Originally posted by altas
I love Mesmer, but it has some flaws. In sPVP is a little bit overpowered (personal opinion, others says it isn't good) but in PVE sux. Had a really nasty moments in PVE, was pissed off, but overall - I have fun. Control/support is success to play this class, because output damage is low. Illusions know to hit really hard, but they dying fast. I hope Anet will continue to work more on this profession. On the other hand, If you want to master combat style of GW2, pick Mesmer. Maybe tomorrow if you pick something else as secondary, you will be unstopable. :)

To be honest, I was having this same feeling using my own mesmer but only with Moa Bird. In 1v1 I'm able to take on any class save the occasional ranger-without-reflect dome or Condition necro-without-Null Field.

In PvP, I found the most success by splitting my roles down within my own profession. My phantasms do the damage, my sword clone, offhand sword daze, and utility abilities "control" the opponent, and I just run around supporting myself by simply helping me live, blinking, and controlling my opponent. I wonder if anyone here played against someone named "Spore".

And in Raid of the Capricorn, don't even get me started on the spear weapon kit. It's like we were supposed to be OP underwater or something.

As for PvE, I must agree that phantasms are just too squishy for my tastes. I wish they could simply take more hits.

Mesmer was originally my main,until I saw them running everywhere on my server..

Originally posted by Soto

I might have some reasons that Mesmer is the least played class...so darn confussing! I made to level 9 and still not sure what the hell to train in or when to best use those many illusions. So, I am going staff and sword/sword or torch/1handed staff.

 

What are your thoughts on this class??? ¤

It's because they are an offensive support class. They also have the highest skill cap in the game.

I also had a tough time figuring out exactly how to play my mesmer. Everything just felt 'meh' in terms of power. Even the greatsword (I think they nerfed it a bit, but I'm not positive).

However, once you figure it out the class is a lot of fun. Clones can be a pain at first, because they are rather weak, but you basically have a number of choices when using them. They can either be ammo (for shatter builds), DPS (with phantasms, the trait that lets your clones apply bleeds), or they can be distractions. In short, mesmers are great at indirect damage / utililty. Much like necros, but generally more complicated.

Indirect roles are also ones that people tend to shy away from. Most people are bad at that type of playstyle, and you will always see the most direct classes (usually damage roles) being the most popular. That's why you see so many warriors, rangers, and elementalists. They are all really simple classes to play, and it's easy to pack a really big punch without much effort.

Mesmer is more difficult to play but if you're willing to spend time to learn it then it 's a "powerful" class.

When I say powerful, I don't mean it in a dps sense.  We all know that Mesmer is really not a dps class like the Elementalist.   Mesmer never was a dps class ever since GW 1.  I played a Mesmer in GW 1 and it took me a long while to learn the mechnics of the class. At one point, I even gave up on it.   And i hate running into a Mesmer mobs because Mesmer is "annoying".  (That's how I would describe it...)  Mesmer's job is to annoying people.  ;-)   And they are pretty good at it.

If you followed how A-Net introduced their professons on the website back then.  They did mention at one point(blog or news?) that the order of how they introduce each professon is based on the playing difficulties of the professons from easy to hard.  And right there I knew Mesmer would be the last professon they introduce because it is a difficult professon to play well.

The least played class is mesmer followed by thief and the hardest class to play is mesmer followed by thief...

I see some connection there. But in my case I just love playing thief.

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by lightblade
Lv41 mes here. I find mes is always about control, whether pve or PvP. What you are controlling is essentially aggro. It's a delicate balance between letting your enemies hit you then block the attack and letting them hit your illusions. Few people realizes that about 1/3 to 1/2 of mes damage comes from phantasm. So protecting them is essential for stable damage. This is where you want to control the aggro. You want them to hit clones, yourself, then phantasms in that order.

I rather "Stick them with the pointy end" with my Warrior's massive 2handed sword for crits upwards of 3,4,5k :3!

the best part about warrior is jumping in the puddles and doing your axe spin to spray whatever you jumped in all over the place

I'm having a blast with my Mesmer.

Staff / scepter + torch

I focus on creating Ethereal fields for the Chaos Armor and Confusion combos for me and especially others. I constanly shatter my illusions as I've confusion on all my shatters.

Originally posted by Soto

I might have some reasons that Mesmer is the least played class...so darn confussing! I made to level 9 and still not sure what the hell to train in or when to best use those many illusions. So, I am going staff and sword/sword or torch/1handed staff.

 

What are your thoughts on this class??? ¤

In every MMO there are classes where you have situational awareness and to push a lot of buttons in careful patterns to get the same result (i.e. a dead mob) as most other classes can get by pushing fewer buttons and just mashing 'em. 

Some people like to multitask, have stuff to do, to be active at the keyboard and mouse and have situational awareness.

Such people will find the Mesmer immensely satisfying.

But most people aren't like that - they like to have things a bit easier (or avoid RSI! :) ) and/or they like to focus on what's in front of them.  Such people (i.e. the vast majority of people) won't like the Mesmer profession (or generally, any "mage", "cleric" or "tank" class).

Actually, it's also sometimes to do with mood.  If you have a few alts, it's nice to have the option of either style of gameplay.  One isn't always in the mood for concentration, and ometimes it's nice to just hang back and mash.  But generally, one will prefer a particular style most of the time.

I love my mesmer, but I'm often the only one in the crowd (be it in pve and pvp). Warrior and thief are the most popular at the moment because they can do damage and it's obviously what the majority of the playerbase goes for (which is the case in most MMOs). Mesmer, necromancer and elementalist are low on damage which is why they're less popular.

In pvp I see nothing but thief, maybe 7 in every 10 players is a thief, mesmer shines big time in groups and people hate fighting them because of the confusing clones.

I play a level 80 ele and a newly 80 mesmer. if you think mesmer is low on damage I have just three words for you... get - a - clue.

playing mesmer as a pet class is royal fail. playing mesmer as a scepter/dps class is royal fail. a mesmer is a magical duelist.

if you fight groups go sword focus (phantasmal warden, group pull)
if you fight veterans go double sword (clone generating block)
if you fight single champs go sword pistol (phantasmal duelist)

scepter aka clone generator and staff are support weapons... and clones are there to be shattered, not to be your pet... they are meant to die and do damage...

M

PS: And mass purge and mass haste are arguably the single best support skills in the game. With a sword/scepter setup I can literally go head on against 5, 6 or seven same level mobs and AoE them down? rotation on sword focus? - null field, combo illusionary leap (creates clone and chaos armor), summon phantasmal warden, enter fray, stand NEXT to the warden and pop blurred frenzy, if you've got ranged mobs, pop temporal curtain and immediatly blow into the void pulling the guys into your AoE range, use mirror images when warden runs out and shatter immediatly inside the enemy pack for AoE damage, roll backwards, illusionary leap, blurred frenzy... and start over as often as you want. I can tear through tons of enemies like that WITHOUT being hit in the face like my elementalist who does ist slightly faster but can't sustain rotations without getting hit...

Level 80 Mesmer here.

I love him. Awesome support and good solo dps if you play your class right, and you can play it many ways. If you are looking for a faceroll keyboard class, this is not it...

A well played mesmer in WvW is the most epic class ever and wins battles for you.

A quick insight on damage they can unleash with a group:

Ogrewatch under attack by 40 invaders
Thief + Mesmer creates stealth + portal
You and 15 defenders instandly stand in stealth and unleas all your AoE and make massive amount of kills.

Mesmer when well played with a group is one of the most deadly classes ingame :)

Solo they care quite hard to take down also they clone and it takes a few moments to figure out wich one you need to target.
That few moments alone can break and make the fight.

I think mesmer is one of the most underestimated classes by far.

Originally posted by Jakdstripper

i did the same. got mine to about level 8, and wast pretty confused as to what exactly is a mesmer supposed to do in pvp. the clones seemed really to be very weak dps (i guess they are just decoys) and they dont tank very well in pve at all.

i dunno, i find the class interesting but a bit to weird to make it my main just yet. maybe as a 2nd or 3rd character....

Don't judge a mesmer by PvE, they shine in PvP and it's mainly because of there clones. They cause a great deal of confusion, even when simply trying to finish off a downed mesmer. Next Mesmer can do some massive spike damage.

Mesmer has survivability and damage, in PvP... In PvE the mobs tends to simply ignore the clones which makes half the mesmer style pointless.