Guild Wars 2

You shouldn’t be pushing far unless there is decent communication within your team, and everyone knows their roles. It’s a risky thing to do for the very fact that most pvpers are bad in general. This is like, not new information. lol

You bring up very valid points Cutie, and you’re a wealth of knowledge, but if we just listened to the top 20 guys the game would never be balanced. Oh wait…

^ Has gotten beaten up by one too many Mesmers.

Without its unique evasions, it becomes quite detrimental to use period.

Dirame.8521:

I think the Mesmers just have to give up on using portal and focus on making a new build. Playing Mesmer the way EVERYONE plays it and then complaining that it can’t sustain in team fights is just so self-defeatist to me.

If Mesmers really want to be in teams, they should start dropping what they feel is the status quo and going yolo swag to see what works.

People are winning matches without the use of portal. You really have to ask yourself if portal is so necessary with that fact in mind.

Omg I feel like this is all I say in the Mesmer forum. Maim the Meta with condi shatter. It has more sustain, but all the boon stripping and team support that regular Shatter provides. It’s able to fight well on points and it directly counters cele ele.

While the infrastructure is disadvantageous for Mesmers, I think a lot of us hold ourselves back…

I’ve been using Cele Condi Shatter. It’s been great. I’ll check this thread out later though.

mrjediconsular.4396:

thank you guys i have tried almost every build here and now i just need to decide if i want to copy or take bits from your builds and go from there

Make it your own, and be proud of it!!

Let us know what works for you and what doesn’t. We could also use the feedback on our suggestions. May Lyssa give you favor in luck and love!

mrjediconsular.4396:

hey mail mail on your 2nd build could i switch out signet of ether for ether feast until i can get enough skill points or would that ruin the build

Not at all. Signet of Ether is only good because it’s passive, and you don’t have to use it except in extreme cases. Think of it as a watered down Healing Signet that you see warriors use. Also, you shouldn’t be shattering except for Distortion and sometimes Diversion. But Ether Feast is sufficient as well, and will always give you a large burst of health.

Let me know how you like the feel of the build. I know other Mesmers in my league don’t really use S. Midnight, but it is by far Mesmer’s best tool for for stomping enemies outside of Distortion which should be used for other needs…

Doesn’t take much effort to use. Just gotta manage using the mantras wisely after getting that iDefender out. Here’s the mantra healing tank variety:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdWl0npItVpxSNcrNSshYyMvO9vg7KZjAA-TJxHwAOLDE4JAca/BAnCAA

This is a lockdown bunker build with an emphasis on boon stacking. The key here is abusing Bountiful Interruption’s lack of an internal cd with your AOE interrupts in Chaos Storm and Temporal Curtain. I haven’t tested knight’s ammy vs soldiers, but I stick with soldiers because I like to also kill stuff. You’ll have so many boons, someone might think you’re an ele or guardian!!

Plus, you can use this to decap points over time. Here’s the build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdWnsISFaWqGGoB3aGR3YM9BJExJLZkSGwuA-TJxHwA+2fYZZADPBAAnCAA

Mesmer is a higher risk/skill-needed profession for an extremely high reward. Other classes are easier to play, but while they have a lower reward, the margin isn’t large enough to alternatively pick up a Mesmer.

That being said, the idea of a “meta” (insert huge side-eye) is similar to a self-fulfilling prophecy and only hinders variety. The notion that there are only few builds viable in the “meta” is completely untrue and have always been untrue. This is the case more so now than ever when we are in the most balanced state since launch.

Simply put in Mesmer terms, metas are simply illusions.

Hello my old friend! Sorry I couldn’t test things out last night. I was on a long winning streak and felt too exhausted to continue playing when you whispered me. #Hairflip #TopPlayerProbs #SlightSarcasm #EmphasisOnSlight

The concept is VERY interesting. Right off the bat from looking at the build on paper, here are some suggestions/questions:

• Get rid of those silly stun sigils. You only have 1s to actually do 10%+ dmg, and unless iSwordsman just happens to be going for the jugular at that exact time, you won’t get much use out of them. Replace with either energy, doom, hydromancy or generosity.
• How useful is PU really in a build like this? I assume you’d only use Decoy/MI for defensive purposes like needing to recharge MoD or when you’re getting super low in health?
• With Decoy and MI being on high CDs, it’s important to put on as much offensive pressure as possible before you need to use them.
• Because you’re using BI, I feel as though Staff is a must due to the high chance of proccing it several times. However, Sword/Sword Scepter/Pistol is a nice combo considering it focuses more on single-target dmg which is the strength of a post-bugged CS build (remember when Chaos Storm used to REKT?).

Come on friend, you need to sell me on this build and how it works. Using PU forces you to water down the strength & and occurrence of your phantasms/illusions. In my experience of theory-crafting, CI Phantasm builds are typically most effective as 6/6/0/2/0 or 6/4/0/0/4 with some wiggle room for 2-3 points in both varieties.

It sounds so interesting though that I want it to be magical!

I’ve tested it. It works. I’ve actually tested a decent phantasm build for 1v1s. It rekts. AI too stronk.

hahah

To expound on my own personal choices, I ALWAYS take MI over Moa, because in my experience there has been too many times where someone has simply dodge or blocked my Moa, making it a complete waste. I always know I can help my team to secretly ambush a point or perhaps give us some time to rally and defend.

That being said, my team has been on the OTHER side of things where one of us gets Moa-ed, which all but seals the fate of the team fight in the enemy’s favor. It makes me get hypertension from saltiness.

Depends entirely on your playstyle and what role you’d rather provide. MI has many more pros and drawbacks. Moa is a game changer, but can be thwarted in several ways. Let these poems illustrate their differences.

Mass Invisibility:
It sets a great caper
For when you wanna stomp.
You can choose to be a rezzer,
Or perhaps run for cover!

Moa:
“I’m not blocking
Nor am I blinding.
I’m here to help my team,
Wait, I’m poly-morphing!”

Greatsword is nice for maximum damage output.

Staff is nice for tagging multiple enemies at once (especially with the extra bounce), and surviving. Also, iWarlock if the strongest phantasm in PvE groups.

Focus is great for the speed and reflects if traited. Also, iWarden does a lot considering most mobs aren’t super duper mobile.

Just don’t use Scepter or Torch. Also, make sure you’re zerker.

Interesting idea. I’ll add it to my list here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/PvP-Unique-Rewards-Keeping-Casuals-Invested/page/3#post4589307

Justin ODell.9517:

Been slacking, needs more mesmer…

Yaaaasssss! <3

STRENGTHS:

• Condition builds, specifically using signets (see my updated build in my signature).
• Coordinating/Leading teams in solo q: idk what it is about me, but I’m persistent and tend to get people talking by being witty or insanely pleasant. This is usually a game changer in unorganized matches, because communication is the key to winning most games.
• Going off the last bullet, I am able to play a match efficiently and type a lot in team chat. It’s crazy. LOL
• Trying to be a positive person in the pvp community. I almost always whisper teammates and congratulate them on a good game or something they did very well. Sometimes we exchange advice on future matches. This goes a long way in terms of the culture of pvp, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from other players.
• Dueling other professions.

WEAKNESSES:

• Great Sword. Like, I just can’t.
• Fighting other Mesmers. It really is the constant target dropping and visual confusion that makes me panic. I say this all the time, but the strength in the Mesmer profession isn’t in our strength relative to other classes (because let’s face it, we’re on the “weaker” side), but our ability to make enemies doubt themselves and make mistakes. Despite the Mesmer being the only class I’ve played since launch, other Mesmers still cause me to panic and become careless. Thieves do this as well sometimes if I’m playing dps Mesmer.
• Landing timely interrupts on my lockdown builds. While I’m really decent on lockdown builds (sw/focus+Staff is the BEST weapon set!) I still need to work on getting those key MoD interrupts. Sometimes, I burn them and it becomes an uphill battle.
• I sometimes let the mistakes of other bother me a lot, especially when they are basic mistakes that shouldn’t be made often. I get distracted instead of focusing on rallying the team in a positive way.
• Paying too much money at the troll toll. While I’m very nice, I never listened to my grandma when she told me to not wrastle in the mud with pigs. I have an album titled “Flame Wars 2”.

I wonder if Countless still plays? He’s definitely one of my idols and was the inspiration for my original Signet build in my signature. Such a cool guy to boot let alone a top notch Mesmer!

The (pvp) game has been mismanaged since it’s conception. I do understand why people are pessimistic, because I’ve been here from the start as well. That doesn’t mean it’s ok to have that mentality all the time.

Anet is like the boy who cried wolf. Sometimes they do get it right…rarely. You can expect the worst but hope for the best when posting. It’s all about tone.

The pessimism found on the forums is quite unbecoming at times. I am happy with this initiative and hopeful that it’ll help continue to push not only pvp but the Mesmer class in a more positive role.

This is an interesting idea! I’m glad the Mesmer forum has so many passionate players more so than any other class! Whoever gets the job will do a fine job I’m sure.

Sorry guys I’ve been on a little bit of a hiatus. Holiday times get busy. When things get back to normal, I’ll be able to better procrastinate and play guild wars 2.

MAIM THE META!

Justin is on FIYAH in this thread! Thank you for answering all of these questions with precision and wit!

Also, I’ve been on some of those 5-person teams full of Mesmers (Go OMFG!!), and the AI alone is overwhelming for some players. I agree with Justin’s stance. This move is good for match-making.

edit: last thing – Skyhammer stays. I actually love skyhammer now that they’ve balanced the hammer and glass panels. It makes for a much more enjoyable match. Both are still dangerous when manipulated, but no where near as easy to abuse as they once were.

Agreed. I don’t think PvPers want more money. I’m quite alright with being a poor lower-class pvper. LOL

But I think there simply needs to be more unique rewards or at least easier ways to achieve items that take a lot of grind in PvE like ambrite weapons and dungeon weapons. I really would love if they added keys or scraps to tracks. I think you’d instantly see everyone play PvP. lol

I tried Maim without DE, and it was NOT effective in the least bit. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t think you would be able to have the pressure needed for a condi shatter.

That’s not an opinion. It’s simply fact! haha It’s a very squishy build. iSwordsman goes for the jugular though.

There needs to be some individuality between classes. I would never want my Mesmer being able to wield an axe.

I think there’s room for MtD in the meta if teams actually consider its strengths instead of having tunnel vision on what the Mesmer role currently is. The issue is figuring out which trait configuration is best and for what role you’re performing.

I’ve been having A LOT of success in tpvp with my 0/4/0/4/6 build. Vigorous Revelation helps to keep almost 50-75% vigor upkeep for teammates and guarantees 100% vigor upkeep for the Mesmer. I’ve taken the role as roamer between all points due to Portal only being on a 72s CD. Nullfield serving as a boon rip and condi clear every 32s is nice as well. I also focus on giving my teammates chaos armour every 28s.

I’ll be giving a write up soon in the Mesmer forums about my research, but to stay on topic, yes I think MtD has place in tpvp as of right now.

Sadrien.3470:

mail that skill idea is great. If that trait was implemented i would use it on a glamour interrupt mesmer for the healing. isnt staff 5 an ethereal field ( i guess that would not be op if the regen was something like 200-300 hp per second and not 1k[ 1k heals per second would be so OP] )?

Yes, Chaos Storm would receive a collateral buff only so that the skill isn’t OP with Portal considering it lasts 60 seconds! haha

A glamour GM trait would give life to glamour builds from a supportive role instead of condition one (which has been nerfed to the ground) as well as giving people a reason to go 6 into Inspiration. I’m already envisioning a 0/0/6/6/2 tank glamour build with sword/focus+Staff. Omg it’d be so delicious.

I think sword 4’s interrupt is harder to land than both pistol and focus. This drawback is offset by its extremely low cool down however. If you’re playing CI, you want as much certainty that you’re able to land an interrupt as possible.

With CS, simply dazing the opponent is enough to proc CS so there’s not as much emphasis on interrupt as with CI.

Check out my build, “Dazzling Blades”. It’s a really fun high risk high reward Lockdown phantasm build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAscRnsISNa2oGmpB3aG50YQ1Yk+gCCo0jsS4A-TZBFwACOCA12fo9DAoaZAAnCAA

Inspiration Grand Master Trait
Glamorous Recovery
20%+ outgoing heal effectiveness for you and allies inside of an ethereal field. Gain X amount of healing per second when inside of an ethereal field.

specified ethereal field so that it wouldn’t be broken when used with Portal

Also, it’s my wish that Feedback would become ground targeted so that it is more effective at actually giving you a defensive skill.

I’m happy you’re finding it to be such a rewarding build to play, Messiah. When I’m not focused in long-winded fights, my team tends to easily win the battle more often than not.

I think Sw/Sw+Staff is the utmost best weapon choice for CS.

Again, are you roaming in wvw or contesting points in pvp? You might want to visit one of the lockdown threads on the first two pages of this forum. It’s a wealth of knowledge on the playstyle and full of tips on how to succeed.

“Ideally”, lockdown should beat shatter. All it takes is a few decently time interrupts. That being said, all it takes is one good shatter burst to knock you out as well. Both are high risk high reward builds.

I’m happy you’re willing to explore the lockdown playstyle. It’s really fun!

What format are you playing?

I prefer Focus in pvp situations because of it’s AOE effect proccing Bountiful Interruption as well. It’s nice for decapping points, and gives you swiftness as well (GREAT with Pack runes). It’s also nice for setting up great combos utilizing CI:

Curtain—>iWarden—>Pull—>iLeap—>Frenzy—>Shatter

Toss in some Mantra dazes and you’ve got a dead enemy.

These are cool ideas, but I’d rather rework some of the interesting traits and utilities we currently have now. That alone would open up a flood of possibilities for the class.

Thanks to someone pointing out that pvpers are unable to obtain ANY karma weapons besides the karma you get from dailies. Yet another way that PvE rewards are better and more easily attained than in PvP….

Mesmers have various ways to remove conditions. The only thing that makes an engi battle hard is knockbacks due to Mesmer’s lack of stability. Outside of that, Mesmers have the advantage.

Aww this is a cute little reunion. Nice try, Josh, but ghaleon isn’t going anywhere. You can’t take him from this thread!! He’s ours!

A particular Mesmer I was playing with last night made some shady comments about Signets last night. I thought I’d use my necromancy skills to revive this thread and remind people how potentially effective they can be when traited for.

pdavis.8031:

MailMail.6534:

I’m starting a 5k to support Ghaleon’s efforts in this thread. Who’s with me?

Is it an in-game 5k? You do realize you are talking to a bunch of gamers who are on the forums in the middle of the day…

To most of us “outside” is considered to be a beautifully rendered 3D world. However, the lack of any decent mechanics, horrible AI, and glaring lack of story, plot, or memorable characters it’s not really worth our time. :P

Good point. I guess in that case, I’ll make it in-game. It’ll be a race from Divinity’s Reach to Lion’s Arch.

I would say some form of lockdown using CI would be your best bet.

The whole concept of a “meta” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the above poster stated, most people in the pvp community from the elitist mid-tier limits themselves and their options.

ghaleon.2861:

MailMail.6534:

I’m a mesmer player. No class is breaking pvp. We are currently in the most balanced state since launch. More improvements can be made, but the QQ is a bit much.

I disagree, the game is more broken now than back at launch.

I disagree. The game is less broken now than back at launch. See what I did there?

This is the only time where most classes often see top tier play and can be effective in such. Additionally, every class has multiple builds that are viable for solo q. It’s interesting that we base “balance” opinions on the top 3% of pvp, but I see a lot of build diversity in solo q, and I also don’t see one class dominating the scene.

The BIGGEST issue in pvp currently is not balance, but structural issues. Let’s focus on the real issues at hand such as 5v4s, match making, lack of efficient ranking system (ladders), reward system, fresh game modes, etc etc.

I’m a mesmer player. No class is breaking pvp. We are currently in the most balanced state since launch. More improvements can be made, but the QQ is a bit much.

ahh I see now. Perfect strategy above. I forget what I did for the second boss. It wasn’t so bad though.

OK in that one you do the same thing. You don’t need to go into the middle to beat him down.
1. Kill the minion.
2. Get the shield.
3. Take the color buff to its color. This causes an attack on the champ.

Like I said, PU with the trait to increase Blink distance should be good. The hardest part is #3.

I forget which part you’re talking about. I know one of those fights was really frustrating. However, in one of the fights, you don’t need to attack him at all. You simply use the crystals to attack him.

I used Torch, Decoy Mass Invis PU with traited blink in order to safely get myself from the shield that makes you weak to the other crystal that shoots him. Sorry I’m so not articulate when it comes to remembering this boss!

If you need help, give me a whisper. I’m going to log on now.

Unfortunately, if you’re playing DPS Shatter, you have to wait for him to make the opening move and time your shatters PERFECTLY. It’s an uphill battle even if you do everything right… Dps phantasms stand a bit of a better chance, but not much, because there isn’t enough burst.

Lockdown Mesmers are particularly well-off against thieves, but can still be cut down quickly if you fly through your cool downs.

Condition Mesmers shouldn’t have any problems with thieves. You typically should have enough toughness to be aggressive. Clone-death traits kill thieves. So does torment.

I’ll leave the others to help you with shatter dps as I’m sure they can offer better advice than I.

I understand what you’re saying, but I disagree that PvP rewards have nothing to do with skill. Ideally if both teams have 5 players, it does take skill to win.

PvP rewards are shared with PvE. The things like insect fossils take more time and skill and aren’t RNG based. Also, if you’re concerned about PvP exclusive items, you should be concerned about PvE exclusive items that are easier to get. I see nothing wrong with that considering you could open ONE chest and get your insect right then and there. There aren’t any for WvW rewards I guess you’re saying? I honestly wouldn’t know, but that’s outside the point of this thread, and we should probably stay focused.