Guild Wars 2

Arc.7310:

Im getting the Distiguished Circle of Logic with a Gilded Infusion
– using pure pow, prec, crit. dmg. gear for my shatter build

This, I’m also getting another one with Karmic for when I use all my Karma items.

It’s funny because this guy really is a Necro:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Flumek-9043/showposts

Anyways, if you can play a Mesmer with no skill successfully, kudos to you, go be pro with no effort. Don’t need to waste your breath here.

Zil.3071:

Oci uses Air for speed instead of Centaur. Same ability Swiftness on heal.But diferent stats. And still uses Runes for Swiftness. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvWvW-Pve-Shatter-Cat/page/15#post1405007

oh so he doesnt use rune of centaur? end of convo.

u said MOST mesmers use rune of centaur, i said..ehmmm No.

then u point out these particular mesmers saying they are the best mesmers in the game.

and u go on ‘oh my , u dont think Oci is best mesmer?’ LOL and now u say he doesnt even use the rune……… 1 similar stat or not is not the point.

even ur strongest point is in actual fact not a fact …lawl.

and even if he did….it does not make it MOST mesmers mateee…..

and u can even pm bout it, whn i let it go by not replying the silly comments u keep making bcos it was that silly

You asked a question, he answered to the best of his ability and then you proceed to bash his post which answers your question. Sounds legitimate.

Noerknhar.3826:

Excuse me, but where exactly is that scavanger hunt information from? It’s 2 months ago that a dev stated something like that was in development, do you really think it’s coming “soon”?

Your definition of soon and mine are vastly different. I’ve been an avid GW player since before 2009. I was waiting for GW2 to come out ‘soon’ since 2011. It came out faster than I expected and better than I expected, even though a lot of it’s mechanics are still half-baked, by my own standards, however I am studying to get into game development, so I would do things a lot differently if I was there, and then it wouldn’t be GW2, it would be Esplen Wars 1.

If 2 months is not enough time for you to wait, then you should not be playing a game that was released less than 6 months ago. A game gets polished at least 6 months after release and GW2 is getting polished, but every person complaining about something new is making it harder and harder to find the right thing to polish.

Think about that. In addition to thinking about it, I want you to realize that Arenanet isn’t a high-end high-budget company like Blizzard or Valve, where they CAN allocate the resources and manpower to pump out fixes and new content every so often. Arenanet is a small company that prides itself in making something great over time. In addition to that, they’re doing great events while slowly fixing and improving their released game.

If this is not enough information to counter your argument, please give me a game that is perfectly balanced, has enough content, and is perfect in any other regard (your discretion is used in this one). Please tell me that game, and then tell me why you are here on GW2’s forums and not that game.

Thank you for your time.

Keeping up all the boons in the game constantly and catching up to a Necro that is kiting while also blocking and mitigating tons of damage does not require skill? If only being a Mesmer that good required no skill…

I use Beryl Orbs on my Zerk-set.

Noerknhar.3826:

I think i kinda lost track of what happened to my thread. I don’t want to rephrase everything that has been said or try to understand some of the more economical things discussed in this thread.

Maybe my usage of words was incorrect. Maybe some of my assumptions were incorrect. Maybe most of the arguments I said were incorrect. I’m no specialist, I’m just trying to talk about what is a big deal to many ppl I know and – of course – to me.

The basic idea of this thread was correct tho. “Casual” or “not 24/7 grinding events and playing the TP” players will never get a legendary due to the precursor.

That’s exactly it. You can read up about that in a lot of threads in this forum. I think I can’t be that incorrect with that statement.

Which is why there is a scavenger hunt oriented achievable precursor coming soon.

Additionally, what most people don’t understand, is that inflation is not caused by bots or manipulators or even exploiters. Inflation is caused by money going into the economy by any means. This includes but is not limited to…

• Dungeons (reward gold in addition to champion gold)
• Events
• Chests
• NPC’ing
• Buying Gems —> Gold

So, please, let’s stop throwing around bots are ruining the economy. If anything, the bots have been keeping a lot of (rare/fine) material prices down and they typically spike up when a large portion of the bots have been banned. Most bots don’t farm for precursors.

As for your OP [opening post], the main grawl exploiter was banned, the rest were severely punished.

Lastly, most exploits do ruin the economy, but an exploit like doing more damage with a skill versus being able to finish 2 dungeon paths in one run mean two drastically different things when talking about the economy and inflation.

If you don’t want inflation, spend more of your gold getting things from NPC’s and don’t introduce more gold into the economy by not NPC’ing things and not salvaging. Simply drag and break.

I’m really proud of my Mesmer’s name. Esplen.

DaShi.1368:

The jellyfish only stacks might when it eats something.

Which occurs every 30-45 seconds after the Jellyfish reaches 50% hp, allowing you to maximize Arcane Thievery. If mixed with a coordinated (in terms of positioning) team, you can easily give everyone the 25 stacks of might with Signet of Inspiration. The hardest part is if you get feasted upon, because afterwards, you get shot backwards and “knocked down” for a few seconds. Lastly, another hard part is the person who got feasted as they will, as mentioned, get pushed backwards, possibly away from the group.

Staff. Most of the time, I’m melee and/or in melee range. I play as a PvE with a tad of PvP Mesmer wielding Dual Swords —> Staff, so the Staff is my defensive tool and lets me escape or survive depending on what I need. It’s worse at chasing, sure, but I shouldn’t really need to chase if I play my cards right. If I play my cards wrong, well you’re in a sticky situation regardless of your weapon choices.

Additionally, GS has the most utility at long range. While a lot of people like to use it for its’ massive dps, it doesn’t really compare to a Staff when mixed with Swords as the GS is made for long-range battles and disengaging close range. What part of that works well with a melee weapon?

If you use them in conjunction with fields, use a Duelist (also, if you’re berserker, Duelist can be better since it stacks critical bleeds), however Swordsman can hit faster and harder, so if you’re more shatter-oriented, go Swordsman.

I agree with Aya. I have a set of Zerkers on, and I have a mix set of Knight/Soldier for when things are tight (or if I want to steal the lasers in Asura Fractal, since full Zerks is too squishy to steal one).

I would have to agree with what the above says in everything except for CM. CM, the Mesmer is VERY useful, yes, but in the path with the rockets, your feedback and reflects don’t properly reflect the damage, they just reflect the rockets. It’s not as useful as you’d think.

I’ve done every dungeon in pretty much every path and I run the same thing every way: Full berserker Staff + Sword/Sword with 20/20/0/0/30 traits. I will VERY rarely swap something out, like a weapon or utility (I run blink, decoy, mirror images and time warp), but when I do it’s usually just for one particular fight or area.

Additionally, my build only changes often in Fractals as opposed to dungeons.

Hammerguard.9834:

Lets all just agree that the only good weapons Mesmers have are staff and greatsword.

I prefer Staff and Sword. >:C

Advent.6193:

Esplen.3940:

Kazhiel.8194:

There’s a mesmer you fight as a skill point in one of the camps in Malchor’s Leap. The priestess of Lyssa is a mesmer. There’s a mesmer you fight to get to a skill point in one of the snowy areas whose name I can’t remember.

Don’t forget, the boss in TA exp that has a nasty version of Chaos Armor and Chaos Storm with relatively no cooldown.

You just had to remind folks about That Obnoxious Kitten. Of course, there’s also one in the later parts of the Pact story. That one’s … just … ick.

Reminds me of the Pact Eye of Zhaitan fight. Mine bugged and he had minions shooting lasers at me while at full hp and “reset”.

I use iMage kittenterfodder.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Esplen.3940:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The problem is that if you are using a torch to get away from a mob, you are in combat. That means you were using your torch in combat. That tends to be a problem, as the torch doesn’t do combat very well.

Secondly, if I am using a focus, that means I am already in a defensive setup. The focus is across-the-board better at all sorts of defense. The torch may be better in a few very specific situations due to the prestige invisibility, but that is completely outweighed by the overall defensive utility of the focus, even untraited.

Since when have we considered players mobs? As a PvP escape tactic, it works well and with the low cd it does it’s job. Additionally, you can mix it with shatter builds to make burst shatters while not getting hit. Spawn 3 clones and activate it on your 3rd clone spawn so it looks like the clone is you, then you run up to them and activate a shatter right as the invis ends. Boom.

And I rarely run Torch in PvE. I will occasionally run a Focus in PvE when I NEED NEED NEED the reflect, but that’s it. There is no other use for the Focus as a Staff is more than enough defensiveness.

Hrm, I sorta meant a mob of people, but if you’ve done a lot of wvw, you would know that describing players as mobs is more accurate than it should be.

And again, the prestige has some situational uses. The problem, again, is that you are using an offhand weapon with only 1 skill. 1 skill that is situationally great is not worth it compared to other weapons that have 2 full skills. The iMage isn’t even good kittenter fodder, because its cooldown is so long.

Warden dies before 2 hits go off against said mobs. Prestige gives you plenty of safe time, especially when running in against too many people due to the old culling system.

Lightsbane.9012:

Rexx.1805:

Embolism.8106:

If you ever feel like using the Sceptre, slap yourself and use the Sword instead.

I completely agree with you but since i’m not much of a melee player i would love to have a good ranged MH. Bah…lets hope it gets buffed sometime (one can dream!!!).

or give us another ranged man hand weapon….
i think this forum knows what i’m talking about.

PISTOLLLLLLLLLL <3

Kazhiel.8194:

There’s a mesmer you fight as a skill point in one of the camps in Malchor’s Leap. The priestess of Lyssa is a mesmer. There’s a mesmer you fight to get to a skill point in one of the snowy areas whose name I can’t remember.

Don’t forget, the boss in TA exp that has a nasty version of Chaos Armor and Chaos Storm with relatively no cooldown.

Pyroatheist.9031:

The problem is that if you are using a torch to get away from a mob, you are in combat. That means you were using your torch in combat. That tends to be a problem, as the torch doesn’t do combat very well.

Secondly, if I am using a focus, that means I am already in a defensive setup. The focus is across-the-board better at all sorts of defense. The torch may be better in a few very specific situations due to the prestige invisibility, but that is completely outweighed by the overall defensive utility of the focus, even untraited.

Since when have we considered players mobs? As a PvP escape tactic, it works well and with the low cd it does it’s job. Additionally, you can mix it with shatter builds to make burst shatters while not getting hit. Spawn 3 clones and activate it on your 3rd clone spawn so it looks like the clone is you, then you run up to them and activate a shatter right as the invis ends. Boom.

And I rarely run Torch in PvE. I will occasionally run a Focus in PvE when I NEED NEED NEED the reflect, but that’s it. There is no other use for the Focus as a Staff is more than enough defensiveness.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Esplen.3940:

Torch is amazing in WvW due to the fact that most players in WvW run zergs and aren’t very well versed in 1v1’s. As a Mesmer, you should get used to fighting in 1v3’s at least (unfavorable for you). Torch comes VERY handy in these situations. If you mix it with Decoy you can put huge distances between you and your enemy. You can also use Mass Invisibility to help put yourself away from bad fights. Also note that Decoy doesn’t give or use the invisibility delay, but it does have a visual error if you use it while invisible.

If you use Decoy while Invisible (or Invis while Decoy’ed), when one of the Invis’ disappear, you will become visible and targetable.

I guarantee you that focus, especially traited, is much, MUCH better for evasion and survival than the torch. Not only does the phantasm block or reflect the projectiles of people chasing you when you put it down, you can drop temporal curtain. If the focus is traited, then the temporal curtain reflects everything that people are chasing you do as well. Additionally, temporal curtain gves you swiftness, gives everyone chasing you cripple, and can be detonated to pull people and further kitten pursuit.

The torch is simply not good. The prestige is situational at best, and the iMage is simply completely useless.

Woah woah woah, let me stop you.

I agree that it is better when traited, but I run 20/20/0/0/30 and have neither Torch nor Focus traiting. While I do enjoy running 20 in Inspiration, I do not feel like making Diversion useless in PvE as of yet. I also mix my PvE and PvP build, so that’s something to consider for me specifically.

Additionally, while Focus lets you get out some nice effects, like pulls, reflects, cripples, and pushes, Torch lets you get invis which can also be the difference between life and death. It’s really just a matter of preference, which is why I just stick with my standard Staff + Sword/Sword in both PvP and PvE (sPvP I use Staff + Sword/Pistol, but that’s a whole different discussion).

For most dungeons, I would prefer either as long as they know how to play their class. I’ve seen so many bad mesmers AND warriors. They are both good, and should be played together, not chosen over one another. If you HAD to choose between a War and a Mes, I would personally pick a Mes for the team utility.

Torch is amazing in WvW due to the fact that most players in WvW run zergs and aren’t very well versed in 1v1’s. As a Mesmer, you should get used to fighting in 1v3’s at least (unfavorable for you). Torch comes VERY handy in these situations. If you mix it with Decoy you can put huge distances between you and your enemy. You can also use Mass Invisibility to help put yourself away from bad fights. Also note that Decoy doesn’t give or use the invisibility delay, but it does have a visual error if you use it while invisible.

If you use Decoy while Invisible (or Invis while Decoy’ed), when one of the Invis’ disappear, you will become visible and targetable.

Embolism.8106:

There was in time in Beta when Clones did a significant amount of direct damage. The wording of Empowered Illusions, which is a relic of that time, probably doesn’t help either.

More importantly, the fact that Staff and Trident Clones deal a significant amount of damage by themselves while other Clones do not further pushes the impression that Clones should be dealing direct damage.

Environmental Weapon clones tend to do the most damage for me. Roll with any environmental weapon and it SHOULD come as a pseudo-scepter clone with no scepter attached. Those ones, at least to my perception, do the most damage.

For the Illusions bleed on crit, don’t worry too much about critical chance, just opt for the trait that grants Phantasms 20% bonus crit and try to let them get 1 or 2 hits out before shattering, if you do shatter.

Vigor on crit is nice, and does potentially let you keep 100% vigor uptime, but if you truly want 100% vigor uptime, you’ll have to mix that with the Vigor on Shatter in Inspiration (it also grants it to party members, so that’s a bonus feature!)

Staff is a great choice for PvE. I currently run Berserker with Staff/Sword + Sword because the two Swords let me keep all my damage output going off, and Staff grants me defensive disengages if I must. I can also do quickswaps for more shatters and get a quick 6 -12shatter off (Start on Sword and do 53roll32 swap shatter 32roll shatter decoy + mimic shatter) If you count iPersona, that’s 12 assuming no clones die.

Although I do like Inspiration magic a ton, I have opted for going 20/20/0/0/30 for maximum damage output and to allow my Diversion to be useful in PvE other than a boss interrupt. For condition removal, I simpy run a Sigil of Generosity on my main sword (offhand has Purity, for Roleplaying purposes, swords of Generosity and Purity, huehuehue, although the Purity sigil can be used as a cheaper alternative).

Although I do use the Sigil of Generosity, if you’re not very good at avoiding conditions, you’ll want to use more condition removal as the Sigil only gets one condition every 10 seconds.

My clones can hit for ~100-500 damage at level 80. Of course, shattering them lets me do at least 1000 damage with each. If I get an F2 off, it equates to ~800 damage hitting twice. F1 is approximately 1500 damage. F3 stacks Vulnerability (specced) allowing me to deal bonus 25% more damage with other skills. F4 lets me heal up and survive, essentially forcing the enemy to target my clones, if you will understand the metaphor.

I use the Scepter against Bloomhunger when I do not have enough AR. If you use that with either Pistol or Sword, you end up getting enough defensive capability. The pistol doesn’t add defensive capability, but it’s the more “offensive” choice of the two. Scepter/Sword is 2 blocks and range clone factory against a boss that can aoe your clones, so it lets you do semi-shatter builds without worrying.

loseridoit.2756:

Osicat.4139:

OP should not worry, fact is we got nerfed in january, dint you guys know we got unviable after this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhj3mH9En6E

/Osicat

WvW not really a great comparison

Too many people play PvE on WvW and never PvP content. Many WvW players are not exposed enough to fight against mesmer. My guild leader have over 2 stack of honor badges and I usually wipe the floor with him in heart of mist.

The video is not proof. Those theives never really attack the mesmer to be considered properly experienced

The only way Anet can migrate the Mesmer problem is to create a dugeon boss that has the same mechanics as a mesmer

There is that one boss in storyline that has psuedo mesmer effects. He has 3 clones at all times (if you kill them, they respawn), but you can easily tell it’s him or not based on the healthbars and your quest healthbar.

Try running GW2 as Administrator.

If that doesn’t work, try also running your default browser as Administrator.

No glow, only for capacitors. (Also, you need to farm 2850 fractal relics.)

Step 1:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge

Step 2:
Don’t spend money unless you’re willing to lose it.

No current way at the moment, unless you want to buy the gw2 soundtracks and then sort them yourself.

Crossplay.2067:

I would love to know how managed to stuff 6 people into a 5 man dungeon.

Dude, you’re on the Mesmer forums: Clones.

A more accurate representation of this skill is actually using your Mirror heal skill. The reason why is that the reflect is on yourself alone.

Note: if you’re using this in a place like asuran fractals, you’ll still get knocked back due to how the game handles collisions. It’ll hit you, THEN reflect. The knockback sphere will hit you (knockingyou back) then try to reflect, instead of properly reflecting upon touching you.

Either that or it’s touching the ground instead of you.

Phalanix.7542:

Anyon know if the Quaggan backpack can be applied to an account bound backpiece (such as the Toy Maker’s backpack) so the Quaggan backpack can remain account bound instead of soulbound?

Or if the Quaggan backpack can be applied to any backpiece to make them account bound?

The Quaggan backpack will retain the bindings of the items stats.

Example: Transmuting onto Toy Maker’s Backpack. It’s Account Bound, so the item will stay account bound.

If you transmute onto an item that’s Bind on Acquire or Use, then it will Soulbound it to your character.

Hint: You can use the Rawhide Strap to get an Account Bound Universal Multitool Pack. If you want it to have stats, it will turn into a Soulbound version on whichever character you transmuted it with.

Land-Vortex D;

Please no~!

Snoots.2970:

Yeah it might have only been on the Cave Troll in AC, But all i know is before the patch a Mesmer could Arcane thievery it and steal all 25stacks of it’s troll regen (or whatever special regen it was) and have all 25 stacks of the regen.

And after the update. you cannot steal the regen.. You can’t even use the Arcane Thievery to take off the buff. but other skills still work (Null field for example) will remove the buff. but the thievery won’t steal it.

/shrug it may just be a bug on the one boss and there fore not really that terrible. I just miss giggling at stealing 25 stacks of regen.

Didn’t matter, when you stole the 25 stacks of Troll Regeneration, they didn’t actually apply to your character, you just removed it from the troll and got a shiny new 25 stack buff.

Alex.9268:

I would like to see all 3 of you people tag all of the last 2 plinx events mobs on a high pop server where all the mobs die within 2 seconds. Please go ahead and prove your delusional points. Even the best tagging specs can’t tag all mobs, let alone mesmers.

Nice, so you twist our words. It is possible, but it is also possible for a Mesmer to deal ranged DPS with a Scepter.

By definition, it is possible to tag every mob, but the circumstances have to be right, saying it’s a high pop server is like telling someone to deal 50% of a mobs life to a mob that has 51% current hp while 3 people are actively hitting it. Again, there is still a possibility that it can come out working, but it’s not going to happen every time.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Manditory.7934:

Why can’t you use illusions?
In phase 1 I get 3 warlocks up, with traits they heal the entire group really nicely as we all stack and kill adds and damage the boss. Quite easy.
Phase 2 is just a kitten because your entire team needs to know how to survive on their own, which is rarely the case in pugs.
I would actually suggest running time warp for fast resurections or panic mode, tho I am asura.
I run gs/staff, works great.

Glhf

Both warlocks and duelists have a tendency to run far closer than necessary to their target. This causes them to get uncomfortably close to lupicus.

Duelists won’t run forward [as much] if you spec into them and you can minimize the forward-rushes by actually moving forward yourself. Run to about 1000-1100 range from Lupicus (assuming you’re standing at 1200) and then spawn your Phantasms. There is a chance that they’ll spawn at around 800 or so range, but you can F4 them as soon as you see that. If they spawn anywhere else, they should be at a good range and will not rush forward (if you’re not specced in Duelists, they will run forward unless in 900 range or less).

Yeah, I was doing what Osicat said while intentionally running into small enemy zergs a while back. I was actually running Osicat’s Shattercat Sword/Sword + Staff build, but I did a modification of the traits and swapped the second sword for a Torch for ease of use in fights. My damage output was dropped slightly, but my survivability went up the roof due to most people in zergs not thinking for themselves.

Alex.9268:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Mesmers can tag all mobs, even if there are multiple groups at a time.

That is BS. Unless you are on a low pop server there is absolutely no way

Wording, mesmers can tag all mobs.
Yes, they can, doesn’t mean they will do it 100% of the time.

Odaman.8359:

Nuka Cola.8520:

they better remove vulnerability from WoC completely or change it for a damaging condition even if it lasts 1sec (poison).

Why do they need to remove the vuln before buffing the speed…. it’s a support weapon and vuln is the only support condition on WoC. I wouldn’t mind poison or weakness, but honestly I see them changing the speed/cast time long before they meddle with the actual effects.

It’s too slow and the vuln makes the damage even slower.

How does adding 1% damage make your dps slower?

Why would you do 1% more damage when you can get the WEAKEST condition on their to do about 3-5% of your total damage output if you’re specced condition damage.

Staff is about condition damage and the auto attacks apply conditions, so why does it give vulnerability instead of a condition?

I personally don’t find GS useful on this particular run since you’re almost always in melee range. Sword2 helps mitigate a TON of damage, especially on the door and engineer parts since you get free hits in while being invulnerable.

For the boss fight, I tend to go full shattercat, meaning I don’t stay away from the boss unless I’m low health and disengaging for a heal. (Yes, I stay near him when he does his fiery explosion.)

If I ever get hit by anything and go on fire, I’m wearing Generosity sigils, meaning I simply put the fire onto the boss within a second. After that, I only really leave the immediate area of the boss to heal myself if I’m super low and my heal is on cooldown (for some random reason, it rarely happens, but when it does, you need to prepare to run).

A few good ways to disengage for that is to simply Staff2 or Blink away.

tldr; If you’re P1 farming, GS is fine, but I personally don’t find it nukey enough, which is why I tend to run Sword. Additionally, GS doesn’t give you survivability.

It’s not just the slow projectile speed, it’s the slow cast time. It takes AGES to fly from your staff, then it slowly inches towards the opponent. Not only that, but it can get body blocked…

Azrael.1408:

Lol and that is with confusion nerfed @OP – you learned nothing, you cannot even see the mesmer, obviously. If you see bunch of happy mesmers running towards you – this is NOT the mesmer

This is why I like to switch to my sword and run into the enemy. (It also helps if I blink behind them before I start running.)

He means Retaliation, and yes, Melee attacks get hit by Retaliation.

Yeah, Decoy and Mass Invisibility can get you SOOO much distance from a zerg. If you run Torch in your offhand, you shouldn’t die unless you get nuked since you can easily put distance by juking.

Protip to jukes: Always go where they don’t expect you to.

Run Staff. Your dps is terrible in Phase 1, but you can drop Chaos Storm on the party. This gives your party buffs, damages Locusts and Grubs, and also causes Confusion on Lupicus (although I’m not sure if it procs off his knockdown/grub spawn attack).

Also, you can spawn Illusionary Warlocks (Duelists as well, but spec into pistols if you’re doing this for the bonus range on the Duelists), but make sure they spawn close to your group or else you need to break them with F4.

In Phase 2, focus on staying alive, as everyone should. He only shadowsteps to one person. If that person is you, you had better have eaten soup (a consumable that revolves around rolling) if you wish to live. If it isn’t you, make sure you don’t get hit by ANY of his projectiles (either the throw everything panic attack or the actual “I’m aiming at you” attack).

Also, make sure you yourself don’t get close to Lupicus. Don’t even bother running Sword. If you want an Offhand weapon, run Scepter for mainhand. Clones are, in this fight, meant to be destroyed. Don’t bother shattering unless you’re doing F4 for a panic save (notably used in conjunction with iPersona).

NOTE: You can run sword if you’ve successfully taken down Lupicus, but even then it’s easier and, arguably, better to just run something like GS/Staff.

Phase 3 is a joke, if you die in this part, you deserve it.

EDIT:

Also, don’t worry about running Time Warp. It’s only useful in Phase 1/3 which are the easy parts, anyway. Run one of your racials for Phase 2.

Staff is still arguably better than GS in PvE. If you’re simply going for tagging, they’re about equal, in terms of pure damage, GS comes out ahead, but once you factor in defensiveness, Staff comes out ahead. With most builds relying on shatters, staying alive and spawning a multitude of clones with a Staff is a lot better than doing a tad bit more damage with a weapon that wants you to stay super far away.

Then again, it’s all an opinion.

Radar-range. Start optimizing distance.

Ctrl + T disappears when the target disappears. If the Mesmer is running Decoy or any other Invis, when they vanish so will the Ctrl + T.

And I have had fun with 12shatters on people simply because they run instead of just taking me head-on. (Shatter-queueing + micromanagement = 12 illusions shattering at once.)

Of course, 12 shatter doesn’t revolve around my skill at all, it’s simply YOUR lack of skill. I’ve gotten off a ton of them where I simply insta-gib any class since they decided that trying to kite a Mesmer… for a minute… is a good idea.

Spawn 3 clones —> Shatter —> Spawn 3 clones —> Shatter —> Spawn 3 clones —> Shatter —> Spawn 3 clones —> Shatter… etc. Finally clones catch up, and BOOM.