21 replies to this topic

[funkybudda]

Any experienced Mesmer on here? I am interested in what build you guys run with level 60 to 80, more for pvp / wvw.

[Drake Erif]

I'm not an experienced Mesmer but have a few buddies who play them. From what I know, greatswords are great and good for keeping up illusions. For off hand sword + torch is really nice, for utility skills feedback is almost a must in any situation. If you want to focus on pvp/wvw set your traits to try to keep up with confusion. Again this is just sort of a guideline from what I've picked up until someone more experienced can answer your question.

[Grav]

80 mesmer here, levelled most of her last 60 levels in WvW.  At work atm so can't c/p all my build details, but this is what I remember:

I run GS/sword+focus.  GS is a good ranged damage option, while I love the focus for Temporal Curtain/Into The Void providing a speed boost/snare respectively.  I don't tend to use my sword much unless I somehow get caught up on the front line.  Trait points are 20/20/0/25/5 generally focused on buffing phantasms; the only specific trait I remember is the GS buff at 20 Domination.

Weapons & armor are generally power/precision, although I do use Toughness accessories & amulets to fill the hole created by my traits.  I haven't splashed out on exotics etc yet as I want to level up a couple of other classes first.

Default roaming utilities are Ether Feast, Decoy, Blink, Null Field and Moa Morph, though I will use Time Warp and Feedback when sieging and Portal when grie... uh, I mean, helping take back the Bay keep.

[funkybudda]

thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

My main is my engineer, but I am leveling up a Mesmer just in case I need a change of pace.

I've heard people that level up in WvW, is that generally faster than doing zones? I pretty much did zone quests and events on my engineer til level 80, but if it's faster i would try that for the Mesmer.

[Grav]

First and foremost I WvW because I find it fun.  Getting experience along the way is a nice bonus, but you won't get it every day especially if things aren't going your way.

I'll still PvE now and then for a change, I can blitz through a few story quests without worrying about hitting level requirements, and I like to craft the day before a match reset to make the most of the server artisan bonus at that point.

It all adds up regardless, so just have fun with the game and the experience will take care of itself no matter what you do.

[funkybudda]

hey Grav,

thanks agaiin for the reply, I really appreciated. Btw, when you have time, do u think u can link your build to one of those sites that shows actual point and skill allocation? I forgot the name, i think there are few out there. I like to plan ahead on builds

[Snype Cyclos]

I roll a Mesmer as well!

I use greatsword and sword/torch. Most of my points were actually covered by Grav. I also have a "phantasm build", and you're definitely going to want the "greatsword training" trait point in domination.

I also generally use decoy, phantasmal defender, and feedback for my utilities. Decoy because the stealth is nice, phantasmal defender because it redirects half of my damage to it and I can usually keep one up consistently, and feedback because it's killer against ranged foes. You can literally watch them kill themselves at times. If you go for a confusion build, there are also traits that boost glamours, and even ones that cause conditions when a foe is in a glamour (confusing enchantments in the domination trait line), so it's pretty useful all around. I love time warp, because it can help a whole group of allies take down mobs, but I also occasionally use mass invisibility because I like stealth. Sometimes I'll bust out hounds of balthazar because they're bad ass.

I've been really digging torch for skill #4, "the prestige". I like it for, you guessed it, the stealth. I have it on hand when I'm in a particularly sticky situation and the stealth from decoy or mass invisibility just doesn't cut it. Unfortunately it was nerfed from its former glory, where it would only have a 3 second cooldown if it was interrupted before the stealth wore off and the burning set it, so if you kept on it you could basically keep it up constantly. Now the cooldown starts as soon as you use it. Skill #5, illusionary mage, is a bonus for its confusion and retaliation. However, I have a focus in my inventory for the times when speed is of the essence.

I use a very glass cannony build, with pretty much nothing going towards toughness or vitality. Almost everything I'm wearing is power/precision/condition or power/precision/magic find (Rampager's and Explorer's armor, respectively.) However, with kiting, the awesome phantasmal defender, and stealth, I rarely die in combat unless I'm not paying attention. Seriously, I can't praise phantasmal defender enough, especially when you've geared some traits to it. It's a fantastic build for PvE (judging by the fact that I've made it this far and I'm successful with it) and the stealth and decoys are a pain for anybody fighting me in PvP/WvW.

I can't remember much of my trait tree at the moment, but it's something like 30/10/0/0/30. This is a really rough estimation of my traits, though this based on BWE1 and not the current build, so some of the traits aren't necessarily correct, but it's a pretty decent representation. It works for me.

[Grav]

funkybudda, on 11 October 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

hey Grav,

thanks agaiin for the reply, I really appreciated. Btw, when you have time, do u think u can link your build to one of those sites that shows actual point and skill allocation? I forgot the name, i think there are few out there. I like to plan ahead on builds

Here you go.  I didn't include my gear as I'm not fully tricked out anyway, but as I said before, my weapons & armor are power/precision (Berserker's), with a few accessories/amulets in toughness to round it off.

Edit: looking at runes, I considered Centaur and Mesmer runes before finally going with Superior Runes of the Pack.

[Cynical]

Condition Spec Mesmer here and I use all the weapons but mainly GS/Sword+Pistol.  When its time to move I usually pull out the focus or during siege to pull people off the walls.  My gear is full exotic precision/toughness/condition damage same with my weapons.  Trinkets Rampager with a Power Condi vit amulet for a little bit of extra power and vitality.

Basically just remember the stats that transfer to illusions and phantasms are:

Power,Toughness, Condition damage, Precision,

Vitality transfers but only at 30% return so its better to give them more toughness if your using a phantasm type spec.

Condition duration, Crit Dmg%, dont transfer to illusions only to you.  

These should help you work you build out.

[Heylo]

I'm a pretty conditioned spec mesmer as well. I don't WvW much though, so I doubt I could help you there. I am, apparently, one of the rare people who prefer null field to feedback. I love having the condition removal for poisons and cripples. I rock decoy and mirror image in my other utility slots with Time Warp for my elite. Time warp really helps with damage output, so for me, it's a necessity.

I'm also one of the rare people who rocks a staff, but that's mainly for PvE. For WvW I tend to switch to GS//Scepter/Pistol. Also seems rare there. I like the CC that a pistol has, and that Phantasm is my favorite phantasm ever. I also don't like that I can only use a sword for getting in their face. Too squishy.

Everyone above me seems to have some valid points as well. I like my build for PvE and a smidge of WvW. It seems to be working pretty well since I've only died 90 times at lvl 80. :3

[Cynical]

Heylo, on 18 October 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

I'm a pretty conditioned spec mesmer as well. I don't WvW much though, so I doubt I could help you there. I am, apparently, one of the rare people who prefer null field to feedback. I love having the condition removal for poisons and cripples. I rock decoy and mirror image in my other utility slots with Time Warp for my elite. Time warp really helps with damage output, so for me, it's a necessity.

I'm also one of the rare people who rocks a staff, but that's mainly for PvE. For WvW I tend to switch to GS//Scepter/Pistol. Also seems rare there. I like the CC that a pistol has, and that Phantasm is my favorite phantasm ever. I also don't like that I can only use a sword for getting in their face. Too squishy.

Everyone above me seems to have some valid points as well. I like my build for PvE and a smidge of WvW. It seems to be working pretty well since I've only died 90 times at lvl 80. :3

I agree sceptor+pistol/GS is excellent if your condi specced confusion really hurts when you can plant 10 stacks on someone easy.  Great in WvW and PvE.  Not a fan of staff unless I am farming karma though for the AOE.  

I would add also that for runes I prefer adventurer runes which is what I use the superior versions. +to power and condition I think its 155+ to condition and you get 50% endurance when you use a heal which is really good if you have clone on dodge traited.  

I am thinking of trying the undead runes which turns 5% toughness into condition damage.  I have used the sharpening stones to test the effect and it jumps my condi damage about 100 pts.

[applizer]

Heylo, on 18 October 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

I'm also one of the rare people who rocks a staff, but that's mainly for PvE.

I'm kind of surprised by how few people are using staff. It seems like the go-to weapon for condition builds.

I'm going Staff/Sword+Focus. Sword+Focus is great for pumping out damage in close range, and Staff covers my long range and condition needs. For traits, I'm working on Chaos (Toughness), Domination (Power), and Illusions (Condition damage). Overall, it gives a lot of survivability while doing considerable damage.

[remm]

This is strictly for sPvP/tPvP (mostly tPvP) -

Greatsword is amazing in WvW, mediocre in sPvP, bad in tPvP from what I've gathered (some people are using it with some success though). Most mesmers (the ones on the top teams) tend to run Sword with almost anything, it depends more on your team setup and the type of utility you need (Pistol for range and stun, Focus for the pull, Sword for more illusion output, Torch... I don't see much of though prestige is good for survivability) and Staff. Sword 2 is way too good to not have if you're good with it (avoid any attack on a short cooldown? Yes please, don't even care about the damage portion).

The Sword/X setup when offensive, Staff for defensive while your damage is on cooldown or if you're expecting some burst and want to try and mitigate some with Phase Retreat and Chaos Armor protection. Staff is also really nice in team-fights with staff illusions, they gets a lot of boons and conditions passed out really quickly. Chaos Field is great too for interrupting stomps and revives (it doesn't always work, but it being AE with its success rate is pretty insane).

As far as heal/utility, I see everyone using Ether Feast, most use potals for point defense/mass confusion with the Confusing Enchantments trait, Null Field is insane right now with all of the boon stacking guardians/eles, Blink is really good, Decoy is ok. For elite if it's a teamfight heavy map like Forest/Ruins then Time Warp is ridiculous, if it's more of a 1v1 like Khylo Moa becomes better.

If you're playing tPvP with a real team some things can change of course based on a specific need of your team, but in general for pug tournaments that's solid. If you're just messing around in sPvP just use whatever is the most fun for you. The meta will probably evolve soon as well and condi might not be as strong as it is right now.

[Reina Takayama]

I run staff and sword focus xD but I hvent wvw yet but I will soon ^^ I love the staff. It just melts things down so fast. It looks like so much dps but it is smooth. All clones stack conditions while phantasms deal so much damage and chaos storm combos with that is used both defensively and offensively. Blocks attacks on my clones and stuff so they last a uber long time as well as protection for urself + give conditions. It like doubles up on everything and stacks rly fast, staff has kept me like invincible thru everything in PvE, leveling in places 6-8 levels higher feels second nature xD and as I'm kiting I often accidentally pull a ton of mobs so in surprised how well I deal with swarms with staff. I switch in for melee time to time and escape back to long range when I can

But u do need a bit of time for stacks and illusions to build. The dps IS fast ultimately but the beginning few seconds are slower then it becomes like super fast. Id use staff for pvp probably yeah! Not sure about wvw when alot of times its masses of ppl xD I can see how gs may fit better for wvw. feedback for sure tho most ppl use long range in wvw lolol thats going to be devastating

[Cynical]

Only thing I don't like about staff is the random condition applied.  In theory staff should be the main condition damage weapon but imo its not.  Its a random condition for 1 sec most that stack duration like fire and poision.  I put a sigil of ice on my staff to see how I like that cause I know I hate getting hit with chill.  So thats 2 chances to stack chill for a total of 3 secs which isnt to bad and helps keep them away.  

Also auto attack is so slow, I mean staff is great defensively its excellent actually you can proc aegis like all day long with an ethereal field and phase retreat, plus chaos armor its self,  so I love that part about it but damage wise I think GS beats it.

[Reina Takayama]

Well, i like the staff from my experiences. My dps with staff is actually insanely fast xDD The staff doesn't depend on just ur autoattack, actually i dont even attack most of the time if i didn't feel like it. the staff isn't about each individual hit like any other weapon. it stacks up with the clones you have. + the chaos fields. with three clones it easily melts, plus if its like two clones + warlock, i melt down vets 5 levels higher than me quickly. initially the first two or three attacks will be bit slow but it picks up pace rly fast. from what i see, i have basically the same results with gs. even though its random, with my clones, all the conditions appear and you have burning, poison, bleeding, vulnerability, all together its quite devastating cuz they stack so much with the clones all casing WoC. mirror images, decoy, all clone skills give the same staff clones. then i switch in for melee burst dps if i need to

Well i usually do switch melee, bc i throw down a warden, with some temporal curtain CC, for some aoe stuff before jumping back to staff

warlock + 2 clones or any combinations depending on situation is quite awesome. my warlock at level 47 right now crits at 6k when boosted to level 80. i can imagine itll give better results when im 80!!

[Yuhwoo]

Love playing my mesmer in WvW.  Not an expert, but this is what I've experienced.

I run GS + scepter/focus.  I don't really like melee play, so that is why I went with scepter - but sword works fine, imo.  The focus is AWESOME during seiges.  I tend to pull people off the walls - and let my friends know when I am about to.  Summoning phantasms on both focus and GS is really awesome during seiges, too.

The utility skills I bring are: feedback (this skill is so awesome in general), decoy and blink/portal.  I have blink out and swap to portal when I need it.  Portal is really awesome, but I don't need it all the time.  Elite that I use is timewarp - really helpful in so many situations - 10 seconds quickening on everyone.  Heal = mirror.

Thinking of going: power, toughness, vitality.

http://gw2skills.net...Fe6BzBdNHJFmWqB

i am still tinkering around stuff... and learning as I go, but hopefully this helps you, too.

[HappyWulf]

Cynical, Your #2 Staff Clone will spam your Auto Attack... which causes a full effect Condition with full damage.

Anyways, I seem to be the ONLY Mesmer here who runs with a Scepter and Torch. I have my Torch skills traited to remove Conditions, and I have been experimenting with the 'Confusion Bomb' strategy, where you use Mirror Images and 1 other clone skill (Decoy, Scepter #1, Staff #2) along with a Traited Cry of Frustration. Instant 6 stacks of Confusion. Scepter #3 adds 5 more Stacks. Scepter #5 is a Phantasm that adds a really long duration single stack of Confusion.   Scepter #2 and Torch #4 also Blind, and if Traited can also give Confusion as well.

So today, I finally finished my Exotic Condition Damage set and switched back to a Condition Damage build after spending about a month as a Power based GS/S&Pistol build.  Man, it feels SO good to be doing what I love again. And the damage is INSANE with a full set and build. There is a boss in CoF what spams attacks. I was kinda floored when after a full on Confusion Bomb I saw 6 quick pop-ups of over 2100 damage EACH in just a few seconds. Oh man. OH MAN. Imagine going into WvW with that.

[Charrmandarin]

Just a warning, the torch phantasm is currently bugged and does not use your condition damage for his confusion.

[HappyWulf]

I didn't know that. In this case, I'll be less hesitant to use them as shatter fodder!

Edit:  From the Wiki:
   " Bug.Confusion inflicted by this skill is not affected by condition duration boosts."

Says duration boosts. Not Damage. All instances of Confusion from any source seem to do the same amount of damage.  I'll test this when I get on later. So if it's bugged, I should see a Different damage value from the Illusion then from a single stack of Cry of Frustration.