Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone.

I’ve done both to a point but some serious pve/pvp issues with them.
i’d like a good pvp char ( for WvW / spvp ) which is able to handle pve pretty well.

In this case mesmer seems superior in pvp but a bit crap in pve – due to last nerfs with los/ clones not spawnins/ zerk nerf with blindness etc and pretty low Aoe options makes me worry about late game events.

Also when looking on most classes they seems to have a good, low cd ability to push them forward, like thief bow “blink” skill/ warriors charge, sword leap, engi rifle jump etc. while we got only kitten skill a blink, which has long cd and takes important place among skill bar which could be replaced with something better.

As going trought low lvls with mesmer sword/focus seem to be best, high dmg + swiftness, full power runes. off hand staff for groups of mobs.

In asura zonem later in where the power plants are, theres event to kill huge golem bomb, I’ve done it with bit of struggle as mesmer due to massive amounts of mobs guarding it but it gone good, had some tough moments with low hp but nothing bad.

and then i picked up ranger and tried same event alone. God is was so easy, I leap in with gs, put traps under and started swinging. event was over ( golem dead ) before I noticed.

In spvp done by me till now, both of them are quite nice, ranger for sb condi builds, toughness + power//prec gs build was a lot of fun…
But then mesmer with his shatter spec and well, just pure domination.

in low end pve events ranger seems to be dominating with traps and gs swigs / axe/axe combo. And im not sure how it will be at late game.

im hoping someone else here got ranger/mesmer both on 80 and would like to give an opinion how diff in low pve/pvp vs high end pve/pvp on both classes.

And is mesmer really so badly broken now with the illusion spawn mechanic ?

I will try to cover all of what you asked here in short, in my opinion of course:

1) Ranger is better PvE hands down, especially early on, After level 40 it gets better for the Mesmer; I hold my own in fractals. It takes more work than a ranger, but it can be done
2) Ranger and Mesmer can both be effective in the right hands in PvP
3) Mesmer is considered to be one of the top PvP classes
4) Mesmer has some of the best escape skills, blink, teleport, staff 2, decoy, mirror image (I could go on)
5) “Move forward skills” is all about planning with a Mesmer, you can blink, portal if set right, focus speed buff, staff 2 if you turn around (I use runes of air to give me more speed buffs; I’ve also seen centaur runes used)
6)Mesmer’s are not that bad with spawn mechanic, unless you play phantasm build versus a shatter build, a shatter build can make a phantasm build spawn no phantasms essentially. I have been playing a shatter build and have not encountered any noticeable different except for iberserker requiring line of sight now. We are held to the same rules as everyone else now, so it doesn’t bother me

Long story short, Mesmers take more work to play than a Ranger, but Mesmers, in the right hands, can make people cry in PvP

I have a level 80 ranger friend who has claimed he was going to roll a Mesmer because I was killing things faster than him in Orr. However, just run through the posts in the Mesmer forum and you will see many people talk about tagging for credit problems Mesmers have in events due to lack of a good AoE. (You can use shatters as a good AoE though)

Hope this answers your question.

Well, You covered most stuff which for im thankfull.

Im only most afraid that as You said in later events im going to have tagging problem issues and be low on cash/loot…

Shatter aoe mechanic is great, also heard that persona trait makes you as Mesmer – player, 4th clone ? in which case you could just run into pack of mobs and shatter for aoe.

Im not sure, but does shatter have amount of mobs restriction ? like other aoe skills like 5th bow skill for ranger which can hit max probably 6 targets?

I can’t speak for the Ranger. I don’t know much about that class past level 7 haha.

Mesmer…it’s kinda tough until you hit level 40. Mesmer’s are really make or break based on traits.

In dungeons I think we add utility. Feedback is great for ranged mobs, null field is great for condition heavy encounters. Chaos Storm if you have staff is great….and Time Warp is really awesome when you’re fighting bosses. Focus is another great utility weapon especially when you combine your temporal curtain with your warden.

You’re right that we are lacking in AoE. We have to kind of work for AoE. Our only abilities are shatters, iwarden, and iberserker. I guess you could consider chaos storm one too.

I think PvE is a bit more difficult on Mesmer..but maybe that’s because it’s the class I started out with, and at the time I had no clue what I was doing. When I was leveling I felt like I lived at the waypoints.

The phantasms and illusions can sometimes pose as a problem in story quests and mobs in general. They have a habit of spawning far away from you and aggroing additional mobs.

In PvP, I can let the PvP gurus comment. I suck at PvP. I feel like I get my a— beat no matter what I do. I’ve watched the vids of how to do the rotations, etc…and doesn’t always play out like I envision in my head.

I don’t think I picked the Mesmer because it excelled at anything. I really picked it cuz I liked the style. I love playing a mind-fu— character and I think I would play it regardless of how crappy they make it.

Ranger is currently the worst class in GW2
Everything about him is subpar to any other class, his tankiness, his damage, his supporting abilities, his utility, everything.
Whatever a Ranger can do, any other class can do better.
Let that be a warning, go level a Mesmer, theyre awesome and can carry greatswords (sic!)

Oh yeah, about PvE and PvP, in PvE the Ranger might be good in the first 20-25 levels, then he drops. And you will always be useless in the dungeons since pets die in about 1 hit and thats 40% of Ranger damage
In PvP hes considered useless due to the fact that pets have a really hard time hitting moving targets since they have to stop to attack. That drops Ranger damage about 30-40% (depending on how many hits the pet can get in and it wont get many).
Mesmer on the other hand is a beast in PvP, confusing enemies, being super hard to kill while doing lots of ranged burst damage.

I have a level 80 Mesmer and Ranger and I like to do a mixture of DEs/exploring in high level areas, Dungeons and WvWvW.

The only reason I haven’t deleted my Ranger is because I don’t need the slot for anything and I don’t feel like leveling up cooking again. That is pretty much all I can say.

Mrowqa.3861:

Well, You covered most stuff which for im thankfull.

Im only most afraid that as You said in later events im going to have tagging problem issues and be low on cash/loot…

Shatter aoe mechanic is great, also heard that persona trait makes you as Mesmer – player, 4th clone ? in which case you could just run into pack of mobs and shatter for aoe.

Im not sure, but does shatter have amount of mobs restriction ? like other aoe skills like 5th bow skill for ranger which can hit max probably 6 targets?

I have no problems with cash (Other than I have been blowing cash on cosmetic items and cool weapons hehehehe). You just need to know your build. Shatter can tag pretty well in large mobs and yes persona does make you a “4th clone” for shatter purposes. You can even use it without any clones which is really nice.

Plus knowing the market can help. Like right now you can sell charged lodestones on my server for 2 gold a pop.

To be honest with you, I am not sure when it comes to the 5 person cap for aoes and shatters. Never really paid attention to it. Usually I am sending 3 illusions in and then my shatter, so a lot of numbers tend to flash up lol. An educated guess would say yes the same rules apply for max number of people hit. But if you really stretch it you could potentially hit 20 targets because each clone, and your character, is a different aoe.

Mek.2947:

I don’t think I picked the Mesmer because it excelled at anything. I really picked it cuz I liked the style. I love playing a mind-fu— character and I think I would play it regardless of how crappy they make it.

Hahaha, I like that. You hit the nail on the head though, play with what you have fun playing. If you play the “best pvper class, flavor of the month” you know eventually enough people will whine and have things changed. So play with what you have fun with. Don’t let others make that decision for you.

Levetty.1279:

I have a level 80 Mesmer and Ranger and I like to do a mixture of DEs/exploring in high level areas, Dungeons and WvWvW.

The only reason I haven’t deleted my Ranger is because I don’t need the slot for anything and I don’t feel like leveling up cooking again. That is pretty much all I can say.

This stuff about char space slot just made me laugh so hard.

Well i’ll go with mesmer, still was more into it in first place and only thing got me worried was that mob tagging, but when I get feel into class I should be fine

Thanks all for feedback

You should not regret going for mesmer. Ranger is having severe problems right now, because the majority of their skills are in dire need of improvement. Anet suggested that more upgrades will be given to ranger over time, but it is a matter of patience. There’s pve-convenience for ranger, but when you get right down to it, you’ll probably just end up spamming traps constantly.

Mesmer takes longer to level up, and will have to miss out on some loot. It’s a slower profession and it cannot be helped. Stick with it and you’ll find that the profession changes dramatically with traits (or so I was told on these helpful forums <3). I used to play ranger but didn’t feel like waiting on the improvements, now I do mesmer and am relatively satisfied.

dont forget engineer has a trait that lets you have perma swiftness ikitteneep swapping kits every 5 secs…

i wish theyd make blink create a clone where you blink from, or where you land… then id be ok with it being so obviously crap compared to all the other similar powers

the one saving grace is that we can make it so it can be cast further… but… its still not FAR

i got a random KITTEN in there, and it was nothing naughty… but now its confusing… lol

if——-you——keep——swapping

Ranger is dull, Mesmer is fun. Go Mesmer!

I have a level 80 Ranger that I leveled up in PvE, and a level 28 Mesmer that I’m currently leveling up in Worlds PvP. I only play PvE with my Ranger, and only PvP with my Mesmer. Don’t see why you only need to choose one profession.