Guild Wars 2

Ok, well I have 123 hours played on my mesmer, so I have a good idea of what I’m doing overall. However, ever since the first beta weekend (when they had you start your mesmer with a melee sword instead of the current scepter), I have totally been confused.

Why does the mesmer have a melee weapon and why do so many people like it? I’m not saying it’s bad, I would just really appreciate some advice on how to use it properly. Who knows, maybe it’s just not my playstyle. Right now I am running pretty much a zerker phantasm DPS build with GS + Sword/Focus.

Thanks

As a mesmer you keep on learning, 123 hours really isn’t that much yet, even after 1300 hours you still find new tricks and combo’s

I first also thought the melee sword was an odd choice for the mesmer, since we are supposed to be pretty squishy and being in melee would get you killed.
But the nice thing is that the main sword skill is blurred frenzy, and using it makes you invulnerable, so that fixes the squishyness issue somewhat.
You must also not use the sword the same way as a warrior or guardian would.
The key is that you must make use of your (often bugged) leap skill as a gap closer and immobilizer before using blurred frenzy.
You can however do more than that, since your enemy is immobilized you can also try and hit him with some shatters. You can hit mirror images and mind wrack for a quick shatter.
If you are zerker specced , the blurred frenzy + shatter combo can do a lot of burst damage
After the blurred frenzy you usually step back again, either by dodging or using staff#2, or stomp the enemy in case you are in wvw/pvp

You should take a look at Osicat his shattercat thread, its a sticky at the top of this mesmer forums, and shows how deadly a sword can be in the right hands.

in this game any invulnerability skill is gold.

Now sword has a low cooldown, good dmg invulnerability (distortion).

On top of that you see you have a teleport to get in melee that also gives you a clone.

Means for shatter build you can get melee, immobilize your target and in the meantime spawn 3 clones and with the right trait shatter for 4 while being invulnerable and dealing damage.

Its a great burst.

Basically at least in pve/dungeons etc you can have a rotation switching range constantly.

You just send your sword 3 to target switch, sword2, shatter, roll away, switch weapon again etc.

Not to mention that having a melee high dmg attack is also really nice.

Only sad thing is autoattack that is quite bad :|

LordByron.8369:

Only sad thing is autoattack that is quite bad :|

It is a spammable boon-stripper that is also performed by all your Clones. In PvP that is invaluable, no one can keep a boon up for long while you’re stabbing them in their face.

dunno i don t play pvp but in pve is meh :/

No,,, the Mesmer is a duelist class,,, not just that…

But in the very first every art of teh Mesmer, when it was first made for Gw1, was it with a sword.

Also a Mesmer can get up to 27khp, so pretty much 3rd highest hp in game.

Mesmer is kinda like the battlemage ideal, but instead of defense magic to keep him/her alive. It use illusions.

One of the biggest advantages of the sword is the double combo-finish leap. Learn to use it in the right moment and you will love the sword! Example: we do often have a ranger or ele in our dungeon group and if you double leap inside a water combo field you are healed for about 2.8k. Or you use it after casting the mighty feedback to get chaos armor! It also works as a stunbreaker (the second leap).

Unlike other people I think that the sword autoattack ist great. It has the mesmers highest dps and since the last update hits up to 3 targets with every attack. It also removes boons (and there are still some situations where this is very useful).

Mesmer’s and swords have always been associated with each other, even as far back as Guild Wars 1:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/ma4ever86/RPG%20Games/Mesmer.jpg

This whole “spellcasters can’t use melee weapons” is so Blizzard, even D&D had viable melee builds for Wizards

I have over 4 hours played on my mesmer so I am pretty good but what are these buttons at the bottom of my screen?

sword 2 is the best counter to thieves in 1 v 1. I used it for a while but went back to GS because I like the ranged play style better and GS is much better in a 2-3 man. But when a thief try to burst you or guardian or warrior try to dps dumb on you pop blured frenzy in their face is pretty fun. The best is when you use it on DD eles, chaos storm + blurred frenzy + shatter = one dead DD ele.

Don’t forget that the first 2 attacks of the sword auto stack vulnerability. Semi-decent cleave damage, vulnerability, and boon stripping. This is one of the best auto-chains in the game coupled with 2s of invulnerability on an 8-10s CD and a gap closer that AOE cripples and immobilizes (albeit heavily bugged) all on one MH weapon.

Scepter just doesn’t compare and is why you see so many mesmers with a sword or two.

dunno seems so slow to me in term of dps.

its not the number….its the damage per second that seems bad….

WIth most other weapons you do 3 fast Attacks

With sw 1 you do 3 extremely slow Attacks.

MH sword auto is not for damage; its for setting up damage. Hence the slower attack rate with vulnerability plus boon strip. You use your phantasms and/or shatters for DPS as a mesmer, maybe a direct attack on moderate CD for some weapons.

if you want a troll weapon set up sceptor/sword, sword/torch. Lots of mitigation plus invisibility.

As others have mentioned, the sword auto is more about utility then damage. It sets you up by stripping away protection or regen and stacking invulnerability.

Your main burst will come off of the blurred frenzy, or off hand iSwordsman. Shatters also will be packing the punch which the weapon is good for setting up because when you are in melee range with your clones it gives your target less time to respond.

Mesmer is very much about float like a butterfly still like a bee. Bounce in and out to attack, dodge about, blink, go invisible.

Aside from thief, and ele, mesmers are among the best at in combat mobility. Use it. All of our sword abilities, and off hands to pair with it support it.

the main reason players use sword mainhand in PvE is its mesmers only cleave weapon; which is invaluable in dungeons (you could argue that staff/gs has the ability to do the same… but youd be wrong) and has the highest raw damage (although i could be wrong about that; i have no numbers; just what ive observed… i also count offhand damage; which is normally a focus in dungeons for me)
in PvP ileap>blurred frenzy is an easy but effective combo (unless it leaps you into a wall…) that can easily be followed up with a shatter

I actually ran a pure longsword phantasm build for a short while, longsword has ALOT of utility and damage output when played with other effects.
In my case I’d run dual swords for damage, and sword/torch for defensive stealth and retaliation, and built heavy into dueling and inspiration for phantasm regen.

The clones you make can stack up vulnerability incredibly fast and prevent any kind of boon usage, the offhand sword phantasm hits like a truck, and on top of that, blurred frenzy! <3

My justifications for sword are as follows:

-a vulnerability stacking auto-attack. Nifty. Makes building power a lot more viable.
-a high damage 2 skill with a 2 second evade that can be combo’d directly into a Diversion (Daze) or Distortion(3 second evade, totaling 5).
- a gap closing 3 skill that is actually a double leap finisher (useful for proccing retaliation on engages).

Currently no other Mesmer weapon can offer you 5 seconds of evade, two of which usable every 10 seconds. As well as a double finisher on a 9 1/2 second cool down.

Keep in mind the information I just provided is un-traited. Blade Training nets you an additional 50 precision and 20% cool down reduction.

I do not feel this weapon is at the top of anything as far as flat out DPS (great sword), or utility (staff) , goes. But I’d argue it to the death that it’s one of the best “in-between” weapons on any class currently in the game.

Small tips:

- In a build that can utilize a bit more control, say paired with a staff, you have 3 leap finishers you can pop off in under 3 seconds. If you know what you’re doing, that’s deadly. Permanent Chaos Armor comes to mind.

- Paired with a focus as well as a staff swap for the leaps, you now net yourself almost permanent retaliation up time. It gets even easier if you trait for Confusing Cry which lets your Frustration proc retaliation as well. Combining that with the natural hand-in-hand power has with the sword you’re putting out serious retaliation damage against all ranged dps. That maxes out somewhere around 450? damage a tick. Every attack against you. Non-stop (unless stripped of course).

PvE for MH-Sword?
Boon Stripping + Boon Stripping Clones.
Vulnerability stacking.
AoEish for up to three targets.
Lowish CD Invulnerability.
Leap Finisher (Chaos Armor from Chaos Fields or Retaliation from Focus Temporal Curtain).
One of our more damaging weapons.
Boon Stripping and Boon Stripping Clones.
— Yes, this little fact needs to be repeated. Dredge? In a group its sometimes more beneficial just to keep a trio of Sword Clones out rather then start popping a few phantasms (or more accurately, pop a Phantasm let it do its attack, shatter, then spawn 3x more Sword Clones). No more Protection/Regeneration on them AND Vulnerability stacks too.

WvWvW for Sword?
Combo of iLeap → Blurred Frenzy + Shatter. Immobilized target, meaning they can’t dodge both the Blurred Frenzy and the Mind Wrack without an instant condition cure.
Allows usage of off-hand Focus/Torch/Pistol (Scepter is kinda meh, unless you specifically build for it). Great secondary weapon set that way.
Invulnerability (Again).
Melee Clones (already runs towards targets, making quicker Shatters)

What you need to LEARN though is how to survive in melee as a Mesmer. Timing Invulnerabilities to enemy moves in PvE or watching tells of a devastating combo in WvWvW small fights. Hit and run tactics for Glass cannons, or stacking of Toughness. I prefer using 20 in Inspiration for Mender’s Purity, Restorative Mantras, and Mantra of Recovery for instant Condition Curing and Healing for reflex survival in melee (instant condition curing REALLY can’t be overlooked. Makes for dodging much easier, when you can rely on undoing an immobilize fast.)

Of course, this doesn’t mean I ALWAYS carry the MH-Sword though. Its just my default weapon choice. Sometimes its just not viable for my Mesmer to be in melee, or zerg rushes in WvWvW is just too dangerous.

I have almost 1100 hours on my mesmer.

Sword/sword is one of my favorite combo’s for a lot of the pve in the game. The block is great against any bosses with long charge aoe attack’s like the plant’s in TA, the Fire effigy in CoF path 1, etc. By cycling Sword 2 and block you can almost face tank many bosses at least for a 6 seconds or so. Cycle sword 2, block and distortion shatter and you can tank for quite awhile.

Offhand sword isn’t that great for pvp and I wouldn’t use it there. Main hand sword though not only roots but has 2 sec of invuln, a gap closer, produces a clone and does decent dps compared to other weapons and classes.

1,044 hours and just officially tried s/s a few days ago. It works wonder. iswordsman could hit almost as hard as izerk although its attack range is a bit buggy. 4th skill could be handy at times and deals decent dmg. s/s is not the best combination in term of outright dmg but it does give you a lot of “dancing” capability.

“dunno i don t play pvp but in pve is meh :/”

sword #2 aoe dmg + invul … oh wait, yeah it’s bad in any part of the game :>

The Eternal Grace.3157:

Right now I am running pretty much a zerker phantasm DPS build with GS + Sword/Focus.
Thanks

Blurred frenzy dishes out a tremendous amount of damage along with shattering… the iLeap combo when pulled off is devestating. Plus your autoattacks put on vulnerability. I agree it seems a little counter intuitive, but it’s a great defensive tool against people who charge in, esp thieves and their heart seeker spamming. Sword is an excellent weapon with a lot of versality and finds its way in to a lot of builds that aren’t shatter/zerker based.

The Eternal Grace.3157:

Ok, well I have 123 hours played on my mesmer, so I have a good idea of what I’m doing overall. However, ever since the first beta weekend (when they had you start your mesmer with a melee sword instead of the current scepter), I have totally been confused.

Why does the mesmer have a melee weapon and why do so many people like it? I’m not saying it’s bad, I would just really appreciate some advice on how to use it properly. Who knows, maybe it’s just not my playstyle. Right now I am running pretty much a zerker phantasm DPS build with GS + Sword/Focus.

Thanks

123 hours is still too little to understand a mesmer

come back when you are 300 hours in and tested the sword, then you can start ovulating the class.

I only starting to master the class at fractal 10. at 400 hours in.

loseridoit.2756:

123 hours is still too little to understand a mesmer

come back when you are 300 hours in and tested the sword, then you can start ovulating the class.

I only starting to master the class at fractal 10. at 400 hours in.

That may be true for those of us playing male mesmers, but my buddy rolled a human female and he can ovulate her every 28 days for his monthly.

:p

manudiao.9803:

“dunno i don t play pvp but in pve is meh :/”

sword #2 aoe dmg + invul … oh wait, yeah it’s bad in any part of the game :>

Cool and that what has to do with sword1?
I described already sw2 and 3 are awesome…..and i use them a lot…yet sw1 is somehow not good in pve except for the vulnerability.

Mesmers have been, since their initial conception, Duelists. It’s just that the way GW1 was set up didn’t support a half caster or Melee caster – they’d of has to of given the profession too much defense. Though they did have a skill called Illusionary Weapon which allowed them to wield any weapon and deal damage, even if not trained.

Mesmers are all about leading your opponent on, feinting, deception, etc. As such, sword training (most likely fencing) is part of their studies. Original GW1 art work depicts them wielding the sword. Note that even the Pistol is given to us in a ‘Duelist’ fashion. We don’t spam shots from it, we use it for one decisive shot.

As to the usefulness of the Sword, it’s among our best weapon. It deals consistent AoE, stacks Vuln, removes boons, and the Clones do the same effect. Blurred Frenzy is more AoE and invuln, while iLeap is a double leap finisher that, usually, helps to close gaps.