Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow players and devs. Today I want to talk about the iconic insect that represents this class.

First I want to speak about the idea behind the class, the college of denial. In the original GW, the mesmer was a denying kitten that didn’t let you do anything without suffering.
In GW2, the mesmer tries to fit in that theme with the clones and phantasms, denying the enemies’ attacks by letting them hit the illusions and even being able to punish the enemy for killing them.

I love the concept behind this, the mesmer is some kind of trickster. I can see a norn mesmer filling the role of Loki or something like that. The only problem, for me at least, are the butterflies.

I’m not against the class color, it’s the traditional one form GW1. I’m just against the kitten fluffy insects. It’d be great that the mesmer had the alternative to leave some other illusion trail, like purple broken glass, or just purple-whitish dots of energy. I’d buy that for gems or w/e.

I love my main class (mesmer) but I’m just getting sick of the butterflies…

just saying…

I love the butterflies. They’re beautiful and fragile (like our illusions) and they serve as a subtle taunt to enemies who spend time destroying our clones.

Float like a bumblebee and sting like a butterfly.

Sorry but I enjoy it so I am not asking them to change it.

Drunken Mad King.8193:

Float like a bumblebee and sting like a butterfly.

Sorry but I enjoy it so I am not asking them to change it.

Not to change them for everyone, just to give people an option. It’d be great that they let you choose at the beginning, it’d be more significative than a mask that will last just a couple of levels.

DEATH BY BUTTERFLIES = win

Nobody ever suspects the butterfly

Butterflies can be thought of as rather dark and creepy as well. After all, they will eat rotting corpses and a few are actually carnivorous! Weird but true! Check it out….here’s a couple of links

http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/butterflies/butterflies-eat.html

http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Strange%20but%20true.htm

I LOVE the butterflies! I don’t want them removed. In fact, I want to farm for the legendary staff so I can have rainbows and butterflies too haha. My only regret is that I made a big bulky norn. I wish I had made a Sylvari instead because they have culture gear that would look appropriate. I know it sounds a bit effeminate, but how degrading is it to get your kitten owned by rainbows and butterflies hahaha.

I like the butterflies. >.>

We really need something legendary related to butterflies.
Everyone should like butterflies.

Ok, it seems I’m the only one. I’ll go to my corner and I’ll start crying…

I would prefer a more manly animal, like Bears.

I agree with OP. It would be neat to be able to choose what is left behind from a limited set of options.

I like both the ideas that were brought up. Allow the player to choose at character creation and/or have this an option in the gem store. Maybe both, with more options for purchase in the gem store.

I want some ravens or something

How about the option to change the color of the butterflies? I quite like them and the sound they make but can imagine that they are not particularly fitting for some characters. At least those could make them a more manly color like black…

Aye, give is cosmetic changes to each class via the gem system.
Maybe let us choose what we shatter into like how you would choose a guild logo.

While I love the butterflies (they fit my sylvari amazingly well) I’d love to change it to something else. Leaves or something

Rannug.2731:

How about the option to change the color of the butterflies? I quite like them and the sound they make but can imagine that they are not particularly fitting for some characters. At least those could make them a more manly color like black…

I don’t know if it’d be good for us to choose the color of the shatter remains, because other classes need to know what’s happening. It totally should keep the purplish tone. But ravens, leaves, energy dots, broken glass… all of those sound great, I’m just sick of butterflies!
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Death by pink, mushroom headed butterfly = win

The butterflies are a metaphor for transformation, that’s what makes it cool.

The butterflies are a reference to the butterfly effect, a concept in chaos theory. We do have skills that produce random effects and a trait line named “Chaos,” after all.

I love the butterflies.

Anyone asking for them to be replaced by bears should wind up with dancing teddy bears or something.

A reference to Bear String theory, obviously.

I agree, down with the butterflies.

Kasama.8941:

The butterflies are a metaphor for transformation, that’s what makes it cool.

Don’t forget, butterflies are also masters of illusions! It should totally be tigers though , instead of bears, stripes make you look bigger..

This sums the Mesmer class
“Muhammed ali – Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzQqqn-rVc

Telsyr.8723:

Kasama.8941:

The butterflies are a metaphor for transformation, that’s what makes it cool.

Don’t forget, butterflies are also masters of illusions! It should totally be tigers though , instead of bears, stripes make you look bigger..

There are other animals that does illusion a lot better, though.

Ludovicus.7980:

Drunken Mad King.8193:

Float like a bumblebee and sting like a butterfly.

Sorry but I enjoy it so I am not asking them to change it.

Not to change them for everyone, just to give people an option. It’d be great that they let you choose at the beginning, it’d be more significative than a mask that will last just a couple of levels.

My necromancer mask lasted all the way to level 80! I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!!#!!#!@!

And I like the butterflies as well. Something so innocent that kills your opponent and flies away into thin air like nothing happened.

The Gem Shop opens the door for a lot of different effects that could be added to the game. In fact, to make those additions just client side would make them an easy addition that doesn’t affect other modes of the game in a negative fashion.

Yeah, they could easily make those butterflies be bats for me, or rats, and my particle effects be orange and green, and everyone else would still see butterflies. Would also help me tons in PvP for allowing me to see where my effects were versus my opponents (who would still be just the normal particle effects and colors).

The colors on (at least the blue morpho, probably others) butterflies’ wings are not pigment, but nanoscale structures that refract particular frequencies of light only from particular angles.

In other words: masters of illusion.

Also, butterflies are almost certainly a reference to the “butterfly effect” from chaos theory.

Butterflies flies from flower to flower, just like a mesmer do with enemies.

The butterfly can mimicry. So are mesmer (more directly in GW1)

We get butterfly in our stomach because of excitement and nervousness, which we can imagine is the feeling of people when facing a mesmer. Also well known mesmers were actors (Althea and Norgu for example) and having butterfly in the stomach before an act is very common.

The Butterfly Effect is part of chaos theory. The example in the theory is a butterfly flapping its wing on one side of the earth causing a hurricane on the other side. Mesmer do that in combat (more so in GW1). Little effect that seem meaningless at first but has great impact on turning of event. Interrupting a spell in GW1 could lead to a complete change of battle for example.

Butterflies can metamorphose, which still fit with acting and could also be represented by mesmer wearing masks.

Butterfly is named Psyche in old greek, which is also the word for Mind

Butterflies often represent freedom and Mesmer is one of the more “free” profession by being able to go to front, middle and back line with more ease than other (more so in GW1 since now everyone can)

Butterflies always seems to fly in a chaotic way and it’s very hard to tell where they will go or what they will do. You often only find out at the last moment, like with mesmer.

Butterflies have often been source of inspiration.

There’s probably more.

I <3 the butterflies.

Personally, I love the purple/butterfly motif. Alot.

I’ve made some alts now that I’ve hit 80, and I never actually play them because A: They don’t get the fun skills like timewarp and null field, and meatshield generation skill #whatever, and B: No visual effects that compare to shatter/butterflies.

Portal is especially nice for this.