“When I’m done with you, you won’t trust your own mind.”
The Mesmer class is rather different from your typical warrior and wizard classes. To me, the class was entirely new, which was refreshing. I know the class also existed in the original Guild Wars game, but I’ve never played that myself, sadly. The mesmer is a master of illusion and mindgames. They are able to create clones identical to themselves to confuse the enemy and summon powerful illusions to fight by their side. I’d like to share with you a basic guide to the abilities of the Mesmer.
Weapon sets
Mesmers are able to switch between 2 different weapon sets during combat. I will list a brief description of each usable weapon below. Obviosuly, you may combine any main hand weapon with any off hand weapon as one set. A two hand weapon counts as one set. In this guide, I won’t cover the underwater combat.
Note: The weapon descriptions are how I personally see, experience and use them.
- Staff (two hands) – Condition damage, defense and support, Warlock phantasm
- Greatsword (two hands) – High damage, crowd control, Berserler phantasm
- Scepter (main hand) – Confusion, quick clone generator
- Sword (main hand) – Close ranged combat, inflict vulnerabllity
- Pistol (off hand) – Daze multiple targets, Duelist phantasm
- Torch (off hand) – Invisibility, fire damage, Mage phantasm
- Focus (off hand) – Movement speed, Warden phantasm
- Sword (off hand) – Block attacks, Swordsman phantasm
Illusions and phantasms
Since a while ago, both illusions and phantasms are called illusions, but I and other players prefer to keep naming them seperately, because they are definitely not the same. A mesmer can have a total of 3 illusions and/or phantasms active at once and can use one of the 4 shatter skills (F1-F4) to make them run towards the target for a powerful blow, causing damage, confusion or daze to targets within the area and destroying (or shattering, if you will) all active illusions.
Illusions
Illusions are clones that look exactly like the mesmer and uses the basic attack of the weapon the mesmer was using at the moment it was created. Illusions do not damage the target, but they can apply conditions and be affected by boons (buffs). Illusions are easier to kill than the mesmer, but harder to kill than the phantasms. Also, they have the same name and guild tag as your mesmer, which is a very good way to trick your enemies into attacking one of your illusions instead of you.
Phantasms
Phantasms also somewhat resemble the mesmer, but are easily recognizable as an illusion. They are pink and transparent looking and can weild different weapons and use different skills than the mesmer. They deal high damage but are very fragile. There are kinds of phantasms:
- Phantasmal Warlock – Wields a scepter and deals damage depending on the amount of conditions currently on the target. The more conditions, the higher the damage
- Phantasmal Berserker – Wields a greatsword and deals damage to multiple targets it crosses in its path and cripples them
- Phantasmal Duelist – Wields dual pistols and damages the target
- Phantasmal Mage – Wields no weapon, damages and confuses to the target
- Phantasmal Warden – Wields dual axes, damages targets in the area and reflects projectiles
- Phantasmal Swordsman- Wields a sword, leaps at the target to cause damage
- Phantasmal Disenchanter – Slot skill, attacks the target removes conditions from allies and boons from foes
- Phantasmal Defender – Slot skill, attacks the target and absorbs 50% of the damage you would take
I’ve made a video showing all the phantasms, please feel free to watch!
(And please excuse my poor video editing skills, I’m just getting started 
)
Traits
Starting at level 11, your Mesmer will gain one trait point per level to spend on traits. There are always those elitists who claim that only one “build” is the way to go, but I am a firm believer in building your character the way you like it and having a unique playstyle. I have no idea whether my build is common or not, I just got to where I am by trial and error. Never heard any teammates complain at least, and it’s enjoyable for me, so I’m happy with it! =) I chose my build based on what I like, which is condition damage, survivability and Phantasms.
- Domination: Gives you power and condition duration passives and is often used by Greatsword users.
- Dueling – Gives you precision and critical damage passives and benefits mantra, sword, pistol and phantasm users
- Chaos – Gives you toughness and boon duration passives and benefits staff and trident users and people who don’t want to be squishy
- Inspiration – Gives you healing and vitality passives and has a lot of nice skills to make phantasms more powerful
- Illusions – Gives you condition damage and shattering passives and is very useful for Shatterers or people who like to inflict confusion on foes
It’s difficult to find the right build for you, but I strongly suggest you to try out different builds instead of blindly following what other people think is good. It should be all about what you like, and Guild Wars 2 is a pretty balanced game, so no build can actually be horrible. All builds have their pros and cons in different situations. Resetting your traits is cheap and easy to do at any trainer for your class. You’re probably still going to want to switch from time to time if you like to do both PVP and PVE.
Now, if you are looking for what is considered to be “the best” build by most people, I can tell you about three common builds that you could look up.
The Shatterer Build
Focus on recharging your Shatter skills and spawning illusions and phantasms quickly so you can deal massive damage on multiple enemies by shattering all of your illusions.
The Mantra Build
Focus on optimizing the amount of mantras you can cast and the damage they cause.
The Phantasm/Army Build
Focus on giving your Phantasms more power and survivability so they can deal even more damage and become less fragile.
Final words
Well, there you have it, a general guide to the abilities of a mesmer. I hope you found this useful! Please feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. Any feedback will be most appreciated as well. Thank you for reading and have a great day!
Liviya.
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