NOTE: the following article is based off the BWE1 build.

“Mesmers are magical duelists who rely on deception and confusion to keep their opponents in check. Indecision is their greatest ally. Using powerful illusions to distract, they make sure they never go toe to toe with an enemy; they use their powers and tactics to set up an unfair fight.”

Mesmers were the last class revealed in Guild Wars 2 and also one of the most anticipated when it was revealed. This was because Mesmers in Guild Wars 1 had a prestigious position as the most technical and interesting class to play. The Mesmer reveal video showed many interesting new mechanics such as illusions, group invisibility, blinks and showed unconventional weapon choice for a caster such as greatsword, swords and pistols. Now that the beta is upon us, let’s take a look at the Mesmer class and find out how exactly it works and plays. Obviously since this is an early beta phase, all of this is subject to change in the coming weeks/months until and even after release.

With last weekend’s major media coverage of Guild Wars 2 there are many people just now starting to pay attention. There are a lot of questions out there of how the game works, how it’s played and what makes it different. Luckily for you, we here at Guild Wars Junkies are paying attention and are here to help you figure everything out. The one question we want to tackle is how abilities and class mechanics are available to you at any given point. In games like WOW, TOR and Rift, players are used to having multiple hotbars with a myriad of abilities readily available to you. How does it work in Guild Wars 2? All the videos you’ve seen showed you a single hotbar at the bottom of the screen and not much else. Are you concerned that there aren’t many options and things might get stale?