Guild Wars 2

Hello all, before I begin let me give you some background so you could better assist me. Sorry if it appears to be a wall of text

I have Muscular Dystrophy which makes physical tasks quite strenuous or impossible to carry out, so I use an On-Screen Keyboard (OSK). Attached is a picture so it is easier to understand. This means I can only do one thing at a time since I have to click everything. Therefore, I suck at 1. ground targeting because it takes time to click somewhere on the client after already clicking the keybinding on the OSK (that option in Settings doesn’t work because the default mouse location is directly under your character, not your target), and 2. melee because I cannot move while using skills (quite huge in sPvP lol).

My first character was an 80 Ele. In WvWvW in a zerg/besieging keeps with a staff & full berserker gear I feel very useful. Meteor Shower + Ice Bow #4 + Ice Bow #4 from another player that picked it up lol placed atop a keep I usually get 4-6 bags. In a straight up zerg, it’s kinda unfair the aoe I can do and bags/badges I can get. I think the only thing better would be a necro spreading conditions. In sPvP & PvE it is quite different though. In sPvP staff or scepter/x are not too good because, even if I didn’t have trouble ground targeting, ppl move out of aoe instantly lol. D/D is very strong atm and requires minimal use of ground targeting, but it is a melee spec . Yes, it kills me haha. In PvE my aoe really helps with speed runs but afterwards, because basically everything is ground targeted, I get physically fatigued tbh.

My main is now my 80 Ranger. I go cleric bunker with Sword+Dagger/Longbow. One thing that is super cool about this spec is I can effectively play melee for the first time in any mmo! The sword autoattack is a 3 part chain and 2 out of the 3 attacks are leaps which means I’ll more or less always be in melee range, eliminating my movement problem so I can just focus on skill rotation/strategy. My experience has been kind of the polar opposite of my Ele. In PvE I am very durable and offer great support with Healing Spring, combo fields, pet buffs, etc. In sPvP I can truly bunker every class, sometimes 2v1, except good mesmers because I find you guys very hard to target. In WvWvW I don’t feel as useful and I don’t get as many tags as my Ele, but I do have my niche uses. I can send my pet up keep walls to destroy siege or, if I blow 3 cds, can have my Jaguar down any1 I wish. They usually get revived immediately before being defeated, but sometimes no1 is around and I actually do get loot lol. Also, LB #5 Barrage is ok for not only tagging, but as a zerg-wide aoe cripple.

I recently began experimenting with the Mesmer in the Mists and decided I definitely want to level it next, even though I hate pink lol. Sword looks doable (in PvE at least) because of the leap and it doesn’t look like that’s a primary weapon anyway. GS #3 has a moderately long cd so I should be fine using that as well. Overall it’s mostly ranged which is what I’m looking for. I want to feel useful, feel more survivable than a glass cannon Ele (easy request :P), and, although this sounds selfish, I want to aoe/tag things to get more loot in WvWvW more effectively than my Ranger.

I would like some thoughtful insight from the Mesmer community as to what I should expect in the 3 game types. Is this the right class for me/can it meet my expectations above?

I’ve researched many builds but they don’t really explain the idea behind it nor how things synergize with each other. Could you guys please link (and explain preferably) some of the more “tried and tested” builds including what stat priority for each? I know there is one that uses high condition damage, with a staff I believe? And a glass cannon one where your phantasms do most of your damage right? Is there one with GS/Staff? I like the idea of having two 1200 range weapons!

It took an awfully long time to type this so I’m hoping for some good feedback Any1 who tells me to roll Warrior will be /slapped haha

Hi Ofek, mesmer is very flexible as far as weapons, you can be effective with any of them. If you wanted to run staff and GS you can do that, I did it for a long time, there’s lot of different builds you can use. GS #3 isn’t a very useful skill in pvp and you probably wouldn’t be using it much or at all, staff #5 is also a ground target aoe but one of it’s main purposes is to give you boons so having it just drop on your char’s feet if you turn to mouse target on would work fine.

As far as how the class as a whole would work for you, I have no idea. I would think moving and strafing with the on screen keyboard would be a little awkward but I don’t know. Mesmer is a very mobile class. Check out the Mesmer’s videos thread that Kylia has kindly been maintaining for us. It has videos of all different mesmer builds in action, as well as guides and play style vids, they might be able to help you get a better idea of the class as a whole: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Mesmer-Videos-Post-your-Video

Wow, quite comprehensive indeed! What gear is preferred for a condition damage staff mesmer?

Rabid which is prec/tough/cond, you can get some of the parts from the temple karma merchants in cursed shore and uh malchor’s leap is the other place I think. You have to check each one’s stats, there’s not a merchant that sells all of the same stat set, one will have legs, gloves, other will have helm. Only things you can’t get from karma are chest and boots, just look for the khilbron set on tp.

Welcome to the Mesmer class.

I do feel you will enjoy this class, note the following.

Firstly you will understand the class better and have less troubles predicting other Mesmers actions.

You can easily run a build that doesn’t require alot of aoe, although the staff skill #5 is one you would probably use very often. I normally have blink as a mandatory stun breaker, but it could be replaced with mirror images for a similar effect.
As already mentioned, the #3 GS skill is so gimp you don’t need to use it.

I would suggest trying out GS/Staff with phantasm build, knights armor and jewlery with exquisite ruby jewls inserted into the jewelery, centaur runes for armor, ice sigil for GS(rampager), perception sigil for staff(knights).
Consumables : master maintance oils & omniberry pies.
For slots I use signet of inspiration( or illusions ), blink, decoy and mass invis.(replace blink with mirror images then when you need to use it you can follow up with F4 – distortion.

This will give you a strong survival build whilst your phantasms deal good damage and you get some extra procs from the pies when using GS.

I have tried many builds all with different sets of exotics and have over 14k kills in WvW, the above build seems to be the most effective in WvW ( currently ), I am very often the last man to survive in bad situations or the only one to escape when others are down, and win far more 1v1’s than I lose, meanwhile I supply enough damage and cripple/chills to be of great use to my groups etc.

One thing I can say about mesmer is we have alot of choices like feedback/nullfield or glass cannon burst builds etc, however in most situations I need the slots for my current skills, you would be supprised at the difference it makes to lose decoy or blink or the signet, so don’t feel obliged to use the aoe’s.

You can swap out the signet for portals or feedback at sieges, no ground targeting for those, also I prefer mass invis instead of time warp (probably due to the culling issues).

Thanks so much Max! What is the build exactly? I assume at least 20 points in Illusions so you can get X – Phantasmal Haste, 10 in Domination for III – Empowered Illusions, and 10 in Dueling for II – Empowered Illusions? Could you please explain the basic strategy for tagging multiple ppl? Also, in your experience is this also commonly used in sPvP and/or PvE as well?

GS3 is a questionably viable skill in general, so don’t worry about it. You could never use it and still perform at 99% of the profession’s potential.

Seeing though that tagging is important to you let me just add that you will not be able to tag much in WvW or CS events, the difference between elementalist and mesmer tagging power is polar.

I dont think I have any troubles with taging.

The phantasm builds are typicly:
10dom III
30 duel X, II, V ( or I if u have blink )
0 chaos
25 inspiration I, IV
5 illusions

or 20dom 20duel for the GS trait