Guild Wars 2

Best I can tell, most mesmers are reserving judgement and build strategies for when the HOT expansion drops. Until then, you and I are, for the most part, SOL. That said, I’m messing around since I have no clue what I’m doing at all.

I’m with maxinion, Kai’s leveling builds https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Kai-s-Complete-PvE-Compendium/first#post2848334 are awesome and work wonders. At lower levels, mesmers really don’t deal the greatest of damage (feeling more tanky than anything), but once you start getting some good phantasm/shatter traits, it gets much easier to kill things. Phantasms offer you the safest playstyle, and I highly recommend that you cut your teeth on Phantams before trying anything else. When leveling, you will want to use shatters only when the mob that the phantasms are attacking is close to death, and you want to burst it down (see Korusef’s post above).

For traits, Kai’s build offers some basic suggestions on what to use when. (My paraphrase of his work follows) Early on, you will want to consider what you already have (decoy for clone/stealth, feedback for reflects), but also consider a few extras. I recommend Blink for mobility/stun break, null field for condition removal, and that’s all I can think of atm. Again, Kai’s guides offer great advice on the “laziest” ways to level. I’m not implying that you are lazy, but Kai does such an excellent job of breaking it down for beginning mesmers, and (speaking from experience) it’s hard enough to keep track of 3 illusions + mobs + allies, you don’t need the headache of anything else

WitchKing.5317:

Invites sent kingsman.3179 you have the max no. of guilds.

Ehh?…. Funny. Those guild’s are all expired. As in, no active members. I guess i should remove a few …..But the memories!

Dawdler.8521:

I have played my main Mesmer for 950 hours now (~2000 in total, so I began late). I have done all the dungeons, all the paths, all the zones, every event since the beta. I know every weapon, every skill, played pretty much every build combination and raid in WvW daily.

I’m still cant play the kitten thing anywhere near its fullest potential

I just want to get near my potential, never mind the class’s true potential :/

themenaceofseventhdimension.2075:

Thanks for the help guys, I feel more at peace. I have one request to ask you tho.

Could you post all the builds that you think will be able to overthrow me?

I am not trying to be arrogant at all, but I do want more variety of builds to go against for this montage, so I hope that you guys will comment below on builds that you think should go against mine. Just curious what will happen is all. Thanks in advance. It means a lot. If you yourselves could find the time to duel me by PMing me, that would be tremendously awesome. I live in California and I play from Friday to Sunday.

I will post the wins and losses of course.

Off the top of my head? Shattercat condition (Osicat, check sticky) and Seven Mirrors (sorry, I can’t think of the name right now. taking a quick study break, or I would look it up myself). I might duel you sometime, but I haven’t tried anything condition related in +6 months, and haven’t played mesmer in ~4. Just got back from a long break.

IGN: Nava Ayala
Server: Dragonbrand
Playstyle: Mainly PvE, although I have been dabbling more in sPvP and WvW as of late.
Role: Scholar for the time being, would love to test new builds as I get experience though
Playtime: US CST, time varies day to day; whenever I have time around college/homework

Helios.3598:

Work on your build for an hour or two in hotm each week. Consider what did and didn’t work in the dungeons you ran that week.

Speaking from experience for pve, stay far away from confusion. Also, conditions in general are weak. I run with Knights gear due to WvW and it works great in high level Fractals. For most other dungeons you can get away with Berserker gear.

Also, while it’s a not a must, a traited focus is very helpful in fractals and dungeons. Other types of reflection such as Feedback and Mirror (and Mimic occasionally) also help a lot. If your party doesn’t have a guardian then you will be, quite literally, the last line of reflective defense.

I learned not to use conditions the hard way :/ I ran a condition build for the longest time while leveling. I rarely died, but so did the mobs never touched me though, which was probably the strongest part of the build (near constant cripple and chill).

Before I took my hiatus, I would run blink+decoy for most content, swapping the third slot out as needed, usually feedback. Usually would trade decoy for something else whenever the content requires. Seemed to work pretty well for the most part. Now am running a traited focus, and am enjoying the extra reflects, although the warden doesn’t seem very reliable on bosses due to Aoe/cleave. Might need to use Signet of Illusions to help with that, provided I don’t think I’ll need a stunbreak.

I recently (past week? haven’t been back very long) started using a Phantasm build (10/10/0/25/25 I think, didn’t follow a guide for that one), where i was using Osicat’s Shattercat Heavy for for levels 60+. Thinking about swapping Empowered Illusions (Dom III?) for Blade Training though. Currently running http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsd8clwziqHTzqGa9IxZGRf5oZAevXSBu5NA swapping out utilities as needed. I have used Mirror to good success in a few FOTM runs, but haven’t done much since my return.

Thank’s for all your feedback guys, I really look forward to having fun with you all ingame sometime

EDIT: Hmm, it would seem I haven’t played mesmer since the July 25th patch, where they changed Phantasm HP pools. Might have to do more testing now, and might not need Signet of Illusions.

Alissah.9281:

kingsman.3179:

Alissah.9281:

Azo.5860:

Alissah.9281:

“Knowledge is power” and “one’s knowledge cannot exceed one’s experience”

so.. instead knowledge say effectiveness or say become better, experience give u knowledge.. as well knowledge improve u to gain more efficient experience..

is something like that u can get one the best Tpvp player to maybe in GvG group.. he ll not be as good as he was in Tpvp or he ll not be better than one of the best gvg player.. maybe tpvp player can improve himself faster than other casual gvg players.. cuz of his experiance that ve in tpvp.. so Tpvp and GvG has different requirenment..

so first of all better to make a goal for becoming better mesmer.. Means Where u wanna be better? everything has various effects to become better..

simply pvp is better for self sufficient skills as reflexs.. but u ll need game mechanic knowledge which where u play.. and time u spent consolidate it.. probably they are major things imo..

That is true.

Pvp teaches you to react and know what your opponent is doing, and to not spam skills. Everything you do directly affects how the battle goes (in 1vs1), a mistake or a good move in pvp has much more effect than in pve, because AI can’t take advantage of your mistakes or react to pressure.

Then again, you don’t have to counter AI, because theyre not as complicated as players, so pvp isnt needed to become good at dungeons, and vice versa.

I’ll have to try some PvP then. Never really got into it before, but was curious.

1. rule for doing pvp: play for fun

Also, if you ever need help with pvp in game (like builds or fashion or whatever), feel free to whisper me

Oh… I think I already said that :’(

Hehe, good rule. I used to PvP exclusively in SWTOR’s free trial mode, before they made it F2P. I just played for fun, since the trial wouldn’t let you play very far. The cap on how many warzones you could do per week kinda killed that for me though.

I guess the zergs in WvW scared me when fighting them, and bored me when fighting with them. Watching Osicat’s roaming vids has made me think I might enjoy it though. I should just do a bit of roaming sometime, and see how I like it.

I definitely would like to join OMFG, sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and I would love some constructive feedback. I’ll probably shoot you a message sometime when I’m on. My mesmer is Nava Ayala, and I’m on Dragonbrand. By the way, what is the distinction between NA and EU servers, besides the location?

Alissah.9281:

Azo.5860:

Alissah.9281:

“Knowledge is power” and “one’s knowledge cannot exceed one’s experience”

so.. instead knowledge say effectiveness or say become better, experience give u knowledge.. as well knowledge improve u to gain more efficient experience..

is something like that u can get one the best Tpvp player to maybe in GvG group.. he ll not be as good as he was in Tpvp or he ll not be better than one of the best gvg player.. maybe tpvp player can improve himself faster than other casual gvg players.. cuz of his experiance that ve in tpvp.. so Tpvp and GvG has different requirenment..

so first of all better to make a goal for becoming better mesmer.. Means Where u wanna be better? everything has various effects to become better..

simply pvp is better for self sufficient skills as reflexs.. but u ll need game mechanic knowledge which where u play.. and time u spent consolidate it.. probably they are major things imo..

That is true.

Pvp teaches you to react and know what your opponent is doing, and to not spam skills. Everything you do directly affects how the battle goes (in 1vs1), a mistake or a good move in pvp has much more effect than in pve, because AI can’t take advantage of your mistakes or react to pressure.

Then again, you don’t have to counter AI, because theyre not as complicated as players, so pvp isnt needed to become good at dungeons, and vice versa.

I’ll have to try some PvP then. Never really got into it before, but was curious.

Zamiel.2130:

They will all fail.

In my opinion they should still produce a phantasm, it just should hit for 0. Doubt it will be changed, it’s been like that forever.

Uncategorized fractal. Been like this forever. Yup.

Sanderinoa.8065:

Hi there,

While I am not really a part of the mesmer forum community, I would like to suggest some things. First off, there is not a LOT you can do about interference, though in 5 man groups the only thing that could possibly worry you is the guardian’s flames, decrease these by putting post processing on ‘none’. With recent updates the effects shouldnt be too bad, aside from that, try to focus on specific bodyparts instead of the whole creature, e.g. focus on the imbued grawl’s bow, not his face, that’d be rude.

As for training, I would say it is a great idea to try out a very good friend of mine, Legendary archdiviner.
Pick out a fractal level you feel comfortable with, reroll a couple of times and fight the initial archdiviner, with his obvious yet punishing attacks you can train to be focussed on fights and make less mistakes, as well as managing and placing illusions. If melee is first uncomfortable, try to go from range to melee in time. Group play should, be discovered with experimenting in guildgroups and such, or maybe watch some videos.

Hope this helps and goodluck, if not, buggers, I should l2giveadvice.

Alright, I’ll have to try that out. Post-processing is (and has been) off, yet bosses are still near impossible to see, unless they have large and obvious weapons/animations. Did a guild bounty today, and the boss was just a mount of giant blue and orange flames. Maybe I’ll have to tweak other settings and see if one solves my problems.

Azo.5860:

sorry if i missed any detail.. i just read your topic..

Becoming Better Mesmer = Becoming Better Player
Knowladge, Interest, Time, Self sufficient skills
these all connected 2gether..
Knowladge = Power for knowladge u need [time + interest + self sufficient]
any topic can be largly expandable and they have chaos cuz of interaction of each other..
u can add their alternative/secondary topics aswell.. Experiance, Goal, IQ, Reflex, Culture, Character, Quality of Life, Money, Drugs, Wife, Sex, Children, Gaming ex Experiance, etc etc..

I’m very sorry, but I have no clue what you are trying to say. I think you just explained the meaning of life.

Hello all.

I’ve taken a long break from GW2, and just came back to find the PvE metagame is much different. Builds that were once almost OP seem broken, and vice versa. However, I’m ok with that, and willing to adapt.

What I am requesting from the Mesmer forum community is suggestions on how to improve my skills as a Mesmer. I used to be fair at dodging attacks from bosses that I was familiar with, but am now looking for a “crash course” in Mesmering, as it were. Is there bosses/events/regions that allow for developing skill for dungeons and Fractals? I would like ones that allow for solo practice as well as in a group.

Second, what do you guys use to see boss attacks? Most of the time when I do FOTM (currently lvl 24), if we have a guardian, the bosses are covered in giant blue flames that make it near impossible to actually see what the boss is doing. And if you are lucky enough to see through the flames, then the giant Norn decides it’s time to give the boss a hug, and all but obscuring the boss from view of my tiny Asura. How do you see the boss’s attacks even with all the interference?

Thanks for your help!

Recently, I started an Engineer. Upon reaching 27, I took it to WvW with my guild to about 29 over the course of a few hours. My question is, is leveling a Engineer in WvW a viable choice compared to PvE/dungeons? What skills work well with this? How fast is it, when compared to other forms of leveling?

+1
I would love to have this so much. It would make life so much easier.

For long range, Greatsword is your friend. It has long range and, due to the recent buff, Spacial Surge (gs1) can hit enemies between you and your target. Lazy Kai’s Leveling Build is a very good ranged build, although frankly, it does better with sword/x than Greatsword.

If you want a speed buff, I recommend using xxxx/focus, for Temporal Curtain. RoCentuars rely on heal skills, as such, Mirror might be your best bet rather than Ether Feast.

For events, general strategy is use GS4 >>> GS2 >>> GS3 (if needed to tag more mobs) >>> dodge towards target >>> Mind Wrack. As Lazy Kai says, it works, but you are never a warrior. Usually, I get gold, unless I don’t find the event till part of the way through.

If you like staff, I recommend Osicat’s Shatter Cat builds. Personally, I run SC Heavy, due to the focusing on Staff defensive skills. (Piece of advice, keep a copy of every weapon in your inventory. I do not like to use staff unless traited for it, due to the long-ish cooldowns on #4 and #5) If you run with a staff, you will end up needing to swap it out for a GS during events.

A sample build (based on one of the Shatter Cat builds) would be this It’s not ideal, but if you want to fight at range, just use scepter instead of the MH sword.

I know this is an old thread, but I’m still annoyed by this. I have two toons, and both can do AC exp mode. When pugging with bad groups, I usually hop on my guardian for the first half, and switch to mesmer for the last half. This time, I opened, and ended up kicking the group out of AC halfway. This is annoying people like me, who have two different chars for two different roles, and adapt to the situation at hand.

Recently, I attempted to add someone in-game as a friend, only to find they were listed as offline (but I was doing Jumping Puzzles with them, so they were just toggled as offline). Next time I logged in, I found that no friends were online, according to that button. However, I saw them talking in Guild Chat, so I couldn’t understand what happened.

When I clicked on the Community button, there were listed online there. So, I’m having a bit of a problem, and would love any help to resolve this.

On Dragonbrand, I’m usually finding lots of people asking for AC exp mode, and (with the exception of p3) not usually finding too many troubles. My guild [CASH] did an all guild run 2 days ago, with only one above lvl 50 (he was 80). We did die more than I’d like, but it wasn’t frustrating either. (I’ve had more trouble when I was the only non-80)

In short, it really comes down to skill rather than being 80, and, while gear/level/traits really do help, IMO skill is the major factor here. Level 80 chars tend to be more experienced at dodging/understanding fight mechanics, and tend to do better. But IMHO, there is roughly the same amount of noobie lvl80s as lvl35s