Mesmer Discussion Thread

[Meledelion]

Why use a scepter?

[zed zebes]

blocks. creates clones and allows me to use torch for added burst with prestige

Staff/GS are better at range, and this plays more in melee range. It sort of feels like a d/d Ele.

[Meledelion]

I think it's weird that you go with a condition weapon just for a max 2s block (only the first attack is blocked) while distortion grants a guaranteed 2s evade.

[zed zebes]

If you're in the midst of things in WvWvW, you want those blocks. Plus, torment and confusion still factor in with minimal condition damage. Staff can work, but you do end up playing at range and then waiting for weapon swap to jump back in. Also, since you won't be applying many conditions, staff is probably even weaker than scepter/torch damage wise. Only iWarlock gains the benefit from power much, but it won't have many conditions applied for its damage increaser.

You have to factor in how range alters Scepter vs Staff/GS effectiveness. Staff is unaffected by range differences, but is heavily condy damage reliant. GS loses dps at close range. Meanwhile, Scepter gains DPS at close range because the windup and hit waits on each Scepter projectile hit. At closer range, you fire off Scepter 1s faster. You then gain a Block, torment, confusion, and the stealth + blast damage from Prestige to combo with Blurred Frenzy + Shatter.

[Meledelion]

I don't get what range has to do with anything.

I'm saying that if you want to play mostly in melee there's no benefit to using scepter over sword. It looks like you just grabbed a scepter since you didn't know what master trait to pick in inspiration.

For defense you have s/s where you can use the blurred and riposte and for offense you get prestige and blurred.
Something more in the lines of this. If you're gonna zerg you can always equip a GS.

[zed zebes]

But I only get blurred once. I don't have the sword trait to reduce CD on blurred either.

[Meledelion]

Yes but since you can only weapon swap once every 10s anyway the 12s cd shouldn't matter much.

[zed zebes]

I'll just say that it works better in practice.

In other topics, I am trying out the new anti-toxin heal skill on Mesmer with the remove condy on heal trait. The heal removes most of the nasty condies already, and with the trait it removes a bleed/chill/cripple as well. The issue is whether the trait will trigger first and then override the cleanse on the heal or vice versa (much better), and whether the trait will boost the +heal from condition removal on the skill. As is, the heal on the anti-toxin spray is pretty weak. But with all the condies in pvp, maybe it will be better.

[Deleted]

hey guys, i want to lvl my mesmer, he is like lvl 20, but the problem is, it takes me a lot of time to kill things, so i get bored of it and stop playing, do you have any advices on which weapon combinations and traits etc. should i use?

[Lane]

Unfortunately, mesmer is a very trait dependent class, which means until about level 40 you just can't help but suck (comparatively to other classes). It is (IMO) the most painful of all the classes to level, but also the most rewarding once you do (surprisingly, I know that's hard to believe in the beginning :P).

Here is what I did:

Gear: Power + Precision
Weapons: Sword + Focus w/Greatsword as weapon swap
Utilities: Feedback, Null Field, & whatever you want for the 3rd & elite
Strategy: Pull as many mobs as you can handle, drop ethereal field via Feedback or Null, quickly cast focus #5 (warden), sword #3 to get chaos armor, sword #2 (blurred frenzy). Either finish things off by sword auto attack + blurred frenzy off cooldown or switch to GS, #4 (berserker), kill at range. (This method also helped to alleviate a lot of the boredom for me too and with the AoE it makes things seem to go faster.)

Also, play around with pistol, #4 duelist is a great substitute for warden for single mobs that move around a lot.

One thing I will say about low level mesmer is that, depending on the enemy, you can get away with a lot more than other classes. Despite the god awful dps, I was able to solo quite a few champions due to clones/phantasms serving as distractions/tanks.

[Meledelion]

I personally find shatter builds to work really well.
You do the same combo as lane described but you finish off by using F1.

For leveling you'll want to boost mind wrack's damage.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAs...iGruGT5SEVDA-e

The "trick" is to make sure you shatter after the warden has stopped attacking (you no longer see the bubble) so that you maximise damage.

For your level, I'd focus on going 10dom and 10illu first, and after that load as deep into dueling as possible together with dom.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAs...iGruGT5SEVDA-e
Since dodging now gives you a clone, you want to use Warden=> Dodge => 3 =>3 (so you're in melee) => 2 => F1 (this isn't as complex as it now looks)

Once you hit lvl 60 things change and you'll want to focus on dueling/illusions. The reason is that you can now get Illusionary persona (XI) as grandmaster trait in Illusions, which helps a lot. You can use F4 now even without having clones (which is handy for running).
You can also get Compounding Power(III) which will greatly increase your burst from blurred frenzy.

The end result will be something like this
The empty trait will depend on what you're doing in the game. If you decide to finish world completion I advise to go with Empowering Mantras(XI) and take as utilities Mirror Images, Mantra of Pain, Mantra of Resolve and as healing skill Mantra of Restoration. The idea is to keep them in the "ready to use state" as much as possible, you can spam Mantra of Pain though.

If you want to go into dungeons etc. You grab Phantasmal Fury(II), because you're gonna need other utilities that are better for the group, one of the skills that should never leave your bar is Feedback, then depending on the dungeon you'll want nullfield or not and the last slot is for Signet of Inspiration which will copy your current boons and give your party members the same boons (but not you).

Gearwise there's a couple of routes you can go. You can either go power/prec, power/crit damage or prec/crit damage. For low levels power is king since you need a lot of prec to finally notice the added crits. At higher levels (50+) prec/crit becomes favourable.

Your armor doesn't really need regular updates but I advise you to always get level appropriate weapons (you'll notice quite the difference here) don't worry too much about rarity. Don't exagerate either, just check that if you're lvl 50 you're not using a lvl 30weapon a lvl 45weapon is fine.

[zed zebes]

Pretty much what they said. Power+Precision for leveling. Learn to Zig Zag and weave in and out. Points into Dom and Dueling. Feedback is your friend.

[Doomtrain]

I can attest to Mesmers being completely badass at the end game. I've seen mesmers in PVP take on whole groups, take a few down and sneak away in the confusion. I've seen 10 minute duels and dungeon bosses being soloed. Personally, I've finished off a few dungeon bosses on my own after the rest of the group wipes just running around spamming escapes, cures, heals and phants and I'm not even really that good .

Phantasm builds probably did the most good for me when leveling, so you'll pick most of the traits that buff them and your weapon of choice. If you want to do PVE content and dungeons, learn to love melee Sword/Sword and Sword/Focus or Pistol. I tried to like GS and for ranged fights and it has its place for sniping, but if you get past your fear of close quarters combat and learn when to dodge, it feels MUCH more powerful and strips boons. If you have trouble solo, try to keep a clone out to draw agro and be ready to replace it to keep the hate off the phants and yourself. Don't try to facetank anything and instead use all of your pets to do the dirty work, stepping in to use your power hits from behind or using a well timed block, distortion or escape to avoid the hits.

If you're poor like me, you might also like to start your 80 off with centaur runes and Mantra of Restoration for a heal. You and the folks around you get 10s swiftness every click (on power up AND on each activation) and take the trait where MoR takes 2 conditions off you. The heals aren't much, but once you get a handle of movement and positioning your pets, you'll need this less and less for actual heals and more for cleansing and swiftness. I won't say there wasn't times that I could have used an instant poof heal and had to wait for it to activate, but after using it a while, I've learned to time things better to lessen immediate needs. Plus the permi-swiftness alone makes it ideal for getting around the mesmer's speed issues for those who can't afford Traveler runes.

[sergel02]

Phantasm and clones need to be separate. It's too much identity crisis.

Going back to my original idea of 3 clones + 1 phantasm

-Deceptive evasion is now baseline
-Critical infusion last 2.5 seconds down from 5
-Illusion celerity no longer stacks with other illusion reducing cd effects

-Idefender now has a alternate shatter option: Shatter your defender to heal you and nearby allies for 50% of the amount the idefender absorbed. Last 20 seconds

-Idisenchanter now has an alternate shatter option: Shatter your Idisenchanter swaping up to 2 conditions with up to 2 boons from nearby allies and enemy's. Last 12 seconds

-Phantasmal berserker now has an alternate shatter option: Have your berserker throw its sword at the target location where it persists for whirlwind aoe damage for 6 seconds. This has a chance to bleed on crit. Iberserker now last 12 seconds.

-Phantasmal warlock now has an alternate shatter option: Shatter your phantasm, releasing energy to be fired at the target and up to 4 additional targets around the target for the radius of 360. Inflicts random 3 conditions. Warlock now last for 12 seconds

-Phantasmal mage increase scale based off power and will receive an extra bounce. Now has an alternate shatter option: Shatter your phantasm releasing its soul at the target location which will inflict up to 5 players with a 3 stack of confusion for 6 seconds also a blast finisher. Now last 20 seconds.

-Phantasmal swordsman now has a shatter option: Shatter your swordsman leaving behind its sword to parry incoming melee attacks for 2 seconds and will daze foes for 1 second (2 sec ICD per target) If the target has stability it will just parry attacks instead of dazing. Lasts 12 seconds

-Phantasm warden is now ground target. Now has an optional shatter effect: Empower your warden to follow the target for 3 seconds dealing aoe damage (less then standing still) and then shatters leaving behind its axes at the location of when it shattered reflect projectiles for another 3 seconds. Warden last 15 seconds.

-Phantasmal duelist now has an optional shatter effect: Transfer the soul of the phantasm into the guns releasing a blast projectile at the target for X damage. Blast finisher. Iduelist will now last 12 seconds.

Of course damage will have to be adjusted and attack times but the current system is just awful and boring.

The idea of different types of shatters for phantasms seems cool.

[Deleted]

Did Xeph go back to mesmer or is still thief? As in, is team paradigm still in game?

[Meledelion]

Don't think paradigm (or any old team for that matter) actually still play.

[Deleted]

Don't think paradigm (or any old team for that matter) actually still play.

Checked it up, seems like it was in september already Xeph left the building, with some trying to silence it down :P Shame, he was a great mesmer and I followed his games and his builds for a bit. However, when even he, the fighting mesmer of all mesmers, reroll thief in spvp you know a broken game is a game broken =/ I understand ANet is going all for the pve-players now when the strong fighting competitive community left. I thought there might be time to come back for spvp some day, but Im becoming more and more sceptical =(

[zed zebes]

I'll be back in tpvp when they release new maps that aren't conquest. Meanwhile, I roam WvWvW for small fights.

[Kelesti]

For someone who hasn't played since Ascended Gear was introduced, what's actually changed about Mesmers?

Is half of our shit still broken beyond belief? Or what?

(The last one I remember was "This trait now works!" with it being proven that it still really didn't, the phantasm shorter swing timer I think?)

[Karizee]

Here is a searchable patch notes. Welcome back.

http://gw2patchnotesearch.david-reess.de/