Desirable Weapons

Ok, so this post will be a little bit of a rant about Mesmer weapons. I don't play a mesmer much, mainly because I can't interrupt to save my life, and lack the experience, and frankly the desire, to learn to play one properly. For anyone like me, who the mesmer doesn't really appeal to, I empathise with you, and now beg the question: why does the mesmer get all the best weapons?

Sure, mesmers look elegant; if we were to take half of their armour, for example, they look like the ladies who sat in medieval courts and entertained the king with their mindless chatter and liking for tea. To put it bluntly, female mesmers look like high-class whores. But this isn't a rant about mesmers in general, this is a rant about weapons.

Exhibit A: the Dragon Spire Staff:
In my opinion this staff is one of the most beautiful weapons in the game. It's dye chart is exquisite to look at, and in blue this staff is spectacular. Hell, it looks good in almost any colour. And what attributes is it available in I hear you cry? The grand total of Inspiration. Yes that's it, this staff is only good for the mesmer.

Exhibit B: the Pronged Fan:
I'm sure you can see, this rare skin is undoubtedly beautiful. The prongs give it an almost necromantic look, and anyone would swear that it was a necromancer focus. Only available from the end chest in Urgoz Warren or The Deep, it understandably takes a lot of luck to get a requirement nine dropped. And now we come to the attribute availability. This one, understandably, is not just available in Mesmer attributes, but it could be better. The list of attributes are: Soul Reaping, Energy Storage, Divine Favor, Spawning Power, and Inspiration. Ok, so here we have an unfair advantage to the mesmer, I don't know anyone who runs twelve in their main attribute. Kiss your ideas of getting one of these in death magic goodbye. Only the mesmer can really get one of these and use it properly unless it comes in requirement nine. And even then, would you rather have a soul reaping focus when you could have a death magic one? Of course, I am speaking purely from a necromancer's view, but it's the same for the other professions. If you have to spread your attribute points far you sacrifice one from the main attribute because, chances are, you'll have little or no skills relying on it.

Exhibit C: the Gemstone Staff:
This staff is one rarely seen, though not exceptionally difficult to get hold of, it's only available from a handful of collectors in factions. Now, this staff is the only one with this skin, it's gem in the top is modelled on the tormented gems found in domain of anguish, specifically the Margonite Gemstone. And so, what attributes is it available in? Domination. Yes, that's it... domination. Fantastic.

Exhibit D: the Serpentine Sceptre:
To put this in perspective, though this skin is gorgeous, it's only available in the same attributes as the pronged fan; so, unless you're running as a mesmer, you're pretty-much screwed from the start. Add to this the fact that the serpent sceptre is also only available from the end chest in Urgoz or The Deep, and those two elite areas start to look a little prejudiced in favour of the mesmers.

And finally, Exhibit E: the Rose Focus and Gwen's Flute:
These items are only available from quest rewards. They are unique skins and quite beautiful to behold, but again, they only come in specific mesmer attributes. The Rose is a fast casting focus item, and the flute is, once again, inspiration. Now, the quests are hard enough to do, but to be rewarded with a single mesmer focus is useless unless you're a mesmer.

Though this rant has been mainly about lovely skins of weapons (which, I'll admit, make no difference to the effectiveness of the character) I can't help feeling that perhaps the developers felt sorry for the mesmers. The mesmer is perhaps the most undervalued profession in guild wars, perhaps this is arena net's way to encourage more people to play them.