Guild Wars 2

Hey peeps

since the change i’ve been doing some messing about with builds at the moment and i’m currently running Sword/Sword and GS during tonre’s (both free and paid). I would just like to ask is what do you prefer GS or staff and for what reason, because I love both and they both bring something different to the fight but for something like paid tonre’s going full offensive dosen’t seem to be the way forward so i’d like to see the opinions and advise of the lovely Mesmer community!

many thanks!

-Infi-

I used to prefer Staff, still want to prefer it, but I am currently too kitten off at the Phase Retreat change (my personal opinion of course, backed my many others) plus the iWarlock nerf, that makes me want to change to GS now.

Thanks for the response, I feel the same way i’ve always run with staff as the secondary, however after the changes to iwarlock i’m wondering if it’s still worth the Dps loss, However on the other side staff still offers alot of utilty. GS offers alot of AOE Damage, Beserker does very nice damage and a cripple and the 5 ability is great when fighting on a point.

I’ve been questioning this since I did Paid tonre’s last night cause it seems that alot of good teams that i’m fighting are not going glass cannon and that’s the same for the mesmer’s, which makes me think is staff worth the trade off of DPS for the defensive utility it offers?

I lean more towards the greatsword, though that mostly boils down to personal preference in my case. I love casters that wield swords rather than staves, I just wish we had a bleed associated with at least one of our sword or greatsword abilities.

Garenthal.1480:

I lean more towards the greatsword, though that mostly boils down to personal preference in my case. I love casters that wield swords rather than staves, I just wish we had a bleed associated with at least one of our sword or greatsword abilities.

I agree i feel that our 1 skill needs a rework even if it was something like 1 stack of confusion on the last tick of great sword it would be a vast improvement.

Garenthal.1480:

I lean more towards the greatsword, though that mostly boils down to personal preference in my case. I love casters that wield swords rather than staves, I just wish we had a bleed associated with at least one of our sword or greatsword abilities.

If you use the precision line with Sharper Images you’ll get bleeds off if iBerserker AND off of your GS clones. The clones are actually pretty good at it because they use the GS 1 attack which is a series of small attacks each with a chance to crit. So now GS 2 and GS 4 can result in bleeds.

Add clone creation on dodging with the GS and you have a rather reliable bleed mechanic.

Couldn’t decide either so im running (most of the time) GS/Staff since ~week 2, never had problems in tpvp, not against other champion illusionists nor against other premade players on other professions (as long as i played well, like not casting unprotected moa’s facepalm).

PS: I did not have the time to play the new patch yet – that may have changed depending on the severity of the iwl nerf.

I feel that the change to iWarlock isn’t that obvious but even saying that a larger break between casts does mean lower DPS. Also at the moment there are alot of threads about Phase retreat working worse then before the change (which I agree).

I think so far i’m just going to have to test the pro’s and cons of both weapons cause i usually run a phantasm or shatter build.

Also Sword/Focus also looks like a good weapon set for point sitting cause of iwarden and the whole hilarious floor pull thing that never gets old

Like infinitus mentioned, I’m lovin the focus in spvp. If I have a condition build I love runnin’ scepter/focus — if somethin else, then sword.

When it comes to up close and personal, I’ve rather liked staff. You’ve got the chaos armor, chaos storm, and typically trait up on some toughness to get that staff recharge. It’s a nice defensive/support weapon and can wear people down while you keep up your momentum.

GS has its knockback when up close, and the #2 and #4 can be decent too — its primary attack outputs more at a distance. I find myself more comfortable using it at a greater range or when I just want to output more raw damage. If I use sword/focus as a backup it can be nice if someone tries to get too close (#2 and then #4 to push ’em away).

Letting people get close though can be risky business, though. Typically melee-oriented classes will have some means to temporarily lock you down in some manner (stuns, dazes, immobolizes). I like having blink to escape if I’m immobolized, or use the staff’s defensive abilities like phase retreat or chaos armor. The greatsword’s knockdown move seems to take a bit of time to cast if you find yourself in a locked-down situation.

It’s a bit of a tossup, really. I would consider what you want to accomplish with your team and select a playstyle you find more suitable for yourself and your team.

Krelkain.5418:

Like infinitus mentioned, I’m lovin the focus in spvp. If I have a condition build I love runnin’ scepter/focus — if somethin else, then sword.

When it comes to up close and personal, I’ve rather liked staff. You’ve got the chaos armor, chaos storm, and typically trait up on some toughness to get that staff recharge. It’s a nice defensive/support weapon and can wear people down while you keep up your momentum.

GS has its knockback when up close, and the #2 and #4 can be decent too — its primary attack outputs more at a distance. I find myself more comfortable using it at a greater range or when I just want to output more raw damage. If I use sword/focus as a backup it can be nice if someone tries to get too close (#2 and then #4 to push ’em away).

Letting people get close though can be risky business, though. Typically melee-oriented classes will have some means to temporarily lock you down in some manner (stuns, dazes, immobolizes). I like having blink to escape if I’m immobolized, or use the staff’s defensive abilities like phase retreat or chaos armor. The greatsword’s knockdown move seems to take a bit of time to cast if you find yourself in a locked-down situation.

It’s a bit of a tossup, really. I would consider what you want to accomplish with your team and select a playstyle you find more suitable for yourself and your team.

thank you very much for the response you make some great points, I think i’m going to look at a build that involves Sword/Focus and staff and possible a full 30 points into Inspiration for Phantasamal Healing, Cause how it feels at the moment that the extra escape and utility is game changing for a mesmer in paid torne’s.

I think the direction now for me now paid is out is to steer away from the glass cannon builds and start to test the sutainable builds out to see how they fare in torne’s cause we have alot of utility to offer and being downed every couple of seconds isn’t helpful to your team mates