People mightnot play them for the main reason I chose not to play them, they're clunky in PVE.  

Not hard, not sophisticated, not subtle, just clunky and slower at getting the job done than everyone else in overworld PVE.    They're also probably the worst class in the game at tagging as many mobs as possible in DEs in the 3 seconds a big swarm is alive before they are zerged down, resulting in less loot.

Mesmers are at their best when fighting something with a big hp bar or anything that just takes time to kill, which isn't something you run into in ordinary world PVE.    On bosses it's great, veterans great, sPVP and WvWvW great.   Ordinary mobs?  A chore.

Originally posted by Justsomenoob

People mightnot play them for the main reason I chose not to play them, they're clunky in PVE.  

 

Not hard, not sophisticated, not subtle, just clunky and slower at getting the job done than everyone else in overworld PVE.    They're also probably the worst class in the game at tagging as many mobs as possible in DEs in the 3 seconds a big swarm is alive before they are zerged down, resulting in less loot.

 

Mesmers are at their best when fighting something with a big hp bar or anything that just takes time to kill, which isn't something you run into in ordinary world PVE.    On bosses it's great, veterans great, sPVP and WvWvW great.   Ordinary mobs?  A chore.

 

 

Provided none of those champs, bosses, and veterans have insta-illusion-kill aoes ;) Also, some phantoms and clones spawn in random places which doesn't help (phantasmal disenchanter, spawns basically on top of the mob, good luck keeping him alive for more than a nanosecond for him to do his job)

If you look at the videos for mesmer the clones can be easily identified because they will not be moving around as much as the player. So a PvPer will pick out the real you. I see this in  the PvP vids unless the mesmer goes invisible.

It looks like a class for people who enjoy a challenge I like it but my account has no more slots and I already spent 20 Euros on the bank slot and keeping 1000gems for the bag slots or another bank expansion.

They feel under powered to me, the clones don't appear quick enough for the short fights (PvP and most DEs) and don't survive long enough in long fights (bosses).

Once you take the clones out of the equation.. they just feel a little useless. Not the power house that the GW1 Mesmer is anyways.

Mesmer is going to be a hell of a class to balance. For example, I pretty am unkillable in PvP unless you catch me with all my cooldowns down AND out of dodge stamina. I can essentially outlast anyone if I time my dodges and skills properly, while chipping away at the enemy.

That said, I do think they need to either buff Mesmer's damage a bit, or maybe the clone damage, because there are times that it is absurd how long it takes me to kill someone.

Originally posted by s4nder
Illusions and phantasms should have a set duration or last the whole combat. Watching them disappear an instant after being created in events made me forget about the class in a second and I loved mesmers in GW1.

That is because you either created them in AoE area or were hit when they popped and disappeared. It does happen. That is why you need to keep track of what is going on around you.

I play a mesmer as my main.. they are truly powerhouses.. it all depends on spec.

My spec is condition damage primarily focused on bleeding.  I'm level 54 right now, with 4 domination 20 illusions, 20 dueling.. 

A lot of my play revolves around conditioning due to crits (bleeding damage), and shattering damage, which is pretty good if you know what you're doing.  

My favorite weapon spec is scepter/Pistol and Greatsword,  though I also like the Focus, and the Staff depending on situation.. Basically, if you spec your precision high enough even your clones will get crits for 1 damage (any crit will apply bleeding).  So naturally I bring in phantasms when they're up, and continuously swap in phantasms and clones as needed, shattering them when the mood calls, which will also apply conditions - as will some other abilities that you get and combos you can do all on your own.

Evasion is key with mesmers, and they have a lot of tricks to evade and survive...  they are also really good at deflecting ranged damage, and applying a lot of different condition types.  They are also pretty good at being able to cure and transfer conditions they receive.. which will really aid certain builds in PvP.

I hated the mesmer in GW1 and the beta,  but I truly feel powerful as a mesmer now... moreso then when I played the elementalist or guardian.

One of the hardest classes to play right.

Large amount of micromanagement with clones.

Originally posted by Adiaris

My main is a Mesmer (80) and I played it through the betas (good and bad times!). I never found the class to be complex at all (I think Ele is alot harder to master to be honest) in fact, in frantic PVP the illusions help you take a breather ;) 

That said, and I'm sure fellow mesmers will disagree with me by stating leet dps with a s/s gs build, you do have to work a lot harder on your skills to get decent dps on enemies. In big pve and pvp events your phantasms don't last very long, if at all, which results in your damage going down the drain completely. Granted, you focus more on utility then, but no one really likes to hit things with a wet noodle. Especially when you see warriors and guardians just straight up tanking a mob, no dodging, no weapon swapping, and downing it faster than you can. 

That's my experience at least. Love the class, love the butterflies, but still think it has some fundamental issues by design. 

Yep. Hit 80 last night on my Mesmer, love the class, but yeah there are moments where I feel like I'm struggling to do any dps or stay alive in both pve and pvp usually during the cooldowns of my clones and phantasms.  During those moments is when I'm popping my support utilities like Feedback, Time Warp, Null Void/Bubble whatever it's called so as to help fellow players out.  It's definitely a true support class and I think PVP and PVE scoring should take that into account, somehow.  Glad it's at 80 will be interesting to see what balance passes they make for the class in the coming years.  All I know is, some of my personal stories were almost impossible to solo.  I did it, but man did it take a ton of kiting and body pulling.  Mesmer gets swarmed by more than 3 mobs it's pretty much over.  Like the Risen mobs, those guys are nasty.

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Adiaris

My main is a Mesmer (80) and I played it through the betas (good and bad times!). I never found the class to be complex at all (I think Ele is alot harder to master to be honest) in fact, in frantic PVP the illusions help you take a breather ;) 

That said, and I'm sure fellow mesmers will disagree with me by stating leet dps with a s/s gs build, you do have to work a lot harder on your skills to get decent dps on enemies. In big pve and pvp events your phantasms don't last very long, if at all, which results in your damage going down the drain completely. Granted, you focus more on utility then, but no one really likes to hit things with a wet noodle. Especially when you see warriors and guardians just straight up tanking a mob, no dodging, no weapon swapping, and downing it faster than you can. 

That's my experience at least. Love the class, love the butterflies, but still think it has some fundamental issues by design. 

Yep. Hit 80 last night on my Mesmer, love the class, but yeah there are moments where I feel like I'm struggling to do any dps or stay alive in both pve and pvp usually during the cooldowns of my clones and phantasms.  During those moments is when I'm popping my support utilities like Feedback, Time Warp, Null Void/Bubble whatever it's called so as to help fellow players out.  It's definitely a true support class and I think PVP and PVE scoring should take that into account, somehow.  Glad it's at 80 will be interesting to see what balance passes they make for the class in the coming years.  All I know is, some of my personal stories were almost impossible to solo.  I did it, but man did it take a ton of kiting and body pulling.  Mesmer gets swarmed by more than 3 mobs it's pretty much over.  Like the Risen mobs, those guys are nasty.

Mesmers definitely don't put out the burst like Warriors do.. thats true.. but I feel I have much more survivability then warriors do, too.  Truth be told, my DoTs are pretty pitiful at my level,  but I'm still able to put out some decent damage,  and I don't keep my phantasms out very often... I end up shattering them as they do good AOE damage, apply confusions, etc... and my clones can apply DoTs too and attack much more often.

It does kind of suck that you can't put out that kind of burst.. but I like rarely dying..