Guild Wars 2

I’m going to be running a blackwater or blackdevil build.. Staff will be my other and I want the torch in my offhand..

What is people’s breakdown between sep and sword?

Thanks

Scepter:
1)clone creation,
2) confusion at medium range,
3)and torment (when used as a block)
Overall full condition damage. No conditions that hinder a opponent(s).
4) Very single target damage over time weapon. With very little survivability

Main hand sword:
1) basic auto attack damage,stacks vuln, removes boons(great with clones)
2) 2 second rooted evade/1-4k attack.
3) leap-cripple but very short duration,swap-immobilize with a decent duration/STUN BREAKER/2 leap finishers
4)overall a good burst weapon with great single target conditions that can hinder multiple opponents, and has moderate good survivability from a combination of blurred frenzy and skillful use of the swap and leap.

Take your pick

Both are very good, it just depends on your play style. Chaos covered most of it already, though it is rare to see Mesmers finish the 3 hit combo for clone creation.

If you’re a condition build, don’t rule out swords. Swords are perfect for Cripple/Debilitating Dissipation builds. If you trait for clone at dodge, you can easily get 3 clones and completely punish melee cleaving builds with Cripple + Confusion + Bleed/Vuln/Weakness for every clone death.

I would recommend Sword/torch. It can feel… out of place when using it in a condition build such as a PU Mesmer, but it makes more sense when you start using it for utility and defense rather than offense: blurred frenzy to evade and punish melee spikes, Illusionary Leap to save a stun-breaker OR to root a fleeing foe so you can dodge through them and summon staff clones. Additionally, sword clones stack bleeding fast, remove boons and are almost always in range for “on death” traits.

Such a combination in a condition build uses the Staff for offense/pressure, Sword/Torch for defense and utility.

Sword is usually the safer choice. You’re already in melee range to fully capitalize on Prestige, you can at least reap the Retaliation of the pMage, and you can root enemies.

Scepter fits in more with the damaging components, since it offers better conditions. That being said, both are good choices, depending on what you want to accomplish.

Do you want to hurt someone big time? Scepter. Lots of Confusion and solid Torment.
Do you want to be more mobile and defensive? Sword, #2 and #3 got you covered.

Using the blackwater build, I’d never drop Scepter for Sword.

The reason for that is that a majority of the burst in that build revolves around proper use of the block, among other things. That torment is how you stop runners, burst down condition removers, just put pressure on people in general. The sword has nothing to replace that with.

Sword/Torch personally. Having iLeap and stealth on one weapon set is great – BF is the icing on the cake, and I like that sword clones will chase and harass targets in melee range.

But that’s for direct damage – I imagine sceptre would work better if a condition build, but I can’t speak from experience, having never tried such a build (and from what I’ve read, I never want to!)

Sceptre/sword on the other hand is great, though means dropping staff which loses a bit of mobility and team support.

I’m running a power based PU build with 0/20/30/10/10 distribution. Weps are GS and Sword/Torch. I’m using the Manipulation traits in order to improve Blink and Arcane Thievery. In addition it has -3% dmg taken per illusion and +3% damage dealt per illusion. Finally dodge clones because we can’t run without it, as well as Mender’s Purity to remove some conditions.

I run PVT armor, Zerk trinkets, and Assassins weps in order to achieve 3200 Attack Power, 40% crit chance, +60% crit dmg, 2500 armor, and 18.5k health.

I’m enjoying it a lot in WvW (runes are centaur along with Mirror in order to achieve near 100% swiftness and have condition removal on 15s c/d).

Sword/Torch has its uses, but limited when talking about ranged. For one the iLeap only has a range of 900. If you are stuned or dazed and trying to chase, your target will get out of that range very quickly. BF is awesome in itsself and I use that ALOT when camp flipping, But most players will dodge out of it. SO you only get 1-2 really good hits in before the rest of the duration is wasted.

Scepter/Torch is where its at IMHO. The Block has so much control its not even funny, and its on a really short cool down. If you trait the Block to throw up Retaliation its even more fun (Thieve killer IMHO), you get a 900 range attack on #1 that throws a clone (you can dodge to burst that to throw up Conditions, or Shatter to remove Boons), And the 5 Confusion stacks are kinda nice too. When I see a player that face rolls the keyboard, I will just throw confusion up then block and they will down themselves :-)

juno.1840:

I’m running a power based PU build with 0/20/30/10/10 distribution. Weps are GS and Sword/Torch. I’m using the Manipulation traits in order to improve Blink and Arcane Thievery. In addition it has -3% dmg taken per illusion and +3% damage dealt per illusion. Finally dodge clones because we can’t run without it, as well as Mender’s Purity to remove some conditions.

I run PVT armor, Zerk trinkets, and Assassins weps in order to achieve 3200 Attack Power, 40% crit chance, +60% crit dmg, 2500 armor, and 18.5k health.

I’m enjoying it a lot in WvW (runes are centaur along with Mirror in order to achieve near 100% swiftness and have condition removal on 15s c/d).

I ran that same build for a long time. and its very effective!

But then I wanted to see higher ticks on Dots, so moved into Rabid Gear and dropped my Attack down to 2800 and my condition up to 1100. then swapped Sword for Scepter. And Ill switch out GS and Staff depending on if im roaming(camp Flipping) or working on towers/keeps.

Just something about watching those 5 Stacks of Torment tick away at 6.8k per moment on your target :-)

But I kept the same trait build out that you are running.