This is an odd spec.  The clothie Mage-type with arcane magic spells is a staple of fantasy MMOs.  But the GW2 Mesmer is different.As the video below shows of my human Mesmer leveling in the 17-18 range, this spec is more about illusions and Las Vegas-style magician skills than fully arcane spells.

Like most clothie casters, this one can summon multiple illusionary copies (mirror images) which also attack foes and can distract or confuse them. At the level shown below she did not yet have the multiple illusion Mirror Image spell but she did have one illusionary helper.  I found it confusing to me at first that the illusion has a health bar above it that looks very like a player bar, not like the simpler Ranger pet bar.

What is unusual is the number of ways the Mesmer can suddenly shatter the illusions to do various types of damage.  And the Mesmer can do many types of condition effects, not just damage but stuns, confusion, distraction etc. But at this level the shatter and other spells  are much less effective than the Elementalist’s two targeted AoE fire spells which are basically fight-closers.  I expected much more DPS from the Mesmer.

This would not be a fav profession for me at this level.  Typical of baby casters, keeping her alive at these lower levels takes active player energy, but usually some spell stands out as a get-them-just-before-they-get-her fight-ender. But I do understand Mesmer specs are highly useful in groups in end-game content so I’ll examine her again at that point.  It’s possible her young-levels spell balance is a weak point.