Hey Guys,
I'm Elusive, TC commander and long-time exclusive WvWvW player. I've
been playing a lot of mesmer in zergs lately when I'm not pinned up and
I've noticed a general lack of knowledge among mesmer players, as well
as the misconception that all mesmers are good for is veil and timewarp.
It doesn't help that (on TC at least) there are very few consistent
mesmer zerg players, and of those only a few fully utilize the class to
its potential.
While it is true that having a mesmer for veil is imperative for
engages, and having a timewarp is nice for fights, scaling a bomb's
damage up, and speeding up golem assaults, there are lots of other
things that a well played mesmer can bring to the table. That's the
reason for this post - to clarify some of the uses of skills and to
share what I've learned with the playerbase. I'll be satisfied if each
person reading this learns something that they didn't know previously.
So, let's get down to it!
Generally, a mesmer's primary role is utility/support. We all know
that, but here are a few things you might not have thought of:
- Using temporal curtain (focus 4) to pull enemies back into a
bomb. When your commander calls for a bomb, usually damage is fairly
focussed in a specific area, ie a choke, corner of a wall, etc. When
enemies are caught, they try to run out. Your goal is to drop your
curtain on your zerg's side of the bomb, and activate it quickly to pull
enemies back in. To help with this, you can save null field an drop
that on the other side of the bomb, where enemies are fleeing into, and
hope that this strips stability so your pull will connect. If you are
trying to focus a specific player (commander, in regular wvwvw zergs, or
maybe a specific ele/necro/backliner in a gvg setting) you can run
Arcane Thievery to strip their stability and ensure your pull connects
and drags them back into the bomb. Usually being caught by this will
ensure death on even the most tanky characters, as they will be in the
bomb for much longer and assuming you have more than a few necros/eles
the damage will just be too great for them to withstand.
- If you're having trouble tagging enemies for
rallies/bags/proccing Triumphant Distortion run GS and target people at
it's max range. This is useful because gs1 hits enemies in the "beam"
meaning more tags/more loot/more distortion procs.
- Learn how to place a proper 2nd/3rd veil, in case there is more
than one mesmer and the commander wants to chain. This is something that
is trickier than it sounds, and usually comes with experience. I've
found the best way is to watch my stealth on my bar and place veil a
short distance in front of the front line when there is about a half a
second of stealth left. Ideally, the zerg should be visible for a very
short time.
- Know portal's max range (fully zoomed in mini-map, make sure you
keep track of where you drop and can still see it at the edge when you
open. With a max range portal you can actually cause a loading screen so
when portalling into towers/etc its best to avoid those absolute max range
portals just incase you fail and to give your friends time to react on
the other side. Most mesmers have a pretty good grasp on portal
distances so this is hopefully a given.
- Learn how to stack stealth - carry a torch, and swap skills to
decoy and mass invis for long range portal bombs or stealthy hiding in
keeps.
- Utilize "fake" portal bombs to scare enemies. Place your portal
somewhere out of sight, make your push for the choke obvious (run right
up to it before stealthing/blinking through marks) and then open it
right on the enemies backline. You can take the portal back to safety
but it's best to stand on it for a few seconds so the enemy sees some
red and drops some skills. This rarely used form of baiting is super
effective against disorganized pug zergs and inexperienced commanders.
- its possible to run a mantra-healing build, such that you can
cast healing mantra and damage or daze mantra on resets to heal your
nearby allies for ~6k. Mantras are fun to experiment with because the
healing skill can be great for condi cleanse and heals for a lot if you
spec for Harmonious Mantras.
- Swap skills and traits often. Put on feedback if the enemy is
pirate-shipping or there is a golem rush. Swap on Warden's Feedback for
additional reflects.
- Take off Deceptive Evasion if you are portal bombing because your
dodge clones can break your stealth. Be careful with The Prestige
(torch4) because that can destealth you too.
- Using timewarp on your backline eles/midline necros for a bomb
can make the damage drop so much faster. If your backline is organized
try to drop your timewarp such that you get all of your eles and a few
necros in it right when the commander calls for meteors/icebows/wells.
- Timewarp can also be used for cleaning up downs, or to speed up
an in-fight re-empower where there are fields down and a water wouldn't
be blasted anyways. Cutting empowers time in half means your group can
have a second or two jump on the enemies group.
- If you're facing particularly hard fights/fighting outnumbered
and getting rekt/lack warriors who can banner well Illusion of Life can
save a wipe. When traited for manip cooldown this skill is basically a
banner on a 96 second cd - meaning you can use this skill almost 3x as
often as a warrior can banner. Only rallies 3 allies but if it can save
your commander/frontline you can turn the tide of a fight with one
skill. 99% of the time allies will "full rally" from this skill due to
the active number of enemy players dying on all sides during a zerg
fight.
- Veil should always be on your bar, unless your group has 3+
mesmers (and even then I'd still probably take it.) The value and
utility of veil is unrivaled because its useful for so much. If your
commander utilizes fake pushes you will need veils often, and its good
to have a defensive veil ready in case of an assjam or flank from
another guild.
- Moa can really ruin a commander's day. It goes through stability
but can be dodged or blocked, so use has to be carefully monitored (I
like to target the enemy driver if we are running with our own tag up)
once s/he has dodged twice, start casting that moa. A good moa on a
driver's push usually results in a retreat and some free downs, or the
commander even suiciding with the moa5 skill, a dash that goes a good
distance and I've seen many commanders accidentally use this and end up
in the middle of our group alone. Side note to other commanders, if
you're moa'd don't use any of the skills except the 1 skill, because they all lock you in place and have cast times.
You can use the 5 skill with an about-face to retreat back the way you
came swiftly, but make sure you alert your frontline so they arent
caught.
- Traiting blink for the extra range is really useful for
repositioning/escaping/portalbombs/pretty much everything. If you can
get by without it, that's better, but it really is great to have.
- Running an interrupt build with chaotic interruption can
absolutely devastate an enemys backline. Pull em together with temporal
curtain, drop chaos storm, mantra daze, etc, and they will be stuck
there for easy pickings by your necros.
- If you are running deceptive evasion and getting focused a quick
double dodge + distortion shatter can give you a few seconds to
reposition and heal.
- Do not underestimate the utility of a well-placed nullfield. It's
probably one of the strongest zerg skills in the game. Use it often,
place it well. Trait for extra 2s duration if you're using this well. If
you're traiting duration also use feedback liberally on enemy
backliners.
- Use temporal curtain on fleeing enemies to pull them into a clump
in front of your advancing frontline. A little anecdote - when I play
Ashe in League Of Legends, I always try to land clutch cross-map arrows.
I miss. A lot. I really only land, like, one or two really epic ones
per match. I feel like that is how I am with mesmer pulls when they
aren't on walls or into bombs with the addition of null field like
specified at the top of this list. I land one or two really epic pulls
per raid, catching a full 5 enemy squishies and getting them stacked
right in front of our melee. There's nothing more satisfying, I tell ya.
- Don't trait for blinding glamours or confusion on blind/confusion
on glamour. It just isn't worth it. It would be if the blind pulsed but
it is only on the first cast, and the confusion is only for enemies
entering/exiting the field.
- There's many places where using feedback without a target can be
more useful than with one. Landing a feedback inside a narrow choke
ensures no projectiles will pass for the duration, so run a ways back,
center yourself and after a bit of practice, you'll be able to land
these awesome feedback bubbles. Using them on a targeted enemy on the
other side is not the best idea because the enemies can just move out.
- If you're playing pick you should be in a periphery party aiming
to take out specific targets in the enemy back line. Don't bother grouping
with frontline as you'll be out of range of buffs. Try to organize with
like-minded players, thieves, engis, d/d eles, etc. Pick team is really
important to organized group.
That's all I can think of right now, Hopefully you learned something.
Source
Introduction: Counting might in fives
The lockdown mesmer is a mesmer that relies on phantasm damage (or
more rarely, shatter damage) and interrupts from Mantra of Distraction
to defeat a foe. The core build uses two traits that improve interrupts,
Bountiful Interruption and Halting Strike (which were heavily buffed a
long time ago). From these traits, the mesmer derives significant
benefits from performing an interrupt, beyond those inherent to the
interruption of an enemy skill.
Because lockdown centers on interrupting enemy skills, strong
lockdown play requires an understanding of all other professions and
builds, or at least their core skills. As such, lockdown is recommended
for players with a broad knowledge of Guild Wars 2 professions and
skills.
The mantra mesmer uses Mantra of Recovery, Centaur Runes, and the
trait Mender's Purity to eliminate two key mesmer weaknesses: lack of
swiftness and lack of condition cleanse. This particular build goes
further by taking the trait Harmonious Mantras to mitigate a serious
problem inherent to mantra skills: the inability to sustain mantra use
over the long term due because of the need to rechannel before the
active skill is available again.
This particular variant is optimized for WvW roaming and havoc. It
solos camps just fine (especially now that the daze mantra is AoE), it
gives group swiftness, it has a skill slot for portal/veil/feedback when
those are needed, and it can fight it out against any other build you
encounter. No need to run from condi necros, no need to run from d/p
thieves. You can even go toe-to-toe with your local twice-told legend of
a d/d ele, though at a disadvantage (as should be expected when using a
non-PvP build against an sPvP meta build).
About me: I have played more than 500 hours of WvW using a
lockdown/mantra mesmer, about 300 of which are using this exact mantra
build in a roaming or havoc setting. I play on the character Beatrice
Vita Nuova on the Dragonbrand server. Possibly you know me because I
routinely attempt to solo towers with an alpha golem.
I wrote this short guide because after playing several builds for each
profession, I keep coming back to play this particular build. It is a
unique style of play that is very, very fun, comparing favorably with
such awesomeness as d/d ele and SD engi. I am sharing this build because
there has been a constant clamor for non-shatter mesmer builds, and
because I want you guys to experience the fun, too.
The Build, the Traits, and the Reasons
2/6/4/2/0
Weapons are zerk. Armor and jewelry is 70-30 zerk-soldier. You can tweak
this to your tastes; the goal is to be deadly without insta-dying to
glass builds.
While weapon choices are more flexible for a lockdown mesmer than for
arguably any other build, my personal choice is greatsword and
sword/pistol ("gs", "s/p") by a large margin. Feel free to swap the
off-hand to focus, especially if you are addicted to pulling people off
walls and cliffs. Swap out sword or gs at your peril.
Ok yeah, I know 2/6/4/2/0 sounds like weird, off-brand crap. But
please read at least the next part on traits before you start screaming
about my commoner status (or whatever the insult du jour is).
Trait explanations:
• No Shattered Concentration: Shatter mesmers shatter. Lockdown
mesmers keep phantasms up, and thus do not shatter. Plus, you're running
mainhand sword and greatsword, probably the two best boon-stripping
weapons in the game, so pushing for a boon-strip trait is a weak choice.
An easy no, but one that needed to be said.
• Duelist's Discipline over Deceptive Evasion: probably the most
controversial choice at first glance, but I stand absolutely firm here.
pistol at 1200 range (up from 900 untraited) gives you incredible
initiative when starting a fight, and the 1200 range stun acts as a
ranged snare, a fast interrupt (focus 4 is beyond slow now that the
chain skill has a short buffer cooldown), and one of the hardest CCs in
the game (so your phantasms actually hit). The recharge reduction on top
of this makes for an impossibly good trait, and it edges out deceptive
evasion because lockdown doesn't shatter, so we could care less for
clone generation.
• Harmonious Mantras over Furious Interruption: 3 seconds of
quickness every 15 seconds can be crazy good, I admit. Quickstomp, quick
mantra channel, phantasms that come out too quickly to dodge, a quick
sword autoattack chain to strip a boon, it's all wonderful. However,
Harmonious Mantras not only increases your mantra active skill count by
50% per channel, but it also front-loads that benefit. Furious often
activates at inopportune moments--in the middle of an enemy distortion
or endure pain, for instance. The unpredictability of the quickness proc
makes it worth much less than the potential 20% uptime would otherwise
suggest. If you play around the quickness, then it might be worth it.
But rarely does the cooldown AND enemy skill use AND quickness benefit
line up so well in fights.
Finally, in my experience, the third mantra uses (heal and daze
alike) often make the critical difference in a fight, while the
quickness rarely does.
• Phantasmal Fury over Desperate Decoy, Far-Reaching Manipulations,
or Blade Training: your phantasms are almost half your damage output,
and this an important way to increase your offensive pressure,
especially with air/fire sigils and the Sharper Images minor trait. All
three other traits are decent, but my experience suggests that PFury is
difficult to pass up.
• No Chaotic Interruption: A great skill at first glance, immobilize
is awesome. then you realize that ALL the random effects have an overlap
with the immobilize. The blind is quite short and immobilize often
stops them from hitting you anyway. The chill only lasts the length of
the immob, making the snare component worthless. And the cripple only
lasts 1 second longer, do you really want an extra second of cripple?
And this is a grandmaster trait!
So all things considered, I would not trade out Harmonious Mantras or
Mender's Purity for it. Also note that the associated minor traits
(Confusing Combatants and Vengeful Images) are better than Chaotic
Transferance (you don't have the toughness to benefit much, and you
don't really want condition damage).
• Illusionary Defense over Debilitating Dissipation: We keep
illusions up all the time. Debilitating is only ok for a power build
(vuln and weakness are nice, bleed not so much), only helps when you're
losing illusions, and is less useful because phantasms have retaliation
from the Vengeful Images minor trait anyway. And the first time you have
two phantasms idling while you wait for a thief to backstab you, you
will remember this trait and you will be very, very happy. Leave
Debilitating Dissipation to the PU clonespam guys, we are busy actually
killing things.
• Mender's Purity: with Mantra of Recovery, this trait gives you two
(or three) instant condition clears that remove two conditions each
(note that the channel part doesn't cure conditions, despite what the
tooltip says). You can eat a necro's signet of spite and come out fine.
You can clear a shatter mesmer's immobilize without blinking (literally
or figuratively). Fear means little to you; likewise chill. Make no
mistake, this trait turns the mesmer into one of the best
condi-cleansing professions out of the box, no poultry-based food
necessary. In this build, this adept-level trait becomes one of the best
in the game.
• No mantra recharge reduction, no toughness during mantra channel,
no heal at end of mantra channel: No room for mild benefits that only
help after you've used up all charges. There is more to say on the
subject, sure, but it really comes down to the fact that these are a bit
lackluster, and we have no room left.
Skill Choices
First, a quick word on mantras. Mantras suck because they don't
recharge normally, they also require rechanneling to become anything
more than a dead skill slot. Mantras rule because they are instant
activation. That is, the active skill can be used at any time, and
cannot be interrupted or prevented via stun.
More succinctly: they are amazing until the active skill runs out.
Heal: mantra of recovery
First utility: blink
Second utility: mantra of distracction
The heal mantra and daze mantra are core components of the build, and
blink is an integral part of all mesmer play. Don't touch those unless
you know what you're doing.
Third utility: Signet of Midnight is my personal default
choice--short cooldown stunbreak and blind means you often nullify a big
CC and a big followup melee attack with one skill use. In addition, the
+10% boon duration is nice for Bountiful Disillusionment procs, and to a
much lesser extent for the swiftness from Centaur runes. Don't forget
the insta-blind for stomps. Also don't forget that it applies a 360
radius PBAoE blind--that downed guardian's buddy might catch a blind,
too, if he's not careful while running up to CC you. Also the blind is
unblockable, and the skill is instant like all stunbreaks. What a great
skill, despite the fact that it seriously looks like every low-tier
benefit was shoved together in a box and someone put a stunbreak bow put
on top to try to make it look respectable.
Other viable fight-oriented choices include Mantra of Concentration
(many stunbreaks and short stability, but beware the triple mantra
recharge situation!) and signet of domination (ridiculously offensive,
and makes for a great 3.9s stun).
Decoy is a bit worse than signet of midnight for this build because
it lacks the damage mitigation of the blind and has a longer cooldown.
Run if it you want, but I can't say I recommend it.
Viable WvW support skills should be put in this slot. Strong choices
include portal, veil, feedback, and null field, taken as appropriate.
Elite skill: Mass Invisibility ("MI") is the most flexible elite
skill, and my default choice. Hide whole groups of friendlies for an
ambush, secure stomps, deny stomps, escape foes, save dolyaks, sneak up
to the enemy for a supply trap or disabler. Hard to argue with it,
especially on a 90sec cooldown.
Time Warp ("TW") admittedly does the stomp stuff of MI (differently),
AND it has direct combat benefit. Plus, TW makes golems attack faster.
It's a solid choice if you like it.
Polymorph Moa ("moa") is great way to secure a kill. But
ineffectiveness of its transform (doesn't really help with killing, the
best use is simply to stop another elite, e.g., lich form), coupled with
the fact that lockdown mesmer shuts down a lot of stuff anyway, means I
never use it.
Runes and Sigils
Centaur runes are a core component of a mantra mesmer in WvW.
Effective roaming is about moving fast. Centaur runes are the difference
between perma-swiftness and zero swiftness.
Non-roaming or sPvP players could consider other runes (i.e.,
probably Strength or Hoelbrak). I can't say that I would recommend a
non-power rune, and I can't say I'd pick anything but Strength, even
after the recent nerf to might.
Air/fire on gs is hard to argue with, because the autoattack's triple
hit makes both sigils proc rather consistently. I have never replaced
them, nor have I felt the desire to.
Air/paralyzation on s/p is very flexible; you could swap them both
out if you like. Paralyzation makes pistol 5 stun for 2.6 seconds
(tooltip displays 2.5s), up from 2.0s, which can be an extra 4k or more
of phantasm damage. While it's apples to oranges, my experience suggests
that fire isn't objectively better, just different (more offensive and
bursty, to be precise). I can definitely see some people wanting fire
instead. And I can also see arguments for energy, and for renewal. Pick
your favorites and enjoy.
How to Play
Always prep both mantras when you zone in. When your swiftness has
less than 4 seconds left, activating your heal will refresh swiftness
(rechanneling the mantra will always refresh it due to the mantra and
rune bonus both having a 10s cooldown). Your swiftness is applied in 600
range PBAoE, so make sure to give friendly stragglers some swiftness,
and whip any nearby yaks into a run.
To get back to full charge on mantras without triggering full
cooldown: swap to another skill, then swap back to the mantra. wait out
the 5 second cooldown that might have been triggered. channel mantra.
Make sure you also go underwater somewhere and set your water skills
to the correct mantras, in the same slots. This way, you will maintain
the active skills when you go in and out of the water. Otherwise
fighting in bay becomes a nightmare.
Start fights in s/p, and start off by using your duelist--1200 range
makes this easy enough. Immediately follow up with pistol 5, then swap
to gs and get berserker in there, too.
The rest of the fight varies wildly depending on the matchup, but as
you might expect, it revolves around landing interrupts on key skills
and getting phantasm attacks to hit. Every interrupt you hit with is
like a third-chain autoattack hit, plus a huge boost of might. But those
benefits aren't worth it by themselves, so you must still aim to
interrupt key skills.
Balance your weapon swaps between constant swapping to get as many
phantasms as possible, and having the defensiveness of sword ready when
you need it. Sword 2 beats most other 2 skills (guardian whirl, warrior
100 blades); sword 3 is your fastest access to a clone, for that
emergency distortion or daze, and the sword 3 chain skill is a
stunbreak. Yes, that's right, an extra stunbreak.
Remember that you have three mantra uses before you need to
rechannel. That is the window in which you gain all of the benefits of
mantra activations without any of the drawbacks of rechanneling. Mete
out your uses intelligently. Do note that a three-illusion Distortion
(F4) is three seconds long, and mantra channels take 2.75 seconds. In
addition, traited and sigil'd pistol 5 stuns for 2.6 seconds. You can
use those to reset your mantras if necessary.
That pretty much covers it. I will add a few more sections on
fighting specific builds in the comments. Thanks for reading, and I'll
see you in the Mists.
Source
