Guild Wars 2

So me and a buddy decided to pick up gaming again on our free time, we’ve played countless games together over the years. We are both PvP heavy, we work very well together in PvP/duo/solo etc. So on that note, just a few questions that I hope ya’ll can help us with.

(We’ve generally played mage/stealth classes in mmos.)

Elementalist, I’m gonna start with that first.

I’ve read a lot of various opinions on it, but a lot of it is jumbled so I’m not sure what to take out if as I’m new and some terms I don’t know yet.

- I plan to PvP A LOT, I also enjoy some PvE though and as stated I’ll be doing both with my bud. This ‘Profession’ intrigued me as I play mage/casters in every MMO. I hear it’s not great, it basically has no use, it’s not wanted, no one loves it, can’t kill anything, dies before it kills anything. True? In which aspects?

Is this one of those, the masses dislike it, it takes time and skill to master? It can be viable and powerful if played correctly? Or is it literally no chance due to the mechanics set in place by the Devs currently?

- Mesmer. I like the idea of illusions and various mechanics to somewhat escape and have a lot of mobility while still dishing out damage. How does a Mesmer stack up in PvP atmosphere? I dont want to 1 shot faceroll, I love a challenge and love having to master mechanics of something.

Seen a few different ways people played it and I dont understand it as of yet, some where meleeing up close, some where doing what seemed to be a good amount of damage casting while avoiding damage. Whats the difference like between Mesmer and Ele, PvP lets say?

- Thief, my friend is interested in this. He enjoys stealth and caster also but Thief caught his eye, hows it stack up vs casters etc? Some MMOs, Melee classes are at a disadvantage in some cases especially if they are ‘squishy’.

- Necro, I dislike pets. Ex; Hunter in WoW. Veno in PWI type of thing. I dont want a pet following me around and me having to tell the dumb thing what to do or give it directions. I seen a Necro video, he summoned a bunch of ‘pets’ ‘demons’ or whatever. Didnt seem like he had to control them, just that they where more so a spell, an add on like a buff or something of that sort if you get where Im going with this? How are Necros once again compared to Mes/Ele.

Is there Open World PvP? Does it matter which race you go?

Do any two professions synergize well with eachother? If he goes Thief lets say and I go Mesmer, duo pvp how’s that stack up? Should we build around eachother? He enjoys melee and casting, I dislike melee.

Any other bits of insight into PvP/Professions/Races or anything of that sort is more than welcome. Appreciate the time any of you took to read this and answer, thanks.

I annot answer those particulars about PvP, but I can give you a piece of good news. GW2 PvP works in a way that you are immediately at max level and have all your skills. That means that you can try out any class that interests you without having to spend time leveliing up first. This is SPvP.

There is no Opne World PvP for which people like me are grateful. There is, however, World v. World. Three servers fight each other. There can be quite a lot of players in a fight sometimes, especially if all three servers clash.

To be really effective in WvW one should reach max level and be well equipped. Exotics are just fine for now. I have been told that there are now ways to earn XP in PvP too, so if you don’t want to spend time in the big, wide world that’s ok.
(Though I personally think you would miss out on some fun things.)

Ele is OK. If you build it properly you can get results but it’s not as faceroll easy as say, decap engineer.

Mesmer has ONE viable build currently, Prismatic Understanding which involves turning invisible to get powerful buffs and summoning phantasms which don’t reveal you. Regardless you’re going to be hitting people in the face with a sword because it causes you to be invulnerable (no joke)

The difference between ele and mesmer? Ele’s can do pretty much anything, but it’s better to pick one and do it very well. Mesmers on the other hand kitten out clones/phantasms and turn invisible, hitting people in the face when threatened.

Thieves can be built for evasion or burst or stealth. At this point I want to point out your notion of caster and melee doesn’t really apply to this game. Melee damage trumps range, especially for something like a thief. You’ll do enough damage in a single hit to kill most squishies.

Necro minions are controlled by AI. They basically form a petting zoo to clutter the screen and annoy everyone else. They have actives but most of them arent worth using. Necro is better suited to facerolling the keyboard, applying every condition in the game to someone, than avoiding damage for 3 seconds while they die from all the ticks.

Open world PvP is called WvW, it’s more focuses on objectives than actually fighting other players. Norn are the biggest, their animations are the most obvious. Asura are the smallest, their animations are borderline indistinguishable.

You can work together as any two classes provided you build them the right way.

Ele’s current state is best in PvE, worst in PvP.

Mesmer is very cheap, but stable, spam dodges and multiple stealth, but a nerf is soon coming to their dodges.

Thieves are OP because of how stealth works in the game. Counterable, but requires the Thief to be bad (i.e. predictable).

Necro, straight up OP, becoming even more OP shortly. Flavour of the month.

Will Mesmer still be a viable pvp choice? Looked into necro a bit more, doesnt appeal to me and being OP is boring. Facerolling gains no bragging rights. I watched a few videos on Ele and Mesmer specifically, Ele seems decent 1vs1 in duels and seen a guy upload a month old video of some form of PvP, was a lot of people. He seemed to do decent really, Mesmer casting seemed to be great aswell and that was a current video, no melee involved. So Im unsure about the first post. I appreciate all the insight so far, anyone else feel free to chime in.

Apathetic.2904:

Will Mesmer still be a viable pvp choice? Looked into necro a bit more, doesnt appeal to me and being OP is boring. Facerolling gains no bragging rights. I watched a few videos on Ele and Mesmer specifically, Ele seems decent 1vs1 in duels and seen a guy upload a month old video of some form of PvP, was a lot of people. He seemed to do decent really, Mesmer casting seemed to be great aswell and that was a current video, no melee involved. So Im unsure about the first post. I appreciate all the insight so far, anyone else feel free to chime in.

Eles are indeed very powerful if played right. But the skill floor is so high for them most people can’t do it. Skills in this game are tied to the current weapon you have equipped. So on my warrior i have a hammer, and its skills have lots of stuns, knockdowns, immobilizes, etc. but on a guardian he’d have completely different skills wielding that same hammer. You can also swap to another weapon in combat. So on my warrior i use hammer/greatsword. This allows lots of CC with the hammer to set up my big burst dmg with the greatsword.

Dont rush straight into pvp or youll get roflstomped. Level to at least 60+ to get a basic understanding of game mechanics. And if your buddy goes thief and you go mesmer youll absolutely wreck face once you both know what you’re doing

I think Elementalist and Mesmer are good choice for you. They can be really powerful in PvP but they are hard to master.

Mesmer is easier to be good with if you use some particular build. But still, if you want to master this profession, you gonna need a lot of work.

Elemantalist focus on mobility, fast pace gameplay, and skill/CD management over their 25 skills (you don’t see the CD for 15 of them so that’s what you need to manage).

Mesmer focus on pumping illusions, stealth, location, CC and burst.