Guild Wars 2

I’ve been a mesmer fan since GW1 and i really want to enjoy this class but i just can’t seem to.

I’ve leveled 2 mesmers now, i got the first to level 31 then deleted it after a run of AC story mode as i felt like i wasn’t enjoying it. I felt like i didn’t bring much to the party, like i was redundant and everything i could do other classes could do much better and in a less clunky fashion i.e. elementalists being able to AoE daze on multiple weapon sets that doesn’t have to be traited or have a shatter delay.

Aside from feedback, null field and chaos storm i didn’t feel like the utility i had was enough. When i’d used those abilities and they were on cool down what else would i be doing? Summoning clones/phantasms then shattering them over and over – oh and auto attacking. So i deleted it.

So after re-rolling i got to level 66 on an elementalist and loved it, but i wanted to be a mesmer. They were my favourite class in GW1, i love their concept and basically everything about them… except for how they play…

I’m currently level 45 on my new mesmer and i’m enjoying it, but every time i go into a PvE instance i become really bored yet again.

I feel like because of shattering the mesmer has been limited a huge amount, to the point where no matter how i build my character it still plays the same. I tried a phantasm build and i got bored really quickly as all i was doing was summoning my phantasms and watching them attack and not really having an active role in combat, shattering them, resummoning them… snooze.

Playing a shattering build is equally as boring!

Can anyone enlighten me – am i missing something? Is this really how a mesmer plays in Dungeon PvE?

Elementalist’s can’t AoE daze on multiple weapon sets. They have one skill in their entire arsenal that can Daze and it does so on a delay of a few seconds.

As for dungeons, I’ve only done them on my Ele. My Mesmer is 32 and I haven’t done AC yet. But I am enjoying the class. It is simpler than Ele but that doesn’t take the fun away at all for me. As for Shatter limiting the class, I disagree. Mesmer’s can do a lot for a group for starters, but Shatters are the class mechanic, like Ele’s have attunements. Every class has a few class specific mechanics that " limit" them to a certain extent but I don’t think it’s limiting the classes as much as it’s helping to define their playstyle. If you don’t enjoy the mechanic that’s fine, you can try another profession. But they will all be similar in that they have a specific feel that will not change, so if you find that idea boring than I don’t know what to tell you.

Well, for me, a big part of dungeon PvE is using my phantasms and clones strategically., not necessarily for damage.

For example, in the Ascolonian Tombs, I used my warden to defend against the archer boss while I rezzed a player. Everyone stopped DPS so that he didn’t go into the phase where he jumps across the gap, so all he could do was shoot at me with either his direct projectile (which was absorbed) or his little AoE, which didn’t do enough damage to keep me from rezzing my ally.

Another example is sending a clone into battle before anything else, which typically causes the mobs to aggro on the clone first. Now given, that poor clone won’t typically last too long, but it’s causes the mobs to clump up around one spot (sans the ranged mobs) and allows your team to unleash their AoE for maximum damage right away.

I think Mesmer has a lot of unique things to bring to the table, but you definitely can find a really boring build where your phantasms do all the work. Chaos Storm is probably one of the best group abilities in the game. Have one of your team mates use a blast finisher inside the storm, so everyone gets chaos armor. It’s a huge benefit. Also, Mesmers can have incredible boon stripping, and sometimes ripping a major boon off of your opponent can really save your team some hurt.

I really enjoyed my Mesmer in my one and only dungeon run through Ascolonian Tombs. xD I died soooo many embarrassing ways, and used arcane thievery to steal some horrible necromancer form from the necro boss, and then could do nothing but summon bone minions that disappeared within ~1 second until I died (lolz), but overall it was really fun.

Tweak your build and find what fits you. Especially test out different weapon sets. Greatsword is surprisingly full of utility, with the crippling phantasm and the might stacking for allies and the direct boon stripping. Try that one out.

Temariah.9372:

I died soooo many embarrassing ways, and used arcane thievery to steal some horrible necromancer form from the necro boss, and then could do nothing but summon bone minions that disappeared within ~1 second until I died (lolz), but overall it was really fun.

Lol that’s pretty funny and actually sounds like fun. I’ll have to play around with that skill a bit more. :P Also I agree with GS, it’s a ton of fun. I had been playing with Sword/Pistol and Staff and while Sword/Pistol is fun, I figured GS might be better for dungeons since it’s ranged, does decent damage, and has some good utility. I’d rather not have to be a cloth melee in dungeons (lol) so I wanted to get used to the GS style of play.

dont shatter?

if u’r on a phantasm build for DPSing and you dont shatter, u’ll still be doing more damage than any of the other party members, as long as ur phantasm dont die, since u’ll have 3 dpsrs + yourself

you could also try condition dmg mesmer, they have nice dps and play with clones, so you can still shatter and resummon instantly

I recently did AC for the first time on my Mesmer, and I was actually rather useful to the party. The problem is if you focus on damage done. Yes, Mesmers are capable damage dealers, but what makes you useful is your utility skills. Fighting ghost necromancers? Put down a null field. Fighting ranged mobs? Use the reflection bubble so they hurt themselves. Trying to burn down a boss? Use time warp. Someone’s dead but you can’t revive them without dying? Use illusion of life. Need to get past some mobs? Use one of a few invisibility skills, use a portal, or both.

Thanks for the feedback guys (lol pun), i’m gonna stick this out. I’m enjoying my mesmer in every other aspect of the game so far. It’s only dungeons i’m having a problem with.

"Temariah.9372"

For example, in the Ascolonian Tombs, I used my warden to defend against the archer boss while I rezzed a player. Everyone stopped DPS so that he didn’t go into the phase where he jumps across the gap, so all he could do was shoot at me with either his direct projectile (which was absorbed) or his little AoE, which didn’t do enough damage to keep me from rezzing my ally.

How do you control where to place the warden? I’ve havent found that i can control the spawn location of my illusions. You’re description sounds like you could put the warden down exactly on top of the downed player.

^^^ wherever you warden spawns, it places itself and creates kind a small dead-zone radius around itself. So even if the warden spawns slightly behind or to the side of the mob, it’ll continue to block projectiles.

I do agree with the Op on this to an extent i just did my first dungeon on my mezzie (Level 60 already xD), and, it was pretty dull compared to my guardian or engy.

The reason is simply because besides setting up appropriate glamours as and when you can, manufacturing phantasms and/or shatter fodder, and DPSing, there isn’t a whole lot that we can do. We don’t need to rotate our barrier skills like a guardian, we don’t need to be situationally aware so far on the back line, we can see everything in front of us.

We don’t really have any combos per-say in that situation. i mostly just sit on scepter/pistol setting up duellist, then switch to greatsword once the duellists are up and that’s me done for the battle :p

Ryuujin.8236:

I do agree with the Op on this to an extent i just did my first dungeon on my mezzie (Level 60 already xD), and, it was pretty dull compared to my guardian or engy.

The reason is simply because besides setting up appropriate glamours as and when you can, manufacturing phantasms and/or shatter fodder, and DPSing, there isn’t a whole lot that we can do. We don’t need to rotate our barrier skills like a guardian, we don’t need to be situationally aware so far on the back line, we can see everything in front of us.

We don’t really have any combos per-say in that situation. i mostly just sit on scepter/pistol setting up duellist, then switch to greatsword once the duellists are up and that’s me done for the battle :p

Well, that’s one way to play it
spam phantasm, and let them work for you,
u’ll be doing more DPS than any other class as long as they’r constantly up and firing

i play it with staff and focus, so i place chaos storm, place iwarden to reflect projectiles, temporal curtain also for reflect,
then comes the feedback for more reflect, some signet for interrupting big skills and usually a 3rd aoe dmg or null field and depending on the situation Mass invis/golem/TimeWarp

and i can tell you, i move a lot in the dungeons
lol

i used to play with phantasm build, but meeeh!! got bored