Guild Wars 2

can’t go 20 deep into anything. the 2nd books are level 40

I think it is an awesome build for Wv3, but honestly, it requires some mad skills to play it like it is shown in Osicat’s videos. You have to know your enemies and you need a really good feeling for distances and timing.

If you prefer to keep distance to your opponent, GS is probably the best solution for Wv3, that’s why it is fairly popular. My build is mainly PvE, but it will give you good results in Wv3, as long as you keep distance.

Lohkey.3976:

can’t go 20 deep into anything. the 2nd books are level 40

Ah, forgot about that. Not too much a fan of alts…

My advise now: Get to 40 fast… For now, put 5 into illusions and the rest into Dueling and Domination, as more damage can only help.

Just wanted to add my thanks for this.

Have done a bit of research (but not too much, because that would be hard) and this is one of the better, actually playable without Red Bull, specs I’ve run across.

Also thanks for the last tidbit about leveling.

The big problem I’ve had with this build is lack of any condition handling, and I most often die from stacks of poison or other conditions.

Feyd Rautha.7298:

The big problem I’ve had with this build is lack of any condition handling, and I most often die from stacks of poison or other conditions.

This is just a general gameplay guide. If you have trouble with conditions, feel free to adapt. Our utility offers several tools to do so, so swap out Feedback or whatever and use it accordingly.
I change the setup of the utility skills constantly depending on what I am facing. The ones in the guide are for easy going PvE.

How much crit do you have with your gear?

I’m in full exotic zerker armor, exotic zerker GS, one ascended zerker ring, and I’m still at only around 37% crit. What am I missing. My other accessories are either Soldier or Cavalier rare stuff.

This doesn’t sound right.
I wear a pretty funky mix of accessories right now, including Ancient Karka Shell, Mellaggan’s Whorl and Ouroboros Loop and I am still at 45% crit. Both rings have a good amout of precision though and the Shell has some too. All other trinkets are Berserker with ruby jewel, so this might be the reason.

21 precision are 1% crit at lvl 80, maybe check how much is the difference on your stuff to pure berserker gear.

OK, here some numbers.

I’m sitting at 1788 precision which translates to 46% crit rate.
With an exotic berserker earring I could gain another 15 precision.
With one additional ascended ring (red ring of death, or similar) I could gain another 18 precision.
Wearing the quest reward back (masterwork) I could gain another 3 (exotic) to 7 (ascended) precision.

So in theory I could get another 40 precision, which would probably give me 2% more crit chance. But honestly, the back is right now not worth the grind.

If you get full berserker, you should be about 46% – 47% crit chance.

this guide is good….
Despite the class seems useful even played in a more aggressive way with SW-pistol
changing to focus if needed

Yet i think sigil section could be more accurate…
I m trying to find a good combination of sigils……for secondary weapons….
superior sigil of generosity could be a good one for example.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Feyd Rautha.7298:

The big problem I’ve had with this build is lack of any condition handling, and I most often die from stacks of poison or other conditions.

This is just a general gameplay guide. If you have trouble with conditions, feel free to adapt. Our utility offers several tools to do so, so swap out Feedback or whatever and use it accordingly.
I change the setup of the utility skills constantly depending on what I am facing. The ones in the guide are for easy going PvE.

Yeah, I know, just sharing my opinion on the base build. It didn’t take me too long until I replaced feedback, which is rarely used in most PvE, with Phantasmal Disenchanter, which will lose all your conditions every 10s, plus give you another phantasm you can shatter.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

OK, here some numbers.

I’m sitting at 1788 precision which translates to 46% crit rate.
With an exotic berserker earring I could gain another 15 precision.
With one additional ascended ring (red ring of death, or similar) I could gain another 18 precision.
Wearing the quest reward back (masterwork) I could gain another 3 (exotic) to 7 (ascended) precision.

So in theory I could get another 40 precision, which would probably give me 2% more crit chance. But honestly, the back is right now not worth the grind.

If you get full berserker, you should be about 46% – 47% crit chance.

Here are my stats:
I’m in full exotic zerker armor with full Superior Sigil of the Centaur. My weapon is an zerker GS. I am wearing a level 78 exotic zerker amulet, Red Ring, Seal of Khan-Ur; my other accessories are Rare Soldiers Spineguard; Rare Cavalier’s Ring; and Ancient Karka Shell.

Power: 2094
Precision: 1673
Toughness: 1072
Vitality: 955

Attack: 3194
Critical chance: 40%

It appears that not having a zerker back piece, and zerker accessories is resulting in around 5% crit chance.

It’s strange, because my necro friend who’s in mostly green Rampager gear with random accessories has 50% crit chance already. Do necros naturally have higher precision/crit chance or could it have just been the fact that he probably put 30pts in his precision line?

I just expected to have a decent amount of crit chance with nearly all exotic zerker gear.

Darthaemos.6370:

It’s strange, because my necro friend who’s in mostly green Rampager gear with random accessories has 50% crit chance already. Do necros naturally have higher precision/crit chance or could it have just been the fact that he probably put 30pts in his precision line?

I just expected to have a decent amount of crit chance with nearly all exotic zerker gear.

Well 10 points more in the precision trait line equals 100 precision more. This is about 5% crit (as 21 precision is about 1% crit at 80).

Some may remember that the first lazy build was actually 20/30/0/0/20, but was changed as a result of the bad iZerker bugs.

For now I think 20/20/0/0/30 is still the best solution even after the iZerker has been sort of fixed. Just because this build offers so many additional option to just being lazy. ^^

Also remember that Rampager has PRECISION as its main stat, so those wearing it with have naturally high crit chance. With my old warrior rampager gear and rampager accessories, I think I had 65% base without any buffs.

Shifu.4321:

Also remember that Rampager has PRECISION as its main stat, so those wearing it with have naturally high crit chance. With my old warrior rampager gear and rampager accessories, I think I had 65% base without any buffs.

Sometimes I wish there was a bit more gear variety ingame. Not necessarily for my Lazy Kai build, but for most others i tried.
Would probably be too hard to balance for ANet though…

Let’s see what the future holds. And what changes we will have to adapt to in the next update…

plasmacutter.2709:

how can anyone make a pve build without including warden’s feedback?

it’s a massive group utility coupled to the strongest AOE weapon mesmers have in the game, and the projectile reflect in world events beats out any source of damage including 100 blades.

put up that focus wall and watch entire groups of ranged in DE’s just melt themselves (now THAT is LAZY), and in dungeons, between the warden, the focus wall, and feedback you can shut down ranged 75% of the time.

How would one work this into a build without destroying damage? It certainly looks potent.

HappyHubris.1096:

How would one work this into a build without destroying damage? It certainly looks potent.

Well, you would have to put 20 trait points into Inspiration.
So you would have to either sacrifice GS, dodge clones or IP.
The playstyle he described would probably get rid of the GS, as you would need the focus at hand all the time anyway. This means: 200 less power, 20% less condition duration and 20% less Mind Wrack damage.

You would not be able to keep the damage up to what this build offers in general.
Feedback solves ranged mob problems fairly well, as it gives you enough time to get close (dodge into them and finish them off) without sacrificing your damage for a fairly niche option.

Just my thoughts on that topic. (A bit late I know…)

Just rolled a mesmer, only level 6 so far but having at blast. The inspiration signet rocks. Oh one question for leveling which stats besides power do you recommend I look for. Power is obviously most important, and I’m guessing precision?

Paladin Jeff.9210:

Just rolled a mesmer, only level 6 so far but having at blast. The inspiration signet rocks. Oh one question for leveling which stats besides power do you recommend I look for. Power is obviously most important, and I’m guessing precision?

Back in the days when I leveled my mesmer, GS was not an option (it was greatly buffed in one patch later on).
But if you want to level with a GS+S/? combo, Power is your best bet. Precision would be second best choice, crit proccs and food can help on the way to 80.
Seems like the whole game was built around damage, leveling goes so much faster with alot of direct damage.

I would recommend going 5 points into illusion first to get the cooldown on all your illusions then going full on power/precision. I am leveling using this guide more or less but that universal cooldown is massive in the scheme of things and since most gear is power in the early levels it won’t hurt your dps that much.

Would you recommend XI: Illusionary Persona for a GS/Staff user? It would seem like the extra shatter is going to be wasted.

HappyHubris.1096:

Would you recommend XI: Illusionary Persona for a GS/Staff user? It would seem like the extra shatter is going to be wasted.

IP is one of the (if not the) best trait available. I recommend to get used to alot of movement to use it as much as possible.

You can also use the F4 shatter without any clones in an emergency situation with IP, this will be a life-saver with proper timing fairly often.

When leveling between 40 and 60 and then subsequently 60 to 80, what would you recommend in trait lines? Which Should I max first? Obviously greatsword training in 20 domination would likely be very important as early as it can be taken.

Sazdek.6830:

When leveling between 40 and 60 and then subsequently 60 to 80, what would you recommend in trait lines? Which Should I max first? Obviously greatsword training in 20 domination would likely be very important as early as it can be taken.

The most important trait is Dueling 20, Deceptive Evasion. Besides that you have some flexibility:

Level 40: 20 Dueling 10 Illusions.
Level 50: 20 Dueling 20 Illusions or 20 Dueling 20 Domination
Level 60: 20 Dueling 30 Illusions or 20 Dueling 20 Domination 10 Illusions

While Domination is obviously for raw damage, Illusions has some advantages too. All Illusions traits, minor and major are great. You also get faster shatters. If you get 30 into Illusion when you reach 60, you get used to your endgame playstyle faster, which will help alot if you have some practice.

I’d say, as retraiting is cheap, try both options and go with what feels more comfortable to you. I’d go with the Illusions traitline over the domination though.

Thank you much.

Ok, patch is dead ahead. I got a feeling that there might be more changes than expected this time.
So if anyone is actively playing this build (besides me of course ^^), I would be greatful for some feedback.
Just wished, I had reserved some posts after the guide, this thing is growing…

Added a complete leveling guide after the Lazy Guide. It aims to get the player used to the IP playstyle on earlier levels.

Started leveling a mesmer since last week, wanna thank you for the easy to follow guide

Really like the step by step through levels and how to play, allowed me to refine my ability order a bit and kill things WAAAY more efficiently. kitten near took down a champ spider solo at level 42 (I messed up and got downed and couldn’t rally).

So I have some questions:

Well first off. This guide was awesome, and exactly why I play.

onwards….

so I’m really lazy. Got zhed gear. Got zerk rings etc. Saving for the ascended zerk amulet. Got a zerk greatsword. 20/20/0/0/30. Shatter away, although I go for the extra bounce and damage for my illusion selections, plus the mind wrack bonus.

At this point I shred like a boss. I crit for stupid and face roll anything level 70 and below. I’m just trying to save lots of money at this point so here’s my questions….

went 6/6 rune of the traveler for the armor. I get 50 vit, I get 50% mf, and I run 5% faster. I primarly kill dragons and karma trains, so before you flame me for being selfish, know that my 51% crit unbuffed, 3200 power, and fact that I never die, means I’m not hampering anyone. I’m getting many different answers for my sigil….do I run accuracy? Damage? Or something else to help with the crits?

also, I’ve always given my illusions more life, and I never use decoy, or feedback. am I missing out?

Last question….if I don’t equip any condition debuff, would sigil of generosity work well? Does anyone know if it procs on immune enemies? example: destroyer immune to fire, will it still remove burning from me and not place it on the enemy? Will it freak out and not work? Will it put a diff condition on instead? Hitting six can be too taxing for me, I’d rather not bleed out if I can help it.

thanks!

Some points: If you shatter a lot (what is basically the idea of this build), giving your illusions more life is more or less a waste. Clones die nearly instantly with or without more hp and the phantasm just has to survive its first attack sequence.

Give Decoy and/or Blink a try, you may love them. Both are incredibly good for evading damage and advanced movement. Maybe I’m a bit too adicted to them, but they are surely worth a skill slot.

With berserker armor and stuff, you will do fine, even if you use some other runes. For me it is important to get around fast, but if your priority is different, feel free to adapt. You are not selfish – this goes for the people who wear all MF gear, with very little other stats.

Sigil of generosity is so overpowered, that it is non-existant in PvP. Well, its influx in PvE is certanly not as high as in PvP, but, to be honest, I always play around with the idea of getting another GS just for that sigil. A certain condition remover every 10 sec? Sounds too good. Giving back the favour? Even better.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you if it will work on immun mobs, but as long as it would get the condition off of you, it should be fine.

Sigil of air does a nice job, if you have a lot of gold you might want to try sigil of fire. Stacking sigils are nice too, but they are all fairly expensive. This are for sure decisions to make, after someone has more experience with the build itself.
I went with air for the guide, as it is easy to afford and good damage.

Hope I could help.

Pavel.6840:

Last question….if I don’t equip any condition debuff, would sigil of generosity work well? Does anyone know if it procs on immune enemies? example: destroyer immune to fire, will it still remove burning from me and not place it on the enemy? Will it freak out and not work? Will it put a diff condition on instead? Hitting six can be too taxing for me, I’d rather not bleed out if I can help it.

You could also use Sigil of Purity. It only removes one condition with a 60% chance on critical damage every 10 seconds without transferring it to the enemy, but it’s much cheaper and still does the job of removing conditions.
I don’t know about the Sigil of Generosity, but I made destroyers burn and poisoned Hylek by sending them their conditions back with Arcane Thievery. So if they’re based on the same mechanics it should work.

Updated the leveling guide, might not be pretty, but at least this way, I can put the most info in the posts. With more editing it won’t fit in three posts.

I’d like some feedback, feel free to place comments.

I basically used your guide all the way to 80 on my Mesmer.

I think the only small differences I had were that I tended to use Carrion gear as I leveled because I liked the added condition damage when I’d shatter for confusion with the added bonus of stronger performance underwater. I also didn’t use blink in lieu of having both clone generators simply because being able to do a 3 pt shatter with F1 and another one within less than 3 secs with a full 3 clone F2 was big time damage on groups. That or being able to use distortion quickly.

But I loved leveling this way and made it much easier for me to stay alive once I switched gear to full zerker exploder mode.

Thanks for the feedback.
I encourage everyone who uses the leveling guide to play around with different weapons, armor and builds. While using my guide step by step will bring a new mesmer to 80, I think it is important to play around with all possibilities.

I for one wouldn’t make any decisions on under water combat though. It feels lacking in its implementation. While I like the 3D aspect of it, it unfortunately feels way slower than regular combat. Well, the game is still young, there might be more improvements ahead…

Just want to say thanks for the Guide, also do you have guild for the other profession?

No other profession guides sorry. I have a hard time playing anything else than my mesmer.
I am not a big fan of alts anyway and the playstyle of the mesmer is just too entertaining. Leveling other classes feels just plain boring.

Thanks for the guide Kai; it’s got me thinking about dusting off my Mesmer. If I can hijack and modify the term I would call you the archetypal Max/minner. I mean that in a good way as in always looking for the simplest path to the result you are seeking. Call it lazy if you must.

Maybe Ill try this. As it is, Im stuck at level 50 because Im so bored playing my mesmer. SOOOO SLLOOOOWWW. Sigh. =(

Thx for the feedback. I wouldn’t call myself a min/maxer myself but I get what you mean. Efficiency is fairly important for me. If I can survive with skill, I will avoid using gear for it. On the other hand, if I am dead, I do not contribute to anything.
For me, this build offers the perfect balance for any PvE situation. Utility skills are a matter of change depending of the situation of course.

@ cinemapaula: Give the leveling guide a try. If you are in your 50s, you have left the hardest part behind you. While Mesmers are not the fastest profession to level, my leveling guide is set up to level as fast as possible as a Mesmer. ^^

It’s funny how I unintentionally ran this build a few months ago because that’s how I thought Mesmer’s should be played. I then researched Osicat’s build and tested it and now am unable to go back to lazymode unless I’ve been up for 30+ hours.

Concert Piano Mesmer is soooo much fun.

Well, I play the piano in RL. Not too well though.

I think Osicat’s builds are great for Wv3. I tried them in PvE too. I came to the following conclusion:

If you want to participate in DEs, the GS is a must. the iZerker will tag a whole group in one swing, Mirror Blade tags a mob with every hit (you need about 1000dmg on 80 to tag a mob) and Mind Stab will tag things too if they are close together.
The staff just lacks the damage to do so. The swords range is too short, things will be dead till you are in range most of the time. I use it as off-set with focus (well, the leveling guide might be a hint).
With IP you can spread the iZerker and clones, and cover a big area with mind wrack as every shatter will do enough damage to tag the mobs.

Outside of DEs, mobs will be dead as soon as you reach them and shatter with this build, which is just way faster then closing in first.
When soloing champions, I can just stand back and fire along with the GS, using my illusions as distraction. No need to get in range to land some damage and get hurt. I even stopped changing Mental Torment with Crippling Dissipation, as the tactic is fairly bulletproof.

“Now, if the mobs die fast because you use your keybord like a korean StarCraft player, good for you.”

This still stands. Play as you like. Just my 2 yen on this matter…

Added Kai’s Go Go Power Ranger Build. ^^

As always, feedback is very welcome.

P. S.: Added some flavor to the text.

i finally got a staff for my fractal mesmer :O (mesmer with fotm skin)

wich stats/sigil you suggest me?

I use GS (generosity)/sword (force) pistol (battle)
-focus (intelligence)

All zerkers

Obviously i use it for dungeons/fractals mostly.

If you use the staff as secondary weapon, I would get berserker stats on it.
I see it as a defensive tool, but you can still shatter your clones, and the iWarlock does actually scale nicely with power/prec/crit. It will crit for tons of damage, if there are many conditions on the target (fairly possible in a group scenario).

On the sigil, as I always say, it is a matter of preferences. So it depends, when and for what reason you want to swap to staff.

mm i’ll go zerker, maybe with heling on crit?
So i could use GS/Staff on difficult parts…

Gs to remove conditions and staff to get some HP?

Kaiyanwan.8521:

If you want to participate in DEs, the GS is a must.

Miscellaneous note: I also recommend Mantra of Pain for individual targets that get zerged that you need to land a spike of damage on.

EasymodeX.4062:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

If you want to participate in DEs, the GS is a must.

Miscellaneous note: I also recommend Mantra of Pain for individual targets that get zerged that you need to land a spike of damage on.

The problem with Mantra of Pain is, that if it does not crit, even with a 30/30/0/0/10 Mantra build in full zerker, it might be below the damage you need to tag a target (like 950 at lvl 80). You have to change the target anyway, so one Spatial Surge is normally enough to tag anything. But yes, it won’t always be enough time.

I for one am not the biggest fan of the mantra though.

LordByron.8369:

mm i’ll go zerker, maybe with heling on crit?
So i could use GS/Staff on difficult parts…

Gs to remove conditions and staff to get some HP?

Sure. Superior Sigil of Blood looks promising, with the critrate on your items, you should get the healing effect every time the sigil is off cooldown.

1. Pretty sure it would do enough damage.
2. If the target is going down in the next 0.75 seconds, you may not get enough Spatial Surge damage. One or two ticks of SS + the Mantra will guarantee a tag.
3. There’s not really much else in terms of utilities that would help with mob tagging.

I mean what, Mirror Images? You will typically have more than enough clones from abilities + DE to blow full MWs on cooldown. Still, it’s an option but that leaves 2 utility slots left.

Feedback is theoretically an option for the combo field to get damage on random stuff, but the damage is so low on the confusion it likely won’t tag anyways.