Build Advice
Mesmers, at their core, are about misdirection and utility. They can’t really be played straight, because their skills are made to play like a musical instrument. To quickly get it out of the way- Chrono is a straight upgrade in terms of buildcraft, and works with every conceivable build type the Mesmer can pull together. While most run Quickness Boonshare loadouts, the truth is Chorno is a support spec that centers on internal alacrity, but radiates that power outward through every facet of its other traits.
For Sword, its placed in the meta for 2 reasons…. 1. Between the 2 main hands, it has the highest utility between its 3 skills, including a reliable boonstrip. 2. Sword 2 is both an Evade and a Damage burst, which is invaluable for Chorno Tanks in Raids.
As for Mesmer itself, its all about timing. Since you’ve been using Scepter, I imagine you’ve just been kiting, and randomly using shatters whenever you remember its there. With a sword build, you have to be more mobile, and use your shatters frequently. Even without Chorno, Phantasm/Shatter builds are among the strongest damage dealers in the game…. and if played well, almost impossible to take down. There is no real “trick” per-say, and is more about learning how your re-positioning skills work, and being fully aware of your traits.
A good training cross section is the Sw/Sw – GS Power Shatter build. Note this NOT an optimal build, but does work strongly in Pre-HOT maps. Its goal is to teach you how to generate Illusions, and use them as ammo for your shatter attacks. It also rewards a more aggressive melee style, but includes a number of “get out of jail free” traits in case you do take a big hit.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQNAscRnsIClphtqBmqBUrhFVDqcClYbnPZJHhMAjo4A-TxAPgAgK/AU/5VJIA-e
For runes, just use cheap power ones… this set is temporary, and will get replaced by a Meta set later on. Suggested- Vampirism, Priveteer, or Hoelbraks (pref for the Condi reduction)
The utility skills listed are for general purpose group support, and not integral to the build in any way….. you can replace them as you see fit.
There is no strict rotation to learn with this build, but you want to make an effort to space out illusion generation, rather then dump then out and try to burst with them. Open with a weaker clone skill (3 on sword, 2 on GS), then use the Phantasm skill, swap weapons, then toy with it for a bit (creating a 3rd illusion in the process). Your first goal is to learn shatter finishing; Basically the point where its taken enough damage that Mind Wrack can finish it off. Practice this on single enemies.
Once you’ve got this down fairly well, you’re next goal is chain kills across 3-4 enemies in sequence. You engage them one by one, and try to keep the momentum up. This is actually a hard thing to do with Mesmers, as their class design is geared more toward tackling large single targets.
Once you’re confident with that, practice that same rhythm on a single Vet, by chaining a series of shatters against it. Here you start becoming aware of 2 important things. Phantasms have your highest damage output over time, so let them get off at least 2 attacks before shattering them. Second, displacing yourself, and letting your illusions take arggo is a great way to avoid damage. Its around this time you start becoming aware of the 3 illusion limit…. so a side goal is be aware enough to not overwrite a phantasm with a clone on accident.
The next challenge is to navigate Orr. Undead there are a lot more diverse, and are strong enough to warrant the inclusion of Diversion and Distortion shatters to your kitten nal. Vet Abominations make great practice for distortion, given how hard they hit if they do land. You’ll also find lots of reasons to mix up your utilities.
As a side note…. you can, at any point, swap Domination for Illusions, and use traits 1-2-2 (or 1-2-1 for blinds). Domination front loads more damage, but Illusions gains more damage via shatter frequency.
The final challenge is try and solo a Champ. Despite being built for this purpose, its still a tough fight for Mesmers due to the sheer amount of HP they have. Diversion also wrecks break bars, so you should be making good use of that. This is where everything you need to know about a baseline mesmer comes into play…..how to build up illusions and stagger the shatters, utilizing various mobility skills, learning enemy attack timing to take advantage of your blocks and evades, and most importantly, how to maintain “cadence”.
This is what I was describing about Mesmer and musical instruments. Normally rotations are executed as quickly as possible, and tends to center on the player’s internal rhythm. With Mesmers, much of that awareness shifts to the target, as the defensive aspects have to be timed to counter incoming attacks. Its this ability to counter act, disrupt, or displace out of enemy attacks that makes Chrono Mesmers the current Meta Tank in all late game PvE content. Thats pretty mind blowing, considering Mesmer is designed as a utility class.
Finally, once you’ve unlocked Chornomancer, the dynamics of the class changes dramatically, as does the purpose of the rotations. However, at this point, you should be able to “feel out” cool downs without looking at the timers; and that plays heavily into taking advantage of the Chrono’s faster skill pacing.
I forgot to point out that the Chrono quickness build is actually a lot simpler then the Shatter builds in practice. Most of the effort is mentally juggling various states, in addition to defense if you’re tanking or covering down for a raid/fractal section.
This is the meta build….. but I can suggest a couple of changes.
https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Utility_DPS
Instead of Commander leggings, use all Zerks armor. Instead make one of the earrings Commanders. This will get you close to the same stats, but is much cheaper to swap out then an armor piece in case you need to drop toughness for some reason.
Overall Phantasms do over 60% of your damage, you can somewhat rely on them to contribute damage at range. If you had to swap for a reason, subbing GS for your non-blocking offhand can work in a pinch.
As a comment on HOT maps….. you don’t really need a different build to survive in modrem infested areas. Fighting them is like fighting really squishy Vets…. they hit hard, but have very obvious tells that are easy to respond to. Each also has distinct weakness, and half of them have break bars. Itzel Hylek are dangerous to everyone… so they’re going to be a pain in the ass no matter what; but you can reflect thirr attacks that if traited.
The Chak are a slightly different story. Chak normally fight as clusters, and the Devs expect players to use constant evasion tactics to deal with them. This is a slight problem for Mesmers, as they’re not well equipped to output significant AOE damage, and this makes fighting Chak a little frustrating if they surround you.
Beyond that…. just avoid trying to face tank, and getting around is not that hard.
(edited by starlinvf.1358)
First off, are we talking casual endgame (open world, some dungeons, some story missions and achievements) or actual endgame difficulty wise (fractals and more so raids)?
Two big differences there.
The former is where you are now and where you can improve with little effort by optimising your build, your gear and maybe some better runes/sigils. It’s quite open and relaxed and allows you a lot of freedom to experiment with different weapons and itemisation.
The later (especially raids) is quite restricting as far as gear choice and build goes due to the role mesmers fill in that content. We are main party support alacrity and quickness providers with occasional immunity and reflects.
Read up on the current meta builds on http://qtfy.eu/build/mesmer . Acceptable gear for mesmer is berserker, commanders and minstrel (maybe assassins). Condition damage builds are very situational and usually not run in raids.
As far as advice for melee, start fighting enemies without killing them just trying to stay alive as long as possible. Start with trolls, move on to imps and elementals, then move on to mini raptors and smokescales in HoT. Start using Sword+x in both weapon slots and leave the greatsword in you inventory.