Thanks to the recent comments in my other thread I decided to stick with mesmer after all. I am still a low level (<30) and have no access to traits. As with all classes this severely limits me in learning the class and i have just been killing things any way I can. I have been trying to look at builds to get an idea of their playstyles so i know what i should be concentrating on to be semi prepared when i reach 80. However, most builds i have seen dont give much on how the build is played other than gear, weapon, and traits for me to get an idea. If someone could clarify what the different builds playstyle is like so i know what i might like to try out in the future. I know i can test stuff out in PvP but the builds i find dont seem to give a lot of insight on how all of the skills are used. I may just be dumb since i previously played an ele and I am used to guides laying out a full skill rotation.
Also, most of the guides i find are older (still use the previous trait system) and I am unsure how accurate they still are with all of the changes.
I will mainly be using my mesmer for dungeons ( to get some experience in them and then for high level fractals where reflects help in the future) and roaming in Wvw either solo or with a few friends.
This is my current understanding of builds and may be off by a little or a lot:
Phantasm: mainly uses sword MH and focus/pistol/sword off hand. Just does damage with sword skills and uses phantasms to deal damage as well usually keeping them alive for DPS instead of shattering them. Great for dungeons and is more than likely what i will use for them. Mainly stays in melee range?
Mantra: Uses a lot of mantras but other than this im very unclear.
Condition: I think they mainly use P/U(scepter /torch) and deal most of their damage with conditions. How they go about dealing conditions i am unclear on. It seems they are similar to a phantasm build but the phantasms deal condition damage over regular? i am possibly very wrong. No idea how they work to know if they are mostly melee or ranged.
P/U power build: again use scepter/ torch based on the P/U but i havent really found any guides to know how they do their damage.
Shatter: This seems great for roaming and they do high burst damage. I dont know what weapons they typically use as i have seen MH Sword and MH scepter with all of the offhands. I think i would enjoy this build but i still have a hard time understanding how they deal the huge burst damage. Is it really all about getting illusions out asap and using one of the shatters and rinse/repeat.
lockdown: Mostly stay ranged i think but im unclear about how they normally are played and may avoid since i read they have a high skill cap.
Any advise or clarifications are greatly appreciated.