Guild Wars 2

What I find lovely about Mesmer is that you have utils for every situation. Running or skipping? Put in stealth + stability + blink. Need condition cleanse? Tons available. Need Reflections? Got that too. Need straight dps? Empowering mantras + mantra of pain has you covered. Need more tankiness? Phantasmal defender has you covered.

In dungeons, I find myself switching utilities for literally every encounter with mesmer. There is always some combination which is a little bit better, depending on what you’re going to face. Compared to my ele and warrior, which are much more static in their util choices, I really like the dynamic nature of the class.

Though you’re absolutely right— it did take a long time to realize that these things were actually useful

Gnat.9405:

Forums!

Who the hell is resing all of these kitten posts lol

necro meta 2014. spoj has been out-built.

LFG says: “CoF p1 p2 need dps!”

Me as Mesmer joins 4 warriors. Awesome, this will be fast. Pull slave driver to wall… And someone with longbow draws him off. All 4 wars to bleeding, but I solo the driver and finish it. Great start. Also seen: sword/war horn, but not axes. V. sad. Rest of the run went about as you could expect, including an excellent “glitch” which prevented one of the warriors from running the magma field in p2. And of course, the Mesmers OP light armor helps me be the only one that doesn’t down in the magg defense run.

Unnnghhhhhh…

clint.5681:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

maxinion.8396:

Clumsy.6257:

Ethics.4519:

All that’s missin in this post is a necroed dev post from robert a year ago. That would have really summed up this week (Read: 1 day) nicely.

check the main dungeon page again, thread about soulbound runes in dungeons just got necro’d

We’re only missing a “zerker sucks, magi gear ftw!!11!!” thread, I think.

Bro, my masterwork cleric gear is better than Magi. Geez.

#givergearmasterrace

sentinel’s is the best, why else would it be so expensive?

Clumsy.6257:

Ethics.4519:

All that’s missin in this post is a necroed dev post from robert a year ago. That would have really summed up this week (Read: 1 day) nicely.

check the main dungeon page again, thread about soulbound runes in dungeons just got necro’d

We’re only missing a “zerker sucks, magi gear ftw!!11!!” thread, I think.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Good week, guys, good week.

And it’s only Tuesday.

We are off to a great start.

Lol. We really got the trifecta this week, there was even a ‘selling is bad’ thread!

+1 Internet point for op for a set of mature and calm responses.

TheKillerAngel.3596:

frifox.5283:

TheKillerAngel.3596:

Mesmer: 0/30/0/20/20 is the maximum reflect trait setup

x/x/x/x/20 trait I’m assuming is Phantasmal Haste. As of right now it’s broken for Warden and is useless if you’re taking it to better your warden reflect uptime. Might as well shave off those 5pts and invest them in x/x/x/25/x which is a nice +15% DPS for your phantasms.

Yes, I just saw that it was broken. I am now using 0/30/0/25/15.

This is what I have been using as well. Seems quite effective, but I have to run some numbers on the 10/x/x/x/x builds later to compare.

If it helps, my machine (on which it works) is:

Macbook Pro Retina (2012 late) 2.6 GHz i7
Mountain Lion 10.8.5

The latest patch did fix this for me. Thanks for the quick attention!

Saw a warrior drop a banner of tactics the other day in AC. At least he switched to discipline when asked, but that was solid.

Mesmer damage is super duper high. This is modulated by your ability to keep the phantasms up, but even with 1-2, you’re doing very well. And no other class has the ability to increase everyone’s damage like Time Warp can.

The video is also missing some of the latest updates to the mesmer dps builds. It’s more optimal to go 10/30/0/20/10, and to use empowering mantras on your dueling 30. With 3 mantras powered up (recovery, resolve, concentration) you get even more damage.

Belac.2341:

Here’s a new one for you (I did submit a ticket, but thought i’d raise it here also)…

When I click on “Buy Gems” the page that appears is completely blank, hence making gem purchasing impossible. FWIW I’m running the mac client.

Same! Mac client as well :\

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Dungeons-Phantasm-build-s/first is the basic guide for traits

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first#post2916477 for a general guide on playing in dungeons

Basically: sword + focus / sword + sword / sword + pistol, taking the best two for the given situation. Almost always s/f + s/s. 10/30/0/20/10.

Enjoy and good luck!

RRAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(amiyellingrite?)

Go run a fractal or two and you’ll bet basically all of the chest rewards. Nothing in there worth losing sleep over.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

The phantasmal swordsman doesn’t strip boons on it’s attack. That’s the sword clones/sword auto.

Vulnerability, burning and bleeding are really common in dungeons and also on the staff auto. If you have any other class besides the guardian, mesmer, warrior trinity, then there will usually be 4+ conditions. The staff also doesn’t require traiting chaos and illusions anymore than the usual phantasm build (Especially with the new signet heal).

There is also a difference between unreliable and situational. The warlock is unreliable because the attack can actually miss when the ground isn’t perfectly flat. The second you have a team for a dungeon, it should become pretty obvious if 5-10 conditions are going to reliably show up for that group or not. That’s situational.

I agree with your general message of staff is usually not a good idea in dungeons because of the terrible staff auto attack, but vs a single target, I would prefer a mesmer that uses the staff as a back up ranged weapon than a GS mesmer. (Assuming the rest of the group is trying to mele stack.)

That’s a nice summary, thanks. And thanks for the corrections on my points.

Xyonon.3987:

Thats just wrong maxinion … The iWarlock outdamages the iSwordman at 4 conditions+. It also is long range wich makes it more safety to survive. Also – never seen a 25k crit on dwayna? <3 Best day in my life xD

Like I said, for open world, where bosses will always have 4+ conditions and range play is acceptable, then that’s fine.

I cede the point on 4 conditions, fine— they’re similar at 4, and then warlock goes up. But: staff requires traiting in chaos + illusions, which is not the most effective place to put skills. And again— the autoattack hits like a wet noodle.

Moreover, relying on 4 conditions is rather unreliable. You can expect some vuln, sure, but most other conditions will not be present on bosses unless specific classes come into play. Swordsman doesn’t rely on anything, and is always solid DPS, and even strips boons on hit.

Between the unreliability and terribad autoattack, sword is definitely nicer.

Now let me point out that I leveled with staff and absolutely loved it. It’s an awesomely fun, super defensive weapon, which will let you basically never die in open world. But, it’s just not very good in dungeons and fractals.

Always zerker on trinkets. The chest/legs/helm on armor are what you should swap to soldiers if you want a bit more toughness/vit.

Zach.3264:

I’m a little confused by those saying not to use Staff.

Staff auto-attack isn’t the greatest, but it does decent damage even with power gear. Staff #3 however has amazing damage when in group play.

Assuming you get every condition up, it does a little more than iSwordsman (there have been calculations of this, but I can’t find them atm). Given the meta of the game is that conditions are terribad, you can’t rely on your party to get every condition onto the boss. Sword/sword provides much more DPS with the autoattack, an evade, a block/stun, and a gap closer. This is all assuming a dungeon party, ofc.

For open world and world bosses, staff is fine (then again, everything is fine in open world~)

Lord Kuru.3685:

Bosses have 3 stacks of defiant if you’re soloing. In a party of 3, it’s 5 stacks — not sure how many for a party of 5, but definitely more.

The number of stacks depends on proximity of people when the actual stun goes off, no?

The dredge fractal is a good example of a place where a group absolutely can and should tear down the defiant stacks, and then wait to stun as he is about to heal. I can’t think of too many other examples where this is critical, but I see good groups doing this often at Howling King in ACp1 as well (knocking him down for a few seconds can be quite helpful in letting you regenerate endurance, etc.).

Mesmer offhand weapons are, of course, awesome for all of this.

The biggest problem is coordination. You want to save up the stun, once the defiant stacks are gone, for a moment where the boss is going to do something Really Bad— heal, huge AoE damage, etc. PUGs are going to often just spam their stuns after you do the hard work pulling the defiant stacks back, and waste the actual stun on some moment that doesn’t matter (looking at you, bearbows and gs mes’s). A coordinated group can benefit hugely, though.

Ethics.4519:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Ruby orbs really aren’t good on Mesmers at all.

Can you go into more detail about why they aren’t good? or a link with more information?

I know that scholar runes won’t work for phantasms (well the 10% anyway), so I figured orbs was the next best choice.

Right: I was under the impression that even though scholar might be marginally better, it is much more marginal than for all other classes, and so might not be worth the cost of the scholar runes. Every respected guide I’ve read has indicated as such, anyway, but I would be curious about why you think otherwise! Thanks.

CatMonster.8513:

rozcinana.7249:

Molch.2078:

There was once a player, a long time ago (2-3 days, maybe), who was able to find a group for Arah via the lfg-Tool, despite all the nasty scumbag sellers. Let me tell you his story…

He made his own group.

THE END

Hah! I don’t understand why people are so afraid to start their own lfg posts.

Maybe because Arah might be contested for the person in question. I don’t even know WHY they have contestable DUNGEON ENTRANCES in the first place. Some, like CoE never seem to be uncontested….

www.gw2state.net

swiftpaw.6397:

Grab yer’ torches and pitchforks!

guardians grab scepter + torch!

Note that since Mesmer phants do not benefit from scholar runes, going for ruby is a very cheap, effective alternative. Also sword is usually a little better than pistol. Spec’ing for that allows empowering mantras for more damage as well.

I like the suggestion for 15 in domination. I don’t want to give up 25 in inspiration, because extra 15% phant damage is quite nice.

Check out strife’s videos (stickied at the top of this forum). They are fairly old, so they do not have the new fractals, but the old ones are very well covered in my opinion.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Please-fix-people-selling-dungeon-slots/page/5#post1162080

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Selling-dungeons-is-allowed/first#post3061531

Yes, selling dungeons is allowed

(side note: bookmarking these threads is really going to turn into a timesaver!)

DigitalKirin.9714:

Stop saying “I don’t care” and start saying “I care.” If you want to run a build of one type, make sure it’s okay with the rest of your group. If you’re the sole “zerker elitist” in a group of “bunker support casuals” just gracefully bow out. Same with the opposite. And if you’re in a group where someone bows out, don’t look down on them for leaving. They’re saving everyone lots of potential conflict and headache.

qft

Folks here aren’t threatened— it’s just that threads like this come up, like clockwork, once every two weeks or so. Go ahead and kill all mobs! We won’t, and literally cannot, stop you. Advertise your groups on LFG as “kill all mobs” and like minded people will join you, even! We do not think you will get anything which makes it worthwhile, so we will not. That’s all.

/thread

swiftpaw.6397:

W-wait.. You’re that guy.. from that other thread…

Heithinn.6508:

No.. I am serious

I don’t care how much damage I do – that’s not my role. Honestly the fact that I do any damage at all is just a bonus. Let the other 4 people damage while I keep them cleansed, rez them, buff them and use whatever I can to make the fight easier be it a projectile reflect or stability.

Why Toughness and Boon duration? Well.. I need to be alive to heal and rez you don’t I? I already have plenty to cleanse, so Vitality is moot.

It’s all coming together now. O_O

maxinion.8396:

You’re very welcome to spend 3x longer on your runs so you can collect 10 more gobbly kittens, but don’t expect us to~

We can now upgrade that to 10x longer.

Have we finally found the legendary King of the Play-How-I-Wants???

I haven’t heard the MF argument before, though, so he gets a point for originality!

Zepher.7803:

Hi, I was wondering if any of the Formulas with regards to healing power are going to be looked at and possibly increased?

Healing power seems to be pretty “meh” to Guardians.

don’t hold your breath

Heithinn.6508:

iczek.9628:

I’m a guardian and I know the benefits the staff can provide. Please help me understand why a guardian would have their main weapon as a staff in dungeons. Okay, the staff is a great weapon for certain scenarios such as clearing blossoms in TA. But why would a guardian use a staff as their primary weapon during the entire dungeon run? Dungeons are my favorite thing to do in GW2, they are amazing but I am constantly seeing guardians using a staff as their primary weapon. I main a GS and the damage is great. During boss fights, I see guardians spam number 1 on their staff. And I’m thinking, why not use a GS or 1 hander sword to dish out a lot more damage. Perhaps I’m missing something and if so, please explain that to me. But why would a guardian main a staff versus a GS or 1 hander sword/focus?

Thanks!
iczek

For 6 years I was a healer on “another” MMO. I pre-ordered and between BWE’s I’d peruse the wiki and the different classes – I gravitated toward the Guardian because I felt this would be the best “healer” eventhough there is no Holy Trinity.

I run Staff (for range/spread out support)and Mace/Focus(for stacking/melee support) I keep all the other weapons in my bag – just in case. I’m traited to heal everyone around me. I roll in Giver’s gear and Clerics Weapons/Accessories so I’ve got Power, Toughness, Healing and Boon duration coming out my ears. I do “okay” damage but I’ll tell ya what – it takes a lot to kill me, my regen lasts forever and ticks high, my support is strong and people in my groups only die due to thier own lag or stupidity – and I run, Shelter, then rez ’em so they can do it all again.

Some folks prefer to make sure the group kills the boss – they don’t want to solo it.

I have toons that support, toons that crit, toons that condition… toons that siphon health, toons that control. I like to have a toon for all reasons so I’m not stuck typecast on one toon.

No joke though – a staff is INVALUABLE in TA. Just sayin.

lol

(true facts about TA though)

You’re very welcome to spend 3x longer on your runs so you can collect 10 more gobbly kittens, but don’t expect us to~

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85568-lh-is-the-new-bearbow-the-real-staff-dps-build-for-manly-men/ has close to the best possible builds. They’re not so different from yours. Rando seems to not know much of what they are talking about if they are that upset about 10%.

Nozdrum.2894:

There is no reason not to run a zerker build. If you are dying the extra bit of health won’t help you, you just prolonge the issue. In the end you will die and be a worse player. Just play zerker, dodge, use your skills when necessary ( feedback, heals, berzerker, curtain, blurred frenzy etc. ) and kill the boss 30 seconds faster.

If you’re serious about pve, this is the only correct answer. Added toughness in pve does not help at all. It can help in wvw, though.

Luck of the draw, I suppose. When my guild picks up pugs to finish the five, we never kick or insult. Likewise, when I’ve joined guild groups as a pug, I’ve never had any problems (except when they ignore my questions because they’re clearly all talking on vent and don’t look at chat). C’est la vie.

The build is literally one of the simplest in the game. Spec 30/10/10/0/20 as here: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmKbsR3wjEAhHEwQBjCdIKYRRRO7A-jgxAYfAqAQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1A-e Then, basically sit in fire and use 2 on cooldown, and 1 otherwise. For large targets (bosses, structures) use 5. Switch to water for healing skills if necessary. Once you get the hang of it, get used to using blast finishers (earth 2, arcane blast, etc.) inside of the fire field created by the fire 2.

But basically: use fire 2 as much as possible.

J Night.3468:

a t s e.9614:

I feel your pain, I always get kicked no matter how well I support my party . Full cleric armor and a shout build that heals for around 4k and insane CC with dual mace build. And I never go down , always forced to res those berserker who die in one hit and I’m the one who gets kicked. It’s absurd.

whoa that’s stupid. i’d actually love to have someone with your build in my party. it helps a lot.

Erm, I suggest reading the thread I linked above. It is still basically the best PvE staff build. Try the third variant in that post: 30/10/10/0/20.

Assuming you’re looking to play PvE:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85568-lh-is-the-new-bearbow-the-real-staff-dps-build-for-manly-men/

/thread

Zach.3264:

Mesmer Sword was great at low levels, the damage was fantastic (and still is), though you could kill most enemies before they got a decent amount of time to attack back. Nowadays I -and I think every other Mesmer- only use Sword for the 3-3-2 combo and then swap again. We don’t last very long in Melee range, having a pistol benefit us the closer we are wouldn’t be a great addition in my opinion. I don’t think it would make sense having a ranged weapon require you to be close to increase it’s effectiveness either.

inb4 dungeon runners start lol’ing

Anyway, would be cool to see a new ranged main hand weapon~ Certainly cool to have it do more damage at melee too. We can hope~

Bloodgruve.6038:

maxinion.8396:

The iDuelist drops somewhat close to you when you finish casting, and actually has a rather large range with no DPS penalty. So you can duck out of the fight for a moment (to heal as well), drop a duelist far from the mob, and jump back in.

Something that people don’t always think about is DPS up-time. Every second you’re away from your target, not attacking it or dodging, is a DPS loss. It can be a significant loss. Not sure what the loss vs gain would be here, losing a phantasm vs placing a phantasm, but it could potentially be a wash. Mind you I haven’t done any figuring or testing with this so I’m just playing devils advocate.

That’s probably why our ranged options are lower DPS in most cases, to balance vs lower up-time melee.

Blood~

That’s absolutely true. I try to avoid ducking out of fights as much as I can, but often the mechanics of the boss enforce that you do it at least a little, and that’s a great time to place duelists. Howling King in ACp1, for example, requires a bit of kiting with gravelings once in a while, and the channel time for a duelist can be long enough to give you something useful to do while you run around.

The iDuelist drops somewhat close to you when you finish casting, and actually has a rather large range with no DPS penalty. So you can duck out of the fight for a moment (to heal as well), drop a duelist far from the mob, and jump back in.

Nice on the specific reflect guide, that’s worth a bookmark as well. Thanks~

Variant.5129:

ItWasntMe.7102:

I am a ranger NOT a cleric for those dps baddies that wear attack food/mf food over other more useful options. Like you stated it is a GRP effort. Me rolling in from ranged to drop my heals for others leaving myself with ZERO heal as I roll back to my game range (then being looked upon as weak when my hp drops & I am downed & DPS is lost as they run to rez me instead of letting my pet do it lol)~ send pets in & use spirits when needed for the team while I go max range to get best out of my dps values giving up all my slots for others is not ranger at all. It would be different if the content supported rangers as they should be, but the truth is MANY DPS have the elite attitude that they should be catered to & that because the game content allows for melee to be so greedy & selfish that it is the rangers job to take it up the butt & be at their beck & call. How is that fair to expect 100% of the time? Is that “team work?” O.o but it may take 5 extra minutes to kill the boss if we actually allow rangers to play RANGED from time to time LMAO~ yah the selfish players you refer to are those demanding everyone build/play the dungeons to support those who do not want to be responsible in keeping themselves alive, nor do they want to meet rangers or others half way by utilising both an attk/def food. No no~ their mf & desires are more important ^^ I don’t get to use mf food most of the time, I don’t benefit from banners or guards buffs when I am ranged & if I am melee 100% of the time then I am not a ranger at all. Your expectations are bit lopsided ^^ How about everyone go ranged & share their goodies with the rangers? AHAHHAHAHHAHH You want the dungeon runs fast, which is fine, but some of us are here to play the toons we chose, yet no matter how much we rangers sacrifice using junk spirits that do nothing for us & keeping certain pets passive so they can run in & survive drop regen or w.e for squad, we still get judged & told how are dps sucks donkey balls & you all carry us. Well our best DPS & evasion is max range. If I want a melee toon 100% of the time I would have a warrior. Rangers support parties in many ways at a great loss to their own play styles & dps, yet it is NEVER appreciated because it isn’t measure in DPS directly contributed.

Didn’t read.

Anyone tell me if this is pure sperg?

can confirm some pretty good sperg

Zerker gear comes from CoE, CoF, and Arah. See: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats#Dungeons

Out of these, CoF (p1 and p2 in particular) are going to be your easiest bet.

For trinkets, ideally you go for ascended stuff, but even just rares from the TP are effective, and fairly cheap.

ItWasntMe.7102:

I am a ranger NOT a cleric for those dps baddies that wear attack food/mf food over other more useful options. Like you stated it is a GRP effort. Me rolling in from ranged to drop my heals for others leaving myself with ZERO heal as I roll back to my game range (then being looked upon as weak when my hp drops & I am downed & DPS is lost as they run to rez me instead of letting my pet do it lol)~ send pets in & use spirits when needed for the team while I go max range to get best out of my dps values giving up all my slots for others is not ranger at all. It would be different if the content supported rangers as they should be, but the truth is MANY DPS have the elite attitude that they should be catered to & that because the game content allows for melee to be so greedy & selfish that it is the rangers job to take it up the butt & be at their beck & call. How is that fair to expect 100% of the time? Is that “team work?” O.o but it may take 5 extra minutes to kill the boss if we actually allow rangers to play RANGED from time to time LMAO~ yah the selfish players you refer to are those demanding everyone build/play the dungeons to support those who do not want to be responsible in keeping themselves alive, nor do they want to meet rangers or others half way by utilising both an attk/def food. No no~ their mf & desires are more important ^^ I don’t get to use mf food most of the time, I don’t benefit from banners or guards buffs when I am ranged & if I am melee 100% of the time then I am not a ranger at all. Your expectations are bit lopsided ^^ How about everyone go ranged & share their goodies with the rangers? AHAHHAHAHHAHH You want the dungeon runs fast, which is fine, but some of us are here to play the toons we chose, yet no matter how much we rangers sacrifice using junk spirits that do nothing for us & keeping certain pets passive so they can run in & survive drop regen or w.e for squad, we still get judged & told how are dps sucks donkey balls & you all carry us. Well our best DPS & evasion is max range. If I want a melee toon 100% of the time I would have a warrior. Rangers support parties in many ways at a great loss to their own play styles & dps, yet it is NEVER appreciated because it isn’t measure in DPS directly contributed.

lol