Guild Wars 2 - Mesmer PvP

So far, I’ve been enjoying Mesmer PvP. After trying a few things initially in both structured and WvW, I’ve settled on a build that works fairly well in structured PvP (though I’ve no idea how viable it’d be in tournaments, but the utility is enough that it should still function well), and fairly well in WvW at lower levels. 

I’ll qualify all of this by saying I’m still just shy of rank 10 in structured and only level 60 so far on the PvE side of things, so while this is something that functions well for me now, I’m sure things will change and alternatives will be more viable at later ranks and levels.

The Build;  Everything you have seen here has been an illusion.

The point of this build is to get up Phantasmal Duelists and Berserkers as a source of damage in addition to your own. Shattering Illusions is highly situation and not something you’ll do frequently. The idea is to punish people as much as possible for fighting you in any way. 1v2? Moa Morph one while you burn the other. Ranged? You can match that. Melee? You’ll be fine there too. What if they see through your illusions and keep on you? Then your illusions will wreck them, and if they focus your illusions instead then you’re free to focus them in turn. A few similar builds were floating around during the Beta Weekends, but the shifting of certain trait skills changed things slightly.

General Gearing

Power and Precision is what I’ve been doing for this and it’s working out well, though mixed with the trait stats it does make you something of a glass cannon. As far as runes go, Scholar all the way in Structured, and plan on the same for WvW/PvE at 80. At 60 and levelling, I’ve mostly been grabbing cheap power and precision boosts.

Traits

Domination, 20 points - This is primarily for the power increase and the 10 and 20 point trait slots. Empowered Illusions at 10 is amazing for the heavy hitting Duelist and Berserker illusions, and the Greatsword bonuses help get Berserkers up faster, in addition to the power increase while wielding one and the lower cooldown on the knockback.

Duelist, 15 points - The 15 points net you bleeds from illusions critical hits, and Phantasmal fury slotted in at 10. It’s possibly worth it to dip in another 5 points, most likely out of Illusions, to grab the extra Precision and Crit Damage along with Illusions on dodging, but as I rarely ever use shatter skills, the extra illusions are a little pointless next to the damage you can get elsewhere.

Inspiration, 25 points - The base Vitality and Healing gains are the least useful thing in this line. Every 5 points you gain something useful. Retaliation on Phantasms at 5, Regeneration buff at 15, flat 15% phantasm damage boost at 25, and for slotted skills at 10 and 20, Compounding Celerity lets you kite a little more easily if people ignore your illusions, and Persisting Images makes them harder to kill when people do focus them.

Illusions, 10 points - Compounding Power at 10 is useful, but if you were to grab 5 points to shove elsewhere, this would be the place to take it from. Illusionists Celerity is a necessity though, to keep up high damage illusions.

Weaponry
 

Greatsword, and Sword with a Pistol offhand.

Greatsword gives you decent ranged, along with a minor Area of Effect damage. The biggest function of it is the Phantasmal Berserker. Group or single target, the damage it does is significant. Mirror Blade is useful as a distracting illusion, minor buff, and minor AoE if others are close enough for it to bounce. Mind Stab is largely opportunistic damage, and Illusionary wave is amazing for kiting.

Sword and Pistol is insanely useful. Phantasmal Duelist, while not AoE like the Berserker, does comparative damage at range. Magic Bullet is amazing for kiting or catching people, or just generally preventing casts and interfering. The bounce across three targets, even with the different condition applications per target, is extremely handy. Stunning and dazing two people fighting me has saved me several times. As for the Sword skills, Illusionary Leap has a low enough range I find I use it more to kite or catch people than as an escape mechanism. The cripple is handy, but the low range and spotty functionality over range is a little irritating at times. Blurred Frenzy is your secret weapon, in a way. Full evasion for two seconds and high melee damage in a short frontal cone. It can buy you time against melee classes that snare and root and put out solid damage.

 

Slotted Skills

Ether Feast is far and above the best heal. The reflection off Mirror is too short to be worth the third less healing is does, even with the lower cooldown. Mantra of Recovery doesn’t heal for nearly as much as either of those, and is a pain to use when not already charged. Healing Seed outside of Structured PvP is fairly decent, but the short range and being stuck in place isn’t as useful in as in most situations you shouldn’t be standing still for long.

Phantasmal Defender is purely there to soak damage. It can help mitigate the first few hits in a fight, but won’t do you much good if you’re already almost dead. 

Blink and Decoy are good for movement and survivability, to some extent. The ability to vanish but appear to have stopped in place, then a few seconds later reappear thirty yards away is handy for reassessing and repositioning in tight situations. It can also help you get close enough to use Blurred Frenzy for damage, or get rapidly out of range of melee.

Moa Morph is a solid elite skill. When you turn someone into a Moa, they’re pretty much out of the fight for ten seconds, though they can still move and run. It can even the odds in a fight, either taking out a second player momentarily so you can focus on the first, or you can use it to essentially cancel out elite skills being used against you. In WvW you could arguably use other elites in specific situations, but Moa seems to be the most useful, especially in Structured PvP.

I don’t know that I’d really consider any of the other slotted skills for this build specifically. The signets aren’t good enough, and the mantras I personally hate. If shattering was more frequently used, Mirror Images would be nice, but as it is with this build you don’t need the extra clones. Other things may be useful situationally in large scale battles in WvW, but in regards to most they’d suit better with more of a buffer or support build than a damage build like this.

Speaking of which, what I’d like to try next is some sort of supportive staff-based build with high survivability, but it’s hard to tell if it’s really viable and well... I’m having way too much fun with this so far, and if you're a Mesmer reading this and haven't already done something like it, I'd suggest trying it out.



- ED