Guild Wars 2

Hello — I am a levl 16 Mesmer looking for some advice on how to play a Mesmer. I understand the basic mechanics of Mesmer such as the phantasm and the illusions. However, I do not understand which stats to mainly focus on to increase my damage and survivability.

As I quest I am mainly stacking the following

- Power
- Precision
- Condition Damage

The above is because I am dual wielding 1 handed swords with a greatsword swap.

Current burst DPS rotation.

Greatsword > Spatial Surge > Mirror Blade > SWAP: dual sword > Mind Stab > Mind Gash > Mind Slash > UTILITY: Mirror Images + Swap (gives 2 illusions + 1 phantasm) > MIND WRACK usually finishes of a group of mobs.

— My Traits —

+1 Domination
+4 Dueling
+1 Inspiration

I am looking for advice on how to get the right stats and where to put my traits or even if I am putting them in the right place.

- Damage comes from stats. Since you don’t even have [Sharper Images] and don’t use the staff, condition damage is pointless. For direct damage get Berserker equip (Pow, Prec, CritDmg).
- Survivabilty comes from experience (and perma vigor).
- Weapons are a personal thing. Very few ppl use the sword in the off-hand. Just try Focus or Pistol; maybe they suit you
- Traits should be planned beforehand. Here it – again – depends on what you want to specialize at. As starter, I always recommend Illusions 5 first and then Chaos 5. Then for damage Domination or Dueling line.

He’s at a level where all that’s “Berserker” is Mighty and Precise nomenclatures.

^
Yeah, but it doesn’t change the fact, that he’s not causing condition damage (yet).

I recently re-leveled a mesmer because, mesmers. I was going to make a leveling guide for the hell of it but never went around doing it.

Tips by order of importance:

- Verrrry important. Don’t blindly follow the storyline quest and don’t enter areas you’re barely leveled enough to. As an example the first starter area usually leaves us at level 14-15. The next area starts with level 15 mobs, but you barely begin entering it and you’re set upon by level 17 mobs. We barely reach level 16 (if so) and have level 20 mobs. This happens all the time as you level up. Go back one area, you lose nothing (do 100% of the maps if you like it (I do), not only does it make leveling less obvious but the reward is yummy).
I started an Asura, did the Asura starter area, then went to the Sylvari starter area and did it too. The second Asura area which would have been a nuisance was much easier with those extra levels under the belt.

- Buy everything off the TP. Hoping to get a drop which just so happens to be what you need is an exercise in futility. The TP has everything very cheap and you barely lose any money by selling it back to the vendor afterwards. You don’t want to spread your stats though it really does not make a huge difference in the low levels. Still, why do less damage by going for Cleric gear?

- Power first (prefix Strong if not mistaken). Precision too (prefix Mighty I think, it opens at 20) when armor starts having two stats. Don’t forget to buy your rings/earrings etc too. Buy gems to put them in the armor + rings. Carnelian pebbles are the first, carnelian nuggets afterwards (or are they lumps?).

- Important: buy a few minor sigils of Bloodlust. It is a big boost. I bought a full new set of gear every ten levels and new weapons every five levels. Up to you though.

- Five points in Illusions first. It affects all weapons and all utility skills. What ever build you do never remove those five points.

- I suggest Staff to level with. At low levels we are plagued by ‘big’ cooldowns. Staff’s damage does not come from cooldowns but from its auto attack. That said Greatsword works very well and if you see you are out of cooldowns don’t be shy to swap weapons. A common way to play is start with Greatsword, use the clone, use the phantasm, shatter, swap to Staff, use clone and phantasm too.

- Decoy’s use has been gutted by the last patch, but it still gives you a small window to help running away if things turn sour. Mirror Images is also good to fit in when you’re out of cooldowns. Decoy, Arcane Thievery and Mirror Images (Time Warp hen it opens at 30) never left my bars until 80, and then only Arcane Thievery was swapped for Null Field since the previous is too finicky.

- Ignore condition damage until you’re level 40, at least. You simply do not do enough condition damage until you have Sharper Images (fifteen points in in the Duelist tree) which requires the second trait book which you buy at forty. I leveled with Condition damage from then on and it was pretty fine though so it is an open option, but with the current state of the game regarding Conditions you might want to stick to Power and Precision (at 65 the armor gets three stats and your next choice is Berserker. Things are (even more) easy sailing from then on).

- Don’t be shy about buying life leech food. Despite having been nerfed in the last patch it both increases your damage (the life leech procs hurt the enemy by that amount) and heals you up by a little bit. Considering it costs a few copper there is no reason not to be always playing under its buff. You want extra damage. You can also buy Sharpening Stones or Maintenance Oils but I don’t think it is that useful. Up to you though.

- I’m not going to give you a lot of advice regarding builds because you should play and see what interests you and your playstyle. Respecs are extremely cheap so you are encouraged to experiment. You might find the first ten points in Domination to both give a stat boost (+100 Power) and the clones-cripple-when-killed + the first five points in Duelist give Vigor (faster Endurance regeneration so you can dodge more often) and also +50 points in Precision to be a good blend of offense and defense regarding spent points.

Good luck with it

I encountered a similar problem lvling my mes, what I wound up doing was using gs and sw/sw with my fist 5 points in illusion followed by dueling. my rotation was: GS>mirror blade>iberserker>mindstab>swap>iswordsman>illusionary leap>blurred frenzy>f1. by then any normal mob should be dead if it’s a vet just swap back to gs and hit 5 then rinse and repeat.

At lvl 16 i’d go focus on the zerker stats (power/prec/crit dmg) in whatever amounts you’re comfortable with. decoy is a great utlility for the stealth and clone and feedback just makes ranged mobs kill themselves

If you wanna check out some guides I really enjoy osicat’s youtube vids and thats what I adapted my build from