Guild Wars 2

I’m a little confused on what the thought process was while giving professions such as the Mesmer “counter attack abilities” (in my opinion weapon skills that only become activated if hit) when the goal of casters and such especially the Mesmer is to deal as much damage while taking a small amount. I just feel that they don’t flow with any skill chains and are practically a waste of space on certain classes. So I just wanted to read your opinions on this or your explanation on how they fit into the game and i’m an idiot.

Active combat much like blocking and rolling. If any thing Mesmer are the master of counter attack by stop them attk in the first place with interruptions. Any way for the Mesmer there counter attk becomes a blind or a daze if you do not want to wait for the attk to come.
I do not think your an idiot btw its good to ask question and use these forums.

I suppose you are talking about scepter 2. Practice timing your block against huge attacks and it can save your life. necro dagger 4 doesn’t get used much as well but on the rare occasion that it does, its a life saver.

Thanks for the much appreciated quick input. I do further understand the use of these skills.

With vigor on crit, Blurred Frenzy, and counterattack, the mesmer is pretty much the one melee that can stay on melee against bosses at the least risk. Stuff like Subject Alpha and the Jade Maw tentacles, you don’t even need to dodge, just weave between Blurred Frenzy and Counterattack and you’ll do good damage on top of evading damage.

The ranger greatsword and mesmer scepter block are the only weird ones that don’t do much damage.

You believe the goal of casters is to “deal as much damage while taking a small amount”.

It seems to me like a counter attack ability both blocks damage while also dealing damage, fulfilling both of your goals….

Zenith.7301:

The ranger greatsword and mesmer scepter block are the only weird ones that don’t do much damage.

It’s not that Counterattack doesn’t do much damage, it’s just that ranger greatsword has low damage overall. Counter attack is actually the highest damaging skill out of GS (Swoop deals a lot less damage than what it’s shown on tool-tip). Mesmer’s blocks’ purpose is to create more clones, which in term could be shattered to deal decent damage with a shatter build.