Guild Wars 2

I’m new to Mesmer, I’m still leveling her but I want to “main” her as my WvW character.

I really enjoy the Staff weapon, but I’m getting the feeling it’s more of a “secondary” weapon rather than a “Main” one. I could be wrong.

Are there any builds or anything that’d center around Staff? I don’t mind being a “Support” type character, since my 3 out of 4 of my 80s are spec’d for Support. I also don’t care for big numbers or straight Power builds.

If I were to go for a Confusion build, any tips on that? I heard Scep/Torch was bad, but it seems like the most “obvious” Confusion set up.

TLDR; To Staff or not to Staff? Builds for Confusion/Condi Dmg?

Staff + Torch is nice for the AoE chaos storm, but it’s every 30 seconds, so… nyehh. (That, and you have to weapon swap —> Torch 4 IMMEDIATELY after casting Staff 5.

Look up mrpromethius guide on youtube just type in mesmer guide
He focuses on a staff build it works great but guess not sure How
It would be in wvwvw. I never go In wvw or pvp

Staff builds are basically condition builds. There’s not really a dedicated “Confusion” build, as Staff condition builds already include that: your main Confusion skill will be Cry of Frustration, iMage sucks and Confusing Images is very easy to counter.

For your second weapon set you can go with Pistol or Torch as your off-hand. The former gives you a CC and a powerful Phantasm and the latter gives you a low CD stealth that also does a respectable amount of Burning damage. Focus is also worth considering in PvE as mobs don’t run out of iWarden’s AoE.

hi
staff is great defensive weapon
thats why many ppl using it even with power builds despite most of its dmg is condicion

if u want build for heavy staff using in wvw u need 20 in dueling ( deceptive evasion )
and 20 in chaos ( chaotic dampening )

scepter + torch is obvious choise for confusion build ( 2 obvious to say why )

currently im using staff a lot in wvw ( rly love that weapon )
with cond. build 0 25 30 0 15 … working fine so far

rest is up to u .. gl

cheers Xixsa

Hi Nurse, glad to hear that you’re looking to get more into mesmer!

As others have said, the staff is the central weapon for a condition build. With this build, your main source of damage will be from your staff clones inflicting conditions both from Winds of Chaos and from the Sharper Images trait in the Dueling tree. To generate clones, most people get Deceptive Evasion in Dueling as well. In addition to that, Chaotic Dampening and Debilitating Dissipation in Chaos are generally chosen as well as Master of Misdirection and Illusionary Elasticity in Illusions. That leaves 10 points which can be spent in about a half-dozen different ways to cater to your own personal playstyle.

With this build, you will spend the vast majority of your time using the staff as it is a great defensive weapon which is able to apply burning and bleeding. As far as secondary weapons go, there really is no bad choice. Sword is very popular for its Blurred Frenzy skill which will give you two seconds of invincibility. Scepter receives a lot of hate from the community, as while its auto-attack is very bad, the blind from Scepter #2 and the confusion from Confusing Images can be quite potent, especially in WvW where you will often be firing it into a zerg of people who aren’t paying enough attention to dodge it. For offhands, focus is the most popular because of the swiftness and pull it provides, but pistol can provide you with a very handy ranged stun and duelist illusions which can inflict a lot of bleeding (and confusion if they shoot through your ethereal field) as well as considerable direct damage, even without much power investment. Torch can be useful if you’re focusing a lot on stealth and provides a nice burn plus a blast finisher, though the illusionary Mage it summons is pretty lackluster. Finally, there is the offhand sword, which I personally would not recommend because its phantasm is very power oriented whilst the block/stun from it is inferior to that of the pistol. Also, you could use a greatsword as your alternate weapon for good range, clone generation, a cripple from the berserker, and a decent rate of bleed application due to clone attack speed and your own attacks if you use a sigil of earth.

Hope that helped a bit!

Palu.3405:

snip

Thanks a lot, this helped a lot!

Nurse.1085:

I’m new to Mesmer, I’m still leveling her but I want to “main” her as my WvW character.

I really enjoy the Staff weapon, but I’m getting the feeling it’s more of a “secondary” weapon rather than a “Main” one. I could be wrong.

Are there any builds or anything that’d center around Staff? I don’t mind being a “Support” type character, since my 3 out of 4 of my 80s are spec’d for Support. I also don’t care for big numbers or straight Power builds.

If I were to go for a Confusion build, any tips on that? I heard Scep/Torch was bad, but it seems like the most “obvious” Confusion set up.

TLDR; To Staff or not to Staff? Builds for Confusion/Condi Dmg?

Staff is probably the safest weapon to go with since it has a lot of defensive capabilities along with giving you might and fury. I don’t run a condition build, but I almost always have a staff. If i’m defending a tower i’ll run staff and GS but if I’m running around i’ll usually do staff sword/focus or sword/pistol.

I find the issue with using a greatsword is that while iBerserker does a lot of damage, it goes done easy and has a long cool down. Also, the GS’s main damage comes at range, so if someone moves in too close – you’re pretty much useless. With a staff though and the trait in illusions which gives you the extra bounce.. it’s almost suicide to be so close to a mesmer with a staff cuz you can stack bleed and cause burning, then also get fury and might, phase retreat out, switch to your sword/whatever you have, iLeap, swap in blurred frenzy and shatter at the same time. It’ll melt your opponent