Guild Wars 2

I think you should use the approach of:

1. Determine the traits you want that best fit your play style
2. Adjust gear to achieve the itemization you want

In otherwords itemize your stats using gear, not the trait lines.

I roll with 3 utility mantras (condition removal, stability, and daze). I cannot use the healing mantra because it feels underpowered and ineffective (what’s the point if I have to use it two times in a row to get a decent heal?).

I really like the utility mantras and they work wonders in WvW when I get up and close with a few foes.

The dmg buff from them is 4% each per the tool tip (assuming that isn’t bugged). So three utility mantras is 12%. Toss in the trait for 3% per illusion, and you can easily sit at 20+% dmg output. Add runes of the scholar and now you’re at 30+%. HUGE!

If you are going legion with 3 phantasms then you have to deal with it. It’s part of the skill-floor of the profession.

If you roll with no more than 2 phantasms at a time then it’s a non-event.

I generally shatter phantasms after their first attack chain because the second attack chain is too far away (i.e. the mob or the phantasm will die before they get to attack a 2nd time),

Sounds like you should have left the ineffective mesmer alone and taken a different strat.

Garenthal.1480:

I lean more towards the greatsword, though that mostly boils down to personal preference in my case. I love casters that wield swords rather than staves, I just wish we had a bleed associated with at least one of our sword or greatsword abilities.

If you use the precision line with Sharper Images you’ll get bleeds off if iBerserker AND off of your GS clones. The clones are actually pretty good at it because they use the GS 1 attack which is a series of small attacks each with a chance to crit. So now GS 2 and GS 4 can result in bleeds.

Add clone creation on dodging with the GS and you have a rather reliable bleed mechanic.

Gah this has been beat up again and again in these forums (yes the search feature does work!).

If you don’t want your phantasms overwritten, then only make TWO when using the scepter. The scepter attack three makes a clone and it needs a place to go in the world. If one of your three current illusions is a clone, the clone will ALWAYS get replaced. This actually works well for a “on clone death…” build since you know which clone will die.

I rarely see a mesmer in PvE, but I see them all over in WvW.

As far as “good” goes, I roll stuff in WvW 1v1. I even do lots of damage 1vX. I ran into 4 invaders taking a dolyak last night in eternal. They stayed clustered on a bridge (bad for them, good for me). GS 4 + GS 2 + dodge + F1 and they were all hurting. Dodge again, Mantra of Distraction, GS1, GS2, dodge, some autos, F1 again…

I’m well geared (exotics) but I don’t have the best runes (they are soooo expensive). I suspect a lot of people in WvW are not well geared. In addition, I’m not the best player at PvP, although I think I have an awesome build (20,30,0,0,20) — this is not pure glass cannon as I use valkyrie armor and knights jewelry. Mesmer must be good otherwise I’d get rolled a bit more often.

When I run up against other mesmers in WvW it can be hard. If it’s a staff mesmer, kiss them goodbye. I had a tough fight against another GS mesmer and won, but it was a bit hairy at times.

(GS is amazing in WvW btw… I rarely use my 2nd weapon set)

You picked the chest which has the highest disparity in stats. If you compare the gloves you’d see lower disparity.

Regardless, I doubt you’d notice the difference while farming in PvE. If you do then go ahead and buy the expensive stuff — it’s your money.

What I notice is that I’m more squishy in my MF gear. Getting exotic MF gear won’t fix that. Neither will killing mobs 1/10th of a second faster due to 50 more precision… (sarcasm)

SuburbanLion.8095:

This was probably intentional for balance reasons. Portal plus a passive run speed boost would be way overpowered.

Portal doesn’t help you run faster — just get back to where u were faster (and only if u want to do that within 50 seconds). This isn’t about combat, we already know mesmer is mobile in combat. This is trudging accross the wilderness, and portal does beans for that.

Anastasia.8697:

Fingers crossed for mainhand pistol!

Ha that would be awesome.

Kaaji.9480:

What? You’re not forced into anything.

Map your “hero” key so that it’s close to your WASD keys (mine is “R”), and set it so that your focus is the first weapon that shows up in the top left corner of the “hero” pane. After that, you can quickly R -> double click Focus -> R -> 4 -> R -> double click previous weapon.

I’ll admit it is a pain, but it doesn’t force you into anything.

Well it does force u to swap weps using a method you described… it’s definitely a pain and not “fun”.

Other professions tend to have a weapon with a run buff along with a second option. That second option may be a +speed trait (warrior w/melee, ele in air attune, etc). The second option may be a skill (ranger signet passive, guardian “retreat”). For mesmer we don’t have a second option. Not sure if that applies to any other class as I don’t know all of them well enough.

I’d really like to run GS/Staff in WvW. Right now I run GS/X+focus because focus is essentially a “must have”. Another option is run with buddies and hope they buff you too and wait when their run-passives get them too far ahead of you.

if Anet leaves MS “as-is”, then I wish they would make it “on target” instead of “ground targeting”. It’s not big enough of an AoE to warrant some type of strategic placement. It’s just a waste of time trying to mouse that tiny reticule around in combat.

Mobs always go for my phantasms, and occasionally a clone created by dodging (precision T2 trait).

But low stress would be a 0/0/25/25/20 staff build with carrion gear along with iDefender, iDisenchanter, Null-field on your utility bar. This is quite tanky with three options for chaos armor. Don’t expect to kill fast, but you’ll live thru quite a bit.

The +MF is the same on green, yellow, and exotic gear. So your MF gear doesn’t need to be exotic.

You can pick up a full set of green explorers gear, opal jewelry, traveler’s wep, major rune of luck, 3x major pirate, and 3x major traveler’s for under 1gp. That’ll put you at 101% MF. Add in a crest of the traveler to your back brace and you’re at 104%.

Toss in a food (cheap food would be peach bars or eggplant fritters… both with +26% MF), and you are about as good as it gets.

With this setup I typically get one yellow item drop an hour, plus a handful of greens. I don’t farm like a “pro” tho… I just coast thru the zone killing whatever.

I’m using a shatter/mantra/GS build (20/30/0/0/20) which is this:

http://tinyurl.com/8qhrnqm

Armor: Valkyrie
Jewelry: Knights (w/emeralds)
Runes: Divinity
Weapons: Greatsword and Sword/Focus

I love this build. I have a 49% crit rate which gives lots of vigor for dodge clones, plus you can dodge more which is a defensive bonus.

I find the mantras useful, except for the heal mantra which doesn’t heal enough to be worth the effort. As a result I slot the ether feast heal.

Damage output is excellent (+12% from the three mantras, +9% from three clones, lots of crits with high +crit damage).

Survivability is buffed a bit with Valkyrie armor and Knights jewelry. This brings the toughness and vitality numbers up to 1300, while keeping power at 2000+ and precision at 1800+. This build really doesn’t need more crit chance and the power is already good.

Lots of fun — once you get use to it, you’ll find yourself dodging all the time for clone production. It’s the fastest clone production I’ve seen.

@Nerva

I just switched my build to 20/30/0/0/20 with +4% for mantras, +3% per illusion, with valkyrie armor and knights jewelry. My GS is a Mystical Claymore (zerk stats).

I have to say the build is amazing with lots of crits, vigor on crits, high dmg.

I’m very pleased with that trait/gear configuration with the GS. I’ve heard a lot of hate towards mantras, but +16% dmg from them is amazing. Also I find the condition mantra excellent. I’m also using the daze mantra with good results.

Revised to version 1.3:

- Fixed major/minor stat swap on +crit dmg and +magic find.
- Changed jewelry stats to include a gem of the same type in the socket

Xyrm.5602:

(I even transmuted my 1H mystic swords into a berserker swords stats, because they had prec/vit/condition dmg instead of power/prec/crit dmg)

How’d u do that? I thought the transmutation stones were appearance only. I’m working towards my first mystic wep now and thought I was locked into the stats…

It’s great to be a mesmer

Yeah I can’t even edit my post right now — I want to because I realized afterwards you were using PvP gear where the Berserk’s jewel has some +vit.

I find it frustrating that I cannot duplicate the PvP jewel stats easily with PvE itemization. (Example: if you go full zerks on PvE gear you’ll have zero +vit).

@Xyrm

You aren’t using the “vigor on shatter” trait in the vitality line — maybe your illusions aren’t near you when you shatter? I could see that with a greatsword so it would make sense with yoru build.

The only problem I have is your build is very glassy with no +vit/toughness anywhere.

I’m using 20/0/10/20/20 for the GS trait and the extra bounce from elasticity. I have 20 in the vit line for glamours (with option for focus) and 10 in the toughness line for some survivability. This is mostly a WvW build. I could see variations moving the toughness and vit points around depending upon your comfort lvl. I like to have 20k+ health and 1000+ toughness.

Revised to version 1.2:

- Removed emeralds as a standalone itemizer
- Mentioned that Soldier’s, Shaman’s, Rabid, Magi, and Traveler’s cannot be crafted

Revised to version 1.1 — added NONE as an itemizer type as well as a second 1h wep slot.

To configure for 2h wep simply use NONE for the two 1h wep slots. To configure for no weps, use NONE in all wep slots.

penatbater.4710:

err… there should be a way to configure to disable/enable 2h/1h stuff, mainly for engineers who don’t really get any stat bonuses from weaps so I don’t really care about them at the moment. Also, some people might use two diff-statted 1h stuff. hehe

So true — will update it soon with a “NULL” itemizer and two “1h” slots.

tyvm!

For players with Asura-like attention to detail, a nifty Excel spreadsheet is available to help itemize your gear:

http://stooges.enjin.com/forum/m/5527682/viewthread/4614953-itemizer-spreadsheet/page/1

It’s pretty fresh as I whipped it up this morning in an hour or so. All stat data comes from the official GW wiki.

Constructive feedback welcome

I like the shatter mechanic. I’m so use to it, that I find myself jamming F1 on my other toons when the mobs are near death… then lament that I’m not on my mesmer.

Even if you use your illusion army purely for damage/distraction, the shatter is still useful when your target is about to die. In this scenario, the shatter is a total bonus and completely awesome.

Edit: the shatter mechanic can be very strategic if you’re on your game. A well timed daze (F3) or distortion (F4) can be incredibly valuable.

I’m running 20/0/10/20/20 for WvW with the GS trait, glamour traits, elasticity. I have armor that’s power/vit/crit.dmg (Val. armor) and Jewelry that’s power/precision/cond.dmg. I run with GS/scepter+focus for weapon sets. Skills are blink, feedback, null field, and time warp.

I consider this a bit of a hybrid. It’s good for WvW for the following reasons (all of these are my opinion):

1. Buffs GS which is the best ranged DPS option we have.
2. iBerserker for hitting stuff on walls or stationary objects
3. Glamour skills are buffed (you really need feedback in WvW). Null field is actually quite good if you also use it for boon stripping.
4. Focus is great for pulling foes off of walls, warden for stationary objects (including revivers), and speed buff (it’s our only speed buff)
5. Decent power and health. Crit chance is 25% which isn’t horrible.
6. Some escapability with blink.

Not as tanky as my previous build of 0/0/25/25/20 with staff, but I couldn’t kill much with that tanky build and would often miss out on kill counts due to slow damage build-up.

The greatsword does some amazing damage with mirror blade and iBerserker. The auto-attack chain does 1000pts typically which is decent over 3 seconds. The only problem I ran into was a thief that caught me with my blink on c/d (I really missed staff #2 for that fight).

The only thing I would consider changing is moving the 10 pts from toughness and putting it into something else (like vit for shatter heals, or precision for a bit more crit).

I think targeting iBerserker 1200m thru any obstical is not quite right.

However it’s just as important that the LoS calculations need serious tweaks for stuff on top of walls in WvW. Seriously — if you take away iBerserker then the Mesmer cannot hit anything on top of a wall except with chaos storm, null field, and feedback.

It doesn’t make sense that I can physically see players but not hit them with my GS laser-beam auto-attack.

Face it: if you are on a wall attacking players, you should be targetable yourself!

I’m not sure Diversion will work as you plan. The three shatters don’t typically product three dazes. The first illusion to shatter will inflict the daze. The remaining illusions will not stack daze as long as daze is currently on the target. Since the target is not “re-dazed” I don’t think you’ll get the bonuses that would have been associated with a 2nd daze (like another vulnerability stack and stun).

I’m in full clerics gear spec’d 0/0/30/30/10 with healing meditations and healing symbols. I essentially have FIVE healz at my disposal (heal skill, 3 utility meditations, and dodge heal). I also have three HoTs (VoR passive, staff symbol, GS symbol).

I’m enjoying the build quite a bit — but mostly because of the instant cast Smite Condition, Judges Interventions, and Contemplation of Purity. Those are quite fun as instant-cast skills and the healing is purely a bonus.

Kill mobs is not as fast as I’d prefer tho, especially with the recent GS changes. The staff is not good for single-mob fights either (but incredible for DE mob tagging). So that’s the only complaint I have with this build.

Keep in mind it doesn’t reflect everything — just projectiles. Some skills are not considered projectiles even though they fly at you like a projectile. The same applies for ground-targeted AoEs — they will not be reflected either.

I can cast iBerserker at a target on the other side of a gate while defending against a siege. It’s pretty funny actually, not that the phantasm lives long. However you do see some big numbers float up for the 0.5 seconds that he’s alive.

You don’t even need a target — it will auto target through the door for you.

Please close this topic — it’s already covered ad nauseum here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Another-Mesmer-Moa-Bird-Thread

Try searching the forums first

It probably wasn’t a 90% health reduction due purely to iBerserker — unless your HP was 5k total.

However the LoS casting on iBerserker will probably be “fixed” in the near future. (sorry GS mesmers, join the staff mesmer club — we’ve got jackets).

The change in layout is really just a “reprogramming” exercise in our finger mashing — we’ll adapt to that eventually.

The change in symbol c/d is disappointing. The justification is based around retaliation. However the increased cooldown has other effects such as:

1. Reduces guardian DPS because the symbol pulses damage.
2. Reduces guardian Healing/Survivability because the symbol pulses healing (with traits)
3. Reduces combo finishers when soloing

So adjusting for retaliation had far reaching effects beyond just retaliation. It’s a bad way to compensate for that boon.

Staff is horrible for multiple mob tagging. Your choices are:

1. Bouncing autoattack which takes 1.5 seconds to fire each shot — damage is very low to accomodate for condition stacks. Generally poor tagger because mobs die before they are hit or before they accrue sufficient damage for a tag.

2. Staff 2 for an instant clone followed by F1/F2 for a shatter. This is how I generally tag the mobs since you can execute the F1/F2 press before the target dies. Not 100% reliable because the clone runs to the mobs position at time of F1/F2 press and there may or may not be any mobs left alive or in that location.

3. Staff 5 – Chaos storm which is a weak tagger with a long cooldown.

It doesn’t compare to any other AoE in the game (melee or not).

Sword is the best idea I’ve heard mentioned so far — that would be reliable and fast. Downsides are (a) only three mobs tagged per swing, and (b) delayed in order to get into melee range as opposed to firing off an AoE at 1200m range.

In conclusion, I understand that we have some “options” for DE mob tagging. The point that I’m making (and that many other frustrated PvE mesmers have made) is that the options are mediocre at best — so stop putting lipstick on the pig!

EasymodeX.4062

Don’t complain. The tool is there. Use it.

Oh I can complain because other professions have the “tool” for free — no traits required (Guardian Staff auto-attack)

Mesmer definitely has challenges mob-tagging in DEs. I know some folks are saying it’s “easy” but I don’t think they’re being completely honest. Examples:

1. iBerserker sometimes won’t spawn because the target mob dies before the skill induction is finished.
2. Chaos storm often fails to tag mobs because it doesn’t build up sufficient damage. Also chaos storm has a long c/d so it’s not reliable after the first wave.
3. Shatters require you to have some clones on hand first (same issue with c/d’s and target dying) — yes you can use self-shatter but only for a build that’s 30 points down the mesmer line.

Yes it’s possible, but it’s not as easy as other professions. It’s really my main complaint with PvE mesmer.

Want easy-mode? Try a guardian with staff auto-attack. It’s a mob tagging machine with zero effort and high reliability.

Bombul.2506:

Chaos storm duration increase was likely due to the ease at which combo finisher ethereals could be accomplished. I don’t know about the rest of you, but short of testing weapons and skill combos I rarely use, I almost never had to push my Chaos Armor button to have Chaos Armor. Add to that the combo of Chaos Storm and The Prestige and you are protecting a group of people on a regular basis. They reduced the cooldown of Chaos Armor. This screams to me that not having to cast this for the effect consistently was definitely on their mind with this adjustment.

I don’t think this was the case — you can make chaos armor from any ethereal field which includes the null-field, time-warp, and feedback. Nerfing the c/d on our only AoE to reduce the amount of chaos armor really doesn’t make sense.

I play a staff mesmer and I found this nerf to be the most disappointing. It’s not a high-damage AoE, nor does it last very long.

Honestly it was better for its boons than its conditions. Maybe that was the reason for the nerf — the mesmer was better at applying aegis to a group than a guardian (because we can do it every time chaos storm is off of c/d).

Some ways I find it easy to tag mobs as a mesmer (in priority order):

1. GS iBeserker — fast cooldown, fast cast, lots of aoe dmg in the 1000+ range
2. Mirror Images + F1/F2
3. Staff 2 + F1/F2
4. GS 5
5. GS 3
6. Staff 5 (chaos storm)

Honestly it sounds like signets where you activate them to get the passive effect.

I’m hoping it’s a “fix” to some sort of bug where you can get to the top of a wall without actually placing the exit on the top of the wall.

I don’t know if that’s a real bug or not, but I could see that being fixed.

Simply using the portal strategically shouldn’t be nerfed… I hope…

EDIT: This would be a great spot in this thread for an official developer to provide clarification

We should use that video to show you didn’t die while moa’d lol — since that’s the common gripe about moa (it’s insta-kill in the mind of some folks).

Not only did you survive moa, but you killed the mesmer afterwards… of course your a mesmer so it’s just OP against OP

The light armor targets are going to take more damage — especially if they are not traited for toughness at all. The big dmg was against another mesmer — so it may be against the squishiest possible target you could find.

Side note: As a memser you should have used some skills after you were moa’d. At least you ran around a bit rather than standing still.

I’m currently running 0/0/20/30/20 with a full set of carrion armor/jewelry/weps. For runes I use undead (condition dmg + toughness). Weps are staff and scepter/focus.

However I’m thinking of changing the build to 20/0/20/10/20 and running with GS + Staff. I lose some vit and my speed buff (focus). Instead of Undead runes I’m thinking Traveler or Speed.

Any thoughts on either build?

PhelanDisturbed.1650:

http://imgur.com/a/RX85t

a quick front and back shot of the level 35 rare light armor on a MALE charr… now where is that NSFW tag?

ROFL… Maybe you forgot to equip the pants?

DaisyRogers.6837:

You mean you don’t want to run around in butt chaps? (Way it looks from behind) No furry love?

Too funny…

iWarden is still good even with this bug fix — no reason to stop using it. It’s not as good as before, but it was CLEARLY wrong before. Anyone arguing this point is a bit deluded imho. Comon, a massive damage AoE that absorbs/reflects projectiles with no down-time?

Is mesmer worse now than before the fix, absolutely because the skill is less powerful now. Call it a nerf if you want, but it was a nerf to correct something that was not functioning as designed (i.e. bug). That’s not the same as changing a skill working as designed.

Like all losses in life, the grief will pass in time

Freaked me out at first — now I’m use to it. I don’t know if it’s a bug or a “fix”. I don’t think pre-patch that anything was left behind so I’m not sure what it could possibly be a fix for.

MLieBennett.9031:

Its the perception, whether being true or a delusion, that ANet simply Nerfs our class by fixing the bugs that makes us stronger and leaving behind the class weakening ones and YET have time to polish/rebalance whats left. In essence, nerfing us each update in total while we stare at the bug riddled remnants of what they “Fixed”.

I agree it feels “wrong” when the bug fixes are for the OP stuff and not the other broken things which hurt mesmer. I think they are focusing on the OP bugs with higher priority since those may be more game “breaking” than the other stuff.

Unrelated: regarding phantasms and clones, mine live through 2 or 3 hits. I believe this is because I’m traited 0/0/20/30/20 which gives them bonuses to toughness and vit. I don’t use the signet so I believe there’s something to this build approach which helps the illusions.