Guild Wars 2

I have a quick question for all you mesmer players. I am a relatively new player having just started a month or two ago. I currently have 3 toons. I have my level 80 ele which i definitely find fun but wanted to branch out a little. I have made both a thief and a mesmer but both are very low level. I came to the forums looking for tips on how to play both to get through leveling since i know it can be a bad experience with some classes ( i spent a LOT of time downed as my ele). I think both classes share some similarities in play style and i do enjoy the premise and looks of the mesmer in general. To my unfortunate discovery on the forums it seems most mesmer players and going on and on about how under powered and worthless the mesmer is right now and their huge lack of damage and no compensation for that. It definitely has deterred me slightly from even wanting to level my mesmer now. I would hate to invest all of the effort leveling it just to find at the end that it is a horribly weak class that isnt good at anything. I havent seen many of them while playing to get an idea how good they are end game.

I guess my main question here is if you had to choose a profession right now with HoT coming soon to start learning what would you pick. I have a elementalist that i mainly use for PvE and have touched a little WvW and PvP but very little and was sort of overwhelmed by the skill gap between me and others. I am not sure what i want to mainly do in game as there seems to be so much to do.

I am just looking for something to have fun with. I find ele’s to be squishy when roaming and while great in dungeons they are kind of boring in open world stuff like Silverwastes where there are so many mobs i pretty much have to stick with Staff and just spam the same skills. Any suggestions would be great the one thing i know i dont find fun is zergs.

if you find ele squishy you should not play mesmer. Mesmer is not under powered , if it is it’s at the very very high end of pvp which most of us will never reach anyway. But it is a very very squishy class same goes for thief. You might want to try a ranger or warrior out.

i don’t mind a squishy class. In almost every game i have played i tend to go for a squishy class (typically a mage). I just find with ele you don’t have many answers to multiple targets unless you go staff which i find boring. It probably doesnt help that i have only been able to get zerk gear for dungeons which increases the squishyness in WvW.

I mainly want to try out a slightly different playstyle since both mesmer and theif use stealth and still have a more fast paced play similar to the ele. I tend to shy away from the tankier professions because i assume (this may not be true in GW2) that they are similar to the staff ele where you mainly just faceroll the keyboard while tanking vs. ele standing far away. I prefer a more active playstyle that takes thought and strategy.

I guess what I am mainly looking for is a direct comparison between the two when it comes to Wvw solo or small group roaming, dungeons, PvP, and general open world stuff. I like them both now but I know lots of stuff changes at high level and I cant get a full feel of the class and how it plays without traits. I know I started to hate my ele at around level 20-30 because i got down anytime more than one mob aggro’d me at a time but once i got the traits I found it A LOT more fun and survivable and do dungeon runs without ever getting downed unless in a pug and things go very poorly.

I have been trying to browse the forums but (this is no offense) it seems in every profession forums it is a lot of “OMG! X class should get nerfed because of Y skill destroys everyone” (in reference to other classes) and “Our profession is so underpowered and needs more buff every other profession is so much easier” and “Our profession has the highest skill cap in the game and is extremely hard to play due to (insert some profession specificthing here)” So it is tough to get an idea. Im not trying to be rude but in the past 30 minutes i have read ele/thief/and mesmer are all underpowered and have the highest skill cap than every other class for different reasons.

Yep reading forums only get you so far because everyone has his/her view and it’s hard for someone who doesn’t play the class to figure out what’s QQing and what’s true. Anyhow if you want to get a good idea of class balance just look at the make ups of the top pvp teams that compete and/or win the money tournaments. Right now mesmer is the least played class hence why people think it’s underpowered.
Like I said before I don’t think you should stop playing mesmer because it may be kitten because really it’s not. This is what I think of the class, I’m sure others will disagree so take for what ever it’s worth.

pve , I have no idea, I don’t pve, what little pve I have done just seem so easy I don’t think it really matters what class you play unless you want to solo dungeons.
wvw: zerging wvw it really doesn’t matter once again it’s rather mindless .
wvw: Solo small group roaming mesmer is very good just watch out for good thieves :P
pvp: I more or less just pvp now days solo Q ranked 100% of the time. I’m having a lot of fun with my mesmer.

Out of all the gw2 classes mesmer plays most like a ranged caster outside of maybe power necros . That’s why I play the class. I also have ele and thief at 80 and fair bit of time played on them. Ele plays more like a melee button masher like a light tank almost and thief well it’s thief .

I would pick Mesmer going into HoT. First of all, we are definitely one of the less powerful classes atm but once you figure out the playstyle its still very rewarding and you can dominate people. Not to mention we are in a great position to get some long needed buffs/updates come HoT with our minimal use in professional PvP (those few that are out there are).

As far as having fun, mesmer is great to do burst and play mind games imo, and I will never ditch the mesmer. In PvE dungeons your Ele will be more efficient are desired outside of reflects. I still use mesmer though for the good ability to tag via greatsword in open world and semi-engaging melee only play on s/s + s/f in dungeons

All class sub-forums cry about their class being too weak. Even funnier when going to other sub-catergories and people still calling Mesmer’s OP or that PU is the cheesiest thing since cheddar. Don’t let the circlejerk put you off if you genuinely enjoy the class – or better phrased: don’t let the opinions of other dictate what is good for you. You can make almost anything work in this game.

Even though I always find mesmers a little bit lackluster, some videos on how intense mesmer battles can go always motivate me. Its more about the adrenaline rush that keeps me in mesmer, rather than easy domination over the battle etc.

Vash’s GS shatter tactics with many intense fights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Bamf Joe’s 4 men against a zerg starting from 3:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

While these videos show amazing outnumbered battles, I can say from first hand experience that things doesn’t always go as pretty as this. But nonetheless fighting and surviving by the skin of teeth is a very enjoyable experience for me, its like overcoming a challenge and you’re rewarded with big satisfaction.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Even though I always find mesmers a little bit lackluster, some videos on how intense mesmer battles can go always motivate me. Its more about the adrenaline rush that keeps me in mesmer, rather than easy domination over the battle etc.

Vash’s GS shatter tactics with many intense fights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Bamf Joe’s 4 men against a zerg starting from 3:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

While these videos show amazing outnumbered battles, I can say from first hand experience that things doesn’t always go as pretty as this. But nonetheless fighting and surviving by the skin of teeth is a very enjoyable experience for me, its like overcoming a challenge and you’re rewarded with big satisfaction.

5vX (my friend Culego PoV)

5vXvY (my PoV)

mesmer definitely fun in small scale

Yes, you stick with just for mesmer pride. We are the lowest class on the food chain but we stick with it! Until the day of the revolution & mesmers from the world has a clone zerg fest & blotch evrey other classes to death.

Flufferz.8907:

I would pick Mesmer going into HoT. First of all, we are definitely one of the less powerful classes atm but once you figure out the playstyle its still very rewarding and you can dominate people. Not to mention we are in a great position to get some long needed buffs/updates come HoT with our minimal use in professional PvP (those few that are out there are).

As far as having fun, mesmer is great to do burst and play mind games imo, and I will never ditch the mesmer. In PvE dungeons your Ele will be more efficient are desired outside of reflects. I still use mesmer though for the good ability to tag via greatsword in open world and semi-engaging melee only play on s/s + s/f in dungeons

without the release of HOT, how can u be so sure there are buffs coming? As for the OP, when a very popular class in Thief is your hard counter no matter what build you run, it’s really not that fun. I’d say go with Ele or Thief.