Guild Wars 2

When I originally made my sylvari mesmer at launch, it seemed to be one of the more unpopular classes for some reason. However, I’ve began to notice that there are a lot of mesmers now. Did they spike up in popularity?

Alot? Where?!

In WvW at least there is about 20-30 warriors and guardians per mesmer. Guild groups of 20 are sometimes lucky to have 1 mesmer. That said, they are still one of the better roamers. Its the same thing with thief. Is that a popular class? You meet one every other meter if you run alone, it must be popular… But really, its in little better shape than the mesmer.

In PvE, it doesnt really matter what you play. Warriors and guardians still rule dungeons.

In PvP, they are common in the lower brackets, incredibly rare and disliked on the higher end.

Dawdler.8521:

Alot? Where?!

In WvW at least there is about 20-30 warriors and guardians per mesmer. Guild groups of 20 are sometimes lucky to have 1 mesmer. That said, they are still one of the better roamers. Its the same thing with thief. Is that a popular class? You meet one every other meter if you run alone, it must be popular… But really, its in little better shape than the mesmer.

In PvE, it doesnt really matter what you play. Warriors and guardians still rule dungeons.

In PvP, they are common in the lower brackets, incredibly rare and disliked on the higher end.

I just found it funny as I’ve recently been playing WvW and I keep noticing the abundance of mesmers. I think warriors come in close second, but I see a lot of mesmers and engineers now. Whether it’s in a party or a zerg im facing against, it’s always a bunch of mesmers xD

Not the least popular, but I’d be surprised if they’re more popular than warrior/guardian/thief.

I’d say somewhere in the middle.

Mesmers are the “late bloomers” of the game. The class lives and dies on its traits, probably more so than any other, before you get those trait points it is a fairly unforgiving and very weak class. For that reason, they were extremely unpopular at launch, turning most people away.

DrDivine.5378:

I just found it funny as I’ve recently been playing WvW and I keep noticing the abundance of mesmers. I think warriors come in close second, but I see a lot of mesmers and engineers now. Whether it’s in a party or a zerg im facing against, it’s always a bunch of mesmers xD

You mean a party of 5 consisting of 2 wars, 1 guard, 1 ele and 4 identical mesmers?

I’ve seen quite a few in early game areas but sometimes I’m usually the only one I see in late game areas. It’s not an easy class for many to wrap their head around and it’s a pain to level. It’s also a late bloomer. While leveling my warrior, I was about to do things at level 9 that my mesmer couldn’t dream of at 39. Now that both are level 80, my warrior sits by a node for daily collection while I solo champions on my mesmer for fun.

On a personal note, I found warriors to be boring. So much of their damage and abilities are direct that the class feels simple. That’s not a bad thing but I prefer something that always has me thinking. The mesmer does that for me.

Thothkepara.2539:

Mesmers are the “late bloomers” of the game. The class lives and dies on its traits, probably more so than any other, before you get those trait points it is a fairly unforgiving and very weak class. For that reason, they were extremely unpopular at launch, turning most people away.

Yeah I kinda experienced that, my mesmer was the first character I ever made and he was such a pain for me to level. Once I educated myself a little bit when it came to choosing talents and looking at builds, he became a lot of fun to play as.

Dawdler.8521:

DrDivine.5378:

I just found it funny as I’ve recently been playing WvW and I keep noticing the abundance of mesmers. I think warriors come in close second, but I see a lot of mesmers and engineers now. Whether it’s in a party or a zerg im facing against, it’s always a bunch of mesmers xD

You mean a party of 5 consisting of 2 wars, 1 guard, 1 ele and 4 identical mesmers?

Sometimes, this is going to sound strange, but I don’t see guardians in WvW as often as people imply. I see them a lot in PVE and dungeons, but in WVW I mostly encounter mesmers and engineers, warriors too.

Sound like you’ve had some rather lucky encounters in WvW. I mostly come up against Warriors, Guardians and more Warriors, even whilst roaming. I sometimes perceive that I’m seeing lots of Mesmers and Thieves (usually because they’re more memorable encounters), when really I’ve just spent most of my time wadding through hammer Warriors.

Simonoly.4352:

Sound like you’ve had some rather lucky encounters in WvW. I mostly come up against Warriors, Guardians and more Warriors, even whilst roaming. I sometimes perceive that I’m seeing lots of Mesmers and Thieves (usually because they’re more memorable encounters), when really I’ve just spent most of my time wadding through hammer Warriors.

It’s gotten bad, I started playing tonight and every PVP group has been a team of all mesmers for the past hour, no guardians in sight. Mesmers are flooded everywhere lol

in wvw u dont see that many mesmers in raids, but at least they are there in roaming.

DrDivine.5378:

Simonoly.4352:

Sound like you’ve had some rather lucky encounters in WvW. I mostly come up against Warriors, Guardians and more Warriors, even whilst roaming. I sometimes perceive that I’m seeing lots of Mesmers and Thieves (usually because they’re more memorable encounters), when really I’ve just spent most of my time wadding through hammer Warriors.

It’s gotten bad, I started playing tonight and every PVP group has been a team of all mesmers for the past hour, no guardians in sight. Mesmers are flooded everywhere lol

no i think u are trolling. right now mes has a major bug and is non viable vs thieves. i saw only very little mesmers today in eotm all i see is ele, war guard everywhere and a lot of engis. in spvp i see war, necro,engi and only few mesmers. idk what server u are playing on but i dont see those mesmers anywhere

Actually I always see a ton of mesmers in PvP matches.

Personally, mesmer was my first char and will always be my “first love” to a certain extent.. but I’m having a hard time going back to it in either PvP or WvW since I started playing engi.

i have to say among the least popular class. the least is engi i think.

azizul.8469:

i have to say among the least popular class. the least is engi i think.

well yeah engi and mesmers were bottom when they did a popularity count. highest were war, guard, ele

necro engi and mes were least played class

yeah.. sometimes i am the only mesmer around to do the golem portal chain when we do golem rush…wtf..lol

azizul.8469:

yeah.. sometimes i am the only mesmer around to do the golem portal chain when we do golem rush…wtf..lol

its kinda funny when commanders ask for mesmers to m up and u see 2m but 15-20w XD. very often i run with some commanders from different guilds and they have like no mesmers to portal their golems.

Certainly not. I wouldn’t put them in the top 50% easily, and I think an argument could be made that they aren’t even one of the top 6 most popular classes.

It’s probably something like:
Warrior
Guardian
Thief
Ele/Mesmer
Engi/Ranger
Necro

I don’t have any basis for this but that’s about what I see and that’s about how they line up for PVE/WvW usefulness which is where most of the population is. So yeah. Middle

ronpierce.2760:

It’s probably something like:
Warrior
Guardian
Thief
Ele/Mesmer
Engi/Ranger
Necro

I don’t have any basis for this but that’s about what I see and that’s about how they line up for PVE/WvW usefulness which is where most of the population is. So yeah. Middle

well in zergs its mainly
1war
2guard
3ele
4thief
5necro
6 mesmer/engi
7 ranger

^ yeah, but iirc pve population is > wvw so I was trying to consider both. Ranger may actually just be below necro, but necro has very very bad pve representation.

ronpierce.2760:

^ yeah, but iirc pve population is > wvw so I was trying to consider both. Ranger may actually just be below necro, but necro has very very bad pve representation.

they have very bad representation in wvw too as they suffer from the same issue like mes. tooo much depending on ai. mesmer is only there for veil/portal and tw

selan.8354:

ronpierce.2760:

^ yeah, but iirc pve population is > wvw so I was trying to consider both. Ranger may actually just be below necro, but necro has very very bad pve representation.

they have very bad representation in wvw too as they suffer from the same issue like mes. tooo much depending on ai. mesmer is only there for veil/portal and tw

That and a proper epidemic build has abysmal mobility just like a Mesmer.

I, for one, became Mesmer after being getting hit with the nerf-bat on a Thief over and over. The Mesmer is the closest match with that playstyle, you can still use all your knowledge of enemy classes, while not being hated and nerfed every patch, and still do incredible damage, tactics and escapes. A lot of thief friends did the same… that might be why?

They once released a popularity list, most played class. It’s a bit older but here you go:

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gw2.jpg

Xyonon.3987:

They once released a popularity list, most played class. It’s a bit older but here you go:

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gw2.jpg

oh yeah i was looking for this one, because when i saw it i was like wow mes is bottom.this should tell anet something……just saying

As i’ll agree with what’s already been said, the new EotM map with all the edges, i’ve seen a spike in GS mesmers, also Fear necros, scorpion wire thieves, pretty much any knock back build…

“Mesmers are masters of illusion and control, subverting the enemy’s Energy for their own use, and that of their allies. Combined with any other profession, their skills provide excellent support, turning enemies’ powers against them and changing the very fabric of reality to hinder foes and help allies. Mesmers have the ability to cast spells quickly, which can make all the difference in the heat of battle. Their powers of domination allow them to take control of enemy skills and Energy. Their unique illusionary talents can slow or even halt enemy movement and skill casting, or cause imaginary illnesses that drain Health and Energy from foes while healing and energizing allies. While Mesmers are not known for brute strength, their ability to confuse, distract, and drain the enemy’s resources more than compensates.”

Oh man, I can still remember reading those lines when I bought “Guild Wars Factions” and I started right away with the idea of a melee mesmer. 3 campains later I had a solid build using illusionof weapons, Illusion of weakness, flurry and distortion. I was SO happy to see the reality bending Mage return to GW2.

The fact that he could use a sword by design made it so much better. I can still remember the first two month when literally no one knew how to fight a mesmer and I could beat everyone exept thieves (lost every single fight). After 2 months I counted 4 non-thieves that could beat me 1v1 (played WvW roaming mainly and half of them were other mesmers). And then came the hard times when People started to notice the moving mesmer between the clones and the bunker builds came and people l2p’d and the trolling came to an end.

And yet I found other fun things, actually I got away to define my playstile to be the total beater-build and just focussed on the things that were fun. Especially with most of the Players seemed to just take the most effective build from the Internet I ended up using stuff that was rightout despised by other players. Heck, I use Celestial stats, Inquest-Golem-Runes, a torch, the “descent into madness” trait and “Take Root”. And guess what, its a ton of fun and right now I got 1.4k hours on my Mes alone with 1.8k total.

And this I think is the mesmers main Problem. Ist a class that plots in the Background, that deceives and values its ressources, that needs time and effort to learn and even with mastery cant compete with warriors PvE-damage-wise. Right now Mesmer are played by players mostly because they love the class or focus on WvWvW.

With the game focussing so much on reward, people try to min-max. its more of a calculation instead of a gut decision. There is not so much flavor to the classes as in GW1 where you had your Mentor and your Special Missions depending on class, that it was cool to be busy with your necro stuff. All you can really relate to right now, is your personal preferences from outside the game and the experience wether youre successful with the class in your first 30 minutes.

The mot effective way in many cases is the simple way. And you can do make people do the most unfun or boring things if it makes them win. On the other Hand its a good to have the game being beginner-friendly. So it Comes down to the Mesmer being an advanced class mostly for players that either have the passion to learn the class head on or after they played an easyer class first.

i find it hard to convince new players i know to play mesmer. most of them either roll a guardian or a warrior or a thief, and well probably ranger.

my guild has around 20-30 active players, only 1 or 2 actively playing mesmer, including me.

azizul.8469:

i find it hard to convince new players i know to play mesmer. most of them either roll a guardian or a warrior or a thief, and well probably ranger.

my guild has around 20-30 active players, only 1 or 2 actively playing mesmer, including me.

yep in my old guild we used to have mainly mesmers. after all the nerfs lots of them stopped playing the game and in my new guild we got like 2 people sharing the veilbot duty. its kinda weird but im happy when i can switch to my necro and enjoy the lootbags and feel strong with my aoe.
everyone else plays mostly guard and warrior and then we got ele and necro, but 80% is heavies.
no rangers
1 engi
a few thieves

Curunen.8729:

Not the least popular, but I’d be surprised if they’re more popular than warrior/guardian/thief.

I’d say somewhere in the middle.

No, all three of those are much more popular.

You see a lot in early zones but folks reroll about halfway through the leveling curve. Mesmer is near the bottom of played classes, iirc.

Xyonon.3987:

They once released a popularity list, most played class. It’s a bit older but here you go:

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gw2.jpg

It is the least played class in that list, along with necro.

Sylv.5324:

Curunen.8729:

Not the least popular, but I’d be surprised if they’re more popular than warrior/guardian/thief.

I’d say somewhere in the middle.

No, all three of those are much more popular.

You see a lot in early zones but folks reroll about halfway through the leveling curve. Mesmer is near the bottom of played classes, iirc.

Er, that’s what I said – guardian warrior and thief are more popular.

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

Seems like there’s almost four times as many mesmers as there actually are.

Curunen.8729:

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

Overall? Not really. Well maybe engies. Rangers are still popular among the randoms in WvW and in general PvE, necros are definetly more common in WvW.

The things is, people that cannot endure the class quirks will move to another. Personally I’m thinking of abandoning my Mesmer every bloody night because of poor weapon choices in guild groups. Pick the sword, I cant really go effective damage (not in an elite guild, major differences in what you can do aggresivly), pick the gs, I suffer horrid targeting issues and pretty random performance (I think everyone knows what I’m talking about when you consider the Guardian staff :/ ).

What, people expect me to run around with my beer mug focus on full glamours, kindly dropping things on our glorious leaders request while completely gimping myself? “Veilbot drop here”, “Pullbot pull that”. Blind this, blind that, timewarp, nullfield, feedback, reflect everything, blargh! Even when we run with nearly 40 peeps on commander its often only 1-2 Mesmers (me included) and there’s only so much you can trait. Sometimes I even laugh a little inside at commanders seemingly expecting every mesmer to have portal ready in the middle of combat (just… what… ugh…).

It’s a tiring profession. Which is I’ve recently gone PU backline skirmisher alot even in guild groups. Yes, yes, I’m a horrible person and a bad Mesmer.

Dawdler.8521:

Curunen.8729:

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

Overall? Not really. Well maybe engies. Rangers are still popular among the randoms in WvW and in general PvE, necros are definetly more common in WvW.

The things is, people that cannot endure the class quirks will move to another. Personally I’m thinking of abandoning my Mesmer every bloody night because of poor weapon choices in guild groups. Pick the sword, I cant really go effective damage (not in an elite guild, major differences in what you can do aggresivly), pick the gs, I suffer horrid targeting issues and pretty random performance (I think everyone knows what I’m talking about when you consider the Guardian staff :/ ).

What, people expect me to run around with my beer mug focus on full glamours, kindly dropping things on our glorious leaders request while completely gimping myself? “Veilbot drop here”, “Pullbot pull that”. Blind this, blind that, timewarp, nullfield, feedback, reflect everything, blargh! Even when we run with nearly 40 peeps on commander its often only 1-2 Mesmers (me included) and there’s only so much you can trait. Sometimes I even laugh a little inside at commanders seemingly expecting every mesmer to have portal ready in the middle of combat (just… what… ugh…).

It’s a tiring profession. Which is I’ve recently gone PU backline skirmisher alot even in guild groups. Yes, yes, I’m a horrible person and a bad Mesmer.

Stole the words right out if my keyboard lol!

I have commanders that are so ignorant sometimes it’s laughabl.
“reflects feed back here on their back line! "
" their stacking throw down your null field to get rid of their might!"
“I need a veil here in 3….2….1…”
“MESMER! we need that PORTAL NOW!”
(but…. I don’t have a 4th utility slot :-( )

Sometimes, just to be cruel, when a commander asks for Mesmer portals for their golem train, I just stand there and watch the golems move inch by inch.

Dawdler.8521:

Curunen.8729:

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

Overall? Not really. Well maybe engies. Rangers are still popular among the randoms in WvW and in general PvE, necros are definetly more common in WvW.

The things is, people that cannot endure the class quirks will move to another. Personally I’m thinking of abandoning my Mesmer every bloody night because of poor weapon choices in guild groups. Pick the sword, I cant really go effective damage (not in an elite guild, major differences in what you can do aggresivly), pick the gs, I suffer horrid targeting issues and pretty random performance (I think everyone knows what I’m talking about when you consider the Guardian staff :/ ).

What, people expect me to run around with my beer mug focus on full glamours, kindly dropping things on our glorious leaders request while completely gimping myself? “Veilbot drop here”, “Pullbot pull that”. Blind this, blind that, timewarp, nullfield, feedback, reflect everything, blargh! Even when we run with nearly 40 peeps on commander its often only 1-2 Mesmers (me included) and there’s only so much you can trait. Sometimes I even laugh a little inside at commanders seemingly expecting every mesmer to have portal ready in the middle of combat (just… what… ugh…).

It’s a tiring profession. Which is I’ve recently gone PU backline skirmisher alot even in guild groups. Yes, yes, I’m a horrible person and a bad Mesmer.

i experience the exact same frustration.
they want me to run focus, but i prefer torch as i can trait it to remove condis and pu power backline makes me at least survive. but its always pull them, tw now, veivielveilveil (well its kinda hard to veil at the perfect time as i a have to be right next to commander which means i am right in the front and b it has to be cast right away which is ometimes hard if im just silghtly behind or dont react quick enough.) then the want feedback and i am allowed to have blink.
and then they want me to portal? so i have to run out of combat and get a portal that cripples my defenses even more because veil still on cd and feedback too so i have to replace blink.
so they want me to trait for glamours , use pulls and have only blink to get me out of trouble and of course tw. so that leaves me with very little build variety and defenses.
so i went power pu and nope i dont use feedback and only equip focus if we are attacking a tower or keep where i have to pull people down.
im tired of this!

LumAnth.5124:

Dawdler.8521:

Curunen.8729:

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

Overall? Not really. Well maybe engies. Rangers are still popular among the randoms in WvW and in general PvE, necros are definetly more common in WvW.

The things is, people that cannot endure the class quirks will move to another. Personally I’m thinking of abandoning my Mesmer every bloody night because of poor weapon choices in guild groups. Pick the sword, I cant really go effective damage (not in an elite guild, major differences in what you can do aggresivly), pick the gs, I suffer horrid targeting issues and pretty random performance (I think everyone knows what I’m talking about when you consider the Guardian staff :/ ).

What, people expect me to run around with my beer mug focus on full glamours, kindly dropping things on our glorious leaders request while completely gimping myself? “Veilbot drop here”, “Pullbot pull that”. Blind this, blind that, timewarp, nullfield, feedback, reflect everything, blargh! Even when we run with nearly 40 peeps on commander its often only 1-2 Mesmers (me included) and there’s only so much you can trait. Sometimes I even laugh a little inside at commanders seemingly expecting every mesmer to have portal ready in the middle of combat (just… what… ugh…).

It’s a tiring profession. Which is I’ve recently gone PU backline skirmisher alot even in guild groups. Yes, yes, I’m a horrible person and a bad Mesmer.

Stole the words right out if my keyboard lol!

I have commanders that are so ignorant sometimes it’s laughabl.
“reflects feed back here on their back line! "
" their stacking throw down your null field to get rid of their might!"
“I need a veil here in 3….2….1…”
“MESMER! we need that PORTAL NOW!”
(but…. I don’t have a 4th utility slot :-( )

Sometimes, just to be cruel, when a commander asks for Mesmer portals for their golem train, I just stand there and watch the golems move inch by inch.

when ever they wanna golemrush i swap to my necro. portal your stupid golems by yourself, oh u cant do that with your warrior, well thats too bad!

The main reason you see so many mesmers now is that PU is fotm for roaming. Probably all those ex-permastealth thiefs.