60-80 Help
This all depends on your weapon sets and your play style. Are you going for a shatter build? A phantasm build? A confusion build? Etc?
Let us know more about you and then we can help you with your decisions.
Well thusfar I have used more of a Phantasm build but whatever is the most effective would be fine by me. I like GS/Staff and GS/Scepter/pistol as a rule..
You ran a phantasm build with…a scepter?
I run 30/10/10/0/20 – with a power/prec/crit% build. Between Illusion Celerity and the GS trait, you can throw iZerker out ever 16s or so, and Mirror Blade every 6.5s. That gives you somewhat rapid illusion production for a Phantasm build.
30 in domination also gives me Empowered Illusions and Mental Torment – +15% illusion damage, and +20% mind wrack damage respectively. I’m trying out MT because of the relatively quick production of illusions I mentioned earlier despite it being primarily a phantasm build – It’s working out pretty well so far.
Phantasms are given passive fury from Dueling. which can be changed to increased blink range if you’re traveling around the map.
I only really keep chaos because I die to gravity all the time. The -50% fall damage trait is something I require to live.
the 20 in illusions gives -20% illusion skill CD, CoF granting retaliation for perks, all shatters causing confusion to help bolster damage in WvW, and Confusion lasting 33% longer to help stack it. That last trait can be switched out for Phantasms attacking faster (if you’re against a boss) or attacks bouncing more (running staff/bolstering Mirror Blade).
I like this lay out because I can alter and swap out my traits on demand to fit the occasion, and it’s still workable in WvW and PvE. If you’re into sPvP, this may not work out so well, I haven’t tried it there.
I didn’t say I was pro… I just don’t really like sword but I did shatter more with scepter pumping out illusions fast.. The advice i am lookin for is sheer PVE leveling. I am running a legion build for PVP I just wanna make quick work of foes in PVE and not die too much and push through the last 20 levels and start a new toon… Mesmer kills so slowly that I don’t think I will keep playing much PVE or farming with it but I do like it for PVP..
Hi Djinn! I didn’t want this to be long post, but it just happened, so here it goes:
If your favorite weapons are GS/Staff, and pistol I would definitely recommend at least 20 points in illusions, so you can get Illusionary Elasticity, this will greatly increase your DPS with the staff’s #1 skill, your staff clones and also buff your your bouncing attacks with the GS and pistol.
The scepter is probably the reason your damage is so low, this is a really terrible weapon for dps, maybe good for Confusion or some shatter builds, tbh I haven’t used since they buffed it… but the sword is a so much better weapon, it has great damage and it’s AoE on melee, also the #1 skill chain gives vulnerability and rips boons from target which transfer to your clones. #2 (Blurred Frenzy) gives you invulnerability for 2 secs (use it defensively if needed), which is great for survival and #3 helps on keeping clones up, maybe even catch up running targets too, since it roots the target.
For clone spamming (instead of scepter) you want 20 on Dueling for Deceptive Evasion, this will give you Sharper Images too, which will give even added utility to your clones. Now your clones are stacking bleeds and vulnerability each time they hit. Now you can start a fight by summoning the iDuelist from the pistol, #3 from sword and a dodge roll and boom, you have set 3 illusions in a fraction of time, when the iDuelist finished firing his first load, consider shattering everything and finish them with your main sword attack if the mob is still alive, things just die in seconds this way.
Regarding survival, I really like 15 on Chaos. It’s two minor traits give you regeneration and protection when your health reaches 75%, also the 2 sec protection procs with any source of regeneration, so it’s a great skill overall. This also gives you access to Illusionary Defense, which reduces 3% damage for every illusion who is up. Bring the iDefender and a reliable source of regeneration and you become a tank!
I play with this build http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|10|2647|4089|4091|8134|8987|0|0|0|0|30|1759|1815|2209|20|2220|1818|0|0|0|0|0|20|1775|2228|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0| It´s basically all the above, plus effects when clones are killed, this effects apply even when you, just summon another clone and the first dies, which frees you from wasting clones. The thing I like about this build it’s how versatile it is. I can switch to a staff/gs setup, pistols, retaliation build (sword/scepter blocks) or even a mantra build as I see fit for the situation.
Additionally, for increased survival I use Decoy for losing aggro and Null Field/Feedback/Time Warp for setting up fields and getting Chaos Armor from sword #3, this helps a lot of tight situations.
Finally, Focus is a great offhand for soloing too, #4 give increased movement speed, interrupts and a “light” combo field, #5 iWarden makes really nice damage, specially if you bring everything to melee. Use pistol #5 to root enemies for Blurred Frenzy if needed too.
I hope this helps! Remember to test stuff out, respeccing is really cheap and mesmers have great damage/survival if you can get a spec that works with your style!
Cheers!
Lol IMO just run staff/gs, mainly using staff but swap to gs for mobs. Run 20 Duel for Phant Fury/Dec Evasion and 20 Illu, take whatever first major you want, and Illusionary Elasticity for 2nd. I ran the cond dam/prec/toughness gear while leveling, and it may not have been super duper fast, it was fast enough and didn’t require pressing 3 million different buttons for simple tasks while grinding levels. Just spam staff clones with this.