Guild Wars 2

I’m looking for ideas on how to build a classic crowd control bard… ermm Mesmer for Guild Wars 2. There are so many guides, many of them I like. However, modern Mesmer that focuses on crowd control, party buffs and healing and DPS secondary is where I’m at, at the moment.

I have always played the master of crowd control whether it was DDO (Mississippee Queen), Neverwinter Nights and countless other D&D games.

The build will be for PvE first and foremost. 5-player instanced PvE is priority, then open world PvE.

So, looking for some good clean discussion on what works here in Guild Wars 2, as the variety seems so plentiful…

I don’t really think there’s a way to get this to work at least if you’re trying to keep up the thematics of a Bard. There’s no real sense of charming (unless you count dazing them), suggestion, Bardic Inspiration, etc. No instrument playing, and the closest thing orations are the Mantras.

There’s quite a bit of crowd control for a Mesmer, but it doesn’t really come in a Bardic flavor.

So I guess it really boils down to, what about the Bard are you trying to replicate?

Thanks Savacli.

Well I see your point but I actually see quite a bit of similarity in the areas of party buffing/inspiration, healing, and illusion. Just about any AOE or one on one crowd control action will make me feel pretty bard-like.

The more baddies I can confuse or control on the “battlefield” the better. I want to be a master of crowd control first and foremost. Im also wondering how much of the CC does or does not work in the newest or hardest content…

Hmm…what kind of content are you looking to get a build for? Open world PvE? 5-player instanced PvE? Raids? WvW? PvP? The best answer could change substantially depending on this.

Oh gosh, silly me. PvE first and foremost. 5-player instanced PvE is priority, then open world PvE.

We’ll be getting into WvW down the road, but Im not sure if I’ll be utilizing my Mesmer just yet.

Aandre the Giant.4615:

Thanks Savacli.

Well I see your point but I actually see quite a bit of similarity in the areas of party buffing/inspiration, healing, and illusion. Just about any AOE or one on one crowd control action will make me feel pretty bard-like.

The more baddies I can confuse or control on the “battlefield” the better. I want to be a master of crowd control first and foremost. Im also wondering how much of the CC does or does not work in the newest or hardest content…

I still don’t get the resemblance with the bard…
Mesmer may be, somewhat, of a CC class, but it’s a very selfish one despite its boonshare. Definitely the furthest thing from a healer you could find in the game… even with WoE in place…
Most of its healing (except for the well) is reserved to self, boonshare is only available by a long-CD signet, or a GM trait that’s equally long…
You cannot control anything in PvE efficiently because most mobs that last for more than 10 seconds are usually immune to anything resembling CC… And in WvW? pointless to even try with the amount of Invuln/evading/stability available on the field… You’re not punished for invulnerability like you are in PvP… people can stack it as long as they want, and that’s not withstanding stunbreak, which, any decent player, thinks to put on his bar… at least once.

I could give you a few builds (like the mantra lockdown one), or even a few I’m thinking atop of my head, but the fact remains that it just won’t work…
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On another hand:
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir
Mesmir

I just cannot unsee that

Pepsi.8907:

Mesmir

I just cannot unsee that

Haha yeah yeah…. you should have seen what I did to my English teachers back in the day… don’t think they’ll ever teach again…

On serious note, good information, I’m not surprised that there are blanket immunities to CC in tough or end game fights.

So far im level 25 and CC is working fantastic… illusions, debuffs, confusion/slowdowns in monster movements.

As for someone telling me something WILL NOT WORK… that’s a challenge. I’ve been told many times CC builds wont work.. but they are amazing utility characters.

I just dont know the game mechanics in GW2 yet, so I’d like to see what the boundaries are, what truly is or isnt possible in a full party (or less than full party).

Honestly, you could probably run the current meta builds at max level and it would certainly fill the role of being support since chronomancers are the best source of Quickness and the only profession that can provide Alacrity. Any mesmer build can bring decent CC just from Diversion shatters and most offhands:
Focus Offhand – This is great as a pull and is often used in dungeon/fractal content to group up mobs.
Shield/Pistol – Both offhands bring a stun

Even Greatsword brings a good knockback to the table.

If you’re level 25, you have a good ways to go before having to worry about max level builds. While leveling, I’d recommend just experimenting with all the weapons. When you hit max level and unlock the Chronomancer specialization, you can head to MetaBattle.com for a good source of builds.

This community really rocks.

I’m a different breed. If someone tells me I cant do something, I’m going to prove them wrong. Its a challenge to me. Game mechanics are key though and you guys are giving me the info I’ll need to be able to apply to the game mechanics I’m learning in game.

How does repec work? Can I reset some/all of my build at level 80?

Aandre the Giant.4615:

This community really rocks.

I’m a different breed. If someone tells me I cant do something, I’m going to prove them wrong. Its a challenge to me. Game mechanics are key though and you guys are giving me the info I’ll need to be able to apply to the game mechanics I’m learning in game.

How does repec work? Can I reset some/all of my build at level 80?

Go ahead and have fun, sincerely! The best way to learn your limits is to test them, and I’m honestly in love with lockdown mesmer, it’s a very fun build which will work against most mobs, but I am telling you, as someone who has over 4k hours in this game and did everything even though I’m mostly specialized in pvp: cc builds are just not efficient, but learning how interrupts works and the mechanics is still useful and interesting…

Respec is ezpz, equipment will cost money, but most run zerker in PvE and you can’t go wrong with it, if you want to change, go ascended, min max for wvw etc it will cost you a certain amount of cash and time because of runes, sigil accessories, etc… but equipment aside it is just a matter of switching traits and skills around, a matter of seconds and can be done as often as you want without costing anything

I have built over 1000 bards alone in the game Dungeons & Dragon Online (through the forums and in game), and my 2 posted bard builds have almost 1 million hits among them. Thousands of hours of playtime on them. So its with that expertise I seek the knowledge from folks like yourself Pepsi.

I am reading the wiki but you know as well as I do, wikis have their value but can only do so much… It’s the players who’ve mastered the game that are willing to share their knowledge who provide gems that someone like me is going to respect and value highly, even if we play in different ways.

I will be pretty much exclusively PvE and would like to be able to aid my party. I’m the founder of a very social tight knit guild who likes to run together a lot. Many of us are D&D backgrounds so strategy wont be a problem.

Top kill count doesnt bother me… its all about making my team better, all while being invaluable and effective in my own right. Multitasking is key the way I play. I dont need to be the best at any one thing , just the last man standing!!

Not to steer you away, as i have much love for my mesmer. But my herald feels very much more like what you are looking for. He aoe buffs the entire party, has very decent healing. Most of which is passive and could be passed along as “songs”. The herald to me feels like the minstrel class in most MMO’s tho some play it far different then I. It does sound like your somewhat new to gw2, so an elite spec is far from where you are at, but honestly i would be it has what you are looking for.

My 2 cents

brand new to the game… well a month so yeah, brand new

I’ll look at the Herald… but if there is no CC, I probably wont built it for this project

If you do look to another profession, Ranger would be the one I would recommend simply due to the Druid elite specialization. There’s not much of a healing role in this game overall since players can generally sustain themselves, but Raids are the one exception to this since you do need a dedicated healer for that content and currently that spot is almost always handled by a druid (the one exception is that eles can do this).

The Druid specialization uses the staff and has a ‘Celestial Avatar’ form that transforms your skills into almost all pure healing skills and druid builds also bring tons of buffs at the same time.

There’s not quite as much CC with druids, however, and you are still tied to the pet mechanic of Ranger, even when playing as a druid, so there’s that to consider.

However, I think you may still be happy with the role of a Chronomancer that brings wells and abilities to grant alacrity as well as quickness to the party since that’s also a big support role. At the same time, you do have some pretty significant CC. Feel free to check out the elite skill ‘Gravity Well’ as an example of this, even though it’s a bit uncommon to see that used in PvE since most take ‘Time Warp’ instead.

Awesome advice!! Yeah a bard is a Jack of All Trades, but a master of none… Id rather back off of healing if I have to and push more CC. Significant CC and buffs Chronomancer sounds like the ticket to ride.