Guild Wars 2

Yes, I’ve read the hater threads and I still like the idea and want to start a Mesmer.

I primarily play PvE, solo or duo, eventually into dungeons as I progress. I leveled my Guardian to 80 and want to try something different.

As a PvE player, what is the best current build, weapon type, and whatnot? I don’t suppose there’s a nice concise writeup on the Mesmer status?

I ask these questions because, like most of the class forums, the whiners and complainers are always the most vocal. There are not many posts which state the pros as well as the cons. Could someone really tell me the state of this class and whether it is worth pursuing?

The whiners and complainers seem more vocal on this forum because they have reason. Every patch there are more nerfs or “fixes” to Mesmers, and a good handful of them have seriously broken other mechanics which then take weeks to fix. It’s hard to recommend a build or say one is “best” without acknowledging that this could change in 24 hours.

With that said, most people will conclude it’s a toss up between staff or great sword. Both are good for different things, the staff having more utility and support options for pve, and the GS being excellent for WvW and a better AoE tool.

For your swap, I think most of us have ended up with sword/focus due to low movement speed. Sceptre is a bit underwhelming, but it’s nice when range is important (I currently use for WvW).

As for builds, like I said, this could all change in the next patch. The Shatter intensive build was recently nerfed a bit, but still functions. Phantasm build seems to be back on track after a major recent glitch, but some bugged traits are still effecting off hand sword and utility Phantasms. Glamours have tooltips that are mostly unhelpful and inaccurate, so best to read up on what effects what as Glamours do not even function as described without certain traits.

Is Mesmer worthwhile? It has a LOT of utility and people will always love to have you in squads even if they don’t know exactly why. But acknowledge that there are some major broken pieces to this puzzle and the whiners are more or less on track lol.

Thanks for the info. If the whiners are whining correctly then there is a chance that things will get fixed. It’s often inaccurate info is the result and then fixes go wrong.

It seems like the devs only make changes tailored for sPvP whine, so you really only have to fear the nerfbat if your build uses something that’s common in sPvP.

Anyways, playing a mesmer is a fun and unique experience. You can pick a role you want to fill or have a certain goal you want to accomplish, and you can make it happen. Not many classes have that potential, so if you’re willing to change your build around and experiment, you can potentially do anything.

And with that being said, everything comes with a price. Pick two: damage, utility, support. You can’t have the third one ever, and the damage is going to be lackluster compared to other classes, but it’s certainly worth it to give the class a try, even if you don’t like it. You’ll get an experience that no other class can give you.

Sword/focus

focus got aoe pull/cripple/aoe damage and both it skills reflect long range skills.

I love it.

(i mainly pve and sometimes WvW)

I do a tank/cc build

If you are rolling a mesmer, guardian or thief you can’t really go wrong. They all have an important role in every part of the game. And they’re only going to get better as ANet seems intent on nerfing the other (read inferior) professions into irrelevance.