oh man how do i miss glamour with my guild:
Very cool.
Remove on-clone traits.
Your clones will play as if they have your skill bar.
This means they can weapon swap, roll dodge, cast things like Feedback, Null Field (as long as you slot them), Mantras, Time Warp.
All of these do absolutely nothing (bar dodging and weapon swap) and are simply for confusion sake. It could get confusing for allies as well, but that’ll have to do.
Also, if you run +Illusion Health, it should buff the health of Clones to be the same as the Mesmer’s (with lower toughness, still). This would make it slightly harder to check if you did more damage (still possible) and also make it harder to distinguish the real Mesmer.
Clones casting clone-generation skills will not spawn clones. Clones will still deal the same amount of damage with their attacks as they do now (0-50). Clones will have access to more damaging skills. All utility skills (6-10) will just be for visuals.
Phantasm skills will not be casted.
If they’re already having “server problems” because of the amount of clones/pets, I could only imagine the problems they would have making our clones cast more skills.
Veilbot.
/thread
^THIS
Also as others have already pointed out, we’re mostly useful in small man fighting or roaming. If you like large scale / zerg fighting, play a different class unless you don’t mind being a support bot. I personally don’t like large scale fighting and prefer to small man / roam so I highly enjoy my Mesmer in WvW. It really comes down to your personal preferences and what type of Mesmer you want to play. ANET needs to give us more AoE damage to be more viable in large scale fighting, after-all isn’t this game suppose to promote build diversity?
Unfortunately the way the devs were last talking about Mesmer they wouldn’t stop going on about the Utility we had. It’s like they’ve decided to try and make us a support class instead of anything else, or at least viable in anything else.
I’ll sum up my thoughts on running Mesmer in WvW in a few words.
“WvW?”
“Hold on, lemme switch to my (insert Ele/Warrior/Guardian/Necro Here) and I’ll brt”
Veilbot.
/thread
Are you happy about that though?
Mesmer at the moment is good for veils and portals, however portal is only used in niche situations. Everything else is outclassed by every other profession.
Why do you think so many people think otherwise? Are you happy with the state of Mesmer?
The reason I think this is because ive had plenty of experience on mes, about 2 years with the top gvg guilds on NA. My or another thief can do much more burst and damage as well have better boon steal (it strips stability and protection first with bountiful theft ) and survive for way longer in a gank group (which go after eles,necros, anyone out of position, or other gank groups). Mesmer had a clear role when glamour wasn’t nerfed. Now its a worse thief.
As for the state of Mesmer, I find it quite awful since almost all the damage from a Mesmer can be destroyed, which no other class has to deal with. Mesmers have had much better days.
Now, this is not to say I hate playing my Mesmer. I absolutely love playing my mes and play it as much as I can. I find every class doesn’t suit my style as much but im forced to play other classes to be more effective and it really sucks. I wish my Mesmer was viable
Thanks for sharing! I totally agree with you, playing Mesmer is fun! I tried to level a couple alts and it just wasn’t very fun for me. It’s just frustrating because at the same time playing Mesmer I always have that feeling in the back of my head that I could be doing better for the group if I just switched.
Mesmer at the moment is good for veils and portals, however portal is only used in niche situations. Everything else is outclassed by every other profession.
Why do you think so many people think otherwise? Are you happy with the state of Mesmer?
They don’t want you to get so discouraged that you stop playing mesmer and they lose their portals and veils.
I guess that makes sense. Very frustrating to think that way.
It’s hard to tell “how good is mesmer at WvW”, because WvW means some very different things to different people.
We are viable in tiny and small scale (up to 10-15 I’d say) with PU and Shatter builds, but over that number we are increasingly useless, outside the very niche use of portal and veil.
We have horrible AoE ground-cast damage (GS 3, Staff 5), glamours have been nerfed to the ground ages ago (and the current meta has a lot of condition cleanse so these builds are even less effective), the interrupt builds require too much finesse and/or luck (RNG issues with chaos storm) to apply properly in a big group setting (and mantra of distraction is still single target) and our main class mechanic (shatters) simply doesn’t work in a setting where the clones will die pretty much istantly from AoE damage (and the recent Sword 3 nerf really hurts in that regard).
At the moment, I’m only playing mesmer when we roam as a guild (5 to 12 people).
If we play in a “proper raid” with frontliners and backliners I’m usually a lot more useful as a Warrior, Guardian or Necro. You lose a lot more fights for lack of condition cleanse, stability or damage, than for lack of veil or portal.
Thanks for sharing that.
Mesmer at the moment is good for veils and portals, however portal is only used in niche situations. Everything else is outclassed by every other profession.
I see more portals in a single guild puzzle than I do in an entire month of playing WvW every day.
Really that low?
I know when I play WvW I don’t see very many Mesmers. At least from my point of view, it can be hard to tell at times.
You’re a veilbot in zergs. You’ll be the integral guy stealthing your train and then running around on the outskirts annoying staff eles.
You’re a complete monster in small group. Shatter is, bar none, the most dangerous spec in a competent small team (we’re talking 5-10 people). You can burst small groups very quickly, and there’s less pressure to kill your clones before you can get it off.
Don’t get me wrong, its still going to be frustrating as hell due to the multitudinous bugs. You’ll also need 2-3 support partners, you don’t have stab nor cleanse, and you die very quickly without protection. Both the boon and the support guards healing you.
WvW also isn’t the most welcoming environment to this type of player either. You’ll have to pick your fights and know when to bail. And you’ll bail a lot. But kitten is it satisfying to watch people melt to your and your buddies.
Yep I’ve seen small organized groups use Mesmer shatter and it’s nice. It’s just unfortunate to be useful, it has be extremely organized. Which seems to fall back on us not being very viable in most situations.
Organization isn’t a factor. You can be effective in a disorganized 5-10man group, but no matter how organized your 25 person raid is, mesmer will be useless except for veil.
I wonder why a lot of people think it’s so amazing to be the person to cast portal and veil.
It’s not fun at all.
Maybe one day we will get it back T _ T
You’re a veilbot in zergs. You’ll be the integral guy stealthing your train and then running around on the outskirts annoying staff eles.
You’re a complete monster in small group. Shatter is, bar none, the most dangerous spec in a competent small team (we’re talking 5-10 people). You can burst small groups very quickly, and there’s less pressure to kill your clones before you can get it off.
Don’t get me wrong, its still going to be frustrating as hell due to the multitudinous bugs. You’ll also need 2-3 support partners, you don’t have stab nor cleanse, and you die very quickly without protection. Both the boon and the support guards healing you.
WvW also isn’t the most welcoming environment to this type of player either. You’ll have to pick your fights and know when to bail. And you’ll bail a lot. But kitten is it satisfying to watch people melt to your and your buddies.
Yep I’ve seen small organized groups use Mesmer shatter and it’s nice. It’s just unfortunate to be useful, it has be extremely organized. Which seems to fall back on us not being very viable in most situations.
Mesmer at the moment is good for veils and portals, however portal is only used in niche situations. Everything else is outclassed by every other profession.
Why do you think so many people think otherwise? Are you happy with the state of Mesmer?
I’m surprised this question hasn’t been answered already. Here’s the raw deal:
- Mesmer used to be hella effective in zergs
The problems now are that -without the Glamour damage of a couple years back- we’re stuck with sub-par damage/tagging ability. Illusions tend to melt fast as all Hades inside the enemy blob. Also, while ANet did in fact make certain Mantras AoE, the radius of effect is so small that you practically have to hump your associates’ leg to get them affected.
Unfortunately, as it stands, Mesmer IS a support class in zerg combat.
However, for solo work or small (5-10 man) runs, the weak points of shatter are far less pronounced, and you’re more likely to be able to land a well-timed cleanse or stability Mantra on your team. Chaos Storm for boons is also workable then.
I agree, I miss the Glamour days.
I’m alright with having the ability to play support but we need to have something viable other then just support. I feel like it kinda breaks the purpose of what GW2 was originally suppose to be. Unless I’m just mistaken.
First off I’ve been playing Mesmer since release, why I’m so passionate about the class and why I don’t just leave it for an alt. Frequently Mesmer is brought up in World Chat. Usually random conversation about WvW. Of course Mesmer conversation is particularly a touchy subject to me, I usually always chime in on it. I always get the same responses..
Whenever I bring up the fact that Mesmers do have issues in WvW I instantly get blasted and everyone tells me I need to L2P.
This is what I get:
“Portal is everything!”
“Portal is the best!”
“But, you have Portal!”
“That’s a personal problem.”
“You can’t see it from the outside, since you main a Mesmer.”
“You’re more useful then a commander.”
“You have burst, it’s called shatter.”
“If your clones die before you can land a shatter, idk what to tell you.”
“You want to be a difference maker in a zerg?”
“I only see about 2 Mesmer’s for Portal.”
“You are useful, you have portal.”
“You’re amazing at roaming though.”
And it continues from here, mainly comments about portal.
So my questions are these, what’s your opinion on the state of Mesmer in WvW?
Am I just delusional and there are no problems?
Are we forever stuck as just a Portal/Veil bot? Are we a Portal/Veil bot?
Do we actually have comparable damage to others in a zerg?
Or is it we’ve built up some much negative thoughts here on the forums about Mesmer but really none of it is true?
I read the forums here and I see A LOT of issues that we have. It just looks like the majority of players (that don’t main a Mes, or play one once a month) think the Mesmer is almost godlike. We have no flaws, we have shatter, PU/Veil, and Portal. I won’t get into PVE here, because I know for a fact there are issues there. I’m mainly a PVE guy and I see the problems first hand, all the time. This is another reason why I’m jumping on the forums asking for your opinion on the matter. Maybe we’re expecting too much from the upcoming changes, or maybe expecting too little. I think if Mesmer gets any type of buffs or positive changes the community is going to outrage and it won’t be long until we’re nerfed hard in the ground again.
Thanks for reading!
TL;DR: Are Mesmers only good in WvW because of Portal/Veil? Do we have any zerg damage output comparable to others? Are we forever a support class?
(edited by Kirito.9207)
Fix – iWarden
Redesign – Mesmer
Remove – Portal & Veil
Because I’m too lazy to make an alt.
Edit: I was just in a bad mood when I posted this.
I find the concept of Mesmer to be very cool, and they’re fun to play. I’ve put so many hours into my Mesmer that I just can’t change classes. I’m a person that sticks with a Main and doesn’t focus on alts at all. I only have one level 80 and I’ve been playing since release.
(edited by Kirito.9207)
- Fixed a bug that caused Phantasmal Defender to have higher health than other phantasms.
- Increased vertical restriction to Portal. Max vertical range is now 300.
- Illusionary Persona now shatters the Mesmer, causing them to go into the defeated state and bypass the downed state.
- Prismatic Understanding now works under the effect of Decoy only.
- Fixed a bug that caused Decoy to activate without a target.
- Corrected the tool tip for Phantasmal Warden; Summons an Illusionary warden that has a chance to activate the attack. [We thought this would match with the Profession characteristic of randomness and misdirection]
-Fixed a bug that caused Phase Retreat to activate without a target.
- Reduced blink to 600 range.
- Illusionary counter now causes 2 seconds of burning instead of Torment.
- Fixed a bug that caused staff clones to cause conditions.
- Fixed a bug that caused Phantasmal Berserker to deal high damage. Floater issue is now working properly.
- Distortion now evades instead of causing invulnerability.
- Lowered Mind Wrack damage by 15%.
- Polymorph Moa has been removed from the game. We have replaced this skill with Polymorph Mesmer: Target turns into a Mesmer and feels the pain of having a Mesmer as their main. Target also received an aura that resembles bugs crawling on their body and their skill icons.
Nooooo don’t give them ideas!
But really I hope it’s something good.
I kinda hope they buff stuff we don’t use. I wanna see some awesome new builds that are viable in PVE and PVP/WWW.
(edited by Kirito.9207)
Looks like we have to wait..
“Also, be sure to stay tuned until the end of the show for another installment of the Skill Bar with Karl McLain where he will be covering upcoming balance changes to the warrior and thief professions.”
When I saw 10+ I had to laugh..
If only the Mesmer class had 10 bugs.
-
Not saying Thief’s don’t deserve bug fixes, just got a kick from seeing these together.
Let’s hope for the best this upcoming balance patch.
Actually after a couple days to ponder I’m just terrified lol.
Wish they would just tell us now. I’m sure they’re bracing for impact though. We can get pretty riled up here on the Mesmer forums.
Wanted to get away from the robe look for awhile and try something new with my Mesmer. This is what I came to.
- Nope, one of the most viable beams in the game, don’t tempt them to make it a projectile.
- Would be nice, though they’d have to drop the damage, so meh.
- Maybe it’s just me, but I just don’t see thematically a Mesmer using a pistol. I mean if your just going to shoot something in the face… why mesmerize them? Off-hand I see it as a last resort for sucking at Mesmer’ing.
Summary: Fixing actual bugs would make me happy, this would not at all.
- why turn it into a projectile? the idea is thinking how a beam would work, having that piercing effect it now has and having a bit of splash damage on its target
- if you look at any other AoE skill, like arcing arrow from warrior the damage is perffectly fine for a wider area
- dual pistol definately fit in the “duelist” theme, besides is not like dual pistols would work like thief’’s pistols, I’d give it more fitting skills #1 could be a bouncing bullet #2 could be a bullet barrage + dash that leaves a clone and #3 could be a block/counter with daze
That sounds too fun. I think I’m getting too excited for this upcoming patch. I feel like we’re all going to be majorly disappointed.
Here I thought I learned my lesson when it comes to hoping anything good coming to Mesmer..
I bet they’re just going to kinda skim over the Mesmer on this part and say
“Well Mesmers have portal, they can get to once place to another instantly”
And then no bug/balance patches for us.
Staff is my favorite but unfortunately it’s very low DPS in PVE so don’t play staff in PVE unless you wanna use the phantasm on a World Boss.
Welp, looks like there is a split in damage for Spatial Surge between pve and pvp. In PvP the tooltip coefficient is 0.300 and 0.315 in PvE. I have tested the skill in actual combat and the tooltip coefficients are correct.
This means gs #1 does 4.5% less damage in PvP than in PvE.
Maybe another ninja nerf that has been uncovered. Can’t have Mesmer’s do large range DPS, that would be bad!
Also the focus reflect doesn’t work with the Harpies in Fractals.
Focus doesn’t reflect projectiles on Mark T-B34RC3 in COE.
Something with better range DPS for PVE would be nice. Light armor melee can be a pain.
I started out with only a Mesmer in 2012 and reached level 30ish, then after a month of playing had to stop (real life stuff), and didn’t get back into the game until a few months ago. I leveled my Mesmer to 80 in a few weeks by doing the personal story and exploring mostly. Haven’t done dungeons yet because I have trouble finding a group.
I love the concept of the profession (that’s why I picked it as my first profession), and there are some really inventive skills and when roaming around in PvE, I do enjoy it. Unfortunately, that’s where it ends.
I’ve read every guide, tried all the different builds, and am actually pretty good at not dying under normal circumstances. Even impressed a friend the other day how I stayed alive by using clones to distract and then kited and dodged till I whittled away at a champion by myself (it took a while).
Yet when I try to do any major group events during PvE, or WvW I feel utterly worthless. It’s not fun, at all. I can’t get in close enough to use my sword/sword which seems to do a big chunk of damage in regular pve, and my greatsword skills are a joke, they don’t seem to do any damage at all. I can do some interesting things with my focus, but only under specific circumstances. The pistol works pretty well when I don’t get hit with AOE effects. But I’ve been coming across so many fights with major AOE lately and I can’t do anything in that situation, because if I get in range to hit and actually do damage, I get killed almost instantly because I have no toughness/vitality stats at all. I’m using full berzerker, btw.
I’m not an expert on the specific numbers behind all the skills and builds, etc. But from a reasonably dedicated player who plays a lot, I am not enjoying the end content at all. And that is really depressing.
I feel kind of gypped to be honest. The Mesmer is my favorite class in theory, I WANT to play this class, I put a lot of work leveling this character, and I am not enjoying any of the level 80 stuff. I’d like to be able to get cool drops and start crafting things, but trying to do this content is so disheartening and boring.
At this point, I’m starting to build up a few other characters to see if I will enjoy the game more as a different profession. Any suggestions which class might be actually fun at level 80?
I say roll a warrior. High DPS and heavy armor.
There’s a few bosses you can easily learn the mechanics and use blurred frenzy or your block sword skill to stay safe, but there are too many bosses that randomly throw out a 1 or 2 hit on light armored classes that make it no fun at all to be light armor and especially melee. If we don’t play berserker no groups want us, if we play the meta S/S S/F we get downed too often or it becomes too tedious to play and survive.
I agree with you on the Greatsword. The Greatsword would be fun if the AA wasn’t so poor, if the distance = damage was removed, and the AOE damage was increased.
delete you mesmer……save a slot. you’ll thank me later
+10000
Don’t waste your time on this class.
Next patch will nerf/break something for Mesmer again, guaranteed.
No I wouldn’t even consider rolling a Mesmer.
All the bugs and nonexistent dev communication on the class has killed my interest in this game.
I’m just going to agree with most of everyone here and not explain much.
It sucks.
That’s about it.
Thrown out of the PVE dungeon meta, extremely fringe in the PvP meta, relegated to veil duty since forever in wvw. Mesmer is complete trash and I can’t believe I sold 2000g worth of strength runes while they were a lot cheaper to craft mine. It’s literally a piece of **** class that leeches off everyone else’s success.
Then what the hell are you doing on these forums if it’s all in such crap?
I’m sick of all this forum whining!
This class is a lot of fun and it can still work very well, just because you may not like that people like the class because of veil or some other kitten doesn’t mean the class is kitten. Don’t play it if you don’t like and stop posting here.
All this whining is counterproductive. People won’t play mesmer because everyone on forums says the class is kitten, the amount of mesmers will decrease and Anet will just stop caring about mesmer. (I know I’ll get flamed for this part) This class does have issues, but it isn’t in such kitten like you guys say it is!
It’s perfectly fine in PvE, the sword ‘fix’ did not effect the s/s + s/f mesmer at all. iLeap is almost never used in PvE.
WvW – We are great for utility, we lack AOE, so what? PU condi, PU power, staff + gs shatter, staff + gs lockdown are all great for roaming.
PvP – Helseth, Misha, Sensotix, Supcutie…
I’m done with forums..
Ummm… what? iLeap is still important in PVE and I use it often, well when it works..
about a year ago
Jeez… That sounded so familiar and had so much sense that I was purely amazed at that it wasn’t posted today.
to black-tagged people who have the power to kill undead threads: no need to do it here; this one is more topical than ever.
Wow.. that’s crazy 0.o
I hope this isn’t against TOS but I need to share it.
Got a warning today for bumping the Mesmer Bug list thread.
It stated:
“Moderator Note:
Bumping a thread is against the Code of Conduct and will be removed. We understand the desire to keep a thread’s discussion alive, but we prefer that you do so with a post that adds constructive discussion to the thread.
This infraction serves only a warning. Additional infractions may award Infraction Points which can negatively affect your account. Infraction points may cause loss of privileges, including forum suspension.
Your message was deleted.
This is an automated message generated by an infraction given by a human moderator. If you believe you have received this infraction in error or wish to make an appeal, please send an e-mail to forums@arena.net.”
I’ve bumped several times with no warning or issues before in the past but it looks like the Devs/Mods are not happy with us not being happy about Mesmer anymore. With our recent outcry about the recent patch instead of talking to us about what’s going on they’re trying to cut us down.
Sure enough the Mesmer bug list has dropped off the front page and will be even more difficult to keep it front page if we can no longer just bump a thread.
Guess that’s a good way to keep us quiet..
I’m done trying to work with Mesmer anymore at this point. Since game release it’s been nothing but downhill for Mesmer. Nerf after bug after nerf and I can’t take it anymore. This game hasn’t been fun anymore, every release patch I’m worried what they did to screw up Mesmer this time.
Although I’m not well known or that active in the community it’s been tons of fun watching the community grow and come together to make what little builds we have now. It’s also been unfortunate to watch all the well known Mesmers drop one by one for the same reasons I’m leaving.
Good luck guys and I only hope best for the Mesmer class.
(edited by Kirito.9207)
More mobility. Less staff.
But the Devs say we have Portal! So we don’t need anymore more mobility..
/s
Came in late unfortunately so I’m going to listen to the first half.
Hope Anet makes some changes and we see you guys back on Mesmerized.
I’ve been playing Mesmer since release.. if I could go back in time and roll a new class I would in a heartbeat.
Play the re-roll build.
Best of luck
If they refuse to fix our classes major problems then I’ll do my best to keep this front page to warn off any new players joining this buggy game.
If we get a response it’ll be the same like always: We care and there are fixes coming!
Then expect nothing because there is no fixes coming.
This is how it’s been since release and this is how it will stay.
EDIT: I really hate being so negative but after so long I’ve lost hope in anything more for Mesmers.
Thank you for writing this well thought out post. I do hope we get some type of communication.
Even though Anet is by no means obligated too..
I also agree with you about the “Ready Up” podcast. When they brought up Mesmer I was so excited to hear what they had to say, but I was very disappointed.. It’s like they didn’t care, they didn’t treat Mesmer as an actual class, just a utility bot.
At the end of the day, they took a flaky skill with poorly-documented functionality and made it terrible. It’s still flaky. Why, it’s actually flakier now, since you’re way more likely to hit Swap and go nowhere.
But you got that 1 second of cripple. Actually, they should probably nerf that too.
Yeah Mesmers shouldn’t be able to cripple at all, I mean like that would make them even more OP!
It was exploitable because the Swap skill specifically states “Swap places with your Clone. Immobilize nearby foes.” If you have no clone (specifically one spawned by the initial Illusionary Leap skill) you can’t swap places with one. The fact that people were still able to after the clone was destroyed means this was a bug and therein could be exploited.
Honestly, you can repeat that all you want, but it doesn’t make it less false. Your perspective as having played a mesmer for just a couple of weeks is unfortunately shallow, and quite honestly you have no idea what you’re talking about.
+1
It was exploitable because the Swap skill specifically states “Swap places with your Clone. Immobilize nearby foes.” If you have no clone (specifically one spawned by the initial Illusionary Leap skill) you can’t swap places with one. The fact that people were still able to after the clone was destroyed means this was a bug and therein could be exploited.
Yes but the fact this skill rarely works when it SHOULD is more of a problem then what this “exploit” was.
Problem is this “exploit” wasn’t giving any unfair advantage as I can tell. It was a bandaid on a skill that is horribly broken.
Now it’s even more worthless.
I need a hot chocolate.
Maybe that will wake up iWarden.
Even when there is a balancing patch, it doesn’t do any good for Mesmers.
They can clarify all they want, I no longer expect bug fixes that will benefit us.
At this point I’m lead to believe the bugs we have cannot be fixed.
I understand it’s not easy, it takes time. How much time? I’m tired of waiting and refuse to spend anymore money on this game until something is changed.
So if you can’t fix the bugs (Or at least the ones that NEED to be fixed) can we get our skills changed? I mean a complete rework, no bandaids. Maybe that’ll be easier to do then fix these bugs.
We need a build that is viable that doesn’t focus on AI
We need a build that can focus on AI and not bug out
We need stronger range DPS (Light armor Melee sucks and so does the GS)
We need skills that don’t only work sometimes (Because of faulty game mechanics)
We need clones that don’t die instantly in AOE/Zergs
In all my years of playing MMO’s I’ve never seen such desperation for bug fixes on a class that has lasted this long!
What would you like to see change?
Do you have anymore hope in the Mesmer class?
(edited by Kirito.9207)
“All these long-cooldown/situational skills deal more damage than the auto-attack that I can use while stacking phantasms that also hit mobs constantly for massive damage.”
Oh, you mean with the mesmer you have to take care of you and 3 AI, plus all the time spent summoning them, while with other professions is just 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1. Or a simply rotation: A-2-3-4-B-3-2-5…
PD: Oh, and you know phantasms die… when they’re touched.
Phantasms die when they’re touched and don’t attack when they’re looked at (iWarden..)
Why make something for Mesmer that works? Might as well just fix our bugs in underwater combat and change skills we don’t want changed. That’s what everyone wants!
/s
Ha I’m a Shippuden fan and play Mesmer yet somehow I didn’t even connect the two xD
