Curse

Ruvaen · Feb 10, 2006, 08:33 PM // 20:33

For the fire island chain missions, I resorted to changing my Me secondary to Ele and created a 16 fast casting nuker in order to squeeze my way into groups. XD *cries*

Warskull · Feb 10, 2006, 08:41 PM // 20:41

There are a number of reasons mesmers are unpopular in PvE.

First off, they are weak with henchmen. If you take an all henchmen group when you can't get a part it is a real pain in the rear. A mesmer is best off target hopping, shutting down multiple targets, spreading degen, ect. The henchman AI goes berserk if you don't baby sit it and they all have such poor damage output that they can't kill anything without focus firing it very heavily. So when you hench you can only function at 10% of your potention, or function at 100% while the henchmen do nothing.

Second, PvE players do not understand mesmers at all. There are very few memser enemies in the game. The most they run into is conjur spammers. A.net knows how a well designed mob with a mesmer would absolutely decimate most groups. Thus when the AI plays mesmer they do it extremely inefficiently. They have never felt what a mesmer can really do. When one of my guild mates plays a mesmer and a spike is incoming. He can use cry of frustration to interrupt 2-3 characters and then swap over to another guy and nail him with powerleak before the spike goes off. He has single handedly diffused entire spikes. Most PvE players don't understand anything other than damage or healing.

Third, PvE mob design is very poor and against mesmers for the most part. For a large portion of the game mixed mobs are rare and you are usually just thrown against 10 monsters of the same type trying to kill you. Brute force works very well vs these styles of mobs. Mobs that cater to something other than brute force don't even begin to appear until the desert missions.

Fourth, Mesmers never get credit for their work. A mesmer can solo many of those impossible to kill mursaat bosses (the ones your warriors spend forever wailing on fruitlessly.) There are some great examples of this, I used to echo shatter hex (back before it got the nerf and GoR got buffed) in Fissure. I would churn out a large 300 damage armor ignoring spike before the fire ele's meteors ever landed. The fire ele got the credit. In ascension missions I will run a glyph dom memser. The casters fall over without doing much and the last group (with the monk boss) is easy because I prevent the monk boss from doing anything (divert orison and word on that guy and everything suddenly becomes really easy.) The warriors get all the credit for killing everything. This further leads to the belief that mesmers don't do much and discourages people from playing them.

Most PvE players are ignorant and suck pretty bad. They run cookie cutter builds because that is all they can run.

Keyote · Feb 10, 2006, 08:55 PM // 20:55

Mesmers are very situational, and most situations just dont require one. You cant blame groups for picking the best damage dealing classes, tanks and monks when that is the most efficient set up to mow through AI.

They're not as bad as most people think, but you never need one either. Rangers can interrupt and bring a lot more to the team.

Mandy Memory · Feb 10, 2006, 09:06 PM // 21:06

W/ N/ and Mo/ are the main pve classes

W/ Mo/ Me/ and R/ are the pvp classes

Retribution X · Feb 10, 2006, 09:13 PM // 21:13

IW mes tanks in PvE FTW!

Although it's not looked upon with favor, it's fun...

Rhedd · Feb 10, 2006, 09:16 PM // 21:16

I play two characters. One's a Ranger and the other's a Mesmer, and I use both in PvE AND PvP.

All I've got to say to the "Rangers bring more to the team" statement is... Bull. Any more explanation of something so obvious would probably just be a waste of space.

I will say that Warskull is right; You CANNOT play a Mesmer with a party full of henchmen. It's just sad.

Keyote · Feb 10, 2006, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retribution X

IW mes tanks in PvE FTW!

Although it's not looked upon with favor, it's fun...

It is, but not for long. Once every mob starts stripping enchantments it's useless.

Zakarr · Feb 10, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

I respect every high level PvE primary mesmer because it probably requires the most skill to play properly from all professions. Newbie mesmers just use Empathy, Backfire and Conjure Phantasm all the time, get bored and delete it. However, in my opinion mesmers are very useful against level +20 monsters because they can produce so much armor ignoring damage and drain energy from annoying bosses or casters. Typical strategy against casters is heavy healing and damage output. Mesmers just disable them and you don't have to be so offensive or defensive. It needs more attention to disable opponents and therefore offers more challenge.

PvE has usually more opponents against your party than in PvP but one mesmer cannot control them all just like one monk can't keep whole party alive.

sledgeunderhill · Feb 10, 2006, 09:26 PM // 21:26

My 3rd character was a mesmer and I played most of PvE as degen, but stopped once the frag/virulence nerf came about.

Going away from the profession and playing the other classes in the meantime has allowed me to better appreciate the role of the mesmer in the game ecosystem as I return.

However, it is not helping much with getting the rust out of my hinges.

I've only played my Mesmer in PvE, as I know that I'm only 30% capable of the skill level required for this class in PvP. Yet, at the same time, I know that the unique challenge of PvE vs PvP is that the sheer number of targets in PvE makes the use of quick, spammable spells more useful than full, heavy hitting spells. The fact that the two arenas are so completely different keeps me from bridging that gap.

To the OP comment, look at the population of mesmers in pre-searing. There's quite a few. Then look again in LA. Somewhere they disappear. My guess is that about the time that Conjure Phantasm fails to kill a monster outright, that's where the majority of mesmers "retire".

Teufel Eldritch · Feb 10, 2006, 09:26 PM // 21:26

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