Guild Wars 2

I don’t feel heroic at all playing this class compared to say a guardian or warrior or heck even engineer. I guess this class is meant to be played as a support in a party setting.

To answer your question, the Mesmer is generally considered a very strong class in pretty much all settings except for farming events. If you are having problems in Dungeons, I suggest searching around this very forum for information on how to improve.

Also, there are many other topics on this forum answering your question. You should really use the search function.

And, for zeitgeist purposes, a tldr:
It’s just you. L2p.

A majority of the players seems to indicate the only viable build for PvE is “use the great sword”. Pretty strong ? I seems to die more often than other classes I have played.

May I ask what level you are atm? Mesmers start really pathetic but start to shine once they hit around 30 to 40 if properly traited. And IMO mesmers aren’t meant to be played straightforward, you have to be aware of the situation and your surroundings or you will die really fast. You may have to play a lot of keep away for the most part of your early levels.

If you prefer not to use the GS, the staff is always a good option.

I recommend watching some Mr Prometheus guides. Staff, sword(s), pistol, focus, all good. You just have to know what you’re doing. Mesmer isn’t the type of class that just stands there attacking. You have to react to combat intelligently.

Mesmers are slow bloomers.

There were periods of times that I just utterly felt weak and kept wanting to go reroll to another class, but I’ve kept at it.

After a point, they start to pick up the pace and their strength really does start to jump up greatly.

If you are looking for instant satisfaction, other classes are probably better all the way through.

For me, there just is a visual style that I love about mesmer, and I am glad I have crawled through it (I won’t say struggled, because it was never a struggle, it just was slow…).

Read some guides, try the class out and you soon find the flow mate. Its accualy wery strong when you get some lvls.

Here is 2 vids that show the class some.

Burst:

A vid about how to handle thiefs, this as they often cause problems for new players.

Link to a ok mesmer guide

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/guide-WvWvW-Shatter-cat/page/6#post964361

/cheers Osicat

Mesmer was the first class I played. So, I thought it’s kill rates and behaviors in game were normal at lowbie levels. They’re not. Low level mesmer is weak. Your kill rates will be slow. Gear and traits are one reason, but a bigger reason is that a new mesmer won’t be milking the shatters or the phantasms the way an experienced mesmer will.

Gearing at a low level is often suboptimal, too — especially for a true first character. IMHO, always maximize Power over all else while leveling, at least until you have a very strong opinion yourself on what you should be doing. That’s you, not the forums or your buddy.

The reason your opinion trumps others is that it’s YOUR mesmer. You’re the one playing it and it has a lot of different ways it can be played. Not all classes have the build variety mesmers have. So, just because I love full berserker and GS doesn’t mean that’s “the best” for you or even for me all the time — I have other sets I use less often.

The other thing that might help is the mindset. I approached mesmer with the idea that mesmer was a class that toyed with it’s kills the way cats toy with mice — or the way humans toy with cats (ever twitched a string for a cat?). This mindset is ideal for a staff mesmer, which is what I played at the start.

So, mesmer is less of an “in your face, eating your lunch” heroic champion class, than an “in your head, wracking your brain” evil egg-head style. So, tell me, do you like Fava beans and Chianti? Ah, no matter. BTW, kitten, love your perfume.

I feel incredibly heroic with my mesmer… but that’s at lvl 80 after experimenting with numerous builds and gear/stat combinations. My Mesmer does stuff in PvP, WvW, Dungeons, etc. that blow my mind.

Last night I blinked past the lasers in CoE-Path1 then opened a portal for two more team members to cross so we could quickly operate the five security panels. That’s one example of many.

The class is just amazing. Again this is at level 80.

I actually gave up on my mesmer the first time I played it. I went to level 11 and said “this sucks”. I came back to my mesmer months later and stuck it through to level 80. Once you cross level 40 it starts to come together (on many levels).

I think this is a general game flaw in GW2. The grind to 80 is exactly that and doesn’t really give you a good flavor of any profession until the high levels. My guardian for example was epic at lvl 10. I never died once until lvl 35 when I ran my first dungeon. However in the higher levels the guardian power curve comes back down to reality. Mesmer is the complete opposite.

GW2 would have been better served with a much smaller max level (like 40).

Mesmer is actually the class that took me the longest to make a suitable build out of all the 8 professions. I level from 1-80 feeling really underpowered while trying out various weapons and traits.

But one day while on my engineer, I got my butt kicked in WvW by a glass cannon shatter build mesmer using a greatsword and sword + pistol and I realize that this is the type of build I want. Built my own version of a glass cannon greatsword shatter build and have been using mesmer exclusively in WvW ever since.

Don’t give up and keep experimenting. Mesmer is a very powerful class when built right.

Mesmer is very very weak right now. IMO It’s the weakest class. Here is why…

Multiple trait lines are useless (anything to do with phantasms) due to bugs + unbalanced rules with the creation of the phantasms.

PvE – you bring nothing to the table another class can’t do better other than time warp (which I admit is good) and confusion (very bad condition in pve).

Mesmer damage is sub par and laughable when compared to a nade eng or dps warrior.

Mesmer support skills aren’t anything to write home about either. Mantra healing has a short range and kills any dps you’re putting out while you’re just sitting there constantly recharging mantras.

Invis you can get from ash legion spy kits for 28 karma… no need for a mesmer to supply invis. in PvE. (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit)

Other classes can wipe conditions just as well as a memser while doing better damage or adding to the team better in other ways.

PvE mesmers aren’t total leeches or anything… but there are just better classes for whatever role you’re trying to fill as a mesmer.

PvP – No other class can be denied their main class resource as easily as a mesmer can. Just time your blind/block/dodges in time with the mesmers summon telegraphs and they can’t create illusions… and at that point you have very little offense/defense since illusions are what the mesmer class is based off of.

Sure you can still kill baddies that don’t know how/when to dodge after a telegraphed summon animation… but you can do that on any class regardless of their current state in the game. Good players know the imbalanced rules imposed on mesmers and use that to give them a huge advantage.

So you can’t do PvE or PvP as well as other classes on a mesmer anymore. So… what’s the point of being a mesmer now? Pretty purple butterflies? Pretty purple butterflies.

Ps @ OP… “even engineer” makes them sound weak… they are one of the best classes in PvE. They have the #1 DPS and have amazing support skills as well. They’ll be getting a buff in this next patch when they put in that sigils can proc with kits… and later stats will remain when you swap to a kit.

Mesmer has a high effort to result ratio. You can expect to work twice as hard as other classes to get the same result. There are no push to do a lot of damage buttons on mesmer. However, we have the best style and the illusion a lot of variety in skills. Oh and portal. (Portal makes us OP /sarcasm)

SteepledHat.1345:

Mesmer has a high effort to result ratio. You can expect to work twice as hard as other classes to get the same result. There are no push to do a lot of damage buttons on mesmer. However, we have the best style and the illusion a lot of variety in skills. Oh and portal. (Portal makes us OP /sarcasm)

Portal is very good in WvW. It allows people to “cheat” through the jumping puzzles and instantly get more siege for their team. It also can move large numbers of golems across long distances (when chained) and help keep them from being seen. You can stealth and hide inside of areas then portal your team inside if they don’t find you. People routinely sweep for mesmers now though… so you need to be very sneaky about it. Portals are best use of a mesmer in WvW hands down… and as you can see… they are OP.

However, mesmer in its current state will never do “a lot of damage” regardless of how well or how many buttons you push when you compare them to other classes.

Mesmer does a lot of damage. In fact a GS shatter build is face-slap easy to play. I destroy noobs in WvW. In PvP it’s a different story because all players are geared equivalently, and skill level seems higher in general. I’d say GS-shatter has made me a worse Mesmer because it’s so easy to play — it has a low skill floor compared to other builds I’ve played.

A staff mesmer can be incredibly tanky while dealing out tons of condition damage. I love that build too, but it’s a slower kill in WvW where stuff dies fast (and you need to get your player tags while in the zerg). In PvP it does much better. In PvE it’s nearly indestructable.

OP, clearly it’s not just you, a lot of people hate the class. Obviously it’s not the class either, a lot of people love it.

If its not working for you, either watch some guides and try something else, or play a different class that suits you better.

Everything with portal requires a lot of coordination on the part of the participants. That fact makes is not OP. It’s only done by structured groups and it depends on a very small subset of players. However, I wouldn’t be opposed to a cap on the number of people it could move. I never use it in WvW because I’m always running solo or in a small group. I do however, use it to save party members from bugs in fractals and to portal them through difficult jumping puzzles. (Some of my group have a terrible time with JP. Low end systems.)

Voodoo Tina.4180:

OP, clearly it’s not just you, a lot of people hate the class. Obviously it’s not the class either, a lot of people love it.

If its not working for you, either watch some guides and try something else, or play a different class that suits you better.

I LOVED the mesmer class when it was playing by the same rules. Now it’s not and that needs to change. I don’t care if they nerf it… but every class needs to play by the same basic rules. Other bugs have also kittened this class… but some of those should be resolved in the next patch.

Just saying if you’re not happy with the current state of mesmer, then the class isn’t for you… just… no… To me that sort of comment isn’t at all valid/logical with so many major bugs in the class right now.

Everything with portal requires a lot of coordination on the part of the participants. That fact makes is not OP. It’s only done by structured groups and it depends on a very small subset of players. However, I wouldn’t be opposed to a cap on the number of people it could move. I never use it in WvW because I’m always running solo or in a small group. I do however, use it to save party members from bugs in fractals and to portal them through difficult jumping puzzles. (Some of my group have a terrible time with JP. Low end systems.)

Saying “mesmer here at the jumping puzzle” or “I’m hiding in X” in team chat takes very little coordination.

Golem chain porting does take more, but you can still easily do golem porting coordination well enough through just team chat… but teaming up for a small hit team will take FAR more coordination than making/porting golems around. That’s easily shown by how sort of real time combat coordination often requires voice chat… while portal tactics don’t.

The impact that portals make in WvW is HUGE. They are far too strong and need to have a limited number of uses to force players to use more coordination to do what they do now. I think limiting it to 5 uses would be a good number (or only being able to be used infinitely by people in the mesmer’s own party). The impact is far too great for the limited amount of coordination required as is.

I think it makes perfect sense. If you don’t enjoy playing a Mesmer AT THIS TIME then why waste your time playing a Mesmer AT THIS TIME? If you hate it and insist on playing it anyways you’ll end up angry and bitter, and probably answer every thread in the forum with essentially the same rant about whatever you are angry and bitter about.

Play what you enjoy. The profession is going through changes. If you played Guild Wara you should be aware that the game will never stop changing. Sometimes significantly. When changes come along you either learn to play with them and wait it out, or play something else in the mean time. Common sense, really.

Voodoo Tina.4180:

I think it makes perfect sense. If you don’t enjoy playing a Mesmer AT THIS TIME then why waste your time playing a Mesmer AT THIS TIME? If you hate it and insist on playing it anyways you’ll end up angry and bitter, and probably answer every thread in the forum with essentially the same rant about whatever you are angry and bitter about.

Play what you enjoy. The profession is going through changes. If you played Guild Wara you should be aware that the game will never stop changing. Sometimes significantly. When changes come along you either learn to play with them and wait it out, or play something else in the mean time. Common sense, really.

If people listened to your other post and simply stopped playing mesmer altogether… it would hurt the mesmer class. I’m sorry if you don’t like people pointing out/complaining the major flaws/issues that the class currently has… but this is a way we can potentially communicate with the dev’s to fix that problem. Simply changing classes and losing the many hours of work people have put into leveling and gearing their characters and not having anything change isn’t a good option. Neither is just accepting the current serious bugs/problems and being forced to work around them.

I do have backup characters I play and often suggest that others have some as well to help while the game is still being balanced/fixed for now (feel free take a look at my other posts and my signature)… but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be vocal about what’s happened to the mesmer class and what needs to be fixed so that the class can function properly again. It’s a GOOD thing when people are constructive and vocal… not a bad thing. The OP feels that mesmer is weak and only good as a support class… atm they aren’t even great at that due to the bugs/other issues with the class.

Mesmer was my first profession and my favorite by far, the entire style of play was so natural for me that I never encountered a time where I felt completely helpless. The early levels 1 to 30 was dominated by constantly obtaining the best gear available through crafting and karma then dominating everything with opening with GS on my target till it closed then switch to my double swords for slapping things around and shattering to finish.

Mid Game (30 to 60) became a game of just shattering everything all day in rapid succession as I was on a shatter build that I had developed in the Beta Weekends. Late Game (60 to 80) was all about mobility and completing the heart tasks until the nearly all Dynamic Events of Orr which was finding the right random groups of people and following them around till the leveling was done. That’s when I really started doing the dungeons, retrospectively I would suggest trying to do the dungeons earlier as they give a ton of experience. Personally did not try to level quickly but still ended up at level cap in less than 2 weeks. Some professions definitely feel stronger in the early game with just basic attacks and such, but none had the diverse power of the shatters, coupled with quick ways to make clones from so many of the weapons you can position easily to beat just about everything.

So in summary, it is probably you, the play style might not be the one for you.

It’s not that the class is weak, but it’s very circumstantial.

The way I see it mesmers are a “roulette” class; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Your performance fluctuates wildly based on what your enemies do as much as what you do.

You can summon a phantasmal warden and do fantastic damage…or the enemy can take a few steps away from it.
You can summon a phantasmal berserker to do great damage and cripple…or it’ll die before even attacking from a simple autoattack swipe. There goes half your gs dps.
You can summon 3 phantasmal warlocks in a boss fight to do great damage while freely running around ressing people…or have them wiped out in one go by an aoe field leaving you with a pathetic autoattack until you get your cooldowns back.
You can use a scepter/torch and use Confusing Images + Phantasmal Mage + Cry of Frustration to stack a ridiculous amount of confusion and down an enemy lightning-fast…or they can simply dodge one of those, run off or refrain from using any skills/pop condition removal and all that effort will barely make a scratch.
etc etc etc.
Everything depends on the situation.

When things go as planned, mesmers are op. When it fails, it fails spectacularly. Mesmers are in the Dice God’s domain.
Most mesmers’ dps combos take time to set up and involve multiple steps to take. But having more steps means there’s more opportunity for things to go wrong. The more parts a machine has the more chances one of them will fail. Chuck a stone into an intricate set of gears and the whole machine will fall apart. And fail they do.

Of course, all classes are subject to this. But when they fail, they have something to fall back to. Warriors who miss hundred blades still have powerful autoattacks, maybe a few mobility skills and high hp/tankiness. Guardians, same. Engineers are as versatile as they can get. Thieves can stealth away to safety and wait for another chance to strike. Rangers can kite all day with good potential dps. Mesmers on the other hand, when shut down, they are shut down. There is no “safety net” of a minimum level of performance when things go wrong. Our autoattacks suck, we are squishy from being a cloth class despite the decent base health, and shatters don’t work without illusions minus one grandmaster trait. Mesmers are heavily dependant on illusions whether for shattering, dps, survival or utility and when they are nullified our performance drops heavily. Unreliable and chaotic. It’s a gamble. Heck, look at our phantasms. We can’t even reliably summon them, let alone hope they do what they’re supposed to do.

This is fine of course in terms of uniqueness, and there may be those who enjoy such experiences. The problem is anet balances purely on when things go best (quote: “…It is there for balance reasons to give enemies a moment to react to the powerful summon….”); the times when other people scream “OP!!!!”. Instead of crediting such success to the player’s skill that managed to pull that off, Anet listens, and nerfs. Then those times when you can’t make perfect combos or rotations suffer, and makes you feel weak.

ddoi.9264:

Rangers can kite all day.

LOL

ahahahahahah, ah man your good, you made me laugh – oh god your so funny!
Id like whatever of the stuff your on.

Run away realy fast is not same as kite

You picked the wrong class if you’re looking for the tanky heroic type that jumps into the fray and cleaves people to death.

Mesmer is a little more subtle, also in PvE they are slow bloomers because they are trait dependant.

thrice.9184:

ddoi.9264:

Rangers can kite all day.

LOL

ahahahahahah, ah man your good, you made me laugh – oh god your so funny!
Id like whatever of the stuff your on.

Touche. I was thinking of pve on that one.

I think you all be crazy… I rolled warrior first and Mesmer 2nd and I felt OP the entire time as a Mesmer. From the start I experimented with all the weapons and found GS to be dumb considering it is main a direct damage weapon and the Mesmer accells at conditions, so I found the staff way more to my liking. Ranged is usually always better than melee for survival due to being able to kite… keeping this in mind I also chose sword/torch/focus for my alternative weapons to facilitate movement speed and stealth. The thing I think that really helped me is understanding the class… It is about toying with and abusing your opponent, they are great at stacking boons and conditions. I can’t understand others who started this class without understanding that shatters are the classes main focus (if this wasn’t clear enough because they are “burst” F1-F4 skills) not traited skills or extra skills…