I leveled a mesmer to 80, enjoyed my time, played it for 1300 hours. After a lack of things to keep me interested I decided to make an Asura for RP and went for another Mesmer, because, Mesmers. I then decided to see what difference would it make in the leveling process with 1300 hours of experience behind me.
This is a guide compiling those experiences for new Mesmers. It is a not a level 80 guide nor will it exhaustively dissect traits, but for someone just starting a Mesmer and even for those starting a different character having only recently picked up GW2 it should provide some useful tips.
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Leveling tip.
To begin with my most important tip applies to both Mesmers and any other character: do not blindly follow the storyline quest. You will find yourself quickly fighting +4 enemies which is a recipe for disaster. GW2 employs scaling which means there are no grey mobs so prevalent in WoW and other games. If we go to a lower area the enemies will still be challenging and the loot will be appropriate to your level while the enemies will not receive a bonus because they are higher than you (on the contrary, you will do more damage to them because of your better gear and skills/traits). This far outweights the lower XP received from hearts and events.
What this means is that there is no incentive to dash on ahead. A common example I usually bring up is how we finish the first area around level 14 and the next area immediately sets up against levels 16. A bit of progression deeper into the map brings us against 17s and quickly to 20s while we are just getting to level 15-16.
My suggestion? : Head to another starter area and do it instead. This applies at several levels when the leveling slows down as we progress, namely the levels 40 and 50 maps.
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What kind of gear?
Expecting the game to drop the gear you want or need is like playing the lotto with as much chances of winning, multiplied by 15 slots.
My suggestion? : Use the Trading Post. Always buy Masterwork (green) gear, armor, accessories, weapons (aquatic as well). It is cheap and you will recoup most of your losses by selling it back to the vendor once you are done with. I swapped my full gear every ten levels and my weapon every five levels, but it is up to personal taste. Masterwork gear opens at level 14 and it is a massive difference when we leave our pele-mele bits of armor to don a complete set of green gear. Personally I also buy blue level 5 gear to tidy me over until level 14.
- Power is the best to begin with. Do not invest in defensive stats, you will not notice nor need them. The early armor is prefixed Mighty and will have +power. The next one is prefixed Strong and will have both Power and Precision. At level 62-65 Berserker opens. In both armor and accessories (rings, earrings, amulet) put Garnet Pebbles and then Carnelian Nuggets (level 20) when they open up. Eventually Carnelian Lumps (level 35). At level 50 Ruby Shards open and at 65 Ruby Crystals.
- The same applies to weapons, but, important, buy a minor sigil of Bloodlust (or of Corruption if you go with Condition damage) which grants 5 points of Power for killed enemy. It is very easy to cap it at 25 stacks which is an extra 125 Power and zero reason to not have it. At level 39 the Major Sigil of Bloodlust opens (7 points of Power per dead enemy for a total of 175 Power).
- If you duel-wield consider a sigil of Fire (or of Earth if going Condition damage) in combination with the Sigil of Bloodlust. But, even if you use only one weapon like the Greatsword or the Staff you can still buy two of them and put the Bloodlust sigil on one and use it until you have 25 kills, then swap to the other weapon with the Sigil of Fire on it (or Earth). I did that but it was a bit of a pain to be quite frank. Simply a Bloodlust sigil on each weapon is quite enough.
- Your underwater weapon of choice should be the Trident and since it is a Condition weapon I suggest the Earth sigil on it since a lot of sigils do not work underwater. Personally I used the Bloodlust sigil on my underwater weapons as well.
- New players, you can buy ten slot bags from the TP quite cheaply.
(edited by Kanto.1659)