Defensive buff please Anet!

I really think it's time mesmers received a buff in the defense department. Having read an interesting thread recently about the best defensive stance etc for PvP, it got me thinking...if you need to take some defense with you, you pretty much have to look outside the mesmer class...which is a bit poor.

Having played a rare bit of PvE today, there's no solace there either, unlike back in the good old days. First battle and I had 3 W's and an assassin making a beeline for me, not the monk, I spent more time kiting than fighting (OK slight exaggeration!). So whether you're PvE'ing or PvP'ing you need to cope with a load of aggro...more so than any other class except for monks, but sometimes you're an even higher priority. And correct me if I'm wrong, but seeing as this is the case we have the least options for defense and pretty much the worst self heal within our own class of any. I don't have enough A or Ri experience to comment, so I'll restrict myself to the core classes.

Mo's - not really relevant. Heal and protect thyself o holy one. Repeatedly.

W's - Duh. Well they have great armour, and with points in tactics you have a wealth of useful stances and Healing Signet which is OK. Compare HS to Ether Feast...it has half the recharge and costs no energy. I think per point in Tactics it heals more too.

R's - A primary R will usually have a load of points in Expertise anyway, with all the lovely stances that offers. Pick one and be happy. Self heal...OK you need Wilderness Survival, but a measly 6 points in WS nets you a self heal over time worth 120 Health, and with the duration equalling the recharge you can keep it up indefinitely. OK it takes 3 seconds, but Ether Feast would need 12 points in Insp to net the same health gain.

N's - Blood Magic...it damages them and also heals you. Superb if you're a specialist, but also compliments Curse / Death nicely. For Curses Parasitic Bond is just awesome, multi target spammable hex that heals you even if it's ripped off. If you're Death, eat your minions. A well played necro is quite durable.

E's - OK I might be getting onto shaky ground here. I haven't played one in ages, but Earth eles are pretty useful...Wards are nice. Their self heal does suck a bit, but one cast and you have ongoing effect. Someone fill me in here please

And now for us poor old Me's, always with a face full of warrior and annoying rangers firing pointy bits of wood into us from afar. Options...There's always Illusion with the wonderful Distortion, but Illusion has to pumped high to offset the horrible energy losses that result (8 Illusion for 2 Energy per evasion, 13 for 1 Energy per evasion). Also you have to remember to press it...continually. So Illusion is no good to us Dominators.

What does Inspiration have up it's sleeve? A crappy self heal (waiting for a flame on this one!) which I already had my say about, and some conditional Mantras. Which to take...well none of them on their own. Physical Resistance for W's?...I just hope there's not an Igniting / Kindling Ranger out there. Or an ele. Or even worse, a Conjuring W....no it's just too ugly to even think about. Within our class, our defense is diabolical.

I know we can combine classes but I don't really like weakening a build just to incorporate some defense from secondary ( if you're Dom mes you need Dom, Insp and FC really, you'd have to take from one of them) and I know we can rely on the monks but I hate doing it. Besides that's not what this post is about. I reckon at the very least we need a good defensive Domination skill, and a rethink on the others. Does anyone else feel hard done by or is it just me?

Sorry if the rant was a bit long, looking forward to your comments!

Yes the Mesmer got kinda a crappy defence line if you look strait for the defence.. The mantras are like you say not good in all situations, and the only block stance eat energy when you block with it..
But the mesmer got some kind of offenciv skills to protect themself.. Like this:
Spirit of faliur + Distortion on a warrior is quite nice, if not then Ineptitude + Empathy, and for the casters then some backfire or Power leak, power spike + energy drain.. The mesmer can keep most enemys casters unable to cast their spells, and it can make the Melee ppl dont want to attack with all the melee hate..
As a warrior player i dont want to attack when im hexed with Empathy, Ineptitude and clumsyness on me.. and if im an ele then i dont want to attemp casting if i got backfire on me, or if i know that ill get powerleaked and lose like 20 energy along with getting my spell interupted..

~Shadow

/signed

Me too, i'm fed up with Me depending intesively on Monks.

In fact, Mesmers can anticipate other classes' actions, so -normally- the don't need defense. But can we anticipate 7 other classes just with 7 skills ? Don't think so...

But those times when you just got to activate your defense, or heal ...it happens, frequently...we just don't have a good choice. What we have is way below what other classes have to offer. Shadow Hunter, I know we can do all of what you said, it's why mesmer is so fun...but sometimes you need to put up your defenses and run. Ours just happen to suck. A lot.

OK, how about this?

Deflection (Domination)

For 1...X seconds, the next skill used against you fails (+/- is disabled for additional Y seconds?)

I was thinking maybe energy 5, cast 0.25, recharge 1 OK I jest, but how about the idea? Would break up those increeedibly annoying Axe War spikes a treat.

Personally, if mesmer gets a decent defensive stance/enchantment (even if it was elite) then mesmer would be over powered, simply because mesmers are by far the most 'powerful' class with the most potential to shift the fate of a battle (on about PvP here) so by giving them means to defense themselves within their own class, they can boost attributes right up and just be super good.

No I think Anet have it right. Mesmers sacrifice armor and lack of defense in exchange for basically being the anti ...... of every class (although a given build can't take on everyone - give it a good try though).

Without having a decent defense stance/enchant within our own profession, this means players have to get creative and take up interesting secondaries. This also means they have to sacrifice points in domination (or whatever) in order to affectly use that defense buff. I believe this is what a 'balanced' profession is all about, balancing offense (domination and illusion are definitely offense) with defense (a defense buff from your secondary profession).

I would like to see a defense buff in domination but it should be very situational and extremely difficult to use well (true mesmer stylee) but if it was easy to use/spam, mesmers would have too easy-a-time. Mesmers must learn all about kiting etc in order to stay alive or make the decision to invest in a secondary for a defense buff.

If your still not convinced, I recommend Me/A with not much shadow arts at all and using dark escape -- For xx seconds you move 25% faster and take half damage, this spell ends with you successfully hit with an attack. -- For me this spell was basically designed for mesmers because only an assassin flag runner would get good use of it and since mesmers don't need to attack. Just imagine eviscerate only doing like 30 dmg or less ??, your monk wouldn't even need to heal you + its a speed buff too to help you kite better.

Before you get seriously into this, just try dark escape or perhaps find a better monk or even try being a warrior if you don't like having defenses
Opinionated goodness for you all to enjoy

Distortion, Illusion of Weakness, Hex snares, Hex melee hate...

And even then, not every class is supposed to be able to "tank", that is why it is a team game.

Peace,
-JR

Oh spare me the sob story about the lack of defenses of a mesmer.

I'm guessing you have forgotten the powers of a true mesmer.

Signet of Midnight - 0 energy/15 recharge/lasts 15 seconds
Use this + Fragility + Epidemic = blindness for you enemies and 90% defense for you.

Price of Failure + Spirit Shackles = loss of energy for them, possible energy gain for you and a 25% chance for them to miss you (like an evade, but not beaten by an skill that states "cannot be blocked or evaded")

Mantra stances - resist (not increase armor) damage vs specific types of attack. This means it ignores the "+25% penetration" category. So you resist the full amount of damage after all bonuses are done (only to that type of attack).

Remove hexes - warriors/rangers/necros/elementalists can't do that

Soothing images/sympathetic visage - good bye adrenalin

Illusionary Weakness - enchantment that will give you extra health (after the initial loss and you regaining it over time) once your health drops below 25%

Ethereal Burden/Imagined Burden - slows target foe (if the warrior can't hit you, you can't be damaged by him/her)

Distortion

Clumsiness - attacks are disrupted and target foe is damaged

Ignorance vs Warriors - no healing for them

Hex Breaker - no hex on you (one time shot)

Guilt - stops caster from casting on you (1 time shot)

Empathy - damages anyone attacking you (not casting)

Backfire - damages anyone casting a spell

Cry of Frustration - foe and near by foes are disrupted if target foe is using a skill

Blackout - disables your skills and theirs

You can defend yourself quite well on a 1 on 1 situation - obviously, you must know what you are going against to do so

But I do think the self-healing ability of Ether Feast is the worst of all. 1) you need someone to feed off of (so only enemies can be used). 2) The enemy has little energy, you get little health. 3) recharge time is a bit much.

At least Elementalists can cast windborn speed or someother spell that targets allies or self to heal. Mesmers can die just by poison/disease/bleeding and not be surrounded by anything.

I love the mesmer's defensive capabilities. The Monks have great defenses, but will usually lack the offensive capabilities to fight vs everyone. Every class has a weakness. Mesmers have a severe lack of healing, thats for sure, then the Elementalist.

If you are being swarmed by warriors and assassins and rangers, are you by yourself? What is the rest of your group doing? Are they going for the monk? If you are being swarmed, the monk should be healing you, you should be casting empathy, signet of midnight, epidemic and spirit of failure. They'll leave you alone if they were smart. Else, they kill themselves via your passive offensive abilities. A warriors stance is uselss vs spellcasters. A ranger's stance is useless vs a mesmer. Necros have no defenses period (spiteful spirit? Price of Failure? Minions?) - no stances/resistances/running. Mesmers have a nice running ability (crippling? Hahaha!!! No other class can run and remove crippling - except a mesmer). You can run around and inflict health degen vs all. Elementalists - use cold to slow you down - use counter with a remove hex spell (any type of remove hex). Warriors/rangers/pet - use crippling, counter it with illusionary haste. You give them slow spells - only a mesmer or monk can remove it - what a waste of a remove hex

I admit, I don't play PvP, so I don't truly know the problems you have encountered there, so please forgive me for my early comment about "sob stories", as I was upset about you demanding improvements to the mesmers lack of defenses. I'm a bit more calm now, so I will forgive you stating that the mesmer has no defenses.

But I find that stances are good only in certain situations, but not for every situation. Does this mean that the large variety of stances that a mesmer has, must all be brought? No. Just like Warriors/Rangers, a Mesmer's stances are optional (usually not used though). The best thing is to cast spells that deter or stop attacks/spells from damaging you. NPCs will cast/attack regardless of what hex you put on them. Blind them and damage them with hexes. Run and slow them down (Ethereal Burden is best).

Personally, I don't bring any stances except for Mantra of Concentration. Instead of Signet of Midnight, people use Mantra of Recovery (an Elite Stance). So depending in what you want, faster recharge time or blinding the choice is yours.

I wish mesmers gained a better healing skill/spell. Warriors have 4 or so healing techniques. Necromancers have 6 or more healing techniques (not including vampiric minions), Assassins at least have 2 or more healing skills, Monks and Ritualists have the most healing techniques. Rangers have 4 or so healing skills. Elementalists have 2 healing spells (not strong though). Only the Mesmer has 1 healing skill.

I think this is the only way GW can balance things. Warriors need to run to you, so you slow them down. Elementalists can hit you from a far, but you can walk around their slow casting AoE. Monks lack true direct damage (they can do some good damage if you attack them though), so you drain them for all they are worth. Necros can hex you, but you can stop that and hex them back with better results. Ritualists can do some nice damage, if they are setup with spirits already in place. They take too long to get enough of them to do much. Besides, you can walk out of the spirit range and still cast to hurt them. Rangers are hard, but empathy on pet and ranger with failure will null them to little damage. The Assassin is something else though. They can teleport to you (slow means nothing) and do serious damage. Empathy, spirit of failure, blindness and fragility. Backfire if they start casting on you.

In general bring Cry of Frustration, Clumsiness, Leech Signet. These affect everyone. Any skill used (spell or skill) interupted - Cry of Frustration; Clumsiness - attack interupted; Leech Signet - any action used is interupted.

Remember, the power of a mesmer is in its passive aggressiveness, not in its ability to take a beating nor its ability to heal massively nor to deliver pure offensive strikes.

Thank you.

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