Guild Wars 2

This is more of a Craig’s List type of thing but, I was wondering if at any point there are seasoned mesmers willing to teach another advanced techniques. I would probably pay a bit of in game gold for it, maybe 30 minutes? If nobody is willing then would you guys just give me some feedback in comments? Thank you.

Pm me in game at any time and I’ll be happy to help out.

Pyroathiest… You have helped me in literally every topic I’ve made in the forums. You are such a boss. Do you get paid for this?

Nope

/15char

Lol then you are the nicest person in the whole world haha. You aren’t EU are you?
Also, that is dumb, if I was ANet I would’ve offered you a job in customer service… But this… This is even better. You’re awesome man lol.

Also I’m just kind of wondering, BE HONEST NOT HUMBLE! On a scale from 1-10 how good do you think you are at this game with mesmer? And 1-10 how difficult do you think mesmer is in comparison to other professions? Also… Do you think you are Vetter, on par, slightly worse or much worse than Osicat. Haha sorry had to ask.

I have accounts on both EU and NA, so I’ve got you covered =P.

As far as my personal skill, probably a 9. 10 is unachieveable, but I am very good. As far as my skill comparison with Osicat, can’t really make a judgement there. I’ve never actually fought him, and we tend to play significantly different builds with significantly different playstyles.

Mesmer is substantially more difficult than most other professions. It has a higher skill floor than a lot of professions, but that’s not what makes it unique. It definitely has the highest skill ceiling of any profession, and that allows someone who excels at mesmer to stomp anyone that excels at another class.

Oh lol you answered while I was typing that up there lol

Well, I am not totally sure that that is true pyro lol. I mean, you basically just said “Only another mesmer cab beat me if I’m on top of my game.” right there.

Overlord.7394:

Well, I am not totally sure that that is true pyro lol. I mean, you basically just said “Only another mesmer cab beat me if I’m on top of my game.” right there.

That I did.

…..oh…. So you really believe that, okay…. Uhmm…. I’ve never seen such confidence in one’s class. People have always said things like that about mesmer… I don’t see what gives it so much more depth than every other class. I mean, I feel like if engi got a couple buffs they would be l a serious threat.

Overlord.7394:

…..oh…. So you really believe that, okay…. Uhmm…. I’ve never seen such confidence in one’s class. People have always said things like that about mesmer… I don’t see what gives it so much more depth than every other class. I mean, I feel like if engi got a couple buffs they would be l a serious threat.

A proper mesmer build has the utility and flexibility to deal with pretty much anything. All types of builds, whether shatter based, phantasm based, or condition based, are able to adapt themselves to any situation. Mesmers come with several very potent varieties of damage avoidance and reduction, extremely powerful boon stripping and condition removal tools, stunbreakers in multiple effective forms, and the most highly usable projectile reflects of any class.

There are certainly other good builds out there, but they can all be beaten by a mesmer. You mentioned engineers, so we can look at that. Engineers have a serious weakness in their reliance on projectiles. A traited focus will completely shut down an engineer. Additionally, their burst is heavily condition based, so a phantasmal disenchanter will generally completely remove their potential for damage. There are a few engineer builds that don’t rely on projectiles, but they require close range to be effective, and generally accomplish that with magnet, which can be avoided easily with blurred frenzy or blink if need be.

A big part of fighting effectively is knowing the toolset and capabilities of every class and build you will come across. If you can identify these rapidly, you can always play to counter them.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Overlord.7394:

…..oh…. So you really believe that, okay…. Uhmm…. I’ve never seen such confidence in one’s class. People have always said things like that about mesmer… I don’t see what gives it so much more depth than every other class. I mean, I feel like if engi got a couple buffs they would be l a serious threat.

A proper mesmer build has the utility and flexibility to deal with pretty much anything. All types of builds, whether shatter based, phantasm based, or condition based, are able to adapt themselves to any situation. Mesmers come with several very potent varieties of damage avoidance and reduction, extremely powerful boon stripping and condition removal tools, stunbreakers in multiple effective forms, and the most highly usable projectile reflects of any class.

There are certainly other good builds out there, but they can all be beaten by a mesmer. You mentioned engineers, so we can look at that. Engineers have a serious weakness in their reliance on projectiles. A traited focus will completely shut down an engineer. Additionally, their burst is heavily condition based, so a phantasmal disenchanter will generally completely remove their potential for damage. There are a few engineer builds that don’t rely on projectiles, but they require close range to be effective, and generally accomplish that with magnet, which can be avoided easily with blurred frenzy or blink if need be.

A big part of fighting effectively is knowing the toolset and capabilities of every class and build you will come across. If you can identify these rapidly, you can always play to counter them.

If I could frame this on a wall I would :P So true. Mesmers, are amazing. But at the same time, not everyone is good at it, so you’ll see a lot of QQers and people saying the mesmer sucks in whatever situations. And you’ll also see a lot of other classes calling Mesmers OP. I personally don’t think Mesmers are OP, just very versatile, with so many diff builds. Some players can even play a mantra build and win most of their fights. Ultimately, good players can trump other good players, depending on a lot of factors. You can’t even say you are the best skilled player because there’s always people better (and worse). You can also say human condition may affect it as well, maybe a slight distraction that changes a fight slightly, a split second lag, tiredness, someone calling for you, LOL there’s all kinds of “excuses” but they will affect the outcome of a fight. As well, like Pyro said, there are all these skillsets and builds, but it would have to be tweaked just for that one encounter with a certain player’s class and their build and fight style to ensure a win. If you’re running with a build that is taken against many various situations, you can reslot skills etc, but it wouldn’t guarantee the Mesmer 100% victory. So, I wouldn’t say Mesmers = sure win, but it has a high chance of winning, if you are good with it. Pyro covered it pretty well, we have some really good skills and builds.

Kinkos my brotha.

Pyro. I’m aware of knowing the other classes. I know all classes to an extent. I mean, I’m no pro at them, but I know enough to counter them. Except guardian. I have a level 46 guardian but I was new… I never have any trouble with Guardians anyway. They don’t really have a whole lot to them. Really though. Guardian is a bunch of heals, useless burns of iffy duration and decent damage that I could cleanse on accident… They also have some weird CC that I would consider to be the hardest to avoid. But really …..? They are a joke to me. They either die or they don’t die, never kill LOL.

We host a bi-weekly Mesmer Academy on Crystal Desert that goes over a lot of these things. The live combat training in WvW is always a great time

Those of us who lead training sessions learn from doing exactly what you’re doing here. Staying engaged on the boards, watching YouTube videos of others, recording our own dungeon runs and WvW encounters to see where there’s room for improvement. Things like that. Of course, being involved in this training pushes me to stay on top of things and keep finding new content to pass along to the servermates.

My shameless plug aside, a whole wealth of knowledge has come from Pyro and Osicat. I pay special attention to their posts.

Find a setup you like and play the heck out of it. Diff. mesmer plays so different you can’t really port the play skill from one to anthoer. For example I play a pure long range mesmer, my whole playing style centers around staying at the edge of 1200 range. This would be of no use what so ever to anyone who uses a melee weapon set. The only skills that are useful in every setup is timing stealth, dodge and blink.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I have accounts on both EU and NA, so I’ve got you covered =P.

As far as my personal skill, probably a 9. 10 is unachieveable, but I am very good. As far as my skill comparison with Osicat, can’t really make a judgement there. I’ve never actually fought him, and we tend to play significantly different builds with significantly different playstyles.

Mesmer is substantially more difficult than most other professions. It has a higher skill floor than a lot of professions, but that’s not what makes it unique. It definitely has the highest skill ceiling of any profession, and that allows someone who excels at mesmer to stomp anyone that excels at another class.

I think thief have the highest skill ceiling. Most because their utility skills are even better than ours. Shadow trap for example can be abused in the hands of a good thief and make him/her unkillable.

Spam stealth, 2-2-2-2-2-2 is a high skill ceilling?

Oh look I’m going to die, trololol stealth.

I agree with the above statement. It didn’t Ned to be that rude, but I do.

I completely disagree. Thief has a crap rep because of how ANet designed their Traits.
Shadow Arts as a Trait-line promotes heavy Stealth abuse. However, this doesn’t mean that all Thief players are 2-spamming tryhards. Even a pure Evasion-spec Thief, in the right hands, can be an absolute monster. And you’ll SEE them coming to kill you.

Pyro frames the mesmer’s strengths well. How amazing the mesmer can be sometimes still impresses me. Just yesterday I was in a spvp fight on Skyhammer holding point B. I’d warded off a warrior and still had my illusions out. I had two duelists and a clone spread out and standing ready, waiting for something to shoot at. With myself included that’s a fairly intimidating prospect. I love leaving duelists out. I didn’t note that phantasms did this until just recently, but:

• if their initial target does not die
• and he goes out of range
• and you stay in range of the initial spawn area
• and a new target comes into range,
• they will switch targets.

I’ll be sitting on the graveyard point on foefire with some old duelists out and they will just open up on whatever moves if their original target doesn’t die… It’s very helpful if a bit startling. For instance, I may be looking one way and my duelist will suddenly start shooting at something behind me. Did phantasms always have this behavior or am I just imagining it?

@Helios: Generally that will only happen if that original target actually stealths before leaving the leash range of the phantasms, otherwise they will chase the target, then eventually dissipate from range.

Advent.6193:

I completely disagree. Thief has a crap rep because of how ANet designed their Traits.
Shadow Arts as a Trait-line promotes heavy Stealth abuse. However, this doesn’t mean that all Thief players are 2-spamming tryhards. Even a pure Evasion-spec Thief, in the right hands, can be an absolute monster. And you’ll SEE them coming to kill you.

Completely agree. I have been killed by a skilled evade thief.
Evade thief build does have a really high skill cap but most thieves run stealth-heavy builds because the stealth mechanic is so good and built-in for the class.

keenlam.4753:

skilled evade thief

Since when has this been a thing?

Press 3. Press 3. Press evade. Press 3. Press 3. Swap weapons. Start from the top.

For anyone unclear on what the evade thief playstyle looks like, please watch about 30-40 seconds of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q58u1ygJU3Q

I guarantee you will come out of it wondering why this exists in the game.

Not that simple, Pyro. More like: confuse the crap out of the enemy with chaining between IS/S. Return/P. Whip or FS/Feline Grace-enhanced dodging. Also add Withdraw as preferred heal, Roll for Initiative/Shadowstep as utils. SB as an off-weapon set, specifically for I. Arrows when needed.

EDIT: I would post this before you posted that vid. I’d guess he’s running something like: 25/0/0/25/20, Superior Lyssa set, full or at least mostly Zerk EQ.