Difference between thief and mesmer in wvw?

[ArktoCZ.5837]

Hi, can somebody who is experienced in wvw please explain me the difference in roles and playstyle of thief+specs and mesmer+specs in wvw content? Im not looking for "which one is better", but more of comparison and plus and cons of both classes and for what type of player they are more suited, since from what I have seen they are pretty similar in general playstyle-> high skill cap+floor, high risk/high reward, great 1v1, high burst, but I would like to know more about them. Thanks for help and stay safe

[Widmo.3186]

>high skill cap+floor, high risk/high reward, great 1v1, high burst

Inb4 thread full of same people constantly crying about how OP teef is and even kid without hands could play it, lmao

[Gorani.7205]

As an enemy, I find Mesmers less predictable, because of their clones and illusions that spawn around you. A thief at least is either stealthed or not and gives you better visual tells on what is happening (or will happen soon). Mesmer also create more visual "noise", which I find distracting to focus on my "real" target. Doesn't matter if it is condi or power, Mesmer is worse to fight against in roaming or small party fights.

[Jski.6180]

Thf has more runberband hp then mez has but the mez can make it seem like it has endless hp with its images. For thf stealth is a pure def sustane tool where mez stealth is more about confusing the other person.

 

In a way mez use stealth right where thf has a broken stealth effect.

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

mesmer can have use, thief not.

 

mesmers can be used for veilsupport, feedback bubble and boonstrips (chronomancer is the best class to support groups for mesmer) and sometimes portalbombing.

 

thiefs only use it to gank single targets with other dps pepes. and camp keeps for days to portal people in.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

> @"kamikharzeeh.8016" said:

> mesmer can have use, thief not.

>

> mesmers can be used for veilsupport, feedback bubble and boonstrips (chronomancer is the best class to support groups for mesmer) and sometimes portalbombing.

>

> thiefs only use it to gank single targets with other dps pepes. and camp keeps for days to portal people in.

 

If you can't think of a use for a thief, that's more a reflection of your ability than it is of the class.

[Clownmug.8357]

One has to deal with cast times and cooldowns and the other doesn't.

[Dawdler.8521]

One also whispers angry rants at anything that kills it and the other explodes in pink butterflies.

[Junkpile.7439]

Mesmer have higher burst damage, but worse stealth, movement skills and overal survivability.

[asterix.9614]

Thief just spam stealth and can reset easily. Mes used to be meme level of meta with condi spam, however the glass canon shatter build did need some sort of skill to be viable (back before it was nerfed). Thief is basically the king of wvw roaming and trolling (with perma stealth inside sm and towers) :)

[asterix.9614]

> Inb4 thread full of same people constantly crying about how OP teef is and even kid without hands could play it, lmao

Even those people who can use their legs and toes as hands can play deadeye lol

 

[aspirine.6852]

Thief is played by sad people, and mesmer is played by cool people...

[ASP.8093]

> @"aspirine.6852" said:

> Thief is played by sad people, and mesmer is played by cool people...

 

Which is to say staring at the mesmer patch notes will eventually make you feel very sad and you'll switch to thief.

[Kylden Ar.3724]

One at least has the option for team and squad synergy, and the other is a Thief.

[Kondor.2904]

> @"Widmo.3186" said:

> >high skill cap+floor, high risk/high reward, great 1v1, high burst

> Inb4 thread full of same people constantly crying about how OP teef is and even kid without hands could play it, lmao

 

I have no hands and I can confirm that.

[Threather.9354]

There are more thieves around so one can safely assume it is more fun and impactful.

[Sleepwalker.1398]

A specific spec has 1 dodge and other has 3

[ASP.8093]

Everyone saying "You can play Mesmer in zergs!" needs to be honest about the fact that it's mostly using Focus 4 and a few long-cooldown utilities (the Feedback rez is also nice, imo — probably undervalued right now). Your contribution to buffs, DPS, &c. is pretty meager. To the point that usually you just see commanders who want Portal &c. doing it themselves, because it's easier for the driver to run a selfish do-nothing uber-bunker build with a few clutch utilities than it is to have a mesmer build that actually fills a traditional "support" or "DPS" slot in a typical comped group.

 

You don't contribute much to AOE burst, your best buff skills are kneecapped by their tiny range, your boon rips are harder to use in a mass battle setting, Veil is garbage compared to engineer stealth, and the global damage nerf means people are easily out-healing the greatsword (non-projectile, so at least it's not getting blocked/reflected constantly!!) tickle-beam autos.

 

At the zerg level, it's not really balance-patch thing, either: your problem is more that one of your major resources (clones) is very unreliable in big fights, your powerful "on interrupt" traits are unreliable against Stab spam, and the cool stuff your class can do by comboing insta-cast abilities just doesn't help in large-scale nearly as much as it helps in duels.

 

It's not a *useless* class, but you need to work pretty hard to find a group that actually wants you, and most people's ideal number of mesmers tends to be 0-1. Moreover, I think you'll have a hard time learning the class unless you first do a bunch of roaming/small-scale/SPvP to actually experience situations where most of your abilities are relevant.

 

(Also, and this is more of a personal preference thing, but imo groups that constantly do portal-bombs are incredibly dull to play in. I absolutely love being able to use Portal to, say, bust an enemy group that's turtled up defending a choke point, but some commanders just do nothing but stealth up and portal-bomb, and it makes for some high-stakes but *incredibly* repetitive fights. YMMV on that, of course, but be careful that your own class choice isn't inducing the group to play in a way you personally find less fun.)

[kash.9213]

What scale of fights are you trying to move around in? A broad question like that is just going to turn your thread into another nerf thief thread from the same sad crowd.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

> @"kash.9213" said:

> What scale of fights are you trying to move around in? A broad question like that is just going to turn your thread into another nerf thief thread from the same sad crowd.

 

This^ then again what else would u expect in these forums? Ask the difference between the classes and thread turns into who's worse off or OP compared to the other lol. Good ol gw2 crowd.

[FyzE.3472]

> @"ASP.8093" said:

> > @"aspirine.6852" said:

> > Thief is played by sad people, and mesmer is played by cool people...

>

> Which is to say staring at the mesmer patch notes will eventually make you feel very sad and you'll switch to thief.

 

The only profession that lost their dodge.

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

i see so many thieves around, so i can safely say that they are useless... nothing but vultures. they have ppt-usage, but that was it. as casual as it gets. abiltiers: kill dollies, gank lonely players, pull if using that build, portal into keeps if using that build, stealthy throwing siege disablers. wow, so useful. @"Jugglemonkey.8741" none of that is real usefulness. their most senseful use would be to scout for tags, but that rarely happens.

[kash.9213]

> @"kamikharzeeh.8016" said:

> i see so many thieves around, so i can safely say that they are useless... nothing but vultures. they have ppt-usage, but that was it. as casual as it gets. abiltiers: kill dollies, gank lonely players, pull if using that build, portal into keeps if using that build, stealthy throwing siege disablers. wow, so useful. @"Jugglemonkey.8741" none of that is real usefulness. their most senseful use would be to scout for tags, but that rarely happens.

 

I'm usually right in the middle of three way blobs keeping people up. You sound like someone who builds their character by numbers and would be difficult to cover or keep alive. I'd still try to get you up though so you're not an obvious rally bot.

[Junkpile.7439]

> @"kamikharzeeh.8016" said:

> i see so many thieves around, so i can safely say that they are useless... nothing but vultures. they have ppt-usage, but that was it. as casual as it gets. abiltiers: kill dollies, gank lonely players, pull if using that build, portal into keeps if using that build, stealthy throwing siege disablers. wow, so useful. @"Jugglemonkey.8741" none of that is real usefulness. their most senseful use would be to scout for tags, but that rarely happens.

Disabling siege is most important job in wvw, but thief don't usually even do that.

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

@"kash.9213" how'd you do that as thief? you'd pop within a second as a thief in midst of billions of AoE fields... i legit doubt that this works. u can do this in very cloudy open formation blobfights in openfield, but u gotta smell that this happens, idk.

 

the point of sustain is to not let stuff dying in the first hand, bc downed are not rarely targets to fish for more kills. so in a 30sec fight, u can what, res 3 ppl? if u'd be a additional firebrand, they might not have even gotten under 50% health. surely, reckless pugbombers excluded, nothing can save a rambo pushing alone into 40 ppl.

 

@"Junkpile.7439" yeah, but even there engi stealthers or mesmer(chrono since bulky normally) are somehow safer. thief is the peak of a glass cannon... and as u said, thief specs rarely do that

 

@"ASP.8093" with "mesmer", it's meant "chronomancer". wellsupport, boonstrips, evtl pulls, veils, illusion o. life.