The Phantasmal Duelist from pistol is indeed powerful, but it's stationary. The tooltip lists damage as (8x)144. The second ability is Magic Bullet, which stuns/dazes/blinds targets that it hits (in that order - it bounces). MB is a projectile finisher.
The Phantasmal Swordsman's damage is listed as 487 (which is obviously less than (8x)144), but he attacks almost twice as fast so that makes up most of the difference right there. He also leaps in to attack, then leaps back again, keeping distance between himself and the target. This means when the target moves out of range of the Duelist he becomes useless. The Swordsman follows his target, but stays at range enough to survive it. This keeps him in the fight longer, which makes up the rest of the difference in damage. It is also a leap finisher, which is far better than a projectile finisher. The other off hand sword skill is a 2s block, which you can turn into a ranged Daze in a line AoE.
Better survivability for your Phantasm, similar damage from him, more utility/survivabilty for you, and a better finisher. Dual swords are better than sword/pistol in my eyes. No question about it.
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Originally Posted by someone else
I'm not sure about this - I watch the duelist move into position when you summon him out of range. Do you mean once he stops moving he doesn't move anymore - cos that I'm not sure of, new to mesmer and all.
Yeah, once he's in position he stays there. If he draws aggro and the mob runs up to punch him in the face, he stays there, takes it, and usually dies.
Try the Swordsman and watch him work against a stationary mob. Then watch him work against a mobile mob.
They do similar damage, but the swordsman will survive longer than the Duelist because of his AI. You can summon him from 1200. He attacks, then leaps back to about 300. His leap in works like Spring Attack, where he jumps in (range of about 500), attacks, then jumps back out. If the mob moves out of his leap range, he moves to stay at the edge of that range. During his leap in he's evading. If the mob moves too close, he leaps back out of melee range.
He only does slightly less overall damage than the Duelist due to a higher attack rate, but survives much longer because of his AI, so on paper the Duelist is better, but in play the Swordsman will usually do more damage.
The only time I think the Duelist is better is against hard hitting mobs (bosses, Exp dungeons, etc) and even then it's a wash because you lose that second block (on a 15s cd).
Between Blurred Frenzy on a 8-10s cd, Illusionary Riposte on a 12-15s cd, and your dodges, dual sword Mes is extremely survivable in melee for a light armor profession once you get the hang of using the skills properly.
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The swordsman also works better for shatter builds because he stays at a fairly consistent range of 300-500 from the target at all times, so while the duelist might have to run a marathon to shatter the swordsman never will.