Mesmer PvE: How do I build my Mesmer?
I have not found on sure fire way to play the mesmer in pve, but i have tried a condition/confusion build and a power/crit build. Both work well, with the confusion you have to be more active, looking for every source of confusion you can pump out. Blinds, Glamor, clones etc.
confusion doesnt work well for PvE is all i have to add
Confusion will only work well at the very beginning due to its poor scaling.
I soloed the end zones, including underwater, with a glass cannon phantasmal build, using sword + pistol/focus.
bleed is just so much better than confusion, even in PvP situations.
wait so sword pistol and sword focus? thats awfully limiting
You don’t need tons of options vs mob AI. Duelist and Warden do excellent damage, one at range, one as melee AoE. The sword offers more AoEish damage and two very strong defense effects, 2 secs of distortion per 8, and a clone with a blink/cripple. Between the clone and the temporal curtain kite is really easy.
The scepter is quite useless as its 1 spams useless clones you don’t want; its 2 is weaker defensively than the sword’s 3, let alone 2. The scepter’s three is nice but it is single target, and when autoattack is out, can’t really match the damage of a sword’s 1.
So is a power build with GS/Staff any good? And should I focus on using shatters or mostly phantasms (berserker/warlock)? Or is it just play style preferences?
So far I’ve been doing okay with using a shatter build with using GS #2 and mirror images + mind wrack. Or is it just poor scaling since I’m level 41?
I am playing staff phantasmal build. Stats are Pres/Con/Power is that order. Have used it in Orr and most dungeons and it does work well.
@Saraneth do you use a GS for 2nd weapon set too? Or a sword/anything?
Also, thanks.
Up to now the build that suits me most in pve is staff % sword-pistol. It has a nice balance between burst dps, aoe dps (that we lack many times), defence and condition applying. The bad side with it is that you need to stay a lot in melee range which considering the usually low defences means its a bit dangerous sometimes.
@Galmarrar Yeah I understand the sword/pistol and the danger of being in melee. That’s what scares me the most, and why I like GS + Staff. Sword/sword is a blast though, that iSwordsman hurts.
Also, are scepters worth using? I’ve never seen a scepter mesmer.
wanted to add my two cents here.
For pve I roll with about same set up as I do for wvw, IE gs + sword and pistol *( phantom build ). I run power > prec > vit. I trait in the same way. Most fights are over in 10 – 15 seconds tops. Open with gs, ranged #2 to pop a clone, follow with berserker, than #3 the gtaoe, swap to sword / pistol, drop duelist. Start running to mob/s while hitting ur magic bullet. finsh with #2 sword and F1 shatter if need be. this set up works pretty good on up to 3 mobs, with each only adding a second or 5 to total time.
I tried alot of the other builds, and I gota say imo the so called glass cannon mesm is not really made of glass. I use the stealth + clone and tele. if I even think I might take to much dmg I hit the stealth, than teleport. wvw and pve this does great for geating u out of combat and at range. Note that in wvw I do the above, after I do my opener ( ie gs set, s/p set ending with the flurry, hit stealth, double tap dodge, tele, swap weapons and repeat on next target.)
Only thing I will add is that it is a good idea to carry a focus with you, for the spd buff for u and your followers.
I myself focus on power traits in PvE for the most damage output. I also have a lot on percision. I think crits with high damage is important. I am using condition damage more for PvP because players use abilities much more then NPC naturally.
I lvl’d to 80 by using greatsword and sword/(pistol/focus). The phantasmal warden deals the most dmg by far out all of the phantasms, but on occassion you want to swap to pistol if the enemy you’re fighting has means of dealing with the warden through collateral AOE dmg.