Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’m just getting back into the game after a long break and i’ve been playing around on my mesmer, catching up on living world and stuff. Is it just me, or is mesmer still not as strong as other classes when it comes to open world pve? Kinda makes me want to play through the story on another character. So my question: is there any way to deal with this, such as a specific build that helps or something?

Mesmer is viable in open world outside mob tagging as long as you play Shatter+Zerker. Mirror Blade+Mind Wrack combos are AoE and will outright kill most packs of mobs instantly.

Mesmer is bad when it comes to high AoE damage, sustained fights because their PvE dps is reliant on phantasms, and those phantasms will die very frequently. Other than that, mesmer is perfectly fine and equivalent or better than some other alternatives. The only issue is that it’s much less forgiving to play compared to professions like warrior or guardian, and it requires better execution and skill than a profession like ranger (1+2 spam at 2k range) or ele (1+2+5 spam at 1.2k range). If you don’t care about actually playing optimally cause this is GW2 after all, you could just semi-afk autoattack at 1.2k range with a GS, but you get a lot less out of that than others.

To more directly answer your question:
“Is it just me, or is mesmer still not as strong as other classes when it comes to open world pve? "

Mesmer is as strong as other classes, it’s just harder to play than some of them. If you dislike this, then I recommend you swap to something different.

I haven’t found any class to be insufficient in the overworld. Granted, Staff Ele is ahead of everyone else, but the other classes aren’t too bad.

For general overworld roaming I usually run the mantra-interrupt build. Mantra of pain is really good at bursting down miscellaneous mobs, and mantra of distraction + power lock is good at defense, too. Since the mantra nerf the build is slightly ineffective against solo champions. Build is Domination 2/3/3, dueling 1/3/1, and Inspiration 3/1/2. Full GC gear of course.

Against champions and world bosses, I use a signet + phantasm build. Domination 2/2/2, Dueling 1/3/2, and Illusions 1/2/2. If you can get x3 duelists up at a safe range, you’d be amazed how much damage they can dish out on a single target. If the boss is extremely narrow-minded and lacks AoEs, 3x swordsman is even better.

Lately, I have been playing a condi mesmer. It doesn’t kill as fast as a power mesmer, but it does get the job done, and it does it fairly fast. But no kind of mesmer will be as fast as the other classes because it keeps getting nerfed in PVE. Unfortunately, mesmers just have to adjust their expectations on the speed of the fights.

I run a condi mesmer and have great success. I don’t have much trouble tagging either, as I can shatter enough to tag most mobs (not exactly guardian loot stick, though).

Mesmer still sux at aoe, but is by far the strongest champ destroyer in open world content. Mesmer also shines in silverwastes rather than in orr or fgs.

Try the Lazy Kai build in my signature. I still like it best in open world.