Talk:Guide to playing as a mesmer

Adding organization to these guides
After comparing all of the great ideas in the sections in these Profession guides, I've tried to bring together a single format for all of them to use. The information has not been changed, but in some cases it has been reorganized so that readers will know what to expect across all guides.

Because of this, many guides will have incomplete sections. I believe this is worth it to have the great sections cover all of the guides and have more complete organization.

I’m adding this explanation to all of the guides’ Talk pages so everyone can see it regardless of which guide they see first.--Declan 20:28, 28 November 2007 (UTC) You should really brighten up the PvE sectionTall Ash 19:06, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

PvE
I don't know who (or what) wrote the PvE-part in understanding the profession, but it urgently needs re-writing. The overall negative tone shouldn't be, and imo it sounds more like a personal opinion of whoever wrote it. Erszebet 11:58, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The PvE part shows that somebody has no idea of how to play a mesmer in PvE and the PvP part lacks any real depth or detailed explanation usable by a beginner.
 * The cool thing about a wiki is that you can improve it. RT | Talk  12:07, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Do I hear a volunteer :p
 * I'm not that much of a writer either but I'll try to at least tone the negativism down a bit. Erszebet 14:32, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I read this and am horrified, so I will watch it and try to fix it up (spelling? grammar? O_o) and add what I think will be a generally positive tone for PvE (but not now because I'm tired). I do understand how the mesmer could work in PvP, but as I am not a regular PvP player other than some AB, I fear my edit there would "lack any real depth of detailed explanation usable by a beginner." So I'm leaving that to someone else. Sacred 05:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not trying to brag but when I took my Mesmer character to "The Dragon's Lair" I was having people beg me to join their party because of my interrupt skills. Combined with two rangers that also had interrupt skills we took down Glint in about a minute.  So Mesmers are good in PvE.--Worldly Tutor 04:31, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

How is the edit I did to the PvE section?Tall Ash 02:40, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

PvP
yeah, I fixed this section... --Angelic Loki 07:51, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Secondary profession
Can someone please put up something on a good secondary profession? It would realy help me out, thanks!! --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:205.188.117.65 (talk).
 * Try Elementalist for &mdash;  ク   Eloc  貢  00:22, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Using Elemenatlist as a secondary profession to a Mesmer allows you to become what people have come to call a "Nuker" Elementalist have great range attacks that are also powerful.  Using Mesmer skills such as Echo and arcane Echo allows you to create what's known as an echo chain.  Using your echo chain to copy elemental spell that are both powerful and have good range allows for you to become a very appreciated member of any party.--Worldly Tutor 04:22, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Ranger Secondary! My first and fav is a Me/R. Troll Unguent better than Ether Feast, Serpent's Quickness you get early and it's like Mesmer elite Mantra of Recovery. Traps eventually for groups. Only takes a few points into Wilderness Survival to get those up to a good level. :) Pet to block melee and don't forget, for fun.   *NOTE: I only play PVE.* --Ms. Mer 18:10, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I need some help with this too. I've got a factions mesmer, but I can't think of a good (and fun!) second profession. I only play PvE. Maybe it's a good idea to split up the second profession section into PvE/PvP? &lt;&lt; horsedrowner  | talk | guild &gt;&gt; 11:53, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Use Warrior. IW Mesmers are always fun to play  &mdash;  ク   Eloc  貢  00:46, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I chose assassin :P &lt;&lt; horsedrowner  | talk | guild &gt;&gt; 05:26, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Ranger secondary is quite good it has Antidote Signet which is the best condition remover a mesmer can have. It saved my life more than once in the heat of battle. --Soulforged 17:48, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

second profession warrior
maybe add a bit about the use of illusionary weaponry, maybe even add this to assassin and dervish aswell (I use IW on my derv sometimes)--Firadesunna 12:35, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Feel free to do it yourself :) &mdash;  ク  Eloc  貢  19:09, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

What else does PvE for Guild Wars consist of?
"It is easy for a Mesmer to get killed in Factions and Nightfall due to the many missions." Well, geez never knew there was anything else in guild wars (pve) other than boring quest.William Wallace 08:06, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It is easy for a Mesmer to get killed in Factions and Nightfall due to the many missions. Be sure to pick a good secondary profession to help avoid taking Death Penalty.

I made a very surreal lol. What the hell?

That whole section, 'what to avoid', is horrible really. It either applies to anyone or just makes no sense at all. Something to avoid... is Damage? Who came up with this.
 * Damage is something you should avoid, yet some professions can suffer more damage than others. What is meant, I think, is that Mesmers don't have that many defensive skills: they rely on shutting down their opponent rather than negating the things that get through. This can be a problem in PvE since the number of attacking enemies is often larger than the Mesmer can handle (he can interrupt one or 2, but a self-defense skill would have protected him against all). Therefore, a Warrior with his strong armor doesn't have to be as careful avoiding damage dealers as the Mesmer with his weak armor and (lack of) survival skills. That is my interpetation of what is meant there. 145.94.74.23 11:02, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't play mesmers much, but the What to Avoid section is clearly messed up. I lol'd. Needs to be re-written by someone with experience with the class Green Arrow 19:25, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I fixed that section quite a bit. I might change it around some more later. I agree with you, that section was silly the way it was before.-- *Yasmin Parvaneh* [[Image:User_yasmin_parvaneh_sig.png]] 22:42, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

sorry but
no point in reverting everything only because of one phrase, uh? 95.119.13.212 17:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Superior runes
"Superior runes only in PvE" I disagree, some superior attribute runes can be used in PvP (not more than one), i've been using them in PvP and it works fine for me. It's all up to the player, if he's got the right build he can survive. Of course, it might make him a bit easier to kill and then he could consider taking lesser runes like +2 or +1 but saying that players should not use +3 runes at all is just wrong --Soulforged 22:58, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Most Mesmer attributes max out a skill at 15 points so Sup runes are not needed...particularly for Domination. Majors are preferred if you are smart with your health weapon sets and really want to get that 15 points in Dom.-- *Yasmin Parvaneh* [[Image:User_yasmin_parvaneh_sig.png]] 21:58, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe about domination you are right, but what about illusion magic? which has many skills that might work better when you have 15-16 at it. Besided as long as your health is not below 500 it's fine. --Soulforged 22:37, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

pvp/pve note
can we note, explicitly, that mesmers are designed purely for pvp - as new mesmers would soon find out themselves - and one should pick this class for pve on their own risk? Drk 00:37, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Totally agree. I keep seeing new players getting all excited to play a mesmer because of the (false) game description of them. And we all know what happens when they get into late PvE (not even talking about endgame, just late game proph/factions/nightfall). Some will heed the warnings that older players will give them, others don't, and regret it later. 205.206.140.29 03:34, 22 February 2010 (UTC)


 * And, having a Mesmer as my main, I extensively disagree. What happens is that mesmers are difficult to play. Builds are usually tight and more often than not you're going to end up going quite the roundabout in what you are trying to do. But once you DO get an understanding of things, it works great. I do think the PvE part of the guide needs rewriting though, 99.98% of the time e-denial is NOT viable in PvE and more often than not I get the feeling monsters have infinite energy whenever I decide to give that a spin. Interrupting is also not for the faint of heart, so to speak, particularly in hard mode, where you get stuck in the great conundrum of PvE interrupting: "You always have fast casting because is awesome (and your life blood, the one thing that sets you apart from cocky eles and necros). You always have inspiration because it's needed (for the e-management). All your good interrupts are in Domination (Psychic Distraction,Signet of Disruption, Power Spike, Power Leak, Power Lock....) however if you want to be able to interrupt anything at all, you NEED illusion for Migraine or Arcane Conundrum or something along those lines". And then HM becomes build hell if you want to go that way. Using PvE skills, mesmers can quickly spread horrible degen all over, Ether Nightmare+Cry of Pain and you've got a bunch of guys in a lot of trouble. If you want to just cause damage, no problem either. As a mesmer I always found Spiteful Spirit, oh so praised and worshiped, to be severely overrated. I started on factions and Empathy and Backfire carried me all the way through it, with a very questionable build too. Visions of Regret is a very powerful elite that leads you to make a flexible bar by punishing Hex stacking, one of the Mesmer's most basic tools. With those three I personally always find silly that people keep looking in curses for an answer that domination has long solved. Even if you don't like that, the power of Fragility is one a player won't really understand until he sees it with his own eyes. People in PvP every once in a while mention Fragility Spikes, but in PvE it has enough nuking potential that my fragility build has shelved my fire build for damage output (it goes something along the lines of "Mark of Rodgort, Fire Storm, Meteor Shower, Meteor Shower..."). Mesmers are a difficult class that favours the PvP environment due to it's shutdown potential and single-target focus for the most part of the skill set. But a player decided to understand the class and go the long way to putting build together will find it a very powerful and flexible class, capable of running pretty much any major party role (though often not as well as a specialist in that particular field). If you're a mesmer you can heal, you can tank, you can be a meelee frontliner, you can nuke, you can spike and you can run shutdown which is your nice little niche where no other class will ever be as good as you are... To play a mesmer, particularly in PvE, is to take on a challenge for your mind. To dismiss a mesmer's efficiency and capabilities in PvE is to be foolishly tied to gameplay stereotypes and patterns induced by the gaming community, which, as any other community, has the bad habit of shunning all that which does not immediately fit its predefined models - VileLasagna 19:22, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Amen to that, couldn't agree with you more -- Soulforged [[Image:User_Soulforged_sig.jpg|19px]] 20:53, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * And that whole paragraph is pretty much already summed up in the first sentence of the article.
 * Kinda, but then large portions of the article go on to say some dubious stuff. Also, I have a constitutional right to rant - VileLasagna 11:27, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This is a wiki. Not america. The constitution doesn't apply here. -- Master   Briar  User Briar Sig 2.jpg 11:33, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd have to be American for that one to count - VileLasagna 11:52, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * If your not an american then why are you using the term constitutional right? Rhetorical question really I don't actually care, Either way, point is, No. You dont have rights. -- Master   Briar  User Briar Sig 2.jpg 11:55, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It's all moot. The rant has been posted, will stay up, and you already read it. 71.161.205.137 12:07, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

actually i completely ignored it. TL;DR. Saying you have rights on a privately owned website though was stupid enough to warrant a response. -- Master   Briar   12:27, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Because I was obviously being oh so serious and offended. oopsie. Also, mildly related: this might sound completely unexpected and outright bizarre but other countries have constitutions too - VileLasagna 13:49, 8 April 2010 (UTC)