Guild Wars 2

Or should I even bother. I’m trying to get all classes to 80, and Mesmer is my last one. He’ll be there in a couple days. I DO have HOT also, so I suppose I’ll get Chrono too.

For leveling I’ve been using Sword/Sword and GS, focusing on Phantasms. I haven’t tried Shatter yet, as a strategy.

Please don’t link me to builds that require crafting or ascended gear, as I won’t have those. I CAN buy exotic gear from the AH.

I assume if I want to try conditions that I should be using Scepter/Pistol, but what about the other weapon set? It seems that Mesmers can put out confusion and torment, but how exactly do they do this reliably/consistently? I assume that bleeding and burning builds are not very effective on Mesmers?

If I don’t go with conditions, are Berzerker gear and Shatter builds the way to go? Keep in mind this will be for PVE exploration only. I never PVP, rarely WVW, and rarely do Dungeons/Fractals with guild-mates.

Thanks for your help.

Mesmer condition builds aren’t that great in PvE. You can keep a set of condi geared weapons on you if you feel like soloing champions, since it makes it almost trivial, but most of the time it would be faster to kill stuff with a power build.

Because you don’t have chrono yet, I’ll give you a core mesmer build. It focuses on interrupts and buffing your shatters. Your shatter skills deal more damage, inflict vuln, confusion, torment and blind if you take Blinding Dissipation. Interrupting foes (using F3, Signet of Humility, GS5, into the void [focus 4]) causes vuln, confusion, and gives you quickness. Evading/blocking an attack (dodging or Sword 2) causes blind and confusion. You can also take Fencer’s Finesse over Blinding Dissipation if you don’t need to blind mobs as often, gives you more ferocity. Just note that there is very little condition clear in this build, but you really don’t need it in core tyria maps. If you need to cleanse, remember that Temporal Curtain is a light field.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsdRlknhy0YnawVNwsGLwGEZASQuLjgfjGlbuEA

OriOri.8724:

Mesmer condition builds aren’t that great in PvE. You can keep a set of condi geared weapons on you if you feel like soloing champions, since it makes it almost trivial, but most of the time it would be faster to kill stuff with a power build.

Because you don’t have chrono yet, I’ll give you a core mesmer build. It focuses on interrupts and buffing your shatters. Your shatter skills deal more damage, inflict vuln, confusion, torment and blind if you take Blinding Dissipation. Interrupting foes (using F3, Signet of Humility, GS5, into the void [focus 4]) causes vuln, confusion, and gives you quickness. Evading/blocking an attack (dodging or Sword 2) causes blind and confusion. You can also take Fencer’s Finesse over Blinding Dissipation if you don’t need to blind mobs as often, gives you more ferocity. Just note that there is very little condition clear in this build, but you really don’t need it in core tyria maps. If you need to cleanse, remember that Temporal Curtain is a light field.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsdRlknhy0YnawVNwsGLwGEZASQuLjgfjGlbuEA

Thanks. I don’t see any gear recommendations in that build. Is that a glitch? For example, what runes/sigils with this build?

Also, what should I swap out once I get Chronomancer, for PVE purposes? (Shouldn’t take me long to get Chrono.)

Honestly PvE mobs are pretty kitten easy, gear doesn’t really matter for open world. Since you don’t plan on doing many fractals, I’m assuming you won’t want to get into raiding on the chronomancer either. Because of that, just go straight berserkers. If you find that you have trouble staying alive, you can start swapping trinkets out for soldiers gear. Start with the amulet and rings and see if that’s enough survivability.

Likewise, in open world PvE runes really don’t matter. You could use runes of the traveler until you unlock chrono so that you run faster. Same with sigils, really doesn’t matter in open world PvE. Sup sigil of force is an extra 5% damage, so consider that one, also consider some with stacking bonuses. Sup sigil of perception gives you up to 250 extra precision, ending only when you die or switch maps. The extra crit rate would help your overall damage out a lot.

Once you unlock chrono, go with something like this. Drop dueling for chrono, the shield is enough sustain (and its synergy with ineptitude in the illusions line makes it even easier to blind foes), and the stuns from Shield 5 allow you to deal extra damage with mental anguish. You lose the light field, so if you find yourself needing more condition clear, you can swap Ether Feast out for Well of Eternity. Well of Precognition is nice for facetanking most attacks if you want to, but feel free to swap it out for anything else.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRnknBlphtfC2fCEgiFYjCNKuplgMASgcrOYL2kF-e