Guild Wars 2

My mesmer has been my main character since launch, surviving intact from the beginning. No remakes, no nothing. She is pretty much as she’s always been. She’s my first (and currently only) level 80 in the game, carrying her and working on her through all the ups and downs and frustrations. She has gone through many transformations. What I’m basically saying here is that I’ve gone through all the same pains and glories as just about any other mesmer player in Guild Wars 2.

So, I feel somewhat justified in sharing the following opinions and ideas I have for the mesmer profession. Things are based purely off my own experience, with as little subjectivity as I can use. I hope not to ramble, despite the appearances of that I may already be doing so. Some of this may be new, some of it old. I just wanted to put all this in one place, finally.

Addressing some of the wildfire discussion over the scepter seems the best first step here. The scepter appears to be one of those “love it or hate it” weapons among the Guild Wars 2 community, and specifically the mesmer fans. I’ve used it with good success, but I certainly believe it needs to have some sort of help in making it better. It easily sits below the desire for just about any other weapon in the mesmer arsenal. There are probably two or three specific reasons I ever use it. The block skill has been a particular thing I’ve built successful builds around. The block cancels damage, while also popping up a clone. There is a Dueling trait that grants retaliation by using it. So, there’s a threefold benefit: damage mitigation, clone creation, and traitable retaliation effects. This can pair well with an off-hand sword’s block.

Another thing which a scepter can bring to the fight is the blind it can fire off in a line at enemies, if you press the block twice. This can go well with the Illusion (?) trait that inflicts confusion when you inflict blindness. This pairs well with a torch offhand.

Those above things work best in PvE, in my experience, while only somewhat in dungeons, and usually not in PvP/WvW.

What would improve the scepter? I have a few ideas, but I’m not really sure of their feasibility and/or balance. This is in no particular order, nor suggestion all at once. Mix, match, or replace accordingly.

1. Auto-attack? More damage. Burst effect, similar to guardian’s second staff skill, either a double press or a part of an automatic attack chain. This could cause confusion or maybe some other condition. I wonder if the scepter’s auto-attack chain is to reflect the main-hand sword’s. But, is retaining a chain for scepter merely a stubborn need to keep some linking theme between the two weapons? Is it really necessary? The sword doesn’t necessarily need to change if the scepter does, or vice versa. Especially since the sword can go through its chain faster than the scepter can. Perhaps then the scepter only needs a better rate of fire.
2. The third skill? Faster casting time? (After all, the mainstay of the GW1 mesmer was the Fast Casting attribute, which affected all their skills.) After the channel effect, add another clone, which can perhaps continue to use that same attack, so you can rack up quick confusion stacks. The scepter would then have three clone-creating options. Why not make this weapon the go-to clone making machine? It could get overpowered or broken, but I think it’s a good direction.
3. Available for off-hand use? That might be interesting. No other profession can do that. I am not sure what it would offer for skills, etc., but would look kinda cool. (Especially if there are no plans to add another main-hand ranged weapon.)

Obviously, the scepter has a lot of room for growth, and added potential that should be explored.

The mesmer does need a better, stable source of AoE. There are interesting and roundabout ways to address that, but I specifically mean a weapon skill/option. Mesmer seems to have a lot of the bounce type of attacks. This style of AoE, along with a couple other factors I will get into, following this, doesn’t create any confidence in taking it seriously for practical use. The staff and greatsword definitely have great bounce attacks, with good effects, but it loses some of the charm when considering things like random aggro and so on. Chaos may be part of the mesmer’s theme, but their gameplay is hurt a little by keeping so many things uncertain just to maintain that theme. So, you can make this “4.” for a scepter’s list of improvements: add a reliable AoE.

Considering roles for the mesmer can be difficult for the untrained eye, particularly support. The bouncing factor above is compounded by the uncertainty of boons. Actually, to be more fair, the mesmer is not quite so direct in its approach to a number of roles. For boons, there skills like Signet of Inspiration, Temporal Curtain, Chaos Field, Arcane Thievery, Mimic, etc. It boils down to the fact that there are very little passive effects to offer outside of such things as phantasm upgrades, which still requires an active casting and can get wiped if you need to use a shatter. You can increase a turnover rate and work both ends by giving phantasm passive effects, paired with shatter effects, keeping it all beneficial through a rotation. It can get a little hard to work, especially when you need to contend with cooldowns and all the other annoyances of combat. It is possible, and often very awesome, to pair Arcane Thievery and Signet of Inspiration to great effect. You still need to grab boons in order to burst them to your team, and the range can never be a constant factor to rely on, either. So, in a similar vein, mesmer requires a very active support style, like a thief sort of. It just seems a little bit harder to perfect. Often specializing in these roles severely hamper effectiveness elsewhere. You get trapped in a build, which is worse in dungeons.

This may be the most subjective issue with mesmer I encounter, since it may just be I haven’t hammered out rigorous testing, yet. But the fact that it may require so much forethought, will probably put new players off from using mesmer.

Mantras are another situation. They are thematically in tune with mesmers and they seem like a good idea. Some of the traits that involve them are a little too spread out for a cohesion, or too high in the tiers so you have to invest in a trait more than is necessary, also eliminating some good synergies. I wish there were a mantra that would be a more general effect, making the next “X” number of other skills cooldown instantly, and/or cast instantly. Perhaps another one that mimics the next skill used, so you cast a skill as a utility and make it useful under a different weapon set. Perhaps a mantra or two that summoned an illusionary weapon could be workable, like elementalists have or engineers and their kits. Phantasms do sometimes use weapons differently or unavailable for mesmers normally, these weapon summons would be entirely different and used with charges or a timer. They won’t disappear upon death of the target, either.

As for phantasms and cloning and so forth, a minor complaint I’ve had is how they end as soon as their target is dead. It may make sense in some circumstances, but maybe there isn’t any fear of bending that rule elsewhere. Phantasms might be a good exception to the rule, especially when you trait regeneration and other effects upon them. I also wish there were a skill and/or effect that allowed the mesmer to clone an enemy, either upon that enemy’s death, or otherwise. Maybe a disguise utility skill that is similar to most stealth, but actually allows someone to mirror the appearance, and maybe even abilities, of another person.

Lastly, I have a few build set ups that have worked for me, and could use some critique. I’ve left it in more of a summary form, since the creativity of the individual using the build can tailor it to their needs. Only the main principles may need the most consideration.

GENERAL PVE/SURVIVAL — Scepter/Sword with secondary of choice — Dueling 10 with Retaliatory Shield, Chaos 20 with Retaliatory Demise and Mirror of Anguish, Inspiration 10 with Mender’s Purity, Illusions 30 with Confusing Cry, Masterful Reflection, and Illusionary Persona. There’s a fair amount of retaliation going on, making Scepter/Sword a defensive and offensive combination. It’s pretty solid in many situations, but you will have to tailor the other weapon set and anything else depending on the need. Often I have Feedback, Mirror Images, and Decoy in the utility bar, and Ether Feast for healing. I guess you could use Mirror to heal, with a faster cooldown that can aid more rapid condition removal with Mender’s Purity, but I usually don’t.

CONFUSION/CONDITIONS — Scepter/Torch and Staff — Domination 20 with Rending Shatter or Crippling Dissipation and Confusing Enchantments, Inspiration 10 with Glamour Mastery, Illusions 30 with Master of Misdirection, Dazzling Glamours, and Blinding Befuddlement. Utility skills are usually Feedback, Null Field, and Veil. The synergies here are easy to see. The scepter has the blind as an alternate to the second skill’s block, torch has Prestige for blind nearby, along with all that the three Glamour utility skills can dish out. I didn’t take Signet of Midnight mostly for range and since Glamours can end up being much more useful more often, with all the traits linked to them. A single Glamour will blind, confuse, and also confuse because of the blindness, so you can layer Confusion quickly there, aside from all the effects from weapon attacks. Shatters will confuse, too. Much like blindness, though, Confusion will wipe as soon as the enemy triggers it for damage, so the trick is to keep layering Confusion rapidly and constantly. Thankfully, the Glamours allow for a sort of AoE to the mesmer’s arsenal with all this. There are other benefits that go hand-in-hand, of course. In applying the all the Confusion, they get blinded, Feedback locks ranged, Null Field removes conditions from allies and boons from enemies, and Veil gives stealth. I haven’t tried with Portal (which is a Glamour), and don’t know how it fits into this. As with almost all things mesmer, the damage and effects are only important if the enemy does something. Blindness and confusion and Feedback do nothing to an enemy that doesn’t attack. They would just need to wait out their durations. So, this is best for PvE, I think. It can be fun in WvW, since it can surprise a lot of people. The surprise goes away qucikly, though.

Mantras are another good example of the busy work they put us mes through. We have to constantly monitor our mantras and refresh them to get the effect of another classes normal “Push button to get effect” skill.

Indeed. I never use them. Support builds that use the mantra trait to heal others makes the build suffer. Since getting three charges is a Grandmaster Trait, it is a huge trait point investment that has so little reward for the expense, taking points from other things.

cpearson.9374:

Indeed. I never use them. Support builds that use the mantra trait to heal others makes the build suffer. Since getting three charges is a Grandmaster Trait, it is a huge trait point investment that has so little reward for the expense, taking points from other things.

except we can use it more than once.

The trait gives one extra time, going from the standard 2 charges to 3, for a readied mantra. However, the points needed to get the trait is 30, along the Domination trait line. I’m not sure it’s worth the investment, considering any other mantra traits are found elsewhere.

What would very much help mesmer is if all the traits that applied things on illusion death also applied them on shatter.

This would fix the biggest fundamental issue i’ve seen with mesmer so far:

we’re balanced around shatter, which requires power.

so we HAVE to have rampager stats if we want a condition build to keep up with everyone else.

Strong novel/10
+1

plasmacutter.2709:

What would very much help mesmer is if all the traits that applied things on illusion death also applied them on shatter.

Even if this would help condition mesmers alot it would make the shatter crit builds totaly op. Immagine a shatter who crit 3+k x 4 mw apply cripple, 8 stacks of confusion, and 4 random conditions. Then he do mirror immage and a dodge, hit shatter nr 2, apply 12 stacks of confusion, do 700 × 4 dmg, 4 random conditions, reset cripple.

He would now had 8 stacks of might to buff condition dmg aswell and vigour so condition dmg and avoidance is there.

A 5-25-10-0-30 build would be totaly owning.

But sure I would not mind.

/Osicat

Game balance seems difficult for Mesmer. But then, guardians and thieves have had it rough. Nearly every profession at some has too. I still feel the dev’s hearts are not with Mesmer, kinda shuffling low in their deck of tweaks. Or perhaps they want to square away others and spend the most time after with Mesmer without interruption. (No pun intended.)