Guild Wars 2

I have been playing at lvl 80 for awhile and now want to change up my mesmer. I would love if someone can take a look at my build and give some thoughts or feedback on what you think.

I am trying to stay at higher lvl maps and run some dungeons. I am not looking for pvp play. My goal is to stay alive, not take hits that throw me down. I do not want to be a glass house. I really am trying here to be stronger, take less damage that kills me fast, and a bit of power, but with good balance between them. I am not concerned with critical hits to foes much because I figure if I am strong and health is good I can give some of that up, am I correct?

Anyway, here is my build that I am thinking of doing.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8dlwzCpHTzqGa9ICaGYX2RSRrlalZwbXIA

I would have liked to have swiftness as we all know mesmers are slower, but it seemed not worth it to give up some other things I felt were necessary.

Also, I want to gear up my armor with power/vitality/toughness, thoughts on that and what to throw in the slots for weapons?

I threw in the slot 8 of arcane thievery because I tend to go down a lot when I have quite a few conditions thrown on me, it’s not the best space to take up, but that is one of my play weaknesses.

I WAS one of those that ran everything with magic find in my armor slots (dummy here), but that is not cutting it at lvl 80 anymore for me and I am more frustrated with not having the above mentioned. I would rather give up the magic find and use a boost or food than to lose interest in the character.

Honestly, your build looks mostly like a straight Shatter spec. With that in mind, I’d swap 5 from Dueling into Illusions. The extra Shatter damage from Illusionary Persona is nothing to laugh at. (Also, being able to toss out Distortion/Diversion without clones is pretty sweet.) Other than that, P/V/T specs do well for Mesmers. IIRC, Pyroatheist and Grimms both roll with a good amount of that stat spread. Maintenance Oil would convert some of that V/T into Precision, which’d help your illusions stack crit-bleeds.

Another possibility is a combo of Knight and Valkyrie. Try Berserker for weapons.
You’d have a decent amount of Vit/Toughness/Power, and some extra Precision/Crit Damage. A little glassier than straight P/V/T, but should even out.

thanks for the input. I had a toss up on the dueling and Illusions. Toting a pistol offhand and having dueling at 20 it gives me a bit of extra range on the duelists deception, but at the same time with the sword in main hand I have to be fairly close for attack. It was really a toss up there on 20 in dueling or adding the extra 5 in illusions, but you made a big point there.

Looking back Pyroatheist’s traits are totally different. 0/0/20/20/30. As far as the gear, yes it is somewhat similar in what I am thinking, although we do share a few differences in thought. Grimms, is also different in that the traits are 0/20/30/0/20.

I suppose this is what I was questioning to begin with whether my traits seem to be set up with my gear and give a nice solid balance.

Depending on your description i would build something totally different.

Try Sword / Focus + Staff with a build like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAW8dl4zqqHVTpGaNJhJF9G5new8l7cUFwOpCqG

Mantra Heals, Option to use Centaur Runes for 100% Swiftness uptime, Focus Reflection, Focus CD, Illusions Heal allies, Phantasmal Defender soaking up half of you incoming dmg, a second reflection(feedback), conditionremoval via nullfield, 30% phantasm damage, staff cooldown, staff support. Tons of chaos armor and protection. You are pretty much unkillable in this build. Toughness, Power, Precision in this build.

Really strong defensive build with some nice dmg and good support. Really balanced.

If conditions are giving you a headache, Lemongrass Poultry Soup cuts conditions down to nearly half of their duration, which can be a lifesaver in many cases.

gorma~ I have been running with a staff /GS up until level 80 now and I am so unhappy with the staff that I barely use it. I have no doubt that for certain people it is great, I just do not get along with the staff and find myself always using the GS for everything. It may be my play style though.

Sinaya~ thanks for that tip that really helps me

Annette, you’re very welcome!

Another option is to try out Superior Runes of Melandru, which cut down Condition and Stun Duration by 25%

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_Melandru

(They can be a little expensive, and may not fit the rest of your build though)

What you’ve got there is a pretty standard shatter build. 30 in illusions by taking out 5 from dueling is a must, especially since the duelin 25 point trait isn’t very good, especially in pve.

Now, personally I prefer a phantasm build for pve, you can find the build I use under the name of supporting phantasm build. I think it has more versatility and provides a lot more team utility than a shatter build can. That being said, pve in this game is really easy, and you’ll do quite alright with shatter.

The condi removal mantra really won’t give you much the vast majority of the time, though there are a few certain fights where it can really help. I’d swap it out for mirror images for general play.

As far as stats go, full pvt is a horrible idea for a pve focused build, as it has very very low damage potential. I usually use mostly berserker with a few pieces of pvt to bring me up to 20k hp, which is the benchmark I like to stay above for my builds.

I was wondering what the heck everyone meant I was running a typical shatter build so I went to look at my link again and I linked to what I am currently running and HATE. I spent a lot of hours changing it after reading tons and then forgot to update the link lol

Soooo sorry :/ THIS is what I was looking to change to. All of the other things in my original post apply as far as what I am looking to do. Hopefully i make more sense now ugh so sorry.

Sorry about that Advent I must have really confused some of you and myself a lot there lol

Also, Pyroatheist, why in your opinion, with the new stats I posted is an almost full P/V/T a bad idea on gear? what if I use for example Berserker’s weapons then maybe P/V/T on armor? Thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAR8alw1aqXTTqGaNJyJFUX0hqg2RShqlalUwbXIA;ToA5TSnUPpciSKjUCpsM5YSyE

@Annette: Ok, now you’ve got yourself a phantasm build. A few things.

First, the traits are unfocused. You’re somewhere between shatter and phantasm, leaning towards phantasm. Take 5 points out of illusions, put it into inspiration for the other +15% phantasm damage. You’ll also want to swap out deceptive evasion for duelist’s discipline. Alternatively, take an offhand sword (you should have an offhand sword anyway, just for variety, along with an offhand focus, and a staff), and trait phantasmal fury instead.

You’ll want a focus for situations where projectile reflects are important, and you’ll trait warden’s feedback in the inspiration line when you do. In some situations (large boss fights) you’ll be able to set up 3 warlocks (staff phantasms) and they will do massively more damage than anything else due to the large number of conditions that get applied to big bosses, so you’ll want the staff as well.

thank you Pyroatheist for the reply. So ultimately it is necessary I have all the weapons for different situations is what you are saying, makes sense.

Annette.7913:

thank you Pyroatheist for the reply. So ultimately it is necessary I have all the weapons for different situations is what you are saying, makes sense.

That’s correct. The only 2 weapons I never use in pve are scepter and torch.