Guild Wars 2

http://taugrim.com/2012/09/23/guide-to-guild-wars-2-mesmer-legion-build/

This guide discusses my “Legion” build for GW2 Mesmer. The build revolves around direct damage, boons, and buffs provided by phantasms and clones.

For the Mesmer class, there are two ends of the spectrum in terms of how you leverage your illusions, i.e. your phantasms and clones. On one end of the spectrum, we have shatter-based builds, which consume illusions for damage, conditions, and distortion (evasion). On the other end, we have builds such as “Legion” which treat illusions and in particular phantasms as valued allies on the battlefield.

If you question the latter approach, please see the FAQ regarding the shatter mechanic in the Guide.

I’ll be making frequent updates to the Guide, so I’m not planning on maintaining it in two places (i.e. there and here).

Let me know your questions and feedback!

Cheers,
Taugrim

Thank you for this guide, going to take a look at it. I’m a bit lost as to the direction I should take my Mesmer.

And here I was just thinking that it would be awesome if Taugrim also made a Mesmer build As I said in your warrior build post I will have to check it out.

I posted a narrated PVP video last night talking about the value of the Greatsword and options for managing downed state situations:

Hope you enjoy it, let me know your questions and feedback.

Wow very nice build with the regen+protection.

Is it pretty much just constantly up when you’re near an illusion?

Didn’t you used to run staff vs GS? why the change? I used that old guide to create my current build, will check this one out as well.

Hey Tau, great guide mate.

I run a similar build, but I found that having both +15% to illusion damage traits makes my berserker, duelist, and warden (when I can lock someone in place to eat the damage) just hit like monsters.

I too always open with berserker, and with my current gear, in wvw I take away at least 1/3 of the targets HP unless its a guardian with aegis up and lots of toughness.

I’ve not done any testing, but was told both the 15% traits work for phantasms. Can you confirm that they don’t stack?

Anyway, keep up the great work, and go do the jump puzzles on the opposing servers with the focus equipped. Pulling people down off the ledges in the jump puzzles is pure joy

Limey.2769:

I’ve not done any testing, but was told both the 15% traits work for phantasms.

Pretty sure they do stack.

He was just saying that it’s better to invest those points into Domination.
That way, the extra power you get goes into both your hits + illusions, instead of a trait that only helps Phants.

That makes sense, but I already have 20 points in Dom.

I run 20, 20, 0, 25, 5.

I love it

You can try it as a variation on Tau’s build. I run with all berserker gear, and man do my izerkers CRUSH people

Limey.2769:

That makes sense, but I already have 20 points in Dom.

I run 20, 20, 0, 25, 5.

I love it

You can try it as a variation on Tau’s build. I run with all berserker gear, and man do my izerkers CRUSH people

Are you talking about WvW? I wouldn’t really use that as a good comparison to tPvP

Sorry, I didn’t realize that this was focused entirely on the sPvP stuff. I haven’t done anywhere near enough to comment on it. I do love my build for WvW though.

Hey hey, thanks for this build, it worked really great for me. I always shattered my illusions for the last burst but if they failed to kill him I was really vulnerable; your approach works much better for me. Also I love that I can immediately focus another target and my phantasms will keep pressure on the downed guy.
Also I wasn’t fan of GS, but izerker + ranged autoattack = win

Has anyone switched from Sword / Pistol to Sword / Sword?

The offhand Sword phantasm has a fairly high attack rate (once every ~4 sec, instead of once every ~7 sec) and crits for ~3k.

I’m going to test running Sword offhand, as it looks promising based on damage on the Mists training dummies.

Hey Taugrim, been following you since Swtor. I have played with oh sword and while the swordsman does more dmg the loss of pistol 2 with sword 3 was really hard to get used to. I do play a more bursty build with less survivability so the loss of pistol might be easier for you to adapt to. Good luck.

problem you will have taugrim is the same problem i have with my ranger using melee pets in pvp -

- they have a kitten hard time hitting a moving target.

with the oh sword phantasm it has to get in range then leap. that split second is enough time for someone to stay perpetually out of range and your sword phantasm to just run around after them.

I have to say, I’m really liking this build concept. Thanks for bringing it up! Unfortunately, gw2skills.net is down and I can’t check your trait and utility distribution, but I think I have the general idea from the implications in your guide. Now I have to figure out how best to balance traits, though, which is surprisingly tough; there’s a lot of great ones for phantasms.

my 2 cents on this build and why i think condition is superior

This build is excellent, but it relies solely on direct dmg, they are some classes that simply won’t go down with direct damage in my experience, My whole team couldnt kill an engineer, and Guardians, are tough to take down with this build. Condition Build can take down anyone, no big fancy numbers or crits, just they healthbar going down slowly, very slowly, until they drop.

This build is somewhat fun to play, you press some buttons and sit back with the greatsword(thats the way I played the build). Condition build is somewhat more fun to me because I can play like ima clone and it doesnt rely on phantasm so much. Also I can be even more of a slippery brat thanks to the traits and skills i use with my condition build opposed to the more streamlined nature of this build to get the full effect

thats pretty much all i wanted to say

sword off hand is not good, the phantasm spawns at your location then runs to the target and typically dies faster in multi-person fights due to aoe

Jenia.2418:

my 2 cents on this build and why i think condition is superior

This build is excellent, but it relies solely on direct dmg, they are some classes that simply won’t go down with direct damage in my experience, My whole team couldnt kill an engineer, and Guardians, are tough to take down with this build. Condition Build can take down anyone, no big fancy numbers or crits, just they healthbar going down slowly, very slowly, until they drop.

This build is somewhat fun to play, you press some buttons and sit back with the greatsword(thats the way I played the build). Condition build is somewhat more fun to me because I can play like ima clone and it doesnt rely on phantasm so much. Also I can be even more of a slippery brat thanks to the traits and skills i use with my condition build opposed to the more streamlined nature of this build to get the full effect

thats pretty much all i wanted to say

so what is your build?

Sprawl.3891:

Didn’t you used to run staff vs GS? why the change? I used that old guide to create my current build, will check this one out as well.

I was running Staff originally, but I wanted the knockback from GS, and it turns out the phantasm is better.

GS lacks the combo field creation of Staff but I like the GS abilities a lot. The only downside to GS is that the autoattack is a like a reverse tracer pointing the way back to the Mesmer.

Dixa.6017:

with the oh sword phantasm it has to get in range then leap. that split second is enough time for someone to stay perpetually out of range and your sword phantasm to just run around after them.

I hear you.

I tried OH Sword phantasm tonight for about an hour, and the damage is pretty nuts, and that phantasm has a much shorter time between attacks than Duelist or Berserker.

taugrim.7604:

Sprawl.3891:

Didn’t you used to run staff vs GS? why the change? I used that old guide to create my current build, will check this one out as well.

I was running Staff originally, but I wanted the knockback from GS, and it turns out the phantasm is better.

GS lacks the combo field creation of Staff but I like the GS abilities a lot. The only downside to GS is that the autoattack is a like a reverse tracer pointing the way back to the Mesmer.

Dixa.6017:

with the oh sword phantasm it has to get in range then leap. that split second is enough time for someone to stay perpetually out of range and your sword phantasm to just run around after them.

I hear you.

I tried OH Sword phantasm tonight for about an hour, and the damage is pretty nuts, and that phantasm has a much shorter time between attacks than Duelist or Berserker.

yea after running with GS over staff i totally agree. The knockback combined in quick succession with pistol 5 is enough to neutralize a point vs anyone.

Sweet, as a player new to mesmer I really like your breakdowns, keep ’m coming! Subscribed.

I started using a GS after reading your blog. Nice job!

Personally i prefer the Staff with Sword/Pistol Combo. Stick with Staff most of the time but when i see the chance swap to Sword/Pistol – Pop Phantom Dualist then go into Pistol 5 > Sword 2 combo for some solid damage