How "Beefy" is Mesmer?

Looking to try the class, but how durable is the class in open world content? I play warrior, guardian and just starting necro and looking to brach out, thanks for the info

Well let's just say you'll need to get used to pressing a few more buttons rather than facetanking everything. ;)

(though mirage can evade spam well making it pretty effortless)

I've run around Core Tyria, the Heart of Maguuma, and Elona in Berserker and Viper gear, and I will say that I never have problems surviving, outside of the times when I bite off more than I can chew or get careless.

Mesmers have a great deal of evasion and damage-canceling abilities, however, if you're getting swarmed in PvE you can find yourself running out of those options and in trouble. Smart resource management helps, but you are meant to avoid damage, not endure it. Also our downed skills are absolute garbage, so if you go down, don't count on being able to reliably get back up again.

If you go chronmancer, you will have superb durability. The durability won't be coming from your armor and hp pool, but the various appoaches to avoid damage instead.

For core mesmer, first you have Distortion (shatter #4), providing you 1 second baseline invulnerability and 1 for each illusion shattered. Then you have mainhand sword with Frenzy, which is a damage burst skill and a mean of evasion at the same time. Off-hand sword offers you a one-time block, and if you go with condition build, scepter does that too. And you have a lot of CC to proactively defend yourself against attacking opponents. Staff really shines on this aspect. The forth skill give you Chaos Armor, or you can also get Chaos Armor through combo since you're self-sufficient in Eather Fields. The fifth skill is an AoE field that pulses daze each second for 5 in total. Despite that it's generally less favored due to low DPS, it is still a viable action if you really aim to buff up your defense.

And if you have HoT expansion, the chronomancer trait line will further increase your durability by providing 1.5~3 sec blocking with shield and a well skill that pulses aegis.

So yeah, mesmer could be fairly durable I'd say. It won't be durable in the sense that being able to tank a lot of hits and heal back up, but much more in a sense that you can spot big hits coming and mitigate it elegantly. Although I must say that it could be tricky against enemies that does not take CC (world bosses and some specific mobs, such as the forged skator boy in PoF) or enemies with extensively high defiance bar value. Other than these few cases, you will fare pretty well out there.

Mesmer is not durable by facetanking, but by having illusions steal aggro which means crap isn't hitting you instead.

okay thanks for the info folks, just looking to try something new, im still on the fence but now leaning towards holosmith or daredevil, thanks again

Mesmer is not beefy in the sense that it can trade blows (unlicke say necromancer) but that we have a ton of evasion, blocks, invuls, distrots, etc. (even more with chrono).

Illusions too make for nice distractions in open world pve.

Main difficulty in pve is if you get swarmed and can't take things down before you run out of defensive options (due to low damage). This is somewhat remedied with Mirage in open world or by using a condition build (mesmer with trailblazer gear is pretty much unkillable in open world areas, but so is necromancer).

Considering all the cries for a "Chronotank" for Raids, I'd imagine quite beefy indeed. ;)

Chrono for me is constant blocks basically and I feel more like a guardian in a sense with terrific damage , both power and condi, big burst for pvp or wvw, constant shatters

Mirage is constant evades , lots of condi and melee sticking to target and closing gaps like a thief

Mesmer core already has a lot of survivability, the specs make it even more so. Alot of it is active defense and survivability responses so it's all piano button playing and reflexes and so on.

Mesmer relies on active defenses (evades, dodges, invulns, interrupts, blinds) more than passive defenses. But if used properly, those defenses will keep you alive through anything

@Oglaf.1074 said:Considering all the cries for a "Chronotank" for Raids, I'd imagine quite beefy indeed. ;)

Doesn't Chronotank do its job by Blocking and Evading incoming attacks by way of Sword 2 and Shield 4? That was my understanding (coming from a non-raider, legit question). Please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't raided yet so I could very well be barking up the wrong tree.

Its the illusions thats your beef. Even as full tank a mesmer isnt that good against focused damage (easily seen in WvW) but luckily the AI consist of braindead zombies most of the time. They will slowly run around trying to kill "you". Handling 10-20 mobs at once even when sprinkled with a couple of veterans is not really that hard. And thats pretty much the far end of the spectrum, unless you intentionally pull everything in a 500m radious.

@Kezriak.5076 said:Looking to try the class, but how durable is the class in open world content? I play warrior, guardian and just starting necro and looking to brach out, thanks for the info

For me personally it's the most survivable class in the game, I've tried all classes and I never manage to be as durable as I am with Mesmer but that is solely due to the way it plays, it survives by avoiding dmg and using clones to pull agro + stealth to hide which fits my own personal playstyle, other people might think differentely.

True, hard to say what I want to level next, on the fence between daredevil thief or a mesmer. Guardian is solid but Firebrand is starting to get old, the UI in GW2 really hurts its appeal to me, keeping a eye on the charges for its mantras is a challenge to be honest and just looking to branch out

Chrono can tank, Mesmer and Mirage, not so much, but they are decent at evasion. Their one-handed weapons have evasion skills. Sword has blurred frenzy on main hand, and a block/clone generating skill on off-hand. Scepter has a block/clone generating skill. If you use sword shield as chrono you have 2 blocks on your weapon skills, also you have the distortion shatter, and a couple dazes.

@Dawdler.8521 said:Its the illusions thats your beef. Even as full tank a mesmer isnt that good against focused damage (easily seen in WvW) but luckily the AI consist of braindead zombies most of the time. They will slowly run around trying to kill "you". Handling 10-20 mobs at once even when sprinkled with a couple of veterans is not really that hard. And thats pretty much the far end of the spectrum, unless you intentionally pull everything in a 500m radious.

Chrono bunker isn't good against focused damage? What class have you been playing?

@MikeL.8260 said:

@Kezriak.5076 said:Looking to try the class, but how durable is the class in open world content? I play warrior, guardian and just starting necro and looking to brach out, thanks for the info

I made a similar experience. I tried the new elite, in Open PvE Mirage is pretty good in 1v1 but unfortunately due to larger aggro radius(?) and fast respawn time in PoF it doesn't take long to aggro more than 1 mob. Even with target switching skills it felt much harder to survive 5+ mobs, usually a mix of melee and ranged. So I switched back to my core power build. I have to admit that it probably feels more solid because I'm used to it.

Some people might consider Mesmer to be "slow" but I'd rather say "social". When I attack a champ it leaves enough time for other players to join the fight. It happens from time to time that other players come along while I fight a champ alone. Then they often stop and watch the fight a few moments. I don't exactly know what reasons make them decide to join the fight, be it pity or awaking courage. On the forums they probably would say pity, but nevertheless ingame I assume it's courage^^ If I don't die while they watch, then they decide that we could have a realistic chance to win and join the fight.

Im playing a dodge spamming mirage right now and im basicaly unkillable in PvE beside random one shots. Stack as much vigor as possible (vigor skills, endurance on weapon swap sigil, vigor giving runes), use the skill that enables clones top use ambush skills while you dodge and you have a buld that deals massive condi burst and is crazy elusive.

@Mayama.1854 said:Im playing a dodge spamming mirage right now and im basicaly unkillable in PvE beside random one shots. Stack as much vigor as possible (vigor skills, endurance on weapon swap sigil, vigor giving runes), use the skill that enables clones top use ambush skills while you dodge and you have a buld that deals massive condi burst and is crazy elusive.

Yeah that is cool, and it has some nice burst in pvp too. But my chrono I don't need to dodge 24/7 because I am barely being targetted at all.

@Despond.2174 said:

@Mayama.1854 said:Im playing a dodge spamming mirage right now and im basicaly unkillable in PvE beside random one shots. Stack as much vigor as possible (vigor skills, endurance on weapon swap sigil, vigor giving runes), use the skill that enables clones top use ambush skills while you dodge and you have a buld that deals massive condi burst and is crazy elusive.

Because hitting space or wherever you bound your dodge is so much work. It kills way faster in than chrono in open world.

Mirage is very survivable using sword ambush and deception skills for mobility and mirror generation. In pve you can solo veterans and maybe even some champs, will take a while tho, since your dps is very meh. Condi mirage makes a lot better dmg, but suffers from same survivability.

Its silly how well can chrono avoiddmg while having agro.

Chrono makes mince meat of champs, it's not even a contest, minion mancer comes close but even then, chrono is just guaranteed safety. Condi chrono staff scepter/torch, you'll do nearly anything bar world bosses solo without barely being touched. I mean staff can also be whatever you want, but scepter/torch is just SUCH a good combo.

It's one of the most survivable classes, as you can both rely on dodges and many talents towards evades, plus projectile reflects and the random aggro on clones. As Mirage, you can build to almost take no damage through evades, energy regen and such, while Chrono just naturally plays pretty safe. Open world that is, I suppose Chronotank is another take. :D