Guild Wars 2

^ Seems to be working for 3 bounce w/o the trait.

And still needa edit my post… they changed the underwater phantom to do confusion instead of bleed…..

Can just change it competely:

eg: Mantra of Pain: when maintained, gain +300 power. Skills have a +10% recharge.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Siren%27s_Call

“The tooltip states that the skill bounces 3 times, but in fact only bounces 2 times without Illusionary Elasticity. The clones summoned that cast this are also affected by Illusionary Elasticity. "

^..

Can anyone confirm that?

I thought that Siren’s Call hits enemy, bounces back to you, and hits enemy again. Then traiting for Illusionary Elasticity would only increase 1 bounce back to us for a boon.

Depending on what’s really happening with Siren’s Call, I’d have to edit my post again.

It can be viable with a clone explosion build (summon 4 clone to desummon 1 to trigger trait that gives cond. aoe around dying clone) to spam 1 while waiting for 10 second weapon swap delay to pass by. But it’s attack rate is still too slow.

Make a Mantra Elite: Each charge refreshes 1 charge across all other mantras.

Kanto.1659:

Doing that will simply make one Mesmer able to upkeep 20 bleeds on a target. FINALLY decent Condition damage on par with direct damage. But useless if they do so without upping the bleed cap.

Actually, mesmers can maintain 20+ bleed currently with enough precision. But more would be better.

nightwulf.1986:

Phira.3970:

Just because the dev thinks something doesn’t make it correct. Just look to how many people are disappointed with GW2 combat system and pvp. If they simply kept the combat system the way it was in GW1, GW2 pvp would’ve taken off since beta (it has for GW1. it was a proven method). Instead, they scrapped everything and look at pvp now.

I absolutely agree on your first point about what devs say and being correct. However, all I said was that they were talking about their experiences regarding making GW1 and reacting to player use of the huge skill pool. If you’re saying they were lying about the difficulty and their experiences, I don’t think we can say their experiences were falsified without more information.

Never said that in my post?

dadamowsky.4692:

Phira.3970:

Having no mana = 1 spam game. Yes, that is what GW2 is at currently. May I cite that the most successful games, such as LoL have a mana system? It requires more critical decision making skills. Hmmm, should I spam everything I have right now, or play defensively and passively.

And for everyone talking about potions, GW1 did not have potions. Mana regen. was so fast you didn’t need it.

You (and alike players) should definetely try engineer. I’d really like to see how do you win a skirmish spamming your 1. Frankly speaking I’d like to see how do you win any skirmish with any class against any medium skilled player spaming your 1… Sight, exaggerations.

I meant using maybe 1 or 2 important skill after swapping and spamming 1 while waiting the entire 10 second to pass by to weapon swap again. or waiting for cooldown on skills. But then engineers can enjoy no-weapon swap cooldown , which is why I can see you feel that way in your case.

pullnointer.1476:

Phira.3970:

^ Actually GW2 is more balanced than in GW1. But that shows you that balancing isn’t everything if the basic combat mechanics are boring.

you had more build variety in gw1 tbh…

This be because of conquest in GW2… Only thing viable are tanks.. tanks and.. roamers. I’ve never seen in a game where glass cannons are so tabooed.

Any game where the combat system is not decent (generally MMOs, they make it up with expansive PVE content) will have rage quitters because the only investment for those players are the rewards for completing the content (if the group isn’t decent, they’ll look for another), not the content in itself because they don’t find it fun. Yes… my theory explains why people skip in dungeons (thinking of AC here…). Doing the content isn’t fun (esp. when they drop junk). It’s just better to skip it for the rewards towards the end.

If I was given the option to scrap the entire GW2 combat system and replace it with GW1 and still have GW2 graphics and PVE content, I’d click it and would not regret it.

GW1 combat > GW2 combat
GW2 graphics/PVE > GW1 graphics/PVE

^ Actually GW2 is more balanced than in GW1. But that shows you that balancing isn’t everything if the basic combat mechanics are boring.

Just because the dev thinks something doesn’t make it correct. Just look to how many people are disappointed with GW2 combat system and pvp. If they simply kept the combat system the way it was in GW1, GW2 pvp would’ve taken off since beta (it has for GW1. it was a proven method). Instead, they scrapped everything and look at pvp now.

GW1 pvp took off since beta. In GW2, it just kept going downhill after beta. Reason = the community? No. Stop blaming the community. The community will only be excited about PvP if only it was worth it.

The PvP in gw2 isn’t nearly as strategic as it was in gw1. The dev’s philosophy of “catering to casual players” dumbed gw2’s combat system down. It’s a real flat and boring combat system consisting of 1 spams (because of no mana pool). Blame the devs. for this.

My Solution (biased probably) = give sPvP a sense of progression (at least add better rewards). Then add more complexities, more skills, more weapons, take out weapon swap recharge, add a mana pool, add a “quickness” stat so players can control how fast they attack, add a new trait tree to complement the new quickness stat, etc… And if complexity doesn’t do it, new features such as any I mentioned gives more customization option to players which is always a good thing.

Katai.6240:

Except not every character in LoL has a mana system? A lot of them have alternative resources or no resource at all. Are you saying those characters are less strategic than those who have mana?

Yes. Notice strongest top laners are mostly manaless (Shen in my times). They just spam like in GW2. I don’t see the strategy in that other than its spam advantage.

Having no mana = 1 spam game. Yes, that is what GW2 is at currently. May I cite that the most successful games, such as LoL have a mana system? It requires more critical decision making skills. Hmmm, should I spam everything I have right now, or play defensively and passively.

And for everyone talking about potions, GW1 did not have potions. Mana regen. was so fast you didn’t need it.

KeyLimPi.9031:

If you want mana, play thief. intiative is basically mana without potions

Except they don’t have cooldowns. GW1 skills had restrictive cooldowns on skills and a restrictive mana pool.

Hickeroar.9734:

As long as they maintained a cooldown on the weapons switch sigil procs, I would fully support removing the CD on swapping.

They do, it’s around 7 seconds.

That means there are specific weapon skins one should buy to confuse the enemy.

GW1 didn’t have weapon swap cooldown (they had a small delay but that could be avoided with skills), but they have it in GW2, which is pretty annoying because many combos are being restricted (and because they promised a game that feels the same as GW1, which it certainly does not [combat-wise]). We cannot swap to a weapon specifically for just 1 skill and swap back to create certain combos (use skill 2 and 4 on 1 weapon, for example, and swap to another just for skill 3, and swap back for skill 5, etc…). Or when swapping just for defensive purposes, players are punished for 10 seconds (in which usually, they just spam 1 until 10 second passes rather than using their skills in a clever fashion). Eg. rangers have to be stuck on a sword/dagger set for 10 seconds just so they can evade a hit. Or a thief can’t swap to sword just for the evade attack and swap back to dagger to continue backstabbing because of weapon swap delay. etc.. etc…

Currently, we cannot mix up all the different possible skill combos from our entire arsenal. Instead, we just 1 combo spam until weapon swap delays 10 sec. passes (also, no mana system also contributes to the notorious 1 spam combo….). The system discourages player to use skills from across other weapons because of the 10 second punishment, which means less flavor in combat. If weapon swap delay was taken out, there’d be more room for viable combos/builds/strategies.

And going off the mana thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/mana-system

WARNING: ALIEN LANGUAGE IF YOU DID NOT PLAY GW1***

Weapon swapping and mana pool system had a huge relation that created for clever techniques:

-If you’re out of mana and cannot cast, you can actually cast more spells by swapping to another weapon that has more mana (at the cost of mana regeneration). You wouldn’t want to stay on the high mana weapon set because you lose mana regen., so when you’re not casting, you are on a different weapon set to have maximum mana regeneration.

-Monks could swap to zealous spears to gain energy back (each hit recovers mana at the cost of mana regen.) if their doing nothing else. Then they’d swap back to another weapon set when they’re actually casting to avoid the mana regen. loss. It was a clever technique to gain around 5 pips of mana regen.

-You could counter energy denial mesmer by swapping to low mana set because you have 0 mana on that set (so they’d have no energy to steal) but actually have like 20ish on another set

-etc.. etc..

Point is: The no-weapon-delay system created for more complex things a player could do that could turn the tide of the battle through pure skills.

Also, changing the fury on Phantom] trait to [fury on illusions] along with Illusionary Elasticity fix would instantly make a pure staff build viable.

With 20% crit chance on clones = 20% more bleed from clones.

These changes would make pure staff possibly on par with Phantom and Shatter builds. And in PvE, a staff cond. build would be able to compete with Necro cond builds.

Not sure how to use underwater weapons on this site but:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|6.0.0|1o.714.1o.714.1o.714.1o.714.1o.714.1o.714|1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.co.63|u58b.u4a7.0.a4.0|3d.4|32.3a.3k.3j.3q|e

(prob better to just read my description since I’m not good at using build sites)

30/30/0/10/0

The build uses spear for 2 and 4 spam for mobility.

This build uses krait runes that gives 100 power underwater. It traits 30 in the first tree to capitalize on hybrid cond.-crit. dmg. with +30% cond. duration and +300 power. This is important for lake domination so that you can destroy enemy quaggan bases quickly (100 power from rune and 30 in first tree (+300) for +400 power and even more +power from rampager gear). You can swap to spear to quickly annihilate those quaggan bases, and with your high power pool. Spam spear 2 and spear 4 to do massive damage to the quaggan base.

An alternative to the krait rune is a +45% bleed duration rune set up: 2x Afflicted, 2x krait, 2x

However, the actual combat weapon of the build utilizes trident, and fights by summoning 3 clones to deal heavy bleeding AoE damage. The sigil must be Earth sigil for bleed on hits on your trident. This build does not use phantasms (unless on spear and hitting quaggans base) because 1) takes long time to cast 2) hits only 1 target 3) Infrequent hit-rates. 4) Clones are easier to bring up quicker and maintain

The build uses the Mantra heal for 3x heals along with the 4th trait tree trait that removes a cond. per heal, meaning you get 3 condition removals on a heal that recharges in just 8 seconds (20% mantra reduction trait)

You trait 30 in the second tree because you want the trait of where crits. on your clones -> bleed. This is where things get interesting. I’ve mathematically calculated that using this trait, precision actually contributes more than cond. dmg because more precision = more bleed.

Simply put, with 3 clones up and you hitting, 21 precision (+1% crit. chance), means a 1% higher chance to deal bleeding = +1% damage per 21 precision for cond. dmg only. This isn’t calculating the damage it also contributes to your actual crit. dmg.

But using this: 10 prec = 10 cond dmg = 1% cond duration. (as exchange rates for each stats, eg. getting 10 prec = losing 10 cond. or 1% cond duration)

Precision gives you about more than 3x more condition damage output than cond. dmg. Cond. duration still is best however. With 21 prec, your opportunity cost is 2% cond. duration which is > +1% dmg with prec.

If you can somehow get fury (20% crit. chance) on all your clones and yourself, your bleed damage output will increase by 20%. This might be achievable with Signet of Inspiration, but probably, your best ally underwater is a Warrior with “For Great Justice!” (might, fury to nearby allies AoE).

EDIT: After I found out that Illusionary Elasticity only gives 1 extra bounce that ends on ally, I will retract this statement,

“Trait 20 in the last tree for +cond. dmg and the bonus bounce hit, which will increase your damage overall by about 25% because you are hitting 1 more times out of 4 hits (you + 3 clones) = 5/4 = 1.25 (this is assuming clones attack at the same rate as you, but they don’t. Therefore, I say about x1.25 damage output [only in calculation to the bleed damage you’ll be doing])”

I will now change the build from 30/20/0/0/20 to 30/30/0/10/0

I have both. Unfortunately, the best mesmer 1v1 builds do not use Great Sword.

A stun is basically daze+immobolize in one?

Warriors need this trait:

Convert 5% of hp into power

With 38k hp, that’d be +1900 power. Screw 5% armor → power.

I tried a phantom build using iZerker and the enemy was able to face-tank all the iZerkers (if it was 3 swordsman, enemy would be toast). Very very sad.

How about maintaining the current crappy damage of iZerker except making 1 change: iZerker will summon 2 iZerkers at the same time.

There is no progression in GW2 spvp (except for /rank animals and armor) whereas GW1 had progression in that you get pve awards. And what’s more: you can actually use pve gear in pvp. Biggest mistake is trying to separate spvp from pve completely. Obviously, a game that’s 90% focused on PvE (and then tries to isolate this with their PvP comtent) cannot compete with games like LoL that focuses 100% on pvp.

Phantom builds are weak in team fights because they die to random AoE.

And if you have decent damage, you can kill the phantoms quick enough and the mesmer will have literally no damage since phantom is all their damage. It’s fair in that it punishes 100% bunker builds for not having any damage to kill the phantoms quick enough.

Mantra of heal is actually powerful with the 4th trait that has: heal removes a cond. giving your heal 3x cond. removal.

The problem is that the +1 mantra trait requires traiting 30 in the first tree to get.

For last trait tree, you’d want +1 bounce trait for 33% more damage on GS 2.

Mistyped trait for shatter for CoF but it’s 30/10/0/0/30, and this one does gating faster than 30/30/0/0/10 because of the extra bounce hit and extra shatter. 30 in the first tree is ideal to have 3x Mantra of Pain. Also ideal for applying 24 vuln. stacks instantly when pulling charr-> turret and for last boss.

Lyssa’s rune is useless for gating. You cannot crit. it; thus, precision is useless, and so is the 2nd trait tree for crit. dmg + precision. Cond. is also useless. The elite, you shouldn’t be using. In other words, Lyssa Rune is one of the worst possible gating rune you can get. But it is useful for Empowered Warriors (+2% dmg per boon). Elite→ Signet of Inspiration.
—-

And no, a Warrior does not do gate faster than a mesmer.

Make it so that Mantra recharges 1 charge per 20 seconds. I often find myself on only 1x stack of Mantra left so I have to use it and wait for it to cool down to reapply to 3x stacks. Very inefficient.

^ And aMantra of Pain recharges instantly so after you gate, you switch it back to whatever utility you need for team.

And I use scholar runes. I usually gate w/o getting hit once 100% hp.

Actually mesmer does gate faster w/o elite or relying on Might than warriors.

It takes around 5 seconds to complete:

3x Charge of Mantra of Pain
GS 4 (will catch godforged attention)
GS 2
Focus 5 or 3
Sword 2
f1 Shatter

It does take some luck because sometimes the Godforged kills 1 of the clones weakening shatter.

Set up is 30/30/0/0/10 but shatter build can do it as well, 20/20/0/0/30

Farry.8259:

People who are still playing GW2 come from GW1, they have never experienced a good and polished e-sports game. I dont want to insult anyone, I think its true.

Not sure what you’re talking about, but I think I can safely say 99.99% of decent pvpers in GW1 are disappointed in GW2 pvp and that many have already quit for other games, such as LoL.

There is no sense of progression in sPvP.

There needs to be more interesting elements. For example, they should implement money that can be used to buy items through capping points, killing players, etc… This is similar to games like Leagues of Legend, where there is a sense of progression for doing well in a game round that adds that excitement for killing players, etc… (And then there will be the concept of fed players, which is interesting to watch) And since there is like 5 un-used accessory slot in sPvP, how about just making the merchants sell those accessory items as rewards. All seems like common sense to me but no, they had to implement a ‘capture the flag’ type of game (Spirit Watch) which doesn’t really give the sense of progression within the game itself. Give a game mode that gives a sense of progression (moba for example).

<Player looking for a team>
Ingame name: Phira
Main Class / Potential Classes (Incase team requires): Only Mesmer. Can play others but I can’t guarantee good results with builds or classes I’m not accustomed to.
Region: NA
Practice Times: 8 pm – 12 am pacific time
Experience: 2700 hours in the game so far.
Other (Anything else that you would like to add): I’m looking for a team that uses unconventional means of winning (call it trolling or whatever, but there are many other ways to beat metas via innovative team comps. In LoL, I carried myself to platinum ELO through unconventional means (glass cannon Wu Kong build) purely in SOLO QUEUE. Competing with the current meta with the same meta is just lame, uncreative, and uninteresting)

Change it so that izerker hits once but does full damage.

I tried the shatter but it seems that there is just way too many counters. Sword 3 doesn’t land all the time, and even if it does, there still lots of ways to get out of the immobolize.

And here’s a post to factor in the final factor, sigils in CoF. Let’s assume Superior Sigil of Smothering and Superior Sigil of Night stacks for +20% damage and it works only for actual weapons, unlike summoned weapons.

470.857*1.2=565.0284

And the damage difference would be 575.38/565.0284=1.018= Lightning Hammer does about 1.8% more damage.

And comparing GS and axe dps with same sigil scenario.:

-In 3.5 seconds, axe does 1648
-But assuming we can stack smothering+night sigil for +20% damage, axe would do 1648*1.2=1977.6
-While in about 3.8 seconds, Hundred Blade does 2030 damage.
-With night sigil, 2030*1.1=2233

Factoring in delay, assuming we can spam Hundred Blade 24/7, the dps in 3.5 seconds would be about 2233/(3.8/3.5)=2056.71

And factoring in the +10% GS trait that will take place (net damage% difference of +5% dmg) = 2056.71*1.05=2159.5455

The damage difference between Hundred Blade and Axe 1 chai (with these freak-ish sigils) is about 2159.5497/1977.6=1.092 or a 9.2%+ dmg difference in damage.

In this freak-ish sigil scenari,o Lightning Hammer only does about 1.8% more damage (than axe) while Hundred Blade being spammed non-stop would do 9.2% more damage. In this case, Hundred Blade being spammed non-stop would do a bit more damage. But Hundred Blades cannot be spammed non-stop and the fact that it swaps back to Axe after Hundred Blade would decrease that damage difference. The difference in damage, in this scenario, would be that GS→ axe Warrior would do slightly more damage than Lightning Hammer elementalist. But even then, with the mesmers damage buffed by about +50% damage, elementalists still contribute more damage on net.

Chop: 252
Double Chop: 538
Triple Chop: 858

Time to complete chain: 3.5 seconds
DPS = 470.857

vs.

Lightning Swing: 358
Static Swing: 358
Thunderclap: 586

Time to complete chain: 2.5 seconds
DPS = 500.7692307692307692

Conclusion: Lightning Hammer chain > Axe chain

This is not calculated with GS->Axe. But you should also see that Elementalists have a better trait tree for pure damage (precision+crit. dmg stat in same trait line) and tons of +dmg% traits.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|8.1g.h3.8.1g.h2|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.cg.67|p53.k6a.p67.0.0|0.0|0.0.0.0.0|e
25/20/25

Effective Power 6655.49

In comparison to warrior pure damage traiting

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|7.1g.h2.9.1g.h3|1.1g.h3|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.cg.67|u598.p00.0.0.f5|0.0|0.0.0.0.0|e

Effective Power = 6082

^It’s actually a bit less than that because the site counts the GS and axe towards effective power, but in reality, you are only using one of them at a time. Once you swap away from GS, you get the +5% dmg trait instead of +10% trait. So the actual effective power may look something more like 6082/1.05=5792.

In comparison to the Ele.’s effective power, the damage difference is that the Ele. is doing about 6655.49/5792=1.149007645511344952 or about +15% more damage trait-wise.
—-

So taking into account of traiting with a difference of about +15% damage, the Lightning Hammer dps = 500.76*1.149=575.38

in comparison to Axe chain =470.857

Lightning hammer 1 chain does 575.38/470.857=1.22 or about 22% more damage.

Hundred Blade is more difficult to calculate. Tooltip says it’s 3.5 second to cast, but delay will make it around 3.8 seconds.

But you can make a comparison:

-In 3.5 seconds, axe does 1648
-While in about 3.8 seconds, Hundred Blade does 2030 damage.

Factoring in delay, assuming we can spam Hundred Blade 24/7, the dps in 3.5 seconds would be about 2030/(3.8/3.5)=1869.74.

And factoring in the +10% GS trait that will take place (net damage% difference of +5% dmg) = 1963.227

The damage difference between Hundred Blade and Axe 1 chain is about 1963.227/1648=1.19 or a 19% difference in damage.

Conclusion: Now compare that 19% damage difference to elementalists superior 1 chain combo (+22% more damage than axe combo).

Using gw2 wiki stats and the trait-set up, and assuming all conditions are met to get all the +dmg% with Ele. traits, Lightning Hammer actually outdamages a Warrior that spams Hundred Blade 24/7 nonstop (calculating sigils in, this may not be the case. I’ll make that calculation below this post)

In addition to the superior damage, elementalist have the ability to buff mesmers DPS by about 50%. Clearly, you’re getting much more damage on net by substituting a GS warrior with an elementalist.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Phira.3970:

I don’t know. I think there’s a lot of points wasted in the last trait tree that could be better invested for upping damage. I’d imagine that loss of damage would be that the user of the build can’t kill fast enough in a duel and enemy reinforcement comes and it’s GG.

Since you guys are saying phantasm is good, how about a build that takes all of the phantasm +dmg traits in the game?

10 (III=15% phantasm damage)
15 (II = Phantasm has fury)
25 (25th passive=15% Phantasm damage)
20 (the trait that increases the attack speed of phantoms)

^ Guessing it would be a horrible build.

Since phantasms die almost instantly most of the times, the last trait is probably useless and then maybe this would be best:

20/20/0/25/5

^ This would hit more of the key traits, suchas illusions causing bleed and 20% reduction time in illusion in both GS and pistol. But then again, I have no idea what im talking about.

You were looking at my Immortal build. However, I also have a phantasm build for pve, and what loseridoit was talking about, a phantasm build for pvp. You can find the latter under the simple name of ‘overpowered’ in Fay’s build list.

Just Tried the phantom build. Have to say it’s pretty amazing. Haven’t lost 1 vs 1 today yet out of like 30+ matches.

How did you know? ^

So shatter or phantasm build? What are the top mesmers playing as?

Does everyone here agree that phantasm is the best build to go with in sPvP?

I don’t know. I think there’s a lot of points wasted in the last trait tree that could be better invested for upping damage. I’d imagine that loss of damage would be that the user of the build can’t kill fast enough in a duel and enemy reinforcement comes and it’s GG.

Since you guys are saying phantasm is good, how about a build that takes all of the phantasm +dmg traits in the game?

10 (III=15% phantasm damage)
15 (II = Phantasm has fury)
25 (25th passive=15% Phantasm damage)
20 (the trait that increases the attack speed of phantoms)

^ Guessing it would be a horrible build.

Since phantasms die almost instantly most of the times, the last trait is probably useless and then maybe this would be best:

20/20/0/25/5

^ This would hit more of the key traits, suchas illusions causing bleed and 20% reduction time in illusion in both GS and pistol. But then again, I have no idea what im talking about.

loseridoit.2756:

I do not understand your question

Mesmer have what is consider the most powerful dueling build in the game which is phastasm build; however the build is too slow in team fights. Look at maker of the immortal mesmer for his his OP phantasm build.

Most staff builds are pretty bad since Mesmer main controllable condition confusion does so little damage. Most people use staff as a defense weapons for free protection boon, phase retreat, and choas storm then switch back to their normal weapon to attack.

there is an unspoken rule in tpvp to only allow 1 mesmer since memser are really not that great due to their low mobility

Chcked that thread

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4|6.1c.h1j|c.1c.h4.d.1c.h1l|1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r|4u.0.2u.0.3x.0.1c.9c.1c.9c.2u.0|0.0.k4a.k48.u26b|15.1|e

The build seemed like a tank build with no illusion +dmg traits? Geez not even 25 in inspiration for +15% illusion dmg? I don’t really understand why its 30 in last trait if its illusion and not shatter. Anyone can explain?

What is the Absolute Most OP sPvP Mesmer Build?

Is it the phantom builds? Shatter builds? Mantra builds? Retaliation build? Or dwat

Ioflux.4369:

Emissary.3792:

I’m not convinced on the ele/mesmer. 11k in 1 chain means you need to get 4 chains off in the space of one HB, and 2 chains off in the space of one WW. Might make up a bit of time during GS cooldown, but switching to axe keeps sustained damage up (+ tons of vulnerability) for 5 seconds, maybe 2 chains, before getting off another burst.

Elementalist can easily hit over 10k+ per auto attack (not per chain) with lightning hammer. Giving a mesmer a lightning hammer will also increase the mesmer’s dps after his initial shatter burst but I dont think itll actually hit as hard as an ele’s auto attack due to mesmer not having as many modifiers as an elementalist does.

I easily hit 11k as a mesmer on Slave Driver with Lightning Hammer on the 3rd combo of the chain. However, this is under 25 might, 25 vuln. (rather easy to achieve though with just two warriors) and scholar runes and Mantra set up (+4% damage per mantra). I only use Healing Mantra and Mantra of Pain for bossing (Signet of Inspiration not needed because we hit 25 might regardless) for total of +8% damage.

Also, you should not be on shatter spec. for CoF since the majority of damage comes from 1 spam. Going 30/10/0/0/30 rather than 30/30/0/0/10 will drop your crits by about 1-2k just for a small initial burst that doesn’t make up for the net damage. Rather than shattering, you should be maintaining those clones/illusions for +3% damage per clone trait and shattering only to finish the boss off.

My friend mesmer who wasn’t convinced of these differences.. well, he used Lightning Hammer on a shatter spec. and crit. for only 7k and he thought that was impressive.

As for the actual damage difference, I’ve already done the math. A Mesmer or Elementalist with Lightning Hammer slightly out damages the Axe chain auto chain. I also know this is true (tested many times) because whenever a GS Warrior leaves and is replaced by my friend Elementalist, our Slave Driver kill time drops dramatically by about 2 seconds.

I accept all classes (except for 1). I’ve decided this after having calculated the DPS of the highest damage weapon of each class. What I’ve discovered is that many classes can do about equal damage to Axe Warriors or even better. And in addition, every class brings something new to the table to contribute to CoF runs.

Warriors are good because:
-They bring banners.
-They have empower ally trait (+70 power to each ally)
-Have a great ability to apply vuln. with On My Mark and Axe/Mace set.
-Have great ability to apply Might especially with the Longbow f1 and blast combo finisher.

Rangers:
-Spotter trait for +70 precision to each Ally
-Quick Vuln. Stacks (Longbow 3 + Pet F2)
-Spirit of Frost (As of this patch, 70% chance to apply +10% damage = +7% damage increase for the team)
-Uber signet that gives pet and user +25% damage which gives them damage that equals Axe Warriors

Elementalists:
-Summons Lightning Hammer for him/herself and for Mesmer. As a Mesmer, I’ve critted for 11k on Slave Driver with 1 chain combo. It basically makes the Mesmer as high damaging as a Warrior while the ELementalist him/herself hits as hard as a Warrior.

Guardians:
-Hard to do but you can maintain aegis for +20% damage with trait giving Guardians the ability to actually out damage Warriors with sword/focus.
-Blocks and stability for the team
-Because of all the aegis and blocks, it works well with a team with scholar runes.
-Stacks of might from Staff 4

Necromancer:
-Uber high 1 spam damage with Lich Form that out damages Axe Warriors (but currently bugged).
-Can pre-mark for Slave Driver giving fast Slave Driver kill
-Can summon wells before Slave Driver fight starts

Thief:
-Good for acolyte part
-Higher single target damage than Warrior

Engineers:
…
-Nothing lol except for easy Vuln. Stacks.

So basically, I just meant I accept all but engineers.