Speculations Confirmed: It's the Mesmer.

[Qitz]

So I looked around via the search bar and only found speculations about it but NCSoft has confirmed the Eighth and final Profession for Guild Wars 2 as, the fan speculated, The Mesmer.

Debuting in the first Guild Wars as more of a supporting role the limited info floating around suggests it will have a bit more flexibility and powers that will allow it to successfully take down enemies.

Check out the mesmer showing off some of these skills, including making the party invisible, creating mirror images that attack monsters, and teleporting around the battlefield.


Does this come at a disappointment or an approval for you? Did you have hope that they'd bring something different to the table?

 

[2xDouble]

I'm cool with it, but you're jumping the gun a bit. The official reveal is tomorrow. There will be a LOT more information about it then.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Why would the Mesmer not be in the game?

They were one of the more unique classes in the original GW.

I love trolling mages with spell interrupts.

 

[tobi the good boy]

I miss my Dervish....

 

[GrandmaFunk]

wow was that ever worth the wait =)

seems mostly illusion/condition based..but im loving those shadowstep moves and all the purple lightning of mental doom hehe

and ya, that instant 5 gun battery skill is quite nice too, happy to see i'll be able to rock the pistols with my mesmer.

 

[Qitz]

You know, I could swear I've been hearing about this game for what feels like 5 years now. Is there any intention of ever actually releasing it?

MMO's take a huge time to developer so you probably have been hearing about it for 5+ years, there is footage of actual gameplay form GamesCon and such floating around and they've mentioned that Beta Testing should be coming up. As for an actual release date, they've chosen a play from Blizzard with a simple "When it's done."

Or Soon? if you'd like.

 

[2xDouble]

You know, I could swear I've been hearing about this game for what feels like 5 years now. Is there any intention of ever actually releasing it?

Yes. They're doing Closed Beta tests more or less right now, with Open Beta following suit depending on the results.

Barring any major problems, we're looking at 2012 Q2-3 range, give or take a month. Unofficially, of course.

 

[seraphy]

Yes! Mesmer!

I would have been so annoyed if last profession wouldn't have been mesmer.

 

[instantbenz]

There was no choice but for it to be mes. The main princess gal in the books was one, the gameplay vids had purple butterfly animation effects. There was no doubt about it.

What IS great is that they can't release any more professions. In other words, they need to bust ass with the closed beta and get this mofo out

Oh and actually having watched the vid, these guys WILL be the kings of exploits with their teleporting. I want to know the range on that spell.

PORTAAAAAAAAAAALS!

 

[VanQ]

Why in the world would it be a disappointment? The Mesmer was probably the most intriguing MMO profession I have ever played. It even looks like they've gone above and beyond with the possible mind-fuckery they could provide in PVP.
I look forward to seeing people use The Mesmer in new and hilarious ways. Hell, if I wasn't hellbent on rolling an Elementalist first, I might even have gone with Mesmer.
Either way, this game looks extremely promising and I can't help but look forward to it. I just hope the community doesn't end up jaded and selfish like WoW has ever since the end of Burning Crusade.

You know, I could swear I've been hearing about this game for what feels like 5 years now. Is there any intention of ever actually releasing it?

Yes. They're doing Closed Beta tests more or less right now, with Open Beta following suit depending on the results.

Barring any major problems, we're looking at 2012 Q2-3 range, give or take a month. Unofficially, of course.

What's your source on that? Do you work for ArenaNet or have sources other than your word?

 

[bificommander]

Interesting. Some fun skills there, though some look a bit much like the elementalist (a shock field and setting them on fire?). I must say, I do like the weapons they can wield. I'd hoped the mesmers would get the pistols and swords, kind of relatively light weapons that you can kill people with and still look gracefull. Looks like they even get two handed swords. Well, Rangers get them too, so it makes sense (though that leaves 4 professions that use it, with only 2 using hammers. Maybe give the engineer a hammer too?)

I hope the mesmer will be a more viable PvE option. I always liked the class, but it was somewhat underpowered in casual PvE, especially with henchmen or heroes, who would attack your target unless carefully micromanaged. But that's not what the mesmer needs, because the mesmer's target is generally being crippled and interupted with a stack of hexes on them, they're not the biggest threat. Well, there are already no henchmen in GW2, so that problem's fixed. If the new mesmer doesn't get too hard to solo, I'll be giving it a spin.

I'm thinking of making my mesmer a male Norn. Because I really hated the Norn in Eye of the North, with their tough guy "I'm going to do stupid suicidal things on the quest to save the world, like only bringing a few guys to come along, cause there's more glory and fun for me that way."-attitude. (And yes, I'm aware of the irony that this is essentially the attitude I as a player have. The difference is that I'm playing a game, these guys are supposed to live in the world that'll burn if they fail. Bunch of cavemen with a copy of Atlas Shrugged who kill my immersion.) But since I didn't want to completely skip a bunch of content in GW2, I was thinking of roleplaying my Norn as an even bigger wuss than I am, and the mesmer class works best with that.

But if the Norn quests turn out to be really obnoxious and/or the mesmer really cool, I might just delete that character and making my mesmer a female human in a beautifull yet thoroughly impractical dress, the way nature intended it

 

[2xDouble]

You know, I could swear I've been hearing about this game for what feels like 5 years now. Is there any intention of ever actually releasing it?

Yes. They're doing Closed Beta tests more or less right now, with Open Beta following suit depending on the results.

Barring any major problems, we're looking at 2012 Q2-3 range, give or take a month. Unofficially, of course.

What's your source on that? Do you work for ArenaNet or have sources other than your word?

I don't work for ArenaNet, but I certainly do have sources. On the official site FAQ page [http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#two]:

We will be conducting small closed alpha and beta tests in 2011. The feedback from these tests will determine when we will do public beta tests and ship the game. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it.

They were still in Closed Alpha testing as of G*Star, and confirmed as of then they were on track to reveal the 8th and begin Closed Beta by the end of the year by community manager Martin Kerstein [http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=982088&postcount=73]... which means "more or less right now".

I allowed 4-9 months for testing and final polish runs, and left open the possibility for both shorter and longer, as well as very long, extensions with careful wording. I find it highly unlikely the Beta testing phases will last shorter than 3 months, but I suppose it's a possibility.

 

[anthony87]

Never played the first Guild Wars but I gotta say this looks pretty damn interesting.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

I hope the mesmer will be a more viable PvE option. I always liked the class, but it was somewhat underpowered in casual PvE, especially with henchmen or heroes

A Mesmer/Necro leading a Discord-way party of necro heroes was probably one of the strongest party builds. You spread the hexes&conditions and let the party do the spiking =)

 

[bificommander]

A Mesmer/Necro leading a Discord-way party of necro heroes was probably one of the strongest party builds. You spread the hexes&conditions and let the party do the spiking =)

Okay, granted, there were a few builds that worked well. Before Necrosis was nerfed in relation to fast casting, it made a decent PvE build, and the Discord-way is pretty much that same thing but using the elite Discord instead of Necrosis. But that method of spamming one skill did get old pretty quickly. The Panic-mesmer was another nice addition to human parties. But still, the mesmer tended to have only a few niche roles, and only one or two that really worked at any given time between expansions or nerfs that made old builds worthless and new ones viable. Most professions except the assasin had a few good base builds that you could vary between at any given time. The mesmer had a lot of potentially fun skills but only a couple that actually work.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to see if GW2's new focus on less possible builds in exchange for more viable builds works out well.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

I just hope there's still some kind of Empathy/Backfire mechanic...it's such an effective psychological warfare tool in PvP =)

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Looks like some pretty great gameplay in terms of spells and crowd control capabilities.

Come to think of it, I never did play a Mesmer in the original Guild Wars.. huh, may have to try it, inbetween sessions of TOR..

 

[9thRequiem]

Seems like they've done a good job of keeping the style and feel the same, even though as there's no interrupts (except KD), no e-denial, and no hexes, the mechanics have drastically changed. Sadly, I'm not sure Diversion will have an updated version - a shame, because in PvP this was perhaps the skill that required the most skillful use, of both the caster and the victim.

I'm interested to see how they contrast this with the Thief. Yes, one's a scholar and the other is an adventurer, but with stealth and teleports, it seems they do have an overlapping toybox.

 

[Worgen]

I was kinda hoping for a dervish but I'm not surprised, everyone was expecting it to be the mesmer.

 

[BabySinclair]

I'm interested to see how they contrast this with the Thief. Yes, one's a scholar and the other is an adventurer, but with stealth and teleports, it seems they do have an overlapping toybox.

The thief will likely be higher damage, less conditions and area control while the Mesmer will be reversed.

Rundown on skills in the video

1st: AoE party invisibility, I wanna see a Warrior use Stomp in it
2nd: Summons 2 physical copies of himself armed with primary weapon (sword), possibly explode. Then creates a wall that slows enemies and boosts allies
3rd: Chaos Storm? Teleport swap with enemy (put them into storm), burning attack, maybe a "force choke"
4th: Summons 2 illusionary copies armed with dual off-hand weapon, detonatable
5th: AoE teleports for allies, ranged blast

Looks like a lot of control options and a little bit of everything. Summons, teleport, stealth (though it's not a thief exclusive anyways) AoE's, me likey