Ranger/Mesmer

Heyhey
Well, i plan to get the game soon and i'm thinking of going Ranger/Mesmer.
Not really sure if i want to be Mesmer as the primary since i'd rather have more armor.
Anyways, just looking for any information you can give about the Ranger/Mesmer

Is it fun?
Advantages/Disadvantages?
Anything you can tell me about it is fine though =)

Thanks a bunch!

I tried it, my R/Me is only lvl 6 though.

Its pretty fun. R/Mo should be good too, but i never tried it.

Hmm, i see.
Anyone who's played the build for awhile have any advice?
Also, how is it pretty fun? It'd be appreciated if you elaborate a little bit more... =)

Honestly everything is fun in this game. If you want to be r/me you are more than likely going to build an 'anti caster.' You will have a slew of skills that will be able to interupt others spells.

R/Me is a fairly common build, so it must be working.

Hmm, it's a common build?
What are some rare builds?
I don't really like playing classes that are played a lot =P

Well there are only 30 builds, and more or less they are all used. However, I would guess that 30% or more rangers are R/Me, so its more popular then any of the other ranger builds.

Play what you like, screw what everyone else is doing!

The role is still pretty wide. Mesmer alone can be anti-caster(domination), anti-melee(illusion), and also use Inspiration to get energy regen. Rangers have even wider diversity. Sometimes I want to many skills that the attributes get spread too thin, may cause yourself some damage in terms of lower skill effectiveness.

If you really have no idea, I would recommend playing it for some time. You will acquire new skills, then try them out, see which type of playing style you will like. Don't forget sometimes people pick out their primary profession mainly because of the primary attribute related skills. So example Rangers, Expertise, it reduces costs of some skills. Can go as high as 50% energy cost reduction.

I wouldnt worry about armor too much unless you are a warrior. If you are caster or range attackers, play it well, keep your distance, you should not have much trouble.

Later you will discover that quite a number of skills, can cause damage that totally ignores armor. But if you want to use primary profesion for deception, that is also a good choice. For example, play a ele primary and a monk secondary. You can pump points into Energy storage to have tons of energy, and other points all go to monk skills. That way, you look like a elementalist but is actually a main healer. Dressing as a monk can put yourself as priority target at times in certain situations.

Dont forget, rangers have 25 base energy. Mesmers have 30. Rangers can get up to 31 wearing druid armor. Mesmers can get up to 42 using off-hand focus item which increases energy storage. Well, rangers too can use off-hand focus item, but you wont be able to use bows then. Bows are 2 handed so you cannot use off-hand items, unless you ranger is just a disguise. =)

My best advice for now is, play the game for some time first. Try out the different skills. You may not get it right the first time, dont worry. You have refund points.


EDIT: heres a little something else to add.
About builds, there are 2 types of builds. Or maybe 1 build definition, another is called profession.
If you want to count the mixtures of professions alone, there are probably already mentioned as above. R/Me, Me/R, Ele/Mo, etc.

If builds in terms of skills or playing styles, there are numerous of them.

R/Me alone can mean many things. You can be anti-casters, anti-melee. Perhaps an all-rounder disrupter, damage dealer perhaps? Within each of these builds itself, the choice of skills is also plentiful.
Take anti-caster for example, it is possible to use anti-casters skill from either mesmer profession or ranger profession or both. Sometimes depend on energy costs and skill type. So its pretty much can be anything. Happy playing.

Hmmm...
I was thinking about a Battle mage kind of character, would that work?

I dont think you are getting it...everything works. Thats not just some blanket statement, everything really does work. You cant mess up. There is only one thing you cant change after you start, and that is your primary proffession. Everything else is 100% idiotproof (which is good for me!).

Battle mage= warrior/elementalist or elementalist warrior. A w/e uses his armor and weapon to deal damage, and enhances it with protection spells or damage spells. An e/w uses the warriors movement skills and health skills to get into close combat then unleashes a horde of area spells for crazy damage.

It works until someone strips your enchantments. YMMV

Enchantments?
Also, what's YMMV?

Battle mage.. As in damage dealer type? Using mesmer as a damage dealer can be quite challenging. Quite a number of mesmer skills are countering. So they rely on enemy at times. Say "Empathy" for example, everytime the enemy attacks, he takes damage. Or Domination line of magic, where you Burn the enemies energy and damaging him at the same time. But if enemy has no more or used up all his energy, then that spell wouldnt work very well.

A more better suggestion for battle mage would maybe be a elementalist. I'm not saying its impossible for mesmer, can be challenging for new players.

You and me both brother thats why I inverted the Warrior Mesmer combo to Mesmer Warrior. Better energy regeneration and total energy. Maybe you should try Mes/Ra. It is also fun to be a caster/warrior.I have a Mo/Wa a Me/Wa as Caster/Warriors and they are good. But, Before you chose a class first you need to find the purpose of your character. And only after that you should be able to chose your class. GL

Enchantments:A spell that helps you or your allies in some way for a period of time. Similar to stances.

Hmm, i've found myself to quite dislike tanking after playing some of the warrior in WoW. I guess the character i want to be would mainly be a supporting damage dealer. In large scale PvP, i'll be helping people in places i think they need it. But then if i need to, i can do it on my own. If rangers have melee that's not unbearably bad, then i think i'll go Ranger/Mesmer. it's also good that it's challenging =) With this build, will it be a lot of mashing one button? or will i have to do a lot of thing. In WoW, a lot of if was mainly mashing one or two buttons =( Actually, i'll just go Ranger/Mesmer i guess, i'll take up the challenge ^^ That's what makes the game fun for me, the feeling of beating someone with knowledge and skill is real good.

I still play WoW and Guild Wars, both aren't comparable but to the button mashing you are talking about. I play most classes in WoW and have more then 1 button to mash, some classes go up to 15 buttons and counting. Here in Guild Wars you can only take 8 skills with you in battle so the max button mashing you can get to is 8. And I think a lot of builds and profession combo's can work, you only have to find the right one for your playing style. And each combo can have also different playstyles, especialy the ranger. I play a ranger/elementalist (fully ranger) at the moment and a warrior/monk, both have a total different playstyle.

The fun in games lies in finding out stuff, at least that is fun in my book

Alright =)
I'm guessing the button mashing was only cause i didn't get too high level.
Also, is the movement in GW WASD movement? or mouse?

You can use both. WASD is for moving forward,backward, turn left and right. You can alternately use Q and E for strafing. You can change the keys for A and D to strafing.

You can also use mouse for movement by clicking on the spot on the ground. But turning camera angle requires mouse right click.

I see, thanks!