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Energy Denial
As a mesmer, you get lots of skills that remove energy from your foes, and you
even get a skill that makes foes take damage if they run out of energy (Mind Wrack). With
all the different ways you have to burn, drain, or simply get rid of your enemies’ energy,
you might be interested in building your character around that theme. Indeed, energy
denial mesmers have become quite popular in recent months and now rival the more
traditional shutdown themes, since foes with no energy are basically shut down anyway.
Here’s a sample build, revised to allow use of Factions skills:
8+1 Fast Casting, 10+4 Domination Magic, 12+1 Inspiration Magic
Equipment: Savant’s** or Enchanter’s with 20/20 Domination Cane and 20% recharge
Domination focus with +30 health.
1 – Unnatural Signet** – Free damage, great for killing spirits of Shelter, Preservation, etc.
2 – Signet of Humility – Stops monks’ Mantra of Recall, Offering of Blood, etc.
3 – Energy Surge [Elite] – energy denial, AoE damage
4 – Energy Burn – energy denial, damage
5 – Signet of Weariness* – free, AoE energy denial
6 – Energy Tap – energy denial, energy management
7 – Mantra of Inscriptions – Makes signets recharge faster, triggers Savant’s armor bonus.
8 – Free Slot/Rez
Alternate skills: Energy Drain [Elite], Ether Feast, Ether Lord*, Feedback**, Mind Wrack,
Shame*
PvP Tips:
• If you’re not so worried about ritualists and just want a way to add more damage to
your build, try replacing Unnatural Signet with Mind Wrack. Alternatively, you might
use that slot for a self-healing skill like Ether Feast if you will be fighting in the Random
Arenas.
• Most highly efficient monk healing builds (the famous “boon prot” build, for example)
rely heavily upon an elite skill for energy management, or for their most effective
source of healing. By combining Signet of Humility with the Mantra of Inscriptions, you
can keep a monk’s elite skill permanently shut down. Just be sure to use Signet of
Humility immediately each time it’s available, and make sure the stance stays active.
• Look for other mesmers who might be trying to energy-deny your own monks. If you
see one, it can be very helpful to energy deny that enemy mesmer instead of just
focusing on a monk, especially if your team has other classes who can deal with
monks effectively. By protecting your healers’ energy reserves, you’ll help ensure
your own team’s survival.
• Focus sample skills 3-6 on the same target to reduce his or her energy supply to
laughably low levels.
• Since this build is very offensive, you’ll usually want to use all of your skills in a hurry
and then pull back while you recharge. Even at that, you’ll be relying on your
teammates for most of your protection and healing.

Interruption
Do you have good timing and a stable connection? Do you enjoy ruining your
opponents’ plans? Has at least one interrupt been on your skill bar ever since you got
Power Leak? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, chances are good that you
would enjoy trying the interruption mesmer theme.
Interruption mesmers prevent foes from activating essential skills. Using this
theme, you’ll rely more on finesse and timing than on large numbers of hexes, making this
theme effective even against foes who are smart about hex removal. Using the four antispell
interrupts (Power Leak/Spike/Drain/Block) and two general-purpose interrupts (Cry
of Frustration and Leech Signet) at your class’s disposal, you’ll be able to disrupt enemy
activities while your party picks them off. This theme is seen mainly in PvP, though it can
wreak havoc in PvE groups as well.
Here’s a sample build:
7+1 Fast Casting, 8+1 Illusion Magic, 12+2 Domination Magic, 8+1 Inspiration Magic
Equipment: Enchanter’s, wielding a 20/20 Domination staff with armor or health upgrades
1 – Arcane Conundrum – hex, makes interruption easier, but avoid relying on it
2 – Ether Feast – self heal
3 – Complicate** – interrupts and shuts down signets
4 – Power Block [Elite]* – interrupt spells, moderate shutdown of an attribute
5 – Power Leak* – interrupt spells, energy denial
6 – Blackout* – shutdown, can be used as an interrupt
7 – Leech Signet – interrupt any action, energy management when used on spells
8 – Free Slot/Rez
Alternate skills: Ignorance (interrupts signets if it lands before the signet finishes
activating, and thus it is an alternative to Complicate), Migraine [Elite], Power Drain,
Power Spike, Psychic Distraction [Elite]**, Signet of Disruption**, Shatter
Enchantment/Hex
PvP tips:
• In 4v4 battles, if your team has no monk, you can help compensate for the lack of
healing by focusing on interrupting enemy necromancers and elementalists, whose
slow-casting spells make interruption easy. By negating much of the damage enemy
casters would be doing, you’ll allow your own team to focus on taking foes out.
• During large skirmishes in 8v8 battles, try to limit your focus to only one or two enemy
spellcasters, since you’ll probably miss interruption chances if you cycle through too
many targets.
• Anytime you get an experience/faction message, indicating that a foe has died, start
cycling through targets. If you see a rez signet being activated, prevent it with
Complicate or Ignorance. Spell rezes are better suited to interruption with Power
Spike/Leak/Drain/Block.
• Some warriors and rangers rely on Healing Signet or Troll Unguent to keep
themselves alive, but neither of those skills are spells. Still, you can interrupt them by
using Cry of Frustration or Leech Signet, so keep an eye out for those skills when
enemy fighters are running low on health.
• Since Blackout shuts down all of your opponent’s skills, any skill he or she is in the
process of activating when it hits will fail, which means you can use Blackout as an
interrupt.

PvP Tips:
• Be sure to activate your Mantra of Persistence stance shortly before you engage your
foes; the increased hex duration will help you devastate your opponents.
• For the most part, you’ll want to cast your degen hexes in the order they appear in the
skill bar: Crippling Anguish, Conjure Phantasm, and then Phantom Pain. Burying the
snare will make it harder for foes to remove, and putting Phantom Pain on top will let
you use Shatter Delusions to finish the hexed foe once he/she gets down to about
30% health. An exception to this rule occurs when fighting foes who have mesmer as
one of their classes; in that case, you’ll want to lead with Conjure Phantasm to test for
the Hex Breaker stance.
• The degeneration theme is good at fighting one on one versus pretty much anything,
so it will be to your advantage to lure a single foe away from the battle when possible.
Against teams with monks, try to lure a foe away from the monks’ spellcasting range
before laying down Crippling Anguish + Conjure Phantasm + Phantom Pain. This
works especially well against warriors, since the snare will let you escape damage
easily while also making it difficult for the warrior to flee to the safety of the monk. To
speed the damage up, don’t forget to attack with your staff once or twice between
spurts of running away. If a monk can’t get to the degenerated foe quickly, you’ll
probably have no trouble using Shatter Delusions to end Phantom Pain and that foe’s
life.
• If you expect to be dealing with several monks (as in some 8v8 battles), you might
benefit from having Backfire in your lineup, probably either in the free slot or in place
of Shatter Delusions. Don’t expect it to be a killer damage-dealer in this case; just use
it hoping it will deter the monk from casting for its 10 second duration. Of course, if the
monk doesn’t notice the hex and keeps on casting, then go ahead and lay down your
degeneration hexes to finish him/her off.

Factions Degeneration:
6+1 Fast Casting,11+4 Illusion Magic, 12+3 Inspiration Magic
Equipment: Enchanter’s, wielding a 20/20 Illusion cane and armor/HP “while Enchanted”
focus item.
1 – Mantra of Persistence – +100% duration of Illusion hexes, stance lasts 30 seconds
2 – Ether Feast/Illusion of Weakness* – self heal
3 – Mantra of Recall [Elite]* – excellent energy management, also an enchantment.
4 – Conjure Nightmare** – degen of -8 for 14 seconds, but at a large cost of 25 energy
5 – Imagined Burden – 20 seconds of 50% snare
6 – Images of Remorse** – 52 damage on attacking foes, degen of -4 for 10 seconds
7 – Phantom Pain* –degen of -3 for 10 seconds, deep wound when it ends
8 – Free Slot/Rez
Alternate skills: Accumulated Pain**, Arcane Conundrum, Distortion*, Energy Drain
[Elite], Energy Tap, Ethereal Burden*/Kitah’s Burden**, Lyssa’s Aura [Elite]**

PvP Tips:
• The tips for the classic degeneration build apply here as well, except you won’t be
carrying Shatter Delusions to cause the Deep Wound on demand and will have to rely
on your foes’ removal skills to end it in a timely manner. Backfire also won’t help
much in this build because of the lack of Domination investment.
• If you’re used to the classic degeneration build and want to be able to inflict a deep
wound on demand, try using Accumulated Pain** instead of Phantom Pain*.
• Burying Conjure Nightmare under Phantom Pain is important when stacking your
hexes. You won’t want that 25 energy to go to waste just because an opponent
brought Remove Hex.
• Since Images of Remorse has such a fast recharge time (5 seconds), feel free to keep
reapplying it to the same attacking foe in order to whittle him or her down with the
initial damage. Warriors using Frenzy are especially good targets for this.
• Recast Mantra of Recall each time it fades in order to keep your energy reserves high.
With this enchantment, you should have a continual flow of energy that gives you
enough power to keep at least two foes continually hexed with Conjure Nightmare and
other hexes of your choice.
• The two superior runes used in the sample build mean that your maximum health will
suffer considerably. The +health while enchanted focus item will offset this somewhat,
but you’ll still need to exercise more caution than usual. Fortunately, this build allows
for that: run in, cast your hexes, and retreat to safety.

1.3. Mesmer Themes with Sample Builds
One of the most enjoyable aspects of playing any class combination in Guild Wars
is the wide variety of ways to build each character. Once you get everything unlocked for
your mesmer, you’ll have 70 unique skills, plus the Resurrection Signet, from which to
organize a bar of eight skills to take into battle with you. On top of that, you’ll want to
customize your attribute ranks and equipment to fit the skills you’re bringing. And the
options only increase if you take your secondary class into account.
With so much to choose from, the combinations are basically endless, and testing
and discovering new builds is always an ongoing process. Every build is unique, but most
can classified according to what role you want to play. Thus, Guild Wars players often
talk about building their character according to a specific theme, rather than referring to
specific sets of skills.
What follows is a list of many of those themes – some well known, some little
known, and some so strange that you’ll wonder how they could work at all (that last
grouping is marked with [Nonstandard] next to the theme’s name). A sample build of skills
and attribute ranks accompanies each theme, as well as some good alternative skills for
your bar. The sample builds are mainly included to help you think about the theme and to
give you a starting point for making builds that fit your play style.
In terms of attribute ranks, the sample builds below all assume that you’re using a
level 20 character with all 200 attribute points available. They also assume that you’ll use
a minor rune of each attribute, as well as a mask to boost one of your attributes by an
additional rank. If you see an attribute rank marked "12+1," that means you’ll spend
enough points to get the attribute to its default maximum rank of 12, and then use a minor
rune to increase it by an additional rank. "12+2" implies that you’ll pay for 12 attribute
ranks, use a minor rune, and use your mask to boost that attribute by one more rank.
The sample builds are also designed to strike a balance, at least to some degree,
between offense and defense. For PvE play or having fun in the Random Arenas, this is
usually preferred. But if you’re in a group with monks you trust to keep you alive,
especially if they’re friends you’ve done PvP with before, you might consider removing the
self-preservation skills from the builds and substituting alternates to increase the build’s
focus on its theme.
With that out of the way, here are the character themes. Currently, the guide
mainly includes themes that use only mesmer skills (and there’s plenty of variety without
going outside the bounds of the class), as well as some themes for the Me/W
combination. Themes involving skills from other class combinations will be added as the
guide is updated.

1.3.1. Pure Mesmer
In the sample builds that follow, * next to a skill name indicates that it is exclusively
available to accounts that have access to the original Guild Wars (the Prophecies
campaign) while ** indicates that a skill is exclusive to the Factions campaign.
Degeneration [2 sample builds]
Along with necromancers and rangers, mesmers in Guild Wars have powerful
health degeneration skills. The main advantage of a good health degeneration build is
that it can condemn a foe to death in just a few seconds’ time – assuming that foe won’t
be healed or cured of the hexes/conditions. Since degen ignores armor and doesn’t count
as "damage," it can even be used to full effect against warriors and protection monks.
For your reference, each little triangle, or "pip" of health degeneration reduces the
afflicted character’s health by two points every second. Health degeneration caps at 10
pips, or 20 health lost per second. Likewise, health regeneration (often caused by monk
spells like Healing Breeze or Mending) adds two health per second per pip of regen, to a
maximum of 10 pips, or 20 health gained per second. If a character is affected by regen
and degen at the same time, the difference between the two determines how much regen
or degen the character will gain or suffer. This calculation occurs before the game caps
the effect at 10 pips, so it’s not wasteful to afflict a target with degen in excess of 10 if you
expect that target to have regen skills.
In the Prophecies campaign, the mesmer’s degeneration career begins with the
Conjure Phantasm spell, a basic but potent hex that afflicts the target with degen of -5 for
its duration. In classic mesmer degeneration builds, this hex is joined by other degen
hexes from later in the game, a stance to increase their durations, Shatter Delusions, and
some utility skills to decrease health at alarming rates.
The release of Guild Wars: Factions has brought even more degeneration hexes
to the mesmer’s arsenal. Hexes like Conjuure Nightmare and Images of Remorse allow
mesmer degen builds to defeat unwary opponents more efficiently than ever before, and
make it more plausible to degenerate several opponents at once. Because of the
significant changes Factions has caused in the world of the degen mesmer, this section
offers two separate sample builds, one that uses a more classic formula, and another that
uses the new skills. Here they are:
Classic Degeneration:
7+1 Fast Casting,12+2 Illusion Magic, 8+1 Domination Magic, 8+1 Inspiration Magic
Equipment: Enchanter’s, wielding a 20/20 Illusion staff with HP or armor upgrades
1 – Mantra of Persistence – increases duration of degen hexes
2 – Ether Feast/Illusion of Weakness – self heal
3 – Free Slot (energy management)
4 – Shatter Delusions – damage, ends Phantom Pain on demand
5 – Crippling Anguish – snare, health degen of -3
6 – Conjure Phantasm – health degen of -5
7 – Phantom Pain* – health degen of -3, deep wound when it ends
8 – Free Slot/Rez
Alternate skills: Distortion*, Backfire, Energy Tap, Ethereal Burden*/Kitah’s Burden**

Mesmer Survival Tips
As you’ve probably noticed, mesmer armor isn’t the greatest at reducing damage.
In fact, it’s tied among the other casters for the "worst" armor in the game. Keep the
following tips in mind when trying to stay alive:
• Know the limitations of your self-healing skills. Ether Feast won’t do you any good
without a foe nearby to cast it on, and it won’t be maximally effective unless that foe
has at least 5 energy available. In long PvP battles, try to identify a foe who manages
energy well, and use him/her as your main target for feasting. In PvE, it’s almost
always safe to feast on any mob except warriors, who often run out of energy quickly.
Also, remember that Illusion of Weakness won’t "heal" you unless you take actual
damage; smart foes in PvP might use degeneration hexes to finish you off without
triggering the enchantment’s effect.
• Some mesmer builds will work well alone, allowing you to split off from your
teammates to take down specific foes one-on-one. But when in doubt, stay close to
your teammates. Monks on your team won’t be able to heal/protect you if you get too
far away, nor will your other teammates be able to support you with attacks and spells.
• Look out for AoE rain spells, like Fire Storm or Maelstrom. If you’re getting hit by one,
move outside its area of effect as soon as possible to minimize damage and other bad
effects.
• When facing rangers in high-level PvP, be very wary of choke points like bridges and
narrow hillsides, since the enemy rangers may have placed traps on them.

Mesmer Positioning/Terrain Tips:
As touched on in the armor and damage explanation above, positioning plays an
important role in Guild Wars regardless of what class you’re playing. As a mesmer, you’ll
also have access to some positioning tricks that other classes lack. What follows is a list
of tips for using terrain and positioning to your advantage:
• All offensive mesmer spells can hit foes without requiring a clear line of sight (LoS). If
you’re fighting against rangers or elementalists, try hiding around corners, behind
large pillars, or next to cliffs so their projectile attacks will miss you. As a rule of
thumb, if you try to attack someone with your cane/staff and get the "Your view of the
target is obstructed" message, then your target will probably get the same message
when trying to attack you. This is particularly effective against rangers, but be wary of
elementalists, who usually will have at least a few spells not based on line of sight.
• Try to use high ground to your advantage. Being above foes will give your cane/staff
attacks a slightly longer range than normal, as well as a small damage boost, and
you’ll have the added advantage of being able to hex enemy warriors while they try to
make their way up to you. In PvP arenas, beware of careful opponents who will simply
avoid you if you stand on a piece of high terrain. If your enemies are avoiding your
perch, you may have no choice but to come down to attack them.
If you notice an enemy is wading through tar (-30% movement rate) or lava (causes
crippled and burning conditions), you can lengthen that foe’s stay in the bad terrain by
using Imagined Burden or a similar hex to snare him/her.

Armor Level and Damage:
Armor level (AL) in Guild Wars differs greatly from the way it works in most online
games. For starters, armor and damage calculations in Guild Wars are location-based.
This means that each attack or damaging spell has a random chance to strike any of the
five body locations: chest, legs, hands, feet, or head. Only the AL from that particular
piece of equipment will count when calculating damage.
The chances that each body location will be hit are not equal. The chest is hit 3/8
of the time (37.5% chance); the legs are hit 2/8 of the time (25% chance); the feet, hands,
and head are each hit 1/8 of the time (12.5% chance). Positioning modifies these odds
somewhat. If you’re standing atop a cliff attacking a foe who is below, you’ll have a better
than normal chance to hit his/her head. Likewise, you’ll be more likely to hit his/her legs or
feet if you’re shooting upward from low ground. Hits to the head are reported to have a
higher chance of scoring a critical hit, so high ground offers an advantage in that regard.
Bonuses to armor from weapons, foci, or shields are added to the equipment’s AL
when calculating damage for any attack or spell that hits from the front; hits from the side
or back ignore such bonuses. Also, armor bonuses due to enchantments or other skills
are added regardless of the direction from which the attack/spell is coming.
When two level 20 characters are fighting each other, an AL of 60 (which is what
the strongest mesmer armor gives) is considered the "base" level for calculating damage.
Generally speaking, a level 20 using an attack/spell on someone with an AL of 60 will deal
the full base damage of that attack or spell. Fighter characters with exceptionally high
ranks in their weapon’s attribute will deal somewhat more damage, but your canes/staves
will deal only their base damage.
When figuring out how armor bonuses or penalties affect damage, you might find
the following rule of thumb helpful: adding 40 armor cuts damage in half; subtracting 40
armor doubles the damage. If an elementalist is spamming Flare on you dealing 30
damage per hit, and you activate Elemental Resistance (+40 armor against elemental
damage), you’ll suddenly find yourself taking only 15 damage. But let’s assume your
stance is also giving you –20 armor against physical damage. Suppose a warrior runs up
to you while it’s still active and starts hacking away; you’ll take 1.5 times the normal
damage. But suppose the same warrior attacks you while you’re not in a stance and have
the "Watch Yourself!" shout affecting you (a warrior shout that gives +20 armor to all
nearby allies); you’ll take only ¾ the normal damage.
All of the above information will be important to you when you’re trying to boost
your own armor and survive enemy attacks, since your base armor level will offer minimal
protection. But when you’re using offensive mesmer skills, you won’t need to worry much
about enemy armor levels. The reason is simple: every single damaging skill in your
arsenal ignores armor. Your direct damage skills like Energy Burn and Chaos Storm will
deal their full base damage – no more, and no less (the one exception occurs when
casting on primary warriors, whose Absorption runes will reduce the damage you deal by
a few points). Your health degeneration hexes, like other degen effects, also completely
ignore armor. The only thing armor level will affect is the damage dealt by your cane or
staff, which will seldom be your primary method of harming opponents.
Being able to ignore armor like this will make your damaging spells effective even
against well-armored warriors and rangers. While most other casters should fear the
fighter classes, your skill list will include plenty of ways to make short work of them, should
you choose to make that the focus of your combat efforts.

This section will deal with the game mechanics that govern the way mesmer
equipment, skills, attacks, and damage work; it will also provide tips for using these
mechanics to your advantage. Knowing these nuances of equipment and combat is
helpful in PvE, but it is vital in PvP matches, where even a small advantage may mean the
difference between victory and defeat. Without further ado…
Mesmer Armor Types
Mesmers get four basic "types" of armor:
• Stylish – Plain, ordinary mesmer armor. It is generally the cheapest to craft and offers
no special bonuses or penalties. Late in the PvE game, it’s usually best to avoid
crafting this and save up for the types with bonuses, though you should feel free to
pick up Stylish armor from collectors if it’ll be an upgrade for you.
• Rogue’s – Like Stylish, but it has an additional +10 armor vs. physical attacks on each
piece of armor. The downside is that a full set of Rogue’s loses 5 energy max
compared to the Stylish set. This is a good choice for Me/W builds that want to tank.
• Enchanter’s – Like Stylish, except it adds a total of +5 energy max for a full set. This
is the most common choice for armor among level 20 mesmers.
• Courtly, Noble, Troubadour’s, or Virtuoso’s – Like Stylish, except it adds +15 armor
while casting spells. Mesmer builds that focus on casting many spells but have plenty
of energy management might consider a set of this armor instead of Enchanter’s.
The above armor types apply only to the hands, feet, torso, and leg armor slots.
The mesmer’s head slot, as for other classes, consists of items that give a bonus rank in
one of the class’s attributes. For mesmers, these are:
• Discreet Mask: A basic mask, it gives no attribute bonus. This mask type is cheap to
craft, but doing so is usually a waste.
• Sleek Mask: A mask that gives +1 to your Fast Casting attribute rank while equipped.
This is a good choice for builds that use very high fast casting, but since those builds
are few, you probably won’t use this mask type much.
• Costume Mask: A mask that gives +1 to your Illusion Magic attribute rank.
• Imposing Mask: A mask that gives +1 to your Domination Magic attribute rank. This
mask type is often impractical to craft early on in PvE due to the hefty material
requirements.
• Animal Mask: A mask that gives +1 to your Inspiration Magic attribute rank. In PvE,
this is often the mask of choice when crafting armor early on due to the relatively
inexpensive material requirements.
When choosing which type of mask to craft in PvE, or which type to place on a
newly created PvP character, try to pick the one that corresponds to the attribute you
believe you’ll be using the most. The mask is essentially a free rank in any attribute of
your choice. Since attribute ranks cost increasingly more attribute points as you raise
them, you can use your mask as a way to offset that cost in one of your high-ranked
attributes, freeing up points to use elsewhere. For highly specialized builds, you also can
combine it with a Major or Superior Rune of an attribute (more on that in a moment) to
make your skills from that attribute particularly devastating.
Mesmer Runes
Like all other classes, mesmers can purchase or find items called runes, which will
boost their capabilities in some way when attached to a piece of their armor. Each piece
of armor can hold one rune, making a total of five runes possible in a given set of
equipment.
It just so happens that mesmers have access to exactly five types of runes. The
first four are the "attribute" runes. Runes of Fast Casting, Illusion Magic, Domination
Magic, and Inspiration Magic will add ranks to their namesake attribute when attached to
your armor. The exact bonus depends on the tier of the rune: minor runes add one rank
to the attribute and don’t have any penalty for using them; major runes add two ranks but
reduce your maximum health by 50; superior runes add three ranks but reduce your
maximum health by 75.
The other type of rune is available to all classes and is called a Vigor rune. These
runes have only one function: they increase your character’s maximum health. A Rune of
Minor Vigor adds 30 health; a Rune of Major Vigor adds 41 health; a Rune of Superior
Vigor adds 50 health. For role-playing characters, buying a Rune of Superior Vigor is
usually a colossal waste of money due to the extreme price of the rune, but you should
always have at least a Rune of Minor Vigor equipped if possible.
By the way, runes of the same type do not stack with each other. If you use
multiple runes of the same attribute, only the one with the highest tier will count. Likewise,
equipping multiple Vigor runes will only give you the benefit of the best one you have
equipped.
You can buy runes for your character as early as post-Searing Ascalon City, where
you’ll find a Rune Trader NPC who sells them. How you set up your runes is largely a
matter of personal play style and taste, but since there’s no penalty for using minor runes
of an attribute, the basic mesmer rune setup is to use a minor rune for each attribute, plus
a Vigor rune.
If you’re just starting out, you’ll do well to use only minor attribute runes for a while,
since the loss of health from the stronger runes will be a serious threat to your safety.
Even in the late PvE game and especially in PvP, you may want to stick to using only
minor runes for survival reasons. In a typical PvP battle, you’ll be the main target for
opposing teams right after the monks on your team are dead, and you may find you need
all the health you can get. If you do decide to use major or superior runes, try to use only
one at a time.