Guild Wars 2

I purchased an extra slot in order to play a mesmer as I liked the idea of clones, etc, but I’ve found levelling it so far pretty boring. I don’t really see any real damage being done by my clones and find myself down most of the time. I don’t use a set weapon as I really can’t decide what one is good to use and what to use when. Do we have any strong aoe?

Can anyone please help me to understand the clones, what each weapon is for. Do mesmers improve at a higher level or do they stay weak throughout the levelling? (I say weak as mine is but that could just be down to my lack of understanding of the mesmer profession) I honestly have no clue with them and am wishing I picked necro instead.

Clones sadly just don’t do damage, with two exceptions. One exception is post-40 with Sharper Images (Duelist 15) where they apply a single stack of Bleed on the target when they crit. The other exception is that Staff Clones apply either Burning or Bleed, which DOES do damage.

First off, pre-40 levels?
Use Staff and Sword & Sword. Put 10 points in Duelist, grab Blade Training, and then put 5 points in Illusion. Don’t be afraid of Power, Precision, and Condition Damage as your go-to-stats at this stage.
Staff is a great all-rounder weapon. It can be used for kiting, where its lowish damage + Conditions wear down one or two targets at the same time. It can also be used in Melee, where the 2nd bounce will come back and buff you with Fury or Might. The fact your Clones will place the exact same conditions and buffs to your enemy and self, just helps speed things up. Chaos Armor and Chaos Storm are great defensive skills. In fact, do not use Chaos Storm at range, ever, when solo PvE. Place it at your own feet when the enemy gets close, so you get those Aegis procs. The Phantasm is just a hard hitting bonus on all that.
Sword & Sword? Risky, but its something you’ll want to learn as a Mesmer. Hit & Run tactics in PvE helps a lot on killing speed, as well as learning Leap→Swap→Blurred Frenzy. The fact the #1 skill-chain removes a Boon from the enemy can help quite a bit, and while the Sword Clones don’t do damage they WILL apply 2x Vulnerability and remove a boon with each cycle of auto-attacks they run on the target. With Blade Training and Illusionists Celerity (5 Illusions), you’ll have 40% off the CD of Leap and Phantasmal Swordsman (Hard Hitting Phantasm that leaps out of combat between strikes) and 20% off CD of everything else like Blurred Frenzy.
-Spawning 3x Sword Clones, waiting a few seconds to build up a nice stack of Vulnerabilities on the target, then using Mind Wrack and Blurred Frenzy is a nice little way to improve damage.

Strong AoE? Only if you go with Mind Wrack and a GOOD way to generate quite a number of Illusions to shatter, along with traiting the +20% damage +10% crit rate, and focus on Power, Precision, and +Crit Damage stats. Throw on top of that the Phantasmal Berserker so many other Mesmers like, and you … well have all the good damaging AoEs (Chaos Storm is a STRONG AoE, but more as a defensive tool then pure killing potential).
-Even then, its still not quite like Spin-happy Warriors or Engineers with Grenades in AoE fun. AoE is one of our weak points in PvE and makes DE tagging kinda rough.

G.Sword may also work as a weapon option, but thats more purely offensive and damaging in comparison to the Staff. It is a great alternative though, if you hate the Sword & Sword. Definitely something to try, to see if it matches your playstyle more and IS the weapon you’ll be using in WvWvW as the Scepter is … eh, and the Staff’s projectiles are easily obstructed.

Post-40? That opens up Sharper Images (Illusions Bleed on Crit), Deceptive Evasion (Spawn Clones while Dodging), Weapon CD Traits, Illusionary Elasticity (+1 Bounce on attacks that Bounce. Like the Staff or #2 on G.Sword) are a taste of the possibilities. Sharper Images alone makes I.Duelist and I.Warden tempting, throwing out multiple stacks of Bleeds on a target each attack so that the off-hand weapons Focus and Pistol are much stronger and favorable over the Off-hand Sword (Unless you grow to love the Parry/Stun skill on it).

I second the notion of early game staff, and even late game staff if you happen to PvE a lot! It’s a solid weapon due to it’s clones causing condition damage, it bouncing, and granting access to Chaos Armor/Chaos Field (even with the CD increases).

However, I personally found Sword/Sword to be kind of icky. I went with Greatsword around level 40-50 and never looked back, honestly. You can look at it as an entirely offensive weapon, or you can look at it as pro-active defense.

Once you get iBerserker (GS4) spawned, entire groups of enemies will be shredded and crippled. If you get all three out, they’re essentially perma-crippled. If you go with Sharper images, then they’re perma-crippled and stacked with bleed. Just kite the kitten out of them and toss Mirror Blade (GS2) out occasionally. As long as you keep range, the Auto-Attack hits hard.

And if something(s) get too close, GS5 knocks them all back AND can be used to interrupt large wind-up enemy nukes. GS5 has a respectable CD to it, though – But since your phantasms keep enemies crippled, it’s rarely on CD when you really need it.

I did find that something like Sword/Focus worked well for me as well. Temporal Curtain → Into the Void → SwordClone → iWarden → Leap → Blurred Frenzy is a beautiful combination, especially if you have a staff on hand to drop Chaos Field afterwards and hit Phase Retreat.

For explanation:
TC/ItV drags all nearby mobs into one location.
Spawn your sword clone, but it takes a while to actually leap.
While you wait to leap, spawn iWarden in the newly grouped enemies.
once iWarden is spawned, the clone has probably leaped – Switch with it to put yourself right in the action.
Switching roots everyone around you, meaning they are forced to sit there and take the brunt of iWarden’s AoE and your Blurred Frenzy.

Blurred Frenzy grants distortion, making you immune to all their attacks while the two of you rack up.

And if you have a staff, a chaos field + iWarden will give you some sexy combos, as well as extra AoE tick damage/conditions/buffs and phase retreat will give get you the kitten out with complimentary Chaos Field.

Don’t rely on your clones for damage though – Even with sharper images, it’s just icing. They are easily mass produced expendable meat tanks for you. That’s it. Shatter them if you like. F1 with full clones and Mind Wrack +20% damage is pretty okay and hits AoE. F4 in sticky situations to get some time to get your bearings back and escape.

Remember: As a mesmer, the only reason you should stop moving is if your entire party is in front of you, or your dead. Not downed, dead.

The above posts have it mostly right. Here’s some further clarification. This may be tl;dr

Illusions – This accounts for ALL Clones and ALL Phantasms. If a trait, say Illusionists Celerity 5pt trait from the Illusions trait, says Illusions it will effect both clones and phantasms. Traits will specify clones, phantasms or illusions.

-Clones – Look exactly like you (offhand weapons will not appear on clones) to other people they have your name, and are difficult to tell apart. Clones do -0- damage, but they do apply conditions. Clones are designed as cannon fodder for shattering or distracting enemies. Mainhand weapons (sword + scepter) can only produce clones. All offhand weapons produce phantasms. Clones will autoattack with whatever weapon you were equipped with when they were summoned. Clones have very few hitpoints and possess the defense of a wet paper bag.

-Phantasms – Have a unique look and name. They appear as a shadowed purple figure. Phantasms do significant damage and possess (mostly) unique abilities. Phantasms do not auto attack and there is a time delay between each use of their single ability. Phantasms are considerably tougher than their clone counterparts but still die easily from direct attacks or aoe.

You can only ever possess 3 illusions in any combination of clones/phantasms. Here are a few scenarios:

You have 3 clones produced:
1. You cast a phantasm — the oldest clone is destroyed (this triggers on death effects from traits) and replaced with a phantasm.
2. You cast a clone — the oldest clone is destroyed (this triggers on death effects from traits) and replaced with a new clone.

You have 3 phantasms produced:
1. You cast a phantasm — the oldest phantasm is destroyed and replaced with a new phantasm.
2. You cast a clone — the oldest phantasm is destroyed and replaced with a new clone.

You have 2 phantasms and 1 clone:
1. You cast a phantasm — the clone is destroyed (this triggers on death effects from traits) and replaced with a new phantasm.
2. You cast a clone — the clone is destroyed (this triggers on death effects from traits) and replaced with a new clone.

General Advice:
-If shattering your clones will save your life: DO IT. Better them than you.

-Mesmers are highly reliant on utility skills and almost all of them provide some form of defense or escape.

-Your very first skill point should be invested in Decoy.

-Your starting heal (Ether Feast) is the best one you get. The other ones are highly situational and rarely produce a better effect.

-Mantras are currently underpowered, yet have the unique quality of “appearing” awesome. These should be taken as a last resort. At the very least require advanced game-play techniques to properly use.

-Signets are of limited use for the mesmer. Ultimately there are better choices. The signet providing 50% more hp to illusions does have merits though.

-Feedback – Glamour Utility skill — amazing…use it, love it.

-The Phantasmal Defender utility is highly useful in PvE, but starts to fade in later levels.

-I highly suggest your first 5 trait points should go into the Illusions line to obtain Illusionists Celerity: reduces the cd of illusions by 20%. This is a must have trait imho and I would never consider a build without it. It’s more important now than ever with recent mesmer nerfs increasing the CD of our illusion skills.

I hope this helps and feel free to PM me in game at Vexor.3640 for further advice.
Peace.

Mesmer is very odd. It’s not for everyone and you will be doing a lot of kiting. You will also feel much better when you grab Time Warp. It’s a really utility oriented class and can handle duels better than mob situations.

Mantra of Recovery will heal you for more over time than Ether Feast if you keep up with it. On demand interrupt (Mantra of Distraction) is super cool as well, and one of the easiest methods of applying an interrupt in the game.

In the Straits (which I haven’t left due to completion-ism) I have found Arcane Thievery to be super nifty with the myriad of debuffs and buffs flying about.

-Your very first skill point should be invested in Decoy.

It’s super handy for de-aggroing in those early levels.

-Feedback – Glamour Utility skill — amazing…use it, love it.

Switch it out when you are not encountering nearly as many firing squads.

-The Phantasmal Defender utility is highly useful in PvE, but starts to fade in later levels.

I’m 75ish and it still has it’s uses. With the Health Signet, my more delecate iWarden to able to go through two attacks before shattering (almost enough for the cooldown), between it, Phantasmal Defender, and Phantasmal Healing (Inspiration 15) I rarely have to recast spells. My clones tank like a boss and I get to shatter for extra damage/effects every once and awhile.

Sharper Images (Dueling 15), Phantasmal Fury (Dueling 10), and Phantasmal Healing are PHANTASMIC! I’ve found that none of the grandmaster benefits are very much better than grabbing a little of all the beginning ones.

I feel people are ignoring Phantasmial Fury (Dueling 10), Sharper Images and Debilitating Dissipation (Chaos 10) which turn’s the wand’s auto into something super useful (clones and all), and also makes iWarden all the better.

Ethereal is also arguably the best field effect in the game.

To expand on what was said about Feedback, it is a skill so powerful after you did WvW once you’ll never ever want to remove it from your hotbar again.

It absolutely decimates WvW Zergs. Not only do they cause absurd damage to themselves (especially in tight spots like on a bridge), but they apply massive stacks on confusion in the process, too.

(Yes, I do believe we’re being held back by how powerful a handful of our skills are – balanced in total, but it’s lopsided towards skills like Feedback, Time Warp and Decoy.)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Comprehensive-Mesmer-Guide-all-Parts/first

These videos have a lot of good information!

Chiming in on the Mantra discussion:

Don’t get Mantras or bother trying to use them until you feel you are generally proficient with the rest of the class. They require a different gameplay style/approach/learning curve that will hinder your learning of the rest of the class.

Edit: Unless you really want to. It will probably seem like playing on “hard” difficulty, though.

“Sharper Images (Dueling 15), Phantasmal Fury (Dueling 10), and Phantasmal Healing are PHANTASMIC! I’ve found that none of the grandmaster benefits are very much better than grabbing a little of all the beginning ones.

I feel people are ignoring Phantasmial Fury (Dueling 10), Sharper Images and Debilitating Dissipation (Chaos 10) which turn’s the wand’s auto into something super useful (clones and all), and also makes iWarden all the better."

Noit at all true! I consider Phantasmal Fury to be a necessity to my builds, since I prefer stacking phantasms and only shattering when they’re about to die/the enemy is going to die soon/I can respawn them instantly. That passive Fury is a godsend, especially with Sharper Images and Timewarp!

I actually never thought of spec’ing my clones into being expendable condition factories though. Scepter1 with those traits would be beautiful – But the randomness of the conditions and the time it would take to spawn and stack those conditions seems like it’d make fights drag on a while in PvE. Definitely an amazing idea for PvP or WvW though!

Especially if you take the “illusions cripple on kill” and “clones inflict conditions on kill” traits simultaneously. Just sit around spamming clones into a Zerg and be a general kitten alongside Feedback/Warden’s Feedback/Temporal Curtain.

It doesn’t sound very efficient, but it sure as hell sounds fun!

Lots of great tips. I just wanted to post some reassurance.

When I started my mesmer I had a lot of reservations. I didn’t entirely understand the mechanics of the class and its role. It has a learning curve, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s an excellent PvE and PvP class.

The class rewards you for the amount of effort you put into it. It takes awhile to get used to using all of the abilities before you and planning two steps ahead — but once you start to get a feel for it, it’s hard to go back to a class like Warrior.

I wish ya luck and good hunting!

Only thing I can think of adding —

If you didn’t play with Combo fields on other classes, make sure you pay attention to them now. Combo Fields are also a part of why most Glamours are great — for example, if you’re up against a melee opponent and you activated Feedback on it, you can still use Illusionary Leap, Phase Retreat or another “Leap” skill in the field to give yourself Chaos Armor, for example.

Thx for all of the advice everyone, will try each out see what works best Don’t think I was doing anything that’s mentioned here ha ha.

Bump. This thread should be pinned. It is the best basic information on mesmers to get someone started, or to unconfuse those confused and confounded by trying to play a mesmers. Nice clear info about mesmers.

For what it’s worth, I’ve more or less been running an attrition build for my entire career. I focused on Chaos (Toughness) tree and built for condition damage. It’s worked fine for me in PvE. Though it’s not for everyone, you’ll do damage and you’ll survive, but by nature of being attrition isn’t the fastest way to win. It’s simple though and can be rewarding when you solo a champion. The only weakness are enemies in mass groups and the inability to do anything in a zerg at high levels (your damage over time will never factor in for you getting a kill/exp/loot).