Guild Wars 2

I have returned to gw2 after a 2 year absence. I did play for a month in there somewhere. I had a ranger, warrior & elementalist all at 80 with been there done that.

Trying a mesmer now and I’m lost and confused. Am I ranged or close combat. Great sword and staff. Don’t understand my rotation and spells. Lvl 35 now.

Q: does this mesmer get clearer or just the harder peofesion?

I do like leveling crafting. I need tailor and cook. Why I keep going. But will get expansion so maybe new peofesion is way to go.

I am no professional mesmer but I will try answering some of your question.
For your first question, ranged or melee, it depends mainly on your build.
If you go for condition build, you would like to use staff/scepter + touch. That weapon set would put you mainly in ranged attack. Your rotation is to inflict as many conditions as possible on your foe and try to stay alive while the condition eat your foe alive.
If you go for power build, you have two options, phantasm or shatter.
For shatter build, you would go for greatsword/sword+x build, which would put you in both ranged and melee. In shatter build, your rotation is to summon 3 illusions/phantasms asap and use shatter skills to inflict damage.
For phantasm build, you would go for sword+sword/sword+x build, which would put you in melee most of the time. In phantasm build, your rotation is to summon 3 phantasms and let them do damage.
The personal dps of a mesmer is worse than elementalist or warrior but you bring some very useful utility skill to the party. For instance, your elite skill “time warp” , though it has a long cool down, it really give a big boost to the party dps in the boss fight phase.
Mesmer maybe a little bit hard to play, but it is definitely fun to play, especially in a party.

I think that my problem. I’m seldom in a party and I guess I’ve been running more shatter but playing like phantasm.

I see so many kick butt mesmer I just thought I’d try. I guess I should focus on my assented gear for my first 3 toons.

Thanks for your help

Chronomancer adds some amazing new toys to mesmer, fixes some of our deepest problems, and makes mesmer a must-have dps boost for dungeon/raid parties.

However.
Mesmer has lower dps, and is a bit harder to level than other classes.

Follow Kai’s guide to levelling, for mesmer.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Leveling-Open-World-Compendium-1/first#post5342268

That’s why I wanted to run a mesmer. So passionate by players

Lol, how much time did you spend leveling? I’ve been on and off for a week and just got to lvl 32 today.

I use Greatsword and Sword/Focus. I use focus #4 to move around. If I see something I want to attack, I switch to Greatsword and use 4, 2, and 3 to attack from afar, then hit 5 when something gets closer. If something gets in melee range after that, I switch to S/F, hit 3, 3 again, then 5, then 2. That spawns a clone, switches my position with the clone, spawns an iWarden, then does a short AoE attack. If there are a ton of enemies, I sometimes toss in 4 and hit 4 again to get them all in one spot before I start that rotation(3,3,5,2). I generally don’t use shatter unless most of the mobs are almost dead, or my weapon swap/phantasm/clone is recharged.

You want the Dueling spec, aiming for Deceptive Evasion(this is great for tough fights). GS and S/F offers great AoE attacks, with pretty much all skills capable of hitting more than 1 enemy.

I’ll try that. I gotta mix up rotation. Used to ranger. 2-3-4-5.

I cheated to Lvl. Started at Lvl 20

Fennecus.7605:

I’ll try that. I gotta mix up rotation. Used to ranger. 2-3-4-5.

I cheated to Lvl. Started at Lvl 20

Are you new with that as well?

I generally do 2 on longbow, but won’t use 5 unless there are multiple enemies(and if there are, I’ll start with 5). But based on damage(longbow does more at range, but isn’t as good as mesmer at keep them at range), I generally switch to Greatsword and go 3, 2, and 1.

Fennecus.7605:

I think that my problem. I’m seldom in a party and I guess I’ve been running more shatter but playing like phantasm.

I see so many kick butt mesmer I just thought I’d try. I guess I should focus on my assented gear for my first 3 toons.

Thanks for your help

Sorry for the short reply I provided earlier, I was just off duty from my night shift and kinda exhausted. Now that I have enough rest, I feel like I can share more with you.

Here I will share a build that I use in the open world most of the time:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8cnsIC1ohFpBGoBUrhlUDhcQpAlfOVA976sA-TxRBABPt/wVK/KUXjoq/AwVA4hHAgZKBBA-e

The idea is to use GS num4 to start the fight and switch to sword num5, and sword num3. Use sword num3 to swap and use auto attack to burn down your foe.

If you see great damage/danger coming, you can use sword num2 or num4 to evade or block the damage. On the other hand, you can use mantra of distraction to soft cc your foe. You can replace mantra of distraction for the the skill you like. Skills like Feedback, Null field, Veil, Mimic and Blink are very useful in open world boss fight.

If you ran into trouble and running low on health and your sword num2 and num4 are on cool down, don’t panic, you aren’t dead yet. Use shatter num3 or num4, these skills can buy you a few second to catch your breath. Especially shatter num4 which give you 1 sec of distortion per illusion shattered. During distortion in effect, you are invulnerable. Switch to GS use GS num5 to push back foe or just roll back to buy yourself some room. Then use GS num4 and auto attack until you are ready for another melee fight.

Mesmer aren’t that great when soloing. Mesmer cannot burst as good as a thief, warrior or elementalist, but do shine in longer fight. However, mesmer really shines when playing group contents like dungeons or fractals. Mesmer can provide buff to your party without sacrificing too much of your dps.

Build like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAsd8cnsICVphFpBGoBUrhlUD6cIFp6kDoEBo8DnoAA-TxRBABPt/wVK/KU/joq/8wJBAgnAgZKBBA-e
You can provide quickness, missile defense, healing, stability, condition cleaning to your party just by your own and your dps aren’t bad at all. You can switch out signet of inspiration for Feedback to provide longer missile defense uptime.

The leveling may be hard but once you reach lvl80 and have the core build unlocked, the hard work do payoff. And practice makes perfect, practice when to use your roll, block, evade, missile defense, blink, portal and quickness are critical.

Realistically Mesmer is a class that performs best in melee but lacks the sustain to stay in melee. Staff and GS are ranged weapons per se, but benefit the most from being in melee range due to bounces and maximizing shatter burst. Generally you sit in midrange until its time to burst. This is neither here or there until you hit harder content though.

Leveling is a pain due to illusion generation not keeping up with how fast mobs die imo. I personally found using CD reduction traits to help with this, as well as keeping weapons fairly up to date. DE in dueling is a must while leveling.

I would suggest unlocking dueling asap as deceptive evasion and reduced sword CD help in open world by upping clone generation while moving from mob to mob. Open with GS CDs and dodge prior to shatter for another clone. Swap to sword for utility, CDs, and better damage while GS is on CD. Swap back when possible. rinse repeat. Buying a sigil of fire and air to put on GS (highest level you can afford) will help with the inital burst.

Domination is good for the GS CDR, Inspiration is also good for focus CDR and survivability (if your gear isnt’ great for your level). Between fixed focus 4 and signet of inspiration you can keep perma swiftness up which is nice while leveling.

To put it by training:
- unlock Dueling
- unlock Signet of inspiration and Blink, whatever you want for 3rd utility & elite
- unlock domination (once you can use two traitlines)
- unlock whatever else you really want
- unlock desired third traitline when you can use (i would suggest inspiration as 3rd)

With all this though your mileage may vary, to each their own. Hope this helps.