Where to make a mesmer?

I have decided to create a mesmer but I'm not sure where to make him (Cantha or Tyria). Which location would be better for a relatively new mesmer?

I can say its your choice.

I know in Cantha, you start with Shatter Hex at the begining thought, which you havent for awhile in Prophecies. If you want to rush to lvl 20, Cantha. If not, Prophecies.

You can learn the profession in Tyria thought without rushing.

Well... this is two fold:

I personally prefer Tyria for creation if I want to enjoy my stay and learn a profession. If I am looking to get level 20 super fast and know the skills I want or want to play with Canthan skills then I create a character in Cantha.

Basically Tyria is better at teaching you the skills and Cantha is better for power leveling.

Sadly, it depends on what type of 2nd profession you want as well. If you want to be a ritualist or assassin, then you are pretty much stuck with Cantha's base character (unless you don't care when you get that 2nd profession).

But as both Francis Demeules and Cymboric Treewalker said, if you want to achieve level 20 fast, Factions is the way to go. If you want to learn how a Mesmer is played and take your time, then go with Prophecies.

To quote Francis Demeules, "its your choice."

Have fun in the decision you make.

Thanks alot for the help. I have made a mesmer before so I have basic understanding of how the class works so I think I'll create a character in Cantha.

Hey i just made a Canthan mesmer and am enjoying it emensly.

But i really want to learn the mesmer class and not just rush it through the game. What should i do? Play slowly through Cantha learning the class? Or switch over to Tyria ASAP.

THx for any help.

You can always return to Tyria when you arrive at Keineng Center if you want to keep your Cathan Mesmer, gain skills there (still have some skills quests after Lion Arch) and take your time there.

I like the appearance options of the Canthan mesmer better, but it really bites having to buy so many of your skills to be effective. You get *tons* of skills for free in Tyria, coming up through the quests, plus learn how to play better. If you don't want to be /Rt or /A, i'd definitely go Tyrian and choose /N or /Mo for sub. /Mo is more self sufficient, but there are some wicked spike and degen builds with /N.

I really dislike conjure *anything* spammers; so Tyria is the way to go imo ^_^
Create in factions->tyria is cool though. Remember; no conjure spamming past yak's bend!

I decided to recreate my mesmer in tyria since he wasnt that far, and i really want to learn this class. THanks for the advice guys!

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Lets just say we took 3 mesmers other than myself; of those three mesmers...all of them were not 2 skills shy of this build
Energy Tap
Energy Drain
Ether Feast
Ether Lord
Arcane Theivory
Arcane Mimicory
Conjure Phantasm
Illusion of Weakness

I personally thought Dunham could do a better job; at least they yell at the monk less often due to the fact that they died while tanking 3 mobs. Sure they have 1 1/2 self heals, but that will not stop you from dying standing under 2 meteor showers. I certaintly wouldn't want any mesmer to be associated with them.

But lets look at my perspective on the skill itself.

I find that people who rely on conjure phantasm as damage are generally not all that far from above. Its not that good of a spell to begin with. Honestly; it will deal 150 damage to a target IF they live that long. First off; they shouldn't. Second, if there was a target that "was" to live that long, empathy would do more in the time frame mentioned. So now that we have completely ruled out conjure phantasm as "significant" dps; it can be nothing more than a spam skill-which IoR does more efficiently (although it did not exist at the time).

Illusion hexes ignore armor, but at the cost of lasting to their full duration to ignore that armor. You are trading a armor ignoring spell, for a degen cap, and the promise that a. the target does not somehow remove the degen (dying, hex removal, or otherwise), and b. that the damage is delt over time.

B. is the problem we are {most} concerned with. We {people in general} find it effective to kill targets quickly; this has a two fold benefit. First it stops them from killing you (which is good) by crippling their offensive line (or defensive if its a monk but you get the point nonetheless). This in tern prevents additional healing from your monks, etc. etc. and is good relief for your team. The second benefit, is that as they have less men, you have more. This increases the ratio of "what is killing what" or net dps in the favor of your group. Of course this is very similar to the first point, and placement of dps is crucial (why was just explained).

In order to "bypass" this "called target" as many of you know it; you have to efficiently kill, or practically disable another target of higher rank, or importance. Thus interrupters are born. Interrupting and disabling the target is more powerful or useful, than the power lost in concentrated damage due to the net dps ratio mentioned. Because of them interrupting the target they are assigned (usally a monk) the ratio shifts more so in their favor than if they were to coordinate damage with the rest of the group.

Simply put; conjure phantasm can do neither of these things in high lvl areas. It cannot dramatically shift net dps in your favor, nor can it take down the called target with quick reletivity. Clumb. is fine, block one gain one, can be used on called target; great. Ineptitude is fine, block one gain one, can be used on called target AND disable front line; wonderful. Conjure phantasm, cannot be used on called target to great efficeincy, cannot dramatically shift dps=not so great. IoR can take down the called target with more efficeincy due to the +damage, heck so can Wastrel's Worry for that matter.

In this perspective degen is "fundamentally flawed" if "mass" spreading of degen was possible through some sort of aoe means similar to suffering it would again be plausible. If empathy and SS get a nerf, it might be usable. Yet, on these terms, I have yet to see conjure phantasm of any use other than a spam skill, one to use while Clumb+Inept are recharging. Of course IoR slams phantam's only hope of being into the ground as being a "replacement" spam skill...which of course is redundant having a backup spam skill for a spam skill, thus I hope it doesn't see much use.

Maybe conjure nightmare will get an aoe boost; who knows?

-edit-
The reason I say stop at yaks is because this is the point when dps on called target begins to lag and become ineffective

Phantasm isn't that bad. It's nice for NPC killing. :P

And some tiny pressure.

I can buy solo npc killing if you give me 10% off ^_^;;...and throw in a few slow spells =p

Shadow monks arn't pressured; but players can be. I can see its uses in pvp; just not in pve.

Meh, conjure = cover hex. Easy to see when it comes off, easy to put back on. Spirit shackles, fragility, and mind wrack can also be used as covers but there are upsides and downsides to all of these. Honestly it depends on what you are running. I always take a cover hex, normally it is conjure.

You're looking at Conjure Phantasm in isolation, disregarding all the contexts in which it is useful. It is like saying Power Return is worthless because it returns energy to your target. Sure, if you're basing an entire build around that one skill, you would end up with a pretty crap build. But that's not the case here, you're saying that Conjure Phantasm is crap, full stop, which I don't agree with.

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