Guild Wars 2

Hello, Mesmer forum!

I’ve finally decided to roll a Mesmer, mostly because the other classes I play have gotten a bit stale for me. I’ve played Warrior and Thief since around the time GW2 came out, so I’ve got a grip on game mechanics, but I’m completely in the dark on Mesmers as the last time I played one, it was in GW1, in Zaishen pvp.

Could you guys do me a big favor and pass along a few easier leveling builds and PvE set ups? I’d try to blindly feel along the path, but that notion is just a shattered illusion now.

I use GS/sw+sc, I max out max power/precision/ferocity. Update gear every 10th level, green stuff is enough but go yellow sometimes. I use decoy, blink and condition mantra. Traits that are nice are Deceptive Evasion, Sword spec, and everything that makes your phantasms do more dmg/crit.
If you die a lot, try staff instead of GS.

Thanks, Jenzie!

Anyone else, please chime in!

I didn’t level a mesmer after the changes they made to leveling, but as general advice, you might want to have a focus on you for the swiftness (running around without swiftness is … painful).

Conditions takes longer to kill NPCs, but staff is a “safer” option since it has a lot of defensive skills and allows you to play a more “passive” playstyle.

Traits: if you go for sword/focus, the sword cooldown trait is nice and gives you some stats on top. If you go staff, Illusionary Elasticity makes the staff and staff clones more effective (it’s good for GS2 too).

Utilities: Mirror Images allows you to use your shatters effectively and it’s a stun breaker. Blink is useful to get away from danger. In the remaining slot you can have Mantra of Pain for more damage, Mantra of Resolve or Null field for condi removal.

The last time I leveled up, I used GS + Sword/Focus with power/precision(/ferocity) gear. Some useful combos:

• GS4, GS2 + F1 (and GS3 if the target is not dead)
• Focus4, Focus5 + Focus4 to pull the mobs while spawning the phantasm, this way they’ll end up in the middle of the AoE

Learn to use all your shatters: sometimes a quick GS2 or Sword3 + F3 for an interrupt is more effective than dodging. Same goes for using F4 effectively to avoid spike damage that would otherwise kill you.

Also, don’t be afraid to shatter even if you have only one or two clones up.

My first 80 was a mesmer, granted this was pre-the-horrible-new-leveling-system, but it was still a bit painful. Mesmer is a profession can’t roll in expecting to facetank things. This is not your warrior. While you do have stealth, you won’t be stealth ganking things as a Mesmer. This is not your Thief. So try to forget those professions while you level one or you will be disappointed. This is going to be a bit long…so bare with me here.

Staff, while not being a high damage dealer, as a lot of escape and kiting abilities and staff 5 helps with groups of mobs you happen to be murdering at the time. I preferred it over GS while I leveled, because it took care of groups…the GS takes care of single targets and the closer that targets gets to you, the less effective it is. The worst infraction to me is seeing a GS AA laser-beaming Mesmer in my dungeon parties, where that’s all they do…just spam away, never switching to the far more useful sword.

Moving onto sword, learn this weapon. Love this weapon! If you trait for it it by going down the precision line, you will have a weapon that gives you a 2 and half second evade every 9 and half seconds with sword 2. Do not spam this attack! Your AA does about the same amount of damage (while applying vulnerability and stripping a boon), so using sword 2 constantly will only make you miss the large attacks it’s meant to save you from. You will also get a leap with sword 2, your clone appears at the target and you can use 2 again to port yourself over there (so long as the clone stays alive). Pair this with a focus and you will have the perfect Mesmer weapon set.

Focus, oh how I love my focus! It can do so many things with one skill. It can pull things into your warden’s attack, it can cripple enemies who pass over it., it can shove things into your groups stacking point, it can be traited to reflect projectiles, it gives swiftness, and it’s a light field (though I think it really should be an Ethereal). The warden is a little kitten y with it’s attacks but it’s a solid phantom. It naturally comes with projectile absorption and can be traited to reflect them as well.

Sword off hand is another good option (and one to use if you don’t need ranged attacks, so replacing your staff or GS with sw/sw is great). It has a block and will produce a clone if struck while blocking. It also has a daze if you choose to use it before blocking an attack, this can be useful for bosses and defiance removal. The phantom has a natural leap combo finisher and will move in and out of combat, so it will survive longer than the melee phantoms.

As for the other weapon sets (this is coming from a PvE player as I don’t PvP at all)…I personally hate scepter with it’s slow AA chain and it’s easy ability to overwrite a phantom. I am not a fan of pistol, though I can see how a phantom being placed far enough away it won’t get one shot with an AOE. I don’t use torch much, it’s phantom is a joke, though it sees some use with Arah and skips.

Shatters are the main mechanic. F1 will move your illusions to the target they are currently attacking and do a small AOE damage burst. Depending on your build, this is usually used at the end of a fight or you just constantly produce them to shatter them. F2 is a stacking confusion one, you won’t see much use for this really. F3 is a dazing shatter, but warning…if you have all melee illusions it will only produce one daze. It’s a stacking sort of thing, so if you have a ranged, and a melee the melee will shatter first while the ranged in still running in, giving you two dazes. It’s good for defiance if your group needs help with it. F4 is your distortion, for each illusion shattered you will get 1 sec of full evasion for attacks. You must have a clone up (or have Illusionary Persona, the GM trait) in order gain the distortion.

Basically, try not to compare this profession with your previous two. You will die a lot, as you are not used to having a caster running around in their pajamas. Learn your sword and find an off hand you like using to pair with it. If you are running dungeons, use a GS as your secondary (as most groups prefer damage over utility, which is what the staff is). Learn how to use your shatters. Mesmer is seriously fun if you give it a chance.

When reaching lvl 80 the F1 shatter is a very nice thing when traited, it can obliterate most stuff/people with some nice placement and timing. When leveling I think it is a bit MEH and disappointing. I only use it as a last push to kill a mob or if I have one phantasm up and a clone and the mob is beating the last juice out the phantasm I use it to get something out of it, I never use it mid fight. Most of your damage will come from phantasms so think before you shatter, is it worth it. The F1 shatter will do some damage but immediately after all the mobs will focus on YOU so maybe it’s worth they die without doing much damage and it might keep you alive. When you can trait so the shatters give vulnerability it’s another thing, then you can prep the mobs with a F3 shatter for a ton of vuln and then let the phantasms slice them up. F3 and F4 are good for avoiding damage, learn to use them they are very useful when you can trait into full shatter spec with Illusionary Persona (IP) because then they are instant, without IP they are a bit delayed so a bit more difficult to use, especially F3 to avoid attacks but still useful, just in another less precise way.

Most our defence is based on not getting hit at all and I think you know the playstyle from being a thief. As a mesmer you confuse people/mobs instead of stealthing even though we do that to. For me I use stealth for important skills that I REALLY don’t want interrupted, like heal or recharging mantras or some phantasm with an obvious animation like the GS#4.

Made the mesmer, did some PvP.

Definately loving this class already.

Mesmer has jumped into my top 3 classes.
Why didn’t I try this profession earlier? It’s amazing to play

One of the better weapon sets for leveling is GS or Staff (your choice) and Sword+Focus. Focus is fantastic for getting around places quickly, has a strong phantasm, and good CC for lots of mobs trying to attack you. Sword is the best mainhand weapon (scepter is the only other one and is very lackluster) and is just a good weapon over all. Blurred Frenzy can be used both offensively and defensively for good damage or evading strong attacks. The leap is also good for creating clones for shatter fodder. Staff and Greatsword are reverse of what you’d normally expect them to be. You actually want to use your staff up close and your greatsword far away! Since the staff AA bounces and benefits allies it hits, being within close proximity helps stack up boons and conditions. Chaos Armor also encourages you to be in melee range, as you get boons whenever you’re struck, and standing inside Chaos Storm will make your life a lot easier and your enemy’s a lot harder, with all the boons you get on top of their conditions.

As for utilities, Blink is by far one of the best skills you can get, so grab it ASAP. Ether Feast and Signet of the Ether are pretty much the only healing skills you need, so get those as soon as you can. Other useful utilities are Decoy for stealthing past enemies (or creating another clone), Mirror Image for creating quick shatter fodder (really good for leveling up since you don’t have Deceptive Evasion until level 60), and any of the mantras are good to have on your bar, even if you can’t trait them yet. Stunbreaks and condi cleanses on command are really nice to have in a pinch, and the damage from Mantra of Pain isn’t too shabby either. The only mantra that’s really not too good in PvE is Mantra of Distraction, but it can be fun to use, so use it if you want. Mesmer is lucky enough to have a use for almost all of their utility skills, so pick whichever ones you think are the most fun to you.

General tips:

• When fighting an enemy, use Mind Wrack when they’re at low health. Your illusions are going to die when your enemy’s dead anyway, and the burst damage can be very useful for ending the fight faster.
• When fighting with the GS, using Phantasms Berserker + Mirror Blade + Mind Wrack + Mind Stab is a good burst combo and will usually kill most non-veteran mobs quickly
• With sword, Leap + Swap + Blurred Frenzy + Mind Wrack is another good burst combo (for this and the other shatter bursts, make sure you have 3 illusions up for maximum damage. Mirror Image can help a lot with this)
• Evade, evade, evade. You have lots of different ways of avoiding damage. CC with focus, blinking around with Blink and Phase Retreat, Blurred Frenzy, Distortion (F4), stealth with Torch or Decoy, Chaos Storm for that clutch aegis, all of these will help you survive. Use them. You can’t tank things like a warrior, and you can’t like constantly blind enemies like a thief, so you have to get creative, or you’re dead :P

Welcome to the world of mesmers

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

I’m going to jump in here since I’m also a new mesmer. Although I have scrolls I can use to jump right to level 20, I was thinking of leveling manually so I can gradually adjust to my new skills as I obtain them. But I haven’t leveled a character since they re-did the whole leveling reward system. Is it worth it to start from scratch, or should I use an exp scroll to start from 20?

Also, which weapons should I use for power builds and condition builds respectively? My necro is running a hybrid build at the moment and I’m not sure which way my mesmer will go just yet.

Invictorum.7643:

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

Unfortunately you don’t. Thieves are the biggest reason that mesmers aren’t the meta for PvP: they hard counter us and generally do everything we do (roaming, burst, sustained damage, support), but better.

Invictorum.7643:

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

Against dp thief, you can outplay them if they are not very skillful(quite likely). Against sd thief, you might just back off and consider your survival first.

MoJoe.9063:

I’m going to jump in here since I’m also a new mesmer. Although I have scrolls I can use to jump right to level 20, I was thinking of leveling manually so I can gradually adjust to my new skills as I obtain them. But I haven’t leveled a character since they re-did the whole leveling reward system. Is it worth it to start from scratch, or should I use an exp scroll to start from 20?

Also, which weapons should I use for power builds and condition builds respectively? My necro is running a hybrid build at the moment and I’m not sure which way my mesmer will go just yet.

If you have the capability, absolutely use that scroll. Low level Mesmer is nothing but an exercise in futility and despair.

Every Mesmer weapon can be used in a power setup. Gs and sword (oh and mh) are awkward in condie, but can work. Everything else works fine in condie as well. It just depends on how you want to run the build.

MoJoe.9063:

I’m going to jump in here since I’m also a new mesmer. Although I have scrolls I can use to jump right to level 20, I was thinking of leveling manually so I can gradually adjust to my new skills as I obtain them. But I haven’t leveled a character since they re-did the whole leveling reward system. Is it worth it to start from scratch, or should I use an exp scroll to start from 20?

Also, which weapons should I use for power builds and condition builds respectively? My necro is running a hybrid build at the moment and I’m not sure which way my mesmer will go just yet.

Definitely use the scroll. Mesmers are very hard to play as without their utility skills, and you’ll likely just become frustrated without them.

As for weapons, the only weapon that’s tied specifically to conditions is scepter. Staff AA applies conditions, but it’s used almost entirely for its amazing utility. Everything else is used in power builds.

Invictorum.7643:

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

By rerolling to another profession. :P Thief is your hardcounter as mesmer.

My advice is to either play it in PvP and use the tomes to level it or run around in eotm with the zerg to level (also bring some buffs to speed it up!) You can be at 80 in 3-4 days in eotm and in like 1 minute if you already have the 78 tomes that you need. To skip the first few levels you can dish out 2 gold and get cook to 250 there is a guide on gw2 crafts thats the cheapest possible. It will put you to level 10 instantly. What I prefer doing is complete queensdale at start then get cook to 400. You’re alreday level 20 and you can do all that in three hours.

Invictorum.7643:

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

Put all your effort into avoiding Steal, you’ll need to learn 900 range, predict its use, trick them with double dodges and invulns and get a bit lucky. DP Thieves you want to rupt their stealthing combo as much as possible, SD Thieves you want to learn to dodge and Shatter at the right time for their 3 attack. Dazing them as you Mirrorblade can help land your damage (locks out withdraw or dodge skills).

It will take A LOT of practice but your best weapon will be their overconfidence – punish them for it and be ruthless, do not let them recover.

Invictorum.7643:

Okay, question. How do I not get brutally melted by any thief?

I main a thief and I used to have issues against good mesmer players.
The ones that screwed me over when I played D/P or D/D would make clever use of their Stealth (#4 on torch, Decoy, Mass Invis) and Mobility (Sword #3, Blink) and time their evade on the sword #2 when I had been in stealth for ~2 seconds. Thief Stealth lasts 3 or 4 seconds depending on their traits most of the time (Shadow Refuge or several Heartseekers increases their stealth upime as you know). SInce the Evade on Sword #2 lasts longer than 2 seconds, I’d miss my backstab and be out of stealth before I could do anything useful against them.
As the D/D and D/P players are both rather squishy you can out-damage them. When you played smart on the Stealth and the Mobility, some well-timed burst can really demolish a thief so badly that they’ll be dead at your feet, or forced to pull off (and reset), some of the strongest burst can be achieved by linking the Greatsword’s #4 (Berserker) into #2 (Throw Sword) to finalize it with #3 (the AoE sword popping out of the ground).
Another good thing is to use your GS #5 to knock thieves out of their Shadow Refuge, effectively denying them the Health they’d gain from it and forcing the Revealed effect on them for 4 seconds.

Oh yeah, a S/D player can be beaten in the same way, only the timing of your Sword #2 changes to be used at a moment where your health is getting low (and you need to stall a bit for your heal to get back up).
A well played S/D thief will end up beating you though. Luckily they’re being phased out of the meta quite badly (even Sizer hopped over to D/P it seems) so you won’t be facing too many of those