Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, for those who don’t know me I’m the guy who authored the stickied Mesmer Handbook, a co-host of the SOAC Mesmerized podcast, and generally spend a lot of time in the Mesmer forums helping to explore ways/builds to advance the class and expand build diversity. I’m a big fan of both support and control builds and spend 90% of my time in sPvP and am always willing to teach/advise anyone about the Mesmer class and builds.

Granted, for a long time until very recently my computer was down and I wasn’t able to play for more than about 40 minutes at a time, suffice to say my rank is still rather low (39). I feel as if Mesmer still hasn’t been fully explored and I hoped to gather people of like mind to see if we can really crack down and see if it’s really true that Mesmer has minimal impact in PvP matches.

Though I play PvP almost exclusively, I don’t come to this subforum often because of the defeatist attitude so many people seem to have and the insane amount of parrots (someone who just repeats what everyone else is saying rather than do real exploring on their own) like to shut down new ideas before they kick off. I know the common idea is that Mesmer are only taken for Portal and Illusion of Life but I feel as if that preconception is only because not everything the Mesmer has to offer has been tried out in sPvP. No offense to the top-ranked players, but I highly doubt they have the time to study and test all the different possible build combinations that Mesmer have. I respect their opinion as much as anyone else’s, but my own opinion differs.

One thing I feel isn’t discussed or seen enough is Mesmer’s exceptional boon/condition stripping ability, as well as lockdown potential. I’d like to offer up a few build concepts and see if people think this would have an impact in tPvP matches. I’m not looking for trolls or people who hate the Mesmer class, I’m asking for support from those who would see the class brought up into viability. Again, thank you for your time.

MANTRA
- 30/30/0/10/0 – Mantra of Recovery / Blink or Decoy / Mantra of Resolve / Mantra of Concentration
- Sword+Offhand – Greatsword or Staff
- Dom: V, VII, XI / Duel: II, X, VII / Inspire: IV, V or III

This setup offers…

• High Damage from Phantasms
• Heavy AoE Condition Suppression
• Dat AoE Stability / Cripple
• Vigor & Boon Removal on shatter.
  The AoE effects of Mantras rock, despite the pitiful range. With a bit of boon duration, this setup can have a near 50% AoE Stability uptime, remove enemy boons/ally conditions, while still pumping out nice damage via Shatters and Phantasms.

SHATTER

- 20/20/0/30/0 – Mirror Images / Decoy / Null Field
- Sword or Scepter/Focus – Staff or Greatsword
- Dom: I, V, or IV / Duel: X / Insp: V, VIII, XI

This setup offers…

• High damage, Vigor, Condition Removal, and Boon Removal via Shatters
• Projectile Reflects

It’s a bit annoying that Shattered Conditions forces you to choose from either Illusionary Persona or Deceptive Evasion. I’d definitely advise getting either sword or Scepter cooled down for higher clone production. Scepter may actually be a better choice here since it produces clones faster but I usually prefer Sword’s mobility and defense. I can see iPersona working in maybe a 0/10/0/30/30 setup but I can’t see the tradeoff being worth it. (then again, I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t say for sure.)

PHANTASM

- 10/10/0/25/25 – iDisenchanter / Null Field / Decoy
- Sword / Pistol or Sword – Greatsword
- Dom: III, Duel: II or IV, Inspiration: I, II, V, or VI Illusions: III, X

This setup offers…

• Powerful Phantasms
• Condition Nullification
• Weapon Cooldowns

This may be the the most solid setup of the three. Simple, strong and straightforward while still excelling at what it’s meant to do: eliminate condition damage.

(Taken from the article "Making People Hate You )

INTERRUPTS AND LOCKDOWN
The Mesmer is a master of controlling opponents. We’re the only class that has traits that reward successfully interrupting your opponent, Confusion is almost exclusive to Mesmer, two of our 4 shatters [F2/F3] are control abilities, and we can reflect projectiles better than any other… And that’s just scratching the surface.

WHAT IS LOCKDOWN?
When you break combat down to its simplest terms, you find that almost everything can be mitigated in some way.

Movement – Cripple/Chill/Torment/Immobilize
Cooldowns – Chill/Interrupt
Projectiles – Reflect
Skill Use – Daze/Stun/Confusion/Blind
Healing – Poison
Damage – Weakness
AoE – Retaliation
Boons/Conditions – Removal

Mesmer have enough tools that we can quite easily shutdown any (and even all) of the above in a single build without having to sacrifice damage. Though a boss may be immune to daze/stun, Weakness, Vulnerability, & Chill (Debilitating dissipation, Dazzling, Hydromancy Sigils) still cuts their damage by 50%, increases skill cooldowns, and more vulnerable to damage.

CONTROL, MESMER-STYLE

Mesmer have 3 main ways to control opponents.

Boon Removal
Null Field, iDisenchanter, Arcane Thievery, Sword 1, Greatsword 2, Shattered Concentration (Domination VII)
Mesmer have wonderful AoE boon removal. Shattered Conditions combined with Null Field can make you a boon-nullifying nightmare on the battlefield. This is especially good against enemies that like to stack Might, Fury, Vigor or Stability. A sneaky combo is Arcane Thievery + Signet of Inspiration to steal long-lasting boons (Example: Signet of Rage is a very common elite among Warriors that grants 30 seconds of Might, Fury, and Swiftness… Did a sinister grin tug at your lips yet?).

Reflects
Feedback, Mimic, Medic’s Feedback (Inspiration I), Warden’s Feedback (Inspiration VIII), Masterful Reflection (Illusions IV)
Linger out of melee-range and what happens? Most likely, the enemy will try to shoot you. Projectiles are a very common form of attack, and skills like Feedback turn that damage right back on the enemy. Reflects are not affected by power, but are affected by critical chance and critical damage. A reflected projectile will count as YOUR attack, and thus proc any corresponding sigils. An excellent write-up with examples is depicted in Ansau’s Reflection Guide.

Confusion and Conditions
Cry of Frustration [F2], Scepter 3, Torch 5, Illusionary Retribution (Illusions 5), Confusing Enchantments (Domination VIII), Blinding Befuddlement(Illusions IX), Confusing Combatants (Dueling 25)
Confusion is a stacking condition that does damage to the opponent for every skill they use. It does half as much damage in PvP/WvW as it does in PvE, but can still be a very strong source of damage and highly discourages players from attacking. As long as we conveniently ignore Superior Runes of Perplexity (/shakefist @ Thieves with these runes) then we can say that Confusion is a nearly Mesmer-exclusive condition, sort of like Fear for Necromancers. Engineer are the only other class that can output confusion reliably, but they aren’t supported with traits the way we are. Torment is another punishing condition that deals double damage to moving enemies. Our Scepter’s counterattack can inflict large amounts of Torment that can do several thousand damage to enemies. In addition to this, Mesmer can easily inflict AoE Cripple (-50% movement)/ Weakness (50% damage) / 3xVulnerability (1% more damage per stack) / 3xBleeds simply by spitting out clones and allowing them to be killed via Crippling Dissipation and Debilitating Dissipation (Domination V/ Chaos V).

(also taken from that article)

HOW TO MAKE OTHER CLASSES HATE YOU

• Guardians and Warriors hate… Boon removal & Clone deaths.
  Guardians and Warriors thrive on boons such as Protection, Stability, and Fury for both doing damage and survival. A Warrior without Stability, or a Guardian without Protection can end up being a hilariously easy kill. Many of these soldiers also are at their best while in melee. Clone-death traits makes it difficult for them to attack you in melee without risking being crippled/weakness, effectively making them.. well, suck.

• Rangers and Engineers hate… Reflection & Arcane Thievery.
  Pretty self-explainatory, but not always a constant rule. Reflection shuts down a huge majority of what Rangers and Engineers can do for damage and throws it right back in their faces. Feedback and traited Focus together can really shut these classes out of a fight for a bit. Arcane Thievery works well against a few boon-stacking specs, such as the HGH Might-stacking Engineer and Vigor/Regen-stacking Rangers.

• Thieves and Elementalists hate… Halting Strike & Chaotic Interruption.
  Thieves and Elementalists both have very low base HP, and thus are classes that must maintain their mobility in order to be effective. Elementalists are very succeptable to interrupts, and Halting Strike hits them very hard due to their low armor. Chaotic Interruption deserves mention here because all of the conditions it applies can really ruin these squishy opponents’ day. Mantra of Distraction with Halting Strike hurts Eles particularly hard since their heals are rather easy to interrupt and Halting Strike can very easily finish them off. In my experience, certain Thief-specs are very interruptable as well, but I don’t play Thief well enough to be able to explain how/why.

• Necromancer hate… Mantra of Distraction & Boon Removal.
  Have you ever seen a Necromancer go Lich/Plague form only to have their long-lasting Stability get ripped off them by a crafty Mesmer? It’s hilarious. Suddenly that giant lich is getting yanked left & right, dazed and stunned, and is nothing but a big green target for everyone else. Serves them right for flaunting those incredible glowing 6-pack abs liches have for.. whatever reason. When they’re not using wells or Staff, Necromancer are actually rather easy to interrupt.

• Mesmer hate… Condition Damage.
  I’ll be honest.. There’s no one particular way to keep a Mesmer locked down. Too many teleports and stealths for that pathetic nonsense that those other inferior classes can’t hand-…er, Mesmer fanboyism leaking in. Apologies. Anyways, while Mesmer are resiliant to hard CC (stuns, dazes, ect.) conditions tend to screw us over sideways with no lubricant. Most Mesmer carry only one form of condition removal, and that tends to be either on a long cooldown (Null Field) or tied to some silly stipulation (Arcane Thievery needs a target / iDisenchanter can be destroyed/shattered ). Condition damage and condition debilitations are the best way to take down a slippery Mesmer.

Who ? :/
Wall of text didn’t read..
If you’re having trouble as a mesmer try my clone spam interrupt build..

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-NFR3l;0VPVz087gW-71;9;49J9-O1;019-4;349-UNk6a;1KJG4KJG47Bb

Oh well, had to make the attempt. The TL;DR version is basically: I feel Mssmer can find a place in the meta with more exploration, especially considering our lockdown potential and excellent AoE condition/boon removal.

Pretty solid build though, not a fan of hybrid power/condition builds myself. Why, in yur opinion, is it better than going pure power or condition dmg?

Generally I see U went in condi/boon remove way. While it’s nice and MAY work, it doesn’t fit my mesmer playstyle/concept. After playing mes quite much I think it offers very strong dmg and it would be a waste to not use it. Sure, bunker mesmer can work, condi mesmer also can work but in my opinion, there are classes that can do those things more efficient. Personally, I atm run 3 power-based builds: Shatter, Phantasm, Interrupt.

From those U posted, I like the phantasm one the most, but would swap iDisench for Portal/IoL, maybe Blink instead of Decoy.

I have never found interrupts to be particularly effective against thieves. It’s hard to see how they could, considering most thief attacks have casting times ranging between 0-0.5 seconds.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Oh well, had to make the attempt. The TL;DR version is basically: I feel Mssmer can find a place in the meta with more exploration, especially considering our lockdown potential and excellent AoE condition/boon removal.

Pretty solid build though, not a fan of hybrid power/condition builds myself. Why, in yur opinion, is it better than going pure power or condition dmg?

IMHO Glkittenter build is too hard to play in NA Meta.. I feel like I need some burst and tons of sustain, (as well as better condi cleave) too much of either just gets hard countered. I don’t really see anyone doing well with it..

When you say full condi, you mean 20/20/30 Prismatic understanding? I find that build more suited to hotjoin/duel arenas where you can have 1v1 fights and you don’t have to wear so many hats; just win the 1v1s and gg. I generally don’t use enough of my stealth to get decapped if I have to defend a node but a PU build pretty much depends on it for long sustained fights..

@thedenofsin
I interrupt Thieves a_lot when you know know how a fight will play out you can predict things like a heart seeker over a blinding powder.. it does help somewhat.