Guild Wars 2

Do you find it fun in pve? Why?
Can you describe how it plays in pve?
What are the things you do?

Is it very different from how you play in pvp?
Can you describe what is different?

• Do you find it fun in pve? Why?
  Yes. Because when you have this many teleports and can send illusions to do your bidding the world is one giant playground.

• Can you describe how it plays in pve?
  Cerebral (or as much as you can get in PvE) unlike most classes that can simply faceroll away, a Mesmer has to be thoughtful about the upcoming encounter and how to manage it. Do you need reflects? Condition removal? Ranged weapon? All melee? In PvE a Mesmer needs and often uses all of their weapons for different content and many different trait setups between open world, dungeons (which varies dungeon-to-dungeon) and fractals.

• What are the things you do?
  I personally get immersed in the open world, I’m a big fan of exploring and finding people doing random things. Striking up conversations, helping with encounters, jumping puzzles ect. Mesmer’s freedom of movement and interesting abilities make it a lot of fun. I’m allergic to dungeons tho, Pyro literally has to drag me out of PvP to do them.

• Is it very different from how you play in pvp? Can you describe what is different?
  Entirely. PvP is much stricter as a Mesmer. You have to outthink your opponent, learn rotations, and actually spend time becoming acquainted with a build that suits you. In PvP need something of a thicker psychological shell, because people hate Mesmer whether they understand them or not, while others expect and sometimes demand you play a specific (shatter) build.
  I love PvP and it’s the main reason I play this game. For me it’s a place to explore new builds/playstyles and find unpredictable fast-paced action. As a Mesmer in PvP, your utilities are more locked. You NEED blink or decoy, sometimes both. You need to know how you’re going to deal with conditions (I rarely run any condi removal though, which sometimes screws me), and you need to keep your team in mind much more than in PvE.

PvP is an entirely different experience than PvE, and luckily it’s a field that Mesmer excels in.

Thanks.

You mention how Mesmers use all sorts of weapons for different content but I read on metabattle that they have one pve spec.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_S/S_/F_/P

This does not even use 2 weapons in the second weapon set (only one).

What do you mean with all weapons for different content in this context?

Anyone else feel free to share your views on the thread as well
Especially on describing how Mesmer plays in pve. What do you do in there?
(I think I have a descent picture about how it is in pvp).

Yashuoa.9527:

Do you find it fun in pve? Why?
Can you describe how it plays in pve?
What are the things you do?

Is it very different from how you play in pvp?
Can you describe what is different?

I’ll start by saying I don’t play PvP, but since you have an idea on that, I figured “why not, I’ll answer this too, even though I’m not nearly as experienced as Alpha and many others”

I enjoy it a lot in open world. The clones/phantasms can basically be used to distract and/or kill most anything you run across. The utility is pretty amazing, though I am admittedly still learning how to use all of it. It is, at the risk of sounding elitist, a class that rewards intelligent, thoughtful action as opposed to smash and grab tactics. If you are willing to keep most of the weapons and maybe 2 or three sets of gear on you, you can custom to the many different zones/WBs/etc that you run across, and be effective.

That said, if you don’t do that, you will find many situations that are more difficult for you. Fighting a large mob, and built around clones that are getting decimated as opposed to phantasms? Walked into a bunch of ranged dps, and don’t have focus equipped or the utility skill feedback? It equally punishes you for not being thoughtful and flexible about what you are doing.

I enjoy a thoughtful class, but I’ll admit I’m conflicted right now about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of mesmer, and its the first class I leveled to 80. That said, I don’t feel like I’m using it to its full potential, and am trying to change that, but it can be daunting given the need to know what you are walking into, and being flexible with it. Also, while it is really good at conditions, power is still the meta, and there’s a mental disconnect for me between using shatters and in the process, destroying my (depending on what I’m doing) main source of damage.

All of this is just my opinions and thoughts on the matter. I’m not one of the authorities on mesmer, just giving a beginner’s (4-5 months now?) look at it.

Yashuoa.9527:

Thanks.

You mention how Mesmers use all sorts of weapons for different content but I read on metabattle that they have one pve spec.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_S/S_/F_/P

This does not even use 2 weapons in the second weapon set (only one).

What do you mean with all weapons for different content in this context?

Anyone else feel free to share your views on the thread as well
Especially on describing how Mesmer plays in pve. What do you do in there?
(I think I have a descent picture about how it is in pvp).

The Metabattle build presented is specifically made for optimal speedrun team setups and to have the most “meta” dungeon Mesmer possible. As far as open world content and some dungeons (including soloing, which condition builds excel in) you’ll find uses for all your weapons. Hopefully I can summon a frifox or fay to further elaborate.

/summoningRitual

To elaborate a bit:

Dungeon meta builds will always converge to the highest dps while still carrying necessary utility. In the case of Mesmer, highest possible dps is fulfilled by that mainhand sword, since any other weapon is a drastic drop in dps. Additionally, all Mesmer utility for dungeons is found either in focus offhand or utilities. This means that the optimal mix of dps and utility for a Mesmer is mainhand sword, focus, and one other offhand.

If you’re doing open world content, ranged damage becomes much more important to have. The optimal build for open world is gs+sw/focus. The gs is your long range power weapon with an aoe phantasm. Focus provides quickness, another aoe phantasm, and mob control.

You can also choose to go for conditions in open world. This’ll work, it’ll just be slower. You’d go staff+sc/something. Depending on the situation, you could take torch, pistol, or shield.

Conditions can also be run if you’re soloing dungeons, and in this case you’d be more or less using only staff for damage.