Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been playing around some more, and have started getting into World vs. World. I wanna make a character that I can focus on it with, both to keep my characters SOMEWHAT separated, and for RP Story reasons. Decided to go with one of the casters, Elementalist, Necromancer or Mesmer, but haven’t quite figured out which.

Which would you recommend? I’m would rather be a bit more supportive, either through booning or conditioning, though I won’t say no to just killing things. Me dying every few minutes wouldn’t phase me either, I find WvW oddly enjoyable, no matter how badly I’m doing at the moment.

Mesmers are WvW Gods, when played right. They can kite small armies and are kitten near impossible to kill if they use their clones and escape abilities correctly. They have good damage output and they are one of the single most annoying things to try and fight I’ve run into.

Got to agree, a well played Mesmer is a certifiable nightmare to be up against! Even a poorly played one can still be immensley helpful with their portal skill.

Go with ele and don’t listen to people who say Mesmer. They don’t play Mesmers (I do), just read forums too much. Only go Mesmer if your guild has none for Portals. Otherwise Elementalist or Guardian.

Here:

ANet is hellbent on destroying the mesmer. Last patch alone nerfed the greatsword into oblivion. If you want to see your class nerfed in every patch, pick the mesmer. Otherwise, pick something else.

Ianervan.3415:

Go with ele and don’t listen to people who say Mesmer. They don’t play Mesmers (I do), just read forums too much. Only go Mesmer if your guild has none for Portals. Otherwise Elementalist or Guardian.

I do play a Mesmer and I am suggesting a Mesmer. I mostly run solo or with 2-3 people and we’re a nightmare group of only Mesmers and Thieves. If you like working in a small group, I’ll say that Mesmer is probably the best caster suited for the task. Maybe you’re playing the profession wrong if you think they’re overrated.

Decided in the end to go with an Elementalist, mostly due to the fact it’s a more “active” class, with all the “stance dancing” you have to do. Also easier to keep track of your stances and effect without having to worry about clones.

Wow, no votes for necro?

Phzt.9864:

Ianervan.3415:

Go with ele and don’t listen to people who say Mesmer. They don’t play Mesmers (I do), just read forums too much. Only go Mesmer if your guild has none for Portals. Otherwise Elementalist or Guardian.

I do play a Mesmer and I am suggesting a Mesmer. I mostly run solo or with 2-3 people and we’re a nightmare group of only Mesmers and Thieves. If you like working in a small group, I’ll say that Mesmer is probably the best caster suited for the task. Maybe you’re playing the profession wrong if you think they’re overrated.

Or maybe elementalist is simply better?

Let’s see:

• Great AoE which is extremely important in WvW, compared to Mesmers near-none AoE

• Extreme speed. Mesmer has the worst speed which is really bad for roaming. So you need Centaur runes. Which still does not beat what elementalist has – elementalist has more teleports and rush skills and is thus able to break off from the combat (these skills are very important because movement speed in combat is decreased). Mesmer has to rely on Cloaking which does not always work, as in, even if cloaked you might not have anywhere to run but one direction so it’s predictable. Not to mention you will need to waste an elite for that, as Decoy is too valuable in combat to be always kept intact in case you need to escape.

• Healing. Ele is much, much better at this, including group healing. Mesmer can do this, a bit, if you specially build just for that. And this is not just about weapon skills. Because ele can teleport/rush out of combat zone real fast, break off. He can reach the edge where you’re considered out of combat, your hp instantly heals up to full by itself, and you can rush back into combat and continue fighting.

• More versatility. It goes without saying since you have more skills available.

• Overpowered downed skill which makes you immortal near fortifications or allied zerg. You have 3 seconds of invulnerability to move into safety. Mesmer skill can even teleport you in worse place, and will fool only beginners.

Even if Mesmer beat Elementalist 1 on 1, I’d still vote for Ele being better in WvW including roaming.

Mesmer is one overrated profession (in WvW not sPvP) because of Portal. I play it because of GW1 and since it’s lvl80 with mostly exotics, but I’m aware of the shortcomings.

I’m certainly not playing the profession wrong because I almost never lose 1 on 1 in WvW when roaming with a Mesmer, and I think I only lost once to another Mesmer in the entire history (he was roamer and pretty good, but he also used specific shatter build for dueling while my mesmer is more universal build for both roaming and group play).

You are free to post your opinion on why mesmer is better. Just keep in mind that if we’re talking about roaming, having better in and out of combat movement already gives you great advantage. This is because if you have good armor and know how to play (regardless of the class), you can easily kill most of enemy players but you need to catch them first, prevent them from escaping, and be able to run if enemy zerg comes. As a mesmer, you can do this well or better near the lake on borderlands, or in the lake. But in other places I’d bet on ele.

Another thing – Mesmer will keep getting nerfs and nerfs. It’s GW1 all over. If you didn’t play it, it start like this: class strong in PvP but weak in PvE. However, because balancing is mostly done with PvP in mind, the class becomes “balanced” in PvP (sPvP in this case) and horribly weak everywhere else. Indirect nerfs will also come from players learning how to play. Mesmer strength greatly depends on enemy being clueless. There’s a huge difference when you fight someone who isn’t familiar with clones and phantasms, and someone who is and knows how to fight a mesmer. That’s like losing half of your defense right there.

Average player is not really going to have 8 lvl80 classes fully geared (especially with Ascended armor). 99% will not have a single one. Having one for PvE, one for WvW roaming, one for WvW zerging etc.. this is just not viable. So at the end of a day, even if you find something that Mesmer does better (such as destroying underwater Power nodes), Elementalist will be more useful overall.

(Again, this is just my opinion but with argumentation.)

D/D ele right now is like Jesus but immune to nails

If you`ve chosen Ele`, go D/D.
Even if going up against doors, stay D/D. If just one enemy mob or player runs out & sees you, say buh bye life.
Staff is a waste of time, you`ll die fast

Don’t pick mesmer or ele based on who you think will be nerfed. Ele’s just took a pretty good whacking with the nerf bat too. We had an entire play style eliminated with this patch.

I would ask yourself what you like to do most in WvW. I play both classes (though my mesmer is only lvl 50) and I play very differently with them. My mesmer is for running with the zergs since I really enjoy the great sword, and I like how I can do pretty good single target damage. I’ll sometimes try to roam with her but this usually leads me to get frustrated as I feel really slow. I play d/d ele for the most part. With him, this usually means that I’m off to commit yak genocide. With practice I’ve come to enjoy the bigger group fights too, I just find a way to flank the enemy. Towers are boring though, I hate breaking out my staff since I haven’t practiced it much.

So look for a play style that you enjoy and choose that one. Even with the nerfs to my ele I still enjoy playing him, even if I feel kind of pathetic compared to what I used to be.

Seem with recent patch ele’s got a boost, I might be wrong, not very experienced with mesmers so I can’t speak on their recent changes, however I personally am to enamored with my necromancer.
In wvw, we might not destroy sieges or knock down doors like other casting proffessions but we are a force to reckon with going against big numbers.

We just lost keep shakes fist at tc

Gnat.5124:

We just lost keep shakes fist at tc

I think this is in the wrong place Gnat.

Oh dear…nothing to see here folks, sorry about that

I have necro, ele and mesmer at 80. I’ve chosen Necro. They may not be best, but they are the best Allround imo. good for siege (marks ftw, can hit people on walls unlike stupid Iberserker now of mesmer). They are durable (not as squishy as ele), And their melee builds outshine the other two imo. Only mesmer 1 vs 1 Might be good due to immortal frenzy skill. But allround when zerg vs zerg, mesmer feels waste, as does ele. My necro happely sneaks marks from far away under the zergs feet, to confuse/scare them.

Ele Dagger + Focus + tank build + arcane control = immortal in 1vs1, easy win 1vs2~3 average players, if you like to roam.

Keep in mind that AoE is limited to 5 targets.

I’ve got a lvl 80 Necro with staff, and it’s pretty fun in WvWvW. I can lay down marks from 1200 range, but they don’t do a ton of damage on their own. I’ve got good vitality and toughness, so I can survive heavy AOE, but if I get in a 1v1 battle I’m pretty much kitten-ed.

Also, Corrupt Boon is just awesome for WvW, and PvP in general.

Overall though, I tend to play my other characters in WvW because even in zerg hordes things tend to break down, and spiking damage is generally more useful.

As a Necro staff, Corrupt Boom with Epidemic = A lot of loot bags!