Guild Wars 2

Hey folks. I know it’s a little unusual to be posting a thread these days without some sort of complaint about the metagame, but I was hoping to talk some about shattering and shatter-centric builds. In particular, that it’s not really possible to have ALL the traits you may want and I imagine that means people are weighing out priorities and making well-thought out decisions about what to take and what to leave. I’m hoping this thread will be a collection of those ideas, as I’d love to hear what people think about it.

My hope is also that we can keep the “Oh you’re stupid, there’s only one way to do this”-type dismissive posting to a minimum. I understand that certain abilities might be weaker (or perceived as weaker) in the current metagame, but if that’s your justification, say so and remember that things could change on a dime. Expressing it along the lines of “I didn’t find X useful in that situation, and I’d much rather have Y because blah blah blah” can go a long way to keeping the discussion constructive, so let’s try and keep an open mind. It’s okay to think an ability should be stronger than it is, but keep in mind we’re talking about why we like/dislike abilities, not what we think the order of the universe should be.

So to start, these are probably the most interesting shatter-related traits in each line:

Domination

• Dazzling (master) – Inflicting daze also causes 3 seconds of [5x] vulnerability.
• Mental Torment (I) – Mind Wrack causes 20% more damage
• Rending Shatter (IV) – Shattering Illusions causes [1x] vulnerability for 8 seconds to nearby foes
• Shattered Concentration (VII) – Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit

Dueling

• Deceptive Evasion (X) – Create a clone at your current position when you dodge

Inspiration

• Vigorous Revelation (III) – Shattering illusions grants [5s] vigor to nearby allies
• Shattered Conditions (XI) – Using a shatter skill removes a condition
• Restorative Illusions (XII) – Heal a small amount when you shatter illusions

Illusions (also increases shatter recharge rate)

• Illusionists Celerity (adept) – Illusion-summoning skills recharge 20% faster
• Illusionary Retribution (master) – All Shatter skills inflict [1x, 3s] confusion
• Shattered Strength (grandmaster) – Shattering illusions give you [1x, 5s] might
• Precise Wrack (I) – 10% higher critical-hit chance with Mind Wrack
• Confusing Cry (II) – Cry of Frustration grants [5s] retaliation
• Illusionary Persona (XI) – Shattering illusions creates the shatter effect on you as well
• Imbued Diversion (XII) – Diversion hits multiple targets

(edit: added Dazzling and stack size/duration info to some traits)

I guess I’ll start.

I’m beginning to feel like Illusionary Persona is important or necessary, or maybe just unusually strong. Being able to shatter without having any clones has been super handy, particularly the 1-second daze and distortion. Combined with Vigorous Revelation, it usually means you can have Vigor on demand, which in turn helps power Deceptive Evasion. There’s also a post out there that talks more about how much power it adds to Mind Wrack (spoiler alert: a lot), if I can find it I’ll add the link here.

Beyond that I’ve been having a lot of deciding between remove condition or remove boon on shatter, but the former is so deep into inspiration that it’s painful because you can’t have that, Persona and Deceptive Evasion all at once. In WvW, I’ve settled on having neither, and instead getting the two on-clone-death traits, which I imagine is totally sub-optimal, but being able to trait-swap into Mender’s Purity and Mental Torment has actually been handy.

Lately I’m also really liking Confusing Cry, which can stack up back-to-back with the sword-focus combo for around 30 seconds of retaliation. I’ve taken to throwing in Signet of Inspiration in PvE to share it with my party as well, which I think works out pretty well for big chaotic moments.

Out of curiosity, is anyone doing a shatter-ish spec with deep Chaos?… it sounds hard to pull off, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to get a pile of toughness and survivability and still shatter semi-often.

The 0-20-20-0-30 staff – s/p uses 20 p in chaos for staff cd,s and thoughtness. Its a solid defensive shatter build I used in some tPvP and sPvP, its not as fun as 10-30-0-0-30 thu and some enemys give you problem as you simple don thave the burst.

The illusion traits I discuss in my guide, simply fantastic stuff.

I can just reccomend shatter cat vuild for anyone interested in wvwvw shatter spec. Have fantastic ressults with it especialy after patch. The staff fix a few weeks ago and now sword leep fix is making this build alot more jumpy aswell, with some skill you can be just outside reach of ppl while doing hit and runs with burst.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/guide-WvWvW-Shatter-cat

My build… I’m not sure if it would be conisdered good, but I use it in WvW and have been very successful. I just started using it an SPvP, and people don’t seem to expect it. (Then again, I just started SPvP. :P)

20/20/0/0/30
GS/Sword-Pistol

Domination I: Mental Torment
Domination X: Greatsword Training
Dueling IV: Sword Training
Dueling X: Deceptive Evasion
Illusions III: Compounding Power
Illusions VI: Illusionary Invigoration
Illusions XI: Illusionary Persona

Full Knight’s Gear
Berserker’s Weapons
Mix of Knight/Berserker Trinkets

I like it a lot so far. But I was running a condition build with GS/Staff before the nerf. I’m far from an expert, but I’ll say this. Dueling IX is wonderful for clone generation. Especially with the new ways people have of blocking clone creation.

Osicat.4139:

The 0-20-20-0-30 staff – s/p uses 20 p in chaos for staff cd,s and thoughtness. Its a solid defensive shatter build I used in some tPvP and sPvP, its not as fun as 10-30-0-0-30 thu and some enemys give you problem as you simple don thave the burst.

The illusion traits I discuss in my guide, simply fantastic stuff.

I can just reccomend shatter cat vuild for anyone interested in wvwvw shatter spec. Have fantastic ressults with it especialy after patch. The staff fix a few weeks ago and now sword leep fix is making this build alot more jumpy aswell, with some skill you can be just outside reach of ppl while doing hit and runs with burst.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/guide-WvWvW-Shatter-cat

I am interested in your “0-20-20-0-30 staff – s/p” shatter build. Do you use power or condition stat for the build ? Also hows the rotation going ? I am still low level mesmer (lv 37), after GS nerf I am thinking to use staff. To my knowledge staff ussually more on condition, so I am interested on this staff shatter build. Is it more effective compared to gs shatter build ?

Thx

vutak.3186:

Out of curiosity, is anyone doing a shatter-ish spec with deep Chaos?… it sounds hard to pull off, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to get a pile of toughness and survivability and still shatter semi-often.

I’ve tried to make such a build, but with more into Inspiration. It didn’t work out too well, but I think some traits need to be rearranged. Restorative Illusions comes to mind, as Restorative Mantras is 10 times better (1k-2k AoE heals on Mantras) but doesn’t have the whopping 30 point prerequisite. I think all the support-shatter build needs is Restorative Illusions moved to master and the advent of a regen on shatter trait. How amazing would it be to have vigor-heal-regen-confusion all tied onto shatters? I also wouldn’t mind a ‘random boon’ on shatter trait in chaos either. Chaos appears to be our least shatter-centric traitline next to Dueling, but at least the latter has Deceptive Evasion to compensate.

For now I’m running the run of the mill ‘Shatterstorm’ build with 20/20/0/0/30 as it’s generally more effective than our support Shatter build.

I would say that deceptive evasion is so desirable that It can be a real bummer that you have to go 20 into precision in order to produce a bunch of clones.

Spamming clones is primarily a condition damage function and placing that trait 20-deep in the precision line, along with the 15 point trait, really “forces” your hand into the dueling line and stifles creativity.

I’ve tried some shatter builds with 20 chaos (for the X staff trait) but for WvW shatter builds I usually end up going back to the 10 / 30 / 0 / 0 / 30 “shattercat”. I agree with djtool – the problem is, for a shatter build to work well at least 20 dueling + 30 illusion is really not optional.

For shatter builds going burst damage just always works better for me than condition damage – the survivability traits in the chaos line don’t add much to a shatter build and there is too much opportunity cost to taking them.

I’d say if you want some variation in the shattercat build, the illusion minor trait + gear choices are the main places to play around.

If the illusionary beserker is ever fixed again, a 20 dom / 30 dueling / 20 illusion build can work really well as a “ranged shatter” build also, since the clone created from greatsword 2 spawns next to the player. Unfortunately the bug in the initial beserker attack currently hampers this build quite a bit since you only let the beserker live long enough to get off one attack round before using it for shatter fodder.

Vendris.4201:

I agree with djtool – the problem is, for a shatter build to work well at least 20 dueling + 30 illusion is really not optional.

No, I agree… right now it’s really hard to say no to those, also because the Illusions line has plenty of decent options along the way. I liked your idea for the ranged shatter, though, that’s definitely in the realm of acceptable specs. It’s a shame that scepter is still awfully slow, it might actually have a place in an approach like that.

I’d imagine that the only reason to pass up Deceptive Evasion then would be that you actually have more important/dangerous things to do than roll around on the ground all the time, or conversely that you’re in an environment where you have to save every roll for defense. But it kind of feels like greatsword is the only weapon that actually keeps itself so busy, particularly since all the offhands have such long cooldowns… I’d be hard-pressed to name a second weapon set that would fit the bill, though if there were something decent, a swap-spamming approach might make sense. Cross-over with the staff build, maybe?

It’d certainly be nice to have a little more wiggle room, though, to choose weapon spec traits, maybe boon removal on shatter, things like that. I know that in WvW, focus spec is attractive enough that I might grab it instead of a “core” shatter trait.

@kyrios, I found the 0-20-20-0-30 be a good alternative in the sPVP static game type, I olay like normal shatter spec with gear in crit and crit dmg. What I do in difference is that i use staff alot more and the chain of chaos field, staff2 and chaos armour in combination with 9% less dmg when clones up make you a good position holder untill help arrives. Also u get alot of renegation of chaos combos. You also deal quite ok dmg and if I been more into sPvP/tPvP I prob used the spec more. I tryed both runes that give renegation and runes of ogrie. Tbh for position holder renegation was best as you get protection more often.

Feel free to experement and work on the build some. illusion 30 and 20 dueling is must have for any shatter spec imoa so we kinda locked there.

/ Osicat

great thread! I recently switch my condition based build to a more power shatter build with some condi. I WvW so that is more my focus

I see alot of people saying to 20/20/0/0/30 I am curious as to why?

Right now I am

30/20/0/0/20 GS/Sword/Pistol

I am running precision, toughness, condition damage gear. Full divinity runes. Zerker amulet, 3 piece valk and 1 piece rampager. My crit change is 49% and 47%. Crit Dmg is 59

I have GS training, Mental torment, and illusions inflict 15% more damage. I am thinking of dropping the last for rendering shatter for vulnerability but I am not sure atm.

In precision line I have phantasm have fury and clone on dodge. I am on the fence if I should drop phantasms have fury though for something else. Maybe I could pick up sword training for the extra precision but I have accuracy on pistol.

would it be worth it to drop the 10 points in dom and put those in illusions for the persona? I had persona before and I miss it somewhat but feel that I don’t have to have not yet anyway.

Edited for Zilm

The 30 in Illusion is for Persona.

Zilm.8459:

The 30 in Illusion is for Persona.

I probably should have underlined that since its in my post at the bottom. Ill fix that 1 sec.

Yea I know what its for sorry I just hate when people reply quick and don’t read.

My question is losing the points in power dmg wise worth picking up persona in anyones opinion?

For glass cannon shatter builds my personal preferences:

Illusionary Persona – Shattering illusions creates the shatter effect on you as well

- for me this is a must. it allows you to shatter effectively without having 3 illusions up. illusions die in combat after all, or you might not have time to get 3 up. also, you can shatter without illusions. there is a reason why it’s at 30

Mental Torment – Mind Wrack causes 20% more damage

- if you wanna go for that “big” burst

Deceptive Evasion – Create a clone at your current position when you dodge

- my choice as well, since it gives me more freedom in utility slots (i.e Mirror Images is not a must). and hey, dodge + clone = win

Illusionary Invigoration – Recharge all of your shatter skills at 50% health

- in glass cannon builds you will go under 50% a lot. why not benefit for it. there’s 90 sec cd though so that puts this trait up for debate.

oZii.2864:

Zilm.8459:

The 30 in Illusion is for Persona.

I probably should have underlined that since its in my post at the bottom. Ill fix that 1 sec.

Yea I know what its for sorry I just hate when people reply quick and don’t read.

My question is losing the points in power dmg wise worth picking up persona in anyones opinion?

Hey Ozii,

On the Domination side, you’ll get out 100 more power and an extra trait, though I don’t know that there’s a totally game-changing trait to take in there, since you’ll probably already have Mental Torment and GS training, right?

The argument for Illusionary Persona is that it adds a decent amount of power and some utility… it just happens to do a bunch of things other than the obvious extra clone effect. First, on Mind Wrack, I’m not sure if you knew, but apparently each extra clone adds less and less damage, so that shattering with 3 does about 2x the damage of shattering with 1 (rather than the 3x you’d expect). The kicker is that Persona will add an extra clone’s worth of damage without those diminishing returns, so it’s actually stronger than just being “like an extra illusion”. (these numbers are approximate and made up, btw)

• 1 clone = 1x 200 damage
• 2 clones = 2x 160 (320 total)
• 3 clones = 3x 145 (435 total)

But with the same power:

• 1 clone + persona = 2x 200 (400 total)
• 2 clones + persona = 3x 160 (480 total)
• 3 clones + persona = 4x 135 (540 total)

(I’m not sure how 0 clones + persona determines its damage, though… I’ll have to test that out)

The other thing is that when you have Persona, you can activate shatters without having any clones out, with the effect centering on you. So if your abilities are on cooldown and you’re out of endurance – or worse still, you got jumped straight out of combat! – you still have access to the damage shatters, but much more importantly, a 1-sec distortion and an (albeit short range) instant daze/interrupt. What’s more, if you have an “on shatter” trait like Vigorous Revelation, you can get its effect (in this case, Vigor) by using a shatter you don’t need with no illusions on the board… though now that I think about it, that may be the only trait that actually works with 0 illusions, the might one definitely doesn’t right now.

(edit: haha, wordfilter)

Ozzi, you never trait for stats, trait for … traits Illusonary persona is the biggest defensive and offensive trait in any shatter build and mabye the best trait in the whole mesmer arsenal. Insta be able to use a dmg shatter, immunity shatter or disorsion shatter without 1st geta clone up is EXTREMLY powerfull on the side of al extra might stacks you get, confusion on enemy and vigour on you.

A full 4 clone MW did 3,6xx x 4 for me today with sword 2 hitting for 5k same time. It also leav might stacks, sigil and rune procs and confusion on target. Pure love the shatter builds.

GL all on mesery

It’s also worth noting that even for a power build, the condition damage given in the Illusions tree is not wasted by any means. Since condition damage is not mitigated, every single point of condition damage you have is just extra damage, since there’s not really a tipping point where it becomes effective.

I’m getting pretty respectable confusion damage despite having no condition gear.

Kyriosh.8095:

Osicat.4139:

The 0-20-20-0-30 staff – s/p uses 20 p in chaos for staff cd,s and thoughtness. Its a solid defensive shatter build I used in some tPvP and sPvP, its not as fun as 10-30-0-0-30 thu and some enemys give you problem as you simple don thave the burst.

The illusion traits I discuss in my guide, simply fantastic stuff.

I can just reccomend shatter cat vuild for anyone interested in wvwvw shatter spec. Have fantastic ressults with it especialy after patch. The staff fix a few weeks ago and now sword leep fix is making this build alot more jumpy aswell, with some skill you can be just outside reach of ppl while doing hit and runs with burst.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/guide-WvWvW-Shatter-cat

I am interested in your “0-20-20-0-30 staff – s/p” shatter build. Do you use power or condition stat for the build ? Also hows the rotation going ? I am still low level mesmer (lv 37), after GS nerf I am thinking to use staff. To my knowledge staff ussually more on condition, so I am interested on this staff shatter build. Is it more effective compared to gs shatter build ?

Thx

For sPvP I’ve run a 0-20-20-030 staff-greatsword build with success: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgMQJAWRlwzipXUzmGZ9IiJFEXwh6B2BefXJF42FC;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1sEZIC. It lacks the burst of other builds, but is much more survivable. It is generally good against glass cannons because it can survive their assaults, but less effective against bunkers. Since both the gs and staff (along with deceptive evasion) produce clones quickly, you can easily recycle them. I use master of manipulations because I use arcane thievery (I like null field more, but the reduced cool down makes at more useful in this build), and blink is a life saver. I haven’t run this since the gs nerf though.

When I run shatter builds, they tend to be more support oriented (in dungeons at least) and i end up taking imbued diversions, and rending shatter/shattered concentration.

How could someone possible miss the opportunity of stacking 25 vulnerabilities, to MULTIPLE targets. It’s insane.

I’ll start by saying I haven’t taken the time to read everyone’s posts, so I’m just looking to post my sPvP build that seems to work pretty well, though I haven’t tried elsewhere.

Here goes:
20 – V, IX
0
30 – V, X, XII
0
20 – II, V

For weapons, I got the staff and sword/torch. Utilities are Ether Feast, Decoy, Mirror Images, Blink. Elite is Mass Invisibility.

It’s obviously geared towards survivability, but I’ve reliably been able to win fights just by persevering and spreading confusions. Works well when outnumbered and gives you plenty of escape mechanics.

So there’s my 2 cents. =)

Edit: forgot about runes. I’m running a full Undead set with Carrion amulet/Shaman jewel (remember, PvP gear). Not sure about sigils yet.

gymdawg.6347:

When I run shatter builds, they tend to be more support oriented (in dungeons at least) and i end up taking imbued diversions, and rending shatter/shattered concentration.

How could someone possible miss the opportunity of stacking 25 vulnerabilities, to MULTIPLE targets. It’s insane.

Ah, see now that’s kind of interesting. I like the idea of aiming for those big vulnerability stacks, which can almost work out just as well as a pocket necromancer with Epidemic. You like Shattered Concentration for PvE though?… I actually would’ve imagined it to be better in PvP where you have the opportunity to be really disruptive, but can’t necessarily pay attention to what everyone is casting at once.

Thanks Osicat and Vutak I tweaked my build made up for the lost power through gear but maintained survivability I like.

Next question is

Rending Shatter – stacks of vulnerability. Do you guys like it think its good? I know for direct damage builds vulnerability is basically there to help those builds counter high toughness targets. I would trait it but I think with zerker in his current state the 15% more damage from clones is a better option if your running GS.

precise wrack – I don;t feel the +10% chance to crit on mind wrack is worth it unless you have a low crit chance. Im going with cry of frustration grants retaliation since I have high power.

Personaly I take what vulnerability I get from sword clones and staff clones as a bonus. In a fight my dmg is wery wery spiky and dont get so long stacking done. 1 burst, out, then nibbeling some if needed and then in for new burst and enemy usualy down if it even come to a second. Difference is ofc a big pve fight vs a boss but then I let others build hat for me.

For the illusion I dont use 10% crit, it is in my oppinion a weak trait compared to the two fantastic traits opptions. 1: 3% dmg / clone, just a fantastic trait as it affect al your dmg inc mindwrack. 2 reset shatters at 50% hp, getting heat? Insta new disorsion and distraction.

Retaliation on cry is solid trait, I use it from time to time but noticed that things die often so fast I dont get alot out from it, and when im in fight I often have immunity up or enemy stunned, crippeled etc. Also you in defensive stance already have retaliation of chaos storm etc.

So I was thinking about vulnerability condition a little more and I am starting to think rendering shatter actually might be a really undervalued trait.

Vulnerability is a condition which increases damage the target takes by 1%

That is all sources if you use gs2 thats 3 stacks of vulnerability per bounce traited you can get 9 sometmes so putting 12 stacks on someone in the opening of a fight isnt terribly difficult. Thats all sources now your GS 2 vulnerability is 8secs which is a long time Ill have to test with more condition duration to see if you can increase but I dont see why not. Shatter vulnerability is 8s. sword vulnerability is 5s and those clones really poke fast stacking it quickly.

So if you have 13 stacks of vulnerability on someone thats 13% more damage from all sources. If you have to chose between mental torment and and rendering say if you only have 20 points in dom and want gs training I think rendering might be a better choice.

So you will be doing more damage which includes all your normal attacks but also your shatters and your phantasms do more and its easy to apply non stop. Maybe im late to party on this one but I think this trait is really good and up there with the other top traits not close to necessary but really really good.

I definitely like the idea of mass vulnerability stacking in PvE, where AoE’s will be particularly effective. In tPvP it might be a nice way to spike targets as well… anyone have a sense of what other profs’ capacity to stack vulnerability is? I’ve had two frustrations in particular with this approach: the first was renewing and reapplying the stack on targets with a reasonable amount of condition removal… the second was that you can’t actually control where GS2 bounces, unfortunately.

Make sure to invite a necro pal to the party, though… Like I was saying earlier, epidemic on this would be particularly fun.

The vulnerability on shatter trait is very good.
Also, before Time Warp, use your F3 with 3 clones + yourself, instant 24 vulnerabilities!

If you switch Illusionary Persona for Imbued Diversion, you can apply 18 vulnerabilities on mutltiple targets.

Krag.6210:

The vulnerability on shatter trait is very good.
Also, before Time Warp, use your F3 with 3 clones + yourself, instant 24 vulnerabilities!

If you switch Illusionary Persona for Imbued Diversion, you can apply 18 vulnerabilities on mutltiple targets.

Good thread so far guys, thanks.

Regarding this trait – am I missing something? I thought it only applied 1 stack of vulnerability per illusion shattered (thats what the wiki says: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rending_Shatter). How on earth do you get 24 vulnerabilities? Does diversion stack more than the other shatters?

In my oppinion trade illusionary persona for extra vulerability be less effective.

@ kavia, he mean the domination minot trait, dazzling " vulerability for 3 sec on daze" that stay for 3 sec, 5 stacks. A chaos storm might apply same aoe effect in some way. Beside that im not sure how he gets the numbers (:

Y’know, I totally didn’t click on that, but Dazzling should be in the list up top, what with Diversion being probably the best source of Daze for most (non-asura) mesmers… I’ll add it right after his.

While we’re on the subject, though, I could imagine that despite Illusionary Persona being the popular girl in school right now, Imbued Diversion has some potential with on-interrupt traits, particularly in WvW. 4 seconds of Fury on interrupt may not seem like much, but if you got it x5 for shattering into a pack of enemies… too bad it’s a 30-point trait! It’s also a shame that Halting Strike does such little damage… and that most of the on-interrupt traits are pretty weak no matter how you slice them, now that I think about it.

vutak.3186:

Y’know, I totally didn’t click on that, but Dazzling should be in the list up top, what with Diversion being probably the best source of Daze for most (non-asura) mesmers… I’ll add it right after his.

While we’re on the subject, though, I could imagine that despite Illusionary Persona being the popular girl in school right now, Imbued Diversion has some potential with on-interrupt traits, particularly in WvW. 4 seconds of Fury on interrupt may not seem like much, but if you got it x5 for shattering into a pack of enemies… too bad it’s a 30-point trait! It’s also a shame that Halting Strike does such little damage… and that most of the on-interrupt traits are pretty weak no matter how you slice them, now that I think about it.

And that you can’t get Imbued Diversion, Dazzling, and Furious Interruption all together

So after mucking around with Dazzling for a while, I wasn’t really super impressed by it… I’m currently running with Illusionary Persona and Deceptive Evasion as “must-have”‘s (even if there’s wiggle room in there) and so I ended up giving up Vigorous Revelation (vigor on shatter) for Dazzling. While I definitely missed the Vigor in PvP (it works out to a lot less dodges in any reasonable length fight), I just found that the 3-second vulnerability just wasn’t especially sticky. I can imagine it working really well in super-organized tPvP, but in small pick-up squads and casual play, that doesn’t even amount to a full Blurred Frenzy so it was hard to really make the best of the damage. Even with +condition duration, I have trouble imagining it lasting longer than 4-5 seconds, which is already a fair bit more but then ties up runes as well.

The other option I’ve been considering is to do a staff-centric build, with Rabid gear. It doesn’t save a ton of space since it’ll still have Sharper Images, so the decision is really between Deceptive Evasion and Chaotic Transference (which is only good for around 80 condition damage).

I’ve been palying alot with reflect on Distortion – despite there being alot of great traits for the 10 pt slot – masterful reflection is dead handy.

Given shatter builds tend to go heavily into the illusions line – you’ll have a lower CD and in a pinch be able to pop Distortion for a second of invulnerabilty without clones. -

it’s a great way to keep pressure on an enemy whilst playing defensively.

You can use it offensively too – to mitigate initial burst and add to your own.

In PvE i’ve had the most use from it by popping it just before the initial ranged burst of karka’s.
They nuke themselves to half quite easily if you can get all the attakcs to reflect. A 1 second window is usually enough for this. Which is why i advocate using the mirror heal for fights you know have alot of hard hitting range.

Used offensively in this manner with runes that apply swiftness on heal use – you can also start using your heal offensively, Albiet you’ll need to be careful in certain situations.

any ways – I thouroughly reccomend having a play with the reflect trait if going for a shatter build. If you like it as much as i do – you may also like to try Mirror heal (15 sec CD reflect – which can give bonuses from runes that apply effects to heals).

i run a shatter/condition/sustained DPS build.

20 domination, 20 dueling, and 30 illusions.
for domination i take 20% more damage on mindwrack, and torch trait.
for dueling i take create clone on dodge, and stealth + create clone at 25% hp.
for illusions i take distortion grants reflection, Illusionary Persona, and recharge shatter skills at 50% hp.

i use full rampager’s set, with GS and Sword+Torch, both swords have superior sigil of earth on them.

for utilities i take the Stun signet, Mirror images, and Feedback or blink (thought about using mimic instead lately).

this is my CURRENT build, i keep trying different variations of it once in a while.