Do you know who could benefiet from the skill spilt...? Mesmers.

It's no big secret that Mesmers are one of the least desirable pve classes in the game. Mesmers shine in pvp at being able to "shut down" other players, and put pressure on important players in the opposing team. This utility is great in pvp where you have two groups of equal size fighting for an extended period.

It loses it's usefulness in pve tough, where the idea is "quantity over quality", an environment which you face hordes of opponents, but each of which by themselves is rather weak. In non-end game content, mobs typically don't live very long. When I'm playing with my heroes, we eat through mobs quickly, each individual living for only a few seconds during the battle. Especially due to the fact that the AI will follow my target, resulting in near perfect spikes on each target.

And that's the problem with Mesmers. We can stack hexes and spend a lot of energy to render one individual opponent helpless, but what point is there in doing that when he's going to be dead seconds later anyways? In PvE, almost never do you get even half the duration/damage out of your hexes as a Mesmer, because the mob is always dead before the full effect of your hex can occur. And with many of our hexes on fairly long cool downs, we're stuck essentially wasting energy with little benefit from it, and then wanding as our bars recharge.

Anet is already aware of this though. Almost a year ago, a developer came here and discussed increasing the "scope" of Mesmers in PvE, something that never really happened. Some of PvE skills helped, but we're still gimped. With the skill split though, now that actually can occur.

I feel the CDs of a lot of Mesmer skills need to be greatly reduced for PvE, and the ability for Mesmers to switch from target to target and still be effective, rather than having to concentrate on one target. Mesmers should be a viable and desirable PvE class, but right now they can really hurt a group more than they can help. Lets fix it.

I agree that Mesmers could definitely use an update with regards to the split. I don't play the class enough to be able to tell what skill splits and definitions would help them. Post suggestions for skill changes; I'd like to see what you can come up with.

That is the exact reason that has kept me from playing a Mesmer. AoE dmg over shutdown. Hopefully the skill shift can give me reason to make a meser. Maybe two, their armor is so dang sexual...

The split can most definatly help the hated professions. It has turned a sin into a "minion fodder" profession *which it never really was, when done right* into THE farming profession. So the split should be able to bring back the professions that were slaughtered due to PvP nerfs, although I still disagree with all the huge buffs *Ether Renewal and Shadow Form mainly* that go into PvE.

Less Imba, more equality.

300+ damage AoE in 3 seconds? Oh yea, mesmers reaaaally suck.

Clumsiness, wandering eye, echo or ineptitude. Cry of pain, Empathy, Backfire, powerspike. etc etc

Mesmers are fine in PvE. I should know, Thats my main class...

Yeah, Cry of Pain is pretty much awesome, esspecually with Ether Nightmare on an ele :P

I agree that mesmers could get some help from the PVE split... make things more AoE, shorter recharges, etc...

Do they really need that much of a PvE buff?

In Normal Mode, it's not that hard to overpower mobs.

In Hard Mode, Mesmers should have more of a noticeable effect on shutting down certain enemies, which still allows them to retain their usefulness.

Cry of Pain doesn't benefit Mesmers any more than any other class, because it's not attribute-linked.

Imo, Chaos Storm should get a damage buff since E-denial is shit in PvE.

I'd be happy with just that change.

Assassin's Promise Mesmers rock my socks. <3

in most of the HM areas I don't remember there being much of a problem for Mesmers, but if you find things dieing too quickly try experimenting with more instant direct damage skills, mess around with [skill]Assassins Promise[/skill] to get around the long recharges, or call targets then switch to another while the H/H drop that first one. and don't be afraid to dip into secondary professions. i found a lot of mesmers were stuck on being "pure mesmers" or something and limiting their bars to only mesmer skills

It is true that not a lot of players play mesmers, however, it doesn't mean that mesmers aren't strong, need a buff or have no place in PvE. I for one think it's becuz mesmers are harder to play.

Don't get me wrong - it is true that no matter what prof u play u need to and understand the game and be a good player in order to win, however a mesmer is simply a ltl harder to play - you need a better understanding of mana, shutdown, how to play as a backup or to combine skills and profs etc....

Above all, mesmers aren't just shutdown players , they have a lot of other skills that can make ur build or the team's build much better. It just forces you to think harder and mix profs and skills...

It's kind of shitty to be able to only use 1 or 2 builds though. I think they should buff a majority of the mesmer skills to be direct and quick to happen in some way simply so we can get more selection/variety with mesmer skills. Cause as it is now you'll only be using 1-3 builds, and only 3-5 of the skills on the bar before things die. Which makes playing Mesmer extremely boring. With my warrior I could do a very large amount of builds, because most of the skills will see some use before enemies die, because they're pretty direct. Same with Assassin, Elementalist, Ranger, Paragon, Dervish, even Ritualist.

I know Mesmers are made for shut down, but PvE doesn't require shut down most of the time you play it.

Wait - was I the only one that downloaded the whole "make PvE versions of PvP skills" update?

Because I'd hate to be Mr. Negativity AGAIN - but you did see what A.Net thinks the mesmer lacks in PvE?
Better e-denial options.

Say it with me:
BETTER (soo far so good)
E-DENIAL (WTF!?!??!??!?)
OPTIONS! (well at least it ends on a bright note)

The keyword from your title would be "could".

Mesmers shouldn't be forced into playing like elementalists. When I ran my mesmer through nightfall i realised that's what she was turning into, with energy surge, energy burn, cry of pain... they're not mesmers, they're mini-elementalists that can interupt.

Mesmers shouldn't deal direct damage they should deal damage when a condition is fulfilled and stop the foe dealing damage.

If mesmers skills get change in pve they need to see bizaar mind control skills and such. Making a foe become hostile to it's friends, making an ally block projectiles 100% for a short time, making the enemy cast it's current skill on itself...

Mesmers are supposed to warp reality and the battlefield and they're skills should reflect that. Domination suggests controlling a foe and making them do your bidding, illusion suggests greating illusions to confuse and frighten the foe (or distract them). Necromancer minions act as a meat shield in some situations, there could be an "'illusion army" skill for mesmers that gives you a horde of 15 warriors that can't deal damage, but fight like a normal melee class, giving you an illusionary meat shield. (look at http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kitah )

Mesmers could be such a strong class in pve if their skills were like they were in the beta, weird and wonderful.

And finally: for a quick mesmer fix in pve they need to make either some of the hexes be aoe, or make a pve skill that spreads hexes cast to all mobs in an area. Mesmer CAN shut down in pve, it does work (except e-denial) but they can only do it a single foe so it's not worth it because they die so fast. If aoe shutdown was implemented it would allow for mesmers to become really needed. So perhaps:

Elite Spell: Mass Delusions
25 Energy, Casting time: 2, Recharge 10 seconds
1...3 mesmer hexes on target foe are spread to all foes in the area and last for their remaining duration. Fast Casting

Being able to produce an aoe empathy or backfire, or mistrust would be a huge damage preventer as well as dealing big damage itself.

Oh wow, here's a mesmer thread. I just made a post elsewhere about my thoughts on this, I'll quote it:

In pve mesmers come into their own when you meet troublesome bosses.
Usually those with area effect skills or those that continually resurrect their mobs.
Take a mesmer and forget the boss as he won't be doing much.
Other than that I tend to spend my time using degen skills.

They should be more powerful but that power should work as now in a subtle manner.
More are effect skills would be nice.

A mesmer in pve will never have the same usefulness since monsters run around with 1000+ health, casting times are 1/4-1/2 in hm and they have ungodly amounts of energy.

unless E denial gets buffed by a factor of 5..7 its going to remain useless in pve.

and IF they do that boy are caster classes gonna be in trouble when coming across mesmer mobs.

the whole class is troublesome to boost up to the same level as others...if only they could stack degen, spread hexes....meh.

I'd like to see a hex that makes the hexed do something else rather than the spell they're trying to cast:

Whisper of Confusion
Hex
10e 2s 15r
For the next 15 seconds the next 1..2..4 spells that target foe casts do something different. 30% chance nothing happens, 30% chance the spell does only half*, 30% chance another spell will cast, 10% chance the spell casts correctly.

*Damage or healing etc.
Can't really think of what I might do, but that's a general idea. Mesmers should confuse, misdirect and 'lie' to enemies. Like a magician.