Guild Wars 2

I just started a Mesmer a couple of days ago overall I enjoy it, but I’m more of a melee player then range. I know they excel more at range then melee. Right now I’m trying two swords and sword/torch. Having a hard time in PvE and WvW. I pretty much get hit once or twice and I’m down.

So what I’m asking for is builds, traits, etc.

90% of zerglings ranges, so you might want to use a gs for wvw. For PVE, your goal could be not to be hit in the first place.

Try out the focus for 5 or 10 levels. I hated it at first, but after forcing myself to practice with it, it is awesome. The Phantasm is great in PvE. The speed line can be collapsed upon itself to move and knock down opponents. I like to phase jump stun mobs right before the phantasms damage cycle to ensure they take all of his damage.

If you really start to like it, it becomes a fairly strong anti ranged weapon with the proper timing and specs.

first, doesn’t have a main hand sword for both weapon sets limit your overall skill usage? I’d recommend, a wand+torch and sword+focus/sword.

Reason for wand is mostly because it has an extra block, as well as way to get additional clones out while waiting for your second weapon set skills to recharge.

sword offhand also has a block, sword main hand has an evade all (don’t be afraid to use even if not next to anything).

focus has a speed boost that doubles as a physical mob pulll, which is useful in wvw to pull people off walls/cliffs but also to control the movement of mobs in pve (like grouping them up in a nice little spot to be nuked by everything).

the pistol allows you to go invis and cause blindness (and some other condition), which can be used to get out of melee range for a chance to recharge a little.

Melee should never really be just standing there even for a warrior but especially for a mesmer.

I really enjoyed combining a staff with a sword/OH.
Staff gives a lot of great ‘set up’ skills. Chaos Storm, the number 2 skill (gives you chaos armor), then chaos armor gets you full of buffs and standing in a zone where you’ll get even more. Swap to your melee set and have at your foe.

In that case, the Staff is more of a supplemental weapon than a primary one. You could go with Sword paired with two different offhands as well; you just sacrifice the potential from the 2 redundant MH skills.

If you’re having a hard time with survivability, you can compensate with some gear choices and some defensive utilities. Feedback will be handy for you. Phantasmal Defender is AMAZING at keeping you alive by absorbing half your incoming damage. Even Decoy can give you a good quick aggro drop when you need it!

I suggest everyone learn to love the sword for PvE. It’s a great weapon. I’m sure there’s a good place for it in sPvP as well. I think it would be brutal to wvw with this as a main choice though.

I’d choose the staff as a swap weapon because it’s really got the best collection of defensive tools.

If you’re dying a lot try getting toughness gear. Vitality helps, but you already have a lot as a mesmer, toughness is what’s lacking most. You can learn to not get hit, but for times it can’t be avoided, you should be able to take more than a few hits.