Other than an occasional veil/portal, the general consensus seems to be that mesmers aren’t very compatable with wvw zerg vs zerg combat. Usually too much single target damage, and too much damage potential tied up in things that fall over dead instantly to random aoe.
This is very true to 1 or 2 two lone mesmers in a zerg. Hypothetically though, what if the entire zerg of 30-50 were mesmers? Could they setup in such a way to mitigate these shortcomings?
From what I’ve seen, the standard organized zerg consists of a large ball of warriors and guardians, with a spattering of elementalists and necros skirting around the edges of the fight. The melee ball has heavy access to stability, stuns, and condition removal, and is definitely doing the bulk of the damage in fights.
So, with that in mind, here’s what I’d propose in our hypothetical scenario:
The Build
- Basic Premise: Do not focus on phantasm damage or stealth. Stay balled up, use clone death traits to completely overwhelm their condition removal and supplement damage. Note that clones also greatly enhance your survivability as well, as with the target caps for attacks when your 30-50 players suddenly becomes 60-200, not everyone gets hit. The enemy melee ball and ranged aoe won’t be able to stop from hitting and killing clones, and every death will spamming 3 conditions aoe.
- Why Sword/Focus? Best cleave dps as well as short cooldown evade. Boon stripping as well. Wardens are aoe damage but also protection from any enemies staying at range while you fight the melee ball. Temporal curtain for constant pulls, swiftness, cripple and for catching runners along with illusionary leap.
- Why Greatsword? Ranged aoe for when you aren’t pressured by melee. Works decently as a hybrid weapon due to sharper images.
- Why Celestial? The clone death traits damage is completely condition, but power and crit are needed for the weapons. No one can be squishy so toughness and vitality are needed too. Healing power is probably the weakest overall, but still gets used.
- Mantras? This is the core of the mesmer zerg sustain. This gives everyone 3 stunbreaks that also do aoe stability. The heal is for more personal condition removal with mender’s purity and since rarely will the fight be over in one clash, everyone has large aoe healing while they heal themselves too. No water fields needed.
- Why Null Field? AoE boon stripping plus condition removal. Need to get the stability and protection off the melee ball. Mesmer zerg can put these down constantly.
- Third Utility? Feedback as a default perhaps, to neutralize whatever ranged dps there is, but I don’t think everyone needs to run this. This should be a variety of utility. Veil, portal, illusion of life, and even some with mantra of pain for the no/low cooldown aoe heal when regrouping.
- Elite? I’d say half time-warp, half mass invisibility. Enough to make your whole zerg vanish despite the 10 target cap.
- Why Pack Runes? Mesmers lack offensive boons. This should hand out a large amount of might, fury, and swiftness to many allies.
- Why Torment Sigils? More aoe damage and yet another cover condition.
- Why Koi Cakes? If there is enough condition spam going out overwhelm active cleansing, then the durations need to be as long as possible for more control and damage and not be marginalized by passive -duration food and runes.
Anyone else have any fun ideas?
