Guild Wars 2

I find the whole concept and the mechanics of the Mesmers simply amazing, so i decided to try out myself.

I am still in the very early levels (<10), but I already feel like I spam a couple of clones, then find myself forced to run around due to my squishiness, due to the clones being shortlived and the phantasm not distracting foes at all.

I tried switching from scepter mh (oh being pistol) to greatsword to no avail. Swords prove to be rather clumsy since close quarters fight wearing light armour is something just not cut for me.

So I ask you, more experienced Mesmers: Is there anyway to keep myself away from foes, hitting from far while my doppelganger army bash them or must I learn the tricky art of kiting?

Well, I’m a bit of a noob (not yet forty on my mesmer) but I’ve noticed a few things here and there. First and foremost, unless you’re fighting a ranged mob, both greatsword and scepter will require a decent amount of kiting. The scepter doesn’t (really) offer any defensive options or crowd control, so yes, you have to run. Greatsword has plenty of crowd control (iBerserker cripples and 5 knocks back (and I think down(?))) but it has no defense to speak of either. In addition, GS deals more damage at long range, so kiting equates to higher damage.

I’ve personally found staff to be a very good PvE weapon because it is quite defensive, and with clones and attacks you can stack quite a good amount of condition damage. Chaos armor is a good defensive spell providing a significant amount of defence. Chaos Storm can hinder enemies and provide quite a few defensive boons to you and phase retreat is a great way to avoid a hit without actively kiting. Also, using phase retreat in chaos storm will give you a combo and grant chaos armor as well.

Unless you’re a scepter addict, you will find that regular sword in your main hand provides decent defense. Your number three can cripple, and immoblize, and number two makes you invulnerable for two seconds (sounds like a small amount, but its great against big slow attacks)

Hope this helps!

Edit: Someone please correct me if I made a mistake somewhere!
2nd Edit: Feel a bit dumb, forgot to explain something with the swords. You said you find them a bit squishy. Most of the time, with a sword + offhand you don’t want to be basic attacking. Start with the staff (or whatever you’re starting with), then when you switch to sword + offhand place your phantasm from your off hand, then, use your number 3 which cripples with a clone, then immediately switch places with the clone (#3 again) and then use your blurred frenzy (#2). The clone switch will leave them immobilized while the phantasm shoots and you strike with blurred frenzy (which makes you invulnerable).

After that, use discretion. If they’re almost dead or aren’t (more luck than anything here) attacking you yet, feel free to keep swinging. If that feels unwise to you, backup a bit, you should still have 1-2 phantasms/clones up, breathe for a second, then switch back to a ranged weapon.

For regular PvE that combo should work quite comfortably against individual mobs, and bear in mind, blurred frenzy AoE’s so it is quite effective against small groups as well (you’re invulnerable after all )

Sounds about right. Leveling a Mesmer can be painful until the 30s. I almost quit mine a few times. The early levels kind of suck unless you stay on top of your gear, even then I always felt squishy.

For leveling Sword/Sword, Sword/Pistol, Sword/Focus (iWarden is a beast) are fun in your face playstyle. Staff gets you out of trouble, some AoE, and kiting like a champ.

As others have said, you can solo kill veteran mobs 3 to 4 levels above you without too much trouble.

zoobaby.7804:

For leveling Sword/Sword, Sword/Pistol, Sword/Focus (iWarden is a beast) are fun in your face playstyle.

I personally love iWarden, and the speed from the focus is quite a pleasant feature between fights as well (and in fights the pull can really buy you a few seconds of non-kiting)!

Yeah it was around 30 or so that I hit my stride I think. Basically what I do against mobs is use GS, then circle strafe around popping berserkers (for cripple) on them, knocking them back if they stagger too close to me, using dodge when needed. Works great on melee, just have to make sure you dont wander into nearby mobs, especially in Orr…

Mesmer is probably the single twitchiest class out there.

All classes in this game are about movement and positioning but the mesmer is easily one of the most reliant on mobility to survive, having no real barriers or AoE blinds that other classes use to block melee.

Once you get a bit stronger though, you’ll be less running away. And more skirmishing – jumping into the action and horripulating foes with sword or staff, and then deftly dropping back out of the fight and attackign from range while your clones take up the slack.

Funny thing, actually.
I was about to say for PvE, “Yes, we are supposed to run a lot in fights.”

Then I remembered my lazy way of fighting in PvE when facing a normal monster. I.Defender + Sword&Focus + Staff + Signet of Illusions. If I can keep the enemy from attacking my Phantasms early (And pop it immediately), its a cake walk that I can take point-blank. To the point, where I don’t even need to actually swing my weapon at the target but rather the Phantasms & Clone kill it.

Yes, Mesmer is pretty active all round. Toughness Line/Staff is a bit more tanky and you don’t need to move around quite so much, but the other weapons all rely on mobility a lot.

Yeah as a mesmer you pretty much run a lot first, but as you lvl you get really powerfull tools from traits and utility skills, in fact some fights i stoped moving at all cos clones take all the aggro and i just pew pew with staff without any worry.
Mesmers are probably one of the classes that start the lowest but rapidly get a huge power increase as you lvl. I remember at lvls 1-30 or 40 strugling to pop out ilusions, now i have to strugle to not make them lol

Mesmer was my first class, and I loved the mechanics of it. Yes you’ll find that a lot of your time is spent running around mobs till you learn how to make them target your clones and spam a lot of clones. At first it’s challenging to get a hold of it but you’ll soon find a weapon style and build that suits you. I’m a sword/sword and staff with focus on my clones causing numerous conditions when they get killed or when I spawn more. I didn’t like greatsword because it damage was very weak when you’re not at furthest range. Pistol was great but I already have staff for ranged attacks. Sceptor needs some lovings, it’s fairly weak but that’s because its a clone spam to use with your shatters.
You’ll find that Mesmers are fairly vulnerable to damage but as you learn to confuse and trick your enemies (mobs as well as players) with your clones then the class starts to get fun. Well, that’s how I found the Mesmer.

Pull with staff, summon phantasm and then retreat. Swap to sword/OH and leap in, mind wrack then blurred frenzy.

You can do this right from the get go and it never loses effectiveness

I don’t run much in fights unless there’s too many mobs to fight and I have to keep on my toes or get downed. I use Phantasmal Defender and that helps if a mob gets in your face. Mostly I can distract mobs with my clone or berseker though. It helps if you don’t open with your autoattack, and instead open with a clone or phantasm. I bounce my clone onto the mob and she usually gets all the hate rather than me. I wear that signet that gives illusions more health though, so my clones and phantasms don’t usually die against regular mobs. My phantasms also have the regen trait and when they are all standing together they regen each other. They do die fairly easily against Champions though, and if your clones and phantasms die too much try to shatter them for best effect. I have mine on a faster recharge with traits, so I will shatter them as my skills recharge and then summon more. Anyway that’s my playstyle, and I’ve done very well so far in my mid 40’s now. I don’t get downed too often, and when I do I usually rally. But also I raised lots of vitality so I have decent health.

IMO Staff + Clones for Chaos Wind condition adds, you can fight lots of 1v1’s like this without kiting, and win some easy 4 at a times if you do decide to kite and spread the clones around to make use of the bouncing attacks.

While it’s true that all classes have to move around to some extent, mesmer’s have a lot of ways to mitigate damage. We have two block abilites, one on the scepter and one on the off hand sword. We can trait our glamour abilites to provide AoE blinds to all those inside them. We have the abilite Feedback which is the bane of ranged enemies. We can also trait the off hand focus abilites to reflect projectiles too. We have the Phantasmal Defender to share pain with. We have various dazes to interrupt foes. On top of all this we also get the class specific ability of distortion, applicable by way of sword or shatter.

Mesmers need to dodge and move out of red circles like everyone else, but we’ve no need to kite every enemy. The only time I kite is when soloing elites and all my defensive abilites are on cooldown. Besides, confusion applied by the scepter hits like a truck but only if the enemy attacks, and they attack far less often when they’re chasing you around.