Guild Wars 2

The short of it is, I’m looking for tips on how to play mesmer effectively in PvE.

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since release, and I’ve dabbled in every class at low levels. I do say low levels because I have a horrible habit of making alt after alt after alt. I have 9 character slots and 2 of those are over 50, and only 1 beyond that over 30. I’ve run the Maw so many times it was a little funny about two years ago.

However, since I play mostly at the lower levels, I’m afraid I’m not getting into the details for some of the classes. At level 10 I can run up and smack most things without too much of a thought. For example, I’ve never paid any attention to signets aside from what was already on a weapon or armor bit, and I’ve no idea how one acquires ascended gear.

So, after that largely pointless background information, I’m wondering if someone could give me some basic to intermediate tips on playing mesmer. I don’t need to know the absolute perfect build for fighting a thief 1v1 in WvW. I would like to know when I should shatter, if clones are useless vs phantasms, and some basic survival stuff.

About my mesmer:
- I normally run a dual sword set up with a staff backup. I’ll admit I don’t switch to the staff often enough in a fight.
- I have no idea what trait set up I had before the patch, and I’m only level 22 now so…yeah..

What I want out of my mesmer:
- I loathe dying. Really truly hate it, even against normal mobs. I do alright against 1 normal mob with my dual sword set up, but many mobs or some tougher than normal and I’m in a bit of trouble. I know I probably won’t reach ranger level of survivability, but this is the main issue I have.
- I’d like to know how to better work the clones or, and I’m not sure it is not possible, remove them from my build. Against a normal mob they seem useless because they don’t have enough time to do anything before the mob dies, and against tough or multiple mobs they don’t seem to do enough, or die too quickly.

Ok, so this advice might seem overly pessimistic, but it’s the best I can give right now.

Leveling a mesmer has always been a chore. However, this most recent patch changed it from being a chore to being a truly grueling and not fun experience. Mesmer is extremely dependent on traits, and now you get less traits for a longer time.

The best way to level a mesmer is to obtain books of knowledge to level it directly without actually playing the class. You can also use crafting to get levels for it as well. Once you get to level 70 or so, the class will be more playable, so you can get the last 10 levels normally and begin learning to play it then.

First off, you’ve made the right choice in using S/S. This weapon set is probably the best out of all the classes in teaching people how to melee.

The most important thing that you should start learning is how to pay attention to the skill animations in this game. This class is very fragile in melee range if you do not use your evasion skills (Sword Skill #2, and #4) properly. Get into the habbit of using these skills ONLY when you see mobs attacking you. Both will evade/block attacks while doing damage in the process. If you get into this practice now, you will find Dungeons/WvW/PvP much easier as you will be able to mitigate damage without sacrificing your own damage. Staff is a good backup weapon when fighting against special champions or elite (they have a silver/gold outline around their character portrait). Use skill 2 on staff as a dodge under those circumstances. The phantasm skills are your best source of damage at low levels, so keep them off cooldown.

Generally you want to use clones for shatters at low levels. F1 and F4 are your bread and butter. Otherwise clones can hold mob AI if you need to back off, and that’s pretty much it (they’re bad). Keep in mind that if you shatter you will kill your phantasms, so it’s often better to use F1 to kill mobs off since your illusions will die off when the target dies.

Mesmers are probably the worst class to level, due to the low damage they output and the high dependency on traits to supplement their damage. When you start to get trait points unlocked, invest in Blade Training (Dueling Adapt trait), and then branch into traits that give you or your illusions more damage.

As far as healing skills go, Ether Sig or Ether Fest are the go-to healing skills. Ether sig allows you to have more phantasms out (you will need to use staff or another weapon more to take advantage of this) at the cost of healing, Ether fest is one of the best healing skills in the game.

Utility skills are pretty weak in general PvE, although Blink, Decoy, Nullfield, and Feedback are all good options. I’d suggest you look into your class-specific skills. For example, Prayer to Lyssa is actually not half bad with the recent patch.

When you have access to your elite skills, look into the racial elites. The Mesmer elites are poor in solo PvE content.

As far as wvwvw goes, you will not be able to touch roaming classes or anything that has an interest in killing you until you get into lvl 70+. It’s unfortunately a side effect of the Mesmer traits.

There are plenty of guides on the forums in which you can look at if you want a more in-depth look at the Mesmer.

Good luck.

Qosin.2078:

What I want out of my mesmer:
- I loathe dying. Really truly hate it, even against normal mobs. I do alright against 1 normal mob with my dual sword set up, but many mobs or some tougher than normal and I’m in a bit of trouble. I know I probably won’t reach ranger level of survivability, but this is the main issue I have.
- I’d like to know how to better work the clones or, and I’m not sure it is not possible, remove them from my build. Against a normal mob they seem useless because they don’t have enough time to do anything before the mob dies, and against tough or multiple mobs they don’t seem to do enough, or die too quickly.

- If u hate dying then chaos armor is your best friend but you’ll need a semi tanky semi dps setup. Something like a mixture of knights, cavalier, Valkyrie and berserker gear. Google these. With s/s + staff setup, u have 5 ways of using chaos armor. With staff 4, staff 2 inside an ethereal field, sword 3 (twice) in an ethereal field and sword 5 again in an ethereal field. An Ethereal field is for example your chaos storm, feedback, null field, timewarp. Proc these as often as you can while fighting mobs out numbered. They provide great dmg mitigation.
- Other forms of damage mitigation includes Sword 2 and F4 skills. F4 usually for more serious emergencies as a get out of jail card.
- If you’re out of damage mitigation skills and dodges or if your health is too low distance your self from the enemy with staff 2 with blink. Recover enough hp and at least some skills are off Cooldown then reengage. F3 is also some times good for stopping the enemy from attacking you for a small period of time, as it interrupts their attacks, so that you can have more time to get away for a bit.
- Casting chaos storm on top of yourself and the enemy with staff, then swap to s/s, do a chaos armor combo finisher then start attacking the enemy works very well in pve. Chaos storm dazes the enemy and gives you aegis. This gives you protection while you attack the enemy. Chaos armor will give you protection when hit that reduces enemy damage on you and has chance to blind the enemy. So you can continue to attack for longer without needing to heal.

These are the core basics of playing defensively offensive in pve with s/s + staff as a Mesmer.

My advice is start learning how to use a focus. A sword/focus combo of 4(towards a wall)-5-4(while casting iWarden)-3-3-2 can almost wipe an entire pulled mob. Roaming open world with Blink, stability mantra and condi cleanse mantra (once you’re able to get them) are the best options IMO

I have to disagree with the players who say that you shouldn’t play your mesmer until much higher levels. Because you should use the time you have with only the weapon skills to really learn how they work! Or else you’ll find yourself with traits at level XX but with no greater understanding of how to implement them. Sure, times are harder now then when I leveled my mesmer. But contrary to what most mesmer players are saying, I had a blast leveling my mesmer! And with the right mindset, you can too!

If I read between the lines of your post a bit, I’m getting the impression that you are making the same mistake I used to do.. (And still do to this day sometimes, just not on such a massive scale that I used to.) Not playing very consciously and reactive! Take the time to actually learn the correlations between skills and how to implement them properly, and you’ll find yourself overwhelmed (and dead) much, MUCH less frequent.

Use the various PvE mobs to train your skill and learn on which type of mobs you can get away with various techniques! And also remember how many of them you can engage at one perticular moment, given your cooldowns. If you are on an EU-server I would be very willing to teach you what little knowledge I have! It would probably make me a better mesmer also, since I’m still working kitten how to implement my “conscious and reactive” mindset.. More so now, since I haven’t played much in quite a while. I’m on Ruins of Surmia (EU) with some time on my hands if you want my humble advice..! And, if you’re not using your shatters.. (F1-F4) Start doing so!