Guild Wars 2

So I really want to get my mesmer’s world completion to 100% before the expansion comes out, but I can’t stand the skills, and how it revolves so much around the summoning and destroying of clones and phantasms to kill things (the destroying of clones is fine, but always summoning clones and phantasms is just plain annoying – ain’t nobody got time for that!). She’s currently at 69% completion, with all waypoints unlocked, and a few maps 100% completed, but mostly just missing pois, hearts and vistas now.

With so many hearts requiring you to kill things, I find myself in a dilemma, because in order to kill things efficiently, usually the best way is to summon and destroy clones or phantasms (and even then, you have to time the destruction of your clones and phantasms on that 1 single enemy before it’s completely killed, or else if the enemy dies before you get to destroy your clones and phantasms, you basically waste the damage you could have done to MULTIPLE enemies, if you destroyed them all before that 1 single enemy died).

I guess I’m just frustrated with the function of phantasms and clones, and the fact that you have to do this with basically EVERY monster you come across. This, I feel, is just a complete waste of time and a complete and utter nuisance.

See, if I’m an elementalist, I don’t have to summon, say, tornadoes, and then destroy them, in order to deal a decent amount of damage (thank god!) – all I have to do is press skill #1 on my staff, while attuned to fire, and hey, the damage comes rolling in. With mesmer? It feels like a REAL mission to deal damage quick and easily.

I feel as though mesmer is really clunky and slow as a profession. Sometimes I wish that clones/phantasms would just automatically be summoned everytime you attack something – it makes perfect sense to me. No more wasting time summoning this and that, and then destroying them (at a very specific moment) just to deal decent damage.

I find I kill things WAYYY faster on my ele than I would, with a mesmer, unfortunately I can’t use elementalist skills on my mesmer (as much as I would love to – trust me!) – and I want to get this character to 100% map completion, but their skills are just a real downer to me. So with all that being said… my question is:

TL;DR: Are there any good PvE builds that don’t require clones/phantasms as the main source of damage, are power based, and use melee/physical attack skills? Preferably ones that deal good AOE damage.

I find Sword #2 is really nice, but I still feel mesmers are seriously lacking something. Maybe it’s a lack of weapons that are 1) fast in speed – (think the speed of a traited revenant’s sword), 2) that has powerful, AOE skills, and 3) doesn’t require summoning any clones or phantasms to deal decent damage. I think this is what the mesmer seriously lacks.

I’m kinda hoping the axe that’s coming with the Mirage specialization will solve all these problems (and I doubt clones and phantasms being summoned automatically upon attacking something will happen), but until then, I’m really frustrated with the mesmer’s skills and constant summoning and destroying of clones and phantasms.

Am I the only one here? And are there any physical based builds that don’t require the constant summoning and destroying of clones and phantasms?

Yes, Mesmer/Chrono dps does suck kittens but the class itself is fun! Not sure what the hassle with clones and such as I find your weapon skills pop those automatically, do they not? Also, in open world/map compl I don’t bother shattering, just let hold them aggro as you down from a safe distance and move on, they wont hate you for it!
Of course your Ele kills faster, that’s what they are made for really, and they do it well. But for something fun and different Mesmer is just that. I have soloed many a HP in the jungle on Mesmer just fine even though it took a year to do it.
So yea, I suggest just run the best dps spec that Fay or someone elese has posted in here and go nuts!
Just don’t look at the class as being an Ele and you be right!

Hmm it seems the builds are outdated, Fay no longer runs the builds thread, and the link to metabattle won’t work. I might just try some YouTube videos and find something that works, thanks for the help though!

In open world i ran gs sword focus and utilties heal signet signet of insp mimic and blink and gravity well. Thanks to chrono this build provides me with good burst for the open world mobs as well as immense mobility.

Thanks Zealex, yeah I think I’ll run berserker stats and go with greatsword, and sword with an off-hand weapon that goes well with sword. Will look at those skills you mentioned too.

Zaoda.1653:

TL;DR: Are there any good PvE builds that don’t require clones/phantasms as the main source of damage, are power based, and use melee/physical attack skills? Preferably ones that deal good AOE damage.

You’re not the only one here. The times I personally used a F-Shatter is below 50x since release and I currently play my 3rd Mesmer to 80.

I use my illusions primarily to bind mob-attention to them, so I do not shatter them at all. But I do not play a power-only-build. The staff phantasm has a unique damage scaling mechanic: the more conditions a mob has, the more damage it does. You do not really need AoE, because with three illusions you basically can fight 3 or more mobs simultaneously, just tab through the mobs and assign one illusion to each one. Thanks to bouncing attacks all mobs will be affected by hits, especially when you use staff clones. It maybe takes a bit longer to down a group compaired to other professions, but it has great survivability and also works pretty good when soloing centraltyria champs. Staff-clones also have a unique utility: they can be summoned and will attack an enemy even without an obstacle-free line of sight. They will run around corners or run up-/downstairs to get into free LoS-distance.

This is my current build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8clsnhC1YHawANwtGL4GUZASwrRDST2x5Mm9tB-e

I’d say Illusions and Inspiration is mandatory for better survivability, swap Dueling for Chaos when fighting lots of archers or attackers from a distance or when you just need a heal every 12 secs: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8clsnhC1YHawANwtGLAHEaM6xKOHxoPtZCiQAA-e

The Heal skill and the Signet of Illusions also can be swapped, depending on the situation or your prefered playstyle. I use S/S as second weapon set to have a melee phantasm available whenever it’s necessary, like in narrow places, because Staff favors areas with enough space to circle. It also provides a constant regen-effect in close range for other melee-players.

When I was level 38 and scaled down to Brisban-lvl I managed to keep the bandit champ in the north busy, while all other players unfortunately were dead. I didn’t want the champ to reset, so I kept it and its respawning minions running from illusion to illusion until its hp went down from 80% to about 20% in about 5 minutes, when finally the other players got revived and we could finish the champ. I had the full Chaos tree and some points put into Inspiration at this time. Imo there are not many players/professions out there who are able to do this at this level. It wasn’t easy but satisfying.

Although my other two Mesmers have access to Chronomancer, this mastery is not very suitable for non-shatter-builds, or at least I couldn’t figure out a good setup yet.

Zaoda.1653:

I find I kill things WAYYY faster on my ele than I would, with a mesmer,

Comparing the absolute top tier damage dealer with the absolute last tier damage dealer does that.

Zaoda.1653:

TL;DR: Are there any good PvE builds that don’t require clones/phantasms as the main source of damage, are power based, and use melee/physical attack skills? Preferably ones that deal good AOE damage.

That don’t require phantasms? No.

You can minimise the hassle slightly by focusing on area damage. Greatsword was mentioned, that works, so does focus with it’s pull and aoe phantasm. Focus pull some enemys together, cast focus 5 while running into the group as to not scatter them, Sword 2 the entire group and then finish them off with Mind wrack.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRnknBlph1oBeqBEgilTjqeaz2vlMA2glDdM6uvD-e

You can’t play without phantasms. I run this build and works well in open world. Start with gs #2, #4 and #3, get close and switch to melee, if they have low health->blurred frenzy and mind wrack… or if they have half or more health left, time diversion for interrupt and get quickness, use mirror images and then mind wrack with blurred frenzy. You can throw shield #5 in between if needed, it’s pretty cool for groups.
Against tougher mobs you have a lot of interrupts to stop their attacks and get quickness which helps with killing them faster. You can have perma quickness in most fights, which helps a lot obviously.
If you want to further minimize summoning you can even take dueling instead and take deceptive evasion to produce clones with dodging. And you get some more out of sword as well, like you wanted.
As you can see, only one phantasm here and even that one is not always needed.

Zaoda.1653:

Thanks Zealex, yeah I think I’ll run berserker stats and go with greatsword, and sword with an off-hand weapon that goes well with sword. Will look at those skills you mentioned too.

If you need help with how to triple blink or double blink dont be shy and message me about it.