Mesmer



Mesmers are experts in indirect damage and subtle magic, focusing on manipulation of the target to sway the events of battle to their favor. Mesmers are considered by some to be a unique profession in Guild Wars. The Mesmer is a profession with a steep learning curve; to become a talented mesmer, it is important to know not only your own skills and abilities, but those of every other profession in the game. This is perhaps why a mesmer is generally one of the least used characters in PvE. Related to this, it can also be difficult for players who create PvE Mesmers to be accepted into PUGs because their focus is considered biased towards PvP. Mesmers are best suited in preventing their opponent from achieving their goals, whether that be to heal, cast spells, or attack. In order to do this they make use of a multitude of spells, hexes and enchantments.

The patron goddess of the mesmer is Lyssa.

The Primary Mesmer's base armor provides low protection, +10 Energy and +2 Energy Recovery. A starting Primary Mesmer can expect to have 30 Maximum Energy and 4 Energy Recovery.

A majority of the mesmer's damage-dealing skills ignore armor, meaning that they will do equal damage to a Warrior with 80AL as to an Elementalist with 60AL.

Mesmers are generally thought of as a PvP oriented character, as opposed as PvE. GvG teams will nearly always have at least one mesmer in their ranks. Also, they are considered the most annoying of all professions in the game - after a monk, a PvP team will generally target the mesmer. Sometimes, the team must target the mesmer before the monk.

Attributes

 * Fast Casting (Primary): Increases the speed with which you can cast spells. Although Fast Casting has limited skills attributed to it, the passive effects of being able to unleash spells at a faster rate than other professions makes it a valuable resource to the mesmer.
 * Fast Casting skills

The remaining three mesmer attributes, which can be used by primary and secondary mesmers alike, are Domination Magic, Illusion Magic and Inspiration Magic. They are related to damaging (your opponent with direct damage and punishments), altering (your own effectiveness, or your opponent's effectiveness through hexes or health degen) and restoring (your energy and health) respectively.


 * Domination Magic: No inherent effect. Domination skills alter some aspect of the opponent making them receive damage as a consequence of carrying out a common action, such as attacking or casting a spell. Domination is also the most interrupt-heavy line.
 * Domination Magic skills
 * Illusion Magic: No inherent effect. Illusion skills will change a foe's perception into thinking something is happening that is not real; this can result in damage to the foe (ie. Conjure Phantasm), or a convenient advantage for the Mesmer (ie. Illusion of Weakness).
 * Illusion Magic skills
 * Inspiration Magic: No inherent effect. Inspiration skills focus on the flow of Energy. This can be in the form of draining a foe's Energy pool and/or increasing your own. They are also home to mantras, plus many signet-related skills.
 * Inspiration Magic skills
 * Unlinked Mesmer Skills

Unlike other professions, such as Elementalists, skills within a Mesmer attribute are not always related to each other by any easily defined barriers. Because skills within an attribute can focus on many and very different goals, you will often see Mesmers utilizing all four attributes at once.

Profession Combinations
see Secondary professions for a Mesmer

Related Articles

 * Skills quick reference
 * Skills by category
 * Stance skills quick reference
 * Mesmer armor
 * Index of Mesmer weapons
 * Effective mesmer guide
 * Mesmer dance information
 * Mesmer quick references (category)
 * Mesmer elite skill locations

Trivia

 * The Mesmer class is probably a nod to Franz Anton Mesmer, who discovered what he called magnétisme animal (animal magnetism) and others often called mesmerism, from where the word 'mesmerize' comes from.