most efficient gearing up with limited ressources

Hi everyone!

i am playing GW2 on and off since release mainly focussing on my mesmer as i love this unique class fantasy back in GW1. Even though the class mechanics changed much since GW1 the mesmer is fighting enemys with manipulations, interrupts, conditions etc. while supporting their allies. Back in GW1 i mostly played pvp and besides working on prestige armors with solo pve farming methods.

As a casual player in GW2 i mostly played story and solo content on my power chrono build but i am starting to get deeper into group content running fractals with my guild and getting back into wvw/pvp. i got both expansions and the living world season 3.

like the title says, i have to work with limited ressources for gearing my mesmer.at this point i don´t have much gold (< 100g) but i got various crafting disciplines at least to 400 so i think that i have to stick with exotic gear right now.if i can somehow get ascended gear in the near future, experimenting on builds should be less expensive, i guess.I don´t know if its worth mentioning that i got 150 laurels, so i can buy certain rings and amulets.

i planned to craft a full set of vipers gear to get into mirage and into condition-based builds, costing round about 6-10 g for each part of armor or weapon.i already obtained ascended back, ring and earrings from the living world season 3, but just stored them at bank.i just hesitate on crafting the viper gear because its mostly used for pve and solo builds or in hybrid roaming builds and my guildmates telling me that mesmers will mostly be played support-oriented in higher pve content.

after studying builds on metabattle i guess i should stick to chrono builds for wvw and fractals to be an useful, group-oriented mesmer, but the gear requirements for the builds look very expensive, for example exotic minstrel gear for wvw the support chrono build costs 20-30g for armor and weapons and in pve i can just use the gear for tanking, what i dont want to do.

there are tons of variants of boon support/dps hybrid chrono builds for pve with berserker/commander gear.this could maybe be an option based on my current gear and it could be a good start for getting more into support oriented gameplay with my mesmer but i don´t know if i can be of any help for wvw with this gear, besides small scale roaming.

i really want to get more into the game without getting frustrated by investing into the wrong gear for the content i want to play so i really hope you can give me some advice on gearing up my mesmer for now.

WvW got free armor and weapons from reward tracks you can choose stats on (or discounted if you buy WvW currency). As cheap as it gets. Just takes some playtime to get.

In high end pve you can see 3 different builds.

Chrono, support build, basically a build whose goal is to give boons to the party and keep perma quickness and perma alacrity. It could be said it's the grand King and Queen of endgame content. No class can do what chrono does so support chronos are in every raid squad and in the majority of t4-CM fractals. It can use a little variety of stats, full commander or commander+berserker for an offensive variant, minstrel for a tank/healer variant. Btw the meta support chrono in wvw uses minstrel gear, too.

Mirage, condition build, a high DPS build. It's very common and it really shines in certain raid bosses. Not the best option for fractals since it is a single target dps build but still playable. If you're curious about condi builds, go for it!

Chrono, power dps build using berserker gear. Not so common but still viable. I don't know its specifics since I'm a support chrono player, but I've seen some power dps chronos at they do good DPS.

Edit: you can get exotic minstrel gear in step 15 of HoT story (if I remember well) and some armor reward tracks also let you choose minstrel stats.

@Veilside.3605 said:at this point i don´t have much gold (< 100g) but i got various crafting disciplines at least to 400 so i think that i have to stick with exotic gear right now.

The difference is five to ten percent increased power for ascended, so it isn't all that noticeable in many cases.

if i can somehow get ascended gear in the near future, experimenting on builds should be less expensive, i guess.

Marginally. :)

i just hesitate on crafting the viper gear because its mostly used for pve and solo builds or in hybrid roaming builds and my guildmates telling me that mesmers will mostly be played support-oriented in higher pve content.

Until you are playing that content, don't worry about it. Viper's, or Berserker, exotics will see you through all the open world stuff, and T1/T2 fractals, happily. For PvP none of the gearing matters, because it normalizes gear, but for WvW you probably want a different set.

after studying builds on metabattle i guess i should stick to chrono builds for wvw and fractals to be an useful, group-oriented mesmer, but the gear requirements for the builds look very expensive, for example exotic minstrel gear for wvw the support chrono build costs 20-30g for armor and weapons and in pve i can just use the gear for tanking, what i dont want to do.

Yeah, wait until you can afford it for that. In the interim, play WvW and PvE to get the cash and stuff together to obtain your ascended set. :)