Guild Wars 2

I’ve not really spent any successful time solo on my mesmer in WVW. If I do come across someone solo, I always die.

I have played many PVP type games for 10+ years (such as DAoC, WAR, even spend all my time in Rift PVPing).
So how is it, I can’t seem to kill anything on my mesmer in GW2? Equipment? Spec? Time/experience?
I come back to this game every few months for an hour or two then give up.

So! What are your top tips for solo WvW? What spec? What weapon types? What equipment?

I currently have exotic armour, weapons and accessories:
Armour I have a full Rabid set and full Soldier set
Accessories are mostly bezerker
Weapons are Soldier and bezerker

Specs, I’ve just specced to 4/4/6/0/0 but I was also 4/4/0/0/6 I think.

imo other game experiences, no matter how long, have little effect on your chance of success in this game. Heck, mesmer in GW1 and GW2 are completely different breeds despite being in the same series. Furthermore Coming back for a few hours won’t really get you into the situation if you have left for a few months, particularly when experienced opponents know how to deal with traditional mesmer builds anyway. You probably just need to invest a little bit more time to become successful. The opponents who faced you may have spend significantly more time in game. And if they already know how you will fight you’re already losing at the starting point.

For roaming part, solo roaming is quite difficult nowadays due to roaming parties like to pick on lonely heroes (could be different depending on servers).

4/4/6/0/0 PU build makes you very hard to kill, condi or power alike. But people tends to just run from these mesmers.

4/4/0/0/6 power shatter mesmer will have lots of time dying solo unless you’re really good at instant burst or catching people off guard. Simply because this build has been around for 2 years and people know they need to dodge when illusions are running. x/4/x/x/6 maim condi shatter mesmer is less punishing and has more damage options, but again, it has limitations when it comes to experienced players who’s well aware of the situations.

You can also try out Ross’ phantasm + lockdown build, I was roaming with it a few days ago and some people are totally confused by the setup. Just be ready to bail out if you face multiple opponents with cleaving though.

Lastly try not to go hybrid build unless you know what you’re doing. Despite mesmer’s theme as magic swordsman etc we’re quite marginalized when it comes to stats. Go power or condi (with variable toughness depend on your confidence) but having both means your condi DPS kills slower and you can’t burst down full zerk opponents.

44006 is probably the most difficult build you can roam with, it is really fun when you’ve learned to play with it and even then you die a lot.

Condition is easily the best for survival but it gets a bit boring after a while imo but maybe a good start. Google for Napalm Cat 2.0 its quite fun and got really good survivability.

If you want to try power go all berzerker gear but use Rabid armor and the 44600 build for more toughness and get a bit more juice from the conditions. Try playing with the weapons you are most comfortable with at first and then switch out one at the time. If you find all weapons equally annoying I’d use staff, it’s one of the best defensive weapons but with zerker gear it can pack a serious power punch too. 1h Swords attack #3 is a good defence AND good dmg dealer together with #2 to lock them down.

For me a crucial insight was to learn to retreat and positioning, use the environment to hide from damage. Run around a tree or a ruin. To become better at this, try to JUST stay alive, don’t do damage. When you got the dodging and trickery working bring out the weapons.

A VERY GOOD trait for survivability for solo roamers is Far-Reaching Manipulations that extends your Blink, I never leave home without it.

My best tip is know your server. How your server is ranked depends on how well you can get away with “solo” roaming. If you’re ranked in a Gold Tier server or even an upper Silver tier, you will have a hard time roaming unless you in the hours of low activity. I started out in a Bronze tier server and I could get away with flipping camps or towers by myself. Where I am now people watch and respond with in a couple minutes of something becoming contested.

So, if you’re in a higher ranked server you can expect to keep dying know matter how well you build. Whenever I solo roam I always run into groups of 2-3-5 players and I never win, no matter what build I use. I can’t cap anything bigger than a flag on the map because it takes too long to flip anything larger alone. You will need a partner or few if this is the case. However, if you are in a lower ranked server you should be able to get away with shatter build, but keep in mind if someone snipes you (ie LB zerk ranger, or backstab thief) you’re done.