Guild Wars 2

A couple days ago I was explaining and demonstrating basic Mesmer builds to someone who wasn’t used to fighting them. In order to help them get a feel for “general” Mesmer, I opted to use Sword/X (Sword or Focus) – Greatsword even though I very rarely pick up a GS.

While I did well enough to get the lesson across, I could not wield the greatsword properly with my reflexes so attuned to staff. Everytime I weapon swapped I Phase Retreated Mirror Bladed, I couldn’t execute the Mirror Blade/Mind Spike/Shatter combo as smoothly as I would’ve liked.. I was a mess, but just happened to be good enough that my opponent didn’t notice too much.

It’s a shame really, after I had recently come to the realization that GS kind of rocks I still can’t bring myself to really use it that often. Nor do I often use Pistol, Torch, or Scepter (granted scepter gets far more play than torch, which gets far more play than pistol, which gets used even less than greatsword. x_x).. But I have noticed a trend in my builds.

They all use the staff.

Every.

Single.

One.

So yeah, my friends have actually come to know me as a “staff mesmer” because of the fact that I’m never seen without my Dreamthistle staff. I can’t help it really, the extra teleport and the support capabilities drew me in but learning certain combos and unlocking the weapon’s damage potential (which isn’t the greatest but is almost always underestimated) via iWarlock and Chaos Storm dragged me in and never let me go. I still feel Chaos Armor is extremely underrated, especially if you’re traited at least 3 points into the Chaos Traitline (Protection on Regeneration). When it always granted protection on cast, people used to use it to endure big attacks. Now it’s been flipped to be more effective against rapid smaller attacks such as autos or many channeled abilities.

So for me, Sword/Focus – Staff is easily my most used weaponset. It’s what I started the game with and always inexorably fall back to. Second to that would be Sword/Sword – Staff (or Scepter / Focus in PvE) because I think it’s awesome how Mesmer are one of the only classes (besides Warrior) that can wield dual swords, and wield them kitten effectively at that.

Do you find yourself sticking to a specific weaponset? If so, why?

sword/sword /staff

idk why but, it offers such both defensive and offensive capabilitys… i always find myself using that weaponset when trying new builds..

I have to say that I actually use every single weapon fairly frequently.

I have an exotic piece of each weapon, and swap them out all the time.

If I’m doing a normal dungeon, I’m usually using S/F + S/S.

If I’m doing something like fractals, S/F + GS.

If I’m fighting a single boss or mob that doesn’t need reflecting, S/P + S/S.

If I’m doing WvW, Staff + Scepter/T.

Not to mention PvP. Swapping between a ton of builds just to refresh my ability with them means I generally get a lot of use out of every single weapon.

S/F; S/P for dungeons.
Otherwise, I’m generally mainlining Staff. It’s just too bleeding useful in most content.

At this stage I’m pretty adaptable. I have little trouble swapping fluidly between sets and traits in the space of a single dungeon.

The only one that occasionally throws me is with GS, where I’ll hit GS5 instead of GS4 for my phatasm (Given 5 is phantasm on focus/sword, but 4 on pistol and greatsword), which can be pretty embarrasing if you end up scattering the mobs out of the party’s killzone <.<

I guess mainhand sword is the thing I’m never seen without, but what mesmer isn’t?

PvP – for most of the builds I run, staff is essential, primarily due to the mobility and blinking abilities.

PvE – GS in open world all the way + Sw/F, and dungeons are the meta Sw/Sw-Sw/F.

You should play with GS more in PvP Chaos. It’s an awesome and incredibly effective weapon once you get the hang of it.

I ran GS/Staff for a long time . Now I run GS/Sword+Torch.

Don’t worry about the GS combo you are talking about, you can do fine without using that combo. GS is more about range control than combo. You are way better off use mirror blade when people get close and save shatter for when their boons are down.

For my beloved main mesmer Yuna staff is the weapon you see me most with. Not only because I crafted myself a beautiful Bifrost I also like the mechanic of the staff. Even shatter build I can’t live without staff…..

And I think for PvP you can also say that I use mostly staff – love chaosstorm
interrupts and Phase Retreat/Blink stomps.

Right now? Sword + Torch.

In the beginning my first pvp build was glamour/confusion with staff + scepter/torch, simply because it was the easiest to land the skills and I was terrible at melee combat so fun to watch players killing themselves (before people grew wise about confusion).

I could not understand/comprehend playing pvp without a staff – it felt like a survival/kiting crutch which took a long time to let go of. I felt pretty much married to the staff – almost a certainty to go for bifrost if I ever decided on making a legendary.

With greatsword, I pretty much only used that in open world pve – because it’s the easiest thing to use in that mode.

Over a year and a half, and several builds later, after trying to drop the staff numerous times (doing things like sw/t + sc/sw, etc) – I have pretty much dropped staff altogether now. It feels very liberating to play without it.

Prefer greatsword because of two things:
- staff damage is terrible and I never liked the iwarlock
- I hate phase retreat bugs
- never really liked chaos armour

I feel that having become more proficient at the game has allowed me to let go of the crutch staff, and use the greatsword successfully in a pvp environment. I believe the greatsword requires more skill/effort to do well with – but you are rewarded by higher damage, chasing ability, and some of the best animations in the game (only surpassed by the ranger’s greatsword animations).

However sword/torch has become the mainstay, because it has such a fantastic flow to it. With greatsword, I may swap out for a new direct damage weapon (ie MH pistol) in the future, but I can’t see myself giving up sword/torch in the near future.

Greatsword + Scepter/Pistol

I pretty much never see anyone else run this, but I’ve used it for so long it’s just natural. Every attack can be done at range. The phantasms are both summoned on the 4 skill. Both of the 5 skills are interrupts.

With this set, I think of the weapon skills as basically all offense/interrupt (scepter block is the only real defense and it’s still quite damaging). The rest of the defense comes from mixing in some sentinels and knights pieces along with PU from decoy/mass invis.

And, with this set, I can stay hopeful for some changes to scepter at some point…

eldenbri.1059:

Greatsword + Scepter/Pistol

I pretty much never see anyone else run this, but I’ve used it for so long it’s just natural. Every attack can be done at range. The phantasms are both summoned on the 4 skill. Both of the 5 skills are interrupts.

With this set, I think of the weapon skills as basically all offense/interrupt (scepter block is the only real defense and it’s still quite damaging). The rest of the defense comes from mixing in some sentinels and knights pieces along with PU from decoy/mass invis.

And, with this set, I can stay hopeful for some changes to scepter at some point…

That’s a pretty unique set, with a lot of ranged and interrupt potential, nice.

When I played shatter my weapons were never fixed, I started with Osicat´s staff/sword+pistol setup, used scepter+torch/sword+pistol and ended up with greatsword/sword+torch like Vash used it.
For the last ~400 hours I played mostly lockdown, sword+sword/greatsword (dat style! O_O). Definitly my favourite set since it offers a lot of interrupts, great phantasms and covers both melee and range situations. <3

Staff + Greatsword. People are always surprised at the locations I can phase retreat to on different maps, especially foefire.

So i am using this build and yes that is Sword/Pistol Scepter/Sword i know what your thinking but i really works.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhIQRArc8alknpTtFoxCNcrNiqBZ6TkifSyDEgS2htB-TFkBAB7pDAJlYXpM4ONCKcmCwTLAAHAhJeIAFfABySpAg7Poj6PbpkwMlgJYi5ENNBAQA+NbGbG4m38mZzSBQxyI-w

Bo Van Swill.7619:

So i am using this build and yes that is Sword/Pistol Scepter/Sword i know what your thinking but i really works.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhIQRArc8alknpTtFoxCNcrNiqBZ6TkifSyDEgS2htB-TFkBAB7pDAJlYXpM4ONCKcmCwTLAAHAhJeIAFfABySpAg7Poj6PbpkwMlgJYi5ENNBAQA+NbGbG4m38mZzSBQxyI-w

i use ur build with staff /sword/sword

I’m still working my way through how to mesmer, she’s only been 80 for a week now. As it is, I am leaning towards GS/Sw+F for open world and WvW, Sw/Sw+Sw/x for dungeons, instances, and stuff like the Pavilion.

(It only took me nearly two years to finally get one to 80, why it took me so long I don’t know. She’s fun.)

No matter what game type I am in I primarily use Sword / Focus. The focus is great when traited and still useful when it isn’t. In PvP I love the PBAoE from the warden, blurred frenzy, and shatter combo. The focus lets me gather the enemies and sword immobilizes them.

For PvE I’ll take a GS. For PvP I have been favoring Staff.

Spear on land? Rope spear/whip? No? I wish…

Sword/Torch is my favourite setup feelwise but I seldom feel like it’s optimal. Staff is almost always my defensive weapon.

Sword/Pistol and GS – It’s my favorite setup, but I do switch weapons/gear/traits, depending on what skills I’ll need. I make it a habit to carry one of each weapon.

The one I use the least, is probably a scepter – my timing for optimizing it for shatter is almost always off.

Amethyst Lure.5624:

Spear on land? Rope spear/whip? No? I wish…

Sword/Torch is my favourite setup feelwise but I seldom feel like it’s optimal. Staff is almost always my defensive weapon.

Spear is super sexy (as is trident). Such a shame we can’t use them more often.

Underwater weapons > land weapons.

Sword / Pistol (Dat DPS)

I usually switch between GS / Staff depending on my mood but almost always run Sword / Pistol combo.

Scepter/Sword and Sword/Torch

Before the April update I viewed two-handed as weaker due to only 1 sigil thus less variety. So I found the double block of Scepter/Sword to really surprise and drop people or spike mobs along with the confusion beam of doom and iSwordsman to be really effective and fun. When they get too close, I would switch to Sword/Torch, get a couple auto in, iLeap, Swap, Flurry, prestige, iMage and swap back in time to start blocking more.

Just recently I started playing around with Staff(<3 Torment + Malice sigils) and GS again, we’ll see if they stick around in my builds…

I rock two mesmers. My main uses greatsword, sword/focus. I would like to try offhand sword or pistol on her but, because the focus is the only class access to speed that mesmers have, I’m married to it. Runes aren’t an option as I’m using Runes of Strength. After paying over 13g for each one, I’m not swapping them any time soon.

My other mesmer works staff, sword/focus. She is purely for support and, while I tried using a scepter on her because my build allowed traiting for it, it didn’t feel right. Sadly, sword was the only other main hand option.

One of these days, I might breakdown and make a third mesmer. I really want to try an interrupt build along with every block and counter skill we have, just to see how much it will kitten people off.

Greatsword has been my favorite since the betas when I saw the sick AA animation. I really like the sniping power and burst potential that the greatsword offers and I always feel severely handicapped in terms of flanking and pressuring capabilities when I’m not running it. For those reasons GS will in most builds be my main weapon set, off-set being something that offers more utility and defense (staff or sword/x).

Ssshhhh… Dual wielding Infinite Light and the Minstrel (aka. sword/sword/focus). I’m a PvE mesmer.

Scepter/Pistol + Staff are my primary weapon sets. I do have a Sword and Focus in my backpack for specific situations though.

Staff lover here as well! It’s def. my favorite because of a few certain skills, though I do love all weapons. Some of my less favorite would be offhand sword, pistol and scepter (only due to scepter only having a use for condition builds and it’s still a very boring weapon to use, unless if you troll thieves with torment block!)
Have a great rest of the day!

~Monns

My eyes. My beautiful, beautiful eyes. Yes, main and off. If you go into battle with just main or just off it’s a huge quality of life nerf. You give up your depth perception trait which is just a hindrance.

Triple-Swords! \o/

Greatsword,

1. Good Poke
Good trade = U deal more damage compared enemy dealt to you
Bad Trade = U deal less damage compared enemy dealt to you
Poke = U deal damage, enemy didn’;t hit back

2. Have 5x Offensive skills in weapon sets
The secret of GS Mesmer is.. Spamming all the skills!!

3. Best weapon as Carry Role
Long Range poke, Securing Kills, Can chase, AOE criple

4. High risk, High reward
With Zero mobility but u have 5x Offensive skills in that weapon sets.

Iris Ng.9845:

Ssshhhh… Dual wielding Infinite Light and the Minstrel (aka. sword/sword/focus). I’m a PvE mesmer.

Dual Whisperblades and Spirit Links here. Such purple.

I switch all the time in open world. Can’t say if I have a signature set, considering how much I like them all. Ironically, I think focus is my least favorite, but that might be due to its constant bugginess.
Staff is so flashy, I can’t help but love it.
And a floating pew-pew lazer from GS? How cool is that?
Though honestly, you’ll never see me without a sword in hand. Just too good.

Greatsword, definitely. Be it killing runners, crippling chasers, bursting random guys, throwing thieves out of SR or kiting builds like PU condi, i can’t seem to play Shatter without it anymore.

I carry everything with me, but usually run greatsword and sword/pistol, especially in WvW. A carefully placed iZerker through a zerg’s casting backline can do wonderful amounts of damage and cause widespread panic. I do tend to switch to staff from time to time, usually when playing defence and sometimes when roaming. The sword never goes away though.

Most dungeons I’ll drop the GS and switch to sw/foc or sw/sw.

Twilight was my first legendary and thus far the only legendary I have on my main, and as a result it always feels kind of wrong to unequip it.

My signature weapon set is greatsword sword focus. Granted i can use all weapons like a master but gs sf feel special to me. Sucks how focus is right now though. My build is in the sig (still working on the guide)

S/S or P and GS. Love bouncing my mirror blade off izerker into a shatter. I like the S and P phantoms about equally so it generally depends on if I want the block/slow daze or multi interrupt from P.