Guild Wars 2

It’s funny because I hear everyone rave about how good Mesmers are when it comes to fighting other players so I was pretty excited seeing as how my main is a Mesmer. I usually only do PVP with my charr warrior.

Needless to say, mesmers in pvp were kind of a disappointment to me. I love the class, but I feel like they deal terrible damage. They’re good as escaping and survivability in general, but when it came to inflicting damage, the output was mediocre compared to my warrior.

Any tips?

Be a little more specific if you need tips :P

• Which build do you use?
• which enemies do you have the most trouble with? (Or just all in general)
• which race are you? (Very important, I recommend sylvari female for best effects)

If you dont have a decent build yet, your first step would be to make or get one :P
Choose one of the following:

1. shatter 0/20/0/0/30. Reccommended to put 10 in domination. With this build you do quick burst damage, but youre rry reliant on active defense, pressure and combos.
2. lockdown 20/20/10 or something. Same kittenter, you have to keep pressure up qnd rely on combos.
3. phantasm 10/0/0/25/0 you let phantasms do damage, while you focus on surviving.
4. condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Shatter and lockdown are the hardest, then comes phantasm and ten condition.

Im typing this on mobile, so I cant reallylink things properly :/.

If you want to meet me in game or something, feel free to whisper me or send a forum PM :D

DrDivine.5378:

It’s funny because I hear everyone rave about how good Mesmers are when it comes to fighting other players so I was pretty excited seeing as how my main is a Mesmer. I usually only do PVP with my charr warrior.

Needless to say, mesmers in pvp were kind of a disappointment to me. I love the class, but I feel like they deal terrible damage. They’re good as escaping and survivability in general, but when it came to inflicting damage, the output was mediocre compared to my warrior.

Any tips?

god this post hurts me so much xD, mesmers have the best burst on the game on a 16-20 sec cooldown with stealths. have a look at some shatter builds, max out zerk gear and you can burst down a tank guard in 1 burst.

aaaaaaand i just realised you meant spvp not wvw, my apologies ;P phew, you got me scared for a second there.

DrDivine.5378:

It’s funny because I hear everyone rave about how good Mesmers are when it comes to fighting other players so I was pretty excited seeing as how my main is a Mesmer. I usually only do PVP with my charr warrior.

Needless to say, mesmers in pvp were kind of a disappointment to me. I love the class, but I feel like they deal terrible damage. They’re good as escaping and survivability in general, but when it came to inflicting damage, the output was mediocre compared to my warrior.

Any tips?

Use my build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsa7flwzKqHTTqGb9IipCBHpHqWp9aleMbXYuB-TwAg1CuIYSxkjJDTSmsMN+Y9xmhJDA

Wont say how to play it, but its a very very strong build.

and its a perfect example of the full meaning hybrid.

- Phantams and yourself do nice damage
- You produce a lot of condi’s on the enemy.
- You only scatter to finish a person off / safe yourself/ safe stomp
- A very little less survivability then the PU mesmer( 20/20/30 ) , but you will kill 3 times that fast

After the december patch , it might be possible to drop nullfield for mirror images to get the full out scatter combo in it aswell. build would be 20/30/10/10 but it all depends on the condition removal on heal change.

All you’ll need to do is figure out the wright rotation against the different kind of characters, but thats something i’ll leave up to you to find out.

cheerz Trip

Alissah.9281:

Be a little more specific if you need tips :P

• Which build do you use?
• which enemies do you have the most trouble with? (Or just all in general)
• which race are you? (Very important, I recommend sylvari female for best effects)

If you dont have a decent build yet, your first step would be to make or get one :P
Choose one of the following:

1. shatter 0/20/0/0/30. Reccommended to put 10 in domination. With this build you do quick burst damage, but youre rry reliant on active defense, pressure and combos.
2. lockdown 20/20/10 or something. Same kittenter, you have to keep pressure up qnd rely on combos.
3. phantasm 10/0/0/25/0 you let phantasms do damage, while you focus on surviving.
4. condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Shatter and lockdown are the hardest, then comes phantasm and ten condition.

Im typing this on mobile, so I cant reallylink things properly :/.

If you want to meet me in game or something, feel free to whisper me or send a forum PM

I looked up a shatter build last night as the mesmer isn’t quite as easy to jump into as a warrior haha. I’m not going to lie, I just recently got into pvp and I think it’s really fun, I just got a little frustrated with my mesmer’s lack of dps.

I’m using the shatter build I found here http://pvpgamer.com/guild-wars-2/mesmer-pvp-build/shatterstorm/ after that I did a little better, but I still need to learn more. I’m using staff/ sword and pistol.

i cant say anything about that it is lame in PvP cuz dont play it anymore as competitive..
But in large scaled fights as in GvG, or WvW Mesmer is Lame..

Azo.5860:

i cant say anything about that it is lame in PvP cuz dont play it anymore as competitive..
But in large scaled fights as in GvG, or WvW Mesmer is Lame..

That is not only for mesmer

Zerg vs zerg is a always gone be lame for people that want to win fights thru skill. Instead of thru numbers.

Void.4239:

Azo.5860:

i cant say anything about that it is lame in PvP cuz dont play it anymore as competitive..
But in large scaled fights as in GvG, or WvW Mesmer is Lame..

That is not only for mesmer

Zerg vs zerg is a always gone be lame for people that want to win fights thru skill. Instead of thru numbers.

Yeap.. btw GvG..
still messy but Fair match.. than wvw.. and required more skill and organization

Azo.5860:

Void.4239:

Azo.5860:

i cant say anything about that it is lame in PvP cuz dont play it anymore as competitive..
But in large scaled fights as in GvG, or WvW Mesmer is Lame..

That is not only for mesmer

Zerg vs zerg is a always gone be lame for people that want to win fights thru skill. Instead of thru numbers.

Yeap.. btw GvG..
still messy but Fair match.. than wvw.. and required more skill and organization

havent done any GvsG , so would not know

but i can asume the downstate/res is gone be problem with high number fights

I hate those kind of threads… you mostly get tips from hot-join-farmers, thinking there build is the best, and everyone should use it…

You want to know, what top players are traiting?
Helseth HalteringStrike-Shatter Build
His twitch channel if you want to see him playing with that build: http://www.twitch.tv/helsethgw2/
Who else is using it? f.e. Misha Thinhat.
Most of you might ask, who is that? Here you go: Link
Who am I to tell you that… you can look me up on gwshack too (EU TeamQ & SoloQ)

Ofc you don’t have to strictly copy it, you can make some small adjustments, but atm you CAN NOT trait anything than 20/20/0/0/30 if you want to have a competitive build.

Can you win with other builds? Ofc, but they are but far not as strong as the 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build!

Yeah for tpvp Helseth’s build is best, although also uses it very well. It’s not really something a new player is going to jump into and notice much improvement right away. The strength comes from how he uses phase retreats, portals and the timings of shatters and so on, takes a fair amount of practice and research. Sensotix has great vids to help here though.

For wvw mesmer has a lot of really good roaming builds, can’t really go wrong. Warrior with cheesy build may still be easier, but mesmer better and more interesting once you master it.

GvG / big fights is still mediocre outside boring glamours.

sendmark.4731:

Yeah for tpvp Helseth’s build is best, although also uses it very well. It’s not really something a new player is going to jump into and notice much improvement right away. The strength comes from how he uses phase retreats, portals and the timings of shatters and so on, takes a fair amount of practice and research. Sensotix has great vids to help here though.

For wvw mesmer has a lot of really good roaming builds, can’t really go wrong. Warrior with cheesy build may still be easier, but mesmer better and more interesting once you master it.

GvG / big fights is still mediocre outside boring glamours.

Thanks for the advice, I’ve been getting a bit frustrated as I’ve been trying all these builds and it’s still getting miserable results. I’m not sure if I’m just used to the warrior, but I cut through other players pretty well with him. My mesmer can’t even get one kill.

DrDivine.5378:

sendmark.4731:

Yeah for tpvp Helseth’s build is best, although also uses it very well. It’s not really something a new player is going to jump into and notice much improvement right away. The strength comes from how he uses phase retreats, portals and the timings of shatters and so on, takes a fair amount of practice and research. Sensotix has great vids to help here though.

For wvw mesmer has a lot of really good roaming builds, can’t really go wrong. Warrior with cheesy build may still be easier, but mesmer better and more interesting once you master it.

GvG / big fights is still mediocre outside boring glamours.

Thanks for the advice, I’ve been getting a bit frustrated as I’ve been trying all these builds and it’s still getting miserable results. I’m not sure if I’m just used to the warrior, but I cut through other players pretty well with him. My mesmer can’t even get one kill.

How many hours played you have on your warrior? How many on your mesmer?

Mesmer is one of the hardest classes and warrior is probably the easiest. This is the problem you’re having. It has nothing to do with the mesmer’s strength as a class and everything to do with your skill. Practice more and you will have better luck.

Hot join mesmer simply owns. tpvp is all about team work so your build will be different.

theory.3580:

Mesmer is one of the hardest classes

You’re joking right?

Bacon.4918:

theory.3580:

Mesmer is one of the hardest classes

You’re joking right?

Ive got to agree, actually.

warriors, rangers and necro are the easiest. Not saying theyre super easy, but just the least difficult :P.

• Warrior is tanky and still deals high damage.
• Ranger just auto attacks.
• Necro just spams condis.

Then come the rest, except guardian, because I dont know them enough to judge.

• Engineer has constant kit swapping and what not…
• Ele has constant skill usage, and a really tiny hp pool. Mess up once, and its over.
• Thief is really squishy.
• Mesmer is… I cant quite put it, but its probably squishyness + low damage unless you do it right. With something like thief, even if you have no idea how to play, you will do enough damage (most damage comes from auto attacks, pretty much). Thats not the case with mesmer, I think.

Then again, I cant really judge :/. It was quite some time ago when I just went 12345 and killed things. Really, improvements are huge, but really hard to notice. For months I felt like I was stuck and not improving at all x.x

Jackums.3496:

Mesmers aren’t difficult to learn, but they’re certainly one of the more difficult to master. Thief, Warrior, and Necro are all relatively simple and easy.

Engi, Ele, and Mesmer all have very active play-styles in that they’re highly reliant on constant action to survive (this is ignoring the few passive builds, like phantasm). They’re certainly at the top of the list in terms of difficulty. Though that is relative, and this is GW2. Nothing is particularly difficult with a little time investment.

Guardian and Ranger fall somewhere in the middle, depending on their build.

I play most of those classes at 80 in WvW (which is mostly what I do in GW2) … and in the current game the Elementalist is the hardest class to play due to a combination of their class mechanic and the fact that they have the lowest hitpoints, lowest armor, lack of gimicks (stealth/clones/deathshroud), and damage output that is only on par with what other classes can dish out. As stated … one mess up and your toast … which seems to being made easier with each patch.

Order of hardest to play to easiest (IMO):

1. Elementalist – Most abilities, least forgiveness.
2. Engineer – Weapon Kit mechanic

This one is pretty much a tie:
3. Ranger – Pet management.
3. Thief – Stealth/Teleport management.

5. Mesmer – Clone management.

This was close:
6. Guardian
7. Necromancer

8. Warrior

Jackums.3496:

Though that is relative, and this is GW2. Nothing is particularly difficult with a little time investment.

Were talking about pvp here :P

Thats the thing I like about pvp compared to pve. There are always people who van kill you, and there are always new things to learn. Winning actually means something, it means youre better/luckier than someone, while in pve winning means nothing, really.

I think Id rather be as I am now in terms of skill in pvp, than having a legendary droprate of 10% per mob and being doomed to being a noob forever :P

Btw, survivng with a thief is pretty hard :/. Doing damage is easy, because you just press 1. Survivng is the hard part… And theyre going to nerf perma stealtg/perma evade next patch :o

Mesmers rely heavily on AI driven damage. It really isn’t that hard to let your clones apply bleeds and phantasm damage while you kite and use stealth/deception/invulnerability. On top of this the class has so many stun breaks it’s silly (not counting phase retreat which has a ridiculously low CD). I can’t believe people think mesmer is a difficult class, it’s comparable to spirit ranger or minion master in terms of skill in my opinion.

Bacon.4918:

Mesmers rely heavily on AI driven damage. It really isn’t that hard to let your clones apply bleeds and phantasm damage while you kite and use stealth/deception/invulnerability. On top of this the class has so many stun breaks it’s silly (not counting phase retreat which has a ridiculously low CD). I can’t believe people think mesmer is a difficult class, it’s comparable to spirit ranger or minion master in terms of skill in my opinion.

I agree staff is easy play , but try playing a non staff mesmer , and you’ll see that the skill lvl needed to pull it off successfully is gone be way higher ( and i’m talking about spvp/tpvp )
Not every1 takes the easy way out

If you don’t know what to expect or how you want to play, you will never find a build that works for ‘you’. That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact.

Jackums.3496:

Specifically in terms of this meta, Mesmer would be right near the top due to susceptibility to conditions in conjunction with being a light (squishy) profession, as well as most top builds running berserker stats.

I agree, though, that Engi and Ele are right at the top. I wouldn’t put Thief where it is, though. As far as my own experience goes, it’s been hands-down the easiest class to learn and play well, right down there with Warrior. Managing them is inherently easier than other classes as they rely on a self-replenishing source (ini) for their skills.

But to each their own. The rest of the list I mostly agree on.

EDIT: Also, yeah, I was talking tPvP. WvW is a different situation, of course.

I never have an issue with conditions. I can clear 5 pretty easily with Torch 4 -> Arcane Thievery -> Torch 5

Then there is always Null Field, but I don’t like how exposed that makes me. I can do the torch/AT combo from stealth where its safe.

I use a shatter build for sPvP and it’s very dynamic. For utilities I use portal, blink and 1 other depending on my play style (it’s almost always Decoy though).

What’s so dynamic is that;
My shatter build is a glass

Although portal can look discouraging, I use it often. You never know when you get 25 stacks of bleed and you have 2k hp left. In that situation, pop your escape portal and recover yourself when you get downed!

Focus pull → iwarden followed by sword 2 immobolize and a shatter is a strlng strong burst
I’d type more but im torrd and on my phone typing this

Alissah.9281:

condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Do you have a build link for this? I have never tried a condition mesmer and am rather curious. Thx in advance.

Condition Mesmer is the easiest class I ever played.

Just dodge stealth dodge stealth flash dodge stealth stealth flash

And the clones will fight for u

Easy to win any power class except necro or shatter mesmer

I was running Oscicat’s non-shatter cat build for a while – (20/20/30/0/0) with staff/scepter/torch and full rabid. I really liked it, and it definitely has huge survivability and great for trolling. But, I just had a really hard time actually killing anyone.

I hadn’t run a shatter build in a while, and switched to 20/20/0/0/30 last night with full zerk gs/staff, and I was having a blast. I was waaaay squishier but also able to unload some pain.

That was good for hot join, but I’m still conflicted for WvW. I like being able to do small skirmish, but I also like PU build just for the buffs that we give to everyone…so can’t make up my mind

It will be interesting to see what the next patch does. Some of the classes are just ridiculous and I’m glad they are finally getting the nerf bat they need. There was a warrior who was soooooo bad last night but kept winning a lot of fights. He attacked every clone before the player just swinging aimlessly and just flat out terrible. He could survive his terribleness with his regen, and put out a ton of damage when he actually did land a hit, and was still able to scoot by. THEN he has the nerve to brag as if he were good. Playing against warriors is like playing chess with pigeons. They just knock over the pieces, crap on the board, and then strut around claiming victory.

Pawnchee.3059:

Alissah.9281:

condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Do you have a build link for this? I have never tried a condition mesmer and am rather curious. Thx in advance.

Everyone has their own take on it, but this is what I do …

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR7flwzqpXUTsGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF22FC-jUyA4sgg0kmpFwUlholDLiGbxsIasaGMVKRUtHpIa1SBAx0I-w
Replace Superior Sigil of Earth with Superior Sigil of Torment (Not in the builder yet) … combined with the Greatsword it really helps vs runners. Especially if you use Arcane Thievery to take their swiftness buff away from them.
Options I normally use with that build is to swap Adept Dueling between 1, 3, and 5 for the situation I find myself in. In general I running Dueling 3 … but 1 and 5 have their uses.

Use Torch 4 ? Arcane Thievery ? Torch 5 to clear conditions (up to 5) from yourself. Heal yourself in stealth only and always dodge into using a stealth ability to get the evades as you go invisible.

Pretty sure this started out as a shatter thread…

Pawnchee.3059:

Alissah.9281:

condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Do you have a build link for this? I have never tried a condition mesmer and am rather curious. Thx in advance.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-The-Blackwater-Mesmer-Condition-WvW/first#post2353892

edit: kinda in a rush, so i cant type much. If you ever need anything, fele free to whisper me in game or something :P

Tbh I’m having great fun in sPvP with my Mesmer.

The first thing to realize is that no, a bunker Mesmer isnt all that impressive. Can you build one? Of course! But you’re simply no match to a bunker Guardian/Warrior/Necro/Engineer/whatever. A Mesmer by design is evasive and that dont go well with bunkering on a capping point. Its just the way the gameplay mode is designed and it wont change unless they make capping points with 5x current radius.

So my tip is to have a damage oriented point of view. It’ll be alot more fun. If you want to be extravagant you can go condition, but personally I went raw weapon skills while balancing out the stats with the amulet. Greatsword/staff on a 20/30/20 (gs/staff traited) valkyrie build. 24K HP is enough to raise a couple of eyebrows in combat while the crit chance/damage is acceptable at 45/35. Speed runes added on top for mobility, heh.

The only real danger is really heavy condition builds (nasty condition Necros), I generally run with null field in addition to tp/decoy but its really not enough. Oh well, cant have everything. Everything usually die anyway to an OP Necro :/

Dawdler.8521:

Tbh I’m having great fun in sPvP with my Mesmer.

The first thing to realize is that no, a bunker Mesmer isnt all that impressive. Can you build one? Of course! But you’re simply no match to a bunker Guardian/Warrior/Necro/Engineer/whatever. A Mesmer by design is evasive and that dont go well with bunkering on a capping point. Its just the way the gameplay mode is designed and it wont change unless they make capping points with 5x current radius.

So my tip is to have a damage oriented point of view. It’ll be alot more fun. If you want to be extravagant you can go condition, but personally I went raw weapon skills while balancing out the stats with the amulet. Greatsword/staff on a 20/30/20 (gs/staff traited) valkyrie build. 24K HP is enough to raise a couple of eyebrows in combat while the crit chance/damage is acceptable at 45/35. Speed runes added on top for mobility, heh.

The only real danger is really heavy condition builds (nasty condition Necros), I generally run with null field in addition to tp/decoy but its really not enough. Oh well, cant have everything. Everything usually die anyway to an OP Necro :/

Just wanted to drop a quick reply:

What you said all makes sense, buuuut: we used to have amazing bunkers. It focussed on retaliation damage, and actually could kill people pretty fast. With 3 phantasms up very close to each other, when someone hits all 3 and you, they take 5 or 6 times retaliation damage O.o. Now imagine what happens with a multi hit skill like blurred frenzy or whirling wrath :P.

But Arenanet destroyed the build :/. ‘We want to slightly shave all the overpowdred builds (there were no overpowered builds) while keeping all popular and fun ones intact, because we know people enjoy them.’. I just dont trust arenanet anymore :/.