Guild Wars 2

My vote goes for number 4 “Make this a channeled skill that pulses AOE damage and boon removal while you hold the sword in the ground.”

This would be extremely interesting and give Mesmer some much needed AoE damage in a way that can be used creatively rather than “spam skill & forget”.

This ever-evolving guide is dedicated to all those who would seek to learn and improve. To everyone who loves the Mesmer class and would play it despite any buffs or nerfs, and despite what anyone else says. And especially to the official Mesmer forums, a place that promotes testing new ideas; where there is practically always someone willing to take the time to help you improve; the people from all over the world that, in this Mesmer’s time of need, gave me more support than I could’ve ever imagined.
This guide is meant to have everything, from flavor text to important links, to help expand your knowledge about Mesmer. If you have any questions or have any information to add, please feel free to comment and if the answer isn’t already in the guide it will definitely be added.

The Mesmer is a psionic profession that specializes in manipulating Chaos magic to bend time and space to create various effects, from simple illusions and mind tricks to bending light to become invisible to manipulating the very flow of time. Mesmer utilize deception in the form of stealths, defense with teleports and distortions, and shape physical constructs that the opponents view as “clones” of the caster to do damage.
One thing I must stress is that this guide isn’t just my own creation. The information is gathered from various forum posts by those people who’ve taken the time to test and publish their findings for the good of all Mesmer everywhere. Instead of fishing through 100+ posts to find the information you want, you should be able to find it all compiled here.
You’re likely to read these following terms mentioned.

Shatter/Phantasm Build: Shatter and Phantasm aren’t specific builds as much as they are two distinct Mesmer playstyles. Shatter builds revolve around mass producing and shattering clones for damage. This playstyle tends to be a faster paced and melee-oriented with high risks and more immediate rewards.

Phantasm builds are more relaxed and focus on staying alive while your illusions beat down your opponent.

Proc – Proc basically means “to cause an effect.” For example: Signet of Inspiration procs a boon every 10 seconds.

Burst/Spike – A sudden chunk of high damage. Ex: Shatter Mesmers are “bursty” because of MindWrack’s instant high-damage shatter.

AoE Area of Effect – Something we Mesmer really lack beyond shatters, 2 Phantasms, and Chaos Storm. AoEs are the big red circle attacks that you’d do well to not stand in, but also can refer to beneficial effects that radiate to allies.

DPS Damage Per Second – Essentially how much damage something does.

RNG: Random Number Generator – Refers to anything that happens randomly, such as how Chaos Storm can proc 6 random conditions/boons.

CD : Cooldown – The time it takes for a skill to refresh after use.

Active/Passive : Active refers to something you manually use, “active defense” refers to teleports, stealths dodges, ect. to avoid damage while Passive is something that happens automatically, like how the Regeneration boon passively heals over time. Signets have both passive effects and active effects.

(i) Illusion: This refers to one of two of our class mechanics. Illusions either look exactly like the player (Clones) or like ghostly versions that wield separate weapons (Phantasms) and serve a number of functions, chief among them being our main source of damage either through their own unique attacks or by shattering them. Illusions inherit: Power, Precision, Condition Damage/Duration, Boon Duration, Critical Damage, Armor, and Healing Power. Illusions will benefit from the Mesmer’s Might stacks, as well as any effects that increase the above stats, such as Banner of Discipline or Spotter. Illusions inherit nourishment from food buffs, but do not gain from sigils (such as the 5% damage of Sigil of Force)

• Clone: Looks exactly like you and copies your auto-attack. They do no real direct damage but can cause bleeding when they score a crit(with 15 points into Dueling). Though often shatter fodder, clones do have some utility. Sword clones can remove enemy boons and stack vulnerability & staff clones are great for condition builds. At Lvl80 clones have 4,096HP (2,304 in PvP/WvW)

• Phantasm: Looks like a ghost of you. Phantasms have their own unique attacks and perform a variety of secondary features. At level 80 Phantasms have 7,955HP (3,332 in PvP/WvW)

I, personally, always loved playing a support role in MMOs. The Support playstyle generally involves focusing more on allies than enemies, and healing and buffing them against whatever enemies we come across. Its a rewarding playstyle that takes practice (in most cases), patience, and attention to both ally and enemy detail. In most games, support characters are rewarded for their hard work via loot bags, scoreboard notice, and the unending gratitude of their teammates.

In GW2, most support players are rewarded with little loot, a frustrating supporting experience (because everyone thinks you’re DPS if you’re not a Guardian or Engineer), and blame for not running “full Berserker like everyone else.” It’s not to say that there aren’t any rewards. There’s a cool little title “Combat Healer” that nobody really cares to notice, and if you’re putting out lots of heals in sPvP you’ll be greeted with “Chaos Archangel, Combat Medic!” which is honestly really effing cool… but not enough.

There are many people who come to Guild Wars 2 hoping to be able to play a viable support role. The “Holy Trinity” in this game has be turned into Damage / Control / Support with each category being either a primary, secondary, or tertiary aspect of any build. Aggressive playstyles are rewarded with more rewards while defensive playstyles gain … very little if not a tPvP bunker.

Here are some improvements I think would definitely help improve Support play in GW2. (Mind you, this is from a Mesmer perspective. I don’t have much experience with Healing Power’s influence on other classes besides Elementalist)

HEALING POWER
Healing Power is currently very underwhelming; why go Healing Power when you could easily spec Toughness or vitality for defense? To trait for high Healing Power one must sacrifice damage, and since healing power only effects the potency of heals (survivability) and Regeneration boon (Defensive Support) it makes a crappy defensive stat and a much more potent support statistic.

• Quicker Rezzing - When I started speccing for healing power, I assumed that I’d be resurrecting my allies from downed faster. I figured “Surely these green healing numbers of mine that are springing up over this poor fool’s corpse must be greater than the brute Zerker Warrior kneeling right next to me. I specced for healing!”. I was wrong of course, and I can’t help but wonder.. why?
  - I think that your revive speed should increase respective to your healing.
  500 Healing Power = 10%
  1000 Healing Power = 20%
  1500 Healing Power = 30%

• More Gear Choices - Givers Gear -while totally underwhelming and barely worth it- was a step in the right direction. More options, such as a Healing Power / Power / Precision set would open up new opportunities for support specs. Runes like Superior Runes of Altruism (please put in sPvP) /Water (please fix 6th rune bug) / Dwayna are great examples of how new support runes, sigils, and food could be implemented.

REWARDING SUPPORT PLAY
One of the best things about Guild Wars 2 is that you can find a reward for everything you’re interested in. People who like to farm, run dungeons, go full DPS, go full tank, WvW, sPvP, ect, can always find something that’ll reward them for their playstyle… except support. The biggest complaint about running support builds is the lack of reward for all the effort.

• Loot for Support Players - I don’t know the technical side of this, so forgive my ignorance, but there’s got to be some way to reward players who focus more on heals and boons for allies than trying to tag enemies.

- Healing allies for a certain amount of HP through a battle should earn bags/gold.
- Number of boons cast on allies should earn bags/gold.
- Peripheral damage done (Example: Granting someone Retaliation/Might) should earn bags/gold
- Rezzing downed allies should earn greater rewards.

If we could figure out a possible way to implement this into the reward system, there would be many happy healers.

• Should Have a Visual Indicator (Tag of sorts) - You can see a Commander anywhere on your map, which is hella important for WvW. Having an icon or glow or .. something that allows you to see the healers in a skirmish would save a lot of time and headache and help a lot with team coordination.

• Should earn achievements. - I wanted to make a thread about earning rewards in dungeons for different achievements. (Clearing a dungeon within a certain time / Clearing all the mobs / Never wiping / Healing a certain amount / Inflicting X amount of damage to a single boss in 5 seconds ) Achievements would make people WANT to explore a supportive role.

• Boons could scale with Healing Power

—Why Mesmerize? —
”We contribute class and style to what would otherwise be an unseemly brawl” –Iruthien on Mesmer in WvW zergs.

So you’ve decided to take up the robes of a Mesmer, eh? Maybe you were inspired by Gwen, Queen Jennah, or Dr. Franz Mesmer himself. Maybe you were in battle and got tired of Mesmer stomping you 1v1 with you having no idea what the eff just happened. Or maybe, perhaps, you’ve finally come to realize that Mesmer is easily one of the most fun classes in the entire game. In any event welcome to a profession of majesty, deception, ambiguous purple butterflies, and angry noobs.

What can Mesmer do that other classes can’t?

• Portal: We can teleport up to 20 people at a time very large distances. And trust me, each non-Mesmer taking that portal is hating on us so hard for this skill alone.
• Reflects: Stay far out of melee-range and what will the enemy do? If not an obnoxiously telegraphed AoE then most likely, they’ll shoot you.We have more access to reflect abilities than any other class. Projectiles are one of the most common means of attack in the game, and we can turn that damage right back on our enemy.
  – Times and places to Reflect –
• Unparalleled Boon Sharing: Signet of Inspiration allows us to copy our boons onto allies, easily granting high might stacks when paired with certain classes. With Inspiration, Chaos, a Staff, and Runes of Altruism we can share 8 of the 9 boons in the game on our own every minute.
• Useful Elites: Time Warp is amazing for boss battles, Mass Invisibility has plenty clever uses, and Moa Morph will always- A) Make someone smirk & B) Make someone rage.
• Confusion: Confusion causes damage for every time the opponent uses a skill. While some classes can sometimes inflict Confusion, it is primarily a Mesmer condition. Runes of Perplexity notwithstanding

COMBO FIELDS

ETHEREAL - Ethereal combo fields are almost exclusively provided by Mesmer and easy to provide. Whirl & Projectile Finishers launch Confusion bolts while Leap & Blast Finishers create Chaos Armor – Chaos Storm (Staff) / Null Field / Feedback

LIGHT –Light combo fields are usually applied by Guardians, but Mesmer can also provide rather frequently with a traited Focus. Whirl & Projectile Finishers launch bolts that remove conditions while Leap& Blast Finishers provide Retaliation. – Temporal Curtain(Focus) / Veil

THE BAD NEWS…

• Often reliant on Summons for damage: No matter what flavor of Mesmer you are, your illusions will be crucial to your success.
• Awkward condition removal: Mesmers are excellent at avoiding physical damage. Conditions…? Not so much. Unfortunately no matter what we choose, our source of condition removal will be unorthodox (with the exception of Null Field).
• Difficult leveling experience: Many people have a rough time leveling with Mesmer compared to other classes.
• Slower than dirt: We have to try so ’effin hard to catch up with other classes, many of which have a passive movement speed increase. Not as frustrating of an issue if Mesmer is the only class you play… or you have a Chronomancer.

STAFF
People tend to either love the staff or hate it. If you’re one of those haters, go kick kittens you don’t know what you’re missing! Staff offers some of our best mobility and defensive options, and is likely the greatest defensive weapon in the Mesmer repertoire. As it can provide 6 of the 9 boons in the game on it’s own, and is the only weapon to come with an Ethereal Combo field, it is an excellent choice for Support-oriented builds. However, it should be noted that staff is not good for builds intent on maximizing damage; it offers little DPS for Power builds besides it’s Phantasm. Staff does better damage in condition specs, but its phantasm is one of the most powerful Power-damage phantasms we have.
PROS: 1200 Range / Excellent defensive skills / Provides Ethereal Combo Field / Good Condition damage / Auto (&clones) grants boons / Phase Retreat
CONS: Low power damage

1) Winds of Chaos -Send a crackling, unstable bolt of Chaos magic drifting towards your opponents- Winds of Chaos does a small amount of power damage, but can apply Burning, Bleeding, or Vulnerability when it hits a target. It bounces twice, either to another opponent or back to the caster. In condition builds, you can actually sometimes get away with pretending to be a staff clone since they use the exact same version of this skill. (minus the power damage)
* Bounces once unless traited.

• With over 70% boon duration the Might/Fury granted from this skill can become significant, especially with 2 or more staff clones.
• Has two different animations.
• Initial cast is slightly slower than followup bolts.

2) Phase Retreat (10- 8- 6 sec CD) –Teleport away from your opponent, leaving a clone in your place.Phase Retreat rocks. Because of it’s low cooldown it rocks for clone production, it rocks as a defense, it rocks as a combo finisher. Phase Retreat is an instant cast, so it can be cast in the middle of other skills (Ex: Heals, Mantra charges), while you’re dazed/stunned/knocked down, and can teleport you up onto some ledges. (Warning: Unlike Illusionary Leap, Phase Retreat is NOT a stunbreak. You will remain in whatever state you teleported from.)

• Teleports forward when running away from target.
• LEAP combo finisher.
• PvP Phase Retreat Guide

3) Phantasmal Warlock (18- 14.5- 11 sec CD) – Creates a phantasm that shoots a somewhat slow moving projectile with lousy tracking, player characters can easily avoid . The projectile -while hard-hitting on it’s own- does 10% more damage for every condition on the target, making it great for boss battles if you have Necro or Engineer in your group.

• Works very well with Chaotic Interruption (Chaos)
• Attacks every 5.57 seconds; attacks every 4.13 seconds with Phantasmal Haste.

4) Chaos Armor (35- 28 sec CD) – Evokes a shield that, when struck grants the user 3 seconds of Regeneration or Protection or Swiftness and inflicts the attacker with 3 seconds of 1xConfusion or Cripple or Blind. The RNG nature of this skill makes it an unreliable defense, but can offer very good rewards (Protection / Blind) or yield crappy results (1xConfusion/Regen)

• Powerful defense when used inside of Chaos Storm

5) Chaos Storm (35- 28 sec CD) – Conjure a field of surging, unstable chaotic energy that grants 3 seconds of Retaliation/Swiftness/Aegis to allies and debilitates foes with Daze / Weakness / Poison / Chill. Like Blurred Frenzy, this skill is better cast defensively on allies though it can put out rather decent damage (2000-3000+ in Berzerker gear) . 3 second boons may not seem like a lot, but this skill pulses 6 times, and with a bit of boon duration (around 50%) Chaos Storm’s boons can be pretty long lasting. This skill can be a lifesaver for rezzing downed teammates, and can be a great source of group-retaliation for damage from both players AND illusions.

• Always try and Phase Retreat inside of Chaos Storm.

(This is a PvP/WvW-oriented thread. This one’s a doozy, but please read)

While I don’t normally try to speak for an entire community, this thread is meant to address the influx of “Mesmer OP” claims that we’ve been receiving … all our Mesmery lives. With the advent of HoT and many new players joining the class, I feel now is one of the best times to start to separate truth from hyperbole and open a real discussion on the current state of Mesmer.

So, lets kick off with a fanciful quote…

”You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” -Harlan Ellison

A lot of what people say about Mesmer comes from people who don’t actually play the class so they’re taking bits of information they’ve gathered, adding the experiences they’ve had fighting Mesmer, and sprinkle in some quotes parroted by others to try and add authenticity to their claims. Odds are if you’ve played Mesmer or browse the forums then you’ve heard one of the following things:

• “Mesmer is super easy to play. I can 1v2 just about anyone just by hitting a few instant-cast buttons.”

• “Mesmers have too many escapes! They’re impossible to defeat because they can just keep resetting the fight with perma-stealth!”

• “Mesmer has an instantcast 100-0 burst from an instant unstoppable 1200 range stun that they can cast from stealth every 5 seconds! FIVE seconds! Anet wtf! Wtf anet!? Wat!? Wot!”

• “I hate Mesmer! I like turtles. You’re just trying to defend your broken class!”

• “Mesmer takes no skill because they have tons of invulns and teleports and stealths and can just hide while the illusions do all the work.”

• “Mesmers can have perma 12 stacks of confusion and torment and hide in stealth!”

• “Signet of Humility (Moa Morph) is an “I win!” button and totally broken!”

Or maybe, if you’ve played Mesmer long enough you’ve heard some variant of all of the freakin’ above! Now before I address the individual claims, I’d like to make one thing clear: All of these claims are bloated with half-truths or outright lies… Except for the instant-cast burst thing, that’s kinda true.

So.. How do you argue with someone who ..
A) Is using arguments based on what someone else said to justify losing to a Mesmer.
B) Claims you’re just blindly defending your class
C) Calls anyone who’s response doesn’t agree with their opinion a troll.

Well you do so with some fast facts. Let’s hit these arguments and see how accurate they really are…

—-

“MESMER TAKES NO SKILL! THEY HAVE TONS OF EVADES AND TELEPORTS AND STEALTHIES AND INVULNS! THEY JUST RESET THE FIGHT WITH STEALTH+HEAL WHENEVER IN DANGER”

”MESMER CAN JUST HIDE WHILE THE ILLUSIONS DO ALL THE WORK!”

—-

How do you define “no skill”? Is it when the class is so easy you don’t have to actually learn their mechanics to win? Is it because some skills are so monsterously overpowered that they take little effort to actually use properly? The term “no skill” is thrown around a lot, often from people who want to make themselves feel better about … themselves, like in the following:

“Mesmer is so easy to play! I picked one up and without even knowing all my skills I was scraping people.”

“All you do is hide while illusions do the work and press 1 button to shatter!”

If you hear any of the above, you’re identifying a scrub… Ah, sorry, that’s rude. “A player with less skill than others who expresses themselves in a scrub-like fashion, further addressed as ‘a scrub.’” Theres only two scenarios where the above happens: When you’re fighting against people who have NO IDEA how to defeat a Mesmer (newer players) or when you’re fighting against people who have NO IDEA how to play GW2 properly.

You’d be surprised how many people base their perception of a class from their experiences in hotjoin, where you literally jump into a match against largely inexperienced players. There is no way to beat a decent player who knows your class and skills by merely spamming everything off cooldown. Bottom line is that Mesmer is not so easy to play, no matter what build you run, where you can merely faceroll to victory. Also..

—*SHATTER* Like a Boss—
Shattering, the Mesmer class mechanic, manually destroys our clones to produce a variety of effects. All shatters are instant cast and thus can be used at any time, even in the middle of attacks. The four shatters can be divided into offensive [F1/F2] and defensive [F3/F4]. Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration provide AoE damage to power and condition builds respectively, while all builds enjoy the control and defense of Diversion and Distortion. Shatters increase in effectiveness for every clone shattered, and the shatter effect will always originate from the prime Mesmer as well, allowing you to shatter with no clones on the field!

• Try to create and shatter clones before conjuring Phantasms.

F1 – Mind Wrack: Clones shatter for AoE power damage. (15- 11.5 secs) Mind Wrack is a main source of damage for shatter builds. When fully geared for damage, a single 3-clone Mind Wrack can do over 10,000 damage.

F2 – Cry of Frustration: Clones shatter for AoE Confusion damage (30- 23 secs) Cry of Frustration is one of our main sources of confusion damage in a single burst. With iPersona, a single 3-clone Cry of Frustration can burst a sudden 8 stacks of confusion (over 1k damage per enemy attack). When specced for damage, Cry of Frustration can still put out over 2k direct damage in addition to the confusion burst.

F3 – Diversion: Clones shatter to Daze a single target (45 – 34.5 secs) Diversion is key for lockdown builds. Since Daze does NOT stack duration, it can be difficult to use Diversion to fullest effect. Sending clones out to different targets before shattering or take Imbued Diversion (Illusions XII) to hit multiple targets, or staggering their distance (ranged clones and sword clones) for a longer lockdown on a single target takes time and practice. Diversion is great for proccing Dazzling (Domination 15) to stack obscene amounts of Vulnerability on high-priority targets.

F4 – Distortion: Clones shatter to make you invulnerable. (60 – 46¼ secs) Distortion is a Mesmer’s strongest defense; once activated, all incoming damage is entirely negated. While it prevents us from taking any form of damage, it does not stop any conditions already applied. No matter what the build, a well-timed Distortion can and will save lives! If nothing else, make sure to master this shatter no matter what build you use.

Shatter Traits

-Rending Shatter (Domination) – Vulnerability on Shatter.
-Shattered Concentration (Domination) – Boon removed per-clone-shattered.
-Bountiful Disillusionment (Chaos) – Gain Stability & a boon on shatter.
-Restorative Illusions (Inspiration) – Heal & condition removed per-clone-shattered
-Persistence of Memory (Illusions) – Shattering a Phantasm reduces all Phantasm cooldowns.
-Illusionary Retribution (Illusions) – All Shatters cause Confusion
-Maim the Disillusioned (Illusions) – All Shatters cause Torment
-Shattered Strength (Illusions) – 1 stack of Might per-clone shattered.
-Master of Misdirection (Illusions) – Confusion lasts longer / Shatters recharge quicker
- Master of Fragmentation (Illusions) – All Shatters have additional effects.

—THE ART OF CHAOS—
Every weapon has a use in some sort of build. People’s opinions vary on why one weapon is better than another, and some weapons are statistically stronger than others, but Mesmer do not have any outright useless weapons. Some people prefer the Scepter over the Sword, others the Staff over the Greatsword. Do not let someone else’s opinion of whether a weapon is good or bad deter you from trying out all of the Mesmer tools and deciding for yourself what suits you.

SWORD
The one-handed sword is our best mainhand DPS weapon. It has our most damaging autoattack, provides one of our best defenses, and offers excellent mobility in the form of a teleport. Sword clones are capable of removing enemy boons and are ideal for offensive shattering since they stubbornly chase opponents. The sword is also our most damaging offhand, with a phantasm that hits like a truck and a counter that hits just as hard. It is completely viable to forge a build with 1h Sword in both weapon sets in PvE. (Ex: Sword+Sword/Sword+Pistol for a high damage phantasm build)
Pros: Highest power DPS / Excellent offensive-defensive mix with Blurred Frenzy / Mobility / Stun Break
Cons: Lousy damage for Condition specs.

1) Mind Slash/Gash/Spike – Slice at the opponent’s body and thoughts. Our most damaging auto-attack. This chain cleaves up to 3 additional opponents and can remove a single boon. If the opponent has no boons, it does 50% additional damage. Though it’s mostly forgettable, the first two attacks in the chain apply 1xVulnerability for 5 seconds.

• Sword clones also apply vulnerability & remove boons at the end of their autoattack

2) Blurred Frenzy – Bend time & space to strike rapidly while dodging attacks. (12-9.5 sec CD) – Blurred Frenzy strikes eight times while evading all attacks for 2 seconds. It is one of Mesmers best skills on any weapon hands down. It also happens to be a high damage cleave. While the damage it provides is tempting, Blurred Frenzy is better saved as a defensive ability in most cases.

• Hits 8 times, thus EXTREMELY vulnerable to Retaliation.
• Roots on use; moving cancels skill.

3) Illusionary Leap – Conjure a clone near the opponent, ready to swap places at a moment’s notice. (12- 9.5- 7 sec CD) Illusionary leap is a utility move that does absolutely no damage. Instead, it launches a clone at the opponent (600 range) that you can swap places with for 5 seconds. Unfortunately, it is somewhat unreliable -even if you are in range- due to terrain/pathing issues and, like Phase Retreat, has a slight chance of accidentally teleporting you hopelessly into a wall. This means that in order to use it effectively you have to be careful with your timing and positioning. If the clone is destroyed, you cannot swap.

• Swap is a melee-range AoE immobilize & stunbreak.
• Initial attack causes 1s cripple.
• Swapping off of a combo field results in a LEAP Combo Finisher

4) Illusionary Riposte – Counter and strike back leaving a clone beside your foe. Can instead shoot a wave off your sword that dazes foes in a line for 1s. (15- 12-9.5 sec CD) Illusionary riposte blocks one attack and retaliates with heavy damage and a clone. At any time during the block you can active the skill again to throw a projectile that dazes multiple targets. The daze is great for saving allies from stomps, but the counter hits as hard as iSwordsman. There is a brief period of vulnerability between the block and the strike.

• When facing multiple opponents DO NOT use the counter, as it leaves you vulnerable and you’ll likely take more damage than you dish out. Use the daze instead.

5)Phantasmal Swordsman – (20- 16- 12 sec CD) Phantasmal swordsman does the highest single-target power DPS (not including potential of bleeds) of all phantasms while attacking at the quickest rate. Despite it’s name, Swordsman stays safely out of melee range when it is not attacking. It’s lunge attack, in addition to evading damage, is also a LEAP Combo Finisher.

• When summoned, Swordsman applies its LEAP combo bonus to the caster.

Honestly.. This is getting really frustrating. I tried to ignore the issue for months now and still the search feature doesn’t work.

These forums are the BEST source of information for players.

At this point it just seems really careless. I hate to sound rude, but I think you guys are really underestimating what an important and useful tool the search function is when it works.

Clone Death traits – axed.
Duelists Discipline – Nerfed on arrival by 50%
Maim the Disillusioned – Nerfed same day by 50%
Mistrust – Nerfed on arrival by 33%
Confusion – Nerfed in pvp, primarily a Mesmer condition. (at least it was)

As it stands, Condi Mesmer seem to get brutalized with each balance pass. This is especially odd since Condi is not even meta or viable in high end play, useless in large scale WvW (glamour bombs nerfed) and only good for soloing dungeons in PvE (less efficiently than other classes at that)

So what gives? Is Condi not supposed to be as prevalent as power? With the arrival of Herald and Druid should we not expect classes to bring condition removal? On their own, none of these traits are very worthwhile for a build versus their power damage counterpart, and even together their effectiveness is questionable.

Mistrust – Competing with DE is bad enough, but to only grant 2 stacks per interrupt isn’t worth a GM, especially not with such a pitifully small AoE. Increase by 1 stack

Maimed – You may as well move Maimed into chronomancy, because core Mesmer cannot get much value from such a low amount of torment. Increase duration at least

• - And can we get our Glamour bombs back please!? -

I don’t even play condition, and this is ridiculous. I could never recommend a trait like Mistrust to anyone, and yet condi-lock is sooo close to being a thing.

This isn’t meant to sound inflammatory and it’s not at all a hate message. It’s a show of supreme dissapointment at how the custom arena idea has been implemented. Custom Arenas were supposed to be something everyone could enjoy (I assume) and a way for people/guilds to play with their friends without the complications/zerging of hotjoin or the “seriousness” of tournaments. Instead, we got something more like this…

- Anet: Hey guys! Custom Arenas finally dropped, enjoy!

- Me: Haha nice! I can’t wait to fina-… wait. These cost gems?

- Anet: Yep! =D

- Me: But.. Um, I play 95% PvP. I don’t have much gold to convert to gems.

- Anet: Oh that’s OK. Half the cast of Street Fighter can’t even afford shoes. You’ll get used to it.

- Me: Er, well.. Does that mean we’ll be getting a chance to earn Gems from Tournaments again? That’d be awes-

- Anet: Nope. =D

- Me: … OK, how about gold? It’d be awesome to know that I still have some form of
progression for my character in PvE bec-

- Anet: Nope. =D

- Me: …. Should I even ask if Laurels-

- Anet: Ha! Yes! You can use your Laurels to buy Unidentified Dyes which you can then sell for gold! We strive to make it easy and seemless for players to blahblahblah.

- Me: …

- Anet: …Just pay us the ’effin cash, dude.

- Me: Fine! Here! /creditcard

- Anet: Thanks! You are now the proud renter of a Custom Arena! You blahblahblah

- Me: Um.. Renter?

- Anet: Yep. You can now buy time cards every month for MORE gems to keep your custom arena open.

- Me: I. Have. To. Pay. A. MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION!? FOR A FRACTION OF THE ENTIRE GAME!?! THAT DOESN’T EVEN GET HALF AS MUCH CONTENT AS PVE!?!?!?!

- Anet: That’s a lot of exclamation points and question marks.

- Me: OK, well I guess I can afford to keep this going for a month, then take a break, then come back to it when I-

- Anet: Actually.. If you don’t pay on time, you lose the arena and have to buy a new one.

- Me: /weep

- Anet: There’s sparkly-luxury-tissue paper in the Gem Store too. =D AND a self-playing-pity-violin!

Please please correct me if I’m wrong about this. It feels really backwards that the people who focus mostly on PvP, and thus don’t have much cash, have this carrot dangled in front of them. Its not so bad for guilds, obviously, but still. What was the intention behind this Custom Arena system?

Kirito.9207:

We ask for buffs and we finally get them. Then we complain about the buffs lol..

You know, it’s a funny psychological thing.

Personally, I’m very happy with most of the changes. I never really noticed how much I enjoyed playing a class that felt more difficult than other classes. With all these improvements, they’ve pushed more builds closer to viability, but that also means the build I used to play has become so mainstream (or rather.. was so common yesterday) that it actually kills some of the draw to play it.

Mesmer seems to be in a much better place now, even despite the buffs other classes received, and now has a bit more build diversity to play with… That should be awesome, yet I harbor some bitterness I can’t really explain!

I feel like some angry old man. “All these lockdown whippersnappers don’t know what it was REALLY like! Before Anet made it insanely easy to build a good lockdown build and literally rolled out all the traits for you perfectly! They don’t know about the struggle in the meta! The hours of practice! There was no guides for this back in my day! I wrote the durn’d guides!”

For this update, we’re looking at improving multiple traits, utility skills, weapon skills, and illusions.

Oh hell, this feature patch is coming out in 2016.

To Mods: I’m sorry if I violated forum rules with the big obnoxious “Please Read”.. but I couldn’t think of many other ways to gather the Mesmer community’s attention other than offering free Mesmer cake, and that would be just wrong. The cake is a lie. Unless you’re a Necro.

TO ALL MESMER PLAYERS (Yes, even you who’s reading this but does not normally post on the forums): The guide is close to ready to launch, but I need one major favor from all of you. I’m going to have a voting system for the Skills displaying the average rating of the usefulness of the skill from the community, for example:

• Illusionary Defender: [4/5 – 56 Votes] – The iDefender makes you and nearby allies (including other Phantasms) take half damage blahblahblah.

The 4/5 would be the total average votes of all 56 Mesmer who voted. This handbook is first and foremost a compilation of all the shared and gathered knowledge of every member on these forums.
Over the past few months we’ve been giving some amazing information that the average player simply does not have access to, and hopefully this guide will bring all of that to light. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A NORMAL FORUM POSTER, IF YOU HAVE THE 5 MINUTES TO MAKE AN ACCOUNT AND SHOOT ME A PM, PLEASE DO. I’m nearly positive that there are far more people reading these forums than posting in them, which means that not only do we have an audience, but a responsibility to make sure the information we give is accurate. In a sense, we’re all teachers.

• It does not have to be EVERY SKILL (Weapon and/or Utility) but please send me your votes or post in this thread on however many skills you have personal experience with and would like to give input on.

Hey guys, going to be doing a lot of writing this weekend, and one of the projects I wanted to work on was a comprehsive Mesmer Guide compiling all of the information documented on these forums.

“But Chaos.. Why? Don’t you have some semblance of a life?”

Yep, but I also want to become a writer, and I’ve developed a love for teaching people. Also, the Mesmer forum is one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of, serously.. Everyone is willing to help, work together, and the drama is mostly to a minimum (*cough*SorryEsplenForThatOneTimeInThatThread*cough*).

Seriously.. have you seen the pvp or Warrior forums? I’ve seen Warrior threads where the OP is asking for help and gets trolled by his fellow Wars! … that, and there is a LOT of really useful tricks and information here from a lot of really helpful people.

Cool, what can I do to help?

Well for one, I need permission. If you have a build posted I’ll likely either allude to it or reference it directly but I won’t do that without the creator’s blessing. Also, if you have anything you want to add or put into the guide, send me a PM or respond in this thread. My ideas for topics so far

-Overview-
-Weapons-
-Traits-
-Combos-
-Builds-
-PvE-
-PvP-
-WvW-
-Tips&Tricks-

If anyone has anything they’d like to help contribute to, it’ll be greatly appreciated. Also.. I need a name. Right now I’m thinking..

“The School of Chaos: A Mesmer Guide” (Not chaos as in my name, Chaos as in the type of magic Mesmers specialize in)

“Tome of Madness: A Mesmer Guide”

.. Thoughts?

PISTOL
The versatile Pistol is an offhand that offers good damage for both power and condition builds with a powerful ranged Phantasm and controls multiple targets with a bouncing projectile that Stuns/Dazes/Blinds. It is often paired with swords in high damage phantasm power builds (Sword/Pistol – Sword/Sword) but can work in a condition build via iDuelist stacking bleeds/confusion.

4)Phantasmal Duelist (20- 16- 12 sec CD)- iDuelist stands safely out of harm’s way while unloading 8 shots at an opponent with each projectile having a 20% chance to combo when shot through fields. With Sharper Images (Dueling 15) and a high crit chance, Duelist can fit snugly into a condition build.

5) Magic Bullet (25- 20sec CD) Shoots a bullet that bounces between three enemies, 2s Stunning the first, 2s Dazing the second, and 5s Blinding the third. When traited with Illusionary Elasticity (Illusions) it gains a fourth bounce that Confuses.

FOCUS
The Focus is more of a utility weapon than one meant for any sort of damage. While it’s phantasm hits hard, the Focus is more noteable for it’s ability to provide long lasting group-wide swiftness, condition removal, our only LIGHT combo field, an AoE cripple, and an AoE pull famed for yanking people off of keep walls in WvW (and that’s just all on one of the two skills) the iWarden hits hard and can shut down enemy projectiles, two Warden’s together with Phantasmal Haste (Illusions) can permanently shut down projectiles.
PROS- Projectile reflection / LIGHT combo field / iWarden hits hard in power builds / Our only reliable form of Swiftness
CONS- iWarden rarely hits all 12 times / Offers little damage for condition builds

4)Temporal Curtain- (25- 20sec CD) –Tear a magical rift in time/space that grants 12s Swiftness to allies who do not already have it and 5s Cripples enemies who pass through it. Temporal Curtain is another skill that benefits highly from the creativity of the player. Besides Veil, it is our only LIGHT combo field (Light fields are usually exclusive to Guardians) which makes it good to pair Focus with 1h Sword to stack Retaliation. You can collapse the curtain to pull all nearby enemies toward its middle point, great for stacking mobs together for AoEs.

• If you’re fast enough, curtain effect lingers after being activated, allowing for further comboing. ( Temporal Curtain -> iLeap/Swap -> Curtain Pull -> Staff: Phase Retreat for a triple LEAP-finisher )

• Video: How to cluster enemies using curtain.

5)Phantasmal Warden- (25- 20sec CD) iWarden can to great things. In addition to being one of the most damaging Phantasms, the iWarden also happens to be a stationary projectile absorbing/reflecting, condition removing machine. Cast it, and stand inside it’s bubble attack when you fight. If you cast this BEFORE you cast Temporal Curtian, you can ensure its WHIRL Finisher cleanses conditions by placing the Light field beneath it’s feet. If you cast this AFTER Temporal Curtain (Place curtain > Summon Warden > Pull curtain before Warden appears) you can ensure damage. Speaking of which, good luck trying to hit someone with all 12 hits of Warden’s attack.

—HEALS & ELITES—
While Ether Feast is the most popular, reliable and straightforward heal, every single Mesmer healing skill is useful in some way. There is no particularly bad choice of healing skills but not every heal benefits every build.

Ether Feast (20 sec CD) – 5,560 (1.0) + 640 (.1) per illusion Heal yourself for more depending on how many illusions are active. This is the go-to skill for most Mesmer builds for good reason; the base heal is strong even without illusions and it scales pretty well with healing power.

• If you activate a shatter and the illusions are still running towards the target Ether Feast will still heal for as many clones as are alive.

Mantra of Recovery (10 sec CD) – 2,620(.4) x2 – After charging the mantra, you have two instant-cast heals that, combined, heal for slightly less than a clone-less Ether Feast. While this may seem inferior to Ether Feast, the lack of having a cast time combined with the Mantra traits can make this heal extremely potent.

• Works with Restorative Mantras to add an initial heal once you finish charging.
• Works well with “on-heal” runes like Altruism because of it’s instant cast. Procs the runes’ effects when first charging the mantra and while spending the charges.

Mirror (15 sec CD) – 3,915(.6) – Channels a 2s reflect while healing the caster. Pretty straightforward, and though it heals less than the other healing skills the reflect can be very potent when used properly and the 15 second cooldown perfectly matches almost all “on-heal” runes.

Signet of the Ether (35-28 sec CD) – Active: * 5,560(.85) *Passive: 340(.045)/660(.085)/980(.125) Signet of the Ether is the newest and least-explored heal in the Mesmer repertoire. Excellent for Phantasm builds, it can be extremely useful in dungeons (Warden > Swordsman > Signet > Warden) and in many other parts of the game but takes a bit of skill to fully utilize properly.

Mass Invisibility (Manipualtion – 90 sec CD) – Grant 5 seconds of Stealth to five allies within 1200 range Mass Invisibility is the best all-purpose elite skill. It provides a rare teamwide stealth for skipping mobs, allows allies to initiate attacks or escape danger safely, or save someone from getting stomped in PvP/WvW.

• When traited with Master of Manipulation, this skill becomes a less viable defensive tool as you can accidentally reflect projectiles and Reveal yourself.

Signet of Humility ( Signet – 180 sec CD) – Turn one foe into an adorable Moa for 10 seconds
Ever wanted to mine the delicious salt from an enemy’s eyejelly? Then this is the skill for you! In coordinated team this skill effectively deletes an opponent from the battle for 10 seconds. While it can be hard to land, it is fantastic for insta-gibbing one unfortunate pink feathery foe. Oh, the passive is cool, too.

• Use this enough times and you’re guaranteed to receive a salty PM.
• Bosses with Defiant will have their Defiant bar reduced rather than be Moa’d.

Time Warp (180 sec CD) – Create a massive ETHEREAL dome that pulses 1s Quickness/Slow to five allies/enemies within for 10s.

Despite it’s obnoxious cooldown, TimeWarp can be game changing. This ability makes all foes trapped within attack considerably slower, while speeding up allied actions. This includes stomps, rezzes, channels, abilities, and anything else one could think of. Since it’s an Ethereal field, every leap/blast inside will cause Chaos Armor and every Whirl/Projectile will apply confusion.

• Absolutely glorious with Chaotic Dampening!

—UNDERWATER & DOWNED—
(One day.. )

—GLAMOURS—
Glamours are AoE abilities that, despite doing no damage directly, offer exceptional team utility. When people think of Mesmer, besides the illusions, they think of skills like Feedback, Veil, and Portal. (Most likely because Glamours are flashy and obnoxious while most of our abilities are more subtle.) All Glamours, with the exception of Portal, are combo fields.

• Temporal Enchanter ( Inspiration ) – Glamour skills lasts 2 seconds longer; grant 3s Resistance and 2s Superspeed to allies near glamour cast (including Medic’s Feedback).

Feedback (32 sec CD) One of the best skills in the entire game, Feedback places a large Ethereal projectile-reflecting dome up to 1200r. As projectiles are a very common form of attack, this skill is great for all forms of gameplay (PvE,PvP,WvW) and it’s reflects can easily trivialize some major battles (such as the spider boss Malrona in Twilight Arbor). The only major weaknesses of this skill is that it must have a target selected or else will be cast at it’s full range directly infront of the caster. Also, crafty Necromancer can use their Death Shroud ability “Dark Path” to drag a Mesmer towards him … usually for the unfortunate Mes to be grusomly mutilated by the Necro’s team. – Times and places to Reflect –

Null Field (32 sec CD) Places a wide Ethereal field that pulses 6 times. Each pulse removes one condition from allies and one boons from enemies. Null Field is one of our most reliable, strongest forms of condition removal that, like Feedback, also works well in all aspects of the game. Also like Feedback, it can be used for both offense and defense.

Veil (72 sec CD) Veil is our only other LIGHT Combo Field besides Temporal Curtain . It provides two seconds of stealth, which may seem insignificant, but since it is not an AoE ring, it does not have the usual restriction of affecting only 5 targets. This means that it’s excellent for disrupting enemy targeting during large-scale WvW skirmishes. You can hop up-and-down on the curtain’s strip to refresh your stealth duration when it wears off, and can do this while Phase Retreating or charging Mantras.

Portal (72 sec CD) Portal transports up to 20 allies from one spot to .. uh.. another. The range is rather hard to calculate without practice, and the spell can completely fail if you cast the portals too far apart. Once you place the entrance, you have 60 seconds to place the exit, but the skill’s cooldown begins after the entrance is set, so if you fail to set an exit you do not have to wait a full 90 seconds.
(- Portal Tricks - )

Portals are “map range.” So you and anyone in your party can see the range and direction.

PREPARATION:
(For open PvE & WvW)
1. Set your Mini Map to maximum zoom in. Make sure you are centered in the map.

EXECUTION

1. Set a personal waypoint on your icon in the mini map. (Right Mouse + alt )
2. Drop your portal.
3. Now roam freely. You and anyone in your party can now see the approximate range and relative direction to your portal. As long as the waypoint remains on your mini map and not stuck in the margin, you are within portal range. This is especially useful in WvW where you are often stretching portals as far as possible.

(Ty Ithilwen.1829!)

—Making Your Mesmer—

WHO AM I?
With such a versatile, creative class one of the first and constant problems less experienced Mesmer have is trying to figure out what kind of Mesmer they want to be. While the leveling process can feel painful and rather tedious(like trying to sleep with an Asura) it is an important chance to discover your favorite weapons, skills, traits, and playstyle. Experiment with everything and ask yourself the following questions

• What’s my favorite weapon?: Do you prefer the Sword or the Scepter? Staff or Greatsword? It’s important to figure out exactly what weapons you have the most fun using or find the most interesting. Every weapon has a place in a build, and as a general rule of thumb:

- Power builds: Sword, Greatsword, Pistol, Focus
- Condition builds: Scepter, Staff, Pistol, Torch

• What do I want to play?: Not every build excels in every scenario. If you’re planning to speedrun, then don’t bother with a Support or Condition build. If you want to PvP, make sure you have the proper skills to deal with stuns and conditions. It’s crucial to tailor your build to whatever content you play the most.

-Open World PvE/Farming: Tired of the indignity of running screaming with your arms waving while mobs of centaurs have a grand old time chasing you across Tyria? Having a hard time hitting mobs in an AoE? A Sword/Focus – Greatsword Phantasm build is great for forcing enemy groups into tight clusters (Focus 4, Sword 3) while your AoE Phantasms have their way with them.

- Dungeons: It is generally accepted that most dungeon bosses can be melee’d with the proper amount of CC. If your goal is to maximize damage to cruise through Dungeon, fractal content then you’ll want to outfit in Berserker/Assassin’s gear, grab Sword+Pistol/Sword+Sword (with Focus on hand when needed), Feedback, Signet of Inspiration, and go take a gander at metabattle.com HOWEVER if you are not used to the dungeon content or are not confident in constantly staying melee, run Scepter or Greatsword to learn enemy rotations. Do not use Greatsword is an eternal crutch, anyone can learn to melee and you’re mentally limiting yourself by not trying to increase your skillset. We are Mesmer, and thus should hold no such menial mental blocks. ( Maxinion’s Mesmer Dungeon Guide )

- PvP: Besides acting as overdramatic Thieves, Mesmer can have a hard time finding a place in sPvP. Our most favored team oriented skills are Portal, Time Warp, and -if Chronomancer- the numerous wells at our disposal. PvP Mesmer are known for traits like Power Block and Shattered Concentration(Domination) but MAKE SURE no matter your composition, you have at least 1 stunbreak (Decoy, Blink) and 1 form of Condition removal (Null Field, Arcane Thievery). Lyssa Runes, Vampirism and Melandru Runes are popular for defense while Hoelbrak/Strength runes are taken for offense.
( SOAC Supcutie PvP Interview )

- WvW: Mesmer make excellent roamers and scouts, and in larger fights our Glamours (Feedback, Veil, Null Field) can make a difference when properly placed. We lack the travel mobility of other classes, but we can take Traveler’s runes, a Focus, and/or traited Blink (Dueling I, Chaos III) to keep up. Portal is especially noteworthy for transporting Golems and supply runs.
( Osicat’s Best WvW Moments Part 1 )

- GvG: (Under Construction) Seriously.. We need more people talking about Mesmers in GvG.

The reason why this is such an outrage isn’t necessarily whether or not if it was a bug, it’s with how brainlessly it was handled:

• Swag Captain has only been playing Mesmer for a week and noticed the ‘bug’ with iLeap. How did any testing dev miss this for two years? I don’t believe they did. I believe it was intended and the tooltip was misleading.

• I use this example a lot, but the original concept of “combos” in the first Street Fighter wasn’t intended. It started as a bug players exploited in the game and was such a positive improvement that it became part of the system when Street Fighter 2 dropped. Just because something is a “bug” doesn’t mean it has to be removed, it should be taken into consideration of what the bug is actually doing beforehand.

iLeap’s previous functionality made it a more creative and skill-reliant ability, and now this “fix” encourages spamming it as quickly as possible. I refuse to believe that with things like a bugged out iWarden, Illusionary Elasticity, porting through walls, ileap pathing, and the other 20+ actually crippling bugs we face, that this ileap fix became a real priority. What annoys me is that if any of the balance devs actually played the class they’d see what a silly change this is.

“Bug” or not, they could’ve just as easily fixed the tooltip rather than changing the skill.

I sucked it up with iDisenchanter.
I never used torch, so didn’t worry about iMage
… But shield is the last straw.

STOP BEING AFRAID OF OUR PHANTASMS!
Phantasms with bounce-based projectiles do not work anet. This game isn’t balanced around 1v1s or smallscale encounters, bosses obliterate phantasms in a single swipe, and any block/dodge/blind/reflect/wiggle completely ruins the effect, leaving most of these phantasms on a rather long recharge before their next (likely failing) attack.
I understand if these phantasms are given bouncing attacks out of fear of them being too powerful. On paper, a phantasm that can remove 2 condis and boons per hit seems really strong, so is a phantasm that applies alacrity/slow and so is fury/burning. But in practice, giving these phantasms a bouncing projectile out of fear that any other application would be too strong is actually crippling them. It doesn’t matter how good it’s “supposed” to be if it never has a chance to actually work!

BOUNCES DON’T WORK. SO WHAT DOES?
Phantasms with bouncing projectiles tend to offer a bonus to allies and a detriment to enemies, but more often than not they just tend to do nothing. The bounce often doesn’t even reach back to the Mesmer if they’re not within range, and that’s assuming the projectile ever hit in the first place. As a result, these phantasms have extremely situation application and tend to be nearly forgettable. Ontop of that there’s other problems with said phantasms.

• iDisenchanter has a low cooldown & and a fast attack rate. That’s all well and good, but it dies way too often and has the most obnoxious cast-time ever. Despite the fact that it’s effect is great, this is one of our worst Phantasms simply because of how it attacks. This phantasm only excels in small-scale fights of 3v3 or less, and even then it struggles.
  - (Casts minor Null Field (one pulse), removing 2 condis and 2 boons every 6 seconds in an AoE)

• iMage is still forgettable, because while burning used to be cool.. One stack is pitiful compared to .. oh.. every other kitten thing that applies a condition! The fury rarely makes it back to the Mesmer, and even when it does it’s easy to go unnoticed.
  - (Creates a line of purple fire that lasts 3s every 8s. Enemies that cross the line gain 2s of burning, allies gain 2s fury)

• iAvenger "FOR FREEDO- /miss. "STARS AND STRI- /block “GOOD WORK, SOLDIER!” Even when iAvenger hits, it’s only achievement is the slow it applies to an enemy. Then it just kind of sits there and happily dies thinking itself a martyr. If this phantasm is to be our only consistent method of sharing Alacrity, then by god please allow it to actually share some effing alacrity!
  - (Raises shield and shouts " ’murica!" granting 2s Alacrity & inflicting 2s slow to all targets within 600r every 6 seconds)

What do you think? Do you not mind our bouncing phantasms or would you rather see them changed? If so what tweaks would you make?

Hey guys, I know recently Ive been kinda slow to respond, distracted in-game, and rather inconsistent.

This past week someone very very close to me suffered a massive heart attack. This weekend we had to let her go.

… It was the hardest thing I ever had to witness. Especially rough since my mother had suffered an aneurysm a few years back and had to go to the same ER (She survived, amazingly. It was painful and took a lot of surgery and rehab but thank god shes recovered nearly fully) . It was like a macabre deja-vu except with the opposite outcome from the first time.

It was the first time something so devastating hit so close to home. Im very sorry if I rekindled any bad memories. Right now we’re scrambling to put funds together and sort everything out. As she was a rather young mother; this was so sudden, unexpected, and unspeakably painful that right now were just trying to make sense of the emotional/logistical chaos.

So if Im off GW for a little while or don’t respond in-game/random AFK thats why. I personally don’t believe in oranized religion, but if you’re the praying-type then your prayers would be well-recieved. (I know theres a greater power out there, but honestly I just believe in doing the right thing and not being a hypocrite.. Everything else is noise)

Edit: You guys are in-freakin’-credible. I never imagined I’d ever become so invested in a forum community so much to go on to write guides (which I’ve never done anything close to before) and give tips and help.. But I really couldn’t have expected so much feedback and support returned tenfold. The responses in mail and in this thread brought embarrassing man-tears to my eyes.

This gets repeated often, but we really do have one of the best, most communal forums on this site. From the the All-Mesmer meets, to the ridiculously overdramatic names we throw on our builds, the [OMFG] Guild and the amount of respect we all show eachother… most days.

(Got infracted for raising money and mods deleted my ENTIERE thank you edit. -_- Yet, they won’t sticky OMFG)

I’m about to get this quote patented…

Pyroathiest, always making friends.

I’m sorry.. But I don’t think I could ever recommend this build for anyone.

I’ve been seeing a lot of back and forth about what’s the “best” spec for Mesmer, or what’s the “strongest” weapon, ect. and I just thought I’d throw my two-cents in.

This game was advertised as a game that any type of player (hardcore or casual) could play in however style they’d like and still find enjoyment. Bringing these two types of players together will inevitably cause conflict, stigma, and misinformation. I’m going to use a few names for examples, so I apologize in advance if I accidentally offend anyone as that’s not my intent.

(Mind you, this is mostly for dungeons or open world pve. WvW and PvP are entirely different beasts.)

The “zerker-or-nothing” perspective…
“If you don’t go full Berzerker [in dungeons], then you’re bad.”

There is a very good reason people have this perspective, and no its not because they’re “close-minded elitist jerks.” By design, all you truly need to be successful in the majority of dungeons/Open World is the ability to properly dodge. For a Mesmer, proper dodging and reflect usage can trivialize almost everything PvE-oriented, thus you don’t really much in the terms of support (healing/boons) as long as you have the proper control (reflects/pulls/debilitating conditions).

Colsey has tested the iSwordsman phantasm to be our best phantasm for sustained DPS

colesy.8490:

Tested against dummies in Lion’s Arch (so no crits)
0/20/0/25/25
full berserker, partial ascended (amulet, accessory, rings)

iSwordsman – 2.1k
iDuelist – 2.4k
iWarden – 3.6k
iZerker – 2.7k (rounded up)

Swordsman was able to hit three times during the warden’s channel and during its recharge.

Duelist and Zerker had very little difference in recharge time.

Warden is a poor choice for DPS even with phantasmal haste.

Will reply in detail later, but those were my results. Will test more in open world so we can factor in crits.

And I believe that the build (Sword/Sword – Sword/Pistol) in his sig infact IS one of the best dungeon specs for Mesmer damage-wise.

However…

Now lets take proven super-talented Mesmer like Pyroathiest or Fay (Sorry to throw you guys into the fire, but defenestrating Pyro should be an Olympic sport.) According to this logic, though Pyro can easily cruise through dungeons in full sword/sword – pistol Berserker gear if he wants to, if he chooses not to then suddenly hes bad.

@Colesy: This is the flaw I was talking about earlier. You cannot judge a player’s talent by their build alone and its unfair to label them “bad” for not falling into your purview of ‘optimal’.

Speaking of which, I wanted to also take a second to explore the term “bad.” Many people look at player skill as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as if it’s black or white with no room for any gray areas. If you’ve got dungeons and NPC rotations committed to memory, but suck in sPvP then are you bad at the game? Conversely, great sPvPers can falter in WvW or in dungeons. If you have NO idea that the 1h sword is stronger than the Greatsword, but you can run through dungeons blindfolded, play fractals 40+ with your buttcheeks, and can command an army in WvW while simultaneously watching Dr. Who, then are you bad? IMO Everyone has strengths and weakness, and very few can simply be labeled “bad” for one particular reason.

People play the game for different reasons, and people even run dungeons for different reasons. Not everyone wants to speedrun, and they’re not “bad” at the game or lack skill for not wanting to do so.
I, personally, hate skipping mobs. I feel like a lame each time we’re stacking ontop of eachother or abusing some glitch to defeat a boss. But at the same time I’m not going to look down on someone else or judge them for doing so, because. If you payed money to play this game then you have a right to enjoy it however you like.
I don’t like to farm, I enjoy watching cut scenes (the artwork is incredible for some, especially Ascalonian Catacombs), and I enjoy exploring the level design. I’m not just a gamer but an artist and writer with ambitions to become a videogame designer among other things, so all these things are meaningful to me.

At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of perspective. If you want to speedrun, then go ahead and find people of like mind and do so. It doesn’t make you an elitist until you’re running around passing judgement on people who don’t play your way. If you wanna run a condition build, support build, or even a build that everyone says isn’t viable but is the most fun build you could come up with? Then do so. No one has a right to get in anyone else’s way of having fun.

Thoughts?

What Kind of Mesmer Are You?—
Mesmer, being such a varied and creative class, can be played in all manner of different styles. Each playstyle is radically different and requires time to learn. One of the most common reasons people dismiss a build as “bad” is because they expect to be able to play it masterfully within the first few moments of picking it up. As a general rule:

Phantasm – Easy to learn / More relaxed pace / Accessible for beginners.

Shatter – Takes practice / Fast pace / Medium difficulty but high risk high reward with high skill cap.

Condition – Easy to learn / Medium pace / Medium difficulty with high skill cap.

Support – Takes practice / Pace varies by build / Medium difficulty with high skill
cap.

Lockdown – Difficult to learn / Fast pace / High difficulty high skill cap.

- Fay’s List of Mesmer Builds/Guides -

• SHATTER
Shatter Mesmer can inflict sudden high damaging AoE spikes in bursts by manually destroying their illusions for a variety of effects. Shatter builds tend to be active, fast-paced reflexive playstyles that are highly mobile, flashy and confusing. The typical Shatter build uses clones for both offense and defense, and thus needs to have a high rate of clone production. Deceptive Evasion (Dueling Grandmaster) is perfect for this and practically essential for shatter builds, giving us the ability to spawn clones on dodge ( Protip: Orrian Truffle & Meat Stew increases our dodge rate.).

- Sample Shatter Build: Dom/Dueling/Chaos
- Key Weapons: Sword, Greatsword
- Key Skills: Mirror Images, Blink, Decoy, Portal
- Key Traits: Deceptive Evasion (Dueling) / Shattered Concentration (Domination)
- Most Popular Shatter Build: PU Power Shatter
- Shatter Tutorial: (COMING SOON)

• PHANTASM
Phantasm Mesmer play more like minion masters. The Phantasm playstyle is more welcoming to newcomers of the game/class as phantasms are devastatingly powerful 1v1 specs. The Mesmer merely has to focus on staying alive via stealths, teleports, and other kind of defenses while their Phantasms hit hard, respawn quickly, and have large fountains of health. Phantasm specs are also preferred for dungeon runs.

- Key Weapons: Greatsword, Offhand Sword/Pistol/Focus
- Key Traits: Empowered Illusions (Domination), Phantasmal Fury (Dueling), Phantasmal Haste (Illusions), Persisting Images (Inspiration)
- Key Skills: Phantasmal Defender/Disenchanter, Signet of Illusions
- Sample Phantasm Build: Domination/Inspiration/Illusions
- PvE Phantasm Build: (COMING SOON)
- Dungeon Phantasm Build:Metabattle’s Dungeon Phantasm Build

• CONDITION
Condition Mesmer have seen a rise in popularity recently and, to the ire of many Necromancer, have proven to be a devastating force to be reckoned with. Many condition Mesmer enjoy dancing in and out of stealth (and thus gaining high amounts of defensive boons like protection) while their releasing a plethora of debilitating conditions whenever an unfortunate enemy travels too close. Condition Mesmer use Confusion and Torment to great effect with the Scepter and shatters.

- Key Weapons: Staff, Scepter, Torch
- Key Traits: Sharper Images (Dueling Minor), Deceptive Evasion (Dueling), Chaotic Transference (Chaos), Master of Misdirection (Illusions )
- Key Skills: Signet of Domination, Signet of Midnight
- Sample Condition Build – Dueling / Chaos / Illusions –

• Support
Let us take a gander into the Inspiration line and see how it opens up a number of ways to add aspects of team support to a build. Not only do Mesmer have access to every boon in the game (6 of the 10 boons alone available to Staff), but we have the unique ability to copy any boons we have onto all nearby allies. (Video courtesy of Alissah.9281) This, combined with our ability to rapidly heal allies, cast group stealth, portal, and mitigate damage with dazes, pulls/pushes, solo stack up to 25 might, and reflects make Mesmer one of the best supportive classes along with Engineers, Guardian, and Elementalists. Mesmer support builds vary from heavy crowd control, boon support, heals, or a mix of all of the above and in some cases can be done without any major sacrifice to damage. Mesmers are brought to serious dungeon teams for their support and team utility rather than raw damage, and has been proven effective in PvP with the right team composition & WvW for both small man and zergs. (Protip: Chocolate Omnomberry Creams grant 20% boon duration)

- Key Weapons: Staff, Focus
- Key Traits: Chaotic Interruption (Chaos) & kitten near the entire Inspiration Line!
- Key Skills: Signet of Inspiration, Mantra of Resolve/Concentration, iDefender, iDisenchanter, Veil, Illusion of Life, Feedback, Null Field, Portal
- Sample Boonshare setup: Sword+Focus – Staff / Dueling, Inspiration, Chaos / 6x Runes of Altruism
- Sample Support Build: Holl’s WvW/PvP Boonshare Setup

• Lockdown
Lockdown Mesmer are all about control: limiting enemy movement, eliminating their boons, dazing/stunning, reflects and smothering them with debilitating conditions such as Weakness, Vulnerability, and much more. While Lockdown finds little use in dungeons due to the Defiant buff on most bosses, it’s popularity is rising in PvP. Most control builds grab traits that grant bonuses when interrupting opponents, the most popular being Power Block (Domination) which inflicts damage, Weakness, and a 15s CD on interrupt, and Chaotic Interruption (Chaos) which grants 5 stacks of might per opponent interrupted while simultaneous immobilizing them.

A thing of note about Lockdown builds; try to make sure whatever kind of Lockdown build you have can be strong on its own without interrupts. For example: (Domination/Dueling/Chaos) does very good damage via Shatters and Phantasms, has good lockdown/control via chain-dazes, and Chaos Storm, can rapidly strip enemy boons and stack vulnerability, and has AoE condition removal. These traits alone make it a strong build, but the rewards for nailing interrupts (5x Might / 3x Vuln / Instant 2k+ damage on interrupt) makes it that much better.

AoE control options.: Staff, Focus, Mantra of Distraction, Superior Sigils of Hydromancy, and Master of Fragmentation(Illusions)
- Key Skills: Mantra of Distraction, Signet of Domination, Null Field, Arcane Thievery
- Key Traits: Confounding Suggestions (Domination), Dazzling (Domination minor), Shattered Concentration (Domination), Chaotic Interruption (Chaos), Duelist’s Discipline (Dueling), Blinding Dissipation (Dueling)

- Sample Build: The “Meta” Lockdown

FRACTALS OF THE MISTS

• Harpy fractal (One thing about the harpy fractal. Traited focus is great for 90% of it. The mid point golem fight requires an untraited focus. I believe it is the only skill that can currently negate is spinning poison spread. The traited focus doesn’t seem to work.)

• Fractals (Grawl) Endboss’ Agony Arrow
• Fractals (Dredge + Dredgeboss) Bombs (I think you just destroy the bombs instead of reflecting them)
• Fractals (Swamp) Mossman’s Axe/Bloomhungers Shockwave
• First archdiviner in cliffside fractal has an attack that can be reflected where he spins around A note about the archdiviner. Sometimes when reflecting ( or not, I haven’t been able to figure out what on earth is really happening) you can get hit with a LOT of damage from an attack called ‘ring of warding’. Just something to watch out for.
  Ring of Warding is the projectile attack that you “should” be able to reflect. It appears that even if you reflect it with feedback, and see him take 6 8k crits, the ability pierces through and can still hit the player. Since the damage is the same as if a bolt hits the player, I assume this is the case. Usually, this happens when I feedback at the moment he is doing it, whereas I am never hit if there is a good 2-second window where he is in the bubble.
• Cliffside: For the arm seals, many of the trash mobs have a reflectable attack within feedback.
• Ascalon: The archers and mages have reflectable attacks.
• RANGED DREDGE EVERYWHERE
• Jade maw fractal: the squid mobs have a charged up knockdown attack that can be reflected.
• Ascalon fractal: when the final boss is in the firey greatsword stage, his standing still autoattack can be reflected for upwards of 25k damage.
• Grawl fractal first boss: he uses a projectile burning attack that can be nicely reflected.

ASCALON CATACOMBS

• AC p3 boss has an attack similar to the effigy which can be knocked back
• AC path 2 final boss: the ghost eater uses a frontal cone aoe that is similar to risen elementalists, except it also applies bleeding and cripple. Chaining reflects will kill him incredibly quickly.

TWILIGHT ARBOR

• Up/Up first spider boss and second spider boss: both use projectile attacks. First spider boss will receive 5x increased damage if you are poisoned. Same effect with champ spiders in arah.
• Lavaelementals can be reflectet to not hit the Ooze
• Sparki’s projectiles ignore reflections/destructions(Smoke Screen tested) (didn’t test untraited focus)
• Slick’s shots can be destroyed but not reflected
• Endboss’ AoE (Tools and Gears) can be reflected

CRUCIBLE OF ETERNITY

• COE golem primes itself to fire a red projectile which can be reflected for like 20k
• Icebrood Elementals

HONOR OF THE WAVES

• first legendary boss in hotw p1 has a projectile attack that can be reflected
• Most of the HotW stuff is projectiles based, story included. Final bosses rom explorables are excluded, since 2 of them are underwater and the one from path 1 has more aoe attacks than projectiles.

CAUDECUS MANOR

• When in doubt, reflect. You’ll probably hit something.
• Also in Caudecus story there’s a lot of projectiles. I remember that the final boss in story mode is a ranger, which didn’t touch me anytime thanks to iWardens and temporal Curtain.

CITADEL OF FLAME

• COF effigy has an attack where it slams its fist in to the ground which fires five projectiles that can be reflected for around 50k

ARAH

• Risen Elementalist in Arah basically kills itself on Wardens (he takes about 30% per blade volley).
• Alphard, Serpent of the Waves can be completely shut down.
• Orrian Turrets can be easily killed with any reflect skill.
• Wraithlord’s Mage can be totally shut down, just like Alphard.
• In addition to what was mentioned, mages use a projectile that reflects for about 10k. Hunters are by far the best, as they use a bouncing projectile that reflects for about 10k-12k and bounces around decimating everything. You can also reflect the poison spray from the orrian drakes, this will do a ton of damage to them.
• Lupicus’ aoe attack in p2 can be reflected, but you have to actually be inside feedback for it. I will trait mender’s feedback, stand next to a downed ally, and wait to revive them jus as lupicus uses the aoes. Additionally, in p3 the attack with a large red circle right in front of him where he sprays the ground with green stuff can be reflected for massive damage.

- Legendary Jotun Stargazer of path 1, feedback can be used to reflect his main attack instead of needing reflecting crystals.

SORROWS EMBRACE

• Prototype golems in sorrow’s embrace p1 can be decimated by reflects very quickly.

SCEPTER
Scepter is the ranged main-hand alternative to the sword. While it lack’s the sword’s mobility and defensive capabilities, it is capable of providing high condition damage, spawning clones off its auto, and attacking at range. At around 600 range, the Scepter can actually provide more damage than the Greatsword due to its quicker attack rate the closer you are to the enemy.
PROS- Superior for Condition Dmg builds / The only ranged 1h weapon (900 range)/ Rapid clone production
CONS- 2nd worst power damage / Lousy defense

1) Ether Bolt/Ether Blast/ Ether Clone - The Scepter auto chain is … lacking. While it provides better damage than the staff, it still falls short of the 1h sword and can only surpass the Greatsword’s auto at much closer ranges. On the bright side.. the third hit -though painfully slow- spawns a clone.

• Though it’s a ranged attack, the auto chain is more effective the closer you are to your opponent, this is because the next part of the chain activates after the previous bolt hits.
• You can delay casting the third part of the chain for up to around 3 seconds. (Example: Scepter auto 1, auto 2, summon phantasm, auto 3) If you’re in combat, you can preemptively swing the first two parts of the autoattack out so you’ll launch the third immediately.

2) Illusionary Counter/Counterspell - Block the next attack, creating a clone and applying Torment. (12-9.5 sec CD) iCounter is the best attack for the scepter. It is on a low cooldown, applies Torment (which can lead to MASSIVE condition damage), produces a clone, and can block heavy hitting single attacks. It does a bit of power damage as well, making it useful for any build, but you’re vulnerable for the second inbetween countering and attacking so be careful when being attacked by multiple foes.

• Counter can do somewhat decent power damage.
• Scepter counter is slightly faster than sword counter.

3) Confusing Images- Fire a beam of disorienting light that scrambles the opponent’s thoughts - (15-12 sec CD) This move, also known as Confuse Ray (Pokémon reference), is a channeled beam that hits up to 5 times for fairly good power damage while adding a stack of Confusion per hit. It’s an awkward attack that can easily miss, but very rewarding when it hits.

• The beam can hit 4 additional targets within the stream.
• Does more damage than Blurred Frenzy.

TORCH
When you order a delicious ovenfresh pie, do you expect to get back half mouth-watering pastry? Would you settle for riding half a horse? Wouldn’t you break a chair on someone who gave you half a paycheck? If you don’t enjoy feeling like you paid full price for half of a product, then you may not be too happy with the torch. While one skill is a fantastic Stealth/AoE Blind&Burn/BLAST Finisher, the other is a potential candidate for the “Most Useless Skill in Guild Wars 2” Hall of Shame.
PROS Great for Prismatic Understanding & Condition builds / Can be traited to remove conditions / The only BLAST Finisher Mesmer have
CONS: Pathetic damage for Power builds.

4) The Prestige (30- 24 sec CD) Vanish into stealth for three seconds, Blinding (5sec) nearby foes within 120 radius. AoE 3 second Burning damage (240 range) when you reappear. This skill’s Blast finisher makes it ideal to spread AoE Chaos Armor from out Ethereal combo fields.

• BLAST finisher.
• Slight power damage in an AoE when you reappear.

5)Phantasmal Mage (30- 24 sec CD) Summons a Phantasm that shoots a bolt that causes 1x Burning for 3 seconds on hit and bounces twice, causing 3 seconds of Fury on allies. For some ridiculous reason, this skill cannot bounce to the same ally twice. Semi decent condition removal when torch is traited. Makes decent shatter fodder, at least.

• So bad.

GREATSWORD
The Greatsword is an excellent weapon for leveling in open world PvE and for ranged damage in PvP/WvW. This is NOT an ideal weapon for dungeons! 1200 range puts you out of allied boons and Sword outdamages it against bosses. It’s auto attack beam pierces through enemies and it’s Phantasm hits hard in an AoE. Greatsword is one of our best options for hitting large groups, and when paired with the Sword+Focus can make clearing large groups of enemies much easier. Mirror Blade has the potential to stack high amounts of Might, and with a bit of boon duration, and 2x Superior Sigils of Battle can maintain a permanent 12+ Might stacks.
Pros: Good for tagging groups / Powerful Phantasm / Most damaging ranged (1200r) option / High Might stacking potential
Cons: Not too good for condition builds / Weaker at closer range / Hard time grabbing ally boons while fighting at 1200 range

1)Spacial Surge Convert light into a beam of energy that can pierce up to three foes. Spacial Surge does more damage the further away you are, growing in damage from 300 – 600 – 900 range.

2)Mirror Blade (8- 6 sec CD) Throw an illusionary greatsword that bounces three times between allies and enemies. Does decent damage and grants 3x Might for 10 seconds on hitting allies. With a bit of boon duration (50%) this skill works wonders for stacking Might in builds with a higher boon support focus.

• PROJECTILE Combo Finisher.

3)Mind Stab (12- 10.5 sec CD) Strikes up to five targets in a relatively small AoE with an illusionary blade. Does decent damage and removes one boon on hit but underwhelming compared to most Mesmer skills.

• Can use this skill on walls. (Impresses the ladies.)
• Best to merge with a shatter or combo’d behind Mirror Blade.

4)Phantasmal Berzerker (20- 16-12 second CD) Summons a Phantasm that spins through targets for (usually) heavy damage and applies a 1s cripple for each hit. Though Phantasms tend to get shredded in massive fights, the iZerker is a great way to snag bags in big events and clear out trash enemies. The Berzerker also has the honor of being one of the first abilities that come to mind when people think “Mesmers OP”

• WHIRL Combo Finisher.
• Attacks every 6 seconds normally. 4.8 seconds with Phantasmal Haste.

5)llusionary Wave (30- 24second cooldown) Push up to 5 foes away from you with a wave of magical energy that rushes out in a cone. If you have Chaotic Interruption this skill is great for building might via proccing interrupts when facing large groups but overall it’s a bit lackluster for a 30 second cooldown.

—CLONES—
Clones are the expendable copies of yourself. They’re good for confusing the enemy, shattering, stacking conditions, body-blocking projectiles, and checking your teeth/hair without a mirror. Clones do next to no damage, but often have secondary effects: Sword clones stack Vulnerability and strip Boons / Staff clones do good condition damage / Greatsword clones can stack bleeds very well, stack might when traited, and have a more profound psychological effect on opponents.

• Deceptive Evasion ( Dueling ) – Create a clone when you dodge / Desperate Decoy ( Dueling ) – 3 sec stealth and spawn clone at 25% HP / Illusionists Celerity (Illusions) – All illusion skills 20% cooldown.
  
  —-

Decoy (40 – 34 sec CD) Decoy is a stunbreak that stealths you for three seconds and sends a clone at anyone you have targeted within 1200 range. It is one of our best ways to disengage from a fight and one of our best abilities to confuse an opponent with.

Mirror Images (45 -36 sec CD) Mirror Images breaks stuns and sends two clones charging at a targeted opponent within 1200r. Since it is an instant cast, it can be used in the middle of other skills (Blurred Frenzy + Mirror Image + Mind Wrack = Own’d)

—PHANTASMS—
Phantasms are a huge source of damage for most builds, but it can be confusing knowing which illusions are good for which situations. As a general rule, try not to shatter Phantasms if you can help it as they can add a significant amount of damage even in Shatter builds when left alive.
(The Torch’s Phantasm, iMage, isn’t listed here because.. well.. there’s pretty much nothing about it worth noting.)

• Empowered Illusions (Domination) – Illusion damage +15% /
  Sharper Images (Dueling) – Illusions cause 1x Bleeding for 5 seconds on crits.
  Confusing Combatants (Dueling) Illusions cause 1x Confusion for 3 seconds when killed.
  Phantasmal Fury (Dueling II) – Phantasms have Fury.
  Protected Phantasms (Inspiration) — Phantasms gain distortion briefly upon creation. Illusions gain protection when you activate a shatter skill.
  Illusionary Inspiration (Inspiration) — Phantasms grant 3s regeneration to nearby allies. Whenever you summon a phantasm, cast Signet of Inspiration.
  Persistence of Memory (Illusions) — Shattering a phantasm recharges all phantasms by 2s.
  Persisting Images (Inspiration) –Phantasms have 20% more HP & Retaliation
  Illusionists Celerity (Illusions ) – All illusion skills 20% cooldown
  Phantasmal Haste (Illusions ) Phantasm attack rate increased.
  
  —-

DAMAGE PHANTASMS
iSwordsman (Offhand Sword 20-16-12 sec CD) – Does the highest single-target power DPS (not including potential of bleeds) of all phantasms while attacking at the quickest rate. Despite it’s name, Swordsman stays safely out of melee range when it is not attacking. It’s lunge attack, in addition to evading damage, is also a LEAP Combo Finisher. When summoned, Swordsman applies its LEAP combo bonus to the caster.

iDuelist (Offhand Pistol 20-16- 12 sec CD) – While it does a bit less power damage than the Swordsman(as is usually the case with melee vs ranged skills) the Duelist can perform well in both power AND condition builds. It’s 8 projectile attacks can proc an abundance of bleeds on crit, and when the Pistol is traited, its shots have 100% chance to be a PROJECTILE Combo Finisher. Combined with our Ethereal fields like Null Field and Chaos Storm, the Duelist can stack massive amounts of confusion.

iBerzerker (Greatsword 20-16-12 sec CD) – iZerker hits four times and does a spin similar to the Warrior’s “Whirlwind” ability. While its power damage is less than the iSwordsman’s, it can hit multiple targets near eachother. Its WHIRL Finisher, while a nice touch, is mostly forgettable.

iWarlock (Staff 18- 15.6- 11 sec CD) – On it’s own, it is the slowest and weakest Phantasm of the four, yet it compensates this by having an attack that does 10% more damage per boon on a target. It’s projectile does not track and can be easily dodged, but in big boss battles Warlock will often hit harder than the rest.

UTILITY PHANTASMS
iDefender (30-24 sec CD) The iDefender is an interesting beast. When you look past the obnoxious cast time, the Defender is a very good damage mitigation tool. Though it has to run into melee range like a moron, once it attacks it grants an AoE buff to 5 allies in 600 range that allows it to absorb half of all incoming damage. Making Guardians, Eles, and Thieves weep with a beefy 19,943HP at level 80 (8,354 in PvP/WvW) it’s especially glorious if you can keep it alive via Regeneration and Mantra heals.

iDisenchanter (20-16 sec CD)Another phantasm with a needlessly long cast time. Disenchanter shoots a bouncing projectile that removes 2 conditions and two enemy boons. Bounces twice and has a preference to allies, its one of our best condition removers… and yet it gets so little love.

iWarden (Focus, 25-20 sec CD) iWarden can be your best buddy. In addition to being one of the most damaging Phantasms, the iWarden also happens to be a stationary projectile absorbing/reflecting, condition removing machine. Cast it, and stand inside it’s bubble attack when you fight. If you cast this BEFORE you cast Temporal Curtian, you can ensure its WHIRL Finisher cleanses conditions by placing the Light field beneath it’s feet. If you cast this AFTER Temporal Curtain (Place curtain > Summon Warden > Pull curtain before Warden appears) you can ensure damage.

—MANIPULATIONS—
Manipulations tend to be stylish skills that benefit from the creativity of the user. While all of the Manipulations have interesting effects, they often have less-complicated counterparts. Blink vs Decoy (Disengage) / Mimic vs Feedback (Reflect)/ Arcane Thievery vs Null Field (Boon&Condition Mitigation) / and Illusion of Life vs Mass Invisibility (Keeping allies’ buttcheeks unmolested). Though comparatively difficult, Manipulations often have interesting benefits that reward creative and skillful play.

• Master of Manipulation (Chaos) – 20% cooldown reduced & Reflection on cast.
  
  —-

Arcane Thievery (45- 36 sec CD) Arcane Thievery, like a bad relationship, steals 3 boons from an opponent while generously replacing them 3 of your conditions instead. The skill can make you laugh or cry. It literally throws the opponent’s conditions back on them, using their own condition damage to calculate, er, damage. It’s also great for stealing boons from some bosses and player opponents (Warrior, Engineer, Necro for example). Arcane Thievery is not unblockable, and thus affected by Aegis, Blinds, evades, invulns, range, and line of sight making it very dangerous as a build’s lone form of condition removal.

Blink (30-24 sec CD) Blink, in its simplest terms, is a basic teleport. It’s also an instant-cast stunbreak, which means that you can use it in the middle of anything at anytime . Since Blink does not put you in combat, it can even be used in Civilian clothes. Perhaps the most useful aspect of Blink is that, when traited for range (Dueling I), it can teleport us anywhere a Thief’s shadowstep can.
- Supcutie’s list of sPvP Blink Locations -

Illusion of Life ( 130- 104 sec CD) Illusion of Life temporarily restores up to 5 allies from Downed-state and allows them to fight for 15 seconds. If they manage to kill an enemy in that time, they fully revive, and if not they’ll go back downed. This great for WvW, & sPvP, but bringing it to dungeons is usually frowned upon (The prevailing thought is that allies should either be able to rally themselves, get rezzed the normal way, or respawn in time to return to the fight). Illusion of Life has a relatively long cast time, obscenely long cooldown time, and takes practice and timing to use effectively.

Mimic (30- 26 sec CD) Mimic copies 5 boons from the opponent for their exact current duration. While synergetic with Arcane Thievery, Bountiful Disillusionment, and Signet of Inspiration, Mimic in it’s current state is rather underwhelming as it is block/blind/dodgeable and there is almost always a better utility to take.

—MANTRAS—
Mantras are some of the most difficult Mesmer skills to use. Mantras are skills that have a 2¾ second cast time (and 1200 range) but give you two instant-cast uses(aka charges) before going on cooldown. While their effects can be profound, it is difficult to recharge Mantras in the middle of combat. Staff is a great weapon to run with Mantras as Chaos Storm/Armor grant protection while charging and you can Phase Retreat without interrupting yourself. While taking one or two individual Mantras is perfectly fine, it is very difficult to form full-Mantra builds. (Sidenote: A mantra is a method of focusing by repeating something over and over; like a spiritual motto )

• Harmonious Mantras (Dueling) – Mantras hold 3 charges instead of 2, activating a mantra gives 3% damage bonus for 8s (5 stacks max) / Restorative Mantras ( Inspiration ) – Heal allies for 2600HP when charging a mantra.
• Toughness raised by 600 when preparing a Mantra

Mantra of Pain ”Agony, Torment, Pain!” (1 sec CD. Yes, really, one second.) –Mantra of Pain is a 240r PBAoE (point blank AoE) that hits up to 4 additional opponents around the initial target. It is good for adding a noticeable amount of instant-cast damage (even while in the middle of using other skills), and tagging mobs for PvE and zerg combat but it’s even more useful for adding consistent AoE group heals via Restorative Mantras. The one second cooldown means that this skill can be constantly recharged and actually can do quite a bit of noticeable damage when specced in full-damage gear (over 1k per hit).

Mantra of Resolve ”Unbroken, Unshaken, Resolve!” (20- 16 sec CD) – Removes two conditions per charge. One of our best forms of condition removal, especially when specced with Harmonious Mantras (Domination XI)

Mantra of Concentration ”Fixed, Focus, Concentration!” (25- 20 sec CD) – Grants 2s Stability per charge. It is our only way of maintaining Stability, charges can be blown rapidly for a longer lasting Stability. Traited for cooldowns, and with 50% boon duration, this skill can maintain over 40% Stability uptime. (Yes, I just used “Stability” in every sentence. No it was not intentional)

Mantra of Recovery “Health, Vigor, Recovery!” (10- 8 sec CD) – Heal a moderate amount per charge. One of the strongest heals with Restorative and/or Harmonious Mantras but one of the lousiest without. Note: “On-Heal” Runes will proc both when the mantra is charged AND a charge is spent.

Mantra of Distraction _”Obfuscate, Disorient, Confuse!” (30- 24s CD) – Dazes a foe and up to 4 targets in melee-range around the foe for 1 second. Excellent in a lockdown build and our best skill for interrupting an opponent and preventing stomps/rezzing. Since it is an instant cast, it makes a good defense while stunned.

—SIGNETS—
Mesmer signets can range from being incredibly useful to questionable at best. Signet of Illusions is great for Phantams builds, Signet of Inspiration is essential to add a strong boonsharing element to a build. The problem many people have with our signets is that you usually take them for either the passive OR the active. Rarely both. The exceptions to this are Signet of the Ether and Inspiration.

• Blurred Inscriptions ( Domination )1s Distortion & 1 condition cleansed on Signet use. Signets have a 20% recharge reduction.

• Blurred Inscriptions works well with Inspiring Distortion ( 1s party-wide Distortion when you distort. )

Signet of Inspiration (45- 36 sec CD) Passive- Every 10 secs grants 10s Aegis – 5s Fury – 20s Might – 3s Protection –5s Regeneration – 5s Retaliation – 10s Swiftness – 5s Vigor Active- Copies all boons onto nearby allies within 600 range. Great for adding a strong support element to any build.

Signet of Illusions (90- 72 sec CD) Passive- Illusions gain 50% HP. Active- Recharge all of your shatter skills.

Signet of Domination (45- 36 sec CD) Passive- +180 Condition Damage. Active- Inflict a 3 second stun on target within 1200 range.

Signet of Midnight (35- 28 sec CD) Passive 10% boon duration (10%? Really, Anet? -_-) Active Stunbreak & AoE 3s Blind within 360 range.

Signet of the Ether (35-28 sec CD) Passive Gain health per-active-clone every 3 seconds. Active Heal yourself (5,560 × .85 Healing Power) and refresh all phantasm recharges.

Since rewards and tiers are being revamped, how would ya’ll feel if we got new finishers based on how many hours put into a specific class and/or race?

For example…

• Mesmer Finisher ( Requires 1000 hours & 100 tourney matches played as Mesmer)
• Sylvari Finisher (Complete personal story as a Sylvari)

Something to reward players for their dedication for sticking with a particular class and race. This idea could be further expanded on with Class/Race-specific armor and weapons.

Thoughts?

I, personally, always loved playing a support role in MMOs. The Support playstyle generally involves focusing more on allies than enemies, and healing and buffing them against whatever enemies we come across. Its a rewarding playstyle that takes practice (in most cases), patience, and attention to both ally and enemy detail. In most games, support characters are rewarded for their hard work via loot bags, scoreboard notice, and the unending gratitude of their teammates.

In GW2, most support players are rewarded with little loot, a frustrating supporting experience (because everyone thinks you’re DPS if you’re not a Guardian or Engineer), and blame for not running “full Berserker like everyone else.” It’s not to say that there aren’t any rewards. There’s a cool little title “Combat Healer” that nobody really cares to notice, and if you’re putting out lots of heals in sPvP you’ll be greeted with “Chaos Archangel, Combat Medic!” which is honestly really effing cool… but not enough.

There are many people who come to Guild Wars 2 hoping to be able to play a viable support role. The “Holy Trinity” in this game has be turned into Damage / Control / Support with each category being either a primary, secondary, or tertiary aspect of any build. Aggressive playstyles are rewarded with more rewards while defensive playstyles gain … very little if not a tPvP bunker.

Here are some improvements I think would definitely help improve Support play in GW2. (Mind you, this is from a Mesmer perspective. I don’t have much experience with Healing Power’s influence on other classes besides Elementalist)

HEALING POWER
Healing Power is currently very underwhelming; why go Healing Power when you could easily spec Toughness or vitality for defense? To trait for high Healing Power one must sacrifice damage, and since healing power only effects the potency of heals (survivability) and Regeneration boon (Defensive Support) it makes a crappy defensive stat and a much more potent support statistic.

• Quicker Rezzing - When I started speccing for healing power, I assumed that I’d be resurrecting my allies from downed faster. I figured “Surely these green healing numbers of mine that are springing up over this poor fool’s corpse must be greater than the brute Zerker Warrior kneeling right next to me. I specced for healing!”. I was wrong of course, and I can’t help but wonder.. why?
  - I think that your revive speed should increase respective to your healing.
  500 Healing Power = 10%
  1000 Healing Power = 20%
  1500 Healing Power = 30%

• More Gear Choices - Givers Gear -while totally underwhelming and barely worth it- was a step in the right direction. More options, such as a Healing Power / Power / Precision set would open up new opportunities for support specs. Runes like Superior Runes of Altruism (please put in sPvP) /Water (please fix 6th rune bug) / Dwayna are great examples of how new support runes, sigils, and food could be implemented.

REWARDING SUPPORT PLAY
One of the best things about Guild Wars 2 is that you can find a reward for everything you’re interested in. People who like to farm, run dungeons, go full DPS, go full tank, WvW, sPvP, ect, can always find something that’ll reward them for their playstyle… except support. The biggest complaint about running support builds is the lack of reward for all the effort.

• Loot for Support Players - I don’t know the technical side of this, so forgive my ignorance, but there’s got to be some way to reward players who focus more on heals and boons for allies than trying to tag enemies.

- Healing allies for a certain amount of HP through a battle should earn bags/gold.
- Number of boons cast on allies should earn bags/gold.
- Peripheral damage done (Example: Granting someone Retaliation/Might) should earn bags/gold
- Rezzing downed allies should earn greater rewards.

If we could figure out a possible way to implement this into the reward system, there would be many happy healers.

• Should Have a Visual Indicator (Tag of sorts) - You can see a Commander anywhere on your map, which is hella important for WvW. Having an icon or glow or .. something that allows you to see the healers in a skirmish would save a lot of time and headache and help a lot with team coordination.

• Should earn achievements. - I wanted to make a thread about earning rewards in dungeons for different achievements. (Clearing a dungeon within a certain time / Clearing all the mobs / Never wiping / Healing a certain amount / Inflicting X amount of damage to a single boss in 5 seconds ) Achievements would make people WANT to explore a supportive role.

>>> SUPPORT – Mesmer support, besides our many ways to control the enemy, comes in the form of boons and healing. Because of our staff and Signet of Inspiration, boon support is our primary way of assisting allies while heals are a secondary, if not tertiary affair. Mesmer support tends to be enemy control first, damage second, boons third and finally, if needed, AoE healing. All of our support traits are in the INSPIRATION and CHAOS lines

-Illusionary Inspiration -Phantasms pulse 3s Regeneration every 3s. Cast Signet of Inspiration on phantasm summon.
-Medic’s Feedback -Create a feedback bubble while reviving an ally. 10% faster revive speed.
- Mental Defense Summon iDefender on dodge.
- Restorative Mantras -Heal allies when you charge a mantra.
- Temporal Enchanter – Grant Resistance & Super Speed to allies around Glamour casts.
- Inspiring Distortion – Grant 1s Distortion to allies when you Distort.
- Bountiful Disillusionment – Grant a boon on shatter. (Chaos)
- Chaotic Dampening – Grant Protection with Chaos Armor. (Chaos)

• Support Skills: Chaos Storm, Temporal Curtain, iWarden, iDefender, iMage, iDisenchanter, Signet of Inspiration, Null Field, Portal, Veil, Illusion of Life, Time Warp

>>>SURVIVABILITY- Mesmers naturally have a lot of ways to deal with physical damage at the cost of a weakness to Condition Damage. Though we’re a light armor class our weapons, shatters, and traits make us extraordinarily hard to kill… Just ask anyone who’s fought a Mesmer in PvP/WvW. The _CHAOS, INSPIRATION,
and DUELING lines has our most Survivability traits.

-Critical Infusion -Gain 5 seconds of vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds. (Dueling)
-Desperate Decoy- -Cloak and leave a clone of yourself behind at 25% health. (Dueling)
-Blurred Inscriptions -Activating a signet grants you 1 second of distortion and removes a condition. (Dueling)
-Deceptive Evasion -Create a clone at your current position when you dodge. (Dueling)
-Metaphysical Rejuvenation -Gain 10 seconds of regeneration when your health reaches 75% (30-second cooldown). (Chaos)
-* Illusionary Membrane* -Gain protection for 3 seconds when you gain regeneration. This effect can only occur once every 15 seconds. (Chaos)
- Descent into Madness -Create a chaos storm when you take falling damage. Take 50% less damage from falling. (Chaos)
-Illusionary Defense -3% reduced damage for each illusion you have in the world. (Chaos)
-Prismatic Understanding -Cloaking skills last 50% longer and you gain a random boon once every second while stealthed (protection, regeneration, swiftness, might or aegis). (Chaos XII)
-Mender’s Purity -Remove 2 conditions when you heal. (Inspiration)
-Restorative Illusions -Heal a small amount and remove a condition when you shatter illusions.

• Survivability Skills: Distortion [F4], Blurred Frenzy, Phase Retreat, Chaos Armor/Storm, Prestige, iDefender, Blink, Decoy, Mirror Images, Signet of Midnight, Mass Invisibility

—TRAITS—
Forging an effective build is not very hard as long as you do not overreach. Every build is a delicate balance between damage, support, and control and a Mesmer can specialize in any of these three aspects. Some traits, like Deceptive Evasion (Dueling X), seem like a must-have for all builds but never let let anyone trick you into believing that “In order to properly play Mesmer, you HAVE to have these traits.” That being said, there are some traits that are highly important for specific types of builds.

Shatter – Deceptive Evasion (Dueling), Mental Anguish (Domination)
Phantasm – Empowered Illusions (Domination) / Phantasmal Haste (Illusions X)
Condition – Crippling&Debilitating Dissipation (Domination&Chaos V) / Sharper Images (Dueling 15)
Lockdown – Shattered Concentration (Domination) / Power Block (Domination) / Chaotic Interruption (Chaos VIII)
Support – Warden’s Feedback (Inspiration VIII) / Bountiful Disillusionment (Chaos) / Illusionary Inspiration (Inspiration)

• Illusionists’ Celerity (Illusions) works along with “weapon cooldown” traits even if the timer does not show it.

• It is usually not a good idea to grab a trait for only one skill unless there are no better options(Ex: Manipulation cooldowns in a build that only has Blink)

DOMINATION:
The Domination line focuses on dealing damage and controlling enemies. It grants the most benefit to POWER builds, and almost all Shatter/Lockdown builds travel this route in PvP. PvE-wise, Blurred Inscriptions helps for party-wide protection during boss fights and 15% damage bonus to Phantasms helps immensely with personal DPS. If you want to add an element of oppressive force/control to your build, Domination is for you/

Weapon Cooldowns- Greatsword
Traits to AVOID – Rending Shatter (Has no use in any build that wouldn’t be better fit by the other options)
Adept: Illusion of Vulnerability – 3x Vulnerability for 5 seconds on Interrupt
Master: Dazzling – Dazing a foe applies 5x Vulnerability for 8 seconds.
Grandmaster: Fragility- 1.5% damage to Vulnerable foes.

—-

ADEPT

I) Confounding Suggestions – Stun % Daze durations increased by 25%. The next daze you inflict is a stun (5s ICD) An excellent trait PvP for a low cost. Synergizes with Runes of the Mesmer/Sigil of Paralysis to make lockdown builds extra lockdown-y. Works well in shatter builds too, (F3-stun-F1) especially if you’re grabbing Mental Anguish, but remember that not every CC you have is a daze (Only F3. Mantra of Distraction, and Chaos Storm/Magic Bullet).

II) Empowered Illusions – Illusions inflict 15% more damage- While useless for clones, this trait is a must for high damage Phantasm builds and PvE.

III) Rending Shatter -Shatters cause 1xVuln for 8 seconds per-clone-shattered. While not a bad trait, Rending Shatter tends to be.. not as good as anything else. Even a shatter build would better benefit from Confounding Suggestions.

MASTER

I) Blurred Inscriptions – Signets have a 20% reduced recharge. Activating a signet removes a condition and grants 1s Distortion If you’re grabbing at least two signets, consider picking up this trait. It helps make Signet of the Ether a more reasonable heal and can save you during boss fights where you simply cannot dodge or block. This skill works fantastically with Inspiring Distortion (Inspiration minor) to grant team-wide Distortion to allies.

II) Furious Interruption -Gain 3s Quickness per interrupt. (5s ICD). A strong interrupt trait that has the unfortunate misfortune of competing with Shattered Concentration. Quickness is a better boon for Greatsword (and Lost Time stacking) and Scepter, two weapons which rarely get paired together in one build. While it may be tempting to grab this for a full lockdown build, keep in mind that Shattered Concentration is a stronger form of lockdown.

III) Shattered Concentration -Shatter skills remove a boon per-clone-shattered. A must-have for PvP. It is one of the strongest forms of boon stripping in the game if you have Deceptive Evasion and even without it is very effective. This is a staple trait for PvP Mesmer, as boonstripping is one of the things Mesmers excel at over other classes. In PvE.. Meh.

GRANDMASTER

I) Imagined Burden -Greatsword skills cripple on hit/ Gain might when you or a clone uses Spacial Surge (auto) / 20% Greatsword reduction. If you love your greatsword, you’ll grab this trait. If not, you won’t. The might stacking synergizes with Sigil of Battle

II) Mental Anguish Shatter skills do 15% more damage. 30% against foes affected by a hard CC (Stun/daze/knockdown ect) Pretty straightfoward. Most shatter burstss start with F3(Daze) into F1(Damage) anyways, and this trait makes that shatter combo even more vicious when properly executed.

III) Power Block Deal damage and apply (5s) Weakness on Interrupt. Interrupted skills go on 15s CD This is the godfather of lockdown traits. Normal interrupted skills only go on kitten cooldown, with this whenever you interrupt someone the skill goes on 15s cooldown (brutal on heal) and makes them do less damage. In a power build, the damage tends to be around 2k per interrupt. This is near-mandatory if you’re grabbing Mantra of Distraction.

DUELING:
The Dueling line is a must-have for builds focusing on maximizing damage, both in PvE and PvP. Rather than passives, there are a lot of active traits here such as Evasive Mirror and Blinding Dissipation that reward quick reflexes and precise timing.
Weapon Cooldowns- Sword , Pistol

Adept: Critical Infusion – 5s Vigor on crit (10 second CD)
Master: Sharper Images – Illusions inflict 1xBleed on crit for 5 seconds.
Grandmaster: Master Fencer- Gain Fury for 5s when striking an enemy below 75% health.

—-

I) Desperate Decoy – Cloak for 3 seconds and leave a clone of yourself behind when struck by an attack at 50% health. (40-32 second CD) – Desperate Decoy automatically casts Decoy on you when you are struck below half health. A great addition to Prismatic Understanding builds but something to keep in mind in order to not accidentally Reveal yourself.

II) Duelist’s Discipline – Interrupting a skill reduces Pistol cooldowns by 25%. Pistol attacks from you and your illusions have a 33% chance to cause 2x Bleeding for 5s. This skill does very little for PvE and largescale WvW, but in solo encounters and smaller fights it synergizes with Mantra of Distraction and Power Block to make you a lockdown champion… provided you can land interupts.

III) Phantasmal Fury – Phantasms have Fury. Giving Phantasms an extra 20% crit chance is great for any build, especially since they don’t inherit your bonus from fury. (Fury increases crit chance, NOT Precision. )

MASTER

IV) Blinding Dissipation – Inflict 3s of AoE Blind in a 240 radius when you activate a shatter. Blinding Dissipation is one of our best defensive abilities when used properly and also makes for a good lockdown skill. Blind is a powerful condition, forcing enemies to completely miss their attacks and put their abilities on a full cooldown. Great for combatting melee-oriented classes like Thief, Guardian, and Warrior. In fact, it’s a NIGHTMARE for Thieves!

VI) Evasive Mirror – Gain a reflective barrier for 1.5s after successfully dodging an attack (1.5s CD). – This trait has the unfortunate placement of being right next to Blinding Dissipation. If Blinding Dissipation is an excellent melee defense, Evasive Mirror is it’s ranged counterpart. Keep in mind that this only procs AFTER you evade, so it works better against rapid fire skills like iDuelist or ranger’s Barrage. Anything that counts as an evade, such as Blurred Frenzy will proc this. (I swear proccing this with Blurred makes you feel like some sort of epic anime hero)

VII) Fencers Finesse – Gain a stacking Ferocity (Up to 5 stacks of 15 ferocity) buff for 6s with each sword strike from you or an illusion. Reduce Sword/Spear skills by 20% A must-have when going sword/sword, and a core damage boost in PvE dungeons. This ability doesn’t see much action in PvP due to having to compete with Blinding Dissipation but in PvE this is a staple trait.

GRANDMASTER
VIII) Deceptive Evasion – Create a clone at your current position when you dodge. Easily the most favored Mesmer trait. Deceptive Evasion is our best clone-production tool and the savior of struggling Mesmer everywhere. Clones produced by this trait have a nasty habit of running off and attacking random targets, but this can be useful for a multi-target Diversion shatter.

X) Harmonious Mantras – Mantras can be activated three times before needing to be channeled again. Gain a stacking damage buff (10s) when activating a Mantra. (5 stacks, 3% boost per stack) Mantras are pretty good on their own, and this trait simply makes them more effective. Not recommended if you’re going for rapid AoE healing via Restorative Mantras, and again a core trait for PvE dungeon Mesmer.

XI) Mistrust – Inflict 2x Confusion for 6s on Interrupt. (240r) _I’d like to be able to recommend this trait for condition-interrupt Mesmer, but I honestly cant. Useless in PvE and lackluster in WvW, this trait only has a chance in PvP, but honestly you could net more Confusion from a well-timed F2 shatter with Deceptive Evasion. Its aallmossst decent, but for now I’d avoid this trait until it sees a minor buff.

CHAOS:
The Chaos line features a lot of RNG-related traits. Offers a lot of options for gaining boons and is ideal for Support and Condition builds
Weapon Cooldowns- Staff
Most Valuable Traits: Prismatic Understanding / Chaotic Interruption / Bountiful Disillusionment / Chaotic Dampening / Master of Manipulation

Adept: Metaphysical Rejuvination – 10s Regeneration at 75% HP (15 second CD)
Master: Illusionary Membrane – 3s Protection when you gain Regeneration. (15 second CD)
Grandmaster: Chaotic Persistence- Gain 3% outgoing boon/condition duration for every boon on you.

—-

ADEPT

I) Descent into Madness – Create a chaos storm when you take falling damage. Take 50% less damage from falling. (40 second CD). _Useful for traveling around WvW and open world PvE. Not really useful for much else. Swap to it as needed but don’t keep it as a main trait. _

II) Illusionary Defense – 3% reduced damage for each illusion you have in the world.- A good skill when combined with other forms of damage-reduction and if you have a high rate of clone production.

III) Master of Manipulation – Manipulation skills have 20% shorter cooldowns & grant 1.5s reflection on cast.- Though you shouldn’t take a trait for one skill, I’d grab this for Blink alone.. but that’s a personal preference.

MASTER

IV) Chaotic Dampening – Chaos Armor grants 5s Protection. Staff skills recharge 2.5% faster when affected by Chaos Armor. _A great trait for staff users, and even decent if you’re running a couple wells (or glamours) without staff assuming there is someone to blast for you and you’re running sword – which, admittedly, is kind of rare. In most cases Ethereal fields aren’t desired as much as Fire/Water fields and you have to be careful not to overlap your AoEs ontop of others.

• Best used with Sword+x/Staff and atleast one additional Ethereal field.

V) Chaotic Transference – 10% of your toughness becomes condition damage. – A no-brainer for condition builds stacking the rabid amulet.

VI) Mirror of Anguish – When disabled (by stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch), you mirror the disable back to the source. (60 second CD).- A decent trait in it’s own right, this is an ability you tend to grab as an added bonus defense when you travel up the Chaos line for the grandmasters rather than something you actively seek out

GRANDMASTER

VII) Chaotic Interruption – 2s Immobilize your target when you interrupt them and randomly apply 3s blind, cripple, or chill. Gain 5x Might for 10s and either 5s Fury, Protection(3s), Regeneration, or Swiftness – Though it’s a bit redundant to have a cripple/chill at the same duration as the Immobilize, this trait offers great disruption on interrupts and is an alternative (or compliment) to Confounding Suggestions. In fact, this is easily one of the best lockdown traits available and can even work well in a supportive boonshare build (assuming you grab a Focus).

VIII) Prismatic Understanding – Cloaking skills last 50% longer and you gain either 3s Aegis, Protection, Might (5s), Swiftness (5s), or Regeneration once every second while stealthed. Another one of the greatest traits a Mesmer can choose from. Prismatic Understanding turns our stealths into incredible defensive abilities. In fact, this trait is one of the best traits you can take for solo roaming in WvW to take on multiple opponents at once.. And win!

IX) Bountiful Disillusionment – Gain 5s Stability & a boon on shatter: [F1] 15s 3x Might / [F2] 5s Vigors / [F3] 5s Fury / [F4] 10s Regeneration. This is an excellent trait for any build that needs on-demand stability, but it shines the most in boonshare. Vigor and Fury are otherwise hard to gain boons, and 15 seconds of 3x might can go a long way when paired with some boon duration and a traited greatsword.

INSPIRATION:
The Inspiration line holds all traits that could affect allies, making it integral for Support builds. It also holds most of our Phantasm-enhancing abilities.
Weapon Cooldowns- Focus (Warden’s Feedback),
Most Valuable Traits: Illusionary Inspiration, Mental Defense, Restorative Illusions, Warden’s Feedback
Adept: Mender’s Purity – Cleanse 2 conditions in an 240r AoE when you heal. (Casts the Mantra skill Power Cleanse – Affected by Mantra traits)
Master: Inspiring Distortion – Grant 1s Distortion in an 300r AoE when you gain Distortion (either through f4 or Blurred Inscriptions)
Grandmaster: Healing Prism – When healing yourself, nearby allies in a 300r are also healed 532(0.2). Gain 100 healing power for each illusion you control.

—-

I) Medic’s Feedback – Create a Feedback dome when reviving allies, you revive 10% faster. (10 sec recharge) A good trait, especially in WvW. You do not have to maintain the rezz inorder to maintain the Feedback. If someone is downed near you, simply tap them and the bubble will form, especially good when dead NPCs are nearby. This trait is affected by Temporal Enchanter, and shares the same internal cooldown as Feedback. Works wonders with Runes of Mercy.

II) Persisting Images – Phantasms have 20% more base health & spawn with 6s Retaliation.- A useful but not crucial trait, its especially good for the iDefender. This is one of those “eh.. nothing better to chose” kind of traits.

III) Restorative Mantras – Heal nearby allies within 600r when a Mantra is charged.- _This trait scales very oddly, and is rather lousy until around level 70. At lower levels, Regeneration actually heals better. At level 80, this skill heals for 2600 and scales by 0.2 Healing Power. (In fully +Healing Power gear, this trait heals for around 3000HP) It is our main source of AoE healing when used with Mantra of Pain and can be very strong in support builds. Restorative Mantras doesn’t make you a healer, it allows you to keep allies alive while their main heal is on cooldown.

MASTER

IV) Protected Phantasms – Phantasms gain 1s distortion briefly upon creation. Illusions gain 2s protection when you activate a shatter skill. – This is a decent trait, but is more geared towards largescale WvW combat where summoning a phantasm into a zerg usually ends up with it being… well.. deleted on arrival.

V) Restorative Illusions – Heal a small amount when you shatter illusions. Lose a condition when activating a shatter- This trait is an excellent form of sustain, especially when paired with Deceptive Evasion, Chronophantasma, and Illusionary Reversion for clone production. One of our best survivability/defensive traits, it is one of the reasons people travel into the Inspiration line.

• No Clone = 872(0.2)
• 1 Clone(1124) = 1,064
• 2 Clones(1316) = 1,256
• 3 Clones(1508) = 1,448

VI) Warden’s Feedback – Focus skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge of Focus skills by 20%.- Besides Feedback, this is our greatest form of projectile reflection. It’s worth noting that there are some projectiles that cannot be reflected but can still be destroyed by an untraited iWarden.

GRANDMASTER

VII) Illusionary Inspiration - Phantasms grant 3s regeneration in a 240 radius to nearby allies. Whenever you summon a phantasm, copy all boons to nearby allies in a 600r(cast Signet of Inspiration.)- This is an excellent grandmaster to take if you’ve also invested into the Chaos line, or are in a semi-organized group (with Fire fields and blast finishers and all). Like the skill itself, this trait has a 30 second cooldown. This trait is good to help maintain constant boon stacks in a dungeon, and is a staple for boonshare support builds, allowing you to double up on your boonsharing.

• Be careful to not accidentally use this trait by beginning a battle with a Phantasm summon.
• Affected by Signet traits.

XI) Mental Defense - Cast Phantasmal Defender on your attacker when you successfully block or evade an attack. Good for small groups and more defensive builds. You can use this trait combined with it’s corresponding utility skill and Signet of the Ether to quickly summon 3 Defenders (with Chronomancers able to keep one in reserve)

• Affected by Illusion traits.

XII) Temporal Enchanter - Glamour skills last 2s longer. When you cast a glamour, allies near the glamour gain 3s resistance and superspeed. _A largely underexplored trait that doesn’t see much use in PvE, is outclassed by it’s competitors in PvP, and is outshined by Chronomancer wells in WvW. Alas, poor Temporal Enchanter is a great concept

ILLUSIONS: +10 Condition Damage / -1% Shatter Cooldowns.
The Illusions line offers something for every type of build, but specializes in Shatter effectiveness.
Most Valuable Traits: Compounding Power, Illusionary Elasticity, Illusionary Haste, Illusionary Persona
Adept: Illusionary Retribution – All Shatter skills also inflict 1x Confusion for 3 seconds
Master: Shattered Strength – Shattering illusions grants you 1x Might per illusion for 10 seconds (iPersona not included).
Grandmaster: Illusionists Celerity – Illusion-summoning skills recharge 20% faster.

---

I) Precise Wrack – 10% higher crit chance with Mind Wrack- Practically exclusively useful only for power builds heavily reliant on Shatters for damage.

II) Confusing Cry – Cry of Frustration grants 5s Retaliation per illusion.- Our best way of maintaining a near permanent Retaliation

III) Compounding Power – 3% more damage for each of your active illusions.- An excellent trait for builds looking to maximize their damage, requires Deceptive Evasion to remain effective.
IV) Masterful Reflection – Distortion grants Reflection – Nifty, but there aren’t many situations where you’d prefer this over other options.

V) Master of Misdirection – Confusion inflicted lasts 33% longer.- Since Confusion isn’t very good in PvE due to the slow nature of NPC attacks, this trait is better for condition builds in sPvP/WvW
VI) Illusionary Invigoration – Recharge all of your shatter skills at 50% health (90 second CD). – A great trait for Shatter builds, the 90 second cooldown should be no deterrent, as it’s actually not so bad.

VII) Illusionary Elasticity – Bouncing attacks have an additional bounce. – This skill affects staff clones, and is a big boost to Staff’s autoattack DPS. This skill also effects Mirror Blade (Greatsword) / Magic Bullet (Pistol) / iMage (Torch) / Siren’s Call (Trident)

VIII) Dazzling Glamours – Glamour skills Blind foes for 3s at target location.- Only affects Glamours cast ontop of an enemy, and not enemies walking into/out of the field.

IX) Blinding Befuddlement -Cause 1x Confusion for 4 seconds when you Blind a foe (5 second CD)- The cooldown makes this skill worthless for stacking Confusion. Way to go, Anet.
X) Phantasmal Haste – Phantasms attack at a faster rate- Though the tooltip says 20% faster, that’s simply not true Here’s the truth!

XI) Illusionary Persona – Shattering illusions creates the shatter effect on you as well. – A must-have for Shatter builds, this trait improves both offense and defense considerably. iPersona is especially great because it allows you to use your defensive shatters (Diversion/Distortion) instantly without needing a clone.

XII) Imbued Diversion – Diversion hits up to 5 targets in a large area.- Turning Diversion into an AoE is great for Lockdown builds. The trait would be even better if it didn’t have to compete with iPersona, which is also great for Lockdown builds… and nearly every other build.

XIII) Maim the Disillusioned – Shatters also inflict 1x Torment for 4s. _Besides Power Block, this is the one new Grandmaster trait that actually shows potential. While it hasn’t been explored too much, and opinions vary, there have been somewhat-successful condition-shatter builds created with this (in PvP). _

What’s this month’s flavor of the month? Feed your opponents some Mesmer love from the class that went from suffering months of underpoweredness, nerfs, and silly bugs to absolutely crushing the competition!

INGREDIENTS

• Greatsword (Add one cup of style to match mesmer standards)
• Dueling Line (Clones and Perma Fury ftw)
• Fire/Air Runes (Because there is no such thing as overkill when it comes to delicious)
• Blink or Decoy (Or both!)
• Zerker Amulet (Marauder can work)

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS

• Domination Line (Confounding Suggestions + Powerblock to ensure the opponent not just eats it, but eats it all.) & Mantra of Distraction
• /laugh (Necessary for proper amounts of salt)

DIRECTIONS

1) Produce a clean, glamourous greatsword (sunrise is a common preference, maybe a bit too common.)

• Note. Take the time out to admire how funny “glamourous” is spelled. Something about spelling ‘ou’ twice in one word is tickling.

2) Find a hungry opponent, preferably one unaware to your presence. ( Stealth helps. To add a slice of cheese with the salt, grab the Prismatic Understanding trait. )

3) Cast Mirror Blade (GS2) @ close range or teleport to opponent while casting. Cast Mind Spike (GS3) immediately after GS2.

• Find some time to throw in a dodge clone in the mix. Jump-dodging takes longer and is not recommended.

4) F1 (Mind Wrack) Shatter for an explosion of flavor!

OPTIONAL STEPS

5) Cast Mantra of Distraction’s Power Lock to stun the opponent before hand, if you’re doing this correctly, the 1s stun should be just enough time for a 0-100 burst on most opponents.

6) If opponent isn’t dead, they’ll likely be on the defensive. Save an interrupt for when they try to heal and finish them.

7) Stir thoroughly in a clockwise motion with Phantasmal Berserker (GS4)

SAMPLE BUILD

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8flknhG1YZawGNwtGLnGE6Y6+3JDwCWeZGae4A-TZBFABCcFAEvMwCHEgW2fAgHAAA

DOMINATION: II, IV, VIII
DUELING: II, IV, IX
ILLUSIONS: I, IV, VII *

• = Last tree is optional.

While I try to make light of the situation, this is actually a bit of a problem (depending on who you’re speaking with). Right now Mesmers are capable of near-to-instant death setups that are just massacring people and rapidly tearing down the “high-skill” quality of the class.

And yes, Anet specifically stated that they want Mesmer to be a high skill – high reward class.

As it is now, there is an army of FoTM (flavor of the month) Mesmer making us all look like scrubs, and the above-mentioned method is exactly how they’re doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy as anyone with the improvements that Mesmer has received, but there are a few key things here that do need to be addressed:

• Blinding Dissipation completely unavoidable, even through blocks and dodges.
• The combination of confounding’s instant stun and Mesmer’s massive damage spikes/stealth leaving next to no counterplay. (Just dodge/evade doesn’t count when you’re not facing a 1v1. Often the Mes will burst you out of stealth before you ever knew they were there and with more damage than a thief can put out.. and AOE at that!)

Now here’s the thing.. Mesmer as a whole is not OP. There are a few very specific things that are pushing our Shatter and Lockdown builds into OPness, but the class as a whole is in a very good place IMO. Chaos & Inspiration are fantastic trees, Illusions needs some improvement but isn’t terrible, and Mesmer is currently better than it has been in GW2 history (with the exception of the beta.. but that doesn’t count. =P)

VIDEOS

Vashury demonstrates this perfectly, however do not expect to go from day one Mesmer to .. this!

Man, I wish the people I know IRL could get the ball rolling so fast when an awesome new idea pops up.. Ah well, in any event:

Hey guys, I figured we should start putting our heads together and tossing ideas around for future events. And I wanted to highlight a couple things to note:

• This is not my guild, Pyro’s guild, or anyone else’s. This guild belongs to all of us on the forums equally. There are no leaders and no one is higher ranked than anyone else regardless of title.

• That being said, if you have any sort of idea or request you’d like to post (such as a build you’d like the Testers to take for a spin) simply put “[OMFG]” in front of the thread title.

• Don’t be afraid to PM each other with questions or to fill up dungeon slots or whatever. We’re all here to help.

It’s really great that there’s been a whole world of support for the guild, even people who don’t even post on the forums are signing up! I figured we may as well get the ball rolling by tossing around some ideas for the future. Some of the things already mentioned was ..

- Mesmer Fight Club: I’m going to be purchasing a Custom Server for guild use. If anyone is interested in setting up bi-weekly sPvP tournaments/training sessions then please voice your opinion in the comments. (9-11-13: Currently planning Stunlock Warrior & possibly Necro/Thief training sessions… again)

- Dungeon Runs: I’d like to come up with a way for people LFG to easily be able to connect with eachother, as well as have some of the instructors hold sessions to show where Mesmers fit in bests in specific dungeons. (Like how to do a CoF speed run, the best places to bring reflects, ect.)

- Monthly Jumping Puzzle Contests?: We do this from time to time in my current guild, always lots of fun.

- Build-Of-The-Month: Was awesome the first time, and now will be awesome again in November.

- Mesmer Costume Contest (Go ahead.. Click the link, it wont bite.)
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CURRENT EVENTS

• Mesmer Fight Club (Weekends)
• Jumping Puzzle Race (Once a month)
• SUNDAYS – Repping day. (Not required, but highly encouraged for Mesmer shenanigans)