Why are there so few mesmers around in PvE?

Me=Dumb

My bad.

i have a male mesmer (one of my only 2 male characters - of 7 total), and the reason i made him male was simply because they RIVERDANCE! every time i see that it reminds me of the opening scene from "Baseketball" and i still laugh.

seriously tho, a friend of mine got me into this game and told me it was created to be alot like MtG (a game i had gotten him into YEARS ago). he compared the mesmer to playing a blue deck- said that the mesmer often REACTS instead of acts (which to me is a lot like a counterspell deck in MtG). ive found that to be very true, and in my opinion, the mesmer is the most difficult class to play well. that, to me, is part of the reason they arent as common - the difficulty. another reason i think we see fewer mesmers is that they arent as useful or flashy until later areas of PvE. heck, they arent even NEEDED until then. but once the boss monsters start getting harder and harder, the mesmer shines. when interrupts count more than damage and energy denial comes into play, no character can do that better than a mesmer.

1. When I created my Mesmer, I henchied her all the way from Ascalon to Desert. The rest of the missions I did with guild teams. I never even tried to get her into a PUG since it's a well known fact that Mesmers aren't welcome anywhere. That's ONE possible explaination why you rarely see Mesmers - they don't hang around much in towns and outpost. Why would they when nobody wants to have them anyway? Grabbing henchies and go doesn't take much time.

2. The fact the Mesmers aren't welcomed by the vast majority of GW players is well known. You can safely assume that it kept a LOT of Mesmer characters from being born. If you aren't in a large guild, why would you even create a character you can't get into a group with?

3. No other class comes with that many stereotypical prejudices attached than a Mesmer. You constantly have to explain people why Mesmers are even valuable. I know for a fact that a number of people deleted their Mesmers at a certain point when they couldn't stand hearing all that bullshit anymore (e.g. "Rangers can bring more to the group than Mesmers"... ROTFL... No, they can't. A Mesmer can't replace a Ranger either. They are different classes, with different skills and different objectives. Both are useful and valuable.).

Unfortunately, a lot of people think along the line like Ensign put it above. It's true that Mesmers are harder to play then any other class (I have played all six). Thus a player needs to be somewhat skilled to use that class to its potential. While this argument is perfectly valid, the worst than can happen to you is that the slot is being wasted. A bad Mesmer usually isn't dangerous to the party, though. An aggro happy Warrior is dangerous. A clueless fire nuker is dangerous, too. A clueless healer Monk will lead to the entire party getting killed. I'd rather have a useless Mesmer in my party than a dangerous Warrior or a clueless monk...

Baseline: Either I have some trust that the human I am going to pick up will sufficiently perform or I don't. If I don't, I am better off with henchies anyway - regardless of the class. Why this argument is directed against Mesmers more than other classes is beyond me, to be honest.

PS: The main point of Energy Surge is NOT to do AoE damage, the main point of ES is to suck the target's mana away and do AoE damage as a (most welcome) side effect. Comparing ES to Desecrate Enchantments is kinda funny, to say to least. But yes, I agree that SS should have been a Mesmer skill...

Wherever I go in PvE as mesemer... I will have to be the party leader, there are no 2nd about it.

One of the biggest thing about Mesemer is that one do not see what they are doing. Not like someone will bother to toggle through all the monsters around to see if they have -10 degen on them or not, nor will they bother toggle through to see if all the monk monsters are backfired.

People can see monk healing, and feel monk healing; people can see warriors tanking, and enjoy the safety; people can see elementalist dropping meteors or wards, as they just eat some BBQ after; people can see minions outnumbering the mobs, as if resident&evil re-live on your side; people can see ranger placing many traps, and see mobs' HP drop by half before reaching the tanks.

People can not see mesemer making opponent miss; people assume all blindness came from ranger or elementalist; people assume interruption are all by ranger; people do not realize degen decrease the life of each group of mobs; people assume backfire's damage was from warrior or elementalist. There are defintely more.

Mesemers' effect are just not "visual" enough for majority of the people out there. In that sense, mesemer in the group only leech for exp, gold, and a free ride.

The only chance mesemer get notice is through their 2ndary. Their primary abilities are hard to notice even by the most elite out there, unless you are personally under a mesemer's pressure or your team mate just scold you to get rid of that mesemer.

*hug*

However, mesmers are unlike blue decks in that blue was the most overwhelmingly overpowered color for many years

Debating mesmer PvEness is so drowned in opinions and varying understandings and experiences that I'd prefer not to touch it with a 10 foot defensive staff of defence.

I mainly agree with Ensign's pug mesmer view... even though I am one.(although I try to delude myself that I have a little skill )

Mesmers are soopah fun in PVP..

.. if I had one more character slot, I'd make a mesmer. I love mezzies so much. Just all my slots are full. One monk, one warrior, one necromancer (my first character), and one ranger--my latest.

I remember noticing one day that a lot of people ran enchantment-heavy in the random arenas, so I decided to bring a build with echo, shatter enchantment, energy denial, and mind rack.

Roffle.

Unfortunately, I fall prey to this belief, too. I'm normally reluctant to choos a mesmer in PvE if only because my understanding of mesmers (during the time I've used its secondary and my PVP experience) tells me that mesmers are very good for controlling a monster or two.

In PvE, when monster spawns are large and mostly uniform, I can't see a reason to bring a mesmer.. besides that mission in the Ring of Fire with the monk boss.. ;P

I'd hug ANet if they let me buy an extra character slot without purchasing another damn account.

i always got groups for missions as mesmer but each time id have 1 or 2 oarty members go "Why do we have a mesmer they suck" People really dont understand, dang racists

Go stand in thirsty river or any of the last missions and go afk, loads of fun. There the people have learnt the mesmer lesson :P Really just try it, it's almost like being a monk in the rest of the game.

I enjoy playing with my mesmer and I proudly have about 3.3mill exp on my male mesmer. I am still having much trouble finding groups that appriciate a mesmer...And when you are trying to kill the 4 monk team in FoW dont tell me a mesmer is not useful...

It wasn't until abaddon's mouth that I started seeing "GLF Mesmer with backfire"

it only takes till the end of the game for people to realise the usefulness of a mesmer.

If Anet wanted to increase the importance of the mesmer, start to include more nasty monk-type monsters in the game.

One reason is due to the ignorance of many people with the "farming team" mentality. They feel that since Mesmers' damage at times goes unnoticed, that they are useless when compared to a Nuker who sends out a series of Meteor Showers. It's ridiculous, but I do see that general assumption beginning to change. More and more are exploring different Mesmer builds in PvE, and finding that they make certain "impossible" missions much more bearable, are beginning to see how Mesmers can turn the tides of a battle with ease. Our guild, Acolytes of Lyssa, is making an effort to help promote the use of Mesmers in groups. So if you're having difficulty with a certain Mission/Quest, shoot a whisper over to my IGN when I'm on

I believe that most use mesmer as a secoundary eg N/Mes.They possibly tried playing primary mesmer but found it difficult.I made one up and I found that you can't specialize in one area say domination.You need an assortment of skill on you bar.I will agree playing this class is not easy but it still isn't as challenging as playing monk.

primary mesmer are excellent. the problem is that u actualy need to know how to play... it's not a character for noobs. i respect warriors, but anyone can create a warrior and slash some mobs.
u need brain to use correctly a mesmer.
we just beated defend denravi in 4, i was mesmer and i destroyed titans in 6 seconds. when someone is able to use epidemic the results are awesome

I run pure domination builds all the time and eat monk bosses for dessert. Not to be rude or such, but I'm confused as to how you made the conclusion a mesmer can't specialize in a particular line of magic.

what do you guys run the Mesmer with? or its pure Mesmer? reading this is it sounds like is not going to be easy to play with people thats why my question u run a pure mesmer? or M/x.?

I was thinking M/E what do you guys think? and this is for the people that have mesmers PvE not PvP .

I not looking for you guys to tell me what Build or skills i should use, i am looking more for a Mesmer that will be able to get me to drok with Hench, if find people to join is that hard. i dont fancy M/monk.

Ps. i never get run, i enjoy playing the game, so dont say pay a runner, and Mesmer forums look old posts and most is about PvP, that i know it already. need feedback from Mesmer PvE players. (again) plz post i want to make a mesmer TODAY

Thanks

In heroes ascent, mesmers are certainly not underappreciated; in fact almost every balanced group contains an e-surge,migraine or utility mes. I do agree that it's rare to see a group looking for one in most PvE areas though..ah well,just go make a 55 mes and solo the UW.

1. they're hard to play.
2. a lot of people are pretty ignorant and think anythnig other than ele, tank, monk, and occasional necro are terrible.
3. (in my opinion) I don't enjoy playing them, and i would guess there are many others out there who share the opinion.

Instead of M/E, go E/M for echo nuking.

There isn't much in the game can survive 3 - 4 meteor showers, and mobs cant run away with so many knockdowns. Nothing any mesmer can do comes close to that.