Mesmers are probably better MMs then necros….
Anything traited around condition DMG and using the trait shapper images makes clones deal DMG, certainly so with staff clones.
That’s not to say that you can’t already get two high DMG phantasms out within the first few seconds of the fight.
I don’t care much for any thief in the game because they are specifically setup to gank and not much else. 9\10 of the time if they take more DMG then you within the first 5sec they stealth and run like a kitten.
It wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if there was actually wvw score points awarded per player kill but there is not, making PK more about kitten then anything. These same thieves probably get their teeth kicked in spvp where 1v1 fighting is expected.
i chose mesmer after making a berserker geared warrior because mesmers got invul skills, clones, stealth, reflect, teleports. But if you like your berseker feel and want a kitten good armor rating then maybe consider a mix of knights and cavalier for:
with ascended gear
+1090 toughness
+728 Power
+ ~500 precision
+ ~30% crit dmg
TBH, i think toughness makes the game boring though.
mantras arnt terrible as is, its just there are better options, you only get so many slots.
Mantra of Pain is nasty on a berserker mesmer when traited for 3 tics. Can throw out iBerserker/mirror blade/mind stab and weave the 3 tics in and down people stupidly fast.
The reason mantras arnt as popular is because they dont do something spectacular. They are very straight foward and as boring as auto attacking.
Btw, favorite is mantra of pain with the mantra healing trait for dungeons, 2600 aoe heal for no investment in healing power is awesome ;-)
I dont think sword offhand is that great. Well, considering the focus has MUCH better utility. Certainly true when you trait focus for reflect and in wvw reflect is king.
Warden/illusionary leap→swap/blurred frenzy
nasty combo
There are two builds for the mesmer,
berserker
rabid
Berserker offers direct take-down dmg and you depend on blurred frenzy/distortion/clones/stealth/reflect to keep you alive.
Rabid relied on condition dmg for slow build up to rapid degening for killing and offered decent armor rating, a short teleport, distortion, clones,stealth,reflect, protection boon for survivability.
Phase Retreat/protection (staff) and Toughness(rabid) is what make condition mesmers so much harder to kill then a berserker mesmer. So you might consider taking staff and either GS or sword/focus for swap set and mixing knights/cavalier gear for Toughness, power, precision/crit dmg.
Bleed and burning still do some dmg (~half that of someone running 2k condition dmg) but you chaos storm is where you might notice a significant increase using something other then rabid gear. Chaos storms most significant source of dmg is not through conditions, but through attack dmg and its not so subtle. Its kinda silly that it benefits more from berserker gear then rabid making it awkward for a staff skill.
My berserker still hits hard frequently so for me i never even noticed nerf.
But i must say that dropping warden, illusionary leap/swap, blurred frenzy is becoming incredibly addictive.
With confusion getting chopped in half its comparable to a stack of bleed.
I was thinking about changing from berserker GS/sword/focus to Staff/Scepter/focus and picking up rabid set and now im soooo glad i didnt.
It got hit so hard that stacking to like 2k condition dmg is required just to come out ahead of what i was getting(prior to update) for free from my berserker stated mesmer running almost no condition dmg.
Infact its so horrid that a mesmer might aswell focus more on getting more bleed stacks out if they still want to roll with the rabid gear. Confusion will just be “free” dmg occasionally proced through glamour fields and F2
Would be amazed to see where leap skills like swoop can take you. Im not sure where you got the “can instantly teleport to any place on the map” from.
I was trying to test sigil of frailty cool down in spvp isle.
My best vulnerable stacking was just barely touching 4 stacks which suggest a 2sec CD.
HOWEVER that might not be accurate even. The reason I say this is because while testing there were times it was taking me 10+ crits to even proc the sigil. My record was (on a new golem so it had no prior stacks of vulnerability that would confuse me) 21 crits. That’s horrid odds and it happened so frequently that the very idea of probability dictates that this sigils odds of procing are not what is listed.
The possibilities I’m thinking is that either the sigil will only proc off normal precision that’s granted by the precision stat, and not +% crit chance traits/gear/fury or simply this trait has a much lower proc rate then indicated by the tooltip.
If the leap part of the skill is unfixable then just make the clone spawn at the target OR give it the warriors savage leap skill so it can jump over uneven terrain.
Why would I sack utility for 25% speed when I can just use temporal curtain? The reason I love my focus in wvw is for pulling people and also reflect, two very big advantages there.
They could consider fixing the swords leap and making it 1200 range so we have a chance at catching runners.
(edited by Justine.6351)
i used to hate this skill because i had to aim it (which really is weak on my part). Now that im used to it I can iberserker/power spike/mirror blade/power spike/mind stab/power spike things down in wvw stupidly fast. In that whole chain the only skill i have to even aim is mind stab. Really lets not dumb down the GS anymore then it is already.
i already use this set on my mesmer. love the precision with the +% dmg on my berserker geared GS/sword/focus.
search function
Mace: peacekeeper, thats all i got sorry
Axe: reaver of the mist, nightmare
Sword: whisperblade, fractal sword, infinte light
Rifle: lol gl
Longbow: there is the ele skill skin, the guardian spirit weapon skin. A few items, if you go to the wiki and go to each weqpons page at the bottom you will find a link to the gallery for all the weapons of that type.
Yeah its bad enough being melee without a speed signet or maintainable swift. Fix this and then please make it 1200 range.
Fix it and give it 1200 range please.
really wait for more responses. I use my warrior in open world pve 90% of the time. As such i carry the rifle in offset for world bosses. But if you want to stay in melee i would still recommend mace on second slot for weakness but thats just my thinking. actually i would recommend mace/shield but i dont know.
axe is good dps but mace can maintain weakness.
If you wanted to bleed stack you could maybe use sword and then choose a stat set with condition dmg and toughness ?
in open world pve trash mobbing you want to just run with axe/berserker gear. Im lame and run 5 signets (lol) with 20points in power, 10points in precision, 20points in defense, 20 points in crit dmg. +12% dmg adren, +10% crit dmg axe, +40precision/signet, blocking reflects, shield recharge, +9% crit adren. In orr i dont even heal, i just regen from healing signet and the minor train that gives 360 hp/3sec on full adren bar and sigil of blood on my shield.
In dungeon maybe use knights(?) power,precision,toughness with mace. Shouts Heal is popular. If you choose to use healing power then consider taking Banner of Tactics aswell and using skill 2 on its 10sec recharge for aoe regen and another heal.
if im using mantra of pain on recharge ~ every 5sec for 2600 hp(~10k hp/20sec) and my team is still dieing then i need to find smarter friends. Mostly i dont spam it but thats not to say there are times that i dont to keep one person or multiple people from dieing. Its there for the situational. There is no place in game where its acceptable for a party member to go full blown gw1 motigon and drag down dps meerly because you had the occasion noob group who couldnt handle dodgerolling once every 10-20 seconds.
I dumped 10 pts from power & precision line and 5 from the shatter line and put 25 into inspiration. As a berserker gs mesmer my dmg took a slight hit but being able to spam mantra of pain for an easy 2600 heal every 5 sec makes me a team player without even touching healing power gear. Dont gimp your dmg trying to be the team savior with a 6 regen from dwayna set forcing you to grab gear with healing power to justify it.
I use all ruby orbs. Though, top damage actually comes from a full scholar set. I have a hard time staying above 90% health though, so Ruby Orbs are the next best thing. What’s your crit damage at? While chance is important, damage is also important.
96% crit dmg (still need a berserker back item). I would roll scholar but i really like keeping my crit chance high. Ranger runes gives 165 precision (7-8%), 8% crit dmg and 5% dmg with a companion.
oh yeah i may use all berserk armor and trinkets but i run with ranger runes and perception sigil (+5%). Need to get the stacking perception on my offset for another 12% someday. My crit chance is like 63%. used to be 70% with 25stacks but changed it out for something i didnt have to get annoyed with being downed and lossing it all.
probably where im missing out on high dmg numbers with amazing crit rolls.
Im a glass cannon berserker mesmer.
i engage with spatial surge, stealth with decoy and immediatly dodge roll. 9 times out of 10 the thief will think you broke stealth and hammer the clone. At that moment iberserker/power spike, mirror blade/power spike, mind stab.
If they dont drop suddenly after with a spatial surge or two and another mirror blade use Mass Invisibility (love it even for personal use) and either dodge roll a couple clones to draw them out of stealth or run like a kitten if your first barrage didnt even tickle them lol. But honestly, stealth spamming thieves stealth spam for a reason, they are using full berserker gear and often you can blow 1/3 to half their health off with iberseker.
Keep playing mesmer. Keep playing mesmer. Keep playing mesmer.
3 tips.
The more you play them the better the class gets. Utility wins this game in all formats except maybe trash mobing in open world and mesmer is loaded with it. Im still figuring out new things to do. Just traited for mantra heals and now i can aoe heal my party. If i need reflect for something specific i swap that trait out for focus skills reflect. Boom, im awesome for team play in fotm, using full berserker gear.
OMG my friend went down ! Illusionary Wave the melee off of them, start rezing, oh look i made a 3sec reflect bubble on us through another trait so now all those pesky ranged classes (wvw) cant hit us.
Thats tip of the iceberg.
BTW, dump 5 points out of that last tree and add to inspiration. Your phantasms will get another +15% dmg.
I manage around 8-9k with my iZerker on Orr mobs in. That’s individual orr mobs, not big groups.
In WvW, my iZerker is similar to eq’s above, in that it hits for around 5-6k. That’s assuming I’m running berserker gear.
I also run around in a knight set that makes me deal like 2k less across the board, usually. instead of 9k iZerkers in Orr, it’s 7k, etc. A moderate damage drop, but my survivability rockets up. I like running the knight gear in WvW, because it gives me an edge against glass cannon freaks who try to get into a DPS fight with me.
“oops, did you kill my clone with your nuke? Teehee.”
List of numbers though…
Izerker: 7-9k
iWarden: 6-9k
iDuelist: 4-6k
Spear: 6-8kI don’t really use the others. I used to run whaler a lot, but not so much since they gave him confusion instead of bleed – Confusion is terrible in PvE. He’s probably much more useful in PvP though.
You are so full of it. Go retest you mythical numbers because im lucky to iBerserker anything for 5-6k in full berserker gear.
@swish, yes my mesmer falters against anything with good armor rating and heals to back it up. They simply keep coming and heal up any dmg I do. Soldier stated warriors and guardians are horrid to kill and ussually i just end up switching targets for something more squishy lol.
(edited by Justine.6351)
Tbh it will take full berserker gear and putting every skill you have on CD to keep up with a gs or axe warriors dps.
My spatial surge averages 2k per channel. Iberserker like 3k (people claiming higher are only seeing the 1/20 times it touches 5k). Iwarden averages 4k but my focus is only a rare. My power spike tics for 2k on crits (@70% chance it happens alot).
The reason mesmers are so nasty in wvw is because they can hit hard like warriors, spam minions and stealth. But they are not super popular like warrior or guardian because they take effort to play.
Warrior may be solid in pve but its SOOOO boring.
I think mesmer really is the pinacle of play in gw2.
People saying test it on the dummies are dumb. I have tested it on dummies and thats where i find axe will drop them golems faster then 100b. But even i am smart enough to know that a gs hitting multiple targets ata time will build might faster so that isnt even a fair test for the gs. But really if you are hitting multiple targets its ussually in trash mob farming in open world. Axe deffinetly out classes it their even with the gs mobility because you can circle strafe pulling more foes and drawing them into your attack arc. Thats something the gs is clunky at.
Full berserker gear, ranger runes, gs with +5% crit chance, offset with perception sigils.
30/30/0/0/10
Grab both mantra traits, dodgeroll clones, phants have fury, phants +% dmg, illusions give +3% dmg each, gs trait.
Mantra of healing/pain/condition removal(name i dont know…)/decoy(or blink)/mass invisibility.
Iberserker(powerspike), mirrorblade(powerspike),mindstab(powerspike)
(edited by Justine.6351)
Reflecting warden is the best by far.
However i love my berserker since i play much more offensively.
Mantra of Pain is deadly on a berserker GS mesmer. Certainly when traited for 3 tics and your crit chance is 75% and your crit dmg is +99%. I almost always see a power spike of 2k and with iBerserker/mirror blade/mind stab you can often down 50% of the players in wvw within a 3sec window.
im different
if fighting two i spike one down (berserker gear and stealth ftw!) and if/when the other tries rezing the downed one i Illusionary Wave them off then proceed to fight them till they are downed aswell. While doing this you need to either keep a clone on the downed one to prevent healing or periodically hit them to keep them downed.
Seriously though if one is trying to rez the other spike them down too. You will do more dmg to them then the downed person sadly and they are extreemly exposed while rezing their friend.
full berserker gear, ranger runes, 25stack of perception (precision) on off set sword/focus, +5% crit chance GS
GS, Sword/Focus
Mantra of Healing, Pain, (condition removal one), Decoy and Mass Invisibility
30 power line, illusion dmg, GS trait, Mantra 3 tics
30 precision line, phants fury, dodge clones, mantras give +4% dmg
10 shatter recharge line, +3% dmg/illusion
Full blown glass cannon. Your defense is clones and stealth. Works in pve and wvw quite nicely for me. I tried dumping the mantra build and traiting my focus for reflect, and while it was fun, i ended up back to mantra build after a few weeks and dont regret the reversion.
Nothing so gratifying as iBerserker tearing through people and following it up with mirror blade, mind blade, and 3 tics of power spike in a 3 second window.
Im a berserker GS mesmer and I run Ranger Runes.
Im still not settled on sigils but im thinking of 2 accuracy (the ones that stack to 25 for ~ 12% crit chance) on my sword/focus for quick stacking in wvw (this is my secondary set) and a +5% crit on my GS (main weapon). Ive got alot of +% dmg from traits and a ton of +% crit dmg so instead of going power happy(dont get me wrong im traited 30 in power line and am running berserkers aka power primary attribute) im aiming for high crit. Right now im ~75% crit on my GS if i have 25 stacks of perception and 95% crit dmg, still need my back piece ;-(
i went from warrior to mesmer. It was a rough transition but once i got used to my mesmers GS skills (mind blade? takes dedication to use!) I destroy in WvW. Mantra of Pain traited to 3 ticks, iBerserker, mirror blade, mind blade can all be used in a VERY SHORT window and i often down someone before they can even think “oh kitten i need to dodgeroll”
i dont do dungeons so this may be stupid of me to say but i would go with:
staff and second set i dont know (not gs though)
for gear stats i would look at something with condition dmg (duh), a survival stat (toughness, vitality, healing) and precision (clones bleed on crit trait). Pretty sure a stat combination of toughness, condition dmg, precision exists but i think it might be interesting trying a healing, condition, precision build and getting the trait that heals when using a mantra and picking up mantra of pain just for an aoe healing skill. Again im not sure how optimal that would be or if that stat combo exists.
i love the reflect while blocking trait, note, skills that only block a single attack dont end if you are only reflecting projectiles. They keep channeling until the skill ends from duration or a melee attack hits you.
If you see GS in wvw alot its becuase of its mobility. Multiple mobility skills for a melee character = more kills. I tried to love my axe/shield warrior in wvw but ended up using my rifle 75% of the time. At that rate i decided to make a GS mesmer. I die a whole lot less and kill so many more. Not to discourage you from making your play style happen or anything ;-)
i used to play my warrior (axe/shield) ALOT. She is amazing in pve. When i started getting into wvw i found myself using a rifle more then anything and warriors at range just dont measure up to the other professions that deal same dmg but have all the goodies tailored to a ranged player.
I toyed with mesmer on spvp isle to get an idea of how it played and found the GS with berserker gear to be similar dmg to warriors axe but at 1200 range, stealth and clones. I love my mesmer now too but she isnt nearly as OP in pve as the warrior simply because skills like iBerserker have a traited down 12sec CD which is their huge source of dmg. The warrior you just auto-attack with and stuff melts with zero down time inbetween foes.
Seriously, try a GS berserker mesmer for wvw. They will suck till you can get stealth skills and later traits like dodge roll clones.
nothing makes me more angry when in an event people use pushbacks and blowouts in the middle of a mob and im not even an elementalist lol.
My kitten moment….running a mantra build, rushing headlong into a fight and trying to use them only to hear “Agony, Torment, Pain!” and then trying to cancel only to end up dead.
I play mesmer and i feel OP in my berserker gear with the GS. Although i feel pretty under powered when a theif stealths and takes me out in 2-3 seconds.
The scepter auto attack can hit non-moving targets at ~1300 range so long as you are on higher ground, like say a tower wall defending.
I didnt know how effective it would be compared to my GS 1200 range untill i tested it on spvp isle. I could hit a golem from up high in a spot where my gw could not.
Other weapons that do this are the warrior long bow, ranger long/short bow and probably a few others. The ranger longbow 1500 range is REDICULOUSLY long ranged when on high ground. its like 1800-2000 range.
In general they are pretty good because of clone spamming and stealth. The primary reason i changed from an axe/shield warrior to mesmer was i could run full berserker gear, attack with my GS at 1200 range with comparable dmg and still be hard to kill.
I do miss getting in peoples face though and mesmer sword blurr is hardly a comparable feeling.
Im going to pick up sceptre soon for wvw. When you are defending a fort its range is capable of like 1300 against non moving targets. Its not a weapon that will kill outright like the GS but having a sword on swap does nothing for me during defense.
That channel skill does some decent dmg and the confusion it applies is nice even with no condition dmg on your gear since it applies 5 stacks. Sucky range though.
if you are using berserker gear then you want to use gs/sword/focus(or pistol).
Staff and wand are condition oriented. Well the wand you can still go full berserker and it will do good dmg but ive always seen wand as a second set item.
In open world pve the berserker route will be much easier and faster then trying to “bleed” out foes with conditions. In dungeons that might change more to the favor of the condition set though.
Even if you do go with staff and +condition dmg gear try to use a set the has precision aswell so your illusions can still inflict bleed stacks with that one trait.
i like my ranger runes.
i was turned off immediatly when i found out illusions disapeared when the foe they were cast on died. and it is still annoying but once i got the two traits that reduce the weapon skill summons by 40% i think the slowest recharging illusion for weapon skills is the iWarden at like 15 sec. and then there is the trait that makes clones on dodge roll which is conveinently in the same tree as the minor trait that gives endurance on a crit-hit.
axe/shield is a solid choice.
i go 20 points in defense for more armor/some regen/ and reduced shield CD. Another trait in this line makes you reflect projectiles while blocking and thats some hilarious fun.
If the axe didnt hit so damned hard i would probably be running GS.