Guild Wars 2

UPDATED FOR 6/23/15 PATCH

Who doesn’t love causing people untold frustration? Who doesn’t want to experience the glory of an opponent that can do nothing while you beat them down? This guide is meant to help people learn to play lockdown Mesmer, and where lockdown vets can share their tricks and tactics. If you play shatter, some of the following info could also apply to you.

1) Lockdown Traits, Builds
2) Predicting & Timing Interrupts
3) Chain Dazing
4) Weapons for a Lockdown Mesmer
5) Utilities of a Lockdown Mesmer
6) Questions & Answers
7) Videos
8) Other Lockdown Links

KEY
CI – Chaotic Interruption (Chaos XI)
CS – Confounding Suggestions (Domination XII)
MoD- Mantra of Distraction
Stomp – To kill a downed opponent via ‘F’ interaction
Rezz – To resurrect a downed ally.
Proc- To cause an effect to occur (“Sigils of air has a chance to proc damage on crit”)
RNG – Random Number Generator ; A chance for an effect to randomly occur (Chaos Storm procs RNG conditions)

KEY OBJECTIVES

• Interrupting Rezz/Stomps. With Mantra of Distraction, Focus, Greatsword, and offhand sword all offering multi-target interrupts –combined with our ability to strip boons- lockdown Mesmers are more equipped than most to prevent rezzing and save allies from stomps.

• Stripping Boons, especially stability. With the dominance of Guardians and the rise of Celestial + Might Stacking, our boon stripping ability makes us uniquely suited to rip away the defense and offense of many classes.

• Shutting down the targeted opponent. Whoever is targeted should be the main focus of your lockdown… most of the time. You’ll often have to keep an eye out for ranged enemies trying to safely take allies down from range.

• Locking down Lich Form/Plague Form/Tornado/Rampage/ect. Most of the dominance of these elites relies on a long-lasting stability. Take it from them and yank them around hilariously. Or simply use Signet of Humility to counter their elite.

(This build has WON the December Mesmer Build of the Month contest! Official reviews can be found here.)

Huh? Your “Mind Crush” is evolving…

…

..

.

Wow! Congradulations, your MindCrush just evolved into …

—SHATTERLOCK—
“Difficult to pick up, but extremely rewarding to master.”

A 30/10/0/0/30 Shatter/Lockdown Build

Shatterlock takes the powerful burst damage and versatility of Shatter Builds and combines it with the chain-dazing and vuln-stacking potential of lockdown builds. Shatterlock was created for PvP play, but can also be used in PvE and WvW with only the slightest tweaks of gear without altering the playstyle. This build can be taken anywhere you would run a shatter build.

- So .. Isn’t this essentially just a less-optimal shatter build?
It’s very important to stress that this is NOT a straightforward shatter playstyle. Though the traits may look similar to your standard 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build, there are quite a few key differences that dramatically alter the playstyle. The utilities, for one, are more geared towards lockdown in the form of dazes and boon removal. The lack of Deceptive Evasion means that every clone/phantasm produced is an important resource. There is a much higher emphasis on lockdown in this build than standard shatter build: Confounding Suggestions, Runes of the Mesmer, Sigil of Hydromancy, and Mantra of Distraction add an extra layer of sophistication that standard shatter builds just dont have.

• Similar Shatter Damage.
  With iPersona and Mental Torment, you’re still doing very similar damage as a shatter build.

• Chain-Dazes.
  Just like in Mind Crush, you can easily lock an opponent out of a fight for over 5 seconds via chain dazing. It’s good to call target (ctrl+T) on these dazed opponents as they’ll also be without boons and burdened with 25x Vulnerability.

• Phantasm Switch-Ups.
  Sometimes Shattering just doesn’t cut it on some opponents. Shatterlock is also adept at quickly producing Phantasms (Sword Phantasms on very low cooldown) to hound opponents that like to dance in-and-out of stealth and rely on passive heals. You can still stunlock while maintaining phantasms.

The build is flexibile enough for you to be able to take on all manner of opponents and play comfortably in either a shatter or phantasmal playstyle. In my experience, Phantasms excel vs ranged opponents wherekittenter dominates melee. Either way you want to chain daze for vuln stacking either beforehand or after the enemy has less than 40% HP to eliminate their heal chance.

1.2 Leveling Guide: Part 2 – Leveling

1.2.1 Leveling 1-20: Me, Myself and I – How to blow up the guy in the mirror.

Here we go, after wasting hours on the character creation screen to find a name that is not taken, you have arrived in the world of Guild Wars 2, Tyria.

The good news is that you are wielding a rusty little sword right now, a formidable choice. Swords will be your friend on your way to 80, so get some practice with it. Do not replace it unless you find a better sword or – even better – a greatsword. Well, you can fool around with other weapons and you should, but for leveling itself everything with the word “sword” in it is your first choice.

The third sword skill will generate an illusion – to be more specific – a clone. There are two kinds of illusions, clones and phantasms.
Clones are as pretty or ugly as you are, doing close to no damage and are as durable as ice cream in a melting pot. Sounds promising? Do not despair, clones are mostly seen as a resources for the Mesmer’s profession skills – aka shatters. More about that in a bit.
Phantasms look like you too – sort of – just without textures and more transparent. They actually do good damage and can take a hit, and they also are a resource for shatter skills.
The maximum amount of illusions you can have at a time is three, if you cast a new illusion with three illusions out, one of four things will happen:

1. If you cast a clone, the oldest clone will be replaced by the new one.
2. If there are three phantasms, the clone will replace your oldest one.
3. If you cast a phantasm, the oldest clone will be replaced by it.
4. If there are three phantasms, the oldest phantasm will be replaced by the new one.

So what to do with all those illusions? The same thing you do with all stuff you no longer need in real life – blow them up! Shatter skills (F1-F5) will cause an effect which will get stronger the more illusions you have available. While you can use all shatter skills without a single illusion, which can be very useful in certain situations, it is more often the wiser choice to cast a full shatter (three illusions) to maximize damage.

Your first shatter skill “Mind Wrack” will unlock at level 5. It is our bread and butter and what else you would put on a bread skill. It will be hard to get enough illusions on the screen below level 10 to cast a full shatter, as the mob will be pretty dead until then anyway. Remember, illusions are bound to the enemy they got cast on and will disappear the moment this enemy dies. It is therefore better to cast a Mind Wrack with only one or two illusions, if the enemy is close to dying anyway.

When you reach level 6, you will get the choice between a greatsword or a torch. This is actually not a choice, it is a test. If you pick the greatsword you have been reading the guide carefully up to this point. If you take the torch, god help you. I surely can’t. Only excuse, you found a better greatsword on the way, or on the trading post…
The greatsword is a great weapon. It is ranged, everything hits more than one target and its fourth weapon skill, which gets unlocked conveniently at the very same level as your first phantasm skill, is the “Phantasmal Berserker”.

Now that you got your first phantasm, you also got a decision to make every single fight: To shatter the phantasm or not. Sure, while the phantasm is alive, it will cause great damage, but if it dies, you have missed the opportunity of a stronger shatter. If you ask me, and you should, let the phantasm do its job once and then, with some clones around create butterflies – which means use it for shatter fodder. Later on you will get a better feeling for when it is right to wait, but for now, you should get some practice on how to shatter in the first place.

INSTRUCTIONS (By Pyro/Fay)
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvhAQNAseWncfCtfilfC%2BfCUrhlejyMAugMqeUb1XF9GitZD-TRBXgAAK%2FU3fIUfQv6PPKBJFQEDjA-e
chrono – chaos – illusions, sword/shield + staff, heal well, calamity, quickness, alacrity, then time warp.

Summon 3 illusions + quickly input f5 – timewarp – shield 5 – all four wells in that order + shield 5 + alll four wells again shatter constantly during rotation

Note from Pyroathiest (who originally posted the concept) – "Tested this in CoE so far. Results are incredible.

When we engage, we have alacrity and quickness until the boss dies. Additionally, I spread ~12 stacks of partywide might, 50% uptime on vigor, and still do quite okish damage ‘for a mesmer’. The warrior in my party was talking about how he hardly even used autoattacks, just continually rolled through weapon skill rotations."

What say you, think this’ll be one of the mandatory rotations for dungeons? There hasn’t been too much Chrono PvE talk lately, and was curious to know the expert opinions.

Anet just broke Chaos…

and I don’t even use Moa. Wtf!! Moa!? Moa tho!?! That’s Mesmer, that’s all Mesmer, and it should stay Mesmer. And if not, then we need our Moa Morph changed into something more Mesmery..

Like morphing the opponent into a clone of the Mesmer. O.o

/15 buckets of salt

Levetty.1279:

So why is it ok to be blindly optimistic when we don’t have any information but not ok to point out that the stuff we do know and past behavior by anet shows that this expansion is giving Mesmers the short end of the stick?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

However, on the off chance you really don’t see the new possibilities..

• Dom, Duel, Illusions. — pistol cooldowns adds for a lot more condition pressure.

• Dueling, Illusions, Chaos – I dunno if you’ve explored bountiful/chaotic but even outside of lockdown builds bountiful adds a massive power boost. Chaotic adds more Condi pressure and cover conditions for Torment and the immob makes shatters easier to land.

• Dueling, Inspiration, Illusions – Now that stats aren’t a worry, Inspiration line offers scepter cooldowns, Shattered Conditions, and Glamour pressure. Maimed + Glamours really could be a thing.

These are some new possibilities just based off the blog today, we don’t even know what our new traitline or utilities will offer.

As far as I am aware You have to choose 1 adept, major and GM, correct me if I am wrong because I would like to be. So we can’t take DE and Pistol Cooldown (which actually is a nerf on a the clone death build I was using before maim).

… Blindly optimistic? Wat?

All I said was that the news we got recently got about specializations was good news. How is that blind optimism about things we don’t know? Other than that everything else we don’t have enough information on to make a judgment, good or bad.

..Ahh you know what? I’m done. You’re only seeing what you want to see, and you’re only dampening yourself.

(And you may be right about the pistol thing, hope that gets changed.)

My brain… I can’t.

At level 10 you will finally unlock the ability to swap between two weapon sets – good times ahead. While one of the sets will be the greatsword, your second set should consist of a sword and a focus. You might have expected a sword in the offhand too, as I said everything sword it good, and yes, a second sword would be a good choice, but for leveling, the focus is simply better. Especially the skill “Temporal Curtain” which gives you swiftness is great. Besides making you run faster it also has many other uses.

Now that you can swap weapons, it will be fairly easy to produce enough illusions for a full shatter. General rule is:

Start with greatsword skill 1 (Spatial Surge), skill 2 (Mirror Blade, your clone generator) and skill 4 (Phantasmal Berserker), swap to sword/focus and cast skill 3 (Illusionary Leap, your second clone generator) which gives you a full shatter for F1 (Mind Wrack).

Now you still have your focus phantasm left, which gives you some nice damage for the time when your shatter is on cooldown. The sword is also preferable in melee range as it does more damage, which is why we start the fight with the greatsword and then swap to the sword/focus and not the other way around.

At level 11 two things are happening. Firstly, you get your second shatter skill, “Cry of Frustration”. It is called that way because you are mad that Mind Wrack is on cooldown and you have to use this inferior shatter to cause damage. But until level 21, you can mostly ignore this skill.
Secondly, you can now pick your first utility skill. My personal advice is to spend four points into “Signet Training” to get both, “Signet of the Ether” – your new healing skill, and “Signet of Inspiration” – your first utility skill.

Signet of the Ether will give you some passive healing, a good base heal and a way to reset your phantasm timers. So even if you do no need healing, you can use this skill to greatly buff your damage. Signet of Inspiration is very nice, as it gives you swiftness and together with the focus you can have permanent swiftness uptime.

At level 15 and again at level 19 you will unlock your next shatter skills and a utility slot. The two shatter skills “Diversion” and “Distortion” are only of very limited use for leveling, so I will skip them for now.
Your second utility skill should be “Blink” which is to be found under “Manipulation Training” and your third the “Signet of Illusions” from “Signet Training”.
Blink is just awesome. Getting out of tight spots never was easier and you can also use it to get faster from A to B. Signet of the illusion keeps your illusions alive a bit longer which is not bad, but the main reason we are picking this signet is the active part. Being able to reset shatters will be very useful later on, especially when you start producing even more clones with the upcoming traits.

1.2.2 Leveling 21-44: I see myself four times. I must be drunken twice.

You did it! Yeah, you might not have realized it, but you have left your early days behind and are now to become one of us. What made the difference? Traits. If you were as greedy with your hero points as I have hinted earlier (like not spending them on skills to actually experiencing the beauty of GW2), you will have some left to dump into your traits. The obvious question is, where to put them. And if you are reading this, the obvious answer is: You have no idea. Fear not, the answer is at hand.

You will have to pick one trait line, and the one you should choose is Dueling. From now on, EVERY SINGLE HERO POINT you earn is to be spent here. You should have enough hero points to actually get some nice stuff. We are specifically aiming for Phantasmal Fury (adept), Fencer’s Finesse (master) and Deceptive Evasion (grandmaster). Getting these traits is your Nr. 1 priority. Nothing else matters. If you do anything else with your hero points, you will regret it later on, be warned.

Chances are slim that you will get all the way up to Deceptive Evasion right at the start. So as a rough guesstimate you should aim for level 31 to get Deceptive Evasion as a follower of this guide from the start. Things change quite a bit as you produce a clone whenever you dodge in combat from now on. What the happy little trees are in the “joy of painting”, the fragile little clones are in the “joy of mesmerizing”. From now on they are everywhere and you should not be greedy with them. The trick is to use dodge clones as fillers when your other illusion skills are on cooldown. Most of the time you might not even need to swap from greatsword to sword/focus to kill a single enemy.

Level 31 also unlocks your elite skill slot. What you want in that slot is Time Warp. But wait a sec – just forget about that. You might want it, but you won’t get it. Why? Ain’t nobody got hero points for that. But praise the six gods, with the new trait system, racial elite skills are unlocked by now. So unless you are a Norn, you might actually find something useful on your list.
The problem with hero points is, that at level 45, you will unlock you second trait line, and at that time, you want a kitten 52 hero points saved up to get down to business. So unless you grind all hero challenges on your way to level 45, you will probably not going to get close to having enough points for your traits and Time Warp. You will get it later, you will survive without it, you will enjoy it when you finally get it. It is always good to have something you can look forward to.

1.2.3 Leveling 45-70: Leveling 45-70: Nothing but an illusion, until it blows up in your face.

So you made it this far. Good. Level 45 offers you another choice to make. Which trait line will you unlock next? If you want to make the choice by yourself, go ahead, if you want to make the right choice, read on.

The best choice (with exception of all others) would be investing heavily into Illusions. You will benefit greatly from the minor traits Illusionists Celerity and Master of Misdirection as well as getting a serious amount of extra punch from the major traits.
The traits you want to pick are Compounding Power (adept), Shattered Strength (master) and Master of Fragmentation (grandmaster). With Illusions as second trait line, you will generate illusions faster, have a shorter cool-down on shatters and hit harder than ever before. A win-win-win situation, especially for the play-style we use with this leveling guide.

Not much more to say here, all you need is to safe up 52 hero points for level 71. Depending on your focus (PvE/WvW) you should have enough hero points to spare for getting Time Warp by now. If not, remember that filling up trait lines as soon as they unlock should be your Nr. 1 priority.

1.2.4 Leveling 71-80: All good things come to an end.

If you have been following this guide and reached 71 by blindly accepting my questionable decisions, you will have at least 52 hero points to spare and a choice. Yeah I know, choices have not been a thing I have offered before, but it is time to learn standing on your own feet.

Luckily for you, I will give you some clear advices first. Your third trait line to pick shall be Domination, dump your 52 hero points there. Good.

Now if you liked the way you have been leveling your Mesmer the last few dozen levels, you should get Empowered Illusion (adept), Blurred Inscriptions (master) and Mental Anguish (grandmaster). Your play-style won’t change much, but your shatter damage will significantly improve.

If you want to relax a bit while playing you can also simply use the trait setup found in the Lazy Kai Build (link) from now on. It is top efficient in open world and quite fun. You can also fool around with different weapon setups with your free secondary set while mainly using a greatsword.

That’s it, thank you for following this leveling guide.

—TIPS & TRICKS—
(Under Construction)
Mesmer Tricks of the Trade

Teleports & Stealth

—AWESOME LINKS—
SOAC Presents Mesmerized: The Mesmer Podcast

More info @:

• 20/20/30/0/0: The Best Lockdown Trait Spread?
• Lockdown Guide: Making People Hate You
• 4 Reasons to Play a Lockdown Mesmer
• Lockdown Gear/Utilities Discussion

THE MESMER OF OLD
Guild Wars 1 vets often fondly recount the Mesmer’s ability to shutdown and punish opponents, usually recalling the skill Blackout with sadistic smiles. Of course, GW1 was an entirely different game with it’s own rules and format that made the style work, but the question remains.. can it work in GW2?

We have an assortment of interrupts and dazes, easily able to stack 5-6 dazes in one build, we have traits that reward us for interrupting and dazing, hell.. the Runes of the Mesmer add a 33% daze duration. This all leads me to believe that Anet apparently means for the Mesmer to still be able to utilize such a role.

LOCKDOWN IN GW2
When you break combat down to its simplest terms, you find that almost everything can be mitigated in some way.

Movement – Cripple/Chill/Torment
Cooldowns – Chill/Interrupt
Projectiles – Reflect
Skill Use – Daze/Stun/Confusion/Blind
Healing – Poison
Damage – Weakness
AoE – Retaliation
Boons/Conditions – Removal

Mesmer have enough tools that we can quite easily shutdown any (and even all) of the above in a single build without having to sacrifice damage. Though a boss may be immune to daze/stun, Weakness, Vulnerability, & Chill (Debilitating dissipation, Scepter, Hydromancy Sigils) still cuts their damage by 50%, increases skill cooldowns, and more vulnerable to damage.

INTERRUPTS – TOO MUCH RANDOM, TOO LITTLE REWARD?
Again, this is where people disagree. In my experience with my Mind Crush build, interrupts aren’t as random as originally perceived. Nearly every skill has a cast time, and can thus be interrupted. Lets take the Mesmer Greatsword for example – Every attack can be interrupted by an aggressive lockdown build. Even most auto-attacks have a cast time and can be interrupted.

The thing I like about the interrupt traits is how well they can reward you for skilled use of dazes, for example:

Dazzling & Bountiful Interruption- 5 Vulnerability per daze (easily stacks to 25) combined with 5 might stacks per Interrupt? This setup both encourages dazing and rewards timing.

FROM THEN TO NOW…
When I first opened this thread, it was titled “Lockdown: The Underexplored Playstyle.” Then several months later, as lockdown started to climb in popularity and more and more lockdown Mesmer gathered it changed to “Lockdown: The Uncommon Playstyle.” Well now we’re to the point where lockdown is neither underexplored nor uncommon, it is a known playstyle that has established itself comfortably into the meta. Lockdown mesmer are now considered one of the most viable mesmer types, and thanks to the new Power Block trait lockdown is actually becoming a thing in PvE. How far we’ve come!

LIST OF INTERRUPT/LOCKDOWN (BLACKOUT) BUILDS

-Skcamow’s – Chillruption
-Chaos Archangel’s – Mind Crush
-theCOREYCOLAK’s – Stunway
-Dietzen’s – Confusing Shatter Damage
-Sensotix’s – tPvP Bountiful Interruption build.
-Slim Chance’s – EcchoRupt Build
-Dirame’s Shutdown Mesmer
-WindWalker’s CC AoE Interrupt Build
- Xaylin’s Ethereal Intervention

—MESMERIZING DUNGEONS—

Maxinion’s Dungeon Guide
Brazil’s Dungeon Mesmer Guide

How to play a Mesmer in dungeons (By: TheKillerAngel.3596)

I have spent close to 800 hours playing a Mesmer (for a total of over 3000 hours in game time so far). I see so many bad Mesmers in dungeons that I think it’s time I write a guide on not just how to build a Mesmer, but how to play one effectively. This guide will spend less time on builds and more on explaining the how and why of playing a Mesmer (though builds and weapon choices are still discussed).

The Mesmer fills several important roles in dungeons:

• Controlling and positioning the enemy, primarily through effective use of Temporal Curtain
• Mitigating and enhancing damage through reflections
• Boon and condition management, by removing conditions on your team, enhancing your teams boons, and removing boons from the enemy
• Speeding up runs through use of portal

While the Mesmer is by no means a “mandatory” dungeon class, it is often highly beneficial to include one because of its aforementioned versatility.

Slot Skills

There are some utility skills that a Mesmer will find more useful in dungeons. Switch out your utilities when necessary. Here is a list of what I use most often:

On my utilies bar almost all the time, no matter what:

• Feedback

On my regular rotation:

• Mantra of Concentration (Stunbreak and stability)
• Mantra of Resolve (Condition cleansing)
• Null field (Condition/Boon management)
• Blink (Stunbreak)

Occasionally used:

• Signet of Inspiration (For copying boons)
• Portal Entre
• Veil (for runs)
• Illusion of Life (Useful when pugging Arah)
• Mirror Images
• Decoy

Rarely used, but still used for some specific encounters

• Mimic

As for healing skills, what you use depends on your builds. If you are using mantra damage multipliers, go with the healing mantra. Otherwise, take ether feast.
For Elites, Time warp is ideal most of the time, but for some runs mass invisibility is preferred. Any other skill aside from these 2 is usually a waste of your elite slot.

Traits

There are some traits that are mandatory for a Mesmer in dungeons. They include:

Minimum 20 Inspiration for:
1. Reduced recharge on Glamour skills
2. Reduced recharge on focus skills, while granting them the ability to reflect projectiles

Minimum 20 Dueling for:
1. Permanent vigor on crit
2. Reduced cooldown on sword skills
3. Reduced cooldown in pistol skills
4. Clones on dodge, which help immensely with setting up shatters

To maximize reflect damage, you want to get as many % damage increases as you can. The rest of your points are preferably distributed into Illusions (for 9% bonus damage with illusions) and Domination (for some additional power, increasing illusion damage, or enhancing your shatters), along with optional enhancements to the Dueling and Inspiration lines. The Chaos trait line offers very little for dungeons, so points in it are generally a waste.

Armor and Weapons

Colesy gives an excellent breakdown of the Mesmer weapon types and their strengths and weaknesses in this thread. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Dungeons-Phantasm-build-s As such, I will not spend much time covering this, as it has already been covered.

A Mesmer, optimally played, will use a sword mainhand and alternate between focus, pistol, and sword offhand a majority of the time. There are some situations where a ranged weapon is necessary or preferred, in which the greatsword can be used as a secondary weapon. However, use of the greatsword should be minimized as much as possible, as the weapon has low DPS and its other abilities are generally not suited for dungeons.

If you are going to be running dungeons a lot, you will almost never need a torch, staff, or scepter. I like to carry at least one of every weapon in my inventory, but the use of these three weapons is rarely, if ever optimal in a dungeon environment.

With permanent vigor, invulnerability on the F4 shatter, a 2.5 second evade with blurred frenzy, and a block on offhand sword, the Mesmer is actually one of the most durable professions in dungeons in spite of wearing light armor. Wear full berserker or assassins gear, and if you time your dodges and skills properly, you will take a minimum of damage while dealing maximum damage.

How to play a Mesmer and why

So, now that you have proper traits, armor, two swords, a focus, a pistol, and a greatsword, what do you do?

Control

The first role of the Mesmer I mentioned, which I personally think is the most underutilized and one of the most important, is control. This is where I see the majority of Mesmers fail – they do not effectively position the enemy in such a way that minimizes their killing time. Instead, they let the enemy run about, which can make them take 10x longer to kill and increase the odds that they will wipe your team.

Temporal Curtain (Focus 4) is the bread and butter of the Mesmer’s control tools, and Illusionary Wave (GS 5) is occasionally used to push single targets into corners or walls. How do you use these effectively? Temporal curtain has a pull radius of 600 units, and is frequently used to pull enemies into corners or walls. The following video demonstrates: http://youtu.be/fLfeDzsfy3o

Why corners or walls? There are several reasons. First, Temporal Curtain has a tendency to overshoot enemies that aren’t backed into a solid object. An improperly placed temporal curtain can scatter enemies rather than grouping them up, and by choosing a wall, you limit (or eliminate) this possibility. Second, grouping enemies into a wall or corner dramatically improves your party’s damage, as melee weapons will cleave through them with ease. Instead of hitting a single stray target, you are now hitting a full group.

In addition to grouping enemies up, Temporal Curtain is also used to clear or split enemies on trash runs. Since the pull from temporal curtain does not generate threat, it can be safely used to split enemies off the main path of a trash run so your group can run past them without drawing their attention.

If you want to learn how to focus pull, this is an excellent video guide: http://youtu.be/ajFtp6mnM1k?t=18m28s

Reflects

Another critical, and often underutilized role of Mesmers, is mitigating and enhancing your party’s damage through reflects. Many Mesmers blindly spam feedback on bosses or use feedback at the wrong times. When to use feedback is a lengthy discussion unto itself, and requires a thorough understanding of each enemy in particular encounters. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to use feedback against enemies in dungeons which are projectile heavy. They include Caudeceus Manor, Sorrows Embrace, Twilight Arbor, Crucible of Eternity, and Arah, One of the most frequently missed reflects I see is against the first trash pull in CoE, in which many players do not use reflects. Strife demonstrates why you should feedback them in the first 10 seconds of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B--IxGbvmIc

Boon and condition management

A secondary role Mesmers offer is boon/condition management. Often, if you are a Mesmer in a pickup group, you will have to fulfill this role, as your teammates may not be using builds or classes with effective condition removal. Null field, as of this writing, is the best condition/boon management a Mesmer brings to a party, though the Mesmer’s ability to remove conditions via mantras is going to be buffed soon. Condition management is hugely important, as stray bleeds, poisons, and burns in some fights can mean the difference between barely finishing an encounter and wiping.

Boon removal is less frequently used, but when it is important it makes a tremendous difference. Off the top of my head, some of the most important enemies where boon removal is key are the security golem in Crucible of Eternity, Dredge in Sorrow’s Embrace and fractals, and Risen Hunters in Arah. The security golem maintains permanent protection, which will reduce your group’s damage by 33%. The Mesmer sword and clone auto, in addition to null field, will strip protection off without requiring your team to destroy the protection turret. Boon removal is tremendously important against Risen elites in Arah, as Hunters will buff them with stability and fury. With stability on, you cannot pull or stun them, so either kill them before they get it or remove it as soon as possible.

Hopefully, this helps at least one Mesmer become a better player. Over time , I’d like to see more dungeon-specific class guides that can help players.

ozzy.8059:

im playing it right now.because im so sick of it.

now i have never played condi mesmer before, infact im terrible at mesmer (350+ping) so i lag and cant dodge some attacks because they are to fast no matter how early i react thanks to ping. i have won almost all my 1v1’s so far bar an engie with flamethrower…

i practically turn team fights with 6 stacks of confusion on the target and chaos storm wreaking havoc. i can even jump into the middle of it and get some shatters off because i have way to many ways to mitigate damage.

its godmode cheese cancer even necros die to me because signets cant transfer to what you cant see/blocking/invulnerable targets its a joke.

This post.. Is everything wrong with the playerbase asking for nerfs.

You practically turn teamfights by.. Pressing 3 with the scepter on a target too incompetent to press dodge or carry any sort of cleanse? 6 stacks of confusion on one target is making a difference in a teamfight? Is this hotjoin?

It must be hotjoin.. If chaos storm is “wreaking havoc” in a condition build and you pressing random f-keys to beat people.

You can scream “cheese” and"cancer" all you like, but if the above are your examples of why then its fairly obvious your experiences aren’t coming from someone who fights even average players. Confusion and shatters aren’t even what makes the build decent, neither are clones.

—Where and When to Reflect—
Full list here

FRACTALS OF THE MISTS

• 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. )
• 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.

I don’t even really know who karl is, but this thread made me like him more, so there’s a weird inverted bright side of this thread.

I just play, and it just sorta rains balance changes once in a while. But I must admit GW2 is the first game where I’ve seen a dev talk about upcoming changes to the game on camera and then later on see that same dev end up killing me in-game on a random day.

/datGrouch
/eff engineers

Hey dude, would like to help but I need to know a few things:

• what build are you running? Weapons and all

• how long have ya played Mes?

The Mesmer class isn’t easy to play, but the reward depends on your goal. The class is very trait-heavy, so you often have to know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes of your build to be effective.

You’re right, Mesmer takes positioning, timing, skill, knowledge of the game mechanics, and a bit of luck to be highly effective.. But there IS a payoff.

This class more than most others rewards quick reflexes and creativity. All of your skills have dual purposes and none of your shatters are straightforward. There’s an “art” to learning the Mesmer, and like any art there are certain techniques (blink spots, shatter positioning, clone management, looking stylish like.. All the time, ECT.) that have to become second nature for you to excel.

Also keep in mind that though the game has been out for years, Mesmer builds have remained largely unchanged so many players already know what you’re trying to do before you even have your plan ready. This is part of what makes learning Mesmer in PvP so difficult: people know how to dodge shatters, spot the real Mesmer, time your invisibility, and just how squishy you are.

My advice, without knowing your build, is to find a veteran Mesmer and train with them. There is no easy route for the class and no build is gonna carry you, so it heavily depends on your personal skill. If that doesn’t intimidate you, then you’re on the right path. There are plenty of mesmers here who will be happy to meet up in game and answer any questions you’ll have as well as show ya the tricks of the trade. Good luck man!

(Also.. By the way it’s looking, chronomancer will be even more difficult to use than core Mesmer! Get that practice in.)

I did this last night. Confounding Suggestions made each daze after the first into a stun.

Illusionary Leap + Daze Mantra + Pistol Stun + Stalled Daze Shatter (2 clones) + Signet of Domination + Chaos Storm (2 stuns) + Moa Morph = TROLOLOLOLOL!

The Necro sent me hate mail. It was delicious.

Was putting together some build combinations when I came up with this odd support build:

http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8clsnhy0YfawONwtGL4GkZGCxIPLxLudZAW9vA-TpwRgAA7PIWGAA

In the vid, I’m using pack runes rather than Mercy

2:43
6:15
6:56

Now sure, that match was a stomping, and don’t ask what made me think “Hm.. Lets run full manipulations!” but I ended up playing around with traits and came up with the above.

One thing I find really cool about the new Mesmer specs is how easy it is to make a build that can work with whatever utilities you feel like running. In anything but the highest level PvP, Mesmers have nearly free reign on the kinds of builds we want to make (which is why it’s a bit of a shame to see so many people clinging to the same two builds)

So I do like Mimic + Illusion of Life, but Mimic really needs to be instant-cast. The cast time is so clunky and unnecessary with that obscene cooldown.

(Hooo boy, I was scared to necro this thread! But I really don’t like loose ends, and even when I’m late to get to something I still wanna atleast attempt to see it done. Anyone who posted their build here previously still gets first preference, just let me know if you’d still like it to be tested.)

Hey guys, a year ago I went through some pretty rough stuff IRL with the death of a loved one. While it was ungodly difficult, the overwhelming support I received made me really want to do something to give back to the community. You guys were there for me during one of the hardest times of my life, and that is a gift/privilege many people don’t get when going through so much stress. I felt obligated to do.. soemthing to pay people back, and the Mesmer Guide would’ve been enough if I uh … hadn’t sorta already intended to do it beforehand.

But this! This is my payback.

Since I finally have the ability to push out vids, after the Lockdown video I’m working on this weekend I’d be happy to take a look at other people’s builds, run some tests, note my progress before delivering a review. Keep in mind that the builds will be tested from a PvP perspective, so WvW-focused builds may not have the most accurate appraisal (but are still accepted). OMFG TESTERS I WILL BE REACHING OUT TO YOU GUYS FOR HELP ON THIS!

Please realize that I don’t play as often as I used to because of time constraints. Currently I’m doing this while I have the time, but my schedule tends to fluctuate and I can’t guarantee consistency, but if anyone is still interested I will do my best!

(To-Do list: Locked after the first 7)

Blades of Sabatine

Warhorn. Bard specialization plz!

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. i’ve got to the point of just throwing my arms up when this starts happening. how can i sustain damage on a single target that keeps moving, teleporting, going invisible, creating clones, and worst of all untargeting themselves…

longbow – single target damage. POINTLESS
shortbow – single target damage. POINTLESS
Axe – bounces multiple targets, kitten damage. POINTLESS
Greatsword – single target damage, slow. POINTLESS
Sword – single target damage. target dodges, goes invisible. POINTLESS
Entangle – Thief and Mesmers completely immune to my control. POINTLESS
Pet. POINTLESS

Are you honestly going to post all this in your OP and then claim…

Drakortha.6974:

Not a L2P issue.. or an OP issue. I know how to fight and beat a mesmer.. my complaint is they are a pain in the bum to fight.. especially in group fights.. you can’t argue with that

Fun fact: Mesmers are actually much less effective in group fights than in 1v1s.

… and most Mesmer can only stealth maybe twice every 30 secs.

Drakortha.6974:

Can’t say the same with mesmer, as they all pick the same strategy and every fight with them feels the same

… Dude.

If this isn’t one of the most narrow-minded perspectives…

As a part-time Ele I’d like to throw my two-cents in..

Mesmer is not overpowered. The VAST majority of people who feel they are either do not understand the class mechanics or the particular build they’re up against. Even inexperienced Mesmer find fighting other Mesmer overwhelming and it takes a lot of time to really understand their strengths and weaknesses. Mesmer builds are often vastly different; shatter and phantasm Mesmer are like staff and d/d ele in terms of how different the playstyle is, yet people often fight Mesmers thinking one build
Is the same as any other and thus do not adapt their strategies.. they’d rather just roll their eyes say “Mesmer OP” and go into the fight expecting to lose. Ive gone into many duels and tried to explain to my opponents why they lost or the weakness to Mesmer builds and more often than not the reply I get is “Mesmers are all the same.” I actually rather just fight other Mesmer (and most part-time Mesmer have the same mentality even then. “I only play Mesmer cuz its OP.”) Nearly every class has OP builds but they also have technical, skillful builds too and it getsbhard to tell the difference ifbyou dont knowbthe class and easy to geeralize.

Elementalists are currently underpowered. Other classes don’t need a nerf as much as Eles need improvements to their survivability. I’ll role Staff Ele despite what anyone saya till I get nerfed down to knly one attunement because I love the playstyle, Ill play staff ele if they get buffed to OP because I love the playstyle.. whatever the case what matters more to me is that my experience and skill with the class seperates me from a noob just picking it up. I dont lose to brainless Mesmer because I refuse to simply think “oh theyre OP im screwed.” I lose and I think “kitten what could I have done better?”

TL;DR: Mesmer dont need a nerf, Eles need a buff. Mesmer PU builds are easymode but alots of classes have “faceroll beginner builds”

Offhand sword is currently the least viable offhand outside of PvE boss fights. It received some love with the specialization patch, and is definitely better than it was before but I feel it’s still extremely hard to justify taking it over other options.

It’s not that the weapon skills are bad. They’re really not, its that the weapon does not offer anything that another offhand can’t offer.

• Phantasm is strong, but only single-target and doesn’t live as long as iDuelist.
• Daze is good, but cast time takes too long to be exactly reliable and is not useful for … anything beyond proccing interrupt traits.
• Counter leaves you wide open during animation, making it more often a liability than not.

SUGGESTIONS

Illusionary Reposte – The damage aspec of this skill is great, but isn’t much of a payoff when you’re so kitten vulnerable to getting hit. I’d suggest either add a .5 second evade inbetween the block and counter or make the counterattack a small (Mantra of Pain-sized) AoE centered on the triggering target.

Sword is currently the only offhand who’s non-phantasm skill is rather lackluster. It pales in comparison to Temporal Curtain, Magic Bullet, Prestige, and Tides of Time.

(While we’re at it, can we change the placeholder animation for when the Mesmer counters to look like something that isn’t a phantasm summon?)

Counter Blade – Increase projectile size/ Add damage to projectile / Reduce Cooldown / Increase Cast Speed / Rework.

Right now the second part of the skill just doesn’t work right. The projectile is a flimsy little Winds of Chaos bolt that goes largely ignored, even if it does hit. I’d suggest making the projectile slightly more impactful, atleast enough to make the opponent actually care about dodging it.

• Counter Blade reduces it’s own cooldown by 10s when you interrupt with it.

I’d really love this, would make the sword/sword style more fast paced, skill-based, and competitive against other offhands.

• Counter Blade projectile increased in both size and velocity. Increased casting speed.

While less interesting, this attack is supposed to be a piercing projectile, but it is currently too small and slow to make a difference.

• Counter Blade inflicts damage/cripple/weakness/taunt OR steals a boon/transfers a condi on hit.

I don’t mean inflicts ALL those condis, but one of the above would be a nice addition. Stealing a boon or transfering off a condition would also make the weapon more of a tempting choice.

• Counter Blade teleports you to your target / Counter Blade inflicts 2s daze and teleports your target to you.

Sword is a weapon that features good mobility, why not expand on this?

• Counter Blade inflicts “Hex of Frustration” for 3 seconds, skills opponents use while hexed time inflict 2x confusion on them.

Hex-based mechanics will probably be a new Elite spec, but still.. would love!

• Counter Blade inflicts 2s daze and 2s cripple

Simple and easy, though less effective than the other options.. the anet way?

• Counter Blade creates 1 sword clone on hit, 2 sword clones on interrupt

Anet plz!

Whatever the case, something needs to be done. Offhand sword struggles to stay relevant versus so many strong options. Even the torch, largely taken for only one skill, sees far more play than sword.

Amadeus.5687:

Celeras.4980:

I don’t understand what you think you are showcasing in that ranked video. You got a single kill in the match at about 10 minutes in 1v1 versus a Ranger, barely. The rest of the time your team had the numbers in virtually every encounter. Your damage and utility didn’t seem very impressive, and your sustain certainly wasn’t either as you dipped fairly quickly any time the numbers weren’t skewed in your favor. I didn’t notice a single instance in which Chaotic Interruption “kept someone in a well”. And on top of that you threw your shield into obstructions no less than 5 times, which just makes it looks inconsistent at best.

I didn’t even see anything to show that you even fulfilled a role for the match. What did you think you were showing us?

His quite literally just showing “Here’s a video of the build in a ranked match.”

I was, but really, that’s no excuse.

Celeras has a very good point; I didn’t check the quality of the two match videos I posted… I literally just went “Oh look this was a close match” and “oh look skcamow is in this one!” Without actually taking a critical eye to the quality of the gameplay.

I wish I had seen this last night when I coulda edited the thread with better videos, but to address what you said Celeras, you’re absolutely right.. That first video is especially poor quality, both in demonstrating the build and the gameplay in general. My hope was to show an interesting match, because a lot of the other matches were do often heavily skewed to one side (500-200 ish) but better showed the build in action.

So tonight I intend to remedy that, and address each criticism bit-by-bit. I appreciate the honesty.

(Also, as you can see.. The Tides of Time “fix” didn’t quite work as the wave still dies on walls… It’s supposed to bounce off.)

Speaking of Lockdown, I think that many agree the interrupt traits are a very fun playstyle, and should be expanded upon. Consider adding interrupt traits that reward skillful use of interrutps and punish the opponent (like Chaotic Interruption)that could function sort-of like how Hexes did in GW1. Our 25 point Grandmaster in Domination is pretty forgettable, and either needs to be doubles or changed. A change like “Dazes last 20% longer” or “Refresh Phantasm recharges on Interrupt (30-40 second CD)” would make the trait investment worthwhile without being overpowered IMO.

Confounding Suggestions is a good-ish trait as it is, and if it were to be improved, the only change I’d ask is that it extends the duration of stuns around 20%. We only have 2 sources of stuns in the trait and our Signet of Domination. A 20% increase, even with Sigil of Paralysis would have our stuns as nearly long-lasting as they were pre-patch (which led to about 6 second lockdowns every 30 seconds) without increasing the daze duration and making it too OP.

Furious Interruption doesn’t deserve to be a Grandmaster, and even in the Master tier it can’t compete with Deceptive Evasion and it’s current state can barely compete with Phantasmal Fury. If it also granted the Mesmer 3 seconds of Fury for the duration of the quickness, THEN it’d be worth taking note.
Or maybe, replace it with a trait like “Phantasmal Intervention – Phantasms attack on interrupt”? I mean.. it is Christmas Winterday, right?

If you read this far down, I really appreciate it man. I really think MEsmer already has almost all the ingrediets it needs to deliver on some strong, viable shut down. (an article on it here: Lockdown – Making People Hate You And if any of these proposed changes make it into the patch, maybe I’ll forgive out mods for not Stickying the Mesmer guide that’s been here for a month that I spent like 8 gad-kitten hours on! /grumble

I’m not afraid at all.

Anet, despite the rampant pessimism and short-sightedness that tend to infect people (Not saying you. Just saying that once someone goes “Mesmer unviable!” or “Thief OP!” people rather simply blindly agree than see for themselves. And if they do see for themselves, their vision is now more jaded because of the aforementioned claims)

Anet did very good with GW1 and from what I heard.. It didn’t come instantly, it didn’t come within a year, it took a while to get it down. I have the same hopes for GW2 because despite the constant complains, the game is constantly improving bit by bit. Not every patch is perfect of course and theres been plenty stupid, rage-inducing changes (coughConfusion*cough*) and if this isn’t the “Whack-A-Mole” balance they were trying to prevent then I don’t know what is… but still.

As for PvP.. I’m pretty sure we’re only “unviable” at the highest levels of play. And even then I’m a little skeptical about that. How many builds were actually learned and tested for sPvP? How many specs were theoretically trashed before they even had a chance? I think most high-end players simply don’t have the time to fish through builds and invent something that works when the next class around the corner already has what they’re looking for, thus the state of Mesmer. I highly doubt most normal players can’t run a Mes and still do fine. I really think its more a hardcore dedicated team composition issue.. and who knows how that’ll shift in the next 3 months.

I simply don’t think they’ll let a class sit obscure or useless. Even if Mesmer are in a slump right now(certainly doesn’t feel that way, especially in PvE) I’m fairly certain we’ll see some changes. So far the last two patches have given us some buffs… Weird, awkward buffs that no one asked for (Null Field? Counter blade?) but buffs nonetheless.

I honestly think they’re looking at improving our AoE game. I wont be surprised if confusion gets a bit of a buff too.

TL:DR: I highly doubt we’ll be nerfed to the ground and just left there. Thats lousy design. Anet listens to .. uh …. criers, and right now Mesmer voices are louder than the rest.

People have always hated Mesmers, our mechanics make us a rather difficult fight on any level. People hate us more now because some of our bad skills/traits/builds have been made good and some of our good skills/traits/builds have become great.

Some of the rage is justified (instant stealth oneshot bursts), but most of it really isn’t.

While some people have legitimate concerns, the majority of the rage comes from angry parrots who don’t really understand the class much at all.

We Mesmer are an extremely versatile group, capable of excelling as tanks/bunkers (Immortal Mesmer), burst damage (Shatter-cat), and much more. We are the only class that can manipulate Confusion into a viable build, and we can manipulate boons better than any other class.

There are plenty of Shatter Mesmer builds, Confusion builds, Phantasm Mesmer builds, even Mantras have been gaining more and more attention; I think its time that another type of Mesmer, who’s popularity and viability has been steadily growing, to gain a bit of spotlight.

THE INSPIRATION/ SUPPORT MESMER

The support-based builds created around Signet of Inspiration and often (I’d argue manditorily) climbing the Inspiration tree for the incredible support traits it offers. Inspiration Mesmers are the masters of boon-support, capable of applying 6-8 boons at once. Many players, even other Mesmers, do not know that this type of Mesmer exists.
Many that do know of their existance question it’s viability, especially since it’s one of the most difficult Mesmers to play.

Boon sharing is only one form of Mesmer support. Though boons becomes a lot easier if you tell the group to gather on Chaos Storm and they see the Sig of Insp. results consistently. That also helps train less skilled players to stick together, learn to combo off eachother, and pay more attention to eachother’s skills. The best form of support is helping someone learn and improve.

ADDING SUPPORT TO YOUR BUILD
Between reflects (Feedback, traited focus), boon sharing (Sig of Inspiration), Mantra heals (Inspiration X), Condition Removal (Phantasmal Disenchanter, Null Field, Shattered Conditions), and damage/death prevention (Phantasmal Defender, Illusion of Life) You’ve got all kinds of hand-holding options for your allies. And you can do most of that without much sacrifice to whatever is your favored playstyle. I’d advise going 0/0/20/20/0 for whichever build you make, that way you get a nice 20% boon duration and a way to trait into any of the above support options. Oh, make sure to drop Chaos Storm on downed allies while you rezz them if you’re using a staff.

I wanted to compile a list of Inspiration Builds & testimonials to their viability. Please feel free to share any builds or stories I may have missed in the comments.
————-

• Fuscia’s Doctor Mesmer
  A condition damage(Apothecary’s) support build with very high healing power
• Fay’s Panacea Mantra Build
  Arguably one of the the best healing builds a Mesmer could create. Cannot share Vigor, but instead creates a Feedback shield when rezzing every 10 secs.
• Chaos Archangel’s The Chaos Maestro
  Capable of administering every boon with strong reflective and group healing abilities.
• Pyroathiest’s Supporting Phantasm Build
  Though this build doesn’t use Signet of Inspiration, it still climbs 30 into the Inspiration tree, can apply up to 6 boons with the Staff, and offers strong heals alongside damaging Phantasms
• AkkiChan’s Boon Dispenser Build
  Has the maximum boon duration you can obtain from runes to supply long lasting buffs.
• skcamow’s Mesmer Paladin
  The Paladin build utilizes Focus and Staff’s interrupts to gain boons while maintaining decent damage and high regen.
• Kasama’s WvW & Kasama’s sPvP Inspiration Mesmer.
  A build tailored to manipulate CONFUSION for damage.
• jportell’s Protection Master
  Offers superior team defense via ungodly amounts of Protection.
• Handin’s Glamorous Medic
  A support build specifically tailored to save lives in the middle of WvW zergs

Zoser.7245:

Wheres is the mesmer compensation about the off-hand weapon? I have not counted how many new utilities receive the guardians but al least 3 + 5 skills from the longbow + heal + elite + 3 new active virtues…. Our F5 perhaps?

Even John Peters has opened a new thread in the guardian’s subforum to receive ideas about how change the tomes.

Pretty sure the compensation comes from F5 and Alacrity. Its looking like we’ll be able to manage our cooldowns well enough to make all our other skills recharge much faster, opening up new combinations, builds, and making certain utilities much more lucrative.

(Double portals. Double Illusions of Life., ECT.)

Whether or not that is good enough compensation remains to be seen, but I already see potential for some interesting plays.

@Sticker: I’m gonna just.. Scrape a little bit of salt off your cheek for my fries if ya don’t mind. =P So they got a larger preview than us, not that big of a deal. Besides, Dragon Hunter is a harder sell than Chrono. I’ve seen more than enough to be hyped for HoT.

(Also. I shall be seeing you in-game soon. Come transfer to Pyros server so we can WvW!)

Unrelenting assault gets worse the more people are on the battlefield. The heal skill is rather situational..

I don’t even play Rev, but its a new playstyle and thus new kind of opponent to face.. At least TRY to figure out some weaknesses before crying OP

Veruah.5302:

@Chaos I’ve read a lot of your lockdown stuff as I’ve been leveling up. I come from a past of playing Enchanter in EQ so lockdown casters have always been a draw for me. Since I am so close to 80 I figure I may as well finish it out and see how it goes. I guess with the sword nerf I will try to make a GS/Staff lockdown build work.

@Swish I never realized how many limitations Power Block had. I figured it probably couldn’t lock out a #1 skill. Suddenly the other grandmaster trait there looks a lot more appealing (Chaotic Suggestions I think?).

To be honest, all that stuff about viability and how important a specific setup is only really starts to matter at the most competitive levels of PvP. In most cases you’ll be fine as long as your build is solid and you’re of decent skill. More often then not people like to blame the meta for their own personal faults. “Of course I lost, you’re a Hambow warrior.” or “Play a spec that takes skill” are usually the warcries of a wounded ego.

If you play lockdown Mesmer and you’re good at it, you’ll definitely be able to control opponents, you’ll have fun, and you will definitely find whatever way you need to be effective. Everything else is noise.

(Also, I’m still sticking with Sword/Focus – Staff. 1h Sword isn’t broken or bad in PvP, we just lost some of our fancy techniques with it.)

Did someone say… Boonstorm?!

With the updated traits, it’s never been a better time to play a support Mesmer and like with other build-types, we have options! From how the traits are looking, we’ll be able to create sustain/healer-type Mesmer and boon-sharing Mesmer. Tealots and I have been tossing around different ideas, but I wanted to share some of the research I’ve been doing to see if anyone else has any insights or could pick up something I missed. Here’s what I’m juggling:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-RZ-FF;0kUk61S7kW-71;9;4UVS;0257247048;4d3X4U;1F-03F-035J

• Sword+Focus/Staff or Staff/Greatsword
• DOMINATION: Confounding Suggestions, Signet Mastery, Power Block
• CHAOS: Master of Manipulation, Chaotic Dampening, Chaotic Interruption/Bountiful Disillusionment
• INSPIRATION: Medic’s Feedback, Warden’s Feedback/Restorative Illusions, Illusionary Inspiration

CURRENT PROS

• Boonsharing over 9000! With Mimic-Signet, Signet, and trait, we’re tripling over on our boonsharing. Do a little /dance in Chaos Storm, interrupt one or two folks, and let the boons fly.

• AoE Distortion With all these signets, it won’t be hard to protect allies with some team-wide distortion. Don’t forget that F4 distortion should also count… Which does make me curious about Signet of Illusions.

• Decent damage With the addition of iPerosona and iElasticity, our damage output should definitely be respectable especially if speccing Chaotic Interruption

• Dat Lockdown Tho I really just wanted Signet Mastery.. But hey, why not guarantee a stun when Chaos Storm dazes? Why not inflict weakness on enemies along with Immobilize and Blind/Cripple/Chill? All the better for iWarlock, which would gain a 30% damage boost per interrupt.

CURRENT ISSUES

• Bountiful Disillusionment(BD) vs Chaotic Interruption(CI) – While BD seems like the obvious choice here, I can’t help but keep glancing over at Chaotic Interruption. BD now offers some fantastic boons, such as Vigor and Fury, to allies while granting a decent amount of shareable Stability. Chaotic Interruption is more of a gamble, but offers a bigger reward. Using Focus/Staff it isn’t uncommon to interrupt 2 or more people with a single Temporal Curtain or Chaos Storm, and since each interrupt grants 5x Might + a random boon, CI could offer a better payoff. (Yes, I realize I barely abbreviated CI. xD)

• Zerker Amulet While this build isn’t meant to burst people down, I have always struggled to find a reason not to use Zerker in a power build. Especially now with such frequent access to protection! The problem, though, is in the role of the build. Would Celestial be better? Perhaps Valkyrie to stay alive longer? Uncertain still.

• No Deceptive Evasion I don’t know if DE is necessary here, since this a team build and if I’m in a 1v1, I’m doing something wrong. But.. Its DE. That’s a loss to both offense AND defense.

• No Blink/Decoy Still torn here, but I’m hoping Signet of Midnight’s stunbreak/Distortion/Cleanse along with Bountiful Disillusionment’s Stability should provide enough defense.

test footage
Zerker
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=emDqmVPHkaw

bunker
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4FJHe3H3LAU

duels with Skcamow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYT303aRVRU

Ah.. Decisions. So far the build is shaping up to herald in a glorious return of boonsharing, but still has a few utility kinks to work out. I’d love to hear any and all opinions on how to optimize!

NEW CLIPS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6S3N7FrVS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8qTaOC1G-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjEtEu8nuBw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnIpTXefOSM

MATCH FOOTAGE (WITH NOTES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEu8v0RD8Ps

Entropy.4732:

Okay, I got it. Sorry, but this contest is over. Thanks for playing.

Illusionary Victim
———————————
Creates a realistic decoy (or clone if there are more than 1 foes) of an enemy in a downed state, spamming abilities, calling to be rezzed. When foes rush over and start to heal the downed player, at first everything seems normal. Heal numbers pop up on the screen. But when the "player"’s health bar is full and they are rezzed (or when you hit the skill again), a shatter effect happens instead, damaging foes surrounding the illusionary victim and dropping a chaos storm field. Damage on the shatter is increased by how many foes are rezzing the victim.

Awww yeah.

That is… SO creative. Pretty awesome, dude. But it’d only work in sPvP/WvW.

But it does inspire a couple ideas..

• Illusory Alliance
  Creates a clone of the target enemy, complete with their statistics and skills.

Or something a bit more sinister..

• Illusory Betrayal
  Target enemy looks like the player, and vice versa. Allies cannot attack you, but target’s allies can attack them.

Chokolata.1870:

I feel like this is a proper question to ask. And before you attack me that I need to learn to play, I actually know the build and what it does.

My question is, since Anet is very heavy handed in nerfing builds that are bad for the game, why is Mesmer allowed to constantly stealth and just dodge all the while pumping out insane amounts of conditions that, even if you fully go for condition removal, are simply impossible to cleanse.

This is from a Ranger and Warrior perspective.

To answer your question, its because the build is smothered by myths and falsetalk than facts. Condition Mes has already been heavily nerfed and the majority of its passive play has been stripped with the removal of clone-death traits.

Here’s a tip against any Condi mes, pu or otherwise: Only one attack does burst damage and there’s only one condition you need to worry about cleansing: Torment. The only way they can do meaningful damage to an opponent that pays attention is with the scepter block/counter. Players like Ozzy shouldn’t even be able to touch you. Confusion damage should be minor in most cases.

All the stealth and other stuff is just fluff, a PU Mesmer is at a disadvantage in PvP and is one of the least useful Mesmer builds when played improperly (which is 90%) of the time. Anet doesn’t balance around duels, and when’s the last time you’ve heard of a Condi Mesmer being a threat outside of a 1v1?

Wait.. Why am I a troll? O.o

Is a troll just.. Anyone who doesn’t agree with you? Cuz usually big brother Ross rolls in and does all the trolling anyone ever needs.

.. Can we get this thread locked yet?

(Also, Ross, I hate you. -_-)

Frenchfry, I mean no offense whatsoever honestly it seems like you like to argue for the sake of arguing. And you throw hyperbole around like a major league pitcher.

You keep challenging people and telling them they’re wrong based off your… opinion? You’re arguing against proven facts and numbers with situational scenarios and your own ideals, but you’re not providing anything (no math, no videos, no references) to back your claims up.

Your own personal experiences are not the be-all-end-all, and you’re making it very difficult to separate fact from opinion. You can’t keep saying things like “tons of places you can do that.” or “plenty of quickness without shield” with no background to your claims. For one, the only other time Chronomancer has Quickness is with Seize the Moment, but that’s a pretty drastic change to the build.

So please, just a bit less confrontation would be appreciated unless you know your facts are solid.

Solori.6025:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

But I feel that you’re generalizing things and making it seem like it’s more than what it is.

Sorry if I came off that way, forgive me though if I fear we will be nerfed prematurely and have little to no room in the new meta. We have always been overshadowed by other classes to the point where portal is our only real niche, and if someone gets a specialization with glamours and a portal that niche for us will then be gone.
I would much rather see the meta evolve with us still in it, than for us to be overshadowed by other classes for another year or three.

Right now shatter bursts are instant. 0-100 out-of-stealth kills. THAT is the main complaint. I’ve seen and done it myself, and I can agree that in it’s current state it IS too strong.

Based on the fact that everyone now is glass?

Yes you can now 0-100 someone.
But so can everyone else.
this is one of the main things I and others have been telling people.

EVERYONE is glass, and EVERYONE is doing insane damage.
not just mesmers

I think Anet needs to shave power off of every amulet and reduce power from gear.
We have a power creep from multiple sources. But it effects everyone.

I see your point, and we should definitely wait for the meta to settle. But people shouldn’t blame others for seeing some obviously overly strong faults in their class just because the other class forums are afraid or unwilling to admit the same.

One thing is for certain, as a community we shouldn’t be turning on eachother instead of respecting different opinions. There’s way too much “Your opinion is WRONG and you should be ashamed! You disgust me!” going on right now.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/18/the-future-of-guild-wars-2-detailed

“New Skill and Traits
We’ll begin regularly adding new skills and traits to the game for each profession to expand your characters and builds! You will be able to earn these new traits and skills by unlocking them. To go along with this, we’ll expand the content and options to earn skill points to help encourage players to experience different challenges and content throughout the world. These skills and traits will be designed to be balanced with the existing skills/traits we currently have in the game, and will simply compliment and expand the range of abilities and tactics available to each profession. Both WvW and PvE players can acquire skills and traits, and additional means of earning skill points will be addressed for both core content areas.
The regular addition of skills and traits that you can earn as you play provides us an extremely stable, easily expandable reward system that fits neatly into the pillars of progression and advancement that Guild Wars 2 are all about. Your character will be able to grow and change for years to come without invalidating everything you’ve earned so far..”

New traits?! New skills! Sounds awesome. What would you like to see for the Mesmer? Personally I’d like to see.. iMage replaced with AoE condition & boon Phantasm (Torment/Protection?) to match the AoE condition of torch’s Prestige// Some traits for Chaos Armor// New Manipulations&Glamours. Something with a teleport or some kind of Glamour-lockdown mechanic… Hm, maybe some kind of ethereal field that makes enemy skills all the wrong buttons for its duration.

.. Thoughts? Hopefully this thread can get some dev attention so they can see what the Mesmer community wants. Hell, the sPvP forums have devs reminding them they’re watching all the time. THAT’D BE NICE FOR ONCE! =[

Edit: Some really great suggestions. I’ll list them here.

• Shattered Delusions - “Remove all stacks of confusion on target. Deals X damage to the target per stack removed.” – Jijimuge

• Mainhand Pistol / Focus - 90% of Mesmer everywhere. Yes. Official statistic. I traveled around the world to find out.Trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you.. I’m a Mesmer.

• More AOE skills - Zumi

• Offhand Dagger - Many of those above 90%

• Speed Signet - Practically every Mesmer that has an alt or is tired of speccing Centaur Runes.

• AOE zone that applies Torment and/or Confusion. Perhaps from a Phantasm -  True Seeker

• Pulsing AOE Pull like Vortex/Into the Void. // A skill that increases enemy cooldowns and/or decreases ally cooldowns. - tornjorn

• Doppleganger “Create a clone that mimics the user exactly for 10 sec.” – Requiem

• Visage Swap “User and enemy switch appearance, allowing for the enemy to be targeted by their allies.” – Blaeys

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_mesmer_skills

• GW1’s Echo - “This skill copies the next skill you use.” – Wolfield

• GW1’s Panic, Fevered Dreams, Vision of Regret - AndrewSX

• GW1’s Blackout - “Both user and target cannot use skills.” – PHARAOH

• GW1’s Drain Enchantment - “Drains boons from target, heals user for each boon drained.” -castlemaniac

• GW1’s Arcane Mimicry “For 20 seconds copies the elite skill of target” – ArmageddonAsh

djtool.8372:

I don’t know why anyone would care. Beating this guy or that guy doesn’t get you paid or laid.

Wait.. you don’t have a little person in a box that pops out to “reward” you for every badkid you stomp?

… Was I the only one who thought to do that?

THE BUILD
Traits & Skills

Sword* / Focus* – Staff
Mantra of Recovery / Feedback* / Veil* / Signet of Inspiration / Mass Invisibility*
0/10/30/30/0*
or 0/20/20/30/0 (WvW – Deceptive Evasion & Shattered Conditions)

• Heal numbers assume you are using Cleric’s or Magi’s armor & trinkets.
  Superior Runes of Altruism
  Superior Sigil of Life* – 2x Superior Sigil of Battle*
  Chocolate Omnomberry Cream.
  (THERE IS NO SPECIFIC ARMOR, and only 20 Chaos / 15 Inspiration is mandatory, allowing for creative flexibility * =Can be altered based on personal taste)

10\DUELING II, VI
Your damage mostly comes from crits off iWarden. With the proper gear:

/Phantasmal Fury will give your Phantasms 46% crit chance which is crucial if you don’t want your friends to laugh at your pitiful damage behind your back. Having a base crit chance of 25% is important to proc Critical Infusion which is essentially your own personal perma-vigor.
/Protected Mantras adds a significant amount of Toughness to you AND your phantasms everytime you charge a mantra. Great if you’re adding heals to your support.

30\CHAOS V*, X*,VIII
While Boon Duration and Toughness are important to this build, you’d be just fine with at least 20 points in Chaos specifically for Bountiful Interruption. Other good traits:
/Debilitating Dissipation is great for the AoE Weakness (-50% damage chance) it can apply.
/Illusionary Defense Improves your passive tanking ability.
/ Master of Manipulation since any of the Manipulation Skills benefit the build.
/Prismatic Understanding is our best way to gain protection.
/Chaotic Dampening makes staff more comfortable to use.

This tree will allow you to passively gain 10 seconds of regeneration(atleast 3000HP) when your health hits 75% as well as gain 3 seconds of protection every 15 seconds. Technically it procs every time you regenerate, but you’ll always be regenerating. Not only does that help your survivability, but its good to keep in mind when you’re about to drop your Boon Storm.

30*\INSPIRATION III,VIII*
The Inspiration tree holds the most important traits for this build, and lordy there are a lot of fine selections here. Yet again, while 30 points are recommended, no more than 20 points are required. Medic’s Feedback/ Glamour Mastery/Mender’s Purity/Vigorous Revelation/ Restorative Mantras , /Warden’s Feedback are all very strong choices in a support build. Vigorous Revelation is arguably the most crucial trait to take, followed by Warden’s Feedback. The minor traits vastly improve Phantasm performance, with Phantasmal Healing being providing your main source of Regeneration.

•Restorative Mantras adds a reliable healing element to your playstyle. In general, your Restorative Mantras healing is most effective on yourself and other classes who have around 15k-20k Vitality.
• Learn to cast Mantra of Pain > Mantra of Recovery > Mantra of Pain in that order. In less than 10 secs, you’ll have healed your team for 8400HP, (And Regeneration would heal at least 3000HP in 10 seconds). It is NOT recommended to sit back and spam mantra heals in a desperate attempt to save lives. You’ll fall behind and give everyone an excuse to blame their incompetence on you.

• Since you only require 20 in Chaos/Inspiration to maintain this build, there are 30 flexible points to add wherever you’d like. (Recommended: 25 Illusions / 5 Dueling)

• Runes of Altruism allow you to proc 3 stacks of Might for 15 seconds, and Fury for 8 seconds whenever you heal. With the recommended boon duration (45%), you can keep reapplying this effect every time Might fades. Mantra of Recovery is best for this.

RUNE VARIANTS
- 2xSuperior Rune of Water 2xSuperior Runes of the Monk 2xMajor Rune of Sanctuary
(+25% boon duration at the cost of Might & Fury on heal. The most boon duration you can obtain from runes)
- 6x Runes of Dwayna
( AoE Regeneration on Healing. I’d prefer this if it didn’t also exchange 15% boon duration for 20% regeneration duration. )
-6x Runes of Lyssa
(Boon Storm + Mass Invis[All Boons] + Prismatic Understanding = OMFG)

This weekend I’d like to try and launch the:

• Mesmer/Thief dungeon runs with [Teef]

• 5-man Mesmer squad on Sunday.

In the following weekends I’ve had ideas for a..

• Mesmer rock band.

• Portal Puzzle Contest

• Jumping Puzzle Race

These ideas aren’t fully fleshed out yet, so anybody has anything to contribute would be appreciated (especially figuring out a portal game)

While DE is nice, and if I had a choice, I’d chose DE..

I think that IP would make more sense as a default ability. I think the Mesmer should count as a shatter by default.

However, seeing as how they made Aquatic Benevolence (Grandmaster XIII for Eles) into a minor, I could see that easily happening to DE.

( NOTE: I ran out of space in the original post, so my second post in this thread features my updated experiences with the build )

So I was hella excited for Aquatic Benevolence (+25% outgoing heals), hoping among hopes that it’d allow me to finally play a true and effective healer spec. So I put a build together and ran some tests and so far…

IT WORKS!

It works. It works so well.

I was scared this trait would be essentially useless in that even with the 35% increase the heals wouldn’t be enough to make any noteable difference, but I was happily proven wrong after a few hours of research and theorycrafting these past couple days with a build similar to this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISLDW4A+MAdEGAoMcxkRBRKPiZGbA-TkAAyCsI8S5lzLjXSvseN+A
(Note: Currently torn between Water Cooldowns and Boon Removal on Water Swap. Right now I’m running cooldowns)

I’m using runes of the monk (Boon duration & +10% outgoing heals), and sigil of benevolence (.5% outgoing heals on kill) and Energy (preciously I used Sigil of Renewal ) with a celestial rune in an 0/0/2/6/6 setup. This trait so far has been absolutely awesome for my purposes. In Team Death Match my build keeps my entire team topped off (was PUGs vs PUGs though). The only challenge I had was ensuring no one died like.. ever.

So I recorded some of my progress on the skills. Skills in parenthases are how much it affects me personally. This is with Staff – Celestial Amulet & 30 water, +35% outgoing healing and no charges from Benevolence:

Water Elemental: 5,000*

Healing Rain: 329x 15 = 4935(3660), 7470 w/Soothing Mist

Geyser: 1349 x3 = 4047 (1035 x3 =3105)

Evasive Arcana Water Dodge: 2985

Water Attunement Swap (Cleansing Wave): 2196* (1757)

Water Blast Finisher: 2028

Regeneration: 329 (244)

Soothing Mist: 169

So basically, this means..

• Dodging in Water Attunement is always preferable than BLASTing a water field in Earth Attunment. Larger heal AND aoe condi removal.
• Soothing Mist + Regen = 500 health per second for your team. Essentially giving AoE Healing Signet.
• Haven’t calculated “Heal allies on weapon swap.” I think it’s about 1k
• Numbers with an asterisk (*) are estimated and are likely higher than those displayed.
• All of this ignores the fact that others will be contributing heals & healing themselves as well.

So far this build has been working surprisingly well. I’ve been recording footage of some of my tests and once I clean up the vids a bit I’d be happy to post them. This trait makes elementalist have hands down the best healing in the game and makes it possible to play an actual pure support/healer role in PvP without entirely screwing over your damage.

The best thing about it is that -keeping with the prestige of playing a staff Ele- it’s not easy. This isn’t a build where you can simply mindlessly spam heals and assume you’re playing at 100% effectiveness. Most support players know that heals are only 50% of the role. You also have to effectively CC, deal noticeable damage to have some form of pressure, and share the right boons at the right time. This requires good positioning, excellent awareness, a general knowledge of combo fields/finishers, and sufficient skill with the staff weapon. No mindless healbotting here.

The build is awesome in Team Death Match, can bunk surprisingly well and offers unparalleled team support from heals, boons, and CC. I’m scared to say it, but Elementalist is slowly worming its way into becoming my main if this build continues to prove effective.

quBit.6437:

Guys…. F5 is NOT a compensation for only getting a offhand weapon.
This would imply that every new elite specialisation weapon skill is better than the old weapon skills and therefore you need compensation because only getting 2 new OP skills leaves you with 3 old bad weapon skills on your skillbar.

I, um.. What?

quBit.6437:

That’s not how it works. Getting less NEW things, does not justify getting more POWERFUL things. this only works in an equation where ‘new = more powerful’.

I’m not understanding what you’re saying. How exactly would it be “fair” if we lost a shatter for f5 and still got shafted out of 3 new skills?

Necro got a new weapon GS, a set of shouts, AND a new Deathshroud that goes with the new weapon. They got 15 new skills altogether. Guardians only got a new weapon, some traps and 3 new virtues. Should they also be complaining?

SlimChance.6593:

What gets me a little irritated is that our new “Continuim Shift” F5 is supposed to compensate us for only getting the OH shield. And here in the trait changes, Engineer gets what? That’s right a new F5 kit. And we still haven’t seen his specialization or new weapon..

I feel that its not the extra button that counts, its what it does. Continuum Shift has far more possibilities and is much stronger than Engi’s F5. That’s not even considering Alacrity.

Engineers got a new kit, but we got so many buffs and reworks to core mesmer that I don’t see how we really could be mad or feel shafted in any way. Just look at Mimic, Moa, TimeWarp, ect.

Pyroatheist.9031:

That being said, the radius is way too small for it to matter. You have to get intimate with anyone before they receive the effects of the mantra.

And that’s why my Mesmer prefers a team of ladies. Preferably norn. “C’mere baby-gurl… Fixed, Focused, Concentration.. Giggity.”

But just to point out.. 30 Dom + 20 Dueling + 50% boon duration = Around 45% Stability uptime.

Hey Guang, would you use Mantras in dungeons without any of the traits or would you find Harmonious a necessity?

Much appreciated man! Sooner than I anticipated tbh.

Dude you just made every WvW mesmer everywhere convert to Chrono with Time Marches On.

SLOW ON INTERRUPT! CALLED IT!!

• Activating a shatter gives your illusions super speed. Very clever, I’m liking that.

• Well trait is not worth it imo, no more than 2 wells will be in any build and those cooldowns, even with alacrity, makes the trait unappealing.

• All master traits are legit, hard choice there.

• Lost Time and Chronophantasma are very strong, Quickness on Shatter doesn’t seem able to compete unless traited with Furious Interruption

Swish.2463:

While unpopular it’s nice to note that mirror gains 2s of extra reflection time now totalling 4s lovely for use on Rangers..

Anyway as much as I want mimic + iol to be amazing I can’t help but feel that if you need to provide this much of clutch support then something is very wrong with your team or your teams skill levels.

IoL used to see play in high level PvP way back when, but was deemed not as valuable as portal. I don’t know if running Mimic+Illusion of Lifemeans you have a bad team or a very unique comp but it does bother me that people aren’t experimenting more. Who knows what we could discover or how good this stuff could actually be?

I think what it comes down to is how smooth the support is. If it doesn’t interrupt your rotation or play in any way, then it’s worthwhile. Right now it seems you only need Dom/Dueling for a nice burst of power for the signature 1-shot bursts (and to flood the PvP forums with tears) and utilities feel a bit more flexible than before since we have more natural survivability. Will this ever become a thing? Idk. But there is potential here and it’s worth exploring.

Hey Frenchfry, here’s a video of a boonshare Mesmer (Dueling/Inspiration/Chaos) in a match. The first fight in the video should be enough to demonstrate what boonshare can do.

I can gain near perma protection in just about any battle (with maybe a few second intervals without), if I made the effort I can easily share 15+ seconds of protection to the team every 25 or so seconds.

This isn’t including Chronomancer, and if I made a change I’d throw a well in place of null field and time warp and my heal. Swapping to chrono boonshare would make me lose out on dueling, thus fury sharing unless I use Runes of Altruism. On boonshare Mesmer, I can have perma regen/might/fury/protection/swiftness along with high uptimes of Aegis/Retaliation and a decent amount of Vigor. There are several burst boonshares in the clip.

On Chrono, you can definitely have perma-protection, and alacrity sharing isn’t very difficult either, as you can see in the videos here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Tik-Tok-Chrono-Well-Support-Lockdown/first#post5481932

This isn’t even considering the upcoming changes, where one single Well of Recall will grant 7s of alacrity to the entire team.

And for a slice of greatness, check out 1:24: and 4:35 in this clip to see what a boonshare Mes can do with a guardian (any kind of guardian, really) nearby

I just wanna point out that its really cool that when the OP got criticized in-game instead of going “wut lol kitten”, they actively seeked to improve themself and asked for help.

Props to you, dude. Need more open-minded players like this

Bryzy.2719:

Urgh another “Ranger finally got something nice so let’s QQ” thread.

Just back off and let us be viable for once.

Ironically, not a single person seriously QQ’d in this thread. And there are some compliments to the elite.

=D Reading helps.