The best PvP Mesmer build I could come up with

[Wizx]

This mesmer build will be good against both MELEE _and_ CASTER Types.
That means, it'll be good against anything.

How? Here is the build with the explanation:


Class: Mesmer / Warrior

Attributes: (cost) '+' indicates Rune attributes
Fast Casting: 6+1 (21)
Domination Magic: 11+1 (77)
Illusion Magic: 12+2 (97)
Inspiration Magic: 2 (3)

Total attribute points used: 198/200

Skills: [Attribute] (Energy, Cast Time, Recharge TIme)
1) Illusionary Weaponry [Illusion Magic] (15,1,40) Enchantment: For 30 seconds, you deal no damage in melee, but whenever you attack in melee, target foe takes 38 damage. This is an elite skill.

2) Flurry [none] (5,0,5) Stance: For 5 seconds, your attack rate is increased, but you deal less damage.

3) Conjure Phantasm [Illusion Magic] (10,1,5) Hex: For 14 seconds, target foe experiences health degeneration of 5.

4) Distortion [Illusion Magic] (5,0,5) Stance: For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to evade attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 1 energy or Distortion ends.

5) Shatter Enchantment [Domination Magic] (15,1,25) Spell: Remove an enchantment from target foe. If an enchantment is removed, that foe takes 83 damage.

6) Sympathetic Visage [Illusion Magic] (10,1,30) Enchantment: For 20 seconds, whenever target ally is hit by a melee attack, all nearby enemies lose all adrenaline and 3 energy.

7) Backfire [Domination Magic] (15,15,20) Hex: For 10 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell, that foe takes 119 damage.

8) Clumsiness [Illusion Magic] (10,1,10) Hex: For 8 seconds, if target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted, target foe suffers 87 damage, and Clumsiness ends.


Okay.. First:
Your main attack will be IW + Flurry + Conjure Phantasm.. You will be doing about 50 unabsorbable damage per second.

Now.. you can't keep this up because you will be hit, you are an easy target, right?
Wrong!

______Against MELEE______
With full illusion, you can keep Distortion on you all the time, and use Sympatethic visage and Clumsiness when things get bad (You know.. the warrior zergs).

______Against Casters______
Against casters you simply backfire.. that takes care of them.
Also, Shatter Enchant should be used as soon as you see an enchant on someone..

What will this build achieve?
- Really high, sustaiable damage
- Shut casters down
- Shut melee down

A problem I could think of?
Maybe replace Clumsiness with an energy stealing spell

Mesmers are the hardest class to play, yet they are one of the best when it comes to skilled players' pvp!
Let me know what you think.

[Floggle]

Building an Illusionary Weaponry Mesmer myself.

I like your build except for the fact you have no way of healing yourself. Personally I don't like depending on a Monk to keep me alive. And even if you have a decent Monk in your team they can be taking damage/healing other people.

Does the Flurry damage penalty apply to Illusionary Weaponry ? I know it isn't considered a weapon but Flurry just says reduces damage, not specifically which type.

[Taxus Baccata]

Maybe I am missing something but your running low on energy,

IW + Flurry + Conjure Phantasm + Distortion is 35 energy.

You are not going to have much left much to do any of the following;

Shatter Enchantment and Backfire are both 15 energy, Sympathetic Visage and Clumsiness are lower at 10 each.

How do you intend to keep distortion on all the time without running out of energy ? and I agree with Floggle how do you intend to heal yourself ?

[Tsume]

The ability to self heal is only extremely useful against pickup teams.

You dont see a guild divide their attention with one stray elementalist going after your behind the lines Mesmer most the time. Without the Warrior armor going mellee is always a dangerous game. And if you become the focus fire all the Ether Feast in the world cant help you.

Self heals are most useful int he Arena type matches. In a full blow battle they only help you against the stray target that starts targeitng you. When you come under heavy fire, the dinky Ether Feast isnt going to help you, and if you take time to stand still and use it, you are dead.

Like it or not guys this 'I dont like relying on monks to heal me' attitude is extremely flawed and amost ignorant. Your teammates that are healers are built specifically to heal you. Accept that. Ether Feast definatley has usefulness but dont delusion yourself by thinking it makes a huge difference when you become the target of the enemy. And as a Mesmer...you will. If you effectively hinder more than one of their healers they will all divert their attention to you.

The Energy might or may not be a problem, its hard to judge on paper. You gotta look at it as that you are probably casting Sympathetic Visage ontop of your IW most the time, to protect from enchantment shatters. After that you have a period where you cast Flurry and Distortion at leisure, neither has to be on all the time, and as your energy builds you can probably use a Shatter enchantment.

I'm thinking if you dont play to zealously you can manage your energy efficiently. Make sure to look for a +enchantment sword though.

[Twiggy Trippit]

You should try it out and see what happens. But my advice to you would be to steer clear of Rangers.

[Telastyn]

I can't imagine that enemies won't carry anti-hex skills in PvP. Even my PvE character carries shatter hex. Backfire alone is annoying, but don't imagine for a second that it will "shut down" an enemy caster.

Speaking of which, you might want to have shatter hex instead of enchantment. If the distortion works like you plan, your main sources of damage will likely be life-draining necromancers, blasting mages, or other backfiring mesmers. Shatter hex helps 2 of those 3 cases, as well as dishing out damage to all nearby baddies.

[UndeadBehlial]

You'd need energy storage or energy stealing to pull off this build. You have calculated Distortion as being able to cast every 5 seconds if needed. Well thats 5 every 5 seconds, not to mention the -1 energy every time they miss. I think your best bet with this char is to rely more on damage than your casting on every target except the target you want to kill. Allow for your team to help you and you can be more effective. Backfire wont stop every caster on their team. Chances are they have about 4 that are offensive in some way, if 2 elementalists jump on you, Backfire and Distortion wont save you at all.

While some selfheal is nice (if it fits in the build), you shouldnt doubt your monks. I always like to try to put SOMETHING in, Troll Unguent or something in case my entire team is plummeting to help the healers out, but generally it will just give you an extra couple seconds. If you're being focused, you're basically dead.

[Floggle]

When I mentioned self-heal as being important I was mostly referring to just random team arena matches.

But if I was a Monk, I know I wouldn't mind a little help in the healing department. Between AEs and some random people targetting you you will take some damage even if you aren't the main target. Sure it won't be useful in all situations like when everyone targets you but most skills aren't useful in 100% of situations either.

There are plenty of situations in a Guild vs Guild fight where healing yourself would be useful. Say you get targetted and the Monk saves your *** but you only get away with 50% health because the Monk has to save a teammate that is dying faster.I sure as hell wouldn't like standing back and waiting for a heal if I was too low health to move into the thick of things and start fighting again. Say your deep into a match and your Monk is dead and its only you and one teammate vs two people, wouldn't being able to heal yourself be good there too?

Like I said sometimes you wouldn't need it, sometimes you would, and for the times I would need it I will want to have it.

[Kyouteki]

You can probably get that build to work if you had more inspiration magic. With some decent inspiration you could drop Clumsiness and add in Spirit of Failure.

Spirit of Failure + Distortion = -1 energy + 4 (potential) energy gain = 3 total gain. Even at lower levels you could still have a gain of 1-2 energy per enemy miss. I was doing that to some warriors earlier today. Just hit them with empathy, spirit of failure, and I sat there spamming distortion and used IW as it was availiable.