Guild Wars 2

So Ive heard that leveling early on as a mesmer is tough but what im going through is ridiculous. I literally get 3 shot by most mobs my level. In most story quests I die 4+ times in any given fight by literally getting killed right after I arrive. Ive done research on builds and Ive experimented with every weapon set but im still so very kittened. I find that any quest where I do not have a LARGE open space to kite (with no slows) I am guaranteed death.

So is mesmer just a kittened class? Or is it maybe just very inefficient at leveling? Let me know whats changed cause ive been away from GW2 for like the last 2 weeks.

Mesmers are relatively weak compared to other classes. This requires much more skill to play without getting killed. The learning curve is immense.

However once you get the hang of how to play, the Mesmer becomes much easier to handle and you get to kitten off everybody in PvP who Mesmer whine and have no knowledge of how hard the Mesmer is to play.

What could I be missing out on though? Its not like im inexperienced in MMOs. There is a relatively low pool of skills and traits/attributes to chose from. I just feel like if ever Im not in open space. I just get annihilated. Ive tried running Phant Defender, cloaks and everything but the survival is just not there. or i must be missing something huge that they have changed

I don’t know what could be ailing you.

Personally I had a little trouble during the early levels as well, but now I can solo most event bosses. I know for a fact my timing on using skills/shatters has significantly improved since I first started playing.

My personal build is very shatter/glass cannon oriented but I don’t die all that much unless I severely over aggro.

I use staff and double swords.

Mesmer’s have lower dps than other classes because of the high level of survivability they have.

Once I got into full Exotic’s my dps did get better but it’s still no ranger or warrior.

Mesmer is a finesse class with a lot of depth.

The mesmer excels at tank builds. Maybe investigate that angle a little. Stack toughness, condition damage and power.

I would avoid the great sword for leveling because you’re going to enter many caves and small areas where the greatsword does not do well when you’re surrounded by spawns.

Story Quests always had me believing that the Monsters would ignore my Clones and specifically target me.

Anyways, a few tips I used to stay alive during quests that I still remember.

1) Cripple. 10 in Domination for (V:) Crippling Dissipation and 20 in Dueling for (X:) Deceptive Evasion gives you a decent source to consistently apply cripple. The key though, is to time the Dodge when an enemy is about to swing at you in melee. That way, he strikes and likely kills the clone and spread the cripple condition all around him and giving you a few more seconds of breathing room.

2) Shatter. Shattering early can soften up the targets considerably, especially if your stats are for Power and Condition Damage. Decoy → Dodge Clone → Mind Wrack→Dodge Clone→Weapon Clone → Cry of Frustration can soften up enemies at the start, so you aren’t fighting them as long. Secondly, if you got to run through a crowd because of bad positioning, Distortion is your friend.

3) Weapons. I swore by Sword/Focus + Staff, and still do, for PvE.
Sword for me tends to be the epitome Hit & Run weapon. Leap→Swap→Blurred Frenzy→Dodge, Kite, Repeat. If you get really good at it, you can actually time the Swap so that you Teleport & Root the enemies so that they are facing away from you. That gives you time to get in one or two regular sword swings before hitting Blurred Frenzy. Duelist’s (IV:) Blade Training is a must, for an 8 sec CD on Blurred Frenzy.
Focus for the Speed buff, crippling the crowd, and pulling them all in one skill is great. With the Phantasm that works as a great anti-ranged skill, its even better and lets you worry about just staying away from the melee while killing the ranged for a few seconds, rather then panicking as your health starts to drop from ranged attacks.
Staff is defensive. Stand in your own Chaos Storm helps a lot both for damage and survival, though I find it best to stay moving while staying in the confines of it while its up. Before it ends, use Phase Retreat to get Chaos Armor and begin kiting once more. Save the actual skill Chaos Armor for when an enemy is about to hit you.

4) Healing. A big one. If you often find yourself kiting between Blurred Frenzies with the Sword, having 20 in Inspiration for Restorative Mantras + Mender’s Purity and grabbing Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Recovery can be a boon.
On top of Phantasms passing out Regeneration, if they stay alive long enough, charging those 4 second Mantras also heal you (For about as much as the stated amount that Mantra of Recovery/Power Return gives you). Charge/Use Mantra of Pain while kiting a mob with the sword, dealing a little damage and healing a little health, then go about the normal Leap→Swap→Blurred Frenzy→Dodge approach. Added benefit, is that you don’t have to be facing your target to use Mantra of Pain. Mantra of Recovery on the other hand is used for Condition Clearing and emergency healing. Get Crippled/Immobilized/Chilled? Hit Mantra of Recovery’s Power Return, and it disappears while you get health.

5) Phantasmal Defender usage. This one is tricky. He works best with Signet of Illusions giving him more health, but then he still needs time to get the Signet’s health boost. Further, he’ll absorb damage not just from you, but from your clones, phantasms, and allies. That last part can be a nightmare when he has Retaliation on himself, as then the enemy that damages all those targets gets that damage, and turns towards the I.Defender.
Chaos Storm on the I.Defender when he first enters the fight is generally a good idea, and catching any allies/self/illusions in it as well goes quite a long way. Even then, do not tank multiple enemies and trying to rely on the I.Defender.

Mazui.6714:

Its not like im inexperienced in MMOs.

This might be your problem.

I’ve actually found veteran MMO players have a harder time adjusting to GW2 than non MMO’rs – dodge rolls, positioning, reflexes are just as important as skill usage.. One of my friends i brought to GW2 has never played an MMO before it and she managed to pick up and master Mesmer right out the gate.

The first step to mastering GW2, is to accept you’re a newb now, just like the rest of us and have to learn a new game from the ground up

I can solo champions and veterans pretty easily whether they’re ranged or melee. Some advice I can give you is utilizing your phantasms and clones to the fullest. Dodge and stealth when you’re about to die and heal, then create more clones if they die. I use GS and Sword/Pistol. The elites in Orr are pretty fun to kill since I have to manuever around and make sure I don’t get necessary adds.

Said it before, and I’ll say it again – Mesmer is a horrible, horrible PvE class. Just horrible. The sad irony is, with so many noobs not knowing how the class works (since we are the least played class, according to ANet) complain about it in PvP and ANet just said they’re “watching Mesmers”, which likely means a slew of nerfs. Which will only make the class worse in PvE.

The class will improve with talents. But so will every other class in the game. You’ll just get a few more options. Level 40 is a big one, because you can get a “clone when you dodge” trait in Dueling line, for example. But other classes get toys just as nifty. My Engi for example got a “mine when you dodge”, which works at least as well as the clone, considering how much damage a mine will do, and that damage is AoE. Whereas with clones you’ll have to wait for enough, then shatter them and hope it works.

There are basic tips and tricks though. If you use Staff, then the basic combo should include Chaos Storm placed either offensively on the enemy or defensively over yourself and your clones. If you use Phantasmal Retreat (Staff #2 ability) inside Chaos Storm, you will get a free Chaos Armor. Then you can use the real Chaos Armor. Or get another free one from another glamour, like Null Field. This alone will boost your survival immensely.

Then, with 10 points in…what was it…Inspiration line, you could have a trait that gives you vigor every time you shatter. Vigor allows more dodges. And dodges create more clones. But you will still be nowhere near as dodgy as an Engineer, who can do 6+ dodges back to back (Rune of Adventurer restoring 100% of endurance when you heal, coupled with Medkit heal on 10 sec CD, plus Elixir R instantly refilling your endurance once again). Each dodge creates a mine. Each mine, when it explodes, will damage enemies, apply conditions AND possibly heal you and everyone nearby (albeit for a smallish amount).

Do you know how with a Mesmer in PvE you have to dodge and create tons of illusions and shatter and blow cooldowns and dodge, dodge, dodge? Well, as an Engineer, I just spec mines, pull 6-10 mobs (AT LOW LEVEL TOO!), then do Mine #4 (AoE blind field, so I take no damage), Big Ol’ Bomb that will go off in about 3 seconds with a big bang and a knockback/knockdown, then cycle Mine #3 (confusion AoE), Mine #2 (poison AoE) and Mine #2 (burning AoE). Then they are all sent flying, and most of them die. And I don’t take a single hit doing it. Takes a total of about 5 seconds. If there’s any survivors, mop up with a rifle or a flamethrower or just grenade barrage. Longest cooldown blown? 30 seconds, untraited, for Big Ol’ Bomb, which strictly speaking isn’t even needed.

There’s really no comparison between two classes in PvE. My Engi feels like a juggernaut of mass destruction. Mesmer is just a dainty butterfly by comparison.

Keep in mind that if you are higher level than your personal story quest, it will delevel you and if your items are not equal to your real level then you will be really kittened. This is evidence by the fact that I kept dying over and over with quests under my level and quests that were 3-4 levels above me were relatively easy.

When I was struggling tons I learned a few tricks that helped me. For instance, when an event in the story made ten monsters come to attack you, you can respawn after death, come back, and pull them one at a time from a distance. Actually, in all instances that I’ve noted, you can run away before an expected spawn of monsters and just stay at the edge pulling one at a time.

You can also take advantage of invisibility. There was one quest that was so impossible because there was an army of enemies on a bridge and mortars were firing nonstop over and over in huge AOE range killing me almost instantly. So after dying five times, I armed all of my invisibilities including torch and just ran through the bridge to the end. I pulled the boss and killed him alone and the quest was successful.

Later on after playing 50 or so levels I’ve realized that kiting makes you much more survivable. Keep running around and poking him with your scepter or ranged weapon of choice, dodging when your enemy’s about to attack. Keep using ether feast as often as possible (if hurt of course), use invis for respite. Of course, kiting needs you to be free from other monsters around you so again you have to pull and be at the edge of the crowd so you don’t run into any surprises. And use phantasms to kill your foe while you’re running around like a kitten.

It baffles me that so many people are struggling with the class??? I was fighting mobs 4-5 levels higher than me practically the entire time until I reached 80. I used Greatsword from 1-25, then switched to Staff + sword/pistol the rest of the way and had no issues. You MUST utilize your clones and phantasms to be successful.

I don’t have any trouble running greatsword pretty much anywhere. I just stack up on traits that make my phantasms better and reduces cooldown on greatsword and illusion skills. Let them do the work.

are you levelling an asura?

metrica and brisban are horribly overtuned and it’s readily evident the second you play a class that is not easy mode pve out of the gate. inquest are nasty grenade and condition spammers. they chill you then lob nades that do 1/3 your health each. the bandits in brisban do 1k hits regularly when you have maybe 1.5k health.

this is something you don’t run into in queensdale. so if this is the case, take your newbie mesmer to queensdale and kessex (like i did) and get to 15-20, then come back and work on the asura story.

honestly all classes except the ranger feel weak to me before level 20.

You just have to find your way to play the Mesmer

I found mine by opening with Staff (and iWarlock for that matter), dishing conditions like there is no tomorrow, then switch to Sword+Pistol for iDuelist, hack and slash, hit and run and ‘thievish dodgery’

It is a fun way to play, and once I stack more Toughness (+ Power and Condition Dmg) along the way, it’ll eventually become, if not almost unstoppable, extremely annoying.

It baffles me that so many people are struggling with the class??? I was fighting mobs 4-5 levels higher than me practically the entire time until I reached 80.

Most classes can do this. I was fighting multiple risen 8 levels above me on my Engi this morning. The only difference was, instead of a single rotation it took two rotations and a few autoshots to down them.

About the storyline missions, some NPCs in missions are insane. Namely, Doctor Howler if you chose Street Rat human background. Huge damage, tons of conditions and an immense health pool. Only way I found to beat him as a level 9 Engi was to use two turrets (healing and rifle) as a distraction or physical shield/line of sight.

Also I found personal story missions usually are very demanding in AoE department. For example, on Mesmer I struggled fairly heavily, especially against multiple speedy Risen. Like sometimes you’d have 6-10 frenzied Risen chasing you. But I did the same thing on my Engi just by AoEing them all in under 10 seconds and taking zero damage due to juggling blinds from mines, grenades and flamethrower.

wow its like we are playing the same class

the only times i ever died as a mesmer is against champions

as i leveled, i killed slow but i never died and i didnt feel like it took too long to complete zones…

use staff to kill mobs, stack conditiom damage, trait for condition and staff damage and shatter damage, and use sword / focus as your weapon swap so you can walk faster to places.

Staff + Sword/Pistol and 5 points in Illusions will be your saving grace in all things solo PvE. I’m only level 15, so I only have two utility slots and I use Feedback and Phantasmal Defender. Open with your Warlock and Defender, drop Chaos Field, switch to Sword/Pistol, throw your Duelist, then get up in their faces and DPS away. The sword’s 2 and the pistol’s 5 will save your kitten so many times, especially if you have good timing. My favorite thing to do when ranged mobs use that rapid fire skill is to pop my sword’s 2 and watch them waste it. If your phantasms start dropping, replace them with clones and back off and start using your staff. If your health starts getting low, back off and use your staff. If you’re ever up against a ranged mob and you get low on health, put Feedback on the mob.

This setup has a ton of DPS and can burst down mobs very fast. Ideally, you want to target ranged mobs first since they can’t be kited. A’course, it’s all single target damage, so if your phantasms are on CD when the mob dies, you’ll want to switch to staff and throw down some clones and Chaos Field and put on Chaos Armor, preferably by comboing it with your staff 2 and then using your 4 afterward. Then, it’s just a process of rinse and repeat.

I hardly ever use shatters because the majority of my damage comes from my Phantasms and the less down time those guys have, the more damage I do. I save F1 for finishing off a low health mob, I haven’t used F2 since level 3, and I use F3 and F4 when things start going south and I need to gtfo.

It’s by no means effortless or without hiccups, because Mesmer isn’t really that good at solo PvE. You WILL take damage and may even get downed a few times. But our downed state is awesome, so it’s not that big of a deal. Find a low health mob and you can destroy it and rally in no time.

P.S. This is a modified-for-PvE version of Taugrim’s Legion Mesmer build, found here. http://taugrim.com/2012/09/04/guild-wars-2-pvp-video-legion-mesmer-build/

I’m going to have to agree with Jungle Quack which is the second poster. As far as it being a horrible PvE class, I will have to strongly disagree. I’m having next to no trouble doing what I want. I think maybe it has less room for error than other classes, but once you get used to the play style that you choose it really becomes rather easy, quick and very enjoyable.

Eh? Mesmer is very good in PvE. 0.o