Take a Peek at the Mesmer's Bag of Tricks in Guild Wars 2

Fable troll is dumb.

Well...

First one was ok, looking forward to this one.

Cannot wait for this game to come out.

There a date for this yet?

How can this be?!?!?! I'm actually excited about an MMO?

Lord please let this be good, I've been hurt soo many times.

I mean Jesus, if this picture doesn't get you rock hard, honestly, what will?

Well, we've known it was going to be the mesmer for a very long time, but it's nice to finally have official confirmation. I'm really loving the overhaul they've received too, their spells seem a lot more interesting and having them use pistols and swords ties in with their rogue like style.

I think they've done a really good job in making every class seem really different and unique, but making them flexible enough to accommodate different play styles, so that even magic classes like this aren't necessarily stuck in the support/healer role all the time.

I really want this to come out...didn't touch the first one, but the folks in the mumble have been saying some pretty good things about both of them now. I like the idea of an MMO you don't have to pay monthly for, or play nice with others.

Put 2500+ hours into GW1, here's to putting that many plus many more into GW2!

@Matthew said:

I really want this to come out...didn't touch the first one, but the folks in the mumble have been saying some pretty good things about both of them now. I like the idea of an MMO you don't have to pay monthly for, or play nice with others.

The first one was good, but don't let people blind you it had its fair share of faults. I have extremely high hopes for this one, trying to keep it in check though :P

GiantBomb was the last place i thought I'd get the mesmer update from first! Oh this video is still under embargo. Go Rebellious GiantBomb living on the edge of video game journalism!!!

Hah - GB has this before any of the official GW2 sites. That is so weird.

Anywho - hellz yes mesmer. One of my favorite classes from the original - will definitely play. (at least in PvP anyway)

@selfconfessedcynic: The video was accidentally put up ahead of time by some European site. I'm sure they could have pulled the video from Youtube, if they wanted to, but they seem to be pretty cool about it. They just announced on Twitter that yeah, it's the mesmer, and the official reveal will be on Wednesday.

I tried buying the expansions of the first guild wars thinking I'd be way into it, just wasn't the same and felt horrible. Shoulda probably waiting for this, but now I have a bad taste in my mouth with the series. Nice sound effects anyways. THWOOOOMP.

@WinterSnowblind: AH - well, as long as it's all legal. Wouldn't want Perry to get into trouble : )

In any case, looks like the Mesmer has become a ranged/melee damage-focused class with a bunch of debuffs and bamfs. I was hoping for something more like GW1, but this seems pretty damn cool.

I'm going to find it hard to choose between warrior, guardian and this now.

This class looks really awesome! I'm a sucker for making spirit clones and stuff. Also do want to use dual guns!
 
I assume the spirit clones were in the first one? Do they only last for a short time or do they stick around a while? and is it a really long cooldown thing? I imagine it'll be somewhat different, but I'd love to know how it worked in the original if anyone wants to tell me!

YES YES YESSSSSSSSSS!!! I've been waiting sooo long for Mesmer to be announced! My favorite profession!!!

@Xeiphyer: Actually, it wasn't in the first one as far as I know (haven't been paying attention the last couple of years, but played for about 2.5 years before that)

If the video is any indication, it looks like the clones have a short duration, can be used in both melee and ranged and do a bunch of aoe damage when they shatter. Alternatively, shattering could be a separate skill or a dismissal, which then triggers the damage.

They also appear to be controllable to some extent, so if they work like the pets do then they have various states of aggressiveness which can be toggled, and attack your target.

Why am I getting Aion flashbacks?

Man, I am going to be very tempted to install Windows and try to get this to run on my Mac.

All I got to say is: PEGI DOUZE.

This is probably an MMO.

Pegi douze

@jorbear said:

This is probably an MMO.

You catch on fast.

@VisariLoyalist said:

Pegi douze

Pegi douze Dallas.

the creature at :57 is one of the stupidest things i've ever seen

Di...did ArenaNet just stealth-announce the final class for GW2? Badass.

They said they'd only reveal it once it had undergone extensive testing. Does this mean we might indeed see the game come Spring?

@bunnymud said:

Why am I getting Aion flashbacks?

You never played Guild Wars would be my guess.

I mean, Guild Wars was basically the opposite of grind. In fact, some people essentially argue that there is not enough grinding in Guild Wars. It doesn't take long at all to hit the level cap, especially in the Factions campaign. It also is a relatively trivial matter to get gear with maximum stats.

Guild Wars 2 is a very different game from the first one, but they are carrying over that sort of anti-grind philosophy. For example, the endgame won't be about just running the same dungeons over and over again, unless that's what you want to do. You don't need to do that to get the best gear, but each dungeon does have its own gear with a unique appearance, and, if I understand correctly, you are guaranteed to get one piece of your choosing with each completion, so even that's not too bad compared to how it works in most MMOs. (Also worth mentioning: Everyone gets their own loot drops like in the first game. There is no "rolling" for loot or any such drama-inducing nonsense.)

Well, I don't want to get into a super-long rant, but at least as far as fantasy MMORPGs go, it's going to be nothing like Aion, to say the least.

@MemphisSlim said:

Di...did ArenaNet just stealth-announce the final class for GW2? Badass.

They said they'd only reveal it once it had undergone extensive testing. Does this mean we might indeed see the game come Spring?

Some foreign publication leaked the video early, and futile effort that it is to stop the internet, they just went ahead and said on their Twitter feed that yep, it's the Mesmer, and it's "up to you" if you want to share it. I mean, they know they can't stop it now, and it's not like it's going to be the end of the world for their marketing efforts. It's not exactly the first time it's happened, either.

Anyway, I really doubt the game will be out by spring.

And the GW2-anticipating population lets out a collective, "Well, duh." That said, this game can not come out soon enough. Loved GW1, and a continuation of the original's general philosophy is exactly what the MMO genre needs to get out of its stagnation.

Wow, guess I am making a mesmer then. Those clones are so cool.

@thatguyfosho said:

the creature at :57 is one of the stupidest things i've ever seen

The cocky arrogance of the Asura makes them kind of grow on you after a while. (They were introduced in the last expansion to the first game.)

PEHGGIH DOOOZUH

What an awful trailer. 

Strategically timed trailer release is strategically timed.

Edit: Man, that sorceress-type mesmer killed those guys just by looking at them O.o

@bunnymud said:

Why am I getting Aion flashbacks?

This game is actually a sort of anti-Aion in that there's no hub area where you get quests to "collect X things" or "kill X monsters." Instead, you run across quests as you explore the world, as well as dynamic world bosses and events. It's about as non-grindy as you can get.

@Enigma777 said:

What an awful trailer.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but it's not actually a trailer. It's a series of clips showing off specific skills from the class. They're normally separated on the page, but they come in this form too, if you just want to see all of them.

Ahh, my favourite class from GW. And the best part of GW was the PvP.

@VisariLoyalist said:

Pegi douze

Pegi douze Dallas.

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

@Forum_User said:

@VisariLoyalist said:

Pegi douze

Pegi douze Dallas.

*slow clap*

Don't encourage me.

Mesmer was the only profession I kinda avoided in GW1 but this actually looks kinda cool.

@Vexxan said:

Mesmer was the only profession I kinda avoided in GW1 but this actually looks kinda cool.

They said they wanted to get away from the overly twitchy timing-based gameplay that was present in the first one, one of the reasons being that lag particularly hurts that playstyle. Also, part of their game design philosophy for the game is that they want people watching the world and not the interface, and that meant getting rid of spell casting bars for opponents, which would also make all of those reactive interrupts that the mesmer was perhaps best known for (in PvP, anyway) be harder to use in this game.

I think that above all else, though, they just really wanted to cut back on things that denied opponents the ability to act, because gameplay mechanics like that in excess are just not fun in general in PvP, and PvP is very important to ArenaNet. (That's probably also another reason they dropped dedicated healers from the game, although that's not usually the one they give.) It seemed likely that they would delve more into the illusion aspect of the class and make that more meaningful and useful, if the class was to be in the game at all.

Fissure of Woe? Shit yeah!

@Enigma777 said:

What an awful trailer.

They're just videos mean to show off specific skills. ArenaNet, of course, wasn't too happy that they were leaked without the context of the articles that they always release along with the skill videos of a newly revealed profession, though I do have to say that these clips didn't pack quite the punch of some of the ones for other professions. That kind of makes sense, though, given the flavor of the class (which was also in the first game, although it didn't really play much of anything like this).

@Vexxan said:

Mesmer was the only profession I kinda avoided in GW1 but this actually looks kinda cool.

Exact same thing heree

Game is gonna be legit. Box price and play forever open world MMO. No pay to win junk either. just cosmetics i don't care about. this game is so amazing! i played the demo and there isnt another mmo like it. no casting heals on allies, in fact there are no healers!

This combat system is looking more interesting every time I see it.  
It seems they are solving old problems in really interesting ways, my only real concern about it is lag, cause there is always lag... but we`ll see.

What a weird way to show this game off.

piggy douche

Looks bad.