Guild Wars 2

I see a lot of people complaining about how boring or difficult it is to level as mesmer. I’m no expert (only level 38), but so far, I’ve found mesmers to be the fastest/easiest/most fun profession to level (i’ve tried all but necro and warrior).

Misconception #1: My level 80 friend/poster said to do this:
I think the problem that most people are having is that they are assuming that what works at higher levels and in dungeons/raids is what should work for leveling. I have played many MMO’s over the past 6 years or so, and I want to make it clear that this is never the case.

Misconception #2: Phantasms are good for leveling
They aren’t, plain and simple. They simply take too long to do anything. In the way I level, the enemy is dead before the illusions even cast, or if they do, just once.

Misconception #3: Survivability is important
Anyone who has played another MMO knows that damage dealers excel over tanks and healers for leveling. Of course, having more survivability is better than not having some, but this is an issue of opportunity cost. The more survival stats you have, the less damage stats you have, in most cases. Your goal should be to kill enemies as quick as possible, not outlive them.

Misconception #4: Mesmer is a pet class
The pet class is the ranger or the necro (idk rarely see them). At higher levels and raids, perhaps mesmers rely a lot on their phantasms to do 30% or more of their damage, but thinking of mesmer as a pet class for leveling will slow you down considerably.

My strategy: In a nutshell, for leveling, mesmers should be using a shatter build. Shatter does tons of damage, and confusion based shattering also does plenty of damage.

Basic idea: Equip two ranged weapons (staff, GS, scepter +gun, etc.) and begin your pull by deploying your phantasm. Follow up by deploying any clones available. After that you can hit whatever control buttons left while you wait for phantasm/clone cooldown to end or use scepter autoattack to build up a clone. In that time, phantasm will get off one shot. Once you have 3 illusions, shatter #1 for damage. Repeat this process to do shatter #2 for confusion. In most cases, your enemy will be dead or near dead. If not, repeat the process and apply stacks of confusion. On really tough enemies, just keep confusion really high and begin kiting as it slowly kills itself.

Multiple enemies? No problem at all, just force them to group through movement, as the shatters apply to all enemies in the area.

Stuff not dying fast enough: You don’t have enough power. Get more of it. Condition damage and precision should be used in that order.

Skill abilities: Anything that generates clones is good as it will speed up your shatters. Use the projectile bubble to force ranged enemies to one location.

Traits: Power, then illusions, then w/e.

If you doubt me, give it a try.

Hope this helps someone, =)

I should add, switch weapons to go through illusion cooldowns to increase shatters.

I had to laugh at #3 though. The easiest class to level, by far, is a healing tank – just like every other game.

NatashaK.9418:

I had to laugh at #3 though. The easiest class to level, by far, is a healing tank – just like every other game.

Um no it isn’t. Especially not in quest-heavy games where grinding does not grant that much xp.

KilgoreTrowt.7603:

NatashaK.9418:

I had to laugh at #3 though. The easiest class to level, by far, is a healing tank – just like every other game.

Um no it isn’t. Especially not in quest-heavy games where grinding does not grant that much xp.

That really depends on what someone means by ‘easy’; is it about speed or risk? Builds that focus on killing speed tend to be easily caught out when something unexpected happens.

With regards to the OP though yes, at low level shatter builds are much more effective.

For #3, of NatashaK’s point, easy != quicker and more efficient. I have an 80 Guardian and 80 Mesmer, Mesmer was faster but Guardian was easier.

Not as true for Mesmer since tanky specs yield pretty crap damage compared to a pure Shatter spec, especially since mobs will go after those clones you spawn constantly with dodges.

This isn’t really what the post is about, but there are many competitions to reach level cap in many different mmo’s. Not once, to my knowledge, has a tank/healer build won a race.

In almost every case, it is a pet based class that relies heavily on stacking damage statistics. (Though I believe wow’s newest records are with kitty druids). Unless there was a huge penalty to death, there really isn’t a reason to have any defense stats in this game as a ranged class attempting to level.

Dungeons/raids/endgame is an entirely different matter.