IW mesmer

Mesmer casting Illusionary Weaponry

An IW mesmer refers to a Mesmer build based around the skill Illusionary Weaponry. It has not seen much use since the May 21, 2010 game update, which overhauled the profession.

Background

Illusionary Weaponry allows a caster to inflict respectable amounts of melee-range damage that cannot miss or be blocked, since the caster's actions do not count as attacks. This also allowed the skill to serve as a cornerstone for Mesmer solo builds.

Skills

• IW-builds rely on enchantment spells for their damage, so they must include cover enchantments, e.g. Illusion of Weakness (which also relies on Illusion Magic and has no duration).
• As with any melee build, they include skills that increase attack speed, notably Flurry (which does not reduce IW's damage output).
• As with any caster, IW mesmers require energy management.
• Builds typically include interrupts or other types of shutdowns.
• IW mesmers require self-heals to maintain survivability, e.g. Feigned Neutrality (which will not end while attacking with Illusionary Weaponry).

Equipment

• IW requires a melee weapon, typically a sword or axe (because an off-hand item can still be used). However, Daggers can have a slightly higher attack speed because of double strikes and Scythes can attack multiple enemies.
• Of Enchanting modifiers increase the duration of Illusionary Weaponry and the cover enchantments.
• Shield upgrades that trigger on being enchanted are useful, since the character will almost always be enchanted.

Play style

There are three typical ways to play an IW mesmer:

1. As a front-line melee fighter.
2. As a mid-line caster, only using IW when the opportunity presents itself.
3. As a combination of the two, typically using Domination Magic to punish opponents (e.g. with Empathy) or shut them down (e.g. using Distortion).

Weaknesses

• The biggest weakness in the build is there are currently far superior and less risky ways of using Mesmers to inflict armor-ignoring damage.

• IW mesmers are vulnerable to enchantment removal, so they are useless for much of the high-end and Beyond content.
• They only come into full productivity against heavily-armored opponents, since one of the build's primary advantages is the armor-ignoring damage.

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