A look at the mesmer in GW2: part II: 1h weapns

Resource: Playgw2

Sword (Mainhand) and Sword (Offhand)

Sword is basically your melee weapon with some neat defensive skills.

Your primary auto-attack ability is going to be Mind Slash, which itself is actually a chain of 3 skills: Mind Slash –> Mind Stab –> Mind Gash. In addition to doing damage, this ability also causes vulnerability (-defense) for 5 seconds and remove one boon (buff) from foes. It will hit multiple enemies it they are clustered together in front of you.

Blurred Frenzy is one of my favorite skills. The description isn't very obvious but it is a basically a channeled rapid frenzy of sword swings. While this skill is active, you are immune to all attacks from the enemy (for about a good 2 seconds), which makes this skill very useful. I use it whenever I know I am about to take a large hit from the enemy. Here is a picture of me using Blurred Frenzy, note two things in the picture – a castbar at the bottom (signifying that I am channeling the skill) and the word Invulnerable on the screen (signifying that I am immune to all damage from the enemy while this skill is active). Something that isn't too obvious from this picture but should be clear in the next one is that this skill will hit all nearby enemies so if you are surrounded, this skill will hit them all. The cooldown on this skill is only 8 seconds, which make it very useful

Illusionary Leap is a bit of a cool skill . This skill summon a clone that basically run and leap to your target (the summoning time is almost instant). The leap will also cripple the enemy, slowing down their movement speed for 3 seconds. What is the cool about this spell though is the ability that is chained after it – Swap. It basically allow you to switch places with the clone, and immobilize nearby enemies. In theory what you could do is attack an enemy from ranged and when you want to get close, you summon the clone. Once the clone is right next to the enemy, you swap places and use either Mind Slash or Blurred Frenzy to finish the enemy off.

Illusionary Riposte is an active block skill (only blocks attacks while you are casting the spell). While this ability is casting, any attack by the enemy will be blocked and a clone will be summoned with a successful block. While you are casting this spell, the next spell in the chain – Counter Blade can be activated if you press the button again. This is something you should be careful as activating Counter Blade will cancel your block.

Counter blade essentially send out a bolt that dazes (interrupt) the targets in a line and if you are using it while inside a combo field like Chaos Storm, it combos and give you Chaos armor. (in the images below, left show you the combo inside Chaos Storm while the right image show you the bolt from Counter Blade)

Illusionary Swordsman is as the name/description suggests – summon a melee phantasm that attacks your enemy. The summoning time for this illusion is about a second so that is something you should keep in mind. The phantasms while stronger are clones, are also fairly weak so opening up the fight with this skill isn't always a good idea as the mob can 1 or 2 shot the swordsman. (see the first part of the video where where the warthog basically one shot two of my illusions).

Sword mainhand works great with sword offhand (duel wielding swords) if you want to get up close and do some melee damage. It also works great with torch offhand (covered below). I don't feel like it synergize too well with focus offhand as that tend to go well with scepters. I use the sword often with pistol offhand as it is my favorite offhand.

Scepter (Mainhand)

The scepter mainhand is mostly a ranged single target weapon. 

Ether Bolt is your primary autoattack that is actually a chain of 3 spells: Ether Bolt –> Ether Blast –> Ether Clone. Ether Bolt and Ether Blast are mostly just ranged attack spells but Ether Clone actually summon a clone of yourself that also cast Ether Bolt. If you just spam Ether Bolt, you can quickly get up to the 3 clones that all cast Ether Bolt, which makes it confusing for enemies in PvP. 
 
 
Illusionary Counter is an active block skill much like Illusionary Riposte (4) from the sword offhand. While you are casting this ability, any attack from the enemy will be blocked. A successful block will result in the release of a clone that casts Ether Bolt.
While you are casting, the next ability in the chain – Counter Spell is available and can be casted if you press the button again. Counter Spell is an ability that will blind (causes the target's next attack to miss) the enemy in a line . In the following two images, the left show you that Counter Spell is available while you are casting Illusionary Counter. The right image show you what happens if you activate Counter Spell – the enemy in a line in front of you is blinded (note the Blind icon below the enemy health bar).
 

Confusing Images is a channeled beam attack that also put a 5 stack Confusion (deals damage each time a foe uses a skill) debuff on the enemy for 5 seconds. This is a skill I use whenever it is off cooldown because not only it deals damage to the enemy, it deals additional damage if the enemy is attacking me at the same time. 
 
Scepter is a great pairing with pistol and focus. Torch and especially sword offhands I feel go better with the sword mainhand as the scepter is a primarily ranged weapon.

Pistol (Offhand)

Pistol is my absolute favourite offhand. Both skills that the pistols provides are very useful in PvE situations.
 
Illusionary Duelist is essentially a ranged phantasm that shoot at things with dual pistols. Having a ranged phantasm is useful as these tend to survive longer than melee phantasms, especially if you are kiting mobs around. The damage this clone dish out isn't too shabby either. 
 
 

Trick Shot is my favourite ability. It give the Mesmer the ability to do some sort of crowd control. It hits 3 nearby enemies, the first enemy is Stunned for 2 seconds (can't move or act), the second enemy is Dazed (unable to use abilities) for 2 seconds, and the 3rd enemy is Blinded (the next outgoing attack misses) for 5 seconds.
One thing you do have to becareful about this skill is its range – if there are other enemies nearby your target, Trick Shot will likely hit them as the range is quite far on this skill. Here is an image to demonstrate the extreme long range of Trick shot (it hit the mob walking nearby). If you are using this skill in a mob dense area, that is something you do have to keep in mind. 
 
Trick shot is great when facing multiple enemies but it also excels when facing single mobs as the stun give you an extra 2 seconds to get whatever clones/abilities off.
Trick shot is also a combo finisher (Physical Projectile) so using it while standing inside Chaos Storm (ethereal circular field) will apply confusion (deals damage each time the enemy uses a skill) to enemies the bullets hit.

Focus (Offhand)

The focus offhand is very much a support offhand which I didn't find much usage while soloing. 
 
Temporal Curtain is basically a linear "wall" on the ground that will give allies that cross it swiftness (33% run speed) and cripple any enemies that cross it (-50% run speed). It is a good skill to have when kiting or escaping from enemies. If you are in groups that need to kite certain mobs, you may find this skill useful.
 
Keep in mind that Temporal Curtain is a Light Combo field so it interacts with Combo finishers – check the combo tables above to see what type of interactions occur. 

Illusionary Warden is an interesting defensive skill. It summons a phantasm at the location of the enemy you targeted and this phantasm will basically swing axes around to form a bubble that protect all allies in it from projectiles. Additionally, the axe swings will damage any enemies nearby. 
 
Since the phantasm is summoned at the location of the enemy and doesn't move, you do have to run to it to get under its protection. This does in my opinion, limit the effectiveness of the skill somewhat.

Torch (Offhand)

The torch offhand give the mesmer a short duration stealth and a phantasm that harm attacking enemies for a short duration. 
 
The Prestige is the only weapon skill that grant Mesmers stealth. It is quite neat as there are 3 effects at work here. 1. Stealth (last for 3 seconds but will end prematurely if you attack enemies – summoning illusions doesn't seem to count) 2. Apply blindness (cause their next attack to miss) to nearby enemies when you go stealth (5 seconds) 3. Apply a burning DoT (last for 3 seconds) to nearby enemies 3 seconds after you went stealth (regardless of when you actually appear out of stealth). I like to use it in combination with sword mainhand as this ability works really well in melee range combat, especially when surrounded by multiple enemies. If things get a bit dicey, pop into stealth, summon some illusions/use your self heal, pop out of stealth with Blurred Frenzy from sword mainhand. The blindness and burning debuffs are the icing on the cake. 
 
Illusionary Mage is an phantasm that grant 3 seconds of Retaliation (sort of like a damage shield, deals X damage to enemies each time they hit you) to allies and 9 seconds of Confusion (deals damage each time the enemy uses an ability) to enemies. I tend to use this ability while in stealth as it doesn't end my stealth prematurely while casting it.