Guild Wars 2

I love this thread. No QQ, just mesmers working together to make good builds and try to explore and make viable some of out newest GMs. I’m pretty disillusioned (haha) about mesmer at the moment, but it’s threads like this that keep me feeling good about our profession

Good work everyone!

@Zacchary
While I am new to the thief profession and forum, I have not seen anything from you that I would consider over the line. Everything I have seen has been constructive and helpful; especially when one stops and thinks about the comments, the atmosphere of the thread, and what info people are truly looking for.

I was a mesmer main and a fairly active member of the mesmer forums. I still lurk there, and I can tell you that at least mesmers (and probably most/all professions) have their gripes. Good, thoughtful mesmers have the same trouble: people QQ about them all the time, say X build is cheese when actually all you have to do is l2p against mesmer and then it’s really, really hard for mesmer to come out on top. We have TONs of bugs… I mean it, so many skills just do not work AT ALL. Then we have people complaining about us all the time. Then we have ANet saying they’ll fix X, and instead it’s either not fixed or “fixed” but actually made more broken. One of our hardest counters is thief, so I’m playing thief partially to learn the class (it just so happens I’m loving it and pretty much main thief now). But over there we actually have good, constructive discussions about how to counter thief.

I guess the point I’m rambling to is that, you’re not alone. There are some dedicated, thoughtful, constructive mesmers who constantly fight to keep mesmer alive and try to educate people about what the class is really all about. I see a lot of similarities between thief and mesmer, and just take heart that there really are tons of us out there who need people like you to champion TRUTH (good and bad) about our professions, no matter which one it is.

Updated build

I think this might be the best one so far… it’ll probably be able to have might stacks on it’s own most of the time, and that really increases the damage output. Thoughts? Tweaks? Overhauls?

Putting aside the activation ability of IS and only looking at the passive ability, are either/both of these any good? 1 initiative every 10s sounds like something you’d never even notice. From looking at old forum posts, it looks like QR used to give 2 init every 10s but not any more.

anyone else to offer suggestions?

This is the build that was suggested to me for condi/power hybrid. Variation 2 is my attempt to improve it. Is the original suggested build better?

Runes of the scavenger seem to be pretty strong with this build, on account of adding 7% of vit to condi dam.

Is there a fairly widely accepted “best condi build” for pug PvE and solo open world?

So something more like this?

Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll respond in-line:

Pavel.8531:

Uh, well, Variation 2 is better.

Why is that? Can you expound on that?

Pavel.8531:

Although both are not viable in WvW/PvP

Why is that? Can you expound on that?

Pavel.8531:

I have tried D/D condi and it works, don’t get me wrong, it works just fine for PvE, just isn’t as good as direct dmg builds.

Yeah, I get that, unfortunately. My take on it is that I like the highly reactionary, dodge-heavy style of play that DoT requires.

Pavel.8531:

However, if you go with variation 2 – I suggest dropping the undead runes(not enough toughness to be effective) and dropping the rabid accs(for carrion or dire), you don’t need precision.

What runes do you suggest? It seemed like they provided the most condi damage buff. As for the accs, the build editor doesn’t have ascended carrion or dire to pick, so rabid was all that was left. I assume there isn’t ascended carrion/dire accs? Better to get carrion exotic?

Hello Everyone!

So I’ve been playing thief for a little bit now (lvl 48), and after looking at some builds and thinking of what I like, I’ve come up with a couple builds that I’d like some feedback on. They’re both similar, but a few key differences. I may not know what I’m doing, so please let me know… all constructive criticism welcome.

Here are some of the main points:
1) The build is for pug PvE and solo open-world play (if it has WvW/sPvP viablility, please say so)
2) The build is hybrid power/condi, with leaning towards condi
3) I tried to max condi damage, while also throwing in as much power as possible to support DPS
4) The main application of condi is bleed
5) The synergies are through: dodge, bleed, might, init regen
6) The idea is to stack bleeds and might as much as possible and keep the pressure up that way with dodge, caltrops, death blossom, SB #2 (and #4 for posion/combo).
7) To be as self reliant as possible

So the difference between the two builds is in the trickery line, specifically {bountiful theft & slight of hand} vs {trickster and hastened replenishment}. The steal skills were suggested to me, but i honestly don’t know how good steal is. I hardly ever use it and it doesn’t quite seem to fit the build I’m going for, but maybe steal is much better than I think and I should use it more:
Variation 1
Variation 2

So, what do you guys think? Am I way off? Is this good but needs some tweaking? Variation 1 vs 2?

Thanks all!!!!

It all makes me think of Maniac Magee’s post, Mesmer Staff Discussion & The Maniac Magician. This got me so excited about running a staff mesmer, until i learned how bad condi can be in PvE. I think in PUGs it’s probably fine because everyone is sub-optimal. I’m leveling a thief alt, focusing on condi/bleed, and I’ve been able to keep my stacks at just below 25. In any case, this post embodied what I thought MY mesmer should be: chaos-oriented, kite and dodge pest that tossed reactionary spells all around. Elementalist is proactive, mesmer is reactive. I like that. I really liked the idea of IE working for clones, because i imagined “chaos-balls” flying all over the place. Being a reflect-bot is not as fun. In any case, my hope is for IE to work “as promised” and maybe it’ll be what I’ve always wanted. For now, dropping 1 stack of condi per bounce +negligible damage is just too underwhelming.

When is this patch supposed to drop?

I don’t really know, but maybe staff will be viable in PvE if they make iElasticity work with staff clones.

1) iElasticity
2) iWarden
3) iLeap

If you’re doing open-world PVE, you’ll be able to (if not already) take on 3-5 enemies that are 6-8 levels above you. I use D/D and SB and love it. I try to use all the weapon skills as needed, but mostly rely on death blossom to stack bleed. My utility skills are caltrops, roll for init and shadow refuge. I use SR, hide in shadows (heal) and cloak and dagger to get stealth for back stabbing single targets (vets, champ etc). Heartseeker is good for quick “almost dead” kills or gap close, dancing daggers can be used to tag mobs and/or to keep your distance. D/D is amazing fun if you like to evade and keep yourself dancing around your enemies (esp important if they’re 6+ levels above you and just a couple hits will down you). There’s also lots to be done with SB, but I’m still learning that myself.

What’s the point of this? What problem does this solve?

I’m still very new to thief (lvl33), but both of these builds look awesome.

Methal.9045:

Thanks for all the info. I spent about 7 hours yesterday (much to the dismay of my wife) testing these.
Very good suggestions, I have found however, that all wep sets offer pretty good survival.
The thing is I can’t just afk attack like I could on my warrior and ranger.

Action and Reaction seems to be the key to playing the thief well. Watching for specific animations from the mobs, knowing where I will end up when I hit an ability, etc.

Very true. The squishiness of the thief means that you have to pay a lot more attention to what’s going on so you can avoid damage. Next time you’re looking to try another class, try mesmer. It’s really fun and also requires a lot of “dancing” to max damage and avoid hits. On second thought, with the state mesmer is in right now, better to try elementalist

I always recycle what I find to get components, luck and daily recycle credit. Is it better to sell everything for some reason?

Cool thanks. I looked at the sigil of fire but since I’m so low level my chance to crit is like 5%, so a 2.5% chance to trigger seems like a waste for now.

Eroza.4769:

Mmmm the SB auto attack will bounce to multiple target. I guess you juat need to play around with it. Drop 4 then clusters bomb2… then auto attack. In time you will see it is ment for aoe. I put stackable sigil on SB. Which im sure most thief do the same. Reason for it being easy to aoe and tag mobs… good luck!

What sigils do you use, corruption and something else? I feel like the AA damage is much lower with bow. I haven’t tried the 4->2 combo yet. For some reason #2 fields unwieldy to me.. it takes some time to land and mobs move out of the AoE sometimes. Do you use the detonate cluster option?

Personally, I can’t seem to get SB to work better for me than D/D. CnD, DB and #1 are just so good. Maybe it’s me, but SB just seems slow and much less effective.

Does it get harder to play thief in open world PvE later on? I’m level 24 and am regularly taking on 3-5 enemies 6-8 levels above me. I don’t even have traits yet. For me, the trick has been D/D and using Death Blossom. Drop some caltrops (can’t wait for “uncatchable”), DB on the mob (timing it properly to evade and/or give me some distance to make them come to me for another DB), roll for init and DB some more, then dodge and kite to avoid hits. I’ll use hide in shadows for heal/stealth (to allow bleed more time to win), or something like shadow refuge or blinding powder if I’m in a bind.

Thanks! What about D/D with P/D? That way I can stack bleed with DB, then switch to P/D and keep bleed pressure with #1 and then some Shadow Strike to stack torment. Or maybe it’s better the other way around?

I haven’t actually played with backstab yet. I’ve only used stealth as an escape when overwhelmed. I see both builds trait a lot into stealth. Is it really worth all those points? Also, in the first build you put a lot into enhancing steal. Is that really that good? I’ve played with steal a little, but have mostly ignored it. Clearly I haven’t yet really gotten a grasp of the full potential of the thief’s abilities. In the second build you have all venoms. Can they stack (ie, have more than one active at a time)? If so, it looks like you could get a crazy number of conditions and stack them on a few foes. How do the venoms work with Death Blossom? If you activate a venom, then use DB and hit 3 enemies with 1 attack, does that count as 1 use of the venom or 3? If just 1 and if you could have them all active at the same time, I see being able to stack a crazy number of conditions on multiple enemies with DB. The cool downs sucks so you’d have to wait a while before being able to do it again (annoying for open world roaming). Still, might be cool to fight even harder enemies with that. Last night I was successful in defeating 3x level 30 enemies at a time, while being at level 23-24 myself.

I know I’m asking a lot of questions and I really appreciate all the help!

Sagat.3285:

sirrealist.1360:

Sagat.3285:

You could try hybrid http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVl0MpypFOx5J0PNBNh491vl1KQ3HLOE-TxhIwA/V/JoyPAnCgV7PIWfwgnAATlgBAOA2tu1d3AjP+4jP+4t7u7u7u7WKgqkGB-e

I like to take advantage of both side of might plus with this you have heavy initiative regen. How much stacks you can create depends on how good you are with positioning with Uncatchable and getting more endurance with dagger auto. It takes longer to kill but as long as you’re having fun… no one can stop you…

Beware the condition cap and if you are in party others might limit the condition damage.

Thanks for the response! Is hybrid viable while leveling, esp at lower levels (I don’t even have access to traits until 30). Looks like I need to put points into trickery and acrobats asap. What about gear, should it be +condiDam or +power/precision, or both? Should still use SB as alt weapon?

Condi alone is pretty weak in pve with Dire condi/tough/vit. Rabid is good but thief doesn’t have interesting on crit traits and you don’t need toughness if you don’t really get hit. D/D and SB will give you sustain,damage,aoe and evades added with the initiative and endurance regen you can be really aggressive.

But again main downside is the condition cap but for solo it will work.

Whoa, I was just looking at P/D and Shadow Strike might be fun to play with. When and how do I start to get access to “rabid” or “carrion” gear? I never actually got any of that stuff with by alt, but I mostly play PvE. Is is either to (1) buy it on TP, or (2) make it (3) buy it with tokens from dungeon runs? I always did story mode…

Sagat.3285:

You could try hybrid http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVl0MpypFOx5J0PNBNh491vl1KQ3HLOE-TxhIwA/V/JoyPAnCgV7PIWfwgnAATlgBAOA2tu1d3AjP+4jP+4t7u7u7u7WKgqkGB-e

I like to take advantage of both side of might plus with this you have heavy initiative regen. How much stacks you can create depends on how good you are with positioning with Uncatchable and getting more endurance with dagger auto. It takes longer to kill but as long as you’re having fun… no one can stop you…

Beware the condition cap and if you are in party others might limit the condition damage.

Thanks for the response! Is hybrid viable while leveling, esp at lower levels (I don’t even have access to traits until 30). Looks like I need to put points into trickery and acrobats asap. What about gear, should it be +condiDam or +power/precision, or both? Should still use SB as alt weapon?

So I’ve got a post from another thread on leveling which I’m going to modify here to get to my own question, which is: How can I make combat more interesting/complex, or stack more/different condi so I can take on higher level enemies; details below.

I’m really enjoying D/D, using all malice/+condiDam gear. Death Blossom is so awesome. Run up to (or use #2) enemies, death blossom all over them. Depending on the situation, I use my utilities thus:
1) Drop caltrops if it’s a tough battle, dodging around to keep them in the AoE and watch the bleeds stack.
2) Roll for initiative to gain back initiative and use DB to stack even more bleeds
3) Blinding powder or signet shadows or shadow refuge and/or hide in shadows to buy me more time for bleeds to work, cooldowns to finish and initiative to refill.

I have short bow as my 2nd weapon set, but I hardly use it. I haven’t gotten used to it yet I guess, and it doesn’t seem to do more for me than spamming DB and using utilities. What I’m getting at is, what can I do to do even MORE condi? I imagine that spamming DB is going to get old. Right now I have sigils of speed/corruption on my daggers, and sigils of speed/geomancy on my SB. With mesmer (my 80 main), you have to constantly adapt your skill use to the situation, often swapping weapons at least once if not several times a battle. Now, it seems DB is all I need.

I’m level 21 and I’m tackling level 26 enemies with ease, and can generally take on up to 3 enemies around 5 levels above me. Worst case I might get downed (mistimed dodge usually) but then rally when my DoTs finish the job. I’m not boasting AT ALL, just talking about how much fun and effective D/D seems to be with properly leveled gear.

So, is there anything I can do to make combat more complex, or do more condi damage so I can take on even tougher or more enemies? Maybe there’s a diff weapon besides SB that I could use to stack conditions in a useful way?

I’m really enjoying D/D, using all malice/+condiDam gear. Death Blossom is so awesome. Run up to (or use #2) enemies, death blossom all over them. Depending on the situation, I use my utilities thus:
1) Drop caltrops if it’s a tough battle, dodging around to keep them in the AoE and watch the bleeds stack.
2) Roll for initiative to gain back initiative and use DB to stack even more bleeds
3) Blinding powder or signet shadows or shadow refuge and/or hide in shadows to buy me more time for bleeds to work, cooldowns to finish and initiative to refill.

I’m level 21 and I’m tackling level 26 enemies with ease, and can generally take on up to 3 enemies around 5 levels above me. Worst case you might get downed but then rally when your DoTs finish the job. I’m not boasting AT ALL, just talking about how much fun and effective D/D seems to be with properly leveled gear.

How about the other side of the coin: Condi?
Can anyone suggest a condi/cc based build? Looking to cc multiple PvE enemies (fear/chill?) while loading up condi. Not the fastest way to kill, but it feels pretty awesome to kite multiple enemies while killing them. I came up with this build, but I honestly don’t know if it’s any good. Remember, this is for leveling, so no GM traits. Thoughts?
PS: MrSimpleMan, if you’re not interested in condi/cc builds, then I apologize for hijacking your thread and will not ask any more regarding this (I have another post asking about this, but idk if my post is just not picking up much interest)

Some tweaks, maybe better?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNArYWjM00dbxN+2wfjigBRyWfmqXkNCQ52oA-e

Thanks so much everyone! I’d like to try to do a condi heavy build, if I can. I guess I’d like to focus on keeping the cc as interesting as possible, since I know condi builds take longer to kill enemies in PvE. So, priority would be fear and other cc abilities first, and then maxing condi damage. I also probably won’t play it much once I get to 80 (I really just like leveling), so what do you guys think of something like this to strive for:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNArYWjk00db1NG1wfjigBRyWfmqXkHCQ52oA-e

EDIT: I didn’t include any GM traits b/c you can’t get them until 80 now and I’m looking for leveling builds.

Thank you! Can you suggest a build or 3? Clearly I have no experience with Necro, but it would be cool to look at some builds ahead of time and try to get an idea of how it would work, what util skills to use, what weapons etc

Okay, before you troll/flame me, just hear me out.

I used to play WoW a long time ago. I had a TON of fun with the warlock. This class basically plays by using CC abilities (like fear and lockdown spells) to keep enemies off you while you load up DoTs. Another major mechanic was that some of the DoTs and direct damage would give you life, which you could use as an extra mana source.

Now, the main thing I miss about the warlock that I’m looking for was being able to roll up into a crowd of 4 enemies (PvE open-world mobs) around your level and be able to kite/cc them while loading up DoTs. It was a fun dance and very challenging, and it’s even better in GW because the combat is so much more active (dodge).

I know there is no class like the warlock in GW2. I know GW2 professions are different, no holy trilogy, and all classes and do pretty much anything if specced right. That’s why I’m here. For those of you who know the necro well, and know a bit about the WoW warlock, can the necro function like this?

I main a mesmer, and I hadn’t even really thought of this until I was playing last night and I was fighting 4 mobs and was evading all over the place, throwing up illusions (instead of a minion) and stealthing (instead of fearing) to avoid and it was just so much fun. It reminded me of the warlock.

I’m looking for a way to play as close to the WoW warlock as possible. A profession/build that focuses on conditions (DoT) and some sort of evasion mechanic that lets you control multiple foes at a time while giving your DoTs enough time to work while simultaneously healing you. You can sort of do that with a mesmer, but a lot of the guys in the mesmer forums were saying that the necro sort of plays this way.

What do you guys think? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Educate me! And please, don’t tell me “if you like warlock, go play WoW”

PS – I mainly play solo/duo PvE open world and some dungeons. I play casually, so the best build and/or max DPS build is not so important to me. I’m more interested in the playstyle. For instance, I’ve already read many times that “condi is terrible for PvE”. That’s okay with me, as long as the playstyle is what I’m looking for. It’s all about fun and that differs from person to person!

Thanks for reading, you guys are great!

Ho Brah, you want me karang your alahs with my slippah brah?

Awesome, thanks for the advice guys. I’ll get to work on learning D/D. Takes longer to open up traits now so I’ve got lots of time to learn the skills. I want to be able to adapt to battles on the fly (as opposed to being a slave to rotations).

Aloha from Hawaii!

So I just got my mesmer to level 80 and, well, I’m bored. It seems what I really like to do most is explore open world and play dungeons (less than open world though) to level characters. So, I’ve decided to get my level 17 ele to 80!

Sooo, what’s a good build for leveling? Right now I’m using D/D, but of course I know I need to do my own experimenting. And I know, open world is “facepalm easy so anything will work”.

What I’m looking for is something strong for solo. I like to solo multiple enemies at the same time. What builds/advice do you have on how to be able to do casual open world explore/events solo and dungeons. I know for dungeons you really should be group-play focused, but for now I’m just looking for the most self-reliant, selfish builds. I want to be able to unleash the elements on multiple foes at the same time and still look good doing it!

So, got some thoughts and advice for me?

Thanks!

Oh sorry, didn’t realize this was a PvE discussion. I’m talking sPvP. The point of going 5 into inspiration is 4/5 traits buff phantasms, you get condi cleanse, and some toughness.

Why not this build?

Then you get both

For my part, it depends on how fast you want to get to 80 and how much open world you want to do. I just got to 80 literally 4 days ago, and I went the long route. There was a LOT of open world I hadn’t explored when I leveled my warrior, so I wanted to that. For me, I really really enjoyed GS/Staff. I did most of my leveling solo or duo, and this weapon combo fit ME best. It allowed me to do decent damage with GS and then use staff for defense. You should spend some time with all the weapons so you can be efficient with any build you may want to do later. Ultimately, open world is best enjoyed by what you like the most.

Dungeons, WvW and PvP are different beasts that are more specialized and require more specific builds. That said, I still enjoy doing dungeons with whatever I like, I just clearly state that in the group description (“Story Casual Play” or something like that).

I’m going to try out this variation.

Lose:
Blink (or decoy)
Condi cleanse from Mantra of Purity
Retaliation for phants

Gain:
9% damage (with 3 illusions up)
confuse on all shatters
4% damage (extra mantra)
condi cleanse from Mantra of Resolve

@pyro and Neuro:
How would you guys alter your builds, post patch?

This is a build I put together, trying to take advantage of the fact that ANet fixed phantasmal haste. I basically grabbed every phant trait i could. Is this viable? I also went for what I think are the 2 strongest sPvP phants (iSword and iDuel). I have NO IDEA what I’m doing with runes/sigils. What do you think of my choices? I was basically trying to do a Might synergy, but IDK if I did a good job with it. Thoughts?

Finally, another question: do the bonuses from runes stack for having all six? For instance, does rune of str give you +175 power, or +100? Does it give +45% might duration, or +20%?

nemka.1803:

the questions(“points”) they asked were all answered in my top post.

At the very least, your build isn’t in your OP. That would help us better understand what you’re talking about, so we can give you better responses. That’s what you’re here for, right? “Help” us “help” you.

nemka.1803:

i don’t need “help”.

Well, “asking” people for a “response” to a “bunch of statements” is asking for “help” in getting that “response”. This is “assuming” you’re asking for “responses” to your “post”, and not just “speaking” to an “empty room” where you hope everyone “ignores” you.

I have another thread going with suggestions on condi/staff builds to run, and I’m going to be working that side of things. I’m very new to sPvP, so I’m trying to explore some of the easier builds while I get used to the gameplay mechanics. So, I figure that some of the easier builds to learn/play while learning the nuances of sPvP would be shatter and power.

Can some learned people show me some of these types of builds, so that I can experiment, learn what I like, and not be running a totally terrible build that I made up myself that hurts me and my team?

EDIT: I have looked at the “build threads” and through the forum, but I fear they are out-of-date at this point, and am looking for builds that are either new or have stood up against the newest patch.

Zepidel.5349:

… valk amulet? Can you be at least a little less subtle with your trolling?

Oh, is that what’s going on here? I was really curious to see what build he was running b/c I couldn’t see WHY you’d run valk.

Post a link to your build so we can see what you’re running.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey dude, are you on US or EU? Anddd are ya in [OMFG]? I’d happily meet up with ya in-game and try to help out. I’m a bit too pressed for time for a lengthy write-up.

Edit: Also, take the points from Illusions and 5 from Dueling and throw them into Dom for a traited torch and Crippling Dissipation.
As for using a PU condition-build, you may be running in to problems because a lot of people have learned how to fight PU Mesmer atleast semi-decently. Many know your weaknesses and strengths and will use them against you.

US, and am a memer of OMFG. I’d love to partner up and see what I can learn! I’ll look for you in the guild list next time I’m on. Problem is, my timezone is HST (GMT-10), and since I go on after work, it’s often too late for others. Let me know what time zone you’re in so maybe we can work something out.

jenzie.4083:

I’m having a blast with Osicats Napalm build in spvp now, it works really good, hard to take down guardian bunker builds but thiefs, warrior, rangers.. most eles and engineers are doable. Other mesmers are fun too, especially power phantasm, all their phantams go up in flames

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/On-demand-burst-condi-Napalm-Cat

Be careful with the steath though, you don’t count as present in the capture rings (they called that? lol) when you are stealthed. On my weapons I use sigils of Smoldering instead of Sigil of Torment in spvp. Check out his build to see what I’m talking about.

Only down side is speed, your slow as a kitten.

Best I can tell, the PvP version would be this, correct? It doesn’t seem that Sigil of Torment is available for PvP, so I chose Sigil of Fire to synergize with Runes of Balthazar. This could be totally bad and there might be a better sigil to choose (if so, please help!).

I watched the vid, but I’m still very new to PvP. Can you give me an idea of how this is supposed to work? You’re supposed to shatter I’m guessing, but when and what kind (1-4)? I know it’s situational, but there must be a general strategy. Once I hear back from you, I’ll rewatch the vid a few times to make it sink in.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Seriously, ignore the end of game rankings. They actually mean nothing. There’s only 1 single indicator of your play. Did your team win or lose?

Now, not winning once means something, and it’s mostly that you’re a new player. I just remembered something you may want to look into. Check out the series ‘Sensotix goes solo queue’.

Cool, I found his thread here.

Am i correct in assuming that I should ignore the builds (age) and just focus on the strategy?

So this is the build I played last night.

I played for about 1.5hrs. I tried to remember to swap weapons every 10s or so, to proc my sigils. I tried to play smart, focusing on grabbing CPs and not just dueling. I tried to get better with blink, and play smart.

I wasn’t on the winning team once. Not once in 1.5hrs. I know I didn’t play the best, and at times I was lowest ranked on my team. Usually I was in the middle, sometimes 2nd. Could it just have been bad luck?

Thanks all so far! In the PvP forum, I’ve now read the stickied guide, another popular guide in there, and Pyro’s. It’s starting to click.

Just to clarify, I am not exactly “new” to Mesmer in general, I’m level 76, but I’ve been playing open world and dungeons only.

With respect to weapons, Dondagora says that they’re all available. When I went into the build section, the only weapon choices I had were staff/GS (the weapons I had on me). There was no dropdown or other apparent way to swap out my weapons. There was a “search” function there, but I couldn’t get anything to come up in search. It was very confusing, and I’m still not sure how to select other weapons. Help…?

As for warlord’s questions, here’s what I can offer:
1) Staff. I’ve tried them all through PvE, and what I like the most is staff. GS would be #2, though I’m not married to it. I’d like to find a build that focuses on staff.

2) This. It doesn’t have to be exactly this, I just really like the idea of a “chaos” mesmer throwing out tons of clones/phats, having them hurt the enemy when they die, and building up conditions while evading damage. There’s a point in the thread where the OP talks about how this build punishes the enemy for everything they do. That seems very cool. I kinda like the idea of some sort of torment+confusion+DoT(bleed/burn/poison) focus. IDK, the idea of hurting them when they move+use skill+don’t do anything seems awesome. I’d be even more for this build if ANet had “fixed” IE.

3) Hard to say. I would have said IE if it had been fixed, just because I love the idea of tons of chaotic orbs flying everywhere. I’ve used Deceptive Evasion since I got it. Debilitating Dissipation seems very cool.

4) I like Decoy a lot. Clone+stealth+stun break is cool

Again, take all these answers with a grain of salt, b/c idk what’s good for PvP. I feel like I’m leaning towards that Maniac Magician or the PU condition build that Pyro has in his thread. I know it’s the popular Mesmer build to hate, but I just really like the idea of stacking conditions all over the place and evading/stealthing around to let my conditions do their work. Perhaps these builds take more skill than I have right now to use correctly? It seems like they might take longer than normal to kill people, which might have me at a disadvantage.

One last question… how exactly does getting credit for a kill work? Is it only the person who does the finisher? So you could get someone to downed state, but someone else starts the stomp before you and gets the credit? Is there some etiquette to this, to avoid ganking kill credit?

Okay, so I know PvP discussion is a little hot right now, but I’m posting here (instead of PvP forum) because a LOT of the Mesmer forum contributors are actually really helpful. Also, if you’ve been around for the past month, you know I’ve been posting a lot of questions with the honest intent of being a better Mesmer player. In doing so I am attempting to bring skill, teamwork, honesty, class, integrity and sportsmanship to my gameplay, as well as to those around me. I’m sorry for the dramatic beginning here, I just want to be upfront about how I am trying to learn, I am open minded, and would really like to keep negativity at the door.

I’m going to post a lot of questions here, and I’ll number them so it’s easy for others to clearly address them. I might have multiple questions under one number, but that’s just because the questions are closely related. I’m reading the wiki, but you guys can confirm/correct my thoughts. Also, please feel free to comment on anything else I write (not just the questions).

Yesterday I tried PvP for the first time. It was very confusing, at the beginning. I did the little heart quest based tutorial, which basically taught me nothing. For first off, (1) can anyone suggested a thread, website or anything else that has a comprehensive guide to general PvP play for newbies? I mean, something that gets into the very basics like explaining maps, how they work, how PvP works, how the build system works etc. First thing I figured was well, I gotta set up a build. So I went into the build system and picked my traits, picked my runes/sigils/accessories. However, I was only able to choose weapons from what I had on me. (2) How does weapon choice work? Is it only from the weapons you have equipped or inventory? I see in some thing online that the weapons seem to be all normalized. Is that true? Is it the same for armor? Does it not matter what PvE gear you have equipped? After I got that done, I wasn’t sure what to do next so I just hit the button to play now or whatever it was. After that I was put into a game. Then I hit the button to put me in a random team (I think). From what I can tell, the game centers around controlling capture points and that in doing so, you get points/time. You can also get points from killing enemies, but you get more from CPs. It also seemed like most people tried to do their own thing, but there was some light group org. (3) Is this the sPvP I keep hearing about? (4) What general advice can you offer with respect to how to play this gametype? Is it best to focus on trying to get others to work together to focus on capturing and controlling CPs?

It seems like there are other gametypes as well. There was team stuff, arenas, and more. (5) Can someone give me a breakdown of what these other gametypes are, and any general advise for them?

I’ll be honest, I got some kills and I died a lot. My teams lost way more than we won, and I’m sure part of that was the fact that I’m new. I know this is a l2p issue, which is why I’m here. This is the build I put together on the fly. It’s probably all messed up. I only had staff/GS on me. I just sort of picked stuff that I had read about and knew was used in some builds. As you can see, I tried to have stealth on hand so I could try and get away when needed. I kept getting engrossed in the battles and when I did try to disengage, I was always found. The battles all seemed hectic and furious. I kept feeling like I was just trying to throw everything I had at someone, without much time/thought to WHAT I was doing. Just throw phants out and try to dodge. So, this brings me to my last two questions (for now). (6) What advise can you give a new PvP player, with respect to how to play? What L2P advice can you give for this? (7) What builds can you suggest for a new PvP player? Something forgiving. Also, keep in mind that I’m open to ANY builds that are forgiving to new players, so PU, whatever… I don’t care what the perception of it is. Please include links to gw2skills.net that show the weapons, skills, traits, sigils/runs, etc etc. Also, if you have the time and inclination, please describe how to play it, why it works, what to watch out for, weaknesses etc.

I know all of this is best learned on your own, and I plan on putting a lot of time into learning, but getting a leg up on some builds/playstyles to start with will really cut out some of the time/frustration with getting started.

Above all, THANK YOU!

Thanks so much guys! What nourishments (food and utility) should I be using with the 2/3 and 2/4 builds, and why? What about the 6/6 and 6/4 builds? I’m trying to get a handle on understanding nourishments and how to properly pick them (so many). I’m guessing with the 2/3 and 2/4 builds, you want food that promarially buffs precision, but that’s just a guess. Oh, and if the “proper” nourishments are really expensive, can you suggest cheaper alternatives (and explain why those were chosen)?

Thanks again everyone! I’m really learning a lot here.