Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow Mesmers.

I’ve been playing Mesmer (and posting on this Mesmer board) here and there since gw2 came out. I have always loved my Mesmer, and he has been my main for a long time. He is my highest WvW ranked character by a huge gap, and he has my only legendary. The problem I have with my Mesmer, is I just cannot find a spec that is just right for me. It’s always a pull between either good as a roamer, or good in group fights and zergs. And at least it seems to me, the drop off is pretty dramatic when you choose one over the other. I’ve tried the Pu builds, and actually played PU and torch combo well before the buff ever happened. And sure it’s great roaming, but in a large fight I feel out of place. Switching places, I’ve played glamour specs, which are awesome in group fights, but when I’m caught out in the field with null field and feedback on my bar, I feel underpowered for a 1v1 encounter. Now this could definitely be a L2p thing on my behalf, I’ve never pretended to be some elite gamer. Lately I’ve been running a shatter build, and I really love the pressure it can provide, but it also feels like a bit of a one trick pony.

I only have 3 80’s I had more but I deleted a bunch of them to focus on my game play and focus my resources. The other class I play is thief, and lately my thief is really taking over my game time. I feel like I have that roaming capability, while still “ok” in a zerg fight, just because I find short bow to be probably one of the best zerg weapons out there.

So I’ll post what I’m running now, and maybe some of the elder Mesmer’s can give me some advice. I’ll never delete my Mesmer, but he’s definitely losing his playtime as of late.

I’m running
http://tinyurl.com/l972zgb

I’m open to any weapon combination or armor. I honestly would love to keep the torch since it’s my legendary, but if using something else makes me play him more, I will.

Well that’s the tradeoff. Mesmer 1v1 and ZvZ skills are pretty different. If you want something that is “decent” at both and still use the torch, I would recommend this:

- X/20/30/X/X (personally I use 0/20/30/20/0 for added survivability).
- sword/torch/staff. The staff give you extra tricks/defense in group combat and you can trait it, but of course its a tradeoff for damage vs the GS. Missing knockback is a shame too.
- Aim for 3K armor and go for a full power/prec/critdam build. You should easily reach 40%/60%@2K toughness by comboing knights/cavalier/pvt/berserker.
- blink/null field/feedback/timewarp
- use HP on kill/endurance on kill sigils
- I recommend traveller runes regardless of build

You dont want to be caught alone inside a zerg and under the enemy melee train, but the staff combined with with blink and torch should allow you to evade and slip back into your own melee train range.

I used such a build against INC yesterday in open field GvG – we beat the snot out of them despite less/equal numbers, lol. Then Red Guard came and interfered
Its not a roflstomp dps build but got the torch and provide what you need in a group (well, except veil, got more mesmers for that) while still offering high survivability.

When roaming and going solo the things I change is feedback->decoy, timewarp->mass invisi and sigils to 2xdoom and perception (the later also used to stack, heh).

The only other thing that can do both fairly well is the shatter build, but you obviously tried that… Phantasm builds are strong in 1v1 and decent at group fights but tbh not so great at actual roaming. You pretty much commit to battle and die when outnumbered. Reflection builds are poor in 1v1 but decent at group fights. Still same problem as phantasm though, poor roamers.

You may ask why I recommend direct damage too and here’s the deal – I personally find condition damage downright boring in the long run. You dont have the oomph of direct damage builds and even they are weaker than usual when speccing for group combat.

I’d give this build a go, curtesy of BlackDevil:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Maximised-Hybrid-Phantasm-Build-Roaming/first

It is something I’ve been toying with and really enjoyed. It plays a little differently to what I’m used to but all the Mesmer principles are there. In a 1v1 or somevsome situation you can really focus a single target and make their life difficult with stuns, condition pressure, mobility control and being hard to catch.

You can then apply this focus to ZvZ. Pick out a few people and keep them distracted and pressured. Phantasms don’t usually last long, but throwing out an iZerker into a clumped bunch of reds is satisfying and effective. Could even swap in the new signet to get a second one immediately after the first for a nice spike. You can quickly build might stacks through Bountiful Interruptions using GS #5 on a group of people. you can then share them with a signet of inspiration along with any other buff gained from PU.

Combine these elements with the suggested Centaur runes, and PU and you’ve got a fairly solid solo/group roaming build that can add to large scale battles too.

Ahh that is indeed a solid hybrid PU build Atra Culpa, I didn’t realize it was BD’s despite seeing that I’ve looked at it before.

I’ve been playing the same build in sPvP, and there you can easily swap between full on power or hybrid mode by simply swapping the amulet out. If I go hybrid mode though, I usually prefer Scepter over Sword for the Torment.

The single-target damage of those 2 phants in a hybrid build is really nice. Stacking a ton of bleeds on top of moderate DD, and then stacking on a Torment is fun stuff. (And of course some Confusion just to add insult to injury.)

Nice to hear it works out well in WvW too for different roles. I’ve used the new Signet heal as well, but overall can’t say I like it very much. Sure, you can burst nicely with getting 3 Phants up in seconds, but then you’re left without healing for a long time. Just too frustrating when most enemy classes are able to just kill off your Phants even in 1v1, without taking much punishment for doing so.

I feel the OPs points though, at times I get down too about my Mesmer, but then I play my Engineer and after a day or two I run back to the Mesmer! (Not saying the class sucks, it’s more a L2P issue I’m sure, but I just don’t get that class.)

There’s no build which is great for both 1v1 and ZvZ, it’s always a tradeoff for every single profession. You can create some kind of hybrid but those builds usually aren’t optimal for any part of the game.

A few months ago I was about to quit GW2 because my main was simply boring to play. Tried every build, seen everything so what am I supposed to do now? The answer is simple:

Try playing a different profession for some time, it really helps.

You will come back to your Mesmer eventually and have fun playing it again.

This could partly be solved if anet would FINALLY give us a way to easily switch builds “on the fly” (like Rift’s roles) – which especially makes sense considering that some traits/skills work better in pve than pvp/wvw. Perhaps easier said than done, I suppose, since ideally they’d also have to allow us to switch armor and accessory sets at the same time as traits, but it sure would be nice. I feel your pain. I love my mesmer and was really hoping that after the latest patch he would finally shine again in zerg WvW, which is what I’ve always played most. But I’ve spent most of my time since the patch blowing gold on various items and theory-crafting rather than actually playing the game – because I still can’t find just the right combination to make me feel excited about that play-style with my Mesmer. After countless hours of trying to come up with something I could be happy with, I pretty much ended up where I started, which is some variation of our kitten glamour builds. It would be nice, at least, if we could easily switch builds for those times when we have to do camp/dolyak duties or whatever and I’m running with a smaller group. At least then I could shine for that little while playing one of the roaming builds.

Anyway, glad I get to take a break from it this weekend. ESO beta, here I come!

(LoL, and Anet sure has some ridiculous views on what constitute “bad” words, considering the completely innocuous word they replaced with “kitten” above.)