Mesmer class thread

[Beard Of Bees]

We've got a few of these popping up for other classes so I thought I'd do the honours with a general mesmer discussion topic.

I've not been able to play much since release so my mesmer is only about level 10 at the moment. I've unlocked all the weapon skills though and am quite enjoying the variety of styles available. The staff and greatsword seem ideal for dealing out damage, although the sword/pistol combo is a lot of fun. I did manage to fall through the world using the sword's leap/replace skill, and spent an entertaining few minutes swimming round the infinite ocean which apparently sits underneath Queensdale...

How is everyone else finding the mesmer so far? Do you have any levelling tips?

[zanchito]

I didn't go Mesmer (my favourite GW1 profession) because people in the BWEs were complaining about it not working right quite a bit. How are you finding it?

[lasikbear]

I've been playing mostly using scepter/pistol and either greatsword or sword/torch. Greatsword is great when you can keep at 900+ range, but thats often not possible. For sPvP its always sword/torch for an added invisibility. I find having around 3 invisibility skills and a blink means you can almost always escape in WvWvW/PvP, any less and its uncertain

The main downside of the sword is it seems to have one of the only skills in the game you can't move while using. Also the leap skill has a range of about 6 inches and I waste it 75% of the time.

Anyone using any mantras? They don't seem worth it at all so far. The numbers aren't great especially with how long they take to prepare, and the cooldown only starts after the last charge is used.

[sendmark]

I'm up to level 51 now, my preference has very strongly been towards Staff and Longsword/Focus. I may swap out Longsword for Sceptor soon though, as although longsword used to be our best weapon in beta it's damage seems to have been nerfed a bit. Once I add the sceptor trait and confusion +33% trait sceptor should be more effective in pve. I use focus in the offhand as it cuts down on running time, is nice for kiting (and reflects when traited) and also the phantasm is pretty decent.

Generally I find mesmer is squishy and not always effective in a direct damage build, but if I kite while using all skills and keeping 3 phantasms up I can bring anything down without being in danger.

To that effect I also use Phantasm Defender and Signet of Illusions in slot skills. I also use a racial skill and racial elite (golem on my Asura) as they are very strong for pve.

[Beard Of Bees]

After a bit more play I'm with you on the sword skills being a bit underwhelming. Flurry (2) pins you in place and can whiff, the leap (3) has a miserable range and sometimes fires without working - and glitched me through the landscape once as mentioned above.

I'm also a bit disappointed with the first trait I unlocked which was the blink one. The range on that is small too and, bizarrely, it stops you moving for a second when you use it, making it fairly rubbish as an escape tool. You blink away, and by the time you can resume running, the enemy has covered half the distance to your new location anyway.

I don't know, I'm hoping the mesmer opens up a little bit better for me soon. I'm half tempted to re-roll something else but it's probably way too early to be so pessimistic about the class :)

[Powernoodles]

After a bit more play I'm with you on the sword skills being a bit underwhelming. Flurry (2) pins you in place and can whiff, the leap (3) has a miserable range and sometimes fires without working - and glitched me through the landscape once as mentioned above.

I'm also a bit disappointed with the first trait I unlocked which was the blink one. The range on that is small too and, bizarrely, it stops you moving for a second when you use it, making it fairly rubbish as an escape tool. You blink away, and by the time you can resume running, the enemy has covered half the distance to your new location anyway.

I don't know, I'm hoping the mesmer opens up a little bit better for me soon. I'm half tempted to re-roll something else but it's probably way too early to be so pessimistic about the class :)

what o_0

well most people probably have issues uniting their playstyle with the profession they took(due to archetypes making people believe they should roll certain professions because "theyre used to playing a bowman so they roll ranger", while to use a profession properly you play it with the playstyle it needs in sync with the role and build

mesmer is THE counter char, mesmers that think they are a dps in the same category as a ranger/engineer/thief/necro, are clueless/specced so wrong they lost everything which is imba about a mesmer

a mesmer will do dps/burst/whatever when he gets focused and throws those things back, trying to make some dps/burst build with a mesmer that doesn't rely on the counters is just a big fail, l2p a ranger/engineer/ele instead

i have yet to lose a tournament with the mesmer, its game presence > *.*

the ability to remove every single boon with 1 cd, the ability to shut down a player completely with moa/kill a player at 30% by using moa, the ability to teleport(!) instantly from one base point to another, allowing allies to use those portals to do the same = no other class is able to have such a high uptime of team pressure/support

and then we havent even talked about the insane survivability a mesmer has, porting all over the place, swapping places with your summons, going invisible, making yourself invulnerable, etc etc

ive often had the weaponbug in tournaments where i cudnt swap wep until i died

i never got to use my other weaponset because i didnt die...

staff alone got me to win 1v1 vs thieves guild thief and many other supposed "hard 1v1s"..

there is no other char better than the mesmer to be alone somewhere "chilling", being able to defend that position AND leave his position with a portal as a backup to instantly go back to the point he is defending = priceless

roamers or anyone else will lose so much uptime by fapping in between points running from one to another
a mesmer does not know this issue

seriously in spvp there has yet to be something better than a skilled mesmer, it can counter everything.

risk/reward is the name of the game, along with roles

the role the mesmer fills has the lowest risk for the highest reward

simply the most imba prof currently in the game for sPvP

but the community at large still needs a wake up call this isnt a TDM game where its all about MOAR DMG
this is a point capture game where the name of the game is control and uptime

the more dps you think you do, the less you actually do due to giving up control/survival
and the more dps you think you do, the more dps a mesmer will do against you.

[harakka]

I played mesmer almost exclusively in GW1, it's very different this time around but still quite interesting. I'm currently level 20 and have done some sPvP as well.

As a general note I've found it incredibly important to maintain at least one illusion at all times, both for constant damage, decoy purposes and to have access to the various shatter effects. Mind wrack isn't that amazing damage-wise, but being able to confuse and daze key enemies and gain distortion when an enemy is signalling a big attack is very valuable. Now if you only could shatter illusions one at a time, instead of all at once...

Weapon-wise most of the time I go with longsword+torch and greatsword. Weapon swapping is really important, otherwise you're playing with a limited skillset. I user either Ether Feast or Healing Seed (Sylvari racial) as heal depending on whether I'm soloing or doing events or PvPing, with Blink and Decoy as my staple utility skills.

My playstyle is very mobile and hit and run-oriented, both in PvE and PvP, and mesmer seems to suit it well. In PvE I often gather a bunch of enemies on me, start beating them up all at the same time with longsword's Blurred Frenzy and swapping to greatsword for Mirror Blade, Mind Stab and Phantasmal Berserker, and then either Blink or Prestige myself out of the group or throw them away with Illusionary Wave, Blink out of range and continue once my skills have recharged. Here's some more thoughts on the specific skills:

Longsword+torch:
Blurred Frenzy may not be the most amazing damage dealer, but it is decent and the trick is in distortion it grants. With good timing you can negate your enemy's main attack with this, while dealing damage yourself. This skill also has surprisingly big AoE.

Illusionary Leap helps you maintain illusions and catch stuff that is moving away from you, both because of the cripple, and because you can use Swap to go where your illusion is. This also allows you to move towards a distant enemy from the middle of a furball.

The Prestige seems pretty bad at first sight, but combined with your illusions it is again very useful, as your enemies will start attacking your illusions instead when you stealth. This gives you crucial time to heal or recharge a skill. In PvP you can escape surprisingly well with this, as people expect you to continue in your original direction: start running away, gain stealth with The Prestige and turn 180. You can gain crucial distance and time.
Phantasmal Mage isn't particularly good, but again helps you maintain illusions.

Greatsword:
I swap to this when I'm at range and enemies aren't concentrating on me, or the enemies are suitably bunched up. Both Mirror Blade and Mind Stab are useful against groups.
Phantasmal Berserker can also hit multiple foes and being able to cripple groups is good when you want some breathing room. Same goes for Illusionary Wave, when I get overwhelmed by melee enemies and need space swapping to greatsword and using this helps. Too bad it doesn't throw enemies off cliffs.

Blink is crucial in PvP because you not only gain distance, but also break stun. Combined with Arcane Thievery this allows you to escape most pursuers who think they can still catch you by crippling you. You can also use it to close in with ranged opponents or catch escaping low-health enemies. I always have Blink in the same slot, bound to q (I play with wasd), and I can doubletap it almost reflexively when I need to get out of trouble fast.

Decoy is yet another illusion, and again you also gain stealth, which combined with the fact your illusion is a clone, helps you break contact.

I haven't yet gained access to the elite slot in PvE, but at least in PvP the elites aren't generally terribly good. You're rarely in a position where either stealthing all your nearby allies or having quickness field would be a massive deal.

Moa Morph can be super good situationally though, it reminds me a lot of GW1 mesmer skills as it essentially shuts down single enemy for 10 seconds, giving your teammates time to beat the bird up, letting you escape a dogged pursuer, or something else along those lines. If the enemy player is clearly specced as area support, denying the opposing team their support character can turn the tide when fighting over a control point.

TL;DR: mesmer is still all about the tricks, not brawn. And it is still engaging to play.

[Beard Of Bees]

Hey, I'm not saying I'm necessarily down on the mesmer, just that I was hoping for a bit more maneuverability than I seem to get from the skills that root you in place (sword 2, greatsword 3 etc) and disappointed in the way some of them bug out like sword 3. I'm definitely going to persist with it, as level 12 is hardly a good enough point to reach conclusions. I've only been able to play for a small handful of hours so I really haven't got a handle on the game yet.

I found a good set of pointers on a mesmer thread over at guildwars2guru.com about some of the internal synergies we can use. For example, this chap suggested throwing a staff chaos field at your feet, then using the backwards escape (2), which triggers the combo field and gives you a free chaos armour. Also the concept of standing closer than you might be tempted to when using the staff, so that the auto-attack bounces to you and provides boons.

There's obviously a lot to learn.

[zanchito]

Yep, for thief there are a lot of little tricks like those too. The more I play the game, the more I like it, it's quite deeper than it appears at first sight! So, is mesmer + greatsword any good? I just like the looks of it!

[Beard Of Bees]

Reading through all the skills and trying to work out what can combine nicely, I'm tempted to run with Staff + Sword and Focus for a bit.

Start with some staff auto-attacks, then pop the warlock (whose damage is boosted from the conditions applied with your attacks), drop a chaos field, and (2) away, giving you chaos armour. Swap to sword and skill (3) a clone back in - I guess this should mean that your clone buddy here picks up Chaos armour too? Both the leap skill and Swap are listed as combo finishers so I suppose moving through the field with both of these should keep the armour refreshed.

Equally Temporal Curtain from the focus is a combo field, which would again seem to synergise with the staff (2) and sword (3) to leap back and forth through it.

Hmmmm.

[lasikbear]

Yep, for thief there are a lot of little tricks like those too. The more I play the game, the more I like it, it's quite deeper than it appears at first sight! So, is mesmer + greatsword any good? I just like the looks of it!

Its probably the most straightforward damage option. The basic attack is very strong as long as you are far enough away. Its also one of the only ways to summon illusions on your target rather than at your feet. The bouncing blade and phantasmal swordsman(?) both summon right on your target, which is nice when you are on the walls of a keep and they are on the ground or vice versa. Most of the other summons appear next to you, which can mean they just sit around and try to look tough without being able to participate.

The knockback move is also excellent, either as a way to give yourself some space or as an interrupt and CC. You can also blink behind an enemy and knock them into your allies which is always fun.

[Yargh]

I've been playing with the Sceptre/Focus + Staff combo so far (mostly PvE).
Focus is lovely for the speed boost while running away/around and handy in massed fights for the field effect (removes conditions).
Scepter is great for 1. creating a clone at the enemy location with every 3rd strike, 2. ray of confusion (this creates 5 stacks of confuse on the enemy, causing many of them to self terminate when using a skill)
Staff has the lovely Chaos Field (hilarious in massed WvWvW fights) and several nice defensive moves not to mention the multipurpose basic attack.

I've been using at least one clone utility skill (usually the 2 clone summon + distortion) in an effort to keep as many clones / illusions up at once and keep on spamming the shatter skills.

[Powernoodles]

spvp:

played with staff and greatsword

although the knocback is great these 2 together are just a tad too much dps minded in my opinion

switched to sword+torch/staff and finding it hard to die, ever.

staff being great for all its stuff, sword&torch being great for the 2 survival skills 2 and 4, 2sec invulnerable and invisbru works rly well, use the invisible quite a lot to chain moa with

once you get used to the range of the swords 3rd skill its a rly imba way of pinning your opponent down(melee love you)/closing gap when an enemy is trying to cap a point so you can keep it contested/moving away from shit/...

[lasikbear]

spvp:
once you get used to the range of the swords 3rd skill its a rly imba way of pinning your opponent down(melee love you)/closing gap when an enemy is trying to cap a point so you can keep it contested/moving away from shit/...

Yeah, feels like leap is more intended to keep people from escaping rather than to try to jump on someone with. The immobilize on the second part of the skill is awesome.

Currently I play sPvP as sword+torch/scepter+pistol, but I think you (and a nice drop last night) have convinced me to try out staff again.

[Powernoodles]

Yeah, feels like leap is more intended to keep people from escaping rather than to try to jump on someone with. The immobilize on the second part of the skill is awesome.

Currently I play sPvP as sword+torch/scepter+pistol, but I think you (and a nice drop last night) have convinced me to try out staff again.

nice!

as mentioned before dont forget you can get chaos armor from using your 2 on your 5, also try to keep chaos armor/your 4 for the moments where you (expect to) get lots of attacks in a short time, this will give u lots of boons and them lots of conditions opposed to using it for boons when youre not being focused and therefor seeing it run out without having procced (i also run into dmg on purpose with it to get more procs xD)

i also have arcane thievery and null field as utility spells which together with your 5 from staff and spamming 2 for summons that use the staff 1 = your power goes over 9000

then i fill the cd downtime up with dodge rolls, more staff 2 for the "teleport", and sword torch skills, before you know it you can rinse and repeat again with staff 5 and null field

both of these give confusion combo to projectiles, so u can either stack them or use them after one another for longer confusion combo uptime

tend to be liberal in use of null field and keep arcane thievery/moa for the more special moments

[Powernoodles]

almost forgot, if you use the prestige (torch stealth)and null field/5 from staff you will give you and nearby allies chaos armor when you leave stealth ;)

[Lightbulb]

what o_0

well most people probably have issues uniting their playstyle with the profession they took(due to archetypes making people believe they should roll certain professions because "theyre used to playing a bowman so they roll ranger", while to use a profession properly you play it with the playstyle it needs in sync with the role and build


Care to share a build? :)

[Powernoodles]

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#5|0|2647|2776|4085|4091|2686|20|1750|2299|0 |10|2305|0|0|20|2295|2218|0|20|2316|2314|0|0|0|0|0 |2|20|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

alternate between moa/quickness ulti

Major

Empowered Illusions (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/1750-empowered-illusions): Illusions inflict 15% more damage.
Confusing Enchantments (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2299-confusing-enchantments): Glamour skills cause confusion for 5 seconds to foes who enter or exit their areas.
Far-Reaching Manipulations (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2305-far-reaching-manipulations): The range of your manipulation skills is increased.
Master of Manipulation (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2295-master-of-manipulation): Manipulation skills have 20% shorter cooldowns.
Mirror of Anguish (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2218-mirror-of-anguish): When disabled (by stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch), you mirror the disable back to the source. This effect can only trigger once every 90 seconds.
Glamour Mastery (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2316-glamour-mastery): Glamour skills recharge 20% faster.
Temporal Enchanter (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2314-temporal-enchanter): Glamour skills last longer.

Minor

Illusion of Vulnerability (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2203-illusion-of-vulnerability): Inflict 5 seconds of vulnerability when you interrupt a foe.
Dazzling (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2403-dazzling): Inflicting daze also causes 3 seconds of vulnerability.
Critical Infusion (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2207-critical-infusion): Gain 1 second of vigor on critical hits.
Metaphysical Rejuvenation (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2211-metaphysical-rejuvenation): Gain 10 seconds of regeneration when your health reaches 75% (30-second cooldown).
Illusionary Membrane (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2212-illusionary-membrane): Gain protection for 2 seconds when you gain regeneration.
Vengeful Images (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2229-vengeful-images): Grants retaliation to Phantasms.
Phantasmal Healing (http://www.gw2db.com/traits/2230-phantasmal-healing): Phantasms grant regeneration to nearby allies.

[Powernoodles]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAW8flwzqpnVTqGaNJiJFEHFeSBz1ckUoaoWpC2GA

still a bit undecided about the chaos tree were you can choose between 20% reduced cd on staff skills or the mirror of anguish

getting the staff reduce will give you some min/maxed theorized increase in uptime of your stuff, but the fights dont really last long enough to say i can use my staff skills noticeably more..

whereas the reflect cc every 90seconds syncs very nicely in the whole counter idea (seeing as we have rly little to no pure cc), will pop every fight and chains nicely also with other spells/nuke/moa/...

so yeah instead of throwing one more chaos storm on average in a fight i prefer to SURPRISE BITCHES and reflect that often crucial cc they use to chain me to death and just counter that chain right back to them followed with all my goodness

[Beard Of Bees]

I played more PvE last night and got to around level 17 (woohoo, right?) and am definitely enjoying the mesmer more now. I used sword and focus or pistol, plus staff swap, the whole time and found it very effective. The biggest learning for me is simply to be patient. I can't do big burst dps, but if I'm cautious I am massively survivable and can contribute a lot.

I'm opening with an auto-attack, then summoning the (3) warlock as the second auto-attack launches. As the mob(s) run at me, I create a (5) field and (2) back out of the way, then swap weapons and create the off-hand phantom. If I'm the focus of attention, I can use the sword (2), focus (4), or pistol (5) to stay alive with immunity, running away, or stuns respectively. This lets the phantasms do some damage. If enemies turn to the phantasms, I shatter them for more confusion or damage and kite around within the chaos field using dodge, sword (3), and utilities. Generally between the weapon skills, dodging, and decoy, blink, or mirror image utility skills, I've got more than enough tools to stay alive for CDs to reset.

It's definitely starting to click.

[sendmark]

Yes that is the big strength of the mesmer atm, very good at surviving and wearing opponents down but not a nuker.

[Lightbulb]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAW8flwzqpnVTqGaNJiJFEHFeSBz1ckUoaoWpC2GA



Thanks. I'll give it a go next time I PvP. :)

[ambing1]

almost forgot, if you use the prestige (torch stealth)and null field/5 from staff you will give you and nearby allies chaos armor when you leave stealth ;)

this one's very effective. my friend keeps on using it and it always work especially if everyone's on the same page when it's executed.

[Beard Of Bees]

I hit 20 over the weekend and tried a SPvP match to celebrate. I built for condition damage and utility and went in with a staff / scepter & torch combo.

So... PvP is a bit mental, isn't it? Lots of things happening at once. Way more confusing than WoW, although that's probably just my inexperience. It was a lot of fun though. I felt exactly like I expected to - not a powerhouse but a team player who was difficult to kill. I got the "is on a rampage" announcement quite quickly on, simply by always adding a bit to team fights and never dying.

There's a trait which summons a clone whenever you dodge, and this combined with mirror images, several stealth abilities like decoy or the torch (4) skill, and the scepter means that there can constantly be at least 2/3 clones of you running around and you're invisible whenever you need to be. When I got a moment in the clear, I'd pull out the staff and summon the warlock and a chaos field and try to do some actual damage. It worked ok but there's definitely a lot to get used to.

[Powernoodles]

aye nice description of mesmer play, it should feel like that indeed

i now have a troll build with the signet that i can copy boons to allies together with runes of lyssa and our quickness ulti = lots of team fun ;D

[Beard Of Bees]

Some more sPvP last night with the mesmer. I built a straight up glass cannon power / crit build, maxing points into domination and dueling lines, with 10 in illusions, and runes of Rage throughout for the crit. The idea was to start off with some staff skills and then jump in with sword/pistol, using the Blurred Frenzy sword (2) to survive for a few seconds whilst hitting mantra of pain, mind wrack etc (you can pop all of these during blurred frenzy, interestingly). Decoy and pistol stun for an escape route should it all go wrong. Given that I was using the mantras, I specced for the 3 x use trait and used Mantra of Recovery too.

Overall I did ok but I do wonder whether this isn't just too squishy to take into higher level play. When I caught someone with their pants down, I burst them down in no time, but against a big co-ordinated group I wouldn't last long.

When I'm next in line for some PvP, I think I'm going to go with this build (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgEQNAsaWlwzKqXQTqGbNJyZGRXyhWAJFqGsVSBvdhA;TsAg0 CnoUyokQJrSOlkKt+YQwEDA), which is intended as a mix between the power/crit option along with some more survivability and some phantasm traits. The idea would be to open single target engagements with the sword/pistol and quickly fire off a dodge plus (3) and (4) illusions, do some burst with a quick cry of frustration thrown in to get the confusion and vulnerability stacked, then back off and switch to staff and bring up the warlock, who with all this power and conditions on the target should hit like a truck. For group fights, I would hang back and just bring up the ranged phantasms and plug away at the group with the staff.

In the meantime I've got my decoy and mass invisibility as get out of jail free cards if needed.

The real danger here is that if the PVP gets its teeth into me, I may never leave level 20....

[Powernoodles]

hehe i guess thats why im only lvl 8 when pvp was down and i did some pve out of boredom and the rest of my toons lvl1-2 :p

i just dont get a lot of satisfaction out of the pve story, slowly gaining all your skills, the flat interaction with pve enemies that due to AI always need less effort than a human player (and therefore less reward), the min maxing of gear (which i got so used to not caring about from being in the mists)

idk without the beta weekends and such, if i had stayed away from pvp, i might have enjoyed pve like some are powering through it now, but once youve opened that pvp jar, gotten different builds, the runes and sigils, the entire game really laid out in front of you as you wish, well its just rly hard to turn your back to that and play a shitty lvl8 with crappy weapons which skills havent all been unlocked without runes/sigils/traits/etc

even when pvp is down its sooo hard for me to motivate doing pve caus im playing with a fraction of the toon im used to and well ignorance is bliss so in this case a total curse when you cant use any of those cool utility spells/ultimate/combos/interaction between your playstyle and your build/etc that ur so used to pwning with in pvp...

checked out your spec and its close to the kind of things i have in my builds aswell, one thing i would strongly advise against though is your mass invisibility.

as an elite spell that will screw you over more than help you, simply because you lose capture point control when you are in stealth

if you do this in a teamfight on mid point you can imagine what this means ;)

its just terribad ;x

if a team desperately wants aoe fields a thief can take utility for this that doesnt cockblock his elite spot

and this enables you to actually take the most imba elite in the game, period.

the quickness field, 10seconds of quickness on a huge field, this will allow u to kill faster, revive faster, down faster, spam all your shit faster, increase your mates dps tenfold, etc etc

way more impact than a couple of seconds of stealth that will make your team lose contestation of the point..

oh and its also wonderful when u are 1V1 vs a thief for instance who thinks he can roflstom you, with it you will win, with the stealth field u will lose/survive at best(but lose control of capture point).

[squirrelfanatic]

The only thing in PvE that is a bit annoying is the limitation in traitpoints. Skill unlocks were almost never an issue for me and you get your elite skill already at... 30 I think. I can see why people prefer one play mode over the other, given that they are pretty much different games. Maybe PvE just isn't for you.

[Powernoodles]

The only thing in PvE that is a bit annoying is the limitation in traitpoints. Skill unlocks were almost never an issue for me and you get your elite skill already at... 30 I think. I can see why people prefer one play mode over the other, given that they are pretty much different games. Maybe PvE just isn't for you.

think i outgrew the whole idea of grind, pretty sure i wud have been addicted to it and rushing different toons 10 years ago..
but when you get older, or at least for me, i dont gain patience ;D i want things now caus time is fleeting, my clock is ticking :D

[Wolfenswan]

Play WvW with a small, focused group and have the best of both worlds?

[squirrelfanatic]

think i outgrew the whole idea of grind, pretty sure i wud have been addicted to it and rushing different toons 10 years ago.. but when you get older, or at least for me, i dont gain patience ;D i want things now caus time is fleeting, my clock is ticking :DGrind? I think I've missed something.

[Powernoodles]

Grind? I think I've missed something.

like i said, ive got every character slot occupied with a fully runed/sigiled/specced lvl80 for pvp(not the standard premade builds ;p), when i play pve with those i feel im grinding to get spells/traits/what have you that i have at 80 but now have to "grind back" to get..

guess most people play the other way round and dont encounter that issue ^^

and even gw2 isnt immune for the usual grind in pve, with my 1 lvl8 that i played pve with i always was a few levels behind my personal story and i had to "grind" to reach high enough level to do the next part of my story...

[squirrelfanatic]

like i said, ive got every character slot occupied with a fully runed/sigiled/specced lvl80 for pvp(not the standard premade builds ;p), when i play pve with those i feel im grinding to get spells/traits/what have you that i have at 80 but now have to "grind back" to get..Yeah, that's what I meant with "two different games". Clearly, PvE is designed for you to enjoy the feeling of growth while you progress through the different zones and personal quest line. Playing through content isn't grind for me, but the actual game.


and even gw2 isnt immune for the usual grind in pve, with my 1 lvl8 that i played pve with i always was a few levels behind my personal story and i had to "grind" to reach high enough level to do the next part of my story...Like I said, I must have missed something. I have neither encountered the issue of being too low, nor did I have to grind. The way I do it is to play through the game. But maybe some people find that doing quest hearts and dynamic events is grind or a tiring experience.

All in all your experience is nothing uncommon, I assume. There were many people - back in the days - that never felt that GW1 PvE meant anything and that PvP meant everything. I feel like it is a thing of beauty that the two modes can coexist and that you even are able - not forced - to bring your PvE character into PvP.

[Powernoodles]

Yeah, that's what I meant with "two different games". Clearly, PvE is designed for you to enjoy the feeling of growth while you progress through the different zones and personal quest line. Playing through content isn't grind for me, but the actual game.

Like I said, I must have missed something. I have neither encountered the issue of being too low, nor did I have to grind. The way I do it is to play through the game. But maybe some people find that doing quest hearts and dynamic events is grind or a tiring experience.

All in all your experience is nothing uncommon, I assume. There were many people - back in the days - that never felt that GW1 PvE meant anything and that PvP meant everything. I feel like it is a thing of beauty that the two modes can coexist and that you even are able - not forced - to bring your PvE character into PvP.

cudnt agree with you more, think its a very healthy approach, especially compared to WoW for instance..

i like the main story, think the level of quality on storylines is much higher than what im used to in other MMOs so i wanted to pursue this "personal quest" and kind of ignore all the action happening left and right to me ;p (which lead to the lvl disparity)

i hope one day maybe in a holiday ill be able to play pve decently because the world is beautiful and many things are well-done and i regret not being part of the bonanza now where every zone/heart/... is filled with players and together people are progressing through the game (and hope i wont regret it too much when/if i ever get to it and by then nobody is on those low lvls ;p) but until that day pvp is definately giving my fill now^^

[Beard Of Bees]

Some more sPVP last night, I experimented with this tanky phantasm build (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQJAWRlwzSqHTTqGbNJhJF9G5neEdqDdUFwOpCqG;ToAA1C tocy4kwJrTOnkOtKYAC). The idea was basically to stay alive and let the illusions do all the work whilst I kited at range. It wasn't bad but didn't quite do the trick. I also built one for pure survivability and deception and it was hilarious how long it took people to kill me. In one game I regularly managed to lure four people away from capping a point and into chasing me down whilst I blinked, decoyed, cloned, healed and otherwise became a royal pain in the arse to kill. Bottom of the scoreboard but a valuable team effort I suppose.

I'm still looking for that magic build that fits my playstyle nicely. I don't really like using the shatter skills and I don't like going either 100% glass cannon or 100% tanky as I'd quite like to be able to dish out some damage. I think a balanced build around survivability, with some power, will be best. I haven't yet explored the condition damage option as I'm not sure how viable this really is in PvP... any thoughts?

Edit: Here's a go (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNArfWlwziqXUzgGa9IyJFJn0h6x1VdfXJF62FC;T0AAzC po+y8l4L7Xuvkft8YUxpgXBTPA) at a condition build which is based around using the scepter to apply confusion, and the torch for burning, with some Geomancy bleeds on weapon swaps, a bit of crit and Sharper Images for the illusions to apply bleeding too. I might try this out next time.

[Beard Of Bees]

one thing i would strongly advise against though is your mass invisibility.

as an elite spell that will screw you over more than help you, simply because you lose capture point control when you are in stealth

That... that's just stupid. Perhaps time to rethink this then. Like you the speed boost probably is favourite then. The Moa Bird thing is obviously powerful but just feels a bit wrong for me. In a one-on-one match-up, I'm fairly comfortable and probably don't need the bird; in a big group fight, it doesn't really do enough to turn the tide. Speed it is.

[Skalpadda]

I tried some random sPvP with my Mesmer the other day and found it jolly good fun. Went with staff in one slot, scepter and torch in the other, Mirror Images, Blink, Decoy and Time Warp, mostly trying to keep enemies away from capture points and annoy them to death. I found I could usually whittle down single opponents, stealth and run away if I got ganged up on and Time Warp and Chaos Field combined seem like excellent group support in bigger scuffles.

On the other hand, I feel like my Mesmer is pretty weak in solo PvE, especially against multiple enemies. Damage takes a long time to get going, it's hard to keep track of what my illusions are doing and what mob they "belong to", and the density of mobs combined with the (often) fast respawns means it's hard to kite things without just getting more on your tail, even if you've cleared a path behind you.

Perhaps I'm doing something horribly wrong or perhaps I'm just spoiled by my other character being a warrior (who can simply burst down adds, soak damage and focus on dodging big attacks) but while I find the Mesmer really enjoyable and the mechanics intresting it's pretty hard work.

[Powernoodles]

yep ive noticed also ive had good killing times on the pve boss in pvp (chieftain svanir) but have also had goes where its quite shit/slow

seems to me its a matter of my build and the fact that if my build is more of a counterbuild there is less for me to counter and gain strength from that in a pve setting (chaos armor for instance reaches max potential when a ranger derps u with super fast shooting and barely means fuck all to a slow swing timer pve giant)

the quickness field however i feel cud technically make u tackle more enemies than the average of other professions, and wonder if its feasable or not for pve (no experience there so dont know xD)

if you could "pull" multiple enemies, throw your quickness down summon all your minions (pistol/torch/staff/whatever minion summoning uve got) followed with sword 2 which does aoe to all close enuf and makes you evade (and goes hella fast with quickness xD) while your pistol duelist(s) are shooting like crazy uve got confusion stacked everywhere (in my build phantasms also giving retal) basically making them finish themselves off when they use their programmed abilities ^^

beyond that i seriously have no clue pve wise how to "pwn" ;p

perhaps combination of staff for fields with scepter pistol for duelist and the other great abilities those weapons have, in a field/phantasm build that gives some more power/cdr/... to both

pve enemies dont tend to go out of fire on the ground as much as enemies in a competitive setting do and the pistol duelist combo-ing with those fields shud be a nice boost xD

[Skalpadda]

If I need to get some damage going fast on hard mobs I usually do something like:

Start with sword and torch
Mirror Images, Illusionary Leap, Swap (this gets three clones up almost instantly)
Cry of Frustration (dazes and damages everything)
Blurred Frenzy (burst damage and immunity as I'm now in melee range)
Phantasmal Mage
Swap to staff
Phantasmal Warlock
Chaos Field
Phase Retreat (inside the chaos field for Chaos Armour)

At that point whatever I'm fighting is either dead or severely crippled, I have three illusions up, a bunch of boons and it's mostly a matter of staying out of/interrupting bad stuff and keeping the pressure up.

Alternatively I'll start with the staff out and try to get a lot of conditions and boons running, then move in to burst things down with the sword.

Where I run into troubles is that a lot of mobs simply 1-shot my illusions (I've had three being taken out in one swing by a veteran Ettin) and I'm forced to shatter them early so that they're not just wasted. This wrecks the damage I put out and if I have to start stealthing and hiding I'm not doing much to damage to whatever I'm fighting. Kiting is always an option except it usually means running into even more monsters as the repop rates are often extremely fast.

Most of the time it's pretty easy though, and it's getting easier to keep things up as I'm gaining more traits and just plain getting better at keeping track of everything from cooldowns to what my illusions are doing. It's a lot of fun and I never feel like I get stuck in a routine and just cycling through skills, which is a very good thing for an MMO.

[Powernoodles]

ah ofc the lack of maximum traits in pve, keep forgetting...

good description!

[Mithror]

I've been using this build the last couple of days and loving it. It's a high survivability build and I can easily take out multiple level 80 mobs with it:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQJAWRlwzSoXQzhGaNJiZGBHFeqA1RqQrVmxsdhA

Clones! Clones everywhere =)