Are Mesmers fun?

Been thinking about making a Mesmer. I read that levling a mesmer 1-80 is painful, but at 80 they really shine. I normally don't play scholar based professions. But they piqued my interest seeing them in dungeons and events.

leveling a new character is very easy in this game once you got into it a bit. i would just adivse to level every profession to 80 and see for yourself.its a very versatile profession and i do have fun playing it. however without more input from your side it will be difficult to say wether the profession might be something you enjoy.

If rev is like a warrior/thief cross mesmer is like a thief/mage cross.I find them very fun and a unique class type/playstyle. My only gripe is I wish I could alter the classes effects colour,not a fan of pink or purple but that’s a minor issue at most.

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Been thinking about making a Mesmer. I read that levling a mesmer 1-80 is painful, but at 80 they really shine.

I found it a breeze, actually. My levelling build isn't too different from my general PvE build, but it's true both elite specs are very good.

I normally don't play scholar based professions. But they piqued my interest seeing them in dungeons and events.

Mesmers mostly use phantasms, which are ghostly copies of you that do one attack then turn into a clone, which is a tanky version of you that does almost no damage... until you blow them up with a shatter.

Think of phantasms as damage over time: you release them then they do their thing. They can also tank for you and distract enemies (which is partly why people hate them in PvP).

They also have a range of other skills like portals and mantras, but those are sort of situational. A typical fight would start with you summoning phantasms, jumping in with your normal weapons and then using shatters to do burst damage. For longer fights, you drop more phantasms when you can, do damage and, if needed, let your clones hold aggro.

Chronomancers also use wells, which either do damage, crowd control or provide boons and have a new shatter that lets you basically double-cast a load of skills. They also have a trait that makes all their phantasms basically 50% stronger over time, so they can do a lot of damage. In theory, you can get 13 phantasms out in under 10 seconds as a chronomancer using continuum shift and signet of ether, but you'd need very speedy fingers and a lot of cooldowns to be exactly where you want them.

Mirage swaps dodge for mirage cloak, which allows ambush attacks, and a ludicrously powerful trait that lets your clones also do ambushes. Mirages also have a number of ways of avoiding damage, so they're very tanky one-on-one. They almost always use condition damage, so the idea is usually to get at much confusion and torment out as possible then evade and teleport around until everything drops dead a few seconds later.

Downsides are that mirage is, in my opinion, kind of dull after a while. They're very, very powerful and have to evade a lot due to the ambush mechanic, so you end up invincible or overwhelmed. Chronomancers are expected to run support builds in T3's and up, so if that's not your thing then give it a miss. Since the release of diviner's gear, the can do more damage while supporting so they're more a DPS-support hybrid.

What weapons would you recommend for leveling?

@Magnedeus.4713 said:What weapons would you recommend for leveling?

core tyria mostly has very low health opponents so power weapons. i personally use sword /focus (for the pull/speed) and greatsword as you can kill many opponents without needing to walk up to them, saves some time.

Mesmers are the most fun.

Asking if a class is fun in a class specific subforum. :D Only joking, welcome.

Do you like the theme? Mind tricks, illusion, butterflies etc...

Go into pvp lobby straight after making a new character and try out all the skills/specs on the npcs there. Will give you a better idea if you like how the class works.

Then you've got Chrono which is kind of like mesmer/necro (CSplit being analagous to second life bar, and then wells etc) with better support options, and Mirage which is kind of like mesmer/thief (ie more mobile and deceptive than core).

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Been thinking about making a Mesmer. I read that levling a mesmer 1-80 is painful, but at 80 they really shine. I normally don't play scholar based professions. But they piqued my interest seeing them in dungeons and events.

To expand on my original post, mesmers are perhaps the most fun class I have ever played in an MMORPG.

Leveling a mesmer is no longer the brutal endeavor it used to be. It's actually fairly comfortable now especially after the phantasm rework simplified both the concept of shattering and using phantasms, and overcharged most phantasms to be killing machines.

Leveling a mesmer is fairly comfortable. You'll want to build for pure power damage, Precision > Power > Ferocity while leveling. Weapon wise you're going to want to use Sword+Sword / focus for most mobs. Sword hits for very high cleave damage, and focus has a great pull and swiftness. When you know you're going to need ranged pressure I'd drop either offhand sword or focus for Greatsword.

Staff has some uses but it's mainly a PvP weapon because of it's low damage but high kiting capabilities and . Scepter is great for ranged condition pressure but when leveling you're not going to build for ranged pressure. Pistol is more of a condition damage weapon but it's great if you need more break bar capabilities.

For utilities Signet of the Ether is amazing and you want it ASAP for your healing skill. After that you want Phantasmal Disnenchanter and Phantasmal Defender and those are going to be huge supplements for your DPS. For your third Utility you can customize depending on what you need. Mantra of Pain is great for more pressure. Feedback is great when you're against ranged pressure. Feedback and Arcane Thievery are great when you're up against condition damage and enemies that boon themselves.

At level 80 you can specialize between Chronomancer and Mirage, both of which are excellent. Chronomancer has access to a solid power DPS build, but where it really shines is with Boonshare Chronomancer which always has a stranglehold on PvE. Gearing a Boonshare Chronomancer is going to be moderately difficult, however as it requires unusual and expensive stat combinations like Minstrel's for tanking, and Diviner's for boonshare not tanking. Boonshare Chrono provides great breakbar damage, survivability, and of course it radically boosts your party's damage by sharing quickness and alacrity.

Condition Mirage is great, solid on most fights and OP godly on several. Again Condition Mirage requires Viper's gear which is a pain in the ass because you can't just buy an exotic set and runes and slap it on your character off the TP for 20gold like you can with Berserker's stat stuff. Not as hard to gear as Boonshare Chronomancer however.

Playstyle wise condition Mirage is a selfish condition damage dealer. Highly evasive.

@MUDse.7623 said:

@Magnedeus.4713 said:What weapons would you recommend for leveling?

Yup. Sword/sword or sword/focus, with greatsword for range. Sword/sword does more damage and has a block/parry, so it's very good for single targets. Focus is incredibly good for multiple targets because of the pull and the phantasm isn't at all bad.

I'm doing world completion at the moment and sword/sword is my champion killer.

Staff is a decent defensive utility weapon. I don't use it but I do see it a lot.

Sceptre is a condi weapon that favours defensive play... With sceptre/sword you have two blocks, but it's not a build I'd recommend unless you really love blocking, like as a way of life.

Torch and pistol are both condi weapons which work well if you ever okay mirage.

For the elites, shield is good but you get the most out of it in group play. Axe is a little bit of a mess, in my opinion, but it does so much condition damage that it's almost forgiven.

They are very funny, while trying to claim, mirage is okTbh imo chrono is one of better designed specs and is rly fun to play

Let's say i reached lvl 80 on my Mesmer and i wanna be a chronomancer. How do i go about gearing up and what type of gear do chronomancers favor the most? I mainly wanna focus on PVE.

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Let's say i reached lvl 80 on my Mesmer and i wanna be a chronomancer. How do i go about gearing up and what type of gear do chronomancers favor the most? I mainly wanna focus on PVE.

Gearing chronomancer is painfull, becouse meta is changing all the time. Month ago, chrono was just a support, it gave all possible boons to the party, rn it can give only quickness and alacrity, so ppl want you to also do dps. This way u should gear with mix of berserker /diviner stats. To get diviner gear u need to do some things from new living story.In open world u can use literally anything, in fractals u will need ascended armor to put agony infusions in it. In raids u can have only exotics, it will be fine.U can also run dps chrono which will be full berserker. This build is not beginer friendly tho. If u want to be semi support in raids u should also do some mechanics (pulls, occasionally tanking). Also chronomancer are used as tanks in raids but I would suggest to be off chrono for now :)For ready builds u can look at metabattle, snowcrows(raids), discreditize(fractals).

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Let's say i reached lvl 80 on my Mesmer and i wanna be a chronomancer. How do i go about gearing up and what type of gear do chronomancers favor the most? I mainly wanna focus on PVE.

Real talk? You want to speed through the process? PvP. Farm Ascended Shards of Glory, craft Grand Master Weapon+Armorsmith Marks and just buy easy stat selectable Ascended gear. If you're cool with GW2's PvP I genuinely think it's the way to go.

@"Safandula.8723" said:They are very funny, while trying to claim, mirage is okTbh imo chrono is one of better designed specs and is rly fun to play

Huh?

Mirage is an amazing solo spec, extremely fun and you can do insane stuff like Solo Legendary Bounties, CM 100 Ark and tons of other stuff. It's also top tier in SPvP and a hell a fun WvW roamer.

In PvE Mirage is literally god tier on several fights and it's freaking solid on most others. The only bosses it does outright poorly on raid wise are bosses like Keep Construct ad Conjured Amalgamate which revolve around phases where the party deals heavily boosted power DPS. It mostly has a stigma because 1. It benchmarks poorly on gollems that don't use skills and can't proc confusion and 2. Eve on fights where bosses do trigger confusion your real damage doesn't appear in the raid wide DPS but in the Self Stats window only you can see because of how confusion damage is tracked by the game and ARCDPS. It does struggle in fractals just because of the lower health of mobs and short encounters overall. That's about it.

@mortrialus.3062 said:

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Let's say i reached lvl 80 on my Mesmer and i wanna be a chronomancer. How do i go about gearing up and what type of gear do chronomancers favor the most? I mainly wanna focus on PVE.

@"Safandula.8723" said:They are very funny, while trying to claim, mirage is okTbh imo chrono is one of better designed specs and is rly fun to play

IMO if u want to gear up fast, it's easier to craft on your own, u have no limit on how much gold u can earn per week.

@Magnedeus.4713 said:Let's say i reached lvl 80 on my Mesmer and i wanna be a chronomancer. How do i go about gearing up and what type of gear do chronomancers favor the most? I mainly wanna focus on PVE.

Really easy if you have access to either the current Living World map (Thunderhead Peaks) or Living World Season 3 maps (ascended trinkets with selectable diviner's stats).

Basically, a combination of berserker's, maybe some assassin's and diviner's. If you want to tank, throw in some commander's. The idea is to get your boon duration as high as you comfortably can without compromising damage and berserker's with diviner's is the easiest way to do this.