Guild Wars 2

My mesmer is level 40, so I can only speak up to that. It was pretty bad from about 10-20. It picked up a bit from 20-30, but became painful again from 30-40. I was using staff and sword/something.

The main problem I had is that you rely heavily on clones, but your clone spawning is very slow. Survival was pretty easy (I don’t think I ever died outside when my computer started freezing). At 40 you can get clone on dodge, which means you can start a fight with 3 clones out without wasting a utility skill with a huge cooldown. You also get clone bleed on crit when you dive deep enough for clone on dodge, which with staff is very useful, since bleed stacks are one of your major damage sources.

I haven’t done much levelling past 40, since I want to experience some other classes first, but I anticipate it being much easier with reliable and fast clone spawning.

WithoutAssumption.7936:

My mesmer is level 40, so I can only speak up to that. It was pretty bad from about 10-20. It picked up a bit from 20-30, but became painful again from 30-40. I was using staff and sword/something.

The main problem I had is that you rely heavily on clones, but your clone spawning is very slow. Survival was pretty easy (I don’t think I ever died outside when my computer started freezing). At 40 you can get clone on dodge, which means you can start a fight with 3 clones out without wasting a utility skill with a huge cooldown. You also get clone bleed on crit when you dive deep enough for clone on dodge, which with staff is very useful, since bleed stacks are one of your major damage sources.

I haven’t done much levelling past 40, since I want to experience some other classes first, but I anticipate it being much easier with reliable and fast clone spawning.

the early lvls are not hard at all it just depends on the weapon sets ur using, of course if ur using a sword or scepter its gunna be slow and a lil harder all you need for the early lvls is GS and Staff like my self and other mesmers have alrdy said. Also if you are utilizing you weapon swaps right and managing your clones the right way you always have at least 1-2 clones on the field

Advent.1387:

the early lvls are not hard at all it just depends on the weapon sets ur using, of course if ur using a sword or scepter its gunna be slow and a lil harder all you need for the early lvls is GS and Staff like my self and other mesmers have alrdy said. Also if you are utilizing you weapon swaps right and managing your clones the right way you always have at least 1-2 clones on the field

No, the early levels are not hard, they are boring. Sword is actually amazing for leveling, the 2 skill is pretty good damage and does wonders for getting you out of sticky situations, and the auto attack hits harder than any of our other auto attacks, as far as I can tell (really good against destructibles).

2 clones are easy to get out at the start of a fight, but 3 clones is a better finisher. Staff clones are your main source of damage with that weapon set, so it’s helpful to open with 3 and easier to maintain them throughout a long fight.

WithoutAssumption.7936:

Advent.1387:

the early lvls are not hard at all it just depends on the weapon sets ur using, of course if ur using a sword or scepter its gunna be slow and a lil harder all you need for the early lvls is GS and Staff like my self and other mesmers have alrdy said. Also if you are utilizing you weapon swaps right and managing your clones the right way you always have at least 1-2 clones on the field

No, the early levels are not hard, they are boring. Sword is actually amazing for leveling, the 2 skill is pretty good damage and does wonders for getting you out of sticky situations, and the auto attack hits harder than any of our other auto attacks, as far as I can tell (really good against destructibles).

2 clones are easy to get out at the start of a fight, but 3 clones is a better finisher. Staff clones are your main source of damage with that weapon set, so it’s helpful to open with 3 and easier to maintain them throughout a long fight.

sword is great, dnt get me wrong i run gs/ sword+pistol on my 80 but for lvlin purposes gs/staff is the easiest since it gives u the most aoe. also the sword does seem to do a lil more dmg on auto atk than the other weapons but i feel the gs auto is faster and it does around the same dmg so it gives a lil better dps so i only use sword for 3 then 2 roll back cast 4 on pistol and then 5 then switch back to gs, i dnt like stayin on sword for too long b/c of the slower auto and the need to be in melee range.

I just recently picked my mesmer back up again and I can say with certainty once you get over that lvl 40-45 hump mesmer becomes amazing. Try out different weapon sets and get what feels right for you, not what everyone else tells you works good. Everyone told me sw/sw- GS was a bad idea for leveling and harder pve but I liked it so much it works best for me. I solo champs all the time, take on massive amounts of enemies, I just had to tailor my build to me, not make myself learn a build i was told was best.

Now that my mesmer has gotten to 45, it is sooo much more fun. Even getting comfortable chain pulling. But I’d even say it gets a little better after 20. I tried this class once before and this time around I cleared up 2 big mistakes from my previous attempt with this class:

I stopped thinking my clones were supposed to be tanks and I learned to use staff instead trying to force GS to fit every situation. It’s tough to not want to shoot lazers out of a giant sword but staff, at least for me, makes things a lot easier.

Rashiakas.2459:

not sure why my post got deleted, but again:

I don’t want to be rude, but I can’t really believe you. I COULD see the class being less of a pain with both -20% cooldown talents, but before then you just don’t get enough clones out to fight more then one opponent at a time efficiently. Sure, I can kite 5 mobs around as well, but it takes ages to kill them and only works with melee enemies anyway.

Staff? Damage is subpar. Why does it have vulnerability? Why do I want +1% dmg? Garbage.

GS? Why do I do LESS damage the closer the enemy is? What a * mechanic for PVE. Also, 3’s area is way to small.

Sword? A good weapon, really. But going melee is a deathwish with this class.

Pistol? Good weapon, but cooldowns are way to long.

Focus? Gimmicky.

Torch? Yeah. As if confusion is working in pve.

Overall, the summon CD’s are to long, the time between attacks is to long for its damage, not enough AE and cooldown on shatter is just not optimal.

Try getting more traits int the precision/crit line. When you get to twenty pick the deceptive evasion major trait. Everytime you dodge you can drop a clone. And then in illusions pick illusionist celerity reduce recharge on shatter skills my 20% absolute must. I felt the same way you did about mesmer but when I set my traits right is when it became really fun. And the CD on pistols is long but they are great skills for crowd control and mobs. and sword if you do illusionary leap blurred frenzy with mind wrack your DPS/burst can beat a thief. I run a GS/Sword Pistol combo and it is really powerful. In mobs or against bosses try getting three ibeserkers up at once. Its really fun.

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

Troponin.4081:

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

This is where the “grinding” comes in… As a lvl 80 and I was downleveled for this part of the map pve I took on a Vet Cave Spider in timberline falls with ONLY a GS I just had 3 beserkers up and sat and watched as the spider killled one but was crippled again because of crippling dissipation. And then I set up another beserker… I honestly did not use the auto attack a SINGLE time…. I just stayed out of the way. Trust me mesmers really really are fun. In WvW you can solo a 2v1 with other players and WIN. So don’t hate the class.

Also make SURE that you use signet of illusions… Clones stay alive longer for you to put more out and if you run through all your shatters you can still reset them all by activating the signet.

jportell.2197:

Troponin.4081:

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

This is where the “grinding” comes in… As a lvl 80 and I was downleveled for this part of the map pve I took on a Vet Cave Spider in timberline falls with ONLY a GS I just had 3 beserkers up and sat and watched as the spider killled one but was crippled again because of crippling dissipation. And then I set up another beserker… I honestly did not use the auto attack a SINGLE time…. I just stayed out of the way. Trust me mesmers really really are fun. In WvW you can solo a 2v1 with other players and WIN. So don’t hate the class.

I am not trying to hate the class, they just happen to be severely gimped at low levels. It’s probably one reason why most people don’t make it far in the leveling process with them. They depend WAY too much on traits, it seems.

Troponin.4081:

jportell.2197:

Troponin.4081:

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

This is where the “grinding” comes in… As a lvl 80 and I was downleveled for this part of the map pve I took on a Vet Cave Spider in timberline falls with ONLY a GS I just had 3 beserkers up and sat and watched as the spider killled one but was crippled again because of crippling dissipation. And then I set up another beserker… I honestly did not use the auto attack a SINGLE time…. I just stayed out of the way. Trust me mesmers really really are fun. In WvW you can solo a 2v1 with other players and WIN. So don’t hate the class.

I am not trying to hate the class, they just happen to be severely gimped at low levels. It’s probably one reason why most people don’t make it far in the leveling process with them. They depend WAY too much on traits, it seems.

Naw its really jus getting used to the mesmer, at the low lvls for a first time mesmer they are hard to get the hang of for most people and for the ones who find it really easy its usually because something about the playstyle just clicked for them(there really does seem to be a class/profession/job/what have you for everyone).

When I remade my mesmer(changed races) the early lvls were like a hot knife through butter. Most of the time my gear was about 10-15 lvls out of date before I’d upgrade it. Yea sure dps gets affected by that and slows u a lil bit but not by much and for a mesmer that is used to deceptive evasion not having it until lvl 40 was odd but not impossible. You just have to adjust your play style to compensate for the slower clone generation for a few lvls

i am currently lv 80 and used to have a hard time with this job, however, that was solely because i kept on complaining about how squishy this job is, how long the CD is, how useless confusion is for pve, and so on

however, this job is strong in illusions (especially phantasms), so that is where we have to exploit and improve, rather than criticizing the other aspects. CDs are not so much disturbing me. With Condition Damage trait filled to 30, Mind Wrack only has the CD of 10s. While it is on CD, you can use Distortion or produce illusions to distract the enemies (the 2nd Precision Major Trait, the Deceptive Evasion, gives you an illusion when you dodge, which is very helpful).
you can even guard TWICE! with Scepter at the Main Hand (#2) and Sword at the Off Hand (#4). Not only blocks, it damages hard.

no job is perfect. rather than complaining about the weak sides (it NEVER ends), try exploiting the strong sides and see if it fits you…

I’ve leveled all the classes except ranger and necro up to at least 20 so far. That puts me in a situation to be able to provide a fairly objective assessment of the different classes’ relative performance levels at low levels.

Before I do that, allow me to make a subjective statement. Leveling in this game is easy. If you’re really struggling them you’re doing something wrong. However, certain classes are obviously easier than others.

In order to really make an objective comparison, let me clarify what exactly is easier to do on some classes. Mesmer is great at escaping and avoiding damage. There is no doubt about it. In that respect it is an easy class to stay alive with. However, that’s not really the goal when you’re leveling up; the goal is to kill efficiently (in terms of time), not to run away efficiently.

There is absolutely nothing my Mesmer can do to compete with what my warrior or guardian was capable of doing while leveling. My warrior could easily run headlong into a group of five or more mobs including a veteran or two and come out on top without once having to bother healing. Even in single mob encounters, my warrior’s killing speed far outpaces that of any Mesmer spec I’ve tried so far (which is a substantial list).

So please, don’t kid yourselves. @OP, it’s not hard to level Mesmer, it’s just not as easy as some other classes. @the people claiming to kill +10 level champions at a reasonable speed, stop lying. Half an hour of summoning clone after clone to tank hits for you isn’t a reasonable speed.

jportell.2197:

Also make SURE that you use signet of illusions… Clones stay alive longer for you to put more out and if you run through all your shatters you can still reset them all by activating the signet.

I leveled without it, I didn’t really like it. If anything, I was running Signet of Inspiration BEFORE it was fixed. Why? Not much else to run.

Then again, I was an Asuran so Radiation Field <3.

Esplen.3940:

jportell.2197:

Also make SURE that you use signet of illusions… Clones stay alive longer for you to put more out and if you run through all your shatters you can still reset them all by activating the signet.

I leveled without it, I didn’t really like it. If anything, I was running Signet of Inspiration BEFORE it was fixed. Why? Not much else to run.

Then again, I was an Asuran so Radiation Field <3.

Eh this is kinda for the shatter heavy build I like to run… If I am fighting a vet/champ I usually activate the signet a couple times to reset my shatters if they are all on CD or if I am running a phantasm heavy fight it helps them stay alive longer.