Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

I just finished leveling my thief and guard to 80, and now that I have a heavy armor and medium armor class, its onto my next project, light armor! I really enjoy PvE, dungeons and WvW, so I’m looking to make a new toon for those things in mind.

Ele’s seem to keep getting the nerf bat to the balls, plus attunement swapping is a pain. Necros and Mesmers are both interesting but I hear mesmers are more adapted to PvE and WvW, honestly I don’t know much about either of these classes.

In the end, mesmer human female looks sexier, decision made!

That being said, can someone give me some leveling tips? I’m not really interested in doing condition damage at the moment so can someone tell me what the best direct damage weaponset/build I should gun for?

Note: Not looking for a GC but something with better than average to very good damage output while maintaining some semblance of survivability

Thanks in advance!

I’m close to hitting 80 on my mesmer, so I can give you a few general tips. As a precursor I’d say that I leveled my mesmer about 70% WvW and 30% PvE, so most of my advice will be WvW related.

Levels 1-30: The very low levels of WvW are quite painful as a mesmer. You can’t really do all that much damage wise until you get gear and traits, but you can provide decent support.

At this point I recommend becoming best friends with the Staff. It’s by far our best defensive weapon (Chaos Armor is amazing), the Chaos Storm is great for boons and conditions, and it’s very good for tagging a bunch of players.

I’d also recommend the focus at this point because the utility is unmatched in a weapon for WvW. You can pull people off walls/cliffs, and it really helps you keep up with the zerg. Which brings me to my next point. At this stage I highly recommend sticking with a zerg as much as possible, unless you have a good group to run with. Upleveled guys tend to get targeted first, and you’ll go down fast at this level.

Levels 31-60: At this point you can start doing a little more roaming and small group play, because you’ll have more utility you can bring to the table. I highly recommend Deceptive Evasion (the X trait in the Dueling tree) as soon as you can get it, because it’s great for survivability.

Here I strongly suggest you take a look at the Shatter Cat builds stickied at the top of the forums, the skeleton versions are still very effective while you’re leveling up, and it fits the Power type build you’re looking for.

Level 60+: Once you hit level 60, you go whichever direction you want. There’s another post at the top of the forum that has a compiled list of all the different builds people have shared. By now you should have a better idea of the playing style you like, and you can either use these or modify them as you like.

Mesmers are a VERY highly adaptable profession, and you can do a lot of different things with them. Confusion is taking a pretty big hit in this patch, but don’t let that scare you away from a very fun and rewarding class.

Best of Luck!

I’d wait on creating a Mesmer until the details of this mega 50% confusion dam nerf disaster hits tommorow. It eliminates a core build and severely hampers damage for all Mesmers. See what the effect of it is before rolling. Having said that, I love this class. It has a lot of functionality and style.

I agree with Entropy. But as an aside, mesmer glass-cannons are more resilient that any other class. We have a bunch of stun-breakers and invulnerabilities, including some limited stealth. While you may not being able to tank many shots, you have more tools at your disposal to prevent those shots from even connecting in the first place.

Granted, you always have to give up something to gain something- glass cannons have no condition removal, so poison and immobilize can be killer in pvp. You’ll pick your poison through your trait and utility selection

@ President Nixon, I have some experience with GC thief, it really isn’t my cup of coffee I don’t have fast enough reflexes I guess to make it work I guess. And esp in dungeons with all the traps applying condi, it becomes a headache. Probably mesmers are different from thieves but the entire experience just left a bad taste in my mouth.

I’ve heard from people that mesmers are excellent at dishing out direct damage without necessarily compromising survivability. At a glance at the builds list it’s hard to tell which builds those are. Which build is good at doing a decent stack of damage and having good AoE mob control (or, a good way to deal with mobs, because most of PvE and sometimes in dungeons is mob control)

@Zumi, thanks that’s very helpful! I think in PvE its fairly easy to go from level 1-30 within a week. Being upleveled and in wvw = lots of bad experiences for me lol, I wouldn’t wanna try it until I have my elite at least.

@Entropy, I was under the impression that confusion builds really only are viable against opponents in wvw or pvp, and is unreliable in PvE. Would the confusion nerf really make a difference in PvE/dungeon/fractal play?

Entropy.4732:

I’d wait on creating a Mesmer until the details of this mega 50% confusion dam nerf disaster hits tommorow. It eliminates a core build and severely hampers damage for all Mesmers. See what the effect of it is before rolling. Having said that, I love this class. It has a lot of functionality and style.

A dude said that he is not interested in condition damage, so he won’t really care about that.

Besides, what’s with the drama? So basically they nerf one major WvW build out of many for mesmers… big deal, really. It does not hamper damage for all Mesmers, heck, as a matter of fact, I don’t think that any Mesmers besides glam ones would give a kitten really.

From what I have seen, Mesmer is like the most powerful addition in WvW to any group-size just because of amazing utilities. Seriously, I personally remember how in WvW two days ago I was in a team of like 10 guys and we spotted around a double size of that force laying a siege on some keep and we basically stomped them all just because I chained Veil and Mass Invisibility and we sneaked on them undetected. It was seriously amazing and full of win.

And that is not even half of what a Mesmer can do in WvW. That’s some frikkin’ amazing power there even before you start actually do damage. I have seen some other Mesmers do crazy kitten with portals too and tossing Time Warp, Null Field or Feedback at the right time are also a game changers.

Heck, there is so much game changers in Mesmers’ toolbox in WvW that it is not even funny, you could basically do 0 damage and still turn the tide with utility skills alone, without even traiting for it really.

Silver.4798:

@Entropy, I was under the impression that confusion builds really only are viable against opponents in wvw or pvp, and is unreliable in PvE. Would the confusion nerf really make a difference in PvE/dungeon/fractal play?

You are right about that… Furthermore – confusion in PvP is already “nerfed” and it is absolutely worthless in PvE to begin with, none runs confusion in PvE (besides it won’t be changed for PvE anyway). So this “nerf” really affects only one thing WvW and only some very specific builds who are based on condition damage for some very niche (albeit significant) parts of it.

Sure you will get a storm of posts that the sky is falling now, but really, most of it will be just from guys who geared their kitten off just for maximizing confusion in WvW. So yeah, they will naturally be kitten about this nerf and will keep telling you that Mesmers are dead and other BS like that…

Here are some random thoughts about leveling

There are two schools of thought about leveling a mesmer. It basically comes down to greatsword or staff. I used staff, others swear by greatsword. Try out both.

Expect to get a little frustrated until level 40. Mesmers get much better at 40.

As much as you can have 3 clones up at all times. At first, most of your clone generation is going to be from weapon skills (each weapon set has one clone and one phantasm skill) and utilities.

Sword #2 gives you a relatively long term invulnerability while dishing out decent damage.

I really liked the (pistol #5) duelist because the phantasm would rarely draw aggro, attacked from range, and would take down enemies while I kited.

Avoid mantras (for now, they are being buffed but I’m not sure they are worth it.)

Your first 5 trait points go into illusions.

Consider the next 10 in dueling for blade training, it’s a 20% cooldown trait at the adept level, which is terrific.

AoE? i think you must have us confused with an ele? (No pun intended before the nerf bat).
Seriously i would wait till the patch notes hit (and maybe even a few more days after that) before committing yourself (unless you dont mind deleting IF you make the wrong choice). If the nerf hits as suspected it could well make half our weapons unviable which obviously will give less choice (but if you dont mind playing the same build with no variation then that will not matter). (I personally enjoyed (PAST tense) playing a confusion spec one minute and swapping out to a power build the next).
Mesmers do seem to be ‘needed’ more for dungeon speed runs.
As for looks it doesnt matter the profession. race and sex determine that. Just because you have a necro doesnt mean you cant dress sexy (and in bright colours!)
There is going to be a new condition solely for necros so who knows what will happen?
All i know is a lot of our bugs (from launch) have not been fixed.
They seem to create more ‘problems’ when they ‘fix’ bugs.
We suffer from nerf after nerf because (quite simply) some people (especially new players) dont know how to deal with us and our illusions (cant spot the real mesmer).
mesmer has a lot going fot it, BUT not as much as 3 months ago, and who knows how it will be in 3 months time

So far as survivability goes, clones can take a bit of a beating. They inherit your toughness, and the sigil that increases their health will let them act as mini tanks for you.

For the builds, check out some of the phantasm builds and adjust them to your level. Shatter builds will be difficult until you get to level 40 and can crank out clones, but once that happens you can spike damage really well.

Just to wrap it up really, be open minded about it – you will see tons of guys who will be like the Under Web dude above “I played Mesmer for 2000 hours… it’s horrible… we are always nerfed… bugs”.

You know the fun part about it? You will get the same response from just about any profession forum (replace “Mesmer” with whatever profession that is). Seriously, just try me – go to every other profession forums and see the threads. Honestly, it’s ALL whine all around and I am not kidding. Guys who get a nerf immediately scream that their profession is done for and they delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game. Guys who get buffed scream that they are useless/free meals/go play another game, because this buff is just pointless and they are tired of playing their crappy chars and even guys who do not get any real changes (Guardians) will whine that they are nerfed, because other profession got buffed and thus they are now relatively weaker (and by relatively I mean “the sky is falling”) to that profession than before, therefore nerfed and you guessed that… delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game.

Dude, I’m not kidding you, it’s like a comedy club here

One huge tip would be just to go to Mists asap at level 2 and gear up in PvP stuff and try to take down Svanir and the other dude solo there without using elite skills. They will give you a run for your money as a new profession player, so switch around builds and see how it goes.

The point is – see if you like the mechanics and the tools available. It will take you one hour top to test out most of the mainstream builds and you will get a feeling of what you are going to be like at 80.

Mesmers are good. I am not some blind Mesmer fanatic, but really, Mesmers are in a very good spot in PvE, PvP and WvW and they are really nowhere near the danger of losing that spot, despite all the tears.

re Gaidax please READ my post properly : NOT once did i mention it was a horrible experience – far from it i actually said i ENJOYED it.
As to the nerf bat i think that only ele and mesmer seem to get the nerf bat (thief slightly but thief is getting xtras).
The other professions are seen as broken in some way and so are getting looked at in a POSITIVE way. Wait till the patch notes (and read all the previous patch notes) and you will understand.
YES i know ALL other classes have bugs (from launch)
I suppose the point i am trying to say is that although we might be seen to be in a good position now (we were better 3 months ago) and who knows how the profession will be in 3 months time.
But if they care MORE about new players than existing players then you can only ‘assume’ that more nerfs will be incoming in the future

For me, it’s not the nerf to confusion that’s the real issue. It’s the effects that nerf will have. It’s killing a build, dumbing down the game and promoting zerging. These are all things anet said they were against.

Silver.4798:

Hey all,

I just finished leveling my thief and guard to 80, and now that I have a heavy armor and medium armor class, its onto my next project, light armor! I really enjoy PvE, dungeons and WvW, so I’m looking to make a new toon for those things in mind.

Ele’s seem to keep getting the nerf bat to the balls, plus attunement swapping is a pain. Necros and Mesmers are both interesting but I hear mesmers are more adapted to PvE and WvW, honestly I don’t know much about either of these classes.

In the end, mesmer human female looks sexier, decision made!

That being said, can someone give me some leveling tips? I’m not really interested in doing condition damage at the moment so can someone tell me what the best direct damage weaponset/build I should gun for?

Note: Not looking for a GC but something with better than average to very good damage output while maintaining some semblance of survivability

Thanks in advance!

Silver! Join the club, same here, ‘cept that I’ve going back to my old level 26 mesmer that I had kind of dropped a while ago (which I have since leveled to 31 or so). I think Authority also said something about trying out or even swapping to mes. I just wanted something magical and cool-looking that I could have fun with, and I also wanted to have the ability to just wreak chaos on the battlefield. Sadly, my thief- while very annoying for many an enemy zerg- just couldn’t give me that chaotic feeling that I always had wanted. So here I am now.

Anyhow, I’ve been a huge bunker/balance build player. For mes, though, I’ll probably run a staff build with lots of teleportation and clones, and possibly even a torch offhand for limited invisibility. I’ve been testing out builds a lot recently in PvP, and although I haven’t found quite what I was looking for yet, I’ve found a lot of really great stuff that I could use in the future.

Thanks to everybody that’s been contributing to giving leveling advice on this thread, it’s also very helpful to me. Again, thank you.

Gaidax.7835:

You know the fun part about it? You will get the same response from just about any profession forum (replace “Mesmer” with whatever profession that is). Seriously, just try me – go to every other profession forums and see the threads. Honestly, it’s ALL whine all around and I am not kidding. Guys who get a nerf immediately scream that their profession is done for and they delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game. Guys who get buffed scream that they are useless/free meals/go play another game, because this buff is just pointless and they are tired of playing their crappy chars and even guys who do not get any real changes (Guardians) will whine that they are nerfed, because other profession got buffed and thus they are now relatively weaker (and by relatively I mean “the sky is falling”) to that profession than before, therefore nerfed and you guessed that… delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game.

Dude, I’m not kidding you, it’s like a comedy club here

Oh my goodness, this is so true. You should have seen half the thief community’s reactions to the bump from 3s reveal to 4s. So laughable.

Haha Arganthium and I have been there after the 4s reveal nerf, goodlord even 2 weeks after the patch all I saw were posts about how the class is absolutely and utterly “broken” how PvE thieves are worthless, how ANET obviously has an ulterior motive and is out to get thieves, and designers are morons… this escalated to WOW comparisons and how it took blizzard 3 years to break the game by nerfing certain characters, but took anet 6 months, qq qq qq qq all over the place…

Mind you, this is for a 1s difference in debuff, and yea that screwed with a lot of stealth bursts, lo and behold the d/p permastealth mainstream builds, and soon to be s/d mainstream builds. People can’t seem to be able to adapt, I don’t even want to look at the ele forums, them guys are probably pooping out a christmas tree with RTL nerf…

Back to more relevant topics at hand, the S/P mesmer plays a lot like the thief S/P. It feels fairly strong at low levels but I’m not sure how it will do at lvl 80 in dungeons and such. Also, staff looks very interesting too but it seems to be condition based. Although I dont necessarily wanna make a condi mesmer, generally speaking, how’s a mesmer condi build? I havent really seen many ppl run condi builds of any class tbh, (which actually makes me wanna give condi a shot haha).

Now, the GS… I must be missing the point with this weapon because it feels pretty awkward and inconsistant with the varying damage at distances. The damage output doesn’t seem to be all that impressive in comparison to other weaponsets, I’m not sure why people are in love with this weapon for mes. (I’m not trying to criticize I genuinely think I’m playing this wrong and am missing the point)

Silver.4798:

Back to more relevant topics at hand, the S/P mesmer plays a lot like the thief S/P. It feels fairly strong at low levels but I’m not sure how it will do at lvl 80 in dungeons and such. Also, staff looks very interesting too but it seems to be condition based. Although I dont necessarily wanna make a condi mesmer, generally speaking, how’s a mesmer condi build? I havent really seen many ppl run condi builds of any class tbh, (which actually makes me wanna give condi a shot haha).

Now, the GS… I must be missing the point with this weapon because it feels pretty awkward and inconsistant with the varying damage at distances. The damage output doesn’t seem to be all that impressive in comparison to other weaponsets, I’m not sure why people are in love with this weapon for mes. (I’m not trying to criticize I genuinely think I’m playing this wrong and am missing the point)

There are a lot of fun combinations with S/P and Staff. Pop an iDuelist and charge in with iLeap. While you’re in blurred frenzy, you can pop off insta-cast skills, which includes things like Mirror Images and Shatters. So do that, then swap to staff and phase retreat away, falling back to do condition damage after the burst. There’s low risk here because of the invuln on the sword attack, and you can immediately get out of melee range. Even at level 80, I always run with a sword. It works well in dungeons.

So far as the condition question, we’re all awaiting the patch notes and have to retest a lot of the confusion builds at least. The staff clones are the only clones that do significant damage because of the conditions. So three clones + you throwing winds of chaos is effective.

I share in your disenchantment with the great sword. It seems to be used more commonly for glassy builds, but there are places where it’s vital. If you run fractals, the staff attack counts as a projectile and is reflected by anything jade. Not the GS though. The staff is also terrible at destroying objects, but the GS can handle them just fine. Attacking towers in WvW is also easier with a GS, because you typically need to spike defenders who pop their head out and take out oil/cannons.

Long story short: always carry a GS even if you don’t use it often. When you need it, there aren’t really any other alternatives.