Guide:Mesmer

The Mesmer profession is designed around disruption and shut down. In PvE, Mesmers are generally less useful than other classes. Their primary attribute provides very little benefit and while their spells generally deal armor-ignoring damage, they often only target single foes. Most Mesmers in PvE will fall back on PvE-only skills or skills from other classes to get by. In PvP, however, Mesmers serve one of the most important roles. A few well placed spells by a Mesmer can put an opposing team at a massive disadvantage and even win the game. They can hamper the pressure being caused by frontliners or disrupt support from midliners and backliners.

Mesmer armor has a maximum armor rating of 60, provides 2 extra pips of energy regeneration, and an additional 10 energy.

Primary Weapon
The Mesmer's primary weapons are the Staff, Wand, and Focus.

Staves are two-handed projectile weapons that can be linked to any of the four Mesmer attributes and deal Chaos damage. Their maximum damage range is 11 to 22 and their attack rate is 1.75. Being ranged weapons, they receive a damage bonus against targets on a lower elevation and a penalty against targets on a higher elevation. They have a maximum +10 energy bonus and a 20% chance to half the recharge time on Spells.

Wands are one-handed projectile weapons that can be linked to any of the four Mesmer attributes and deal Chaos damage. Their maximum damage range is 11 to 22 and their attack rate is 1.75. Being ranged weapons, they receive a damage bonus against targets on a lower elevation and a penalty against targets on a higher elevation.

Foci are off-hand items usable when wielding a one-handed weapon. They can be linked to any of the four Mesmer attributes. A focus will provide a maximum energy bonus of 12, but requires investment in their linked attribute to gain the full bonus.

Primary Attribute: Fast Casting

 * Fast Casting decreases the casting time of your Spells. Additionally, each rank in this attribute decreases your Signet activation times by 3%

Fast Casting is an important attribute for Mesmers since many of their best spells have been given otherwise excessive casting times. Fast Casting affects spells and signets from all professions so Mesmers are often used when spells with long casting times from other professions are required in a build, but interruptions from Rangers and other Mesmers are expected. The most common example in current gameplay are Mesmers with Water Magic hexes. Skills from this attribute include Arcane Languor, Mantra of Recovery, and Power Return.

A chart showing how casting and activation times are affected by Fast Casting can be found here.

Domination Magic

 * No inherent effect. Many Mesmer skills, especially spells that disrupt spell-casting and deal direct damage, become more effective with higher Domination Magic. 

Domination Magic focuses on interrupting, energy denial, and discouraging enemies from attacking or casting. Most spells will causing damage or disable skills when the target's skills are interrupted or used. This is the second most common line for Mesmers to invest in since many of their best spells are here, such as Diversion and Shame. Other common skills from this line include Visions of Regret, Power Block, and Wastrel's Worry.

Illusion Magic

 * No inherent effect. Many Mesmer skills, especially spells which deceive your foes and hinder their movement and attacks, become more effective with higher Illusion Magic.

Illusion Magic is the least common Mesmer attribute. It focuses on degeneration, hindering the movement and attacks of melee classes, and increasing the target's casting times. Examples of Illusion Magic skills include Distortion, Ineptitude, Frustration, and Conjure Phantasm.

Inspiration Magic

 * No inherent effect. Many Mesmer skills, especially spells that generate energy and reduce damage, become more effective with higher Inspiration Magic.

The most common Mesmer attribute, Inspiration Magic, focuses mainly on energy gain. Many of the spells a Mesmer will use are costly in terms of Energy. Inspiration Magic has some key skills which allow a Mesmer to do their expected role whilst keeping their blue bar full. Skills such as Power Drain which interrupts spells and gives back a respectable amount of Energy. Commonly seen skills from this line are Mantra of Flame, Channeling, and Drain Enchantment.

PvP

 * Fast Cast Water Mesmers became popular to try and counter Power Block Mesmers. Since the bar consists almost entirely of Water Magic spells, a single interrupted skill effectively meant your Elementalist was useless for 15-20 seconds. Even though Power Block Mesmers are less common, Rangers are very common so they will still see play.
 * The Psychic Distraction Mesmer is a shut down build seen in HA. It's responsible for keeping as many key skills out of play as possible through interruption, disabling, and enchantment stripping. Psychic Distraction will interrupt skills even when interruption has been prevented by skills such as Song of Concentration because it will still disable the skill, making it impossible for the skill to activate when it finishes casting.
 * The Energy Surge Mesmer is a standard Domination Magic Mesmer that brings the elite skill Energy Surge for damage assistance and energy denial.