Guild Wars 2

I am trying to decide what phantasms are best to run during PVE/Dungeons. I know they are all very situational but what Phantasms do you feel gives the best damage output?

I am trying to decide if Focus is worth using with Warden being pretty bugged at the moment

Single target – swordsman.
Range – duelist
AoE – berserker

Warden used to be the best but I concur that the bug at the moment makes it unreliable. I personally prefer the duelist because of the range.

It also depends on what you need. The Duelist triggers projectile finishers, the Swordsman Leap finishers, and most importantly it also does so on cast. Then you got the Berserker and the Warden for Whirl finishers, of which the Berserker is usually the clear winner. Plus hey, Cripple, keeps them more clumped up.

So generall for single, Swordsman, for AE, Berserker. Now the problem is that the Greatsword is overall a terrible weapon for a dungeon, so YMMV but I think you’re still better off with the Warden because the weaponset Sword+Focus is actually useful.

Thanks for the post guys lots of good info here. I am going to run S/S + S/D and also carry a focus and a GS for when I want to run around or Anet wants to fix the Warden

Berserker is technically a better phantasm for AOE damage than Warden but the fact that you are forced to use a Greatsword to summon offsets the damage advantage. You can technically do open with GS > swap to sword but honestly neither phantasm is particularly great for AOE damage anyway so the advantage in short fights is minimal and the damage loss from not being able to swap Swordsmen/Wardens on cooldown is pretty substantial for longer ones.

Why is Greatsword considered to be bad? Obviously, sword is the best (removes boons, stacks vuln, has evade). And while I wouldn’t bring it into a dungeon due to that fact, I still like my GS in open world. #3 aside, it’s pretty good.

GS is fine in open world, because the range is helpful in tagging mobs and kiting, and your performance matter much less (you don’t have 4 other people counting on you for damage in the party).

Greatsword is lackluster in Dungeons because the highest DPS comes from the group all stacking in melee range and sharing offensive and defensive boons. Greatsword does terrible damage in melee range. Sword auto-attack does excellent damage, does a cleave as well as adds vulnerability – never mind the phantasm and other excellent skills on it.