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Mesmer - Core Power Mesmer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open WorldOpen World General and Open World Core

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on May 26, 2024 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

Core Power Mesmer open world build that has really good burst damage and good sustained damage. It also serves as a good introduction to the Mesmer class as a whole, needing to rely on its clone generation and shatters to succeed.


Skill Bar

Sword/Sword
Greatsword
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Focus - can replace offhand sword to trade some damage for the really strong ability to pack mobs together with Temporal Curtain.


Skill Variants

Most mesmer utility skills focus on utility instead of damage. This build recommends Mantra of Pain Phantasmal Disenchanter and Blink for a balanced mix of damage and utility. But you can consider other options.

  • Phantasmal Defender - phantasm that Taunts Taunts, but it has a really long cooldown and bad damage.
  • Portal Entre - a utility skill used to transport yourself and others. Useful to shorten distances when looping back to areas or during jumping puzzles.
  • Feedback - to reflect projectiles.
  • Mantra of Concentration - if you need multiple successive stun breaks.
  • Mantra of Resolve - if you need to cleanse dangerous conditions.
  • Signet of Humility - if fighting champions or bounties with defiance bars.


Template Code

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Specializations

  • If you are not using a greatsword, replace Bountiful Blades with Empowered Illusions.
  • If you are levelling up your character, unlock your specializations in this order: Domination -> Illusions -> Duelling

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.
Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Assassin
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic
  • This set uses the same gear as Build:Virtuoso - Power DPS, making it good for general PVE. This is because it is simply not worth it to get a gear set optimized for core mesmer. It relies on virtuoso's Quiet Intensity trait to reach 100% critical chance.
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter and Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar are interchangeable.
  • You can use Relic of Zakiros to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, Relic of the Cavalier to start combat with boons, or Relic of Durability for a little extra defense.
  • For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food, traits, or skills if required. If necessary, use Knight Knight trinkets.


Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • /

Defense

Farming

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • (and variants)


Usage

Damage

Your highest damage skills are Phantasmal Berserker, Phantasmal Swordsman, Phantasmal Disenchanter, and Mirror Blade.

The general idea behind the build is to use all your Phantasm skills, then reset their cooldown with Signet of the Ether, and use them again. This provides really good burst damage and good sustained damage. All of these phantasms will become clones after attacking, allowing you to shatter them for great damage with Mind Wrack. You could also use Diversion for crowd control or Distortion for invulnerability.

Burst Opener

Against bosses and other durable enemies, try to follow this opening burst.

  1. Phantasmal Swordsman from range
  2. Weapon swap Weapon swap before entering combat
  3. Phantasmal Berserker
  4. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  5. Signet of the Ether
  6. Phantasmal Berserker
  7. Mirror Blade
  8. Mind Stab
  9. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  10. Phantasmal Swordsman in melee
  11. Blurred Frenzy
  12. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  13. Auto attack. Most of the auto attack damage comes from the third skill, Mind Spike

Notes

  • Cast Mind Wrack with 3 clones.
    • If you want to minmax, you can use Cry of Frustration if Mind Wrack is on cooldown and you know you will have 3 clones again by the time Mind Wrack comes off cooldown. If you're unsure, just don't use Cry of Frustration because it is a minimal damage increase.
  • Cast Mantra of Pain whenever you have 2 charges.
  • Mind Stab will interrupt whatever you're doing (except using your heal skill) to cast it. So be careful not to interrupt yourself during an important skill like Phantasmal Berserker.

Defense and sustain

  • Remember you can dodge attacks with Blurred Frenzy, or block them with Illusionary Riposte.
  • Distortion is an amazing skill to make yourself invulnerable, with the duration increasing with each clone shattered. If the boss is doing a long attack you can use Distortion to completely ignore it and keep doing damage.
  • You have essentially no sustain but, in exchange, you deal really high damage.
  • If you find this playstyle too complicated you can swap Signet of the Ether for Ether Feast. This simplifies the rotation by reducing the number of times you use phantasms, and you can get more healing and more often from Ether Feast, but is a huge damage loss.

Crowd Control

  • Signet of Humility
  • Diversion
  • Illusionary Wave
  • Illusionary Riposte Counter Blade


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 4 votes.
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5 stars
Warming Hearth gave this build 5 stars • May 2023
Core mesmer has one of the highest damage capabilities of all core classes, and this build perfectly allows you to reach that potential. Generally speaking, mesmer is easy to play but hard to master, but this build will work great regardless of your level of skill. The perfect build to level a mesmer to 80 and start unlocking elite specializations.
5 stars
Kisyana gave this build 5 stars • January 2022
Surely will use this build as I wait for virtuoso.
4 stars
Melts Into Air gave this build 4 stars • December 2020
Solid build that is impressively strong for core. Can get you to the elite specs quickly and easily, soloing nearly every hero point (can just kite with greatsword if you have issues). My only real issue is the emphasis on shattering traits, as I've found them unnecessary in the vast majority of cases. Instead I would recommend: - Domination t1 - Bountiful Blades: makes it so Greatsword 4 and 2 massacre most things without needing to do anything else - Domination t3 - Vicious Expression: straightforward damage boost on most enemies, especially given you have a lot of built in boon removal - Illusions t1 - Persistence of Memory: this has great synergy with the rest of the build. Extra quickness uptime, insane fury duration, and some other shenanigans (see below). There's a very powerful interaction with Persistence of Memory and Rune of the Pack here. If you use GS4 to open combat at close-mid range, your phantasm(s) will gain the Rune buff, and then transfer it to you. With Bountiful Blades creating 2 phantasms, they each get the buff, vaulting you to 20+ might stacks (without Mantra of Pain!) almost immediately. Overall, this synergy not only boosts your damage significantly, but also your swiftness uptime when chaining kills. With these changes, Phantasmal Disenchanter is a good option over Mantra of Pain, especially if you're like me and only rarely end up charging Mantra in open world anyway.
4 stars
X Zeyrox X gave this build 4 stars • August 2020
This build is very good for core content it's very easy and fun, I use it and it works great for me

Comments

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