Guild Wars 2

Because my last post regarding this was deleted and resulted in an infraction, I’ve tweaked it and removed the “offensive” parts.

As per the title: What is a mesmer supposed to be?

If recent developments in the game are any indication, the developers don’t even know. Jack of all trades, perhaps? PvP dominator/whipping boy? Pretty dancer in the background that doesn’t actually contribute?

This most recent update (11/15) makes it impossible to be reliable in any role other than a clone generating shatter machine. Phantasms -which are much more than just attacks- are rendered completely useless by the simplest of things.

Mesmers are not a pet class. If this were the case, illusions would not be subject to the standard attack rules in that their conjuring could not be denied through mundane effects such as blocking (Aegis doesn’t get removed anyway) or evading or even blindness. Necromancer minions can’t be denied and immediately set to recharge if the target blocks or the caster is blind. Rangers are free to swap out pets and gain all the benefits regardless of status. Even a downed ranger can swap pets. If a Ranger is blind when swapping pets, are they without a pet until the swap recharges? Absolutely not, because that would be ridiculous.

Mesmers are not a ‘faceroll’ class. No class should be so simple that pressing a single button over and over results in a win, and Mesmers are clearly not this. The significant majority of players who create mesmers do not excel by spamming the same buttons over and over, but by thinking, paying careful attention, and reacting accordingly after much forethought, planning and building.

Mesmers are largely ignored. On these forums, there are two red (dev) posts in the mesmer subforum, and at least one of those was moved from another. Terrible, game-breaking bugs have existed since the first beta, and have yet to even be addressed or acknowledged by those in development. Every other profession has moderate to significant dev attention to their forum, and every other profession has seen actual benefits come from patches. Why has mesmer been reduced in every update?

I’ve been playing mesmer since the first beta events. I know their ins and outs, and have participated in PvE, PvP, and WvW extensively. I love the class and found it exciting and fun to play, but it is rapidly becoming less exciting and fun.

Edit: Well, it took a little more than an hour, but here we are, moved into the mesmer forum where red doesn’t show up.

TL;DR
What is the Mesmer supposed to be, when still broken since beta, and nerfed closer to unplayable in every patch update?

this thread will be squashed soon or mvoed to the mesmer section even tho only mesmers read that forum :x let the whole community discuss this dont move or delete the thread

I hate mesmers in pvp more than thieves. That should explain a lot.

Well, I’m curious about that too. I seriously cannot stomach the ignorance towards Mesmers. Any Dev who is able to answer this question?
And yeah, I don’t freaking care about PvP – I’d like to be able to enjoy the PVE world.

mesmer is a guy that belong in the circus ore beter say he a ilusionist
he can fool pll by seeing things that is rely not there ^^

so thats how you play him

To your opponent, you are a hemorrhoid.

To your ally, you are preparation h.

I don’t really get how being vulnerable to status effects the way everyone else is spells the doom of your class.

Phantasmal Berserker I understand; this seems like an overly dramatic reaction to something that doesn’t take too much skill to overcome.

To those people who “don’t get” how bad things are now, do you even play mesmer? If so, do you actually think about what you’re doing or just roll your face across the keyboard?

Being vulnerable to status effects is one thing, but when one temporary status condition can completely shut down your core mechanic -robbing you of not only attacks, but defense and most importantly utilities- for upwards of 15 seconds at once, something is seriously wrong. No other class suffers such a core meltdown from a single status.

I recently tested my mesmer against the thief npc in the mists, and whenever I was blinded, I attempted to conjure a phantasm. Half the time, the blindness wasn’t even removed as it is when a normal attack misses, but the conjure still failed anyway. I tested against other classes as well, and if I was on a different level than my target, again, 50% of the time a phantasm conjure would start recharge but not produce anything.

Even more, I joined a group for a Fractal dungeon, and was essentially dead weight, except for the underwater portions. My phantasms weren’t appearing, most of the time obstructed by something not even there or because the enemy was on a different level or slight incline, which severely limited what I was able to do.

Supervillain.8617:

To those people who “don’t get” how bad things are now, do you even play mesmer? If so, do you actually think about what you’re doing or just roll your face across the keyboard?

Being vulnerable to status effects is one thing, but when one temporary status condition can completely shut down your core mechanic -robbing you of not only attacks, but defense and most importantly utilities- for upwards of 15 seconds at once, something is seriously wrong. No other class suffers such a core meltdown from a single status.

I recently tested my mesmer against the thief npc in the mists, and whenever I was blinded, I attempted to conjure a phantasm. Half the time, the blindness wasn’t even removed as it is when a normal attack misses, but the conjure still failed anyway. I tested against other classes as well, and if I was on a different level than my target, again, 50% of the time a phantasm conjure would start recharge but not produce anything.

Even more, I joined a group for a Fractal dungeon, and was essentially dead weight, except for the underwater portions. My phantasms weren’t appearing, most of the time obstructed by something not even there or because the enemy was on a different level or slight incline, which severely limited what I was able to do.

Unless you just stand in blind fields or directly behind large rocks the entire fight you shouldn’t be having the amount of difficulty you describe. I hardly agree with the idea that you are hit harder than any other class when faced with a debuff. I don’t regain initiative when I miss as a thief, I don’t get my 40/60/120 second cooldowns back either. Don’t try to use your big attack when you’re blind and start being more pro-active about dodging status effects and paying attention to where you are standing.

This has been a reality for everyone else who plays the game but you. I’m sorry that its’ a reality for you as well, but its’ really not the end of the world either.

Did you read the post you quoted before responding to it? I was testing how blindness and elevation affect phantasm conjuring, hence the need for blindness and terrain difference.

Blinding a thief shuts him down for exactly one attack. When it misses, he’s no longer blind and can immediately follow up with another attack, and barely lose a step in the process, or if it’s a multihit skill, like Death Blossom, Unload, or even Dagger Storm, the skill still goes off pretty much as intended, sans the first hit. The initiative lost from a miss doesn’t compare to the recharge time on every failed phantasm conjure.

Blinding a mesmer, on the other hand, can shut him down for the recharge on the failed phantasm anywhere from 12 to 24 seconds, which also results in missing out of a shatter for damage, utility or defense and any support the phantasm might bring in addition to its attacks, which is the real reason most are conjured at all.

For comparison: Let’s imagine that a thief attacks and misses, and say he now loses one-third of his initiative and if it was a multi-hit skill, that is now completely spent with no effect. That would suck, right? Take it a step further, it also disables Shadow Refuge, so no applying stealth or healing to anyone else. With that one miss, this imaginary thief is significantly weakened in the same way that a single instance of avoidance can completely shut down a phantasm conjure.

Even if the phantasm isn’t avoided, it’s not that hard to deal with one by killing it- ending up with the same result as above- or choosing to ignore it and focus on the mesmer instead. If one fails to avoid a thief’s attack, the consequences are often much more dire.

I thought mesmers were supposed to be the duelist class? And then even with that, when people cry hard enough, that gets nerfed.

Supervillain, it gets better. Chain blind also applies to phantasmal defender. That thing doesn’t even HAVE a damaging attack.

I get the feeling the only way the ANet devs are going to realize this is you print this thread, tie it to a brick, and throw it through their head office, hitting their game balance lead square in the forehead.

The lack of response on the issue of the utilities shackled to our now un-summonable phantasms so far has been pathetic.

And let’s not forget how it ties to our class mechanic.

If a thief is feared or blinded, he’ll still generate initiative. If a guardian blocks or aegis’s a warrior, the warrior still generates adrenaline. If a ranger is stunned or fearred his pet can still attack just fine.

If a mesmer uses a multi-attack phantasm, not only will a blind block the first attack, it also blocks all the attacks, it disabled the phantasms, we lose any kind’ve regeneration, decoy or shatter fodder associated with the phantasm, we also get smacked with the cooldown. This is not proportionate

a mesmer is the ultimate mind trick because you think you are playing a complete class when in reality you should have rolled a warrior, guardian, or thief!

You know, if you stretch some sort of explanation, I can understand blocks and blinds, maybe even dodges preventing phantasm summoning. Maybe blocks have a magical component to them, maybe eye-contact is needed, so forth.
But the block/blind should definitely be burned, and it should trigger a regular 3s (or whatever it is) interrupt recharge.

All this, plus the overly buggy LoS seems to have lobotomized our versatility.

I don’t know what we are. I don’t know what illusions are anymore either.