Guild Wars 2 Mesmser Reveal: ArenaNet Interview | Now Gamer
Q. How challenging was it to integrate the Mesmer profession into the existing profession set? What specific challenges did you have when making sure mesmers are balanced, yet fun to play?
A. Combat in Guild Wars 2 is very visual, so we had to find a way to make the conditions and mind games that are so signature to the Mesmer become a part of the battlefield.
It was very challenging to integrate the mesmer into the game, which is why it’s the last profession to be revealed. The Mesmer in the original Guild Wars dealt a lot in energy denial and hexing, so the two most challenging things to deal with were our lack of fast regenerating energy and hexes.
We solved the hex problem by giving Mesmers access to a wide variety of conditions as well as by having some of their illusions replicate the effect of some of the old Mesmer hexes.
For example, the phantasm ‘backfire’ attacks its target whenever that target uses a skill which closely emulates what the old Guild Wars mesmer hex named ‘backfire’ used to do.
As for energy denial, we decided that all of the other forms of disruption and control the Mesmer had were sufficient and that we didn’t really need it. I think the Guild Wars 2 Memser still fulfils all of the roles of the classic Guild Wars Mesmer, but does it in a different way.
Source: Guild Wars 2 Memser Reveal: ArenaNet Interview
