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Mesmer - Core Shatter

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on May 28, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A glass cannon core Mesmer burst build for PvP, meant to roam from teamfight to teamfight and +1 them by bursting down targets.

Usable by F2P players as well, but be warned that power shatter builds are generally unforgiving to play - although they are rewarding and satisfying to pull off.


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Sword/Torch
Utility


Slot Changes

Utility

  • Mantra of Distraction over Decoy - instant ranged interrupt that can slot into your burst combos. Power Block on Domination Domination becomes a viable option with this, increasing the skillcap of this build by allowing you to lock people out of important CDs like healing skills while the Weakness Weakness improves your survivability by decreasing the damage they deal to your team.


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Specializations


Specialization Variants

If you feel like you can afford to trade survivability for higher burst damage, replace Chaos Chaos with Dueling Dueling:


Equipment

Greatsword
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Torch
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Relic


Usage

General

  • Playstyle: roam the map looking for a fight to +1, don't try to 1v1 unless absolutely necessary. Leave fights as soon as your cds are going down and you become a target.
  • Mass Invisibility is a very long duration AoE stealth, get creative! Couple of applications include stealthing yourself or the entire team in order to get to open on the enemy team, or cloaking downed allies to prevent a stomp.
  • Your condition cleanses are Sigil of Cleansing, Distortion and The Prestige.
  • Poke with Spatial Surge and Phantasmal Berserker in teamfights if you don't see an opening.
  • Mirror reflects projectiles while the skills is being channeled. This can be abused to an extent. If you stow your weapon before the channeling finishes, you get to reflect projectiles while only sending your healing skill on a 4 second CD. Of course if you do this you won't be healed. It's a niche things but worth knowing.
  • The build is all about pulling off a major burst combo and getting a kill with it. There's a downtime between bursts where you should primarily just focus on personal survival and rotations.
  • Cry of Frustration's true value lies in trait synergy with Shattered Concentration, this shatter is mostly for softening up targets and removing their boons. Could also work as a filler burst skill when Mind Wrack is on CD.
  • Mantra of Distraction and Diversion gain a new purpose when playing with Power Block. Not only will you be able to instantly send skills on a 15s CD, but applying Weakness Weakness on interrupt could help you mitigate incoming damage.


Bursting

  • What the build lacks in sustained damage, it makes up for in bursts.
  • There are upt to two important damage modifiers to note depending on the version of the build, Mental Anguish (when not using Power Block) and Superiority Complex (only with the Dueling variant). In a way both are tied to your opponent being inactive. The best way to ensure that both of these traits are going to take effect is to CC the target with Mantra of Distraction or Diversion right before bursting them. Diversion itself may proc various traits on Domination for Vulnerability which translates to even more damage modifiers, but it does consume your clones so Mind Wrack might lose some damage.
  • The burst combo is best done in melee range for various reasons. One, to get the most out of the Mirror Blade bounces and two, to make yourself act as an extra clone for shatters.
  • Despite what the tooltip says, Relic of Fireworks can be activated by your F2-4 shatter skills (nut only in melee range of an enemy).


Basic combo:

  1. Mirror Blade in melee range.
  2. Optional Mantra of Distraction before the blade connects to the target.
  3. Mind Wrack once the clone appears from Mirror Blade.
  4. Mind Stab as soon as you can.


Extended burst combo example:

  1. Optional - start from stealth to make the burst less predictable. If you're using The Prestige you could time your burst in a way that the stealth runs out in the middle of the combo as The Prestige does AoE damage after it runs out. Breaking the stealth doesn't cause the damage to go off any sooner.
  2. Optional - if you start from Sword/Torch you could try rooting the target with Swap.
  3. Optional - Diversion right before the combo, boosting your damage through various Grandmaster traits. It's a rather short window however, the best scenario would be bursting a target that's already CC'd by one of your teammates and saving Diversion for later.
  4. Optional - if you can afford to discard a strong defensive CD, using Decoy right before the burst spawns another clone that can be shattered by Mind Wrack for extra damage. Just keep in mind that Decoy interrupts skill casting so don't try to squeeze it in in the middle of casting Mirror Blade.
  5. Mirror Blade in melee range.
  6. Mantra of Distraction before the first bounce of Mirror Blade.
  7. Mind Wrack as the clone from Mirror Blade appears.
  8. Mind Stab as soon as you can.
  9. If the opponent is still alive, you can use Cry of Frustration / Blurred Frenzy / Phantasmal Berserker, whatever extra damage is available. If they try to heal follow up with Diversion or Illusionary Wave.


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Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 5 votes.
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4 stars
Zenn gave this build 4 stars • April 2024
Dueling recently got buffed, I've been using that lately along with illusions and domination for maximum damage. I think Decoy should be dropped for something else (personally I've been using signet of illusions) but otherwise this build is fine.
3 stars
Azethys gave this build 3 stars • May 2022
The very definition of a one trick pony. The burst is decent, but overall falls short of being anywhere close the current rating (4 stars). The builds damage is too loaded on certain, very predictable, combos. Is simply a worse version of Power chrono or power mirage, where chrono provides a bigger burst, and mirage gives better traits for cleansing + better overall mobility with jaunt and mirage leap.
4 stars
Jyaim gave this build 4 stars • March 2022
Still fun but too easily countered when going organised pvp. Build wise : using powerblock, sword duelist buff, fury on fantasm, and distraction mantra are just MANDATORY. Interrupting properly is the key to commit for any actual kill.
4 stars
Hanz gave this build 4 stars • March 2020
Best core mesmer build out there. Surprisingly good sustan for a zerker build, excellent damage. Fun to play in general. EDIT: updated for the February balance patch.
4 stars
Redavi gave this build 4 stars • December 2018
Core Power Shatter mes is kinda in an odd spot. This build is outclassed by power mirage due to split surge giving it teamfight potential and the increased mobility of mirage thrust. That being said, I play power shatter with zerker ammy and scholar rune(and mantras ofc). You can go toe to toe with almost anything out there as you have more stealth than anyone but thief and can oneshot any build in the game. Good choice for those who like to play power shatter.

Comments

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