Greetings fellow Mesmers and newcomers to this lovely profession! The purpose of this thread is to help you as much as possible to get into the profession. I’ll do my best to give you some tips and also explain various aspects about the Mesmer. I will largely be discussing the PvP aspect of the Mesmer and more than likely will not be touching the PvE side. All information (builds, thoughts, comments, etc.) are related to PvP, so please keep this in mind.
This guide is far from done but I’m releasing it now so people who don’t play Mesmer may get a chance to learn more about the profession and decide if this is the correct one for them. When the game is released, I’ll go through this guide again and edit it accordingly with the most up to date information available.
-- For some reason images and such are getting scaled down, working on that! If you have anything to add or anything, be free to PM me --
Mesmers are maestros of mirage. They weave mental magic that confounds, controls, or evokes emotion in their enemies. With a wave of the hand, they can shatter their own illusions to produce even greater special effects. As a scholar profession, mesmers wear light armor.
The mesmer profession is capable of producing a good amount of control or burst when needed. At the moment the mesmer excels at 1v1 and 1v2 in sPvP compared to a larger fight where they tend to fall a bit off compared to other professions. This doesn't mean it's not useful in a 4v4, since we have Chaos Storm, Time Wrap, Stealth and we are good at removing conditions and boons to help our allies.
You may use a lot of different builds with your Mesmer. Some of them are based around shattering your illusions, while others will make you stronger for keeping an illusion up. If you like a profession where you can be difficult to kill once you master: The use of illusions, shatters and other subsequent tools given to us through weapons, then you will love this mind twisting Mesmer.
Furthermore, if you’re looking for a profession which is hard to master (in my opinion) and enjoy being rewarded for outplaying the opponent, then I would definitely recommend Mesmer. You can really feel when you outplay an opponent and trust me, it feels great!
There are ten possible weapon sets for this profession and two while underwater. The mesmer can switch between two weapon sets while in combat.
I'll go through each weapon and explain the use of the skills, and my thoughts on each weapon.
- Two-handed
- Greatsword — Used as a ranged weapon
- Staff — Focuses on giving conditions to foes and boons to allies
- This is a pretty straight forward skill: The further away you are, the more damage it does to your target. However, remember that if you create clones through dodging, they will copy your #1 attack. So in this case, you will have a couple of clones doing laser beams from a distance. Also, it makes a sound that you will either hate or love.
- If you are using GS, this skill can be pretty good if you use it well. It'll bounce fairly fast and do decent damage, plus it leaves an illusion at the start. The boon you receive is Might which increases your damage.
- This is the strongest burst you have as a GS user. It applies 5 stacks of vulnerability for 6 seconds. You’re able to stack it up further through traits and other weapons. As a side note, I’m not sure if this is a bug or working as intended but at the moment if someone leaves your LoS, you may still hit him so long as he is in range of your spell.
- A really strong phantasm, it is also extremely annoying for the enemy due to its way of attacking. It basically spins through your enemy and applies a cripple and damages everyone it hits in its spin. This means it puts itself at a distance from the enemy, so he will have to use a specific target spell or wait until it's in range, though it spins really fast.
- A good spell to peel for someone, protect yourself or knock someone away from a capture point. The range on the knockback is pretty good, and you can really set a distance between you and your enemies if you time it well.
- Greatsword Training - +50 power while wielding a greatsword.
The GS is a decent weapon at best. I wouldn’t use it in competitive play as a main weapon given the way it is now. It lacks the survivability and mobility when compared to some of the other weapons you have in your toolbox.
I’d still suggest using it in casual sPvP so you can get used to it. It’s worth mentioning that getting the trait which allows your illusions to apply a bleed on crit is a fast way of applying several crits, so long as you put a Sigil of Earth into it, since you will be doing this from a distance.
- This is a pretty good spam spell. When you spawns illusions while wielding this weapon, they will copy this attack. They might not inflict huge damage, but the conditions or boons from those attacks are the real deal. Your illusions applied burning, it scales with your burning stats. So in theory it's pretty good damage from illusions.
- An amazing spell. You can use this to escape from someone. It's also on a fairly low cooldown. It's a great counter to those professions that rely on being in range to deal damage. Just remember, it won't break a stun.
- A good range on this phantasm, and he works really well with your #1 attack. His damage will increase really fast. It's 10% extra PER unique applied condition. It's really worth the use, but watch out with shattering it, or replacing it too fast; its cooldown is sadly rather long.
- An amazing spell. Probably one of the best a mesmer has for almost anything. You're fighting a thief or warrior sitting on you? Pop that combined with a chaos storm, and they will be pretty scared. It also works on ranged attacks.
- Again a Chaos spell. Both Chaos Armor & Storm both amazing. This is such a great spell for defending a capture point as it almost takes up the entire space, leaving them to take damage and conditions while the mesmer gains boons. It's brilliant in a larger team fight as well.
- Another thing is the psychological aspect of it. A lot of people see this huge storm and they rather stay away until it ends. Basically, if people back down from staying in the storm you will have time to gain the advantage, get your health back up, conditions on you will most likely decrease and so forth.
- Chaotic Dampening - +50 toughness while wielding a staff.
It's really amazing. It does everything. It gives you offensive pressure, defensive boons and situations. You can escape from someone. It's one of the best weapons for a mesmer in sPvP by far. The utility is just too great to say no to. It offers so much utility as well, plus the iWarlock does a good amount of damage from a far distance.
Ether Bolt → 
Ether Blast → 
Ether Clone- This is a Chain spell. Basically you attack a target one time, and it'll do the Ether Bolt, you then have the option to use Ether Blast for a few seconds.
- This opens the last stage of the chain, Ether Clone, which in this case is a little higher damage and you create an illusion. It's a decent #1 because the damage isn't the worst, however you should really watch out with overriding important illusions/phantasms through the spam of this skill.
- If you use Illusionary counter, you will block an attack. However, if you use Illusionary Counter but it doesn't seem anyone is going to attack you, then you can terminate the counter and use Counter Spell, which will blind your enemy. However it doesn't do both.
- It's a decent spell, but the cooldown is rather long. 12 seconds until you can block again, and if you use it mindlessly you won't block an important spell, so it's rather tricky to use efficiently. Remember that you don't have to stand still for the block to work.
- This spell is pretty much the main reason you would use Scepter. It's a channel spell where it attacks the enemy 5 times if you channel it from the start until the end. Each attack it'll deal damage and apply a stack of Confusion.
- Malicious Sorcery -+50 Malice when wielding a scepter.
It's decent for a confusion build since you can spam illusions and apply confusion with each shatter, plus 5 stacks on a target from 1 spell is good. I still think the #2 needs some tweaking or improvements in my opinion. The Scepter doesn't really allow burst, but more damage over time.
The sword can be used in both slots and 2 swords at the same time if that is what you want. I've split them up so you can see what you gain from each hand.
Main-hand
- This is another Chain spell. It's really great and I use it a lot when I'm playing. It deals decent damage, and first 2 attacks apply vulnerability, however the 3rd deals huge damage and it removes a boon from the target. That is really good.
- Most likely one of the best spell for a mesmer in the game. It's incredible, I love it with all my mesmer heart. You can use this to avoid damage, deal huge damage to everyone in front of you. The only downside of the spell is that you stand still while channeling it, but you can interrupt the channel if target should break your CC or run away. It works really well with proc sigils such as Earth and Air as well.
- Another spell which is insanely good for a mesmer, the is our only real gap closer. The way it works is that you send out an illusion which applies cripple, and you can then for a few seconds swap position with the illusion. This action will immobilize the target for 2 seconds which leaves a good window to use Blurred Frenzy. The cooldown isn't bad either.
- Works the same way as your #2 on Scepter.
- If you use Illusionary counter, you will block an attack. However, if you use Illusionary Riposte, but it doesn't seem anyone is going to attack you, then you can terminate the counter and use Counter Blade, which will Daze your enemy. However it doesn't do both.
- Not really worth relying on in my opinion.
Phantasmal Swordsman- This phantasm behaves like a ranged one staying still while the skill is on cooldown. On refresh he re-leaps at the target. It'll deal around 2k damage per leap and if you are specced into illusion damage it can crit for around 4.5k, however I think the leap is too slow and it just stands and waits for next leap to be up. Easy to avoid as well.
- Blade Training - +50 precision while wielding a sword.
Main-hand
The main-hand is amazing and really allows your mesmer to be offensive while still keeping a lot of measures to escape, defend yourself and in general be a threat. This is a weapon I use all the time on my own mesmer. Really worth trying.
Off-hand
It has some potential, the #4 can be decent if you get the benefit of dazing all people in a line each target, and the #5 will do decent damage as well, but as I've said - It's trick to rely on as it can so easily be ruined.
Temporal Curtain- This is a really good spell. It's great for the mobility which a mesmer deeply lacks compared to a lot of other professions. This speeds you up and slows the enemy, however the Focus itself isn't that much of a good off-hand either.
- Temporal Curtain when activated you can activate again and it will drag all enemies into the middle of the curtain.
Phantasmal Warden- This is decent, it reflects all projectiles but the issue why I don't like this spell is that it's staying stationary while doing so. You move around a lot in sPvP and a lot of enemies can easily put out of position with spells. It's just not worth relying on.
- Warden's Feedback - Focus skills reflect projectiles.
The mobility this offers is great, but besides that it's not worth running around with. Unless they change the #5 I think it'll stay like this for a long time.
Phantasmal Duelist- One of your highest damage spells in the game. It'll unload upon an enemy with 8 attacks each time. It deals really good damage, and it works really well with the trait where illusions apply bleeding on crit combined with the Fury on illusions.
- Another insanely good spell overall for sPvP. It'll do 3 shots where the first target it hits is stunned for 2 seconds, the 2nd is dazed for 2 seconds and the 3rd is blinded for 5 seconds. This offers good CC which is needed for other our damage to work.
- Duelist's Discipline - Increases pistol attack range for you and your illusions.
This is by far the best off-hand for a mesmer at the moment it offers everything you want as a mesmer, utility, control and damage. The iDuelist is great for stacking up bleeds, he attacks fast and does a good amount of damage. The pistol is really amazing for 1v1 or a larger team fight.
The Prestige- This gives stealth for 3 seconds and blinds enemies for 5 seconds, and when the stealth ends you will inflict everyone with burning for 3 seconds. The damage is decent, and it is a great escape tool, but you can easily access the needed tools through utility instead if needed.
- One really good thing about this spell is that it's multiplied for each target it hits. So if you hit 2 targets, the burning will last for 6 seconds. I think this goes all the way up to 15 sconds, or more. I've at least got it to 15~ seconds.
- It'll apply retaliation to allies and confusion to its target which lasts 9 seconds. That is quite a while, but it's not really anything impressive. It requires you to be close to get the boon, the damage it deals isn't impressive either.
- Cleansing Conflagration - Torch skills remove conditions.
It's decent for a condition based build, but as I said you can easily find the tools in Utility if needed. I would hope for a change to #5 in order for this to be really useful.
I've honestly not done any underwater combat at all, so I'll wait with judging these weapons.
Feigned Surge
Siren's Call
Ineptitude
Spinning Revenge
Illusionary Whaler
Illusion of Drowning
I'll not be spending too much time on this section pre-release, due to several reasons. We currently don't even know if the traits are going to be completely changed from now and until release. Another reason is that people cannot really use these builds anyway except for Stress Tests. I'm not saying all builds that I'm going to create will be viable for top play, but the game isn't only about top play. Some of these builds are just for fun, or perhaps they will all be viable when game is released. No one knows.
I'll try to give a couple of examples on builds, I'm not saying they are all as viable but this is hard to say on the other hand as none really know how it will be when the game is released. It all depends on how you build your team composition as well.
Build
Amulet
- Berserker
- Earth
- Air
- Divnity
- Scholar
Build
Amulet
- Carrison
- Earth
- Air
- Ice
- Nightmare
Build
Build
Amulet
- Berserker
- Earth
- Air
- Hydromancy
- Scholar
Build
Amulet
- d
- E
- A
- I
- N
Build
Amulet
- Berserker
- Earth
- Air
- Divnity
Build
Amulet
- C
- E
- A
- I
- N
Shatters and illusions are what seperates mesmer from other profession. I'll explain the shatters fairly quickly and go through the use of each of them.
Traits affecting all shatters
Domination
- Rending Shatter - Shattering illusions causes vulnerability for 8 seconds to nearby enemies.
- Shattered Concentration - Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit.
- Restorative Illusions - Heal a small amount when you shatter illusions.
- Shattered Conditions - Using a shatter skill removes a condition.
- Vigorous Revelation - Shattering illusions grants vigor to nearby allies.
- Illusionary Retribution - All shatter skills inflict confusion.
- Illusionary Invigoration - Recharge all of your shatter skills at 50% health (90-second cooldown).
- Illusionary Persona - Shattering illusions creates the shatter effect on you as well.
- Shattered Strength - Shattering illusions gives you might.
Destroy all your clones and phantasms, damaging nearby foes. 15 seconds cooldown.- This is used as your burst, often you want to have 3 illusions up for maximum damage, but not always needed. When you activate shatter, you can summon new illusions without them overriding the current ones because they are already "set to explode" if you may say so. This is a good thing to keep in mind.
Domination
- Mental Torment - Mind Wrack causes 20% more damage.
- Precise Wrack - 10% higher critical-hit chance with Mind Wrack.
Destroy all your clones and phantasms, confusing nearby foes. 30 seconds cooldown.- If you are anything except for condition based this isn't worth using, unless the target already has confusion stacks on him or you are traited for a condition removal, healing or something. As this really lacks damage output, compared to often keeping illusions up. Though it's very situation based, so play around with it a little and see when you feel it's right to use.
Illusions
- Confusing Cry - Cry of Frustration grants retaliation.
Destroy all your clones and phantasms, dazing their target. 45 seconds cooldown.- This is a really strong shatter, but it's important to remember that daze cannot stack in this game, so if you are using daze when 3 illusions are already at the target, they will all daze and it'll only be 1 second. Though, if you have a ranged illusion up, and a melee you can daze with the melee and then the ranged illusion will reach your target a couple of seconds after. This is really good to mess with people. Rather long cooldown, so save it for when you can interrupt a heal or when they are about to set up a rotation of damage on you.
Illusions
- Imbued Diversion - Diversion hits multiple targets.
Destroy all your clones and phantasms, gaining Distortion for each one shattered. 60 seconds cooldown.- A really good spell, it's really strong. You can use it during CC as well, this makes it possible to completely block the damage when an elementalist knocks you down, a warrior hits his stun and is going all out with his hundred blades. You can also you this while channeling a stomp which secures a 100% kill. It's really great, but make sure not to use it bad as you will end up being punished for it and the cooldown is rather long. And always try to get 3 illusions if you can, but it's not always needed.
Illusions
- Masterful Reflection - Distortion grants reflection.
Illusions — Have the caster's appearance, main-hand weapon, and name. Clones are attributed with low health, low damage and will use the slot 1 skill associated with the caster's weapon. These are often the ones you want to shatter, use as meat shield to block projectiles and such. They are fairly easy to generate.
Phantasms — Have the caster's appearance with a purple glow, but have the name of the skill (e.g. Illusionary Duelist) instead of the caster's name. They have their own weapons that range in different appearances and behaviors. Phantasms are attributed with higher health and higher damage than clones.
It's important to keep this in mind as you can someone lose a fight if you used your shatter wrong, and killed those 2 phantasms you just created.
I'll go through the spells available to pick from where we have signets, mantras, utility and 3 elites. This will help you get a better understand of the spells.
