Guild Wars 2

As nobody seemed to care to answer yet, I’ll give it a try.

At first, the early levels (until ~40) are very slow and don’t reflect how the class feels later on. You miss absolutely important traits like spawning clones on dodge or one additional bounce for bouncing attacks. Believe me, it gets better and basically every Mesmer can confirm that.

Also, Sword is one of the more potent weapons but it’s not feasible early on. I tried it too, at first but in the mid twenties I realised you take too much damage for too little gain. As a scholar class it’s just not that good to stay in melee range almost 100% of the time, no matter if you use S/S or S/F. At least until you have good enough gear to benefit from the swords good damage output.

I suggest using the Greatsword or (my preferance, as it’s my favourite weapon) Staff as ‘main’ weapon, whatever suits you better. With both you can stay at a good range, letting your illusions tank for you while you either deal direct damage.
Especially Staff focuses more on the gimmicks that make Mesmer that great (for example, you have two sources of Chaos Armor when Staff is equpped) and Chaos Storm is a great utility along with sufficient AoE damage. Of course, the Greatsword offers more AoE damage but has less utility.
As secondary weapon, I suggest a combination of Sword or Scepter along with Pistol or Focus. Both iWarden and iDuelist are great Phantasms and Temporal Curtain and Magic Bullet are insane utility. Torch is sadly pretty kitteny for everything outside of PvP and Sword offhand is imo meh compared to Focus or Pistol but can work.

As a last advice, Null Field is THE to-go slot for utility and Feedback works wonders against every enemy that’s reliant on projectiles.
And again, don’t get fooled by the early levels. Once you get certain traits, it feels like playing a totally different class.

Hey there,

I recently found back to Guild Wars and now with my Mesmer being 80 for some time, the question how to equip her stands before me.

I’m currently running a Staff/ Scepter + Focus build focusing on conditions and shattering.
Here’s the build so I don’t have to explain everything, I guess it’s pretty standard:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7dlwziq3UzgGa9IiJF9Gyh6h2ldeXJF42FC

Currently, I’m wearing the lvl80 Tailor Masterwork Carrion set but as I looked for a Exotic Set, there are two possible options:

1. The Tailor Exotic Carrion Set (Cond. dmg > Power = Vitality)
2. Khilbron’s Set (Cond. dmg > Precision = Toughness)

Basically, the Khilbron set is the same as Arah/ TA/ CM/ HoW set with Cond. dmg as main stat, but looks significantly better and is ‘buyable’ for gold.
Another substitute would be some of the Orr Karma sets, which have the same stats.

Now, assuming I would take 5 points out of Illusions trait line (no more Phantasmal Haste) and put it into Chaos to get Chaotic Transference would this be enough to compensate the loss of DPS due to weaker Shatters because there is no Power on this set and my Mesmer almost doesn’t benefit from Precision.

Or, to put the question more easily: Which set will give me more DPS, Khilbron or Exotic Carrion?

Also, another question:
If I take 6x Superior Rune of the Undead along with speccing into Chaotic Transference, will I get both bonuses (aka 10% of Toughness —> Cond.dmg instead of 5%)?

I’d be glad for any advice, expirience reports or general input you can give me.
Thanks in advance.