Guild Wars 2

Just wondering which one would be the better overall class to choose from for general pve and pvp.

Thanks

You picked my main, and my new (on par with engi) favourite class.
They are both intricate, gimmicky, fun classes to play with a full bag of tricks. They also play radically different from each other.

I seriously suggest you try both to 30 before you discount one for the other.

In PvE Mesmer is probably better accepted in the better groups in PvE (the ones that don’t just pug the first person whispering), as they are phenomenal group value for skipping mobs and synergising with guardians, but I haven’t yet been turned down when playing my engi.

PvP I wouldn’t know, haven’t done much on either.

I’ve only played mesmer and engineer.

Engineer is still in beta. Big changes are needed to nearly every facet of this profession. And I don’t mean numbers changes, but fundamental redesigns. Most of the kits have one or two useful abilities that hardly justify the global cooldown time to switch to them. The kits themselves don’t scale with your weapon damage / stats, nor do they proc sigils. The one working kit, grenades, gives you carpal tunnel because it doesn’t have an auto-cast basic attack. We have much less viable builds than mesmers. We got stuck with mortar, which is the worst elite skill in the game. Turrets are horribly weak and completely nonviable in any game mode. Many traits that entire builds hinge on are bugged. Even our armor doesn’t fit the theme of the profession and we look like emo vampires. And the worst part: I’ve not seen a single post by any dev that acknowledges the pathetic shape engineer is in.

Mesmers have plenty of issues, but they just seem less sever than those of the engineer. Numbers fixes is all that is needed in most cases. They aren’t great in PvE, but in PvP are much stronger than engineers, with much more variety in builds. The most annoying thing about mesmer is really just the lack of swiftness. They have one ability that gives 10s swiftness and its in a weapon set so in PvE you are pretty much forced to have Focus in one of your weapon sets. Another gripe with mesmer is that the Illusions Tree gives a stat I found to be worthless: 1% recharge on shatters per point. The whole shatter mechanic really is just nowhere near as useful as what other classes get in their F1-F4 slots. But it does have its uses, and this is a small price to pay for solid utility skills, solid weapon skill sets, and amazing strength in PvP.

I just hit 80 with my engineer, and am going to switch back to my mesmer. I picked these two classes because they are the classes that you don’t normally find in MMORPG’s. But after thoroughly trying them both, I advise you to give Anet a good 6-12 months to bring the engineer up to speed. Mesmer all the way, its not even close.

EDIT: Just wanted to add that with Mesmer, I had irritations with useless traits and with my shatters not really feeling that strong, but I never once felt that entire weapon sets were lacking synergy or purposeful design. I cannot say that for engineer…

My first char was a Mesmer. First alt an Engineer, nearing 80 now.

And quite honestly, I don’t see what the big deal about Mesmers is. The class is weak in PvE, comparatively speaking. They can do a lot, but they do it soooo sloooowly. I was just soloing earlier this evening on my Engi right next to a Mesmer 1 level above me, and I was killing 3 mobs to his 1. And he wasn’t doing anything wrong. The class is just slooooow in PvE. After playing my Engi with permanent swiftness since level 20, I have serious trouble even loggin in on my Mesmer.

Having said that, Mesmer is a really easy class in PvP. About 90% of people still have difficulty keeping the eye on the ball (that is, being able to tell the mesmer from the clones). 99% of people still try to stomp a clone, even though the real mesmer has a big red skull and arrow over his head. And as long as people behave dumber than the game’s PvE AI, they’re easy to beat.

However, on the flipside, go to PvP forums and see how much whining there is about the Mesmers. What does that mean? Nerfs! Lots and lots and lots of juicy nerfs! That’s what you’ve got to look forward to when you make your Mesmer.

Bottom line – try it. Who knows, you might enjoy it. Personally, if you made me pick between Engi and Mesmer, right now, I would choose Engi hands down. Just much more enjoyable. However if facerolling your way to victory in PvP is important, go with Mesmer. Considerably easier, and gets exponentially easier the dumber the players you face are.

I have a lv 80 elementalist and I’ve done quite a lot of pvp with it.
I am a person who loves to kite enemies but also be kind of tanky.
Elementalist haven’t got that much cc and it’s more about aoe dmg. Yes, even with scepter.

So I decided to try a few new classes; ranger, mesmer and engineer.
I didn’t find mesmer that fun to play. Didn’t really fit my playstyle. Both ranger and engineer did though.

I finally decided to stick with p/p condition/tanky engi.
I noticed that there were only one spec on ranger that I really enjoyed playing (same with elementalist).
Engineer on the other hand, it looks like he got lot of different fun specs, with all kits and stuff.

As the above poster said, mesmers will most likely get nerfed even further in the future. I don’t know what state engi is, if ppl think it is op or up or just balanced. It’s kinda op in my eyes as I am an old elementalist x).

I went a bit offtopic I guess but you should try both for a while and see what you think it most fun and fit most to your own unique playstyle.
Both classes are really good for pvp. Like every class can be. I do not know about pve though. But I can’t imagine anyone of them being bad at that either.