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Guild Wars 2 - lujate's Mesmer


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Update 26 Jun 13
So, the 25 Jun patch...
Two things really hit my build.

The first was the change to Illusionists Celerity. It was moved from Illusions 5 to 25. This means that all illusion skills now have a 20% longer cooldown. A phantasm build cannot allocate 25 points into Illusions, so I moved those points to Inspiration.

The second was the change to Blurred Frenzy (Sword #2). They changed it from an Invulnerable skill to Evade, which means certain damage will now come through. They also increased the cooldown. :sigh:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.5|c.1c.h14.c.1p.h1h|1.1n.h2|1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m|211.0.311.0.1n.64.1n.64.1j.61.8g.67|a5.u4ab.0.u15a.0|2n.2|32.3j.3d.3m.0|e

Update 01 Jun 13
I gave up on Ascended Valkyrie trinkets and went with Celestial instead.
ttp://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.5|c.1c.h14.c.1p.h1h|1.1n.h2|1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m|211.0.311.0.1n.64.1n.64.1j.61.8g.67|a5.p4a.a5.k1a.5|2n.2|32.3j.3d.3m.0|e

Update 27 Apr 13
As my playstyle has evolved, so has my build. Here is my latest build: http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.5|c.1c.h14.c.1p.h1h|1.1n.h2|1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m.1g.7m|1h.62.1h.62.1n.64.1n.64.1j.61.1g.67|a5.p4a.a5.k1a.5|2n.2|32.3j.3d.3m.0|e

I still want to replace my two Chryso trinkets, but I am waiting, hoping that ANet adds Ascended Valkyrie items.

My #9 skill gets swapped out as the situation dictates.

For weapons, I use GS and Sword/Sword most of the time. There are times though that I go Sword/Sword and Sword/Focus. Also for those boss fights that you just cannot melee, GS and Staff.

Original post
It it virtually impossilbe to read anything online about GW2 without someone bemoaning how horrible Mesmers are for PvE. I guess I am one of the minority who disagrees with this. My Mesmer can go toe-to-toe with Champions (except those with PBAOE) and mobs alike.

Here is my basic build I use for PvE:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.3.7.20.0.0.0.0.0.182.189.196.187.204.0.0.0.530.0.0.545.544.0.560.0.0.571.580.0.0.0.0.10.25.10.20.5

Skills highlights
Sword #2 (Blurred Frenzy): I have seen the question asked several times online, "when does the Mesmer get good?" My answer is as soon as you unlock Blurred Frenzy.
Pros:
  • Good DPS
  • Hits everything in the range of your sword
  • You are invulnerable while while doing it
Cons:
  • It is a channeled skill, so moving breaks it
  • Mobs may move out of range (Sword #3 & Pistol #5 can help)
  • When in groups, other players may knock-back or pull the target out of range
Sword #3 (Illusionary Leap): Summons an clone and cripples the target. For a few seconds after spawning the clone, you can hit the button again to swap places with the clone and immobilize your target.

Pistol #4 (Illusionary Duelist): Summons a phantasm wielding dual pistols. An added bonus is that the duelist can still see and hit stealthed targets (this applies to all illusions but the nature of iDuelist makes it the best phantasm for this).

Pistol #5 (Magic Bullet): Fires a shot that hits up to three targets. It is good that it stuns the target, but by hitting three enemies it can aggro more than you want.

Staff #2 (Phase Retreat): Summons a clone at your location and causes you to quickly retreat. It also breaks stun (and remember, knock-down is considered a stun). It does have a rare bug that causes you to fall thru solid rock. The only escape from this is to waypoint.

Staff #5 (Chaos Storm): Area of Effect that grants boons to allies and inflicts condtions on foes. Learn to dance in the storm.

Decoy: This utility skill makes you invisible and summons a clone at your location. This breaks stun and can also be helpful for escaping when the situation gets too hot.

Time Warp: This elite is an Area of Effect speed buff. I have often joked that it makes boss fights too easy.

Random thoughts
  • Illusions die a lot, so I trait for on-killed effects rather than improving shatters.
  • I like Mantras because they cannot be interrupted. Restorative Mantras also does a group heal when I charge a Mantra.
  • For weaker enemies, I try to keep three illusions up and use Mind Wrack and Mantra of Pain to finish them off.
  • For more powerful enemies, I will burn both charges of Mantra of Pain and leave it uncharged so I can get a small heal by charging it. As soon as I have three illusions, I will shatter via Cry of Frustration for DOT confusion damage.
  • Sword/Pistol gives good DPS and some utility.
  • The Staff is simply a must have, with Chaos Storm, Chaos Army and two great illusions.
This video shows me taking out a single easy mob.



This video shows me taking down two average mobs.



This video shows me taking out a single veteran.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj2-s9sTFHs&



Here is my dungeon build:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.2.7.18.0.0.0.0.0.182.189.196.200.204.0.0.0.530.0.0.545.550.0.560.0.0.571.580.0.0.0.0.10.25.10.20.5

Skills highlights
Scepter auto-attack: Spawns a clone every third hit.

Scepter #3 (Confusing Images): Causes Confusion DOT.

Focus #4 (Temporal Curtain): Drops a line that grants swiftness to allies and cripples foes that cross it. The line can also be detonated, knocking down nearby foes.

Focus #5 (Illusionary Warden): A phantasm that both attacks and shields nearby allies from projectiles.

Random thoughts
  • I take Scepter/Focus in place of Sword/Pistol. In dungeons, quite often it is just too dangerous for melee.
  • The Scepter is great for spawning illusions. That combined with Deceptive Evasion (which spawns a clone on dodge), I call Clone Army. In addition to the damage and conditions inflicted by my illusions, most Area of Effect's can only hit five targets. With three illusions out, chances are good one or more of them will take a bullet meant for a player.
  • Mantra of Pain is replaced by Feedback, which blocks enemy projectiles.
This video shows me fighting a Champion Cave Troll. The Focus did not contribute a lot to this fight, but the Scepter shined.






Here is my WvW build:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.12.7.18.0.0.0.0.0.182.189.196.200.204.0.0.0.530.0.0.545.550.0.560.0.0.571.580.0.0.0.0.10.25.10.20.5

Skills highlights
The interesting thing about the Greatsword is that it is a ranged weapon and its damage is directly proportional to the range to target (I.e. it does the most damage at max range and the least damage at contact distance).

Random thoughts
  • This is simply my dungeon build with Greatsword in place of Scepter/Focus.
  • In siege warfare, as well as large open battles, the Greatsword is indispensable.
  • Some might argue with using a Staff in WvW, but I think it is just as useful as in PvE. It also comes in handy when dealing with Thieves ( angry.gif ) who like to ambush single players/stragglers.
I would not normally pick the Greatsword for a 1v1 fight, but I think this give a good idea of the Greatsword basics. To see it at "combat speed", check out the WvW thread.






Here is a skill breakdown for the Staff/Greatsword variant:

6icyef.jpg Edited by lujate
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Lujate, what a great, detailed, technical guide! I didn't know how much of this game's mechanics you had down pat till I got to gobble up your goody this morning over two cups of coffee.

 

Mesmer's always entranced me, but had always thought of it as being one of the more challenging classes to play.

 

Do you think you could maybe make a vid going through a few of the concepts of your guide?

 

The clone army is fascinating!

 

:)

 

gogo

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"Clone Army" is a little bit of a misnomer because you can only have three illusions at a time, but I do throw a lot of them out.

 

Let me go back thru my footage and see what I have. I will try to record more if necessary.

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OK gogo, I added additional write-up and several videos to my original post. The videos should be considered best-case (or nearly so since I made a few mistakes) scenarios. Things are a lot more chaotic when I am facing wave after wave of Risen, duo-ing a Champion or being quadruple-teamed in WvW.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...
I created new mesmer last night. My first one was deleted because it was the lowest level out of all my characters and my daughter played "dress up". I never took the mesmer out for a serious drive, but after last night's play I'm thinking I have a new main... pity that my guardian is now stuck with the karka\christmas loot, but I'm definitely not putting my guardian in the bottom drawer.


The crit guardian just got me so intrigued, that I thought other than a crit thief, the best would probably be a crit mesmer. Since I really don't like the thief mechanics that much, I thought I'd look at the mesmer with a fresh perspective. Now I'm not really critting the world on fire at level 5, but just getting used to the play style.


Funny enough the mesmer is a lot (imo) more survivable than the guardian. I even rez'd a few guardians in the lower levels while almost taking no serious damage at all! If I played properly I really had no need for the healing skill. I think I first used my heal at about level 3 and then only took interest in how much it heals and what the cd is. Now not taking away anything from Lujate's excellent gameplay - I can now understand why he is the last man standing 90% of the time.


So in queensdale starter zones I ran into the bandit caves, did a little mopping and headed to the champ. there I got stopped in my tracks. The first encounter caught me still unlocking torch skills and a guardian who I rez'd 3 times in the encounter. The second time I should have brought the GS to the fight but had my staff equipped. I had the champ at about 50% before he got me milli seconds before staff #2 could save my skin. So there goes my "80 with zero deaths" tap on the back. But this boss/champ is a real tough one and even my level 80 guardian has a hard time soloing this guy. The fight is hard because he takes a lot of damage and dishes out a lot of damage all on a little platform where there is no room to dodge or kite without falling to your death or resetting...


I still have to unlock sword, underwater weapons but the mesmer is actually not as complicated as it looks at first glance. Does very good damage and has very good evasive tactics.


The engineer and elementalist both have excellent survivability builds, but at the cost of damage (*let's not got the route where a tanky ele triumphed my guardian twice in a row*), but I'm talking burst damage here and not the tank-ele just constantly healing, keeping distance with speed and slowly picking away at yer health.


It's a looooong way to go for me yet and with my limited play time these days I'm not sure how many months it will take to reach a fully geared level 80 mesmer, but I'll get there. And then SF will pay... oh yes my preeeeciouuus, they will paaaay!!!
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Heh, ty - I hope I don't disappoint :)

 

well at the moment I'm still playing around and very low level but it would be power, precision and crit damage.

I like the Feedback skill - always a fun spoiler when I run into that one with my guardian in WvW. Since I have to mash so many buttons with my current guardian build, the confusion is my worst enemy. (and of course the "Windows Key" right below my "Z" remapped 7 button)

Blink looks to be right up my ally. I'll use blink and sword 2 just as I'm using Judge's intervention and sword 3 with my guardian atm. Very, very effective burst damage for my guardian. But the mesmer sword does Area of Effect damage on #2, so that's even better!!

As a third skill... dunno, maybe Arcane thievery or Decoy. But Illusion Of Life certainly seems to be a good WvW option?

Elites - well all mesmer elites are nice really. But I think mass invisibility is probably a better suited in WvW rather than PvE or dungeons?

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Sword #3 is both a gap-closer and an immobilize, so Sword #3 then #2 is a nice combination.

 

Blink is a stun breaker, so that is good. Feedback works well in WvW and some PvE areas. IMHO, you will want a condition removal skill, so I would suggest Arcane Thievery over Decoy.

 

Mass Invisibility is a niche skill that I have never used. For PvP, I use Moa and for PvE Time Warp.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I've been trying to get into the Mesmer lately, so this has been a fantastic read/watch. Out of curiosity, do you remember what weapon/s you used to get through the early levels (1-15ish)? I was thinking the Staff would be a good option because early level your clones don't do any damage, but with the Staff they would be causing conditions through Winds of Chaos.

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I've been trying to get into the Mesmer lately, so this has been a fantastic read/watch. Out of curiosity, do you remember what weapon/s you used to get through the early levels (1-15ish)? I was thinking the Staff would be a good option because early level your clones don't do any damage, but with the Staff they would be causing conditions through Winds of Chaos.

Many people say that Mesmer really takes off at L40. I have always disagreed with this. For me it started at L2 when I unlocked Sword #2. I leveled with Sword/Pistol and Staff.

 

Mesmer builds fall into two general categories, based on how they utilize illusions to achieve DPS.

1. Phantasm builds (like mine) aim to keep as many phantasms up as long as possible. This is because phantasms do real DPS. Shatters are used as finishers or in emergencies only.

2. Shatter builds try to spawn as many illusions as possible and spam Mind Wrack (F1) for burst DPS. Clones do almost no DPS on their own, so these builds just use them as shatter bombs.

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  • 1 month later...

I run a very similar build myself, but more glamour based :

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQJARWlwzCrHVzqGbNJipC92ZGMXzRqgqVmBudhA-jUxAkmAlALiGbNlIaUdmUNsgMA-w

 

This is exactly what I am running now.

Upgrading a few things are in my future w this one, such as the runes on the armor, but at present I'm not willing to spend the money for better runes.

Incidentally, after lookin for lujate in different ways (although not here), I saw him right beside of me three days ago, takin a tower w me in eternal battlegrounds. What are the odds I'd see him, in the same place, on the same server?

Small freakin world huh?

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...

Incidentally, after lookin for lujate in different ways (although not here), I saw him right beside of me three days ago, takin a tower w me in eternal battlegrounds. What are the odds I'd see him, in the same place, on the same server?

Small freakin world huh?

It gets even better when you realize that I had been on hiatus from WvW, and that was my first day there in weeks.
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...

Incidentally, after lookin for lujate in different ways (although not here), I saw him right beside of me three days ago, takin a tower w me in eternal battlegrounds. What are the odds I'd see him, in the same place, on the same server?

Small freakin world huh?

It gets even better when you realize that I had been on hiatus from WvW, and that was my first day there in weeks.

A strange set of fortunate coincidence, for sure

 

I usta hate mesmers, because I played against em in PvP, and I ended up killing clones or being confused to death.

So I built my own, and now its my primary WvW character. =0)

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