Returning to GW2 after years...

[Legedric.9372]

Hey guys,

 

so I played GW2 after its release and I had much fun playing my Mesmer back then.

 

Just yesterday I returned to GW2 and I was pretty much overwhelmed by everything.

However, I somehow got used to the mechanics again and now I just started with Heart of Thorns but I can barely handle the mobs.

 

So my question is, what is a good starter build for a Mesmer to begin with HOT?

Back when I stopped playing I was running a Staff (Bramblethorne) & Scepter/Focus (Carrion Pearl ...) combo but it seems to me that I am struiggling with fighting just normal mobs with this.

 

My current gear is a mix of Rapid and Carrion Light ... of the Undead. I think I went high into conditional damage back when I stopped playing.

 

So I have literally no clue what to "advance" first.

Should I just follow the HOT story and everything will be fine?

Should I stick to some 3 year old HOT mesmer guide to get a basic build going?

 

Any advice is very much appreciated! :)

 

[otto.5684]

Conditional mirage is what you are like looking for. I do not know if you unlocked elites or not yet. If you have not, go for mirage. Staff works much better with mirage. Also, you get good survivability and damage boast to condi damage. Also, Axe does very good damage.

 

If you have not played PoF yet, I strongly advice starting there. You unlock mounts and hero points are much easier to farm. You do not have to go through story except the first instance. Just go through the maps collecting hero points and unlocking teleport points. HoT hero points are far more difficult to get to and to obtain. Also, navigating HoT without its respective mastries is a pain. Mounts reduce that pain a lot.

 

As for story, it makes sense to chronologically, but you can run PoF first. They are connected, but not that much. Personally, I would focus on gathering hero points, teleport and upgrading gear before worrying too much about story, unless that is what you are primarily looking for.

 

For detailed mirage build I recommend GW2 metabattle website. It is a pretty good general guide.

 

Personally, HoT maps (first two specifically) are much better than all PoF maps combined. And probably have more content too. But HoT is generally harder.

[Legedric.9372]

Thank you for the quick response and the very valuable feedback!

 

No I do not have acces to elites yet and I did not start PoF. I just started HoT yesterday, so I will definitely switch to start PoF to follow your advice.

 

I will start to roughly follow this guide here for a Mirage Condi Mesmer:

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mirage_-_Condi_Mirage

 

[paShadoWn.5723]

Get a party. Solves all build problems.

[Legedric.9372]

> @"paShadoWn.5723" said:

> Get a party. Solves all build problems.

 

Well, that's correct. But unfortunately my playtime is often quite limited and hard to plan so finding a party (often for sessions < 1 hour) is not the very best option I believe :)

[paShadoWn.5723]

Find big, active, helpful guild. Solves party problems ;)

[otto.5684]

> @"Legedric.9372" said:

> Thank you for the quick response and the very valuable feedback!

>

> No I do not have acces to elites yet and I did not start PoF. I just started HoT yesterday, so I will definitely switch to start PoF to follow your advice.

>

> I will start to roughly follow this guide here for a Mirage Condi Mesmer:

> https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mirage_-_Condi_Mirage

>

 

Personally, I prefer chaos line over illusion for Condi builds, since you are not too focused on shattering.

 

For hero points, the PoF ones do not need a group. The HoT ones though, some do. You may find hero point farming groups (called trains) in the group finder. Would make life really easy.

[Legedric.9372]

Thanks again, I just completed enough HP to fully unlock Mirage and it is quite fun to get the mastery points as well.

So right now I am sitting on around 11 gold. So my next step would rather be to get some farming going to get the appropriate gear for a Mirage Mesmer.

Following the story is kinda fun but does not really get me some gold, right?

So what would be a good thing to get at least some steady gold income? Dailies for example?

[Veprovina.4876]

Mirage is super fun, and great in PvE, just don't do WvW with it. They butchered it in WvW.

 

For Mirage open world and Fractals i'd recommend Viper's gear. You'll shred through mobs with that.

Viper's is the prefix added with the HoT expansion so as you're already doing that, you'll be able to get it eventually.

Exotic is fine, Ascended if you can.

Ascended Viper's is Yassith's armor. If you're going for ascended, you can craft either Yassith's directly, or if you can't for some reason, get the recipe for Yassith's insignia and use the Mystic forge to transfrom any crafted ascended and an insignia.

 

I also recommend getting Veilrender:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Veilrender

 

It's a Mirage Axe with a cool skin, ascended and easy enough to obtain.

You get it from doing certain achievements in Path of Fire.

You can't get Viper's on it, but it's good none the less, especially for a "cheap" ascended.

 

For gold, you can do the Auric Basin meta event when you get to it. It's fun and when it's done you get TONS of loot that you can sell.

 

Here's a fast build to give you an idea of what you can do.

It's not meta, nor is it the most efficient one, but works well.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiABs+drlRwiYPMEmJOOXvvOA-zRJYmx/Q0pH0PA-e

 

You can swap illusions for chaos and use a staff, and utility skills are of course situational.

 

Have fun!

[Legedric.9372]

Thanks again!

I made my way into the Domain of Vabbi, so the last chapters of the PoF story. I am already working on the Veilrender in parallel and enjoying the Mirae build quite alot so far. :)