Guild Wars 2

Incidentally, it’s also quite effective for holding cap points/defending in WvW/sPvP with some minor changes.

0/0/25/25/20

Illusionary Defense, Chaotic Dampening
Glamour Mastery/Persisting Images, Warden’s Feedback
Compounding Power, Phantasmal Haste

Feedback, NullField and Blink with TW on Elite.

Stack CD (Obvious reasons), Toughness (Converted into CD) and Power.

Staff and S/F.

Plenty of projectile reflection, condition removal and survivability. Brings decent sustained offence through Phantasms (Warden/Warlocks) and close to 100% uptime on Combo fields with weapon swaps.

^^^

5 zones completed with bugged skillpoints remaining. Getting very annoying. At least in the first few weeks we were getting server resets which fixed them, even if only temporarily… This is getting very tiresome for the more PvE oriented players.

This has been a constant issue from day 1. Had so many groups fall apart because we just can’t get everyone in the same instance.

I occasionally use a GS in lower level areas for the burst with my standard Staff Toughness/Illusion build, but they don’t synergise very well. Staff is condition heavy and GS is Crit/Power heavy. They’ll work, but not as well as they could.

sPvP and WvW is a different story. GS is awesome for people who run away from your Staff after deciding they can’t kill you. That said, I’d never gear or spec for GS because of how little I use it.

As you mentioned, Arcane Thievery is the bomb. It’s most certainly your best defense against Thieves coupled with confusion. As Dreleth also mentioned, Null Field is an awesome skill and very handy for condition heavy Thieves.

I normally run a Toughness staff build and honestly, these are the two easiest classes to kill. Between chaos storm and Chaos armor they usually have a wall of debuffs and I have a wall of buffs, plus all the damage reduction from 3 illusions makes you very near impossible to kill to anyone other than the very best players.

Also with Dreleth, knowing a warriors next abilities helps greatly. Play one for 10 minutes and work out a general rotation of what to expect next. It’s fairly simple and they really don’t have much variation in what they’ll do. Use your Thievery to take their Signet of Rage.

Any advice will really come down to what build/weapon sets you’re using as Mesmer has drastically different play styles.

I personally run a Toughness/Illusions Staff build with a GS switch for runners and burst to great effect, particularly on node capping and defending. Damage output is low but you draw your strength from the clones, offensively and defensively. Most people aren’t concerned with clones and don’t actively kill them because they’re looking for you… Which plays into the spec nicely.

Syn.3459:

it’s bare not bear

He’s actually right. It’s “Bear”; i.e. “Bearing in mind.”

Whomever told you otherwise is most certainly incorrect.