Guild Wars 2

In the past I’ve been using rampager gear with gs & sp weapons but I didn’t really play for a while and coming back now and kinda wanna rebuild my mesmer all over again because I think i made some mistakes in the past.

For now I don’t wanna bother with sPvP and just stick to WvW but I kinda don’t know what build I wanna use.

What build(s) is/are most useful for WvW?
I heard a lot of people go berserker gear but doesn’t that make staff damage kinda kitten? Or did I hear wrong…

I don’t just want to hear “the best build” but I would also like to know the advantages and disatvantages of each build.

Also, what’s the best way to travel fast as a mesmer? I find myself being slow compared to others. And I don’t really like having to switch to focus for a speed buff.

You can use MoR + Runes of Centaur for lots of swiftness, but it won’t be nearly 100% uptime.

Berserker is good, but don’t expect your staff (if you decide to use one) to do amazing amounts of damage. If you are going to use a staff with berserkers, it’s mostly used as a defensive tool with the main offense coming out of #3 Phantasmal Warlock and #5 Chaos Storm, both of which benefit from Pw/Pr/Crdmg.

From there, look around, the forums have plenty of builds regarding WvW. Look at the sticky for the build section and Osicat’s thread.

Ah I see. I do like staff on mesmers. Nice to know that even without condition damage staff is still really useful.
I haven’t really tested damage much in the past.
Thanks. :P

Staff on berserker gears can hit quite hard, even without condition dmg spcially at short/medium range if you traited ilusionary elasticity.

The thing is in WvW you need to think if youll run with a zerg or if youll roam alone or in small partys also.

In a zerg you can be safe hiding among other ppl, so you dont need as much thoughtness or vit but staff tneds to be a bit lacking dealing dmg since proyectiles travel slow, iwarlock has a delay and chaos storm has a quite long cooldown. So imh GS shines here a bit more.

If you plan to roam in lil groups or alone staff its completely awesome for me. Youll be in mele/medium range a lot more often and youll be outnumbered in fights quite often so you can make full use of all staff offers. Also berserker gears tends to be more dangerous since youll get focused more, specially by thieves wich normally are “brave” enough to wait in stealth till you have less than 50% HP to start attacking….

As four builds…. well theres plenty of them
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvWvW-Pve-Shatter-Cat-Updated-9-5/page/14#post1347442
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Seven-Mirror-WvW-Mesmer-05-11-13/page/6#post2005578
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Immortal-Mesmer-Build/page/2#post1301723
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Builds-Kylia-s-Builds-Compilation/first#post1989730

All are good places o look for builds or ideas to make your own

This is not a staff build, but I use a staff in my lineup. I used to run full shatter confusion with scepter/staff. Currently here’s my setup (in action in the vid).

http://tinyurl.com/adwj7gu

A staff is a great addition to a power build. The phantasm hits hard when the target has several conditions. The auto attack will build might and fury for you. The vuln from it is nice… just don’t expect your condition damage to be anything to write home about. It’s mostly used for juking in between bursts. Phase retreat + chaos storm (chill/daze) + chaos armor (protection) will help you greatly with this (and produce clones while doing it).

Fastest travel for a mesmer is traiting into 20% focus CD + rune of air for permanent swiftness. Most people I’ve talked to don’t like the focus at first, but grow to love it after some use (similar to some new players with the 1h sword). You’ll also gain focus skills reflect which is great for WvW. Many players in WvW seem to only want to be at range. This takes advantage of that. Curtain also cripples and pulls. Very solid, flexible skill. The phantasm will also reflect and spit out bolts while in fields (constant whirl finisher). You’ll want to use good positioning to take of it. Having a focus traited like this is great for solo and for groups.

Since you mentioned a power build I would definitly go with air > centaur. These are AMAZING runes. Main stat crit damage + 20% chance for a lightning strike when hit (same one as the sigil… hits hard) + swiftness on heal.

As far as picking out a build, I would first figure out what you want your role to be. That should make your decision a lot easier.

+1 for checking out Osicat… he has quite a few shatter builds with videos in these forums which can help direct you to a build that you’ll like as well as teach new players some tatics.

Also since you’re just returning you should know… our WvW confusion damage recently got nerfed by 50%… so I wouldn’t recommend using conditions on a mesmer now

I do love confusion but I don’t think it’s really useful for WvW or PvE. Especially because of the nerf.
Glad to know staff is still good without much condition damage.

I kinda like doing everything in WvW but prefer joining the big zerg most of the time.
Main goal of the build should be good damage (aoe prefered ) and surviving.

If I do decide to PvE and do dungeons I guess just changing some utilities (feedback, null field) and elites (time warp) and having staff on 2nd weap should be enough.

Not really sure what build I prefer tho. Both shatter and phantasm seem very interesting.

As for weapons… All weapons appeal to me.

GS: Love the aoe of berserker and illusionary wave is good for keeping distance.

Staff: Love all of the skills but it’s kind of slow.

Scepter: Not so much for WvW, PvE imo

Sword Main: blurred frenzy, illusionary leap are both great, but not sure on this one for WvW.

Sword Off: riposte is always good to block something and counter and swordsman does good damage and has fast attack speed.

Focus: Curtain for speed and into the void is good for pulling people. iWarden sounds awesome but I can’t seem to put it to good use.

Pistol: good weapon but I don’t see much potentional other than in 1v1 fights.

Torch: prestige is good for hiding, Mage seems kinda useless to me.

Gotta check out those guides again. :P