Guild Wars 2

Hello guys, I just downloaded the game, and I read… I read a lot.
1) What are mesmer pros and cons? Where do they shine? and when are they underwhelming?

2) So I have found many different builds for pve and pvp, but I dont know which one to focus on to start off my adventure, I know there isn’t really the best one etc, but if you can mention what builds works for you the best in pve AND pvp, with the weapons etc, I would REALLY appreciate it.

3) Unfortunately, I am a very lonely person. Is mesmergoing to be hard to level up solo ? I would like to be able to level and up and play.
Thanks in advance for all your thoughts and efforts. <

In my experience mesmer is a pretty hard class to start the game on, but the uphill battle of getting a mesmer to lvl 80 is definitely worth it.

Here is BAMF Joe. He plays a zerker “Shatter” mesmer. Shatter is the mechanic of the class, so If you really want to get to know mesmer, you should learn to play shatter.

For PvE I’ve found phantasm builds to be the best. just kite with the GS and let the phantasms do the dps

I think Mesmer is a very interesting profession. It feels like there’s always something more to learn. Many other professions can be more effective in early levels, and there are limits on what roles and styles you can play at the most extreme end-of-game scenarios (elite dungeon running, player vs player, etc).

Like Hamster said, I think concentrating on the phantasms (there will be one in every weapon set) is the easiest and best way to start. I really like the illusionary berserker on the greatsword. I also like the illusionary duelist on the pistol.

You can do fine by yourself. You might not be able to fight many opponents at once. Mesmer feels harder to level up than other GW2 professions, but not too hard or slow compared to some other MMOs. It depends a lot on your point of view, but I didn’t notice the a leveling issue when I started because Mesmer was my first GW2 character

I’ll be straight with you.

Mesmers are the worst class to get to 80. It’s actually borderline unplayable in my opinion. They used to be extremely difficult to get to 80 because of their main damage coming from Phantasms, and they don’t get buffed properly until you’re a higher level. Even more so now that you actually have to unlock traits/buy them.
You’ll probably have torn all your hair out by 80.

Now..

Once you hit that 80 spot, you’ll love it. Mesmers are phenomenal at 80 and have arguably the best utilities in-game.
Group stealth, group cleanse, group portal, group quickness, reflects and heals.
Not only that, but they are capable of excellent damage and great survivability also.

If you have the patience I would definitely stick with it as they are extremely rewarding at 80.

On the upside.. with the new Megaservers being implemented the lower population zones are normally always packed with people, if you just ask in chat I’m sure someone is bound to join you!

EDIT:

It depends a lot on your point of view, but I didn’t notice the a leveling issue when I started because Mesmer was my first GW2 character

This is true. I may have over-exaggerated how difficult they are to level, because my first character was a Warrior, which is by far the easiest class to level and play in-game.

@OP

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first

Check out this thread. AWESOME info to get you started. As far as builds are concerned, you really shouldn’t worry about that until you reach level 80. In the meantime, get used to your chosen profession, find which weapons YOU like and their strengths and weaknesses. Also you can always jump into PvP at any level and play around with it to get more of a feel of what the various skills, utilities do, etc.

1. Pros. Fun to play and rewarding to master, able to capitalize on situations and quickly react to changes in a fight.

Cons. Heavy trait reliance, limited builds due to class mechanic, very buggy, not very rewarding play in wvw zerg.

2. Builds. Sadly due to the trait changes recently builds will be very tied up and unusable to until you are able to reach level 80 and can use grand master lines. Early on just focus on finding weapons you like to use and if you like blowing up clones and phants or leaving them out to let them do damage.

3. Leveling is not difficult but becomes a bit due as it takes a long time until you even begin to unlock the better traits and skills that really make it fun and quick.

i can ask what is your goal with gw2? what kind of player are u competitive/challenging or casual player?
if u are casual player.. i would not like to give u wrong things..

if u are looking for competition,,
- gw2 has just 1 offical high end competitive mode.. it is TPvP Tournament Structured Player vs Player.. with which game design for 5 players gaming..

your goal?
game has some various game style in offical..
- PvEnviroment mode.. (i cant say much for here.. i think is the place where u get your character lvl max 80.. and easier to get golds probably
- PvP spvp[solo/pug structured pvp], tpvp[tournament/organized structured pvp, casual random unranked pvp)
- WvW… there is 1 unoffical competitive mode (GvG guild vs guild [Guilds Organized Deathmatchs]) other style/mode in wvw Organized Duels, Solo Roam, Organized Large Scaled Zerging +15, 20 [Guild raids], Unorganized Large Scaled Zerging PuG zerging, Smale scaled group roaming (up to mostly 10)

sorry need to end it quickly

in competition,
in general mesmer efficient is become decrease in larger groups compositons,,

in casual,
play however u like to play..

if u dont know how to just do it..

(i personaly offer u not be mesmer if it ll be your first class and if u dont have speacial interest of him) in terms of being efficint to your group, farming and all others..

As a GW2 newbie and starting out as a Mesmer, I’d probably not pick a Shatter Mesmer to start. Shatter requires you to know a lot of mechanics about the game itself in order to stay alive. The survivability of a shatter mesmer is very low if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Instead decide whether you want to be Condition or Power based. Condition based builds in this game are basically DoT builds. There are a number of conditions like Burning, Bleeding, Poison, Torment, Confusion… that do damage based per second/tick. Power is more direct damaged based.

My suggestion? If you want to be forgiving on yourself, level up Mesmer as a Staff based Condition spec. Your clones will do a lot of damage with conditions, and your survivability is really great with Staff. On the plus side, it’s a bit more of a “passive” playstyle than Shatter/Power based specs, so you have some time to pay attention to what’s happening around you and learn the game. It also can solo very, very easily. Focus on Condition damage, Vitality and Toughness.

The other option, if DoT based damage doesn’t fancy your interest, is to try a Phantasm based build. These are Mesmer builds that rely on most of your damage coming from your summonable clones/phantasms. A clone is just a replica of you to confuse the enemy. Does next to no damage, but can be used for shatters. A Phantasm has a big attack of it’s own, does good damage pending on spec, and can also be used for shatters. I’d try a Greatsword/Sword+Sword Phantasm spec (There’s one in my signature that I use mainly) if you think that sounds like your style.

The best thing to do is to equip a few different types of weapons, see which abilities you like best, and run with that. Some of them don’t work very well together, but most can make-do while you’re just leveling at least.

Cheers.
-E

As you’ve read above your going to have a VERY rough time. Mesmers are great because they can have a huge variety of styles of play due to their diverse traits… but there-in lies the problem. You won’t have access to those traits for a while. However there is a ‘newish’ way to bypass this leveling madness and get you more used to the class.

Do PvP.
A) You’ll get to try before you buy.
B) You’ll get tombs of knowledge to speed up your leveling.

Now if your hardcore and love story like me and hate that PvP does actually limit your builds some and you want to enjoy the PvE world here is a couple suggestions.

Start with Staff and when you can use a second set of weapons, Sword/Torch. Torch will let you back off and escape, giving you a little time to heal and get your Phantasm(s) in play. Once you get a skill point, get Decoy and change Sword/Torch to Scepter/Sword. This is will give a very fun but defensive/survivable build with your iSwordsman/iWarlock and conditions doing a lot of your DPS while you kite things around, blocks giving a good spike damage and favor power/precision items OR condition/toughness if you are having a really hard time surviving.

Blink should probably be your next buy, it can get you out of nasty situations until you get some skill. I suggest Mantra of Distraction as your third so you start watching when enemies are trying to use attacks which you can interrupt OR dodge if it’s on cooldown. Seriously, learn to dodge. Phantasmal Defender can help a lot as you solo around and Mirror Images can help you learn how to use shattering effectively at the next tier.

If you want to try out WvW, get Feedback, Null Field, Veil and Portal and just find a commander and follow them around learning how it all works(You will die horribly by yourself until you have traits). Try to hide yourself in a keep/castle with stealth stuff on you when it’s attacked, if you succeed you can call out for people to come and Portal them over the wall to ninja it and get everyone’s undying love. (This also works for jump puzzles)

After that see what you like… if you enjoy the shatter skills, aim for a shatter build and traits, if you enjoy stealth and survival, aim for PU, if you like how Mantras work(they get a TON better traited)… ext, be crazy like me and try a reflection build(Learn how to use Mimic, bounce a staff auto right before using it to catch it). But most of all, don’t follow anyone’s build straight up, take them as a suggestion because our biggest strength is simply no one knows what to expect when they face a Mesmer.

1) What are mesmer pros and cons? Where do they shine? and when are they underwhelming?

Strictly opinion here.
Advantages:

• Mesmers have a great combination of specialty abilities. You can teleport, you can use stealth, you can reflect stuff, you can throw baddies around, you can give yourself short-term invincibility, you can create Portals for other players. It’s awesome to have these all available on one class.
• Thanks to phantasms, mesmers can “ramp up” nicely in extended fights. As long as your phantasms stay up, you’ll be doing good damage.
• Shatter is a fun and unique resource-management playstyle.
• Non-shatter builds can support a somewhat leisurely pace. You can’t, like, sleepwalk your way through the game, but mesmer can be far less twitchy and hyperactive than professions like elementalist and thief.
• You have some great group-oriented like Null Field and Veil, though to be honest elementalists (combo fields!) and necros (in WvW, where boon stripping matters) probably do it better.
• In PvE, you are the absolute master of reflection. Totally changes the dynamic in a lot of fights.
• A lot of your PvE damage mitigation comes from evasion and reflection. These are much more powerful than daze/stun or blind spam since they still work on bosses.
• Staff is one of the finest weapons in GW2. Very mobile and flexible.
• Greatsword gives you a long-range insta-hit laser beam that’s great for focusing down squishy targets in small-/medium-sized group WvW. All the players using lowly projectiles are so jealous.
• Big baseline health pool means you can be pretty durable if you pick up a bit of Toughness. You don’t suffer for your small mistakes as much as eles and thieves do.

Disadvantages:

• Damage output isn’t, like, amazing, unless you’re using reflection on PvE monsters or playing full burst shatter in PvP.
• Mesmers aren’t very good at area-effect damage, as far as GW2 classes go. You’ll have a few ways to tag a bunch of targets at once, but nothing that really compares to an elementalist, an engineer, a shortbow thief, or even most necromancers, warriors, and guardians.
• It’s kinda hard to get strong on-demand condition removal unless you use traited Mantra of Recovery. (Null Field, Arcane Thievery, and Phantasmal Disenchanter are all good, situationally, but two have long cooldowns and the third tends to die a lot.)
• Mesmers are very reliant on traits to be effective. If your pick traits poorly you’re pretty much guaranteed to suck. More so than any other class I’ve tried, I look at my traits and always think “Man, I wish I just had a few more points to pick up this one other thing…”
• You don’t have much in the way of speed boosts (only source of reliable swiftness is the focus; no “+25% movement” signets/traits), meaning that you’re pretty slow at map travel unless you have dedicated group support or devote your rune slots to it. This is mostly a big deal for WvW.
• Long-range fighting and stealthy fighting are both of limited use in structured PvP, since it’s imperative that you stand on the point (unstealthed) to claim it, so your build options are constrained a bit.
• Confusion feels kinda stupid in PvE because of how slowly the mobs attack. (Luckily you have other conditions you can use reliably.)

I used to play thief (I’m very much a one-character-at-a-time kind of player) but I switched to mesmer because I like the flow of play and the utilities better.

2) So I have found many different builds for pve and pvp, but I dont know which one to focus on to start off my adventure, I know there isn’t really the best one etc, but if you can mention what builds works for you the best in pve AND pvp, with the weapons etc, I would REALLY appreciate it.

Just try everything, really. The way your stuff plays at low levels isn’t going to tell you that much about endgame PvE or PvP.
I leveled with a mix of Staff condition builds and Sword-based melee builds. Now I mostly play PU Greatsword in WvW, and Sword/Sword+Sword/Focus (or Sword/Sword+Greatsword when I feel lazy) in PvE.

3) Unfortunately, I am a very lonely person. Is mesmergoing to be hard to level up solo ? I would like to be able to level and up and play.
Thanks in advance for all your thoughts and efforts. <

Mesmer’s kinda slow until you get to your higher-end traits (which is like level 60 nowadays). Not hard per se. Not super duper fragile, either. But, well, killing things takes a while, which might make you envious of the heavy-armor folk around you.
Mostly where the difficulty spikes is in certain personal story bits where you get a lot of enemy aggro all at once. Other than that I leveled and went through personal story feeling like I always had a useful trick or two up my sleeve. It’s a pretty flexible class.

in wich servers are u? na or eu? i might be able to help u out ingame on stuff u dont manage if u r in eu