Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, I recently reinstalled the game after a long break, and all I know about GW2 atm is sPVP (lvl 30+ spvp and still lvl 1 PVE), so yes I’m totally noob when it comes to PVE , but I plan to lvl my mesmer and start doing PVE content.

First of all I should clarify that I plan to play my mesmer as a DPS (in case mesmer can play another role in PVE) , and what I’m looking for is a build for end game dungeons.
Everything I read about PVE is most of the time outdated.

While I know that we have many viable and various build in PVP, the few I’ve read about PVE builds is that phantasm is the only viable choice when it comes to end game dungeons, but as I’m not familiar with PVE here I come to ask for some help to the PVE veterans players

So could anyone gives me something we should call “the best PVE phantasm build” as a DPS mesmer ?

Thanks

ps : (sry for bad english)

No. Take 10/3/0/20/10 or 0/30/0/25/15.

There is a difference between “best build” and “here is my build”.

“Best” depends on you and your playstyle. The answers however are allways the same:

Beginner Build: 20/20/0/30/0
Is a build only for newb’s who will often use the GS and no mantras. The GS is most of the time a weak weapon in dungeons and will be outdamaged by the sword. However if you are unexpirienced, medium ranged damage is still better than a perma death melee wanna-b. It also will support the nullfield and feedback, but no mantras wich take more attention but are very useful and strong.

Meta Builds: 10/20/0/25/15 or 0/30/0/25/15
They are like the common builds, supporting phantasm damage and personal damage, but at the cost of a inspiration trait. However you also gain either the 4% (16%) personal mantra damage or the +17.25% phantasm damage.

Personal Best Build: 10/30/0/30/0
I’ve played about 1500 hours on my mes, it’s my main and I’ve been testing tons of build over more than just a couple of hours. I know what I am talking about aslong it is about PvE. The personal build depens on what you are doing. As for me I want to deal much personal damage (mantra dmg) aswell phant dmg (10/x/x/25/x), and I want ALLWAYS 3 inspiration traits since they are by far the best stuff we got. I think (my opinion !! not everyones) that 20% cdr on phants aren’t worth all the stuff I got with that build. I like to be flexible, I switch traits depending on what I need, more reflection, more condi cleanse, more heal, more phant HP what ever! I do dungeons and lv50 fotm mainly.

In the end find your own best build Mine has changed over the time too ofc ^^

None of the major dungeon guilds use 10/20/0/25/15 so I don’t know why you’ve listed that as meta.

It’s a bit like the beginners. If you are not so good using mantras or just a bit lazy, there is no benefit in duelling 30. So yea, it’s pretty much the same. However I guess more are using 0/30, sadly even if they have just 1 mantra all the time wich would be a waste.

What I mean is you’ve listed 10/20/0/25/15 as a “meta” build when that is about as far from the truth as you can get, so I don’t understand why you did it. Traiting empowering mantras is practically a requirement to taking your mesmer on dungeon runs with guilds like Retaliate and Death and Taxes, and 10/20 doesn’t allow you to do that.

The damage difference isn’t that huge. Meta builds exist for elitism aswell pugs. 10/20 is as I said some kind of overflow to 0/30 I think. I’ve just heared about many mesmers using it. Personally I agree with you, it is not that “meta like” if I think about it again.

Yeah a Mesmer in a speedclear guild never uses 10/20/0/25/15 (some ppl in the old Define [HC] were using it for fractal, but we don’t ever use that build in Snow Crows). Instead we use builds like 30/30/0/0/10 or 25/30/0/0/15 (when we don’t need that many reflect). And when we need a good reflection coverage, we use like three different builds depending of the situation: 10/30/0/20/10, 0/30/0/25/15 or 15/30/0/25/0.

Hey thanks for all the answers, all those builds are good inspirations I now get the general idea of a pve mesmer, big lines being phantasm , then mantra to max self dmg , and reflections (situational).

Something I fail to understand thought is why everyone is using sword as a main hand in both weapon set, while in 2nd weapon set Greatsword seems to fit well with such a type of build ?

If the reason is purely the sword auto attack doing more damage and applying vulnerability, doesnt it get balanced by the fact that GS is ranged and gives more flexibility in fight ?
I mean while you have to dodge things in melee range (sword auto attack) you stop attacking but you can still dps from range with a GS right ? So in some way it makes up for the lower damage.

Also I don’t know how aggro is managed but standing in melee range you have more chance to get aggro right ? as I saw no taunt in any class atm.

And lastly if anyone could confirm that with such a type of build/gameplay , full berserk is the way to gear right ?

Thanks

Greatsword is awesome in open world but sucks at close combat and has no cleave. The sword auto attack is our highest dps we can personally do. So since we got no other cleaving weapon and the mesmer is all about weapon swap to resummon phants, we don’t really need something else than sword+offhand1 and sword+offhand2. IF there is much aoe trash, you can use sword focus + gs, while starting with GS 2-5 and then swap to sword. But in general, sword simply grants the highest damage and has invulnerability to stay melee (+sword offhand block / dodge / F4). You may ask now “why not just ranged with GS?”, that’s because you outrange the buffs from allies, so you will be missing tons of might stacks wich would make your sword in melee even more powerful.

And yea – full zerker ^^

Thank you very much for all those explanations , while it sounds more risky to use a sword you got me convinced that the reward is better than GS
I’ll prolly use a GS time to learn strategies and will end up using swords when I’ll feel comfortable with every dungeons.

I think I now understand what could be called the best PVE build and again thanks you all for help.

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Yeah a Mesmer in a speedclear guild never uses 10/20/0/25/15 (some ppl in the old Define [HC] were using it for fractal, but we don’t ever use that build in Snow Crows). Instead we use builds like 30/30/0/0/10 or 25/30/0/0/15 (when we don’t need that many reflect). And when we need a good reflection coverage, we use like three different builds depending of the situation: 10/30/0/20/10, 0/30/0/25/15 or 15/30/0/25/0.

Thanks for the list here. There’s a lot of nice variety here for different situations. Thanks!

I’m rather a fan of 0/20/0/30/20, for pve work. High support via Inspiration (I remember when I frigging hated that Traitline), faster Phantasm attacks(or better bouncing attacks), and I can still slip in a S/F;S/P spec with all needed weapon Traits.

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Yeah a Mesmer in a speedclear guild never uses 10/20/0/25/15

I am the one who firmly stands behind 10/20/0/25/15 because all utility and heal slots that I utilize in my dungeon runs are NOT mantra. Most of the time I have at max only one single mantra charged. Also, I have no problem keeping up 2 or 3 phantasms up apart from Arah where it does make sense going for mantra builds even if you hate it.

I’ve done tests and in non-ideal conditions the build is losing no more than 5% to 10% dps depending on the encounter. I’m ok with occasional trading that amount of dps for the flexibility and freedom of utility.

Then you should probably rethink your utility slot choices. Heal mantra I use almost unconditionally besides reflect intense situations that require two phantasmal wardens one after the other (e.g. alphard), you can easily use condi cleanse mantra over null field, stability has its uses, and the daze mantra can be used to shave defiant or CC mobs with deadly skills like risen illusionists with their area denial, or against Bjarl you can chain daze mantra, magic bullet and illusionary riposte.

Meta builds generally work better in meta situations too – if you’re pugging a lot then 10/20 is more reasonable, but in a strong guild group, some fights can be so bursty that there isn’t really much point getting phantasms out because stuff dies too quickly. To give a familiar example, it’s pretty easy to melt slave driver in about ~6 seconds and if you’re casting a phantasm you’re doing zero DPS for 18% of the entire fight.

Xyonon.3987:

[…] You may ask now “why not just ranged with GS?”, that’s because you outrange the buffs from allies, so you will be missing tons of might stacks wich would make your sword in melee even more powerful.

And yea – full zerker ^^

Another point is that no one likes ranged players in dungeons, it’s kinda selfish. I mean, if all 5 players are in melee range, technically the boss would target you 20% of the time, but if there is 3 ranged players, you will be targeted 50% of the time. Or could be worst, he moves to attack the ranged ones.

Ohh thanks for the ideas everyone My main is a mesmer and I love it but I don’t feel like I’m doing the best that I can. Mine is 0/0/25/25/20 which worked just fine during leveling.

Advent.6193:

I’m rather a fan of 0/20/0/30/20, for pve work. High support via Inspiration (I remember when I frigging hated that Traitline), faster Phantasm attacks(or better bouncing attacks), and I can still slip in a S/F;S/P spec with all needed weapon Traits.

Phantasmal haste is still totally broken, so 20 in illusions is a total waste. Once the feature build hits, perhaps that can be revisited.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Advent.6193:

I’m rather a fan of 0/20/0/30/20, for pve work. High support via Inspiration (I remember when I frigging hated that Traitline), faster Phantasm attacks(or better bouncing attacks), and I can still slip in a S/F;S/P spec with all needed weapon Traits.

Phantasmal haste is still totally broken, so 20 in illusions is a total waste. Once the feature build hits, perhaps that can be revisited.

Fair point. And only Odin knows when said feature patch will hit. If it’s anything like Season 1 of WvW, give up on seeing the blasted thing before -say- May. >_<