Guild Wars 2

1-40 weak. 40-80 strong, high end easy find party,one of the best utility skill in game for group suport. very strong solo, a lot of group event champions can kill alone

New player, recently hit lvl80 with a staff mesmer, here are my general thoughts:

Solo 1v1 PvE is SLOW! As a Warrior you hit “2” and random mobs just die, I had to wait for 5-10s remaining cooldowns on my staff. Now at lvl80 at least the “flow” has improved, things live a little longer so you don’t notice the cooldowns as much.

You’ll have problems tagging things in mass events (painfully slow projectiles) and deal pitiful damage to objects/structures, though a GS power build suffers neither of these.

Veterans/Champions will murder you pre lvl30 or so (all the good traits require 20+ points), as will anything with reliable AoE. At lvl80 I can solo most open world enemies easily, the main exception so far being the Champion Krait in Sparkfly Fen.

I feel I have no reliable condition removal for dungeon speedruns, Null Field just isn’t enough for things like TA. Plenty of support and mobility though, and staying alive in a straight fight is pretty easy.

Phase Retreat is a blessing and a curse. It’s a spammable clone gen and teleport and works while rooted and often gives Chaos Armor, but it will also stick you in a wall in TA while your group dies to champions, unable to do anything but watch.

In general I love the possibilities and all the activity during fights, and I for one find it more satisfying to kill things by combining a dozen minor effects over hitting them with a really big sword. One personal problem: lag will get you killed. instantly. all. the. time.

Old player, I’ve been playing a mesmer since BWE1.

Mesmers are excellent in PvE at every level, but you need to be awake to survive. What you don’t have are the high numbers of other classes. You can’t take hits like a heavy, and you don’t dish it out like a thief or warrior, and you’re not very mobile. What you do have is access to amazing tools, which makes up for everything else.

I highly recommend mesmer as a first profession, because it will teach you how to use everything in the game to your advantage.

drongas.4189:

1-40 weak. 40-80 strong, high end easy find party,one of the best utility skill in game for group suport. very strong solo, a lot of group event champions can kill alone

+1 – this sums it up.

Levelling is hard work, but about level 70 the game changed around me and I was like, “Wow, all this stuff in Orr is just exploding.”

It’s a strong class with a lot of versatility. There are classes with better strengths – Eles have better AoE, Warriors higher DPS, etc. – but you’re never going to feel weak or unwanted. You will be hard to kill and can complete a lot of content other classes might find hard.

Depends on stats and traits and how you play. I have knights armor with berserker accessory and gs + sword/pistol (with superior sigil of air on swords and bloodthirst on pistol) and mantra’s. i can burst down most enemies in Orr in a matter of seconds.

Mesmers are duelists, so they do excel in 1v1.

It requires work in PvE to down enemies sometimes, esp in Orr. But I find in dungeons they are one of the best classes to have with you. I dropped chaos storm on top of me with chaos armor got hit several times (intentionally) by mobs to proc boons (which i have a bonus of 80% increased duration) and then signet of inspiration and transfered all those boons to my team without putting them in the line of fire. We have amazing dungeon survivability, and portal and time warp are one of the most sought after utils in any dungeon run.

I solo’d the grawl shaman final boss in the grawl fractal level 16 after party wipe – and I can solo most bosses in arah (even lupis if i really really focus on it).

Overall, I would say roaming solo and hitting mobs out on maps are not as good as other classes – support, burst, and pvp ends mesmers are second to none – even after the confusion nerf.

Photoloss.4817:

New player, recently hit lvl80 with a staff mesmer, here are my general thoughts:

Solo 1v1 PvE is SLOW! As a Warrior you hit “2” and random mobs just die, I had to wait for 5-10s remaining cooldowns on my staff.

Depends on what you compare with. I can tell you that my Mesmer with staff/sword/focus having similar stats to my Warrior with axe/warhorn/longbow (both bunker WvW built) is considerably more flexible in combat than the Warrior and kills Orr mobs about as fast (faster if the phantasms behave). Comparing a staff Mesmer with a greatsword Warrior is silly even with the same build. A full berserker greatsword Mesmer will plow down Orr mobs before a 100b Warrior has even reached them to start his channel.

Leveling is just a PITA. Especially until lvl 15, and then up to 40.
Things gets much much smoother with master traits and hen at 60 with grandmasters.

If there’s 1 thing i have to say to any profession newbie: Traits are what make or break your mes build. No mistakes allowed.

For leveling, Staff/GS + Sword/Focus pretty much allow you to cruise w/o issues.

Mesmers take a lot of skill to manage throughout dungeons and fractals but they are extremely strong and rewarding if played right, they really bleed synergy with combined with are profession skills. I’ve been running a full Zerg Mesmer with a little above 16k & I’m always fascinated at the stuff I can pull off, my point that the constant sense of awe this profession give you is just amazing.

The issue that we are too trait-dependent is sadly very real. Many of our skills are very strong with the corresponding traits, but too weak without them.

Pve, I love my mes more than any other class. Between clones taking hits for me, and the 3% less damage for every clone out, I needed very little “tank” gear leveling up which let me do quite a bit more damage than my other characters of similar level.

More damage = faster kills.

I also love that with shatter I only need to kill a mob to about 33%, then hit f1 to win. The clones are all going to die in a few seconds anyway, might as well pop em.

Despite the lack of aoe damage, mesmers are still good in pve because they can be more glass canon than other profession without sacrificing survivability, thanks to clones and utilities.

In pve I run greatsword(bloodlust sigil), sword/sword (generosity and fire sigils), full berserker armor, weapons and rings/accessories. Runes are divinity. Amulet and back are soldier and traits are 0/0/20/20/30 (Cause I run a WvW build and I’m lazy to change traits anytime I go pve XD). This lasts things give me the little survivability I need.
Damage? iBerserker deals 2,5k-3,5k, iSworman 1,5k-3k, greatsword autoattack 1100…

Even with this build I survive more than some guardians or warriors. You just need to know how to move and coordinate blink, evasions, distorsion, sword block, blurred frenzy…

I’ve been leveling a mesmer (started last week), and I’ve just reached level 20. I’m finding that using the following pattern, I can kill most mobs and veterans solo:
Focus 5 -> Focus 4 on warden -> Sword 3 on curtain (retaliation) ->; Sword 3 again (more retaliation) -> Sword 2 -> Swap -> Staff 5 -> Mind Wrack -> Staff 3 -> Staff 2 -> Staff 4 -> Swap -> Repeat as cooldown allows, with some more shatters as you generate too many clones or they get killed

Obviously, there are other things to consider, like the use of Null Field and Feedback, or using Signet of Inspiration to copy your boons to nearby friendlies, but it’s been pretty cakewalk, and I haven’t even been keeping up with having level appropriate gear.

Granted, when my warrior was level 20, I didn’t have to swap or use all of my weapon skills to kill everything in the room. =/