Guild Wars 2

Haven’t been into shatter for quite a while, but am getting back into it. Could any serious shatter players please tell me why they think staff is better these days than sword/X? Will this change after Sep 9?

staff was always in the meta due to its ability to exploit the entire map.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Phase-Retreat-guides-for-PvP/first#post4355845

sword has been nerfed to the ground. Ileap no longer swap with dead clone. Blurred frenzy is now an evade. sword AA always sucked. Basically, high end pvp players uses gs and camp around the map.

Staff is a pretty basic staple for anything shatter, its got fast clones, defensive skills and party support covered.

Shatters provide your damage spikes anyway.

Sword was also always popular when used with staff, but the AA is kinda kittenty for PvP, its mostly been used for the imob + BF + shatter combo. a combo thats a bit harder to pull off now thanks to some nerf/bug fixes

GS + Staff is the other easy combo to go for, tho GS is less defensive.

It will be interesting to see how the new iLeap works. In the gameplay footage they showed during RU, it looked like the clone had Distortion on it as it was spawned. If that is purely cosmetic or if it actually has it remains to be seen. But if it does, it makes for teleporting into groups and out again a proper thing that we can do now, just like a Guardian with their Interventions. Could make for some interesting gameplay.

For now, I’ll stick with Staff + Scepter/Focus though. Want to toy around a bit more with the hybrid shatter build using Maim and generally being built around the condition application (and boon stripping) of shatters.

I swap out GS and sword/x or focus/x, but never without mah staff. Best overall weapon regardless if you’re condi or power imo.

You should think twice before porting inside group and pressing Sw #2, because now that skill is evade and not invulnerability and retaliation will be able to kill you.