Guild Wars 2

So I got a level 80 mesmer. I did actually level it in PvE (not Eotm) and i gotta say it was the hardest toon to level out of all my toons. I mainly play WvW roaming or small havoc group and I cant for the life of me figure out how to play this class. Atm I feel like I straight up wasted a week of my life getting to level 80 because I just get blown up and become a major liability to my mates I Havoc with. I do understand that this is most likely a case of learn to play so here I am… I’ll post my build below so people can see it. Any help on positioning, Starting fights, Combo’s, Surviving Outnumbered fights, etc. Basically any help would be appreciated. I will say I do not want to play any condi spec (includes PU condi spec). I played alot of Engi Condi spec and now crave power specs.

Also I have looked up numerous videos on Power Shatter mesmer and even when trying to mimic their actions my burst doesnt come out near the same way or I die before I get anything happening.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpMtNqxINcrNipxg6yObOSGQDlMkxB-TVTDwA9UCR5IAwS3wM1fyv/QUlCHeIAPVGkQJYVlEQViM4CAAwEGhAEsFA-w

I had all zerk armor and trinkets but I need the knights armor training wheels to survive longer than 1 second. Apparently the training wheels aren’t strong enough…

Other toons at 80: Guardian, Warrior and Engineer. All are spec’ed power for roaming and I don’t have anywhere near the trouble I have on Mesmer with them. Although that means little.

You jumped in the deep end going shatter right off the bat imo, it is not an easy spec to get good with. There are a few other power builds to try that work well, check this forum.

Really though if you are set on going full zero shatter without trying any other builds, it can be done just going to take a lot of dying to get good I think (and then still a lot of dying).

Yea i realize im in a sink or swim situation. After looking up some builds (which ALOT are condi based) Im wondering if something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8alknpMtNqxINcrNSrxg6ryqMSFQp/o6MA-TVTDwA9UCR5IAwS3wM1fyv/QUlCHeIAPVGkQJYVlEQViM4CAAwEGhAEsFA-w may be better for a beginner. Pistol seems like it’s more noob friendly and the traits are slightly different for what i believe to be higher dps? Perhaps some feedback on changes. I may be missing the nail head perhaps.

I think you should retry the first build except with the full zerker gear and also use energy sigils this time.

I’m in the exact same boat. Can’t for the life of me figure out how to roam on this class. And I don’t want to run PU or anything Condi either.

If you find something that works, let me know.

After the nerf on critical damage, shatter is go zerker or go home. You have nothing close to 900 ferocity and even now I am at 1000 feroicity and feel that it is too little. You will hit no damage on crits due to the low levels of damage ON crits. You need to accept two things when playing shatter.
1) Full zerker works best but you are risking it all. (Conditions and thieves will eat you alive)

2) It is not optimally balanced for WvW. The risk/reward factor isn’t worth it. You’ll get 1 shotted by classes wearing full zerker more than killing players in general. (Classes like thief, ranger and ele make use of zerker gear alot better than mesmers)

Jumping into shatter mesmer right away is a little difficult because positioning is very important. A PU power build might be better for you if you’re finding it hard to survive on a shatter mesmer.

I’m not sure what all the cool kids are running exactly when it comes to power PU. Maybe something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8alknpRtFrxUNcrNCrxY6YKJFSOQAlMjrB-TVBBABYp8DgLCAOq/I4+DnpEkQAC2CA-w

I do come across quite a few PU power builds in wvw. They don’t necessarily have the same spike damage as a shatter mesmer and they take a while to ramp up their damage but what you trade for spike damage is more survivability.

If you like the feel of shatter, but want something tankier try MtD shatter like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7flknpMtNqxINcrNSpBh6ykmmSyA8gSOiyB-TlxYwAAU+9TdlR7PgS3jRVKWoEkUAwssC-w

It definitely plays differently than power shatter but preserves the AOE boon strip of the meta power shatter build. Staff and torch will also make you much more slippery than GS+sw/pistol.

If you really like zerker gear and want to try a phantasm build for wvw, you can always do something like 24620 power/pu.

Seconding this guy ^ about MtD shatter, I used GS/sword torch shatter for the longest time and was successful, but it didn’t have the battlefield control and survivability that I wanted.

Switched and never looked back.

There is no style of mesmer more annoying to attempt to 1v1 than a condi mesmer with scepter torch and staff. Keyword being attempt since it is rage inducing from what I can tell

I’m still a bit bad at roaming with my mesmer, but I think I can help you since I also begin to play mesmer on a power shatter build in WvW, and it wasn’t easy.

One thing that helped me a lot was practicing different burst combos, in sessions of 15-30 minutes, on golems in HotM. Then playing a few matches when I got bored, and back to practice the shatters. Especially for the Blink shatters, it really helps getting the combos into muscle memory, so you can perform better afterwards. Then of course you have to practice on real players.

Did you try zerker everything with pvt armor? Worked better than knights for me in the past. Also, you really want the poultry meat food to reduce the condition pressure on you.

Build wise, you might consider taking Mental Torment instead of Halting Strike and Illusionary Invigoration instead of Illusionary Elasticity.

Aside from that, it’s all matter of using your defensive cooldowns properly: you have 3 stealths, evasion on blurred frenzy, distortion on the F4 shatter, plenty of condi removal (save it for Immobilize and Chill mostly).

Shatter mesmer is prolly the absolute hardest spec in the game currently.

• Best way to play it, kite kite for your life.
• Never be in the middle of any big team fight.
• Learn to use your mates for swiftness as you absolutely need staff to stay alive in small groups.
• Lastly, don’t frontload your shatters. Bait out cooldowns, and learn that you are not meant to be a frontliner.

I run a similar build/gear to the one you have posted and have played memser pretty much since launch. changing the GS for staff will offer you some survivability but slightly reduce your dps.

If you’re playing shatter spec, you need to realize something … your burst is amazing.

Since working with your mates in a havoc group, you should try to coordinate CC. Someone that can’t mitigate a double shatter is going to be downed very quickly by a good shatter Mesmer.

Though the videos are old, Osicat had some videos where he ran with his havoc group even into larger groups as a shatter build. Some things have changed, but shatter is still largely the same.

I’d suggest to do some sPvP. You’ll be fighting more -> you get better faster.
Some power PU builds might be a good way to get a grip of the class, as they tend to be more forgiving.

Mesmer is very dependant on defensive cooldowns and you can look at them as your healthpool. Keep track of them and try to use them wisely.

Also, I personally think double sigil of energy is a must.

Stick with your gear, get PU and ditch shatter line. Leave everything else SAME. Tty that for a bit , you’ll be just fine. Mesmer is the best toon in a small gp esp when paired with thieves.