Guild Wars 2

Im getting laughed at by people saying Mesmers can’t tank in pvp/wvw when they’re one of the best, they say im noob, I say in pvp memsers can tank way better then warriors, i get called a noob.

Back me up people? Arn’t mesmers good at tanking or am i seeing things?

(Link will be shown to my naysaying friends)

Mesmers can be really hard to take down. Or not, up to how you want to play.

mesmers aren’t good at tanking, they are good at surviving.

big difference

how so though? like for instance in gw1 i ran a (for pve) w/mo protection spec.

He tanked from not getting hit also? Almost all tanks in all games have blocking / dodging skills, its still taking damage, the difference is more semantics imo.

Whilst I agree that Mesmers can be tanks I don’t think that they should be. Mesmers are great at surviving, as said by a previous poster. There have been many times where my entire party was wiped out except for myself and I had to try to revive them whilst fending off invaders. Decoy and Feedback are the best Mesmer skills (IMO) and they never leave my skillbar. They have saved my kitten multiple times.

Yes Mesmers can be tanks, but their skills are more suited else where.

They don’t take damage well, but they’re really kitten good at not taking damage.

Blissified.8369:

how so though? like for instance in gw1 i ran a (for pve) w/mo protection spec.

He tanked from not getting hit also? Almost all tanks in all games have blocking / dodging skills, its still taking damage, the difference is more semantics imo.

There are three traits that makes phantasms grant regen, another that gives you protection whenever you get regen, and the third that grants 3% less damage for every illusion on the field. If you summon a duelist, you get constant regen, and as a result almost constant protection. Then you summon a defender, which lowers the damage you take by 50%. If you put on a signet of illusion and the trait that grants 20% more health to phantasms they will take quite a few hits before dying, however it is not completely reliable since on some occasions the trait and signet will cancel each other out and make the phantasms die in two hits.

The traditional mmo-ish definition of a “tank” is someone who keeps the attention of enemies on himself while building to mitigate as much damage as possible, to the benefit of his team. Just having really good survivability isn’t the same as tanking; you have to be actively keeping people alive as well.

I could kind of see calling a Mesmer a tank, albeit a bit more indirectly than the usual tanking strategy. If you ever played FFXI, I tend to think of clones as Utsusemi from the Ninja class; They show up, absorb a hit, and then bugger off. If you’ve never played FFXI, you probably don’t know what the hell the crazy person on the forum is talking about.

Arcain.9106:

Whilst I agree that Mesmers can be tanks I don’t think that they should be. Mesmers are great at surviving, as said by a previous poster. There have been many times where my entire party was wiped out except for myself and I had to try to revive them whilst fending off invaders. Decoy and Feedback are the best Mesmer skills (IMO) and they never leave my skillbar. They have saved my kitten multiple times.

Yes Mesmers can be tanks, but their skills are more suited else where.

TC/Iw/Warden/BF/IL/BP

With sword/focus and gs. 6 out of 10 skills are tank/cc skills. Which is higher then any other class Ive seen.

Also with utilities SoI, SoM, MoD,MoC, Nf, Fb,AT, M,PD,b. All of those do great for tanking and some others to but those are the main ones.

With traits their to many for me to put down, dont wanna wast all that time.

Point is we got massive amount of tank/cc skills.

So no their is no better way to build a mez.

Well I dont think any build is better then any other anyway, just depends on how you use it.

Also Mez got 2 major tank builds a tank/cc and a tank/cd and both are truly epic.

If the Trinity is truly dead, then the point is moot anyway. Because there is not “supposed” to be a class that tanks “the best.”

But honestly, in the dungeons that I’ve done, I’ve observed my clones and other classes’ pets do the most successful tanking in terms of taking the hits that the team members can’t afford to take.

And what we’ve learned so far is the best way not to take damage is not get hit.

Think outside the three-sided box people!!

Well the trinity isn’t dead, every character just has a part of the trinity and can choose which part to focus on more.
In a party there will always be a best healer, best tank, best dps character.
But there will not be a healer, tank or dps character by it’s self.

The trinity stems from the fact that these are fundamental needs for this kind of game.
It’s all about having your health bar outlast the opponents. That’s done by avoiding damage, soaking up damage, dealing damage faster, healing your damage.
In case of mesmer it’s mainly avoiding damage due to fast mobility, clone distraction, boons.

Yeah, I’ve been playing a tanky build since I got to 80, and it’s a blast. Good luck trying to hit me, but if you do my toughness is +1700 so it’s not going to hurt that much. Plus my condition dmg is +1300, so I can bring the pain too.

Class is a blast to play.

Harbinger.8637:

Yeah, I’ve been playing a tanky build since I got to 80, and it’s a blast. Good luck trying to hit me, but if you do my toughness is +1700 so it’s not going to hurt that much. Plus my condition dmg is +1300, so I can bring the pain too.

Class is a blast to play.

A little off topic, but 1700 toughness is nothing. I have 1800+ on my glass cannon. 3000+ in any star is considered high. 2500 or so is a moderate amount.

Can anyone share their tank build? I’ve been running a glass cannon for the last few weeks.

Mere Image.8376:

Harbinger.8637:

Yeah, I’ve been playing a tanky build since I got to 80, and it’s a blast. Good luck trying to hit me, but if you do my toughness is +1700 so it’s not going to hurt that much. Plus my condition dmg is +1300, so I can bring the pain too.

Class is a blast to play.

A little off topic, but 1700 toughness is nothing. I have 1800+ on my glass cannon. 3000+ in any star is considered high. 2500 or so is a moderate amount.

Do you mean toughness or armor? Cause i have no idea how someone would get 3000T , even with T trait, weapons, armor, trinkets, runes, … perhaps i am missing something

Mere Image.8376:

Can anyone share their tank build? I’ve been running a glass cannon for the last few weeks.

There are a bunch, but this is what I run:

Staff and Sword/Sword

Dueling 20
Desperate Decoy
Deceptive Evasion

Chaos 30
Illusionary Defense
Debilitating Dissipation
Chaotic Dampening

Illusions 20
Compounding Power
Illusionary Elasticity

Then my stats, and also a video if you want to see it in action.

@Harbinger

Very nice.

What Armour, Runes, Weapons, Sigils, Jewelery are you using?

I think the definition of tank and what you’re doing in pvp should be redefined to using bunker build in pvp. Yes, Mesmer is absolutely amazing at it. 2256 is the max amount of toughness a Mesmer can stack though.

tanking is not the same as avoiding damage.

warriors and guardians have natural strong defenses, they take less damage by reducing it through armor.

mesmer have much lower natural defenses, they take less damage by avoiding it through the different mechanisms they have.

@ Xavi

Gear is all Khibron (Precision/Toughness/Condition)
Sigil of Rage
Two rings and the amulet are Knight
Earring one Rampager and Krarka shell
Weapons are Power/Precision/Condition
Runes are x6 of the Undead. I did just upgrade to x6 Divinity so I have to try those out.