Mesmer Discussion Thread

[Nikijih]

Well to be fair the Duelist tends to spawn further back even if you yourself are in melee range. You dont actually need to run out. That being said I'll have to give the Iswordman another try. Altho to be honest its more about the ranged stun vs situational block then it is about the phantasms.

[ayimera]

What stats have people been focusing on? I tend to grab a lot of power items followed by vitality and condition, but I'm wondering if maybe I should up my condition damage since I use staff often. Just curious what others are doing!

[Durzlla]

What stats have people been focusing on? I tend to grab a lot of power items followed by vitality and condition, but I'm wondering if maybe I should up my condition damage since I use staff often. Just curious what others are doing!

I do toughness condition damage vitalityStaff for the most part is my main weapon as mes.

[Casper0878]

Is a Confusion build currently viable in SPvP? I remember using using Scepter/Torch - Staff and doing fairly well in BWE2. Not sure how much things have changed since though. I spend most of my time on my Warrior and Guardian right now. I ran it with Decoy/Signet of Domination/Null Field and Moa which I think are staples in Mesmer builds right now.

[Nikijih]

Is a Confusion build currently viable in SPvP? I remember using using Scepter/Torch - Staff and doing fairly well in BWE2. Not sure how much things have changed since though. I spend most of my time on my Warrior and Guardian right now. I ran it with Decoy/Signet of Domination/Null Field and Moa which I think are staples in Mesmer builds right now.

I'd say the biggest problem with Confusion is that the target needs to be attacking to be dealt damage. Its not great when fighting 1v1s because the Mesmer is a squishy class that has to avoid damage, you can't stand there and tank it in hopes he will kill himself faster then he kills you. Mind you, we are very survivable because we have lots of tools to avoid said damage, but meanwhile your confusion isnt proccing.

Its decent for supporting a group, but once again, the attacking requirement means that when a target gets low and retreats, you have no means of finishing him off.

[Deleted]

I'd say the biggest problem with Confusion is that the target needs to be attacking to be dealt damage. Its not great when fighting 1v1s because the Mesmer is a squishy class that has to avoid damage, you can't stand there and tank it in hopes he will kill himself faster then he kills you. Mind you, we are very survivable because we have lots of tools to avoid said damage, but meanwhile your confusion isnt proccing.

Its decent for supporting a group, but once again, the attacking requirement means that when a target gets low and retreats, you have no means of finishing him off.

So, in your opinion, what are viable builds except for a "Phantasm Bleeding" build with 6/6 Rune of the Undead and a Rabid Amulet? It works, but gets boring after a while and I can't seem to make Confusion working as enemies deal a ton of damage more than I do with it, so I get killed without doing much. And I kinda dislike the staff because of its random nature, meh.

(seriously though, I can't seem to get Sword/Sword to work, it just does laughably low amounts of damage and has absolutely no control)

[DrakeWurrum]

#3 and #4 and even #2, in a sense, offer control. The first one crippling + immob, the latter two simply preventing damage while also summoning illusions that can be used for control.

[Deleted]

hey guys, im still waiting for my GW2 (ordered in on 7.8. still didnt came) and im looking for pictures or videos of male mesmer armor (preferably norn) so i know how does it look, i searched everywhere in the picture threads and everyone just posted their warriors, i found no mesmer armor, except the starting one

[Rooflesstoofless]

Hey all,
Just wondering if there is general advice on melee mesmers anyone can give? Specifically on trait point allocation?

I've gone sword/sword and pistol and been fairly successful with it in PvE (if I go do WvW I replace the pistol with a greatsword or staff). So far I have 5 points into precision but have several more I haven't used yet because I'm not sure where to put them.

In a typical ST fight:
...Put up Phantasmal Duelist as I'm running in (if ranged mob I hit them with Magic Bullet right after if I'm still closing the gap)
...Blurred Fenzy once in melee
...immediately to Illusionary Riposte
...dodge out on clone spawn and put up Phantasmal Swordsman up.

At this point mob will either be dead (iSwordman crit is holy shit powerful) or close to it so I'll shatter. High health mobs and taking on more than one mob at a time changes the priorities a little, but so far the biggest enemy to me ending each fight very quickly with full health is that goddam LAG!

Should I keep allocating points to +10 in Dueling (for +50 Precision when weilding sword) and then look into +Power or +Toughness or ???? Thanks ahead of time for any help in the theorycrafting department as I kind of suck at it.

[Tlesta]

So I started playing mesmer not long ago and I'm loving it so far... my only problem is that I'm a little concerned over all the QQ that's been surrounding our class (particularly people calling Mesmers way overpowered and stuff like that ). I'm rather nervous to start playing and getting used to the mesmer class if there's a chance they might make such a drastic change to it that it would ruin the gameplay for me. They used to kill entire builds in GW1 on a regular basis, so it kinda became something I got used to with em.

What do you guys think? Do you think there is any basis to the claims we're particular OP and if so, what parts do you think would be most likely to get nerfed? I'm not asking "Will they nerf it and if so what part?" as if you can see into the future or something, I'm asking "Do you think it's likely to be nerfed and if so what part do you think would be?"

[Nikijih]

Actually most QQ I heard was about us being underpowered...

[zito]

Actually most QQ I heard was about us being underpowered...

and thats from people crying about our damage is too "low" at lower levels, even though people just spam attack 1 :/

tbh I think our defense is a bit low and our weapon choices/diversity are extremely scarce. Staff relys on condition damage and scepter is a hot mess that can't balance condition or power. You have to pick one or the other and right now power outweighs it with confusion inconsistency's.

Greatswords mindstab should remove 2 boons imo and its increased damage the farther away should be removed (as its hardly a damage increase and impossible to be at max range anyway unless you are lucky in a party).

Not to mention are lack of weapons. Only 2 main hand weapons to 4 offhands? Not to mention one of them is melee and the other is... confusing... no pun intended.

[DrakeWurrum]

Not to mention are lack of weapons. Only 2 main hand weapons to 4 offhands? Not to mention one of them is melee and the other is... confusing... no pun intended.

I still say main hand Pistol.

[Tlesta]

Actually most QQ I heard was about us being underpowered...

I can live with that. I can even live with the QQ being true and us actually being underpowered and sucking, because it means I'd learn to play a class when it's terrible and then suddenly get a boost on top of that. What I'm afraid of is learning a class when it's on par or better than other classes and having them nerf me Then I'd just be a terrible player since I got used to the class when it was more powerful lol

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 07:07 PM ----------

I still say main hand Pistol.

I would love that so much. I originally thought it was possible because of the phantasms >_>

[zito]

I still say main hand Pistol.

I'm pretty sure that or another main hand weapon that was suited for more aoe was intended however they scraped it for some reason. I know anet can see the lack of main hand weapons and synergy with all our weapons. They had another but removed it.

Don't know why.

[DrakeWurrum]

I'm pretty sure that or another main hand weapon that was suited for more aoe was intended however they scraped it for some reason. I know anet can see the lack of main hand weapons and synergy with all our weapons. They had another but removed it.

Don't know why.

I wouldn't mind finding a way to make main-hand axe work, as well.

But it wouldn't be hard to do multi-target combat with a pistol, themed heavily around bouncing shots.

[Ticktox]

So am I just bad or is a condition build with mesmer pretty terrible? I tried scepter/torch - staff with a condition build, and since mesmer's big condition seems to be confusion it really lacks consistency. I mean if I can catch someone spamming their 1 ability I can drop them pretty quick, but then other times even in PvE the enemy just does nothing through the whole duration or until it's really weak, or is stunned or something, so I then have to rely on staff which a bunch of other random conditions which help but it's so random it's unreliable in many cases. And if they're not attacking you, you simply can't do hardly any damage at all with the staff, you need them to be hitting you with chaos armor which again is unreliable... You can sometimes overwhelm them with clones and such but I felt like at any time if someone wanted to run from me, they could and I had pretty much no way to stop it.

[Nikijih]

tbh I think our defense is a bit low and our weapon choices/diversity are extremely scarce. Staff relys on condition damage and scepter is a hot mess that can't balance condition or power.

I will agree on the weapon choice being very scarce. We basically have as many weapons as an elementalist or engineer without the added skillsets they get through Attunements or Tool belts.

That being said, our defense can be insanely strong if you spec for it. Phantasm build (not the bleeding one, the tanking one) specifically makes you nearly unkillable, as in *you will never go under 80% unless facing 2+ opponents*, and even then you should have an easy time outliving both. Keep in mind that this skill calculator is outdated so the traits wont be exactly like that in game, but this should still give you an idea of what Im running:

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/...pabsc4cgcqcsd2

Between the 59% damage reduction and the massive healing 3 illusions give you (+250 healing stats too), you are quite literally a tank. Phantasms are far from fragile and requires longuer to kill then their CD. I took Decoy because I like to stack an escape method on top of my survivability, but you can always chage that for another utility skill or even switch it out for a Veil.

[Yurimeta]

Not to mention one of them is melee and the other is... confusing... no pun intended.

I also found this to be quite annoying. The scepter I have noticed that the last shot (3rd attack the spawns the clone) still overwrites your phantasms. I can have three duelists up from Pistol OH and then bam third scepter shot goes off and one disappears replaced by the clone.

[DrakeWurrum]

We basically have as many weapons as an elementalist or engineer

Actually, no.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Weapon

Mesmer has twice as many weapon sets as Elementalists do. Which is more than what Thieves get.

I do think Mesmer needs MH Pistol to even things out, but they do have a lot of weapon combinations already. :P
The only other weapons I could really see them using would be Daggers or Axes, but half the professions already get daggers, and making axes work for a second scholar might be a bit awkward.