Guild Wars 2

So for the classic shatter 44006 GS/Staff mesmer, what are the primary reasons for picking staff?
Is the boons? The range? Phase retreat (awesome skill)? Or a combination of those?

Recently I’ve been playing 44006 with torch and sword (and torch and sword traits) and found it to have comparable defense to staff. Mainly due to 2 1/2 sec invuln, 3 second stealth and teleport, While still doing good damage staff 2/torch 5.
And, with the torch traits, also decent condi removal.

So could some one clear this up?

Phase retreat is really strong if you know how to use it. Then there’s Chaos Storm, which is a great skill when used on a downed enemy/ally, IMO this skill is the main reason (this or PR). iWarlock isn’t a bad skill either, can hit hard.

Yout autoattacks also stack Might and Fury which sets the stage for your burst.

for gs/staff shatter your main dps is positioning and staying max range and staying on greatsword.. using greatsword auto attack to proc air/fire and using far shatter bursts with phantasm/dancing blade thing. usually only if you are getting attacked by someone you will switch to staff as a protection.

alot of staffs advantage comes from using About face/phase retreat/about face.. to turn phase reatreat to a short cooldown blink that reaches places people without blink cant follow.

There are alot of videos for blink/phase retreat spots.. and kiting techniques using staff.
I think at some point in the past it was called butterfly leaping with the staff.

Staff is about positioning and managing boons. In WvW specifically, good positioning will win you more fights than balls to the wall damage.

I’ve played full zerk/assasins shatter builds with Illusionary Elasticity and sword/pistol and found them to be very effective.

The staff will allow you to secure stomps without forcing you to use your Distortion (start stomp, phase retreat out of enemy cleave, blink back to target at the end of stomp animation) much the same way that thieves use shadowstep.

If you bind a key to “look behind” and you’re being chased, you can target an enemy, look behind, and phase retreat to increase the gap between you and the player chasing you.

There are also many, many places throughout the world that you can use phase retreat to move up switchbacks, ramps, two story structures and other fun things. There are videos that show all the Phase Retreat locations in PvP that are available.

I often use staff to completely evade warriors and make them waste their adrenaline (Thank god for the adrenaline nerf) Causing them to miss their earthshaker or eviscerate is a valuable tool to have in your belt.

Staff is the Mesmer’s weapon ne plus ultra. It has an excellent mix of mobility, disengage, denial, defense, offense, utility and damage. I would say it is probably the most powerful and complete single set of weapon skills in the game. Every skill on the weapon is multi-purpose and skill-capped. (Even staff #4 can be used offensively due to the confusion procs).

The main reason (from a competitive perspective) for staff is that when you’re shatter you need to be a) mobile and b) capable of disengaging from unfavorable situations. Sword can prevent you from being melee trained to an extent but it is still all-in and it’s been nerfed a lot. GS has little defensive capability or mobility whatsoever. Staff has both in spades.

I would sooner give up greatsword than staff if I were to run sword. I usually play staff/sword + (x) unless I’m specifically asked by friends to take GS.

I generally think staff is better in teamfights than sword. Sword 3 clone dies easily to cleave, and it can be very dangerous to try and rush in with sword to deal some heavy damage with it in a teamfight. Torch offers you that stealth so you can get those surprise ganks in, but you also get a crappy phantasm. Whereas staff, you can have presence in a fight by giving might and fury to allies in the area. The Warden can hit like a truck and doesnt die so easily (since range) – especially if other players are around to deal additional conditions. Chaos Storm is big in a teamfight. Finally you have the mobility on staff 2 to help you out in general.

So if you go sword, you have to play with it more defensively in a teamfight otherwise you have to sacrifice your positioning to do some risky business. If you go with torch, you lose out on mobility for stealth access. However I do think the potential in skirmishes with sword is far superior to staff.

With all that being said, Sword/Focus fo lyfe for me. #bestmesmerset

Just want to add a little thing to what Hamster said. Phase retreat sometimes teleport you away from enemy if you select the target, regardless of where you’re facing. The back-face teleport is useful when you don’t have a target selected or you’re facing a stealthy opponent.