Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

Am no way am I new to gaming, yet alone MMORPG’s. I’m usually pretty good at reading up, doing the math, and pretty much evaluating my own questions before I make them public, but that obviously isn’t the case here ha. Though, I do have a higher level thief; Mesmer is pretty tricky for me. I really like the play-style and am excited for the finesse it’s going to take to master the class.

With that being said, if any of you have extensive experience with the class; what wep choices and build did you go for while leveling that appeared to be the most effective? I’m having a hard time deciding, and would appreciate any advice

Thanks guys!

Get the Feedback utility skill as soon as you possibly can, it’ll save your life often and also works as an ethereal combo field.

What about in terms of stat priority?

Greatsword is an excellent option, so long as you can keep enemies at range- I suggest also taking blink with it. Staff is a great AoE option- dropping your 5 skill on top of bunched enemies spreads a lot of coniditions, and the staff’s bouncing is great against packs, plus the fact that the clone pushes you backwards can be very useful.

Feedback is excellent against ranged enemies, as Budg says. Try to drop it a little bit before they fire. It will centre on your target when you use the skill.

Always target the enemy you think will go down last when cloning yourself or making phantasms, especially in the early game, that way you don’t have to shatter just because you picked a target that was half-dead.

Finally, learn when shattering will kill an enemy outright, or when it will leave them just one shot from being killed, and in one-on-ones, shatter at that point. Keep in mind the extra HP or armour of some mobs, and the fact that your shatters do a lot more damage the closer you are to having three illusions.

That should be a good start.

I still haven’t even bothered with feedback yet. As an asura I got Radiation Field that I use as a combo field. Plus I use the block/counters on scepter/sword for any major projectiles(love those skills in pvp)

As for stats, ive been going power, perception, condition, since i run staff as well for all the condition damage

Time confusing images from the scepter and a feedback bubble right and an enemy ranger pretty much kills themself.

Staff + sword/pistol is my preference. Great damage. Utilities I run are mirror image (immediately makes 2 clones) decoy (stealths you and makes a clone of you) and blink for pve stun break/teleport, I usually swap blink for phantasmal defender in pvp and champion pve boss fights. Phantasmal defender absorbs half the damage you would be taking. Pistols offers a great stun and an illusionary duelist to unload on the enemy for good damage.

If you’re new 2 things… Don’t expect clones to do damage on their own, clones are just copies of yourself to confuse the enemy and to shatter them. Phantasms are you illusions that deal damage. Make sure you look at your weapons skills to see which are which. Someone else said this in another thread and this is great advice, don’t treat your clones and phanstasms like pets, don’t get attached to them shatter the clones often (they have very low hp anyways, and disappear when the enemy you targeted while summoning them dies anyways) for phantasms unless it’s a prolonged fight let them get a volley off and then shatter them. You can see some amazing numbers from shatter. Mind wrack is your damaging shatter bind that to a key that’s easy to reach.

As a Mesmer you control the battlefield the enemy is always reacting to you and will never be comfortable fighting you.

With the one handed sword you get an ability called blurred frenzy which is and 8 hit combo that makes you invincible while you are doing the combo. Great skill.

Last thing I will tell you for pve and pvp learn movement. Move a lot. Mesmers can be squishy so always be kiting teleporting, dropping illusions, shattering illusions, summoning phantasms.

You will destroy things like this, it’s Unbelievably rewarding.

Also I like to stack precision for Crit rating if you get a Crit on a shatter it is REAALLY going to get the enemy. I have seen some 3 clone shatters easily eat through half a mobs life. Once I get to 40-50% Crit rate I then stack vitality and toughness.

Dobby.9651:

What about in terms of stat priority?

for condition build obviously stack conditions dmg. for a straight dmg build stack power.

decide how you want to play, there are 3 main mesmer styles:

Conditions – usually staff and stacking conditions on enemies, slow intial dmg but ramps up to large dmg and can take multiple enemies at once easily.

Shatter build – use fast summon weapons and utilities to keep the clones flowing and shatter them quickly and repeatedly, can use traits to make high burst dmg

tank – combination of mobility, illusions and distortion to make you virtually unkillable.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Staff + sword/pistol is my preference. Great damage. Utilities I run are mirror image (immediately makes 2 clones) decoy (stealths you and makes a clone of you) and blink for pve stun break/teleport, I usually swap blink for phantasmal defender in pvp and champion pve boss fights. Phantasmal defender absorbs half the damage you would be taking. Pistols offers a great stun and an illusionary duelist to unload on the enemy for good damage.

If you’re new 2 things… Don’t expect clones to do damage on their own, clones are just copies of yourself to confuse the enemy and to shatter them. Phantasms are you illusions that deal damage. Make sure you look at your weapons skills to see which are which. Someone else said this in another thread and this is great advice, don’t treat your clones and phanstasms like pets, don’t get attached to them shatter the clones often (they have very low hp anyways, and disappear when the enemy you targeted while summoning them dies anyways) for phantasms unless it’s a prolonged fight let them get a volley off and then shatter them. You can see some amazing numbers from shatter. Mind wrack is your damaging shatter bind that to a key that’s easy to reach.

As a Mesmer you control the battlefield the enemy is always reacting to you and will never be comfortable fighting you.

With the one handed sword you get an ability called blurred frenzy which is and 8 hit combo that makes you invincible while you are doing the combo. Great skill.

Last thing I will tell you for pve and pvp learn movement. Move a lot. Mesmers can be squishy so always be kiting teleporting, dropping illusions, shattering illusions, summoning phantasms.

You will destroy things like this, it’s Unbelievably rewarding.

Also I like to stack precision for Crit rating if you get a Crit on a shatter it is REAALLY going to get the enemy. I have seen some 3 clone shatters easily eat through half a mobs life. Once I get to 40-50% Crit rate I then stack vitality and toughness.

Hey man,

Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I’m going to try sword/pistol. So, for leveling.. you would recommend crit, vit and toughness in terms of precedence when distributing stats; and looking for upgrades on gear? Any reason why power wouldn’t be of importance?

Dobby.9651:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Staff + sword/pistol is my preference. Great damage. Utilities I run are mirror image (immediately makes 2 clones) decoy (stealths you and makes a clone of you) and blink for pve stun break/teleport, I usually swap blink for phantasmal defender in pvp and champion pve boss fights. Phantasmal defender absorbs half the damage you would be taking. Pistols offers a great stun and an illusionary duelist to unload on the enemy for good damage.

If you’re new 2 things… Don’t expect clones to do damage on their own, clones are just copies of yourself to confuse the enemy and to shatter them. Phantasms are you illusions that deal damage. Make sure you look at your weapons skills to see which are which. Someone else said this in another thread and this is great advice, don’t treat your clones and phanstasms like pets, don’t get attached to them shatter the clones often (they have very low hp anyways, and disappear when the enemy you targeted while summoning them dies anyways) for phantasms unless it’s a prolonged fight let them get a volley off and then shatter them. You can see some amazing numbers from shatter. Mind wrack is your damaging shatter bind that to a key that’s easy to reach.

As a Mesmer you control the battlefield the enemy is always reacting to you and will never be comfortable fighting you.

With the one handed sword you get an ability called blurred frenzy which is and 8 hit combo that makes you invincible while you are doing the combo. Great skill.

Last thing I will tell you for pve and pvp learn movement. Move a lot. Mesmers can be squishy so always be kiting teleporting, dropping illusions, shattering illusions, summoning phantasms.

You will destroy things like this, it’s Unbelievably rewarding.

Also I like to stack precision for Crit rating if you get a Crit on a shatter it is REAALLY going to get the enemy. I have seen some 3 clone shatters easily eat through half a mobs life. Once I get to 40-50% Crit rate I then stack vitality and toughness.

Hey man,

Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I’m going to try sword/pistol. So, for leveling.. you would recommend crit, vit and toughness in terms of precedence when distributing stats; and looking for upgrades on gear? Any reason why power wouldn’t be of importance?

Of course no problem if you need any other help shoot me a pm.

Here’s the reasoning why I chose Crit, vitality and toughness, and how it’s Interchangeable. Most of the mesmers attacks are shorter quick attacks or conditions. So when you shatter 3 clones it’s one burst, having a higher chance to Crit on that shatter is going to do way more damage then having power. Blurred frenzy is 8 hits that’s 8 chances to Crit from what I understand and I haven’t seen anything to oppose that. Honestly I feel my damage is great as it is with a 50% Crit rate so I chose vitality and toughness to help with group events and pvp, but that is my preference. I have also had this thought but haven’t tried it yet, you could probably switch power for vitality or toughness because if you think about it with all your illusions phantasms, stealths and dodges you don’t end up getting hit too much in pve, so they are interchangeable.

In pvp though I wouldn’t trade toughness for anything because you are getting hit from Aoes and other sources. Now I’m not saying load up on toughness just some toughness accessories with vitality or power. You also will be getting power and Crit rating in your build as well.

Which Brings me to my next point. What I have found to help a lot is that I carry a few different sets of accessories on me, power might and vitality (not too many Crit rating as I get enough from my build.) I just swap out accessories for different situations, champion boss I toss on some toughness and vitality, every day grinding I do power and vitality. This makes it so they you can easily adapt to any situation.

Honestly this is my preference but has worked well for me… I don’t go over 50% Crit rate, there is no point to me and it is a waste when you could be adding vitality toughness and power. So once I hit 45% Crit chance with my build I swapped out my precision gear and accesories for vitality and toughness.

I personally haven’t seen a huge change in adding power (not saying its not important) but I definitely notice a huge difference in a critical hit.

Also If you happen to be on Emry bay server shoot me a pm and I wi craft you some multiple sets of accessories that you can swap out.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Also If you happen to be on Emry bay server shoot me a pm and I wi craft you some multiple sets of accessories that you can swap out.

haha, ever since i noticed that the Mesmer class was going to be in GW2 i’ve been dying to play it and actually understand it. I didn’t even make this post and i’m about to say thanks so much to you! You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I’ll shoot you any PM’s if i have any questions aswell if you don’t mind! (:

And just a quick question, when i was watching gameplay, i realllllly liked the look and feel of using two swords, what is your opinion on that set up?

Azi.9468:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Also If you happen to be on Emry bay server shoot me a pm and I wi craft you some multiple sets of accessories that you can swap out.

haha, ever since i noticed that the Mesmer class was going to be in GW2 i’ve been dying to play it and actually understand it. I didn’t even make this post and i’m about to say thanks so much to you! You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I’ll shoot you any PM’s if i have any questions aswell if you don’t mind! (:

And just a quick question, when i was watching gameplay, i realllllly liked the look and feel of using two swords, what is your opinion on that set up?

Haha of course anyone is welcome to pm me and ask away I will help however I can.
Excellent choice on the Mesmer it is a blast.

Dual swords I think is not too bad of a playstyle I feel it is a little too reactionary for my type of play, the second sword I believe comes with a block and a phantasm which deals decent damage. The way that I have found to at the Mesmer, which I feel is the keeners strength (I’m in no way saying this is the only way or best way, just my experience) is that I am constantly moving and on the offensive., swapping weapons to staff for more clones and chaise field and shield, I personally do not like the idea of standing still to put up a block, now I’m not saying it isn’t a good thing because blocks can be great, bt with blurred frenzy pretty much giving you a block while attacking I find I usually don’t need a 2nd block. Dual swords actually strikes me as more of a physical defensive style. Where as torches and scepters are more magically defensive such as stealths and swaps.

The reason I prefer the offhand pistol is I feel it’s a really good way to continue to pressure the enemy. Magic bullet is a great stun which can be used after you shatter your clones to give you times to get clones and phantasms up again. That’s usually the way I use it, while the enemy is stunned bring up more clones and phantasms, and the illusionary duelist puts of great passive! Ranged damage, so while you are cloning, shattering, stealthing the duelist is damaging your foe.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Azi.9468:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Also If you happen to be on Emry bay server shoot me a pm and I wi craft you some multiple sets of accessories that you can swap out.

haha, ever since i noticed that the Mesmer class was going to be in GW2 i’ve been dying to play it and actually understand it. I didn’t even make this post and i’m about to say thanks so much to you! You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I’ll shoot you any PM’s if i have any questions aswell if you don’t mind! (:

And just a quick question, when i was watching gameplay, i realllllly liked the look and feel of using two swords, what is your opinion on that set up?

Haha of course anyone is welcome to pm me and ask away I will help however I can.
Excellent choice on the Mesmer it is a blast.

Dual swords I think is not too bad of a playstyle I feel it is a little too reactionary for my type of play, the second sword I believe comes with a block and a phantasm which deals decent damage. The way that I have found to at the Mesmer, which I feel is the keeners strength (I’m in no way saying this is the only way or best way, just my experience) is that I am constantly moving and on the offensive., swapping weapons to staff for more clones and chaise field and shield, I personally do not like the idea of standing still to put up a block, now I’m not saying it isn’t a good thing because blocks can be great, bt with blurred frenzy pretty much giving you a block while attacking I find I usually don’t need a 2nd block. Dual swords actually strikes me as more of a physical defensive style. Where as torches and scepters are more magically defensive such as stealths and swaps.

The reason I prefer the offhand pistol is I feel it’s a really good way to continue to pressure the enemy. Magic bullet is a great stun which can be used after you shatter your clones to give you times to get clones and phantasms up again. That’s usually the way I use it, while the enemy is stunned bring up more clones and phantasms, and the illusionary duelist puts of great passive! Ranged damage, so while you are cloning, shattering, stealthing the duelist is damaging your foe.

I sent you a PM ;D