Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone!
GW2 is my first MMO and I chose to be a mesmer because they seemed really cool and I liked the idea of having duplicates of me running around.
Some people I talk to are saying “re-roll mesmers are really hard to play for your first MMO” Is this true? because I love the play style I’m just not that good at it. For example I have real trouble with shattering. I have no idea when to do it and which one to use in each situation. Does anyone have any tips for a complete beginner or any beginner friendly builds. Or should I just be a profession that is easier to play?

Ignore the naysayers. You won’t be good right away. It takes time. Go into hotjoin pvp and work on your fighting skills.

Mesmer is a slow start class. Whereas the warrior can jump in and have an easy time the Mesmer is more like the Elementalist with a slower hard start. The mesmer is really based around trait and utility rotations which you won’t get around until level 40. Up until level 40 you may feel squishy, but at 40 you can explore builds etc. If your finding a hard time I recommend Pyroatheists Imortal build as it has good survivability.

As for shattering, think of it in steps. Clones do no real damage (except staff clones) and Illusions do damage but it varies, iDefender does a lot less than iSwordsman. As far as timing, they hug the opponent anyway, try and build up 3 clones or illusions and shatter. With illusions such as the greatsword one, wait until the attack has taken place and then you want to generally shatter. Clones are made for shattering and confusion. F1 is your friend, F2 is useful in PvP more often, especially on classes that will slowly kill themselves, such as a Thief.

It is a great class, and once you reach 35-40 you will start having a blast as it is easily one of the most versatile classes in the game.

Benjamin.8237:

Mesmer is a slow start class. Whereas the warrior can jump in and have an easy time the Mesmer is more like the Elementalist with a slower hard start. The mesmer is really based around trait and utility rotations which you won’t get around until level 40. Up until level 40 you may feel squishy, but at 40 you can explore builds etc. If your finding a hard time I recommend Pyroatheists Imortal build as it has good survivability.

As for shattering, think of it in steps. Clones do no real damage (except staff clones) and Illusions do damage but it varies, iDefender does a lot less than iSwordsman. As far as timing, they hug the opponent anyway, try and build up 3 clones or illusions and shatter. With illusions such as the greatsword one, wait until the attack has taken place and then you want to generally shatter. Clones are made for shattering and confusion. F1 is your friend, F2 is useful in PvP more often, especially on classes that will slowly kill themselves, such as a Thief.

It is a great class, and once you reach 35-40 you will start having a blast as it is easily one of the most versatile classes in the game.

Thanks, I quite like the staff as a weapon. Is this a good choice? Do you have any tips using this weapon?

if you want to play a mesmer rolling an easier profession will not help you play a mesmer. it will just delay learning the class you want. especially since you may not even want 2 or 3 80s.

i agree with davrollen you will get alot of your play skills by repeatedly pvping so hopping into spvp packs alot of fights into a short period of time and helps you train. win or lose you should be learning something. watch the videos in the stickies to see the build you want to be in action. you should be able to tell your playstyle by what weapons you gravitate to and research specs that use them.

anything with a staff should be easier for beginners.

The staff is a good weapon to start off with, GS/Staff are common when leveling up. The staff has good AoE damage, and in particular it really shines when using chaos storm →phase retreat→Spam skill 1→ Run into chaos storm and use Chaos armor in the last second.
It is a great utility for dispensing boons and conditions and survivability on the whole tbh.

I suggest a Greatsword for your main weapon and a Sword/Pistol for your offhand.

Greatsword is good for AoE. And the fact it’s a laser instead of melee is super neat.
Sword/Pistol is just fun and looks cool. The combat control abilities are fun while still dealing lots of damage.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Leveling-guide-tips-for-new-Mesmers-players/first#post1642304

This thread in general might help you quite a bit – it certainly helped me.

I personally have to say that I didn’t like the staff until around level 40-ish. It’s general damage is rather low and the conditions don’t do all that much either, without sufficient trait points in the relevant tree (forgot it’s name ;X).

I ran with a greatsword as my main weapon and a sword/focus as secondary, which worked rather well. The focus adds mobility, the sword is a good close range weapon (although it takes some getting used to, since a Mesmer isn’t exactly known to survive many melee hits) and the greatsword provides a decent mix of long range capabilities, AoE Damage and knockback.

Once I reached level 40 (and put 20 points into the condition damage tree) I switched from those two weapons to the staff and a scepter instead of the sword. Been running with that ever since and it works great.

If you have trouble leveling you mesmer, you can always try my leveling guide:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-Guide-to-PvE-Leveling-Guide/first#post850721

Even if you have no troubles, you can still give it a look, might have some information you can use to improve your gameplay… ^^

Also, you don’t have to shatter – in a phantasm type build – until the enemy is almost dead.

at first gl in gw2 and gl with mesmer class
so far shattering on low lvls … use it only for finishing
use any weapon combination u like … if its ur 1st mmo .. u proly dont know what style u rly prefer .. mesmer big advantage is huge versatility …. personally i prefered staff on low lvls cuz staff clones do nice dmg with condicions
and if u wanna improve ur style … be more specific in questions … watch skilled mesmers vids. and check guides

cheers Xixsa

Thanks everyone, still not sure about weapon tbh I’m just gonna try some out. I didn’t really like the Greatsword as some of you reccommended I don’t know why I guess it’s just personal preference.

reroll guardian and have a lot better group utility and survivability. Anet loves em too

hey darthsmall,
i think i had same problem with you. even GW2 is not my first MMO, but i did have hard time to play mesmer.
there is some tips i learned after playing mesmer for weeks.
first of all, mesmer is not a roll which has very strong defense, so has to keep moving all the time. learn how to use dodge, learn how to kite. try not to stand still.
and, as what i learned from the weapon skills, staff is strong for condition damage( skill 1, skill 5) and aoe, GS is strong for direct damage and single target. direct damage is easier to play than condition damage( just imo). i didnt feel staff was very strong weapon until i reached the Illusionary Elasticity(VII, in Illusion of your trait), but staff can give your more survivability, than GS.(imo)
clones dont do a lot of damage, i only use them for distracting the targets, or putting condition on target( when i use staff, and prepare for bursting out damage with staff skill 3). they are very easy to die. so you can shatter them.
phantasms is easier to die than clones, but they give very huge damage, so you might not want to shatter them before they do the damage. but if you are in a harm condition, please shatter them for surviving. also you can shatter them at the end of fights for saving time.
Crippling Dissipation(V, in domination of the trait) and Illusionists Celerity( Adept, in Illusion of the trait) are highly recommended.
Crippling Dissipation can make kiting easier, Illusionists Celerity can make you summon illusions faster! please try them out!

sorry for the bad English, i hope you can get something you want from this.

Cheer!