Guild Wars 2

Interesting build you guys got there. It looks like a solid build, just not to my play-style.

The main difference in the two builds I see is that yours uses manipulation reflects + OH sword instead of the traited focus and is a bit more offensive and shatter focused. Everything else looks pretty similar. I can’t really argue with it except to say I prefer my traited focus and cele stats more ^.^

I think cele mesmer works just fine even without might stacks, escpecially when coupled with reflects. Staff as a weapon works fantastic with cele stats as it has ample condi damage, warlock does great physical damage, and it has great survivability. No stat goes to waste in my build and I love how the weapon and stat combo meshes. I’ve dueled multiple cele engis and cele ele’s with my build and it always ends in a tie, so it can definitely compete with other cele builds, we just never die…

I was very upset to find the targeting change to Feedback, I was getting good at aiming it without a target too. I would say revert the change or do as the op said and cast over the mesmer. Heck it would even fall inline with the Medic’s Feedback trait that way…

Thanks for the feedback!

The damage is a bit low but thus is the nature of most cele builds. I would agree that damage is the weak point in this build.

I would argue however that high reflection uptime is crazy strong and definitely worth it. A well timed reflect can take out half of my opponents health while also protecting the team and I.

Taking Illusions in-place of Chaos like you said might work. I hesitate to turn the build into a shatter build though, Shattering the illusions for a few torment stacks on the enemy sounds great but then you have to take into account the damage they could have done if they weren’t shattered. A lucky Winds of chaos from a clone can deal 400-800 bleed damage (not including sharper images) compared to 250-500 torment damage + any potential confusion procs.

Chaos gives me almost perma protection, plenty of regen and 3% reduced damage per illusion, that’s nothing to scoff at. PU would work fine with a torch but I refuse to get rid of the utility of the focus. Without the torch, PU would be lackluster imo. With Chaotic Interruption, a well placed chaos storm can give a quick 10-15 stacks of might. Focus #4, f3 and staff #5 are all potential interrupts, I don’t think this trait is wasted.

I will look into Countless’ build, I haven’t played around with any signet builds yet, let alone a cele signet build<3

tldr: Here’s the build tell me what you think.

I posted a cele mesmer build a while ago (old post) and just came back to see how the new traits changed my build. The gist of the build was maxing out mantra of restoration to have 3 instant heals/condi removals. With the new traits mantra of restoration isn’t even needed. I lost the main focus of my build but with a few tweaks it plays similar and is just as effective.

If done correctly the build has 100% reflection uptime, near 100% chaos armor/protection uptime and can shrug off most conditions with the new Temporal Enchanter trait. Illusionary Elasticity base is really strong and makes up for the lack of clone death traits.

I win most every 1v1 with the build, it has great group support and makes a good bunker. I use the build in pvp and wvw both and can fulfill multiple roles. The build lacks the burst the other mesmer builds have but the damage isn’t bad.

Give it a whirl and tell me what you think. I’ll take any questions, critiques and/or suggestions

I’m assuming you are focusing on dungeon builds and if so you should read the stickied mesmer dungeon guide on the forums here, it will really help new mesmers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-How-To-Mesmer-in-Dungeons

To be fair here, if we were one of the last prof’s revealed we would still have a thread up about how little they care about us. Lets be happy we have what we have.

If anything I’m glad they are taking time on our specialization and not rushing it through.

Edit: “They” being anet.

Y’know the lag is bad when…

You quickly hop on very important siege for the defense of the tower and everyone in it. No abilities activate, you toggle to leave siege and remain in siege for a few extra minutes until the servers decide you can leave, wasting a vital role in the defense of everyone’s lives.

While running back to camp for supply, you instantly die. While asking party what happened, 40 red names appear above your body.

On a suicide run to disable- swifness is up, stealth activated, you begin switching to siege disabler now…que rubberbanding back in tower.

As mesmer you successfully disengage from the zerg battle, you run to the perfect hiding spot, the keep is captured and you wait. you move camera around the corner and see no red names…then die from fall damage.

Similar problems as poster before me. I quit playing around september from all the lag and came back around jan it seemed to be fixed. Lag came back for me with stab update, I’ll have to take a gw2 break again. My connection isn’t great but I do just fine, with the extra lag it’s unplayable. I’m NA btw.

I love the game but anet needs to be more open about this problem and/or fix it. It’s a very big issue that has gone on way too long.

I have a really cool idea for a necro shout

“Fear Me!”

Induce fear in your foes.

This would fit necro so good! But seriously I found this thread way funnier than I should have.

I could see offensive shouts become a thing for necro.

I think we might expect a utility type more specific to a single class though. No other class has wells but necro, I think something like spirits or mantra’s could be possible. Maybe we could expect some odd things like ranger’s survival, or thief deception utilities. Stealth necro ftw :o

The healing from unholy sanctuary even with a load of healing power is near useless. I use the trait for the free ds pop after a lethal blow. With the build I should always have some LF in the bar and I can usually stay in ds for a good while. The only thing is that it’s hard to come out of ds with only ~3% health but a well timed fear before leaving ds should give enough time to get a heal off and put me back in the game. It’s almost an extra life which is really nice in 1v1’s and helps me defend a point that much longer in 1vx’s.

The other 5 points in death magic aren’t bad either and the last minor trait in the line gives a significant damage boost giving life blast an extra ~7% damage with zerker and ~11% extra damage with sentinel. So I’m not sure I’m wasting traits or stats but it’s really hard for me to give up foot in the grave or 50% crit chance…

The weakness on crits is really nice but the 20s cd always turns me away, I would probably swap it out for spectral attunement but I’ll have to try the build out first.

I love playing bunker necro and I just started using a build very similar to the op’s:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAodWjc00abtNG3wfbChhS6UoDO3IDgIgyuoJA-TJxHwAc2fwwpAAwTAQZZAA

I’ll explain my build with the op’s in mind-

STATS
I’m using zerker amulet for the extra damage which allows me to carry pug groups a bit better and ds absorbs so much I don’t need too much survivability.

If I was going to transition into a dedicated pvp group or wvw I would definitely use sentinel stats. I’ve run the numbers and with deadly strength (5 pts in death magic) and a sharpening stone in wvw sentinel actually does comparable damage to full zerker in ds at least.

WEAPONS
As for weapons, dagger does crazy damage and with the ample amount of chill with the occasional pull, dagger does really well, not that I’m outside of ds very long. Axe works great as well but I think dagger fits my playstyle more. I love staff too much to swap it out for anything else, the cc it brings is really hard to pass up and the 1200 range is nice.

UTILITIES
Sarmor and Swalk are kind of staple utils, I like Sgrasp instead of Swall because it brings enemies into dagger range for a quick combo and when coupled with focus 4 I can fill 50% of the ds bar in 2 secs.

Swall protection isn’t needed imo, 2x Sarmor gives 28s of protection with 5s protection on earth rune proc is near 32s of protection with a 40s cd. I don’t think the extra protection is needed and Sgrasp gives 22% life force compared to 5% from Swall.

TRAITS
Reapers protection trait to help with cc, shrouded removal could probably swap with dark armor, I haven’t tried dark armor much. It’s hard to choose between 6 points in death magic vs soul reaping but I think, for my set-up at least, unholy sanctuary helps a bit more.
———————————
I haven’t played with the build too much, like I said I just started using it. I’ve won quite a few 1v2’s easy enough and I can bunker against a large group for a decent amount of time even with zerker stats. I think the op is on to something

Mesmer and necro are my 2 fav profs. You could make any argument you wanted with the format you have, such as follows:

Compare necro axe skills to mesmer main-hand sword skills.
-Both auto attacks apply vulnerability, but one is melee and one is ranged.
-2 skill is a 2.5 second channel that deals comparable amounts of damage, except that necro’s is much easier to land due to it’s range.
-Oh and the 3 skill for necro is AOE, strips boons and cripples foes while providing the necro with retaliation weird…

I understand your frustration and I’m not saying my above comparison is true but your argument doesn’t work. These are two different profs with different sets of tools. They work in different ways even though there are many similarities between the two. The arguments you’re trying to make is like trying to argue that apples are better than oranges.

Necro as a profession has a lot of tools that mesmers could only hope for. Embrace our differences

There was a time in my mesmer career that I would swap weapons in wvw for every situation. Pistol for 1v1’s, focus to get around, torch to hide and for survivability in large fights. I was a die hard gs mesmer for a while but now i like staff a bit better and still use gs from time to time. I always use MH sword so the only weapons I don’t use much are scepter but that’s because I don’t use a whole lot of condi builds and OH sword but, like scepter, it works great in it’s own builds. I still keep most mesmer weapons in my bag for certain situations even though I stick to my favorites now (sw/f+Staff).

tldr: Play with whatever weapons you want!

I’m happy you guys are enjoying the build

BI is lots of fun especially with chaos storm and I definitely looked at it for might stacks but I really wanted 5 points in inspiration for 15% phant damage and I can’t get both so I went with the full 2 points in Inspiration instead of Chaos. I think BI really shines in bigger fights when you can easily get 15+ might stacks. In pvp and other small scale fights I like 15% phant damage with the extra mantra heal that comes with it better.

@William Bradley Knight: Don’t hesitate one bit, I’ll take any bit of advice and/or questions I can get, idc about skill level. It’s kind of personal preference but I don’t like having to constantly charge mantras I don’t mind 2 mantras on the bar but I don’t think they have an ability worth a 2.75s charge imo.

I’ve actually experimented with mantra of distraction a bit with the build. It was fun and I could really lock someone down if played correctly but with [f3], focus pull, and chaos storm on staff I feel I have enough interrupts that unless I wanted to run an interrupt build (which might not be a bad idea with BI) I have all I need. I actually had someone curse me out in pvp because I locked him down (without MoD) with well timed interrupts. He called me out in chat for using an interrupt build. I replied with a smiley face and moved on.

Mantra of pain would probably be my best bet if I were to put another mantra on my bar but I’m still not sure the damage it puts out is worth the charging time. The extra healing would most likely make up for any inconveniences from the charge of the mantra and MoP has the shortest cd for that, so I don’t think it’s a bad option at all. If it fits your play-style better than Pdefender go for it!

Thanks for the feedback!

I use phantasmal defender in this build mainly because I didn’t have anything else I really needed in that slot, the build works just fine without him. I love null field but I don’t need more condi cleanse in the build, I don’t really need anything from the other mantras and charging another mantra would be annoying and open me up for more damage but it would probably work fine especially with restorative mantras. Signet of illusions is nice but I find phantasmal defender defends me AND my other phants plenty.

I understand the distaste toward the defender but it’s not that bad at all. The amount of damage he can mitigate is astounding. As for his survival, a well placed chaos storm on my phants for some aegis can keep phantasmal defender on his feet and if I get a water rune proc on one of my heals it also heals phants near me, giving phantasmal defender quite a bit of survivability not to mention all the projectiles my reflects keep off him.

Phantasmal defender is very strong 1v1. Outside of 1v1’s he loses effectiveness and I usually swap him out for other needed utilities like portal or veil for w/e group I’m running with. Blink is actually a good alternative to Pdefender imo if you wanted to try it out.

In regard to Confusing Cry, the build has enough retaliation with Vengeful Images that Confusing Cry isn’t needed and wouldn’t be worth giving anything up for it. However, Illusionary Retribution that comes with Confusing Cry actually isn’t that bad in this build if you go that direction, I still don’t think it’s worth trading anything for in the builds current state but worth considering maybe.

Thanks for the link skcamow. Very similar builds indeed, I like that. My usual rotation is sw/f 5>3>3>2 to engage then swap to staff 5>2>3 to disengage. It’s fun looking at the differences in the builds though, it’s as if I swapped out mantra of pain for debilitating dissipation (for damage) and illusionary defense for phantasmal defender (for defense) practically making it the same build with the main difference being more damage from pistol and pirate runes on icy’s build and more defense with focus and water runes on mine ^.^

I really like shield aesthetically but I’m not planning on using it alongside my other OH’s. All I have to say is that it better have some nice new class mechanics and trait line to go with it and even then I don’t plan on using it.

To be realistic though, there are only so many 2-handed weps out there that they can’t give each prof a new 2 handed weapon each expansion. Someone’s going to draw the short end of the stick and tbh I don’t mind it too much.

We’ll crush the other profs and their shiny new weapons with or without our shield!

Same here. This is the same kind of disconnects/desyncs I would get a few months ago which is why I stopped playing for a long while. I sure hope it hasn’t snuck it’s way back in.

How often do you look at it?

I love statistics and I’ll happily take all that I can get. The death breakdown we are provided in pvp is fantastic but I seldom look at it as I’m usually too engrossed in the match to care why I died. I feel that after making the death breakdown a click-able action instead of popping up in your face, it has been forgotton.

It’s such a great tool that I’m wondering if there could be a better way to promote it. Perhaps we could incorporate it into pve and wvw, or allow us to see each death breakdown after the match to look back on what happened?

It’s a great tool I’d love to see it used more. As it is now, it kind of feels like wasted code

Drakortha.6974:

conquest point zerging is bad enough without mesmers thrown into the mix. It’s simply way too much on the screen for most players to keep up with including myself and it renders the entire fight useless….

Lets take a walk down memory lane for a moment- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SS0Ksz7RIs

But honestly, your only reasoning for removing mesmer from pvp is that you don’t like fighting them.

How about nerf ranger lb #3! It’s so hard for me to re-target the ranger after it goes stealth! I can’t even tab target to find him, I always get the stupid pet instead! pls remove ranger with it’s ridiculously easy/spammy mechanics and AI!

It was fun to read, I had lots of laughs but these kind of threads get old…

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been putting some pvp clips together. I updated the OP with the video, thanks for the video guides Ross Biddle. Nothing too impressive, I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get better fights but you can see how the build handles itself.

As for lack of damage, I haven’t messed around with runes too much but the build doesn’t require any specific rune to work. Play around with w/e rune you want, I played with runes of the ranger for a bit (before they nerffed it I guess) and the damage increase was noticeable but so was the loss in survivability from water runes. Pack runes are really strong and I’m sure they would do just fine in this build.

In wvw I plan on using runes of the defender for the aegis, I think it’ll be really fun to play around with but water runes are cheap and get the job done. I also use a mix of cele and zerker stats in wvw and often swap out staff for gs in zerg fights. Feel free to make changes to the build how you see fit, it’s very flexible as it isn’t reliant on any one stat or rune configuration.

I love the charr and I love mesmer, so naturally I would encourage everyone else to play…..what they love. Even if charr mesmer is best mesmer.

If you’re concerned with utilities charr utilities are near worthless. I love the charr elites though, I use warband support (extra fun with mesmer cuz it looks like you have 5 clones) for taking wvw camps and artillery barrage to take out tricky siege placement on walls. Asura have some good utilites for mesmers such as an instant daze and some condi on their utilities including poison which mesmers don’t have much of and confusion.

As for hiding in keeps I always bring a quaggan tonic with me on my charr mes.

Thank you for the replies. Wall of text inc.

I find it interesting icy runs a similar build. I love focus too much to give it up for a pistol despite how strong pistol is in 1v1’s. I could fill the rest of my post with how much I love the focus but if I’m in a 1v1 and there’s nothing my opponent has that’s worth reflecting pistol would be better. I would hate giving up DE though o.o

Illusionary Defense is really strong, I actually haven’t tried it much in my build though tbh. I have so much sustain that I really focused on increasing my damage with the 2 points in chaos. I’ve swapped those 2 points around a lot and I couldn’t decide if I wanted them in domination for the extra illusion damage or not. In the end I found that condi on clone deaths puts much more pressure on my opponent than 15% illusion damage and gives more survival with the regen in chaos than I would get in domination.

As for Restorative Mantras, I pondered over that as well. Originally I had persisting images in it’s place for the extra phant health. I really liked persisting images in my phantasm builds and it was hard for me to transition out of it. In testing there were many times my phants would get an extra attack off with a sliver of health thanks to 20% extra health and I would always keep note of that. I decided the situations where my phants survived my opponents attacks I probably could’ve won anyway without the extra health on my phants.

Through testing restorative mantras, 2.7k healing is nothing to scoff at especially when it’s aoe. This heals phants and teammates as well and although it’s kind of clutch and I almost never use it to heal allies, it wins fights for me. 2.75s cast for the mantra is grueling and in situations where I need a heal as fast as I can get it, restorative mantras provides just enough health to get the job done. The thing I regret is not having more mantras on my bar to really capitalize on the trait but there really isn’t a need for another one…

I’ll see if I can get some footage of the build by the end of the week.

I’ve gotten a lot of pm’s about my build in pvp, so I thought I’d throw the build up here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8dl0npStNqxVNcrNyqxYqWO9SBdUp3I7AA-TJRHwAA3fAwFBQwTA4YZAA

The easiest way for me to describe the build is a reflect build with cele stats. I use reflects in place of might stacks in a traditional cele build for the extra damage.

I find it to be a great 1v1 build with good group support. I’m very tanky and do enough damage, even without reflects, to deplete my opponents health eventually. Well timed reflects can end fights in seconds. I may not always win fast like every other mesmer build but I win in the end. I made the build for wvw but I really enjoy playing it in pvp as well. Although it’s not the most competitive build out there, I have had a lot of success with it and a lot of rage thrown at me. I’ll take any questions, suggestions and/or critiques you guys have

(edit) Heres some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3vP3Mqmmk

I get 200+ ping during pvp matches, while in the lobby my ping is great. If anything it should be the other way around. Why is it when I’m in a 5v5 pvp game I have lag like I’m playing in a zerg vs zerg battle?

This can’t be on my end, is anyone else having this issue?

One of the many things I love about mesmer is versatility in the weapons. I find it hard to put these weapons in a specific role as they can all fulfill a purpose in both power based builds and condi based builds.

I use staff in a power build and love it even though the condi’s from the AA aren’t as strong as they could be, my phantasm hits like a truck and the staff gives me much needed survivability. Staff also works great in condi builds with the clones spamming condi’s everywhere of course.

I see torch used in more power based builds than condi builds tbh, the stealth it provides gives an immense amount of survivability to glass cannons. Although the phantasm it spawns is much more condi based.

I always found focus to be more of a power based weapon with the phantasm, but with high precision it crits very often and can load the enemy with bleeds. Stats shouldn’t matter too much though, most people use focus for the reflects and pull.

Imo Scepter shines in condi based builds, I have trouble fitting it in with my power builds but I’ve come across other mesmers who absolutely love scepter in power builds.

I’m not sure this is so much a bug but a latency issue. I play GW2 with a poor connection and most cc’s applied to me port me around like crazy while the server tries to decide where I should have ended up. This is very annoying on both ends, I’m not sure there’s much Anet can do about my connection though…

Wait, let me get this right. You made a charr mesmer and you’re thinking of changing race?! Charr mesmer is best mesmer. Warband Support is also a really fun elite to play with all 3 illusions up.

Imo every charr mesmer looks good and Tyria needs more of them, but here’s mine…

Yes, I am mainly looking at my wvw gear. Although I’ve tested just about every amulet in pvp with my build to find the stats I want and to imagine how the build would feel but it’s hard with the restriction to set amulet stats. The cele amulet works best for me although the damage isn’t quite as high as I want it.

I agree with healing power being very lackluster in most every mesmer build but I can’t seem to agree on what stats I want to capitalize on most, which keeps leading me to cele armor despite the wasted healing power.

My plan is to mix cele and zerker stats into my gear. I feel like if I mixed in stats other than cele I would miss out on some very needed stats. My original feeling was to go with soldiers for more survivability but the lack of precision and ferocity kills my damage and staff AA with no condi damage is near useless to me.

I just haven’t heard of mesmers using cele armor, is it really that uncommon? I think cele armor would fit in with more mesmer builds than we think.

Hello fellow mesmers!

I’ve been messing around with my mesmer build and I was thinking of using cele armor. I haven’t seen many mesmers (if any) running around with cele armor and I’m wondering what your thoughts are on a cele build for a mesmer…

I’ve been playing with my own zerker staff phantasm build for a while and I wanted to up my sruvivability a bit. Staff makes a good condi weapon with AA on clones and a decent power weapon with the phant. The Sharper Images trait also gives good condi damage even with power builds. I figured the added condi damage could make up for the loss in power and that the celestial stats would give me all the survivability I need.

Am I crazy for using cele armor on my mesmer?

Ps: cele ele and cele engi both conveniently rhyme, what could you call a celestial mesmer?

I agree with most of Fay’s points. I have leveled a mesmer to 80 in pve before and I felt very underwhelming and slow until I got to around 60. I haven’t tried to lvl in pve since the “overhaul” but from my experience greatsword is great for lvling with sword/x. where x is anything but torch. off hand sword is…ok…if the phantasm stays alive he can dish out a lot of damage but it’s not likely he’ll survive long. pistol is pretty nice as it spawns the phant away from the target allowing it to stay out of harms way while dealing damage. I used focus in my offhand while leveling for the aoe on the phantasm.

As far as traits go while you’re leveling I can’t really say except that you should get III in domination for 15% more illusion damage. While I leveled i used phantasmal defender so I could actually take some hits, it’s a very usefull utility for leveling. Other than that: null field, feedback, decoy, and signet of illusions are nice to have in pve.

Mesmers are one of the hardest professions to level but it shouldn’t keep you from playing one. Like others have suggested you might consider going to pvp just to tryout how the mesmer feels with full gear and traits.

illusion of life, signet of midnight, phantasmal disenchanter- My big 3. I have my uses for most everything else.

I love focus when it’s traited with reflects. I run sword/focus in pvp and do just fine. Against engineers, rangers, staff mesmers, lb warriors, pistol or sb thieves, power necros, and even gs guardians the warden will be reflecting like crazy and your opponent will drop like a rock. I use sword #3 combo to immobilize after popping the warden for some massive burst especially if my opponent is hitting themselves with their own projectiles. If sword #3 is on CD for some reason I’ll try a temporal curtain pull into warden.

You guys complain about the warden not staying alive long but when traited the warden has more survivability than any other phant. If I fail to root my opponent and they move off of the warden I’ll take cover in his reflects for my own survivability. When he finishes whirling I throw up temporal curtain to keep projectiles off me until the warden is ready to do his thing again. I only wish temporal curtain was a bit taller so projectiles would stop flying over it but it works sometimes -.-

Warden may be tricky to use but it’s far from useless like some claim it is.

Removing the despawn aspect of the guards could cause some problems. For example, when I come across a camp with 2 dolyaks sitting inside with 2 escorts each, I usually focus the dolyaks to get rid of the 4 extra guards. If the guards didn’t despawn, taking the camp would be MUCH harder.

As long as the guards still despawn, I think it’s a cool idea. I woudn’t even mind if the escorts came back after rezing the yak.

Another cool thing that could be added to the dolyak system would be to have the dolyaks appear where they actually are in the world so you could hit them. Just a thought though :P

I’ve leveled a ranger and a memser to 80-

You were worried about needing good reflexes. You’ve played d/d ele and thief…imo those are some of the more complicated professions in terms of reaction and timing, most ranger and mesmer builds wouldn’t take anymore effort than either and are less combo oriented than both I believe. I don’t think that should affect your choice, although if I had to choose I would go with a ranger for being less reaction oriented.

As for out of combat mobily…Mesmer has VERY little access to swiftness where ranger has plenty of access. Just look at a few of these mesmer forums, theres usually a new thread about mesmers lack of mobility. As far as in-combat mobility is concerned mesmer would probably win especially with a staff or torch in hand. I played a GS+sw/torch zerker build for a while and never really worried about my mobility. Rangers don’t have as much blinks/ports or stealth but they can have just as much mobility. I recall running people around forever with my ranger with near perma-swiftness, Lightning Reflexes utility, longbow #3, and some stability but I think ranger mobility needs to be focused on more if you want to be mobile where mesmer in-combat mobility comes with most builds.

The reverse can be said about condi cleanse. I’m always struggling to fit condi cleanse in my mesmer builds, I usually use Null Field for it’s versatility and group support but against a full condi build I’m just prolonging my death. Rangers can passively throw conditions off them to their pet, healing spring is boss at condi removal, signet of removal and so-on…Of course like others have stated mesmers can be built with ample condi cleanse but the way the traits are placed you need to give up a lot of damage and utility slots to make up for it.

I would recommend trying out different mesmer set-ups and builds in spvp if you haven’t already, it just takes a bit more work to get use to the mesmer play-styles, and if nothing sticks out to you ranger might be your option. Rangers are better for roaming wvw imo but I love mesmers group support and tower stealing ability too much <3.

Sorry for the length, I just started typing. Hope I helped :P

edit: just read your reply, mesmer does have a lot of variations on builds it’s not “if you’re going zerker ranger you need longbow!” weapon choice is usually up to your preference, heck I’ve heard of zerker scepter builds for mesmer. Try out a few different builds and weapons, sometimes using the same trait set-up and just changing weapons can really change your play-style

I like running sigil of speed on at least one of my weapons. If/when I manage to get to the fight and kill some mobs with the group I can pretty much keep my swiftness up almost permanently as long as we keep killing things along the way that i can use to slingshot me across the map.

I also like running signet of Inspiration ooc for that random 10s swiftness, every little bit helps! The active on the signet is actually pretty useful in groups for might stacks as well.

First: I’m no expert on leveling a mesmer

Second: Mesmer condition builds can be really fun, but it’s slow leveling with any condition build compared to a power build. If you’re looking to level quick, power is the way to go. If you like the condition play-style though, and don’t mind leveling a bit slower there’s nothin wrong with that

Scepter and staff are the go-to weapons for condi builds IMO. For leveling I used a power build with GS and sword/focus. Focus #5 puts out good damage around the phantasm and can kill lots of critters at the same time which helped me out.

Mesmers are slow leveling and don’t really stand out until they get to 60-80 where they start showing their true potential and that can be really fun. I say just play what feels comfortable until then and stick in there!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Water

Just a thought, since you’ll be running the mantra heal. I’ve recently been playing around with the water runes, which give you an aoe heal around you every time you use your heal(10s CD), with the mantra combo. It works great, I’ve been using it with phantasmal defender to heal him up with the aoe and I’m just about indestructible 1v1 even with my zerker stats. (The passive boon duration might really help a PU build too)

The thing with the defender runes is that the 30s CD on number 6 is hard to build around and might not do much even if you’re getting aegis constantly.

Defender runes are cheap enough though, I don’t see why you shouldn’t try them out and if you like them who cares what the forums have to say…

Long ago, I was playing unranked with some guildies. One guildy decided to change up his build before the match but it started just as he reset his traits and after he had removed his gear(armor, runes, amulet and all weapons). He had only his utilities for the wellmancer.

Of course he didn’t bother to mention this to any of us, he just said he was trying a new build. we won the match and above all odds he was our top scorer.

After telling us what happened, we asked how he could possibly score higher than our entire team. Where he replied he dropped his wells in big fights and only rezzed downed teamates and while his abilities were on CD he would run and cap far.

I think he still has the screenshot of the final score with his equipment tab open.

Confession 2:

I often run my WvW builds in unranked (fall traits and all) nobody seems to notice…or comment. I suppose it’s better than running nothing but utilities though

I started the game as a mesmer with the idea of dual wielding pistols so I think a mh pistol would be cool. I also think an axe or dagger are possible new weapons, being the only other weapons our clones have (focus 5, and downed 3) that we don’t , other than mh pistol and shield already mentioned.

Not that I’ll complain one way or the other about a NEW weapon for my favorite class, it’s still fun to speculate.

I run a build very similar to the one fashion Mage posted

My build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWRl8ApKoFBxeI8DNx+gkd0njrKw1dONC-TJRGwAAOABKOQAOLDQc/BA

The main difference is 6 points in valor for altruistic healing which goes very well with the spirits. I like running the sword of justice because it stays up the longest for more use of boon application. It is a squishy build if you are being burst down, but it actually has a lot of sustainability otherwise. staff 4 acts like another heal with both spirits up. GS is nice for the retaliation if you get it on your spirits as well, but I think mace and shield/focus would work as well.

When the spirits go down I drop pretty fast with no allies to apply boons to, but with sanctuary you can sit and bunker for a while till the spirits come off CD. I run the same build in wvw with “Warband support” for more boon dummies and knock-backs, would work with the hounds too I suppose.

It’s a fun build, I enjoy it

More of a design issue than a bug I think. I was messing around trying to max out my boon duration, however I can’t put 2 doubloons (upgrade components) on the same 2 handed weapon. I think it’s designed to prevent you from putting 2 of the same sigil on 1 weapon, even though you can actually benefit from 2 doubloons as opposed to 2 identicle sigils. To top it off I can put a doubloon on a mainhand and offhand weapon and it works just fine. I would just like to have that extra 4% boon duration on my 2-hander

If this is intended just say so.

thanks in advance

First off, I think it’s odd that the guardian in the photo you posted is using locust swarm. Second I think your problem is more with retaliation than the light aura. I think it’s a nice aura to have for a few seconds and worth going through the combo for it, but I’m not so sure it’s wrong. I think it falls just in line with the other auras, magnetic aura vs ranger is just as harsh as the flamethrower vs light aura, if not worse. We just need to play around the auras