Guild Wars 2

Honestly, if they fix the third part of the chain so it’s not so sluggish, I’ll consider scepter as fixed as it’s gonna get.

Self-root sounds like a really bad idea, no matter how many benefits it brings. I would probably never use that outside PvE.
I’m not sure how #4 would ever be good outside zerging, and it’s not exactly going to solve the whole problem of the mesmer class mechanic failing horribly in large fights.

- It’s the only ranged pure power weapon.
- Aoe knockback (interrupt) if you run interrupt traits.
- excellent Might stacking capability (6 stacks every 6s traited, if all bounces hit)
- iZerker is potential AoE damage even though it is target locked.
- EOTM lulz

For PvE, it’s good for world boss fights and soloing. I’ll agree it has limited use in dungeons, but that’s only a small part of PvE.

Diego Vargas.3058:

The #3 skill, it’s just crap. Useless in pve, and nobody in pvp/wvw ever said “WATCH OUT FOR THAT MESMER HE WILL USE GS#3 ON YOU”

#3 is generally not great. However, for PvE remember that it’s AoE damage, with the short cast time I would dare say it’s actually a DPS boost in PvE, assuming you can stack mobs together in one spot. Not great for dungeons obviously.

In WvW, it’s nice to be able to strip swiftness from a runner with it. In PvP, boon stripping has much more merit since there is a lot less boon spam going on (2 people stacking at best most times). People like to beat on #3 because it doesn’t fit into a rotation. That doesn’t mean it’s crap, it’s just situational.

You need 6 in Chaos for PU.
Most people split the rest between Domination and Dueling for both power and condi builds.
Staff + Scepter/Torch for condi. Dom IX, Dueling X, Chaos V, Chaos XII. The rest is up to you depending on whether you need more offense or defense.
Power PU is more of a mixed bag, I use GS + Sword/x and throw some interrupt traits in, some people focus more on direct phantasm damage.

Rabid gear for condi, zerker for power.

Mass invis elite is a given. Decoy rounds off the stealth nicely. You can toss in veil as well, but when playing solo I would go for something else instead. Blink is great, Mantra cleanse is good condi removal.

a t s e.9614:

Condi warr takes no skill at all to play either. It is the easiest after spirit and MM. I won’t use a crappy condi build just to kill a PUmes. If you think u have skill playing a condi warr with 0 risk u are wrong kid.

Oooh he used the k-word. It’s on now!

It should be Phantasmal FURY because they’re ANGRY and LOUD >:O

PS: Phantasms should also spam the audio cue for fury when they gain it.

I feel FURIOUS I feel FURIOUS I feel FURIOUS >:O

Doug Whisper.2465:

You see Centaur runes with Mantra Recovery as a disadvantage, I see the opposite. When I need heal in combat, usually it also means I need to avoid damage. Otherwise I just let my health bar eat it. In this case, the extra swiftness from Centaur runes increase my chance to successfully avoid the damage. With the same logic I keep the Air runes on my glassy Elementalist, which is invaluable.

Well no, I certainly see the advantage. MoR is unique when it comes to heals, I don’t think any other class besides engi is capable of proccing their on-heal rune whenever they need it.
The problem is the charge on the mantra, which can sometimes create a swiftness gap. I don’t like having my swiftness tied to a very long cast time that’s super telegraphed and easy to interrupt. If you mantra charge fails for any reason, you are in a very bad spot with default movement speed.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Read the actual thread from the beginning. The person was asking a serious question…

No. No he was not. He made a thread making wild accusations about things that are simply not possible. There’s one of these threads every week. Sometimes more. There is one at the top of the list right now. Seriously, go check it out. I don’t think anything in the game gets as much hate as PU and most people have no idea what it is, they think it’s just the name for a specific build that has stealth, boonspam and high condi & power damage at the same time. No such build exists, yet the crying never ends. It’s baffling.

Yeah man, those dueling servers are the best… banning all those OP PU mes and like, being a real game mode which the game is balanced for and everything…

Oh wait, what I meant to say was go kitten your kitten with your kitten in the kitten kitten.

Bye.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Really. Really. Okay so I come back to read comments. Find out I was wrong about rangers (in my defense it was not in the patch notes). And I find this crap. If you want to behave this way on forums. Then go ahead. But too many people in this thread are creating a hostile environment to new players. If you all aren’t so obsessed with being right, then we can reduce one of the many things stopping new players from running mesmer.

Oh no, it’s the forum police. Everybody run!
….
If you want to create a friendly environment, starting off by getting on a moral high horse is not the way to go. Hendo is obviously not a new player, nor am I. What’s the problem?

Seriously hendo… go take your OCD medicine and come back when you’re feeling better. I don’t understand why you have to tear into every build that is not 100% optimized for fractals elitists. I carried 3 separate bad pugs with the traits I posted yesterday. Most of them ended up staying and having fun instead of ragequitting.

Medic’s feedback gets better the worse your group is, that’s the entire point of using it – I don’t slot it when I’m running with people who know what they’re doing and don’t die all the time.
Every time a pugling goes down, that’s a free feedback field for the rest of them to hide in and make some chaos armor if they’re smart enough.

PhDusk.2590:

From a tpvp perspective I would Say GS/Staff is the most viable for shatter mesmer. I also use Staff/GS when I roam in wvw. GS is an offensive weapon, while staff is defensive.

if you are looking for interrupts I would def take both of those.

I mostly go for raw damage from sword/GS and phantasms, usually shattering only for daze/vuln stacks or MW to finish someone off. That’s why I’d lke to have a reliable interrupt on both my weapon sets so I can avoid shattering phantasms as much as possible.
Sword and pistol are both good, but I like to have both ranged and melee options. And the Chaos armor/Chaos field on the staff seems to be a reasonable alternative to the might stacks on the GS because Chaos Armor will allow me to go toe-to-toe with hard hitters a bit longer than usual. I could toss a battle and strength sigil on my staff and still have good might stacks with it, though obviously nowhere near as much as the GS.

For PvE group content you will generally want a phantasm build, so 4-6 points in Inspiration.
Put the rest in Domination and Dueling for a reasonably easy to play, high damage phantasm build. Domination III and Dueling II are the key traits here.
Some people put 4 points in Illusions instead of dumping the rest in Dom/Dueling, but this is mostly for special encounters that require high reflect uptime.

Focus offhand is great for PvE because it can be traited for projectile reflect and dumb PvE mobs don’t move away from the massive stationary damage of the phantasm (iWarden). Kind of like how you faceroll PvE with a warrior with 100blades because the mobs just stand there and eat it.
Mantras are good for group support (Aoe Cleanse, AoE stability, can be traited to AoE heal on charge).
Swords, both main and offhand offer great power damage. For ranged power damage, the Greatsword is the go-to weapon (observe how the skills are weird mirror versions of the warrior’s GS, it’s quite fun)

Dueling X (Deceptive Evasion) is a great trait for many builds, but in a PvE group context it’s not important unless you’re playing shatter.

For exploring, map completion etc. honestly anything works. Condi PU is very easy/forgiving to play and can solo most things, but the damage is kind of slow in PvE.
I think power PU is more fun, but you need to keep on your toes against champion mobs.

As for gear, most people will tell you to go full zerker. Since you are moving from a beefy soldier class to a semi-squishy scholar class (decent health pool though), I would recommend you start by borrowing your warrior’s ascended zerker trinkets (assuming you have ascended) and fool around with some rare knight/cavalier/zerker armor until you find a good balance.

theblankcalendar.1792:

No centaur runes + mantra of recovery = guaranteed 24/7 permanent swiftness not near because remember it also increases boon duration making heal skills give you more than 10 seconds of swiftness. So not only can you get perma-swiftness but you can also stack swiftness for you AND people near you so it’s also good in Zergs.

I really really like the new centaur runes, but the reason I’m not using the mantra/centaur trick is that I think it fails you when you need it the most. When all your healing charges are blown, you are trying to get away and are in a bad position to charge the mantra heal, you really need that extra movement speed but you can’t get it.
Speed runes, on the other hand, will ensure that you almost always have swiftness when you are in a bad spot (you are being hit often so the swiftness will trigger), and if don’t have swiftness at least you have +25%. With Centaur runes, you have either swiftness or nothing which can sometimes be a problem.

I’m looking for some general observations on GS vs. Staff as the ranged choice in a power build. Mostly for WvW solo/small group roaming, maybe some hotjoin pvp.

I’ve been running 4/4/6/0/0 for a while with sword/x and GS. Basic Power PU build, mostly zerk gear with some knight pieces. Usually one or two interrupt traits, flipping between focus, sword and pistol for offhand as the situation demands.

The GS is very nice, stacks might and has good power damage. #3 is hard to pull off, but it comes in handy against classes that are not too heavy on the boonspam.
My main beef with the GS is that #5 is not a very reliable interrupt. I find that if the angle is a little off or the target strafes a bit to the side, it often fails to hit.
What’s worse, knocking people away from you is often not what you want to do, but it’s the only way to interrupt with the GS.

So I’m getting tempted by the Staff, mostly because all the skills offer something nice and the interrupt is both AoE, easier to land and a combo field. Chaos Armor also seems incredibly useful for when you want to get in deep with the sword.
My biggest worry is the iWarlock, its attack is kind of easy to dodge/obstruct and has a long recharge, and I can’t keep up more than 3-4 conditions at best when I’m not using the staff.
How much of a damage drop am I looking at compared to iZerker and how can I make up for it?
Should I make a zerker staff (to give iWarlock better stats) or just use the rabid staff I already have for slightly more condition pressure?
Is it worth taking the Staff trait over Bountiful Interruptions in a power build?

6 inspiration is a good place to start I think. You get all the important minor phantasm traits, and there is a ton of good major traits here for support.
Medic’s Feedback makes you the hero of pugs, Warden’s Feedback gives you projectile reflects, two glamour traits if you want to go that route, Restorative Mantras…

I’m running dungeons with 2/6/0/6/0 right now with mantras. 3x AoE condi cleanse, 3x AoE stability, 3x mantra heal for yourself. Restorative mantras for some extra heals. It’s not the highest DPS or the best build for organized groups (in other words, bundle up speed clearing only 9000+ AP allowed groups), but toss Medic’s Feedback in there and you can really turn a bad pug around. And most importantly, it’s fun to play.

WEXXES.2378:

1) Has High burst damage
2) Has High condi spam, mainly confusion, bleed, burn
3) Has protection/aegis on and generally reduces any non-condi damage by half
4) Constant Stealth
5) Constant Healing (while in stealth)
6) Million of clones no matter how many AoE spam there is
7) Uses GS
8) Constant Condi Removal

1) A power build, obviously. The damage could come from any number of sources, but most likely beefed up phantasms (Dom III, Dueling II)
2) Probably staff, if they are apply often in short durations. Bleeds are from clone crits and probably clone death as well.
Confusion is most likely from Chaos Armor. Don’t hit the big purple bubble.
3) PU (Chaos XII)
4) PU
5) PU, possibly Signet of the Ether.
6) Deceptive Evasion (Dueling X)
8) Probably well-timed Mantra of Restoration (2×2 instant condi cleanse, 20s CD, ~3s charge)

So bascially some sort of power PU build that uses GS and staff (I assume). The conditions are mostly for show. My advice would be to stay away from the clones (don’t get hit by condi-death traits), try to dodge the phantasms and save all your bursts for when he comes out of stealth.
If all else fails, run away. Most mesmers suck at chasing unless running very specific traits/weapons.

I think it’s a bit of shame ignoring the potential of interrupts when going 6 points into both Domination and Chaos. Bountiful Interruption is a great trait with no cooldown, and you can often proc it several times with GS #5.

I’m not really sure how the trait system works after the patch, but as soon as you can get deceptive evasion (dueling X), make sure you slot that. Your survivability and clone uptime is increased dramatically with this trait. You can pick up Blade Mastery as your adept trait for more reduced CD on both your swords.

For group PvE content, you’ll want to look at maximizing phantasm damage with the Inspiration line, S/S is also a popular choice for this.

Oh yeah, phantasms follow the target… right into any and all AoE with their wet paper health and armor, at the lowest in-game speed, often standing in confusion staring at stairs and any small hills.

Anyway, turrets are for bunkering down and area control, so basically PvP or defensive situations. And yes, they’re not that good overall. Hoping for some turret love soon.

I prefer a more bursty playstyle, so I usually go for damage over duration when playing condition builds.
But honestly, close to half your condition duration comes from pizza. The rest is from Domination, and then you might have some runes or sigils that add a little more.
Safest bet is probably just pizza and however many points you feel you can spare for Domination.

By the way, did they fix duration on perplex runes…?

I would drop veil for MoR, at least for solo roaming.
Being able to instantly break immobilize is a huge advantage for me, not to mention it’s a good AoE cleanse as well.
In the end, I think it will contribute more to a small team fight as well, unless you rely heavily on ambushing people (you kitten :p).
It also frees up 10 points because Mender’s Purity only really shines with Mirror or Mantra heal.

I love the pistol, but unless I’m running heavy interrupt I usually end up using focus instead. The AoE pull can easily stack 15-20 might in a heated fight where everyone is getting their clicking on, and I honestly never get tired of dodge-rolling through the curtain and pulling at the same time, wathcing people fly all over the place. The biggest problem here is the warden, which seems to pick up 2 new bugs every time they fix one. I never really expect it to work anymore, I just try to build around the fact that it’s a broken skill…

frifox.5283:

None of the stats scale neither when mesmer nor phantasms gain any of the boons, that’s including the phantasms specific traits such as fury and health boost.

So what does that mean exactly? Is it just trash code that’s not used at all?
Any idea how phantasm stats/damage is actually calculated if not from these numbers?

AresFyra.3570:

Ever since the 15th I’ve noticed that the skill goes on a 4sec cooldown when used on elevated ground rather frequently.. Especially in the middle of stairs or when I use it anywhere with a rather steep axis. It just doesn’t trigger properly! Sometimes it takes as much as three attempts to get it off..! I can’t be the only one who’ve noticed this?!

And, I use the same targeting settings as before.. If anyone can confirm that this isn’t just happening to me then I’ll add it to the mesmer bug list for fixing, in a year or two..

Very annoying that the mesmer class soon doesn’t have any properly functioning weapons to choose from! It really bugs the h*** out of me.. No pun intended!

Mesmers, the Daleks of GW2.

Iluth.6875:

Wyrden.4713:

its ground targetted, so u gotta move ur mouse on ur enemy…

^ dont get me wrong, not making fun of u, just in case u r an only keyboard user, u might not have noticed it

Ohh I see. Yes I have instant ground targeting enabled so I had no clue what was happening Thanks.

Every single time I switch from engineer to mesmer… kitten OP nades.

Passive signet is not the way to go IMO. A movement speed bonus that goes away when you enter combat is only good for covering large distances in WvW.
I think eveyrone should be able to trait for +25% movement speed to put everyone on a (theoretical) level playing field when it comes to movement.

I really wouldn’t advise using a build from 2012…

Regarding thieves and interrupts…

The core of the issue is that there is 0 balance/synergy between cooldowns and the initiative system. Looking at the recent major initiative changes, initiative seems to be balanced based on what thieves are capable of doing with x amount of initiative, i.e. when thieves start spamming skill x too many times and frustrating other players, they fiddle with initiative until that particular form of abuse is no longer viable.

There seems to be absolutely no thought given to how the initiative system is completely in the thief’s control and immune to any interaction from other players. You can’t mess with a thief’s initiative, period. If a thief is very very good at managing his initiative, his skill level rises dramatically because he is 100% in control of this important aspect of his character all the time.

A simple solution could be to make PB punish an interrupted thief skill with double initiative cost, because the severity of the punishment also relies on interrupting the right skill. But I highly doubt they are going to do this, because they seem content to have initiative as an internal thief mechanic that you’re not allowed to touch when playing against them.

Dhampyr.2104:

I guess it’s a good thing that I like GW2 more than anything else out right now – I’m still spending some cash in the gem store, but when something as fun as GW2 comes out from a developer who actually appears to care about their customer base………………….

Actually Anet cares very much about their customers. It’s just that all their customers live in China now.
But hey, thanks for betatesting for 2 years. Have some more transmutation charges.

Was that too negative?

Depends on what role you want to play, but warrior is certainly one of the more useful and fun classes for zerging. They can fill a variety of roles, but are best on the frontlines. You can’t really have too many warriors in a zerg.
It’s also a class that can easisly zerg without needing any voice input from the commander, once you understand the general tactics people use.

Blossom.4875:

Has anyone saying there is a 0 second cool down ever got supply back twice in a row? I also believe there is a cool down.

I have gotten supply back two times in a row once or twice. But since I don’t have build/repair master maxed there was several seconds between procs, so I can’t tell you what the exact cooldown is, if indeed there is one.

Only if you really enjoy the class. I don’t think mesmer is more than average at anything at the moment.
Portal, TW, Veil etc. make mesmers somewhat useful for zerg WvW, but I don’t really think a build focused around long cooldown utility skills is very fun or rewarding to play.
Roaming is pretty nice, but nothing a thief couldn’t do as well or better. Kind of the same for PvP.
Mesmer does a decent job in all game modes, but I don’t really think they shine anywhere. Compare to a class like warrior which has a perfect build for almost every role in every gamemode (buffer/frontline zerg/hambow/warrior basically is the dungeon DPS meta).
I think mesmer needs a big checkup soon. But it’s still my favorite class because of the skills, aesthetics and mechanics, broken as they are.

Slowpoke.2749:

English has a lot in common with the Scandinavian languages, yes. Even so, English is generally considered to be easier to learn. Most likely because it’s easier to get into.

I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that’s true.
People have this conception of english in Europe because it’s the default second language for a lot of people, and most people under the age of 40 have grown up with massive impact from American culture.
But english is not a simple language, it’s a clusterkitten of various cultural influences, such as French, German and various nordic languages. English grammar is a mess, boasting an absurd amount of exceptions to general rules.
As an example, German grammar has a reputation for being incredibly complex and hard to master, but it is guided by much more defined rules with fewer exceptions than English and is much more logical when you have the base concepts down.
English is a language that’s very difficult to learn just by reading – you have to speak it with a native in order to learn just how kittened up and unbound by rules it is.
But because a lot of people have heard/spoken english since childhood, they don’t realize this.
Take an adult from any Asian country that has little contact with english-speaking cultures and I promise they will have trouble learning English. Because it’s not simple or easy to get into at all.

I really have to get to bed, but as soon as I wake up I’m going to hotjoin with PU, decoy, veil, mass invis, torch and moa (!)

The tears shall be endless (and so shall the opposing team’s win streak because I won’t be capping a kitten thing with my 1337 stealth tactics).

Also, to kill a mesmer with guard:

a) locate correct target (clones don’t have mantra/signet icon and usually fewer buffs)
b) immobilize (don’t blow it too soon, most mesmers have 2×2 condi cleanse)
c) spin to win

This is literally the only way a guard has ever killed me without help. Immobilized mesmers are helpless. Stun is better ofc but most mesmers have 1-2 stunbreaks and immob is more spammable.

… I think I’m just going to stay clear of traited focus from now on. There are way too many bugs and what-ifs with that weapon for me to use it for anything more than keep lol-pulling and swiftness. Mesmer is bugged enough as it is, at this rate I feel like I’m down to the GS and staff if I want to use weapons without a skill that fails half the time.

Xyonon.3987:

• Sigil of Battle grants 6 stacks perma might, wich results into 210 power wich is about 7.5%-10% more damage for YOU AND YOUR PHANTS

How are might stacks on you (the mesmer) giving more phantasm damage? They have their own boons and only inherit base stats as far as I know.

I don’t see any point in owning a Rabid or Dire sword, so go for zerker I guess. Sword(s) bring nothing to a condi build.

You’re not going to catch a GS warrior or a thief who really wants to get away. Movement skills > everything when it comes to closing or creating gaps.
And when it comes to actual movement and positioning, mesmers are pretty much limited to Blink and Staff #2. I just don’t think that’s ever going to be enough.
Swap will do the trick sometimes, but you need to be very fast/have cripple on target or get in front of them somehow.
The biggest problem for me is that runners basically restrict you from using shatters because clones are so kitten ed slow. I wish there was a trait like Phantasmal Fury that gave them endless swiftness instead.

FinalPatriot.8034:

Just a thought, but wouldn’t this build be something that would also work well for a commander? My Mesmer follows a completely different style of play but this does look like a concept that would work great.

A commander doesns’t really have any business stacking conditions or doing lots of damage. Commanders should be focused on staying alive, keeping the group alive/moving and keeping an eye out for openings and weaknesses in the enemy group. Everything else is secondary IMO.

It’s very hard to set up shatters without stealth so yeah, for shatter builds I think stealth is a must.
For most other builds, I find that decoy is usually enough. Mass invis is just what you take because everything else kinda sucks for roaming.
Moa is just a free reset against anything but beginners.
Time warp is 3 seconds of area denial and that’s about it. If you want to continue the fight you have to leave the field.

I’m not really crazy about #2 or #3.

1. is bascially just an insta-kill button that requires no skill. I don’t think anyone should have that. Eating the damage first also makes it likely that you’ll just fail and die instead.

1. sounds fun, but I really really don’t trust illusions to have more than 1 attack. There are way more illusion-related bugs than I care to think about, and this sounds like a buggy balance nightmare.

Something I would really like to see however is Echo getting the skill icon of the attack you absorbed. As it stands, I usually don’t have any idea what it is I’m doing when using Echo.

sirrealist.1360:

Cool, thanks for all the advice!

For the stacks, doesn’t it kinda wash out, since you’ll also be re-applying your own stacks? So their lesser ones will get overwritten by yours and vice versa? I know that’s way less optimal, but i don’t see why it makes condi un-viable for serious PvE. And if you’re doing serious PvE, wouldn’t it imply that your party-mates are knowledgeable and you could work out who’s doing what, and/or their stacks will also be strong, like yours?

The root of the problem is that almost everyone applies damage conditions, whether they want to or not. It’s simply core to the game that there are very very few power build options that don’t slip in some condi damage here and there.
Minor traits are one of the biggest “sinners” because you can’t change them like majors.

A player focused on condi usually has the option to stack bleed as high as 15-25 over time. If this player is playing alone, that’s great. If he is playing with 4 other players, all of them power builds, their random condi applications will mess with his DPS and make it impossible for him to condi-burst.

To put it bluntly, condi builds are ruined by teaming up with people.

Shockwave.1230:

Ruby orbs won’t be as good anymore, but still could potentially be one of the better cost efficient options for DPS.

Ruby will still be the highest power damage you can get from an orb.
I can’t see Coral or Opal orbs becoming the new thing unless something drastic happens to the crit system. In terms of stats, april 15th is a nerf to critical damage and nothing else. Power/precision will work as they always have.

Condi is only “bad” for PvE if you’re talking dungeons and only because the meta is pretty much locked into melee power builds due to over-simplistic boss mechanics.

Some dungeons are more condi-friendly than others, AC in particular is not very condi-friendly because there is a lot of timed fights where burst is pretty much the only way to win.

Note that this goes only for explorable paths. Pretty much anyone can faceroll through story dungeons as long as they are lv 60-80 with decent gear (masterwork or better).

For open world events and random mobs, condi mesmer is also perfectly viable.

And yes, necro is a lot more like WoW’s warlock. Minions, lots of DoTs, good soft CC etc. Mesmer tends to be either super evasive ranged DoT or glassy melee burst. Illusions are not really pets, you have no control over them once they are summoned and they are tied to a single target.
Think of them as either charges that fuel your burst (F1-F4) or passive damage effects that can be countered (by destroying the illusion).
Balancing these two uses of illusions, knowing when to shatter and when to leave them to do their own thing is key to playing mesmer.

ICEing.9237:

Norns being big and all having trouble with jumping puzzles and camera issues. Do they have trouble in dungeons or anything? I wanted some opinions

I have camera issues with my Asura as well as my Norn, they’re just different issues… JPs are rather poorly designed when it comes to the camera and the movement available to the player. You’re going to have these problems no matter what race you play.

Human seems to be the race most armor and weapons are designed for, other races simply have scaled versions that often have horrible clipping issues (i.e. 99% of medium armor for asura). If you care a lot about cosmetic looks, you will have fewer issues with human.
With that said, Norn armor is scaled pretty well (it’s basically just a bulkier human model) and they have some great racial heavy armor.

Bellyboomer.3048:

So getting soldiers gear is a waste of g?

For PvE I would say yes. It’s a nice set for WvW zerging.

I still don’t understand why you have to press a button in order to get your reward.
Anet seems obsessed with people clicking and pressing things, i.e. one run of LA under siege = 170+ bags you needed to clickclicklickclick to get your 5 billion blade shards. Why? What is the point?

Abe Kleine.3568:

I find it pathetic that instead of criticizing or giving a counter argument to the OP with legit reasons for the Moa, everyone turns to “Oh boy, let’s all make fun of the guy qqing about moa”. Could you act like 5-10 years older please? every other professions forum is more mature than this one as it stands

This man is either demented or a very fine troll indeed.

I would say it really depends on what you plan to do with your tag.

In a large battle, playing an aggressive role I would say no, do not use a mesmer. In this scenario, the commander usually has to push through the enemy zerg’s frontline (or flank, but don’t count on it) in order to tear through their backline and scatter them.
The #1 priority here is that the commander is alive, moving and clearly visible. A warrior or guardian will simply live longer in these situations, because their defenses are based more on outlasting the enemy, while mesmers’ defenses are more evasive in nature.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I am convinced a warrior or guardian would have a higher success rate.

However, I think a mesmer commander could be great for guerilla style tactics, moving a smaller group around for attrition, killing dolyaks and flipping camps and towers. I also see a potential advantage in the commander being in direct control of game-changing skills like portal, veil and TW.
The question is whether there is any point in having a commander tag for this kind of play style.

Engi is great underwater, grenade kit will spam everything to death even better than above water. Mesmer is pretty good, spear has great mobility and the trident can spit out a lot of boons & conditions. Warrior is okay, but the speargun seems lacking. Thief is easymode in PvE, just spam block with the right timing and everything dies.