15 replies to this topic

[The Prestige]

Greatsword with iZerker or Staff with iWarlock?

[sorting hat]

In a group or solo?

Against single mob or a group?

Edited by sorting hat, 19 December 2012 - 02:59 AM.

[Kelthien]

I'm going to say Berskerer for multiple enemies or short fights.

On bosses, particularly with allies, Warlock is much stronger.

However, it's worth it to compare your own damage.  Your personal damage may be significantly lower with Staff than it would be with GS, bringing your total effective DPS closer.

[XRay]

against normal pve mobs - gs is a better choice

against champion mobs when ur not alone - go with staff.

[Coren]

Pretty much what people said. Although these days I abandoned the GS in favor of sword and focus. Iwarden is much stronger than ibeserker, but only at higher levels when your phantasms have more health and don't die after just one attack.

[heatrr]

iZerker for PvE and WvW
iWizard for dungeon

Coren, on 19 December 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Pretty much what people said. Although these days I abandoned the GS in favor of sword and focus. Iwarden is much stronger than ibeserker, but only at higher levels when your phantasms have more health and don't die after just one attack.

Really, I hope your iWarden is popping 4-6K damage on a regular basis...
I'll keep my iZerker all day long.

[Coren]

heatrr, on 19 December 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

iZerker for PvE and WvW
iWizard for dungeon



Really, I hope your iWarden is popping 4-6K damage on a regular basis...
I'll keep my iZerker all day long.

Yes he can.

[heatrr]

Coren, on 19 December 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

Yes he can.

Then as you stated, opinion is honest, cause quite frankly, my iZerker owns carpet in PvE and WvW.
I expect you feel the same about your iWarden.
Opinion is great and all but once you slam something as better than something else, it is indeed, simply a matter of opinion.
Again, I'll keep my iZerker - works great for me.

[XRay]

while gs was bugged I used sword/focus aswell, warden's 8k hits are something I got used to very fast lol

[The Prestige]

So I tried Staff in Fractals tonight and it does less damage that Greatsword.

[Kanto]

We need a DPS meter to be accurate and not go with gut feelings or napkin math. Especially as napkin math involves the idea everything works as advertised (for example, a new bug showed up that taking a trait reduces the iDuelist's damage by 20%) when it seldom does.

Things cannot be taken in a vacuum.

- iWarden is strong, but does not move, ergo every time a boss moves it does diddly squat.

- iWarlock hits pretty hard, but your auto-attack is slow, on the other hand you do add Vulnerability. On the yet other hand if using the Staff then going all out condition and three clones will not just outdo the phantasms, but also keep the damage up since we can pop clones faster than phantasms if they get punctured.

-iBerserker is weak to melee since it spawns right in the middle of it, but it also breezes away and hits in AoE. That alone makes it our strongest phantasms. It will also chase mobs which the iWarden does not. But not only is the GS auto-attack strong (multi-hitting, ergo more chance for crits, ergo more procs) but Mirror Blade is a very short (4.8 seconds) CD that hits like a truck and bestows Might on yourself or party members *and* adds 3 stacks of Vulnerability. Even if it only stacked 3 instead of 9, for the seconds those 3 stacks are up (and let us remember it is on a 5 second CD) the mob is taking 15% more damage (3% damage multiplied by 5 persons in the party).


Which is best? Like I said, without a DPS meter we can't really say. GS has the downside of hitting for less damage the closer people are. Does it nullify the (if you're soloing) 9 stacks of Might and 9 stacks of Vulnerabilty every 5 seconds?

[Coren]

Quite simple you can't say which is better, it's all situational.

Ibeserker is best for general purpose with average damage.

Iwarden is more powerful but very situational and works best, in my opinion when the fight already started so as to minimize agro. Also best with a sword, you can do massive damage with both.

Iwarlock is for bosses, period. It's much more powerful and stays at range, but very slow attack speed.

All three are viable, which makes mesmers really flexible

[Luphine Coalhart]

I don't know why is there to quarrel about, I tried almost all phantasms cept for iMage.

iZerker is great for mobbing i guess, but the fact that there is the chance his spin might not hit the optimal mob sometimes.
iWarden mobs well when u finally settle down the mobs.
iWarlock usually i shatter them before I get to see much of the dmg Staff(2)'s cd is way to fast to not shatter
iDuelist is still my favourite for bossing. Summon 3 at max range while u switch to GS for even longer range is dope for bossing lol.
iFighter hits really really hard when crit for some reason.

At some situation I get to combo phantasms which I usually go "iDefender/iDisenchanter, iDualist, iBerserker"

When I was playing phantasm build i went for 20/25/0/25/0, the 15% Phantasm Dmg buff at inspiration 25 is actually worth it plus persisting images make your phantasms thicker.

[AKGeo]

Kanto, on 20 December 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:

Even if it only stacked 3 instead of 9, for the seconds those 3 stacks are up (and let us remember it is on a 5 second CD) the mob is taking 15% more damage (3% damage multiplied by 5 persons in the party).

Just to clarify here...it's still just 3%. 15 stacks would be 15%. Each party member is dealing the same damage they otherwise would, increased 3% by the 3 stacks of vulnerability. So your total overall damage is still only increased 3%.

[Kanto]

Your math confuses me, but then most math does. Though what you say does sound logical my early statement also seems so.

If each person did 1000 damage and thanks to the 3% damage they did 1030, don't those 30 x 5 = 15%? Or perhaps what I should have said is that the mob takes 3% more damage, but we were responsible for a 15% damage increase while the vulnerability lasted?

Dunno, it's almost 4 AM and I'm not at my brightest. It just seems if I'm one person the mob is taking 3%, but if we're two then it is taking 6% more damage. I claim the late hour for not making sense.

[GetheartMcLiar]

Lets say you all do 100 damage. so 100 x 5 = 500.
Now you all do +3%...3 more damage each. 103 x 5 = 515.
Overall the GROUP does only 3% more. The extra 15 is 3% of 500.