Guild Wars 2

… but it just seems so inferior to pistol or focus

duelist is better at staying alive (and therefore; dealing damage) on a single target
warden does more damage and is… well… awesome (unless the enemy moves; then it stand there like a vegetable flailings its axes around)

pistol/focus interrupt seems better than swords block (maybe its because its triggers on any hit; melee or ranged… and i always have deceptive evasion so illusions arent really needed – and the second activation has a terribly slow projectile)

i guess im just terribad at using it; any tips?

Sword offhand was really nice when it had the shortest cd on phantasms – Illusionary Swordsman was an 8 second cd if I remember.

It’s still not /that/ bad, the block can trigger for huge damage. I used to run with it occasionally and it was great blocking a backstab and doing 3.5k damage at the same time.

reasons to like offhand sword:
the phantasm follows the enemy (warden does not) and hits pretty hard, it makes only one hit, which helps with enemys with retaliation and EVERY attack is a leap finisher (etheral field = 3 phantasms with chaos armor). since iSwordsman hits fast you can shatter him earlier then the others
the block helps save the dodge for situations you can’t forsee and generates a clone

iWarden’s damage is very much PvE only, in PvP or WvW people won’t stand in its AoE. iSwordsman does more burst damage than iDuelist, and in PvP if your opponent is good their survivability won’t be much different. Riposte deals a lot of direct damage when triggered, while Magic Bullet and Temporal Curtain basically don’t do any damage.

The OH Sword is basically for burst damage, and it can deal quite a lot of it between iSwordsman and Riposte.

Don’t forget you can turn your block into a ranged daze for those extra interrupts !

IMO the Block effect (lots of damage plus Clone) is much better than the unreliable Daze.

Riposte currently is less of an defensive tool, but more of an offensive one actually. If you can time it so that the enemy attacks right into it, or “catch” a bullet with it, you can put out some decent single target burst with it, and a free illusion.

I do think that the riposte line of skills could be improved slightly though. In general, it doesn’t really provide that much defense by itself, because the attacks you really want to avoid often are multi hit attacks, and enemies usually come in packs, so if you want to time that one charged up hit, you risk getting interrupted by a stray missile from the backline. In any case, dodging the attack is usually much safer, so I find myself hardly using riposte in difficult content.

Maybe if you could get some distortion frames when the counter animation plays, that would effectively allow it to do something against chain attacks, and leave enough time to dodge out of it if you get really focused.

The swordsman has slightly better dps then the duelist, he hits quicker and will generally be closer to your target, so I tend to rate him slightly better then the duelist when you want quick burst and shatter fodder, and he will be basically traited by default in most builds anyway. The stun on the pistol is much, much better though, so even though I like the swordsman, I still find myself using the pistol much more often.

ty for all the replies; i think it just doesnt fit my playstyle (which… is probably horrible)… i tend to prefer keeping my phantasms alive, duelist seems much easier to do that with (im lazy)… ill practice some more with sword sometime… but dont see myself switching over quickly

sephire.7296:

Don’t forget you can turn your block into a ranged daze for those extra interrupts !

as i said; the projectile is so kitten slow

There’s a few things that make offhand sword really nice.

First, it is our only dual-wieldable weapon. This means you can take 1 trait and improve 5 skills as if it were a 2hander. This is especially important because dueling has so many important traits that spending 2 on sword and pistol can be tough.

Next, the phantasm is amazing. Casting it is a leap combo finisher on both you and the phantasm, and every time it leaps, the phantasm gets another finisher. It does a lot of damage in one hit, allowing it to take minimal retaliation damage. The actual attack is an evade, so it is very rarely killed before it can attack. With the duelist, the attack is projectiles.

Also, you have the block. There are a lot of situations where this is awesome, stopping a bulls rush, kill shot, stuns, etc. Any sort of 1 hit nasty attack is neatly negated by the block, and this is most obvious when fighting a thief. Instead of taking backstab damage, you take nothing, create a clone, and return 3k-5k damage.

iSwordsman is actually pretty good at staying alive by virtue of having an attack that’s an evade and attacking more often (it’s about 3-4 seconds per attack, so every 3-4 seconds it can’t be hit) and waiting at a range (about 600 units) that allows it to miss being smacked by most melee-range AoE. Also being a leap finisher off our fields makes it extra punishing for the enemy to attack it.

The sword block is great for preventing one-shot bursts/CC and buying precious time to duck out of a mob or large AoE (especially with the side porting sticking you close to the edge far more often than not). And it hits the enemy like a truck, too. You can use it to just block some autoattack and land some nice burst damage too if you want.

… The daze projectile could stand to be a little better (I’d prefer a single target instant, what do I need to daze things in a line for?), but I use it more as a “plan b” for it the enemy decides not to attack me after all— kitten if they do, kitten if they don’t. It can also help you save the hide of some party member at range by buying them another second to move, without sacrificing your illusions.

Sword 4 = Damage is pretty insane for power builds. It hits almost as hard as a full blurred frenzy. Don’t think of it as a defensive skill. Think of it as an offensive skill with a block trigger.

Sword 5 = Highest DPS Phantasm in the game, so a Phantasm build trying to squeeze out the most DPS would use a OH Sword.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Also, you have the block. There are a lot of situations where this is awesome, stopping a bulls rush, kill shot, stuns, etc. Any sort of 1 hit nasty attack is neatly negated by the block, and this is most obvious when fighting a thief. Instead of taking backstab damage, you take nothing, create a clone, and return 3k-5k damage.

I could be wrong here, but I think against backstab thieves especially, you will not take the initial backstab and start the riposte animation, but the thief will not be decloaked either, so you’ll definitely eat another backstab regardless. At least that’s what happens when aegis, invul/distortion/blocks are used against backstabs.

Embolism.8106:

iWarden’s damage is very much PvE only, in PvP or WvW people won’t stand in its AoE. .

but mesmers like stand in iWarden buble. best wep ever

wintermute.4096:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Also, you have the block. There are a lot of situations where this is awesome, stopping a bulls rush, kill shot, stuns, etc. Any sort of 1 hit nasty attack is neatly negated by the block, and this is most obvious when fighting a thief. Instead of taking backstab damage, you take nothing, create a clone, and return 3k-5k damage.

I could be wrong here, but I think against backstab thieves especially, you will not take the initial backstab and start the riposte animation, but the thief will not be decloaked either, so you’ll definitely eat another backstab regardless. At least that’s what happens when aegis, invul/distortion/blocks are used against backstabs.

They won’t be automatically uncloaked, but most thieves wait until the last second to try for a backstab, meaning they will uncloak as normal in the next second. Also, you will have a weird sort of movement as you spawn the clone from the block, and it’s very difficult for the thief to hit you during that.

I tried an OH pistol and focus when my necro was low lvl and by the time i hit 20 i was using OH sword constantly, that didn’t change all the way to 80 and now that i’m in wvw i use the focus for speed and swap out once i get where i’m going. focus is great and the tc pull has saved me when i’ve been ambushed before i could swap to oh sword but in general i use OH sword for the burst dmg just my preference tho

I use off sword more for the look and a the phant has a nice one shot pop.

ripost is pretty cool hitting about 4-5k while already having a lead really keeps the pressure on, I wish it was more viable against multi hit attacks or would port you a distance or something so you don’t get steam rolled during the counter animation.

also Counter Blade could be more viable… slow traveling daze that you can side step while not even trying to side step it.

offhand sword is my standard and I go pistol/focus for situations (tPvP I run focus all the time. and very few builds I actually NEED pistol against)

The block is really what defines the OH sword and gives it so much extra dps compared to other OH weapons. The swordsman is no slouch, but there are other phants that are just about as useful.

I have found that even with good timing I end up using the daze in PVE fairly often, so it’s best to try and get one of the “on interrupt” or “on daze” traits there. That way even if you don’t get the block, clone, and damage, you can still get some utility out of it beyond the daze.

In PVP, I usually have no trouble getting the block since ppl spam certain skills. Also, whenever you see a red circle, hit #4 while heading for the edge and you almost always avoid AOEs, snares, etc. and send the caster and nice present, too.

Gaiawolf.8261:

The block is really what defines the OH sword and gives it so much extra dps compared to other OH weapons. The swordsman is no slouch, but there are other phants that are just about as useful.

I have found that even with good timing I end up using the daze in PVE fairly often, so it’s best to try and get one of the “on interrupt” or “on daze” traits there. That way even if you don’t get the block, clone, and damage, you can still get some utility out of it beyond the daze.

In PVP, I usually have no trouble getting the block since ppl spam certain skills. Also, whenever you see a red circle, hit #4 while heading for the edge and you almost always avoid AOEs, snares, etc. and send the caster and nice present, too.

I’ve gotten into the habit of marching into the AoEs with scepter #2 and sword #4 following, not out of. Really nasty burst spike all the while negating a bunch of damage and setting you up for one dodge roll to shatter.

This discussion inspires me to mentally exclude the consideration of how slow hoofing it across WvW will be without Swiftness and use Sword/Sword again.

Because iSwordsman is a kitten beast. And Riposte hits like a freight train too.

I remember a long time ago around the end of beta I first ran a S/S sPvP build using IP shatter and stuff. Had some awesome burst back then. First time I experimented with iSwordsman + iLeap + Swap + Blurred Frenzy + Mind Wrack + Power Spike (Mantra of Pain) bursting. Good times.

I use dual swords as my main , got staff for clones and chaos.
My build >> tinyurl.com/boseadv

@EasymodeX, have a look at the build I use atm for solo/smal group roaming. The swiftness you talk about is there and the movment iin combat is uncontested. The dmg is fantatsic and so is the survival.

/Osicat

Yea Air runes with Mirror. Decent enough uptime and way better than Centaur for actual fighting. Looks entertaining.

I run scepter/sword in a shatter build. Fight starts, I block and create a clone with scepter skill 2, then block and create a clone with sword skill 4, then dodge away to create a clone (trait) and I’m all set up for my first mind wrack.

AmateurGod.5403:

MH scepter and OF sword the crappiest of all mesmer weapons. What do they have in common? A useless block skill!

In PvE maybe, Blocks are awesome in PvP especially when they summon clones and do damage.

I wonder if I can kill a glass cannon Thief with double block alone. This merits further evaluation.