Guild Wars 2

Hello Mesmers

I’ve been playing Mesmer since the game began, and I’ve gone through quite a few builds, and in the past I have posted them on the forums. I also have been thinking of a few new builds, and I thought I would make a post with some of my past builds. The build I’m running now. And post the ones I’ve been tossing around in my head. So to begin with the build I’m running now.

Build Type: Power Based
Use : WvW and PvE
Weapons: Great Sword/ Scepter and Torch
Armor: Berserkers with Ascended Celestial jewelry
Utilities: Decoy, Feedback, Radiation Field or Null Feild
Domination 20 (3/9)
Dueling 20 (5/10)
Chaos 30 (2/7/12)

With this build I feel like I have a ton of survivability. Even in Berserkers gear. PU with cleansing conflagration is just a fantastic combo for World V World. When stunned I decoy, gaining protection, regen, and cleansing all my conditions while breaking the stun. My Great Sword hits very hard. And I have little trouble killing players in the field, whether I’m solo roaming, or running with a zerg. There are times when I will switch things up, swapping torch with pistol, and cleansing conflag with great sword mastery. But for the most part this is the build I’ve been loving the most.

I fell in love with the pistol off hand recently, and wish I could go Scepter/Pistol, Scepter/Torch. Unfortunately the Great Sword, for me, is just to hard to give up.

Previous Build
Build Type: Mantra Power
Use WvW and PvE
Weapons: Great Sword/ Sword, Torch
Armor: Berserkers with Celestial Ascended jewelry
Utilities: Mantra of Pain, Mantra of Resolve, Mantra of Distraction
Dom 20 (3,10)
Dueling 30 (2,10,11)
Chaos 10 (2)
Illusions 10 (3)

This build really took advantage of the +4% damage with every mantra charged. I would run at times anywhere from +12% to +16% damage from my mantras. Add in the +3% for each active illusion, and you end up hitting extremely hard. Hitting hard initially will usually force an opponent into a more defensive play style. Time your mantra’s right. And Spike them down when the time is right.

I ran this build or some version of it, for a long time. And I had a lot of help from Fay when it came to advice on Mantras. I also dabbled in confusion glamour’s for a bit, but I just found the power play to be more my style.

Theory craft
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This is a build or two I have been bouncing around in my head. I will probably add to this section as time goes on.

Build Type : Power Interrupt
Use: WvW not sure about PVE
Weapons: Sword/Pistol, Scepter/Focus
Armor: Berserkers (Though it seems like condition might be possible in this build)
Utilities: Signet of Domination, Mantra of Distraction, Technobabble, Moa
Dom 30 (2,6,12)
Dueling 20 (2/10)
Inspiration 20 (4,8)

I’ve been thinking, that while working within a stun lock build, halting strikes would really shine. Your main objective would be to lock down your opponent with stuns as often as possible. And when not stun using your reflect abilities to keep there damage at bay. The interrupts and damage from them, would be a secondary bonus. I also have been tossing around the idea of using the hydromancy sigils. To create chill on weapon swap. Slowing down cast times, allows for more interrupts. This is a build in progress, and I will update it as I go.

http://tinyurl.com/lyd6zd8

This is the new reflect build I’ve been working on. Its based on reflects and shattering. It’s more or a zerg vs zerg build then anything else, but your shatters do hit decently, with your high power, and they recharge quickly. The more important part of this build is all the reflects. You have 5 extremely reliable reflects in this build. And the tankiness to surf the zerg and send your opponents damage back at them. Or sit back from a distance and let your curtain do the work for you.

I Chose Centaur runes, but honestly any runes could do in this build. With the Focus trait, and the amount in chaos you have a large swiftness up time. So you can keep the centaur in or leave it.

Since everyone names builds, I’ll call this one my shattered mirror

You misspelled your own name in the topic?

Joonks.7501:

You misspelled your own name in the topic?

Unfortunately, even though I thought I would get in, in time to get the name Jester, for my character. It was gone as soon as I got into the first few minutes of GW2. I think some people were able to keep there names from Gw1. So I chose Jestir, a name I had used as a variation in several other MMO’s. I don’t usually refer to myself in game from my Anet account name. But as my character name.

What does your killing rotation look like in that first build? I’m so used to shatter or phantasm builds, I’m trying to wrap my head around a different style of play. With shatter I play and up in your face style of play, letting the shatters damage my opponent. Yet, with phantasms I work on getting 2-3 out, then try to survive while they go to town. I want to try a PU build, I’m just trying to figure out how the rotation works.

Jester.1236:

PU with cleansing conflagration is just a fantastic combo for World V World. When stunned I decoy, gaining protection, regen, and cleansing all my conditions while breaking the stun.

I’m a bit at a loss here. How are you dropping ALL your conditions? I could see being able to drop two at most with cleansing conflagration . Does it actually drop all of them? Granted… even if it doesn’t… the more cleanse I can get the better these days. Nice find. I totally forgot torch did that.

Sorry
Usually I’m only dealing with two or three conditions on me at once. In the scenario I was referencing. Of course against someone stacking conditions on just me, I would not be able to drop them all. And I apologize for not being clear in my description.

Dasboba.1652:

What does your killing rotation look like in that first build? I’m so used to shatter or phantasm builds, I’m trying to wrap my head around a different style of play. With shatter I play and up in your face style of play, letting the shatters damage my opponent. Yet, with phantasms I work on getting 2-3 out, then try to survive while they go to town. I want to try a PU build, I’m just trying to figure out how the rotation works.

Solo I run into range, throw mirror blade. Summong I zerker. Then a lot depends on what my opponent does. At this point though I usually stealth with either prestige or decoy. Bring out Image or IDuelist. Pop out of stealth using scepter 3 which hits for great numbers still in my build. I really feel like any solo fight is kind of a cool down dance. And I just start rotating through mine, as they rotate through there’s If I have a lot of phantasms and clones out, and there health is high, I wont hesitate to shatter. Mind wrack still hits very hard, even if your not a shatter Mesmer.

I have heard a lot of people say “well that wont beat a good player” which is fine with me. I must run into every bad played in the game. Because if I died a lot, I wouldn’t have fun. And if I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t be playing. I’m definitely not as fast as a lot of the players out there. But my character hits very hard, and I hide a lot.

I think Mesmer is one of the most forgiving classes for Beserker gear in WvW. With all the clones, and phantasms, the stealth and the invulnerability, you have a hidden survivability that numbers just can’t measure.

I ran your first spec this weekend, only with sword/f. I bought a torch, but didnt’ have alot of time to try it out because I was in a guild zerg. I actually like it alot. It really worked well in zerg pushes because we always open with multiple veils so I always had defensive boons up. I usually run zerker/knights gear and it worked great with this. I was able to keep high offensive stats and still have very high toughness. I’m going to pick up a scepter soon to give it a shot.

I was able to roam for a small amount of time with sword/torch. I ran veil, decoy, mirror images, and mass invis. It was almost like playing a thief. I really like that i can pop veil, run over it, wait for stealth to wear off, then run over it again to stack all the defensive buffs. I played it kind of like a phantasm/shatter hybrid. I opened w/my normal phantasms, then used shatters and stealth along with gs from range. It’s really fun. The best part was I never got killed by a zerg b/c I could always stealth and get away.

Thanks! I am really glad I’ve at least helped someone get past the phantasm changes I still at times find myself going Sceptre/Pistol instead of scepter torch. It all depends on how much condition removal and survivability I want on a given night. Or even in a given fight. By swapping out weapons. And moving CC to Greatsword mastery, your pretty set up to run pistol without losing anything.

Why scepter?
I am running pretty much same build but sword instead of scepter.
I am fairly new to mes so I might be missing something with the scepter.

Thank you,

Fiddler

Being in zerker gear, and not taking Illusionary persona. I have very little reason to want to get anywhere near my enemies. Scepter hits hard in a power build. I thank 7 Mirrors for that bit of wisdom. It does a little less damage now, but it’s still very powerful. Both weapons have a block, which is nice. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not getting much from the torment from the block. But it’s not a small amount either. The same with the number 3 ability. It hits hard when channeled, and the confusion while not mind blowing is just one more thing they have to deal with. There usually bleeding and crippled from Izerker. With Torment, confusion, and me hitting them and disappearing. I think a large portion of the player base, when they get a lot of conditions on them, are going to blow there condition cleanses. That’s one more thing there doing, that isn’t hitting me. It’s a lot of pressure, and if you keep people on the defensive, from damage and CC and conditions right off the bat, they will play differently. And usually that means victory.

Added a new build. Shattered Mirror.

New build I’ve been running. A new take on my 20/20/30 I always run. Its been very affective and It has really made confusion something I value again. It also adds some depth to the Image. I also make heavy use of great sword with the sigil of generosity, if you haven’t tried this I recommend it.

http://tinyurl.com/odlfsu5

Its a hard hitting power build. But with enough condition damage to make the synergy of the build mean something.

Jester.1236:

New build I’ve been running. A new take on my 20/20/30 I always run. Its been very affective and It has really made confusion something I value again. It also adds some depth to the Image. I also make heavy use of great sword with the sigil of generosity, if you haven’t tried this I recommend it.

http://tinyurl.com/odlfsu5

Its a hard hitting power build. But with enough condition damage to make the synergy of the build mean something.

I’m very curious how the build feels without any weapon CD traits. Just seems like you’d be waiting a long time to do anything.

I might have felt that way the first day of trying this. But honestly I feel like I do more now then I had before. Between using my glamour’s on cool down. And managing my scepter and torch cool downs, all the while dodging for a shatter when I can I stay plenty busy. And I’m finding it very effective. Also as an added bonus, my tormet is hitting a good deal harder then I expected it to. I hadn’t really thought of the torment when building this, but I’m working harder now to land those blocks then ever.

Interesting. Well the good thing is that, if you can manage CD’s w/out those traits, that obviously opens those trait spots for something else. I question confusing enchantments though – would be so incredibly tempting to take cleansing conflagration for quicker access to more stealth/boons (since you’re also running PU) and condition removal, which seems to be somewhat lacking. Seems to me that would go much further than a little extra confusion from a couple glamours on long CD.

With DE and endless vigor though, I can see constant activity in spite of the CD loss. Do you have a typical attack or burst chain?

What your suggesting, is basically what the original build in this thread was. I ran that set up for a long time, with zerker stats. I constantly found myself switching between torch, and pistol in that scenario, since I liked the stealth of the prestige, but hated the lackluster phantasm. This new gear set up, has really given I-mage relevance in this build. I do not feel the need to switch to pistol anymore.

As for condition removal, I really am in love with the sigil of generosity. With the great sword multi hit,. and null field, I feel like I have enough. If I find it lacking I will fun the condition removal on heal food.

I always felt like I was missing something in tower and siege fights. This build gives me what I felt like I was lacking with confusing enchantments. The trait alone, gives me the benefit of two traits, I feel. The blind on glamour, and blind turns into confusion. Simply because most people do not sit in your null field or feedback.

As for my typical attack, it’s the same as it had been. But I feel like it has a lot more synergy. I open with I zerker almost always. He’s a hard hitter, and people usually burn a condition removal to get rid of the cripple, and bleed he applied (bleed hitting much harder now). After Izerker, I switch to scepter torch. Throw Image out (now improved!) And try channeling scepter 3. If they burned there condition removal, the confusion is definitely going to stack up, and add some decent damage. I try and throw in a block from scepter 2 for torment, then go back to greatsword and begin cycling through all my cool downs. I constantly monitor my confusion on the enemy. Throwing out my glamours and fighting inside of them. The enemies tend to run out of them. And I gain benefits from running within them.

That’s about it in a nutshell