Guild Wars 2

So after my little break (to come back super cazu) I’ve been reviewing the state of the class. It got me to wondering what others take is. Primarily around builds, roles, viability, diversity, in pvp settings (all honest people know pve is irrelevant XD ) in context with the other classes/rest of the game.

Incredible State? < —-——— > Super Sayian Sad State?

Well my take on this is:

• build diversity on mesmer is pathetic. But then again, it is essentially the case for all professions. HoT power creep has increased the gap between meta and non-meta. Before, I always pretty much played my own build, sometimes miles away from the meta role (like bunker mesmer pre-HoT) while still feeling I was contributing to my team as long as I was smart about it. Now the best I can do is a variation of the meta build or I feel like I am useless.
• In particular, we just don’t have good support anymore. We have never been good at healing, boons are flying around easily already (or there is a necro which would make you regret it) and alacrity does not feel strong enough to invest in it. CC and portal is pretty much the best support we can do. This makes me sad as I like play support roles and I thought that alacrity and quickness are a really unique take on this role.
• I feel like we have too much blocks and evades, so much that just rotating through your cooldown without taking into account what the enemy is doing will keep you alive just well. Same thing with shatters, instead of trying to read the opponent to land a good shatter, you can just shatter every 2 or 3 seconds and the enemy will die eventually. So in summary, I find the condi mesmer plain and tasteless and I moved away from chronomancer.
  
  So for me this is Super Sayian Sad State. But chrono is meta, so we are happy! right Azukas?

state of build diversity is a joke. i don’t really remember such a bad state in gw2 ever. tho it doesnt mean u gotta give up on ur fave class/build. i’m not into playing condi either. so i just basically took old power shatter chrono but instead of domination went with inspiration and still with berserker amulet. it’s still the same flavor of style. gs + sword/shield. u can either go with mantra or regular dodge clone. and for third slot just take something like daze mantra or mirror images for extra survival. it’s not as OP as condi chrono and not as weak as domination. u can still make it work. and u wont need to give up the playing style we all like.

but yes i do agree.. power classes that requires some skill to play are in a super sad sayian state.. and classes that are easy to play are in an OP state. i cant help but think that it’s some kind of HoTs incentive for casuals. that they can still keep up and actually win against good players. cuz good player wont give up his fave build. he’ll rather loose then go condi.

Well, you didn’t say which game mode specifically so I’ll talk about WvW and PvE.

PvE:
If you run the alacrity/quickness support bot you always have a role and a place.
If you don’t you are literally the worst person to bring and have no place or other competitive build. Even a half trained monkey on a guard, necro or ele will be better.
Sad to see a class with so much utility (on par with guards) have such pathetic dps.

WvW:
Condi builds with high vitality and toughness rule this mode for mesmers. You can win a lot of roaming fights even out numbered but that’s more to do with incompetent national players who only know how to press 1 and 4 on guard.

Chrono power can do alright roaming but you’re at a disadvantage against revs, scrapers, celementalists, decent thief/DH/warrior and would recommend inspiration trait line because of the amount of conditions flying around.

Base Mesmer is only OK in small groups and at giving portal/veil. You will die to focus without stealth and shouldn’t win many 1v1s with the amount of sustain, dodges, blocks given with HoT and 99 times out of 100 you will run into HoT classes.

Whatever power or condi, mesmer is still in the roaming role due to its mobility. However I do find power glass build a lot more punishing compare to before, I need to reconsider about closing in even if I want to burst, sometimes to the point where I feeling like a pew pew ranger that never touches combating nodes haha.

Speaking from power shatter perspective, you have very little contribution against decent foes running sustain builds (eg. cleric ele) on point. Druids can be easier to handle, but you make much less impact when either sustain builds come with teammates.

You also can’t fight current meta scrapper in close range at all due to almost every hammer skill can knock off 5k hp from you (2.2x-3.6x coefficient in every CD skill and also comes with defensive options).

You can still handle warrior (can be tough if warrior is good) and guardian with good amount of kiting, LOS and fighting from range, and we’re all so familiar with fighting thieves so I won’t elaborate on that lol. Necro can be good or bad depend on your position, I usually fight from range nowadays so that it isn’t really a problem with good cleansing rotations.

The range advantage is almost non-existent when revenant is around though, revenant is still one of the hardest match up for power shatter due to multiple gap closers and easy cleaving like sword 2. And if you don’t have illusions around the 3 blades from sword 2 could easily cost 4-6k hp. On top of all the evades and blocks, a decent revenant has more than enough tool to heal back up between mesmer’s 10s mind wreck burst intervals. You must have other ways to pressure him between this time or there could be no end to the fight.

Mesmer is an interesting one, usually I see condi mesmers that have no clue on how to fight power mesmer. And it is rather easy for me to fight them. When I do see condi mesmer who knows their kitten then it can be tough with condi cleansing. But again fighting far is the usual strategy that can be quite helpful.

In the end though, I believe none of these are new to you Ross. I doubt the meta shifted at all with the recent patches, so I’ll give power shatter a super saiyan sad state. Since warrior/guardian/thief still have limited presence in unranked (likely ranked as well) play, if you intend on power shatter you’ll be fighting hard match ups almost all the time. And you do need a team to support you as you won’t be holding nodes much, pretty much like the what power shatter has always been about lol.

pvp here

no diversity what so ever (same goes to more few classes)
all builds build around chrono which is sad and ruine the theorycraft abilities
power not useable anymore as other just do it far better
condi basically ok in 1v1 but really lack in 3v3 and above
i also like the support role with mesmer but rip necro just shut you down atm so you can play roaming role mainly

if they nerf more the condi build in any way we will be in a very dark sad state

what can be done is easy
support – buff the well to give 66% on allies
wop – aegis is stupid change it already or give it dmg boost like necro power well
power – buff the AA gs to be par with other class and buff F2 dmg little bit more

and we will see power build support build and condi build

Diversity in PvP is about the same as before. 1 obviously strong viable builds and a few weaker builds that will work ok in lower ranks. The only difference is the power build swapped with condi so now it’s condi that’s viable and power that’s weak.

Diversity in WvW is the same. Dire condi roamer or veil spam bot for the zerg. No change there.

PvE got a lot better, we’re mandatory in all raids now, so that’s nice.

Unfortunately these are refer to Chrono. Base mesmer is still kind of in the dumps, and I’m not a huge fan of that recent moa nerf. They shouldn’t be nerfing core classes just because the elites are strong.

I think a condi shatter build with chrono, illusions and inspiration is good, and yet I’ve had some pvp fights lately where there’s plenty of challenge. There’s every possibility that I’m just playing against people much better than I am. Noobie players die fast to this build (especially in wvw…)

I did a little experimenting during the last couple of weeks to see if I could find some variation since I don’t like playing the same thing as everyone else. I tried to make a “true hybrid” build work where I took shattered strength instead of maim the disillusioned and tried various amulets and runes. But the lost condi damage is too much.

I still keep trying small tweaks (I’m playing double mainhand scepter with sword and shield as offhands). Lately, I’ve been trying to fit illusionary disenchanter into the mix.

So I think in pvp, the core of the condi shatter build is strong. There’s some room for experimentation, but it feels like the traits are pretty much locked.

Silverkey.2078:

Well my take on this is:

• build diversity on mesmer is pathetic. But then again, it is essentially the case for all professions. HoT power creep has increased the gap between meta and non-meta. Before, I always pretty much played my own build, sometimes miles away from the meta role (like bunker mesmer pre-HoT) while still feeling I was contributing to my team as long as I was smart about it. Now the best I can do is a variation of the meta build or I feel like I am useless.
• In particular, we just don’t have good support anymore. We have never been good at healing, boons are flying around easily already (or there is a necro which would make you regret it) and alacrity does not feel strong enough to invest in it. CC and portal is pretty much the best support we can do. This makes me sad as I like play support roles and I thought that alacrity and quickness are a really unique take on this role.
• I feel like we have too much blocks and evades, so much that just rotating through your cooldown without taking into account what the enemy is doing will keep you alive just well. Same thing with shatters, instead of trying to read the opponent to land a good shatter, you can just shatter every 2 or 3 seconds and the enemy will die eventually. So in summary, I find the condi mesmer plain and tasteless and I moved away from chronomancer.
  
  So for me this is Super Sayian Sad State. But chrono is meta, so we are happy! right Azukas?

Nailed it. This is why I stopped playing sPvP. WvW is way more balanced from a sheer numbers perpsective, despite some totally broken gear combinations like dire + perplexity.

The class design is flawed on a few principles, and has very binary representation. Largely gone are the principles of rewarding skilled play and demoting facerolling. HoT’s powercreep has enabled some builds to quite literally be playable with no concern with the enemy’s actions whatsoever and still in all likelihood win a fight.

Diversity is a problem game-wide for sPvP. I’d probably put the mesmer’s as second-worst behind thief, only because it has more usable traits and overall in sPvP can function in more scenarios.

i feel like all of us are just giving so much effort and chance for this game. i meet so many people who totally do not enjoy condi builds. yet they play it. or they re-roll to scrapper/druid/ele but they don’t enjoy it at all. see where im getting at? this game pushed so many people into playing something they don’t like. yesterday i was like " man.. why do i even play if i don’t enjoy and my fave classes/builds are killed". came to conclusion its just all about addiction and no alternative games. deleted. moved on. i mean i dont know.. if some people out there are like me i suggest to just don’t bother. we gave too much effort for this game and yet we are forced to play some cheez builds that we dont enjoy.

ps. just download some fun game and move on. maybe it’s really a good idea to abandon sinking ship so anet will start doing something when they’ll see dropping numbers. cuz literally i feel like still 30-40% of population re-rolled to classes/builds they don’t even enjoy but they are forced to play it. wake up. u dont enjoy? well don’t play. don’t play just cuz u r addicted or somethin

Our current meta pvp build:

1. Manhandles our core mechanic so it does 89% of the builds damage output.

2. Uses the weapons it does completely for utility/defense and clone spam.

3. Gets all of its sustain and condi cleanse from spamming our core mechanic.

The current strengths of the pvp build have very little to do with mesmer actually beeing in a good state. Our weapons are mostly garbage and have far too little damage and way too much damage mitigation. But since the metabuild kitten s our fairly well balanced cooldown dependant core mechanic to do all things the mesmer is usually terrible at (condi cleanse, sustain, condi application) all we can look forward to is further nerfs to the core spec without ever adressing how kitten most of our weapons and utilities are.