[Question] Do I suck, or..? (Living World Season 3 Spoilers)

tl;dr Mesmer struggling in even story content. In need of help. Pls help. Q-Q

So, it's been a while since I've played GW2. I left around the time HoT was coming out due to all my friends leaving to move onto other pastures, and I'd just recently come back a week ago. I figured I'd try my Mesmer again, since the idea of an illusionist class really appealed to me, but... then I started playing. I'm level 80, and making my way through HoT has been difficult, at the best of times. Not impossible, but difficult in varying degrees. That's fine, though! I made it through, defeated Mordy, etc. Hurrah! Yet... as I make my way into season 3, I find myself coming across more difficult obstacles. I die repeatedly to complete my objectives, enemies take a year and a half to kill, I repeatedly get downed or stunlocked to death with no hope of saving myself. Still, no worries! I can prevail!

...but then I reached the last chapter of episode 4. First came the beastmaster and his carnival goons. "Oh, that's a lot of veterans. But no worries, I've got Canach and Demmi!" I told myself, and into the fray I went, queuing up all my mantras. I throw in a time warp as I engage, then start with a blurred frenzy! It works, I'm wounding them (albeit a little slowly) and they're not hititng me at all! Huzzah! I start throwing out my phantasms and clones, and then... knocked down, incapacitated, dead. "Oh, that... that sucked. Oh well!" I rezzed up and rejoined my friends, still in the midst of combat (or friend, since Canach decided to run to greet me at spawn). Re-joining Demmi as soon as possible, I thrust myself into the thick of it once more, sword in hand. Blurred frenzy! It works again, and then... death. This repeats itself around 3-ish times before I outlast them. "Well, at least the worst is over. Maybe I wasn't dodging enough, or dodging too much."

So I move on. Into the manor I go, and to Caudecus I soar! Sword and focus (and then another sword) in hand, my friends and I barge into the room! "Stop," I think to myself. Then, before I can really assess the situation, the fight begins. We fell him with little to no trouble (though his jade monstrosity was certainly an issue, with his spin to win. That killed me about two times). Still, after a while of chipping away at Caudy, we down him! But it isn't over yet. He retreats into his den and we march after him in hot pursuit! Around us, suddenly, are faces: all of one man; the one I hunt...

...and then the merry-go-round of anal devistation begins. The fight starts, I have no idea what's happening, the arena begins to spin. Then the mechanics are explained, and I know what I have to do. And I do it. His shield goes down and I go in, two strikes from my mantra of pain and a blurred frenzy! Ha-hah!

...wait, I'm dead.

No worries, I spawn back in!

This repeats itself until his last phase, with a few deaths sprinkled in. Then the jade golem comes in. The arena spins faster than ever, disorientating me beyond belief. No worries, I can burst them down. It might kill me a few times, but I can respawn! So I go in...

...and I die over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until half of my gear is broken, where I finally manage to push through and kill Caudecus.

So, all that fluff aside: is this supposed to be this hard? Like, I don't know if I'm simply bad at the game (I'm using a non-Chrono build from Metabattle for Fractals, since I'm bad at making builds on my own and the meta build for Chrono didn't work out for me at all), the mobs are too punishing and tough, or if Mesmer simply struggles with solo/leveling content? Is there any way I can improve? Maybe another build that I could use? I'm open to suggestion, of course. I just want some answers, even if those answers are: "You're bad at the game. Here's how you can attempt to change it!"

tl;dr Mesmer struggling in even story content. In need of help. Pls help. Q-Q

Looking at your build, I would first advise switching away from Scholar runes, especially for solo content. Under most situations, you won't ever have the 10% damage bonus anyway; try instead alternatives like Rune of the Ogre. Otherwise, the rest comes down to practice, rather than simply attributes.

Most of Mesmers' DPS comes from Blurred Frenzy and Phantasmal Swordsman, so make sure you have as many of the latter summoned as possible, especially in the longer fights. The final fight with Caudecus mainly involves avoiding the mini Bloodstone Golems' explosions, picking up their Unstable Shards and tossing it at Caudecus.

You can also create a party to run the story missions to make them easier. Post a LFG in-game or kidnap some forumers to take with you.

So I've went back and repeated that last story instance on my Mesmer, and I will say that the entire instance is very gimmicky. There are few parts that rely on certain specific mechanics to make things far easier, e.g. blowing up the Ammunition Crates while enemies are nearby, shooting down the chandelier, having and using your Counter Magic mastery, etc. The instance is also built around the assumption that the player has a wide-ranging toolkit that has condition cleanse, stun breaks, and both melee and ranged weapons. In other words, if you're still unfamiliar with that character's profession and aren't sure what utilities to use when, the entire instance can feel rather punishing.

A great deal of the combat difficulty comes from the new White Mantle enemies and the Jade Constructs, both of which are found in Lake Doric. These enemies in general are non-trivial and cannot be taken lightly. White Mantle Necromancers deal a lot of single target damage, Clerics give Aegis and massive heals, Stalkers will critically hit for obscene amount of damage, etc. As a Power Mesmer, your standard approach would be to group the enemies up with Into the Void, pin them to the spot with Phantasmal Warden, disable them with Power Lock, before finally bursting them down with a combination of Blurred Frenzy and Power Spike. You can also replace Feedback for Phantasmal Defender if you're finding your character is taking too much burst damage in between.

All in all, learning to play a Mesmer isn't without its learning curve. While that build you linked is outdated, it is a decent baseline to build off of. Take a moment to read through your character's skills and utilities, and experiment with enemies in the open world.

@Ojimaru.8970Thank you, this was a great help! Even breaking down the issues (or rather, my own issues) was fantastic. Glad to see that the GW2 community is as welcoming as I remember it being ~2 years ago.

@Boysenberry.1869If I find myself struggling with story instances, I'll keep that in mind for the future. I wasn't aware that you could do them in a party. I'd always thought that they were solo instances where you would have to disband. RIP my soul. Thanks for the info!

You can pretty much use anything as far as pve content goes when it comes to gear but Mesmer shines with power+precision when it comes to pve content. I sometimes use sword/shield great sword but forever I ran scepter pistol/ staff and sometimes dual swords or sword torch for a more condi burst combo. Try armor sets with vitality like a mix of Valkyrie and cavalier- scholar runes are fine, but it's okay to use something else to better suit your pve play style. I play a minstrel geared chrono, for wvw. she's tough as nails and takes awhile to kill anything but eventually her condis and stuns catch up with enemy players. I sometimes take her into pve events for fun.If you want company just shoot me an invite!

@Boysenberry.1869 said:You can also create a party to run the story missions to make them easier. Post a LFG in-game or kidnap some forumers to take with you.

I would recommend doing this. The Confessor's End final battle is exceptionally hard. I think they - development - should either make such fights so the general population can complete them solo (They don't have to be so difficult; it's a story mission after all), or flag them that they are designated as group missions, so everyone clearly knows not to attempt them alone.

Keep in mind that the living world updates are lvl 80 content and, as far as open world goes, are the most difficult areas around. Whether they are too easy or too difficult will always be a debate. I personally think a bit if a challenge when soloing is good (usually playing with a group makes things easier, so solo mode should be the more difficult option).

I don't know if you have taken your time or if you have rushed through the story instances, but completing the story parts (with infinite respawns, often in the same place you died) does not mean your skill level is up to par. Perhaps it would be wise to go to an area that is a bit challenging but not to difficult (one of the early HoT maps perhaps) and move on to the LS3 maps when you are getting more comfortable with the difficulty. As mentioned above, don't be afraid to change your build/gear and give that a test run too!

Hey I've recently done this on my mesmer too and had difficulty with my standard gear (assassins), I have some soldiers gear in my bag and tried the encounter with that and managed to do it first time.

I used a Sword Sword, and GS, mirror heal (quick cd) and wells.

When the jade golem popped up I just ignored it and focused the boss and kept moving.

My mes is running all exotic Soldier's gear (came with the instant level 80 boost), except that I swapped the off-hand pistol for the ascended chrono shield when I completed the elite spec (and it's Minstrel's instead of Soldier's). It has taken me a little while to figure out Chronomancer, but, now that I have, I've solo'ed HP champs in TD without problems (or the problems only happened when I screwed up). I've only run the Lake Doric story on my warrior, but wouldn't expect any problems running in on my chrono.

Weapons: Sword/Shield and Greatsword. Sigil of force on both the sword and GS, also Sigil of Accuracy on the GS (and apparently I forgot to add anything to the shield!!).Build:Domination: Top, Top, MiddleInspiration: Bottom, Middle, TopChronomancer: Bottom, Bottom, BottomUtilities:Well of EternitySignet of IllusionsWell of RecallGravity Well

I honestly haven't messed with my build in months, so there might be some changes that could improve it, but it works. It IS NOT a panacea to fix all your issues - it does require you to keep moving and not just stand there and face-tank every hit. Honestly, I don't think I could run it against champs if I hadn't remapped keys so that I can drop the wells and other skills while keeping my movement up.