Guild Wars 2

I’ve always wanted to get into mesmer, but have never quite found quite I’m looking for with this class. It’s time to give it another go and I had some questions after trying to get the hang of it for a few hours today. Right now I’m learning the ropes in open world PvE.

I’m currently using full berserker with scholar runes and force/air sigils, with S/S, GS for weapons. I feel pretty good with this setup, but sometimes my sustained healing feels pretty weak. I use the signet heal and try to rely on the passive as much as possible. However, it seems that if I am forced to use the signet active, I rarely recover unless the fight ends quickly at that point.

From experience with other classes, I’m pretty sure I could make these heals adequate for all but the most difficult situation if I added in some defensive stats. However, I’m not sure power shatter mesmer’s damage could hold up to it.

Possible other alternatives I was considering was going with something tanky based on conditions. Maybe trailblazer’s? I played around with the skill editor and came up with a build that would operate at around 2500 condi damage before might, with over 3k armor and 23k health. That sounds pretty good, like my damage wouldn’t be terrible but I could stretch my health indefinitely against just about anything.

Thoughts?

May I ask, what level your mesmer? How many hours are you been playing a mesmer?

You should realize that mesmer sustain is just not getting hit at all. Mesmer playstyle is very build specific.

I dont play much anymore. I wonder if Fay/Chaos/etc will comment.

Aside from leveling to 80 and unlocking the elite spec a year ago, I have no experience with mesmer. I just brushed this character off today.

Looking at the PvP/WvW builds, they all feature defensive hybrid sets like trailblazer, marauder, sage, etc. So I think it’s definitely likely I could find the right balance between passive and active defense to get where I want to be. And I can always dial back the passive defenses as I become more comfortable with the playstyle and settle on a build.

I’m just worried that to add passive defense to a power shatter build would sacrifice too much damage for a class that already seems to be a bit disadvantaged. I mean that power shatter burst against an inactive target is disgustingly huge, but after that the damage drops off until you can set it up again.

I compare it to full celestial ele. You’ll be practically invincible, but you’ll really notice that damage loss. Whereas a more offensive set like marauder you still have solid survivability, with far higher damage output.

Would it be a better trade to go with condi? With chaotic transference, a tuning crystal, and runes of the undead, you gain 23% toughness as condition damage, increasing condi damage with full trailblazer’s set by 523 points.

Comparing to full sinister, the trailblazer’s setup has almost 100 higher condi damage, but with 42% higher condition duration. It also has about 1300 higher armor and over 8000 more health.

With viper you can make up the difference in condition duration, but you lose over 300 condi damage compared to Trailblazer’s.

I don’t expect Trailblazer’s to result in higher damage output. I’m sure even with condi weapons, between the physical damage from weapon/utility skills as well kittenters, the extra power and crit more than make up for lower condi damage/duration. But the question is is the damage still sufficient to not feel like you’re chopping down a tree every fight while affording the superior survivability it almost certainly provides?

Has anyone tried Trailblazer’s in open world before? What was your experience with it? Or have ideas on a more survivable power-based build? I’m just getting started and I’m open to ideas.

AliamRationem.5172:

Has anyone tried Trailblazer’s in open world before? What was your experience with it? Or have ideas on a more survivable power-based build? I’m just getting started and I’m open to ideas.

What game content are you aiming for? Only open world? Dungeons, fractals, raids?

Traiblazer will perform fine for open world and dungeons and have more than enough damage here. It will perform decent enough in fractals but the added toughness will have you be the main target of most enemys most of the time, which might increase pressure on you. Not recommended for raids since vipers will outperform trailblazer.

That being said, if you want gear for open world and dungeons, trailblazer might be overkill cost wise. A mix of Rabid and Dire will perform well enough for a condi build in these areas.

Cyninja.2954:

AliamRationem.5172:

Has anyone tried Trailblazer’s in open world before? What was your experience with it? Or have ideas on a more survivable power-based build? I’m just getting started and I’m open to ideas.

What game content are you aiming for? Only open world? Dungeons, fractals, raids?

Traiblazer will perform fine for open world and dungeons and have more than enough damage here. It will perform decent enough in fractals but the added toughness will have you be the main target of most enemys most of the time, which might increase pressure on you. Not recommended for raids since vipers will outperform trailblazer.

That being said, if you want gear for open world and dungeons, trailblazer might be overkill cost wise. A mix of Rabid and Dire will perform well enough for a condi build in these areas.

Open world, yes. For raids I’ll use a meta build. I just wanted to get some idea of how this gear performed before investing time/gold into it. I’ll check out dire/rabid. Thanks!

AliamRationem.5172:

Has anyone tried Trailblazer’s in open world before? What was your experience with it? Or have ideas on a more survivable power-based build? I’m just getting started and I’m open to ideas.

I just want to say something about mesmer survivability. Mesmer have tons of one use active defences but very little passive defence.

The two usable passive defences is sword #2 and shield #4. All other defensive are pretty active.

Learn blink spots. Learn when other classes attack. I know its kinda annoying in comparison to other classes, but mesmer survives by reacting to everything. If you are really good, you will start be able to use interrupts as defence in addition to setting up for burst.

For open world stuff, you’re pretty free in how you choose to play. As a general concept though, you’re free to build as glassy as you can get away with. Experienced players will be in full zerker for power or full viper’s/sinister for condie. You survive by avoiding damage through active defenses such as dodging, sword 2, shield 4, scepter 2, sword 4, or distortion from shatters or signets. Situationally you should use crowd control to avoid damage and control mobs as well.

That being said, not everyone is experienced enough to play that way and survive. If you want to tank up a power build, add knights and cavs stats. If you want to tank up a condie build, add trailblazer or dire. Once you’ve reached a point that you’re pretty comfortable at, start swapping your gear back to the glassy set as you gain more experience.

It’s also worth noting that the signet heal is hot garbage. Use ether feast for pure healing output or well of eternity for general best use.