Guild Wars 2

I’m only lvl 20 but it feels impossible to win fights as mesmer when you get attack by more than 3 enemies, and even that is a challenge. I have 4 spells that summon illusions, I use them all, a heal that heals me the more illusions I have, one of them even splits my damage taken by 50%, but I don’t know, it’s like my hp is butter on the sun.

I tried burning down things or shattering illusions to daze them instead, my pistol has a bullet that stuns and dazes 3 targets, but this class is tough man. I have previous experience on Guardian and other MMOs but playing Mesmer I feel like a total noob.

What game mode do you have problem as a mesmer? PvP, WvW or PvE?
What build and weapon set are you using?
In PvP: As a mesmer, you cannot be as tanky as a guardian so you will have to kite a lot and try not to tank too much damage.
In PvE: same as above(not including dungeons since you only have to stack)

To answer your question, “how do you stay alive as Mesmer”, I would say not to get hit.

Here is a list of mesmers who can help you a lot more:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/List-Mesmer-Specialists/first#post4906693

PVE, just doing events and hearts and such as solo.

Thanks for the link!

Generally speaking, you want to kite a lot and make good use of active mitigation (e.g. dodges and Blurred Frenzy) and stealth.

Staff is the easiest weapon to get the hang of kiting with, since you’ve got that sweet Phase Retreat on a short cooldown. It can take a while to kill stuff, though. But you’ve got a bouncing attack and the phantasm hits pretty kittence you put some conditions on your target.

If you’re used to guardian, one big difference with mesmer is that you want to be moving sideways a LOT more to control range (sideways because it’s faster than backpedaling).

Mesmer is a very difficult profession to play before you can get traits later in your career, so you’re not really doing anything wrong.

Greatsword is IMO the best primary weapon to roll with leveling PvE. It does solid sustainable damage and isn’t nearly as slow as staff. Staff eventually gets good, but not until you can trait into it with more condi power, and that doesn’t happen until 60ish.

Offset is up to you. When leveling I might suggest scepter and torch to keep the damage rolling and have a panic button in stealth with the torch. That said, GS/Sc&T doesn’t jive well once traited. If you stick with GS, you’re going to probably want to get used to the sword & torch combo. If you go with building condi for staff, scepter shares in its benefits more in going with your second set.

Typically it’s not worth shattering in PvE unless your enemies are clumped up and you have your defensive abilities off CD.

Also note that with the (semi-)recent “leveling experience” changes Mesmer is utter garbage until you get most of your traits unlocked. For PvE it doesn’t matter that much, but Sword and Illusion cooldown reductions really help out a lot. WvW/PvP you’re probably boned until you get at least Deceptive Evasion and/or Prismatic Understanding, depending on playstyle.

At lvl80 Mesmer has a lot of team utility though, so it’s worth the effort if you’re willing to learn the class fully. Unlock and learn key utilities early: Feedback, Focus trait, Mantras (Pain: good for tagging in zergs!), Blink+Decoy (universal panic buttons)

Almost anything in open world PvE can be beaten by running in circles outside their melee range and spamming Phantasms (Staff clones if condi). That and liberal use of reflects against anything with projectiles. Also use GS1 (or even Scepter auto) to pull single mobs from loose groups, finishing them off one by one. If you get overwhelmed your best bet is Phase Retreat→Blink→Stealth→run like hell.

Go afk b4 match starts

Look fashionable af, and it won’t matter. #protips

Stealth, phantasm and run! And if not dead, do it again! :p

As of now, leveling a Mesmer before trait unlocks is really a pain. My tip is for you to run with Sword/Torch and Greatsword, but most importantly get Decoy and iDefender. Make use of your stealth during fights.

After you get access to traits, start to look for a Phantasm build that works with X/Focus and GS and you’ll be gold. That worked the best for me.

The first thing I had to learn while I was leveling is don’t use Blurred Frenzy as a DPS, use it as the evade. Keep it on cooldown until you need it. Learn how to use F4. And don’t level using a staff (that’s all I did for the first 30 levels and man I kept getting myself into trouble with that bounce!)

Mesmers have some of the best damage mitigation tools if you know how to use them. Try using an offhand sword instead of the pistol. And as someone mentioned before, GS is a good tool for leveling in PvE.

Do the focus combo. Solves PvE woes.