Guild Wars 2

Hi i need some help before i choose what class to lvl next as a secondary main. I mostly played guardian since launch and have many hours on it.

I would like to play a spellcaster class, cause sometimes i get really bored on my guardian, thats probebaly cause i have too many hours on it.

Thinks i do mostly:
Dungeon/fractal
World event like teq/Living story
i do like to have some surviability so i could handle myself if my party got wiped on a boss
Beeing needed in dungeons/fractals Sry necros :/
In some cases i do like to roam in wvw, but i dont do it that much.

Ele                         

Reading your requirements

Mesmer

Ele’s are squishy…also bottom of the food chain in the current meta, unless you are awesome at playing the piano, in which case you will be a awesome Ele…

Meglobob.8620:

Ele’s are squishy…also bottom of the food chain in the current meta, unless you are awesome at playing the piano, in which case you will be a awesome Ele…

Did a FOTM 49 last night with 2 eles in party, they were beyond awesome. The warriors got downed sometimes, the guardian got downed sometimes, the eles just laughed and kept going. Not a single down.

Good eles are fantastic. Then again, good [insert any class here] are fantastic.

Choose what you like and get good at it.

alright so it seems like if im getting good with one of the classes i contribute more to a group

Ryze.2891:

alright so it seems like if im getting good with one of the classes i contribute more to a group

Pretty much. Eles can be awesome due to high DPS, AoE heals and those highly effective ele weapons. But they are hard to play and the piano reference is not misplaced – you will have to swap attunements quite a lot.

Eles are by far more useful in a dungeon group. There is a very hard learning cliff however. For most people its like running into a brick wall. BUT if you can climb that cliff you will have the highest dps and group might/fury stacking in the game.

In PVP they are on the weak end of the meta from what I understand. WvW they provide superb group support, as for solo roaming, it really requires superior mastery levels to even contemplate it.

On world events, FGS rush while not targeting things deals more damage than anything else that I’m aware of. Idk if they patched it or not but FGS rush brings down teqs bone walls super fast.

Mesmer is very surviable with sword/x and proper traiting. They do below par damage due to reliance on buggy mechanics and a lack of self might stacking. When the stars align they can do thief level spikes (not quite, but within touching distance) but it requires skill and the ai working in perfect harmony to pull it off. More than anything mesmers are reflect mules who are brought because they trivialize certain fights.

In pvp the stealth build is very annoying for people that can’t deal with such play. Once again idk about the tier they at atm. In wvw they have various uses, in zergs they are often stealth/portal monkeys.

I would say Ele. If you decide to go that path, there’s a post on Reddit that is enormously helpful: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1xiv4t/fellow_elementalists_what_should_i_know_to_be_the/

I have both an Elementalist and a Mesmer and here are my thoughts on the matter:

Playing an elementalist is playing GW2 on hard mode. You will have roughly the same DPS of other classes, but require 2-4x the number of buttons to push. In PvE where enemies are very stupid they shine really well. In roaming in WvW you are a walking loot bag to many builds and will struggle with many 1v1 fights; however, in a zerg you can really turn the tide of battle (if you live long enough).

Playing a Mesmer is a little like playing a game of chess, they will use their abilities less often, but have to wait for the optimal time. In PvE they can solo very well, but they give less support to the group they are in. In WvW roaming, they can win 1v1’s most of the time and sometimes 1v2’s or 1v3 if you are really good, but suffer in the fact that some classes can just outright disengage you and run away.

Both classes are a higher risk classes that I feel get a greater return on power with better player skill.

I agree with Shadowfall on both Ele and Mes.

Mes is probably more fun because it’s versatile. You have more-or-less freedom to move solo across the field with impunity and yet you lend extremely useful skills to a zerg when you choose to.

Shadowfall’s analogies are pretty good really, just that you don’t have just the same dps. Your DPS in spike situations is beyond godly, the FGS skill 4-3-5-2-3 rotation can breach 50,000 dps for a short time for > 1 million damage from a single FGS summon. Outside of that you have like 7000 dps in LHmode. These attacks don’t ever get to land against players however.

You also have the highest active defense of any class by a wide margin, together with the worst passive defense of any class. Against mobs with easily readable AI you can survive indefinitely, soloing any dungeon boss with impunity. Against players with far more frequent weaker attacks, your active defenses will be exhausted, and then you will die first due to low passive defense.

Mesmer is much stronger for pvp and 1v1 content. Ele is much stronger for mutiple target and PvE content. Mesmer players need good planning and AI understanding to be effective. Elementalists need good reactions, ability to adapt on the fly and timing.

By far Mesmer. After playing a guardian, you will enjoy the variation in play style. They are a pain to level, though. But once at 80, you have some build options.

I run a shatter mesmer with greatsword and sword/focus. You won’t see high damage spikes, but you will do very decent steady DPS. As bonus, this build is the best I have played for ranged combat. Downside is they are slow, very much like guardian slow. Only speed buff is on focus #4. You need to use runes that increase speed duration.

They’re both a lot of fun. I play both, and consider then both my main equally. For some dungeons I prefer my mesmer, and for some I prefer my ele. For zerging in wvw I prefer my ele, and for roaming I prefer my mesmer. Ele is harder to learn, and takes more attention to play. Mesmer is more forgiving IMO. And the truth; ele is a might stacking, weapon conjuring monkey. Mesmer is a feedbacking, veil dropping, time warping, portal bombing monkey. They are both useful and welcome in every area of the game and both are visually stimulating to play.

Don’t forget AoE healing for ele, Null Field and Phantasmal Disenchanter for mesmer.

I have them both and like them both. I won’t talk about WvW or sPvP because you didn’t talk about that in your list of what you usually do.

Mesmer was with the Warrior the Meta King a couple months ago. Mainly because of Timewrap and awesome utility skill. Their main problem is their DPS. They have the potential for freaking awesome DPS but for that you need to put 3 Phantasm and they need to stay alive, which can be hard, but also all about chance and timing which can be frustrating. They kind of lose their place in the Meta, because of that, but still are really good for specific stuff. Of course Timewrap, but also they are the best for pull/push boss in corner, they remove boons like crazy, they have access to a really good reflect, etc. You WILL feel useful to you group once you know how and when use your utilities. They are a pain to level up until you reach level 60. Even if they have light armor and medium health, they are probably one of the easier profession to play full DPS in the game. Will all the invulnerability, and clones you won’t get hit that much unless you are bad.

Elementalist have a new place in the Meta for the last couple of month. Some people think that Ele now have more DPS that a Warrior. I don’t agree, but I think that leaving place for 1 or 2 Elementalist in a party give you way more DPS that a 3rd and 4th Warrior. You will feel squishy as hell and gonna need way more practice that the Mesmer if you want to stay alive. Of course you can make a tanky Ele but then you gonna miss the advantage of the Ele so don’t do it. Two top build exist for now for the Ele (you can play around with them, but the basic stay the same). In the first you stay Staff Fire and you lava front the kitten out your enemies. Huge personal DPS, less Burst DPS but constant fire field during the fight that give might and fury to your team. Its a bit easier to play and safer. The second is the Light Hammer build with S/D or S/F. Its a bit hard because you swamp attunement (you use all 4) and have some rotation to learn. But people will be like WTF where all this might come from and the answer will be you. You will be able to give 18 stack of might by your own. I love this buld more since you gonna have a lot of tools to play with in combat. For the might, this build have better offensive support but less personal DPS since you will stack might, use your Hammer, pump might again, take the second hammer, etc. More burst DPS, but since you don’t attack all the time, well. Its still amazing DPS, especially to melt down a boss in a short period of time.

First of all, Ele’s are not squishy!
They can be actually pretty tanklike.

In dungeons, mesmer are somewhat limited to special tasks and only an asset in some dungeons, for the rest they are considered, mild dps-ers. Ele’s can provide a lot more to the party when it comes to healing and when it comes to e.g. giving out summoned weapons to the party.

So in my opinion Ele is the best!!

Thanks you all for inputs about ele/mesmer i decided to roll ele and skill cap wont be an issue i think. Lee Sin main

mercury ranique.2170:

First of all, Ele’s are not squishy!
They can be actually pretty tanklike.

Well in that case any profession can be tanklike if you trait it. Still the Elementalist is the squishiest profession of the game, they have light armor with the lowest amount of HP (like guardian and Thief). Their survivability come from their skill, heal, boons, etc. But they are still squishy (except if you give it a good amount of defensive stats/trait, but then again you can do that with all profession).

Thaddeus.4891:

mercury ranique.2170:

First of all, Ele’s are not squishy!
They can be actually pretty tanklike.

Well in that case any profession can be tanklike if you trait it. Still the Elementalist is the squishiest profession of the game, they have light armor with the lowest amount of HP (like guardian and Thief). Their survivability come from their skill, heal, boons, etc. But they are still squishy (except if you give it a good amount of defensive stats/trait, but then again you can do that with all profession).

I disagree with you here.
Just cause they have less health and armor as other classes is a wrong statement. The amount of support from skills and traits is much more massive then any other class. Besides that, you can do it while not loosing a lot of pure DPS. That while with other classes you can make them more tanklike with traits and skills but that goes with the cost of a loss of lot of potential DPS. That last is not the case for ele’s so thats why they are not squishy in my book.

mercury ranique.2170:

I disagree with you here.
Just cause they have less health and armor as other classes is a wrong statement. The amount of support from skills and traits is much more massive then any other class. Besides that, you can do it while not loosing a lot of pure DPS. That while with other classes you can make them more tanklike with traits and skills but that goes with the cost of a loss of lot of potential DPS. That last is not the case for ele’s so thats why they are not squishy in my book.

First of all, I think its just about what the word mean exactly. For me squishy is not the same as survivability. An Elementalist for me is squishy because if you get hit once or two you gonna go down. On the other end, the Ele have good survivability because, like you said ‘’the amount of support from skills and trait is much more massive then any other class’‘. So i’m pretty sure we are talking about the same thing with different word here.

Second, i don’t think you can say that Ele can gain more support from trait and skill without much lost in DPS while this is a problem with other professions. This depend on which profession and which build you use too much. Some build don’t sacrifice that much DPS for a little bit of defense, while other sacrifice a lot. I think the Ele is in the same place as the other professions on that. But the elementalist have some of the best active defense skill in the game. This allow an ele to quickly boost its survivability with defensive skills, before switch back to more offensive skills. Any profession can do that, but not all profession have things like Mist Form and Arcane Shield.