Guild Wars 2

I stand near a crafting station and sometimes make Ascended stuff for my alter egos. Funny story: I played through the first S2 story with my Mesmer, using mostly zerker Exotic/Ascended equipment. Then, I played through it with my Necromancer and his lvl 20-60 selection of random greens. I think my necro did almost as much DPS between his dagger attacks, Vulnerability stacks and Well of Suffering. It’s more than a bit depressing. I don’t think I suck that much as a mesmer.

Neptune.2570:

Feels like being Tyrion in the Lannister family of guild wars professions.

haha that one sums it up!yep +1 from me XD

My mesmer is still my main – I mostly go for speedy dungeon runs. I am planning to brush up my pvp with her too.

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

Playing a Mesmer is like… Imagine your character went to Guild Wars 2 college and majored in Thief, but kind of slacked off and failed all his classes. He picked up a minor in pretending to be a Guardian, but never really got above a C in any of those classes either. So eventually he just majored in art and drew a bunch of self portraits, which everyone thought were kind of neat, if a little confusing, but now they just kind of ignore them.

That’s a Mesmer: a failed Thief who occasionally attempts to imitate a Guardian but mostly just makes copies of himself that aren’t good for much more than looking at.

I almost exclusively played my Mesmer during the first year or so of this game. With the ongoing nerfs, bugs to the Mesmer and power creep to most other professions, Mesmer isn’t that fun to play anymore.

I now switch between Warrior, Necro and Ranger mostly.

I do play my Mesmer when we do guild puzzles for portals to those that can’t jump lol.

/sadface

Anyone remember the Mesmer’s trajectory in GW1? Especially in PvE, Mesmers weren’t particularly desirable, but by the end they were damage-dealing gods.

So, who knows. Maybe we’ll keep getting nerfed into the ground and then a year or two from now suddenly find ourselves rising from the nerf ashes like a sparkly purple phoenix just like in GW1.

Mesmer has been my main for over a year and I exclusively play WvW. On our lower tier server, we don’t often have Zerg vs Zerg. I tended to avoid those on the higher tier servers as well.

I play it because I like its combat strategy and mix of survivability/support/damage. In WvW, unless you want to become a one-trick pony, you have to maintain a balance in your damage vs. survivability. I had fun roaming as PU for a while, but realized that it shifted a lot of damage to your teammates. Without them alive, you can’t cap an objective if you’re the only one standing and there’s still 5+ enemies.

I left the PU build a while back and switched to Condi+Torment. I’m not trying to out-DPS the thieves, but just to outsmart. The torment build is almost the opposite of a being PU.. you’re hoping that they run away (after they’ve burned their condi clears).

Anyway.. what’s my Mesmer life like now? I mix it up [in WvW] and will be in small havoc groups, large keep-taking groups, or commanding, and sometimes roaming. I’m happy with my current build (and class!) that supports that. My utility slots give me enough flexibility for the situation. And as a [small/medium group] commander, I never have to ask if we have a Mesmer

My biggest gripe right now with the class is the movement lock that sometimes happens when I Staff #2 at the wrong time and I have to use an emote to break out of it.

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

LOL, I don’t know what PU build you’re using but I have no problems dealing with “most” builds or pursuing them as they try and run ( other than the Nike warrior & the occasional thief ) You’re acting like Mesmers just cast their phantasms and do nothing other than hide in stealth. I’m sorry you just have no clue what you’re talking about

Agent Noun.7350:

Anyone remember the Mesmer’s trajectory in GW1? Especially in PvE, Mesmers weren’t particularly desirable, but by the end they were damage-dealing gods.

So, who knows. Maybe we’ll keep getting nerfed into the ground and then a year or two from now suddenly find ourselves rising from the nerf ashes like a sparkly purple phoenix just like in GW1.

Back then there were roles/sort of a trinity. There also wasn’t zerg spam aoe for loots since loot was randomly divided between the group. So even though people might not have noticed the mesmer doing stuff/damage, they could still be valuable to a group.

Then add in a 2nd profession such as dervish. Mantra-scythe-interrupter would do some awesome dmg (up to 300 cleaving auto attacks), be tanky (mantras) and bring the mesmer utility (interrupts etc.). If you wanted a more traditional mesmer build, chaos dmg ignored armor (especially good in HM) and was attached to the punishing playstyle that most mesmer mains loved. Basically mesmers were never that weak in gw1 and those weaknesses could be covered by the 2nd profession (while still looking amazing). GW2 doesn’t give us that luxury to hold us over these dark times.

So why are they dark times? Let’s look at a what a gameplay programmer says about AI summons.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Consumables-Nerf/page/2#post3532963

The fact that most of these items ever existed is just blatantly a bug. The decision to throw cooldowns on them were for server performance/stability as the patch notes said, not for balance. Period. This was something that was long overdue.

Think of it this way: Between the embers and whistle, those items were effectively doubling/tripling the amount of players active in a map.

…

The bringer of bad news,
-Bill

He’s talking about ogre pet whistles etc but the same logic applies to mesmer illusions. A gameplay programmer considers our class mechanic a bug as far as server lag is concerned and this was one of the patches that illusions started acting wonky as well. We still have tons of bugs that aren’t being fixed and attempts to fix them usually break the class more. The balance team has no idea what to do with mesmers. The incompetence/indifference of 3 separate teams are basically working against the mesmer.

I don’t believe we have reached the point of absolutely useless but I look at this and I’m finely done with being a mesmer main after 10 years because I don’t want to stick around as the class continues to get butchered.

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

LOL, I don’t know what PU build you’re using but I have no problems dealing with “most” builds or pursuing them as they try and run ( other than the Nike warrior & the occasional thief ) You’re acting like Mesmers just cast their phantasms and do nothing other than hide in stealth. I’m sorry you just have no clue what you’re talking about

By most > u mean bearbow rangers? Or enemys with 20% hp on your supply camp?

I watched your video man. Wasnt impressed. Shatters do good. Phants can do good. Show me good Pu play and ill look into it. Pu is the same as some dodgy bleed thief builds. If u not clever enough to ignore them > they would kill you eventually.

Agent Noun.7350:

Anyone remember the Mesmer’s trajectory in GW1? Especially in PvE, Mesmers weren’t particularly desirable, but by the end they were damage-dealing gods.

IIRC, that was almost entirely because of a single special PvE-only skill. (To be fair, a lot of builds were held together by a PvE-only skill.)

Honestly I like the GW2 mesmer more. GW1’s mesmer was a cool ideal, all hexes and interrupts, but when I played the game I much preferred necros and rangers for the same stuff. GW2’s mesmer does some unique things, some really cool things, even some borderline-broken things. It’s a fun class to play. Just… very bug-ridden and kinda inconsistent in its design. I miss both GW1’s hexes and its awesome interrupt gameplay, but not on account of the mesmer, really.

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

LOL, I don’t know what PU build you’re using but I have no problems dealing with “most” builds or pursuing them as they try and run ( other than the Nike warrior & the occasional thief ) You’re acting like Mesmers just cast their phantasms and do nothing other than hide in stealth. I’m sorry you just have no clue what you’re talking about

By most > u mean bearbow rangers? Or enemys with 20% hp on your supply camp?

I watched your video man. Wasnt impressed. Shatters do good. Phants can do good. Show me good Pu play and ill look into it. Pu is the same as some dodgy bleed thief builds. If u not clever enough to ignore them > they would kill you eventually.

Of course a solid PU build doesn’t kill as quickly as a high burst shatter build. That’s not how a good PU build works. The point is that a solid PU build can 1v 1, 2, or 3 and survive long enough to overcome what would otherwise be an impossible challenge. A full a zerk shatter build might down someone quickly, a full zerk phantasm build might dish out some nasty dps, but outside of a 1v1, vs a competent roamer, or if you miss your burst/setup, you’re more than likely done.

How quickly you deal damage and down people is irrelevant. All that matters is winning. You can be a scrub, or you can play to win. Simple as that.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

LOL, I don’t know what PU build you’re using but I have no problems dealing with “most” builds or pursuing them as they try and run ( other than the Nike warrior & the occasional thief ) You’re acting like Mesmers just cast their phantasms and do nothing other than hide in stealth. I’m sorry you just have no clue what you’re talking about

By most > u mean bearbow rangers? Or enemys with 20% hp on your supply camp?

I watched your video man. Wasnt impressed. Shatters do good. Phants can do good. Show me good Pu play and ill look into it. Pu is the same as some dodgy bleed thief builds. If u not clever enough to ignore them > they would kill you eventually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8td7XyA1JU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TODfK9LvIEk

Of course a solid PU build doesn’t kill as quickly as a high burst shatter build. That’s not how a good PU build works. The point is that a solid PU build can 1v 1, 2, or 3 and survive long enough to overcome what would otherwise be an impossible challenge. A full a zerk shatter build might down someone quickly, a full zerk phantasm build might dish out some nasty dps, but outside of a 1v1, vs a competent roamer, or if you miss your burst/setup, you’re more than likely done.

How quickly you deal damage and down people is irrelevant. All that matters is winning. You can be a scrub, or you can play to win. Simple as that.

1-st link is october 2013…yeah…. 2-nd link isnt even pu mesmer. She/he dont get boons from stealth

I understand, that pu mesmer can survive for, like, forever. Problem is killing part. If enemy is so weak, that he can be killled with pu…. he would be killed with phant even faster. And if phant can’t kill enemy 1v1…Pu wont be able to do it either. Smth like that.

But I wont argue, that 1v2/3 is possible only with Pu. Though, u might as well take thief. Same results.

Though, sometimes u get so bad enemys, that they just melt down, like, instantly. Then u dont even need pu to 1v2 em. Dat zerk players….

Ross Biddle.2367:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

Sergoros.4398:

Fay.2357:

While not actually accurate, you do have real reasons other than ‘PU bad’.

I tend to exaggerate to make my point.

To be more accurate, Pu have low dmg, and it takes reeaaallyy long time to kill things with it. Maybe not walk away, but run away

100% incorrect, PU doesn’t mean condition tank all the time… It’s a trait and there’s plenty of builds that use it. ( Note: first kill was Pre Naga mouse – Such clicking! )

Long to kill? I think not my friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtJPDrarR

It was pretty long. Look. U sacrifice one phantom for your torch. U sacrifice some core dps traits for the pu trait. Your dmg is lower. Thats a given. And mesmer dmg is already to low as it is. Even for me, sometimes, it takes a while to kill some half decent enemy’s

Also…I wouldn’t call your link an example. U was killing bearbow rangers and some very bad necros, only thief u had in this video was upleveled. Show me your great dps on signet warrior, and then it would have been a good example. And this time I would prefer, if u do it without green npc help.

Well the point is it’s WvW there’s bad players and good players alike you can’t expect to blow everyone up in 5 seconds. Big numbers don’t mean anything if you can’t survive, balance is key when it comes to WvW. Most good players know their class and builds well enough to drag fights out for minutes and it usually comes down to who out plays who.

Thats why I dont like Pu mesmer. Its basically just survival machine. Survive 1-st, kill 2-nd, if even possible. That drastically lowers variety of builds u can kill. I dont like to be evasive joe.

Two cowboy galloping across the prairie. Nobody around.
Suddenly something quickly appears on the horizon, passing the cowboys and disappears as fast as appears.
- What was that, one asks the other cowboy.
- This is Evasive Joe, answered cowboy.
- And what? Nobody caught him yet?
- Oh, no! Simply nobody needs him.

LOL, I don’t know what PU build you’re using but I have no problems dealing with “most” builds or pursuing them as they try and run ( other than the Nike warrior & the occasional thief ) You’re acting like Mesmers just cast their phantasms and do nothing other than hide in stealth. I’m sorry you just have no clue what you’re talking about

By most > u mean bearbow rangers? Or enemys with 20% hp on your supply camp?

I watched your video man. Wasnt impressed. Shatters do good. Phants can do good. Show me good Pu play and ill look into it. Pu is the same as some dodgy bleed thief builds. If u not clever enough to ignore them > they would kill you eventually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8td7XyA1JU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TODfK9LvIEk

Of course a solid PU build doesn’t kill as quickly as a high burst shatter build. That’s not how a good PU build works. The point is that a solid PU build can 1v 1, 2, or 3 and survive long enough to overcome what would otherwise be an impossible challenge. A full a zerk shatter build might down someone quickly, a full zerk phantasm build might dish out some nasty dps, but outside of a 1v1, vs a competent roamer, or if you miss your burst/setup, you’re more than likely done.

How quickly you deal damage and down people is irrelevant. All that matters is winning. You can be a scrub, or you can play to win. Simple as that.

^ Exactly, hats off to you that’s what I’ve been getting at.

@ Sergoros clearly you didn’t bother to look at the other videos on my channel.

@Ross While I personally hate the stealth play style on mesmers and don’t use it myself, I don’t hate on others who use PU because yes if you want to win roaming PU is hands down the best option.

But I have to point out, if you are really going to “play to win” then you should reroll to a stronger class. Saying anyone who doesn’t play PU is a scrub is lame (unless I misunderstand you). If that’s how it works we are all scrubs for playing mesmer, clearly not the strongest class right now.

Nice vid btw, most PU vids are super boring to watch but because you use scepter/focus well yours was fun, props on that.

ASP.8093:

Agent Noun.7350:

Anyone remember the Mesmer’s trajectory in GW1? Especially in PvE, Mesmers weren’t particularly desirable, but by the end they were damage-dealing gods.

IIRC, that was almost entirely because of a single special PvE-only skill. (To be fair, a lot of builds were held together by a PvE-only skill.)

Honestly I like the GW2 mesmer more. GW1’s mesmer was a cool ideal, all hexes and interrupts, but when I played the game I much preferred necros and rangers for the same stuff. GW2’s mesmer does some unique things, some really cool things, even some borderline-broken things. It’s a fun class to play. Just… very bug-ridden and kinda inconsistent in its design. I miss both GW1’s hexes and its awesome interrupt gameplay, but not on account of the mesmer, really.

The Mesmer’s main problem in Guild Wars 2 PvE is the same as the Necromancer’s, when it comes down to it: the profession was designed for a different game than the one that got released.

For the Necromancer, it’s down to conditions. Because of a pretty baffling design decision that’s stuck around for almost two years and probably isn’t going to ever change, condition damage has no place in group PvE content, which means that the majority of what a Necromancer is built to do never really gets a chance to shine in a huge portion of the game. That’s a shame.

For the Mesmer, it’s harder to point to one specific issue. On the damage side of things, Mesmers suffer because a significant portion of our damage potential comes from our phantasms and shattering our clones, and as soon as the AoEs start flying (in all game modes), those poor illusions just plain die. That means that professions who do all of their damage themselves--especially, in PvE, Warriors, Thieves, and Elementalists—handily outdamage Mesmers. After all, it’s not like an Elementalist’s Lightning Hammer disappears if a boss attacks it.

And really, that’d be fine if the Mesmer brought valuable control and support abilities to a group. But in Guild Wars 2’s PvE, control’s not really a factor, despite the original design intentions. Reflects are valuable, but Guardians can do that just fine, and bring much more to the table as well. As for support, Guardians, Elementalists, and Thieves make Mesmers look downright silly. I mean, look at two of our three elite skills. Time Warp is a minor DPS boost that can actually be a hindrance if the party isn’t ready to adjust their rotations, and Mass Invisibility is outdone on a shorter cooldown (and without taking up the elite skill slot) by a Thief with a smoke field and a shortbow. Take away Portal and I don’t think I’d be able to point to a single reason to bring a Mesmer along.

The Mesmer is a fantastically cool profession. My Mesmer was the first character I made in the first minutes of headstart, and he’s still my most-played character. And even though I tend to feel like I’m playing a profession whose abilities are essentially fragile clones of other professions’ skills, I’ll probably keep maining Mesmer. But kitten if I don’t feel sad about all that missed potential.

In short, the Mesmer is an excellent profession for an entirely different game.

Agent Noun.7350:

The Mesmer is a fantastically cool profession. My Mesmer was the first character I made in the first minutes of headstart, and he’s still my most-played character. And even though I tend to feel like I’m playing a profession whose abilities are essentially fragile clones of other professions’ skills, I’ll probably keep maining Mesmer. But kitten if I don’t feel sad about all that missed potential.

In short, the Mesmer is an excellent profession for an entirely different game.

I think you’re exactly right.

The class is full of potential but you have to work against most of the game’s mechanics to do your basic job.

I love my mesmer, I considered her my main for the longest time – she was my first to 80. But recently I play my guardian/ele/warrior/thief to be useful in speed dungeons – I do more damage and have more use on any of my other classes, which means more fun for me.

(BTW, looking for a good NA speed meta guild, please)

Sadly, the only time I bring out the mesmer is for fractals, the occasional Arah duo or chatting in LA.

Domzz.1260:

Hey All!

Hi!
Mesmer was my main for more than a year. I recently changed my main to Thief; I simply have no faith in Arena nets vision for the Mesmer. That is if there is a vision at all. I have my doubts….

PVE: The phantasm Mesmer:
The Mesmer is slow…
The mesmer rely upon phantasms that are easily killed. The damage is rather unreliable. Little access to aoe. There are a few places where I still prefer my Mesmer. Arah for one because at least I can reflect there and feel useful.

SPVP: The shatter Mesmer. (I am not going to say anything about pu. I have tried it and I simply do not enjoy the play style.)
The Mesmer is slow…
Thief says hello! Thief says goodbye! And even if it is a relatively bad thief (like my new main) The short bow will do the trick!
I do not think any other class needs babysitting to the same extend as a shatter Mesmer does.

Then there is the joy of Mesmer being vulnerable to both physical dps and conditions. That’s right! There is still not many cleansing options and gl backing off when everyone else is faster than you are! Thief is the hardcounter, but Thief is not the only class that will cause you trouble.

WVW: The shatter Mesmer.
The Mesmer is slow….
Say goodbye to your phantasms/clones and therefor any reasonable amount of damage in any kind of larger group. We are decent solo roamers if going pu I have been told. Moreover, we can have veil, portal nullfield and/or feedback (yay…).

The Mesmer is in theory fun to play. The fun just fades away when you realize every other class seems to be allowed to be good at something while all your purple shiny animations does so little.

I cannot think of any area where the Mesmer truly shine. The class lacks a sense of direction.

• Mobility: That is definitely not the Mesmer. We are only fast in combat and mainly if we have the staff equiped.
• Conditions: Myah – the neco, engi, condi warrior and thief does it better tbh.
• Control: No not really. I can land interrupts a lot more reliably on my thief.
• Damage: No that is not really the Mesmer either.
• Boon stripping: Yes, we are actually good at that. Unfortunately, we do not gain the boons ourselves nor can we share them with anyone.
• Utilities: Oh yay! Here is the portal, feedback and veil again. The only things along with the boon stripping that justify the existence of Mesmer.

The class needs bug fixes. The class needs a developer that understands the class and has the ability, power and will to lead it in a direction.

So what is life like for a Mesmer? For me it was too frustrating to keep mesmer as my main.

Fun at times but often very depressing .

MSFone.3026:

@Ross While I personally hate the stealth play style on mesmers and don’t use it myself, I don’t hate on others who use PU because yes if you want to win roaming PU is hands down the best option.

But I have to point out, if you are really going to “play to win” then you should reroll to a stronger class. Saying anyone who doesn’t play PU is a scrub is lame (unless I misunderstand you). If that’s how it works we are all scrubs for playing mesmer, clearly not the strongest class right now.

Nice vid btw, most PU vids are super boring to watch but because you use scepter/focus well yours was fun, props on that.

My statement is in general, not directed at Mesmer using or not using PU. There’s also some truth in your saying roll a different class, but that’s all in the context. If you’re playing Mesmer then go with what you need in order to win. If you’re talking some game mode with group comp, and another comp will produce a win, then go with that.

Really wish ANet would show us love. I love my Mesmer, I really do, but it’s pretty difficult to enjoy these days. Nobody wants her on dungeon runs, I run Elementalist for that. My Mesmer just feels so weak.

Being a Mesmer Main since Beta, I know all the things as to what Mesmer used to be capable of, what it means to be a Mesmer and what Mesmer is becoming. My only regret is not playing Gw1 to see how blackout Mesmer was haha.
Maining the class is basically walking around with literally a death sentence title, a crown made of diamonds and at the wave of your hand your capable of shutting down anything you show up to. So to answer your question IS it fun? HELL YES! In truth no one likes fighting against a Mesmer let alone a spectacular one because of what they are capable of. Which atm I play Mesmer power(zerker amulet) and just daze my enemies to death. A lot of Mesmer shatter, which is legit, but when did you daze? I got people running from me. rolls eyes "come here! "
Mesmer definitely isn’t as strong as it used to be, but the class revolves around dominating your enemies. The title is in its self "Champion Illusionist " (You Dominance is no illusion.) But I do feel like I’m walking on eggshells because of Anet always, always. ALWAYS. Looking to find some way to nerf the class(or build) instead of buff it where credit is due. So I always ask myself how strong is this spec I’m running? is it worth nerfing? if so I don’t run it(in abundance). sadly..
Depending on your build, Mesmer is always useful. I can’t think of a situation I just wasn’t useful for dungeons(PvE), Tpvp or WvW. Granite I don’t PvE like I used to, I feel they are still very strong at completing dungeons and events in a timely fashion. Tpvp they are far stronger than any Scholar class simply because of what Mesmer is capable of. Either the Necro or ele lost you In your array of shatters and clones and before they know what’s really going on and therefore are already to low to make something happen or better yet dead. There are times they can get the upper hand, But that’s just tpvp for ya. Then WvW zerging is like, did you veil for your guild? Portal them golems or better yet portal bomb! Time warp that fight! But adding Nullfield and Feedback to the zerg fights only makes enemy Mesmers run the Glamours and fights becomes beautiful in the disarray of purple everywhere. IT becomes who got the chaos armor, because at the end of the fight neither side knows who’s glamours are who’s. What happens is you run into a glamour to try and blast it and if it isn’t even your teams, so then you die. So people kinda stopped using them in WvW… But Mesmer is great at bursting unwary opponents via shatter on the battle field. Then roaming WvW for me atleast is a tad bit boring, Because if your not running some cheesy PU spec or Shadow arts build you wont be able to really fight someone 1v1(not always). Because really bad players roam WvW and don’t roam to be skilled with a legit build. They built to 5v1 so if your just 1v1ing them you can only toy with them before they try to condi bomb. I roam shatter then daze build in team comps. So I look to burst you, but if your phantasm dire/rabid PU im just gonna say bye. Then shadow arts thieves? o god im gone.
The class does feel sometimes a little bit weaker than most of the classes only because We are constricted to 20 points in a trait line to be effective when shattering. Any Mesmer trying to shatter without X in dueling, it takes you time to build up your clones and you can’t even combo shatters, Your basically looking to shatter once. I cant think of any other class confined to 20 points in anything to be effective. I really wish Anet would change X in dueling to be an automatic thing for Mesmers or move it to adept tier for a few months to allow Mesmer to really be able to take those 20 points and actually do different builds!
IS the class being outclassed? When it comes to just insta bursting someone I’d say thief outclasses Mesmer in the idea of quick burst, But theif isn’t capable of team fighting like a Mesmer can so in my head we outclass them. Which is the whole point of a mage/scholar class. They have huge team fight presence.
Lastly You do have to put forth quite a bit of effort to accomplish end result goals, to which other classes it is far easier to obtain those goals I.E. Warrior, Thief, Ranger. You really gotta do tricks and fancy things to get to the punch line. But at the end of the day playing Mesmer is an Art form. So I don’t mind.

raethe.1903:

I love my mesmer, I considered her my main for the longest time – she was my first to 80. But recently I play my guardian/ele/warrior/thief to be useful in speed dungeons – I do more damage and have more use on any of my other classes, which means more fun for me.

(BTW, looking for a good NA speed meta guild, please)

Sadly, the only time I bring out the mesmer is for fractals, the occasional Arah duo or chatting in LA.

Zerk Wars [Only], Coldsnap [IX], Death and Taxes [DnT] off the top of my head.

Playing a shatter mesmer (the once iconic mesmer build that really makes use of our class mechanic) against metabuilds like P/D, S/D thieves, Sword/LB condi warriors, meditation guards etc is like:

- having a fixed trait distribution because the build just isn’t playable without being at least 2/4/0/0/6.

- Playing with 4 weapon skills per set (Sword #3 and GS #3, untraited even Torch #5).

- Having to play perfectly and dodge at least half of the attacks aimed at you to not die instantly.

- Using up a good amount of your skills for that one attack that could turn the fight around.

- Throwing a dice to determine if said attack does anything in the first place.

- Bringing your enemy below 50% just to see them run away with superior mobility or just stealth forever.

Playing a mesmer feels like always playing on friday the 13th mixed with a constant inferiority comlex and bipolar depression.
But the pink butterflies are somehow cute.
Yey.

How can Anet be so blind?,I mean we barly tickle a signet warriors,and we melt against any condi heavy spec and on top of all things we are useless any every aspect of the game! so yeah im very kittened that my main class which I love the most get hammered from all ways just because godkitten ppl who dosnt know how to play the game QQing to thier mothers that a mesmer got beat them.I have a friend that main a Ranger,before all the nerfs I was like hahahaha Ranger so useless hahahahah yesterday he told me hey,now we on the same boat mate,but you the one who rowing.

Sandrox.9524:

yesterday he told me hey,now we on the same boat mate,but you the one who rowing.

Rofl.

Reesha.7901:

Sandrox.9524:

yesterday he told me hey,now we on the same boat mate,but you the one who rowing.

Rofl.

:D Haha, love it!

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

So why are they dark times? Let’s look at a what a gameplay programmer says about AI summons.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Consumables-Nerf/page/2#post3532963

The fact that most of these items ever existed is just blatantly a bug. The decision to throw cooldowns on them were for server performance/stability as the patch notes said, not for balance. Period. This was something that was long overdue.

Think of it this way: Between the embers and whistle, those items were effectively doubling/tripling the amount of players active in a map.

…

The bringer of bad news,
-Bill

Sooooo…. an Anet dev is basicly calling the Mesmer a bug, the game was never intended to be played by Mesmers.

Well that explains alot.

My new album “Born To Die: The Mesmer Edition” out now!

Lana Del Rey.1873:

My new album “Born To Die: The Mesmer Edition” out now!

I’m even more excited for your second album “Ultraviolence: Directed towards the Mesmer Edition”.

Lana Del Rey.1873:

My new album “Born To Die: The Mesmer Edition” out now!

I love you Lana. I even made a character named Lizzy Grant.

Please release Florida Kilos before summer ends, it will smash the charts.

In launch time, they used to call me D.N.
It stood for Deadly Nightshade.
Cause I was filled with good burst
But blessed with beauty and stealth

ANET told me that
They hit us with nerf bat but it felt like a kiss
ANET nerfed us more
Reminded me of the celerity nerf.

I think I have finally figured out what life is as a mesmer

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meciMILcffk

frifox.5283:

I think I have finally figured out what life is as a mesmer

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meciMILcffk

hahaha omg i just spit out my drink when watching this. that is exactly how mesers life is these days. best video ever

frifox.5283:

I think I have finally figured out what life is as a mesmer

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meciMILcffk

Haha, love the boon steal at the end.

I stopped reading after the half of the first page… so depressing people. I main a Mesmer. I have tried every other profession in the game and usually play WvW roaming, a little zerging and defending towers (AC everywhere, that’s where I feel home ). I play often PvP hotjoin and do some SoloQ. And occasionally, when I wish to use a new build in WvW that needs new armor, I run some dungeons.

Over all I have to say, that other professions, mainly Ele, War, Guard and Necro outperform the mesmer in many of those areas. However, those feel after a while just boring to me and I return to my little Si Lly Asura Mesmer. Mesmer needs buffs, no question about it. But the uniqueness of the profession and its style makes me come back every time. And even after months of not playing mesmer, I always feel back at home. Because even half asleep I can perform with mesmer better than with all the other professions on my best day

All this QQing, mesmers aren’t as useless as some of you make them out to be. I’ll just leave this here. BTW there’s a shatter Mesmer in grp 2 running the classic 4 4 0 0 6 build he just factored in some toughness to survive a bit longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcKD9tZcIJ0

Syprus Soulslayer.1640:

All this QQing, mesmers aren’t as useless as some of you make them out to be. I’ll just leave this here. BTW there’s a shatter Mesmer in grp 2 running the classic 4 4 0 0 6 build he just factored in some toughness to survive a bit longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcKD9tZcIJ0

Just gonna go ahead and point out that what you were doing would have been performed about 10x better by an axe/gs destruction warrior.

^ Including the Mass Invis Res that saved our driver on the second push??? While I don’t disagree with you Fay that we’re not in the best spot as a class in comparison to other classes. We’re not utterly useless.

The way I see it, as a Mesmer in PvE:

In PUGs, I work really hard to make sure everything goes smoothly and get blamed for everything that goes wrong.

In coordinated groups, I work really hard to ensure everyone else does good dps.

In Open World PvE, my Mesmer hits extremely hard but I feel like I could do more on my Warrior… with a lot less effort. Actually, this is true in almost every scenario except during projectile destruction or reflect because Feedback and untraited Wardens are so good.

Keep in mind, I’m wearing full Assassins with Ranger Runes + Berserker Trinkets and Assassin Weapons (all ascended or legendary) on my Mesmer, whereas my Warrior is wearing Exotic Berserker everything with Masterwork Berserker Trinket.

I’ve been so bored lately… I just wish I vould get back to gw2 and do the new things for some free fun.

Too bad the only profession I enjoy is nerfed, then completely ignored by th devs, and then nerfed some more. If it wasnt for the state of the Mesmer Id still have gw2 as my favourite game.

Esplen.3940:

The way I see it, as a Mesmer in PvE:

In PUGs, I work really hard to make sure everything goes smoothly and get blamed for everything that goes wrong.

In coordinated groups, I work really hard to ensure everyone else does good dps.

In Open World PvE, my Mesmer hits extremely hard but I feel like I could do more on my Warrior… with a lot less effort. Actually, this is true in almost every scenario except during projectile destruction or reflect because Feedback and untraited Wardens are so good.

Keep in mind, I’m wearing full Assassins with Ranger Runes + Berserker Trinkets and Assassin Weapons (all ascended or legendary) on my Mesmer, whereas my Warrior is wearing Exotic Berserker everything with Masterwork Berserker Trinket.

I’ll just tell you now your Mesmer does not hit extremely hard and never will

maha.7902:

Esplen.3940:

The way I see it, as a Mesmer in PvE:

In PUGs, I work really hard to make sure everything goes smoothly and get blamed for everything that goes wrong.

In coordinated groups, I work really hard to ensure everyone else does good dps.

In Open World PvE, my Mesmer hits extremely hard but I feel like I could do more on my Warrior… with a lot less effort. Actually, this is true in almost every scenario except during projectile destruction or reflect because Feedback and untraited Wardens are so good.

Keep in mind, I’m wearing full Assassins with Ranger Runes + Berserker Trinkets and Assassin Weapons (all ascended or legendary) on my Mesmer, whereas my Warrior is wearing Exotic Berserker everything with Masterwork Berserker Trinket.

I’ll just tell you now your Mesmer does not hit extremely hard and never will

Oh, I guess if we word it like that, then yes. But 3x Warlocks all traited the boring 2/3/0/5/4 can easily do ridiculous amounts of damage to World Bosses. I suppose that’s not really “my Mesmer” doing the damage.

Esplen.3940:

maha.7902:

Esplen.3940:

The way I see it, as a Mesmer in PvE:

In PUGs, I work really hard to make sure everything goes smoothly and get blamed for everything that goes wrong.

In coordinated groups, I work really hard to ensure everyone else does good dps.

In Open World PvE, my Mesmer hits extremely hard but I feel like I could do more on my Warrior… with a lot less effort. Actually, this is true in almost every scenario except during projectile destruction or reflect because Feedback and untraited Wardens are so good.

Keep in mind, I’m wearing full Assassins with Ranger Runes + Berserker Trinkets and Assassin Weapons (all ascended or legendary) on my Mesmer, whereas my Warrior is wearing Exotic Berserker everything with Masterwork Berserker Trinket.

I’ll just tell you now your Mesmer does not hit extremely hard and never will

Oh, I guess if we word it like that, then yes. But 3x Warlocks all traited the boring 2/3/0/5/4 can easily do ridiculous amounts of damage to World Bosses. I suppose that’s not really “my Mesmer” doing the damage.

I think colesy was talking about every possible situation that doesn’t involve stacking 3 warlocks on a world boss.

Alissah.9281:

I’ve been so bored lately… I just wish I vould get back to gw2 and do the new things for some free fun.

Too bad the only profession I enjoy is nerfed, then completely ignored by th devs, and then nerfed some more. If it wasnt for the state of the Mesmer Id still have gw2 as my favourite game.

Hi Alissah

I wish the mesmer provided more of an enticing reason for you to come back, but sadly it doesn’t. Could always join pyro in dragon nest. I still play GW2, but I’ve played a bit of DN and it’s surprisingly a lot of fun.

Being a Mesmer is nothing short of frustrating.
There are times you can do well, but most of the time you feel as if you’re handicapped compared to the rest of the professions. Everyone seems to do the things you do, but better (aside from veil and portals).

I’ve rerolled at this point. I still play my Mesmer from time to time. It’s a fun class, and it seems like everyone likes to play it differently. The Mesmer seems to be unique because every thread I read, ever person I read talking about how they play the Mesmer – always seems to be different. Sure there are the PU / shatter meta builds, but I made my own phantasm build the other day that is actually working out really well for me.

At launch, the class felt OK. It was strange. The weapon choices, the abilities and utility skills all seemed mismatched. There was never a specific theme going on. It was peculiar, to a veteran MMO player.
I mean, we have these illusions. We have tons of abilities to pump illusions out – but yet our class function is to blow them up for different effects. We have scattered condi damage, but it’s not without a plethora of direct damage or crit traits sprinkled throughout every build. Our traits seem like a mess to me, and our end traits are just awful with the exception of one or two. In the beginning, I just remember being very confused at what exactly I was suppose to be doing, or even what my options were.
Everything just felt, random.

At this point though, Mesmers don’t feel much different. I can’t tell you how many builds I see people come up with, as they go through each trait and what they do to contribute to the build – when suddenly they always have to admit that one or two traits just do absolutely nothing for the entire theme of the build. And these are for META builds.
Mesmers have a serious fundamental design flaw, and it really will never get fixed. We’re either always going to be dead weight, or ridiculously overpowered. The entire class needs a TOTAL rework and redesign, starting with our trait options. Illusions need to work differently – and they SERIOUSLY need to fix the fact that KEY abilities bug out 60% of the time or just DON’T WORK even in the theory of them.

Alissah.9281:

I’ve been so bored lately… I just wish I vould get back to gw2 and do the new things for some free fun.

Too bad the only profession I enjoy is nerfed, then completely ignored by th devs, and then nerfed some more. If it wasnt for the state of the Mesmer Id still have gw2 as my favourite game.

Bad time to come back.