Guild Wars 2

As the title says, I am looking for a PvE tank build for my mesmer.

- Dual swords as main weapons
- Really wish we had an other melee weapon set, but off set would be staff (nothing else would make sense)
- 10 points in Dueling are a must for 1h sword trait
- 5 points in Illusions are a must for obvious reason

Main stats should be Toughness and Vitality (which will result in a gear mix).
I was playing around with some builds like 0/10/30/0/30 and 0/10/25/30/5 but I would appreciate some advice as I am not happy with the results.

Thanks.

if you want to go full melee just run a war. i wouldn’t waste my time on a melee mes especially for dungeons.

You won’t be able to be tanksih as a mesmer. We are not built that way. We are illusive, there is a difference.

These answers are not helpful. Think outside the box. Class X can’t do job B because it’s role is N has been proven wrong too often by creative minds.

Time for some brainstorming:

- Trait: Illusionary Defense
- Skill: Phantasmal Defender

Should help to absorb a fair amount of dmg.

Its rly hard to play tankish mesmer but it can be done you need full toughness gear with condition damage, toughness will make you agro most of mobs and condition will help you hold that agro. Now for traits/skills best build would proly be sceptar/sword – staff that way you would have 2 counter ability. If you still insist going melee this build can work: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|2|2681|12684|4361|4513|8987|0|0|0|0|20|2209|1815|0|30|2220|1818|2217|15|1783|0|0|5|0|0|0|5|0|0|0|0|49963|49963|49963|49963|49963|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Some things are still optional or situational and you can swap Signet of Inspiration if you need condition remover or boon remover like Phantasmal disenchanter or Mantra of resolve.

I posted this before, not really sure if it is good, but it can’t be that bad. If you think about it, every 10 seconds you get 2 seconds of evasion with main hand sword, and you can daze a target several times with skills. Add in Diversion and Distortion and even though you are squishy, you will spend less time getting hit – even with just standing there. No need to tank – just dodge and interrupt skills.

The Dazzler
30 Domination 30 Precision and 10 Chaos with sword/sword focusing on daze and mantras:

Illusion of Vulnerability: Inflict 5 seconds of vulnerability when you interrupt a foe.
Dazzling: Inflicting daze also causes 3 seconds of vulnerability.
Wastrel’s Punishment: 5% increased damage to inactive foes.
Halting Strike: Deal damage when interrupting a foe.
Rending Shatter: Shattering illusions causes vulnerability for 8 seconds to nearby foes.
Harmonious Mantras: Mantras can be activated three times before needing to be channeled again.

Critical Infusion: Gain 1 second of vigor on critical hits.
Sharper Images: Illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits.
Confusing Combatants: Your illusions cause 3 seconds of confusion when they are killed.
Blade Training: +50 precision while wielding a one-handed sword or a spear. Reduces the recharge of sword and spear skills by 20%.
Retaliatory Shield: Gain 3 seconds of retaliation when you block an attack.
Furious Interruption: Gain 4 seconds of fury when you interrupt a foe.

Metaphysical Rejuvenation: Gain 10 seconds of regeneration when your health reaches 75% (30-second cooldown).
Illusionary Defense: 3% reduced damage for each illusion you have in the world.

Mantra of Recovery
Mantra of Distraction
Mantra of Pain
Option – Technobabble (Asura) – Battle Roar (Charr) – Prayer to Lyssa (Human) – Call Wurm (Norn) – Grasping Vines (Sylvari)
Time Warp

I am going to give this a try once I collect a second armor set. This build would want mostly the power/precision/crit damage stats w/ precision and crit damage infusions. It should play like any crit build but where you get hit a lot less.

The grandmaster skills can be flopped to
Empowering Mantras: 4% more damage for each readied mantra
Confounding Suggestions: 50% chance to cause a 1-second stun whenever you daze a target.

This is a bit more straightforward at the cost of gaining fury from intterupts, focusing on non-critical damage increase. Instead of gear that boost critical damage, this switch would want as much straight up power as you could get. Might want to switch out Retaliatory shield for Mantra Mastery, too.

I never saw the skill calc before, awesome.
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|2|4150|4092|4099|4198|8987|30|2206|2205|2301|30|2209|2210|2306|10|2220|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|2|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Kain.3480:

Its rly hard to play tankish mesmer but it can be done you need full toughness gear with condition damage, toughness will make you agro most of mobs and condition will help you hold that agro. Now for traits/skills best build would proly be sceptar/sword – staff that way you would have 2 counter ability. If you still insist going melee this build can work: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|2|2681|12684|4361|4513|8987|0|0|0|0|20|2209|1815|0|30|2220|1818|2217|15|1783|0|0|5|0|0|0|5|0|0|0|0|49963|49963|49963|49963|49963|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Some things are still optional or situational and you can swap Signet of Inspiration if you need condition remover or boon remover like Phantasmal disenchanter or Mantra of resolve.

Controlling aggro

Drawing enemy attacks, or tanking, can be potentially useful tactic for controlling both damage received by allies and enemy positioning. However, no profession or role is particularly durable against constant damage, and lack of potent direct heals makes drawing enemy aggression a dangerous effort.

To successfully control enemy aggression while staying alive, one must always remain on the move and continue to avoid enemy attacks as much as possible, while ensuring that other allies are able to continue dealing damage unhindered or leading enemies into range of allies and their pets, into traps or other area effects.

Taken from http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tank#Controlling_aggro

Back to the topic, all you really need to maintain a high survivability rate(by opposition to the death rate) is a sword, sword training, illusionary defense, illusionary membrane and phantasmal healing. A torch, a pistol, a sword or a focus in the offhand provides you with circumstancial benefits be it longer living illusions like those staying at a distance or additionnal defense against projectile or incoming attacks.

The key part of the usual strat is as follows: Keep if possible at all times 3 phantasms.(You may wish to consider illusionary disenchanter and signet of illusion) and benefit from the continuous application of regeneration boon which also gives protection. With illusionary defense 9% of your damage taken is reduce so you take about 90% of your otherwise taken damage. Add to that the reduction of a constant protection boon, 33% of the 90% and you take 60% of the damage you would otherwise take, or total 40% damage reduction.

The rabid set tends to favor a balance playstyle so you might want to consider sharper image as well, especially with the torch, but cleric is the best option should you want to go with double sword/focus and full on defensive.

You may also wish to consider mimic against range opponent since only the first projectile deals you damage after which you are essentially invulnerable(block+reflect) for the rest of the duration.

The biggest problem playing a tanky build as a Mesmer is that other players think you’re just bad. Mesmers can tank. We have as much HP as warriors, and if your trait and gear for it, more toughness than most soldiers. If they go all out they will have more, but not many do.

It looks like you have an idea what you want. I built a few different ways and found what worked for me. Some of the traits I likes best:
Illusionary Membrane – Protection is awesome for melee Mesmer, the more you can get Regeneration the better. (Let your team know.)
Illusionary Defense – flat damage reduction when you have clones. You always got em.
Restorative Illusions + Illusionary Persona – big investment to grab both, but it lets you spam shatters for a moderate heal as well as their usual effect.
Vigorous Revelation + Deceptive Evasion – shatters fuel clone generation. If you are a tank so are your clones, they can be very successful at soaking up hits. And dodging is so useful just for avoiding hits.

I never really tried the retaliation traits, but wondered if mimic with retaliatory shield can stack it as high as it seems it should.

There’s no way to make everything for in one build, but I’m glad it works that way. There may not be a best tank build, but there should be one that’s best for you.

Now I’m usually in my amazing magic find pajamas, but hopefully that helps.

Voodoo Tina.4180:

The biggest problem playing a tanky build as a Mesmer is that other players think you’re just bad. Mesmers can tank. We have as much HP as warriors, and if your trait and gear for it, more toughness than most soldiers. If they go all out they will have more, but not many do.

Warriors have a base 3k more HP than a mesmer, and the Warrior can rather easily hit over 2100 Toughness and even over 2200, and with their heavy armor this pushes them over 3400 Armor. Mesmers can’t hope to match those numbers.

Now I am not saying a mesmer can’t tank, unless someone is thinking along the lines of a WoW tank. No profession can tank like a WoW tank. But please when we make statements as facts, make sure they are accurate statements. How well a mesmer can tank at level 80 or in PvP I cannot tell you as I am still leveling my mesmer up, but I do have a 80 Warrior with around 25k health and the afforementioned 3400 armor. And I am still running 1800 power and a 36%/56% crit chance(56 is with perma fury) with just exotic armor and weapons and no runes on my armor yet.

Mesmers may not be able to compete with the raw stats of a warrior but much of our tankiness comes from our other skills. With a sword you have 2s evasion on blurred frenzy, spec’d right you can get 4 seconds on distortion using the reset signet for another 4s by which time blurred frenzy is back.
Also you have loads of up time on Chaos armour with staff, aegis from chaos storm.

You can also spec heals on shatters, regens and protetion…all these things help to reduce damage taken.

We can’t stand there and absorb damage not many people can but we can keep the mob off the group and stay alive. I do it now on my condition spec, mainly through mobility.

A warrior’s tankyness isn’t from toughness/armour/hitpoints alone. They have traits that further reduce damage and latent heals to offset the burn; Mesmers simply lack such equivalent traits.

HOWEVER, that’s not to say mesmer can’t be tanky but you need to think of them more like a guardian than a warrior. Guardians tank by rotating aegis/protection/heals/blinds/blocks/dodges to negate incoming damage wholesale, and mesmer have many similar skills and can tank “actively” by countering, dodging and interuppting attacks for quite a considerable amount of time. And it’s no gimmick either, with a shatter build and a sword you can dish out some of the best raw DPS (AoE too!) that mesmer can pull off.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgIQNAsaWlwzKqnUzhGaNJhZG9G5nPEdUFweJFzm3A;T8AA1ytEaJ1StlSLKbM2IsxajzGpNLMGlMRA

Summon a staff clone, duelist, defender, and go nuts.

I would generally advise favoring toughness over vitality. Toughness improves your illusions, vitality does not. We can actually hit some very impressive mitigation numbers. We can keep near constant protection up with the trait that gives protection when you get regen and the trait that makes your phantasms cast regen on the party. if you can keep your 3 illusions up that’s another 9% mitigation on top of that. Throw Illusionary Defender into the mix to take half your damage for you, and you can stand up to some tough punches. With the right combo of skills and traits we can have Distortion up continuously for 12 seconds (blurred frenzy, Distortion (with the Illusionary Persona trait), generate three illusions while Distortion is up and use Signet of Illusions, Distortion again, then another blurred frenzy).

We can also have near-constant retaliation. Confusing Cry gives us 5 sec of retaliation for every illusion we shatter with Cry of Frustration, so that’s 15 sec (20 if you have illusionary Persona? Need verification), and we can get Cry of Frustration down to 21 sec cooldown.

But try to keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re wielding your sword in a pretty pretty dress. You won’t get the raw damage reduction of a plate wearer. We’ve got lots of tricks to keep protection up, and the 9% reduction from Illusionary Defense certainly helps, but you’re not going to get the same raw reduction you can get through plate. Careful attention to trait distribution, skill choice and skill use will be critical. We lack a reliable way to apply weakness or blind to our enemies (yes, you can take Dazzling Glamours, but it only affects the enemies in the glamour on the inital cast, not whenever they enter the zone), and while we can generate aegis through Chaos Storm (and you probably should swap between sword and staff during fights for the Storm’s Aegis and chaos armors) we don’t have regular and reliable access to it the way a Guardian does.

All of which is my way of saying “You’re not going to be a tanky tank. You’ll need to stay mobile, kite the enemy when possible, and you’ll rely heavily on boons.”

technosatyr.3784:

I would generally advise favoring toughness over vitality. Toughness improves your illusions, vitality does not. We can actually hit some very impressive mitigation numbers. We can keep near constant protection up with the trait that gives protection when you get regen and the trait that makes your phantasms cast regen on the party. if you can keep your 3 illusions up that’s another 9% mitigation on top of that. Throw Illusionary Defender into the mix to take half your damage for you, and you can stand up to some tough punches. With the right combo of skills and traits we can have Distortion up continuously for 12 seconds (blurred frenzy, Distortion (with the Illusionary Persona trait), generate three illusions while Distortion is up and use Signet of Illusions, Distortion again, then another blurred frenzy).

We can also have near-constant retaliation. Confusing Cry gives us 5 sec of retaliation for every illusion we shatter with Cry of Frustration, so that’s 15 sec (20 if you have illusionary Persona? Need verification), and we can get Cry of Frustration down to 21 sec cooldown.

But try to keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re wielding your sword in a pretty pretty dress. You won’t get the raw damage reduction of a plate wearer. We’ve got lots of tricks to keep protection up, and the 9% reduction from Illusionary Defense certainly helps, but you’re not going to get the same raw reduction you can get through plate. Careful attention to trait distribution, skill choice and skill use will be critical. We lack a reliable way to apply weakness or blind to our enemies (yes, you can take Dazzling Glamours, but it only affects the enemies in the glamour on the inital cast, not whenever they enter the zone), and while we can generate aegis through Chaos Storm (and you probably should swap between sword and staff during fights for the Storm’s Aegis and chaos armors) we don’t have regular and reliable access to it the way a Guardian does.

All of which is my way of saying “You’re not going to be a tanky tank. You’ll need to stay mobile, kite the enemy when possible, and you’ll rely heavily on boons.”

I kinda agree, but with my build I’ve been able to solo the Champion Risen Giant, Champion Risen Broodmother (Took 20 minutes though.) and whatever happened to spawn in the area while I was fighting. But my build isn’t based on toughness or precision. Its power/healing. Problem is, I’m currently facing a real damage issue.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|17|4150|4088|4099|4481|4514|0|0|0|0|10|2209|0|0|25|2220|2214|0|30|2319|2232|1823|5|0|0|0|5|0|5|28040|28044|49964|49964|49964|49964|49964|26062|21082|0|0|0|0|

Between regeneration and protection. (Chaos Storm, Chaos Armor and traits) I can slam my face into almost anything and come out unscathed, and even provide decent healing to allies. But since the build lack precision, my only damage comes from iWarden (Combo’d with Chaos Storm or Temporal Curtain) … Still working on ways to fix that, but as far as tanking I can confidently say that I can soak up almost anything.

Haven’t tested yet, but I think this may work out not bad.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#2|2|2647|12684|4481|4090|8987|0|0|0|0|20|2209|1759|0|25|2220|2214|0|0|0|0|0|25|1775|2228|0|5|0|3|28021|28044|49966|49966|49978|49978|49988|21023|48792|0|0|0|0|

Not so much a shatter build, as keeping the iSwordsman up (and ideally having 3 of them) is rather important. Protection is still really important here, so staff is a must for Chaos Storm (Turns enemies into piss while they’re inside and beefs you up, not to mention it can combo with Sword 3 and Sword 5. ) and Chaos Armor. Mantra of Concentration keeps you from getting stunned, and you can still use Staff 2 while channeling it to keep out of danger. iDefender soaks up half your damage and all the considerable times you’ll be getting regen (Chaos Armor again, Metaphysical Rejuvenation) will be granting you protection.

Again this is all theory, but I think it’s a start.

pahldus.1678:

Voodoo Tina.4180:

The biggest problem playing a tanky build as a Mesmer is that other players think you’re just bad. Mesmers can tank. We have as much HP as warriors, and if your trait and gear for it, more toughness than most soldiers. If they go all out they will have more, but not many do.

Warriors have a base 3k more HP than a mesmer, and the Warrior can rather easily hit over 2100 Toughness and even over 2200, and with their heavy armor this pushes them over 3400 Armor. Mesmers can’t hope to match those numbers.

I got it wrong. Necros have warrior HP, mesmers are on par with rangers.

The base difference in armor amounts to 290. In general that gap
Is easily bridged and then some. Of they wear the same gear as you they will come out ahead. In my experience, most of them don’t. Even where they do, we have our survival assets that can make us tougher than expected. Distortion is a tool I’m sure soldiers would love to have. Blurred Frenzy alone gives 2.5 sec invulnerability on a 10 sec cool down.

I ran a tank build for a while and I believe Anet delivered on the idea that every profession can fulfill every role if they want. It might not be perfectly balanced, I can’t say. But if you want you can definitely do it.

zexion.5842:

You won’t be able to be tanksih as a mesmer. We are not built that way. We are illusive, there is a difference.

I agree with Zexion. I play S/S before and since the GS iZerker nerf. I am so used to be mobile with mesmer that being tanky was useless to me.

Get Decoy + Mirror Images, you should be fine while letting clones get your hits. Like many people said already, Blurred Frenzy distortion is the key. Also, don’t underestimate Counter Blade and try to put Mimic in your build for more blocking.

Take a peek at my current build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znBKeXrN2AE

I’m built around self-heals in any state by using my shatters and mantras.

I think if you were to apply this with adjustments for melee, probably swapping Signet of Midnight for Mirror Images and working with distortion, and putting 10 points in duelist for sword cooldown, this could work great.

My assumption would be high healing power, toughness, and vitality from a mix cleric and magi, or going with shaman stats for healing and condition damage if you run staff. The main bulk of the fighting would be through using distortion to it’s max through blurred attacks and distortion use.

Another consideration is building aroun regeneration and protection on regen, and running heavy on melee range phantasms while going mele yourself. I’m thinking running sword/focus, defender, and sword/sword on the off-set. phantasms boost your damage and will trigger some regen/prot. Combine with Dwayna Runes for maximum melee survivability.

It is entirely possible to be tanky as a Mesmer, it’ll obviously not be the same as tanking with a Guardian or Warrior, but it can work.

Try something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgIQNAscWlwzSqXUzhGaNJhJF9G5new8oPdUFAfpC8G

Your defensive tools will mainly be:
- Chaos Armor (from Staff and combo fields)
- Chaos Storm (Interrupts / Aegis)
- Blurred Frenzy / Block
- Regeneration (grants Protection)
- Illusionary Defender
- Shatters (Daze, Invulnerability, Condition Removal)
- Shatter resets for more shatters