Guild Wars 2

Let me open by saying that Mesmer is my favorite class and the one I want to keep playing.

A recent post on the forums made me curious. So I have been leveling a Mesmer/Ranger in GW. Also, I’d like to earn that cool dragonsword skin.

From an RP standpoint I find the “modern” Mesmer of GW2 much better. Visible illusions are a real improvement. RP is an integral part of the game for me.

It seems to me that a Mantra build would be very similar to the “Searing Times” ( to coin a phrase ) Mesmer of old Ascalon.

It seems that the devs have made a concerted effort to weaken Mesmers and have succeeded very well.

I believe that a small number of dedicated gamers with excellent equipment skew the demographic and make the class appear stronger than it is.

Feedback?

I don’t think anyone is crying out that Mesmers are OP. They’re a counter-play class, but not as shut-down as I think players from GW would like. Especially recently, I’ve seen a number of posts asking for new Mesmer skills like Blackout, etc. In GW, Mesmers were a true shut-down caster class. In GW2, they’re a phantasmal duelist, causing player confusion at times but rarely shutting down an opponent. Hammer warriors are more shut-down at this point, able to chain knockdowns. But GW Mesmers cast hexes that made you think twice about your next action, and came armed with skills that had you guessing what would happen when you attacked. In GW2, it’s just dodge the obvious clones and attack the player before he stealths.

Just my $0.02

ironically, mantras weren’t used too often in Gw1 by anybody but the ones we have now are also pretty far removed from what mesmers 250 years ago had. Mantras were Stance type skills that had instant casts and often long cool downs, and sometimes big energy costs. but all that considering, its probably the most old mesmer thing we have.

I wish it were the case that devs had made an effort to push the class off on its own to misfit land, sadly it seems much more to do with “Not enough time, not enough effort, not enough understanding, not enough money” that put us in this boat at launch and kept us sailing away since then.

I think you’ll find that the right person with enough time/effort can make any class appear better than the average player can make it be. Our class has some strengths, and weaknesses, but the main issue is that we just currently don’t do anything better than anyone else. (Warriors/Thieves = Better CC, Thieves/Warriors = Better Burst Dmg, Guards/Engies/Eles = Better Support, Necros/Engies/Warriors = Better Conditions.)