Guild Wars 2

Pistol or Sword offhand?

PS: Is Phantasmal Haste still worth using?
It seems to only knock a fraction of a second off now, and most Illusions don’t last for a second hit anyways.

The focus. :P

I’ve always used iWarden for its whirl, as I drop Chaos storm right on it.

Warden – 31 Seconds
Duelist – 39 Seconds
Swordsman – 34 Seconds

How long it took each Illusion to kill a stationary training Golem in the Mists with pvp weapons.
Considering the Warden is stationary this means Swordsman seems the best (also the sword 4 is very strong).
However the Warden can reflect projectiles. This comes at the high cost of a bunch of trait points that could go elsewhere. But where else?
Finally, Duelsts have the advantage of long range, and not having to keep up with the target as much if they move. They also tend to last longer.

I just can’t decide.

ToxicToothpick.4396:

Warden – 31 Seconds
Duelist – 39 Seconds
Swordsman – 34 Seconds

How long it took each Illusion to kill a stationary training Golem in the Mists with pvp weapons.
Considering the Warden is stationary this means Swordsman seems the best (also the sword 4 is very strong).
However the Warden can reflect projectiles. This comes at the high cost of a bunch of trait points that could go elsewhere. But where else?

I just can’t decide.

I’m in a similar dilemma. The reflection trait isn’t always useful, but when it is, it’s godly. I’d like to give some of the other offhands a try alongside Sword/Focus, but that’s impossible to justify since the Sceptre is horrible.

I’m stuck with 20 inspiration, wanting to go elsewhere for awhile, but having nowhere to go. I’ve been working on a pure damage set I might try with a shatter build, but I haven’t much faith in it working well.

Depends on what you are using him for. The duelist still has higher uptime for Phantasmal Healing, so if you’ve specc’ed for Phantasmal Healing and Illusionary Membrane, you’re going to want to do sword/pistol.

So if you want good damage and high survivability, go sword/pistol.

Also keep in mind that due to it being ranged, iDuelists has a better chance of staying up against AoE targeting vs Swordsman if you’re playing close to your opponent, which mainhanding sword will do for you good for having continual focus fire on the target.

I’m running offhand pistol right now, as much as I love offhand sword.

To add to the other comments…don’t forget to factor in that warden is AoE damage.

iDuelist is better than Swordsman at applying bleed and combo fields. Plus, the pistol’s stun is more useful than the sword’s block.

Why is no one talking about the Torch as a replacement for the Focus??

:D

Because it’s one of the worst PvE offhands, unfortunately. The Prestige would be considerably better if it had an effect that occurred over the duration of its channel, but as it is the skill is mostly a waste of time on an equally wasteful cooldown.

The Mage is decent in theory, but a shatter-based Mesmer with appropriate cooldown management can keep confusion applied almost 90% of the time. Perhaps on a support build… but wait no, that doesn’t work, the main support option is the Focus. If you tried to stick the torch in a second set you’d be forced into using the sceptre, at which point you’re better off committing sudoku anyways.

Yet again, it comes to how you play and how much you reaally know your class

i played with scepter be4, and is pretty awesome ikittennow how to use it!!

Committing sudoku? Lol, I don’t particularly like that game. The term you’re looking for is “Seppuku”, if indeed you were trying to describe the method of samurais committing suicide. Glad to be of help .

Somebody mentioned it already, but I prefer the duelist as well because they don’t run into AOE clusterkittens and get gibbed.

Also, Seppuku/Sudoku mix up tickled me hard.

Having played ~500 hours+ on my Mesmer, my final verdict is to use them all. Offhand focus vs sword vs pistol is often situational in both PvE and PvP. The best player will always have other weapons as backup to best counter different situations and counter certain mobs more effectively.

In general, focus iWarden is the worst choice in PvP. However skill #4 temporal curtain is a MUST have as my offhand switch whenever I need a speed boost in terms of offense and defense.

iWarden is still the best choice for offhand in general PvE when you pair it with a sword mainhand for increasing your PBAoE capability. There are times that iWarden will gets completely or partially miss the target(s), or gets destroyed before it actually puts to any use. But in general, iWarden is still the best phantasm for dealing potentially the most amount of power and conditional damage. iWarden whirl hits 12x times as stated on wiki compare to iDuelist x8 for example so potentially iWarden is more capable at stacking condition like bleeds with Sharper Images trait than other phantasms. However, iWarden also has the longest casting duration to finish its full length 12x whirl attack compares to iDuelist shorter casting duration of x8 attacks. This is something that you should keep in mind when you want to do a min-max calculation with factors like versus more stationary or more mobile enemy types.

You have to keep in mind that “durability” of your phantasm is also a sub factor to its “DPS” and it’s not a simple DPS calc tested on a stationary golem for example. When you counter Champion bosses that often have PBAoE abilities, iWarden’s usefulness drastically declines while iDuelist is your best bet to switch to when that type of situation arise.

In the end, the more knowledge you have in what you’re going to face will help you determine which skill set you want to have to counter it. I feel that this may be Anet intention in balancing out the iWarden in the recent patch. iWarden is still a viable choice and players are no longer pigeon holed into picking the definite winner over all others.

SilverRule.7426:

Committing sudoku? Lol, I don’t particularly like that game. The term you’re looking for is “Seppuku”, if indeed you were trying to describe the method of samurais committing suicide. Glad to be of help .

No, I think he had it right. Sudoku is probably the worse fate.

Yeah, torch definitely needs some work for PVE. Ending The Prestige early should trigger the burn, so you don’t waste time if not needed in stealth. Further complicating the problem, Prismatic Understanding, a lofty tier 3 trait, actually hurts the skill making it longer until you can burn.

I love how it gives you extra stealth, but unfortunately the pMage is rather lackluster for many builds. Yes, it can be useful for a some builds, but they don’t usually mesh well with stealth. You want enemies attacking when you have retaliation and they are confused; you don’t want to be in stealth and letting the mob take down your mage.

Despite this, there is some synergy for both sword/torch, and scepter/torch. pMage can be put to good use when you are using Blurred Frenzy since you are invulnerable anyway, and then you can stealth to escape. Problem there is you lose the burn. You can also open with the burn, but then you need another egress since the mage does not provide any actual protection. The Mage would be much better with scepter if clone creation was a little faster or the mage provided 2 stacks of confusion per bounce. Would also be nice if the elasticity trait worked for him (may be a bug). Doesn’t help that the burn from The Prestige is melee only, but with the scepter you want to be at range, either. Staff+Scepter/Torch does make a great defensive build, tho.

I still like dropping a warden into a zerg standing on the bridge’s in Borderlands
Oh, and couldn’t live without the focus 4 skill either, so well ….

Use both, if you aren’t carrying both you are kittening yourself. I can’t even think of a dungeon where 1 is always better than the other all the way through.

If we’re talking about sPvP, it’s preferential but I prefer the pistol.

Also the “sudoku” vs “seppuku” thing is an old joke. Also Origami instead of Harakiri.