Guild Wars 2

Hello all. A fellow guild member was really nice and gave me an Exotic Greatsword for my Mesmer. As a new player, this was quite an upgrade.

So I was wondering, what sigils should I use on my Greatsword? I want to buy a good quality ones (Exotic), thus I want to make the right choice (those are expensive).

Usually I spent most of my time doing PvE, Open World for the most part and some dungeons (I’ve a set of Swords for those). What do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

You should not use GS in dungeons.

In open world PvE, I’d recommend probably bloodlust and fire.

Battle and Fire, Air and Fire.

Fay.2357:

You should not use GS in dungeons.

In open world PvE, I’d recommend probably bloodlust and fire.

GS is not as good as sword/sword but not to the extent that ‘people should not use’

Exciton.8942:

Fay.2357:

You should not use GS in dungeons.

In open world PvE, I’d recommend probably bloodlust and fire.

GS is not as good as sword/sword but not to the extent that ‘people should not use’

It actively harms Mesmer teamplay and rewards players for playing sloppy.

If you stay near your allies, you can get blast, boon, and field effects from your allies and/or given to your allies.

With that in mind, most allies will want to stay melee because fields and blasts tend to also affect enemies in addition to allies. Also, melee weapons tend to deal slightly more damage than ranged weapons.

There are times where Greatsword in PvE (such as Fractals) is viable, but in most cases running Sword is better.

If it’s open world then bloodlust and fire are good options because it’s ok to camp the GS. Bloodlust is pretty expensive. Sigil of perception might be a cheaper alternative for the time.

For some players (myself being one of them) I just don’t bother with the greatsword in group pve stuff but most people that do this have been playing the game for a while/from the start. If you don’t feel comfortable going full on melee all the time and feel the need for a backup oh $h&* button, then sigil of battle/energy are probably better choices. Energy is expensive but it will give you an extra dodge while battle will help buff your dmg for when you return to the sword.

With that in mind, please don’t spam GS#5 as part of a “DPS rotation.” Those kind of players kitten people off a lot and tend to get kicked.

I feel like Battle is a waste for GS for me. Whenever I use it, it is because I am not going to melee that much (mostly open world stuff, solo etc), so I just don’t bother to swap enough to make good use of it. If it ever becomes a contender for fulltime duty I would consider it more. I’m a fan of Air/Fire, but fire being the sigil that never leaves.

Thanks all for your replies, much appreciated!

@Fay: For dungeons I usually go with Sword/Focus or Sword/Sword. I keep my Greatsword on my inventory for some fights.

@DuckDuckBOOM: Yes, mostly for Open World PvE. I’m currently working on my Mesmer’s Map Exploration and I happen to like the Greatsword as my weapon for Open World content. It’s more a matter than ‘I can kill most of the stuff before they can reach me, thus saving some time’ than ‘not comfortable being at melee range’. Oh, don’t worry… I’m not using #5 as part of my DPS rotation :P

I probably would go with Bloodlust and Fire, although I’m considering Fire/Air as well.

Thanks!

Fire Air, Shatter build, GS4>GS2>Shatter, everything has died.

I like Force and Fire. Force for straight up 5% damage boost and fire for the extra AOE which Mesmers are lacking.

GS is dungeon viable, if you use it to start the fight against multiple enemies → 2, 4, 4, 3, 2 → swap to sword until fight ends. It also grants serious might stacks wich are good for rune of strength and signet of inspiration. However this is for pugs only. In organized groups don’t use a GS in general.

For open world, battle, strength, bloodlust. Those are great sigils.
I do not recommend fire nor air. The damage spike is laughtable low since they patched them to be unable to crit. Might and power from bloodlust however will greatly increase your damage and the damage of your phantasms aswell.
Force is a bad desicion too. 5% damage is like nothing on the weak attacks of the GS. You pick the GS for the phantasm, not for it’s dps.

In open world you need AoE damage for best loots. Min/maxing your dps is not a priority. Sigil of Fire is a great choice. For the second sigil, either Battle for might stacks or Torment if you want even more AoE.

However, if we are talking about solo open world PvE, then I would suggest Force and Strength for the damage modifier and additional might stacks. I’m not too keen on the Battle sigil on GS since you usually don’t open up with a sword and then swap to gs to proc Battle but rather the other way around. Better slot Battle on the sword or the sword/focus offhand.

Bloodlust is a good alternative to Battle sigil but in open world you often get into water and unless you have another Bloodlust on underwater weapon, your stacks will be lost quite often.

Xyonon.3987:

Force is a bad desicion too. 5% damage is like nothing on the weak attacks of the GS. You pick the GS for the phantasm, not for it’s dps.

I do like Force because when solo in PvE I use gs not for it’s auto attack (which is weak, but decent at 900+ range). GS #2, #3, and then shatter and your average trash mob will be dead by then. All of the above do benefit from the sigil.