Guild Wars 2

I just started a Mesmer….and to be candid, I am enjoing it a great deal. I am currently level 15.

But I have a question…either I am doing something right, or I am not understanding what I am doing, and it is working out well regardless. My current setup is primary Staff, with secondary Scepter/Focus. Any insight that might explain why I am achieving the success I am with this setup would be appreciated.

I notice that my sheer damage with the Staff primary attack is not that large — only 50 or so per strike…yet my opponents, which are in the Swamp — same level as I am, level 15’s normal and veteran – I am seeing their health bars go down quick. I soloed the skill point event (veteran water, level 15) and I am taking down portals with multiple mobs solo and barely breaking a sweat…

Yet my damage numbers do not appear to be that high. I also play a Warrior, and am used to seeing damage values much, much higher…but my Mesmer seems to be more than keeping up with disposing of mobs in PvE. Is this normal? Most of the posts I read about Mesmer before I decided to try it out complained about low damage values and a challenging play style required to be successful…yet at this point, I am thinking that this is one of the best classes out there…and I can’t see where the complaints are coming from.

Also…is there a combo with chaos storm/feedback field?

Staff has pathetically low direct damage, but it inflicts conditions that make up for a great deal of any kind of damage lost off the initial strike. Also, they bounce – and your staff clone attacks also bounce/inflict those conditions.

This leads to the staff being less of a “crush foe to pieces” weapon and more of a “watch foes melt” weapon. Steady, sustained damage over bursts.

And yes, there is a combo. Spinning things such as iZerker will cause projectile confusion. Projectile finishers cause confusion, leap finishers give you chaos armor, blast finishers give AoE chaos armor.

And yes, Mesmer is a great deal of fun. Complaints come mainly from the phantasm side due to their never-ending bugs/nerfs as the devs try and fine-tune where they should be, and in WvW.

Edit: Scepter is supposedly a good lowbie weapon now that the projectile speed has been increased – Gives you lots of shatter fodder, a ranged attack, a block, and the channeled confusion beam is pretty okay. Confusion is sorta rubbish in PvE though. Focus, like wise, is good for keeping up swiftness and yanking people around.

Just starting out, you may not have a full grasp on using iWarden yet – It’s without a doubt one of our strongest Phantasms, but it’s kind of finicky to use due to it’s immobility, so don’t fret or dismiss it if it seems unwieldy at first. Staff is also a good starter weapon to get used to clones, range, and the skills in general – Since it offers high survivability.

Once you feel you’ve got a handle on the basics, try branching out into pistols, torches, swords and greatswords. You may find something you like better, or you may decide your current set up is working the best – The Mesmer profession really revolves around what suits you best.

Maelduin.5149:

…I notice that my sheer damage with the Staff primary attack is not that large — only 50 or so per strike…yet my opponents, which are in the Swamp — same level as I am, level 15’s normal and veteran – I am seeing their health bars go down quick. I soloed the skill point event (veteran water, level 15) and I am taking down portals with multiple mobs solo and barely breaking a sweat…

Also…is there a combo with chaos storm/feedback field?

staff 1 skill does condition damage too (burn/bleed), did you take that into account too?

you get confusion/chaos armor combos with ethereal fields.

e.g. with staff u can do chaos storm(5) and then use phase retreat(2) to make leap combo which yields chaos armor.
other leap you can have, is on one handed sword (3)

with greatsword’s (2) you can make projectile finisher combo yielding confusion combo

with focus (5) you can make whirlwind combo yielding confusion bolts

and with torch (4) you can make blast combo yielding mass chaos armor

also worth mentioning – your ethereal fields are chaos storm (staff 5, or jump trait), feedback (also from medics feedback trait), null field, timewarp.

and you also got one couple light fields – focus (4) temporal curtain and veil.
with light fields you can produce – cleanse, cleanse bolts, retaliation, area retaliation combos