Mesmer boosted to 80. What to do?

[EpicName.4523]

Not too long a go I made a post in this same section of the forums with a bunch of questions. Now I'm here again with some more.

As a new player I bought both expansions and got the two lvl80 boosts. At first, I intended to make alts and level the ones I like properly until it hit me that a mount can really speed this up.So I took one of the said alts and boosted her to 80. I chose Mesmer because I read that it has by far the most horrible levelling experience of all classes and only truly shines with its elite specializations...

They weren't kidding, were they? Now that she is 80 I struggle to to kill even regular veteran monsters like hydras and I took the time to read what the purple buttons do and how to use them.

I understand that Mesmer is not a noob friendly profession, but I can't leave the character in its current state. She REALLY lacks damage and her survivability is...let's call it situational.What I want to do is solo pve content, until I get used to the class and learning in pvp won't be fun, but rather painful experience even at the bottom of the ladder. The difference between a bad player using a Mesmer and a bad player using something like Deadeye will be heaven and earth.

So, here are my questions:

1. What should be my first goal after 80? What will make my character truly stronger instead of prettier or more convenient? My bet is that I need to unlock Mirage elite spec as fast as possible to have better time soloing pve?
2. Is Mirage truly the best for pve solo or is it Chrono?
3. With the boost I got a set " of the Soldier" which has stats like Might, Vitality and Toughness. I read that Mesmer benefits more from Might, Presicion and Ferocity. Should I switch for lower quality gear (Blue"of the Berserker") to work better?
4. For what stats to aim as a core Mesmer, as Chrono and as a Mirage for solo pve? Any build suggestions for fresh 80 core Mesmer so i can struggle a bit less before unlocking the better options?
5. What is the best way to obtain gear solo without any pvp?
6. Should I sell or salvage the gear I obtain?

Thanks in advance.

[Meestercat.2748]

I would stick with your Soldiers gear while doing Verdant Brink metas and the first steps in the HoT personal story. This will get you Airship Parts towards exotic Bladed Armour which you can use to slowly replace the Soldiers gear.

I would check out this open world guide for a guide to a core Mesmer build: https://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWars2Builds/comments/73oabd/pve_open_world_builds_updated_for_path_of_fire/

As for Elite specs, the Chronomancer is very useful and will use Beserker gear (which you would want for the core build). Mirage is a lot of fun, but you’ll want Condi gear for that, so you might want to think about which way you plan on going whilst gearing up.

I’m by no means an expert, but feel free to add me (if you’re EU) and try and help any way I can.

[mercury ranique.2170]

1: people have been able to solo PvE for a significant amount of time before mirage was released. It is good, but optional.2: I think mirage is a bit stronger.3: when it comes to stats, think about this. Why would you need armorrating, vitality and toughness when you can also survive with more aggressive stats. I do recommend getting a rare armor set. It isn’t too expensive on the trade post.4: for build ideas I recommend metabattle.com5: honestly the tradepost. Use any way to farm money and buy exotic armor for level 80. It cost about 5-8 gold per piece.6: anything that is worth less then 75silver on the tradepost I would say salvage. Do use appropriate kits (so a cheap one for blue and free and a more expensive one for yellow and exotic.

In general reacting. Hydra’s are one of the thoughest ambient foes you can encounter. There is no shame in defeat.

For most fights it is perfectly possible to survive on skill alone. So always keep moving. Dodge heavy attacks and red circles. So in short I do not believe your problem is in learn to play and not in your gear. Gear is for damage, not for survivability (although it does help). So keep those feet moving and don’t be a turret.

[No One.3716]

Firstly; Welcome to Tyria!

1. Since you have used your level 80 boost, the first goal should be to learn your class and game mechanics. Just because you have both HoT and PoF doesn't preclude you from going to the core maps to experiment with builds, gear, class and game mechanics in a less punishing atmosphere. If you feel your damage is too low, I would change around your traits and skills firstly. If you're dying too much or too quickly you likely need to better utilize active defenses (dodging, evades, blinds, blocks, invulnerabilities), which are paramount to mesmer (or any classes) survivability. As you become more familiar with game mechanics you can change out the soldier gear to more offensive options.
2. Solo PVE is highly subjective, as anything can work so long as you feel it is effective and enjoy the style.
3. I would change the traits and skills before swapping gear; considering lower tiers of gear I personally wouldn't use lower than yellow (rare gear) for experimenting with gear options at level 80; they are readily available and quite affordable from the trading post.
4. This is also highly subjective and dependent on what you enjoy the most; there are effective power and condition builds for all three for open world pve.
5. Trading post has exotic stat gear that isn't overly expensive, map completion rewards exotic armor/weapon pieces, the temples in Orr have exotic armor you can acquire for karma, story missions (particularly HoT and PoF story missions), world bosses always drop a rare piece with a chance at other exotic or ascended pieces, laurel's after you acquire enough can be used to purchase ascended trinkets.
6. Avoid selling gear to merchant npc's, use the trading post or salvage. Generally speaking you can safely salvage all blues and greens using a basic salvage kit; rares you can sell on the trading post if the value is above 30 or so silver, or salvage with a master kit. Exotics can be worth much more than rares, so if you should check their trading post values but salvage if you want (sometimes the rune for armor, or sigil for weapons is more valuable then the item itself)

Finally consider joining a guild that is friendly to new players, there are a lot of people in this community that enjoy helping newer players through the learning curve.Above all have fun out there and take it slow as to not be overwhelmed by everything at once.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

Welcome. For solo pve i would say that mirage is better but still not great. Its beacuse big portion of mesmer damage comes from phantasms/clones and they are fixed to one target and when that target dies the die too. That means that if you have to fight multiple weaker enemies then you lose huge portion of your damage. Thats the reason why he/she is weak in solo pve (and also in leveling).Also all the "top tier" builds for mesmer use very expensive gear so its very hard to play him as first character.That being said he is not unplayable in solo pve. I would adivice to use sword/sword and(or) sword/focus. You can play with traits to learn what they do (for solo play i would take dueling i guess) and you might take some mantras. Most of the newer mesmers use greatsword and atack from range. I am adivising to take sword main hand and offhand because that way you will learn how to use your character to full potential. Its true that you are squishy but there are many blocks and evades in his/her kit so you can dance around your oponents never to get hit.

Now to your questions.1) Mirage would help but it is not needed to do solo pve. My adivice is to unlock the mount (if you did use lvl 80 boost for it) and then return to lvling another class so you can get better knowlage of the game (and you dont quit because mesmer is hard for beginers :D ) and maybe come later. Thats the best adivice anyone will tell you aout lvl 80 boost.

2) Mirage is better for solo pve for sure (chrono is great at supporting others)

3) Definitly dont swap to blue gear but try to swap as fast as you can so you dont get too comfortable with so much defensive stats (my friend used to use defensive stats and then when he finaly swaped to "proper" gear he was dieing all the time.)

4) For solo pve berserker is the way to go. (Fights are faster so you dont get full value of conditions(damage over time)). I would use something like this. It could be improved but i think its good starting point.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs8dnsICloh1oBGoBUrhFVDqsDlYAkBYEFHtLp5KA-jBhEhAQK/AU/xUJo6+DBAOAM+4jP+4jXxHf8xHf8xHf8xLFAMLrA-e

5) If you want to get berserker gear (POWER, precision fereocity) you can take your mesmer to Citadel of flame dungeon. Its one of the easier and shorter dungeons and you can buy berserker stats for special curency you get there. Also here you can explore ultility that mesmer provides to his party (like elite timewarp or focus #4 second cast). If dungeons are not your thing then you can buy gear from traiding post for some gold (but i guess you dont have much so start with weapons if you can). You can farm some gold by doing daily achievments (2g per day) and buy gear from TP that way.

6) If you need gold now, sell. If you dont then salvage. If you are selling thensell yellow and orange on TP and not to vendor.

Good luck and hope yu enjoy

[Optimator.3589]

A condi mirage roaming build works fantastically well for PvE soloing. While Trailblazer stats would be preferred, the cheaper and more readily available Dire stat combination is perfectly serviceable. Trait Inspiration, Illusions and Mirage, stick runes of perplexity in your armor, and run staff with axe/torch. The damage isn't spectacular due to condi ramp-up time, but it's more than adequate, and your sustain will be great.

[EpicName.4523]

Very nice and detailed answers. Kudos to all of you! One last thing, though.Got the axe obtained after unlocking Mirage and was wondering what stats to pick on it? Saw among the answers that Mirage relies on condition damage, but what else is needed for this spec?

[Optimator.3589]

If you choose to go condi, you benefit from not needing as large an offensive stat spread as a power build does. Condition Damage and Expertise being the important ones. This allows you the freedom to take defensive stats such as Toughness and Vitality.

A power build on the other hand, NEEDS Power, Precision, and Ferocity, meaning you're going to have to compromise on survival stats.

Keep in mind that I'm speaking primarily as a WvW player who does some open world PvE stuff sometimes, and I'm not concerned with maximizing raid/fractal DPS. If I were, I'd be looking at a Viper's stat spread for condi, which sacrifices Toughness and Vitality for Power and Precision, dramatically increasing overall damage output.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

Again a thread that shows, that level 80 boosts for new players was a bad idea...

If you are generally a good player, use Viper's Gear on your Mirage, or if you struggle to get this, sinister gear. You dish out pretty good damage with it.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Mirage is very strong for solo play, but it requires speed and timing of active avoidance to really shine. Mirage is not the class to play to passively soak damage or heal it back. You want to outright avoid most hits. This is going to require a good bit of practice to nail down, but once you do you can do some pretty incredible stuff with it. Here's a new setup I've been testing the past couple of days:

Full Viper ascended, Adventurer runes, Energy/Malice sigilsAxe/Torch, StaffChaos - 1-3-3Dueling - 2-2-1Mirage - 1-3-1

And here it is in action vs. the Crackling Brandspark bounty

[Lanhelin.3480]

@EpicName.4523 said:They weren't kidding, were they? Now that she is 80 I struggle to to kill even regular veteran monsters like hydras and I took the time to read what the purple buttons do and how to use them.

Leveling a Mesmer actually is pretty easy and the leveling experience isn't horrible at all, it just may take a bit longer against certain mobs compared to other professions. The upside is you can fight mobs without any issues that other professions rather skip during their own leveling process.

A boosted Mesmer gets an exotic GS, a Sword and a Pistol - not the easiest combo for new players, so I suggest to first get exotic versions of all other usable weapons (a second sword, staff, focus and a torch).The hydras in PoF maps probably are among the most annoying mobs of the whole game because of their burning stacks, knock downs and huge AoE fields/breath attacks, but a Mesmer shouldn't get in much trouble fighting them. Just use a staff, stay in a distance, dodge and keep circling/kiting. Once you get used to the staff you also will have no problems fighting and surviving two of them at the same time. If you aim for a power build and related gear, I recommend a set of Superior Runes of the Privateer, because they are pretty cheap and easy to get (either bought from TP or crafted by a Tailor 400+) and the bird will be your fourth minion, reliably summoned in 99,9% of all fights, it has the same base stats like a Ranger's pet of the same type and level and hits for around 800 to 1200 physical damage every 2,5 seconds on level 80.