Mesmer leveling questions
In terms of general survivability, Domination 10 comes to mind.
Edit: Mouse went berserk and hit submit too early. You want the trait that makes your clones cripple on death.
Thats what I’m going for in my final build as well. Currently I have 5 points in Illusion for the decreased illusion cooldowns as it seemed the best early trait skill.
Would it be better to substitute the greatsword for the staff until I get high enough for traits?
In my experience heavy condition with staff is best while leveling. Once i got enough points in condition I didn’t even bother with my secondary weapon and used staff all the way to 80. Had no problems taking out 4+ mobs at the same time and downed veterans easily with champions needing a little more effort.
You want illusion on dodge as quick as possible, so work towards that. Also work towards buffs per illusion, shattering is not that effective really, and then just leaves you as the only target, so try to keep illusions up and only shatter for daze or distortion.
Staff is a must as one weapon, it’s really powerful. I’d then take either sword+pistol or great sword depending on if you like ranged or close in fighting.
For PvE I suggest you go Staff (1) and Sword & Focus (2) with a power and percision trait build. This is for taking down monster quickly with high damage and crits. You can also go with a illusion trait build to make the illusion able to take more hits from NPC allowing you to hit the NPC more before they can reach/hit you. For PvP I suggest you going with a high condition/toughness build for damage reduction and high damage when players use abilities.