Well i just prefer to play the most efficient way in each scenario i am playing and 80 isn’t a cakewalk as is 48, you have to consider more adds in the spawn phase, higher dps output as well as higher toughness (it’s the first time mobs are scaled to lvl 84 btw) so things get a bit tricky.
Mh-sword is by no means a bad weapon for a mesmer it is actually one of the most powerful. In this case it is just not worth to use it. What you want to do in this encounter is huge dps to kill the elementals in the ,,add phase’’ for this you need the most powerful illusions you can have for AoE dmg. (Phantasmal Warden and Phantasmal Berserker) So basically focus and gs are set. Pistol and offhand sword have only single target dps so they r no viewable option. Offhand sword is the worst to consider because it hasn’t the utility of an evade or reflect while doing it s attack to stay alive and doesn’t even proc the average 6-8 bleeding stacks like pistol or focus do to give some more long time goal dps advantage. So after these things are cleared i gonna point out the three points which come in my mind after thinking about why i shouldn t melee this encounter.
First my greatsword does the most dps ,,if range is greater than 900’’ which implicates that it’s not so useful to be at a melee range of 130. Of course i can switch to my mh-sword but this would cause me to run in front of him or back to 900 after weapon swap otherwise i lose the dps advantage while walking and also the area adventage which gives me more time to react on different scenarios. So if i want to use mh-sword i have to stick to this weapon to stay in melee range for the whole time of the fight and make not optimal choices. I basically lose my gs which i considered one of the best aoe outputs for the only important phase of this boss or i am not allowed to switch weaponsets till the bubble starts which leavs me without the option to spam phantasms which are the main mechanic of the mesmer. If i play mh-sword with two different off hand weapons it would give me the godly focus and the crappy offhand sword illusion. So the best choise is actually to take another ranged weapon for the main hand. Sadly there is only the scepter available which isn t the most optimal weapon you can have, but at least it also offers a block like the offhand-sword and can attack from range so that you can pressure the boss while you are moving (kiting).
Secondly I saw in the 48 video I had to watch since two people referred to it, Sanderinoa is staying a lot of time afk doing nothing because he has to dodge away from the boss and can t pressure him melee due to the attacks which are triggerd by the shaman if you want to beat him in melee range. He has to wait till the shaman is back in front of him and the AoE fields are already despawned so he can go on fighting. In this cases which happen quite a lot since they are fighting him melee 24/7 till the end he’s left just with his phantasms which are mostly on cooldown. So this is also a critical dps disadvantage while you can pressure him all the way from your ranged position.
The tremendous mistake of meleeing this boss came up to my mind while watching the video. The mesmer is basically killing his own game mechanics. He permanently triggers the bosses AoE killing all his own phantasmans and is left behind with his poor mainhand autoattack.
