Guild Wars 2

Been wanting to try out a Mesmer for a long time now but dont really know what their role is in large zerg type battles. Other classes seem to have a pretty clearcut role when it comes to large battles but I cant seem to figure out what a Mesmer is supposed to do. Veil and Mass invis are nice and Null Field as well for utility but since I dont really know much about the class thats all I can figure out they are good for.

According to the tooltip Feedback only works on projectiles and when 90% of everyone is a Guardian or Warrior I dont see how much use that would be. I also cant seem to find any nice AoE abilities other than Shatter which requires clones to use. Since AoE is going to be all over the place will clones even live long enough for me to Shatter them?

I know the class is great in small groups or even soloing but what do I bring to the table in a large fight? What do I do to collect lots of bags?

Phantasmal Berserker on Greatsword is a nice AoE. He usually lives long enough to get 1 attack off. Staff Chaos Storm is amazing in zergs, it buffs allies and does AoE damage as well.

Feedback is pretty amazing in zergs though, Guardian’s third autoattack on sword counts as a projectile. And I don’t believe for one second that there are no casters like ele’s in any opposing zergs.

But to be fair, in zergs I usually just dodgeroll through, spam skill #1 on sword and Shatter the clones I created with the dodgeroll (due to trait X on the dueling line -> create clone on dodge).

On keeps all you can do is Temporal Curtain (focus) and Chaos Storm (staff), the rest is always Obstructed.

This is the best you can do to collect loot bags. But if you really want loot bags, you should play a different class. On my Ele I get way more loot bags for way less effort.

Charming Rogue.8071:

This is the best you can do to collect loot bags. But if you really want loot bags, you should play a different class. On my Ele I get way more loot bags for way less effort.

yea I tried Ele but didnt really like it. Lot of times I found myself stuck in the same attunement instead of switching around like Im supposed to do. When ever I watch videos of people who play the class well it seems like they are hardly in the same attunement for longer than a few spell casts. They just go through them all and keep everything on cooldown. I dont want a super lazy class but thats just too much work.

In large-scale fights we are mostly ask for our utilities (Veil, Null Field, Feedback, Time Warp…) and reflections (Yes, even nowadays it’s all about melee-train, you still reflect a lot of projectiles). Apart from that, we don’t have an awesome DPS, our support is weak, cause most is about party-support, our boon ripping is very risky (being in melee), we lack of blast finishers…

But even if those areas are not that strong compared to other professions, you can still go for them, and be more useful than a mesmers that just bring 2/3 utilities to the fights.

The good thing about mesmers is we only have 2 obligated utility slots (for glamours) and Time Warp. Everything else, weapons, remaining skills, traits, gear… is up to you. You can play a confusion glamour build, a power shatter, or a support/mantra build and still have the essential things of mesmer.
Focus and Glamour Mastery are very recommended, but, for example, I use torch instead focus in a power build.

So feel free to do the build that you like the most. Try different things and see how they perform. It took me about 1 month (playing 2 hours in raid per day) to see what I did the best and with which things I had more fun.

I personally go for an offensive build, based on DPS and condi-cleansing/support. 20/20/0/30/0 GS-Sword/Torch, around 2500 armor and focusing on critical hits.
Lot of things to do: iZerker, Glamours, Prestige+BF, dodge+f1+dodge+f2, Healing mantra+Restorative, cleaning conditions with Shattered Conditions…

Some of my footage and other styles of builds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXg5X-Z9YAU (Mine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2NCPueopw (Confusion build)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqIkm_gb2-A (Support)

I play a support-type mesmer in wvw, Feedback, Null Fiel, Veil, Time Warp, Mass Invisibility are the utilities i use, and usually with great success. There’s a lot of shooting going on usually so Feedback is always good to have (the cd’s a bit too long though), Null Field is great to throw in a zerg fight for boon ripping and condi cleansing for allies, it’s very useful. Veil is a bit more situational but can be of great use, Mass Invisibility is similar but the stealth lasts longer. Great for escaping or surprising the enemy. I usually prefer M.I. over Time Warp to be honest, because i tend to play more defensively and like helping allies to escape and stuff, and it also has a shorter cd (and i’m also traited for stealth – i gain boons and stealth lasts longer)
For weapons i use staff mainly – gives condis to enemies and boons to allies on autoattack, gives me a chaos armor (or 2 if i leap with staff #2 from my chaos storm) and a nice field others can use to gain armor and cause confusion. Oh and Null field, Feedback and Time Warp also work as fields to gain chaos armor and stuff. I’d say mesmers can give some really good support. I might not tag as many enemies as with my thief or necro but i feel awfully useful :P Oh and portals… temporal curtain…

There’s lots we can contribute, though it’s not always as straightforward or simple as a class like Elementalist or Guardian. Most of my builds land somewhere in between a thief play-style and an elementalist’s: powerful AoE utilities for my allies then focused single-target damage on my enemies.

I think it’s important to understand the anatomy of the zerg. There’s typically the melee-ball or hammer-train center. Behind them are the softer casters/ranged players who rely on the meat shields. Mesmers have skills which favor one or the other.

For the hammer-train, my best contributions are boon stripping (particularly stability), condition cleansing on my allies, chaos storm, and feedback. Basically anything AoE is going to do the greatest good for the largest number of people. Be smart though. Don’t dive into the enemy zerg with your sword if you don’t have the ability to survive and get back out. Don’t expect your shatters to land if your clones have to wade through many red circles to reach their targets.

After that, I play like a thief and focus on disrupting as many of the enemy’s back-line as I can. Take out their ranged players and always keep your eye out for an injured front-liner seeking a moment of refuge. Killing one of those may rally a ton of your downed front-line. In this role, mesmers excel with their thief-like mobility and burst.

I change my build a lot, depending on my mood, and haven’t found one that’s the end-all/be-all of large scale WvW. I typically shy away from ‘selfish’ builds that focus on personal survival at the cost of group support as they seem more built for roaming. Traditional shatter builds, phantasm/glamour builds, interruption builds, and even some mantra builds are all worth trying out.

Thanks for the replies. I have been trying to see what Mesmers were doing in zergs when on other classes but things usually get pretty hectic. Also in videos its kinda hard to see whats going on sometimes as well. Good advice on taking out people trying to retreat from the main group who are probably trying to heal up or wait for cooldowns to be up to rush back in. When I die in a zerg its usually because I got too far from the group or was running back and 90% of the time it has been a Mesmer who killed me.

I was just in WvW (on my underleveled engi, not my main) and was with a small zerg when some of us got feared over a cliff, including me and the commander. We were there about 1/3 of the way down and really no way to get out aside from WPing. (I thought it was kind of a clever use of fear actually.)

15 seconds later I’m wondering what we should do and a mesmer portal appears.

My question would be.. are you sure you really want to do the big zerg fight at all? The night before I went with my mesmer in a small havoc group and it was a heck of a lot of fun.

Qaelyn.7612:

I was just in WvW (on my underleveled engi, not my main) and was with a small zerg when some of us got feared over a cliff, including me and the commander. We were there about 1/3 of the way down and really no way to get out aside from WPing. (I thought it was kind of a clever use of fear actually.)

15 seconds later I’m wondering what we should do and a mesmer portal appears.

My question would be.. are you sure you really want to do the big zerg fight at all? The night before I went with my mesmer in a small havoc group and it was a heck of a lot of fun.

Mesmers are a liiiitle bit more fun in small havoc groups. Beefing up your numbers with clones, stealth, great single-target burst- all strengths, just like thieves.

My favorite is running with 5-15 other folks in an un-tagged group where veil, portal, and our utilities can really shine.

That’s not always possible, unfortunately! SO fun when it is