Guild Wars 2

I’m new to Mesmer, been playing Necro until now and decided to start leveling a Mesmer.
I primarily play WvW and dungeons, not much else. I want a build suited for WvW [and for dungeons I’ll probably make some slight changes by the need]
I want my Mesmer to be able survive well [probably gonna use Knight’s gear] and have the ability to Burst and hit like a truck. I know these 2 not always go together, but I think a Mesmer can pull it off…
So basically I need help with 2 things:
1. Heavy bursting rotations
2. A build. I was thinking something like this: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VP;107BVV71;9;4JJ;29-39;9R;4udbTudbTMOGvcF35;34-8WCXIYM3U_8LV4V0N-Agk1Agq
What I can’t seem to set my mind on is: 3rd Utility, Mental Toment or Crippling Dissipation in Domination, Sigils on Weapons, and what to do with the remaining 30 points. [Not that sure about the Scholar rune either, what do you think?]

Thanks in advance

Do you want to zerg or roam in WvW? Are you using the focus for run buff or did you have some sort of plan with it? Are you planning to shatter offensively?

For utility, I think you should go for blink. Blink is a great skill for just about any mesmer build. It may seem like a very defensive skill, but you can also use it to confuse enemies, or even as a chase skill. It’s very versatile. I never play WvW without it.

You might want to max out dueling for the extra crit damage and precision. Dueling has a lot of good traits, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something you want.

calavel.6249:

Do you want to zerg or roam in WvW? Are you using the focus for run buff or did you have some sort of plan with it? Are you planning to shatter offensively?

For utility, I think you should go for blink. Blink is a great skill for just about any mesmer build. It may seem like a very defensive skill, but you can also use it to confuse enemies, or even as a chase skill. It’s very versatile. I never play WvW without it.

You might want to max out dueling for the extra crit damage and precision. Dueling has a lot of good traits, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something you want.

I Zerg mostly
I use Focus because it has a pretty awesome AoE Phantasm, Swiftness, cripple and AoE Interrupt.
Also I like to use this Sw/F rotation: 5—>3—>3—>2

As for maxing out dueling, I don’t really know what to take… Furious Interrupt is pretty awesome, but I don’t have many interrupts :\ [#5 GS and double #4 Focus].

Oh and I do like to Shatter quiet a lot, after all illusions die pretty quick so I usually shatter as soon as I can get 3 illusions up… Which is by the way, why I was thinking about going 30 into inspiration and get Restorative Illusions

Mesmer class isn’t the strongest for zerging. The Triforce build is probably the best zerg build we have at the moment. It is terrible in 1v1 or small groups though.

The focus is nice when traited, but I only use it for the run buff. Even inexperienced people will move when they are taking massive stationary damage, so iWarden doesn’t work too well in WVW IMO, unless the enemy is distracted and/or immobilized. I’ve only done condition builds, so I’m not too sure what kind of gear/sigil/weapon combos work best for what you’re trying to do.

But if you want to shatter a lot, you’ll want to trait into illusions (20 points at least IMO) and pick up +crit on mind wrack trait and probably also the increased damage on Mind Wrack from Domination 10. That’s a pretty basic direct damage setup, but it doesn’t have a lot of flexibility. I personally find condition builds much more rewarding, because I think there is better synergy between the different lines when traiting for condition damage.

Well you can immobilize someone using: curtain + iwarden + void pull + sword 3 leap + sword 3 swap + shatter & blurred frenzy combo.

Looks like a good start. Don’t forget Energy Sigils if you go DE. Focus is good times in WvW, especially in Hills Keep defense. I also highly suggest Guard Killer WxP upgrade. Being able to solo camps quickly is very useful and killing guards brings more wxp.

As far as crippling dissipation vs mental torment goes, those are 2 very different directions. Mental torment is a shatter trait, and crippling dissipation only works if you don’t shatter, so you’ll have to decide between them.

Scholar runes are a poor choice. With all the aoe and damage pressure in zergs, you’ll very rarely be at consistently high health. I’d advise for something like divinity for offense or melandru for extra defense.

Hi

I run my mesmer mainly in organized groups 20+ and run dungeons / fractals. I have settled on my own build for it which suits me and my playstyle relatively well.

The build is not spectacular while roaming, you will not be winning 5v1s with it like with other builds dedicated to the purpose, but you can still win 3v1s on rare occasion and 2v1s quite often.

In dungeons, particularly higher end fractals, 38s and 48s, I do OK in damage, not as good as my war of course, but still not too shabby while providing a great deal of utility.

Main weapon sets are Sword / Focus (zerk stats, sigils are Force and perception) and Staff (PVT stats sigil: generosity) for WvW, switch staff for GS (zerk) for dungeons / fractals.

Default utilities are decoy, null field, feedback, mass invis, however I often switch around to blink instead of decoy, and veil or portal instead of feedback (depending on what my commander asks for) and Time Warp instead of mass invis.

I do have some different gear pieces which I switch and adjust as needed per situation. I run 6x Superior rune of the traveller at all times, including on armor pieces which I switch, so that when I do so, I retain the full rune bonusses.

Build itself is 0 10 30 30 0 http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPVz0273VV71;9;59TT;23;019B137;9;8FvcFR7A

Gear wise, I run a 4 pcs knights and 2 pcs valk set as default, switch chest and legs to full zerk for dungeons / fractals. Back piece is ascended zerk, amulet is ascended zerk.

Acessories I switch between zerk, PVT, celestial depending if I do PvE or WvW roaming or WvW group, same with rings. I use the celestial pieces if I need to throw a little bit more healing into my mix, PVT for organized group wvw, and zerk for PvE.

I tend to stay away fro mall things relying on illusions in WvW, simply because of the fact that in group combat shattering, generating clones, their pathing and all that is completely and utterly useless due to server lag. You clones will not even get to their targets to shatter, they will die as soon as spawned or simply not even get to their targets. The only exception to this is the ilock which I pop on a passive target such as a gate or alike and let it sit there without it trying to run to or engage the opponents. The reason I do that is because it provides me with a really nice area passive regen as long as its up. The regen ticks client side regardless of server lag.

Sword #2 I use very often for what it does which you are already familiar with. Sword #3 I use lag permitting, its good if it goes off.

Focus is integral for CC and projectile reflection, the wardens do a ton of damage as well on smaller scale fights, and have an anti-lag advantage in that they are less subject to server lag because they are immobile, so sometimes they can be usefull even in very large scale battles. When traited your line of wardign acts as a wall of reflection, which also tags your opponents for more loot. And of course you can pull people with it

Staff #5 is great for both offensive and defensive purposses, and staff#2 is a free, spammable stunbreaker, cant go wrong there, even if your clone doesnt pop it still gets you out of harms way on ultra low CD.

Runes of the Traveller, its kinda like having most of divinity’s bonusses, a little bit short, but the 25% speed passive ….. see other threads about it, once you switch to it, you will never go back to any others except maybe melandru in super hard fights. Any other runes, you’re just wasting your gold because ultimately you will arrive at these 2 after you try out everything.

This build also gives you and your group TON of chaos armor due to the lower glamour CDs, lower CD on blink, port and veil and timewarp, all critical in WvW group fights.

In addition, you will often generate protection/regeneration/aegis whenever you stealth. This is huge in zerg busting, without this, you basically have to run melandru runes and thus greatly impare your mobility.

So if you want to be more of a roamer or just backline plinking text chat type, go with any variations of what is posted above. If you want to be on VOIP, organized and be able to hang with the front liners, you need something like this. For the past week I have also been playing with replacing of my decoy with the stability mantra, my verdict is still out on it kitten far they both seem to give me roughly equal benefits all considered.

Hope this helps a bit.

Tongku.5326:

Hi

I run my mesmer mainly in organized groups 20+ and run dungeons / fractals. I have settled on my own build for it which suits me and my playstyle relatively well.

The build is not spectacular while roaming, you will not be winning 5v1s with it like with other builds dedicated to the purpose, but you can still win 3v1s on rare occasion and 2v1s quite often.

In dungeons, particularly higher end fractals, 38s and 48s, I do OK in damage, not as good as my war of course, but still not too shabby while providing a great deal of utility.

Main weapon sets are Sword / Focus (zerk stats, sigils are Force and perception) and Staff (PVT stats sigil: generosity) for WvW, switch staff for GS (zerk) for dungeons / fractals.

Default utilities are decoy, null field, feedback, mass invis, however I often switch around to blink instead of decoy, and veil or portal instead of feedback (depending on what my commander asks for) and Time Warp instead of mass invis.

I do have some different gear pieces which I switch and adjust as needed per situation. I run 6x Superior rune of the traveller at all times, including on armor pieces which I switch, so that when I do so, I retain the full rune bonusses.

Build itself is 0 10 30 30 0 http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPVz0273VV71;9;59TT;23;019B137;9;8FvcFR7A

Gear wise, I run a 4 pcs knights and 2 pcs valk set as default, switch chest and legs to full zerk for dungeons / fractals. Back piece is ascended zerk, amulet is ascended zerk.

Acessories I switch between zerk, PVT, celestial depending if I do PvE or WvW roaming or WvW group, same with rings. I use the celestial pieces if I need to throw a little bit more healing into my mix, PVT for organized group wvw, and zerk for PvE.

I tend to stay away fro mall things relying on illusions in WvW, simply because of the fact that in group combat shattering, generating clones, their pathing and all that is completely and utterly useless due to server lag. You clones will not even get to their targets to shatter, they will die as soon as spawned or simply not even get to their targets. The only exception to this is the ilock which I pop on a passive target such as a gate or alike and let it sit there without it trying to run to or engage the opponents. The reason I do that is because it provides me with a really nice area passive regen as long as its up. The regen ticks client side regardless of server lag.

Sword #2 I use very often for what it does which you are already familiar with. Sword #3 I use lag permitting, its good if it goes off.

Focus is integral for CC and projectile reflection, the wardens do a ton of damage as well on smaller scale fights, and have an anti-lag advantage in that they are less subject to server lag because they are immobile, so sometimes they can be usefull even in very large scale battles. When traited your line of wardign acts as a wall of reflection, which also tags your opponents for more loot. And of course you can pull people with it

Staff #5 is great for both offensive and defensive purposses, and staff#2 is a free, spammable stunbreaker, cant go wrong there, even if your clone doesnt pop it still gets you out of harms way on ultra low CD.

Runes of the Traveller, its kinda like having most of divinity’s bonusses, a little bit short, but the 25% speed passive ….. see other threads about it, once you switch to it, you will never go back to any others except maybe melandru in super hard fights. Any other runes, you’re just wasting your gold because ultimately you will arrive at these 2 after you try out everything.

This build also gives you and your group TON of chaos armor due to the lower glamour CDs, lower CD on blink, port and veil and timewarp, all critical in WvW group fights.
-Had to cut some of the post cause it was too long-

Thanks a lot for this comment, it’s really detailed and helpful
Yet, honestly, I just don’t like this traiting … I feel like running with a Staff is pretty demanding since it’s only damaging ability is condition dependent, so running it without going with Condition build is not a good idea… I’ll keep a staff and use it for when needed, of course, Yet I’d hate to trait for it.
I want to go more offensively in traits and more defensively in gear. [Really defensive gear, especially trinkets] in order to go Frontlines in WvW..

I’ve read all of your posts, how about this?
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPVz097BVV71;9;4JJ-T-09-39;217B;9m9fgm9fg_NGvcF35;3L-QWCXIYM3U_9LV4F-3-Agk1Agh

Hi

kinda hard to tell the total numbers from that. It looks like it would be good for midline or backline, still not enough armor / health. To give you an idea, when I go frontline I tend to run between 3100-3300 armor with 21-23k health totals depending on buffs, guard stacks etc. Frontline is not about doing nay DPS, its about utility and survivability. All you need is to tag your targets. Bulk of DPS is done by mid and rear. Staff is still best for front line, you have AOE tag, AOE buffs, and its auto attack while very weak, bounces for tags.

My mid line and roaming build sits around 2700-2800 armor and 20k health, I run GS / Staff on it about half and half.

Also 2 things, you rely on shatters, they will not execute due to insta death of any illusions as well as terrain restrictions in getting to their targets. Anything clone, phantasm, shatter based is completely gutted in a large scale battle, or even a 20 v 20 when its really fast.

May want to switch out of Restorative Illusions, go for Temporal Enchanter if you will keep 30 points in Inspiration. Also, going for group builds, the absolute #1 thing on your utility while runing with your group if up front will be veil. All else comes after that. Veil, how soon you can recast it, and how long it lasts is far more prescious and useful then timewarp + all other utilities put together. A well executed veil makes or breaks a fight, its recast during an engagement, twice over.

Mental Torment is also kinda useless in this situation, again relies on clones, phantasms which will not even get to their targets.

Deceptive Evasion is great for small scale, but completely irrelevant in large scale, you need as many passives as possible, your 2 dodge rolls will be used up right off the bat going over arrow cart fields or just keeping up with your commander hopping through aoe fields, the clone as the rest will just insta melt in a fraction of a second. What will keep you going is client side ticking regen, prot, aegis, otherwise you will just drop and if lucky, not be rally bait.

If I could, I would get rid of the points in my build in the dueling line entirely, but unfortunately that sword #2 is just a necessity.

When you build for DPS in these sort of fights, your main stat is power. Even necros do, hehe, and they are a lot more condition dependant then we are. Crit and Condi dmg is less relevant. If you want to do mid or backline DPS, scale down on the drit and go 30 points into Domination. Also via power, staff becomes more usefull, regardless of condi dmg. Always run sharpening stone in addition to food buffs, which further scales it up the more toughness and health you have.

Tongku.5326:

Hi

kinda hard to tell the total numbers from that. It looks like it would be good for midline or backline, still not enough armor / health. To give you an idea, when I go frontline I tend to run between 3100-3300 armor with 21-23k health totals depending on buffs, guard stacks etc. Frontline is not about doing nay DPS, its about utility and survivability. All you need is to tag your targets. Bulk of DPS is done by mid and rear. Staff is still best for front line, you have AOE tag, AOE buffs, and its auto attack while very weak, bounces for tags.

My mid line and roaming build sits around 2700-2800 armor and 20k health, I run GS / Staff on it about half and half.

Also 2 things, you rely on shatters, they will not execute due to insta death of any illusions as well as terrain restrictions in getting to their targets. Anything clone, phantasm, shatter based is completely gutted in a large scale battle, or even a 20 v 20 when its really fast.

May want to switch out of Restorative Illusions, go for Temporal Enchanter if you will keep 30 points in Inspiration. Also, going for group builds, the absolute #1 thing on your utility while runing with your group if up front will be veil. All else comes after that. Veil, how soon you can recast it, and how long it lasts is far more prescious and useful then timewarp + all other utilities put together. A well executed veil makes or breaks a fight, its recast during an engagement, twice over.

Mental Torment is also kinda useless in this situation, again relies on clones, phantasms which will not even get to their targets.

Deceptive Evasion is great for small scale, but completely irrelevant in large scale, you need as many passives as possible, your 2 dodge rolls will be used up right off the bat going over arrow cart fields or just keeping up with your commander hopping through aoe fields, the clone as the rest will just insta melt in a fraction of a second. What will keep you going is client side ticking regen, prot, aegis, otherwise you will just drop and if lucky, not be rally bait.

If I could, I would get rid of the points in my build in the dueling line entirely, but unfortunately that sword #2 is just a necessity.

When you build for DPS in these sort of fights, your main stat is power. Even necros do, hehe, and they are a lot more condition dependant then we are. Crit and Condi dmg is less relevant. If you want to do mid or backline DPS, scale down on the drit and go 30 points into Domination. Also via power, staff becomes more usefull, regardless of condi dmg. Always run sharpening stone in addition to food buffs, which further scales it up the more toughness and health you have.

Last night I went Zerging with my lvl 16 Mesmer, and foud out that you’re 100% right… illusions are completely useless :|
It made me think, Ether Feast is obviously not as effective as I thought, maybe I can make use of something else… And that led me to a sort of Mantra build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4ZU-31273VV71;9;4T99J-47A3;04;039;9-m9fgm9fgRNGvcFZ7;34-8WCXIYM3U_9LV4V0N-Agk1Agg
Thoughts?

yeah ther used to be some good wvw builds, that didnt rely on clones, but the nerfbat hit us way too hard. i feel very up atm, but try out either triforce or glam so u get to at leat tag.

selan.8354:

yeah ther used to be some good wvw builds, that didnt rely on clones, but the nerfbat hit us way too hard. i feel very up atm, but try out either triforce or glam so u get to at leat tag.

What is this kitten nerf that everyone’s keep talking about?

SrebX.6498:

selan.8354:

yeah ther used to be some good wvw builds, that didnt rely on clones, but the nerfbat hit us way too hard. i feel very up atm, but try out either triforce or glam so u get to at leat tag.

What is this kitten nerf that everyone’s keep talking about?

Hm could only think of blurred frenzy… good… old… BF…

Anyway, so many novels written here. Idk about shatter in dungeons, but for me 20-20-0-0-30 shatter builds always been the best in zerg/raid WvW. Got 2 builds on my twitch page.

Way back when, our Glamour Build which was our best AoE WvW build was nerfed (mostly due to the nerf of Blinding Befuddlement). The Triforce build is the closest we have to it but it is still much weaker than it was.

well glmour builds got hit from 3 sdes:
confusion dmg reduction 50%
bb nerf
and the so called “bugfix” of confusion dealing dmg when its not supposed to

then we got the temporal curtain nerf
the retal nerf
blurred frenzy nerf
the underwater trident nerf
timewarp nerf
portal nerf
ic nerf

and all these nerfs happened while warriors and necros kept getting buffs….even other classes like engi got buffed and got their bug fixed. ileap is still bugged, blink still doesnt work n a bridge….so yeah that just mad our class not being able to keep up in wvw and right ow we are not in a good spot. there is maybe 2 builds u can sorta run in wvw zergs, but none of them feels like the glam or imortal mesmer builds felt in wvw. yeah we got blackwater, but thats still more of a roaming kinda build…
we need more aoe, that doesnt rely on ai!

selan.8354:

well glmour builds got hit from 3 sdes:
confusion dmg reduction 50%
bb nerf
and the so called “bugfix” of confusion dealing dmg when its not supposed to

then we got the temporal curtain nerf
the retal nerf
blurred frenzy nerf
the underwater trident nerf
timewarp nerf
portal nerf
ic nerf

and all these nerfs happened while warriors and necros kept getting buffs….even other classes like engi got buffed and got their bug fixed. ileap is still bugged, blink still doesnt work n a bridge….so yeah that just mad our class not being able to keep up in wvw and right ow we are not in a good spot. there is maybe 2 builds u can sorta run in wvw zergs, but none of them feels like the glam or imortal mesmer builds felt in wvw. yeah we got blackwater, but thats still more of a roaming kinda build…
we need more aoe, that doesnt rely on ai!

In Anets defense, most of these things were silly OP.

alanis.6094:

selan.8354:

well glmour builds got hit from 3 sdes:
confusion dmg reduction 50%
bb nerf
and the so called “bugfix” of confusion dealing dmg when its not supposed to

then we got the temporal curtain nerf
the retal nerf
blurred frenzy nerf
the underwater trident nerf
timewarp nerf
portal nerf
ic nerf

and all these nerfs happened while warriors and necros kept getting buffs….even other classes like engi got buffed and got their bug fixed. ileap is still bugged, blink still doesnt work n a bridge….so yeah that just mad our class not being able to keep up in wvw and right ow we are not in a good spot. there is maybe 2 builds u can sorta run in wvw zergs, but none of them feels like the glam or imortal mesmer builds felt in wvw. yeah we got blackwater, but thats still more of a roaming kinda build…
we need more aoe, that doesnt rely on ai!

In Anets defense, most of these things were silly OP.

tc was not op. it is a cc and other classes get to cc without an icd
glamours were very very strong,, but here is the thing: i ran into a glam mesmer group withmy old guild and the first 2 days, we died a lot to them, then we realized that the confusion hurt only if u keep spamming and we adjusted and died a lot less and even beat them many times..
if glam needed a nerf then 25 % less dmg would have been enough as necrowells are way worse nowadays and necro marks and wells have a wayyyy shorter cooldown. also our autoattacks and dps on glam only builds were very low, whereas condi necros scpeter 1 hits like a truck.
timewarp has a 240 second cooldown and last only very very short, so no op in that.

blurred frenzy was not op. its pretty much like the berserker stance a warrior has. now u die to retal if u use it.
ic was only op in spvp and in wvw barely used due to ai being non viable.

No offense, but if you intend to buff mesmer, it has to be for zerg situations only while also dropping some of the 1on1 viability of the mesmer too. Mesmer is like the best 1on1 class in wvw at the moment, it has some of the most build diversity as well with condi and burst builds. I just think that if you were to buff alot of the things for zerg situations only, you’re just making 1on1 stronger (as i think alot of mesmers want anyway) and they simply don’t need to be stronger in 1on1.

selan.8354:

well glmour builds got hit from 3 sdes:
confusion dmg reduction 50%
bb nerf
and the so called “bugfix” of confusion dealing dmg when its not supposed to

then we got the temporal curtain nerf
the retal nerf
blurred frenzy nerf
the underwater trident nerf
timewarp nerf
portal nerf
ic nerf

and all these nerfs happened while warriors and necros kept getting buffs….even other classes like engi got buffed and got their bug fixed. ileap is still bugged, blink still doesnt work n a bridge….so yeah that just mad our class not being able to keep up in wvw and right ow we are not in a good spot. there is maybe 2 builds u can sorta run in wvw zergs, but none of them feels like the glam or imortal mesmer builds felt in wvw. yeah we got blackwater, but thats still more of a roaming kinda build…
we need more aoe, that doesnt rely on ai!

What nerfs? what did they do before?
And no shortcuts please, I’m new to Mesmers so I don’t really know whats ic, tc, bb and whatnot ><"

Btw, thoughts please..?
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4ZU-31273VV71;9;4T99J-47A3;04;039;9-m9fgm9fgRNGvcFZ7;34-8WCXIYM3U_9LV4V0N-Agk1Agg

SrebX.6498:

selan.8354:

well glmour builds got hit from 3 sdes:
confusion dmg reduction 50%
bb nerf
and the so called “bugfix” of confusion dealing dmg when its not supposed to

then we got the temporal curtain nerf
the retal nerf
blurred frenzy nerf
the underwater trident nerf
timewarp nerf
portal nerf
ic nerf

and all these nerfs happened while warriors and necros kept getting buffs….even other classes like engi got buffed and got their bug fixed. ileap is still bugged, blink still doesnt work n a bridge….so yeah that just mad our class not being able to keep up in wvw and right ow we are not in a good spot. there is maybe 2 builds u can sorta run in wvw zergs, but none of them feels like the glam or imortal mesmer builds felt in wvw. yeah we got blackwater, but thats still more of a roaming kinda build…
we need more aoe, that doesnt rely on ai!

What nerfs? what did they do before?
And no shortcuts please, I’m new to Mesmers so I don’t really know whats ic, tc, bb and whatnot ><"

Btw, thoughts please..?
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4ZU-31273VV71;9;4T99J-47A3;04;039;9-m9fgm9fgRNGvcFZ7;34-8WCXIYM3U_9LV4V0N-Agk1Agg

the glamour build nerfs:

confusion dmg got nerfed by 50%
blinding befuddlement tait has now an icd
and they said the fixed a bug that made confusion tick sometimes when it shouldnt

blurred frenzies, made u invulnerable to dmg for the time it was used. so now if u use it u still get retal dmg.
temporal curtain used to be that u could put it down and pull right away which is very important if u are being cornered. now u cot an icd of 1second which is a pain as u cant pull enemies away from u fast enough. i feel this one alot.

trident used to stack confusion under water, now its bleeding once in a while

timewarp used to give more speed but the haste nerf hit it hard… it still kept the ridiculous cd of 240 sec!

portal used to have a shorter cd and used u were able to portal an unlimited amount of people …..

Most of those nerfs I don’t mind, but I personally felt the confusion damage nerf the most, as I used to be able to kill people 1v1 with my zergging glamour build before..

However, the problem with mesmers wasn’t really those nerfs. Those OP utility skills just made people overlook the real issues mesmers face, and it is that most of the weapon skills (including the main damage source phantasms) just plain doesn’t work. Never mind about whether they’re OP or UP, they aren’t even functional. Until they can work an acceptable workaround to the AI reliance, mesmer will always be sub par.