Guild Wars 2

I recently started playing the Mesmer. Initially, I felt very weak: squishy and low damage. As I have gained levels, I have felt the class gradually getting stronger and have liked the way it played. I am largely following Kai’s guide for leveling a Mesmer. I am simply doing PvE to level to 80 while working toward 100% map exploration too.

My basic approach is to start with the Greatsword. I use Spatial Surge to pull an enemy (I try to keep it to one, as I get overwhelmed by two or more). If I pull two enemies, I try to put a clone on one and a phantasm on each. I am not sure if that is a good plan or not, but it seems sensible.

Once am confident it will not cause me to pull more I then quickly use Mirror Blade and Phantasmal Berserker (immediately after each other). I watch what the iZerker does and make a decision at this point. If their health it super-low, I will just kite with Spatial Surge to keep my cooldowns ready. If their health is fairly low, I will use Mind Wrack, maybe followed by Spatial Surge if they are not quite dead.

For enemies who can take more than that, I switch to Sword/Pistol. If I am confident in taking the enemy in melee, I use Illusionary Leap/Swap. Half the time that bugs out, so I will then use Phantasmal Duelist instead and run in. Once in melee, I use Blurred Frenzy and Mind Wrack during it. ASAP, I will use Illusionary Leap/Mirror Image and shatter again; usually Mind Wrack is on cooldown, so I use Cry of Frustration, leave myself open to an attack and dodge it to get the Confusion damage. If they are still alive, I Magic Bullet, switch to Greatsword, Mirror Blade/Phantasmal Berserker then Illusionary Wave. I then kite and Spatial Surge until I can cast Mirror Blade again and Mind Wrack. That is my current routine. I expect than to change once I get Deceptive Evasion

I can see a niche use for Diversion, but never use it. I sometimes use Distortion, but at the moment see it as being more useful at higher level, when I can get clones up faster. I use Ether Feast for my heal. My other utilities are Decoy (which I mainly use for Stealth; always forget it can Stun Break until after the Stun wears off) and Null Field (panic button for bad condition situations). I have Time Warp for my Elite, but never yet had a situation where I felt I could benefit from it.

I have reached lvl42, but I cannot get buy the Master Manual because I cannot earn the money to buy one. I cannot earn the money because I really, really suck! I die all the time, which means I lose my money on respawns and repairs. My biggest issues are as follows:

• I am currently in Snowden Drifts, which seems to bug the heck out of the Mesmer. I constantly cast my illusions only for them to not appear. This has crippled me! I struggled in Brisban Wildlands and Kessex Hills too, but not as much because my illusions were more reliable.
• I cannot deal with groups. I can just barely take on two enemies, but any more and I am screwed. Sometimes I cannot take two even!
• I cannot deal with Veterans. I can sometimes take them down, but if they have adds or an AoE I am generally screwed. This makes Jumping Puzzles and some Skill Points kill me more often than not. One extra player and it becomes a cake-walk.
• I cannot solo most events. Pulling enemies one at a time means they respawn as fast as I kill them. As such, I can reach a certain point of progress, then get stuck in a situation where I can just hold on, but cannot progress further. I rarely die, but am stuck in a loop until a second player comes along.
• I cannot do tight areas (eg caves) where you cannot circle strafe. I think I fail to understand how to deal with these situations at all!

Don’t despair, you are sooooo close!
Ok, so basically you need to get gear that allows you to survive long enough to get enough silver together to buy a manual.
You also happen to be just high enough level to start doing ascalonian catacombs.

What I would suggest is first, do some map completion. Go through lower level areas and make sure you completely finish them. Maybe do some jumping puzzles, while you’re at it. There is nothing wrong with doing stuff that is 10 lvls lower than you at this stage in the game. When you have appropriately leveled gear from trading post, then you can start working on that manual.

One other thing you may try, to make ok money without killing stuff, if you have the portal skill, is to finish one of the jumping puzzles in lion’s arch, then tell people in map chat that you’re porting people up. Don’t ask for money, but most people will tip you anyway.

You can find a group for ascalonian catacombs on gw2lfg.com (just make sure they know that you’re lvl 42…there are lots of lvl 80 groups running that dungeons too, and some of them may be picky). Also, make sure to tell people you are new to the dungeon so they explain stuff. Ascalonian catacombs can earn you that gold in a few runs, just stick to paths 1 and 3.

As far as build advice…I like staff and sword/focus. Not tons you can do with your traits without that manual…but once you get it you can get dueling up to 20 and get that trait that creates clones on dodge…then you’ll be in business!

Hi OP,
May I suggest you pick up the staff?
It’s the best defensive weapon mesmer has. In fact, it is arguably the best weapon mesmer has (maybe sword comes close in second best).
Back when I was leveling my mesmer, I usually went with Staff / Sword + Sword for best defense on weapon skills (Phase Retreat, Chaos Storm, Chaos Armor, Blurred Frenzy, iRiposte).
Also master the common combos with these weapon sets such as how to make Chaos Armor by leaping through Ethereal Field (Chaos Storm + Phase Retreat for example)
My favourite combo while leveling is that: iLeap/Swap/Blurred Frenzy/Chaos Storm/iRiposte/Phase Retreat/Mind Wrack. That should melt everything in the vicinity most of the time. If not, then it’s time to bring out the mighty phantasms
I’m good and enjoy fighting at mid-range and melee-range so I’m not a big fan of greatsword.
Also, against ranged mobs, you can practice using Mirror instead of Ether Feast.

Hope it helps. Have fun.

Watch this for some tips on using the GS effectively.

http://sittingonacouch.com/l2play-with-shawn-buell-ep-3-gw2-mesmer-with-supcutie/

Edit: Another thought. You may have a lot of stuff in your bank that you can sell on the TP. You may want to check. Go to the bank and select the collections tab, then look for fine crafting materials.

Staff works really well for circle kiting, because you can mostly just auto attack and get fury and teleport back with it. Its what I used until I was comfortable with going Sword/GS. The issue is if there are mobs around you dont want to pull because of attack bounce, but almost every time Im circle kiting with the Staff the bounce works great on multiple mobs.

Blink and Decoy work well for me in places I cant maneuver well in, I just go back and forth through whatever mob Im fighting.

Theres also no shame in running! If you overpull you do have the afore mentioned escape skills, I also use a focus offhand and Temporal Curtain helps a lot with getting away(you can double tap it to yank mobs to the ground for a second too).

Several generous players have come forward with Gold to help me get the Manual. Thank you so much for the response! Deceptive Evasion has completely changed my game. Honestly, I cannot believe how much of a difference it makes. I have taken on challenges (eg Veteran + adds) that I know would have killed me before, and come away thinking it was relatively easy.

OP, if you find yourself a little short on coin again before the recent meta is over run a few Sanctum Sprints. You get 10 silver a pop as long as you finish, some loot, some crystals, a little karma, and a small chance for a backpiece drop. So it is a win/win even if you don’t win.

I just started a Mesmer and he is a racing fiend right now.