Guild Wars 2

Anyone think this is a good idea?

Basically the title tells it all. I made an Asura thief and love the spiky hairstyle with the bandana around the whole thing. However, I’m regretting choosing that hairstyle only because I can’t dye the bandana a different color to match my armor (I’d have to purchase gems and get a hairstyle change kit). Either provide a merchant to change hairstyles/colors for silver, or allow accessory colors to be dyed in the dye panel.

Would love some more feedback on this!

I love all of our elites tbh.

So I’ve been a Mesmer since GW1, and always enjoyed controlling my enemies’ movements and working to help our team succeed by making the other team’s members fail at their own jobs. This is something I’ve missed on Mesmer since I started playing GW2, and haven’t really been able to find… until I tried this build out in sPvP. I present the Shutdown Mesmer:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAraWlwzKqHTTjGZ9IhJFBH5oUcdvT6hpL9qB-TsAgyCuI0SplTLjWStsaNwY9x8DA

This build focuses on a mix of durability and damage with an emphasis on single target conditions and interruption. It is flexible in order to provide for the many varying situations that pop up in sPvP.
I admit that I haven’t tested it at length due to lack of time to play, and I’ve brought it to the forums for others to test out alongside myself.

Build Variables:

Utilities
Ether Feast —-—> Mirror
Decoy —-—> Signet of Midnight (for those pesky Warriors; it has a stun break now, so you won’t lose out on that part if deciding to switch)

Traits
Domination:
Crippling Dissipation —--> Signet Mastery or Mental Torment

Chaos:
Chaotic Dampening —--> Cleansing Inscriptions is possible if taking Signet of Midnight
Chaotic Dampening —--> Bountiful Interruption (might on interrupt for more offense) or Mirror of Anguish (if having trouble with stuns yourself)
Move 10 points —--> Illusions for Illusionists Celerity and GM trait of choice

Illusions:
Phantasmal Haste —--> Illusionary Elasticity if you want more conditions/boons/damage from staff
(Note: I take Phantasmal Haste because the Duelist is a large part of the damage from the build and having more than one out helps an incredible amount)

Equipment
Pistol:
Sigil of Energy —--> Sigil of Battle

Please post your feedback and ideas about it! I hope it works for you guys as much as it has for me!

Cheers!

I finish the cast time of Shatterstone during combat (or while auto attacking) and it does not actually appear or deal damage. It will work if I pre cast it for combat or am not auto attacking. Anyone else notice this?

Azraeel.1238:

Yay! Another one who wants to level a Necromancer because they just got buffed!

Anyways, if mobility is your type of fun, then you will never enjoy a Necromancer, we will never have the ability to be mobile, because this isn’t into our profession. We are supposed to be hard to kill and put great pressure onto enemies. So if you want mobility other than mesmer, go thief.

Support? You can put points in Blood Magic for those:
Transfusion Life Transfer heals nearby allies
Deathly Invigoration Heal in an area when you leave death shroud
Vampiric Rituals Wells also siphon health every time they pulse
and 10 in Death Magic for:
Ritual of Protection Wells apply protection for 3 seconds when cast

But other classes provide way better support. So might as well just level a guardian or Elementalist if you want support and damage.

Okay well thank you but no, I’m asking about Necros because they have a cool aesthetic. Thanks for proving yourself an kitten though.

I’m a Mesmer main that just got my Bifrost, and I’m starting to look at alts to play and max out. Necro’s aesthetic has caught my eye and the amount of conditions they apply are interesting. I’m hesitant to start playing one though because it seems like they have no real mobility in combat. I’m used to the in and out playstyle of my Mesmer and find that to be incredibly fun and rewarding. In what ways are Necros rewarding and fun to play for WvW, sPvP, and Dungeons, both support and damage?

Anuxdei.2175:

use drug and dream about playing new mmo never exist , hours and hours , kill die laugh and never stop music in your brain

this is not best advice but option

Excuse me, what?

I’m finding myself not wanting to log in for my mesmer now that I have bifrost on him. I don’t find any class as engaging as Mes, so I don’t enjoy leveling alts all that much either. Is there some advice you guys can give me as in ways to make leveling alts fun, which classes you find fun, and things to do in your spare time?

Thanks guys! I’m debating between Engi or Warrior. Warrior = most mobility, Engi = most difficult/unique. Anyone have experience with both classes?

Title says it all!

Mesmer to me
Feedback, Null Field, Portal, Blink.

I finally got Bifrost on my main mes ankitten ow looking for an alt to try out. However, I’m having a hard time finding a mobile, durable, and unique class that requires skill to play. I almost feel like Mesmer is the only profession I can play sometimes. So, my question is: what alts do you enjoy thoroughly as a Mesmer main?

redux.1502
Profession: Mesmer
Traited: 0/25/30/10/5
Experience: None for Arah, though story mode completed
Time: Variable most days
Working on Bifrost, so I need to get as many tokens as I can! Would love for you guys to teach me how to run it and start that part of my mats for the legendary

For spvp I run a stealth build 0/25/30/15/5 and have LOADS of fun with it using staff + sword/torch. I run with another mesmer so we both get affected by the other’s veil and mass invis. It works wonders having those extra boons while in stealth and using Knight’s armor is very tanky.
In PvE/WvW I also run Knight’s armor but use a shatter build. SOOOO add a tally under Shatter

Since we have so many useful weapons, I’m just curious which legendary everyone has gotten/is going for. Personally I chose Bifrost just because l got the Legend from the MF and I tend to run Staff as my main or off weapon choice. What about you?

Human Male: Juxt Solas

“Man I can just faceroll through everything.”

Guardian, Ranger, Necro, Thief. The other three professions kind of bore me.

All of them are useful. If Mind Wrack is on CD and you want more damage, use Cry of Frustration. Contrary to popular belief, the confusion damage CAN be helpful in PvE, as most mobs use a skill or two. If you need to interrupt a powerful spell, use Diversion. If you need to protect yourself from damage, use Distortion. Honestly you should get the hang of using all four to maximize your survivability and damage. Mind Wrack is great, but the other three are just as amazing in their own niches.

This is a build that I’m looking at for leveling (I’m currently ~level 56 with my Mesmer). I love the condition damage build I have but I feel a lot like I’m just standing around and am wanting to shatter more often than not. So would this shatter build be workable for leveling as well as for running dungeons at 80?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcmc0MMMzMLnbmMLnbmGG9MxzmVazoq8kir707kir7kiH7070z7kGL70V7owY70m

I realize most builds are usable no matter what, but are there any suggestions on runes, traits, and weapons that you can give? Thanks guys!

Counter-Suggestion:

Make the Scepter our AoE weapon. Its niche is confusion, and that’s great. But we have all our other weapons filling a real role in many builds whereas the scepter (from my perspective) is barely used.

Suggestion: Remove the clone-spawning mechanic from Ether Bolt. Change Confusing Images to either a targeted AoE or PBAoe that does a pulse of damage to all targets, then another pulse of confusion, with a final pulse that does significantly less damage and spawns a clone. Then change Illusionary Counter to Illusionary Weaponry, which will cause your scepter’s next five attacks to bounce their damage to five nearby foes before expiring.

The numbers and things can all be adjusted, but these changes would make the scepter a nice damage output tool instead of being only marginally useful in Confusion builds (PvP).

If you’re using the Staff, you’ll want to use Condition Damage. If you’re going GS, go for Power.

@MrPrometheus
Extremely happy to do so! Your guides were extremely informative and helped me get into the right mindset to truly enjoy my Mesmer (my whole goal for purchasing GW2). So thanks back at you as well

I would like to talk about something that I picked up from a YouTube series by the user MrPrometheus0110. All topics discussed in this post are credited to him, as he made me aware of them as an avid viewer of his videos. A link to the guide where he discusses this idea can be found here:

Anyway, on with my post. What “Build Theory” is, is a basic concept for constructing a build and a flexible way to discover new things about your Mesmer (and/or any other profession for that matter). I am posting this in the Mesmer forum simply because it has come to my attention that MANY players who post here are wanting guides and/or builds to follow for their character. I am hoping bringing this theory to their attention will allow for a lesser amount of discussion on that topic since in my opinion, it is not necessary if this theory is followed.
Back to the theory. Basically what MrPrometheus talks about in his video is that you want to come up with a “theme” that you would like to follow for your Mesmer. Themes can be any of the following (or more, depending on your personal desire to be creative):

• Shattering (commonly known kittenter Builds)
• Boons
• Mantras
• Conditions/Condition oriented
• Phantasm damage
• Signets
  Etc…

Basically, a “theme” encompasses the playstyle you would like to adopt for your Mesmer, and gives you a baseline idea to build around. Say I want to play a Condition build that focuses on multiple clones and phantasms to send out said conditions. If that’s the case, I don’t need to go and look up exactly what traits to use and find a build online. I can simply look through the traits and bonuses in each trait line and discover which bonuses I want to best augment that theme.

So in other words, pick an tactic that your class can perform (for instance Mesmers are not extremely melee friendly as far as their traits are concerned) and use the traits that you think would best fit that tactic.

That’s sort of what the trait system is MEANT to do for players: give room for experimentation and personalization. Simply looking around for the best build might not be the best idea because A. the playstyle (and skill) of one person may differ slightly from that of another and B. there is a large amount of variation in what players think is useful or not.

Mesmers tend to be an extremely variable and nuanced class with their mechanics. As in Guild Wars 1, in GW2 they do not affect the flow of battle with extremely powerful and bursty mechanics, but take advantage of their foes and punish them in order to win. If you are not into subtle strategies and planning ahead, then by all means, keep looking up those builds online. But I have to stress that the Mesmer performs best when you know exactly what you want it to do and aim all traits toward that goal. Since we have smaller (but cumulative) effects on battles, it is essential that each trait be focused and beneficial to the core goal that you want to move toward.

Yes, I realize that this is all extremely general, and I would encourage you to watch MrPrometheus’ whole video/series (yes, I realize it’s a long one) in order to get a better understanding. It will allow you to see specific examples of traits that can be switched around and chosen based on player preference.

All in all, I hope this was a helpful post, and that it helps people realize that it’s not just about what build is “absolutely best” in all situations. Play to experiment and experiment to play.

Cheers!
-Redux

1. Staff is really good for PvE. It, along with Mirror Images and/or Decoy allow you to keep up and rotate three illusions and also buff them to make them pseudo tanks with Chaos Storm. It’s really great for taking out multiple mobs because of the bounces with Winds of Chaos that all of your illusions will be using (Winds stacks conditions on foes and buffs on you/allies). So It’s a great choice for leveling as it helps a lot with survivability AND damage output. I can’t comment of PvP but I would assume it’s only okay since a lot of the conditions are random. I’d say something like Scepter/Torch or Scepter/Pistol would be fairly good in PvP.

2. Your build should focus on Condition damage, reducing cooldowns, and adding utility to your clones if you are using the staff. I’d like to point you in the direction of these videos to help you out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZ0NNd7b60
It’s a series that is extremely informative and helpful, especially if you’re looking for guidance and to help you understand the way the class works.

3. Condition damage, Toughness (or Vitality), and Precision if going with Staff.

4. Explore. Find the hearts around a zone. Then do any Dynamic Events you come across. Find all the markers on your map (Vistas, Places of Interest, and Waypoints). Don’t worry about Skill Challenges unless you have a group to help you out since they can be hard to solo. Honestly, you shouldn’t rush through it. This game lets you really take your time to find cool places and discover the world it immerses you in. If you want to just power through it, then do what I said above and don’t bother exploring too much on the side. But if you want to get the most out of the game, look around and see what you can find behind bushes and in caves you find.

5. Again, I’m not much of a PvPer yet. I will later on, but for now I’m enjoying the PvE progression and leveling. But they were the best in Guild Wars 1, and they have fantastic control and utility in this game. So I would assume they are at least pretty good here as well.

6. Those videos I showed you should answer any other questions! (there are 3 in the series by the way).

Hope that helped!

I mean personally speaking, I love my illusions and the current AoE I have. Kiting is extremely important for the class to do for survival. But I like how much control we have. It makes the fragile balance between life and death in game all the more scary because one mistake could get you downed.