Guild Wars 2

I’m coming closer to lvl 80 slow but steady (currently at 76) with my mainly Condition Damage-orientated mesmer. I’ve read a lot of people say that the mesmer only ‘blooms’ after lvl 60 or so but frankly I’ve started to feel myself pretty weak lately. I can still kite stuff from here to eternity but the enemies aren’t melting as fast as they’ve previously done. The traits that I’ve been using so far (20/0/30/0/20) are just from a random build I saw when I started to play.

The build itself with utilities and such looks like this. I’m currently only interested in soloing PvE but I’ll probably try dungeons in the future if I can just find enough people for them.

I’m not really using my GS unless there are turrets or such that can’t be affected with conditions, so I’m also interested in what to have there instead.

So yeah, any tips would be much appreciated

You run the exact same trait lines as I do(20/0/30/0/20). There’s 2 options you can do.

One is to switch to a stealth build, where you put in decoy and maybe even run sword/torch. The last Chaos trait should be the longer cloak. If you’re going to solo, this is a great thing for survivability, and the dps doesn’t drop a ton. but you might want to drop the 15% illusion dmg because it only affects physical, not condition, meaning it only helps warlock. Idk what you could replace it as though.

The other one, or you could mix it in, is to focus more on Vulnerability and shattering, specifically the F3. Run the shatter stacks vuln, and removes boons for the power trait line. This really helps against soloing bosses and those who stack boons like crazy. the other change that could be made is the 33% confusion adding. it helps when you shatter often.

As I still run this build, I at least suggest switching to have a core in shattering. It doesn’t make it a shattercrazy build, but the added vuln and confusion helps with dps. Also, for Orr, run Signet of illusions, especially if you use defender. it really helps. just don’t use it on dungeons, it doesn’t help.

Hope this helps!

If you want to kill faster, Dueling is one of our best lines for DPS. Not only does it increase critical rate & critical damage, but it has traits that are useful in almost every build style; eg. phantasmal fury, deceptive evasion, blade training, and duelist discipline. The minor traits are very nice, too: vigor on crit (more dodging for clones), clones bleed on crit (more dps, especially for condition builds), and clones confuse on death (again dps).

IMHO, it’s really hard to increase your DPS without at least 20 in Dueling. Reworking your build to put more in that line will increase your kill rate phenomenally.

Sword\focus\staff(gs), berserker gear, 10-20-0-10-30. Works anywhere(except arah and higher fractals :/).

Go (0/15/25/0/30) with Chaotic Dampening, Compounding Power and Illusionary Elasticity rest is situational and/or up to your preference.
Use Precision, Toughness, Condition Damage equip to become a solid dps machine.
Or use Power, Precision, Condition Damage for the glass cannon style.
You should almost never use your iWarlock except on big event bosses with a kittenload of Conds on them.

I agree with Okuza. There are other options and ways to play a mesmer, but if you want to melt enemies and still keep your condition damage gear, the best way is to use Dueling. Not only will your illusions start spamming bleeds, but you can effortlessly poop out clones by dodging. A good crit rate will see you have plenty of vigor for it too.

My preference is 20/20/0/0/30 for shattertastic confusion. Even in PVE everything melts with 12-15 stacks of confusion+Blurred Frenzy+MW bursts, but I run a more defensive rabid/knights/carrion setup for some extra tough and power, so you may want to mix up the gear a bit.