Guild Wars 2

Hello , I’m new in game and I’m leveling a Mesmer . I ask to experienced Mesmers: what are the differences , in play style , between the combination scepter/torch and the scepter/gun?
thanks

I’m assuming you’re asking about PvE, since you’re levelling.
In PvE, scepter and torch are not optimal weapons in most cases. They’re focusing mainly on condition damage, which is not useful in PvE.
Honestly, Scepter is purely a PvP weapon. It’s good at applying confusion, which is only strong against players.

Pistol is useful in PvE, in situations where you need to keep your phantasms away from the enemies because of AoE/cleaving.
However, you’ll probably want to use a main hand sword with it.

Putting all that aside, you can do whatever you want while levelling. It’s very easy and you’ll get through it no matter the playstyle. Once you’re 80 and know more about the game and what you want to do in it, you can start picking your playstyle.

And if your question is not about PvE (I do level in PvP, it is faster and more fun), the torch brings some stealth which is useful for WvW especially and to some extent in PvP although you have to be aware you cannot cap points while in stealth. Pistol is a more offensive weapon, it has a rather powerful phantasm (both in direct damage and in conditions if you take the traits sharper image or the currently not working duelist’s discipline) and a daze/stun which is good for interrupting enemies.
But yes, in leveling PvE, conditions are not that great. You are more efficient with a sword+focus/greatsword.

While yes scepter aint optimal in pve as been stated, it does not mean you cant use it though, specially after the recent trait overhaul a few week ago condi got a LOT better (mainly because of the removal of the 25 stack cap), so unless you really going for speed runs and the like scepter should do fine, even if it is not the most optimal weapon.

as for torch vs pistol as silverkey said yeah torch is more defensive with stealth and a phantasm that can clear conditions vs the pistols more offensive nature with a phantasm that shoot 2 pistols in a deadly volley that when traited for it can dish out considerable bleeds as well. Alongside that the pistol has a very handy CC shot from the pistol that bounced 3 times, where the first target you hit will be stunned, the 2nd will be dazed, 3rd with be blinded, and the 4th target will get confusions

On a side note one thing that may not be painfully obvious right now, but hopefully get changed is that the before called Illusionary Persona trait have been made base line with the trait overhaul as well, which basically means that each time you use one of your 4 shatters skills, the effect of the shatter ALSO happens around yourself as well as from your illusions, meaning if you have no illusions you can still get the effect as if you had one illusions, and if you have max illusions out it will count as a 4 illusions shatter etc

I believe the condition cleanse has been removed from the base torch phantasm and now only acts if the torch trait is selected.

Silverkey.2078:

I believe the condition cleanse has been removed from the base torch phantasm and now only acts if the torch trait is selected.

Ahh yeah your right seem to grant fury instead to allies now, dont believe it did that before

It did 4 stacks of confusion (4s) + retailation (3s), now 1 stack of burn (6s) + fury (3s). The cleanse has been always traited.

Zoser.7245:

It did 4 stacks of confusion (4s) + retailation (3s), now 1 stack of burn (6s) + fury (3s). The cleanse has been always traited.

ohh yeah, your right, was mixing it up with disenchanter(utility phant) i think, still that is a LOT better now than the old mage :P

iMage is still bad – i think it needs to be completely overhauled to a different function.

Having said that, I still enjoy torch much much much more than pistol.

There used to be a cleanse baseline but it was not documented and has been removed.

The change with iMage applying burning makes sense and is good I think (although this means we have even less access to confusion outside of shatters). But torch being a defensive weapon, fury is weird, retaliation made more sense. And the phantasm is still lackluster (which says a lot considering how OP burning is!)

Curunen.8729:

iMage is still bad – i think it needs to be completely overhauled to a different function.

Having said that, I still enjoy torch much much much more than pistol.

i believe though most of the badness in it now comes from the projectile itself, if that were actually fixed to fly in a straight line i believe the iMage would be pretty good with the stuff it does when it hits.

Edit: and yeah i do agree fury seem a bit outside the scope of it, but at the same time retal was a bit weird too since, as mesmer you want to NOT get hit at all, but not really many real boons that promote that kind of stuff :/

The fury helps you if you are bounced, but the orb only hits once per objetive, player or mob. So you can’t see 2 stacks of burn from the iMage if you don’t use condition duration food or PH and iMage performs a second successful attack which is improbable… For example, with PH and any extra % condition duration you only have 1s with 2 stacks after a second successful hit in the same target.

My feeling is that is weak again… reliving old times.

Edit: The three bounces are not guaranteed as MB if aditional targets are inside the bounce range. So, the bounces are ranging from 0 up to 3. Interestingly, if you are out of range and your iMage attacks from its maximum range, the first bounce does not return back to him. It follows that the bounce has less scope than the original attack, hence the possibility of the orb never bounce. Is obviously an unlikely event, but possible. With MB you can force 0 bounces too. But the way MB works is good, allowing the rebound in an target reached earlier. They should add the bounce more than once on the same target to the iMage skill to not lose rebounds in certain situations.