Guild Wars 2

As the title says.

I planned to grab out my mesmer again after some months, working on the leadership runes currently .

I’m planning to use him in fracs and raids (later), and I’ve looked after some builds. http://qtfy.eu/build/mesmer

I have been watching the dom recall build video rotation. And oh dear, that’s really tough to learn, even tho they say it’s “easy” :o

I’ve been writing down the single steps of skills used in the video, and im at more than 30 steps meanwhile… thats pretty hard to learn.

Anyways; what my question is: Is there no “general” way of how to use / prioritize the skills? That would make things a lot easier. I’d be thankful for any tips / tutorials or whatever.

Thank you.

I usually do Warden, Sword #3, switch to shield off-hand, Avenger – Continuum Shift halfway through the wast, Tides of Time, Well #1, Well #2, SoI. Then it’s a matter of switching weapons to trigger the concentration sigil at opportune moments, cast all the things as they come off cooldown – unless Continuum Split is at around 30 seconds cooldown, in which case I’ll try to save it all up for another double whammy.

Mesmer rotation is definately on the more confusing end of all the classes due to all the synergy our skills have and the fact that we are probably the only class that doesn run a dps raid spec which works on 90% of all fights.

I view it more as a priority system based on what you want to achieve.

This ofcorse means you need to in advance know where you want to go with your current rotation.

For standard stuff the go-to rotation in PvE I use is:

1.) offhand phantasm + sword 3 + weapon swap + 2nd offhand phantasm + CS
as opener (remember to Tides of Time or other offhand weapon skill if needed)

2.) use whatever skill you want to copy while CS is up (usually all your wells and often elite, prioritise important skills first incase you messup and CS runs out)

3.) repeat phantasm and clone summoning as needed until CS is close to being ready again

4.) use unimportant shatters (F2,F3) when possible to gain alacrity and get rid of illusions

5.) use out of rotation utility skills if need be

That’s what you start out with and then fill in the blanks with whatever the encounter requires. Raid bosses can change up the rotation drastically if certain utility or elite skills are required or if your group needs distortion immunity on a regular basis.

Same goes if you are tanking as mesmer. The rotation slows down most of the time because you have to use specific skills at certain times instead of providing maximum boon uptime.

The really anoying part is you can’t properly train this kind of stuff in open world or on the golem because many fights are unique in slight rotation changes they make. I’d suggest getting comfortable with the base rotation and understanding which skill to use where for raids.

Thanks Cyninja, that helps a bit and gives me a somehwat “idea” on what I have to look at. This is the optimal “situation” as you’ve stated, depending on what utility skills you pick for certain encounters, the rotation might differ,

And I guess in situations where you tank, it’s more important to stay alive and tank properly than doing your rota and be downed all the time.

An easier way would be to go 100% boon duration without the concentration sigil. This way you would only have to focus on a rotation that exists out of 4 skills: Tides of Time > Echo of Memory > Well of Action > Signet of Inspiration. Tho this would require you to run nearly full concentration stats, and there for you would loose out on damage. However if you run with pugs this could be a lot easier duo to easy rotation and being tanky.

I do not recommend using shatters to give yourself alacrity unless you’re in an open world pve setting. In a raid setting I recommend just maintaining 2+ shield phantasms as much as possible. That will give you all the alacrity you need and maintain perfect alacrity on the rest of your subgroup. If you keep exploding your phantasms you run the risk of losing alacrity for your party which is way more important than maintaining your individual alacrity. If you’re playing support chrono you’re only doing 3-7k damage usually anyway so maintaining your buffs for your group should be your only concern. Shatters imo should not be used at all unless it’s for Diversion for breakbars (and even then this is a bad idea) or Distortion to shield yourself and your team for mechanics.

As for the rotation it seems complicated at first, but just take your time trying to learn it and practice over and over on the golem. Eventually you’ll get it and it’ll be second nature to you.

LucianTheAngelic.7054:

I do not recommend using shatters to give yourself alacrity unless you’re in an open world pve setting. In a raid setting I recommend just maintaining 2+ shield phantasms as much as possible.

I think I should have explained what I ment with “shatter when possible”. I was refering to those situations where you have no phantasms up or are about to override old phantasms with new ones. If you are doing your rotation properly, your group should be alacrity caped no matter how many shield phantasms you run. No reason to override old phantasms with new ones (or worse with clones) when you have Chronophantasma.

VG – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Gorsevale -on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Sabataha – no extra shatters

Sloth – no extra shatters
Trio – it’s trio, doesn’t matter what you do
Matthias – no extra shatters

Escort – inbetween towers, shatter those F2 and F3
KC – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Xera – depending on if you get ported or not, shatter F2 and F3 or not

Cairn – no extra shatters
Mursaat – no extra shatters
Samarog – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Deimos – depending on if you are tank or utility, on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms

Telling people to not use a mechanic which literally gives no disadvantage to being used is silly. There are ample opportunities to make use of those extra shatters, especially F2 and F3.

Cyninja.2954:

LucianTheAngelic.7054:

I do not recommend using shatters to give yourself alacrity unless you’re in an open world pve setting. In a raid setting I recommend just maintaining 2+ shield phantasms as much as possible.

I think I should have explained what I ment with “shatter when possible”. I was refering to those situations where you have no phantasms up or are about to override old phantasms with new ones. If you are doing your rotation properly, your group should be alacrity caped no matter how many shield phantasms you run. No reason to override old phantasms with new ones (or worse with clones) when you have Chronophantasma.

VG – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Gorsevale -on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Sabataha – no extra shatters

Sloth – no extra shatters
Trio – it’s trio, doesn’t matter what you do
Matthias – no extra shatters

Escort – inbetween towers, shatter those F2 and F3
KC – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Xera – depending on if you get ported or not, shatter F2 and F3 or not

Cairn – no extra shatters
Mursaat – no extra shatters
Samarog – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Deimos – depending on if you are tank or utility, on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms

Telling people to not use a mechanic which literally gives no disadvantage to being used is silly. There are ample opportunities to make use of those extra shatters, especially F2 and F3.

Your explanation makes 200x more sense than your original statement of “shatter when possible” which is super misleading, especially to new players. My warning was largely aimed at the fact that your original statement essentially implied using those shatters on cooldown, which is awful advice for new mesmers. I’m glad you added the above though, because it is comprehensive and good guidance.

When you look at the rotation, focus on the timing of
1 tides of time
2 well of action/signet of inspiration(these 2 skills have almost identical CD in domi/insp/chrono build. So you cast them together)
3 weapon swap
4 phantasm summoning to proc trait signet of inspiration.

As long as you get the timing of these 4 things right, you will have easy permanent quickness.

After that, you can start worry about continuum split, number of iavengers up.

Last you can worry about dps.

There is good thing about mesmer rotation that you don’t need very fast hands or fast skill queuing to maintain high dps. You only need to get the rhythm right. It can be a bit daunting at first. But after some practise, you will get the idea.

LucianTheAngelic.7054:

Cyninja.2954:

LucianTheAngelic.7054:

I do not recommend using shatters to give yourself alacrity unless you’re in an open world pve setting. In a raid setting I recommend just maintaining 2+ shield phantasms as much as possible.

I think I should have explained what I ment with “shatter when possible”. I was refering to those situations where you have no phantasms up or are about to override old phantasms with new ones. If you are doing your rotation properly, your group should be alacrity caped no matter how many shield phantasms you run. No reason to override old phantasms with new ones (or worse with clones) when you have Chronophantasma.

VG – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Gorsevale -on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Sabataha – no extra shatters

Sloth – no extra shatters
Trio – it’s trio, doesn’t matter what you do
Matthias – no extra shatters

Escort – inbetween towers, shatter those F2 and F3
KC – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Xera – depending on if you get ported or not, shatter F2 and F3 or not

Cairn – no extra shatters
Mursaat – no extra shatters
Samarog – on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms
Deimos – depending on if you are tank or utility, on phase switch, you lose all illusions anyway, shatter F2 and F3 with no phantasms

Telling people to not use a mechanic which literally gives no disadvantage to being used is silly. There are ample opportunities to make use of those extra shatters, especially F2 and F3.

Your explanation makes 200x more sense than your original statement of “shatter when possible” which is super misleading, especially to new players. My warning was largely aimed at the fact that your original statement essentially implied using those shatters on cooldown, which is awful advice for new mesmers. I’m glad you added the above though, because it is comprehensive and good guidance.

True, after reading through my original suggestions I noticed this too. I should have explained that one better. I was sort of giving advice on an experienced mesmer level to beginner mesmers. In that way you were correct to point that out.

To be honest, F1 and F4 is all one needs and to expand on that, the only absolutely need to use shatter is F4 in pressure situations to skip mechanics or relieve pressure on your group/raid. The rest is just fluff.

Ok, so looking at QT’s site, Chrono has 53 steps in “rotation”….is that what is used for a support Chrono, i.e. not the tank?
I’m keen to learn another class for raids but dang if that’s what it takes to Chrono, I think I shall pass. Any tips?

Exciton.8942:

There is good thing about mesmer rotation that you don’t need very fast hands or fast skill queuing to maintain high dps. You only need to get the rhythm right. It can be a bit daunting at first. But after some practise, you will get the idea.

This…..for support….viable, true? Because fast hands I definitely do not have…lol.

FYI: “Golem rotation” will just make you average mesmer.
You will have to know by memory how much quickness and CD of skills you have, because in most bosses you will have to adapt rotations because of boss mechanics:

VG: Distort greens
Gorse: Distort Stomp
Sabetha: Possible delay untill cannoner comes to receive boonshare.
Sloth: Distort shakes
etc.etc.
Even on some cc heavy bosses is possible you have to delay your f5 rotation to slot in a moa to have it more readily available.

Anyway, golem rotation is a good way to start.

Just make sure you hit signet while having quickness, u hit both signet and quickness well last tick with max boon duration (with the swap wep buff from sigil concentration), you place wells in a smart position to get them buff you teamates after 3s, and you delay bigger cds if f5 is about to be ready.

And remember, always keep up 2 shield phantasms.
Opening f5 with 3 illusions gives you more room to full combo your utility and skills, but with 2 is also enough .