Guild Wars 2

Recently I posted a forum topic about PU and Shatter Mesmer’s in WvW roaming. You guys had helped me decided to start playing a Shatter Mesmer. Now of course there are many shatter builds out their and I tried almost all of them. (almost as in 20 ish) . Some amazing and some not as good. I have rounded down to four builds. I am crafting ascended armor for my Mesmer and would like advice on which I should go for depending on the build. Also I need a build which is best suited for the “condition” meta which is very annoying. PU Mesmer, Condi Thief and Condi Warriors are a pain the the rear end.

Build Number One:
I Bamf Joe’s glkittenter

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhIQNAW8alknpMtNqxTNcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlMkrB-TByHABas/wa6GQUtC9UVhJlg9o8bgnAAAXEgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezhezhezCBMaBA-e

Build Number Two:
Tsuki Yomi’s Glkittenter

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsfRlknpMtNqxINcrNSrBh6tkleSyAUgSOhqB-TVCEAB2t/ABHBgEV/ZLlgGcIAYS5nEPAg203AwJAIAwBA/+7v/+7vlCoKlRA-w

Build Number Three:
Osicat’s Shatter Cat Ghost (Might be outdated, because I haven’t seen Osi in along time)

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfRl4zKqHTTkGb9ICqHYH49dkU0avWJF22FC-j0CBYgCiEEgkIBK1UaM7UItMsIasabYKXDqW/CxceY1G0JSKgRVGB-w

Build Number Four:
malferian’s WvW Roaming Shatter

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsfRlknpMtNqxUNcrNSrxg6tOrMSGQBl8iqB-TVyHwAn3fQoSofKXaqEsnSiBnqAvaY8r+DgnoApA0TYE-w

Personally I like full zerker armors. If you want toughness like Osicat and malferian you can always equip ascended trinkets, which are much easier to come by. Having 2 sets of trinket with full zerker ascended armor gives you both choices without much sacrifice.

Keep in mind that Joe’s build has zero condition removal and is fully rely on his teammate to cleanse them. Probably not the best choice when you’re alone and get ambushed by condition metas. But if you have support guardian who synergies well with you you can fight against difficult outnumbered situations like Joe.

Also if you’re facing condition opponents, having extra toughness will do little to help you survive. I fought dire condition warrior in knight gear before and the fight lasted 15 minutes, then I decided knight isn’t helping much lol. Osicat’s build has toughness because he knows you’ll survive better against backstab thieves in roaming, which isn’t minority in roaming either.

I’m using the one in my signature. It’s a very popular shatter build at the moment. Though, it is much harder to play than a regular shatter build. I go in depth on a lot of things in my guide, so no matter if you’re going to play the specific variant that I made a guide for or any of the gazillion other weapon sets, do check it out! I also included videos and literature for other shatter sets.
Basically you can run anything you want.
Staff + Sw/F
Staff + Sw/T
Staff + Sw/P
Greatsword + Staff
Greatsword + Sw/F
Greatsword + Sw/T (I recommend this for a first time shatter roamer)
Greatsword + Sw/P <- not really a fan of this.

I’m currently using the Gs + Sw/T one for roaming, Gs + St for PvP. I sometimes use Staff + Sw/F for PvP as it’s also a good playstlye.
You have crazy capabilities with shatters. You can get a lot of different weapon sets and just swap them out everytime you get bored of one.
Only difference between the traits in my guild and the traits in all of the other shatter sets (that do not include staff and greatsword together) is you do not take Halting Strike, rather Mental Torment which I mentioned in the guide.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, if you catch me in game, I can answer any questions you may have, or at least do my best to answer them!
Much love,

~Monns

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsfWlknpUtlpxINcrNCrxg6s26MSOQAlsirB-TVSEAB9pPou9H2SJIAnAgBOCALp8TS1fK4QA4wDAIAACwOrz6cnBG6QH6QH6QbnHdnHdn7sQAmXAA-w

This is the build that I am using. I have 2,500 armor so I don’t get 2-3 hit by Warriors, Thieves, Med Guardians, etc. The vitality is a little low but with WvW bonuses and Guard buffs 20K HP is fairly attainable. I also have the omnomberry food for a little bit of sustain that Mesmers lack and the sigil of energy. The staff aids in more mobility and kiting. I can also cast chaos armor 3 times, once leaping null field, once using the actual skill and once leaping chaos storm.

I have two tools that help me with condition removal. The mantra and null field. The mantra really helps when getting condi bursted, as I can remove 4 conditions instantly. Null Field is good for wiping condis in general or if you are anticipating condis and want the pulses to remove any future condis on you. Thieves by far outpace my condi removal. Condi Warriors shouldn’t really be able to kill you if you play it right, same as condi mesmers although you probably won’t be able to kill them. Engis have pretty hard condition spam but I find it to be more avoidable, same as necros. Plus they are more killable than Warriors, Mesmers and Thieves.

I have loads of boon stripping with shattered concentration and Null Field. This means that for most of the fight most classes will be fighting with almost no boons. Warriors and Eles can’t stack anywhere near 25 might, no fury means a lot less damage, no protection means a lot more damage, and other things like stability and swiftness which aid in turning the tide of a fight.

I also have kitten near glass cannon damage. Obviously with using traveler runes rather than Strength or Pack runes and some of my gear not being power high, I maybe lose out on 250 power and maybe around 15-20% crit chance. However, 2,100 power is still great, 213% crit damage and 44% base crit chance is still very good numbers in terms of DPS. With full precision stacks that is about 56%. Plus I also have sigil of fire + air which adds about 1.5-2.5K on shatters and plus another 300-600 damage from the omnomberry ghost, making for a potent shatter. I find precision to be very important as a shatter build as it involves many attacks.

Also I elected for illusionary elasticity in the illusion traitline. I like it because it increases staff DPS alot and kind of offsets the staff’s reputation as a bad weapon for a power-based build. Although the DPS still isn’t great, it still allows you to put some pressure on the opponent.

Travelers, Stealth and Phase Retreat allow me to escape most situations in WvW, although there will be the Warrior and Thief here and there that will catch you.

I use a torch because if I didn’t I would only have one source of stealth which would be Mass Invis on a 90 second cooldown. Having that second stealth I feel is very important to help you escape and set up attacks or remove pressure from you. The #5 isn’t that great which is a shame. However the #4 can make for some nice burst if you reappear on the opponent, #4 burst damage, burn damage, air+fire+omnomberry ghost and 1 illusion shatter going off it can do in excess of 5K+ damage.

I’m talking purely from a WvW perspective, I like to tailor my builds around having at least decent mobility, decent defenses, at least some condi removal and high damage. It just allows me to handle a variety of situations that are thrown at me, rather than have a condi warrior throw a random sword on me and take 15K torment damage because I have no condi removal. This is also mainly for solo/small group PUG roaming.

You can of course switch to Greatsword, I do miss the damage that it does in between setting up shatters and it’s ability to chase down stragglers as well as cripple and cause instant shatters with mirror blade. Also to remove thieves out of SR. But staff offers more defense and mobility as well as more condis so it is essentially a tradeoff rather than one being better than the other. I hope this helps.

The bamf joes build has been around way before he started using it. He just has his own personal slight gear changes. That being said he plays it amazingly and is the only person i know who vids it. My vote is for it, being that it is the most fun to play imo.

@NICENIKESHOE
Sadly, unlike Joe I don’t have a roaming partner and I do roam a lot alone. I will probably take I Bamf Joe’s build out of the four. Thanks for helping me narrow it down. It’s hard to decide between full glass or knights, because glass has almost no room for error where as knights or knights/soldiers mix has a bit more flexibility. I guess it depends on my skill level.

@Jurica
I have tried your build I could never grasp the gs/staff shatter idea. I have a weird mindset of being close to my enemies rather than keeping distant from them. Even with utility changes for a bit more invisibility, I still got destroyed in 1v2+. Then I started playing around and liked the Staff+Sword/Sword and GS+Sword/Torch. I still died a good amount, BUT I learned how to portal finisher!
I’m still a bit scared about crafting full ascended berserker armor though.

@killahmayne
I really liked the condition removal in this build, it really helped me with fights against necro’s and survive a bit longer against condition warriors. I personally would call this build the “anti-guardian/ele” build just because of the amazing boon removal, but the phantasms in this build have unreliable damage thus making it REALLY rely on shatters for damage. Why did you chose Cavalier gear over Knights?

@Pwent
It is fun, but the most difficult for a solo roaming play style.

Jurica.1742:

Basically you can run anything you want.
Staff + Sw/F
Staff + Sw/T
Staff + Sw/P
Greatsword + Staff
Greatsword + Sw/F
Greatsword + Sw/T (I recommend this for a first time shatter roamer)
Greatsword + Sw/P <- not really a fan of this.

~Monns

I love how you can “Basically run anything you want”, but you can’t step away from either staff or greatsword.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

@NICENIKESHOE
Sadly, unlike Joe I don’t have a roaming partner and I do roam a lot alone. I will probably take I Bamf Joe’s build out of the four. Thanks for helping me narrow it down. It’s hard to decide between full glass or knights, because glass has almost no room for error where as knights or knights/soldiers mix has a bit more flexibility. I guess it depends on my skill level.

@Jurica
I have tried your build I could never grasp the gs/staff shatter idea. I have a weird mindset of being close to my enemies rather than keeping distant from them. Even with utility changes for a bit more invisibility, I still got destroyed in 1v2+. Then I started playing around and liked the Staff+Sword/Sword and GS+Sword/Torch. I still died a good amount, BUT I learned how to portal finisher!
I’m still a bit scared about crafting full ascended berserker armor though.

@killahmayne
I really liked the condition removal in this build, it really helped me with fights against necro’s and survive a bit longer against condition warriors. I personally would call this build the “anti-guardian/ele” build just because of the amazing boon removal, but the phantasms in this build have unreliable damage thus making it REALLY rely on shatters for damage. Why did you chose Cavalier gear over Knights?

@Pwent
It is fun, but the most difficult for a solo roaming play style.

I would put the most difficult solo shatter style as gs/st shatter, but i never use any non zerker gear on my mesmer so not having the sword evade wrecks me if i miss play.

Solo roaming just swap out mirror images for condi clear mantra and runes of strength for runes of travel. That is my regular set up.

For weapons, definitely go for zerker on all of them – that way no need to mess around with other stats if you feel like using a different weapon sometimes.

For armour – no one can tell you what you feel most comfortable with, as everyone will have their own way. Personally I think full zerker is a good way to go for armour – you’ll certainly not be disappointed. Trinkets can be easily swapped in and out depending on what toughness or other stats you want.

I think whatever you go for, power should be the primary stat – I don’t like knights because they don’t have this.

Regarding trinkets – I know this sounds silly but I’m influenced by their names – for example I like Sieran so I have to use the magister’s field guide. Just a little bit of role play compromise with stats.

As long as you have >2k power, ~50% crit and at least 200% crit damage, then do whatever you like.

Regarding condi removal – prevention is better than a cure – best to work on avoiding in the first place. Patience and tactical retreat help, and as long as you’ve got one active removal to get rid of poison to allow a full heal, then all is well. Personally I take poultry soup to deal with it – open inventory and eat if approaching a condition heavy conflict. MoR is great, as is null field. AT a bit harder to use, as well as idisenchanter in shatter… Torch trait is always there too, if you like that.

You can step away from staff and greatsword, for sure!
I just never did and so forgot to list the other possibilities..
Only set I have experience with is
Sword/Torch + Scepter/Pistol
It’s kinda fun, but I prefer to have either staff or greatsword.
Keyword: prefer.

EDIT: To OP → Do make ascended zerker if you can, you can not make a mistake with that. No matter what you are doing, zerker armor is always great!

Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy shattering!

~Monns

DoomKnightMax.6592:

@NICENIKESHOE
Sadly, unlike Joe I don’t have a roaming partner and I do roam a lot alone. I will probably take I Bamf Joe’s build out of the four. Thanks for helping me narrow it down. It’s hard to decide between full glass or knights, because glass has almost no room for error where as knights or knights/soldiers mix has a bit more flexibility. I guess it depends on my skill level.

@Jurica
I have tried your build I could never grasp the gs/staff shatter idea. I have a weird mindset of being close to my enemies rather than keeping distant from them. Even with utility changes for a bit more invisibility, I still got destroyed in 1v2+. Then I started playing around and liked the Staff+Sword/Sword and GS+Sword/Torch. I still died a good amount, BUT I learned how to portal finisher!
I’m still a bit scared about crafting full ascended berserker armor though.

@killahmayne
I really liked the condition removal in this build, it really helped me with fights against necro’s and survive a bit longer against condition warriors. I personally would call this build the “anti-guardian/ele” build just because of the amazing boon removal, but the phantasms in this build have unreliable damage thus making it REALLY rely on shatters for damage. Why did you chose Cavalier gear over Knights?

@Pwent
It is fun, but the most difficult for a solo roaming play style.

For even more condition removal you even have the option of taking the torch trait that removes condis on use.

I do agree that the phantasms have unreliable damage, however sometimes I like to summon staff clones and have them as well as myself auto-attack the opponent to soften them up a little bit for a shatter although in larger fights it isn’t really possible. In that sense it is kind of shatter reliant. That is essentially the tradeoff for having great boon removal and great condi removal.

However this build can use a greatsword perfectly fine if you feel you like damage outside of shatters.

As for my choice of gear, there is no particular reason in general. I actually crafted the gear for my necro so why not use it on my Mesmer, it even uses the same traveler runes.

@Pwent
I tried this with vampirism runes because strength runes are a huge investment and aren’t worth the money for just testing a build out. I still hate the fact that Berserker warrior can 1 shot me with his rifle. I can hardly survive 1v1’s, making 1v2-3 (Which is most of my encounters) basically impossible.

@Curunen
I run berserker with assassin mix. 1v2 or more is always hell for me. I would like to clarify that I NEVER roam with a partner and am usually the only one receiving fire.

@Jurica
Berserker really helps with the damage, but if my first two shatters fail or are avoided, I am basically skewed. For the past few days i’ve been running zerker/assassin mix and have been somewhat discouraged from using it because of how quickly small thinks can down me.

@killahmayne
I watched your latest video with your sword torch/ staff build and I noticed that you had someone with you while roaming, and most of the fights were fair. The times you were alone was when you were dueling. I usually roam alone, I don’t really have anyone I roam with, and also I usually face 1v2+. Full berserker builds aren’t as appealing to me anymore.

You should be using full zerker with only three knights trinkets to get your toughness up to 1,2k if you’re playing shatter mesmer. Otherwise you’re relying on passive defenses too much while as a shatter mesmer, you are supposed to use active defenses to keep yourself alive, try to never get hit.. You can get a backstab and still survive with a healthy amount of HP if you have the 3 knights trinkets, if it was possible without them, zerker would be better..
The crit chance you can use food to get. Look at my guide, the food is in the build link. I can’t remember it right now.
The issue here isn’t armor, it’s L2P.
That is the way shatter is. – You either kill him or he kills you, if you get hit, you’re loosing half of your HP.
You have a lot of kiting ability, learn to use it. Try not to waste cooldowns to kite. Run around with him crippled(GS iZerker), use the terrain and so on.
If you wasted a lot of cooldowns and would die, there is no shame in pulling out a bit then coming back.
You have staff in one of your setups, use it to control the fight. With staff you have crazy mobility.
You can literally do so much with it..
You have invuln from sword, block from sword and you can even setup illu leap to TP you away from your target or you can immo him and phase retreat from him, get some distance.
If you’re running gs + sw/t, you have invuln from sword, you have stealth from torch, you have illu wave from gs
to all these you have utilities as well as distortion shatter.
Try watching Vashury Booka on youtube to get a better idea of what you can do with gs + sw/t.

Monns replied to your response for me i guess. You will get 1/2 hit that is part of the fact of being glass mesmer.

Dont run strength solo roaming, run travelers they make a huge difference. The extra move speed allows you to avoid lots of damage.

I always take staff with me because the skill 2 lets you dodge so many bursts including other mesmer shatters. Right now i am running sw/sw staff (yesterday it was gs/st and the day before it was sw/p staff). I dont mind 100% zerker just dont get at distance by a ranged weapon user, if you mess up 1 rifle war rapid fire/ ranger lb rapid fire can kill you. Best way to deal with those is magic bullet/blink diversion then shatter combo.

Okay so, its been a while since I came back to this post. I have decided to go for osicats build when it came to gear stats. I also decided to make a few changes when it came to shatter. I changed the cleansing torch trait to boon removal which helps take down guards and ele’s alot faster. I also changed the sword and torch to berserker rather than keeping them knights. Instead of having a sigil of battle on the sword I went for the sigil of fire, and on the torch, sigil of energy. I am working on ascended ear rings and a ascended back piece.

I learned that with a glkittenter build, Mind Wrack usually one shots, but with this build I need to keep my phantasms and clones up and wait for the right moment to shatter. Also with this build getting 25 stacks of vulnerability (using diversion) is very important to get the most out of your Mind Wrack. I still find problems facing condition thieves, condition warriors and PU mesmers, but you can’t win em all.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAsfRl0npRtlpxINcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlsirB-TFjFAB0oEDu9HA4EAYkSDGOCAHpMgQVOwQLAnKBPTHwhqjkwjAAA-w