(edited by Somoe.3621)
Having a difficult time "getting into" my Mesmer
Ya, dont compare mesmer to ranger. Dont compare anything to ranger. Or guardian…both are crazy OP for solo PvE.
Mesmer is tough to balance at low levels because you’re not sure what kinds of stats to stack, what weapons to use, whether to keep your clones or blow them up. And unfortunately, trying to do a little but of everything just doesn’t work.
Honestly, I get my mesmer to 80 by doing a lot of crafting and taking a lot of supply camps.
The sword does great damage. You just have to get in and out a lot. Either use the staff defensively or use the GS for more damage.
PVE mesmer is pretty terrible until 40-50+
One thing to note with GS is the autoattack is distance dependant, mesmer is a very mobile in combat profession. Try running with Mirror images and decoy both help to pump out clones which can and should be shattered fairly regularly if you trait for it. I run null field, mirror images, and switch between decoy, blink, and feedback depending on what types of mobs I am mostly against in a area. I use GS and sword/focus, temporal curtain is not only a great speed boost/cripple but it also can be used to pull targets away with a knockdown, with a bit of practice you can get good at using this to round up groups of mobs into your iwarden and then blurred frenzy on top of it as well as a shatter if anything is still left standing switch to gs use gs skill 5 to push them away and get some breathing room and allow for time for the cd’s on sword/focus to reset. Honestly I think mesmer is one of the heartier classes plenty of escape tools in the utilities if need be such as blink or decoy which will grant invis as well as create a clone. Keep at it mesmer does get much better post 40, there are so many ways to play and none of them are wrong but I have found the way I prefer and I never have issues taking on even fairly large pulls of 4-5 mobs. I run completely power/precision and have crit dmg on my jewlery and weapons, which will not be available at your level. All in all mesmer is not so straightforward as other classes but it is by no means “weak” in pve once you start to see the possibilities you can do with it.
Shadowpuppet nailed it pretty well on the head.
The mesmer class takes awhile to get a feel for, but once you do it can hold its own very well in PvE. The utility skills he recommended are good ones to start off with.
-Sword is great as it can be used defensively. If you use your #2, you evade all attacks and can dish out some damage. If you pair it up with focus, you can use the #4 twice to knock enemies away from you. The focus is also great for PvE since it can help you travel, and the Phantasm does nice damage if you find the proper situation for it.
-For myself, I find myself at a tossup between Staff and GS. If you use either as your primary, youll want to stat for each differently.
Staff is probably great to start with as I feel it can be easier to use. You wont kill things quickly, but its a great defensive weapon. Its AoE grants allies Aegis which blocks (and thereby nullifies) attacks for a few seconds. Great to cast on yourself or your phantasms. You’ll want to go for power, vit, con damage (at least early on) for your stats. When you spec condition damage, you go full in. You can consider using scepter instead of sword in your off-hand for confusion, but you’ll probably want to go with sword first. In the very bottom trait line, 20 points you can get “extra bounce attacks” which makes the staff superbly awesome.
GS is more raw damage, and I love to go all out pow, pre, crit damage bonuses on it. At the higher levels it’s quite quick taking down those baddies, especially if you shatter your opponents. I like the precision line as well as boosting my shatters.
Other things that might help is going 10 points in power line so you can make your clones cripple when they are killed (killed, not shattered). 5 points at the very bottom and you get a reduction in all illusion skills. I recommend at least that in all builds.
I wish ya luck, and hang in there! Keep studying, practicin’, and you’ll get it down.
I’m a lvl 80 Mez and even at low lvl I never felt it was hard are anything.
Mez to me have always been easy as hell.
However now I use sword/focus and a gs.
I do major aoe damage, and I am a tank build.
For all long range attacks out of 40 secs they can only hit me about 5secs.
My armor is 3k, and highest their is, is a guardian with a shield with 3.4k armor.
Even on the boss that is consider one of the strongest, if not the strongest. The one in Arah explorable mode, the third boss ya gotta fight in all the lines.
I can tank him for the entire fight.
In PvP I can tank 5 players and in the end win.
I got major tanky powers.
Now to do basic aoe, use gs number 4 and then switch to sword/focus use number 4 and then number 3 and then number 5 then 3 again to immb them and then 2, any normal mob is pretty much dead and all of that is a aoe. With number 4 pulling all mobs into one place so ya can aoe the crap out of them, because warden awesome for aoe and all sword skills are aoe.
When you get sharper images, trait for a weapon recharge, and/or get some on clone death procs, you will see a jump in performance.
For me, gaining vitality on crit and sharper images changed the way my Mesmer played.
The mesmer is not an efficient pve class, which is probably why most people don’t stick with it. You can kill things, but it’s going to be slower than other classes thanks to the setup time of phantasms and shatters. You can survive quite well (even when geared as a glass cannon), but it takes a practice and finesse to make it happen. We’re the slowest class outside of combat afaik.
The only real reason to play a mesmer in pve is for fun. Although you’re not as efficient as other classes, you can triumph in nearly any situation with skillful use of the abilities at your disposal. Combat isn’t as repetitive as with other classes, and it’s a good choice if you like to push your limits. It does get better once you get master traits, but if you feel you’ve given the class a fair shot and you’re still not enjoying it may be best just to play something else.
…..stack power and precision then vitality.
We are not squishie. I use a staff/gs combo and lemme tell you i have no problem killing or staying alive at lower lvls. i suspect this will only get better at higher lvls.
@Effusion, not to derail the topic or start a flame war but I don’t find there is much setup time needed to get clones out especially for shattering. Plenty of traits and utilities help with this, the caveat being if you plan to play as using phantasms as your primary source of dmg then yes there is considerable ramp up time. Having said this though if by inefficient you mean we can’t just press one button and win then yes I suppose you could say it is but the same can be said of anything not warrior or thief.
PVE mesmer is pretty terrible until 40-50+
This is not true for everyone. “Mesmer sucks in PvE until 40” is something I’ve heard thrown out as Truth a bit, but my Mesmer just hit 50, and it’s never been terrible. I keep wondering when Mesmer vs. PvE is supposed to get hard since I hear it so often from a vocal few, but since I’m 50 now, I guess I can faceroll chaos armor like I’ve been doing and maybe not look at the screen anymore.
Sorry, I know that wasn’t very constructive, but theres already TONS of good tips saturating the mesmer forums. But like a virus or cancer, these little naysayers pop in just to try and convince everyone that the class sucks, because then it would mean it’s not them, its the game. rawr /endrant
The mesmer is not an efficient pve class, which is probably why most people don’t stick with it. You can kill things, but it’s going to be slower than other classes thanks to the setup time of phantasms and shatters. You can survive quite well (even when geared as a glass cannon), but it takes a practice and finesse to make it happen. We’re the slowest class outside of combat afaik.
The only real reason to play a mesmer in pve is for fun. Although you’re not as efficient as other classes, you can triumph in nearly any situation with skillful use of the abilities at your disposal. Combat isn’t as repetitive as with other classes, and it’s a good choice if you like to push your limits. It does get better once you get master traits, but if you feel you’ve given the class a fair shot and you’re still not enjoying it may be best just to play something else.
Also not true for everyone. The only conundrum with mesmers is How You Want to Kill, cus we have soooo many good ways to do it, and if you wish to be fast, bursty type, then you can. The builds and videos are out there, the proof is out there.
The mesmer is not an efficient pve class, which is probably why most people don’t stick with it. You can kill things, but it’s going to be slower than other classes thanks to the setup time of phantasms and shatters. You can survive quite well (even when geared as a glass cannon), but it takes a practice and finesse to make it happen. We’re the slowest class outside of combat afaik.
The only real reason to play a mesmer in pve is for fun. Although you’re not as efficient as other classes, you can triumph in nearly any situation with skillful use of the abilities at your disposal. Combat isn’t as repetitive as with other classes, and it’s a good choice if you like to push your limits. It does get better once you get master traits, but if you feel you’ve given the class a fair shot and you’re still not enjoying it may be best just to play something else.
Their a lot more to PvE content then farming DE. You do know that right??
Which farming de for loot, is the only thing we not as good as doing, as must other class’s.
In a dgn(which is major parts of pve) I am the center of the team almost always. I keep the team going and protect again wipes. I keep all mobs together, for fasting killing since easier to aoe. I can tank boss’s, and so much more. Over all Mez is really good in team work for a dgn, in almost every build the mez got.
Then jp, are also PvE and Mez are extremely helpful in them as well.
In the end, we good at everything in Pve. other then one thing and thats farming.
PVE mesmer is pretty terrible until 40-50+
This is not true for everyone. “Mesmer sucks in PvE until 40” is something I’ve heard thrown out as Truth a bit, but my Mesmer just hit 50, and it’s never been terrible. I keep wondering when Mesmer vs. PvE is supposed to get hard since I hear it so often from a vocal few, but since I’m 50 now, I guess I can faceroll chaos armor like I’ve been doing and maybe not look at the screen anymore.
Sorry, I know that wasn’t very constructive, but theres already TONS of good tips saturating the mesmer forums. But like a virus or cancer, these little naysayers pop in just to try and convince everyone that the class sucks, because then it would mean it’s not them, its the game. rawr /endrant
You see at lvl 80, because their is one type of PvE that mez sucks at and that farming DE for loot.
We have very few skills that is good, because mobs dies within 4 secs of them comming.
Which Mez dont got good abilities for hitting them all every time they spawn.
While a ranger, or a warrior can just spam their aoe without stop and hit every single mobs that summons and so they will get double if not more loot then a mez can get.
@ShadowPuppet to clarify, I’m using the word inefficient deliberately instead of something like slow because I meant it in terms of farming/powergaming. If kill speed parity is a major concern for someone then the mesmer probably isn’t the class they want to play. I do not mean that mesmers are bad at pve (DEs aside), or that this is something that I’m concerned about.
(edited by Effusion.4831)
You see at lvl 80, because their is one type of PvE that mez sucks at and that farming DE for loot.
We have very few skills that is good, because mobs dies within 4 secs of them comming.
Which Mez dont got good abilities for hitting them all every time they spawn.
While a ranger, or a warrior can just spam their aoe without stop and hit every single mobs that summons and so they will get double if not more loot then a mez can get.
Yes, I have seen this arguement before. There have already been plenty of good tips on how to tag more mobs and use AoE and stuff. Granted, I haven’t gotten to 80 and found myself in this situation personally, but I’ll say this…I’m not lvling my toon so that I can be the best farming bot in Orr. At least those Chinese kids get paid to do it, though very little I suppose. No, reaching lvlcap as fast as possible to farm gold or gear, or gold for gear, or mats for gear is like some narrow WoW mindset that I’m happy to be free of.
If I’m wrong, and it comes down to that to get what I want, well…..I don’t plan on only playing one class ever. I already have low lvl guardian, eng, and necro too. As already suggested in several other threads, I’ll level eng to 80 and lob grenades, cus seriously, eng is so easy :P You just run and shoot stuff.
(edited by MrMacAndCheese.3907)
Perhaps I am one of those “crazy” mesmers that has absolutely no quams about being in melee range of mobs using s/xyz. Sword is a fantastic tagging weapon especially when paired with illusionary persona and mirror images/decoy I just don’t find tagging mobs in de’s to be such the issue that others have stated. Do I have to be a bit more aware of position sure but it is not a insurmountable obstacle, then again I am much the same way in real life as well….lay it on the line sometimes you gotta bleed (metaphorically speaking most of the time lol) to be good at something. As for kill speed of mobs I don’t generally find it to be all that lacking either but then again I absolutely despise using staff except for in very certain circumstances (3 ilocks on a boss with tons of conditions on it can absolutely crank out some good numbers if you can keep them up)
It did not click for me until 40. Prior to that, without better traits, gear and stuff, it was just so so.
Post 40 it has been great! I am septer/focus and Staff with condition build. I kill fast and have no issues. Plus I can pull big groups and do just fine.
Of course in pvp, we rock.