimal for the current meta (ie power/condition PU), but ultimately you can make most core builds work with enough effort and dedication to the build. Just got to tweak tactics of dealing with different classes as they get buffed/nerfed.

I think its more about adapting to situations (well all class and builds are like that :P). Sometimes I run shatter mesmer and sometimes I run PU crit/power, which both are perfectly viable in WvW.

I typed a whole lot then deleted it because I realise Alissah provide the a great video on shatter mesmer.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/video-Troll-of-the-Mists

Thanks for the responses guys! Looks like I’ll give shatter a go since I don’t fancy condition builds and I like a good challenge. As for the word “abuse”, there’s a reason I out it in apostrophes. I don’t really think you can abuse something that’s intended to work that way. I’m also glad that it really is a worthy and powerful grandmaster trait. I just chose the word since that what’s been thrown around lately (and I’m used to hearing it being a thief).

I’m not really afraid of getting bombed in large scale battles because I try to stay away from those. I like small scale roaming and challenging myself with outnumbered fights (preferably solo or with one or two friends). My idea is to kite larger groups and use my clones as meat shields until I see an opportunity for a good burst. I can manage to get 7-8 clones shattered within seconds (practiced rotations for that in the Mists) which I think will leave most people really hurt or downed.

I spec for high critical damage, some toughness and vitality and rely on boons and vulnerability to burst my enemies. I use sword/focus (sometimes sword) and staff.

Depends what builds you gonna face, but if it’s poor noobs crawling around the map then yes, shatter is viable. If it’s pu mesmers, perplexity engies and good thieves, idk. Doubt you will win a lot from those guys unless they’re bad.

I personally find shatter in a very poor state. I’ve been using it in raid for the past 7-8 months and also been roaming with it for a week or so. Your survivability, even with pretty balanced gears, is kinda poor and you lose 1v3’s really fast against people who have 0 idea what’s going on in the game, just because of random kitten that they do to you.

For small scale, I guess you can look up bamf joe for that, I’d say it’s really good. But what’s funny to see is the fact that they’re running something like: ‘’2guards, 1 war and 1 mesmer.’’ This is not for no reason. Bamf needs the support the war and guards give to him to survive the random kitten going on.

You’re almost forced to run full zerker cause else you can’t kill people. I wouldn’t suggest running in eotm with shatter atm, cause you’ll get destroyed by anyone that uses retaliation.

I’m still no fan of shatter in roaming, but it’s at least more fun than bashing newbs around in PU.

Shatter is second rate right now. My zerker GS Warrior auto attack for the same as a fully specced Mesmer zerker shatter. He can 100b for 20k with self-buffs and it is way easier to set up in laggy WvW aoe splash. 100b is a noob killer but then again so is shatter.

quercus.9261:

Shatter is second rate right now. My zerker GS Warrior auto attack for the same as a fully specced Mesmer zerker shatter. He can 100b for 20k with self-buffs and it is way easier to set up in laggy WvW aoe splash. 100b is a noob killer but then again so is shatter.

What I think is that a well timed burst with shatters with several clones and sword 3+2 skills can make anyone panic :p have to test it though. I’ll also make sure to stack vulnerability at the same time so that my burst does as much damage as possible ;p

Geiir.7603:

quercus.9261:

Shatter is second rate right now. My zerker GS Warrior auto attack for the same as a fully specced Mesmer zerker shatter. He can 100b for 20k with self-buffs and it is way easier to set up in laggy WvW aoe splash. 100b is a noob killer but then again so is shatter.

What I think is that a well timed burst with shatters with several clones and sword 3+2 skills can make anyone panic :p have to test it though. I’ll also make sure to stack vulnerability at the same time so that my burst does as much damage as possible ;p

Take a look at Vashury’s videos if you’re trying to learn shatter burst. He runs very glassy burst builds in WvW roaming, and his techniques and playstyle allow him to pull of burst that’s just plain disgusting. Watch this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Shatter is the funniest way to play mesmer. It’s viable, and I’d say that once you master the technique, you will become a really good player. Until then, be prepared to rage at thieves, PU mesmers and Engis.
The best fights you can have as a Shatter mesmer are against Necros, Warriors and Guardians IMHO.

hihey.1075:

Shatter is the funniest way to play mesmer. It’s viable, and I’d say that once you master the technique, you will become a really good player. Until then, be prepared to rage at thieves, PU mesmers and Engis.
The best fights you can have as a Shatter mesmer are against Necros, Warriors and Guardians IMHO.

Regarding warriors, I dunno – there are some pretty dangerous warrior players out there who can just shrug off your damage and make you run. L2P issue maybe, but although I can beat a lot of warriors, some builds played by highly skilled players are pretty scary.

The most fun fights for me are vs good thieves or mesmers, even PU traited.

Ofc its viable, in the sens it can kill ppl and it can be played. Is it the best possible spec then for wvwvw? In this I have to say no as long it is about roaming. Shatter is not the “best” spec for roaming, solo or in group. It can be forced to work ofc by a good player as it deal heavy dmg.

I Played shatter for roaming sens the release of the game about, even have some builds I fellt was close to pefect. The biggets changes form then to now is:

1 – changes to sword blurred frenzy
2 – Changes to enemy skills offensive and defensive

Pyroatheist.9031:

Take a look at Vashury’s videos if you’re trying to learn shatter burst. He runs very glassy burst builds in WvW roaming, and his techniques and playstyle allow him to pull of burst that’s just plain disgusting. Watch this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Yes ofc you can deal heavy dmg, but do this deffine a good roamer build? No in my oppinon it dont. Why a thief is so good for roaming is cause you can choose you battles, not cause you can win every single fight. If you endup in a situation were you loosing/cant win in romaing (witch you always will) a good roamer build let you withdraw from battle and dissapear/outrun enemys.

What do you do as a shatter mesmer if you midfight with a engi get attacked by a skilled condi warrior and a BS theif? 9/10 you endup dead. As PU as long you play well you stealth, use 1200 blink restealth and get away.

/Osicat

I have a question—-

I haven’t played shatter spec as much as some of you, but it seems to me, that compared to other builds—-the damage doesn’t make up for it’s weaknesses.

Am I wrong?

EnderzShadow.2506:

I have a question—-

I haven’t played shatter spec as much as some of you, but it seems to me, that compared to other builds—-the damage doesn’t make up for it’s weaknesses.

Am I wrong?

u gotta use both phantasm atks and shatter perfectly,

its difficult to manage but after some time playing u will manage for sure

basically, let phantasm use his atk, shatter after, not always though, if enemy pressuring u , u surely gotta hit back w some serious dmg so enemy backs off

btw dont use shatters in pve,, pointless

Another benefit – you’ll get nice complements for playing shatter from enemies.

Just had a few duels on eotm with a good engi from gandara, which I doubt I would have been invited to party had i been running another build.

If you already solo roam you know the state there, the majority of the time it’s gonna be you vs a few. You’ll definitely have to work hard then pu for same type of reward but the increased risk definitely makes wvw fun.

As for small groups, take a look at joe’s videos

Geiir.7603:

Hey guys! I leveled a Mesmer about a year ago after getting completely destroyed by Osicat. I haven’t met many mesmers lately that I haven’t been able to kill (wether it be on my thief, guardian or ele).

I tried PU, but honestly I don’t like the idea of “abusing” stealth on my Mesmer (got a thief for that). I know that PU is an incredibly strong trait that’s been used a lot lately. I find shatter builds to be more fun to play, but I haven’t met many of those the last few months…

So I guess what I’m really saying is:
Are shatter Mesmer viable for WvW? I mainly roam solo or do some small group skirmishes. Would be awesome to get some feedback from the community about this before I gear myself up again

Shatter wvw is just awesome.
my reasons why are telling their own story
u are solid against all kind of builds as long u know your skills, some enemies are easy prey othrs are hard but in wvw u got chances against everybody, use the map and u will have fun like hell.

thanks Pyroatheist for advertising, still not enough shatter mesmer out there to bring fights on more explosiv levels !

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geiir.7603:

quercus.9261:

Shatter is second rate right now. My zerker GS Warrior auto attack for the same as a fully specced Mesmer zerker shatter. He can 100b for 20k with self-buffs and it is way easier to set up in laggy WvW aoe splash. 100b is a noob killer but then again so is shatter.

What I think is that a well timed burst with shatters with several clones and sword 3+2 skills can make anyone panic :p have to test it though. I’ll also make sure to stack vulnerability at the same time so that my burst does as much damage as possible ;p

Take a look at Vashury’s videos if you’re trying to learn shatter burst. He runs very glassy burst builds in WvW roaming, and his techniques and playstyle allow him to pull of burst that’s just plain disgusting. Watch this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

I think the word you were searching for was “awesome” (burst)

I second the suggestion, Vashury and Osicat videos are a must for everyone that wants to learn shatter mesmer.

I find shatter a lot more fun to play than any PU build, but it’s personal taste I guess…

Yeah, Osicat and Vash are the two I’ve been watching to get the movements / tactics right ^^

I’m used to be mobile (thief ya know) so that’s not my biggest problem. Right now I’m testing different setups with gear, traits and skills to learn them and find my thing. So far it’s definitely shatter! PU felt like a spam stealth and get illusions that do the job for me while I hide, didn’t like the feel or the play style.

Shatter is by far my favourite, but it’s a pretty high skill floor (and I love it!), so I guess it will take some time for me to master it… Still working on trying to conceal important skills or fake a burst to lure out important cooldowns ;p

I have one more question for you guys;
I’m not sure wether I should go greatsword(high burst) or staff(survivability)… I’m close to a full glass cannon with a mix of zerker and valkyrie. What do you guys recommend?

I guess u will get two different answers from osicat and myself. In my opinion staff is a risk in glasscannon builds, u have no burst except u have mind wrack ready, if not, u can do almost nothing else than use defensive cool downs which is also not a lifesaver with bersi shatter. massiv dmg with 1900 armor, and the most dangerous thing, your opponent has 9s time to recover get back cooldowns too and reconenctrate his attacks.U have to hit your enemies like a truck and not let them get up again. the bedst weapon set for defense is also sword/torch. sword 3 is like staff 2 sword 2 is better than staff 2 torch 4 is better than staff 5 and u can use it offensive in each way too.Torch also has condi remove and blind. U can for example use the torch to blind long channel skills like the ele 5 or to avoid the heartseeker spam of an unskill but still dangerous thief, cause the delay of heartseeker and stealth still result in some hits even u get into stealth.
Next thing is, the repositioning in prestige can result in a perfect shatter as long your enemie can always see u it´s much more easy to avoid attacks or especially fighting against multiple targets the staff could be your death within glasscannon builds.
U can use the 2 the 4 and the chaos stomr and than its over, after some weapon swaps chaos storm is still on cool down. Prestige will be available again with the torch condi remove trait, two benefits with one trait.
BUt use whatever u want! maybe u find some new inspiration like i did with torch 8 months ago, almost nobody had believed in torch.

Osicat.4139:

Ofc its viable, in the sens it can kill ppl and it can be played. Is it the best possible spec then for wvwvw? In this I have to say no as long it is about roaming. Shatter is not the “best” spec for roaming, solo or in group. It can be forced to work ofc by a good player as it deal heavy dmg.

I Played shatter for roaming sens the release of the game about, even have some builds I fellt was close to pefect. The biggets changes form then to now is:

1 – changes to sword blurred frenzy
2 – Changes to enemy skills offensive and defensive

Pyroatheist.9031:

Take a look at Vashury’s videos if you’re trying to learn shatter burst. He runs very glassy burst builds in WvW roaming, and his techniques and playstyle allow him to pull of burst that’s just plain disgusting. Watch this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Yes ofc you can deal heavy dmg, but do this deffine a good roamer build? No in my oppinon it dont. Why a thief is so good for roaming is cause you can choose you battles, not cause you can win every single fight. If you endup in a situation were you loosing/cant win in romaing (witch you always will) a good roamer build let you withdraw from battle and dissapear/outrun enemys.

What do you do as a shatter mesmer if you midfight with a engi get attacked by a skilled condi warrior and a BS theif? 9/10 you endup dead. As PU as long you play well you stealth, use 1200 blink restealth and get away.

^This.

For solo players shatter build means :
- strong in 1v1.
- good @ destroying a few noobs.
- Sure to die vs a few skilled oponnent.
- Sure to die if a zerg is arround.

Now we are talking about WvW, what do you think happens the most ?
But if you play with thieves and/or other mesmers (1 or 2 with PU) that’s another story.

Actually came across a shatter mes earlier in the day that played very similarly to Vash from what I’ve seen of his videos, sword/torch + GS. But that mes lacked a lot of the burst dmg that Vash’s build had. Really need to be close to full zerker to be effective i’m guessing. He chased me for a long time trying to kill me but wasn’t doing enough dmg to threaten. The shatterer technics are there though, form triangle for quick bursts, shatter to interrupt heal etc.

Geiir.7603:

I have one more question for you guys;
I’m not sure wether I should go greatsword(high burst) or staff(survivability)… I’m close to a full glass cannon with a mix of zerker and valkyrie. What do you guys recommend?

For shatter, you need the greatsword. Its the one thing that give you oomph at range and for something that’s supposed to build as a player killer you cant really replace it. I would say there are two combos available: gs/s/torch (though the torch can really be replaced with anything, its just good for roaming) or gs/staff. The staff is considerably harder to time burst with though, you have to look out for that iWarlock bolt incoming before you pop your illusions. If you do get it right you can do insane damage.

Personally I prefer the gs/staff combo – sword leap is still soooo bugged, ugh… At least the staff only drops you through the terrain sometimes :p

Well; seeing that Osicat used staff and no GS for most of his shatter-builds, I would say you do not NEED the greatsword. I guess it’s all a matter of what serves your playstyle the best and what works for you.

Hmmhmm; I’m sometimes tempted to try shatter as well, but it feels a bit like “yolo” to me. Like, go in no matter what and force them into defense and hope/try/pray to not die while doing so. It’s kinda against my nature; I’m not a person who likes risks and my playstyle is often more uhm, cautious/defensive haha. Maybe I will try it again at some point, though.

example if i would rate shatter build ingeneral in my pov
0 – none
1 – low
2 – medium low
3 – medium
4 – medium to high
5- very high

Shatter
Damage spec:

1. Burst Damage (5)
2. Fun (4)
3. DPS (2)
4. Health Pool (1)
5. Mobility (4)
6. Survival For Bursts (4)
7. Survival For Dps (2)

1- Thats the major thing that shatter mesmer can be differ from other classes.. high coefficient and support in very short time..
2- yeah more challenge means fun for me.. maybe bunker condi is so boring cuz of that u are imba that can never lose any 1v1 and slower deaths but 1vsmany it can be fun as well
3- i said 2 cuz has not dps as phantasm specs.. u burst and u ll ve unconnection time to damage..
4- shatter spec is required more damage than other specs of mesmer which will let u glass or as can be say as dd thief, to efficient better cuz of burst and mobility advantage..
5- Mobility yes higher than other specs.. (just lack of cleanse)
6- i said 4 cuz easy access to invul, insta skills break stuns, int, or heavy damage to foe that make him to be defansive(not pressure u)
7- being focused or if foe is very tough that your bursts doesnt enough to let him retreat etc..

but rather than duels or large scale groups shatter spec become more efficient in small scale fights..
but doesnt have high chance to win for 1v1 or 1vsmany or solo roam as tanky/condition setups..

all them are personal view.. if have question can clarify more detailed..

And there is a Comprehensive Shatter Guide from SupCutie he is one of best mesmer shatter player in tpvp that there are such a good tips, tricks..
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Supcutie-s-Comprehensive-PvP-Shatter-Guide/3461238

Of course, what Osicat is saying is absolutely right – having PU is optimal in the current state of the game, in terms of being easier to access, have better chance of engaging/disengaging any fight and staying alive in situations where you would be flattened when using another build, while still being able to dish out the damage.

With shatter you would have to work much harder to achieve the same results, especially to disengage when being overcome by an unbeatable group. 1200 blink, stealths, portals, phase retreat, temporal curtain, speed runes… would require creative use of different mechanics to stay alive. Bear in mind you would likely have much lower toughness as well (unless traiting 10 or 20 in chaos with enough cavalier/soldier/knight in there).

Weapon choice is entirely up to you.

I agree with Vashury that sword + torch in the off set is an amazing combination and one I now always run – the only exception would be a pure phantasm build (which I never play), where you’d want two offensive phantasms. Otherwise the prestige is just a fantastic skill, that scales well regardless of enemy number, whether traited or not.

As for staff vs GS, well this is entirely subjective.

I need to preface why I choose staff by saying combat for me revolves around the interchange between offence and defence (yin/yang or whatever you like), with control and supporting effects being used either offensively or defensively. Quite simplistic but I can’t think of another way to express my point at the moment.
The ebb and flow will be building up for the burst, and then winding back, parrying attacks while skills recharge. Of course this doesn’t happen in a nice regular pattern, but is erratic and complex, with things changing all the time.

The key is that within any good offence there should be defence, and the same the other way around.
Full offence without defence would be a situation where you are with a large group of people chasing down one or two players with nothing else around – nothing to defend against.
Full defence without any offence is literally when you’re running for your life from a large group – no intent to pressure or burst any enemies.

In a “normal situation” though, you want to be defending while attacking – obvious example in one skill is blurred frenzy. You’re pressuring the opponent(s) with damage while doing your best to avoid/minimise damage taken. Anything can be used this way – offensive positioning, stealth, pulls, interrupts.
Likewise when you’ve used up your burst and need to sit back while waiting for skills to come off cooldown, it pays to still pressure the opponent while playing defensively.

Why did I say all that?
Well the offence part of the GS is quite clear – every skill is geared towards it.
The defence part is harder to see, and also to use – you have iwave for the knockback and izerker for the cripple. The only other way to defend is through positioning and use of distance. Put simply, GS rewards:
- aggressive play
- good use of distance and positioning

As such the gameplay style will require lots of moving with the camera panned, and running in and out of combat (meaning closing distance with the enemy and moving away to create distance).
#1, #4 and #2 make it easy to maintain some attack while going on the defensive (having created distance between you and the enemy).
Defending while attacking boils down to dealing so much damage and overwhelming the enemy that they are more concerned about surviving than trying to damage you, use of control effects like iWave and use of other skills (shatter skills, utilities, etc). This is difficult against opponents with good sustain, and harder to ration your skill use.

Staff on the other hand is almost the opposite and has many built in defensive skills, with one (phase retreat) on a low cooldown. With illusionary elasticity it is easy to continue to pressure an opponent when you have used your burst and are moving into the defensive rhythm. Without elasticity, attacking while defending is much harder and you suffer from not being able to pressure the opponent enough such that they could charge in and overwhelm you – you would have to use other skills (shatters/utilities) to make up for this.

Continued:
On the other hand defending while attacking is easy – however attacking itself will require good offensive positioning (offensive use of phase retreat for example) and use of shatters/utilities. The good thing is with staff you always have a way out through phase retreat, or #4 and #5 if they are up. It is helpful to use clones to block LoS especially when using staff.

The nature of chaos armour (which you will be using often) also means that it pays to get hit – seems illogical if running glassy gear, so (and this is only my opinion) staff works better if you bulk up a little toughness.

For me, I can still maintain enough attack pressure and soften up enemies using the staff while having superior options for evading and escaping, and still be able to shatter burst (in either weapon set).
Also on a purely subjective note – there is nothing more graceful than dodge shattering overhead in staff followed by phase retreat away from an opponent. Like walking on air.

Edit: I forgot to add – GS also rewards taking the initiative, using skills without waiting for your enemy to do something. Staff is more reactive – using skills in response to enemy actions. You can do the opposite with each, but it requires more effort/skill.

Well lot of different opinions here. As a player like everybody else i have to respect other gamers believin. BUT, if some of u saw or already watching my stream sometimes each of u should see:

-u dont die faster within zergs than other builds, its the special fun time cause like a wolf u can hunt the old and sick until the whole zerg is hunting u.
-there are actually no other builds protecting u that good like a shatter build against zerg cleaves, all other builds need illusions to use f4, shatter is the only build u can use it direct without illus and gives u enough time to blink out of the danger zone. so i dunno where those minds come from that u are done as soon a zerg appears in range.
-u can see each day how i walk through zergs without getting a scratch. (stream)
-u can also see, that as long u play good and smart, it is quiet difficult to kill a shatter mesmer who won´t get killed and who knows that u are hunting him. If someone bursts u out of nowhere, ok kitten happens but this can happen to almost all specs with a good timing.
-u should test out specs by yourself and don´t listen what others say, some player cant handle shatter some player cant handle PU (as stupid it sounds it is true). Find your build play it develop it and u will have fun. In a result u will always find player who say shatter is so broken or PU is so broken and low skilled. It always depends on the moment.
Those of u who wanne see how shatter rolls in wvw roaming it´s so easy: turn in, watch my stream and u will see it´s always a question about the gamer not the game what is possible and what not.

BTW shatter is no dps spec the tactic is:
burst → 1) dead 2) 30% HP left
1-→ gg
2—> kite stay out of damage reposition yourself:
→ 3) he heals 4) u counter the heal with interrupt
3)-→ u know your dmg is like 70% of his hp even he is on 69% after the heal after the next 10s he will be dead anyway 4)gg outohit till the end

of COURSE it is theory and there are lot more tactics to stay alife BUT, the thing which should stay in your mind, don´t try to dps some enemies if it is too dangerous just kite and burst kite and burst kite and burst. Autohits are always dangerous for yourself, too.

Another thing is – U dont need GS for shatter, i dunno why people are telling stories like this,sure its nice but its not neccessary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEbLzhQsjJI

Reading some of the comments are making me goosbumps so I´m really thinkin about trans to an american server to change some of your guys mind. This is also the moment i need to quit following this thread or i fear i could get angry and unfair. Those who are intrested in shatter feel free to contact me for advice tutorials or whatever u want. After 2hours of tactical training with me u can decide by yourself what u believe – the forum or the alternative way. Those who pretend shatter is not viable and stupid okay – in this case it should be no problem if there would run more shatter mesmers against u soon.

But always play the build u have fun with as long it comes from your own decision.

People think they need GS for shatter builds?

I didn’t even use GS for the first 8 months of this game. Staff has always been my go to weapon for shatter builds until fairly recently. In WvW i prefer GS lately but in Spvp I want my staff because of the claustrophobic nature of Spvp.

Shatter is viable with GS, Staff, Scepter, Pistol, Focus, Torch.

Vash.1920:

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Reading some of the comments are making me goosbumps so I´m really thinkin about trans to an american server to change some of your guys mind. This is also the moment i need to quit following this thread or i fear i could get angry and unfair. Those who are intrested in shatter feel free to contact me for advice tutorials or whatever u want. After 2hours of tactical training with me u can decide by yourself what u believe – the forum or the alternative way. Those who pretend shatter is not viable and stupid okay – in this case it should be no problem if there would run more shatter mesmers against u soon.

But always play the build u have fun with as long it comes from your own decision.

No need to get stressed about it – there’s a lot of people here in support of the playstyle, so your continued input is welcome.

Godmoney.2048:

People think they need GS for shatter builds?

I didn’t even use GS for the first 8 months of this game. Staff has always been my go to weapon for shatter builds until fairly recently. In WvW i prefer GS lately but in Spvp I want my staff because of the claustrophobic nature of Spvp.

Shatter is viable with GS, Staff, Scepter, Pistol, Focus, Torch.

Indeed, that’s one of the positive features – any weapon works, which is nice because if you get bored of one weapon it’s easy to swap in another weapon without having to touch traits or gear.

I run a shatter build for raids and I bloody love it at the moment. I enjoy peeling off from the main group to attack the enemies lights. With the blink and decoy it is very easy to reposition myself away from any enemy harassment if the heat is getting too much but you have to be on your game all the time otherwise you can get in a sticky situation.
It is also funny to see enemy mesmers and eles just melt if you can get off a really nice combo they never expect it and often you are stomping before they have a chance to react.
My problem though is if I get immobilized for too long and the enemy zerg decides that they have had enough of my shenanigans, though that just makes me laugh.

Personally I am tempted to going back to roaming on a shatter build, though I have been saving roaming for my engi of late, even if I fail at the class most of the time. A girl needs a change every now and then.