Guild Wars 2

I was saving up skill point scrolls to grab this, as my mesmer is still only 28, but then I realized it could actually be a horrible skill. Before I work any closer to this, how is this skill for a PvE mesmer?

Thanks.

The short of it is, I’m looking for tips on how to play mesmer effectively in PvE.

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since release, and I’ve dabbled in every class at low levels. I do say low levels because I have a horrible habit of making alt after alt after alt. I have 9 character slots and 2 of those are over 50, and only 1 beyond that over 30. I’ve run the Maw so many times it was a little funny about two years ago.

However, since I play mostly at the lower levels, I’m afraid I’m not getting into the details for some of the classes. At level 10 I can run up and smack most things without too much of a thought. For example, I’ve never paid any attention to signets aside from what was already on a weapon or armor bit, and I’ve no idea how one acquires ascended gear.

So, after that largely pointless background information, I’m wondering if someone could give me some basic to intermediate tips on playing mesmer. I don’t need to know the absolute perfect build for fighting a thief 1v1 in WvW. I would like to know when I should shatter, if clones are useless vs phantasms, and some basic survival stuff.

About my mesmer:
- I normally run a dual sword set up with a staff backup. I’ll admit I don’t switch to the staff often enough in a fight.
- I have no idea what trait set up I had before the patch, and I’m only level 22 now so…yeah..

What I want out of my mesmer:
- I loathe dying. Really truly hate it, even against normal mobs. I do alright against 1 normal mob with my dual sword set up, but many mobs or some tougher than normal and I’m in a bit of trouble. I know I probably won’t reach ranger level of survivability, but this is the main issue I have.
- I’d like to know how to better work the clones or, and I’m not sure it is not possible, remove them from my build. Against a normal mob they seem useless because they don’t have enough time to do anything before the mob dies, and against tough or multiple mobs they don’t seem to do enough, or die too quickly.

Then it sounds like I was doing stuff horribly wrong in trying to use skills to be an evasion tank rather than just getting out of the way.

I’m going to give it a shot with GS/Staff combo, because right now I just want these enemies to stay the hell away from me.

Thanks for the tips.

I’m really trying to enjoy Mesmer, but so far it hasn’t been easy, and I’m looking for some tips on how to survive better in normal PvE.

I’m at 20, using two swords and wearing the level 20 “embroidered” green set of armor. My skills are…
Ether Feast for healing.
Decoy
Portal
Phantasmal Defender

I can take one mob generally alright, unless they get me with a condition and then normally one will take me to half HP. (Thinking of burning here.)

If there is more than one mob, I’m pretty much screwed, since my only real hope is to kill everything before I use all of my skills. The part of the fight that involves me just standing around with my Blurred Frenzy and counter on cool down I just get torn into and the mobs can kill me in a few seconds. Honestly, Decoy doesn’t seem to help much because it’s not enough time to get away and the illusion doesn’t last long enough to really keep the mobs attention.

I know I should be switching to another weapon, but what? I don’t see much of anything else that’s defensive. Is Mesmer PvE really a glass cannon race to kill the other guy first or am I doing something seriously wrong?

I really hope I’m doing something very wrong.