Mesmer

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Mesmers are magical duelists who wield deception as a weapon. Using powerful illusions, clones, and phantasmal magic to ensure that their enemies can’t believe their own eyes, mesmers tip the balance of every fight in their favor.

— GuildWars2.com Mesmer

Mesmer is a profession of masters of deception and misdirection who create and shatter illusions as their profession mechanic. Illusions are ethereal creations mimicking the mesmer, employed to both fool their enemies and attack them. Mesmers then shatter their illusions in the blink of an eye to annihilate their dumbfounded enemies. As a scholar profession, mesmers wear light armor.

Mesmers who venture into the Heart of Maguuma with the Heart of Thorns expansion can choose to become chronomancers, empowering their shatters and gaining control over time itself to slow down foes and speed up allies, and even travel back in time.

Mesmers that traverse the Crystal Desert and the Kingdom of Elona with the Path of Fire expansion can choose to become mirages, elusive duelists who blend with their clones while cloaking in the desert sands to dodge attacks, or ambushing and creating deceptions.

Mesmers who wander the Canthan Empire of the Dragon with the End of Dragons expansion can choose to become virtuosos, foregoing their clones to manifest sharp psionic skills and blades to rain damage upon their enemies.

Abilities

Profession mechanic

Illusions

As masters of misdirection, mesmers create Illusions to help them in combat. They come in two types: Phantasms and clones.

• Phantasms: phantasms are semi-transparent ethereal creations focused on doing damage. Phantasms are ephemeral, they are invoked to attack a target with their high damage, but disappear after performing their special attack. When they disappear, a clone appears automatically in their location. There is no limit to the number of Phantasms that a mesmer can invoke at the same time.
• Clones: clones are perfect copies of the mesmer whose main function is to confuse enemies, who will not be able to differentiate the mesmer from their clones. Clones only use the basic attack chain to attack, their damage and attack speed is very limited, and they are relatively fragile. Clones are created automatically when a Phantasm disappears, or directly with Clone skills. Clones last for as long as they have health and their target does not die, or until the mesmer Shatters them. A mesmer can only summon three clones at any time.

Primary article: Illusion

Shatter

Primary article: Shatter

Mesmers are capable of shattering their clones at will for various effects.

  Mind Wrack — Shatter. Destroy all your clones, damaging nearby foes. The shatter effect also occurs at your location.

  Cry of Frustration — Shatter. Destroy all your clones, confusing nearby foes. The shatter effect also occurs at your location.

  Diversion — Shatter. Destroy all your clones, dazing their targets. The shatter effect also occurs at your location.

  Distortion — Shatter. Gain distortion and destroy all your clones, gaining additional distortion for each one shattered.

Mesmers also enjoy a wide variety of skills which allow them to avoid attacks, either by blocking and counterattacking, evasion, or by using stealth magic. Mesmers are adept at inflicting  Confusion on their enemies — a condition which causes the mesmer's enemies to take damage each time they use a skill and stacks in intensity.

Skills

Primary article: List of mesmer skills

Utility skill types

• Illusion — There are two types of illusions:
  • Clone — Clone skills require a target to summon a clone, or clones.
  • Phantasm — Phantasm skills require a target, they summon a phantasm that rushes to the target, activates its special attack, and disappears leaving behind a clone.
• Glamour — Glamours are utility skills that create ethereal fields on the ground, which have helpful effects on allies, or harmful effects on enemies.
• Manipulation — Manipulations are utility skills used to evade attacks, mislead opponents, redirect forces or simply to escape from a deadly situation.
• Mantra — Mantras are skills that must be prepared before use, and provide the mesmer and nearby allies with a beneficial effect upon doing so. Once prepared, they become skills with replenishing charges that can be activated even in the middle of other action to harm enemies or support allies.
• Signet — Signets grant passive effects while equipped, and produce a powerful effect when activated. The passive effect is lost while the signet recharges.

Skills unique to elite specializations

• Chronomancer: Well — Wells are placed on the ground and tick down to provide positive effects to allies, or negatives to enemies, before exploding to create a more powerful effect.
• Mirage: Deception — Deceptions focus on making the mirage even more elusive and confounding enemies.
• Virtuoso: Psionic — Psionics focus on damage dealing and providing the virtuoso blades.

Specializations

Mesmers have five core specializations, and three elite specializations:

Core

 Domination — Focuses on removing boons, applying vulnerability, and interrupting targets. May enhance greatsword and phantasm skills.

 Dueling — Focuses on critical hits. May increase the mesmer's elusiveness, and enhance pistol and sword skills.

 Chaos — Focuses on defense, granting allies boons, improving the effects of regeneration, increasing boon duration and condition duration, and improving condition damage while under the effects of Chaos Aura. May enhance staff, trident, and manipulation skills.

 Inspiration — Focuses on defense, support, and healing. May enhance focus, signet, glamour, and mantra skills.

 Illusions — Focuses on creating and shattering clones, reduces the recharge of shatter skills. May enhance shatter, phantasm, and torch skills.

Elite

 Chronomancer — Focuses on time control through alacrity, quickness, and slow. Grants access to shield, well skills, and replaces Shatter skills with Chronomancer shatters, including Continuum Split, enabling the chronomancer to travel back in time.

 Mirage — Focuses on condition damage and elusiveness. Grants access to mainhand axe, deception skills, and replaces dodge with access to Mirage Cloak, during which ambush skills may be used.

 Virtuoso — Focuses on ranged damage. Replaces clones with blades and shatters with bladesongs. Grants access to mainhand dagger and psionic skills.

Traits

See list of mesmer traits.

Equipment

Armor

The mesmer is a scholar profession and wears light armor.

Weapons

See also detailed list of mesmer weapon skills. Each of the Mesmer's two-handed or offhand weapons have access to a phantasm.

• Two-handed
  • Greatsword — Long-ranged weapon with powerful area damage. Its clones and phantasms will be summoned at target's position to distract the enemies. Its phantasm deals damage in melee range.
  • Rifle — Long-range support weapon packed with healing and tools to help your allies, such as a one-way portal that an ally can use to teleport to the mesmer. (Expanded Weapon Proficiency)
  • Staff — Long-ranged weapon mainly for defense that randomly grants conditions to foes and boons to allies. Its clones and phantasms will be summoned at the mesmer's position and attack from range. Its phantasm inflicts torment from range.

• Main-hand
  • Axe — Melee weapon that inflicts various damaging conditions, and allows you to retarget your clones. (Mirage specialization or Weaponmaster Training)
  • Dagger — Long-ranged weapon that inflict, piercing, multi-hitting attacks that all count as blades. (Virtuoso specialization or Weaponmaster Training)
  • Sword — Melee weapon that engages fights quickly and evasively.
  • Scepter — Medium-ranged weapon that creates clones quickly, blocks enemy attacks, and inflicts various damaging conditions.

• Off-hand
  • Focus — Improves your movement speed and impedes the enemies'. Its phantasm has a powerful multi-hit whirl that also protects from projectiles.
  • Pistol — Disable multiple enemies at once. Its phantasm causes high multi-hit damage against a target.
  • Shield — Offers boons and stuns. Its phantasm slows foes and provides protection to nearby allies. (Chronomancer specialization or Weaponmaster Training)
  • Sword — Blocks enemy attacks. Its phantasm deals very high damage to enemies in melee range.
  • Torch — Gives an area blind and burn attack which also makes you briefly stealthed. Its phantasm burns, confuses, and interrupts enemies.

• Aquatic
  • Spear — Melee weapon that maneuvers yourself and the enemies. Its phantasm evades and deals rapid, multi-hitting, attacks.
  • Trident — Long-ranged weapon that applies various conditions and boons. Its phantasm inflicts multiple stacks of confusion.

There are twelve possible weapon sets for this profession and two while underwater. The mesmer can switch between two weapon sets while in combat.

Crafting

The following crafting disciplines can create items that are useful to the mesmer:

• Weaponsmith — Greatswords, axes, daggers, shields, spears, swords.
• Huntsman — Pistols, rifles, torches.
• Artificer — Foci, scepters, staves, tridents.
• Tailor — Light armor.
• Jeweler — Jewelry.
• Chef — Food.

Personal story

In the biography step of character creation, mesmers must decide the mask that they wear. This choice is merely cosmetic and determines their starting head armor, which can be hidden or transmuted after character creation.

A mesmer's mask creates an image. I choose to look out from behind a _____.
	Harlequin's Smile ("harlequin's smile") — It takes bravery to face your fears and seize your victories. Never let them see you without a smile.
	Phantasm of Sorrow ("phantasm of sorrow") — I show the world a face lined by tragedy. Too bad you can't see behind the mask—to know whether I'm secretly laughing or not.
	Fanged Dread ("fanged dread") — I'm a whisper in the night, eyes that glow in darkness. I stand in shadow, and my mask is the monster you fear.

Lore

Mesmer magic draws on chaos magic, and historically, within the now-unfashionable "four schools" model of magic, focused on the school of Denial. Mesmers pride themselves on their ability to inspire, and work hard to engender trust in those who might be suspicious of their illusions, even if they have to use deceptions to do so. To this end, the mesmer community is highly secretive, and they rarely share knowledge of their more powerful abilities—such as creating illusions in the mind of a single target—with outsiders.

Mesmers routinely cast convincing illusions, including clones of themselves and phantasms, some of which have substance, so their magic is more than just tricking people’s minds, as they have a substantial mental power at their command. However, they do have control over what people see or how they see it, so that things that aren’t really there seem to be, and things that are really there seem not to be, as mesmers are manipulating the fabric of reality—this control is limited by their power and experience in casting illusions. Instead of a pure mind control, however, most mesmers use spells to create something like a post-hypnotic suggestion rather than turning a sentient being into their puppet. The most powerful mesmers might be able to exert a genuine mind control, but if they can, they are keeping it a secret to prevent the creation of countermeasures. The Mesmer Collective is an invite-only organization of unknown purpose.

Amongst human mesmers, Lyssa is often worshipped as their matron goddess. The decline of humanity and the rise of other races have affected the weaponry used by mesmers, with norn introducing greatswords and charr introducing pistols.

Notable mesmers

See also: Category:Mesmer NPCs

• Countess Anise
• Faolain
• Gwen Thackeray
• Kasmeer Meade
• McLeod the Silent
• Queen Dahlah
• Queen Jennah
• Xera

Gallery

Concept art

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Pre-launch promotional screenshots

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Icons

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  Official icon

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  Official icon

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  Official icon

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  Wiki icon

Renders

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  Small Mesmer butterfly animation

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  Large Mesmer butterfly animation

Trivia

The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Mesmer.

• The mesmer was previewed under this image until its unveiling on December 14th.
• The mesmer profession was confirmed on the Guild Wars 2 official Facebook fan page as the eighth profession on December 12th, 2011; they announced early on Facebook due to a leak from a video displaying a sample of mesmer skills used in combat.
• On the main Guild Wars 2 website, the "minstrel" was displayed as a false profession reveal. Clicking on the minstrel caused the character to shatter, replacing it with an image of the mesmer's reveal instead.
• The class icon for the mesmer resembles a Colombina mask, a popular unisex mask worn during masquerades and the Carnival of Venice.
• When auto-attacking with a greatsword, mesmers of the Human, Norn, or Sylvari races will suspend the sword between their hands and spin it about its lengthwise axis in mid-air. Other races simply hold on to the sword normally.
• The game update of 16th of July 2019 removed Chronomancers' access to Distortion, moving Continuum Shift to F4, and making it apply the distortion effect on cast.
  • The game update of 7th of July 2020 removed the distortion effect from Continuum Split.
  • The game update of 4th of October 2022 restored the original design, moving Continuum Split back to F5 and returning Distortion to F4. Additionally, Bladesong Distortion was introduced to Virtuoso.

External links

• Mesmer on the official website.

References

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Mesmer