Getting back into GW2, new alt Mes or Ele?
ele. unless u like being a veil/portal/tw bot in wvw. in spvp id recommend mes though, but we will see what happens after the blance patch
[AVTR]
Isle of Kickaspenwood
Mesmer is more fun in PvE imo. Ele’s only drops Fiery Greatsword/Ice Bows and use fire field..
Also Mesmer has swords/greatsword instead of scepter/staff which is also a win.
Personally, I love the concept of Mesmer as the master of manipulation (control). It’s one of the tankiest professions out there. Ele is on the other spectrum, being the ultimate glass cannon.
When exploring / leveling in open world, I enjoyed both but I kinda had a more fun time using Ele because the skill cap is higher (D/D requires you to be reallly mobile).
PvP currently ele is at the bottom tier but will be getting a really nice set of confirmed improvements soon. Mesmer is also at an awkward position because at the end of the day, their roles might’ve been better replaced by thieves.
WvW Mesmers can be nice roamers, supporters and it’s potentially the best class for 1v1 encounter.
WvW Ele can be quite a decent roamer too and find a really nice role as either the scary AoE chokers or the healbots, cc-ers, etc.
Basically, both have sweet spots in WvW.
In dungeon, the current meta has a high demand for Ele because of its highest DPS. Mesmers still have a great spot too for portal, brief stealths, reflects, condition/boon management. Whether you’ll be pugging or going for organized group, you’ll find a spot.
Right, so both classes are usefull in their own way , good to know
I like dealing damage , but I don’t want to end up as an easy kill in pvp, so is an ele always a glass canon by default or are there ways to give them more survivability with different builds ? same goes for mesmer, you said that they are bit more tanky but does that mean I wont be doing much dps ? and will a balanced build between survivability and dps ruin their potential ?
and what about the weapons, I tried out the great sword with mesmer and sword/pistol secondary , and it works fine in low lvl PvE because they are all ranged attacks, but I also see a lot of video’s of mesmers using dual swords/sword focus and get real close. which is new to me since I’ve always seen “mage types” as classes who benefit from staying out of the fight and deal DPS from a distance.
Will it help if I create an elementalist aswell and test it out a bit , or do the classes change so much at lvl 80 that I can’t really compare them ?
I main Mesmer, but I’ve played a good amount of ele in PvP. My favorite part of ele is the active damage mitigation (best with focus). Mesmer you just kin of hope they attack your clones. I only like mesmer more for the manipulation aspect, which can be a lot of fun.
well i play wvw mainly and some spvp. i gotta say in raids, u will maybe enjoy the attention at first when on me…its always : is there a mes here that can help portal this, need mesmers for veil….etc, but i played mes for around 3.8k hours and it used to be fun before glam nerf. u could support and kill and be viable in a zerg. nowadays i find myself having way more fun on ele in a zerg as i can deal massive aoe dmg, cc and be the most important support in the team with water.
on my mes its really boring as all i do is veil veilveil and then kite around dealing a little dmg and then veil veil veil veil veil veil veil and tw and then portal this and portal that…it just gets boring.
if u like roaming them mes will be more fun, but mes lacks group abilities and aoe and non ai traits and multi target skills…
on ele however its fun to try different builds. u can go full support cleansing water or be a dare devil and go for pure glass 6-11k meteornado ele.
pve ele could get u better loot in raids, but mes is more fun in dungeons id say.
spvp, ele is high skill floor. u gotta know what u are doing, when to switch attunements and u will need lots of practice.
mes can be a little more forgiving, but it also requires the right build. u gotta figure out what u like:shatters, clone death, phantasm builds or pu based power builds….each one of them is different.
in tpvp mes and ele are both not in the best spot atm. ele, because it needs buffs and mes, because lack of group builds and lack of holding a point
[AVTR]
Isle of Kickaspenwood
Right, so both classes are usefull in their own way , good to know
I like dealing damage , but I don’t want to end up as an easy kill in pvp, so is an ele always a glass canon by default or are there ways to give them more survivability with different builds ? same goes for mesmer, you said that they are bit more tanky but does that mean I wont be doing much dps ? and will a balanced build between survivability and dps ruin their potential ?
and what about the weapons, I tried out the great sword with mesmer and sword/pistol secondary , and it works fine in low lvl PvE because they are all ranged attacks, but I also see a lot of video’s of mesmers using dual swords/sword focus and get real close. which is new to me since I’ve always seen “mage types” as classes who benefit from staying out of the fight and deal DPS from a distance.
Will it help if I create an elementalist aswell and test it out a bit , or do the classes change so much at lvl 80 that I can’t really compare them ?
Mesmers are tanky due to their damage mitigation for a quick 2.5 sec of burst damage AND evade of the sword #2 skill. Also if you use the Shatter build, a lot of times you can get an extra 4 sec invuln due to your f4 (possible to do in pve too but you generally don’t want to shatter anything there).
In terms of DPS, Mesmers aren’t at the bottom tier, but their sustained damage takes a while to build up IF it can be built up (like in TA fighting against the Wurm, if the fight takes too long, your phantasms are unlikely to survive). In battles where you can easily maintain 3 phantasms, you will have a very respectable damage.
In fact in pvp, eles usually only survive as bunker builds, not so much glass cannons. Unless you spec heavily into condi prevention and removal, you won’t be able to see much action as ele.
The weapons used in pve for dungeon runs will be different for lower levels due to the inaccessibility to certain traits and the setups are rather gear dependent. With shatter glasss cannon builds for open world like if you’re just travelling around Orr, the battles are over very quickly or you’re dead.
The sword/focus only truly shines when traited. Before I got to lvl 80, I mitigated the damage mostly using Feedback and Chaos Storm (ideally you use this on you, your phantasm and the enemy, but it’s more important to use this to buff yourself and your phantasm than to damage them).
When traited, sword/focus allows you to be in a melee encounter w enemies that only attacks with reflectable attacks as you can easily set up a perma reflect (start w focus phantasm, swap, summon sword phantasm, use sword #2 after first reflect is over, feedback, use sword sword #4 to block one attack, swap, use focus #5 again after CD, if not #4 for more short reflect before, etc.).
Similarly, the damage mitigation if you’re using a PU scepter/torch build in WvW is insane. Invuln, blocks, invis, invis, invis, invis, etc.
This is what I like about Mesmers. While thieves have to choose between blinding or burst attacks w less damage mitigation, Mesmers in dungeons usually are doing damage while avoiding them (even if your full concentration is on surviving, your phantasms, if they’re up, will still do decent damage for you).
You can try out the Ele but it’s true that Ele truly shines only at level 80. Before you reach that point, you feel like the Ele’s potential is hampered by not fully specializing in one direction enough.
For instance, early on when you traited for more survivability, you could have an early access to Cantrips reduced CD, then receiving Regen when you activate a Cantrip, but only much later you can access the trait that gives you a condi cleanse when you Regen. And only later on you can trait for this AND attuning to water gives you Regen so you get condi cleanse by just changing to water and healing. Then, only later, you can trait for allowing you to dodge while in water attunement giving you access to another Regen. So for all the synergies listed here, you’ll be required to be at level 70 (!).
It doesn’t mean it’s not fun, though. When people don’t want to continue playing Ele it’s because they think the class is too squishy and doesn’t deal enough damage because Eles have the lowest stats.
What I liked about that is that each encounter felt like a slight challenge and an opportunity to learn each skill and manoeuvre by heart. Every failed encounter made me think that I just wasn’t optimal enough in my use of skills. Whereas if you fail an encounter as Mesmer, usually I think well that’s that, then. I don’t think I’ll give it another go as this encounter is clearly not meant for a solo encounter.
Some people suggest to always keep your gears up to date but I didn’t do that since you tend not to be on one level for a long time in GW2.
first off , thank you all for the replies , they are very helpful and much appreciated.
Yesterday I’ve started playing Ele for a little bit, like 7 lvls or something was playing around with D/D , and I did like the skills. I had the feeling that I was actually doing something rather then spamming the same skills over and over again, so the variation of the huge amount of skills is a lot of fun ( for now , might get frustrating in pvp/ high lvl PvE/dungeons/WvW ) . I forgot to bind my F1-4 keys to my mouse so switching attunements was a nightmare, I’ll have to give it another go with proper key bindings. I did notice that the Ele is indeed very squishy but the dmg in PvE was quite good. it’s Evade or die
I’ll continue testing both Mesmer and Ele for now untill 20 or something and then I’ll pick one to continue with, If anyone else would like to tell your personal experience with either mesmer or ele then feel free to do so, it’s much appreciated since it gives me a general idea of how the class plays out at max lvl.
I don’t want to end up lvling a character I’ll hate at lvl 80 Ain’t nobody got time for that.
My personal key bindings:
Q – Heal
W – Left
E – Forward
R – Right
T – Use / Activate
A – Util 1
S – Util 2
D – Dodge
F – Util 3
G – Ultimate
Z – F1
X – F2
C – F3
V – F4
` – Swap weapon
thanks, but I’ll stick to WASD movement, FPS player at heart so I’m unable to place my hand the way you do with those key bindings . WASD , Q heal, mouse binded F keys , default work fine for me.
Awesome each to their own. Just some ideas for non-mouse bindings.