Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I started playing less than a month ago, and mesmer really caught my eye is a “flashy” way to play the game, but it never really stuck with me because A) it felt slow and B ) there seemed to be a glaring flaw in the clone/phantasm mechanic.

That glaring flaw seems to be that while phantasms can dish out 60% of your damage, as soon as your current target dies, they go bye bye. Doesn’t matter if there are 3 other mooks in your face, they will skedaddle as soon as your current target is dead. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or some kind of bug caused by my targeting settings in the game UI.

Still, there does seem to be some potential against tougher veteran/champion mobs that last a little longer. But for leveling, it doesn’t sound like I would want to rely on a phantasm build if that’s how the illusion mechanic works(they disappear as soon as your current target dies). It seems like a shatter build with mantra of pain might be the way to go.

Valiant.8016:

Hi all,

I started playing less than a month ago, and mesmer really caught my eye is a “flashy” way to play the game, but it never really stuck with me because A) it felt slow and B ) there seemed to be a glaring flaw in the clone/phantasm mechanic.

That glaring flaw seems to be that while phantasms can dish out 60% of your damage, as soon as your current target dies, they go bye bye. Doesn’t matter if there are 3 other mooks in your face, they will skedaddle as soon as your current target is dead. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or some kind of bug caused by my targeting settings in the game UI.

Dont put all your illusions on one target, use utility skills/swap between weapons to get more of them.

Shatter is better for leveling. Not only is F1 AoE, but it’s on a short cooldown and (paired with Dueling Deceptive Evasion) allows for easy killings.

Utilities should focus on AoE versus single target and you should not attempt to fight anything stronger than a Veteran solo due to Shatter lacking in extended PvE fights.

For example, if you’re an Asura Mesmer, you can slot Radiation Field and pair that with a Staff for Chaos Field. This gives you well-like AoE damage on a long cooldown for when you gather an extreme amount of enemies. Staff is good for short Illusion generation paired with the defensiveness if you need it. Greatsword is very offensive and can work well in single target shatter bursts. Sword is going to be your bread and butter even though Scepter has more Illusion generation. Offhands that are useful are all of them, bar Torch in niche circumstances. I highly suggest using Focus as your primary offhand. The pull is in a great spot right now and the Phantasm is very AoE friendly. Wait a little bit before you shatter it to get the most damage out.

Tl;dr: Shatter for leveling. It requires a lot of effort but is faster.

I did try the greatsword thing for a while, but the damage seemed lacking since even with 3 illusions up, the mooks will almost certainly run your way even if they don’t attack you much, which kind of cuts down on damage.

I figure maybe s/s and s/p power build would be good for an offensive set? 3 & 3 should get me into range. I just recall that the phantasm for sword and pistol dish out decent damage.

There is a leveling guide in my signature, feel free to give it a try.

If you like it and it works, you might even give it a bump… ^^

I did actually see that one on the sticky thread. I’m not sure if greatsword might be something I want to stick with once I get to lvl 21 and get Duelist spec that drops cooldown for sword and pistol skills. I can certainly see it being helpful during events with lots of trash mobs, and I have to run around chasing them.

Also not sure about focus because I’m too lazy to keep applying the speed buff on myself constantly. It’s not very mindless in the sense that I actually have to run over the buff line. At least elementalist I could just air attune and hit 4 every so often. I hear the Warden is stationary as well, so it wouldn’t be much help against a mob that moves a lot(anything ranged, which it ironically blocks).

GS is king in open world and solo leveling. Later on, most things will be dead before you even get in melee range, which will save you time.

Focus is more than just a speed buff. It is our swiss army knife especially for leveling. I highly recommend to fool around with the focus for a bit longer.

Hmm, I can certainly see some AoE potential with GS & S/F. 4&4 on Focus to yank them in, 5 is an AoE phantasm.

GS1 sucks. Most peoples’ experience with GS at first is feeling like it’s weak, and they are right…because they are trying to autoattack with it.
Only use GS for burst, then swap to your other weaponset for sustained damage.
Try to unload as much damage upfront as you can.
For example, I often start in sw/sw, summon a phantasmal swordsman, swap to GS, summon a phantasmal berserker, throw Mirror Blade, Mind Stab. If they are still alive (often they are not), I will shatter (Mind Wrack) after my next iSwordsman attack, or even instantly. Single regular mobs almost never survive that, but swapping to sword and getting an autoattack cycle or two should do the job after.

That’s an example of how I try to kill individual mobs really fast, but the principle is the same: you’re trying to line up as much of your damage to land about the same time as possible.
Focusing on shatters, as Esplen recommends above, is a mistake because shatter dps is terrible.
Focusing on phantasms, as seems natural, is a mistake because phantasms take time to get to full dps, and that resets when your primary target is dead.
Focusing on abilities is a mistake because mesmer abilities do less damage than other classes.

You have to combine all three damage sources, and get used to how each does its damage, in order to have reasonably fast kill times.

The damage rotations are in my guide, you start with GS burst, than switch to sword for sustain.

Let’s also remember that a Mesmer is VERY Trait-Orientated. It don’t start becoming powerful until after your second trait line is unlocked.

With a Warrior, a Thief and even an Engineer, I could pretty much smash through anything with one good traitline while leveling. But Mesmer requires the synergy of at-least 2 to really shine.

For the Focus, remember you should always do:

4 → 5.
Right kitten is about to finish, press 4 again to pull all the enemies together.

If you’re running Sword mainhand, feel free to follow up with a 3+3 combo to immobilize them in position, and then 2 for evasion+damage. When that ends, if the mob still isn’t dead, feel free to F1.

Faction.4013:

Let’s also remember that a Mesmer is VERY Trait-Orientated. It don’t start becoming powerful until after your second trait line is unlocked.

With a Warrior, a Thief and even an Engineer, I could pretty much smash through anything with one good traitline while leveling. But Mesmer requires the synergy of at-least 2 to really shine.

True enough, but I didn’t particularly enjoy Warrior/Thief. With warrior I found myself running around chasing after enemies a lot, and thief was just plain squishy. Condition grenadier was pretty fun to play however.

I would note however that the Dueling spec seems to have most of the offensive traits and even having part of that(still 30 hero points shy of Deceptive Evasion) seems to up the “kill speed” by quite a bit.

Dueling isn’t the powerhouse, but it does offer a ton of utility (which is typically what is sought out in traits).

For pure damage, you’re going to end up looking at either Domination or Illusions.

Keep in mind that when we say Mesmers are trait oriented, it is because a build for a Mesmer is based more around traits than utilities and weapons. Other professions usually have traits that back up their utilities and weapons instead of the other way around.

Hmm, I was thinking more along Duelist, Illusions, and Inspiration. It wouldn’t be pure damage, but more phantasm-centered utility.

You don’t need utility for a leveling build, you need to kill things fast. Inspiration is a waste of hero points until you get to 80

Well, given that the 3rd spec isn’t unlocked til 71, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference if you pick the wrong one anyway.

The main thing is that Dueling is almost mandatory to make leveling less brutal. Almost.

Esplen.3940:

The main thing is that Dueling is almost mandatory to make leveling less brutal. Almost.

Leveling without DE? Madness!

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Leveling without DE? Madness!

Isn’t that what everyone does up until about lvl 30 anyway? o.O

I’m liking the GS S/F setup anyway. Greatsword is pretty much absolutely necessary when dealing with mobs at range, especially in events where there are a ton of trash mobs. The damage also isn’t half bad at maximum range(group boss).

I think I might enjoy some utility over damage when you remember that we’re wearing light armor, and your illusions don’t necessarily draw aggro consistently.

Valiant.8016:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Leveling without DE? Madness!

Isn’t that what everyone does up until about lvl 30 anyway? o.O

I’m liking the GS S/F setup anyway. Greatsword is pretty much absolutely necessary when dealing with mobs at range, especially in events where there are a ton of trash mobs. The damage also isn’t half bad at maximum range(group boss).

I think I might enjoy some utility over damage when you remember that we’re wearing light armor, and your illusions don’t necessarily draw aggro consistently.

And this is the reason why most players that give mesmer a try stop before that. DE is such a boost to the profession and the killing speed, that neglecting it massively cripples you.

DE is what makes leveling feel like a totally different experience.

Valiant.8016:

Well, given that the 3rd spec isn’t unlocked til 71, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference if you pick the wrong one anyway.

I’d say the longest 9 levels are pretty important. Anything you can do to make them shorter will help.

Valiant.8016:

Isn’t that what everyone does up until about lvl 30 anyway? o.O

Well, these days I just use my lvl 30 scrolls XD
In seriousness, time to level decreases as you go up, so lvl 20-30 is faster/easier than 30-40, and considerably easier than the levels after that. That’s not because xp balances change (it’s a %-of-bar formula that adjusts for relative level), but because the mob scaling increases as you level (presumably done to account for adding secondary armor stats, getting traits and abilities, increase in player wealth, etc.).

Valiant.8016:

I’m liking the GS S/F setup anyway. Greatsword is pretty much absolutely necessary when dealing with mobs at range, especially in events where there are a ton of trash mobs. The damage also isn’t half bad at maximum range(group boss).

Well, since the purpose of this thread is to help you level in a way you are happy with, it sounds like mission accomplished! Remember always that what you enjoy comes first, and recommendations from other players are only important insofar as they can fill in where you’re not happy.
It is a fact that you will kill things faster with 3 damage traitlines than with 2+inspiration. It is a fact that players in general do not need the utility/defense from Inspiration while mapping outside HoT or the Maguuma Wastes.
Dodges, clone baffles, Blurred Frenzy and the occasional distortion are sufficient defense for any solo content outside the new stuff.

But if you like the increased durability from Inspiration over doing more damage, that’s fine, you’ll just kill things slower. Your enjoyment > what’s optimal (though people often don’t realize that they might enjoy what’s optimal more).

1) Go full glasscannon.

2) Grab a shield.

3) Practice you invulnerability / bloc rotations (sword #2, shield #4, well, f3)

4) watch non-necros try to follow up and die

5) Laugh off their corpses

He’s not level 80 so he won’t have the HP to unlock Chrono unless he’s spamming WvW/EotM.

Esplen.3940:

He’s not level 80 so he won’t have the HP to unlock Chrono unless he’s spamming WvW/EotM.

Can’t unlock Chrono until you unlock everything else anyway :P