Guild Wars 2

Greetings All,

First, I want to thank all the great posters on this forum. It is great to see so many builds, discussions, video links, etc. I have been reading and watching allot of video since I hit 70, considering that I was going to be hitting 80.

Thank you in advance for your input!

Q1: Shatter or Phantom Build to Start With?
It seems like most of the builds that people seem to extoll the most on this forum are shatter based or Phantom builds. What isn’t clear to me, which is better when you are starting out? What is more desired by fellow players?

Q2: What should be the first exotic set for armor?
It seems that the popular gear sets I see referenced on the forums for both Shatter and Phantom builds is Berserker, Knights, and Valkyrie. Where should I start? I know ideally you should have multiple sets depending on the situation, but when you are starting out don’t have the luxury of infinite gold to get all the sets immediately.

Q3: What should be the first set of weapons?
This question mirrors the first. I know that I will need to get a staff, great sword, two one handed swords, and a focus. I am thinking that Berserker should be the first for weapons. Is this thought process correct?

Q4: Where should I begin PvE wise, should I be concerning myself mainly with farming dynamic meta events (like temples), dungeons, or fractals?
I guess I am not certain what is the order of things, or if there is even an order. Any insight would be appreciated.

Again thank you!

Start with Shatter. It’s better to start hard and make it easier.

Start with tankier sets. It’s better to start tanky and make it harder.

Same as armor.

@Its usualy good to start with tanky gear while learning, still the weps can and should be zerker as you later will want to have zerker weps and its expensive things. If your focus will be pve start to love the greatsword, if you will do more wvwvw start to love the staff.

/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

@Its usualy good to start with tanky gear while learning, still the weps can and should be zerker as you later will want to have zerker weps and its expensive things. If your focus will be pve start to love the greatsword, if you will do more wvwvw start to love the staff.

/Osicat

I think I will be doing both, so I should get comfortable with the 2. Thanks for the armor tip. =)

Esplen.3940:

Start with Shatter. It’s better to start hard and make it easier.

Start with tankier sets. It’s better to start tanky and make it harder.

Same as armor.

To reiterate on my nonsensical logic…

Playstyle-wise, you want to challenge yourself. Pick the hardest build to master and then go easier to find your playstyle. The reason why you want to start hard is so you have the option of picking your build. If you start easymode, the switch to a harder build is drastic and can throw many players off of a build that works and is possibly their one true calling.

Armor-wise, you want to ease yourself into the game. Yes, you’re now 80 and getting Exotics. They’re easy to get and your skill really has a long way to go, trust me. Start tanky so you can make mistakes and understand how to prevent them. If you get insta-gibbed every time you go to farm, you won’t learn anything except not to farm. If you get hit really low when you go to farm, you will be able to see what an enemy does and slowly learn to adapt. The more you adapt, the easier it gets.

I would suggest, armor-wise, to start with a Soldier/Knight, go to Valkyrie, then go to Berserker. Don’t get Exotic Trinkets, stick to Greens/Rares until you find your balance/build. If you want condition damage instead, go Rampagers/Carrion instead of Berserker.

Build-wise, I would highly suggest going Shatter for a month, then learning a support build, then learning a Phantasm build. The Phantasm build will share gear with the Shatter build, for the most part, but the support build may require another armor-set. Use greens if you’re poor, otherwise, get what you can.

In terms of building up your armors, I would highly recommend doing dungeon runs to get what you need. Try not to do any speedrun and just do explorable with unexperienced groups. You can do speedruns, if you really want, but try to stick with pugs. A harder experience will harden you for battle (yes, it’s really hard to not say hard very often). Use your tokens to get armor as you work your way to the sets you want.

Once you’ve found a stable build/armor-set, challenge yourself to fractals. Try to get to 20 so you can farm them once a day or at least 2-3 times a week. This will get you Relics which you can use to get Ascended items like a Backpiece or Rings. Don’t buy Rings from the Laurel Vendor.

From here, you should have Exotic Armor and Ascended Backpack + Rings. To get the rest of your Ascended Trinkets, do your Dailies/Monthlies and buy an Amulet with Laurels. For your Accessories, I highly suggest using Guild Commendations, but if you really want to get them with Laurels, do it, Ecto prices right now are pretty low, from what I hear, haven’t really checked.

That is how to PvE suit up.

That is similar to what I did, not quite step by step as I’ve had my character since the beginning and also gone through many, many learning steps. I’ve basically cut out a lot of the nonsensical things I did that won’t really help you.

If you don’t like PvE/Dungeons, feel free to ignore this post, but this is just a method that will give you a lot of Mesmer experience while gearing you up AND giving you free money (dungeons are pretty good money).

Esplen.3940:

Esplen.3940:

Start with Shatter. It’s better to start hard and make it easier.

Start with tankier sets. It’s better to start tanky and make it harder.

Same as armor.

To reiterate on my nonsensical logic…

Playstyle-wise, you want to challenge yourself. Pick the hardest build to master and then go easier to find your playstyle. The reason why you want to start hard is so you have the option of picking your build. If you start easymode, the switch to a harder build is drastic and can throw many players off of a build that works and is possibly their one true calling.

Armor-wise, you want to ease yourself into the game. Yes, you’re now 80 and getting Exotics. They’re easy to get and your skill really has a long way to go, trust me. Start tanky so you can make mistakes and understand how to prevent them. If you get insta-gibbed every time you go to farm, you won’t learn anything except not to farm. If you get hit really low when you go to farm, you will be able to see what an enemy does and slowly learn to adapt. The more you adapt, the easier it gets.

I would suggest, armor-wise, to start with a Soldier/Knight, go to Valkyrie, then go to Berserker. Don’t get Exotic Trinkets, stick to Greens/Rares until you find your balance/build. If you want condition damage instead, go Rampagers/Carrion instead of Berserker.

Build-wise, I would highly suggest going Shatter for a month, then learning a support build, then learning a Phantasm build. The Phantasm build will share gear with the Shatter build, for the most part, but the support build may require another armor-set. Use greens if you’re poor, otherwise, get what you can.

In terms of building up your armors, I would highly recommend doing dungeon runs to get what you need. Try not to do any speedrun and just do explorable with unexperienced groups. You can do speedruns, if you really want, but try to stick with pugs. A harder experience will harden you for battle (yes, it’s really hard to not say hard very often). Use your tokens to get armor as you work your way to the sets you want.

Once you’ve found a stable build/armor-set, challenge yourself to fractals. Try to get to 20 so you can farm them once a day or at least 2-3 times a week. This will get you Relics which you can use to get Ascended items like a Backpiece or Rings. Don’t buy Rings from the Laurel Vendor.

From here, you should have Exotic Armor and Ascended Backpack + Rings. To get the rest of your Ascended Trinkets, do your Dailies/Monthlies and buy an Amulet with Laurels. For your Accessories, I highly suggest using Guild Commendations, but if you really want to get them with Laurels, do it, Ecto prices right now are pretty low, from what I hear, haven’t really checked.

That is how to PvE suit up.

That is similar to what I did, not quite step by step as I’ve had my character since the beginning and also gone through many, many learning steps. I’ve basically cut out a lot of the nonsensical things I did that won’t really help you.

If you don’t like PvE/Dungeons, feel free to ignore this post, but this is just a method that will give you a lot of Mesmer experience while gearing you up AND giving you free money (dungeons are pretty good money).

Thanks, this is great advice! I do plan on doing PvE and WvW, and staying away from sPvP until I have mastered the class abit. Thanks so much, I am currently running a shatter build and loving atm! I am in almost all blues/greens, but I am not dying much at all. I hope that continues. fingers crossed