Guild Wars 2

I’ve fallen in love with the Mesmer profession since my first BWE and while I’ve certainly tested many other classes out none really hold my interest for a long period of time. On my main I feel that every move counts in the heat of battle but when I play something like a longbow Ranger I feel like the character is playing itself with little input on my behalf. When I die playing guardian it feels like the class is so survivable that certain encounters are predetermined with little regard to your ability to save yourself (you’ll either survive if you’re geared and leveled for it, otherwise you’ll die no matter what). These sentiments may be, and hopefully are, totally bogus but that’s just what I remember from my experiences.

So in short: Can any fellow Mesmers suggest a profession or prof/weapon combo that might be good for someone who wants to hop on an engaging alt from time to time?

I am playing a thief now after hitting 80 as a Mesmer. I liked it but PvP seems to be more fun on the thief. I like a close up battle sometimes with the option of range.

i’m not a mesmer main by a long shot but from what little i’ve played mine (24 of his 30 levels are from jewelcrafting and cooking) but the thing i get from playing him is that he’s really slippery and during those times when i’d normally start thinking about an exit strategy, i usually have a button that makes everything alright. i get the impression that thief is similar but i haven’t leveled mine past 5 or 6.

something that might be helpful is taking your low-levels to the mists and playing around with traits and gear and stuff. that’s a good way to get a big picture of the unique qualities of that class.

I’m no mesmer either, but first off all some general advice. Do not pick antoher caster as you main alt. You want a different feel imo and going to a medium or heavy armor class makes a good difference in your game play experience. My advice would be to pick up a medium armor profession.

Engineer is closest imo to a caster specially when you use a bomb kit or a flamethrower.
Thief is closest to the mesmer, using techniques like stealth and shadow attacks to decieve your enemy’s.
Ranger is a very strong class that I will try out later. The fun part imo is the animal companion. If you like pokemon, your going to like the ranger when you are hunting animal companions (gotta catch ’m all!!)

I’ve gotten my mesmer to 80, nearly all geared up and totally in love with it. I made a thief the other day and got him to ~20ish, I highly recommend it!

I find it hard to put my finger on what it is exactly about thief I like that is similar to mesmer, but I think it’s the fact that if you do not pay attention and play smart – you will fail, crash burn and die horribly. Mesmers and thiefs are quite squishy if not played right, and I like that “high risk high reward” part of them.

(That being said, it’s not really “high risk high reward” because if played correctly there shouldn’t be much of a risk )

Try a dual dagger glass cannon build Elementalist. Of all the classes that is the most fun but also the most difficult to play well IMHO. The build, equipment and play skill all affect survivability. But if you do it right it is really mobile since it has so many speed enhancing abilities, and is really fast at killing.