Guild Wars 2

Good day everyone,
I decided to roll a mesmer after tinkering with each class and I enjoy mesmer a great deal however I am not sure which trait tree to follow.(I have no 80’s finally taking the game seriously and leveling a character). My current play style is heavy condition damage with my staff and moderate shatter usage.(Namely the distortion). I thought using the illusion tree would be the obvious chocie however duelist seems relevant as well. What has been everyone else’s experience so far?

For early levels, get the 5 point trait in Illusion, followed by the 10 point trait in Domination for +15% illusion damage.

After that, anything goes. Generally power builds are more effective in PvE until a minimum level ~40 when you can pick up Sharper Images.

its possible reset traits and skills?where?

There should be a Mesmer trainer on the map with a book icon on their head. There is one in the starting town where you exit the intro tutorial, there is one in every main city, one at every borderlands/EB spawn point, and one in Lion’s Arch I think. There may be others.

It costs money based on how many skill points you’ve spent. Talk to your trainer.

Thanks, I wanted the basic illusion skill but wasn’t sure how far to ivnest so I like the 5 piont and 10 point model.

Every time you get a book, it automatically resets your traits as well.

Somna.5168:

Every time you get a book, it automatically resets your traits as well.

but the actual reset is far cheaper than those books

@OP
Important traits in my opinion:
Duelling 15
Chaos 5
Illusions 5
Duelling 20:X

Makes 30 TP – lvl40.

I go for toughness/ healing then, but it’s a matter of personal build.

Important IMO is:
-

Quite useful ones to consider (but this ofc all depends on what you prefer):

• Clones on Dodge (20 Duelling)
• -20% Illusion summoning CD (5 Illusions)
• Skills from Focus Offhand reflect projectiles (20 Inspiration)
• +1s Cloaking duration for Stealth skills (we have 4 of those, which is quite a bit – 30 Chaos)
• Clones cripple nearby enemies when killed / overwritten (10 Domination)
• Vigor when you crit (5 Duelling)

None of these are “must have”.
Some are very FOTM, like Bleed on Illusion Crits (15 Duelling) or Clone on Dodge (20 Duelling). But plenty Mesmers do fine without, so it’d be hard to argue that you need them, they’re simply very easy to use so they are nice to pick up and do well with them.

Mostly, it depends on which weapons appeal to you.
If you enjoy the hell out of the +swiftness on the Focus, you want 20 Inspiration because Warden’s Feedback is that strong.
If you OTOH enjoy dual-wielding swords, that is ofc useless for you and the value of deep Inspiration just went down a whole lot.

One thing to consider though:
Please Don’t join the ranks of the people who have 30/30 Domination / Duelling or 20/30/20 Domination / Duelling / Illusions, all gear Power / Precision / Condition damage, and then cry on the forums how bad Mesmers are in Dungeons. If you build your character to be meh, it’s going to be meh. :P
In other words, don’t make a 100% offence build unless you are 110% sure you know what you’re doing, because you can and you will die in seconds. A lot. And so will your clones and phantasms. OTOH, also don’t make a 100% defence build (30 Chaos / 30 Inspiration) unless you know what you’re doing. It’s much better than the pure offence, but it’ll still cause you a headache unless you then use pure-offence gear to counteract it.