Guild Wars 2

I suck at the mesmer, I can survive, I just cannot kill, I cant find a leveling build, on the rare occasion that I find one I cant find how to use it. My problem is that I take 15-20 seconds to take a mob, if I am at my very best I may take 12 seconds. I need to know how to play this, I am a level 54, and I want a build and how to use it, I am not looking for videos, I just want some advice, I currently use a staff, and sword pistol based on phantasms but it seems having them kill the target takes a bit even with my (2) sword ability

Try this build.|

Gear:
Power > Precision > Crit dmg (i.e. berserker gear). Throw in enough Vitality on jewellery so you have a functional health pool (that will vary depending on your skill – in PVE, at 80, I run with 16k hp no problem whatsoever). You mentioned you didn’t have trouble surviving, so I’m assuming you’ve got that down okay and won’t need a huge health pool.

Weapons:
1 – Greatsword
2 – Sword/Pistol

You should be able to fully deck yourself in your level blue items from BLTC for cheap.

How to:
1 – Greatsword 1 at max distance.
2 – Greatsword 2 (vuln/might + clone)
3 – Greatsword 4 (zerker – great aoe dmg, okay single target)
4 – Greatsword 3 (if multiple mobs, sometimes even if 1 just for fun!) –
5 – Switch weapon set
6 – Pistol 5 (blind/daze/stun)
7 – Pistol 4 (duelist, pew pew pew!!!)
8 – dodge roll to generate a free clone
9 – shatter (kaboom!)

Now, that’s not an ideal way to do it, but honestly, you’ll adjust your “rotation” depending on the situation. To be honest, in general PVE while soloing, I’d be surprised if stuff is still alive once you get to 3 or 4 and you may simply want to dodge roll and shatter then. Or, depending on where your CDs are, you might decide to toss another Mirror Blade (greatsword 2) and shatter then.

The point is, the build I’ve given you is a shatter build. You have multiple ways to generate things to shatter (kaboom):
- Greatsword has Mirror Blade and zerker
- Sword has (the very buggy) Illusionary Leap (frankly, unless the mob is on top of you, I wouldn’t use it, but sometimes it’s nice in a pinch)
- Pistol has iDuelist
- Mirror Images utility skill gives you 2 clones instantly
- And you can double tap to generate a clone any time (providing you have enough endurance)

That gives you enough tools to generate clones to shatter pretty much on demand, irrespective of cool downs and weapon swapping. Given you feel you’re pretty good at surviving, focus on managing your clone generation so that you can generate 2 or 3 at will. If you’re finding yourself in a situation where everything’s on cool down and you have no clones you’ve done it wrong. Learn from that.

Why is shatter the way to go? Options. Damage (direct and condition), Daze, and Invulnerability. Shatter is also aoe. So is zerker, your sword attacks (point black cone, and sword 2 gives you invulnerability as well as doing good damage), your pistol 5 (sort of – hits 3 mobs but be careful as it will sometimes pull mobs in an unintended manner), and greatsword 3. This means while levelling you can pretty much pull many mobs, and quickly and easily kaboom them and move on.

Even though you have survivability down pat, the gear set I’ve recommended does mean you’ll be lower on toughness and vitality – you’re extra squishy. It’s not a problem if you learn to use the tools I’ve given you in the spec to avoid taking damage:
1 – Invulnerability (sword 2, shatter 4) – don’t get stuck in the mentality that you can only use sword 2 in melee range – that’s rubbish, if you need to stay alive, use it even if what’s hitting you is at range so you can avoid that damage!
2 – Blink – putting distance between yourself and an angry is good and gives you time to do more dmg
3 – Signet of Midnight – avoids the next incoming attack
4 – Greatsword 5 – pushback, doesn’t work on some mobs, but on the whole pretty good
4 – Dodge roll!
5 – Kite!

There are tons of other ways to level and deal damage though. This is the one that I prefer. Your mileage will vary, just change what doesn’t work for you or send me a whisper in game (Elidahn or Mazyr) and I’ll help you out.

Do note that Mesmer damage is comparatively fairly slow – So just because you’re killing things slowly doesn’t mean you’re necessarily doing it wrong. Illurim’s advice is pretty solid, though I do find that shatter damage is pretty kitten before end-game.

GS is a great weapon for both damage and survivability. Staff is as well if you’re into condition damage.

Regardless of how you spec yourself, or the way you end up going, I’d advise getting used to winning battles of attrition. We’re long-term professions, whose true worth shows in drawn out confrontations.

Thank you illurim, it helps alot, after I reach 55 where do my traits go?

I’d put 5 more in Domination (and take trait number 1 or 3 – I prefer 1 because of the extra shatter damage) and then finish up your Dueling and Illusions lines to 30 in each. Take trait 9 for extra pistol range/recharge in Dueling and in Illusions take trait 11 which causes the shatter effect on yourself – 4 shatters is better than 3!.

But once you’ve mastered the basics of the above build, feel free to play around with the various traits – you can change them at any time, so it’s worth learning for yourself which work and which don’t and really understanding why.

As I said though, this is just one build – I love it for both PvE and sPvP.

As to Ayanavi’s comment – I actually find with the build I outlined you can be hyper-aggressive because of how quickly you generate shatters. There are better builds for controlling the field of play and being a bit more “wear your opponent down”.

Also don’t forget the effectiveness of your heal in the above build is based on how many clones you have out; so best used when you have 3. It can literally take you from low health to nearly full if you use it at the right time. And nothing annoys people more in sPvP to have you nearly dead, you pop invuln, heal to full and restart!

Been using dual swords and greatsword. I start with iSwordsman followed my illusionary leap /w blurred frenzie, then I switch to greatsword launch the mob back with illusionary wave, then release the iBerserker on them followed by mirrior blade. I use auto attack on the greatsword a co then use shatter to finish the fight. Still tweaking the build hits been working effectively.

Read part 2 of the Comprehensive Memser guide:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Comprehensive-Mesmer-Guide-all-Parts

That’s what fixed leveling for me.

TLDR: Crippling Dissipation applies cripple when clone dies. Staff + Illusionary Elasticity (extra bounce on Staff 1) to quickly stack boons and conditions. Kite crippled mobs around in circles till they die, repeat, profit.

There are better builds at 80 with full exotic 80 gear set, but this works a charm while leveling, lets you solo most pre-80 champions. For example, the ~50 something champion Spider Queen in northern Fireheart Rise – I kited this thing to the nearby fort, then cripple kited it around inside the fort for ~20m until finally downing it. No other class in the game could solo that thing.

kurtosis.9526:

For example, the ~50 something champion Spider Queen in northern Fireheart Rise – I kited this thing to the nearby fort, then cripple kited it around inside the fort for ~20m until finally downing it. No other class in the game could solo that thing.

True. Yesterday I soloed two Champions in Frostgorge Sound. Both in the very north of the map, near the skillpoint challenge. It was this walking plant and a melee hitting Iceguy, who also throwed his Sword/Axe and used a backkicking bubble. It took me a while (about 10 Minutes each), and during the first fight several normal mobs and during the second fight two veterans respawned too, but all of them died before I did. All I had to do was running in a circle constantly, autoattack with my staff, putting Chaosstorm on the ground and resummon my Illusions.

I’m pretty sure no other profession could do this alone. Especially with respawn during and/or other mobs joining a kite-fight.

But there are Champions too that even Mesmers can’t solo, e.g. the Hylek Champ in Brisban Wildness or the Fire Shaman in Iron Marches. You need at least two players for reviving issues^^

@Dwelve
Mesmer isn’t a burst class. Fights will always last a bit longer compared to certain other professions, like warriors or thiefs. But the survivability is unrivaled.

If you like the Staff I’d recommend a condition build with passive phantasm enhancement like 0 / 15 (II) / 25 (V, X) / 10 (VI) / 20 (III, VI) – which I am using currently and have used in the champ-fights mentioned above. This is not a shatter-build, the illusions are much more effective when alive or killed by mobs. Burning can crit (and can be applied by yourself and your three staff-clones spamming Winds of Chaos). Phantasms get fury, bleed on crit (as do clones) and retaliation. I prefer 10 Points in Inspiration, because mobs not always target illusions, and in this case I like to run faster than they do ;-)

Dwelve.6149:

I suck at the mesmer, I can survive, I just cannot kill, I cant find a leveling build, on the rare occasion that I find one I cant find how to use it. My problem is that I take 15-20 seconds to take a mob, if I am at my very best I may take 12 seconds. I need to know how to play this, I am a level 54, and I want a build and how to use it, I am not looking for videos, I just want some advice, I currently use a staff, and sword pistol based on phantasms but it seems having them kill the target takes a bit even with my (2) sword ability

gs/ s&f

power/vit/toughness gear

you don’t really have to dance all day…just long enough to lure them into place