Guild Wars 2

I saw a thread about which class has better survivability in the HoT maps (PvE, obviously) and a lot of people were picking Mesmer. I’d like to understand why?

I have a mesmer, but I’m not particularly good with it — I’m trying a power shatter/chrono build, but I don’t seem to have much DPS or survivability.

I happen to disagree. It is doable, don’t get me wrong, but the mesmer is probably one of the worst classes in HOT. The necromancer, ranger, and guardian classes far outshine the mesmer. I’m not talking about zerging, here. If you only travel in groups, mesmer is just fine. But if you mostly solo, it isn’t a pretty picture. As it has been pointed out to me by the better mesmer players, the mesmer is primarily a support class, so it does best in a group.

It is true, for survivability the mesmer is probably on the very top of the list. Every weapon we have has some defense added to it, f4 and f5 are get out of jail cards.
Run something like sword/shield sword/sword and you can do most of the content solo, no issue.

The problem is that both damage and AoE are pretty much terrible. Compared to a zerker reaper who has just as much sustain and pretty much twice the damage, there really is no reason to run chrono over a reaper for solo work.

For instance, I did HoT storymode solo, and my reaper was at least twice as fast and never died either.

As a solo player and mesmer main, HoT open world was much easier with my reaper. MUCH MUCH easier.

Especially with pocket raptors…

>better survivability in the HoT maps

Only personal skill matters here. Personally I dont even know why someone need “survivability” in open world, no matter core Tyria or Heart of Maguuma. Enemy’s are slow, predictable and have very limited amount of skills.

For me, Mesmer is my safest choice for HoT areas. The phantasms often draw aggro away from you, and even when you’re the one being focused, you have F4, Sword 2, Shield 4 (twice), two dodges (and nice vigor uptime with Dueling), etc. Plus, you have a crap-ton of AoE CC, which is great for pulling mobs together and cleaving them efficiently. I don’t think Mesmer’s AoE is that bad at all. With wells, shatters, and greatsword, you’ve got pretty strong AoE. The only problems for me are when I have to fight tough veteran/elite bosses… that’s when Mesmer’s relatively lower sustained DPS starts to show. But for most mobs, you’ve got enough burst, mobility, and damage mitigation to have little to no issues at all.

Also… stealth, portals, reflects, alacrity, all that good stuff. They all have roles in the new maps and whenever I play any other class I always find myself missing them.

Signet traited/skill solo roaming mesmer in HoT is not too bad (it was my first character to complete all the HoT maps). Having that many evades and condi cleanses is pretty handy. Sure you are a weaker DPS’er but I let my phantasms whittle things down (including solo’ing those boss hero points).

curtegg.5216:

Signet traited/skill solo roaming mesmer in HoT is not too bad (it was my first character to complete all the HoT maps). Having that many evades and condi cleanses is pretty handy. Sure you are a weaker DPS’er but I let my phantasms whittle things down (including solo’ing those boss hero points).

What type of build do you use?

ekarat.1085:

curtegg.5216:

Signet traited/skill solo roaming mesmer in HoT is not too bad (it was my first character to complete all the HoT maps). Having that many evades and condi cleanses is pretty handy. Sure you are a weaker DPS’er but I let my phantasms whittle things down (including solo’ing those boss hero points).

What type of build do you use?

From his description it sounds like an invuln signet build that uses inspiration with phantasms that spread regen.

As other ppl mentioned the question is more about solo survival. This inherently comes down to the trade off of dmg vs survival since slow killing reduces survival. Our damage sucks two fold in meta (dungeon and raid) builds in solo situations since we don’t stack might and vuln well on top of low base damage. While gs ranged spam has a bad reputation (don’t do it in groups) it can work with a specific setup. Domination illusions and chrono can have 60% cd on gs illusions. Cr and pom reduces gs4 further. You now have decent might and vuln solo offsets low base dmg. (Gs2, shatter might, and the occasional clone auto). Sword shield is your defensive swap.

Basically p defender gs4 2 3 and f1. F2 after phantasms attack again. Repeat. Very little auto spam. WoE for condi clear. Last 3 spots are pretty open which helps wit whatever survival you need. I don’t think it’s the best of all classes if you aren’t afraid to melee but it’s not the worst.

Yes mesmer has a bunch of survivability, but what people here don’t realize is that mesmer needs it. A single longbow 2 on a friggin bunker druid can shave off 70% of a mesmer’s health.