It’s been a long time coming. After playing the class for over a year now and watching the Meta “evolve” I’ve begun to notice and peg down certain trends that leave the Mesmer apart from all the other classes. If anyone has further input for the discussion feel free down below.
Masters of Manipulation~
Mesmers began in Gw1 as a very conditional Class. You often did not do straight forward damage; instead you forced an enemy to either shut down or inflict a wide array of hurt upon themselves. You had to pick and choose your skills very carefully and your build was ever changing.
Later on Mesmers got a nice patch to bring more direct damage and less situational need to use skills. This patch was to bring them more on par with the other professions in the game.
Masters of Illusion~
Mesmers graduated into Gw2 and effectively retained a strong sense of the originals from Gw1. We were given Clones and Phantasms to replace some of the old hex’s. High mobility in combat to keep our enemies guessing and a few tricks to get out of the way of an attack if need be.
However with these changes we lost a lot of the Terror that came from Mesmers in Gw1. And its picked at me over and over at what our class seems to be.. missing. While i cant claim to know how it would effect the meta of the game, these are my thoughts on the class that would bring us to a more level playing field while maintaining a healthy balance with others.
Trait Lines~
We’ve been given a trait tree that is rather different from many other classes in game, and much of this also deals with our classes weapons and Core mechanic. Mesmers are in a Minority where our traits dictate play. Rather than choosing a way to play and finding traits to boost and improve the experience, we are instead made to pick what traits stack well together and attempt to play inside of the “box” they create.
A hard look at the traits we have, imo, reveals a lot of scatter shot-ing that removes many potential builds from the board due specifically to a lack of trait points. Others are simply not worth a heavy investment to use.
Core Weapons~
At launch many of our weapons had semi-short Cd’s on their skills. It didn’t take too terribly long for several nerfs to come in and increase these, in some cases several times over. This plays into the trait system above as now some weapons are almost nonsensical to bring without a trait to simply decrease wait times.
Other weapons still don’t feel quite right, most notably the scepter, even after a few tweaks here and there.
Core Mechanics~
Shattering is a very unique and powerful mechanic in game. But by all its glamor and power, it’s still always crippled by AI that must path-find its way to a target. Illusions are heavily relied upon by every weapon and by more than 33% of our traits making this an even more unique condition when shown against other classes.
~~~~~
Thoughts on Rework (without gutting the class like a fish)
Weapons~
A harder look at base cool-downs and effects from attacks. Perhaps swapping down effects from skills and adding them into Traits. (Theory Example: Phase retreat – Untraited – Teleport away from a foe. Traited – Teleport away and generate a clone)
Trait Lines~
A rearrangement here could help substantially, as well with the consolidation of several conflicting traits on different lines and the introduction of traits that can be used to improve builds rather than be considered Keystones to make a build viable.
Shatters & Clones~
A change in focus on clones being a need to a bonus of being a Mesmer. A change on shattering that has clones and Phantasms vanish on their current location and direct damage come from the Mesmer (shattering looks more like a Mantra, but with a slight delay).
TL;DR Version
Mesmers changed from Gw1 to Gw2
Gw2 Mesmers rely too heavily on traits and illusions to be viable.
Goal: Lessen Scattered traits, Create more build possibilities, Pull attention back to the Mesmer and off of clones (unless you want clones to be your thing).
“Gw2, It’s still on the Table!” – Anet