Character Evolutions: Mesmer
Class Combo: Mesmer/Any
Table of Contents
General Concept
Style of Play
Obtaining Skils
Versatility
Armor Crafting
Beginning in Pre-Searing
Post-Searing Ascalon Areas
Nolani Academy / Grendich Courthouse
Shiverpeaks
Beacon's Perch
Kryta
Temple of the Ages
Maguuma Jungle
Crystal Desert
Ascension Mirror Battle
Post-Ascension
Southern Shiverpeaks
Ring of Fire
End of PvE
General Concept:
At various stages of the evolution, the mesmer presented here includes aspects of threat, energy denial, interrupt, and shutdown styles. PvE is a varied environment where characters are often forced to adapt their methods of attacks and styles of play depending on the given situation. While a specific build can work extremely well in some of those locations, it's tricky to find one build that works equally well everywhere. The evolution presented here attempts to provide built-in flexibility that allows it to function well almost anywhere in PvE. By the end, it attempts to combine the power of Domination Magic and Inspiration Magic with Fast Casting.Style of Play:
Mesmers are not simple to play. I strongly recommend players begin with other classes and explore them fully before attempting to play a mesmer primary. You need to have a firm understanding of how the other characters function before you can effectively use the mesmer's skills to disrupt them. This evolutionary build attempts to ease the learning curve somewhat by initially utilizing some relatively easy-to-understand and pro-active skills. However, in later stages it will rely more upon reactive interrupts and includes some skill synergies that require further understanding of the various other classes before you can maximize their effectiveness. A large part of playing a mesmer revolves around being able to out-think your enemy, but further discussion on that aspect of playing a mesmer goes far beyond the scope of this guide.Obtaining Skills:
Many of the early skills the mesmer gains are hexes which serve as looming threats to the foe. While those can be useful skills, the build will evolve as other skills are obtained thru the game. Some of the most powerful skills this evolution uses aren't obtained until near the end of PvE. As a result, the evolutionary aspect of this mesmer is more pronounced than the other evolutions I've written previously.Versatility:
The mesmer in this evolution has the flexibility to switch between different mesmer styles which will allow you to see how certain strategies work vs. different kinds of foes. Through the stages of the evolution, the player should be able to learn some basic and fundamental mesmer tricks. As an example, it's possible to use energy denial strategies against casters to cripple their casting ability, but it's also possible to use energy denial in combination with certain hexes to deal significant damage to melee or archer type foes.During the course of this character evolution, there is a strong chance that you will discover your own mesmer strategies, leading you to try other skills to good effect. This is totally expected, and encouraged. Since this guide and build is intended for beginning mesmers, it primarily chooses skills where the learning curve seems easier and more forgiving. The more advanced you become, the more likely it is that you'll spot other skill options that might better suit your own play-style.
Armor Crafting:
Mesmer armor is cloth based. Try to obtain as much as you can. A good source of cloth is salvageable armor dropped by enemy casters. In addition to cloth, you may want to save any silk or linen you salvage. Also, you can keep plant fibers to craft linen. You should also save glittering dust for crafting Enchanter's Armor, and some Steel for crafting Imposing Masks.Beginning in Pre-Searing
Visit each of the mesmer trainers. Start with Sebedoh the Mesmer to get the "Mesmer Test" and obtain Empathy and Ether Feast. After this, speak to Althea and accept "A Mesmer's Burden" to get Conjure Phantasm and Imagined Burden. You may want to gain a level or two before actually trying to complete that quest, however. It is possible to kill the bull at 1st level, but much easier at higher levels when your health is higher and your skill points provide you with stronger effects. The other mesmer trainer is a ways south in Foible's Fair. Speak to Vassar to get the "Domination Magic" quest and obtain Backfire and Shatter Delusions. You won't find many places to use Backfire in pre-searing, but it will become useful in the future. Also, be sure to grab the rez signet from the Healer's quest.
In addition, seek out the trainers for your secondary profession. It is now time to setup your pre-searing build. The example I'm showing here uses ranger secondary, but any secondary can work.
- Conjure Phantasm (a fun spell to use in pre-searing, but don't get too attached to it)
- Empathy (start getting used to using this on melee and archer type enemies)
- Backfire (you'll almost never need this in pre-searing, but there a few foes you'll encounter where it can help)
* Ignite Arrows (the exploding damage from this is great against close-packed foes)
* Dual Shot (obvious combo with ignite arrows)
* Troll Unguent (just in case things get too hard, use this to heal yourself)
* Charm Animal (pets are really strong here in pre-searing)
* Comfort Animal (just in case your pet dies)
One immediate problem you'll see in the mesmer/ranger build is that it entirely lacks focus, but that doesn't matter too much here in pre-searing. For general exploring in these parts with this build, I put points into Wilderness Survival (helps Troll Unguent and Ignite Arrows), Domination (lengthens and increases damage from Empathy and Backfire) along with spare points going into Illusion, Beast Mastery and Fast Casting. In the distant future, the character will begin to use Inspiration, but with only one inspiration skill (Ether Feast) available here in pre-searing, it's not worth investing in it yet. Before you leave, you'll want to tighten up the build slightly, but for now, feel free to experiment. Regardless of your subclass, you can use a bow. You'll probably find bows with much higher damage ranges here than any wands or staves. Ideally, you can find something like a 9-13 damage bow w/o a requirement, but you'll probably have a hard time finding much better than a 7-9 damage wand or staff. If you've elected to take warrior secondary, then you can dabble with weapon skills, but don't come crying if your paper thin armor proves to be too weak to engage foes in melee.
With the ranger secondary, to begin combat I would usually cast Empathy on a foe, then use Ignite Arrows and dual shot them as a group of foes surrounded me or my pet. While the Ignite arrows is active, I concentrated on using the bow allowing my energy & skills to recharge. By the time the Ignite arrows wore off, I was able to recast the hexes w/o difficulty. In this case, the mesmer hexes and ranger preparations exhibit a useful degree of synergy. Most monsters in pre-searing die rather quickly under that kind of punishment. In certain cases, you may find it's better to attack certain foes with a combination of Empathy + Conjure Phantasm. If you decide to venture north of the wall, you'll find both Empathy and Backfire can be very useful in thinning out the charr population.
Once you've had your fill of pre-searing monster-whomping, you should tweak your build before joining the academy and undertaking the mini-PvP battle. This is one spot where Backfire can be really useful. Regardless of your secondary I recommend dumping as many points as possible into Domination as possible. The next most can go into your secondary attribute of interest. With ranger, I recommend Wilderness Survival, and the rest in either Beast Mastery and/or Fast Casting. If you're using the build I showed above, yank Conjure Phantasm out of your skillbar and replace it with Shatter Delusions. It's now time to get your first small taste of unleashing mesmer domination. In this mini battle, Backfire enemy casters, and possibly the enemy monk or elementalist henchmen. Use Empathy on enemy warriors or rangers. You'll likely find they cast or attack themselves to death since they've never faced a mesmer before, or aren't expecting to face one here in pre-searing. Intermix some Ignite Arrow bowshots into any crowds that develop during the fight. Recast empathy and backfire on enemies as they return from the rez shrine. If a foe is almost dead, and they wise up waiting for a backfire or empathy to wear off, this is your opportunity to finish them off with Shatter Delusions instead. Played correctly, a mesmer can dominate even here in the earliest of the arenas. If you do, congratulations! If not, don't feel too bad, but try to learn from this.
* If you're not using the ranger sub-class, here are some thoughts on what to use for other secondaries while in pre-searing:
Mesmer / Elementalist (Domination + Fire): Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Delusions, Conjure Phantasm, Glyph of Lesser Energy (to help w/ backfire), Flare, Aura of Restoration, 1 of your choice.
Mesmer / Monk (Domination + Healing): Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Delusions, Conjure Phantasm, Orison of Healing, Bane Signet, 2 of your choice.
Mesmer / Necro (Domination + Blood): Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Delusions, Conjure Phantasm, Life Siphon, Vampiric Gaze, Blood Renewal, 1 of your choice.
Mesmer / Warrior (Domination + Tactics): Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Delusions, Conjure Phantasm, Healing Signet, and 3 of your choice.
Post-searing Ascalon Area
Visit the AL30 armor crafter in Ascalon City and craft AL30 Stylish Armor and an AL30 Imposing Mask ASAP. Also buy a minor rune of Domination. I recommend it be put on your new Imposing Mask. Get minor runes of fast casting and inspiration, and a minor rune of vigor as well. You can insert these runes in any of your other armor pieces. If you don't have enough gold to buy all that right away, that's ok. In that case, your initial goal here in post-searing will be to obtain enough money to craft that armor and purchase those items. During normal course of play, it won't take long to do that.
In this region you will find some important skill trainers for mesmers as well as ones for your secondary. One of the first places you should go is Sardelac Sanitarium and speak to Vassar. His three quests "Mesmerizing the Enemy", "Trying Times" and "A Cure for Ralena" will each give you some useful skills. Of primary interest here will be Energy Burn, Power Leak and possibly Mantra of Flame. Prior to the AI update, Chaos Storm was good too, but it's not as useful now that monsters flee from it. You should also visit Ambassador Zain and do his quests to obtain Energy Tap.
It's also time to tuck away that no-req bow you've had since pre-searing. Here in Old Ascalon, you should have no difficulty finding a wand and focus or staff that can outgun your old bow for damage. However, don't sell that wimpy bow just yet. Assuming it's got long range, you may find it useful for pulling monsters in the future, and having one with no req will allow you to use it forever. Giving up the bow also opens up 2 key skill slots that we will now take advantage of:
- Empathy (general opening hex vs. melee & archer types)
- Backfire (you'll start facing enemies that cast spells making this useful)
- Shatter Delusions (a way to finish off a hexed foe)
- Energy Burn (works well against just about everything)
- Power Leak (lets you start experimenting with interrupts, and helps you deny caster's energy)
- Ether Feast (or some type of healing skill from your secondary)
- Mantra of Flame (or other skill of your choice)
* Charm Animal (if you've got ranger secondary, pets continue to be useful in these parts. Otherwise use a skill of your choice)
Max out Domination, then put any leftover points into Inspiration next, then Fast Casting, and possibly a secondary attribute. In my ranger secondary example I would dump a spare point or two into Beast Mastery if any were available.
This build isn't without fault. Backfire actually lacks synergy with Energy Drain & Power Leak. Under Backfire, you want the enemy to cast as much as possible. Using Energy Drain & Power Leak, you cripple their energy, preventing them from casting. Thus, already at this point, you need to consider whether it's better to Backfire an enemy caster or to attempt to use energy denial. Opening with Backfire, then using Power Leak and Energy burn after it expires is one option to consider. Against multiple casters, things become easier. You can Backfire one of them, then focus your interrupts and possibly energy burns on a different caster. You can throw Ether Feasts at the target of your choice to do additional energy denial.
Using power leak, you'll find it's fairly easy to interrupt Charr elementalists that try to cast a slow spell like Firestorm. You can also interrupt charr trying to cast some of the slower casting necro, monk or mesmer spells as well. However, it will take some practice to master it. More ranks in Fast Casting will help, but until you get more interrupts into your skillbar, it's not worth focusing on that just yet.
Against groups consisting entirely of melee or archer type foes, Empathy and Energy Burn will be your two primary attack options, then fall back to using your wand or staff while those skills recharge. If you find yourself under attack, try moving to shake off your attackers, and activate your heal skill as needed. If you have a hexed foe that is nearly dead, you can polish them off with Shatter Delusions. Looking at health bars, you can learn to spot the health bar width where Shatter Delusions will be lethal, This width will continually change as you face higher and higher level foes, but you won't be keeping this skill for all that long.
To explore Old Ascalon or the early missions, you should use a party. Either join other players, or take henchmen. If you elect to use henchmen, I recommend Alesia, Stefan and Reyna. After you've completed missions 1 & 2 and have the Frontier Gate Waypoint, it's time to visit the other Mesmer trainer in Serenity Temple. I recommend obtaining the "Troublesome Artifact" quest from Ascalon city since it will provide you a compass arrow to reach the temple. On the way, you can easily complete the "Caravan in Trouble" quest to receive Phantom Pain. You won't be using it, but it's worth doing for another free skill. At the temple, Erudine will offer you two quests with Diversion and Shatter Hex as rewards. While these skills aren't incorporated into this evolution, feel free to experiment with them.
I found my pet wasn't dying very often, so I stopped using comfort animal. This freed up a skill slot and let me run Mantra of Flame when facing the Charr (Missions 2, 3, 4 & various explore areas) Even with low points in inspiration, this spell can help against the Charr archers using ignite arrows and the Charr casters using Flare or Firestorm. In addition to reducing damage, this mantra helps you gain energy from those fire attacks.
Nolani Academy / Grendich Courthouse
After completing the 3rd mission, you'll have the Nolani Academy waypoint. Head into the explore area and head north to Grendich Courthouse to obtain a couple skills. From the skill trainer there, you can learn Epidemic and Physical Resistance.
If you're facing a lot of melee or archer type foes, you may want to use Physical Resistance. It's a good skill to swap in/out of the Mantra slot in the build.
Shiverpeaks
When you arrive in Yak's Bend, it's tempting to craft Courtly armor which will add extra armor while casting. However, the requirement for this includes linen which you may not have or be able to afford. Sticking with the 30 AL stylish armor you crafted back in Ascalon is fine.
Talk to Sebedoh the Mesmer to get the "Stone Summit Champion" quest. The reward from this is Fragility, Power Spike and Channeling. Also speak to Grand Mason Stonecleaver for the "Helping the Dwarves" quest which will give you Mantra of Frost. Here in the Shiverpeaks, you won't be facing much fire damage, so be sure to switch out Mantra of Flame and use either Mantra of Frost or Physical Resistance instead.
The Stone Summit dwarves can be very difficult foes, even for a mesmer. You'll need to be cautious and do what you can to help your party in the upcoming battles. As there are a fair number of dwarf casters and elementals that cast spells, your Backfire and Power Leaks can be very helpful here. In addition, the melee dwarves tend to have thick armor, but your Empathy and Energy Burn damage ignores armor, so you'll be able to help your party cut them down. Unfortunately, some of the dwarf healers (mounted on doylaks) have ways to remove hexes. As a result, your backfire and empathy may not be nearly as effective in some of the fights. Shatter Delusions can be unreliable as well. Many parties struggle against the dolyak healers, but this is one area where you can greatly help your team. It's still worth using Backfire here, even if they manage to remove it. Use your power leak or power spike to help shut down their heal skills, and then attack their energy supply using Energy Burn and Ether Feast.
With the ranger secondary, the pet is still useful here. However, it is not uncommon for the pet to die in tough battles. As a result, I opted to resume bringing Comfort Animal in this area. The resulting build is as follows:
- Empathy
- Backfire
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak or Power Spike
- Ether Feast
- Mantra of Frost or Physical Resistance
* Charm Animal (or other skill of your choice)
* Comfort Animal (or other skill of your choice)
Domination is maxed first, then any extra points go into Inspiration, and finally fast casting and in this case Beast Mastery.
Though you could begin to run 2 interrupts at this point, the overall lack of attribute points means your fast casting is still likely to be rather low. In addition, the number of melee and archer type foes here is not conducive to focusing your build on an anti-caster setup.
Beacon's Perch
After completing both Shiverpeak missions, you'll end up in Beacon's Perch. Master Saberlin will offer you two quests which are worth doing. You'll get Shatter Enchantment and Inspired Hex as rewards. If you've got the ranger secondary, you'll also get Serpent's Quickness at this point which can be useful.
While you're up doing the 2nd of Saberlin's quests, you may want to continue north and head to Ice Tooth Cave. The skill trainer there has Drain Enchantment.
Kryta
After arriving in Lion's Arch, you can now make AL30 Performers armor as well, but you'll see it requires Silk which you may not have or want to buy. Once again, you can continue using that armor you crafted way back in Ascalon. Don't worry, you'll be able to make some new armor soon.
Talk to the merchant to get a quest, and also visit the docks to get another quest, both of which lead you into North Kryta. Also stop by Magi Malaquire to get a quest. Before leaving Lion's Arch, grab your plant fibers and your gold. Empty the rest of your packs to make room for stuff you may find on your long upcoming venture. This trip may take a while so make sure you'll have time for what lies ahead. Also, ignore any temptation to do "Villainy of Galrath" at this point. There's a much better way to do it later.
You can use the same skill setup as before, but definitely drop Mantra of Frost and bring Physical Resistance. There will be some hard hitting foes along the way, but not that much elemental damage if you take the right route.
Head out the west gate and get the "Ascalon Settlement Quest" and lead the NPCs north thru the swamp. If you find yourself facing dozens of Fire Imps and Tengus, then you are not taking the swamp route! The swamp route is much easier than the road. In the swamp, you'll stumble on yet another quest "Graven Images". Fend off the foes and get Mantra of Lightning as a reward. Deliver the NPCs safely to the Ascalon Settlement and talk to Captain Greywind. He'll reward you with Wastrel's Worry. He'll also teach you skills, including Shame and Mantra of Concentration.
Capt Greywind will give you a follow-up quest leading you westward toward Nebo Village. I recommend doing it right now to save yourself retracing your steps. Along the way, you can get the "Last Hog" quest from Farmer Dirk. Go ahead and do it, though watch out for the rampaging ettins. The reward for this is Leech Signet. Once this is done, continue west toward Nebo.
In Nebo village, you'll find yet another quest that leads you to Bergen Hot Springs. You'll also see there is a linen crafter here. Before heading to Bergen, you can craft some linen to make better armor. 7 pieces of linen plus 42 cloth will let you craft a full set of AL39 courtly armor. Once you've got the linen you want, head to Bergen Hot Springs. If you're sneaky, lucky and take the right route, you can avoid fighting any monsters at all. Otherwise, you may face some hard fights against groups of tengu, ettins, skale and/or undead depending on which route you take. Once you get the Bergen waypoint, you can relax. Go craft your armor. If you lack enough silk or linen, crafting normal AL39 Stylish armor is fine too.
Finishing up a quest here will lead you back to Nebo. From Nebo, head due west and obtain the Beetletun waypoint. The skill trainer here has Arcane Echo and Cry of Frustration. If you're up for a challenge, you can undertake the Undead Hordes quest as well to obtain Inspired Enchantment. Otherwise, feel free to explore other areas of Kryta or do some missions. But before leaving Kryta and entering the Maguuma Jungle, I recommending heading to...
Temple of the Ages
Starting from Bergen Hot Springs is a bit shorter than most other routes, but still quite difficult. Many of the undead you'll face use Lightning skills, so it's a good time to switch over to using Mantra of Lightning at this point. In addition, I experimented quite a bit here with Serpent's Quickness and found it useful. However, the process of doing so led me to swap inspiration points into wilderness survival. Also, I found I found the pet was too easily killed on this trek (multiple chain lightnings tend to do that), and I could not afford to suffer the skill blackout or budget 2 skills for the pet rez. The resulting build was as follows:
- Empathy
- Backfire
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak
- Power Spike
- Mantra of Lightning
* Troll Unguent (or a healing skill of your choice)
* Serpent's Quickness
In this case, domination is maxed, then wilderness survival gets the next most points, and any spare points left go into fast casting and inspiration. I personally found Troll Unguent better than Ether Feast for this region to help counter the effects of poison water, but your results may vary. As you head into the Black Curtain toward Temple of the Ages, be ready for some difficult battles vs undead. Go slow and take out the necrid patrols before going after any of the clerics and the buried wraiths near them. Many of the more dangerous foes are the casters, but you can help turn the tide by using Backfire, Power Leak and Power Spike. Sprinkle in some Empathy on any ghouls or other foes that turn up. Make sure you have Mantra of Lightning up during the battles against the wraiths. That will save your hide vs. any hard-hitting lightning skills that manage to get past your interrupts. It will also help a bit with energy which can be a problem when using Serpent's Quickness.
Once you reach Temple of the Ages, you can do the "False Gods" quest and receive Mind Wrack as a reward. If you really want to do "Villainy of Galrath", start here from Temple of the Ages where you can begin with party size of 8. However, your main reason for coming this way was primarily for that skill, Mind Wrack. This skill pickup is enough to make the transition to pure mesmer:
- Physical Resistance
- Empathy
- Wastrel's Worry or Backfire
- Mind Wrack (setup foe for some energy denial induced hurt)
- Energy Burn (attack foe's energy and health)
- Ether Feast (attack foe's energy, and gain health)
- Energy Tap (attack foe's energy, and gain energy)
- Power Leak (attack foe's energy, and interrupt)
Domination, Inspiration & Fast Casting get all the points from now on.
Although it may not be obvious, many of these skills have fairly short recharge times now, especially Wastrel's Worry, Mind Wrack and Ether Feast which means we are less in need of the benefits of a skill like Serpent's Quickness. Also, the longevity of pets will begin to wane in the near future, so removing the pet for good at this point is a natural progression. Regardless of your secondary, from here on out, you can easily play a pure mesmer.
The setup revolves around energy denial and aims to exploit Mind Wrack for damage. This hex will let you start to punish creatures that you've burned out of their energy. It's possible to hex a low energy foe with Mind Wrack, then target it with energy burn and possibly ether feast to trip the mind wrack damage for a huge burst of damage. Against foes with large energy pools like casters, the Mind Wrack works too, especially with Power Leak. You'll probably find that Mind Wrack is a pretty fun skill to use once you get the hang of it. This setup gives you 4 ways to attack energy which should be sufficient to start experimenting with it.
As for Wastrel's Worry, I've written an entire guide about it, so I won't bother discussing it in much depth here. Though it combos with Backfire, in PvE, the foes tend to cast under Backfire anyway. The primary reason for using WW in PvE is against bosses and other foes that don't cast skills very often. It also works well when you've run a foe out of energy. You'll find it works pretty well against several kinds of foes throughout the game. If you find it isn't working well enough for you in a particular location, feel free to slip Backfire back into your skillbar. Just realize that Backfire can have poor synergy with the overall strategy of energy denial.
Maguuma Jungle
When you arrive at Druid's Overlook, talk to the trader to get the "Eye for Profit" quest. After you've completed another quest that leads you to the Wilds, you can start from there to do the Eye quest and receive Hex Breaker. There isn't one specific type of elemental damage here in the jungle to worry about, so you can leave your Mantra's tucked away. You may also want to find Alari Doubleblade in the Silverwood for the "Price of Steel" quest w/ a reward of Arcane Thievery.
When you reach Quarrel Falls, do not craft AL39 armor. You'll find a better crafter shortly. Instead take the quest here and head to Ventari's Refuge. At the refuge, you can finally craft some AL45 Enchanter's armor. Deep Root, just outside, has got a couple quests for you, "Dropping Eaves" then "Blood and Smoke". Both are worth doing, and the rewards for these are Spirit of Failure and Spirit Shackles.
Around this point, I found I was facing far more melee foes than casters, so I swapped over my setup slightly:
- Physical Resistance
- Empathy
- Spirit Shackles (yet another way to attack energy)
- Wastrel's Worry or Backfire
- Mind Wrack (combo with Spirit shackles)
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak
- Energy Tap or Ether Feast
Spirit Shackles + Mind Wrack is a vicious combo to toss on enemy warriors. With their small energy pools, they tend to quickly take mind wrack damage. You can toss empathy on them for even more damage. Once mind wrack triggers, you know they are out of energy and you can hit them again with mind wrack and use other anti-energy skills to crush them quickly. Meanwhile, due to having no energy, they are limited to only being able to use adrenaline skills against you.
The build continues to be heavily focused on aspects of energy denial. In missions or areas where you face larger numbers of casters, you can put Backfire back in if you choose. Depending on how your health or energy is fairing in this region, you can decide if it's worth taking Ether Feast or Energy Tap. The skillbar is a bit cramped at this point to be able to run both, but if you find one of the other skills is not working, then you can sub one of these for it.
After you've gotten to Denravi, head south and west to reach Maguuma Stade. There you will find a trainer with Power Drain and Arcane Mimicry. You may find you like Power Drain better than Power Leak because it gives you energy and costs less energy to use. You can even experiment with running both.
Many of the foes in the Riverside Province mission tend to be melee or archer types, but there are some healers and other casters as well. I believe you'll also encounter only 3 bosses along the way. As a result, for this mission, I recommend using Backfire, and removing Wastrel's Worry.
When you arrive at Sanctum Cay, head north to reach Fisherman's Haven. Watchman Arad will offer two quests, one of which will be ultra-easy since you already have the Temple of the Ages waypoint. The skills from these quests will are Blackout and Mantra of Earth.
In the Sanctum Cay mission, you'll face several bosses, making Wastrel's Worry a useful skill. Toward the end of the mission, you'll be attacked by many foes, including several casters. There is a chance for significant elemental damage (mostly fire), and your energy supply will likely run low. For this mission, I recommend:
- Empathy
- Backfire
- Wastrel's Worry
- Mind Wrack
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak
- Power Drain
- Ether Feast
Without Physical resistance, you're much more vulnerable to melee and archer foes, so hang back as much as possible to avoid those attacks. Ether Feast is added back in to give you some help on health. Toss Empathy on enemy melee and archer types periodically, but your primary focus here should be on the enemy casters. You should be able to counteract them fairly well between your backfire, power drain and power leak. Used properly, Power Drain will provide a decent energy return, allowing this build to drop energy tap. When a boss shows up, spamming Wastrel's Worry tends to take them down fast. In addition, with 2 interrupts in your skillbar, you have a very good chance of interrupting a spellcasting foe hexed by Wastrel's Worry, forcing them to take the damage.
Crystal Desert
When you arrive in Amnoon Oasis, you will probably want to craft some AL51 enchanter's armor. Head to Augury Rock to get some more quests. You will receive Arcane Conundrum and Mantra of Persistence from them. Then explore to find Heroes' Audience, Seeker's Passage and Destiny's Gorge. At each of these cities you'll get a quest. Rewards from these are Elemental Resistance, Ether Lord and Guilt.
In the explore area, just outside the north gate of Augury Rock, you'll find a collector named John Verado. He will trade you a perfect inscribed staff for 5 Topaz Crests. The sand drakes outside of Elona's Reach drop those crests, and are very easy for you to hunt.
There is another collector named Kelsay Pradist that will trade you an AL60 Imposing Mask for 5 Jade Mandibles. She's located in the Salt Flats, east of Seeker's Passage. It's worth getting this item. You'll kill enough jade scarabs across your desert journeys to reach 5 without too much difficulty. Once you have this mask, you can consider putting a Superior Rune of Domination on it, but if you do, I recommend getting at least a Major Rune of Vigor to help offset some of the health loss.
As you explore the desert, you'll encounter a range of foes that can prove quite challenging. You'll likely find one template with slight variations is sufficient for exploring much of the area:
- Physical Resistance (vs. melee/archer foes) or Mantra of Earth (vs. Sand Elementals or Sand Drakes) or Mantra of Fire (vs. Hydras)
- Spirit Shackles
- Mind Wrack
- Empathy (vs. melee/archer foes) or Backfire (vs. casters)
- Wastrel's Worry (especially good in missions where you'll face lots of bosses)
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak
- Power Drain
In the desert missions, mesmers can be invaluable against the Forgotten casters, and their damage ignores armor making them very useful against the Enchanted armors as well. Unfortunately, many new uninformed players in these parts don't know that, so it can still be difficult to get invited onto a team. Eventually, you're bound to find some intelligent players who will be thrilled to have you on their team.
In some regions, Empathy is not very useful but Backfire is, and vice-versa. Thus, running one or the other is generally recommended. With Mind Wrack serving as a primary piece of your damage engine, Spirit Shackles turns into a better general melee hex. You should also be finding some major synergy at work between the energy denial, Mind Wrack and Wastrel's Worry. It may take a little practice, but eventually you'll spot ways to exploit this.
It's possible to capture your first elite skill, Mantra of Recovery, in any of the 3 desert missions. It's an interesting skill, allowing you to reuse your skills faster, but you'll quickly discover that also means you can run yourself out of energy even faster. Stances or hexes do not necessarily benefit from being able to recast them sooner. In all likelyhood, an entirely different build could take advantage of it, but rather than force that kind of rip-up at this point, I suggest just leaving the skill off your skillbar. It won't be long before you have some other more useful elite skills to utilize instead.
Ascension Mirror Battle
Unless the AI changes, the mesmer has a very easy time killing the doppelganger using just 2 skills: Backfire & Empathy. Empty your entire skillbar and only bring those two skills. If you are able to act first, cast Backfire on the doppelganger and then Empathy. If the Doppelganger gets Backfire on you first, then wait for it to end before casting your spells at him. The combined damage from Backfire & Empathy along with your wand/staff should be sufficient to defeat him.
Post-Ascension
After you've ascended and completed both of the 15-point attribute quests, I recommend a final point distribution of 12 Domination, 10 Inspiration, 8 Fast Casting. Feel free to shift some points between Inspiration vs. Fast Casting, but keep Domination maxed. If you decide to run fewer interrupts, you can back off on the fast casting even further, but if you elect to run 2 or more of those types of skills, then more ranks in Fast Casting will be helpful.
Southern Shiverpeaks
In this region, you can begin skill capping several elite skills. That will require you to open up a skill slot. At this point, I'd drop either Empathy/Backfire or one of the 2 interrupts. Skill capping means you'll definitely be facings bosses, meaning Wastrel's Worry is worth packing.
One elite that is fairly easy to get is Energy Drain from Skiik Hungrymind in Witman's Folly. If you found you like using Energy Tap, this is a much better version. It used to be even better at one time, but a skill rebalance significantly changed it. There are still some energy denial builds that use this, and it's a handy energy fixer for other classes as well. Feel free to experiment with it.
The main domination elite skill in this area is Energy Surge. It will take some effort to get it, but it's worth it. You'll find it in the Iron Mines of Moladune mission. After heading north along the west edge of the map and then getting infused, do not engage Markus until later. Instead, head south along the east edge of the map and engage the Jade and Mursaat bosses. Being a mesmer really helps here since you are able to shut down the mursaat casters pretty well. In addition, spamming Wastrel's Worry can rip thru the bosses in record time. The boss of interest is Balasi the Arcane. When you find him, stay spread out, since he uses Energy Surge against you and if he gets it past your interrupts, it can dishout a significant amount of AoE damage. Once you've killed him, and capped Energy Surge, it's time to tweak the build again:
- Physical Resistance / Mantra / Signet of Capture
- Spirit Shackles
- Mind Wrack
- Wastrel's Worry
- Energy Surge [elite]
- Energy Burn
- Power Leak
- Power Drain
At this stage, the build has evolved even stronger forms of energy denial. Energy Surge gives this build yet another method to attack energy pools, and combines it with a nifty AoE capability. With the added energy drain this gives the build, it's now even easier to empty foes energy pools, even those of casters. The combined damage from back-to-back Energy Surge, Energy Burn, Mind Wrack and Wastrel's Worry can be quite amazing. You can tweak this template slightly for various areas and specific foes, but this works as a very good starting point for this stage of the game.
Many players struggle toward the end of the Thunderhead Keep mission. As a mesmer, you can help your team by bringing along Shatter Hex and using it on allies near the enemy. Due to the fact you'll face some elemental damage and DoT's, it's worth dropping Physical Resistance to open a slot for this.
Ring of Fire
On Perdition Rock, there are 3 bosses with elite skills for each class to capture. For mesmer, these include Echo, Signet of Midnight and Power Block. Though this build won't use echo, that's a good skill to grab. The one we will be using, however, is Power Block. Given what it does, this may seem like an odd choice for our build, but it will soon prove it's worth. Here's the new build:
- Physical Resistance / Mantra / Signet of Capture
- Spirit Shackles
- Mind Wrack
- Wastrel's Worry
- Energy Burn
- Power Block [elite]
- Power Leak
- Power Drain
Why run Power Block? Quite simply, it turns several of the difficult encounters in the last 3 missions into a total cakewalk. Many enemies in PvE only use a single attribute of magic, and Power Block can totally cripple their spellcasting for 16 seconds. This includes those nasty Ether Seals. When facing bosses, because this effect is not a hex or a condition, it does not have it's duration cut in half either.
Power Block is a shutdown skill, so doesn't it run contrary to the energy denial objective? It can, but it can also play directly into that strategy. A PvE foe unable to cast will resort to using it's staff or wand, meaning that Spirit Shackles can be used against that foe for an even faster and cheaper method of energy denial. Consider the following spell sequence at an enemy caster
Power Block - 16 sec spell knockout on enemy caster
Spirit Shackles - enemy caster forced to attack for about 13 more seconds wiping out 5 energy per attack
Wastrel's Worry - unable to do anything so caster will suffer damage in 3 seconds
Mink Wrack - bound to trigger eventually due to spirit shackles...
Energy Burn - ...but we speed up the process and add more damage. Around this same time, the WW damage goes off too
Wastrel's Worry - if foe survived that, toss more WW at them. Most don't survive this long.
Essentially, Power Block can be the ultimate setup skill for an energy denial kill. Shutdown, Hex, Boom, Boom, Boom, Dead! People might confuse your wickedly huge damage output with an elementalist if it weren't for the purple aura of your skills and your enchanter's armor. During the entire span that a foe is crippled by Power Block, they can barely hurt you or your party. That translates into less work for your healers, and a much greater chance of your party being successful.
Using the build with Power Block, I was able to breeze thru the last three missions using just henchmen. Ether Seals are easy once you learn how to interrupt one of their spells with Power Block. Then you can help your team finish off the seal by using Wastrel's Worry, although the energy drain of the seal still hurts your pool. The mursaat casters, especially the elementalists, can be entirely shutdown with Power Block, and then dispatched easily. The spellcasting mursaat bosses, which can often be difficult for other characters, go down really easy once you Power Block them, and Wastrel's Worry will mow them down from there.
End of PvE
Congratulations are in order. You've defeated the lich, completed the PvE missions and your basic mesmer training is now complete. But your personal mesmer evolution has only just begun.
After finishing the game, in regions away from the Ring of Fire you'll likely find yourself facing fewer enemy casters. As a result, you'll probably find that running 3 interrupts skills is too much, and that Power Block is not necessarily the bomb skill you should always be using. You can easily switch back to Energy Surge at this point, or experiment with other elite skills you've gathered along the way. By this point you've seen aspects mesmer styles such as energy denial, interrupts, shutdown and threats. You should be able to draw upon your experiences to come up with your own powerful builds.
