Guild Wars 2

Considering the fact that anet keeps talking about how the class changes are still up in the air for HOT, I felt we should at least try agitating for them to drop this ridiculous notion of giving us an offhand shield, which appears at least looking at the trailer as if that is their intention. This thread then is for us to try and make some noise, and to not simply go quietly. Whatever weapon you may want, I am almost certain, that their is no mesmer out there who honestly can say, they want a new offhand weapon… So here my fellow mesmers is our rally, and so shall we cry;

NO SHIELD, NO SHIELD!

PS on another note, I seriously do not care what else they might give us, but at this point, another offhand to go with torch, sword, focus, pistol just does not fit. Our build diversity is intrinsically linked to our primary weapon, and as a consequence we are pigeon holed into four primary distinctions. Ranged condition, ranged power aoe, ranged condition aoe or melee power aoe. We need more single target weapons that stack well in the perpetual zerker meta.

PPS…. NO SHIELD! NO SHIELD!

Sorry man, as much as I’m totally behind the sentiment here…it’s not going to happen. I’m sure anet has been working on shield skills/balance for quite some time, which is why they actually released the mesmer using the shield in that teaser video. There’s not a chance that it’s going to change at this point in development. We’re just going to have to play with the hand of kitten that anet has decided to deal us time and time again.

Seriously this had never made any sense – the concept of a mesmer totally does not include a shield lol. Daggers are more appropriate I think… but a SHIELD??? haha I just don’t get it!

Why not main hand pistol!!!! Has been asked for since the creation lol

I feel like we need to at least start making a kittening sound. Too often we just bend over and don’t even bother asking for the lube… Who knows, maybe one day they will stop beating us so badly…

Oh and fay, you mention balance, and mesmer, you should know by now that it is likely they have done no work whatsoever on mesmer yet, and we are simply an afterthought at this point.

If in the end, if it turns out to be sh!# , ill just abandon the game. I’ll Play something else. I’ve put to much heart on my Mez to have it hack.

Zarathustra.1458:

Oh and fay, you mention balance, and mesmer, you should know by now that it is likely they have done no work whatsoever on mesmer yet, and we are simply an afterthought at this point.

Oh, I didn’t say the balance would be quality, just that the balance team has put a lot of manhours into it, doing undoubtedly productive things like figuring out how best to make sure the new content they add will be worthless for us.

Tbh, any changes to the class mechanic are way more interesting than a new weapon (especially yet another offhand).

I would rather we get two mainhands (focus, dagger, pistol, axe, mace…) than a fifth offhand, but oh well – not much to be donw about it now.

But, if they give us TWO shields – one main, one offhand… well that would be cool. ;D

I’m gonna go against the stream and say that I wanted mesmers to get shields pretty much since launch.
Never thought we would ever get it, so fistbump to the dev who shares the same wet dream as me.

I think it’s a bit early to say you dont want something when we have 0 knowledge about skills and how they will interact with our new traitline. Atleast wait until we get some information about the general role of our specialisation before you want things changed.

The only thing I care about right now, is how goodlooking the new legendary shield will be, because I’ll be getting that one for sure :^)

ViciousVyne.2935:

I’m gonna go against the stream and say that I wanted mesmers to get shields pretty much since launch.
Never thought we would ever get it, so fistbump to the dev who shares the same wet dream as me.

I think it’s a bit early to say you dont want something when we have 0 knowledge about skills and how they will interact with our new traitline. Atleast wait until we get some information about the general role of our specialisation before you want things changed.

The only thing I care about right now, is how goodlooking the new legendary shield will be, because I’ll be getting that one for sure :^)

It’s not the shield that bothers me – I like shields.

It’s the chance of having (assuming) 5 offhands and only 2 mainhands, with those split into one melee and one ranged. Whereas having 4 and 4 would give more scope for variety in loadouts.

You know, sometimes I think we mesmer players must be insane, we keep doing the same thing, always expecting a different result.. Either that or the balance team is… I mean surely, giving bug fixes to mesmers and expecting us to be happy everytime, even when those bugfixes typically weaken us in the meta has got to be getting old for them…

On topic though, all I really want is a main hand ranged weapon that is not tied to conditions, and that has a short cooldown short duration daze to help us proc our interrupt traits more reliably. Is that really to much to ask for? I seriously have come to rely terribly on offhand sword just to have a daze up when I need it.

How certain are you all that every profession will only receive one new weapon?

Royale.5863:

How certain are you all that every profession will only receive one new weapon?

It hasn’t been explicitly stated, but a lot of the language has been leaning towards how the spec will unlock a particular new toolset, given by that weapon.

takatsu.9416:

Seriously this had never made any sense – the concept of a mesmer totally does not include a shield lol. Daggers are more appropriate I think… but a SHIELD??? haha I just don’t get it!

We shoot lasers through a great sword to make that work. Mesmers are all about have something that seems brutish and making it fabulous as kitten. The fact that it seems a good bit odd for a mage or scholar just makes me feel it fits mesmer more.

But, meh, I’m sure we’d prefer a MH pistol or something, but this isn’t too bad.

Dondagora.9645:

takatsu.9416:

Seriously this had never made any sense – the concept of a mesmer totally does not include a shield lol. Daggers are more appropriate I think… but a SHIELD??? haha I just don’t get it!

We shoot lasers through a great sword to make that work. Mesmers are all about have something that seems brutish and making it fabulous as kitten. The fact that it seems a good bit odd for a mage or scholar just makes me feel it fits mesmer more.

But, meh, I’m sure we’d prefer a MH pistol or something, but this isn’t too bad.

Honestly, I’m not even too picky about what mainhand we get. For all I care they could give us a shield that we chuck at people, but the fact that we’re only getting an offhand is insulting.

Ranged mainhand shield with suitable cc skill would be awesome.

Seriously, I thought this main-hand shield nonsense was exclusive to guardians…
I’d like a main-hand dagger more than pistol, but that’s probably just me.

Zmodd.5427:

Seriously, I thought this main-hand shield nonsense was exclusive to guardians…
I’d like a main-hand dagger more than pistol, but that’s probably just me.

Give me a mainhand trident hilt for all I care, I just want a mainhand.

Guyz, if we think we’ll get only 1 weapon..
Then give us double-shieldz~
Mainhand and offhand shieldz, for da win!

VOTE FOR FUN, VOTE FOR DOUBLE SHIELDZ!

NO.

I don’t want a ranged single target weapon. That’s called the greatsword, just buff the #2 and #1 and it’ll be fine.

What the mesmer needs is more effective, reliable aoe/cleave, not less. And I don’t want a mainhand pistol. I hate pistols and rifles, my mesmer in GW2 had nothing to do with pistols.

Keep that modern crap for the engineer.

Where is my kitten mainhand pistol?

The thing is, if they want Mesmer to be a competitive and diverse class they should realize we need a mainhand & if other classes getting 5 skills, I would hope that we get a mainhand ranged power wep like we’ve needed for ages with that shield.

BUT ofc the world isn’t fair and with how poorly mesmer balance has been managed I don’t have high hopes…still I’ll keep playin the Mes hoping since we’re clearly the coolest class! Now we just need something besides portal to make us unique.

edit: For Zenith — idc if its pistol, single target etc. Just make it ranged, some AoE wouldn’t hurt us either but i can sacrifice that to get the kitten thing in the first place. The idea is that we can use a second of our 4 offhands rather than being stuck with GS all the time.

Tbh I really support the idea of giving mesmers a shield. Mesmers are duelists and what weapon fits a duelist better than a shield (yes a pistol but we already have that). The thing is that I have tried realistic medieval combat with weapons irl using 2h-swords, kitten swords or short swords and shields (not sharp ones though). For duels my experiene is that a shield is the best way to go. It offers so much defence that you can easily overcome combatants that only use one weapon.

Months/years ago I begged for a shield on my mesmer BUT I always wanted it to come in place with another main hand weapon. A mace was my favorite thing back than because I thought that a mace imo should always be a weapon with great CC and that’s what we need.

The next problem has already been said in this thread: We only have two main hands that also are bound to Power OR Condition damage. We do not have a meele condition weapon and we also don’t have a ranged power weapon in our main hands.

Furthermore I fear that Anet got the “brilliant” idea to make the shield a condition weapon. We have 3 power based off hands (focus, sword, pistol) and only the torch is a clear condition weapon.
If we get a shield I’d suggest it to be a weapon that has very high defense and good utility.

I say:
Shield is great but please give us a new main hand too! (We really need it)

I love the shield – deal with it.

What if using a shield changed all 5 of your skills, with the 3rd skill being a different one depending on the mainhand? Sorta like the thief’s weapon combos.

Zenith.7301:

What if using a shield changed all 5 of your skills, with the 3rd skill being a different one depending on the mainhand? Sorta like the thief’s weapon combos.

As long as we get good damaging AoEs (like fields) non-dependant on our phantasms I’m ok with it.

PS: English might have failed a little bit here.

Edit: This because IMO the problem with mesmer in current PvE meta is our AoE DPS and, remember, we’re not just getting a shield, we’re getting new profession mechanics as well.

Frankly I feel like we have to much aoe to be honest. Yes aoe is all the rage for getting credit, but I cannot help but feel as if the aoe makes it harder to be selective in your targeting. Consider, we are supposed to be magical duelists who use finesse and the magics of the mind and space and time to gain the upper hand. And yet, when we use a mainhand sword it hits everything in the sweep. Shouldn’t a duelist be a much more focused and direct attacker, with a more subtle stab rather than a whole bodied swing. I too have studied medieval combat forms, notably Long Sword and Rapier, and there is a massive difference between dueling and slashing. A duelist will use the point of the blade, in unfocused combat you just slash with the thing or club with it or anything that comes to mind. Our current sword use does go against the idea of being magical duelists. To that end, I support main hand pistol, so long as it is a nice single target weapon, give us a weapon set to focus and overwhelm one enemy (Pistol Pistol) while we then can use our other offhands to add the aoe we need for the build. (say focus)

All in all, I just want more cc options, and more control over what the hell i hit. I also do not want to not be able to use offhand sword, as I really like offhand sword as it matches quite clearly the idea of the mesmer as a duelist.

Yeah that is the big problem, we have so many offhands (which can be great!), but our two main hands are arguably some of the worst in the game. Yes scepter CAN be great, but they have spent so much time trying (trying being the key word) to buff scepter and so much time gutting MH sword that most mesmers don’t even care about the off hands because we just run double ranged shatter. So unless we get a decent mainhand to go with shield which we should because some other classes are getting 5 new weapon skills, I doubt I’ll care enough to use it.

Zarathustra.1458:

but I cannot help but feel as if the aoe makes it harder to be selective in your targeting. Consider, we are supposed to be magical duelists who use finesse and the magics of the mind and space and time to gain the upper hand.

That’s all well and good, but I sorta would like to have a role in WvW that isn’t summarized as ‘Veil in front!’.

I agree with the OH only sentiment.

BUT, dont you think people are overreacting like drama queens about the shield?

Noone even knows what the skills are on it.

/smh.

How can we be overreacting, an offhand only means we get 2 new weapon skills. Staff, Hammer and Greatsword will give 5 new weapon skills to Ranger, Engi and Necro respectively. How the hell is that not something worth complaining about. Furthermore Fay, I agree our aoe is an issue, but anet fixed it all the wrong way. They should have made phants living conditions that could be purged and had a timer, and clones immune to all damage as they do no damage. In that way our aoe can come from shatters where it belongs… But far to late now.

StickerHappy.8052:

I agree with the OH only sentiment.

BUT, dont you think people are overreacting like drama queens about the shield?

Noone even knows what the skills are on it.

/smh.

I, and probably others, are reacting in a reasonable way based on past releases. Do you remember the last time anet released new traits for our class? Remember what happened? Skills aren’t that different from traits, and I’m anticipating something similar.

If its an offhand we get 2 skills, 1 will likely be a phantasm unless the specialisation alters EVERY offhand/2h weapon and a large portion of traits to not include phantasms. This is very disappointing. Mesmer has some of the best offhands already – we do not need more choice here – give us a mainhand please.

Fay.2357:

Do you remember the last time anet released new traits for our class? Remember what happened? Skills aren’t that different from traits, and I’m anticipating something similar.

This literally sent tears into my eyes. Yes. I remember :<

Bubi.5237:

Guyz, if we think we’ll get only 1 weapon..
Then give us double-shieldz~
Mainhand and offhand shieldz, for da win!

VOTE FOR FUN, VOTE FOR DOUBLE SHIELDZ!

Yes! I want double shield!

We are the master of deception.
You think I can’t deal damage using two shields? Get rekt!

Me Games Ma.8426:

Fay.2357:

Do you remember the last time anet released new traits for our class? Remember what happened? Skills aren’t that different from traits, and I’m anticipating something similar.

This literally sent tears into my eyes. Yes. I remember :<

The bit I remember most was the fact we got one really awesome trait, then of course, out came the nerfbat after thieves QQ’d… Even if we get nice toys in the expansion, I fully expect them to be taken away pretty fast, and more than likely I will lose my marbles again and hurl abuse…

Still, NO SHIELDS! Give us mainhand pistols or go home!

Who said shield couldn’t be mainhand? We use GS as a ranged weapon, why cant shield be mainhand?

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Who said shield couldn’t be mainhand? We use GS as a ranged weapon, why cant shield be mainhand?

Well, there’s the teaser video showing mesmer using an offhand shield…

Because the trailer video showed us using it as an offhand… Now should we get it as a mainhand power ranged weapon I will be happy! Now though, how will you be feeling if when most other classes get a full five new weapon skills we find ourselves burdened with effectively a new weapon skill in an already crowded offhand weapon choice. Agitate now, make sure anet know what we want, so they might realize that we are not so traumatized as to simply take their beating with a; “yes sir, can I have please have some more.”

Fay.2357:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Who said shield couldn’t be mainhand? We use GS as a ranged weapon, why cant shield be mainhand?

Well, there’s the teaser video showing mesmer using an offhand shield…

Ah ok. All I saw was a Mesmer holding a shield, I didn’t know what hand the shield was on haha. My bad. Thanks for ruining my theorycrafting Pyro

I honestly don’t know what is worse about them giving us a sheild

-More offhands while we are lacking main hands, proving Anet has 0 idea about the state of this class
-The fact that most other classes seem to be getting 5 new weapon skill compared to Mesmers who are getting 2
-General mehness of shield in general from their weapon strength to their looks to how badly they clash with Mesmer/light aesthetics to their clipping.
-The confirmed and semi confirmed weapons we have for the other classes are all things the class needs and the players have been asking for whereas Mesmer gets the exact opposite, proving they either don’t care about what Mesmer players have to say or their is a big problem with their communication with the players that they can not be bothered to fix.

Levetty.1279:

their is a big problem with their communication with the players that they can not be bothered to fix.

There is zero communication, that’s the main issue. Due to the lack of any communication whatsoever, the fact that the devs don’t understand this class even a little bit becomes a massive problem, culminating in junk like disruptors sustainment…and shield.

Who’s our forum specialist anyways? Did we get any? Or was that only for non-class categories?

Zenith.7301:

Who’s our forum specialist anyways? Did we get any? Or was that only for non-class categories?

Chaos Archangel.

They’ve just yet to decide and announce it yet. ;D

That’s workable, at least. My fear was that they’d go with someone more “PC,” who might act nicer, but has zero kitten ed clue about how the class operates.

Advent.6193:

That’s workable, at least. My fear was that they’d go with someone more “PC,” who might act nicer, but has zero kitten ed clue about how the class operates.

Unfotunately, Ross is just pulling your leg. We have absolutely zero idea who our forum specialist will be.

I see lots of valid points, I would opt in for ranged main hand too. But just the comment about shield for dueling, I personally believe the concept of dueling ought to be dancing around with minimum armor and just a minimalist weapon and prodding and feinting and parrying, not really hiding behind a big plate of armor hahaha.

In actual classical dueling, it was somewhat rare to actually use a shield. Sure you used a buckler with short sword, but that is not the same as a shield. Furthermore, you would not actually use dueling weapons on the battlefield, a couple of times it was tried and most times those duelists had a nasty encounter with some giant peasant wielding an axe or a large kitten sword.

takatsu.9416:

I see lots of valid points, I would opt in for ranged main hand too. But just the comment about shield for dueling, I personally believe the concept of dueling ought to be dancing around with minimum armor and just a minimalist weapon and prodding and feinting and parrying, not really hiding behind a big plate of armor hahaha.

This is a game and within the mechanics of the game and mesmers in particular, what’s important is what the skills on the shield do. “Shield” has a look, a style, an aesthetic property, but really it just boils down to two skills that do X and Y. “X” and “Y” can Prod, feint, and parry for all they’re worth. This is all that matters, that the Mesmer with his skills out duels his opponents.

That said, I think it’s fair to say a lot of people are fed up with the narrow dueling nature of Mesmer, and want something more suited to the rest of the game. More/Better AoE CC + damage to give an example.

Oh and as for shield, yeah I’ll take it thanks. I just expect all other weapons in due time. MH axe to go with my shield lickety split.