Guild Wars 2

I’m suffering from a serious case of “unable to make up my mind,” and need your help because these types of threads are fun to read and helpful. I enjoy both classes but do not have to patience or time to level more then one. With that said, my endgame will consist mostly of running dungeons and pvping. I intend to do lots of WvW but on a small scale (small groups or solo). Which of these two classes do most of you find the most fun? the most satisfying? the most useful?

Elementalist Pros
-Fast mobility
-Twitch playstyle
-Seemingly a sustainable class (I love how d/d feels incredibly easy to pick up and play, even if for short bursts of gaming. This feeling is attributed to the speed of the spec and its ability to jump in and out of combat)
-Can take up many roles with the same spec
-Create for PvE and collecting skins

Elementalist Cons
-Pigeon holed into a few specs (pvp)
-If D/D (my favorite spec), Low damage, low health, pvp frustration
-Not as much variety in specs…may get boring

Mesmer Pros
-Large variety of specs to keep someone interested
-High Burst
-Swords = cool aesthetics (2handed and 1 handed)
-Amazing combat mobility
-Fun mechanics lead to variety of support methods.

Mesmer Cons
-Must prepare spec in advanced for designated role
-SLOW AS * when out of combat.

After this meta is over, do you guys think that Mesmers will be the next class in line to get heavily nerfed? Will the new meta shun mesmers? Will elementalists once again see the light, or remain the underdogs?

Thank you,
Zig

don’t play an elementalist.

I have both a Mesmer and Elementalist at level 80 and fully geared in exotics. Ele was my frist. I WvW a lot also.

In large groups in WvW I really prefer my elementalist over my mesmer a lot, if only for how many direct damage aoe abilities eles have and crowd control on staff. Healing abilities come in handy for classes without much healing.

If I’m wandering solo to get to the group, and I get attacked, forget it, I just cannot kill anything with my ele since so many boon stealing abilities became unblockable, unless they are upleveled or new. But maybe I’m just bad at solomentalist. I start off well, burst the target down to 50, and I’m down after blowing all my heals every time. Sunk 50 gold into my ele trying different builds. I must just be bad at D/D and S/(anything).

PvE wise, I enjoy my Ele above all else, and nothing will change that.

Trait wise, you are going to be stuck with a lot in Arcane and Water no mater what.
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My Mesmer experience would be this:

In large groups the “awesome” mesmer utility abilities are good for one shot, then its a long cool down if you messed up, or the maneuver failed. Mesmers do not have a lot of the ‘direct damage’ abilities Ele gets, especially AOE-damage. Also mesmers do not have as much access to healing and condition removers as elementalists do, you must be very careful or all the AOE’s will flatten you.

Running solo with my mesmer results in the target either dying, or trying to run away, if you are capable of confusing them or tying them up long enough to get frustrated.

PvE wise Mesmer is awful in my opinion, many of mesmers abilities seem obviously built to engage players, or something that will put up a fight for more than 5 seconds (Like a veteran or such.). As stated earlier, mesmer does not have as much ‘point-and-shoot’ damage as ele does, causing you to repeat your long sequence of abilities for every single enemy, to the point it becomes annoying and tedious after a while.

Trait wise, it seems like you can setup almost every way you want and be effective.
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TL;DR: Ele for large group WvW and PvE. Mesmer for medium and small group WvW.
Ultimately despite the down sides I prefer my Elementalist more.. I just wish I stood a chance when I’m forced to defend myself in any form of 1v1.

i’ve played an ele for well over 300 hrs, at this point I really wish I had chosen something else….they are arguably the weakest profession in the game, if you don’t mind losing this won’t bother you, but if your idea of fun has anything to do with killing enemies, doing objectives, and just plain not dying then ele is not for you.

Mesmer.

In PvE Mesmers are part of the holy trinity of this game (Warrior/Guardian/Mesmer). This is because their projectile reflects (Focus and Feedback) are clutch on many encounters in the game. All their other utility (boon stripping, portals, timewarp, etc) are all pretty great.

In WvW Mesmers are also pretty good in most scenarios. In 1v1 they are exceptionally strong. In Zerg v Zerg you have many abilities like Portal, Mass Invis, Veil and a laundry list of other abilities that are fantastic.

Your performance and what you excel at largely is determined by your spec. I personally play a 20/20/0/30/0 Phantasm spec and it’s pretty awesome all around. Conditions aren’t an issue since I can generate a large amount of clones and just rotate Shatters to AOE cure conditions off me and allies. I also have extreme burst damage from the form of Phantasms hitting near infinite targets (each spin on a Zerker hits 5 targets and as it spins through a crowd it’s a lot of damage). This also helps for farming events since the high burst of Phantasms is always a guaranteed loot right off most mobs it hits. It’s an all around spec that while it doesn’t probably perform as well as some Shatter focused specs it’s a great all around spec that works for all the elements of game play I’ve run with no issues.

They also don’t face the same gearing issues as Elementalists because they start out with 15,000 base HP and loads of escapability (multiple stealths, multiple sources of evasion, CC and much much more).

The only downside I’m really aware of is you don’t have access to a 25% runspeed passive or a permanent source of Swiftness without going certain Runes. This can make it a bit tedious to run around out of combat but even with Runes of Air you can maintain around 100% up time on Swiftness.

The only real positive I can speak to on the Elementalist is they excel in WvW and large area farming. For example during Scarlet event an Elementalist could rake in some serious loot tags. Also in WvW they really excel at being able to provide Guardian level heal support while also still providing Necromancer level area CC. This is a rather unique combination and not offered by any other class but other classes can offer one aspect or another (as mentioned).

Balance doesn’t matter for choosing what you play if you are just looking for what you enjoy. You’ll have more fun on a weaker character you like than a stronger character you don’t. Pick what you enjoy and play it, balance is always changing (even if anet is the slowest company I’ve ever seen in that regard).

“SLOW AS * when out of combat.”

This was my biggest grip with my Mesmer. Thanks to superior runes of the traveler, I’m loving it now. +25 % run speed all the time. Also, superior runes of speed will do it as well.

i have both…..

I can tell you my personal experience for WWW and PvE…PvP is a different thing but you don t need to levele a character for that.

PvE:

Ele:
+ best or second best cond cleaner in game
+ best dps in game (with conjured build)
+ Huge survivability if needed
+ might aoe 10-16
++ D/D is one of the most fun weaponsets in game expecially with evasive arcana
+ lot of chilled if you want
+ best resser in the game

- worst DPS in game unless you play conjured
- conjured is possibly the most squishy build in game
- conjured is probably the most boring build in game
- conjured requires lot of support from the party
- if you use weapons for survivability even in zerker you almost deal no damage
- cooldowns makes you cry
- conjured or not pugs don t generally want an ele… you won t be required in speedruns
- support is not that good
- everything you can do can be done better by another profession
- 0 build variety (IMHO)
- your CC is wasted due to defiant
- to swap range you have to be out of combat

Mesmer

+ DPS is Always decent to best in game at some bosses
+ 90-100% reflect uptime
+ Blurred Frenzy with 10 sec CD is an evasion that deals damage
+ some good build variety
+ versatile
++ very requested in dungeons
+ unique support that gives mesmer a role
+ positioning, managing resources and being able to control opponents (bypassing defiant) is fun
+ you can double any buff example from 12 to 24 might
+ way less risky than playing an ele

— the main cause of Death is trying to ress people
- invulnerabilities aside BF requires a setup, costs you dps and is short and situational
- worst character to level to 80
- mobility requires runes
- AoE are really lacking
- subpar ranged damage aside for phantasms

here basically the things are 2:
you either love D/D and evasive arcana gameplay so much to accept to be underpowered (its indeed the most fun in game) or i wouldn t choose ele.
Both require skill, mesmer is more forgiving in some situations but when you are needed you have lot of skills to use on reaction and you can t miss any or the party dies.
Ele instead has less skill ceiling in pve but requires constant concentration.

For www i ll say less things:

Ele:
1 only build very “static” (pun intended) and imho quite boring.

Mesmer:
Really lot of viable builds with unique gameplay
but mobility issues

Imho..despite how much i loved ele in the past, nowaday is not a road i would go.
I am still waiting for some fix or split from PvP to have back a fun profession

p.S. mesmer is not only about reflect.
Is about mass stealth, portal, signet of inspiration, phantasmal disenchanter, temporal curtain, ileap etc etc….you really have lot of things.
Also i could say its one of the profession that makes the trinity works…your role is usually central if you are bad, the party will die, if a warrior is bad, nobody notices.

I have been in exactly the same boat, I have played an Ele for 2 months, but found survability lacking….I mainly play pve and WVW…..in wvw I mainly play staff as I get the most success with it. I have tried d/d and s/d builds but I find roaming/solo in wvw a disappointment as I always end up downed. I’m sure there is a l2p with my ele but I just feel that I will have to work 3x as hard to have at least a chance….thats not what i want from this game. I find I am having to heal more or less straight away before I can do some decent damage.

I have started to level a Mesmer and looking forward to using some of the popular builds that are being used :-) I can see why the Mesmer is so popular!

I do love the ele profession but at the moment it will be shelved and will only use it for crafting…until anet decides to pour some love into ele’s (not gonna hold my breath).

Simple As this:

Bunker : Ele > Mesmer
Everything else: Mesmer > Ele

Thank you all, excellent answers. In so far, it seems like there’s a trade off to be made between fun vs practicality. I’ve level both to 25 and find the elementalist to be more fun than the mesmer (in a nutshell).

This observation may be inaccurate in the long term because I’m not factoring in any traits and builds given my low level – just the class mechanics. What that ultimately means is that by 80 the lack of practical builds on elementalist may wind up causing the character to be more boring in fact (and less useful).

The thing is, I will be playing solo for the most part – or with a guild of strangers. In light of these circumstances, it seems the mesmer, while more boring than elementalist, is the more practical and useful of the two. Seemingly, mesmer’s versatility would open up more gameplay options than if I were an elementlist…or am I wrong? Before the present meta got so condition heavy and D/D was nerfed, did the public have such a poor perception of the elementalist in PvE?

thanks,

mesmer is known to be the most unfun profession to level….
You can t judge mesmer till 80 ….

For ele perception.
PvE is a mess.

There are guardians and warriors…
Then there is 1 mesmer…
Then the other professions nobody cares of… XD

You’re right Byron (awesome response earlier in the thread btw), I can’t really judge the class. Just forming an impression.

As someone who switched from ele to mes, what would it take for you to return? Or has mesmer become your new favorite?

Imho (very personal view)
Ele have been nerfed so hard to become unfun.

Main points to that idea are:
1) cooldowns are more than doubled comparing other profession….expecially RTL and many other CD killed the fun
And all the fun left to ele was in mobility.

2) long CD+attunement system makes the profession unable to play on reaction but almost only on prediction and with rotations.

3) Its ok to not be the best but the lack of sustained dps is ridiculous for pve….you feel you are not impacting the fights.

Notice that doesn t apply to conjured build…..that is by the way one of the most boring gameplay i ever seen (1111111 or 3…..4…..3……4……3……4).

Mesmer is not as fast paced as ele, but has a tactical gameplay with lot of reaction play and room for creativity also.

Moreover build variety let you choose a similar gameplay to D/D ele (shatter mesmer).
(only mesmer and few other profession have some build variety atm)

If they will someday boost ele dps and unnerf some CD i would see both profession as equally fun but opposite in style.

As they are now ele is too boring or/and useless.

P.S: fyi ele ha s a long history as nerf magnet
To the point that whatever they will buff to make it viable can only be something they already nerfed…

D/d Eles still the best, u just need to be wise using ur skills ….

GAH!!!

/BeginRant

I am so sick of all of the blatant hyperbole that plagues the Ele forums! DO NOT listen to those that claim “there is only 1 viable Ele build”. People that make such claims are just revealing that they themselves are unwilling or incapable of adapting.

I have found that the people complaining the loudest are usually the ones least capable of coming up with solutions on-the-fly or they lack awareness to see the critical changes in the battle and respond quickly enough to make the difference.

Also, the “All other professions can out-perform the Ele at (insert specific role here)” argument is only partially true. What people tend to forget is that the Ele is capable of being second best (or maybe third best) at everything – at the same time. So, while it is true that other professions can do (insert specific role here) better than the Ele, they are at the same time worse at six other things. The true strength of the Ele is it is capable of having no real weaknesses.

I do not play the X/X/X/30/30 build. I haven’t for several months. I do not find myself lacking sustained DPS. I do not find myself wondering if I am actually impacting a fight.

I do bring the right utilities for the situation. I do use all of the weapons (though I really enjoy D/D), it really just depends on the situation. I do experiment with different combos/tactics to see what else I can do. I do solo champions regularly – sometimes using my staff.

/EndRant

Whew. now that that is over, the best advice in this thread has been presented by dreztina. Choose the class that you enjoy the most. If at level 25 you already enjoy the profession mechanics of the Ele over the Mesmer then you have your answer.

Happy hunting!