Guild Wars 2

Mesmer can be quite tricky to build, especially when it comes to utility skills since the Mesmer seems to have the most niche of utility skills of all classes imo.

so, i bet everyone has their trio of utility skills that suit their play style the most, i’m interested to know which combo everyone uses

for myself i run feedback, mirror images, and portal.
-feedback because it’s awesome to combo field a group of enemies, and can be a haven from projectiles to stand in, or a hell of a trap for ranged enemies.
-mirror images because i’m a shatter mesmer, having constant illusions to use distortion and cry of frustration, as well as for inflicting bleeding with my gs.
-portal because it is very helpful in jumping puzzles, dungeons, and defending outposts in wvw where i can do a commando style counter attack from the walls.

Right now I mostly run with Feedback/Blink/Portal. I will swap out Feedback with Decoy if I need some invisibility to portal bomb and I sometimes think about switching out Blink for Mirror Images for shattering too, but getting out of snares is really useful that I haven’t been able to swap those.

This is what I used before switching to my Crit-Mantra-Build:
Mirror Images
Signet of Midnight
Arcane Thievery
This would give me 2 stun breaks and one removal of up to three conditions. Not very useful for most pve situations probably.

I am now going for an all mantra build, focusing on crit dmg more than cond dmg. So this is my current setup:
Mantra of Concentration (stun break)
Mantra of Resolve (remove up to 2 conditions)
Mantra of Distraction / Mantra of Pain (still playing around with these)
Of course I changed my build to reflect these changes, giving me 3 mantra uses before having to rechannel and 4% more dmg for each readied mantra (which is why I need that third mantra even if there would be more useful skills. Same goes for Mantra of Recovery instead of Ether Feast)

As you can see my main focus lies on stun break and condition removal.

I like to use iDefender, Feedback and Null Field.

- iDefender is supposedly decent for damage mitigation, even though I doubt it works. It’s also a supposedly decent buff for melee players.

- Feedback makes for a decent ethereal field to leap into/out of and most of like chaos armor when it’s blasted on the party. Since most things like to shoot at my mesmer at the exclusion of all else, even after my death, I’m gonna reflect as much as I can.

- Null Field functions in one of two ways: mass condition/boon removal or an ethereal field to do things in. Usually both.

For sPvP, I use Blink, Decoy and Mantra of Resolve.

Shatter in wvwvw, portal, blink and mirror immage, al 3 is core of the build. Elite I say timewarp for wvwvw as you often run with atleast 1 friend and the bennefit get dubbeled. Also good for snowball staff clones or just stomps.

Decoy, Mirror Images, and Signet of Illusions(? the extra clone health one). Yeah…

This is only for free roaming and pvp it changes during pve to accomodate to the party needs.
Blink, Arcane thievery, Decoy and the Elite i use Mass invisibility( if i’m roaming ),Time Warp (in big groups).
I know Arcane thievery is still a bit buggy but is my only condition removal and when it works is awesome. I also change between blink and portal depending on the situation.

Mirror Images, Decoy and Blink. Swapping Blink for either Null Field or Feedback.

Played around with some Mantras, and they seem cool once you start to use em.

Only got Time Warp unlocked so far but im liking it. Id probably pick the Stealth Wall over Mass Invis if i had to choose a group stealth.

Decoy~avoid and evade, then strike :P
Feedback~ vs ranged enemies, watch them destroy themselves :P also a good protection.

3rd one depends, mostly either the condition removing mantra (handy vs poison and burning, and you can use it more than null field), blink, or signet of illusions, really depwnds on the enemy :p

By far the most-used one of mine is Feedback. The skill is absurdly powerful. Some PvE mobs 1-shot themselves on it (mass-fire reflectable projectiles :P ).
In WvW, it’s a complete show-stopped whenever you’re fighting in a gate, on a bridge, or even in open combat.

Next one would be Arcane Thievery. So many nice tricks you can pull with that one, in PvE.

Decoy, Nether Field, Feedback.

Decoy is great for getting out of sticky situations.
Nether Field is great if a mob has a large condition (or buff)
Feedback is great because it’s 0 cast time, no need for LoS, doesn’t interrupt casting and the combo field is great with iDuelist.

Decoy and Blink I always have on me. They work great both individually, and as a combo. For my third utility slot I switch between Portal, Feedback, Mantra of Resolve, and Signet of Domination in Worlds PvP. Portal and Feedback speaks for themselves, the mantra can be a life saver when running away from zergs (it removes immobilize), the signet I use for the stun effect after I’ve pulled enemies down from walls.

Honorable mentions; Arcane Thievery. It has a permanent spot on my third utility slot in sPvP.

i just cannot get rid of decoy/blink. Way too good skills on the bar

For PvE I usually run Null Field, Feedback and Radiation field. Since I play a melee (sword focus) reflect / control build I like keeping all the enemies in melee range using temporal curtain for the pull, illusionary leap to root them, iwarden for AoE damage along with sword 2. Place a radiation field and feedback to reduce damage and negate projectiles. My favorite dungeon build.

In WvW I’ll usually sub out null field and radiation field for blink and decoy, maybe portal if I’m trying to avoid confrontation and need quick escapes.

Blink
Portal
Arcane Thievery

Blink because it is a stun-breaker and instant cast movement skill. It always feels so good when you blink mid-stomp to land the stomp on that enemy Thieve or Mesmer that just teleported away with their downed2 skill.

With the recent annoying cool down nerf to Portal, I am experimenting with other utilities to take it’s place… since 90 second cool down makes it almost worthless for PvE (can only use it for 60 seconds, the portal itself only lasts for 10 seconds, full 90 sec c/d starts if you use the 10 second portal.. not useful for PvE bosses or anything anymore). I still use Portal all the time in WvW and sPvP though.

Arcane Thievery, even though that skill bugs out so much, the odd time that it does actually work it can be so much fun.

Since the unneeded Portal cool down nerf, I’ve been experimenting with Feedback, Mirror Image and Illusionary Defender.