Returning Mesmer - State of the game
well we will get bug fixes and thats probably gonna be it. anet hasnt put any real effort in our class thats why most of the mesmers have moved on to other classes. i play necro, ele and war more often in wvw than mes right now… i did love my mesmer though and if anet would put some work into mesmer and not just fix bugs (and hide this as a buff which it isnt), give us non ai build options like glamour builds were, gave us aoe options that are not shatter based, would make shatters work in wvw without ip trait, would listen to the amazing community we have here, would listen to our suggestions and issues, would actually paly a mesmer and understant its mechanicsa nd would not just throw some random leftover gm trait at us, then i might be willing to main my mesmer again.
i only play my mes in wvw when none else wants to be the veilbot…
[AVTR]
Isle of Kickaspenwood
He said pve…
Also from what I understand it’s still just a standard phantasm build with sw/focus + sw/x.
He said pve…
Also from what I understand it’s still just a standard phantasm build with sw/focus + sw/x.
Funny, from what I’ve seen in pve so far its either a proper shatter build or a berserker/ swordsman combo.. which would imply GS+ x/sword.
That said, they only really want you for projectile reflects and quickness as a mesmer.. if you really want to pve now you need a warrior or a guardian.
He said pve…
Also from what I understand it’s still just a standard phantasm build with sw/focus + sw/x.
Funny, from what I’ve seen in pve so far its either a proper shatter build or a berserker/ swordsman combo.. which would imply GS+ x/sword.
That said, they only really want you for projectile reflects and quickness as a mesmer.. if you really want to pve now you need a warrior or a guardian.
Not accurate even in the slightest.
The PvE meta has never used shatter, and I doubt it ever will. It’s a 0/30/0/25/15 or 10/30/0/20/10 phantasm builds using sword/sword+sword/focus for the most part.
Not accurate even in the slightest.
The PvE meta has never used shatter, and I doubt it ever will. It’s a 0/30/0/25/15 or 10/30/0/20/10 phantasm builds using sword/sword+sword/focus for the most part.
Like I said, from what I’ve observed in the vast majority of blobs in the recent month, most mesmers are running with a GS followed up with a sword offhand for the swordsman.
Quite afew shatter mesmers aswell lately, and mind you, back in the earlier iterations of Citadel of Flame farming, mesmers ran shatter so it was most definitly part of the PvE “meta”, if it is now? Maybe not, I don’t have any numbers on the subject.
Yeah, gs makes more sense in big groups if you’re trying to tag things. It’s awful in dungeons/fractals, though. Necessary in those cases where you really want to range a boss, but still not good.
best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.”
Pre-launch, Colin listed things that make MMOs bad. They are all now in GW2.
Stack, pew-pew, stack, pew-pew… still the same old boring pve. Welcome back !
Hey guys,
i was quite a serious player until September when i had to stop playing. I am now able to play again and am rather lost. i understand that i can find things by going through patch notes but i havent found any significant changes in the past 5 months but may have eluded me.
I am just asking for more of a current perspective in regards to what the meta Mesmer is now in terms of general builds and what its current role is (Im talking PvE, Fractals, Dungeons etc.)Cheers,
0/30/0/25/15 – sword/focus + sword/sword.
You’re there for mob positioning, condition cleansing, projectile reflection, boon doubling, boon stripping and contributing your share of DPS.
Mesmers lack in the DPS department though which has made them quite fringe in the instanced meta, but for more casual runs people have no problem with it.
If anyone mentions builds outside of 0/30/0/25/15, 10/30/0/20/10, 30/30/0/0/10, 15/30/0/25/0 or 25/30/0/0/15, ignore them because they’re just talking about builds they like, not actual good builds. 30/30 and 25/30 are basically max DPS builds with less attention paid to reflect uptime, and 15/30 is basically an Arah build for mesmer soloing to apply vulnerability stacks to Lupicus before he does his AOE in phase 2 so you can maximise your damage.
Torch is worth taking for difficult skips as long as you can swap it back out in time for fights, greatsword is never worth taking, scepter is worth taking for a fight strictly requiring range (can’t think of any) or if you’re on Mai Trin and you’re doing the blocking “trick”, staff is pretty mediocre and off-hand pistol is for fights with no reflect required and you just want to maximise dps, in which case you take sword/sword + sword/pistol.
Stack, pew-pew, stack, pew-pew… still the same old boring pve. Welcome back !
oh look, it’s another person trying to simplify the depth of combat in this game. Solo the abomination in Arah p2 on mesmer and then come back and say it’s about stacking.
Game over, yo.
oh look, it’s another person trying to simplify the depth of combat in this game. Solo the abomination in Arah p2 on mesmer and then come back and say it’s about stacking.
I boldificated the 2 keywords of absurdity.
Hi
I also back to the game after several months and want to ask about roamer build.
I found this one on the RIOT forum
It’s still valid ? Not outdated ?
Thx for help.
Not accurate even in the slightest.
The PvE meta has never used shatter, and I doubt it ever will. It’s a 0/30/0/25/15 or 10/30/0/20/10 phantasm builds using sword/sword+sword/focus for the most part.
Like I said, from what I’ve observed in the vast majority of blobs in the recent month, most mesmers are running with a GS followed up with a sword offhand for the swordsman.
Quite afew shatter mesmers aswell lately, and mind you, back in the earlier iterations of Citadel of Flame farming, mesmers ran shatter so it was most definitly part of the PvE “meta”, if it is now? Maybe not, I don’t have any numbers on the subject.
Just because PUGs run it doesn’t mean it’s good. Shatter is baaad in PvE, and so is GS. Pyro’s post is correct. If you care for the best builds for mesmer right now, use s/f + s/s with 10/30/0/20/10 or 0/30/0/25/15. The former has slightly more damage, the latter has slightly faster phant cooldowns.
Edit: nice post from hendo as well~ All correct points.
oh look, it’s another person trying to simplify the depth of combat in this game. Solo the abomination in Arah p2 on mesmer and then come back and say it’s about stacking.
I boldificated the 2 keywords of absurdity.
There are still things you can stack and DPS while solo. Ancient Ooze, Magercrusher, Lyssa..
Try the abomination in trio or groups then, a pug won’t shave the defiant correctly or apply stability, or pull the mobs to the centre and people will go down. Experienced groups will do all of these and get a clean kill.
It’s almost as if people think stacking itself makes you invulnerable, but it doesn’t. And people who say the game is just about stacking in corners and DPS betray their lack of knowledge of the game – and to say it in a mesmer forum of all things where the mesmer’s contribution to fights is the most reflex and twitch based is unbelievable.
Game over, yo.
Just because PUGs run it doesn’t mean it’s good. Shatter is baaad in PvE, and so is GS. Pyro’s post is correct. If you care for the best builds for mesmer right now, use s/f + s/s with 10/30/0/20/10 or 0/30/0/25/15. The former has slightly more damage, the latter has slightly faster phant cooldowns.
Edit: nice post from hendo as well~ All correct points.
Whereas both shatter and GS may be less useful right now it still holds true that the mesmers I’ve seen recently have almost exclusively been using either of these 2.
That said tho, what are your foundations for determining that at this moment these builds are the best? I’ve not bothered doing a comparitive DPS test myself but from what I can see, noone has presented a coherent DPS comparison chart for mesmer builds and the miniscule testing done for each build seems to be limited to “This is my build, watch me attack a mob with it.”
There are still things you can stack and DPS while solo. Ancient Ooze, Magercrusher, Lyssa..
When it comes to the PvE in this game you can safely asume that the ‘stacking’ that goes on is either in the forms of boons, conditions or everyone piling up on the commandertag in a fluffy ball of blobitivity.
The thing here is simply put this: You’re asuming he means one thing when he states “stack”, I’m implying he mean something different.
However please, do elaborate on the stacking for magecrusher.. As far as I recall, the stacking is done by having all the players stack up on the platform? Surely having 1 player stand there is hardly to be considered stacking.
Try the abomination in trio or groups then, a pug won’t shave the defiant correctly or apply stability, or pull the mobs to the centre and people will go down. Experienced groups will do all of these and get a clean kill.
And all this implies is that a coordinated group that has done the boss before would outperform a group of randomly thrown together players, doesn’t quite say anything useful at all does it?
Whereas both shatter and GS may be less useful right now it still holds true that the mesmers I’ve seen recently have almost exclusively been using either of these 2.
That’s because most players in the game are bad. Most guardians run tank builds, most warriors use axe/axe, most rangers use bow. They’re all bad players.
That said tho, what are your foundations for determining that at this moment these builds are the best? I’ve not bothered doing a comparitive DPS test myself but from what I can see, noone has presented a coherent DPS comparison chart for mesmer builds and the miniscule testing done for each build seems to be limited to “This is my build, watch me attack a mob with it.”
They’re the best trade-off between DPS and utility, and hit as many damage modifiers as possible. Note how 10/30 and 0/30 both hit a phantasm damage modifier, empowering mantras and compounding power. They also choose to trait focus. The only difference between the two is illusionist’s celerity and 100 power. One of them has 100 power, the other has celerity.
When it comes to the PvE in this game you can safely asume that the ‘stacking’ that goes on is either in the forms of boons, conditions or everyone piling up on the commandertag in a fluffy ball of blobitivity.
Except, I pug all the time and bad pugs never apply relevant boons or vulnerability. Sure, stacking is to enable sharing of boons, but pugs don’t do it properly, the boons don’t just appear.
The thing here is simply put this: You’re asuming he means one thing when he states “stack”, I’m implying he mean something different.
However please, do elaborate on the stacking for magecrusher.. As far as I recall, the stacking is done by having all the players stack up on the platform? Surely having 1 player stand there is hardly to be considered stacking.
Bad groups stack in a safe spot which makes me want to flip tables and ragequit groups. Decent players stack directly in melee, chain reflects and dodge (or CC him) the symbol detonation. I soloed it first time on mesmer with stack + reflect because I’m not an idiot and know how to actually interact with its mechanics unlike most groups who (if pushed) will stack on him, not reflect, get gunk thrown at them and die.
And all this implies is that a coordinated group that has done the boss before would outperform a group of randomly thrown together players, doesn’t quite say anything useful at all does it?
So it basically says the game rewards skill and that CC enables you to achieve clean kills – brute forcing with just DPS works but is far more inefficient.
Game over, yo.
They’re the best trade-off between DPS and utility, and hit as many damage modifiers as possible. Note how 10/30 and 0/30 both hit a phantasm damage modifier, empowering mantras and compounding power. They also choose to trait focus. The only difference between the two is illusionist’s celerity and 100 power. One of them has 100 power, the other has celerity.
Even tho I already knew that and the explanation is mighty fine, it wasn’t remotely close to what I asked.
Consider this: These 2 are nothing else than a deviation of the same build and as far as I can see, noone has actually compared these to other builds in terms of DATA, we can all find out what the strong suites of a build is merely by glancing over the traits and see where they deviate from eachother but we don’t see any actual data.
All this tells us is that in a comparison between build A and B we get a slightly higher power for build A and a slightly higher rate of phantasms for build B, we do however NOT get any information whatsoever that determine wether or not build A or B has the highest output nor if there is a hidden option build C that is simply being neglected as it deviates too much from build A and B.
TLDR; Same builds, minor deviations, lack of data.
Except, I pug all the time and bad pugs never apply relevant boons or vulnerability. Sure, stacking is to enable sharing of boons, but pugs don’t do it properly, the boons don’t just appear.
Which means we differentiate between bad and less bad pugs, when it comes to larger blobs you’re going to wound up with most of the boons simply by sheer accident, in smaller groups you might however end up missing certain boons. The reason however can be quite a different thing than simply a case of bawfulness; Lets say you’re in a group of 5, it is highly plausible that IF you are in a pug, several of your players are trying to provide the same boon or apply weakness, this leads to an excess of that boon/condition that simply gets wasted. In return, it also leads to a lack of something else that you may be expecting from the group.. as such you perceive them as BAD because hey, you applied your 49 stacks of might.. why aren’t they applying vulnerability? Perhaps they too are trying to apply might?
While it is purely anecdotal I must say that in the pugs I’ve been in, the vast majority of players do apply what they can based around their build.. absolutely room for improvement in some cases but it is more likely to be a case of colliding roles rather than a case of the players being bad.
Bad groups stack in a safe spot which makes me want to flip tables and ragequit groups. Decent players stack directly in melee, chain reflects and dodge (or CC him) the symbol detonation. I soloed it first time on mesmer with stack + reflect because I’m not an idiot and know how to actually interact with its mechanics unlike most groups who (if pushed) will stack on him, not reflect, get gunk thrown at them and die.
So basically you stacked boons solo and rotated boons in a group, seen rotations happen in pugs on countless occasions..
So it basically says the game rewards skill and that CC enables you to achieve clean kills – brute forcing with just DPS works but is far more inefficient.
If the game rewarded skill then we’d be seeing more fights like liandri and less fights with safe spots.
From the group.. as such you perceive them as BAD because hey, you applied your 49 stacks of might.. why aren’t they applying vulnerability? Perhaps they too are trying to apply might?
If they were trying to apply might we’d have a fire field before the start of the fight, we’d have eles who knew what blast finishers were, we’d have rangers using off-hand warhorn. The truth is, they aren’t trying to apply might, the only time you can semi-consistently get might is warriors using for great justice because all it requires is a skill click. And I quite rightly perceive pug groups as bad when I’m effortlessly performing skips and soloing basically the entire dungeon for them (one arah run I did, I did hunter/crusher solo on warrior, switched to thief, skipped them through to magecrusher, switched to warrior for lupicus – and then for arah p2 I mesmer’d belka, ported them to abomination, I dealt with reflects, CC and stability for the boss and adds, I finished off Lupicus, I carried the entire Alphard fight (they were wailing away at her not realising it was my reflect uptime which is what made it so they weren’t hitting dirt) and then ported them to Brie.
I pug out of a sense of masochism and because I enjoy carrying, but the fact that I enjoy it doesn’t mean they are actually good. Most good players just play in their own guilds.
While it is purely anecdotal I must say that in the pugs I’ve been in, the vast majority of players do apply what they can based around their build.. absolutely room for improvement in some cases but it is more likely to be a case of colliding roles rather than a case of the players being bad.
No, players are literally just bad. Outside of guardian empower and for great justice I pretty much don’t see any other might stacking, and that is consistent across all dungeons whenever I pug them.
So basically you stacked boons solo and rotated boons in a group, seen rotations happen in pugs on countless occasions..
I didn’t stack a single boon, I chained reflects. And no, you haven’t seen it countless times because pugs still safe spot Magecrusher. They still pull hunter/crusher outside. I might be in an elite dungeon guild but I pug so much that it helps me keep in touch with the standard and quality of runs, and they are still doing these amateur things almost two years after release.
If the game rewarded skill then we’d be seeing more fights like liandri and less fights with safe spots.
Lupicus, Simin, Magecrusher, Abomination, Alphard, Archdiviner, Mossman, Mai Trin.
All of these fights heavily reward skill. I can solo Lupicus quicker than entire groups can range him because the game rewards my skill with faster kill times. Simin, Abomination, Archdiviner, Mossman and Mai Trin all reward co-ordination. Simin is the closest you get to someone playing a “support” role in the “forum” sense of it as you watch for people about to get stoned then apply stability. You need to run sparks quickly so she doesnt regenerate too much, you need to apply tears to stoned players quickly so your DPS isn’t compromised too heavily. Abomination I’ve gone over, Archdiviner, Mossman and Mai Trin – well take a look at our streams (http://www.twitch.tv/nike_dnt has a link to about six or so of our other guildies’ streams as well) and compare it to pug tactics which involve range circle-kiting. We’re heavily rewarded with our co-ordination with faster kills and we very rarely wipe. Alphard and Magecrusher heavily promote learning the mechanics for fast kills. Alphard will just pull you over and over again until you get the message, and Magecrusher allows you to either slowly afk him, or get an efficient full melee kill.
The fact that GW2 is so skill based is why I even enjoy playing it so much, without being forced to rely on others, I can quite easily keep myself going against bosses even once everyone is dead.
Game over, yo.
If they were trying to apply might we’d have a fire field before the start of the fight, we’d have eles who knew what blast finishers were, we’d have rangers using off-hand warhorn. The truth is, they aren’t trying to apply might, the only time you can semi-consistently get might is warriors using for great justice because all it requires is a skill click. And I quite rightly perceive pug groups as bad when I’m effortlessly performing skips and soloing basically the entire dungeon for them (one arah run I did, I did hunter/crusher solo on warrior, switched to thief, skipped them through to magecrusher, switched to warrior for lupicus – and then for arah p2 I mesmer’d belka, ported them to abomination, I dealt with reflects, CC and stability for the boss and adds, I finished off Lupicus, I carried the entire Alphard fight (they were wailing away at her not realising it was my reflect uptime which is what made it so they weren’t hitting dirt) and then ported them to Brie.
You go girl!
Carrying them through arrah and doesn’t afraid of anything!
No really, I used might as an example and I’m sure theres people who don’t contribute in pugs, I’m just saying they’re far and few between in my experience.
I pug out of a sense of masochism and because I enjoy carrying, but the fact that I enjoy it doesn’t mean they are actually good. Most good players just play in their own guilds.
As such you also go into each PUG with the asumption that the other players are simply bad and need you to carry them.
No, players are literally just bad.
To other players, you are one of those players.
Outside of guardian empower and for great justice I pretty much don’t see any other might stacking, and that is consistent across all dungeons whenever I pug them.
And that is just anecdotal, I see it happen more often than not, you evidently dont. we’re not getting anywhere on this particular part, accept that my experience with pugs is different to yours and leave it at that.
I didn’t stack a single boon, I chained reflects. And no, you haven’t seen it countless times because pugs still safe spot Magecrusher. They still pull hunter/crusher outside. I might be in an elite dungeon guild but I pug so much that it helps me keep in touch with the standard and quality of runs, and they are still doing these amateur things almost two years after release.
If you don’t stack, your initial statement that “you solo stack on magecrusher” is simply not true.
Furthermore I congratulate you on your omnivision, being able to observe what other players see while not being present yourself.. remarkable.
Lupicus, Simin, Magecrusher, Abomination, Alphard, Archdiviner, Mossman, Mai Trin.
So 8 fights out of n rewards skill, I’d say Archdiviner, mossman and mai trin doesn’t really do it either.
The fact that GW2 is so skill based is why I even enjoy playing it so much, without being forced to rely on others, I can quite easily keep myself going against bosses even once everyone is dead.
Yes, it is quite enjoyable to solo bosses after your party has gone belly up. It has more to do with a poor attention span than anything else tho and I would hardly call moving out of red circles skillfull.
You go girl!
Carrying them through arrah and doesn’t afraid of anything!
No really, I used might as an example and I’m sure theres people who don’t contribute in pugs, I’m just saying they’re far and few between in my experience.
Necro minions healing Lupicus and causing repeated transitions, thieves who don’t know how to blast their own smoke screen, guardians using line/ring of warding on bosses, elementalists who just sit there autoattacking, GS mesmers. The amount of pugs who don’t contribute is extraordinary and I see it every day. It makes me so relieved I’m a crack Arah runner and can just carry entire groups because if I was as clueless as the rest of them it would be some three hour run of hell.
As such you also go into each PUG with the asumption that the other players are simply bad and need you to carry them.
I go in to a PUG with the assumption that they aren’t as experienced as me, and they fulfill that criteria basically every single time.
To other players, you are one of those players.
Maybe I need to upload my entire gallery of screenshots of groups thanking me for carrying them through fights X, Y and Z and/or through the entire dungeon. By the time I finish my pug runs, groups are normally extremely grateful I was there. I don’t brag about it either, I just quietly get on with it – actions speak louder than words.
And that is just anecdotal, I see it happen more often than not, you evidently dont. we’re not getting anywhere on this particular part, accept that my experience with pugs is different to yours and leave it at that.
I’m not sure what pugs you’re getting because I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I have pugged and we have opened up fights with fire fields and blasts.
If you don’t stack, your initial statement that “you solo stack on magecrusher” is simply not true.
What. I stack on the boss, work towards full reflect uptime and just win.
So 8 fights out of n rewards skill, I’d say Archdiviner, mossman and mai trin doesn’t really do it either.
I agree, the fact that we can get 45 minute Fractal 50s while having to fight all three of these bosses if we’re unlucky clearly isn’t skill, it’s just stack and 1111111.
Yes, it is quite enjoyable to solo bosses after your party has gone belly up. It has more to do with a poor attention span than anything else tho and I would hardly call moving out of red circles skillfull.
Now let’s see your videos. Also, thanks for the complete dismissal of the effort people like me put in to learning to solo fights since it’s clearly just stack and 11111111111, it’s easy brainless faceroll, amirite?
Game over, yo.
Necro minions healing Lupicus and causing repeated transitions, thieves who don’t know how to blast their own smoke screen, guardians using line/ring of warding on bosses, elementalists who just sit there autoattacking, GS mesmers. The amount of pugs who don’t contribute is extraordinary and I see it every day. It makes me so relieved I’m a crack Arah runner and can just carry entire groups because if I was as clueless as the rest of them it would be some three hour run of hell.
Listing examples and patting yourself on the back, again you don’t seem to get the point that just because you have a certain experience in groups that it is the norm.
Considering the attitude you appear to have against PUGs odds are fairly high that you’re also somewhat exaggerating it.
I go in to a PUG with the assumption that they aren’t as experienced as me, and they fulfill that criteria basically every single time.
Hmm yes, you are right.. that DOES look better than what I said.. but in reality it is exactly what I said.
Maybe I need to upload my entire gallery of screenshots of groups thanking me for carrying them through fights X, Y and Z and/or through the entire dungeon. By the time I finish my pug runs, groups are normally extremely grateful I was there. I don’t brag about it either, I just quietly get on with it – actions speak louder than words.
Sure it is always nice when somebody sends a “well played” in your direction, but screenworthy? The sole purpose for screening that should be to brag about it, something you claim you do not do.
I’m not sure man, I’m just not sure.
I’m not sure what pugs you’re getting because I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I have pugged and we have opened up fights with fire fields and blasts.
That is truly unfortunate.
What. I stack on the boss, work towards full reflect uptime and just win.
Ah, so you position yourself in melee with the boss and then STACK reflect to reach its maxed duration.
Standing in melee/under the boss is hardly stacking good sir.
I agree, the fact that we can get 45 minute Fractal 50s while having to fight all three of these bosses if we’re unlucky clearly isn’t skill, it’s just stack and 1111111.
No I’m absolutely certain that you consider it skill, furthermore I don’t think I’ve seen anyone just mash autoattacks in fractals at all yet, regardless of difficulty.
Now let’s see your videos. Also, thanks for the complete dismissal of the effort people like me put in to learning to solo fights since it’s clearly just stack and 11111111111, it’s easy brainless faceroll, amirite?
Well, I mean sure, to some it might require more than just mashing 1 to beat them…
Considering I’ve soloed quite a bunch of things here myself I have to say I haven’t dismissed any of the ‘effort’ you put in, I’ve downplayed it a tad bit because it isn’t such a big deal.. Theres probably quite afew players out there who has soloed quite afew bosses but haven’t had the need to create a video of it..
Because that is perhaps what the big issue is here; Some of us don’t strive to show off our ‘uberkills’ to others, we beat them because we want to see wether or not we can.
So I’m going to skip your videos mind you, I’m sure they are very impressive tho.
Hello, another returning mesmer here checking for state of the game.
Interested in the 0/30/0/25/15 builds that Hendo has been talking about, a couple of questions to check for advise.
How would you advise of going 0/25/0/25/20 in order to take phantasmal haste, is it worth in terms of damage increase if i am not planning on loading on mantras in utility slots?
Maybe even 0/20/0/30/20 as the 25 in duelist doesn’t do much, besides the extra precision and critical, and the 30 in inspiration can allow me to take useful traits such as both glamour traits or compounding celerity.
Any thoughts about both options?
Hello, another returning mesmer here checking for state of the game.
Interested in the 0/30/0/25/15 builds that Hendo has been talking about, a couple of questions to check for advise.
How would you advise of going 0/25/0/25/20 in order to take phantasmal haste, is it worth in terms of damage increase if i am not planning on loading on mantras in utility slots?
Maybe even 0/20/0/30/20 as the 25 in duelist doesn’t do much, besides the extra precision and critical, and the 30 in inspiration can allow me to take useful traits such as both glamour traits or compounding celerity.
Any thoughts about both options?
If you absolutely refuse mantras, then 10/20/0/25/15 is best probably. It’s still a large DPS loss, but anything else would be an even larger loss.