Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!
I’ve been playing GW2 for a month now and I leveld a Ranger to 80. I want to switch to Mesmer and I need a few suggestions for builds.

- I still don’t know what I’m gonna get into: WvW, sPVP or PVE. But there will be PVE for sure. No need to worry about it now since I must level first and try those out.
- I still don’t know which weapons I like the most, all are cool to me (unlike the ranger).
- I kind of like the idea of using Phantasms as a primary source of damage rather than shattering clones. I do know that it’s a big part of the class though.
- I could go for a leveling build… But I want to test a real one and shape my play style while leveling.

Thanks in advance for the ones kind enough to contribute

10/30/0/30/0 or 0/20/0/25/25 are probably the best phantasm builds.

Sword main hand, sword off hand, pistol and focus will be your top weapons of choice.

I’d say 10 points in dueling would be the best place to invest your first ten points since it gives your phantasms fury so they hit harder.

Both the builds Colesy linked are great.

My personal preference is to dump my first 10 pts in Domination, though. The 100 Power is gigantic at early levels and 15% illusion damage is a solid boost as well. Both should work though.

You’re ok going with Phantasms as a primary source of damage. I feel like shatter builds take off around level 40 with the clone-on-dodge, but phantasms stay strong throughout. Just avoid Torch offhand. Weakphantasm and long cooldown.

The problem is that crits deal 50% more damage than your base at 0% crit damage, so if you crit more then you’re basically getting 50%+ illusion damage (+ any crit damage you have in your gear/traiting), and 10 points in dueling and going for phantasmal fury boosts your phantasm precision by 30%.

To the OP, for the sake of PvE (WvW and PvP is different obviously) I’d recommend using exclusively melee weapons so that you develop good habits right now rather than relying on crutches like range.

colesy.8490:

The problem is that crits deal 50% more damage than your base at 0% crit damage, so if you crit more then you’re basically getting 50%+ illusion damage (+ any crit damage you have in your gear/traiting), and 10 points in dueling and going for phantasmal fury boosts your phantasm precision by 30%.

To the OP, for the sake of PvE (WvW and PvP is different obviously) I’d recommend using exclusively melee weapons so that you develop good habits right now rather than relying on crutches like range.

Well, take a quick look at the math.

With 10 points in domination, phantasms will be doing 15% more damage. With an approximate base power of around 300ish at level 30, you will be increasing your total damage by 33% by adding 100 power, for a total damage increase of 33% on all skills and 53% on phantasms.

With 10 points in dueling, you’ll gain a passive 20% crit chance from the 100 precision, and another 20% from the fury, which means phantasms will be doing 60% more damage 40% of the time. 60%*.4 comes out to an overall increase of 12% on all skills and 24% damage from phantasms.

However, the next 10 points definitely go into dueling for the fury and crit.

i’d say that in 0/20/0/25/25 its better to have a GS-sw/focus for istances.

You can’t play everything melee.

Fractals is a great example….where melee triggers stuff you don t want to trigger sometimes like ascalon boss or lava shaman (ranged you can keep your phantasms alive, the moment you melee you trigger aoe that kills all).

And with that build you are fast enough to keep enough phantasms uptime to not need anothyer melee set (if you need btw i’d use a pistol for added bleeding stacks rather than a sword)

LordByron.8369:

i’d say that in 0/20/0/25/25 its better to have a GS-sw/focus for istances.

You can’t play everything melee.

Fractals is a great example….where melee triggers stuff you don t want to trigger sometimes like ascalon boss or lava shaman (ranged you can keep your phantasms alive, the moment you melee you trigger aoe that kills all).

And with that build you are fast enough to keep enough phantasms uptime to not need anothyer melee set (if you need btw i’d use a pistol for added bleeding stacks rather than a sword)

While I do advocate having a GS in all PvE content, you used a poor example. The best way to do the lava shaman is melee range using your traited focus for protection against his attacks. The aoes happen randomly, and have no correlation with being melee range.

How I hate the IC nerf. I used to run 20/20/0/25/5. I cannot adapt to any other thing. I don’t play my Mesmer on PVE anymore (having tons of fun with blackwater setup in WvW tho).

Hrm, I prefer something like 20/20/0/30/0 for a newbie setup. The big advantage is that it offers you extra survivability via 30 Inspiration, while giving you lots of options as your personal skill increases:

• Can go Glamour-support via the glamour traits in Inspiration. In that case, switch to OH Sword or Pistol from Focus since you probably won’t have the Focus trait at those times.
• Can switch the 30-Inspiration pick to condition removal. Very nice for dungeons, too.
• Phantasmal Defender and Disenchanter (the two utility phantasms) are beasts when it comes to group support, and especially the Defender is way underrated. In a Phantasm build with the +20% HP trait and the +50% HP signet, he adds so much HP to a party that he starts being really noticeable both in PvP and in dungeons.
• Can switch the Duelling IV trait for swords to the pistol trait when you go OH Pistol, giving you better range.
• Could even equip an OH Torch (with a Sword) instead of the Greatsword and switch the second trait in Domination to Cleansing Conflagration when you need more condition cleansing than what you can get with the trait at 30 Inspiration.

It has lots of options, and it starts out very focused and easy to play. Plus your Phantasms have lots of HP and the Defender makes you semi-invulnerable in most of PvE.

Pyroatheist.9031:

While I do advocate having a GS in all PvE content, you used a poor example. The best way to do the lava shaman is melee range using your traited focus for protection against his attacks. The aoes happen randomly, and have no correlation with being melee range.

You are confusing aoe attack with aoe melee Attacks

The aoe dive triggers ONLY melee, can t be reflected, and triggers smaller aoes that just oneshot anything in it for many seconds….if you melee you can t have any phantasm up for more than few seconds. due to that (blurred frenzy also will get you killed due to duration of aoe).

If you stay ranged you can actually protect party with iwarden(s) with minimal risk of them being killed…

(aside the fact that is just easier to evade arrows)

For a beginner i suggest 0/20/0/25/25 because of the easier access to phantasms and the longer uptime.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRlwzqqHTTgGa9IxZGMf5oZgdvXSBu5NA

By the way, going on topic, my last build was a “utility mantra nuker” using sword mainhand as much as possible:
10(III)
30(II-IV/IX-XI)
0
20(traits here change a lot)
10 (III)
full berserker

LordByron.8369:

i’d say that in 0/20/0/25/25 its better to have a GS-sw/focus for istances.

You can’t play everything melee.

Fractals is a great example….where melee triggers stuff you don t want to trigger sometimes like ascalon boss or lava shaman (ranged you can keep your phantasms alive, the moment you melee you trigger aoe that kills all).

And with that build you are fast enough to keep enough phantasms uptime to not need anothyer melee set (if you need btw i’d use a pistol for added bleeding stacks rather than a sword)

Do you get some kind of pleasure in deceiving the OP?

Look. Fractal 48, Ashym melee’d down to 25%.

Like I said, it’s a good habit to learn how to melee because otherwise people end up like you, trying to claim you can’t melee certain things that you can.

colesy.8490:

Do you get some kind of pleasure in deceiving the OP?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WL-QGZDsA

Look. Fractal 48, Ashym melee’d down to 25%.

i seriously doubt you are genuinely wanting to debating the thing…

Why didn t u mention the fact at 25% there is a melee check…..

Any player/pnc in melee will trigger fiery GS.

And since nobody wants that if you don t have a ranged weapon (better be 1200 to easier agony aoe evasion) its the reason why you NEED a GS at ashym….

INFACT look as your mesmer has infact a GS….

You can melee him down to 25%. You would rather have the OP believe that you should camp range right from the start.

Greatsword camping mesmers are no better than bow camping rangers.

tell me:

If you were a mesmer beginner at fractal 48 at ashym.

Would you melee it with the huge risk of missing an agony evade and die.

Or

You would use your GS at max range where agony aoe is really easy to avoid or will automatically fail due to range?

Are we suggesting a beginner to start with speedruns in situations where DPS don t make the fight easier but harder in favor of saving few seconds?

Since NPC does the most damage until 50%?

Couldn t you have just avoided both those 2 aggressive answer that hase no reason to exist?

I wrote:

i’d say that in 0/20/0/25/25 its better to have a GS-sw/focus for istances.

You can’t play everything melee.

This is way different from saying “spam Always your gs1”
Infact your mesmer in the vid agrees with me it seems.

What you did is just avoiding the risk due to an “optimized” party that has enough dps to bring boss 30% before he uses his first aoe agony also……you were already ranged at his first aoe…..
Thing that 1% parties will have usually

If you were a mesmer beginner at fractal 48 at ashym.

And now, use your common sense a minute and ask yourself why a rookie with their class would be doing Fractal 48.

Are we suggesting a beginner to start with speedruns in situations where DPS don t make the fight easier but harder in favor of saving few seconds?

You tried to make out ranging grawl shaman and ashym was better than melee, so I show you ashym can be melee’d. Imbued shaman is harder of course, and a waste of time on higher levels to melee.

What I’m trying to say to the OP, is that even solo, many bosses in this game can be melee’d. Learning to pay attention for attacks and to use dodges/invulns properly is the key to being a good player, camping at range shutting your brain off doesn’t do that.

Just saying, you can cast any Phantasm from range if you need to.

S/S + S/P build, for situations like Ashym that needs you to get out of meele for the FGS check, just pop your phants.

3 Duelist are better than a GS mesmer.

colesy.8490:

And now, use your common sense a minute and ask yourself why a rookie with their class would be doing Fractal 48.

He already has a ranger.

For shaman i didn t say you CAN T.
I say you don t want usually…..unless you don t have a mesmer in party.

But aside that i will just say:

99% zerk phantasm mesmers use a GS as backup weapon in fractals.

The build i and colesy suggested has a really fast CD (40% cd reduction on iwarden) on phantasms that renders less appealing having a second OH weapon.

Also for fractals, GS have 3 things that makes it appealing:

1) izerker cripple
2) ranged boon stripping
3) aoe

P.S:
Attacks ashym does are AoE…that will kill ALL your phantasms every few seconds.
Never seen any mesmer without a ranged weapon here out of 1500+ fractals i played.
In the vid infact that mesmer only uses iZerker and GS.