Guild Wars 2

Going to hop into my favourite bit of GW2, WvW. Just want some friendly advice for Mesmer.

Come a large battle am I

a) Staying with the main force using my abilities to hit the enemy main force
or
b) Acting a bit like the Thief in that I skirt the edge of the battlefield and pick people off

Reason I ask is, most Mesmer damage seems focused on 1v1. However the Mesmer has great support or AoE condition on the staff also, which would be grand in groups. Focus 4 for the pull, wall of stealth, portal, staff 5 for boons or conditions on enemies, ripping all conditions from allies and boons from foes etc.

Or is it, as I kind of hope, my choice. Not like the Thief (felt boxed into being the skirting playstyle with a Thief, which whilst a crap load of fun, i’d have liked to change up now and again).

It depends on your build. Decide what you want to do first and then gear and trait for it.

What I’ve come to realize is that mesmer simply performs poorly with mismatch gear and traits thrown all around. Far more than any other class, you need to go all in with a certain playstyle in order to be effective.

1) Shatters are our best burst. But I simply don’t like them in a 1200 range, AoE happy environment. If you can break from the pack and make the enemy come to you, I’m sure you can do just fine in one of those sPvP builds everyone qqs about.

2) Glamours are our signature PvZerg skills. But specing for this can make you feel naked in a dueling situation

But you have many choices about what weapons to use, whether you want condition or straight damage, clones or phantasms. If you go with clones are they offensive or defensive. These are really just the extreams.

I say shatter but its up to you mate. Can always carry a staff and and have a gs in bag, have a look at my 1 vs 1 wvwvw vid, it accualy have a own thread but u find other wvwvw movies thru it:

but again pick what u like. wana do range go GS and whatever wnatto kill ppl and use reactions to stay alive, go shatter. Both work.

GS is best for a high dps/shatter build, as its the only weapon to have 2 illusions that spawn on your target, instead of you. they are much less likely to die to enemy aoe.

there are many times i down 5+ people at once that are clumped up with GS 2, 4, roll, then shatter. crazy numbers popping up everywhere.

Personally I’m a full on ranged mesmer.
Staff/ScepterPistol(focus for travelling).

It works amazingly well in PvP. I dont have the spike damage of GS Mesmers, but I sure as hell outlast them. The longer I can make a fight last, the higher the chance of me winning. Look up the Mesmer guide on YouTube (I think it was posted on these forums too) and use the “leveling” build as your base. Modify as per tastes, but 30 points in Chaos gives you toughness and boon duration, a nice thing to have in PvP.

@wads mind sharing your traits and equipment?

that sounds pretty much how i like to play my mesmer but i’m not 80 yet and didnt figure out my final build and gear yet

Test them out, you need to play them in WvW and gain actual first hand experience!

Zerg Vs Zerg is me at max distance stacking Vulnerability on whomever decides to stick his head up and use my GS laser.

In Zerg V Zerg the other guy will get within your 1200 range briefly, either he is blown up or he runs back…keep that in mind.

Yeah i’m bringing my mesmer to wvw regularly and manage, at least, already to get out of a outnumbering fight alive already

didnt get to many 1v1 situations yet to see what i can do there but that aint my main concern anyways.

Currently i’m switching between the possible weapons quite frequently. most of the time its GS + Scepter/Focus or Pistol and I like the abilities and skills with these weapons, just need to figure out the “best trait stats” once i hit 80 and align my gear to it… luckily my elementalist is Tailor 400 so getting the right gear wont be a to big issue

I used to play conditions in WwW but then i switched to almost full glass cannon and im doing much better. Sure im less durable but more effective for my playstyle. In Zerg vs Zerg i normally try to stay a bit behind the lines and pick people apart at range. My main weapon is GS and i used either Sword – Focus or Staff as my 2nd. I also use Feedback quite a bit. A well placed FB in a zerg has a lot of potential.

What i love about the Mesmer is that it can do a lot of different stuff effectively. Be it reflect projectile , support the party with boons (time warp and portal) , pull people of walls , knockback enemies with GS 5 (which is an underestimated skill imho) and do DPS when i need to with shatter and IBerserker. Im fragile so i have to be aware of my surroundings most of the time but its part of the fun if you ask me.

Tried Warrior and Ranger and got bored. Mesmer however is a lot of fun , especially in PVP and WvW. My favorite class by far right now

Cruzyo.7304:

@wads mind sharing your traits and equipment?

that sounds pretty much how i like to play my mesmer but i’m not 80 yet and didnt figure out my final build and gear yet

traits are http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.12.3.0.18.0.0.0.0.180.191.201.196.204.0.0.0.528.526.535.542.550.0.557.0.0.0.0.0.586.0.0.30.20.10.0.10 (edit for bugged link)

i have the last 10 points put into reduced fall damage, its better than it sounds in wvw.

i have full berserker exotics, with full bloodlust stacks have 3.6-4k attack depending on how many might stacks i have, 55% crit chance, 100% crit damage. pretty huge burst even with just 2x mindwrack.

thanks for that!

For armor I was thinking about 4 parts berserkers and 2 parts with some vitality and/or toughness on to not be a complete glass cannon

Cruzyo.7304:

thanks for that!

For armor I was thinking about 4 parts berserkers and 2 parts with some vitality and/or toughness on to not be a complete glass cannon

I would do tough, it will help a lot more then vit will.

I find Vit more relevant. At glass cannon stats you have 15k hp. Getting that to 20k will usually help more than toughness, unless you manage to heal a lot.

Shaving off Berserker, look to:

- Valkyrie
- Knight
- Soldier

For power + survival stats.

If you run Null Field or some other form of condition removal, I’d greatly recommend going Toughness.

I’ve got a Berserker armor set, still got accessiors to craft, i think ill get some vit/tough on them, maybe half of the slots for that + guild backpack should do fine

atm i got Major Rune of Dolyak 4/4 and Minor Rune of the Soldier 2/2 to cover for some tough/vit until im fully outgeared

i run full zerker, divinty runes full set, 30 30 – - 10, 15.6k hp. Zero gear or traits into vit or tough. This class has a TON of outs which i use instead of wasting gear or traits on vit or tough. Blink decoy portal MI not to mention weapon skill outs. Stay on ur toes and play with some finesse. Never had a prob in WvW and its basically all i do anymore.