Guild Wars 2

Hey all, I’m returning to the game after a fair amount of time off (I had to stop playing shortly after launch because I got into a great edu program, woo). I’ve got my level 48 warrior but was planning on starting fresh and leveling a Mesmer solo (occasionally duo with my friend who will go Ele). I put in a fair amount of research but it would seem most of the threads I’ve read about the class are older (>6mo), and I’m not up to date on how Mesmers have changed with patches and where they stand now for PvE. What I’m looking to find out is:

Are they still a viable class for me to solo a majority of the content (within reason; I play at odd hours where the server is usually asleep)?
Do they still crank out killer single target PVE DPS, and mediocre AOE (I’ve seen this later portion as mediocre, amazing, or terrible AOE, so I’m not sure)?
Have there been any major changes to the class balancing in the last few months that might invalidate older posts I’ve read?
Do you feel that the lack of initiable combo fields (I think only 2 from weapons, 4 from utilities? Or is that a normal #?) is limiting for the class, or not a big deal?
If I DO end up doing dungeons, are they still in high demand?

Just want to make sure I’m up to date on the class before I commit, as my time is pretty limited. Thanks all!

Mesmer is an excellent solo class. We don’t necessarily kill things as fast as other professions, but I have, on numerous occasions, solo’d veterans and even champions under the right circumstances – sometimes even in MF Gear.

The thing to note however is: Mesmer doesn’t truly shine until about 40+ when you’ve got some traits and abilities. We are a very slow starting class. Stick to it though, and the reward is great.

Definitely depends on spec, but our AoE leaves a lot to be desired in most cases. Our single target is more dependent on what weapon set and build you use. Nothing super important has changed though with the class, a few cooldown differences and such.

Limited combo fields aren’t a huge deal. And besides, the ones we do have are awesome (almost all ethereal fields, granting Chaos Armor). There’s more than you think though if you use the right slot skills.

Mesmers are decently in demand. Nobody will turn you away that’s for sure. They just might not be looking directly for you. I’ve solo’d the last half of many EXP mode bosses because the rest of my party wiped though. While they shout “Just die so we can reset”, I just end up soloing and winning lol.

Mesmer is, in my opinion, one of the most challenging and fun classes. The payoff is sometimes way better than some, and sometimes worse. You probably won’t be standing auto attacking like a Guardian/Warrior does, but you also won’t be skill spamming quite like an Elementalist all the time. The decision is up to you, but I just leveled an Ele to 80, and a few days later jumped back to my Mesmer with over 500 hours.

Cheers
Euca

Amazing response Euca, thanks for hitting all my points. I found leveling the warrior to be a little… well it’s not exactly dull but it feels less interactive. I’ll take all your advice to heart, and I’m looking forward to hitting 40+ lol.

Most important question: How do mesmers deal with running so kitten slow while levelling? Focus is the only option still?

Eliteseraph.4970:

Most important question: How do mesmers deal with running so kitten slow while levelling? Focus is the only option still?

Focus is the only option at lower levels. At 80 when you actually use runes, people tend to take superior runes of the centaur or superior runes of air (5/6) for the swiftness buff. Which stacks on top of your curtain. Just make sure to get the swiftness buff from the curtain first before you apply the rune swiftness buff. =]