Guild Wars 2

Hi,i want to start crafting ascended weapons for my mesmer and i would also try to use some of them for my necro or guardian if possible but i`m not sure about the stats,it would be nice if you could help me out.

here is what i want to start with:

1. Greatsword (use for guardian and necro would be nice) i`m thinking of Berserker or Marauder (i tend to craft marauder since the extra vita could be nice in pvp content? ) or are the higher berserker stats better overall and should i get the vita elsewhere if needed? or is another Attribute Set better?

2. 1h Sword (maybe use also with guardian) similar question like greatsword.

3. schield (maybe use also with guardian)

4. staff – similar like greatsword but here i would make best stats for guardian or necro and use it then with the mesmer.

5. pistol – best possible stats for mesmer only ?

i was reading about armor gear and there was a lot of berserker and assasin,i also was reading about mesmer condi builds so how would a viper set work out for mesmer? i asking since i want to craft 1 for my necro.

i know i can change the gear stats later but i want to try to get the most use out of the weapons/armor

if you have some other rafting recommendations let me know,thanks for your help.

Are you raiding at all? I believe the standard raid setup for Chronotank is a Commander’s/Berserker’s blend. Metabattle says Commander’s weapons, but Berserker’s weapons should be fine if you substitute one of your other items for Commander’s.

However, if you are raiding, you probably shouldn’t bother crafting anything other than a Shield (or just complete Horologicus), a pair of Swords, and a Focus.

Outside of raids, pretty much just decide whether you’re doing Power or Condi. Get Berserker’s for Power, Viper’s or Sinister for Condi.

Heya!

It greatly depends on the area you will be playing. Ascended gear is only really required in fractals and raids but it’s important to know wich parts are important and wich are not.

Trinkets give a huge boost to raw stats if you got them ascended. You can get those rather easily trough fractals or raid, both as loot or via tokens.

The newest two maps both also have a merchant that sells trinkets for map currencies. However this takes a lot of time.

The back item only gives you little stats, so it’s the least important to have ascended. The rest should be ascended asap.

The Armor only gives a 5% stat boost for each part wich sums up to be around 1.5% more damage. Nothing you need to rush, unless you want to go high level fractals, where you need the slots to put in agony resistance. However ascended rings provide up to 3 slots so focus on those first.

If you are rich, you can put +5 power infusions in those slots, for up to 2% bonus damage (when filled in all 18 slots).

Now about those Weapons. It’s important to know wich weapons are good weapons and how ascended gear affects your damage output.

Ascended weapons are considered a big dps boost, that’s not because of the 5% more raw stats they provide wich is only a miniscule difference to exotic, it’s because the weapon damage itself gets a 5% boost aswell wich is flat out 5% more damage.

If you wear an ascended mainhand, you’ll have those 5% more damage on skill 1-3, if you wear an ascended offhand, it’ll affect skill 4-5. Utility skills have their own weapon damage and therefore do not scale with the weapon damage boost of an ascended weapon, yet do with the minor boost of the raw stat increase.

So this means it’s most important to have an ascended sword first. Phantasms also deal 5% more damage when the weapon they’re linked to is ascended, so you want to have at least the damaging phantasms of the Focus and Sword offhand boosted aswell. The shield phantasms dps is rather low, so you don’t need to rush it. As tobascodagama.2961 mentioned – get it by completing Horologicus, the elite-spec weapon collection. It’s cheap and also fun if you ask me.

So let’s sum up:

1. Sword (mainhand)
2. Sword (offhand) / Focus
3. Shield

As a mesmer you shouldn’t be using staff and greatsword at all. Staff can be used as an open world weapon while fighting vs a event boss, where plenty of players add tons of conditions on the enemy, so the iWarlock deals a huge amount of damage. The gs however is a weapon I’d recommend leaving to the pvp players.

In PvE, neither Necro, nor Guard use a staff in any content that isn’t open world.
Pistol can be used for Thief aswell, since the best ranged dps option is pistol/pistol. However the Mesmer doesn’t really make use of a pistol in pve anymore, unless for condi builds.

As for Stats, just go full Berserker. Most professions go full or almost full berserk. As Mesmer you want to invest a tiny bit in Assassin gear, just to reach the magical 63.76% crit chance wich makes it exactly 100% in a full buffed setup.

Here is what your final setup should look like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+dncfC9fiFoBmfCUrhlljq+Qj0J9sBCgIDdDOhLD-TBSBQB/b/BzoEEAnEAKp+DZUqcFlV4RvwEfAABAOAo6VPSBE4wI-e

If you have any questions, just ask Happy to help!

Greez!

Thanks for the nice infos.
now i play almost only open world and fractals.
i want to start wvw and pvp as soon as i got full gear.
i think befor i start raids and look for a raid guild i need some more playtime.

so the gear should be first for high lvl fractals,later raids (i think for open world all ascended gear will work ?)

it would be nice to get some guidence since at metabattle most builds are very old and there are no solo builds.

For open world, anything will work indeed, but that’s beside the point. Get a berserker sword first (for your mainhand), that will be something you can also transfer to your guard if you want to. Focus next and then maybe a second sword for your offhand, as long as you plan to get the class shield via the collection. With those weapons, you’re mostly fine for fractals. I recommend having a ranged weapon (GS or maybe staff) as backup in your inventory, since there are some bosses where meleeing isn’t the most glorious idea unless you have a really well-coordinated team.

CptAurellian.9537:

Get a berserker sword first (for your mainhand), that will be something you can also transfer to your guard if you want to. Focus next and then maybe a second sword for your offhand, as long as you plan to get the class shield via the collection. With those weapons, you’re mostly fine for fractals.

^ This.

Sword with Shield / Focus (/ Sword) is what you must have. There are some specific situation where you can make use of different weapons though.

CptAurellian.9537:

I recommend having a ranged weapon (GS or maybe staff) as backup in your inventory, since there are some bosses where meleeing isn’t the most glorious idea unless you have a really well-coordinated team.

I do not recommend using a Staff for anything else but fights with tons of conditions aka open world world bosses. However there, a staff is absolutely insane in terms of dps (look at the image in the attachements <3).

I also do not recommend to use GS at all. It’s a rather bad weapon in general. Especially in Raids, Fractals and Dungeons you shouldn’t be surprised if you get immediately kicked after using one.

Instead the most powerful ranged weapon is currently the scepter. If correctly used it’s even a dps increase together with a sword instead of using a sword all on it’s own. And no the scepter is not a condition only weapon. :P

Scepter #3 is our strongest power skill and even tough the auto attacks are only average, they are still better than those of the GS or staff. But most importantly, you can use Sword + Shield with Scepter + Sword, so you still have the shield AND the strongest dps phantasm we have.

When you fight a boss where you require a ranged weapon, your allies are most likely unable to stay melee either, so you can setup 3 iSwordsmen instead of iAvengers to increase your dps.

Xyonon.3987:

Instead the most powerful ranged weapon is currently the scepter. If correctly used it’s even a dps increase together with a sword instead of using a sword all on it’s own. And no the scepter is not a condition only weapon. :P

Scepter #3 is our strongest power skill and even tough the auto attacks are only average, they are still better than those of the GS or staff. But most importantly, you can use Sword + Shield with Scepter + Sword, so you still have the shield AND the strongest dps phantasm we have.

I remembered the scepter as pretty terribad, but apparently that’s no longer the case. Didn’t feel that horrible in today’s swamp. Still, it has a number of drawbacks compared to GS, mainly lower range and its AA being a projectile.

It was a terribad weapon a very long time ago. They buffed every singe skill it has, especially 2 and 3 got huge buffs in terms of damage and cast time.

i`m about to craft a scepter now,
but i`m a bit confused if i should craft the viper or berserker version?
in the formum i was reading that viper is good but at metabattle,all the raid and fractal builds are direct damage.

so what would you recommend?
my main goal is to play high lvl fractals or at least do the high lvl farm runs.

Berserker. Most of the time, you’ll be on sword anyway, which is a pure power weapon. Ranged combat is a rather rare exception.

Scepter is actually a pretty ok Power weapon due to the high coefficient on Confusing Images. I don’t know that the difference between Viper’s and Berserker’s on one weapon will be all that huge, though, so going with Viper’s might give you more flexibility if you find some way to use a Scepter condi build in WvW or wherever.

Berserker Scepter.

Commander or minstrel for coordinated fractals/raids
They also work for WvW group raid but require different rune sets.

For WvW roaming, a mix up of trailblazer/rapid/dire/viper works the best.

Exciton.8942:

Commander or minstrel for coordinated fractals/raid.

Dear god no – that’s for uncoordinated fractals / raids! If you want to be optimized, go with Berserker stats.

Hi Nostradus, I know far too well what you’re going through as I was similarly confused as to what Ascend gear I should craft. It can be a confusing experience but also a concerning one, cause Ascend stuff is very expensive to craft so I can imagine you don’t want to waste time crafting one set only to realize some other set is the more optimal one.

My suggestion would be the following…
If this is your first ascend geared character get the stuff that is easily more accessible.
That means going full Ascend Berserker – Trinkets, Weapons and Armour.
Most other classes tend to run full Berserker in their power builds.
This way your safe if you want to swap pieces of gear between characters.

If you want to have the most “optimal” Mesmer for raids you will want to make one of these changes to the gear you choose.

Option 1: Keep the Berserker Armor & Berserker Weapons BUT Swap out 2 Ascend Berserker Earrings for 2 Ascend Assassin’s Earrings. (Keep in mind the only way to get these items is to run and complete both the CM and Arrah Dungeons)

Option 2: Keep the Berserker Armor & Berserker Accessories BUT craft Ascend Assassin Weapons instead. Keep in mind, no other class really uses Assassin weapons.

Option 3: Keep the Berserker Weapons and Trinkets BUT craft Assassin Armor instead. This allows you to keep switching weapons (and trinkets) between characters. Weapons are a lot harder and more laborious to craft compared to armour, in my experience. Again, no other class really uses Assassin Armour.

I don’t see any reason to craft a Viper set for your mesmer or a Commander’s set. With the recent changes made in the latest patch update, I believe power comes out on top?
Furthermore, Mesmer condition builds lack AoE and can only really single target stuff.

In terms of Raids, A Berserker-Assassin mixed geared Chronomancer paired with a Herald is more favourable for Raiding parties than a Full Commander geared Chronomancer and no Herald. The logic behind this is that the Berserker-Assassin does much more damage and just Enough Alacrity compared to the other variant.

I hope this has helped.