Guild Wars 2

Jerus.4350:

Awesome guide, most every question I had was answered. So recharge traits do stack? that’s good to know.

I’m curious, is 60044 ever worthwhile? PH + Reflecting wardens seems like it’d be nice coverage for reflects, but you lose the precision bonuses of the dueling tree. Is it worth it?

Also, you mention that the 64004 build has a negative of longer reuse on wardens, wouldn’t it be the same as the 64040 build you list for reflects as you lose the illusion minor but gain the warden’s feedback? Only 60044 should be better in that regard right?

draconx had some really nice points, on this, but I’ll add a bit.

Phantasmal Fury, in dueling, is a must have— it’s the only way for your phantasms to get Fury, which is a 20% critical chance bonus, which is absolutely necessary for them (actually they can get fury from other sources, but all other sources cap at 5 and prefer players, so in dungeons your phantasms will never get fury from the party). Moreover, you get the minor in dueling for free when you take that, which gives 50% vigor uptime. This helps a ton in survivability. Final, Blade Training, gives an extra 50 precision and reduces the cooldowns on Blurred Frenzy, Illusionary Riposte, and Phantasmal Swordsman to ridiculously low levels. Again, it’s a huge defensive advantage to have low cooldowns on these, and your precision goes up by 250 compared to a build with 0 in dueling— that’s like a full set of Perception stacks from back in the day, and is basically another 20% critical chance for you and your phantasms.

So, you get a huge amount of defensive options, 20% personal critical chance, and 40% phantasm critical chance, from just 4 points. It’s really hard to argue against this, even if you’re not in reflect-heavy situations.

THanks both of you, that’s basically what I was thinking (though much more detailed) but i just saw the synergy available there with both reflecting and faster attacking wardens. Giving up far more than you’re gaining especially when you consider that 100% reflect uptime is still possible without the faster attacking. Just thought maybe it had a use, but I couldn’t think of one.

Jerus.4350:

THanks both of you, that’s basically what I was thinking (though much more detailed) but i just saw the synergy available there with both reflecting and faster attacking wardens. Giving up far more than you’re gaining especially when you consider that 100% reflect uptime is still possible without the faster attacking. Just thought maybe it had a use, but I couldn’t think of one.

The 2/4/0/4/4 is what you’re after, as draconx suggested— sacrificing the 200 power and 12% personal damage is better than the tradeoffs we discussed above. Definitely still a good consideration, though!

Why do you have Signet Mastery with no Signets?

Most of the time you have signet of ether equipped. Otherwise equip mind wreck does 20% more trait and F1 shatter as the enemy is about to die.

Axelwarrior.9084:

Why do you have Signet Mastery with no Signets?

Because it’s easier to flip in Signet of Ether when I need it. None of the other traits are any good, though the option to shatter with Mind Wrack for extra burst at the end of a fight, as frifox suggests, is possible.

for the love of mesmer, sticky this already! :<

how to mesmer in dungeons

re-roll to guardian

:D

maha.7902:

how to mesmer in dungeons

re-roll to guardian

:D

For the love of Sandy, I banish you!

On a serious note, can someone please tell me what make wardens not spin when summoned?

Wardens alway get into range to do the spin. Sometimes due to terrain, abnormal enemy hit boxes, and generally bad coding on ANets part wardens see no viable way to get in range and doesn’t initiate the spin. This mean that even if warden is 0.001 in away from the enemy but algorithm still says that he’s not in range – spinning will not happen. I would say it’s 100% because of bad coding and not really testing their work properly. If they DID know of this and still pushed it live, I don’t know what to say anymore.

colesy y u so mean ;_;

Iris Ng.9845:

maha.7902:

how to mesmer in dungeons

re-roll to guardian

:D

For the love of Sandy, I banish you!

On a serious note, can someone please tell me what make wardens not spin when summoned?

I think the most reliable “tell” that wardens won’t spin is a ground-slope. If you’re on flat ground with no rocks or anything, it’ll spin 99% of the time. If you have a slight slope, or little rocks which make small slopes, you’re likely to encounter the bug.

Eventually you just learn where to expect it to bug out. Uncategorized Fractal, except for Old Tom and the 4 Champions? It’ll bug out, especially on the boss. CoF p2, killing the burrow things? Guaranteed bug. etc.

elevation seems to be the cause of the problem most of the time.

i tried doing full warden coverage on alphard with myself max meleeing, with myself only casting feedback and then myself having no other input besides summon wardens and they bugged out every single time at around ~70%. There’s a bunch of other spots they’re sketchy around too (pack of mobs + hunter after tar/abom wp, hunter/crusher etc.).

maha.7902:

elevation seems to be the cause of the problem most of the time.

i tried doing full warden coverage on alphard with myself max meleeing, with myself only casting feedback and then myself having no other input besides summon wardens and they bugged out every single time at around ~70%. There’s a bunch of other spots they’re sketchy around too (pack of mobs + hunter after tar/abom wp, hunter/crusher etc.).

Add boom boom to that list, lots of areas in there that it bugs out. Multiple runs I had over half of my warden’s bug out. Luckily not really a big deal there, but it’s still frustrating.

Bumping this, since it’s not sticky yet :<

it should be moved to trash can, where mesmers belong with necros

<3

maha.7902:

it should be moved to trash can, where mesmers belong with necros

<3

We’ll see mesmers in action during the tournament trust me

Jeremlloyd.6837:

maha.7902:

it should be moved to trash can, where mesmers belong with necros

<3

We’ll see mesmers in action during the tournament trust me

Meh, I wish. Mesmers are arguably in a worse spot in tPvP than they are in PvE.

Fay.2357:

Jeremlloyd.6837:

maha.7902:

it should be moved to trash can, where mesmers belong with necros

<3

We’ll see mesmers in action during the tournament trust me

Meh, I wish. Mesmers are arguably in a worse spot in tPvP than they are in PvE.

He means the upcoming PvE tournament.

I’m excited now, Jerem! Looking forward to hot mesploit action

I won’t be the main streamer for our team, but I’ll see if I can stream without any lags (won’t be at home)

It’s finally sticky!!!! YAY

Many many thanks to CC Danicia

Congratz to your sticky. It would be great if Jerem can post Abe’s video of the COF p3. It was beautiful!

Edit: my mistake

Why you want Abe’s video of CoF story? There was no mesmer in it

exactly

ahahahahahaha

:O

It’s true. All we saw is a glimpse of you in your running attire, dropping portal and that’s it. Can I make a request for mesmer’s PoV?

As I said, Iris, there was no mesmer in CoF story, I was only here for CoF P3, but sadly I didn’t record it.

Alright, CoF p3. Would you redo it for the mesmer pov?

Not sure yet, maybe

Question: can we reflect the attacks of the tentacles in the Jade Maw fractal with traited warden?

Iris Ng.9845:

Question: can we reflect/lock down the tentacles in the Jade Maw fractal with traited warden?

?

Sorry for abusing the ‘lock down’ term. What I mean is to completely render the target useless since I suspect most of the its attacks are range. But I was wrong. Apparently his Whip is melee.

Iris Ng.9845:

Sorry for abusing the ‘lock down’ term. What I mean is to completely render the target useless since I suspect most of the its attacks are range. But I was wrong. Apparently his Whip is melee.

Whip OP. I actually bring pistol for this because of that.

maxinion.8396:

Iris Ng.9845:

Sorry for abusing the ‘lock down’ term. What I mean is to completely render the target useless since I suspect most of the its attacks are range. But I was wrong. Apparently his Whip is melee.

Whip OP. I actually bring pistol for this because of that.

Stop pugging!

Have a guard or a thief blind them for you :P

I want to comment but dont know what we are talking about ;_;

The hentai tentacru, which has an OP range that can smash you if you try to run away from his massive bamf. A bird told me that one of his attack is ranged and you can reflect it but base on what I tested, it’s not consistent. Sometimes my wardens stay alive, sometimes they get squished and FB doesn’t help.

Hmm… Considering all of their attacks are done physically without anything leaving the main body I find it unlikely that there would be a projectile attack among its kitten nal… I usually go for sword/sword/pistol with daze mantra x3, halting strike, signet of midnight and maybe even signet of domination.

You can completely lock them down if done properly and halting strike makes it so damage in the process

Sanderinoa.8065:

Hmm… Considering all of their attacks are done physically without anything leaving the main body I find it unlikely that there would be a projectile attack among its kitten nal… I usually go for sword/sword/pistol with daze mantra x3, halting strike, signet of midnight and maybe even signet of domination.

You can completely lock them down if done properly and halting strike makes it so damage in the process

So much effort. Just go sword/sword and strafe around them. The strafing makes their one attack miss, and you use the block to counter the spin. I save blurred frenzy to avoid the death laser if I don’t have a crystal handy.

Earlier I took 6/4/0/0/4 sword/pistol +/focus (for swiftness, nothing fancy) at Jade Maw. Put up two duelists at relatively close range and chain daze against the tentacles. It does work quite well.

Also noticed that pistol OH works better than Sword OH against the champions in the Harpy fractal. Duelists were alive relatively long when not getting aggro and the daze did come in handy. The only problem is I can’t kite the bosses exclusively by myself and wasn’t 100% in melee range. Any comments?

Fay.2357:

Sanderinoa.8065:

Hmm… Considering all of their attacks are done physically without anything leaving the main body I find it unlikely that there would be a projectile attack among its kitten nal… I usually go for sword/sword/pistol with daze mantra x3, halting strike, signet of midnight and maybe even signet of domination.

You can completely lock them down if done properly and halting strike makes it so damage in the process

So much effort. Just go sword/sword and strafe around them. The strafing makes their one attack miss, and you use the block to counter the spin. I save blurred frenzy to avoid the death laser if I don’t have a crystal handy.

I’m sorry for putting in extra effort to make myself contribute to a group with a class people have started to dislike if you don’t rupt the spin your illusions get wrecked and you lose half your dps, so I enjoy dazing or blinding instead of blocking

Iris Ng.9845:

Earlier I took 6/4/0/0/4 sword/pistol +/focus (for swiftness, nothing fancy) at Jade Maw. Put up two duelists at relatively close range and chain daze against the tentacles. It does work quite well.

Also noticed that pistol OH works better than Sword OH against the champions in the Harpy fractal. Duelists were alive relatively long when not getting aggro and the daze did come in handy. The only problem is I can’t kite the bosses exclusively by myself and wasn’t 100% in melee range. Any comments?

In the harpy fractal I honestly believe you should run pistol AND sword offhand, the focus is a lot lower damage just to block an attack you can dodge super easily due to its extremely easy tell.
And I do agree that duelists often stay alive longer, so it a a good call. In any non solo situation however you should not be kiting at all, and if you are its quite possible if you go for the invul signet build I run most of the time(and which I probably told you).

Yeah, I used 2/4/0/5/3 for that part with daze mantra and dom. signet just in case. The thing with pugs is they’re often yolo too much, and down left, right and center. One of the pug warrior is from an elite guild who blamed me for the lack of reflect (wtf!). So I favor focus for the extra reflect from curtain and, with luck, wardens.

P.S. I’m not too keen on running with my guild either.

P.P.S. In the Aetherblade fractal, we can portal upward to skip both laser puzzles. When stacking against the golems at the last boss, I think we can reflect the pull from them at the second and third phase. I’m trying dazing them just before they receive the static shield buff. Is the daze mantra unblockable? Do we have any unblockable attack? I’ve been using focus and pistol offhand there.

P.P.P.S. I’m still unable to do the portal-harpy skip. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!

I’d say take a torch as well for the portal harpy skip. And take PU (1s more stealth per stealth skill is nice). I’d take decoy / portal / feedback / mass invis for that

Hmmm… torch… Does it deal damage?

Iris Ng.9845:

Hmmm… torch… Does it deal damage?

No. It gets you past the harpies without dying.

…. but it deals damage after 4 second PU-traited stealth. I died from jumping in combat =.="

I have a question about the general Mantra build 6/4/0/0/4

It uses Domination trait VI, Signet Mastery, but doesn’t use any signets. That seems like a mistake, either with the trait, or the utilities.

What do I need to change?

Ninaran.7621:

I have a question about the general Mantra build 6/4/0/0/4

It uses Domination trait VI, Signet Mastery, but doesn’t use any signets. That seems like a mistake, either with the trait, or the utilities.

What do I need to change?

There’s just not really anything else that’s good in Domination. You can use the trait which increases Mind Wrack damage (I, I think?) to shatter at the end of fights, but… that’s the only other halfway useful one. With Signet Mastery, you’re able to switch your heal to Signet of Ether quickly in the situations where you want double phantasms.

Ah! That’s a good thought. I took the one that shreds boons on Shatter but now I see why Signet Mastery was in there. Thanks!

I’ve played Mesmer since release of the game for over 2.5k hours now and this guide is kitten good and worth reading for every Mesmer out there. It does not hate on any weapons and skills, just discripe their strengths and weaknesses. In general a great work!

I only want to add that instead of 6/4/0/4/0 you should go 5/4/0/5/0 if you have less than 2 mantras in your bar. Everything else – perfect guide!

Hello, Miku here with some sexy screenshots about the portal mechanic in dugeons. IF you ever gonna expant the guide in depth.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/images/9/91/Portal_AC_1.png
http://metabattle.com/wiki/images/d/d1/Portal_CoF_P1.png
http://metabattle.com/wiki/images/1/14/Portal_TA_UP.png

Maybe make a video and just attach that?