14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most interesting classes of the first Guild Wars title was the Mesmer and the developers plan to have him back for the second game in the series, although it’s hard to develop a solid set of mechanics for it and some players might be put off by the complexity.
Eric Flannum, who is one of the game designers working on Guild Wars 2, told Massively that, “I think that Mesmer was a bit more difficult to develop than the other professions. For example, when we’re developing the Warrior skills or how the Warrior should feel, we end up referencing the warrior archetype as it appears in other media. Fans are also exposed to all of these things, and so their expectations and definition of what a Warrior is tends to be pretty broad.”
He added, “For the Mesmer, we’re talking about a much more specific archetype that was developed for the first Guild Wars. There are obviously fewer influences to draw from when developing such a profession, and while this means it may take more time to hit exactly the right notes (no Minstrel pun intended), it ends up being very rewarding when you do get it right.”
The developer has confirmed that a number of mechanics from the first Guild Wars will not be included in the second game, including energy denial and hexing, which might make playing a Mesmer even harder than before.
The Mesmer will get access to stuns and dazes in order to allow the class to act as a spoiler and stop some of the most powerful attacks of other players.
Mesmer characters also get access to a beefed up line of illusion based powers.
ArenaNet will launch Guild Wars 2 at some point during 2012, with players needing to just pick up the game package in order to get access to it.