Guild Wars 2

To Mods: I’m sorry if I violated forum rules with the big obnoxious “Please Read”.. but I couldn’t think of many other ways to gather the Mesmer community’s attention other than offering free Mesmer cake, and that would be just wrong. The cake is a lie. Unless you’re a Necro.

TO ALL MESMER PLAYERS (Yes, even you who’s reading this but does not normally post on the forums): The guide is close to ready to launch, but I need one major favor from all of you. I’m going to have a voting system for the Skills displaying the average rating of the usefulness of the skill from the community, for example:

• Illusionary Defender: [4/5 – 56 Votes] – The iDefender makes you and nearby allies (including other Phantasms) take half damage blahblahblah.

The 4/5 would be the total average votes of all 56 Mesmer who voted. This handbook is first and foremost a compilation of all the shared and gathered knowledge of every member on these forums.
Over the past few months we’ve been giving some amazing information that the average player simply does not have access to, and hopefully this guide will bring all of that to light. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A NORMAL FORUM POSTER, IF YOU HAVE THE 5 MINUTES TO MAKE AN ACCOUNT AND SHOOT ME A PM, PLEASE DO. I’m nearly positive that there are far more people reading these forums than posting in them, which means that not only do we have an audience, but a responsibility to make sure the information we give is accurate. In a sense, we’re all teachers.

• It does not have to be EVERY SKILL (Weapon and/or Utility) but please send me your votes or post in this thread on however many skills you have personal experience with and would like to give input on.

Hey guys, going to be doing a lot of writing this weekend, and one of the projects I wanted to work on was a comprehsive Mesmer Guide compiling all of the information documented on these forums.

“But Chaos.. Why? Don’t you have some semblance of a life?”

Yep, but I also want to become a writer, and I’ve developed a love for teaching people. Also, the Mesmer forum is one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of, serously.. Everyone is willing to help, work together, and the drama is mostly to a minimum (*cough*SorryEsplenForThatOneTimeInThatThread*cough*).

Seriously.. have you seen the pvp or Warrior forums? I’ve seen Warrior threads where the OP is asking for help and gets trolled by his fellow Wars! … that, and there is a LOT of really useful tricks and information here from a lot of really helpful people.

Cool, what can I do to help?

Well for one, I need permission. If you have a build posted I’ll likely either allude to it or reference it directly but I won’t do that without the creator’s blessing. Also, if you have anything you want to add or put into the guide, send me a PM or respond in this thread. My ideas for topics so far

-Overview-
-Weapons-
-Traits-
-Combos-
-Builds-
-PvE-
-PvP-
-WvW-
-Tips&Tricks-

If anyone has anything they’d like to help contribute to, it’ll be greatly appreciated. Also.. I need a name. Right now I’m thinking..

“The School of Chaos: A Mesmer Guide” (Not chaos as in my name, Chaos as in the type of magic Mesmers specialize in)

“Tome of Madness: A Mesmer Guide”

.. Thoughts?

I created this thread for this exact reason, but I have too much going on to maintain it. Feel free to use what I’ve compiled on it!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/List-of-Incorrect-Tooltips/first#post2160747

Tome of Madness is nice… Tome of Anarchy: A Mesmer Guide sounds nice to imo. Good luck with this Chaos!

First, what an interesting project – hope it goes well for you and I’ll be interested to hear progress as you make it.

My thought on the title – looks like you were going off the Chaos trait “Decent into Madness” with the “Tome of Madness: A Mesmer Guide”

Kinda combining your two titles, how about "“Decent into Chaos: A Mesmer Guide”

Let me know what I can do to help

I’ll be following this thread for the next few weeks. I don’t have any guides or builds credited to my name, but after clocking 1,000 hours on mesmer, I think I know a trick or two. I’m happy to help however possible.

Edit: Title names to throw around:

• Shattering the Myths/Shattering Reality
• Mantra of Knowledge
• The Harlequin’s Smile/Handbook

How to mesmer: a mesmer guide
Im so bad at names xD, its the hardest part of character creation

Disorder and revelation: a mesmer guide
: D
The chaos based names are good, but in my oppinion theres more than just chaos to the mesmer. After reading your guide, people will find revelation in chaos and become more structured and skilled.

What do you mean by the “-combos-” topic? Is it just combo fields and finishers, or skill rotations and combos and stuff? If its the rotations id be more than happy to help, in fact i would help with anything, really.

If the combos are skill rotations and combos, i would put it after builds and traits, some combos are only usefull for shatter builds and others only for phantasms.
Maybe even put it at the very end in the tips and tricks section!
Heres an example of what id put in it:

firstly, here are some terms i use: *disoriented* (target has to relocate you and has a lower chance to see or evade you).
Panic (target is panicced, often responding predictable, they may spam skills, making them more vulnerable to attacks. This is caused by burst damage, pressure, or even knowing theyre fighting a mesmer.)

name: basic shatter combo
type: offensive
range: 600
Requirements: shatterbuild, a sword, terrain without height differences
optional: mirror images, stealth
target: average player (evade: very low).
how to use: use illusionary leap, when the clone hits your target, use illusionary swap, if your target didnt evade they are immobilized. If you dont have 3 clones, mirror images for a full 3 clone mind wrack, use mind wrack and blurred frenzy at the same time.
result: high burst damage and panic, while invulnerable at the same time. The average player will dodge as soon as your combo ends.
follow ups: any evasive combo to further avoid damage completely.

name: phase dodge
type: defensive
Range: 300
requirements: a staff
optional: deceptive evasion
target: good players and lower
how to use: dodge through your target and use phase retreat.
result: you dodge attacks, your target has to turn their camera, leaving them slightly disoriented, 2 clones.
follow ups: quickly use a basic shatter combo, has increased chance to hit if you do it quickly. kite, summon a phantasm and kite your target.

Here are just 2 simple and commonly used ones. There could be different categories within the combo section, filtered by how easy they are to use or in which situations (1v1, 1vX, group fights) etc.
Ive actually been thinking awhile about making a combo guide like this, but for some reason i nver could bother :/. Id love helping you out though.
if you make some sort of pdf file or whatever, you can replace all the skill and condition names with little pictures.

Cheers,
Alissah

Ironically this is exactly what I intended to make for my website but one thing let to another and I haven’t found time to make it yet.

I’m liking the name suggestions.. So far

“Tome of Madness” / “Decent into Chaos” / “Shattering the Myths” / “Harlequins’s Smile”
all sound really good to me.
———
@All: If anyone has any info, tips or advice for dungeon/fractal runs (Especially specific dungeons & paths) that they could submit, that’d be awesome. WvW information is also greatly appreciated.

@Kylia: I hope ya don’t mind, I’ll be taking notes from the Mesmerized podcast to add to the guyd, but also if you could give any more info on being a Mesmer Commander and Mesmer WvW strategies that’d be great.

@Fay: Do you mind if I reference/display some of your builds for the mantra section?

@Alissah: Hey thanks for that! Definitely just gave me some interesting ideas. By combos, I meant Combo fields, but you’ve a good point. Should add a -Skill Rotations- section as well.

Chaos Archangel.

@All: If anyone has any info, tips or advice for dungeon/fractal runs (Especially specific dungeons & paths) that they could submit, that’d be awesome.

Im going to assume this handbook wont be somehingto read in one sitting, but more like something with several very detailed categories to prepare you for a specific situation, atleast the dungeon part is!

Ok, ill start:

fractals of the mists – harpy fractal

Having 10 or 20 inspiration aswell as a focus will be very usefull in this fractal, as most enemies you encounter use projectiles.
If you have a guardian, ele or thief in your group, make sure to ask them if theyre using reflections, chaining them (and not using a feedback and wall of reflection at the same time by accident) will make most parts here much easier!

fighting on the platforms
Usefull utilities and weapons: greatsword, focus, blink, feedback, feedback on res
When you enter this fractal, there will be harpies with ranged attacks on small platforms you have to jump to.

The harpies have 3 skills:
a normal auto attack, this shouldnt hurt too bad.
A “rapid fire” this does very high damage and cripples you, its not advised to jump to a platform as youll mos likely fall, it should be reflected.
A lightning ball that launches you on impact, this has a red aoe circle and should be reflected or evaded. If you get hit, you can use blink or Iswap to avoid falling off.

The Iberserker is a verg strong phantasm here, the the small platforms will allow the whole attack to land.

the rabbit, bandit, shaman and ettin
Usefull utlities and weapons: blink,
This is a rather big battlefield, if a teammate goes down you should be there as fast as possible to revive, so blink (traited with 10 chaos and duelling) will be a huge help here.
Watch out when attacking the fire shaman with a greatsword, the fire shield will burn you 3 times when you attack once!

the stairs
Usefull weapons and utlities: scepter, sword focus, mirror, mantra of resolve, blink.
You can dodge through or block the shocky bars without getting hit, it shouldnt be much of a challenge if ou just chain defensive skills.
Once you get up, you can activate all 3 panels by yourself by using blink or condition removal.

tom
Usefull weapons and utilities: a ranged weapon, blink, mirror, timewarp
Coordinate with your party about where thy want you, if your party doesnt talk, see if a battery or the fan is unoccupied and go there instead.
Keep your eyes glued on the battery, make sure to refill it eith a tear as soon as it runs out. This will be your top priority through the fight. If a teammate goes down you should revive them, but always make sure you refill the battery first.
Tom has a chain lightning attack, which will do massive damage if youre standin near allies or illusions. You can reflect this with mirror or sinply dodge.

raving asura
Usefull weapons and utlities: focus, blink, feedback, feedback on res.
Make sure to coordinate your reflects in this part!
The asura shoots lightning balls which inflict agony, these can be reflected
A golem (cant remember which one, but ithink its yellow) shoots rockets in all directions, these do very hgih damage and should be reflected.

When all 4 golems are activated at the same time, try to pull them together and immobilize them euth your focus and sword, this way your team will hit them all at once!
Summoning a warden will also protect you from most dangerous attacks, or use a reflection ofcourse.

I have no idea what you expected here, so ill hope this helps anyway :p.

Cheers,
Alissah

I started this thread in an attempt to discover and share unique ways to use Portal. Didn’t get a whole lot of attention. Maybe you can rekindle the discussion.

If theres anything else anyone wants to submit, or any other threads to link, please do so by next week

“The Art of Duplicity – A Mesmer guide”

The names all sounds so cool. but to add on how bout Art of Manipulation? or somehow something along the lines of manipulation, maybe there is a cooler word for it. But essentially Mesmers are really about manipulation, whether it is the “scientific” aspect of it which is manipulating space and time, i.e. spatial surge, time warp, feedback, blinks, etc or manipulating the mind with illusions, tricks, confusion etc, i think mesmers are based on manipulating!

Other than that, this sounds like an awesome project! I remember there are a few videos that helped me play mesmer in the beginning, i forgot who it’s by? but it was super comprehensive and focused on the usage of the staff in builds, which is essentially one of the most powerful things for mesmers, and it helped me whether it was pve/wvw etc there’s a lot of good advice from ppls, i hope ull be able to compile everything!

Mesmers, where being pink is cool and deadly.

I once wrote a guide for friends. It’s quite old and many patches have changed stuff, so it’s long due for an update. There’s also a few erroneous information in there that I never took the time to correct, but perhaps it can help you anyway. Feel free to message me if you’d like footage or anything.

Hey chaos love what youre doing with this guide man and yeah the Mesmer community is great!

Do you only want “top tier” builds or can fun ones be submitted?

Mesmer: techniques and trickery or the technique of trickery

Thanks Chaos for doing this.
Sticky request so this gem of a thread won’t get lost.

djtool.8372:

Do you only want “top tier” builds or can fun ones be submitted?

Mesmer: techniques and trickery or the technique of trickery

I would be willing to bet fun ones are more than welcome

This is a great idea. But I have a few concerns, specially the rate that changes (buffs, nerfs and reworks) happens is really fast, and they just announced that it will get faster. I hope the help we could offer would be enough to you to dont stay behind.

I think there’s a chance I can muster the energy to do a couple of what I consider fun builds that have appeal to me. I think video’s would be required however to illustrate play.

Please provide ranged-only builds and advice on condition cleansing!

The suggestions are much appreciated!

A thing of note guys, is that this guide isn’t just my knowledge.. Its moreso a compilation of everything the Mesmer forums have contributed over the past few months. If you don’t mind, I’ll often be quoting direct phrases from people here.. If that bothers you, then let me know and I wont put a name beneath.

Any mesmer knowledgeable on Dungeons could shoot me a tell or reply? I wanna incorporate useful Mesmer guidelines for each Dungeon run

With the shear amount of builds that are out there for us, perhaps just a link to Fay’s build list in the sticky would be ideal. Each build up there has its own description for proper use already. Making sections for builds would takes days in and of itself. If you still wanted to cover builds then may I suggest covering the basic build types only: shatter, phantasm, bunker, mantra, heals, support and perhaps a hybrid of your choice.
A guide is more for ability use, tactics, synergy with groups, combo’s, trait explenations etc…

Most definitely going to link Fay’s build list,

I actually planned on doing something like I have in the Chaos Maestro thread where theres sample builds listed with a short explanation to avoid spending too much time on the subject.

The one thing I’m really trying to do is present all of the information in a really easy-to-read manner. Keeping everything short, but informative without too much or too little detail.

UPDATE: NOTICE TO ALL MESMER PLEASE HELP OUT! Please read the first 3 updated paragraphs.

Obnoxious caps ftw… Btw I’m having the hardest time with a name right now. x.x

Disorderly Conduct: A Guide to all things Mesmer.
Mesmer Guide to Illusions and Mind Games.
The Mesmers Art of War.
Mesmer Guide to Devious Deeds.
The Mesmer College of Trickery, Deception and Illusion.

I’m runnin low on title ideas…

My vote on utilities is this. Mimic 1/5, Phantasmal Disenchanter 2/5, Null Field 5/5, feedback 5/5, Portal, 4/5, Veil 4/5, Illusion of Life 2/5, Decoy 5/5, Phantasmal Defender 3/5, Arcane Theivery 5/5.
All Matras get a nasty 1/5 due to how badly they’re implemented and how terribly the bonuses are placed in the trait lines.
I’ll give all the signets a 4/5 except Signet of Illusions 2/5. Why would a HP bonus to illusions be attached to a recharge on shatter. Polar opposite dirrections of use IMO.
I’ll hit up weapon abilities later. On a side note though, I noticed the change to Chaos armor tossed in Blind at a 33% chance on proc with a 1sec icd from a single target. Multiple targets though…. I tossed on my PU build and used staff with torch combo to detonate Chaos armor on mass groups of my server in WvW with some pretty cool results in damage mitigation. Needs more testing but it looks like a very solid defense boon sharing build now.

Dammit Samiell, giving me MORE awesome and creative names to choose from does not help! ( Mesmers Art of War / Guide to Devious Deeds will now be battling the rest in my brain for supremacy, those sound great )

Thx for the votes, that’s exactly what I’m hoping to get from everyone.

“PLEASE READ” its in caps lock, so it must be important :O!

I made all the important stuff bold, incase you dont have time to read all explanations.

I’ll give the sword main hand skills 5/5, the leap is just my favourite skill ever, most shatters use it somehow and theres so much room for creativity, i would give leap a 6/5 if i could!

All staff skills can get a 5/5 too, but i would even give phase retreat a 6/5 :O! Amazing mobility and defense, in certain builds even support! I love how gracefull and agile the staff makes me feel, and chaos storm, i just like the looks of it sooo much ^__^

I dont like the greatsword, all it does is damage :/
Ill give it a 3/5, i only use it if all a certain pve event requires is damage, in pvp and other places i avoid it. It doesnt allow creativity, the whole weapon jsut seems focussed around damage, its not what i like so much about mesmer.

scepter, meh! 2/5.
The scepter has its uses, in my shatter builds i sometimes use it for the high damage block, it could o up to 4k damage! but now they turned the block in a condition with lower damage, im not really sure if i like thescepter anymore, even though i never liked it. Having an off hand in a ranged set can be very nice though. The auto attack makes me feel clunky, the block is nice, the confusing images makes me feel slow, which is one of the worst feelings on my mesmer.

off hand sword, 4/5 The block does high damage, most people fail to dodge the phantasm. It lacks aoe though.

off hand pistol 4/5 Its nice for phantasm builds, but in pvp people dodge the phantasm very easily

focus, 5/5 Its aoe, its a pull, light combo field, projectile reflection, high damage phantasm, its my favourite off hand for pretty much everything : D

torch 4/5 It has a nice stealth, and the phantasm is ok in condition builds, but only for pvp on certain targets.

All healing skills get a 5/5, they all ahve their uses! ether feast for healing, mirror for avoidance and on heal procs, the mantra in mantra healing builds.

Decoy blink and portal get a 5/5, my favourite utility set for pvp, they all allow an insane amount of creativity and have a huge skillcap, theres nothing i cant get done with these 3! (not really, but you get my point)

signet of inspiration, mantra of pain, arcane thievery, null field, feedback 4/5. These all are amazing, but theyre situational! Signet of inspiraton in dungeon runs with a lot fo boons or wen im running boon support, mantra of pain with mantra healing, arcane thievery with 10chaos for pvp and stealing boons from mobs (jellyfish 25 might is a big example), null field in duels with alot fo conditions or party support. I wanted to make feedback 5/5 but its situational, whenever there are projectiles in dungeons it really shines though! I never use it for pvp.

mirror images 3.75/5, Im starting to dislike it more and more, its not thakittens a bad utility, but i just find other utilities more usefull, i only use it for big 25 vulnerability bursts nowadays, or when i dont feel like portalling in pvp. I think once you learn to use things like portal in your 3rd slot, it just really feels superior to mirror images :), its justmy oppinion ofcourse.

illusion of life, phantasmal disenchanter and -defender, veil 3/5. I sometimes use illusion of life when my team demands it or with certain boss fights to use it situationally. I use the phantasms for extra regen ticks, defender i used to use in the immortal mesmer build, but i dont use it often. Veil is for prismatic understanding and stealthing very big groups.

signet of illusions 2.5/5. I use it in phantasm builds when i have nothing better to use.

signet of domination, signet of midnight, all mantras except pain, 2/5. I only use domination in specific situations where i need the stun. I only use midnight when i have nothing else usefull and want boon duration. I only use the mantras in interupt builds, when i need condi removal like in swamp fractal or the 3 panels after the stairs in rata sum fractal, i only use concentration in jumping puzzles where i can get knocked off or something.

Mimic, what the kitten O.o? 1/5 It does… nothing… not much atleast. It does have a very cool animation which i use for screenshots :), this is really the only reason why i gave it a 1 instead of 0.

I cant wait to read the guide : D.

-Alissah

Mimic is amazing in PvP, if you can time it right. I’d give it a situational 3/5 at least, although 1/5 makes more sense in PvE. (So an average of 2/5? Still seems sort of low.)

This is a really ambitious project!

Alissah.9281:

fractals of the mists – harpy fractal
Having 10 or 20 inspiration aswell as a focus will be very usefull in this fractal, as most enemies you encounter use projectiles.
Cheers,
Alissah

Those are some awesome pointers, however, I would like to add some points for non inspiration. Specifically what a 20/20/0/0/30 or just 30 in illusions mesmer can pull off.

Namely, I want to talk about:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Masterful_Reflection
and these two for supporting it
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Invigoration
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Illusions

One argument I often read is that phantasms bring more support than shatter mesmers since inspiration gives more reflect up time. For Harpy fractals, I found that stacking in melee works the best for teams in general. Masterful reflection creates a bubble of reflection around you that can protect your team. I can be a bit tricky but if everyone is in melee on 1 platform, you can protect them all. The other trait/signet just let you spam it more often. Of course, p.warden and feedback are still good here.

Also looks amazing =)

Continuing with the 20/20/0/0/30 and Fotm, Dredge Fractals:
I find this fractal to be the hardest, especially at higher levels. I hate dredge but but they are also my “favorite” in design for mobs. They have support (the gongs) they have ranged dps, and melee bruisers. It’s a really nice combo of mobs that reminds me of enemy groups in gw1 (they look just like your party with tank/dps/support).
I will focus on the gongs and 20 domination:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shattered_Concentration
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dredge_Disaggregator
“Gong is a channeled skill that grants Swiftness, Protection and Might”
Protection is a serious hindrance to your teams damage and the swiftness/might can make them extra painful. With focus 4/4 and sword4/4 you have nice aoe interrupts to stop that noise. Furthermore, shattered concentrations lets you shred through those boons faster than any other build out there, making sure your whole team isn’t doing 33% less damage all the time.
Reflections and also using focus4/4 to better LOS enemies is also good.

[Quote]
Dungeons
Crucible of Eternity
In the explorable version, it’s no longer possible to use portals to bypass the turrets defending the advanced golem.
[/Quote]
Sword main hand and 3 clones auto attacking. Maybe destroy protection turret. Ignore the rest. I find it so sad that mesmers glitched this with portal when we have the tools to make this easy.

Ok, works over. Second half of the ability review.
GS 4/5 I would give it 5/5 but Mind Stab is a joke of an excuse for anything resembling AOE. The GS design is perfect for what it’s intended to be. Full offensive weapon.
Staff 5/5 (bummer on the cd on Chaos Armor though)
Main hand Sword 5/5 (again, bummer cd on I-leap but it flows hella smooth in combat now)
Scepter……..3/5 Anet is slowly making it better but main attack needs much love
Focus 5/5 even with the 1sec cd on Into the Void its a great off hand.
Off Hand Sword 5/5 my favorite Phantasm even though I rarely find the occasion to use it. Block hits like a GD truck in a zerker build.
Pistol 5/5 nothing wrong here at all (I’d give my right nut for a main hand pistol though)
Torch 3/5 Image is pretty lame. Huge cd with minimal benefit. Saving grace on this weapon is torch 4.

Hello, I’ve been reading these forums for a few months now (been mesmerizing for much longer and even post all nerfs, still love it). I read this post this morning and decided it’s time for me to finally contribute. So, I wrote up a draft of a guide on our elite skills. here it is
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Mesmer-Elite-Skills-a-guide/first#post2395980
please feel free to use it/add to it however you like

Cubones

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Alissah.9281:

fractals of the mists – harpy fractal
Having 10 or 20 inspiration aswell as a focus will be very usefull in this fractal, as most enemies you encounter use projectiles.
Cheers,
Alissah

Masterful reflection creates a bubble of reflection around you that can protect your team.
Also looks amazing =)

Yea it looks amazing indeed :P. How big is this reflective bubble? Ive only tested in solo pvp so far. It would be interesting to see it protect everyone for up to 12 seconds :O

Sinaya.4201:

Mimic is amazing in PvP, if you can time it right. I’d give it a situational 3/5 at least, although 1/5 makes more sense in PvE. (So an average of 2/5? Still seems sort of low.)

This is a really ambitious project!

Now i come to think of it, i did manage to use mimic in a duel with an engi to deadly effectiveness, but in hot join pvp i never really used it. Its a 4 second reflect on a very low cooldown, its also pretty small unlike feedback so people will keep attacking most of the time, they probably dont even know what mimic is ;D.
But then again, not everything are projectiles, and i could still be hit by blowtorches and dangerous things like that :/. I feel like portal or nullfield prevents more damage than mimic could have.

This has all been great and the feedback is much appreciated. A few things are still lacking, such as specific dungeon advice but overall its coming along nicely. Moar plz.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

This has all been great and the feedback is much appreciated. A few things are still lacking, such as specific dungeon advice but overall its coming along nicely. Moar plz.

If you’re after more dungeon information specific to mesmers, check out Strife’s dungeon guides. They are the best I’ve seen. He runs mesmer occasionally in his guides, but always has a mesmer in his party. There is a lot of talk about navigating dungeons and their mechanics, of which the mesmer often plays a huge role, so you could get a lot of great info from them, or at the very least maybe link to them in your guide.

Okay so, I’ve been tossing with the idea of a community mesmer hub website for a while now and seeing the work being done on this thread there definitely appears to be a desire for such information.

I’ve already got the www.mesmerguides.com link that I’ve been using for my own builds so far which I now want to expand to be a community project where mesmers can submit guides, videos, builds etc. and so I’ve started work on re-designing the website to be easier to navigate and… less pink

Let me know what you guys think of this idea and if there are any suggestions and if anyone wants to hop on board on this idea (Looking at you Chaos!).

Alissah.9281:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Alissah.9281:

fractals of the mists – harpy fractal
Having 10 or 20 inspiration aswell as a focus will be very usefull in this fractal, as most enemies you encounter use projectiles.
Cheers,
Alissah

Masterful reflection creates a bubble of reflection around you that can protect your team.
Also looks amazing =)

Yea it looks amazing indeed :P. How big is this reflective bubble? Ive only tested in solo pvp so far. It would be interesting to see it protect everyone for up to 12 seconds :O

I have not tested it that extensively since it has a limited radius/requires coordination and unlike feedback, most people have no idea what it does/have seen it before/notice a more subtle animation. I would guess it’s about the same size as the warden bubble (this is just based on the animation).

Body blocking is a lot trickier when your teammates has more room and are dodge/strafe happy . As a shatter mesmer that is normally in melee, I would consider this a supplement to my damage rather than actual team defense. Blurr/Distortion will body block regardless of if they might reflect as well. So I normally don’t bring this trait.

Since the harpy fractal is a vertical level with small platforms, your team, if in melee, stands in that bubble whether they know it or not. My understanding: since the AOE lightning balls hit the top of that AOE bubble before they hit the ground, it’s able to reflect the lightning back before it hits your team. So I would actually consider it 3 emergency “AOE interrupt reflects” rather than 12 seconds. I think this is very different than mirror/mimic which if I recall correctly, will not save your team since they are not AOE reflects.

Hey Fay, I’ll definitely shoot you a msg about that.

@Skcamow: Good idea I’d forgotten about that

I must confess that i always felt Focus was a little overrated, even more after the delay for Into The Void. I’ve tried it many times. Every time i trait for Focus and take it into sPvP, i spend the entire match wishing i had stuck with OH Sword. Many players much better than i use it though, so there must be something to it.

Hey guys, just a little heads up.

I haven’t forgotten about the guide, just been a bit busy (Dat real life). Been working on fishing through the past 50-100 pages of previous threads(not as bad as it sounds) for info. THIS ’EFFIN WEEKEND for probably sure!

One thing though, I haven’t gotten many votes. =[ Not even 10 people yet (’bout 8 or so).. Which is the amount I need before I can implant the skill voting system.

Feel free to use my Lazy Kai’s Guide to PvE and my leveling guide for your compendium if you want.

As name for the guide: Me, Myself and I – The All For One Mesmer Guide.

A quick update, the project is NOT forgotten. Computer issues mixed with IRL stuff forced me to put it on the backburner, but I can say positively that this will be THE weekend. It would’ve been done, sooner but then I saw The REALLY FREAKIN AWESOME guide that the Guardians have. and of course I can’t let us Mesmer be outdone, so I was inspired to go even harder and cover all bases.

I’m still hoping for more votes as well (see OP for details) as I actually still haven’t gotten very many.

Also, I’ll be PMing certain people for more dungeons/fractals information soon. Thanks guys!

Do you need any information on mesmer tactics for specific dungeons or just in general? Just shoot me a PM outlining what you want and I can probably write something up since I haven’t got much going on in my life atm ;p

Ability-ratings?
Hrm. I dislike numerical or X/5 ratings in general, I mean, what would I use them for in this context? Whether I think autoattack-GS is slightly better (= 4/5) compared to autoattack-Sword, while autoattack-Scepter is significantly weaker (= 1/5)?

@colesy: Hell yeah. Your experience with min/maxing and dungeons’ll be much appreciated.

@Carighan: Exactly. The out-of-5 is for how useful you think the skill is. Its to show the community’s opinion on a certain skill.

If you need any help Im awable aswell. This seems like a awsome community project.

I can offer.

-duel tipps
-duel partner
-wvwvw roaming and 10~ppl team gameplay input

/Osicat