Guild Wars 2

Seriously? this is a joke, the mesmer is not hard to lvl at all. I will agree that they are not a profession I would recommend to new players because they are not as straight forward as say a ranger or a warrior, but in exchange for being a lil bit tougher to get used to they can be that much more deadly than an profession that anyone can pick up and be decent at with minimal effort put into mastering the play style. My main is a lvl 80 Asuran mesmer and lvling was sooooo easy it was what made me fall in love with the mesmer. The fact that kiting is sooo easy with clones acting as a damage buffer for you means you are way more safe than other classes.

Its so easy to lvl a mesmer in fact that because I grew tired of being an Asura(I know they are really cute and all but Im a Sylvari player through and through something about that race just draws me in, I love being Sylvari) to reroll as a Sylvari mesmer though I dnt have the heart to delete my lil floppy eared hooligan. Mind you I did this on the 15th and just playing at night when I get home from work Ive alrdy hit lvl 26 in no time at all. However for a 80 mesmer player who has gotten used to his final build it does feel a bit wonky for me being unable to utilize every thing my Asura can do but it in no way makes lvling difficult for me. All i had to do was just adjust my low lvl play style to better utilize what I had available.

At 80 I run a GS and a Sword/Pistol and love it but for right now Im running GS and Staff switching out Staff from time to time with Sword/Focus(i.e speed buffs for mobility or JP’s) or Sword/Pistol(i.e. solo champs or for when I will be in dungeons) depending on the situation with Mirror Images, Decoy and Blink as my utilities and I will have Time Warp asap.

A big aspect of playing the mesmer well is knowing how to manage your clones efficiently. If you are blowing CDs on your shatters “foolishly”(and I use that word loosely, not tryin to offend anyone I just mean that you are wasting CD’s for little gain due to not fully understanding the class which comes through experience and research) that means you are in turn blowing all of your illusion generating(clones and phantasms are classified as illusions) CD’s as well meaning you are essentially 1v1’in the mob your fighting or 1v*(#of mobs in the pack you aggroed) and as a light armor profession even if you were godly at dodge timing you would be in for some trouble.

Mesmer lvling is also really cheap you don’t even need to keep up with gear lvls as much as I feel is required with the other classes(have an 80 ranger that when lvling always always felt severely underpowered and was tough to lvl if he wasnt wearing lvl appropriate gear). I went from lvl 1-15 on my current lvl 26 Sylvari mesmer wearing lvl 1 armor and weapons no problem and now Im wearing lvl 15 gear until lvl 35 then I will be farming AC in lvl 35 gear up until about 60 or 70 since there is no real need for me to spend money on gear when I don’t need it until around then, did the same thing on my first mesmer as well though I admit it was more an issue of slipping the mind than intentional the 1st time around but it is doable and not difficult if you understand the class and have figured out YOUR playstyle, I cant stress enough how important finding YOUR play style is and not just with a mesmer its with every profession and no profession can be played the same way. If you are used to an engi you can’t pick up a mesmer and play it as an engi, it just wont work

So to all those out there having problems with lvling, OP included, learn the profession, get creative and find out what just “clicks” for you with weapons and builds if you are truly interested in playing a mesmer because they are great fun when you get used to them.

Kazeshini.2306

Greatsword is an up close melee weapon …right? So lets look at its abilities. 1-regular attack,and one thats an up close bleed,both make sense. Then we have a gap closer,also makes reasonable sense. Now we have one that can either cripple or knockback.Why would i want to cripple someone when i am going to be in their face?Why would i want to give someone a distance advantage to me?? Don’t say oh you use that then swap weapons,no the whole point of swapping to a greatsword was for up close.Why do i have a knockback or cripple on greatsword???

Yes the greatsword is a “up close melee weapon” just as the sword and dagger are and both those have skills to manipulate distance as well. Rangers don’t wear heavy armor therefore even tho they have melee capability it does not mean they can withstand taking sustained high amounts of damage while in melee range for a long time. That is why they have skills in their melee weapon sets that allow them to get a breather and halt the constant damage for a few seconds to give them time to heal or adjust their strategy.

In regards to the bold section of the post i quoted and in keeping with what I was just saying creating space with a knockback from the greatsword or the leap back that the sword can do allows the ranger to switch to a ranged weapon and unload on the target(after using a heal if the ranger was low on health) as they attempt to confront the ranger in melee range again and once the target is with in range the ranger can swap back to the melee weapon and continue the “up close” damage if they choose. They could also just use an other knockback or leap(if switched weapon was either longbow or short bow) and continue unloading ranged damage on the target if their weapon swap is still on CD when the target reenters melee range. So sorry to say but the weapon skills do make sense and because of the reasons I’ve stated (as a few examples) it allows rangers to have some versatility in their attacks and helps with survivability.