Guild Wars 2

BUILDs – The Instance Mesmer (Dungeons/Fractals)

EDIT: Updated builds for the 12/10/2013 patch.

These are essentially the standard PvE phantasm builds for running dungeons and fractals. One is purely phantasm-based, with the other focusing on using mantras to maximize your personal and reflect damage.

Pure Phantasm: (10/20/0/25/15) In my opinion, 15% damage across all phantasms (Inspiration(25)) is far greater than Phantasmal Haste (Illusions (20)), which is beyond bugged and currently does not work for either the iSwordsmen or iWarden. This is the easier-to-use build better aimed at PuG runs.

Mantra/Phantasm: (0/30/0/25/15) With a sacrifice to phantasm DPS, you boost your personal DPS which includes the amount of damage you do with feedback and temporal curtain. This is the harder-to-use build better aimed at organized groups. This will give you an additional 12% damage for both you and your reflects. If you don’t like mantra of recovery, this will give you 8% more damage, which is still extremely nice.

Traits:

Pure Phantasm Domination (III [Empowered Illusions]), Dueling (II [Phantasmal Fury], IV[Blade Training] or IX[Duelist’s Discipline]), Inspiration (II[Glamour Mastery], VIII[Warden’s Feedback]), Illusions (III[Compounding Power])

Mantra/Phantasm Dueling (II[Phantasmal Fury], IX[Duelist’s Discipline] or IV [Blade Training], XI[Empowering Mantras]), Inspiration(II[Glamour Mastery], VIII [Warden’s Feedback]), Illusions (III[Compounding Power])

Weapon sets:

The following is the same for both builds.

When running dungeons:

Your primary weapon set will be Sword/(X + Y), where X and Y represent your choice of off-hand between the focus, pistol, and sword. If reflects are needed, run a focus as both skills are traited to reflect damage, and either the pistol or sword. If reflects are not needed, then run the sword and pistol as off-hands. For the most run on-farm dungeons (SE p1/3, CoE p1/2/3, CoF p1/3, etc…) you will not need to switch to ranged weapons and will want to spend most of your time with dual-melee to maximize your damage. The biggest exception is Lupicus in Arah. Many ad hoc groups range him and in this case, you will want to swap out to your greatsword for the fight (though in his phase 3, melee-ing, even if his health is only slowly dropping, is more than manageable). Additionally, make sure to carry a staff and torch for phases where you need to run past trash mobs as these are great for it…do not use them on bosses. Ever.

When running fractals:

The same weapon set applies here as it does for dungeons, but contrary to the meta-opinion, there is more emphasis on range. A typical strategy for most bosses, at some point during the fights, requires a ranged weapon. For some it’s necessary, such as the second Archdiviner fight on cliffside and the second phase for Captain Ashym in the Urban battlegrounds; and for others, it’s either optional or a standard PuG strategy, such as the Rampaging Ice Elemental, Mossman, or the Elemental Fire Shaman. You will need either the Scepter or GS for these cases, and they differ based on the fight. For example, the Scepter is great for Mossman and Captain Ashym, as with an off-hand phantasm, it will result in higher damage than the greatsword. For the Elemental Fire Shaman, the greatsword is often preferred for the iZerker’s AOE capability on the adds. Just choose what you are most comfortable with. Do your best to stay in melee when you can, but swapping to ranged for the 10 seconds to wait for the weapon swap cooldown and gather your bearings is not the end of the world.

Gear:

For both builds: run berserker/assassin’s armor, weapons, and trinkets (berserker’s is better in a crit-chance optimizing party, assassin’s otherwise, although it does not matter much, the difference is between 1-2%); Mesmers are naturally tank with our high health-pool and access to blurred frenzy, that other armor sets are unnecessary.

Sigils/Runes:

Armor: If you are not in a crit optimizing party such as a standard PuG group, then Ruby Orbs are the way to go as the stats will transfer to your phantasms. If you do run with a set group, that focuses on getting crit chance to 100 (such as making sure to have fury/banner/spotter/etc), then Scholar runes are superior in every way as the extra 45 power and 10% damage is better than the additional 4% crit damage from ruby orbs.

Weapons:

Superior Sigil of Battle on MH Sword and Superior Sigil of Perception on your most used off-hand. Use a Superior Sigil of Accuracy on your secondary off-hand for the crit-chance for reflects. Since you are most likely swapping to greatsword when you need to back out for a brief period, a Superior Sigil of Energy is recommended. If you are in a might-optimized group, then a battle sigil is wasted, and you should run either a force or a night sigil. If you care a lot about min-maxing, then run (force/night)/slaying for the MH/OH depending on the dungeon and when your perception stacks reach 25; and you won’t need the accuracy in this case as you are likely crit-capping without it.

Food: Potent Master Maintenance Oil and Omnomberry Pies/Ghosts. The crit-on-heal helps with a mesmer’s survivability and it comes with precision. However, if you feel the crit-on-heal to be lackluster, then the Bowl of Curry Butternut Squash Soup is what you want. You could also go for power-based food if you are in a group hitting the crit cap without it.

Skills:

Healing: If you are using the mantra build, then you you will slot Mantra of Recovery. If you are using the pure phantasm build, then you have a choice between Ether Feast and Signet of the Ether. The former, in my opinion, is still your best heal; but the latter let’s you start the fight with an immediate 3 phantasms and will provide healing over time. However, if you need to pop the heal, you lose that healing over time for 35 seconds….of which I am not a fan. I would recommend Ether Feast, but it’s up to you. If you slot Signet of the Ether, I would recommend taking deceptive evasion to help keep 3 illusions up constantly.

Utility:

The main three that I run with the phantasm build are:

Blink: This gets out of everything, and for me, is useful everywhere. Great in getting out of red circles, moving when you are rooted, and a great tool when you are kiting something.

Signet of Inspiration: The passive is worthless (unless you get aegis); however, the active is great. In the start of a fight, when everyone pops their group boons (such as might), this is great for doubling up on those and going straight into a Time Warp. In a min-maxing group, this is the epitome worthless and you should slot something else.

Feedback: The crutch of the build as this is traited. Useful everywhere you need reflects. If I know a boss has nothing I can possibly reflect, I will switch this out, though: Old Tom in the harpy fractal is an example of when I switch out this skill. This is rarely removed from my bar.

If you are running the Mantra build, then you typically want to have:

Mantra of Resolve: Replace Signet of Inspiration with this. It has been buffed to be quite useful for both yourself and the party.

Mantra of Concentration: Replace blink with this. If you need a stun break, this gives you access to 2! This is also extra useful if you are in a group melee-ing Lupicus. Pop this if he uses his bubble and the entire party has a get-out-of-lupi-jail free card.

Other options include:

Null Field: Very useful on fights with heavy conditions (CoE Golem, removing vulnerability in dredge fractal, etc..). Useful for those melee-ing on Bloomhunger. I replace Signet of Inspiration with this probably half the time, especially if I am running without a guardian.

Decoy: Great for when you need more stealth for trash-skipping and/or an extra stun break.

Portal: A great help when you need to speed things up, such as swamp fractal or using it to help players who can’t make a jump or run in a skipping part of a dungeon path. (i.e., in Arah path 3, as long as the Mesmer makes it through the run to the mage (second boss), he or she can lay a portal, waypoint, and then walk to the first big room with all the mobs, lay the portal, and then those who didn’t make it are through the skipping portion.) Learning the best ways to use this will make your team love you.

Mimic: This can be great, but it can also be worthless. A perfect time to use this is during the elemental fire shaman fight in fractals. Pop this if you are being attacked by lava elementals and win.

Arcane Thievery: A very situational skill, and it’s worth mentioning to those who don’t use it. When in the aquatic fractal jellyfish, this skill, in combination with signet of inspiration, is wonderful in passing 25 stacks of might. This is also good for stealing boons from dredges in the dredge fractal.

Phantasmal Disenchanter: Again, a situational choice. Useful on the CoE Tower golem (since it can no longer be port-bugged) and the Ettin on the harpy fractal.

Elite:

Mass Invisibility when you need stealth (such as almost any run sequence in any dungeon, I’m looking at you Arah) and Time Warp in every other situation. Note: Running Moa Morph at the Jade Maw is great for lulz.

Thanks for making this. My mesmer alt just got to 80 and this is a great guide on where to begin with builds.

Good job. I’ve been debating all week if about if I wanted to write this up. These are pretty much what I use for PvE, with some minor trait differences. I tell my friends to use this setup for PvE because it offers a tremendous amount of flexibility.

I would change the name of the build though. Yes, these are standard traits for PvE, but the cutter of cookies makes it hard to reference.

The builder you used can be switched to a PvE mode so you can put gear in and food. All and all good write up though.

@Cain: Thanks!

@Captaineemo: good idea, i’ve switched the name to match its purpose. I also realized I forgot a food section, I’ll be adding that soon, as well as general fixes.

@Hexxen: Ahh, thanks! I’ll definitely redo them.

we discussed a lot on this when patch went out.
And definitely for FRACTALS (and Others dungeons also) you need IC to be effective.

you need those 25 points in illusions to have more reliable dps and more reflect.

Tested it a lot and 0/20/0/25/25 was my choice wherever other players preferred 10/10/0/25/25

but for sure if you use a focus and its trait you need IC many players tested that and decided to get those points.

I tried to make 20/20/0/30/0 work for a week…its simply inferior.

@OP

• I never recommend a build which traits different weapon sets at the same time. You always ditch away one of those. Usually I’m not a fan of it anymore, but getting IC might be the better choice here.
• Don’t use Mass Invisibility in Dredge Fractal Bomb part. The dredges will steal the bombs. This part is meant to be zerged to cause repair cost; bad design.
• Don’t use Sigil of Force as Mesmer.
• If you use Signet of inspiration as default skill and have sigil of battle on, better also use Runes of Altruism (at least 2) and Ghost Pepper popper. In a Guardian or Warrior party this might not be needed.
• Learn to use iDisenchanter in some situations.

@Lord Byron
keep your discussion of “superior build” in your threads. Seems like you don’t accept other opinions than your own.

your problem is that you are discussing a phantasm build created by Skoteinos.4213
Explicitly for fotms and dungeons

And the same player tried to adapt the build and came out exactly with “your” build.
20/20/0/30/0

Then after some day testing of many players most of us decided to go with IC.

LordByron.8369:

i didn t say its MY build nor thakittens superior.

I said just that for FRACTALS (the thing i played most in the game) you need IC.

Wow … I wonder how I’ve played FotM before … even without IC. Since they moved it. I must be crazy.

in short…
I don t accept opinions

You take an obsolete build, and when people says its already been discussed by original creator and other players you answer

Seems like you don’t accept other opinions than your own.

I should just remember wich were the reason to get IC back:

1) 2 illusions deals more than 1
2) if your target dies your illusions dies too
3) iWarden is stupid….if target moves he just fails but its still the best DPS you have
4) iWarden uptime and attack rate = reflect uptime (thakittens the Whole point of the build in fotms)
5) IC makes up for iZerker CD
6) your illusions dies often anyway and are your main dps tool (and reflect)
7) other illusion traits you get (compounding power and phantasmal haste that are not that good but are decent at least even bugged as they are).

All this is compared to what you lose:
depending on where you remove those 20 points. (see original discussions)

And many other things already discussed….

I wrote a lot of stuff but this forum hates me.
I have IC because i run 30 in illusion (call it hybrid?) and of course its nice to have for weapon skills since i usually run glamours as utility. When i slot disenchanter its also nice to have. This and phantasmal haste help to boost your reflection thanks to warden.
Im not sure if its a must have for every Phantasm build but its without doubts one of the best traits.

I also dislike Gs and blade training in the same moment. Arcane thievery is useful to steal boons from dredges before landing null field and burst them. If you are on uncategorized fractal with bad pugs you may want to try scepter (i cant understand why you run two swords mh), block/blin and melee range clones are really nice together with focus of hand.
Also, when you say bosses have many moves that one shot your phantasms, what do you do in those situations? watch them die or pop mind wrack? if it happens to shatter you can understand the benefits of might stacks, additional damage and confusion stacks for what it counts.
There was more but im tired to wrote everything again.

in uncategorized you get really near 100% reflect/distortion uptime against harpies.
You don t need anything else.

When illusion dies you simply summon another.
That is why you need IC.
You can t keep often 3 phantasms alive and hitting in fotms.
As in other dungeons having IC is good to replace ead phantasms asap.

Shatter is not optimal anyway if you play phantasms (only distortion is good)

If you see your illusions are going to die (you know their hp pool, you know their position, you know boss attacks) you can shatter and then summon new illusions. more damage, more might stacks.
If i only have one illusion and it has a red aoe under its feet i shatter and then summon another one. If i understood you let it die and summon a new one.
Distortion has a massive cd if you dont have points in illusion (we do, others dont) so its not something you use on every harpy. With “you dont need anything else” you mean you do that phase without main hand? I you read again you would see that i still use focus, the only difference is that i use scepter when i want/need to.

The issue is that often just an illusion is gong to die while another or other 2 are fine.
So you don t want to lose active phantasms to shatter.

Also luckily illusions are immune to some AoE in fotms.

For distortion, its not that long compared to other profession invulnerabilities.
But between BF, iWarden, IC, phantasmal haste, and wardens feedback, feedback, etc you shouldn t even need to shatter for distortion.

I use shatter for distortion mostly when i really have to ress someone or when i approach an invulnerable harpy :/

I agree. Its situational and in those situations where illusions dont die against aoe you can really enjoy your dps.
You feel distortion faster because you run 25 in illusion, builds like the OP ones dont have that advantage.

no mostly because i used an ele before the mesmer.

And if you have an idea of ele CDs ,anything is fast compared to them.

@Nretep: Personally, I like the freedom given to me during a fight when traiting both weapons when I am running with a greatsword, although I see where this can be inefficient, especially if I stick to just one or the other for this most of the fight. For my playstyle, there also seems to be a lack of other options, so I just stick with these by default. I’ll throw in alternatives to them, as this is a good idea. Also, I forgot about iDisenchanter. I’ll add him on and suggest where I have found him to be useful. As for Mass Invisibility, I seem to only notice them stealing bombs when a group uses port to run away before the bombs explode. Next time I run dredge, I’ll check this and change accordingly. On a greatsword, if I know that Sigil of Energy will not be needed, what do you recommend besides sigil of force? Fire or Air? What makes the sigil of force useless on a mesmer…the fact that it doesn’t affect illusions?

@Levitas: If I see an attack in which I know all my current phantasms (be that 1,2, or 3) will die, I will f3 shatter for vulnerability (f4 if i need the distortion such as when I am myself in an AoE field and can’t get out through other means). I can see where the might is useful, but I tend to only shatter maybe once or twice per fight (I have a tendency to forget to shatter, and if that makes me a total noob, oh well). I’ll run two MH swords when I am not in a GS mood, and this is because with a superior sigil of battle (and I’ll probably switch to battle on both MHs when I can afford it), I can weapon swap every 9 seconds to gain 3 additional stacks of might.

Thank you for the constructive comments!

@LordByron: In your reference to using Skoteinos’ old build, yes, this is quite similar. I read the discussion which led him or her to eventually switch to (10/10/0/25/25), along with your other option of (0/20/0/25/25), and so there is no reference to the old way. I still find this to be perfectly viable over taking 25 points in illusions, so I wanted to make it available for players looking for PvE builds to find more than one option. Also, when you say “the other players have spoken”, I only recall a few people in the discussion, which is not a representative sample of the player base. Additionally, there are a plethora of WvW/PvP builds on this site, and all of them have their unique characteristics. I do not see why there can only be one true PvE build, when this is not the case for WvW. While, when tested, you might find (0/20/0/25/25) better for you, and if played “properly”, then best for everyone ; I personally find either of the two I posted more conducive to my play style. We have 70 points to spend and there isn’t just one way to spend them. I really like the new builds you and Skoteinos use, and I have tried them. I just prefer either of the ones I posted. That doesn’t make either of them a superior build.

yet i didn t write “superior build”.
i wrote
I tried to make 20/20/0/30/0 work for a week…its simply inferior.

That means that from my tests (and other players out of 3 threads the day after the nerf) it was inferior.

That imply obviously my pov.
like how much you need reflect, party composition, etc etc etc.
I tend to need reliable stuff because i pug a lot. and can t rely that much on party.

LordByron.8369:

That means that from my tests (and other players out of 3 threads the day after the nerf) it was inferior.

By saying something is inferior, are you not then implying that the alternative is superior?

Anyways, I apologize for claiming you meant that when you did not. Also, I will probably re-label the title once more so that it does not come across as me claiming this as the only option, just one possible option.

I totally understand your need for something reliable since you pug a lot. I, personally, find that both the original and your new build are still reliable, so I find both to be solid builds. I think I am down 4 seconds or so without reflect in my build, which is only noticeable in the harpy fractal, and since there is typically a guardian in a party comp, at least for me, this does not pose too much of a problem for me.

Bumbler.7581:

@Nretep: Personally, I like the freedom given to me during a fight when traiting both weapons when I am running with a greatsword, although I see where this can be inefficient, especially if I stick to just one or the other for this most of the fight. For my playstyle, there also seems to be a lack of other options, so I just stick with these by default. I’ll throw in alternatives to them, as this is a good idea. Also, I forgot about iDisenchanter. I’ll add him on and suggest where I have found him to be useful. As for Mass Invisibility, I seem to only notice them stealing bombs when a group uses port to run away before the bombs explode. Next time I run dredge, I’ll check this and change accordingly. On a greatsword, if I know that Sigil of Energy will not be needed, what do you recommend besides sigil of force? Fire or Air? What makes the sigil of force useless on a mesmer…the fact that it doesn’t affect illusions?

I don’t like any of the weapon traits expect the focus one, but that’s my opinion. If you feel that you need the other two ones, feel free to select them. Another viable excuse would be “no other useful thing in xyz line”.
pDisenchanter is situational but unbeatable in those situations. I even learned to like it as illusion summoning with lowest-CD as utility, sounds wierd, but the situation excused it. We were running CoE p2, group-meleeing alpha^2. I use the staff for defensive/ supportive purposes and its #2 is not good if you have to stay in the group. So next to pWarlock I put pDisenchanter into my skills just to shatter them for group vigor. We managed to get >40s vigor. Even a more peculiar situation and DE might’ve been the better choice <.<.
But the pDisenchanter has its uses whenever a boss continuously buffs itsself. CoE p1~3 tower golem; dredge fractal preboss; harpy fractal ettin.
The bombs in the dredge fractal are mean. If you use MInvi to get to the bombs, it’s not long enough, if you use it to get away, the dredges get the bombs. For that I usually tend to get Feedback, pWarden, Sword#2 and sylvari ulti for invul. Just lay the bombs and stand your ground as long as possible. If MInvi has its uses, tell me. I even use Moa on tentacles of the jade maw … rather than MInvi.

Sigil of Energy is wasted (imo) since we have perm vigor (dueling 5). Sigil of Force is barely useful for non-shatter skills since our illusions don’t inherit it.
I’d rather get an stat-stacking sigil, sigil of blood (life leech) of sigil of battle into it, if you intend to use SoI.

Nretep.2564:

pDisenchanter is situational but unbeatable in those situations. I even learned to like it as illusion summoning with lowest-CD as utility, sounds wierd, but the situation excused it.

If you use MInvi to get to the bombs, it’s not long enough, if you use it to get away, the dredges get the bombs. For that I usually tend to get Feedback, pWarden, Sword#2 and sylvari ulti for invul. Just lay the bombs and stand your ground as long as possible. If MInvi has its uses, tell me. I even use Moa on tentacles of the jade maw … rather than MInvi.

Sigil of Energy is wasted (imo) since we have perm vigor (dueling 5). Sigil of Force is barely useful for non-shatter skills since our illusions don’t inherit it.
I’d rather get an stat-stacking sigil, sigil of blood (life leech) of sigil of battle into it, if you intend to use SoI.

Great examples (especially since the Golem in CoE can no longer be port-bugged), I may steal (with credit) some.

Any run path, really. If you do not have a thief, this can help at the start of a run. If you do have a thief, you can extend the group stealth 5 seconds longer, 2 extra seconds if you pop veil when that is over.

Even with perm vigor, I find the sigil of energy to help me survive loads, but I could just be a scrub. And hrmm, I might consider, in cases where I know I will not melee, having two greatswords with sigils of battle, to use with SoI, as you say.

I actually meant Sigil of Strength, not Sigil of battle … but well, both have their uses.

Updated build and guide for the December 10th patch.

crazy nike posted these same builds the other day on twitch. http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt/c/3380103
It’s almost like you took em and called them yours. Interesting.

mikeew.8607:

crazy nike posted these same builds the other day on twitch. http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt/c/3380103
It’s almost like you took em and called them yours. Interesting.

These builds and guide were created on July 17th. How could he have stolen them from nike, he made them 5 months ago?

mikeew.8607:

crazy nike posted these same builds the other day on twitch. http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt/c/3380103
It’s almost like you took em and called them yours. Interesting.

Easy on the accusations there, buddy. 10/20/0/25/15 and 0/30/0/25/15 are blatantly obvious builds that every mesmer worth their salt already knew were going to be the new meta way back when the Dec. 10th patch preview was announced.

How much dps is lost by using centaur runes instead of ruby orbs?

mikeew.8607:

crazy nike posted these same builds the other day on twitch. http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt/c/3380103
It’s almost like you took em and called them yours. Interesting.

I did not know this twitch existed until just now. Also, I never claim that they are my builds, I clearly state they are standard builds for running dungeons and fractals. These have resulted from discussions I have had or read with others on this forums. I initially wrote these up a few months ago to help lessen the plethora of “need PvE build” threads that pop up very often on this forum. For PvE, no one person in the game owns a certain build (PvP/WvW excluded). They result from community or group discussion on the optimal way to play a certain class.

Also, I have just watched the twitch you linked and he suggests going 20 into illusions for Phantasmal Haste which is not a good choice. 20% more damage for one useful phantasm is not nearly as good as 15% damage for the pHaste-broken phantasms such as iSwordsmen and iWarden (and even iZerker, when the situation calls).

Valarauka.2719:

mikeew.8607:

crazy nike posted these same builds the other day on twitch. http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt/c/3380103
It’s almost like you took em and called them yours. Interesting.

Easy on the accusations there, buddy. 10/20/0/25/15 and 0/30/0/25/15 are blatantly obvious builds that every mesmer worth their salt already knew were going to be the new meta way back when the Dec. 10th patch preview was announced.

Exactly.

Ryn.6459:

How much dps is lost by using centaur runes instead of ruby orbs?

I do not know the exact DPS numbers, but assuming you hit the crit cap without the precision from ruby orbs, then you are gaining 45 power and some extra time for iDuelist bleeds which isn’t too useful, but losing 12% crit damage. Additionally, both the 4 and 6 bonus on Centaur runes are worthless in fractals and dungeons (except for maybe run phases). I do not have the numbers, but it is highly likely a DPS loss and you are much better off running Scholar runes over Centaur.

So you are swapping from sword/focus to sword/pistol? Don’t the swords share the same cd?

XeRauS.1073:

So you are swapping from sword/focus to sword/pistol? Don’t the swords share the same cd?

Yes, but –
1. the primary use of your main-hand weapon is the autoattack, which has no cd.
2. having Blurred Frenzy available when you need it is pretty useful.

Nothing you could swap to would really be of more benefit, since you want to be melee in most of your fights and sword auto is the best damage you can put out.