Guild Wars 2

Hi guys new Mesmer noob here, I leveled a Mesmer to 80 by doing crafting as I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone and get most of my crafting up to 400.

I suck at PvP so I focus on PvE, I main a Warrior and as strong as they are at smashing through everything while taking a colossal beating I feel myself getting a bit bored so I did a Mesmer.

I’m currently running a full zerker lazy Kai build with the exception of the runes which i swapped out for ruby orbs and it’s running great and forcing me to learn how to dodge, avoid and manage illusions.

I would like to learn how to build my Mesmer for condition and phantasm use, some squishy with tones of damage with the use of nimble fingers and an unkillable build that makes me think hard about what to use next in a long fight and why.

The Mesmer is very daunting for someone like me who has always been a brute force kind of gamer so any help on how to learn finesse and patience with a Mesmer will be greatly appreciated.

I don’t get your post actually.
You said your main focus is PvE, yet you are asking for things which really don’t fit into the “pve meta”, such as Conditions and Tankiness.
I can give you some builds, but I’d need some more info: are you going to play PvE only? Or do you plan to use these builds into WvW (or PvP)?
Things that work in PvE are COMPLETELY different from things that work in any competitive envirorment (WvW included), so be a little more specific when asking for advice.

You may be a bit dissapointed to hear this, but everything you just asked for works better for PvP (and likely you’d enjoy Mesmer more there judging from the playstyle you’re looking for)

Condition damage is simply weaker than direct damage in PvE, especially for Mesmer. I’d suggest looking up the Blackwater Mesmer for PvP, WvW, but for dungeons you’ll wanna go with Zerker. You’ll still have to play skillfully and if you’re good you wont be killed but the build will be more phantasm based, such as what’s outlined in the dungeon section of the Mesmer guide.

I plan on going into sPvP/WvW at some point but would like to use PvE as a kind of training ground to get used to how the mesmer feels.

Work on building a Phantasm build for PvE, Lazy Kai’s stuff is a good start so it helps with sticking with that. After a couple days of getting the feel for the class try your hands at a PU condition build in hotjoin PvP. You’ll certainly feel godlike just steel yourself for an army of people complaining and trying to verbally dump on you. The mists is also good because you can experiment with different builds at no cost, even on the combat NPCs.

Do you play on US or EU?

I play on EU, been playing a bit more mesmer and I’m having a blast in PvE but like I said, I want to get into PvP whether it be sPvP which is probably the sensible option to start with and then roaming solo or in party in WvW but zerging/blue dot chasing doesn’t appeal to me.

Would like several contrasting build suggestions with good guides and explanations in lamen terms, I’m not up on all the terminology in mmo’s so an idiots guide would be great.

I hear a lot about this PU build and i love the look of Osicat’s stuff.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8PlwzipXUjteEx0Diz3AOSKUtXrkCc7CB-jkCBYfAYgRmgAmEJQZmFRjtCqIasakYaXAaYpWFLRSBwkwI-w third util slot is for condi clear or veil i use the extra invis because with torch condi clear and 60% condi reduction i usually hold out great. This is pretty much my personal set up for Osicats power Pu build and it works great for me.

It feels best in solo roam but can also do just as well in small groups.

Switch to focus for running places, and spend time perfecting the bursts.

Use your invis to the max by spacing it out and staying in it to the last second, but play aggressive.

It also works with the signet heal.

You should always start with some PvE (IMO) to test your new skills/weapons out and see how they work together. Even more so with a class you haven’t played at all, if I understand you correctly. And mesmer is not exactly the easiest class, featuring a somewhat complex class mechanic that can do a lot of different things depending on your trait/stat spread.

Most condition mesmers run rabid gear because we need high precision to trigger bleeds. Condition mesmers need as many illusions active as possible as well because the illusions apply the bleeds. The good news is that any illusion may trigger a bleed, phantasms take no precedence over clones in this regard (unless you trait Dueling II, perma-fury on phantasms).

Also, and I might be wrong here, but it doesn’t seem like you understand the difference between clones, phantasms and illusions.
- clones are mainly annoyance/shatter fodder. They do next to no direct damage.
- phantasms do good damage and can be affected by a variety of traits. They do a reasonable amount of your direct damage.
- illusions is a general term that applies to both clones and phantasms.

Skill tooltips will tell you if they create clones or phantasms. A general rule is that all main-hand weapons produce some sort of clone, all off-hands produce some sort of phantasm and all two-handed do both.