My first character, Mesmer, is Level 80. After 55 days (234 hours), he is 85 HP away from being a Chronomancer. I am really bad at playing GW2 in general (i.e. JPs take me an hour or more, I get lost in dungeons, die a LOT, etc) but I really enjoy the game, the fellow players and the many surprises.
Once my character becomes a Chronomancer, should I work on Masteries, since they will help my other characters, or should I work on a new, more forgiving profession? I am looking at Necro, Warrior, Guardian and Ranger. All four have things that allow for poor playing.
Mesmer does have the shorter end of the stick in open world. Its a class that specifically shines in group content. If you want something better, warrior and guardian both have high armor and high health with passive regen and lots of blocks + evades and can keep high swiftness uptime and both do strong dps. Ranger is good too, also, but pets can be iffy sometimes, in my opinion.
But, it comes down to playing the class you enjoy. Just give each class a try, perhaps, in a starter zone. If you really like nuking mobs with hundred blades, give warrior a try. Or, if you like unloading a series of rapid fires on your target while your pet holds aggro, give a shot to being a ranger. Each class in this game really has a different play style and feel, so take some time to play around with some of them. I personally enjoy my power necro in open world the most. Its incredibly tanky due to its second HP bar and has access to minions, and the dagget skills and greatsword are fun to play.
I hear you on jps. :/ I would definitely work on the masteries, as they are very useful and some of them are required for later HoT and LW episodes.
As for an alt, I am partial to ranger. You have to like pets, as that is the core mechanic. I personally enjoy it, and having the pet taunt the boss has saved my clumsy self a few times. Druid elite for rangers is very strong right now, and can benefit dps builds as well as support builds.
Every class has its quirks, so find one you enjoy playing.
I’d … probably try some other classes. Mesmer feels like it requires a huge amount of skill to not die, to me, compared to many other classes. It’s really about you, though.
That said, if you found it uncomfortable, yeah, definitely try another character and see if it clicks better. There are much more robust and simple classes than mesmer, for sure.
My Ranger is my jack of all trades type. This is the general purpose character I use to run through the new living world chapters and general achievement hunting. My other character I like to use for general purpose stuff is an Engineer, as they have a lot different utility they can get from their turrets and kits. My other characters tend to be more specific – A mesmer for jumping puzzles, an Elementalist for exploring hard to reach areas, etc.
Hi, (Asuran) Mesmer Fanatic here. It appears that Mesmers have the short end of the stick because it’s a very precise combination of things to make it easy and interesting.
My go-to weapon combo is Scepter and Pistol. Scepter will constantly spam clones to distract non-Legendaries at a consistent rate. Whenever the foe brings out a big CC, just hit block (Skill 2) and another clone appears. The pistol creates a burst of energy phantasmal and a CC bullet. Either go Signet for Condition damage or Wells for a little more DPS and boom! An all around mesmer.
I admit, it is tough to be a mesmer sometimes. We aren’t the best at DPS nor healing, but I was able to survive very well while soloing everything in Tyria, (except Metas). It just takes a little more movement (circling) or a few more button mashes. It’s not that Mesmers have the short end of the stick, we just sample everything, thus a utilitarian.
I started other chars and here and there did some HoT to further increase my Masteries there, mainly for gliding (iluvit). Imho, Warrior and Guardian are both excellent picks if it comes to survivability and still dishing out some nice DPS. If you want to stay cloth-y, you can also go for Necro. While it was sometimes a pain to level it, Reaper Spec was so awesome I sometimes like it even better than my Warrior. GS may be very slow, but for necro standards also pretty hard hitting and Reapers Shroud saved my butt a hundred times while also being a nice damage dealer.
After all, I’d say play’em all
Rohan Blackraven | Allister Mortis | Mindblower Torxx
Thank you all for the great advice. I have decided to main my Mesmer and when things get overwhelming, take a break and play an alt (I see more character slots in my future, LOL), do some mapping while using weapons I don’t usually use or try to do the next chapter of my personal story or HoT.
