Guild Wars 2

3x Ascended
2x Whisper Blade
1x Hood of Grenth

… what are your thoughts about the look?

Wasn’t too keen on the Ascended look myself, but think that this works rather well.

I’m never a big fan of costumes that rely on highly popularized store-bought pieces.

looks like a thief.

Ascended armour looks bad unless it’s dyed properly. Yours is not.

Not bad at all… dig the darker look w/ Grenth hood. I agree that its very thief-like, but the whisperblades keep it looking more ethereal and mesmery.

Are you going for the backpiece too?

Why all the nasty responses? I think it looks pretty cool.

And I often think of mesmers as “caster thieves”.

Looks frightful. In a fantastic kind of way. Not something I would like to encounter in a dark alley.
Btw, I couldn’t help noticing your sick keybinding. What do you use the buttons 2,3,4,5 for ?

I like thief looks but I honestly wish that we could have that Order of Whispers MALE medium hood on all classes and characters xP that would be great. It’s the best hood everrr

I like it a lot, although personally I would add just a splash of purple somewhere in your armor to match your weapons. But that’s just me.

Soooo jealous of your swords lol

Dunno why the first few comments are so negative…the Mesmer community is usually really awesome.

Edit
I totally agree with Qaelyn! When I think of Mesmers I either think of “ninja casters” like Marsares’ image or I think of “nobility casters” like GW1.

Tbh, Hood of Grenth should always be reserved for a necromancer. It just doesn’t fit the mesmer theme of light colours and illusions. (and butterflies).

Wolvenheart.9681:

Tbh, Hood of Grenth should always be reserved for a necromancer. It just doesn’t fit the mesmer theme of light colours and illusions. (and butterflies).

I’d have to politely disagree.

One of the reasons that I love GW2 so much is that it tried to steer away from many MMO conventions. It hasn’t always been able to achieve its ambitions, but in many other areas it has been successful.

It managed to break largely the holy trinity of tank, damage dealer, healer. It has weapons that can be seen as an archetype for a class, yet can be used by other classes (i.e. I’ve seen various warriors run around with a Vision of the Mists). It has sources of damage that could be archetypical for a class, yet can be applied as well or even better by other classes (i.e. confusion and engineers/thieves). And it has gear that is split up by light/medium/heavy armour, rather than by class, indicating that Anet actually wants you to mix/match armour of various classes.

Although the Mesmer on the Anet website is portrayed with light purple colours and butterflies, this does not mean that there is one archetype for the class. Like some others said, to me it has always been an aristocratic type caster (hence why my previous look was just that) or a ninja-type caster (hence why my new look is dark and menacing).

Not to mention that the main purpose of a Mesmer is to mesmerize and confuse. As somebody in the “Show us your Mesmer” thread replied to my post:

Guardian.5142:

You did pretty well with it too. When I think about what makes the mesmer awesome, I think about deception and giving folks the “wrong impression” as part of the main class “theme”. When I see the Grenth hood, I think necro. When I see the dual swords I think thief/warrior. When your enemy finally prevails in a hard fought battle only to see you burst into a cloud of butterflies, a sword through their back will remind them never to trust a mesmer.

Well done.

The colours are still a work in progress and don’t show as well in the screenshot as I used Abyss, Graphite and Mithril colours. I tried mixing in some purple but it didn’t quite work, although I’ll have another play.

Soulseek.2867:

Btw, I couldn’t help noticing your sick keybinding. What do you use the buttons 2,3,4,5 for ?

ESDF is or movement (forward, backward, strafing), all the action buttons are located around it so I can basically do everything with my left hand. 1 is the elite, F1-4 are shatters. I don’t really use 2-0 for anything. It’s just the way it evolved over 20 years of MUD, RPG, FPS and MMORPG. ;-)

So you use your pinky when using skills? haha tried it feels hard..

Marsares.2053:

Wolvenheart.9681:

Tbh, Hood of Grenth should always be reserved for a necromancer. It just doesn’t fit the mesmer theme of light colours and illusions. (and butterflies).

I’d have to politely disagree.

“Lore-wise”, Grenth is just about the most un-Mesmer thing in the Guild Wars universe.

I think it looks very cool from a visual standpoint. I was surprised to see negative responses – this tends to be a very friendly forum.

From a lore or backstory approach, I think people can come up with whatever they want. Perhaps this character realizes the power of illusions and vows to center himself on reality while inflicting the harm and chaos of illusions on others. Perhaps he chooses to wear black to represent that the world is always in the mind of the beholder.