Looking for a highly survivable solo PVE build with high (preferably aoe) damage.

I'm looking for a Mes build that can take on numerous, like four to eight, standard mobs and kill them all quickly and essentially around the same time. So something that can take a hit, has obviously decent HP, and can either condi or power down a decent sized group of standard mobs in an extremely short amount of time. I made something like that on my Soulbeast, it's all condis and traps, but in less than five seconds I can get over 40 stacks of bleed on five or so enemies, plus quite a few stacks of poison and burning, which generally leads to a good amount of things dying very rapidly all at once. The build does a nice amount of damage and has a nice amount of survivability.

If you're curious about what the build is you can find it http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQNAofVnE8ClrgtrA2sAUtgFHBjJAM5qc5F3m70tpBEr6Aj4M-jRUAQB5SJ4BVJwOqLQBTcaRJCZUKgEVYGrSCA8IAkheAms/AcNJMGlBXRJUAOBAG4IAkDNBAA-e there. Though it isn't exactly needed and I'm not looking to directly replicate it on Mes, just want something that would have a similar aoe clearing ability.

I have no idea what elite to choose or anything. It doesn't have to be any specific damage type, I'm just hoping that there's a way to do this.

Mesmer obviously does not have traps and most of the high damage / high condi abilities only hit one enemy.

My best bet would be going power chrono:Load your build with wells. Take focus to pull mobs together and cast the AoE phantasm on the highest hp mob. Switch to shield and throw tides. Place all wells. Survive with shield block and sword 2. Shatter to finish of enemies.Duplicate all the wells and shatters with Continuum split if needed.

Eh, your best bet is confusion stacking on mirage. Take dueling, illusions, mirage, get the dodge bleeds, blind shatter, torment shatter, and confusion on blind. You can enter a pack, spam axe 2 a few times, dodge a few times, shatter a few times, use jaunt a few times, and get hefty aoe confusion and torment.

Hybrid/Condi IH Mirage's Imaginary Axes+Lingering Thoughts+Shatters spam is pretty enjoyable for open world. It's not as much of an AoE expert as for example Scourge (obviously), but it's fun, nice to watch and gets the job done. Equip ranged weapon in your 2nd set, and you are ready to go.

If you want something tanky yet able to do okay damage for OW content then Trailblazer/Dire set might be a good choice

As condi mirage, I am at my best when I can stay at melee range using axe (and mirage is quite good at hanging in there when things get hot!). Unfortunately, axe is not particularly good at taking down large groups of enemies as the attacks only strike 1-3 targets. Having said that, you can still produce strong area burst with shatters, utilities, and the torch off-hand.

For instance, I might use a combination like this...

The Prestige - 4 stacks burn, blind + 2 stacks confusionPhantasmal Mage - 3 stacks burnJaunt - 5 stacks confusion (3 + 2 from blind on nightmare rune)Jaunt - 3 stacks confusionCry of Frustration - 4 stacks torment, 10 stacks confusion (8+2 from traited blind on shatter and confusion on blind)

Assuming everything lands, that's 20 stacks confusion, 7 stacks burning, and 4 stacks torment just off an opening burst that might take you 1.5s to pull off.

Here are the builds I use:

Chaos - 1-3-3Dueling - 2-1-2Mirage - 1-3-1

Illusions - 3-3-2Dueling - 2-1-2Mirage - 1-3-1

The illusions build has better shatter burst, but I generally prefer chaos as it's stronger (better survivability and damage) for bosses.

You could also go with a power shatter burst build. The greatsword ambush can easily strike a large number of targets for solid damage. Use it to soften up the pile before destroying them all with mind wrack! However, power-based sustained damage for longer fights is not very good. I would stick with condi for mirage in PvE.

I wrote out that whole page of advice and then it occurred to me: Why not share a video to show you how it works and let you decide if it's what you're looking for?

Here's a video of my mirage soloing the Zintl Inquisitor in Tangled Depths. Although I'm almost entirely focusing damage on the boss from the start, the use of torch 4+5, jaunt, and cry of frustration along with the normal axe clone-ambush rotation takes down all of the lesser adds in about 15 seconds (includes the time it took to gather them into a pile and condi ramp-up) and the veteran falls in 30 seconds. Clearly not the strongest area burst, but in this video I'm not even trying for that. I'm simply burning the boss to beat the ~2 minute respawn timer!

Go Guardian into DragonHunter.Mesmer is severely lacking in AoE damage. I'ts great vs single targets, but not awesome on AoE.

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:I wrote out that whole page of advice and then it occurred to me: Why not share a video to show you how it works and let you decide if it's what you're looking for?

Here's a video of my mirage soloing the Zintl Inquisitor in Tangled Depths. Although I'm almost entirely focusing damage on the boss from the start, the use of torch 4+5, jaunt, and cry of frustration along with the normal axe clone-ambush rotation takes down all of the lesser adds in about 15 seconds (includes the time it took to gather them into a pile and condi ramp-up) and the veteran falls in 30 seconds. Clearly not the strongest area burst, but in this video I'm not even trying for that. I'm simply burning the boss to beat the ~2 minute respawn timer!

It took me a while to figure out what you had in U3 then I had to check my one Asura and, sure enough, it's technobabble. I could hardly believe it. I didn't think anyone used racial abilities. XD

What gear and third utility would you suggest? The same as bart with Trailblazer and Dire or something different?

@trianglecubed.3750 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:I wrote out that whole page of advice and then it occurred to me: Why not share a video to show you how it works and let you decide if it's what you're looking for?

Here's a video of my mirage soloing the Zintl Inquisitor in Tangled Depths. Although I'm almost entirely focusing damage on the boss from the start, the use of torch 4+5, jaunt, and cry of frustration along with the normal axe clone-ambush rotation takes down all of the lesser adds in about 15 seconds (includes the time it took to gather them into a pile and condi ramp-up) and the veteran falls in 30 seconds. Clearly not the strongest area burst, but in this video I'm not even trying for that. I'm simply burning the boss to beat the ~2 minute respawn timer!

No one expects the technobabble!

For utilities I like signet of midnight, signet of domination, and illusionary ambush, with false oasis for my heal and jaunt for my elite. When soloing champions I like to have more CC on hand, so I swap out signet of midnight for technobabble (1200 range instant 3s daze? What's not to like!?).

For stats I swear by full Viper. Mirage is simply too good at avoiding damage to consider anything else than the best damage possible, by my way of thinking. However, if you find you're struggling to stay alive in full glass gear, I imagine Trailblazer would be a decent (albeit expensive!) alternative.

Listen to Aliam, he knows what he's talking about. When I got back in the game I went straight Chronomancer thinking it would be lots of AOE.. and Sure it was AOE but not alot... I studied Aliam's build and it took some doing, but now I'm building up to where he's at in gear and let me tell you something, it's amazing. I take out everything short of Legendary bosses by myself. The build is both single target and AOE,. because you are combining fields that shoot chaos bolts all over along with shattering 3 clones consistently for TONS of AOE conditions. There may be other classes that do AOE better I'm sure, but I run around POF and HoT taking down ridiculous numbers of mobs. I can stand back and just use my staff and do more DPS than most people in a meta event,.. if I decide to stop being lazy I will go melee and seriously rock the numbers

I think it depends a little on how often you want to repeat the sequence, but you can get a lot of AoE damage using a chrono build and casting prestige and image twice using continuum shift. When you combine that with gravity well to pull all the foes into the area, and runes/gear/food that get burning duration up near 100%, it's a lot of damage. This is a video I made a few months ago in WvW to give an idea of the number of burn stacks that can be applied.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsfRnELDFMjNoBmpBMMjlXDrMB0bCOoBgcyzxf/FATgA-jhDBQBWZ/h8oLhsKDqkKHP7ECEgHUAU1CgFleb4IA4PNEl7QAkWlgA4AIoV1RCAcAMexL+4J+4jP+xHf8xHf8ue8xHf8xHf8xHf8SB4nkN-e

I use that build, you can swap the Grieving stats with Viper’s because they are a bit expensive and hard to get.

I engage mobs with;The Prestige - Phantasmal Mage - Blink to enemy - Jaunt - Dodge - Sword Ambush - F2 > At least 15 Confusion + 10 BurningThey are mostly dead by now, but if they aren’t, continue the combo with;Illusionary Leap - Blurred Frenzy - Dodge - Sword Ambush - Swap - Illusionary Berserker - Mirror Blade - Mind Stab - F1 - Dodge - Greatsword Ambush.

Feel free to adjust the build to your playstyle.

Here's my recommendation:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAWWnELDVohNoB2LDMMjlZjyv+3//3sC2tWqMAutkB-jxxHABEp8bcdBPpEk2nAAAXCg4V/5j9HAA-e

Staff / Staff condi mirage: high toughness, high evasion, high mobility, good might stacking, good ranged damage from rapidly stacking large amounts of bleed quickly, 100% bleed duration with two boons. Would say the toughness is a potential downside as you'll tank most things, but between evasion and mobility you can kite all day without even trying. fun synergy with evasive mirror and mirage cloak that adds more survivability.

Starting out, go full exotic rabid with one staff and an agony sigil in lieu of energy to keep the 100% bleed duration for a lot less gold than the final build. Eventually you'll want the energy sigil and two staffs for the extra mirage cloak it gives every 9 seconds.

Build is 100% designed around the staff ambush, get 3 clones asap with staff 2 / evasions and push out as many ambush attacks as you can. Try to get used to keeping vigor up 100% of the time for the extra condition damage and endurance. Bonus points for standing in the path of your clones' ambush attacks to get extra might stacks. Staff ambush inflicts damage on anything that's in the path (I'm not even sure there's a target cap), large and huge hitboxes still appear to get hit multiple times as well as enemies that are moving along the same path.

@"FlyingK.9720" said:Here's my recommendation:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAWWnELDVohNoB2LDMMjlZjyv+3//3sC2tWqMAutkB-jxxHABEp8bcdBPpEk2nAAAXCg4V/5j9HAA-e

Staff / Staff condi mirage: high toughness, high evasion, high mobility, good might stacking, good ranged damage from rapidly stacking large amounts of bleed quickly, 100% bleed duration with two boons. Would say the toughness is a potential downside as you'll tank most things, but between evasion and mobility you can kite all day without even trying. fun synergy with evasive mirror and mirage cloak that adds more survivability.

Starting out, go full exotic rabid with one staff and an agony sigil in lieu of energy to keep the 100% bleed duration for a lot less gold than the final build. Eventually you'll want the energy sigil and two staffs for the extra mirage cloak it gives every 9 seconds.

Build is 100% designed around the staff ambush, get 3 clones asap with staff 2 / evasions and push out as many ambush attacks as you can. Try to get used to keeping vigor up 100% of the time for the extra condition damage and endurance. Bonus points for standing in the path of your clones' ambush attacks to get extra might stacks. Staff ambush inflicts damage on anything that's in the path (I'm not even sure there's a target cap), large and huge hitboxes still appear to get hit multiple times as well as enemies that are moving along the same path.

An alternative to this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWnsICVohNoBGMDMMjlUDjcAUCCAlVglTBw/A2AngA-jxRAQBfR5HAeCAXSJYA1F4hLBQP2fYTq/IIgFB-e

My thinking is that you won't need defensive stats with both weapons offering 1200 range, given Mirage's natural elusiveness. Running Rampager will greatly boost precision from ~30% crit rate up to ~70%, which should bring a lot more bleed stacks from Sharper Images. While greatsword is a power weapon, every clone strikes 3 times with its auto and ambush, which should also bring more bleed stacks. Greatsword also stacks might with Imagined Burden in Domination. I switched the heal over to the signet and picked up Desert Distortion and Blurred Inscriptions. This way whenever you use a signet you will gain 1s distortion as well as a condi cleanse and an ambush! Then when you actually use the Distortion shatter all of your illusions turn into mirage mirrors, potentially extending your period of invulnerability as well as adding ambush damage. I also replaced crystal sands with illusionary ambush. It's an extra instant teleport + evade + ambush and it breaks enemy target, which is particularly useful when you have a strong enemy focusing you. Just pop IA and you'll be somewhere else, and chances are the enemy will go after one of your clones again instead!

I haven't actually tested this build, but I thought it might work pretty well. I still think axe is by far your best damage in actual gameplay, but it does add a significant amount of risk and requires sharper play to avoid going down than ranged weapons. If you aren't comfortable with this, I imagine a build like this would produce more than adequate damage for open world play while keeping you about as safe as you can be. It should also be pretty inexpensive to put together.

Just to update you guys: I tossed on some rampager gear, grabbed up a greatsword, and tried this build out. As expected, damage was lower than axe, but still more than adequate to take down DPS-sensitive bosses like vampire broodmother (aka guano HP in VB) with ease. Having said that, greatsword didn't work as well as I thought it would. I think hybrid isn't working out so well with these stats. Staff appeared to do a much better job of bleed stacking.

So I guess staff/staff? Or perhaps scepter/x with staff? Assuming you're stuck on all ranged damage (it is definitely safer!). The problem is if you're going to do anything other than bleed stacking, you'll want viper gear. And if you're using viper gear, axe is just going to crush everything else as long as you can manage to stay in melee range.

It's hard to beat staff / staff because you can just focus on the damage from bleed stacking while ignoring everything else. So that means you can focus on stacking Condition Damage and Toughness which gets converted to Condition Damage via Chaotic Transference for the biggest bleed ticks possible. From my original build you can change the weapons over to Rabid for another 50 condition damage at the cost of needing 4 boons for the 100% bleed duration. Thanks to the interactions of staff ambush / duelist traits / renewing oasis you can keep regen, vigor, might and fury up 100% of the time, so that would be a very viable alternative to my initial suggestion. However I still like viper weapons as it keeps you over 50% base condition duration which is still useful for the fire stacks from staff, confusion from jaunt and the poison / torment from the krait runes.

Really, the biggest thing for staff / staff is that every trait and gear choice meshes well with each other without feeling like there are any sacrifices being made. I really do like the beauty of how every minor trait, major trait and chosen gear stats are perfectly suited:

• Staff ambush always grants the caster might and fury, clones will end up with 50% crit which is good for additional bleeds from sharper images.
• Two Staffs with Sigils of Energy basically gives you the benefit of an extra Mirage Cloak every 9 seconds at no cost to rotation or play style.
• 100% vigor uptime can be had from Bountiful Disillusionment giving F2 Vigor on use to fill the gaps between Nomad's Endurance and Critical Infusion. It works even when 0 clones are out, so it's excellent to use right off the bat.
• Regen from Renewing Oasis will proc Illusionary Membrane; combined with Mirage mantle results in a fairly high uptime of self generated Protection. Added benefit that the regen and protection will give an additional 3-6% duration to all non-bleeds via Chaotic Persistence, so it ends up being a (very minor) dps boost in the end.
• Mirage Cloak evades will proc Evasive Mirror giving you an addition 1.5 seconds of ranged attack immunity.
• Using Deceptive Evasion in lieu of Superiority Complex on staff / staff is not a dps loss like it is on axe, which allows you to use renewing oasis for additional boons / self-sustain while keeping up a good amount of clone generation.
• The 6 tier bonus for the Krait runes will apply numerous conditions to everyone around the starting spot of jaunt every 30 seconds which provides some minor additional damage.
• Illusionary Defense could be swapped with Decent into Madness to for another minor boost to dps, but it's minor enough that my personal preference has been on the extra defense.

what about Grieving gear tho Aliam? trade expertise for ferocity; with things melting that quick in OW PVE is expertise really needed?

@raveparade.7582 said:what about Grieving gear tho Aliam? trade expertise for ferocity; with things melting that quick in OW PVE is expertise really needed?

If you're just talking clearing trash in open world, then burst is preferred and really anything will do. I never worry about that, though. I like to be able to carry small groups through events if need be. That requires strong sustained damage. Plus you're just more useful against bosses even in large squads.

Having said that, for the oddball builds like greatsword/staff hybrid or staff/staff that focus on only one condition (bleeding) there's no need to use tons of expertise on your gear. You can compensate for the missing duration by using cheapie agony sigils and krait runes. Certainly for a greatsword hybrid build, I expect grieving stats will work best. But as I said, I haven't gotten great results with greatsword hybrid. Sharper Images alone just doesn't produce enough condi to be competitive with other options. But there is a chance that the extra ferocity along with a decent amount of condi damage could produce something that works reasonably well (certainly adequate for open world!).

Again though, axe is just plain better if you can hang in there at melee range much of the time. And if you're using axe, you really want viper gear.

Edit: Disclaimer: I'm no mesmer/mirage expert! I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express 3 months ago and woke up thinking I knew something about the class! So feel free to show me where I'm off on any of these assumptions. I consider myself very much in the early learning phase!

Expert or not, for longer fights expertise seems alot better yes.Meh guess I'm gonna have to go do HoT for the Viper insignia/inscription :#

@raveparade.7582 said:Expert or not, for longer fights expertise seems alot better yes.Meh guess I'm gonna have to go do HoT for the Viper insignia/inscription :#

LoL Sounds like a lot of fun to me! Let me know if you need a hand finding or killing anything!

Fun? I bought HoT when it came out and I yet have to go play it, something makes me not wanna go there :pWhat runes do you use btw? I seem to cannot let go of the traveler runes, liking that 25% speed.

@raveparade.7582 said:Fun? I bought HoT when it came out and I yet have to go play it, something makes me not wanna go there :pWhat runes do you use btw? I seem to cannot let go of the traveler runes, liking that 25% speed.

With the addition of mounts, out-of-combat foot speed is far less important to me. I am currently using nightmare runes in my open world build, with energy/malice sigils on full viper gear (axe/torch, staff). I use a few variants in my videos, but illusions/dueling/mirage or chaos/dueling/mirage. I don't see any other realistic options for condi mirage.

Not sure what people are talking about mesmers not doing mob damage, but I highly disagree. Go mirage with staff take all the traits aligned with infinate horizon and illusion line. Top, mid, top and deuling line top, mid, bottom.

basically your dodge will create a clone and your jaunt will create a clone with your staff 2 that is already 3 clones that can do ambush skill once your 2 skill on staff is refreshed shatter 4 to get 3 mirrors and dodge, and jaunt.3 clones up, 3 mirrors up 3 staff ambushes. With healing oasis, the aoe confusion utility both give mirrors, and the ambush utility both on 20 second cool down you and your clones will be doing ambush attacks like no tomorrow for last utility you can go signet of midnight or the break stun, dodge backward to get another mirror one. if you need a stun breaker or whatever else you need at the time like blink or whatever.

your dodge can be further enhanced by sigil of energy more dodges, more amushes. off hand do axe torch, or scepter for ranged. You can run nightmare runes for 10% all condi duration and a little condi cleanse on your elite skill which you will make full value of. Or run adventure for more dodges! or lynx for more out of combat speed. Id run vipers or the one with precison, toughness condition damage. You want a decent amount of presion to trigger vigor in your dueling line for.. YOU named it more dodges along with the mirage triait when you have vigor your condition damage is increased.

Basically this has some very good surivability due to the high amount of dodges and mirrors you can make not a lot of things will be hurting you if you play right. the UI for mobs are pretty simple and will attack whatever they see. If they target you simply use your utility to break target or your axe 3 to break target or even stealth with your torch. If you want to mob go staff, if you want single target go to your off hand choices.

Personally this is my absolute favorite playstyle for the mesmer it litterally feels like im dancing around my enemy. Oh and just a side note try not to touch mirrors when you just dodged , wait for the dodge animation to be done to make full use of your invulnerability. Sorry if I made typing errors but Im on my phone.

@Zelse.9780 said:Not sure what people are talking about mesmers not doing mob damage, but I highly disagree. Go mirage with staff take all the traits aligned with infinate horizon and illusion line. Top, mid, top and deuling line top, mid, bottom.

basically your dodge will create a clone and your jaunt will create a clone with your staff 2 that is already 3 clones that can do ambush skill once your 2 skill on staff is refreshed shatter 4 to get 3 mirrors and dodge, and jaunt.3 clones up, 3 mirrors up 3 staff ambushes. With healing oasis, the aoe confusion utility both give mirrors, and the ambush utility both on 20 second cool down you and your clones will be doing ambush attacks like no tomorrow for last utility you can go signet of midnight or the break stun, dodge backward to get another mirror one. if you need a stun breaker or whatever else you need at the time like blink or whatever.

your dodge can be further enhanced by sigil of energy more dodges, more amushes. off hand do axe torch, or scepter for ranged. You can run nightmare runes for 10% all condi duration and a little condi cleanse on your elite skill which you will make full value of. Or run adventure for more dodges! or lynx for more out of combat speed. Id run vipers or the one with precison, toughness condition damage. You want a decent amount of presion to trigger vigor in your dueling line for.. YOU named it more dodges along with the mirage triait when you have vigor your condition damage is increased.

Basically this has some very good surivability due to the high amount of dodges and mirrors you can make not a lot of things will be hurting you if you play right. the UI for mobs are pretty simple and will attack whatever they see. If they target you simply use your utility to break target or your axe 3 to break target or even stealth with your torch. If you want to mob go staff, if you want single target go to your off hand choices.

Personally this is my absolute favorite playstyle for the mesmer it litterally feels like im dancing around my enemy. Oh and just a side note try not to touch mirrors when you just dodged , wait for the dodge animation to be done to make full use of your invulnerability. Sorry if I made typing errors but Im on my phone.

That sounds really tempting!To take up the OP's topic: I am currently boosting a mesmer to 80. I got a legendary GS, S and Staff plus enough gold to make suitable equipment. Ultimately, I want to do WvW power mirage but before that I would love to dive into PvE and understand the class better.How should I start?

1. Given that I don't have ascended equipment yet, which exotic should I craft to start with?
2. Which ascended should I craft for PvE (I read about trailblazer, viper in this thread)
3. What build should I pick up to get the necessary HP to unlock mirage? (would be convenient to use a build for which gear fits to post-mirage-unlock PvE playstyle)

Your answers are highly appreciated. I am no guild wars noob (legendaries might indicate lots of PvE) but definitely a mesmer noob!

Kindly

I can try to help with SOME of these..... but a more seasoned player's advice should override my own. hehe.

That sounds really tempting!To take up the OP's topic: I am currently boosting a mesmer to 80. I got a legendary GS, S and Staff plus enough gold to make suitable equipment. Ultimately, I want to do WvW power mirage but before that I would love to dive into PvE and understand the class better.How should I start?

1. Given that I don't have ascended equipment yet, which exotic should I craft to start with?

I started with Berserker stuff and a bit of Soldier's. If you're going condi, Rabid isn't too bad until you can get Viper's. Viper's is craaazy expensive in comparison! I'd sort of say "if you want to go condi mirage, go for Rabid or Dire. IF you want to go for a power build, go for Berserker". It's easy/cheap to get both of those while you work on Ascended or Viper stuff.

2. Which ascended should I craft for PvE (I read about trailblazer, viper in this thread)

If you want to go condi, work towards Viper. You can stat-switch Ascended though, so you'll only lose "a little" if you make an ascended set of a different stat than you want. I have a Berserker set myself, though might go Viper's one day.

3. What build should I pick up to get the necessary HP to unlock mirage? (would be convenient to use a build for which gear fits to post-mirage-unlock PvE playstyle)

You can get most of the "good" mirage stuff regardless of your build. A plain ole dom/duel/illusions base-mesmer will be just fine. Most of the hero points you need for Mirage are super easy to get: Accessing a not-that-hard-to-get-to area, fighting a veteran. Unlocking the whole thing can take some time, but you can get a good 75% of the way there solo no problem. Once you have that, you can actually start playing as a mirage while you unlock the rest. The trickiest one is the final unlock is the Elite skill, Jaunt, which is useful for clone generation/mobility in a lot of builds. Leaving it out and keeping the clone-on-dodge trait is just fine to get going though.