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Guild Wars 2 Launch Date announced: August 28th, 2012

"Frankly, after hearing the people in here stating that Mesmers are underpowered, I've reached a point where I am simply going to ignore all further overpowered/underpowered discussion. Because most of it is pretty ridiculous."


It's a relative phrase. Mesmers are actually fairly decent 1v1, but their core class mechanic is legitimately broken (in a "doesn't actually work" way), when it does work does subpar damage/conditions and most of their weapons have pretty underwhelming skills besides sword/pistol and staff. Factually weak.
 
Mesmer is mostly mechanics problems. Beyond shatter issues, mantras need to be changed as well, and the target dropping of clone creation is sort of a perilous thing to balance. If you allow target calling to totally negate it, then the deception factor is worthless. If you drop target calling on clone creation then that could become a new problem.
 
another issue with the Mesmer is that clones/phantasms disappear when your target is downed (which I imagine must be especially annoying in PvE). I have a feeling this will be getting fix till release though.
 
"Frankly, after hearing the people in here stating that Mesmers are underpowered, I've reached a point where I am simply going to ignore all further overpowered/underpowered discussion. Because most of it is pretty ridiculous."


It's a relative phrase. Mesmers are actually fairly decent 1v1, but their core class mechanic is legitimately broken (in a "doesn't actually work" way), when it does work does subpar damage/conditions and most of their weapons have pretty underwhelming skills besides sword/pistol and staff. Factually weak.

I usually like to keep from using the word "broken" for an unreleased title. I would think "needs tweaking" would be more like it since, technically, it hasn't been released yet and "broken" implies it was working at some point to begin with.

I only say this because "broken" implies unplayable which the Mesmer is certainly not - tweaking it does need, however.
 
Hmm, well, this sucks. Apparently some of the alliances are not going to announce their server until after launch in order to ensure everyone gets in. I sure hope all of those alliances all choose low pop new servers (there has to be at least a few new ones for launch) since it would absolutely suck if we picked a server and then discover that some gigantic alliance is on there as well.

I honestly can't understand why any non-alliance member would want to play on a server like that. Apparently a lot do if they feel like they need to not disclose where they are going...
 
another issue with the Mesmer is that clones/phantasms disappear when your target is downed (which I imagine must be especially annoying in PvE). I have a feeling this will be getting fix till release though.

And clones overwriting phantasms is a huge DPS drop.

And phtantasms shattering for the same effect as clones, despite being longer CDs and greater sacrifices.

They got a month to fix these things. I would be surprised if they just tweaked numbers.
 
Something I've been wondering - I may actually try a Necromancer, but I hate playing evil classes.

Are necromancers considered evil in GW lore like they are in, say, WoW lore?
 
Hmm, well, this sucks. Apparently some of the alliances are not going to announce their server until after launch in order to ensure everyone gets in. I sure hope all of those alliances all choose low pop new servers (there has to be at least a few new ones for launch) since it would absolutely suck if we picked a server and then discover that some gigantic alliance is on there as well.

I honestly can't understand why any non-alliance member would want to play on a server like that. Apparently a lot do if they feel like they need to not disclose where they are going...

How does that philosophy make sense to them? If some alliance and another large community unknowingly pick the same server, then they both screwed each other over. It makes more sense to communicate beforehand so space can be accounted for.
 
"I usually like to keep from using the word "broken" for an unreleased title. I would think "needs tweaking" would be more like it since, technically, it hasn't been released yet and "broken" implies it was working at some point to begin with.

I only say this because "broken" implies unplayable which the Mesmer is certainly not - tweaking it does need, however"


The class mechanic does not work well (if at all) a majority of the time. There is no other word for it. Whether they fix it in time for launch or not is irrelevant to discussion now, there's no point in sugar coating it.
 
How does that philosophy make sense to them? If some alliance and another large community unknowingly pick the same server, then they both screwed each other over. It makes more sense to communicate beforehand so space can be accounted for.

my only conclusion is that the alliance heads are discussing where they are going with each other privately and will pick a freshly made server. I mean, why wouldnt they pick a freshly made server? They'd have a greater chance of getting all of their people in to WvW that way
 
Something I've been wondering - I may actually try a Necromancer, but I hate playing evil classes.

Are necromancers considered evil in GW lore like they are in, say, WoW lore?

Pretty sure, yeah. At the very least they're considered to be using dark arts, so I'm guessing most of the world sees them as evil.
 
I think creepy is a better term for how Necros are viewed.

You're like the Adams Family, but you're kids aren't Pugsly and Wednesday. They're Fugsly and Floating Vajayjay.
 
more like specialize in one or two attunements (you still switch between all four of them). Also, depending on the build and weapons, some of the attunements might just not be viable
I don't believe that. Even if you prioritize attunements, the others will be situationally useful or good for utility.
Youll do a lot more attunement swapping in ele than you probably would in a standard 2 weapon class
You constantly do attunement swapping as an ele. So I'm not sure what you mean...
Mostly because there are traits that favor this (the ones in each of the elemental lines), although there are also traits that favor SWITCHING elements (the ones in the Arcane line). So it's personal taste, really.
It's not personal taste. It is efficiency. I can't think of one build that would benefit from zoning in on select elements. The four elemental lines all have a balance of utility, counters, and damage. It's the strength of the ele. Even if you go glass cannon fire, you will get rocked on the defensive / CD. You might think you are being efficient but that's probably just luck. Luck that your opponents are bad or that you found a broken build.

Post-balancing, the only good eles will effectively use all four elements.
 
Pretty sure, yeah. At the very least they're considered to be using dark arts, so I'm guessing most of the world sees them as evil.

I think creepy is a better term for how Necros are viewed.

You're like the Adams Family, but you're kids aren't Pugsly and Wednesday. They're Fugsly and Floating Vajayjay.

Either way, at the very least, I hope the dialogue with NPCs (as a necro) will reflect this. If they are evil, I still may main it. Maybe.
 
Either way, at the very least, I hope the dialogue with NPCs (as a necro) will reflect this. If they are evil, I still may main it. Maybe.

You might consider playing as Asura Necromancer. I'm sure their take on Necromancy is much different than the other races and they probably view it as just another school of magic to be studied.
 
You might consider playing as Asura Necromancer. I'm sure their take on Necromancy is much different than the other races and they probably view it as just another school of magic to be studied.

That's actually the race I would play as regardless of which class I chose so thanks for that particular insight! :D

Also, I think Sylvari view it as a "life and death" cycle when they practice it. That's the one thing I do know.
 
"Frankly, after hearing the people in here stating that Mesmers are underpowered, I've reached a point where I am simply going to ignore all further overpowered/underpowered discussion. Because most of it is pretty ridiculous."


It's a relative phrase. Mesmers are actually fairly decent 1v1, but their core class mechanic is legitimately broken (in a "doesn't actually work" way), when it does work does subpar damage/conditions and most of their weapons have pretty underwhelming skills besides sword/pistol and staff. Factually weak.

As I said, I'm not going to argue about it any further. My personal experiences with the class revealed no such weakness in it, so if they get a straight buff? That's awesome. Bring it. If ANET, however, buffs up Shatter and nerfs other abilities for the sake of balancing out the class though... That would be shit. Because right now it has a huge amount of utility and versatility. If all you're using the clones for is Shatter, then you're not playing them right.

And calling the Greatsword underwhelming is insane.
 
Only reason I'd pick asura is they're short, so you can hide behind terrain easier. One of the reasons I'm hesistant about rolling norn.
 
I don't believe that. Even if you prioritize attunements, the others will be situationally useful or good for utility.

well, yes. One of the greatest strengths of the Elementalist is that you can switch your attunement when your abilities are on cooldown. You'll want to utilize every attunement to get the most out of your profession, some just might have a stronger/more useful skill selection than others.

the water attunement in particular seems to not be very desirable at the moment though, unless you play support/stack healing power.
 
As I said, I'm not going to argue about it any further. My personal experiences with the class revealed no such weakness in it, so if they get a straight buff? That's awesome. Bring it. If ANET, however, buffs up Shatter and nerfs other abilities for the sake of balancing out the class though... That would be shit. Because right now it has a huge amount of utility and versatility. If all you're using the clones for is Shatter, then you're not playing them right.

And calling the Greatsword underwhelming is insane.

I was listening to a podcast today on B&C that was with some high level sPVP guild called Super Squad, and all three of them being interviewed picked the Mesmer as the least powerful class in the game right now. All of them had similar qualms as well; that it was a relatively good 1v1 class but did not bring to team fights the kind of power the other classes do.

Along the same topic, they also all mentioned Ranger as being on the other end of the spectrum due to some kind of "spirit" builds that were apparently pretty ridiculous.
 
You pick Asura because AWESOMENESS.

2274030-gw196.jpg
 
Asura need more hairstyles though... but I guess they're all really bald aren't they? Least in the art.... are the others wearing wigs?
 
I was listening to a podcast today on B&C that was with some high level sPVP guild called Super Squad, and all three of them being interviewed picked the Mesmer as the least powerful class in the game right now. All of them had similar qualms as well; that it was a relatively good 1v1 class but did not bring to team fights the kind of power the other classes do.

Could you link me to the podcast?
 
It's not personal taste. It is efficiency. I can't think of one build that would benefit from zoning in on select elements. The four elemental lines all have a balance of utility, counters, and damage. It's the strength of the ele. Even if you go glass cannon fire, you will get rocked on the defensive / CD. You might think you are being efficient but that's probably just luck. Luck that your opponents are bad or that you found a broken build.

Post-balancing, the only good eles will effectively use all four elements.

That is simply not true, as is saying that the only good mages in WoW are those using all spells. If your build has half of its traits in the fire line, you will simply be more effective when attuned to fire; more so with traits that become more powerful the longer you're attuned to that particular element (there's one for each element). Obviously you may (or may not) be forced to change to other elements when circumstances force you to, but you'll perform suboptimally, if for no other reason than the obvious one that half or more of your traits are doing exactly nothing.

You can make a build focusing on one or two elements, focusing on three, or changing between all four; that's precisely the beauty of the trait system. What you are saying, that there is only one way to play the elementalist, runs counter to everything you've always said about freedom and choice.
 
well, yes. One of the greatest strengths of the Elementalist is that you can switch your attunement when your abilities are on cooldown. You'll want to utilize every attunement to get the most out of your profession, some just might have a stronger/more useful skill selection than others.

the water attunement in particular seems to not be very desirable at the moment though, unless you play support/stack healing power.
Water is great for conditions, snares, and getting your regen to kick up faster. I can't decide on the "weakest" element overall. Only situationally could I say that certain elements are not useful. Even the idea that you can chain snares between earth/water make them extremely good to fight CD issues. And that's just a basic example not including sequencing conditions and damage.
That is simply not true, as is saying that the only good mages in WoW are those using all spells.
This isn't WoW. And elements feed off each other towards efficiency. You'll have to show an example if you believe that you builds are more effective with few elements. And I'm pretty sure your example will be situational.
 
That is simply not true, as is saying that the only good mages in WoW are those using all spells. If your build has half of its traits in the fire line, you will simply be more effective when attuned to fire; more so with traits that become more powerful the longer you're attuned to that particular element (there's one for each element). Obviously you may (or may not) be forced to change to other elements when circumstances force you to, but you'll perform suboptimally, if for no other reason than the obvious one that half or more of your traits are doing exactly nothing.
.

But you're not taking cooldowns into account. If your CDs are all used on your 2 major lines, there's no reason NOT to switch. Ele practically gets 4 weapon swapping which is a huge, and to not take advantage that is silly even if you didn't trait into some of them. Also I'm pretty sure Anet is balancing them around the fact that they do have 4 different sets of skills, and expect you to actively use them all to play the class at it's best.
 
Looking at the -diag output results, I'm not sure I can put much stock in them. The latency I have to both datacenters seems really low, especially the EU one.
 
I don't have them up now, let me see if I can find where it saved to.

But none of the hops were higher than like 45ms, and both routes hit the network wall before 10 hops.

Mine hit the wall before even leaving my network I think, 0-1 hops. Though I ran tracert myself and got a 171 ping to what I assume is somewhere in or near Germany from California.
 
Mine hit the wall before even leaving my network I think, 0-1 hops. Though I ran tracert myself and got a 171 ping to what I assume is somewhere in or near Germany from California.

Yeah, when I run my own traceroute to the servers they specify in the diagnostic output, I get the full trace. Looks like around 90ms to the TX datacenter, which is alright since I'm out on the edge of the West Coast.
 
"I usually like to keep from using the word "broken" for an unreleased title. I would think "needs tweaking" would be more like it since, technically, it hasn't been released yet and "broken" implies it was working at some point to begin with.

I only say this because "broken" implies unplayable which the Mesmer is certainly not - tweaking it does need, however"


The class mechanic does not work well (if at all) a majority of the time. There is no other word for it. Whether they fix it in time for launch or not is irrelevant to discussion now, there's no point in sugar coating it.

I think the Mesmer is definitely going to be an investment class - might not work the way it should at first, but once I level one up and once the eventual fixes get applied, I'll have experience and a lot of levels with a truly wonderful class.

Even with its problems, I had a blast with my Asura Mesmer in BWE3. I put all my points and gear into +Power and got myself a Greatsword, and I felt quite powerful.
 
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