I play this game alot (I'm unemployed) and I have to say that the Mesmer -profession can be quite a challenge. It can be incredibly rewarding but also really frustrating from time to time. Because of your AL 60 armor it feels sometimes that you're the enemies number one target. If you're in the wrong place during a battle all the rangers and spellcasters attack you at the same time and you might end up dead in a blink of an eye. Might be clever to start using a bow to start battles when doing quests with henchmen
But the thing with mesmers is that you can be the biggest pain in the butt with all the annoying spells and skills. For example (in PVE) use Diversion on an assassin when you think he's about to attack and the next skill he uses takes nearly a minute to recharge. If that skill was his lead attack you ruined his dagger skill -combos completely. Or just use Spirit Shackles on them (or against Rangers) and they lose 5 energy every time they attack. Continue with Energy Burn and/or Energy Surge and in a few seconds they have zero energy... Of course there might be characters who remove hexes but most of the time simple strategies like these work nicely.
With all the skills there are huge amount of build combinations that you can use. You can take a supportive role by removing hexes from your allies and removing enchantments from enemies and interrupting their spells. Interrupt two spells using Echo or Arcane Echo and Power Leak and target foe has lost up to 52 energy... Or you can pretty much consentrate on dealing damage. There are skills for that too. For example if your party's tank has hexes on him use Echo or Arcane Echo and Shatter Hex and everyone near him suffers up to 256 damage, in less than two seconds...
There are just so many things you can do: steal random spells from target foe for nearly 30 seconds, borrow an elite skill from your party member for 20 seconds, prevent target foes from using their elite skills or signets, prevent warriors from gaining adrenaline, shut down target foe's whole skill bar for up to 6 seconds (with Echo you can do it three times in a row and target foe can't use any of his skills for up to 18 seconds). It takes thinking and planning to come up with a good build for a certain situation. It helps if you know what kind of enemies you're going to face and what kind of skills they use. I read GuildWiki quite often to get information about different enemies and the skills they use. Sometimes Domination Magic seems to be the best and in some areas consentrating on Illusion Magic seems to give the best result. There are so many possibilities.
Even though Mesmers can be very useful you still find yourself quite often in a situation where people seem to think that you can't bring anything to a party. If you're in a full party and people deside that one more monk is needed, guess who's gonna get kicked out, even though there's like three or four warriors in the party? Or someone is looking for a party and is asking people to invite themselves. Somehow you just don't seem to be accepted...
But no worries, there are people who will gladly have you on their team and sometimes they even ask if you can equip certain skills.
