I just leveled my second Mesmer from level 1 to 40 without crafting. I know these levels can be difficult, so I figured I’d post a summary / guide of how I did it. All of this is just my opinion.
To gain levels, I did events and hearts in the area and also always did the story missions when I hit the appropriate level. I did not do them early or late. If I didn’t have any level appropriate hearts in the zone, I’d swap. Getting to 40, I cleared Queensdale, about half of the Plains of Ashford, Cleared Kessex Hills, Cleared Gendarran fields, Cleared Lornar’s Pass, and about half of Hirathi Hinterlands
Gear
Glass Cannon… anything with power including weapons, trinkets, and armor. I changed out my gear every 5 levels (more or less). Once masterwork gear (green) was available I never bought fine (blue) gear again. Green gear isn’t always available at each level, but there’s always something available within a level (for example, I think some green gear is available at level 19 and 26).
You can save money by placing buy orders on the trading post. Usually I would place orders 5 levels before I needed the gear. So when I hit level 10 I’d place a buy order for my level 15 gear. It would be waiting for me then I got there.
Food / Consumables
Anything with power. Sharpening stones
Main Weapons
Sword / Sword. Sword is a terrific main hand weapon, blurred frenzy is the major damage dealer.
Staff. Staff our best AOE and defensive weapon. Chaos storm is great. Stay in the storm for boons and to keep enemies getting conditions. I found that staff was best early on, by level 40 it was losing some of its power, but my preferred alternate weapon.
Thoughts on other weapons
Greatsword is too weak up close for solo leveling. The auto attack hits too slow. The only good, close range, attacks are Mirror Blade (GS 2), and Phantasmal Beserker (GS 4). Enemies recover too fast from the knock back and you can’t sent them over cliffs for Illusionary Wave to be useful (GS 5)
Focus. The untraited focus is a utility weapon. The phantasm spawns right next to the enemy and is frequently killed on the first attack. Temporal Curtain is great for mobility / fleeing from mobs, but the pull isn’t that useful for the same reasons as the Greatsword. I love the focus in WvW and traited in Southsun, but I found it underwhelming for leveling. Swiftness is great, but you’re better off sucking it up and walking.
Pistol. Is a mixed bag. The Phantasmal Duelist is terrific, but Magic Bullet tends to agro enemies you don’t want. When I was testing it out, I’d get into trouble, fire off Magic Bullet for a stun / escape ,and end up worse off then before because the second / third hits would aggro / pull other enemies.
Torch. Another mixed bag, I really like the Prestige, but I don’t love the first and forget blast. I haven’t found a use for the Phantasmal Mage.
Utilities
My first Utility skill was decoy, it stayed on my bar for the rest of the leveling process. It’s a clone generator and stealth, which makes it a good “Oh Kitten” button.
At level 10 I added Blink. Decoy / blink is great for escapes. Also, blink can help with the general slowness of the weaponclass.
As soon as possible, swap out Blink for Mirror Images. Generating two clones is awesome until 40.
At level 20 I added Blink again.
Level 30 elite is Time Warp.
Traits
I put the first 5 points in illusions,
I put the 10 points in dueling. I took “Blade Training”.
I put the next 10 points into domination. I took “Mental Torment” but “Empowered Illusions” may be better. I haven’t decided.
Last 4 points into inspiration or chaos (doesn’t matter.)
Rotations / Combos / Style
I’d spend almost all of my time with Sword / Sword. I only swapped to staff if I felt too much pressure, or if the enemies were very resilient.
Sword
Phantasmal Swordman (Sword 5), Illusionary Leap x2 (Sword 3), Blurred Frenzy. Depending on the attack pattern of the enemy I would either do Illusionary Riposte (Sword 4), or the auto attack chain. By getting between the phantasm and the enemy, I could usually keep focus on me, leaving the phantasm free to attack.
Staff
Chaos Storm (Staff 5), Phase Retreat (staff 2) for clone generation and chaos armor, run back into the chaos storm while hitting (Staff 3) (phantasm). When the chaos armor ends (Staff 4).
Shatters
Mirror Images + Mindwrack (f1)
Mind Wrack is plenty for most situations. If Mind Wrack was on cool down I’d use Cry of Frustration. Diversion and Distortion I’d only use if I was really in trouble. In general, I would try to shatter in the following circumstances:
I was being mobbed and I wanted AOE damage.
I had three clones up and my skills were off cool down (rarely happened, fights don’t usually last this long).
Clones were being targeted and were going to die.
The target of the clones was about to die.
(edited by TooBz.3065)
This is a great write up! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.