Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow mesmers,

This topic covers:

1. Introduction
2. Basic setup
3. Pick your traits
4. Conclusion

1. Introduction
I’ve been playing this class from the very beginning (open beta that took place almost an year ago). Until now I’ve tried many builds on my mesmer, such as:

• Phantasm Build
• Shatter build
• Immortal build

However in none of them I’ve seen versatility and diversity that I required from this class. This is why I decided to analyze all the mesmer builds I can lay my hands on and find what is common and different in order to make a basic setup of traits that can later be adapted to whatever your play style is.

2. Basic setup
The basic setup I did is the following – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBgEwkCAAAtASKAAgSKAAAA
The distribution is as follows:

• 20 points go to Domination
• 20 points go to Dueling
• 20 points go to Chaos
• 5 points go to Illusions
• 5 points to spare

The stats are shown below (without any equipped weapon or amulet)
1036 attack
14% crit chance
2036 armor
15082 health
This is the basic layout of traits that will allow later to build a balanced mesmer.

Why 20 points in Domination?
The answer is simple. This will provide you with 200 power, 20% extended condition duration, access to commonly used traits such as Mental Torment, Empowered Illusions, Great sword Training .
Why 20 points in Dueling?
200 precision, 20% critical damage, access to major and minor traits such as Blade training, Deceptive evasion and Sharper images
Why 20 points in Chaos?
200 toughness, 20% boon duration, access to Illusionary Defense, Chaotic Dampening
Why 5 points in Illusuins?
20% recharge rate of all illusion summoning skill -> This is a must trait.

3. Pick up your traits
This is where this build gets interesting. I wanted to see what this basic layout of traits can do against ranged enemies (such as rangers, engineers or warriors with bows). I picked up the following traits:
3.1 Reflection setup
Build

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfRl0zipnQzgGbNJhJF9+4oK0dSKc9rLpg37G;TgAA1CtosxYjwGrNObk2A

Domination

• Signet master (20% reduced recharge rate of signet skills)
• Cleansing conflagration (20% reduced recharge rate of torch skills + torch skills cure ALL conditions)

Dueling

• Blade training (20% recharge or all sword & spears skills, +50 precision when wielding sword)
• Blurred Inscriptions (when activating signet grants 1 second of distortion)

Chaos

• Illusionary Defense (3 % reduced damage for each active illusion)
• Cleansing Inscriptions (when activating signet removes a condition)

Illusions

• Masterful reflection (Distortion grants reflection)

Stats
The stats are shown below (S/T + GS, Soldiers amulet)
3139 attack
14% crit chance
2845 armor
22022 health

Bonus
+ 2 seconds of Distortion from Sword skill 2 (on 8 seconds cooldown!)
+ 2 seconds of Distortion from 2 signets (on ~30 seconds cooldown)
+ 1~3 seconds of Distortion from shatter skill 4 (on 1 minute cooldown)
+ 2 seconds of Reflection from healing skill (on 15 seconds cooldown)

To sum up, every 16 seconds, you will be invulnerable for 4 seconds and reflecting projectiles for 6. For the rest 10 seconds you can be invisible, flanking, nuking or whatever you want. I tested this in WvW and sPvP and it works like a charm.

3.2 Bunker setup
Build

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8fl0zSqHTTqGbNJiJF9Gyhqw1RSRp9alUwbXIA;TgAg2CrosxYjwGrNObk2A

Domination

• Crippling Dissipation (Clones cripple nearby enemies when killed)
• Cleansing conflagration (20% reduced recharge rate of torch skills + torch skills cure ALL conditions)

Dueling

• Blade training (20% recharge or all sword & spears skills, +50 precision when wielding sword)
• Deceptive evasions (Summon a clone when you dodge)

Chaos

• Illusionary Defense (3 % reduced damage for each active illusion)
• Chaotic dampening (20% reduced recharge rate of staff skills + 50 toughness when wielding staff)

*5 free points left

Stats
The stats are shown below (S/T + Staff, Shaman’s amulet)
2116 attack (877 condition damage)
14~16% crit chance
3059 armor
15582 health

Bonus
+ 2 leap finishers (on 8 seconds cooldown!)
+ 2 ethereal fields (on ~30 seconds cooldown)
+ Can stack chaos armor for more than 12 seconds (on 30 seconds cooldown)
+ Healing skill will heal you for + 7k at worst
+ Boons, tons of boons!

To sum up, you have extensive duration of Chaos armor, invisibility and 3000+ armor. You have almost constant cripple which makes melee opponents unable to reach you and range opponents unable to kill you.

3.3 Glass (not completely) cannon

Build

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8alwzaqHTTqGbNJiJF9GFiqA2RSRrlalUwbXIA;TgAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4A

Domination

• Empowered Illusions (15% more damage to illusions)
• Greatsword training (20% reduced recharge rate of GS skills +50 power when wielding GS)

Dueling

• Blade training (20% recharge or all sword & spears skills, +50 precision when wielding sword)
• Deceptive evasions (Summon a clone when you dodge)

Chaos

• Illusionary Defense (3 % reduced damage for each active illusion)
• Mirror of Anguish (when disabled, reflect the spell back to its source)

Illusions

• Compounding power (3% more damage for each active illusion)

Stats
The stats are shown below (S/P + GS, Berserker’s amulet)
3068 attack
54% crit chance
2036 armor
18372 health

Bonus
+ A heck load of damage (berserker + duelist + blurred frenzy)
+ Stun in order to apply your combo
+ 2k armor (not so bad for a glass cannon)
+ 9% increased damage against foes and 9% decreased damage deal to you when you pop your iZerker, iDuelist and dodge roll

To sum up, you have extensive damage output, ability to disable your opponent and invisibility. FYI if you have 2 iDuelist and 1 iZerker the average damage output when the 3 phantasms attack will be 6k+

3.4 Condition mesmer setup
Build

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8fl0zSqHTTqGbNJiJF9Gyhqw1RSRp9alUwbXIA;TgAg2CrosxYjwGrNObk2A

Domination

• Crippling Dissipation (Clones cripple enemies when killed)
• Cleansing conflagration (20% reduced recharge rate of torch skills + torch skills cure ALL conditions)

Dueling

• Phantasmal Fury (Grans Fury to your phantasms)
• Deceptive evasions (Summon a clone when you dodge)

Chaos

• Debilitating Dissipation (Clones apply random conditions to foes when killed)
• Chaotic dampening (20% reduced recharge rate of staff skills + 50 toughness when wielding staff)
• Additional 5 points spend here (as you can see in the basic build, there are 5 points left) to get Confusion Combatants (Illusions apply 3 second of Confusion when killed)

Stats
The stats are shown below (Sc/T + Staff, Rabid Amulet)
2126 attack (1156 condition damage)
47% crit chance
2680 armor
15082 health

Bonus
+ Scepter skill 1 will summon an illusion on every third hit. However, most important is that once you have 3 clones, your auto attack of the scepter will overwrite your oldest clone, destroying him and apply trait Crippling Dissipation and Debilitating Dissipation . If you want to do a simple Mind Wreck, the above traits will also be applied to your shattered illusions
+ A lot of bleeding from your + 47%
+ Pretty good survivability with 2700 armor
+ Can do 9+ stacks of confusion for less than 5 seconds (a simple cast will do more than 2000 damage (I’ve done 2,3k in WvW)

To sum up, this build will not only damage your enemy, but provide you pretty good survivability.

4. Conclusion
As you can see above, you can have various examples of the usability of this build and how much can change by swapping 6 traits and 1 armor set. For example, put on S/P + S/Focus, go for Shatter build, pick up Mind Wrack bonus, pick up Illusion on dodge, put your soldier’s gear and + 10 crit on Mind Wrac. Now go and shatter whatever you want, you will have a balanced build with survivability, power, crit and many utilities.
I think this is something that mesmers have that no other profession do- they can be versatile and diverse .

Try the setup above and let me know of your thoughts.

For those who said <TL;DR> -> Mesmer FTW!