Every game out there attracts hardcore fans and the inevitable fan-art. Most of the time you see some erotic orc making out with a night elf and you can’t hit the back button fast enough. However in this case, Youtube user Keegan Larwin, put together a really fun and well done Live Action movie-short with a Mesmer battling an Elementalist. High definition and tons of special effects, you can’t help but smile when you watch this movie.

Keep reading after the break for the movie.

In response to using portals to stack players and pop them into the middle of an army causing increased server load where models don’t load fast enough:

Originally posted by Jon Peters (Source)

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Hey all we have some plans to fix some of this. It is currently being looked at so expect a fix in the next few weeks. Basically we like that Portal has this power, but it shouldn’t be able to bypass walls, etc.

As for the problems with players not appearing this is a more difficult engine problem to solve. While we would like to solve it there are definitely counters to this strategy, because anyone doing it has just clumped up their entire team for AoE nuking. Ultimately if they outnumber you by a lot there are much more effective ways for them to kill you.

Jon

More interesting, does this mean we’ll see a nerf to the Portal skill where Mesmers won’t be able to hide out in keeps and open portals to allow people to sneak in?

Mesmers are a tricky profession; they were one of the last to be introduced and almost universally thought of as underpowered through the vast majority of BWEs. What a lot of people don’t realize is that Mesmer is a very fun profession to play and actually quite powerful if you understand the fundamentals. With the buffs they received just prior to the launch they achieve parity with other DPS classes by the time you achieve level 80, or jump on one in sPVP.

Mesmers are extremely dependent on traits, much more than any other class. For example, using arbitrary, made up numbers, an Elementalist starts off with 80% of its full potential and gain the last 20% of its power via traits as he or she levels up to 80. The Mesmer, on the other hand, probably starts off at 40% of its full potential and their traits give it 60% of its strength. Because a bulk of a Mesmer’s damage is based off of illusions one way or another, there are a series of traits and skills that make them do more damage and survive longer that are essential to almost every build.

Guild Wars 2 is an exciting game with a lot to offer. Skill descriptions and theory crafting just isn’t always enough though – sometimes we need to do some tests to determine exactly how things work. In this video series we’ll be exploring the RESULTS of some of these tests. New videos on various topics will be released every Sunday and Wednesday until the start of Guild Wars 2.

Episode #1 – Mesmer Portals

How long do they last? How far can you go? Can you go through keeps? Check out the answers to all these questions in this video where we test Mesmer Portals. At the very least watch the huge jump before the credits (about 3:45) as we reveal something particular about portal ranges…

To watch the video hit us after the break.

NOTE: the following article is based off the BWE1 build.

“Mesmers are magical duelists who rely on deception and confusion to keep their opponents in check. Indecision is their greatest ally. Using powerful illusions to distract, they make sure they never go toe to toe with an enemy; they use their powers and tactics to set up an unfair fight.”

Mesmers were the last class revealed in Guild Wars 2 and also one of the most anticipated when it was revealed. This was because Mesmers in Guild Wars 1 had a prestigious position as the most technical and interesting class to play. The Mesmer reveal video showed many interesting new mechanics such as illusions, group invisibility, blinks and showed unconventional weapon choice for a caster such as greatsword, swords and pistols. Now that the beta is upon us, let’s take a look at the Mesmer class and find out how exactly it works and plays. Obviously since this is an early beta phase, all of this is subject to change in the coming weeks/months until and even after release.

One of the more unique design elements of Guild Wars 2 is the way skills are set up in the game. There have been countless blogs and articles describing the skill system and how it relates your Hotbar layout, but it also one of the biggest misconceptions about the game. So let’s clear it up now. People who’ve played games like Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic are used to looking at multiple hotbars full of skills and abilities that do a large variety of things. In Guild Wars 2 this is greatly reduced and you don’t have to be a master pianist to manipulate your character.

If you want to know all about keybinds, weapon swapping and individual profession skills keep reading!

Some time today the first public yet still closed beta test begins. Many people will get their first hands on the game for the first time. Keep in mind that this is still a closed beta test and a very important and possibly heavily enforced rule is that this is still under NDA.

Earlier this month ArenaNet hosted another event for select media sites. Lucky for us many high quality videos were released showing nearly every aspect. Following this event we featured class spotlights with some select videos giving as much detail about the class as possible. In case you missed them or perhaps you were not selected for this beta event and you still need a Guild Wars 2 fix, check them out.

Mesmer was the last class released for Guild Wars 2 and it is one of the more unique options on Tyria. Unlike most of the other classes mesmer has less focus on damage. Instead nearly every spell that mesmer has available offers some kind of boon, detriment, or combo effect. With the ability to buff and debuff so effectively as well as providing support mesmer will be a sought after class for pvp. The ability to stealth your team or set up a portal into a keep seem extremely powerful.

Unique to mesmer are the dumb fire illusion pets. These pets only attack your current target and the weapon you are using will determine what skills they use. You can use your illusions to complete combos increasing damage or adding more effects to the attack. With the ability to swap weapons it looks like the mesmer will be one of the more complicated classes to master at near max effectiveness.

In an effort to help those who might be confused with the trinity-free class system Arenanet has employed, we’ve created a easy reference guide to how weapons and roles (offensive, defensive, and support) breakdown. We have broken down, class by class, each weapon and assigned it a Defensive, Offensive, Healing and Support “theme” to them. While most healing weapons can be considered Support, we’ve split Healing and Support apart. Many of these weapons can be called something else because a lot of them do damage, support and other controlling effects. We assigned weapons certain categories based on an overall theme and not something hard coded into the class.

Many of these suggestions are mere interpretations; for example a Warrior with a Hammer is not a “tank”. The Hammer has many controlling abilities like knock downs, knock backs, cripples and weakens. We consider controlling type weapons as “Defensive”. The “Healing” label is not exactly a healer as you would expect in a DIKU-based MMO like Rift or TOR. The Guardian “Heal” weapon has some defensive and offensive characteristics that might label it as support, but we thought it was important to show which weapon sets allowed for ally healing.

NOTE: This chart only looks at weapon sets and not healing, utility or elite skills. A new chart will follow showing those skills separately. Source for this material can be found in the GW2Wiki which sources most of the recent February Beta Event.

Mechanics

Weapons
A mesmer can use a variety of magical, ranged, and melee weapons, including:

Main Hand: Sword, Scepter
Off Hand: Focus, Pistol, Sword, Torch
Two-Handed: Staff, Greatsword
Confused Condition
The mesmer introduces a new condition to our set called confusion. An enemy with confusion on them takes damage each time they activate a skill. This condition stacks in intensity, so the more confusion an enemy has, the greater the damage.

Shattering
The mesmer has special abilities that can shatter illusions. Shattering will destroy all illusions and create a secondary effect. There are four different shatter skills:

Mind Wrack—Destroys your illusions and does damage to opponents near them.
Cry of Frustration—Destroys your illusions and gives the confused condition to nearby foes.
Diversion—Destroys your illusions and stuns nearby foes.
Reflection—Destroys your illusions and places a barrier around the mesmer, which reflects enemy projectiles.