Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I have a lvl 80 thief and guard, and a bunch of other toons in their 30s-50s, but my mesmer is brand spankin’ new (lvl 12 only). I’ve always meant to start leveling my mesmer but I’ve been really busy lately, finally found some time to do some serious GW2-ing! I mainly do PvE and sometimes WvW.

So with this Mesmer I’ve heard guildies and some people in forums say that if you want to make a GC/high burst toon, mesmers are the way to go (generally my play style is very defense oriented, so I’m looking to branch out a little!). If GC or high burst mesmers are really viable, I have a few questions.

First, is it a good idea to start playing a high burst spec at lower levels (to gain some experience) or will this just lead to a lot of death? I’ve heard that going staff sword/pistol condi spec is very good for leveling but I was wondering if there was a bursty alternative (killing things fast is always fun!)

Second, from my experience leveling in PvE, the biggest issue is mob control and either avoiding damage (my thief) or tanking it (my guard). What’s a good way mesmers can handle a mob? Currently I just kite and bring a bunch of clones take things down one by one, it works fine but its long and boring.

Thanks in advance!

Plenty viable, I primarily run shatters…unless I need to trait for reflects and have very little in the way of issues in general pve (except the occasional biting off more than I should have and hating to have to run away heh). Mesmer is fairly slow until the level 40 mark when you can get your master traits unlocked, deceptive evasion is a huge + to clone generation for shatter fodder. Mesmer’s weak point in my opinion is good reliable aoe for tagging mobs in large zerg events (this is mostly due to mechanics with having to have a viable target to summon your illusions and not because they lack the damage, most of the time the engi’s, necro’s and ele’s well really any class that can place aoe without a target will have the mobs dead before you can get your illusions out). It is slow killing but the staff is an amazing defensive weapon with the ability to short distance teleport every 8 seconds 6 if traited and for chaos storm to blink or leap through. I personally favor sword/focus and staff (yes even on a power build) to give me a good mix of offensive and defensive play. If you have pvp’d at all you know mesmer’s biggest burst really comes from blurred frenzy/ mind wrack combo. At level 80 that combo alone is enough to drop normal mobs. As you level you will get a better feel for it, just don’t get discouraged by the slowness of the early levels it really does get amazingly strong after 40.
edit: I know a lot of people complain about the phantasmal warden being difficult to use but focus has so much synergy between temporal curtain and the iwarden, you can place your iwarden then drop curtain on top of it for a good whirling aoe cleanse (similar to the effect that whirling wrath does with the gs from guardian) which that is another area mesmer or at least shatter mesmer can be lacking is condition removal, though conditions are really not much of an issue pre orr in my opinion but it’s good to use ahead of time to get the feel for the timing of it all

Well, burst builds with mesmers are really good, and shater builds are the ones that can reach the highest burst of them imh. A lil thing to keep in mind…. compared to the other high burst class (thieves) we can spike dmg even more but we need to use quite a lot of skills at the same time: a hief would stealth and backstab, maybe add a steal there. A mesmer would have to get 3 ilusions up, inmovilise his target and blurred frenzy + shatter at the same time. Burst might be higher but takes more preparation.

As for what to use to lvl?? Well you can lvl with power builds from start without much problem. Mesmer tends to start low, but they only get stronguer and stronguer as they lvl. Sword/Pistol, Sword/Focus, Greatsowrd and Staff are very good starter weps. Personally i just love staff, it has some of the best defensive skills we have and its still good/decent (depending on traits also) on powerbuilds. Keep in mind we are VERY trait dependant, some skills go from crap to awesome with traits.

As how mesmers handle mobs…. well, we rely in not taking dmg in the first place. We have some realy nice skills than make us invulnerable, clones that take aggro often enough in pve, reflects, stealths and teleports. Basically we dance with our enemys kiting, porting away and going into mele range and back to ranged.

Youll also find this suggestion all over the forums…. first 5 trait points epend them in ilusions line to get the 20% reduction cooldown on all ilusions (it includes phantasms and clones). Also at start decoy and mirror images will speed your clone generation a LOT. Once you reach lvl 40 you can reskill and get Deceptive Evation to create a clone on dodge. From that point youll start going from good to amazing.

Thanks for the reply guys that’s very helpful!

Quick question, I understand how the staff is an excellent defensive weapon but I’m not following how someone can use the staff in a burst build when it seems to be built for condi damage. Is it used more like a utility thing, i.e. you need defense NOW so you swap to staff but otherwise stay on sword/focus 90% of the time? Or are there interesting synergies?

EDIT: Also, I’m throwing out the “Burst Mesmer build” phrase without knowing exactly what that means for a mesmer. For my thief it meant going 30 into critical strikes and 20 into shadow arts and acrobatics, and belatedly I realized mesmer mechanics are a whole different world. What’s a typical burst mesmer allocation with sword/focus and I guess staff (even though I’m still confused how it is used in a burst spec?)

Staff does okay physical damage. The conditions it applies adds to your damage nicely even without condition gears. However the main reason people use the staff is because of its defensive capabilities, helping us stay inside combat with boons and huge in-combat mobility. Phase retreat is an immediate clone spawn and a backwards blink. This single skill is a huge lifesaver already. Add to that chaos armor and chaos storm, in which the latter you can trigger another chaos armor with sword leap.

EDIT. Based on your edit. Do check out Osicat’s guides as he has many shatter builds for you to check out.