Guild Wars 2

I’ve always run sword/sword and sword/pistol on my mesmer. Since June update I don’t know how to make a melee build work. If I go for a power build, my damage is garbage without ferocity and precision… But then I have no toughness and can’t survive in melee against harder hitting melee. Against ranged it’s not much better since I can’t stay on top of them long enough to put up a good fight. And gs shatter mesmers just demolish me.

Conditions are destroying me also, but that’s another post for another day.

I just feel like there’s no place for me as a melee mesmer in pvp anymore. I’ve switched to ele and have been having a blast, but I log on to my mesmer every now and then trying to find a new build and make it work for me. I’m not having any luck.

I know everyone had mixed feelings about clone death builds, but it synergized so well with sword main in both sets. I used to run clone death build 2/5/4/3/0 with zerker stats. Decent damage, but not great. But it was great for allowing me to brawl in melee. Lots of cripple on target and traveler runes on me so i could stay on top of them. Consistent weakness so they can’t dodge as much. And I had doom sigils to reduce their healing. Daze on sword off hand and stun on pistol. This build was amazing for control and suited my playstyle well.

I put a ton of love into my mesmer the last 3 years and now I can’t enjoy her. I made this post to get some tips and advice. Maybe you can help me come up with a decent build that uses dual swords and sword/pistol. I’m just not interested in ranged weapons. Sucks for me that sword is the only melee option we have. I need some help :-(. I do unranked and queue solo always so I’m not looking to be number one a leaderboard.

There are some good tips here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Offhand-Sword-is-Better-Than-Ever/first

You make a lot of (IMO) false assumptions here. I’m wondering what build you had before that doesn’t work now? Pretty much everything has been improved, so it’s hard to follow what your issues are.

Is it just that other Mesmer builds are outperforming yours? Surely this was the same before the patch?

The thing to note is that there is not really a “pure” way to play a Mesmer anymore. Shatter is a base mechanic of the class, and not using it is like fighting with hand tied behind your back. You can make an excellent melee-heavy build under the new system.

For a good mix of survivability & damage I would go with Dueling/Insp/Dom and quite frankly I’d stick with Marauder Amulet in sPvP. (If we’re talking WvW you have even more options to customize and should be able to pull off either Cele, or Zerker+Knights/Cav or something.)

In sPvP the stats are very very limited now. I don’t really like this either, but that’s how the ball bounces sometimes. Thus in sPvP Marauder Amulet is clearly the best combination of survivability & damage output.

So what you lack in Toughness, which is not really a particularly great stat anyway, you have to make up in other ways; namely healing, blinds, iDefender, and Diversion. So I would suggest a Signet build, something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAsc8ansICFohNoBmpBUrhlTD68JR56kBIFLvcErIcA-TJRHABZXGgl9HE4kAAwTAAA

I just whipped this up real fast, but the point is to get survivability from Blurred Inscriptions, healing off shatters, mucho Condie clears from both, etc. I would personally go with GS on top rather than Sw/Pi. The iZerker is stronger, and really GS is generally best used in melee range anyway. (MB+MS+MW is nasty point blank damage!)

Fighting with hand behind back is also forcing the melee issue. You get in and get out in pvp. We are not meant to trade blows in melee long term.

Alright, I’ll give your tips a try. Thanks.
I’m not going to try greatsword though, I’m just not into it.

And the build I had before wasn’t improved. It was destroyed because the clone death traits are gone. I liked them for control paired doom sigil.

I actually as thinking a condition-scepter build would work out well for me, except I don’t like scepter. If only sword scaled as well with conditions.

But I’ll write back and let you know how your suggestions are working for me. Thanks again.

I was going to suggest Scepter, but technically it’s still a ranged weapon. The #3 skill actually puts out some good damage now, but it’s still a bit easy to dodge since it’s so well telegraphed.

In 1v1 or to some degree in 2v1 you can trade blows for a bit for sure. It’s all about learning to time the Distortions available to you. Could also think about incorporating SoIllusions for the 50% HP bonus to iDefender and your other illusions, plus the ability to reset your shatters. This will not only give you another F4, but of course the heals & condie clears to go with all your shatters.

You can absolutely frustrate the crap out of your opponent when you keep Diversioning their big bursts. Between Dodges, Diversions, Swd#2, and Swd4 you have a lot of strong defense, and with shatters you add AE Blind + self-heal + 1 condie cleanse to boot.

SoEther is only an idea, try that or MoR or just plain EF.

One thing you gotta say about this patch, our heals are all quite decent now depending on build. MoR is solid with the changes to Mantra recharge and Insp traits, Mirror is plain awesome traited, and SoEther is also quite nice for a Sigil build.

Another option would be to get Dom in there, and instead of Sigs/Diversion, go with Power Block & FI in an interrupt/melee build. Having 3s of Quickness on kitten RuT is quite formidable, just gotta get those interrupts in and you can go bat-kitten crazy on some guy in melee. ;-) Using MoDistraction is also a form of defense, and with CS you would also lock people down at the same time…yummie for Quickness + AAs.

None of this will make you just as strong as the current trend of power shatter Mesmer, but I think it is viable and can be fun for an oddball spec.

Lastly, as Skcam said, check out Chaos’ thread about Sw/Sw and the finally fixed Phantasmal Haste. It really makes that iSworddude pretty formidable. Combined with Chaos traitline and Chaotic Dampening, even without a Staff, this would make sense. The iSwordsman procs Chaos Armor for you upon summoning inside an Etheral field. So one could go with a TW + NF build and have 2 strong Etheral fields to get CA in and due to the trait you end up with a lot of Protection uptime. Just another way to toughen up a Marauder melee build I guess.

I have only played with some of this for a bit here and there, and with mixed results. Against Thieves or other classes that you know really well and you’re fighting in 1v1, the BI/Signet build can be really strong. Even in group fights, where you’re often a preferred focus target, the ability to pop multiple Diversions and have your opponents dump timers without being able to down you, can be really fun.

It’s definitely niche, but I venture to say it was that way before the patch. GL!

Thanks for taking the time out to type all of that for me. I’ll def check that out right now.

I dunno about the build on a whole, but the traitlines Windwalker suggested are spot on.

Your playstyle is gonna change without clone death, but I believe you can still play melee-style properly. Keep in mind though that the meta has shifted, and so some of this feeling you have may be coming from the fact that all classes have new builds. (Do NOT melee a guardian. Its like trying to headbutt an active stove.)

As for traits go for confounding suggestions, duelists discipline, blinding dissipation, restorative illusions and mental defense for sure

Alright. I tried everyone’s advice and changed my build about a dozen times. Thank you.

I came to the conclusion that mainhand sword is underwhelming in pvp. And trying to use mainhand sword entirely in pvp isn’t viable in 1v1s or group fights, compared to the other weapons. There’s a possibility that I just suck as melee mesmer and need to learn to play. I consider myself very experienced, so I’m reluctant to believe that.

It’s true that the June update improved a lot of things for mesmer who use greatsword, scepter and staff, but that’s not so true for mesmers who want to primarily use sword.

I decided to start another thread on how sword can be improved in pvp. If you agree with me, you can show support on that thread or just ignore it.

Thanks again for the tips.