Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure how to classify my build except to say it’s not glamour and not much confusion.

Traits are 30/10/0/25/5 Weapons are Greatsword and Scepter/Pistol (sword is fine here for main hand, but scepter is nice for range).

I don’t mind shattering in longer fights because I can bring back illusions pretty quickly. I use Harmonious Mantras, so always have mantra for heal but often have mantra of pain for healing others with restorative mantras or mantra of confusion for daze/interrupt which stacks vulnerability quickly.

If you try this build out, here’s a fun starting sequence for a single target: Mirror Blade plus Mantra of Confusion at the same time, shatter that clone with diversion (typically you’ll have at least one interrupt, so 13 stacks of vulnerability), phantasmal berserker, swap weapons, magic bullet (2second daze), phantasmal duelist, blind (from scepter 2), then scepter 3 with mantra of confusion again for another daze. If you have Mantra of Pain, you can pop off at least two of those shots during the phantasm summons.

I use a Phantom GS/Sword & pistol build in PvE
But in WvW and sPvP I run with a glamour build, Staff/scepter & torch

Nuka Cola.8520:

Kazhiel.8194:

Nuka Cola.8520:

There’s only shatter. If you run anything else to be ‘different’ you’re doing it wrong. Running anything but shatter heavy builds is like playing with one hand and not playing as much as you would with both hands. If you don’t shatter you 1) deal pathetic aoe damage, 2) don’t apply aoe confusion (which isn’t amazing in pve but still free damage), 3) don’t build any Might stack to deal EVEN more damage with everything… Fail if you focus on phantasm crap or anything else.

Actually your narrow mindedness is pretty fail imo, but then the only time you post on forum is to hate on something whether it’s a build or a weapon, I don’t know why you even bother when everyone else has proved you wrong over and over :P

lol narrow mindedness… in 2k hours on my mes i think i had enough time to try ‘other AMAZING BUILDS’… nothing comes close to shatter builds for pve/pvp. not sure who’s the dude who proved me stuff and such so yeaaah. When its pretty much the only class you play since game’s release you don’t need any confirmation from some random dude on a forum to tell me if i’m wrong or not. You think other crap is better than shatter builds for pve? okay run that lol not me who’s gonna bother explaining why you shouldn’t.

LOL @ all this garbage. I don’t care if you’ve been playing for 150 years, it firstly doesn’t mean anything except you have a lot of free time, and second I’m 100% sure if only one spec were “right” we wouldn’t have specialization options. I know it may sound crazy, but people are different, and they may not only enjoy, but may be better at play styles differing from your own.

You might actually be able to see something if you’d stop looking down your nose for a moment.

You need another category: Bad Mesmers
I’m a bad mesmer.

10/30/0/10/20

Melee and Dazzling Glamours. I got bored with ranged weapons, so I dual sword. You can say I am Melee + Shatter + Glamour. Sw/Sw, Sc/F.

Just wanted to point out that although shatter builds are good for damage, for support apart from cry of frustration you actually want to keep your clones up to cast winds of chaos and healing. So no shatter isn’t ‘the’ best mesmer playstyle. There are many kinds of styles that work well. Mantras can also be amazing in fights, in pvp dazes are amazing and in dungeons restorative mantras heal very nicely and provide an extra burst damage boost.

Right now, I’m just a Lazy leveling mesmer.

Confusion/Condition, because:
- it works
- it’s funny / fun
- it has some AoE
- the damage is consisitent (does not rely on a burst)
- it works both offensively and defensively
- it has great survivability

Build/Videos in signature.

30/30/0/0/10 – running greatsword for AoE and dual swords for single target with furious retaliation and superior sigil of accuracy for something like 80-90% crit chance on an interrupt. That plus speccing for shatter daze, mass clones and cripple means i roll my way to victory lol

Nuka Cola.8520:

lol narrow mindedness… in 2k hours on my mes i think i had enough time to try ‘other AMAZING BUILDS’… nothing comes close to shatter builds for pve/pvp. not sure who’s the dude who proved me stuff and such so yeaaah. When its pretty much the only class you play since game’s release you don’t need any confirmation from some random dude on a forum to tell me if i’m wrong or not. You think other crap is better than shatter builds for pve? okay run that lol not me who’s gonna bother explaining why you shouldn’t.

Meet in the mists if you are not scared then..

Updated: 4/2/13

There were some builds here that I had a hard time categorizing, so I placed them in addition to hybrid:
ODB/Daisy Rogers/Crossplay/Salaman

I added 2 to bunker since I know Pyroathiest & EsLafiel run bunker builds.

and @Nuka Cola: I love how you just dumped on like 60% of the posted builds/guides in the Mesmer forums all in one post. It takes a special kind of trolling for that…

But that’s your opinion, and I respectfully disagree.

20/30/15/0/5. It’s kind of a mixed phantasm/shatter.

The reason I ended up running this is because I’m often having to fill multiple roles in parties, and I enjoy soloing. The end result being that I can swap out the major traits in that lay out to emphasize phantasm damage, shatter damage, mobility, or survivability, depending on what I’m being expected to deal with at the time.

Less optimized for any specific role, but great for general all-purpose use. My only regret is being unable to take inspiration 10 for Medic’s Feedback, since I’m often playing the role of field medic + whatever else is needed.

Whatever Mesmer I feel like being at the time :-)

It’s one of the beauties of the class.

The only thing consistent about my play is that I’m a Mesmer and that makes me the slow kid at the back of the group :-p

I use a Greatsword / Scepter-Focus build 30/0/10/20/10 based on phantasms , clone cripple , power greatsword and glamour utility. Worked well in PVP so far …

Im glamour build.I like being effective vs zergs and punish 1 button spamming classes with confusion.Plus i support my team with nullfield that deals confusion dmg and rips enemys’ boons away and cures my teams conditons.

Immortal Bunker Build.

I can’t run in zergs cause I lag out so I stick to solo roaming or small groups and focus on stealing supply camps and being all around annoying.

I also love killing people in 1v~5 fights cause they think they have the upper hand because I am alone. Also, being able to hold off a group of about 10 people long enough for back up to come is super fun even though I lag out once they arrive.

Currently experimenting with an interrupt-focused build 20/20/30/0/0 (yes, no 5 in Illusions, though it changes a lot :P ).
The core idea was to create a setup which can run one thing (interrupt-focused) in PvE, and another (Stealth-focused) in WvW.

Still not quite happy with it, so the traits aren’t set in stone at all.

The fundamentals of my Mesmer is burst & projectile reflection.

I’m using Sword/Focus & GS with 0/20/0/20/30 as traits. Mostly Valkyrie gear with Air Runes (useful for WvW).

What I like in this build is that it allows to switch my Major Traits depending on the content I do.
Open-world PvE : Phantasms & damage : 0/20(IV, II)/0/20(IV, VIII)/30(III, X, XI)
Dungeon : Support & shatter : 0/20(IV, X)/0/20(IV, VIII)/30(I, X, XI)
WvW : Glamour confusion bomb & support : 0/20(IV, X)/0/20(II, VIII)/30(V, VIII, IX)

Actually I love my Hybrid build

WvW – Hybrid : 20 ( V, VIII ) | 20 ( V, X ) | 0 | 0 | 30 ( IV, IX, XI )

I change all the time but a few I’ve commonly used ones are:

• 20/20/0/0/30 Osicat’s Shattercat build with Berserker’s armor/weapons and Cavalier accessories
• 20/20/0/0/30 Osicat’s Shattercat build with Knight’s armor/weapons and Cavalier accessories.
• 0/20/30/15/5 Sebrent’s Tanky-Condition build with Rabid armor/weapons/accessories (recent bit of tweaking)
• 0/20/0/30/20 Sebrent’s Shatter-Heal-Condition build with Rabid armor/weapons/accessories (still tweaking)
• 0/0/20/20/30 Pyroatheist’s Immortal build with Soldier’s armor/weapons/accessories

Lately though, I’m trying to play around with various builds with 30 points in Chaos because:

• 30 in Chaos + Runes of the Centaur gives you almost 100% swiftness up-time with Mirror as your heal
• 30 in Chaos + any armor set that gives toughness makes both you and your illusions quite tough (imagine that! lol)

I strongly agree with SevenMirror’s/Grimm’s saying that any Mesmer build can be powerful if played right.

As Mesmers, we are blessed with several viable builds and a community of players that is exceptionally helpful as well as skilled.

I have two armor sets.
1. Power, toughness, vitality, with 100% boon duration (monk, water, water runes 2x, 30 pts chaos, choc omnom cream food, and signet of midnight.) staff – sword/focus.

2. Power pecision crit dmg, with ruby orbs and ruby jewels

Berker and boony bunker.

Nuka Cola.8520:

There’s only shatter. If you run anything else to be ‘different’ you’re doing it wrong. Running anything but shatter heavy builds is like playing with one hand and not playing as much as you would with both hands. If you don’t shatter you 1) deal pathetic aoe damage, 2) don’t apply aoe confusion (which isn’t amazing in pve but still free damage), 3) don’t build any Might stack to deal EVEN more damage with everything… Fail if you focus on phantasm crap or anything else.

To be honest, unless you have proof this isn’t true, I guarantee you’ve gotten wrecked by other mesmers following a different build than you. You’re wrong and plenty of people will prove that to you whether it’s killing you in WvW/PvP or whatever, or in a vid.

I don’t focus on my mesmer a lot, but it’s mostly the Lazy Kai one, aka shatter Greatsword. Off hand is staff for the support and warlock, though maybe I might consider grabbing a sword-focus later (don’t know if I really like it).

I was particularly inspired by the builds done by Osicat, Fay, Grimms, Flimp, and Kylia. But then after playing with those and respeccing a bit, I came up with this:

0/20/0/20/30

I wanted to have a hybrid-like build that uses the scepter (going for meteorlogicus) and glamours with some shatters and conditions. I also tend to swap around my off-hand, but mainly stay with focus or pistol. I may change the runes to maybe the runes of the adventurer since I have the focus to give me some swiftness.

I may sometime not stay with this build. Sometimes I’ll go for more signet/manipulation usages or follow one of the builds from the guides but tweak a little to my liking. I also agree with Grimms’ saying and am happy that there are various builds available to mesmers; heck, there may be some new ones we’ve yet to discover. Overall, I am very thankful for all who share their builds and it got me to create various builds I can enjoy playing. ^_^

Edit: Shortly after posting this, I came up with this 10/20/10/0/30 setup when utilizing signets/manipulations. I realize that I don’t necessarily need the 20% cd for all skills (except signets). This one became more enjoyable than the build I’ve posted earlier. Actually, this build saved me while I was doing the jumping puzzle in the borderlands. There were two invaders camping behind the waterfall and as I fell down they start attacking me. I pop Signet of Midnight, use Prestige, then Mirror to heal and get swiftness to escape. Also, this setup allows me to use any weapons and traits can be swapped around.

Edited: 4/19/13

Super late with this, sorry! Lots of interesting builds though, would definitely like to hear more detail about Carighan's and Ouroboros's

I’m a pretty mesmer using Immobulus to spread as many lucky charms as I can in WvW.

And I run the XOXO standard mesmer build: / / / /

I’ve tried out a lot of different builds, but I’ve stuck with 20/20/0/0/30 as my faithful shatter build since beta, before it had a name :P. IP is just too potent of a trait, so while I occasionally drop it for a Glamour build, my other two main builds use it. One being more bunker-ish (similar to the Immortal build) and the other the cookie cutter “Shattercat”, with variation depending on what I’m doing.

I subscribe to FLIMP’s philosophy. I run mostly cond/confusion builds.
20/20/0/0/30 for my glamour hybrid
20/0/0/20/30 for pure glamour/support
0/20/25/0/25 for my cond/confusion/illusion hybrid where I use illusions to stack up bleeding and other conditions.
I run full rabid gear for all those trait setups with undead runes giving me tons of cond dmg. Weapon sets are sword/focus(or torch depending on the situation) and staff.

glam is what I run with. Glamour works well in wvw and condition damage matches well with toughness. Additionally, I run reflection with glamour.

Will update again this weekend if anyone wants to throw their lot in.

I switch to shatter,glamour and Phantasm a lot. I have a very wacky interrupt build that focuses on imbued diversion, too.

But I’m mostly a Phantasm mesmer (4/5 times I am)

Nice to see the thread isn’t dead, guess I’ll add my two cents for the count.

My style: Inspiration/Support (10/20/0/30/10, Staff/Sword/Focus)

Why: I spend a lot of time in fractals, dungeons and to a lesser extent zergs these days, and mesmer DPS really isn’t much to write home about, so rather than making myself a glassy liability for the sake of a few ticks more DPS, I make sure that my traits and utilities are orientated towards providing buckets of reflects, boons and healing for my team.

That’s not to say I’m running “full support” as a get out of DPS card, I’m packing cavalier/zerker gear and pull some pretty decent damage too, just the spec itself puts Mesmer’s immense defensive and utility options to work ensuring my team can give their fullest without having to waste so much time on their own survival.

Defensive/Lazy hybrid/scavenger – 10(V)/25(IV, X)/20(III, X)/10(IV OR VI)/5
Sw/Sw + Staff

Inspiration IV in pvp for condition removal (Edit: and sigils of purity)
Swap in a GS if necessary (not optimal, but sometimes worth it).

Normal gear:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscWlwzaqXUTmGbdJiJFEHydqA0hWApClWZG82FC-jkCBYLChIMRjCcIaUBgZPDZNBKilRFRjVvATfiIq2boIa1xAsE-w
Sigils of generosity only on mh sword and spear atm, still debating staff/trident sigils.
Swap mirror images for any other useful utility if necessary.

PvP: Celestrial amulet + berserker jewel (yeah I don’t like the useless 295 healing power or condition damage – would rather have ~400 more power, but the boost to the rest of the stats is good. Shame about the lack of pvp amulet choices… :/)

No you’re not going to see huge numbers and insane burst here, but survivability is reasonably solid, and you are well equipped to wear down your opponents.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but not feeling the focus any more – stationary iWarden doesn’t really fit my playstyle, and I DISLIKE ground targeted skills in general (blink and chaos storm I can make an exception for).

EDIT 12/06: currently in build redo due to realising the power of the fixed Prestige. Above build not in use – switched for S/T and PU, although most gear and traits are the same

I change my build almost every other day, including but not limited to Condition Damage, Bunker, Phantasm and Shatter builds. I find myself leaning more towards damage and support recently, both in dungeons and in WvW.

Most recently I’ve been trying out a Hybrid Shatter-Glam type of thing with a little bit of Phantasm support too. It’s nice for small group play in WvW and great for Dungeons / Fractals too. The weapon choices are a little weird and it requires that I move around a lot, but the traits and skills available help with those issues. Active defense is a must.

0/20(IV,X)/0/20(II,VIII)/30(VI,VIII,XI)

Dueling: Blade Training (IV) Deceptive Evasion (X)
Inspiration: Glamour Mastery (II) Warden’s Feedback (VIII)
Illusions: Illusionary Invigoration (VI) Dazzling Glamours (VIII) Illusionary Persona (XI)

Sword / Sword and Scepter / Focus

Berserker Armor for Dungeons, Knight’s Armor for WvW
Centaur Runes or Air Runes
Trinkets are a mix of “of the Knight” (High Precision Variant) Cavalier, Berserker with Valkyrie Jewel and regular Berserker pieces.
Berserker and / or Valkyrie Weapons with Energy, Bloodlust, Hydromancy and Accuracy Sigils

I typically use Feedback, Blink, Null Field and Mass Invisibility. I’m addicted to Mirror as a heal, especially with Centaur or Air Runes for the Swiftness.

Phantasms grant Regeneration, Runes and Focus grant Swiftness.
Leap Finishers through Glamour / Ethereal Fields grant good up time on Chaos Armor
Distortion and Blurred Frenzy provide frequent Invulnerability, and Vigor is often up for extra Dodges / Evades. Off-Hand Sword a Main-Hand Scepter both offer a riposte, so you’ll have a block on either weapon set.

It suffers a little from having limited range. (900 on Scepter) but a Greatsword still works well with this setup if you need 1,200 range for certain scenarios. Because it’s a power build, Scepter 3 (Confusing images) can actually pack a pretty serious punch, as can your ripostes.

So… my short answer for the tally is that I like to try a little of everything, but right now? Glamour/Shatter Hybrid kinda thing. <3

Running a 0/20/30/15/5 build.
With heavy speccing into boon uptime… Prismatic understanding is amazing
110% protection up time in pve to where in dungeons I am the last one standing. :P

For spvp I run a stealth build 0/25/30/15/5 and have LOADS of fun with it using staff + sword/torch. I run with another mesmer so we both get affected by the other’s veil and mass invis. It works wonders having those extra boons while in stealth and using Knight’s armor is very tanky.
In PvE/WvW I also run Knight’s armor but use a shatter build. SOOOO add a tally under Shatter

I’m having a heck of a time figuring out how I like to play my Mesmer. Right now I’m running a direct-damage Mantra build (but not full berserker, I’m not fast enough on evasions and blocks to survive that way) without Restorative Mantras.

I fell out of love with condition mesmers before the bounce change bungled up winds of chaos, and support style just wasn’t cutting it. Turns out I really like mantras though: instant skills are always fun, and they all feel so useful. (Mantra of Concentration / Power Break is love) and I can often afford to take a 3 second break to charge one before I get back to burstin’.

Problem is, I don’t feel too hugely effective in dungeons because I’m pretty nervous to burn my uses of Mantra of Distraction on anything with defiant, and my timing’s still iffy on the others. But running around open world PvE solo I love that prepared “I have a response to ANYTHING” feeling.

Phantasm 20/20/0/25/5 GS + S/P Berserker.

I use it for Hotjoins and PvE. I’m a casual kind of guy atm and I often only log for like an hour a day to mess around in hotjoins. This is an excellent build there, you will win most 1v1s and won’t die to anything less than 3 people if you play your cards right.

Some may say that GS is not optimal, but I like it, it gives both a decent ranged power and AoE. That is very useful in many situations.

redux.1502:

For spvp I run a stealth build 0/25/30/15/5 and have LOADS of fun with it using staff + sword/torch. I run with another mesmer so we both get affected by the other’s veil and mass invis. It works wonders having those extra boons while in stealth and using Knight’s armor is very tanky.
In PvE/WvW I also run Knight’s armor but use a shatter build. SOOOO add a tally under Shatter

I use the same but take clerics instead… Omg… can handle 3v1 easy peasy. Try stacking protection/boon duration runes.. Its amazing

Fay.2735:

Just wanted to point out that although shatter builds are good for damage, for support apart from cry of frustration you actually want to keep your clones up to cast winds of chaos and healing. So no shatter isn’t ‘the’ best mesmer playstyle. There are many kinds of styles that work well. Mantras can also be amazing in fights, in pvp dazes are amazing and in dungeons restorative mantras heal very nicely and provide an extra burst damage boost.

Just wanna throw in here… mesmers are the best at keeping boons up 100% of the time. In dungeons with signet of inspiration you can easiliy give your party 30+ seconds of protection when specced right.

Currently trying out a new variation of 10/20/10/0/30 shatter build. I really want take the 10 in chaos somewhere else but it’s hard to let go of blink cd reduction.

I use a manipulation build that uses suicidal clones and conditions to kill people…. So idk what category I’d fall under…. Staff/ scepter+torch

phantasmal 10/30/0/25/5

I’ve just started with a 30/5/0/30/5 mantra/phantasm build – it’s a bit disconcerting having so little in dueling…

It has nice support with 2.6k heals and focus reflects, yet still maintains the phantasm damage quite well. Very survivable even with berserker gear as you can heal whenever you like and aren’t using your perma-vigor dodges for clones. It also effectively has 2 free utilities as condi removal is covered by 3 power returns and mantra of pain’s 1s cooldown keeps healing ready at all times.

EDIT: As for the “Why” part… we had a couple of people in guild chat insisting that mesmers had more useful things to do than healing and while arguing I realised this kind of build did everything they were saying and heals too.

0/20/30/0/20 is what I play. Pretty much a condition mesmer. I have a lot of fun with it. I can’t stand playing shatter/phantasms builds because it’s boring to me and a lot of mesmer players play the hell out of those builds. also, I can’t stand Signet of Illusions, takes awhile to kill Phantasms that have a lot of hp. Staff, sword/torch is what I use and it works pretty well. Stopped using Scepter because it’s not that good to me. Confusing Images doesn’t work all the time( If someone is on the side of you or behind you, the move becomes inactive), the 1 skill on scepter isn’t that great, but the number 2 skill is okay.

I change my build practically every few days, but I always find myself coming back to 0/20/20/15/5 phantasm build with 10 points floating. I just love the play style and crazy in combat mobility I have while still being really tough to kill.

I’ve tried shatter, bunker, mantra, glamour, etc an I always come back to the phantasm. The damage, survivability, and group utility are just so awesome.

I’m still not sure what to do with those last 10 points though. I can either put them in Domination for the 15% illusion damage and vul proc, in Dueling for the extra precision/crit damage and blink range, Chaos for the extra condi damage and Prismatic Understanding, or Illusions for the 3% damage per illusion. So many options!

Glam in WvW.
Phant in PvE (DG. Might think on Shatter for Open wordl/Events).
Don’t do sPvP, but i guess Shatter is your best bet atm there. Phant is a viable choice too, especially for 1vs1.

I play a lot of different builds and often switch between them including:

GC Shatter
GC Phantasm
Bunker Shatter Hybrid
Bunker Conditions
Immortal Build
Inspiration/Support (for dungeons/fractals)

With 4+ sets of armour and over 20 weapons to choose from, I regularly switch it up.

I run my own build “Hidden Fire”.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Hidden-Fire-New-Mesmer-Build-WvW/first#post2095880

It’s a build that relies heavily on stealth / torch and can deliver both burst damage and condition damage with a few stuns. Amazing for roaming in WvW. I can solo a camp by myself (given the time). Basically it’s 20(III,IX)/20(II,X)/30(IV,V,XII)/0/0. Weapons (S/T + Sc/P). For slot skills: Decoy, Blink, Signet of Domination, mass invis. Runes of Lyssa. Sigil of Fire, Sigil of Paralyzation, Sigil of Earth, Sigil of Corruption.
Food: Rare Veggie Pizza, Maintenance Oil.

Shatter usually, going to try out phantasms again today, which I used to use at release