First-time Mesmer, need some guideance

Hi guys, on a random impulse I decided to create a mesmer (in cantha) but I don't know much about the different paths I could follow and I'm now at the stage where I need to choose a 2nd prof. If possible my hope is to be able to do both PvE and PvP with this char with a similar build.

In alliance battles I noticed on a couple of occasions Me/E's which could degen my health very rapidly - if anyone has some info on that sort of build it would be useful, please!

Going monk sub makes you more self-reliant and gives you a hard rez. (yes, Ritualist has FomF, but Resurrection Chant/Rebirth are much more useful.) If you want to cause a lot of degen pain, your best bet is necro sub, going illusion/curses.

Hmmm... not sure if I can help you on this or not.

I don't play GvG or PvP, so I can't give you any advise on that at all.

As for PvE, what are you going for? Health Degen, Condition, Interupts, or just fast casting?

Health Degen - Necros would be my 1st choice, they have lots of health degen skills that compliment Mesmers nicely

Condition - Necros or Rangers. Both can send off conditions from a far.

Interupts - Rangers are the next best for interupts, so massive interupting skills will endup filling your bar no problem

Fast Casting - Monks would be my first choice, then ritualists. Ritualists benefit greatly from Fast Casting (more so than monks), but monks are great healers and protectors (yes and smiting too).

Some people like to see a fast casting Nuker (but you need Prophecies to be a good nuker), but casting high level spells fast, seems to me like you'll run out of energy too quickly.

Assassins and Warriors are too much - in your face for my liking. Assassins do have nice teleportation techniques and healing (anyone is better than a mesmer in that). Warriors have awesome stances.

Builds - look around on each profession. There are plenty of builds, even with a mesmer. Just don't look at Mesmer/*, look at */mesmers too, it may give you ideas on what skills work well together.

In PvE, you can always change your 2nd profession and see what works for you. Once you get to a city (Sei... I can't remember the city name), you can change your 2nd profession as many times as you like. So experiment and have fun.

Thanks very much for the info guys, I'll go look at some build combinations. (prof change = at Senji's Corner)

Monk is always a safe choice and is generally used for soloing with a mesmer. Necro is a somewhat more aggressive choice, often the choice of a pvp mes. Warrior is for those that want to play around with Illusionary Weaponry, for the most part. Ele secondary or Rit secordary can make you into a fast cast nuker of sorts, also often seen pvp (bring back the riiiifts!). Ranger secodary if you want to use ranger heals/evades/pets for a bit more protection. Assassin if you wanna play with the *zoink! I'm someplace else!* skills.

I am sure there are more uses than this, but theres a few.

By the time your ready to take your Mesmer into PvP you should've unlocked all the Secondary Profession changes anyway imo, so theres not much point debating on a secondaries use in PvP/GvG.

Imho, until you get a decent catalogue of skills, your best just going for Me/Mo. You get the nice hard res. If you prefer you could go Me/A as Shadow Refuge would get a fast casting bonus and an emergancy teleport (i wouldn't think you'd need it). But generally your better sticking to mesmer skills. You can learn how to use other skills on there specific profession, theres only 1 class you can properly learn Mesmer skills on (due to fast casting).

PvE you just play whatever suits you. If i want to own Warriors, i'll go Illusion and bring Ineptitude. If i just want to deny casting, i'll go Domination and stock up on Interrupts/Empathy/Backfire.
All that said i have far more fun playing my Mesmer and Ranger than i do any other class. I just love interrupts

Quote:

just to jump on board i love the necro skills but hate the longass casting times. so i run memser/necro with fastcasting. i use my mesmer skills more but i have the option....

memser/ele would be a good choice, if anything for glyph of renewal.

if you have no interest in pvp, monk secondary would be a good choice. but in pve i use SS alot and have a blast. pretty yellow numbers

Thanks once again for all the help. I'm going to go with monk secondary as Evilsod said it's a safe choice, and I may well change once at Senji's.

/Mo for E.Bond more than rez imo; but both are fortunatly in the same line.