Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone!
I’ve recently picked up a shatter build. Been playing around with all the possible (10+) weapon combinations, enjoying staff + sw/f the most, followed by staff + greatsword. The only reason I don’t enjoy staff + greatsword as much as I’m clueless about it to a certain point.

I’m in a full zerker set(thinking about some soldiers knights trinkets), energy + air on both staff and greatsword, hoelbrak runes.

This is EXACTLY what I have on me. Yes, no backpiece yet and I have an ascended knights ring as I got it as a drop in eotm. Followed by Zojjas armor chest (VERY lucky day. Made around 60g aside from those two drops as well in around an hour)

http://tinyurl.com/shattergsst

I’d like a few tips on playing this build from people who are experienced with it. How to make sure my shatters hit and maybe some combos I can use.
This could be a thread for people who play this set and want to share their experiences and theorycraft about it.
I saw Helseths video from which I’ve learned a few things, very skilled player, though from an interview I’ve seen it seems like he’s a bit too egocentric and up his own kitten (no offense) or is he just acting to be like that?
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy shattering!

~Monns

Nothing? 15char

I used nearly the same setup . . . for open-world PvE when I was trying to get world completion. But in PvP it lacks the CC needed to set up Mind Wracks. That is why most shatters use Sword/X along with staff or greatsword, because they all offer the much-needed CC.

Staff and Greatsword is amazing for WvW and PvP, and I’ve mained this set for a while. Firstly the might stacking and burst is actually a lot higher than people give it credit for.

Staff is your number one weapon for mobility and controlling the fight, it provides you with teleports and dazes. Remember to use 4 when the enemy is in melee range as it will blind them (if you are lucky), I always see people randomly use it when it is least needed. Do not waste skills on this set. I cannot see your build but I’m going to assume you use the trait Illusionary Elasticity, and if you don’t…take it! What it offers you is the extra bounce which adds to your staff damage and vulnrability, but more importantly it makes Mirror Blade an amazing skill. Mirror Blade will give you 6 might, them 6 vulnerability, it will hit them twice for usually around 2000-3000 on squishies and it is unblockable and a 100% finisher.

Greatsword 3 Mind stab is going to be improved by the developers, but it already removes a boon and does decent damage. This set does require a higher skill as Bunda mentioned above because you don’t have that free shatter combo…but you wont lose to anyone but a skilled thief using it. Kite is key, kite in staff, control them with dazes and chaos storm…when you want to damage them always hit them with Mind Stab then Mirror Blade, as Mirror Blade first hits it will make a clone, hopefully you will have a zerker out so dodge through them and mindwrack…on light armor classes Mirror Blade and 4 Mind wracks will do 12-14k. Do not use Illusionary Wave to set up shatters, just work with them. Make triangles with your clones, get them in the middle and normally all of them will hit.

The most important thing is not wasting skills, so don’t scroll 1-5 then switch, and also to handle your dodges…when you need a dodge and when you need a clone is essential to differentiate.

Thank you a lot for the post. It makes a lot more sense right now. I don’t, I usually run Illu invigoration, I will swap that out.
I’ve noticed that it has a lot of in combat mobility/kiting ability. It’s a crazy amount. Really good for trolling melee classes on points. What do you mean control with dazes? As in daze their heals, elites ect?
It will take a lot of time to master it but I’m looking forward to doing so.
Any tips on making sure the triangles stay formed(because phantasms will move, clones will follow the enemy in some cases), getting them inside the triangles? Is it just a waiting game until they get in than shatter or stand inside it, let them come to you, shatter/phase retreat out?

Any tips on fighting classes with a lot of AOE? Such as d/d or s/d eles? Every clone that dies is DPS lost.
Which utilities would you recommend? I currently have ether feast, mantra for conditions, portal and blink. I miss decoy quite a bit, but unsure what I should swap it out for.. Portal is such a great utility and I have 0 condi cleansing aside the mantra..

Thank you a lot again! Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy gaming!

One of the issues of St/GS is how hard it is to keep the enemy inside your triangles, as Bunda stated, you don’t really have the CC to keep enemies positioned so MW lands properly. This isn’t all that important in PvP where the most important thing is pressuring enemies on points (and St/GS excels at this, like Benjamin said), but when solo roaming in WvW you want to actually down your enemies so your server get points for stomps, and a skilled (or even average) enemy will know that staying at a distance from your clones is a good way to keep you from dealing too much damage. Therefore, you need to keep them in clone distance.

If you insist on running St/GS in WvW (I did for a while, but I got tired of people just running away after killing my iBerserker, now i run Sw/x + either GS or Staff depending on mood), you need to be quick. Having the element of surprise with help out, and landing a quick iBerserker to cripple them, then Mirror Blade (traited with Illusionary Elastacity) and either blink into dodge or just a dodge depending on distance for a full 3 clone + yourself MW will set your enemies back a good deal, and if you follow it up with a weapon switch into Chaos Storm and you get them frozen/dazed, you’ll hopefully do enough damage/CC to finish them off before they can run.

Utilities-wise, I would swap the condition mantra for Null Field (I love Null Field), as you’ll be able to remove conditions as long as you stand in it (not just a single removal), in addition to removing the buffs (stability for example) of pesky warriors/thieves that jump on you. It’s also a combo field, so it’ll grant chaos armor if you Phase Retreat out of it. Lastly, it’s easier for teammates to run into your Null Field for condi cleanse than to ask for a mantra pop, unless you’re on voice chat.
As for portal, unless you’re running team PvP or an organized roaming team/staying behind in an enemy tower/keep/castle in WvW, I think there are better options, as you won’t usually have the coordination with strangers to make full use of it. In that case, Decoy can be a great substitute as it’ll grant you a setup for the combo described above (you can see Helseth using Mass Invis/Decoy to throw his enemies off guard and make sure he has an advantage in some of his videos), and remember that it also creates a clone, so if you’re desperate for just a tad bit more burst it can be used for clone generation (though it’s not advised). If running with a zerg you could think about swapping portal for Veil as it’ll give a lot of utility for the zerg.

Those are my two cents, good luck and keep at it!

EDIT: Forgot about the AoE part. What you could do is try to bait out the AoE skills by creating just one or two clones at a time, so that the enemy will “waste” the skills and so that you have enough clone generation to land a full MW once their skills are on cooldown. The other way to deal with them is to set up and perform your MW fast enough that the enemy doesn’t have time to react (again having Decoy/Mass Invis/Blink can help a lot in doing this as it can give you the element of surprise).

Thank you a lot for the post. Very informative. I really would like to run staff + GS, but as you said, I’ve noticed people running away from me which is a bit annoying. I will see how I will like it but I think I may stick to it. I’ll be running it in PvP for sure. I do really enjoy sword combo that I can pull off..
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy gaming!

If you’re roaming in WvW with staff/gs I recommend you take a hybrid set. Aim for about 900ish condi damage. Gives you enough ump to burn down stubborn targets with condis if you can’t land shatters. I suggest 4/4/0/0/6 with interrupt damage, boon strip on shatter/longer manipulation, clone gen on dodge/compounding power, illusionary elasticity, Illusionary Persona

Interrupt damage trait is far and beyond better than the mind wrack bonus.

I am not a fan of hybrid builds. You’re trying to do two things at once and multitasking is not as effective as focusing on one task at a time.

Thank you for the suggestion!
Have a wonderful day, happy shattering!