Guild Wars 2

I’ve recently gotten my shatter set (yay!) and I have a lot of trouble deciding on which weapons to use. I have a three combos in mind so far:

GS + sw/t
St + sw/f
St + sw/p

GS seems very offensive and I have a lot more DPS going that way. I’d really like to use a focus for mobility, but I really need something defensive so I take torch. I feel like I’m very vulnerable that way. It has nice ranged damage which I like, very good for chasing people down that are at 1,2k range +

I enjoy staff a lot, it’s such a great all around weapon. I’ve used it in sPvP and it saved my kitten so many times from getting killed. Chaos storm and chaos armor both are amazing..

Focus I love because of the pull. I have a very nice combo with it that I think is hard to avoid, almost impossible unless you have stability on yourself. I can use it for mobility and the warden for reflection. Really nice setup, been using it a lot, though especially since I have staff I feel like I will loose a lot on DPS. Since focus seems kind of meh damage wise. Warden is melee and a target can easily just run from it, unless when I do my combo.

I like pistol for the interrupt. I can use duelist, interrupt, ileap dodge swap and burst a lot which is nice. Though I feel sorta forced into that exact combo. Pistol can be very nice for ranged attacks and to keep pressure on targets running or to waste their dodge. Though I don’t think it’s so great for outnumbered tbh.

Runes I bought hoelbrak, but I’m not 100% sure I want them. They’re exactly the same as Strength, though you get -20% condi duration on yourself (Which for me is good as I have extremely low condi removal) instead of +7% damage while under effects of might I will have a force to compensate for that.

Sigils, a must is dual energy, the rest I’m thinking force/accuracy or even doom (to lower healing capabilities). What should I get from this all and why?

Consider Pirate runes as they allow you to get a lot of might just through greatsword 2 and Illusionists elasticity. The parrot hits for about 1.6-3k.

You are a shatter, which should be GC so consider taking air sigils for a bit of extra burst also.

Staff Sword Pistol gives you some mobility and a lot of single target damage, but it won’t be as affective versus tankier bruisers or in 1vX situations. Greatsword and Sword Torch is similar but has more burst damage from prestige, but less control. Sword Focus would be good in team fights as you have a potential reflect, whirl, aoe damage and pull.

I curently use on my shatter build Sigil of Fire & Air on sword/pistol for maxed burst potential and sigil of purity & energy on GS for at least a bit of condi remove and some endurance gain.

In the past, I run GS + sw/sw, now I run GS + sw/p.
The big advantage of pistol (compared to /sword) is, that it has a stun.
Vs. profession with low amount of stunbreaks or stability like necros or thieves (if u manage to hit them), there’s just a huge differnee between stuns and dazes, as stunned enemies also can’t move or dodge.

Pistol just seems like a pretty good alround weapon. It features a good CC and a reliable phantasm.

I use sword/sword + greatsword, blood/fire sigils, berserker stats for everything, traveller runes, 20/20/0/0/30 spec when running shatter.

Pirate are okay.. Though I already bought hoelbrak. They stack a lot of might as well. I just scored in game gold wise so I will get it all. I won’t be getting pistol as I feel it’s too meh all around. I will be running st + sw/f and gs + sw/t for a while and in the end see what I prefer. In PvP I’m enjoying staff a lot more.

@Faith, I’d love traveler, not sure if they’re worth it. I’m getting hoelbrak for might stacks atm, the swiftness is great, but they’re double the price of hoelbrak and the damage isn’t the same. Hoelbrak gives me more damage and I can also use it in dungeons. I’ve been thinking about ogre runes as well but since I already bought hoelbrak..

If you are solo roaming, I’d go with travelers runes. Great mobility.

Don’t overlook the pistol. I run GS + SW/P. The pistol stun is great for landing shatters, catching runners, and for running away. Very versatile.

If you think you can handle the style Staff / GS is the most effective weapon set all around…but it’s harder to play.

I think quite a lot of weapon and rune combinations work adequately well. The only thing that really seems nailed down are energy sigils. Personally I prefer setups that make us crit more often and harder since that’s what usually gets kills.

For shatter I usually run strengths or travelers and staff/great sword. I do love the sword/x combo as well but staff provides some good survival, team support, tons of clones and phase retreat is too good.

If you’re going to use hoelbrak runes, then you really ought to be using battle sigils (this goes for strength runes too). While shattering and mirror blade will give you some hefty stacks of might, the 3 stacks for 20 seconds on weapon swap adds a pretty massive amount of sustained might on you, and this ends up resulting in more damage than something like a fire/air sigil could provide. Unfortunately, battle sigils are incredibly expensive, so this might not be a viable option straight away.