Guild Wars 2

So I am very new to gw2 and am wondering what i will get out of the mesmer and ele in pvp in terms of
-mobility
- damage output (burst or sustained doesn’t concern me)
-utility
-entertainment (fun to play?)

I have a level 16 mesmer and am wondering whether to change to ele because they look more fun, however, i am open to other classes.

Thoughts?

also which has the higher skill cap or in other words which class has more potential

First of all: Good luck !

I’d say ele has the higher skill cap atm to be honest, but a new patch is comming out 10/dec so seems some stuff might change.

I main a mesmer and quite honestly the “interesting spec” in the current meta seems to be an AI based spec which is not really that fun and relies to much on stealth to survive (phantasm build), there is not really great mobility or gap closers so you could get kited quite easily, damage is mainly made by AIs, so if they get killed there goes this build’s dps. Utilities are mainly used for yourself’s survivability but you could get something interesting for the group such as portal.

I’m still playing a shatter build because i’m stubborn and hate the current meta but i do recognize its not the most effective build. Shatter spec has high burst potential but not so much sustain, mobility is still bad besides staff phase retreat and blink (or if you got sword/focus you can get speed as well), rest is really same as the above.

The third build would be mantras… which quite honestly have very high burst potential and the mantra also has some group potential but the main point is after you use the mantras (they’ve got 3 uses before you need to wait the cd to recharge them again – traited) you’re very easily countered because you can be dazed or cc’d while casting the mantras back up. Usually people like myself just use a mantras (condition cleansing one) just because the meta requires you to it, but without any point spent for this build in particular.

In all the builds you’ll most likelly be running mass invis as the elite with lyssa runes as well, because that’s trully the main weapon against the condition damage meta we got in our hands currently…

Ele takes a lot of work to get good at and you will still be beatin by people who put in less effort into playing their class.

Mesmer is probably a better choice right now til they work out some issues with the ele.

Mesmer performance is much better, ele is not used at all at high level pvp for good reasons because it can´t survive anything and the next patch does not seem to adress this issue

they both are fun to play, id try both (and more) and see which one you like. i would not worry about what “high lvl pvp” does at this point.
id try all profs/builds and go with the one which I like most. there is a sticky on the top of this forum, there are a lot of builds to try through.

Play whatever you like more. The game is about fun, if you aren’t having fun what the hells the point?

Try both of them out, and pick the one which you enjoy playing the most. You get leveled to 80 inside heart of the mists anyway, so it wouldn’t put any pressure on you in terms of having to level the characters or gear them up.

Their usefulness and actual play style does not matter at this point, since meta shifts over time, and before you are actually capable of competing inside tournaments, the meta will have shifted again.

For example ele used to be unwanted for any team play shortly after launch, then a tanky spec was discovered which has shaped the ele into the most played class in all of PvP, for a number of months. Then came the nerfs that facilitated shift from tanky spec towards more hybrid spec and after the June meta shift towards conditions, the only spec people have played at all, was full glass cannon, which completely ceased to function after the rise of the warrior meta that we have now. On the other hand, mesmers have remained roughly the same since launch, with the sole exception to the rule being the loss of popularity amongst pvp-ers due to shifts within the meta-game. The only viable tournament spec has always been, and for understandable reasons for quite a long time still will be, the shatter spec. Also being the most skill intensive amongst mesmer specs btw. What did change however, was the popularity of the mesmer amongst experienced players, seeing as the class has gaping issues that have not been addressed up until now, and it’s still questionable whether the extent of changes on december 10th will do anything to improve their current state. It is expected at this point, that if mesmers are to be truly viable again (by this I mean competitive at all skill levels), a change in their standard tournament build will be needed.

Now as to the actual choice:
FUN – both are very fun to play. Both require active defense and proper setup for their burst, which makes for an active and engaging play. They both have decent skill cap, alas ele being the winner here.

DAMAGE – is highly dependent on the build you are using, but generally it takes more effort to deal sufficient damage on an elementalist when compared to the rest of classes in this game (seeing as the number of their skills and their versatility is also higher). Do not be mistaken though, elementalist is capable of major, perhaps even the highest single target burst within a compressed time frame (excluding channeled skills like 100b on a warrior) in the whole game.

Mesmer does have an easier time pulling off his burst, although mesmers do suffer because of lack of proper AoE options in other game modes (namely PvE and WvW, limiting their usefulness as a main character overall, not rendering them completely useless though).

This might not be the correct place to list these, but seeing as you are making a character to be your main, I will list their respective roles/performances in other game modes as well (do excuse this pvp players :P).

Ele: in PvE they are capable of performing well with a very specialized build. It takes a lot of skill and supportive party built around an ele to outperform a warrior though and you may have difficulty getting into parties with more “hardcore” players.
In WvW they are limited to being the group support character (using staff for fields). Some people love their performance, some are frustrated by the lack of variety.

Mesmer: in PvE they are quite popular with majority of the dungeon runner community, due to their unique utility skills that make beating a lot of content significantly easier. Lack of AoE options makes them lackluster in open world events at best.
In WvW they are limited to the roamer role, or veil (utility skill) bot for the zerg. As a roamer/duelist they are supremely effective, but their build requires heavy investment into gear not otherwise usable anywhere else.

Hope my post helps you decide

DisfunctionaaL.2504:

So I am very new to gw2 and am wondering what i will get out of the mesmer and ele in pvp in terms of
-mobility
- damage output (burst or sustained doesn’t concern me)
-utility
-entertainment (fun to play?)

I have a level 16 mesmer and am wondering whether to change to ele because they look more fun, however, i am open to other classes.

Thoughts?

Don’t play a class based upon how viable or strong it is, as that will always change with future updates. Play what is fun for you. Ele and mesmer (and eng) have the highest skill cap in the game in PvP. Other than that, you don’t need to know much else. Just go play them and decide which is more fun.

I’ve been playing Elementalist for 4000 hours.
I am still not tired of it… and just yesterday I learned a new trick I could use in PvP.
There are so many ways to refine yourself while playing the Elementalist I don’t think I will ever have a chance to play any other classes.

Mesmer best fun class to play.. much skill ceiling, many clutch plays very amaze.

I highly recommend Mesmer since you’re new to GW2.

Elementalist is a very punishing class (lowest health/armor) and a complex class (15+ double-layered cooldowns). It takes a very long time to learn and master…but the sad thing is that you’ll still be performing roughly the same as other classes who require less effort to play, so what’s the point.
Mind you, Elementalist playstyle is quite fun and interesting once you get the hang of it.

Once you level your Mesmer to 80 and start learning how this game’s mechanics and fights work, maybe then you can try Elementalist as your 2nd character.