New Mesmer - Advice

[Eithan.8043]

Hi guys,

 

just got back into the game and spent a solid week testing different characters and have finally settled on Mesmer.

 

it’s a little overwhelming trying to work out what build to upgrade to ascended first. From what I see it’s a bit of an investment. I’m not married to any particular game mode. I’m looking to do a bit of everything.

 

currently I’m running a WvW Condi Mirage, which is fun and seems to handle everything PvP fine, but I’ve been looking at Chrono and Virtuoso.

 

Any advice would be appreciated. I suppose the most important advice I’m looking for is what gear set to get to ascended first.

 

thanks in advance!

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

When going for ascended, prioritize strike damage weapons first (sword, greatsword, focus, pistol).  The reason why is pretty simple: upgrading from exotic to ascended increases the weapon's base strength by around 5%.  Base weapon strength determines how much strike damage you do, so this is a significant increase on power builds but much less so on condi builds.  Once the power weapons are upgraded... go for the condi weapons.

I have to note though that getting ascended rings and trinkets is far easier if you have the expansion packs.  The living world maps provide unique currencies that you can grind daily to very quickly get ascended rings, trinkets, and amulets.

After all of that, the set you go for depends on what you want to play.  For PVE, pure condi mirage plays Viper, condi Virtuoso plays a rampager + viper mix, all power builds use an assassin/berserker mix of gear.  I can't speak much on WvW, though.

[taara.3217]

On 8/4/2022 at 11:02 AM, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

For PVE, pure condi mirage plays Viper

Only for fun maybe, because to max result you should take Dire/Trailblazer's.

[Mell.4873]

On 8/4/2022 at 6:20 PM, Daniella.2651 said:

Hi guys,

 

just got back into the game and spent a solid week testing different characters and have finally settled on Mesmer.

 

it’s a little overwhelming trying to work out what build to upgrade to ascended first. From what I see it’s a bit of an investment. I’m not married to any particular game mode. I’m looking to do a bit of everything.

 

currently I’m running a WvW Condi Mirage, which is fun and seems to handle everything PvP fine, but I’ve been looking at Chrono and Virtuoso.

 

Any advice would be appreciated. I suppose the most important advice I’m looking for is what gear set to get to ascended first.

 

thanks in advance!

Vipers is normally the safest bet since everything outside chrono uses it (and even some chrono builds)

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

14 hours ago, taara.3217 said:

Only for fun maybe, because to max result you should take Dire/Trailblazer's.

Only if you want to slowly grind against champions.  Mirage has enough mobility and dodges to tank everything (I once tanked Twin Largos as a DPS mirage on accident), and the axe, hammer, and torch due significant enough strike damage to warrant investing in stats.  Heck, I actually used Viper Mirage to get the Migraine achievement.

Investing in Trailbalzer's good if you want to solo champions or play the game one-handed, or if you're going to WvW with the set.  But generally, if you're running DPS mirage in fractals/strikes/raids or just doing overworld stuff, Viper is the superior option.  

[taara.3217]

 

4 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Only if you want to slowly grind against champions. 

Don't understand what you mean about "slowly" - not every spec in game can grind against champions at all, and Mirage do it not more slowly than any other suitable for solo spec.

4 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Mirage has enough mobility and dodges to tank everything

For solo content Viper (as any other pure DPS stats) will be the pain.

Edited August 6, 2022 by taara.3217