Optimal ascended gear/builds for OW and fractals post-patch?

[Antrix.4512]

Good time of day everyone! I've decided to switch things up a bit and add some variety to my gaming experience. For the past few months, I've been maining Revenant and have also spent a significant amount of time playing as Thief. Both of these characters have few full sets of ascended gear for various game modes, including OW and fractals. Until today I've used my Mesmer (with exotic gear) strictly for farming, especially given his friendly stealth ability, which is very helpful in many cases. 

However, today I woke up with the thought that I want to try something new, to mix up the gaming experience that is starting (or rather progressing) to turn into a routine and to prevent a burnout towards Revenant. And so, So I thought - why not give a shot to Mesmer in general OW and fractals? After all, Mirage is still top-tier for OW afaik. But here's the small problem - how do I avoid crafting tons of ascended gear for different specs again? Is there a way to come up with a versatile variant that will work for both OW and fractals (at least for T2-T3) and in which I will feel comfortable? I already have three sets for Revenant, two sets for Thief, and the thought of grinding resources and crafting several more sets for Mesmer seems a bit daunting. Let's not even talk about legendaries, as I don't have the time, energy, resources and desire for it.

Esteemed illusionists, tricksters, manipulators, what could you advise? I'd like to continue soloing in OW "as a god" (it is, after all, my primary game mode), but I also want to do well in fractals and not be kicked out in the higher tiers. Ideally, I'd like a single ascended gear set for two builds, but I don't see any problem with having Exotic for OW as a last resort.

Today, I looked for information on this in discord, reddit, metabattle, snowcrows, etc. - everywhere are different things. Lord Hizen has Celestial gear for OW, metabattle suggests a mix of Viper and Ritualist, reddit suggests something else entirely, in discord they write third, there's Assassin, there's Trailblazer, in short, it's confusing. What could you suggest about builds/gear?

And of course - thanx in advance, dear residents of Tyria! ❤️

P.S. Will I be able to get Charged Quartz Crystals, or the insignias themselves, from salvaging celestial ascended gear that I no longer need?

[Suyheuti.1732]

If you want to kill solo bosses in OW, Lord Hizen builds are the top tier. I dont like using double staff with mesmer but if you like it, use. For general OW, it doesnt matter. Play what you enjoy with. For raid and fractals, I dont really suggest mirage. Virtuoso beats mirage hard in every scenario in instanced content. For power version, virtuoso has better burst, much more easy to play and almost same damage with power chrono. 

Long story short, choose virtuoso.

My main is mesmer and I quitted playing with it because (people might disagree with me) I dont feel like I play with mesmer while I play with virtuoso. 

[Antrix.4512]

36 minutes ago, Suyheuti.1732 said:

If you want to kill solo bosses in OW, Lord Hizen builds are the top tier. I dont like using double staff with mesmer but if you like it, use. For general OW, it doesnt matter. Play what you enjoy with. For raid and fractals, I dont really suggest mirage. Virtuoso beats mirage hard in every scenario in instanced content. For power version, virtuoso has better burst, much more easy to play and almost same damage with power chrono. 

Long story short, choose virtuoso.

My main is mesmer and I quitted playing with it because (people might disagree with me) I dont feel like I play with mesmer while I play with virtuoso. 

First off, I want to thank you for your response/advice. But what about the builds and gear? I understand that I'll need to get two different sets. In general, this is not a problem, I'll keep the Exotic for OW Mirage, but what kind of Virtuoso build would be better for the instanced content? Ideally, I would prefer the set to not consist of mismatched pieces, if possible. Or at least start by choosing the build itself, because different builds from various sources differ quite substantially in terms of gear and not only.

[Leonidrex.5649]

for raids : https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks
for fractals : https://discretize.eu/builds/mesmer/condi-virtuoso/
for OW everything works

[Cenzurat.7013]

Imo things will change alot and its not the best time to plan out your gear now. Mirage can pump similar dmg to virtuoso with axe and imo taking no dmg is always bettter than healing, but its much harder to play and imo till thay make ambushes and phantasms que up, its always gonna be an inferior class for everyone, cause dps goes down way too much when we cancel our own skills and its way too easy to let it happen even if your good at the class. 

The mechanic for mirage skills is nice but it was never finished and idk if the balance team has any idea how stupid it is to leave a class like this. 

You basically have to play 4d chess to hit the skill cap on mirage or chrono even while a mentally challenged mechanist will prolly outdps you if he practices enough. ( no offense to pple that play mechanist, it was just an example to prove how frustrating mesmer is to play) 

I'd learn chrono instead since its the spec that can actually support and i think pretty soon healer will be viable on mesmer but idk if they are gonna make mirage or chrono heal, i just know its for sure gonna happen and it kinda has to happen cause rn nobody needs or wants a chrono healer and specially not mirage and all other classes have a spec that can do it but mesmer is the worst imo. 

Didnt talk about virtuoso cause imo its a stupid spec and it just does dps but its good at that.

If u dont wanna invest into multiple sets play power chrono. Lord hizens builds are for soloing stuff ur not supposed to, none of those builds use the same gear as in instanced content. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Cenzurat.7013

[Antrix.4512]

Guys, thank you so much for your advice, I've more or less picked out builds for both OW and instance content. I guess I'll start crafting gear now 🙂 Also I think we can consider the topic closed. Once again, thank you all very much ❤️

[Mhina.1827]

On 7/15/2023 at 5:41 AM, Suyheuti.1732 said:

If you want to kill solo bosses in OW, Lord Hizen builds are the top tier. I dont like using double staff with mesmer but if you like it, use. For general OW, it doesnt matter. Play what you enjoy with. For raid and fractals, I dont really suggest mirage. Virtuoso beats mirage hard in every scenario in instanced content. For power version, virtuoso has better burst, much more easy to play and almost same damage with power chrono. 

Long story short, choose virtuoso.

My main is mesmer and I quitted playing with it because (people might disagree with me) I dont feel like I play with mesmer while I play with virtuoso. 

Truly agree with this. I'm relatively new to mesmer, having a blast as a solo roamer in WvW on power mirage. Mirage is the only reason I even play the class so it sucks that I can't make use of it in instanced content. Virt seems to be getting pushed on a little harder than some of the other elite specs are for their respective classes. Just about every other class has all 3 specs in a viable state for instanced.