User:Erasculio/Mesmer

First made still during the Prophecies Beta. It was interesting to make a mesmer at the very beginning of the game - at the time no one knew anything about the game, so it was still unknown if mesmers were a good profession or not. There used to be a notice, when choosing the mesmers at the character creation screen, about how this profession was best left to advanced players or something along those lines - I have always had the feeling that some players mistakingly saw that as a sign that mesmers were more powerful than everyone else, and so made a character of this profession for all the wrong reasons.

Of course, I too had absolutely no idea about what a mesmer did when I created one. I remember looking at the skill lists back them and looking for the equivalent of Flare (because we all know that skill rocks) among mesmer skills, being rather happy when I found it in the shape of Wastrel's Worry - after all, a damage dealing skill with a short recharge was of course a copy of Flare, wasn't it?

It was fun learning how to use the profession (although I'm still far from being good at it - the few times I tried to mesmer in PvP were rather funny, and the fact my old guild had some...ah, misconceptions didn't really help; if someone here doesn't know it, no, it's not a good idea to have high Fast Casting when trying to spike someone). I rarely used interrupts, though, given how hard they were to time - unlike today, in which there's the very nice skill monitor letting we know as the enemies are casting something and if we have interrupted them or not, originally all that happened was that the skill icon would appear letting we know when the skill had been used (and frankly I don't even remember if that existed at the beginning of Prophecies). The implementation of the skill monitor system was a great, despite a bit indirect, buff to mesmers.

When people were more used to the game, some months after the release of Prophecies, we had all the talks about how some professions sucked horribly in PvE: rangers, necromancers and mesmers. Despite those problems, I managed to PUG all Prophecies missions with my mesmer, usually with entertaining results. It was fun to convince people to take a small detour when doing Abbadon's Mouth so I could capture Fevered Dreams. Today, despite how rangers and necromancers are accepted more often in groups, I doubt I would have been able to PUG all those missions again.

After the release of Nightfall, I really liked one of the new mesmer faces, so I retired my old one and created a new mesmer character. The original one was considered rather pretty; it's my only character that had random people praising how she looks (in many different ways; in the middle of Sorrow's Furnace, a warrior asked the party to stop and asked my character to marry him). She feels like an older woman, though, and I wanted a character that would look nice in some of the "younger" looking mesmer armors. Heh, likely sounds crazy, but something as Shing Jea armor feels to me like something a younger girl would wear, while Elite Elegant armor feels like something for a slightly older woman.

Armor

 * Sunspear Mask (Survivor, Superior Illusion Magic)
 * Sunspear Attire (Virtuoso, Minor Domination Magic)
 * Sunspear Hose (Survivor, Major Vigor)
 * Sunspear Gloves (Survivor, Minor Fast Casting)
 * Sunspear Footwear (Survivor, Minor Inspiration Magic)
 * Sunspear Mask (Survivor, Superior Domination Magic)
 * Elite Rogue Attire (Virtuoso, Minor Illusion Magic)
 * Elite Rogue Hose (Survivor, Major Vigor)
 * Elite Rogue Gloves (Survivor, Minor Fast Casting)
 * Elite Rogue Footwear (Survivor, Minor Inspiration Magic)

Weapons

 * Ensorceling Staff
 * Domination Magic 9
 * Energy +5
 * Hale and Hearty (5)
 * Health +29
 * Tengu Staff
 * Illusion Magic 9
 * Energy +5
 * Health +30
 * Insightful Arcane Staff of Fortitude
 * Fast Casting 9
 * Energy +5
 * Hale and Hearty (5)
 * Health +30
 * Insightful Scrying Glass Staff of Fortitude
 * Inspiration Magic 9
 * Energy +5
 * Hale and Hearty (5)
 * Health +30

Things to get

 * Ancient Mask: 50 Tanned Hide Squares, 5 Elonian Leather, 10k
 * Ancient Attire: 150 Tanned Hide Squares, 15 Elonian Leather, 10k
 * Ancient Hose: 100 Tanned Hide Squares, 10 Elonian Leather, 10k
 * Ancient Gloves: 50 Tanned Hide Squares, 5 Elonian Leather, 10k
 * Ancient Footwear: 50 Tanned Hide Squares, 5 Elonian Leather, 10k


 * Mods
 * 1 Hale and Hearty (5)
 * 1 Health +30 (staff)

Domination Magic

 * Backfire: for a few builds only
 * Chaos Storm: for AoE builds
 * Complicate: may be useful for AI
 * Cry of Frustration: for AoE builds
 * Empathy: for a few builds only and melee
 * Energy Burn
 * Energy Surge
 * Guilt: energy management
 * Mind Wrack: for a few builds only
 * Mirror of Disenchantment: good for AI
 * Mistrust: good for AI
 * Overload: maybe AoE builds with Shatter Delusions and AI
 * Panic: overpowered
 * Power Block: bad for AI
 * Power Spike: good for AI
 * Shame: energy management
 * Shatter Delusions: for AoE builds and Illusion Magic
 * Shatter Enchantment: too expensive for AI
 * Signet of Weariness: good for AI and melee
 * Unnatural Signet: for AoE and signets builds
 * Visions of Regret: for AoE builds without hexes
 * Wastrel's Demise: for AoE builds
 * Wastrel's Worry: for AoE builds

Fast Casting

 * Power Return: for AI
 * Psychic Instability: great for AI
 * Stolen Speed
 * Symbols of Inspiration: for Fast Casting builds only

No attribute skills

 * Cry of Pain
 * Ether Nightmare
 * Web of Disruption
 * Hypochondria
 * Echo
 * Arcane Echo

Signets

 * Keystone Signet: for Signet builds
 * Signet of Distraction: for signet builds
 * Signet of Weariness: good for AI and melee
 * Unnatural Signet: for AoE and signets builds
 * Symbolic Celerity: for signet builds
 * Symbolic Posture: maybe for signet builds
 * Signet of Corruption (Necromancer)
 * Signet of Lost Souls (Necromancer)
 * Castigation Signet (Monk)
 * Signet of Rage (Monk)
 * Signet of Stamina (Warrior)

Signet of Illusions

 * Arcane Larceny
 * Arcane Thievery
 * Arcane Mimicry

Domination Magic Hero

 * Panic: very powerful skill. Somewhat conditional.
 * Mistrust: AI uses this skill well.
 * Complicate: interrupts any action.
 * Mirror of Disenchantment: simple enchantment removal.
 * Guilt & Shame? Too conditional, energy management.
 * Resurrection Chant: useful with Fast Casting