Guild Wars 2

Mephisto Loire.8207:

Embolism.8106:

Currently Shatter builds are the most powerful Mesmer builds in terms of sheer damage. The beauty of it is that you don’t necessarily sacrifice survivability even if you go full glass cannon.

Phantasm builds are a thing of the past: Phantasms themselves are still good but are generally supplementary to Shattering.

I don’t think so. In some situations shattering either one is better than the other one.

In my opinion shattering is better for PvE versus standart mobs. you can easily spam clones and easily shatter and hit multiple enemies with it. Here shattering > phantasm.

On a PvE Boss though phantasm are better than shattering. I’ll simply spam the duelist on a bossbattle. If you are smart and place them well, you can more or less have up 3 duelists at all time through the boss battle. And this does crazy damage. 4.5-5.5k DMG with each Duelist + heavy bleedings. That is superior than any shatterbuild, kittentering does 3-4k at maximum and has even skilled a long CD.

In PvP I cannot talk because I don’t play it.

Conclusion:
PVE Mobhordes: shattering
PVE Bossfights: Phantasm

So basicaly both builds are still viable IMO.

Even then, you can simply time your phantasm shatter as they have long delays between attacks, even with Phantasmal Haste applied.
8k per warlock every 6 seconds (assuming the boss doesn’t move or AoE them) vs shatters/aa’s/skill spams and debuffs applied. It really depends. There are situations where phantasms are better, but in MOST scenario’s, shatter is better.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Biggest issue: Fights are way too short, either they burst you in 1 sec or you burst them in 2.

Or they turn tail and run for 20.

Most people use Runes of Air (super expensive), from what I gather.

Sigils, you have a lot of flexibility, but mainly get a Sigil of Energy for your Staff, and possibly an on-crit rune for one of your swords.

Personally, I prefer staff in shatter builds, but gs can be useful, it depends on whether or not you want to be more aggressive or have the utility/defensiveness.

Staff is great. I’ve been using it since a low level and I got laughed at, but I just laughed back when I would solo about 10 mobs my level without batting an eye. Radiation Field + Chaos Storm = Tons of Damage.

Standardization:

PvE: Keep 3 Phantasms up.
Warlock and Duelist: Regen spam.
Warlock: Condition spam.
Duelist and iZerker: Any situation.
Warden: No movement, huge damage.
Mage: See: PvP.

PvP: Shattercat.

For the PvE, you don’t need to worry about speccing into tons of phantasm damage. That’s just for bosses, btw.

Well, you get the idea. You can just tweak it, it’snot like my idea is the new permanent change or anything. Sheesh.

Kazhiel.8194:

Esplen.3940:

Aberrant.6749:

PvE you can’t add anything into a party that another class can’t do better other than time warp.

See, this is the wrong thinking.

If you think about it like that, then Mesmers are always useless.

The way you want to think to be useful is:

There isn’t anything that you can do that I can’t do.

Boom, suddenly, you’re at the top of the utility and a HUGE asset to all PvE groups.
I have only 1 level 80 and if I were to make another one, it would only be for more dailies.

Dailies are by account and not by char.

Fractal dailies are by char and not account. Additionally, there are jumping puzzle dailies and a few other uses of having more than 1 80.

Oh, I thought the thread said “last post 1 month ago” so I decided not to post it.

I run P/V/T/Pre since it’s a mixture of Soldier’s and Knight’s. They ARE very nice in FotM and Dungeons, but they let you take 1-4 hits, which means you should utilize that by TAKING those 1-2 hits and then mitigating the damage taken from those hits in addition to taking them, making you a sort of “dodge-tank” from WoW or another MMORPG.

My Mesmer Build

Now, I know what you’re going to say: BUT I’M NOT AN ASURAN, I DON’T WANT TO RE-ROLL.

Before you do that, utility 1/3 (skills numbered 6/8) are actually your variance skills in this build. What does that mean?

Your variance skills are your skills that are always changing based on what’s happening. In PvE, you [should] KNOW what is going to happen next and what you need.

Say I’m in the Grawl Fractal. I can run whatever I want (typically Radiation Field/Feedback) for the first part. For the second part, I typically go Radiation Field/Decoy or Mimic. For the third part, I go Null Field/Feedback. Why? In the first part, you just kill a ton of weak mobs. There are some ranged mobs, so you should run some reflects (especially helpful vs the pulls), and the Radiation Field is because they choke up. Second part, Radiation Field adds Weakness which helps whoever is up close to the boss (me and HOPEFULLY another player) and then Mimic/Decoy is if I get knocked down.

Additionally, this build is based on being an off-tank as Mesmers are not too amazing at being main-tanks. Feel free to trade things and move them around. I move out my Focus into a Pistol when I need high-single target damage against MOVING bosses. I swap out Deceptive Evasion (for Pistol Range) in some places like Ascalon/Old Tom [Asuran Fractal]. I swap out Mender’s Purity for Focus reflect on certain parts (Asuran Fractal). Etc, etc.

This build is simply a skeleton build that is easily moved around to fit a LOT of playstyles. The runes and sigils are empty because they are what you want them to be. It really works as a trait-line and I have had no problems using it for the past 3 months. Now, PvP/WvW is slightly different. If you use this build in PvE, you can go over to WvW with little problems, but sPvP would be a nightmare.

I didn’t really go too in-depth on this, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Embolism.8106:

Esplen.3940:

Solution:

All Mantras take 4 seconds to charge.
You can only have 1 mantra charging at a time. (No limit on mantras charged )
Charging a mantra does not count as a skill cast (you can cast another spell while charging).
Taking damage cancels the mantra charge and puts it on cd for an additional 4-5 seconds.

That would make them even more useless, as they would be impossible to charge in combat without using say stealth (which negates most of the point of allowing skill use through channelling).

Or you could actually be doing some damage while charging your mantras, like, say, using your weapon skills.

@Phira, the Sword2 isn’t Distortion, and never has been (by all technical regards). It was called Distortion, but never gave you “Distortion” and therefore could not stack on top of your F4, you’d have to wait ones duration to use the next for full effect. Additionally, it doesn’t get the bonus from the Reflect trait.

The Signet one, however, probably will/does stack with your F4, but I have not tested it as I don’t really like the signet choices.

Fay.2735:

Daishi.6027:

I more often have spotted them first or saw them coming. At which point gg.

Rarely while in the middle of somthing do I get 2 shoted, most of the ones who do try to gank me always end up a bit more survivabillity in their builds, and that’s gg easy. :p

The only thing that bothers me is how they can just run. Male a B-line to the closest keep or tower and hide with denying your kill the moment the fight isn’t in their favor. (So their initial burst missed)

Sometimes you catch them but before the update they’d just alt -f4 when downed. I get their thiefs but that kind of cowardice is appalling. Esp when they start the fight!

This is pretty much what I meant and the only problem I have with thieves is the ability to disengage and run for it denying you the kill when you have the upper hand. Really annoying. That or the ones that surprise you out of nowhere and kill you before you can react while distracted fighting someone else.

Ironically, that’s how I play in sPvP on my Mesmer. Decoy is a great stunbreaker for PvP.

Aberrant.6749:

PvE you can’t add anything into a party that another class can’t do better other than time warp.

See, this is the wrong thinking.

If you think about it like that, then Mesmers are always useless.

The way you want to think to be useful is:

There isn’t anything that you can do that I can’t do.

Boom, suddenly, you’re at the top of the utility and a HUGE asset to all PvE groups.
I have only 1 level 80 and if I were to make another one, it would only be for more dailies.

Ohoni.6057:

The power suit doesnt even have roleplay potential, as it vanishes so quickly. It should have a 5 minute time limit or something so we can actually use it.

Good point. It might be nice if they made it so that it had a near-infinite duration, but took damage along with you, so that it wouldn’t reasonably last more than ten to fifteen seconds in heavy combat, but could last pretty much forever outside of combat (or at least several minutes), and then the timer would only reset when it “died.” (preventing you from chain summoning it).

This might also be nice for other alternate form /weapon replaces, for example instead of the Tomes wearing off after X number of seconds, give it a limited number of “charges”, with each spell costing a different amount, and once they’re used up, it vanishes similar to the Ele summoned weapons.

Or have it’s healthbar be independant of yours, so you can sit in it for, say, your 1 minute duration. You die in it? Boom, you’re on your feet again at full hp.

^ I don’t think it’ll work as well as planned due to invisibility. Most thieves pop in and out of stealth during their moments of “relaxation”.

Rizla.1023:

are you kidding??? the normal human reaction is 200ms so being able to drop 2-3 clones in a second means any human will take at minimum 600 ms to identify the real Mesmer. Now factor in the ability to swap places with the clone and invisibility and then dodge clones this becomes an insane number, now factor in all this together and on a continuous basis over 60 seconds a human would need to identify and attack the correct target once every 1.5 seconds continuous to stay sustainable vs any other target except thief. And even at that you will only successively land an attack once every 3 attacks. Name one class that burns a Mesmer down without being a 1 shot spec? Oh i dare your to play Mesmer if you haven’t in spvp its like being a small god.

Step 1: Press Ctrl + T.
Step 2: Press T.
Step 3: Cast skill.

Pretty much, no class is OP at the moment. If you have trouble with a class, it’s because you need to improve.

At least, that’s my thinking. I hear bad things about engies and I don’t see many anymore, so I guess they’re the loners that this doesn’t apply to, if what I hear is right.

Broski, I’m level 80 and my clones do about 0-10 damage each hit. Sorry, they CRIT for 0-10.

Now go over to your Phantasms. They should do about 4-8x your damage each hit.

Solution:

All Mantras take 4 seconds to charge.
You can only have 1 mantra charging at a time. (No limit on mantras charged )
Charging a mantra does not count as a skill cast (you can cast another spell while charging).
Taking damage cancels the mantra charge and puts it on cd for an additional 4-5 seconds.

jportell.2197:

I like that last one… I like the greatsword for the vuln and the beserker. So synergic with the greater distance the greater damage… Also if you are traited right dodging and continuing to kite are really easy with a GS. I like never use a staff.

Yeah, the damage is nice while leveling, but once you get to 80 and start grouping for things, the utility off of Staff is so much nicer. Plus stacking Warlocks vs bosses is super nice, especially with Ele’s and Necros’.

Durzlla.6295:

Yes it is, you will not be able to transfer a necro armor piece over to the mesmer, this was a bug that was present early on in launch.

It was intended. GW2 dev’s posted so. I don’t have the source but it’s somewhere on the forums.

Veprovina.4876:

That means, i can just keep transmuting that mask over and over again, keeping the appearance and getting new stats all the time?

Yes, I do that all the time.

Nikku.3562:

I agree with Myxo – at lower levels my illusions were more damage soaks than anything else.

I levelled by going condition damage with staff and scepter/focus (as it can be hard to get illusions out before you’ve got a pile of utilities and traits). Then just pump out illusions, kite with the staff and watch them all go down.

It’s slow but effective. Then once you hit 40 you can get to work with decent builds.

Hence why I said Swords aren’t really useful until later levels. They can mitigate damage, sure, but they open you up for a world of pain if you can’t mitigate more than what it offers you. That, and the amount of skill to utilize a Sword properly without taking any damage is not really to be expected at level 1-20ish, especially without having all your utility skills unlocked. (Elite doesn’t make a huge difference.)

Nikku.3562:

I’d be happier with Mind Stab if it removed more than one boon. Apparently mesmers are supposed to deal well with enemy boons. But unless you spec Shattered Concentration, we only have one decent way to deal with them (Arcane Thievery) and two crap ways to deal with them (Mind Stab and the sword’s third autoattack).

Not freezing us in place when we use it would also be nice.

It used to be a hit your target skill and aoe around them. Apparently that’s op when it still only removes 1 boon.

I don’t mind having it be a skill shot, but make it remove a lot of boons or steal them or something.

Convert them into conditions would be nice (a specific condition for a specific boon type, and it would pick a boon that would get “deleted” and convert it instead. Duration stays the same, and stacks stay the same)

I actually don’t mind Mind Stab due to animation cancelling.

1-4-2-3 Where you cast everything at…. 75/95/85 of the cast bar to utilize speed. I also bound a key to press Esc so I can 1spam, but it’s not super effective in PvP, even with the bind.

Kaboom.8632:

You could try Sword + Focus. The Mesmer profession as a whole is rather lackluster AOE wise though.

He’s level 17. It’s pointless to run Sword until higher levels.

Wooyadeen.6491:

Forbiddenlove.1784:

Well I mean that I worked so hard to get the legendaries, and I can’t use it in an aspect of the game that I enjoy.

I work so hard in tPvP but i cant play WvWvW since i cant earn money in sPvP and i cant go to Way Point when i got killed (lack of money).

I work so hard in tPvP but i cant use my armor skins in town or in WvWvW.

I dont care about pve players who just wana brag . But Anet favorize PVE players (i guess they buy more gems).

So basically you’re asking for a way to show PvP armor in town?

I’ve been the proud user of a Wooden Sword for the past few months.

gwawer.9805:

The asura animation for 100 blades actually has them jump up in the air and I believe it is the same for blurred frenzy. At least the developers did not ignore the problem completely. I guess that’s what we get for playing a PVE PVP hybrid game.

But I think the Asura also have a smaller field of view so maybe that partly compensates for the difficulty in targeting them. It’s funny how some of players make the smallest model size of the sora possible and when I see that in my head I’m thinking I bet that guy is a min-maxer is bent on trying to get every advantage possible.

That would be funny if all the Asura’s were upscaled in PVP to be the same size as humans. I don’t think the Norn need to be downscaled in this case because if a player chooses to give himself a disadvantage then so be it it’s not like it’s hurting anyone.

I’m not even a hardcore sPvPer and I always make my characters the smallest they go. In GW1, all my chars were the shortest they could possibly be. In GW2, all my chars are the shortest they can possibly be. It has nothing to do with PvP for me, simply how I like to have my characters.

Mif.3471:

OP is a booger-brained bookah.

I concur with your response, but add a few additional words.

TheGuy.3568:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blurred_Frenzy is still the most OP piece of crap skill. Either other skill like it get brought up or it gets toned down (probably neither will happen).

So, because you don’t want to roll behind us or run a stunbreaker, we’re op. Could say the same for any other class if you don’t want to run a skill that prevents them from stomping you. It’s like going against a Necro with absolutely no Daze, Confusion, Condition/Boon Removal and expecting to come out on top.

Scepter is pretty useless, imo, especially in dungeons. You usually want that extra 300 range on Staff/GS and you can get it on offhand weapons making you have to go forward for an auto attack which destroys your phantasm army that you build. Might as well just go sword for 3s of invuln if you need to dodge something.

Skoteinos.4213:

Saulius.8430:

why does that build have illusionists celerity while not using any clone utilities?
yes, it doesn’t affect clone cooldowns from your weapon skills. not sure why so many mesmers fail to notice that

Oh, it doesn’t ?!

Build Edited. You’ve been very helpful. Thanks

Actually, Saulius is wrong. If you check the base cooldowns of skills (either without the trait or on any database) and then look at the cooldown with iCelerity, it does affect weapon skills.

Additionally, if you’re going to be running P/T/V (aka Soldier’s), you shouldn’t be running such a defensive “stay away from everything” build. With those weapons/traits, you could easily be using Berserkers. If you don’t want to swap your gear out, I would suggest trading either GS or Staff for S/F or S/P and… I’ll just post my build in a moment (I’m running half Soldier’s, Half Knights due to inconsistencies and laziness on my part).

Advent.6193:

Pain Inverter and Technobabble have some interesting potential uses for an Asura Mesmer. Master of Misdirection (33% more Confusion Duration), and there’re traits in Domination line that effect Dazing. Hell, tempts me to get another slot and try the combo out …

Technobabble is useless unless you don’t want a Signet buff on your character. Signet of Domination has a 2 second STUN for the same cooldown, but it gets affected by Traits.

Both an additional flaw and bonus is that it’s a Signet. You get a bonus while it’s off cooldown, but it also shows up on your buffs in WvW/sPvP.

Pain Inverter is useful to run when I have nothing else to run, however I’ve been using Phantasmal Defender instead of it as iDef is a bit more stable (unless there’s a ton of AoE damage) in terms of mitigation/damage control.

Radiation Field is amazing. As a Mesmer there are so many times where I have nothing else to run as my third skill, so I’ll just throw on a field, and Radiation Field is both a bonus field AND a damage/mitigation all bundled together.

As for the elites… Golem Suit is trash. Offensive Golem is trash. Defensive Golem is nice for the reflect, but that’s about it. I only use it when I’m hard-stacking Reflects (e.g. Asuran Fractal Boss to prevent any player in party from taking agony damage).

Zilent, it would be impossible to lure all 5 sparks within 15 seconds. Not only do they not move fast enough, but the other players would screw up the aggro on it and make it a roll of the dice AND positionbased.

Ze Dos Cavalos.6132:

Anymras.5729:

They make it take forever

To get a random group takes 1 min + 15 to finish dungeon.
16 min on a random group is to much of your time?

But they want a 3 minute coordinated run. /whine

Tomorrow. gasp

MKCT was only intense the first two completes, then it was just a bore.

This one is still intriguing after the first two completes, it’s just those first two finishes aren’t as rewarding.

High level medium hats look kinda like that, anyways.

It doesn’t affect Illusion-Summoning Skills because although they are staff skills, they are only skills that are given by staves because they are categorized as Illusion-Summoning Skills.

To reduce cooldown on those, go down the Shatter trait tree 5 points in. Because of that trait, they don’t get reduced by other weapons or it would stack and be ridiculously short (e.g. 11 second warlock).

Also, your Auto-Attack has no cooldown, just a cast time. 0 – 20% = 0.
As for Staff 2 not getting affected, I’m not sure about that.

Why would it be illegal?

Group leader dropping PLAYERS has nothing to do with what Sabyne has stated.
Group leader dropping and group leader dropping players. One word, but a lot of context.

and another 250 ectos if you want your kitten stroked by having shiny backpieces.

I really want to say:

Wait the extra 3 seconds?

But you can’t see the debuff timer on your UI when dead, so…

Both of which were fixed. You can farm it by salvaging.

Do dungeons every day —> trade tokens for high level rares or exotics.
Salvage rares/exotics.
~2g per full dungeon without tokens —> ecto and loot.

Lupi melee in P1 makes sense, especially if you alternate your high-nuke skills so there is always a high-damage AoE skill going on to ensure grub-kills.

And the level cap!

Perhaps add another path in the Asura that would let you bypass the harpies but jump for longer or require more teamwork like the knockdown stairs.

I’m 80 in all exotics/ascended, but I prefer to go with the worse group over the tryhard group. Warrior/Guardian only as a tank is a very conceited way of looking at the game.

Usually what I do is just not brag about anything, keep my chin tucked in and deal with it. I’ll give tips on what to do at parts that I know, but I’ll let the group figure things out, for the most part.

Nobody has it.
15charlimit

It’ll spawn like half the time. It’s like there are invisible walls obstructing you.