Guild Wars 2

My Mesmer has been parked since the game went live because I struggled in solo PvE and personal story. While playing one of my alts a few days ago and out of the blue it dawned on me how and when to Shatter and which Trait to take that would help me solo level.

Domination 10 : V Crippling Dissipation (Clones Cripple when killed)

I got the above trait and went out into the world with the idea to shatter as soon as my next Phantasm was ready -as in off CD. The results were fantastic, I turned into a solo powerhouse taking on mobs higher and harder with extreme ease, 5 levels higher no problems, 4 Ettins, again no issues, 2 Vets with a complements of adds…walk in the park. All of this was made possible by figuring out how to keep multi adds Crippled and realizing how important it is to Shatter when my nect complement if Illusions were ready to be cast.

While I recognize some players just can not function in any fluid manner as ranged I also can not function in any fluid manner as melee that is why my choice and very successful at it is GS+Staff works just as well as others choice of Sword+X. Staff is my Chaos machine for AE moments, its my safety net that has yet to fail me.

Crippling Dissipation only works with Clones so not Phantasm, keep that in mind.

If you are a ranged player like myself and excel at kiting and enjoy that play style then GS is a great weapon keeping in mind the low CD on GS Might/Vulnerability stacking Clone and GS Phantasm Whirl that Cripples and then moves away its a guaranteed thing mobs will always focus your Clones and enjoy a perma Cripple!

I have discovered that GS even at close range is a powerful weapon as long as you can maintain your Might stacks and Vulnerability stacks, keep that in mind.

One last note: I tried to slack off to see what happens to my kill time, so I’d not cast my Phantasm when it was ready because the mob was about to die and I wanted to insta pull the next..BAD IDEA. This class needs you to be pumping out Illusions or you DPS will plummet and that last few % a mob has will take forever to go. So, you need to maintain your best DPS priority list up all the time.

Looking forward to hearing from others if they share, want to add to this?

Be sure that shattering does not trigger “on death” effects. Your tactic might work well if you shatter them and immediatly after that spawn your crippling Phantasms AND other clones. But I don’t really know why you need perma cripple on your targets ?
If you use GS, you’re a running Mesmer, not standing around and hoping the the targets to only attack your illusions. You keep running and dodging (Duelling X).

I’m a bleeding build and I rarly use shatters at all, since the normal mobs fall before I can shatter effectively. Just at bigger mobs I shatter since I can re-summon 3 new illusions within 1.5s. Just since those abilties have semi-high recharges, I don’t bother shattering on normal mobs.

As the above posted, shatter does not use the traits ‘on death’. Shattered and Killed are different things, so by shattering instead of letting your clones die you are not crippling them.

Change it to Mind Wrack does 20% more damage if that’s your playstyle.

Perma-cripple keeps enemies out of range from your mesmer, even while you’re attacking. Sure, you’re going to keep moving, but unless they’re crippled, you’re either not facing them (preventing you from attacking), or you’re moving slow enough that they can close the distance.

Crippling in PvE also seems to carry the side-effect of lessening agro. Enemies seem to be more likely to focus on illusions closer to them than you if they’re moving slower than normal… which makes it more likely they’ll kill your clones, thus keeping them crippled and you much safer.

Ribos”

Sure, you’re going to keep moving, but unless they’re crippled, you’re either not facing them (preventing you from attacking)

if you use [move left] as default buttons and not [turn left] you can perfectly circle mobs without turning your back to them.
And furthermore normal mobs usually fall before they reach me. Dodge back or side, use GS #5 and done. For Higher HP mobs (veteran +), you can keep dodging, since I have perm vigor from traits and crits.

I may have not been clear in my post, I maintain no operational link between ‘Shatter’ and Cripple or kiting, they are two different and unconnected mechanics that I employee.

Cripple:

Following on what Ribos said, I have realized that Crippling in PvE “seems to carry the side-effect of lessening agro.”

The actual mechanic I use is auti attack to grab the attention of the mob then spawn Berserk Phantasm which Cripples and whirls some distant away while I get closer for the bounce and then spawn my clone. At this point the Phantasm and I are furthest away and the mob will go for the clone which snares when killed.

I attribute the trait with transforming my solo PvE experience from horrendous to hero!

Shatter:

As soon as my Phantasm is up again I shatter especially if I have 3 Illusions up. If I have 2 or less I tend to just cast another Phantasm.

All of this was made possible by figuring out how to keep multi adds Crippled and realizing how important it is to Shatter when my nect complement if Illusions were ready to be cast.

Great job! You are now better than 80% of Mesmer players. Keep up the good work and expand your familiarity with the timing of all weapons (although GS + Staff is easily the easiest weapon combo to PvE with).

Sword is pretty entertaining if you can get the hang of it. Although GS+Staff really maximizes Elasticity.

But I don’t really know why you need perma cripple on your targets ?

Because he’s fighting groups of mobs 5 levels higher than him that will take over half his HP off with 1 hit.

Yeah you got it. That tactic lets you solo really tough mobs even without the best gear. Just watch for any that can stun lock you or chain cc together and you’re pretty much set!

Cempa.3645:

I may have not been clear in my post, I maintain no operational link between ‘Shatter’ and Cripple or kiting, they are two different and unconnected mechanics that I employee.

Cripple:

Following on what Ribos said, I have realized that Crippling in PvE “seems to carry the side-effect of lessening agro.”

The actual mechanic I use is auti attack to grab the attention of the mob then spawn Berserk Phantasm which Cripples and whirls some distant away while I get closer for the bounce and then spawn my clone. At this point the Phantasm and I are furthest away and the mob will go for the clone which snares when killed.

I attribute the trait with transforming my solo PvE experience from horrendous to hero!

Shatter:

As soon as my Phantasm is up again I shatter especially if I have 3 Illusions up. If I have 2 or less I tend to just cast another Phantasm.

Hmm. I’m attempting to run the same general setup with clone spawn, the “cripple on clone death” trait and hoping enemies kill the clones and get crippled while I’m using GS, and it doesn’t work at all for me. Enemies either go after the Berserker (quickly killing it) or go after me. I’ve been having to use Decoy (stealth) quite a lot just to “force” enemies to go after my clones instead of just trying to go after me.

Maybe its all in the attack order, though. I usually start with #2, assuming the clone will be right there and the enemy should attack it immedietly since its the start of combat and the enemy shouldn’t have much aggro toward me yet, but it usually doesn’t work that way, it just keeps coming towards me and ignores the clone. Then I’ll throw an auto attack or two, then I’ll use Berserker (which usually draws the enemy’s attention for all of the 3 seconds it’ll still be alive, and sometimes the enemy just hits it and kills it before it even attacks). Perhaps your order would be more effective, I’ll have to give it a try.

Even if the strategy works perfectly I don’t really see how it would work against multiple enemies, though. Whenever I come up against multiple enemies (any more than 2) the enemies will quickly destroy every clone / phantasm on the field and leave me alone faster than I can bring clones back up.

@ Electro: Open with GS #1 and let it channel a full channel then cast berserk and start running in and then cast clone. All of the group will be crippled and heading to you, strafe in circles while refreshing your Illusions and use the knock back.

Don’t open with any Illusion!

Use dodges and cripple to make other targets more attractive. Proximity is a fair part of the aggro in this game, and cripple seems to multiply the effect. If something comes for you, dodge and put a clone it its path. The farther you get, the greater chance the mob will disengage for an easier target.

The reason your berserker is getting tagged is because it applies the cripple at point blank range. Try using 4 before 2 so the mob switches to the clone after the zerker spins away. GS5 also works great to switch it up.

EDIT: kitten Ninja’d.

As previous posters have said, shattering won’t give the on death effects however overwriting them still does. So if you are running a hybrid shatter build like I use with clone on dodge you can pump out enough clones when needed and use the overwrites to still cripple. Of course you can also just replace with the dmg increase to mind wrack when needed plays fairly flexible that way, need more cc less dmg just switch some traits.

I’m also using a heavy shatter build with GS+Staff

20-20-0-0-30

Domination I*, X
Dueling II*, X
Illusions I, VII, XI

the “*” are sometimes changed if a boss run like crazy – cripple, if damage is heavy cloack at 25%

With Critical Infusion and clone + dodge You’re a clone machine.

Illusionary persona adds another shatter effect. In addition F1, F2 (defalut) are aoe attack witch are awesome F3 is mainly for get down bosses “immune-to-cc-buff” and it’s 4 stacks with 1 shatter of F3!

It’s a really fast, dynamic and powerfull build. Love it in PvE and Dungeons.

Quam, What stats do you go for with that 20-20-0-0-30 build. I really want to try a GS+Staff build but they seem hard to get the stats to work out as you’d want power+precision+condition for offense. Right now I use a power+precision GS/sword+focus build.

A few things to note:

The GS 4 pBerserker is likely the cause of the cripple you’re seeing, not the trait.

The 20-20-0-0-30 build is very powerful, but VERY squishy. I personally run a 30-0-0-20-20 setup. The focus is an amazing tool especially when traited in the vit line. The extra hp might not seem like much but when dealing with dungeons, or particularly aggressive thieves in pvp it pays off.

The focus 4 skill is the definition of massive utility: haste, cripple, pull, and reflect. You haven’t seen awesome until you rip a stack of people off a keep wall into the waiting zerg below.

The 3rd shatter is highly underrated. Clones rarely reach the target and detonate at the same time. And with the daze each hit clone will interrupt a newly started attack. It usually ends up 1 second daze (thus interrrupted), 1 second before the next clone shatters // repeat.

Mesmers are highly reliant on their utility, much more than other classes and that’s why the first 20-30 levels are harder.

Shadow Puppet above is absolutely correct. Shatter’s might not trigger on-death effects but the clone overwrite certainly does. That’s why the Dueling X trait for clones on dodge and Mirror Image are awesome for clone factory builds.

20-20-0-0-30 is squishy but You have so many survival ability it’s almost insane.
Vigor gives use more dodgeing, distortion (shatter) with 3 clones gives You 3 seconds of immortality, desperate decoy cloack at 25% from trait and decoy as utility, blink is amazing, if it get’s hard swap to staff any ethereal combo field (or chaos storm if not on cd) #2 skill inside and chaos armor, chaos armor from #4

It is really hard to die solo even with coupple od mobs on my face. Dungeons are different cuz You have 4 other peaple to use as decoys
So I take only blink and Feedback + Null Field to be usefull in my team.

I was running with Power/Precision/Condition Damage but i crafted yesterday the Valkyrie set, Berseker weapon, and power/precision/toughness jewelery.

Just throwing in 2 thumbs up to OP and others in this thread. I love when ppl not go negative about a complex class but rather try theorycraft ways to get teh jobb done. Some of the ways to play in here sounds wery solid, i mainly pvp but might try the cripple on owerrite (clone die) and apply a wand. It should owerwrite the 3rd clone and apply effect.

Quam.7218:

20-20-0-0-30 is squishy but You have so many survival ability it’s almost insane.

Yeah people seem to underrate the defensive options in the Dueling line. Illusions also has a few good D picks, too. But I also agree 20 in Inspirations is very powerful, especially if you run with the focus and the mantra heal for condition removal and speed buff from centaur runes. Personally, I prefer 20/20/0/20/10 (tho I do miss IP shatters). Melee opponents are a joke with this setup and several reflect options take care of ranged fools. You can always make up stats with gear.

Gear provides far more base stats than trait lines. Only notable trait line stats are crit damage, condition duration, and boon duration. Rest is fluff, although tangentially applicable.

Edit: Class-specific bonus (e.g. Shatter cooldown for Mes) is also relevant, but only for the selfsame trait line usually, so there is little to no consideration in those cases.

Gear gives more points than trait lines but that hardly makes traits “fluff.” For example, 3000 HP can make a huge difference, not to mention the traits that come along with it.

A full investment into trait HP: 3k. A full investment into gear HP: around 9k.

Not negligible, but it is purely filler. It’s not something to build around or aim for — it’s something to weigh when you are fine-tuning the build.

We disagree then. Attributes granted by traits are a big part of my builds – they shore up weaknesses in my gear load out or further enhance traits I’m stacking. If you don’t see the significance, compare your GS damage with a 30/30/x/x/x build vs 0/0/30/30/10. It matters.

The 30/30 stats is a ~38% increase in DPS to PvE Berserker gear. The traits are a 50% increase in DPS. Edit: with bonus effects, since traits are not generally as one-dimensional as damage++;.

The gear itself, as noted prior, has about twice the stats of the trait line investments.

So, the stats-from-traits matter, but they are tertiary.

I think you should use the approach of:

1. Determine the traits you want that best fit your play style
2. Adjust gear to achieve the itemization you want

In otherwords itemize your stats using gear, not the trait lines.