Guild Wars 2

I’ve been away for a pretty long time now (more than a year), and I’ve decided to give gw2 another go. I left a lvl 68 Mesmer and two 80s (a Ranger and a Warrior). But with all the changes in the past year I can’t decide whether to keep on leveling my 68 Mesmer or start leveling an Elementalist (which is 20 btw, used an exp ticket), to get used to the changes from scratch. I’ve read most of the changes made, but I’m not exactly familiar with them. What do you guys think? Are the changes noticeable enough, or should I just keep on leveling my 68 Mesmer? Tbh I think I enjoy Mesmers a little bit more, but I haven’t tried Elementalists to their full potential.

TL;DR, after a long absence (1+ year), should I start a new character to get used to the changes or keep on leveling my old character?

Well what exactly do you want to do once either is 80?

Whether you start a new character or continue an old one you will still need to relearn the class. I think it basically comes down to what you want to play the most. If you enjoy the Mesmer why not just finish leveling it since you’re so close to 80. If you find that you don’t like it anymore you can start the Elementalist afterwards. Both the Ranger+Warrior are already 80 so they should be simple to pickup where you left off. Just play a few Dungeons/WvW matches to refresh yourself on old mechanics.

Thanks for the input. I might just try to finish the Mesmer (I have no trouble remembering how to play it). Still, do you think these past few changes need a new character? I mean, if there’s something completely new, will I still be able to carry on with a lvl 68?

At 80 I guess I would run Dungeons and WvW, along with sPvP every once in a while, but that doesn’t really matter on my character’s lvl.

Mesmers are continually becoming less and less useful in PvE as Arenanet does things like making mob attacks unblockable + unreflectable. The primary uses of a mesmer in PvE:
-reflects
-time warp
-portals

Aside from that, not much else really. They have some of the lowest DPS without reflects, whereas elementalists have the absolute highest in groups and are generally always wanted/needed in proper groups. However, elementalists are pretty awful to play with in unorganised teams (especially in Arah, for example) due to the excruciatingly low health and weak heals (I assume you’re properly set up to deal high damage/using appropriate DPS builds). In situations like this, I recommend warrior as it has top-of-the-line self-buffing capabilities, high health even in full glass, and a plethora of movement skills and other useful utilities to survive even when your teammates are truly inept and cause the party to wipe. Warrior is the ultimate class for pug teams imo.

In PvP it’s different and mesmers along with elementalists are actually both very good and have a variety of strengths. I don’t like PvP on GW2 but quite a lot of people do.