——————————
- Domination Magic (gwmeg3a) -
——————————

Domination Magic spells are the staple spells used by most Mesmers to interrupt
and directly damage opponents.  With a few exceptions, the spells in the
Domination line fall into two categories, Interrupts and Punishment.  While
most of the Domination spells focus on shutting down spellcasters, there are a
few spells that work well against warriors as well.

Interrupts
==========
The great thing about interrupts is that they work perfectly as intended without
any points invested in Domination Magic.  When you use them, they still stop a
spell or skill cold.  However, interrupts take an attentive mind and good
reflexes to use regularly.  A good overall knowledge of the game, specifically
the spells that are commonly cast by each spellcaster class and the casting
times associated with each spell, helps immensely.

The two main interrupts in the Domination line are Power Leak and Power Spike.
Power Spike has a slightly faster cooldown time, but Power Leak may be useful in
preventing the opponent from casting subsequent spells.  Both only cost 10
Energy, and have an extremely quick casting time.  You can’t go wrong with
either or both of these.

Cry of Frustration interrupts any skill (not just spells) and does its magic
in a small area of effect.  It’s rather expensive for an interrupt, weighing in
at 15 Energy.  The damage is small, but it’s there, and the cooldown is a bit
on the long side.  Still, it’s one of the few ways you can stop a Troll Unguent
or Res Signet from going off. As of the 8/25/05 Update, Cry of Frustration has
the same Casting Time as any other interrupt.

Power Block (Elite) is probably the “ultimate” interrupt, as it not only
interrupts a spell, but it blocks the caster from casting a spell linked to the
same attribute for several seconds.  It has a long cooldown and large Energy
cost of 15.  It should probably be used to shutdown Aeromancers and Healing
Monks in PvP (who tend to bring several “clumps” of skills linked to the same
attribute).

There are two interrupts that are NOT in the Domination line, mostly because
they drain Energy.  Leech Signet and Power Drain are two Inspiration Magic
spells that do just as an effective job at interrupting as its Domination Magic
cousins.  Leech Signet has a very long cooldown, but it interrupts any skill,
much like Cry of Frustration.  Best of all, it costs no Energy.  Power Drain
costs an efficient 5 Energy.  It also has a long cooldown time of 25 seconds,
though, but it gives you some Energy back when the spell is interrupted.

Punishment
==========
Punishment spells are the main damaging spells of the Mesmer class.  They do
Chaos damage and also ignore armor, making them quite effective against any
opponent.  Most of the Punishment spells follow the motif of “if you do this
action, then you take damage”.  Alternatively, some of them fall into the
category of “if you fulfill a certain condition, then you take damage.”  Most
Punishment spells suffer from long casting times and cooldowns, although there
are a few exceptions.

Punishment spells in PvE work more as damaging spells than as spell prevention,
as monsters are rarely “smart” enough to stop using skills or doing actions that
trigger the punishment damage. Empathy and Backfire in particular are great for
applying damage to Warriors/Rangers and Spellcasters, respectively, because they
do large amounts of damage over a decent duration.

PvP is a different story.  Some opponents in PvP either will try to remove the
hex or they will wait out the hex’s duration so that they will not trigger the
condition.  Thus, you either have to interrupt their hex removal in the former
case or force them to trigger the condition in the latter case.

Backfire
——–
This Punishment spell probably deserves its own entry, as it is one of the
iconic spells of the Mesmer.  Backfire has a long cooldown of 20 seconds, long
casting time of 3 seconds, and a large Energy cost of 15 seconds.  However, it
does an incredible amount of Chaos damage every time an opponent casts a spell.
In PvE, Backfire can typically kill off most spellcaster monsters fairly quickly
all by itself.  It is especially used to kill off the Enemy Priests in the
Thirsty River mission.  Backfire may actually be TOO good, as it is well-known
to most Guild Wars players, and in PvP, people will be expecting this above all
other Hexes.  Most players are smart enough to either wait out the duration or
get an ally to remove Backfire.

Wastrel’s Worry
—————
Wastrel’s Worry is an interesting Punishment spell.  It has a fast casting time,
low Energy cost of 5, and a very fast cooldown of 1 second.  The effect is such
that if the opponent doesn’t remove the Hex or use a skill within 3 seconds,
they take damage. Since most characters are constantly using skills, Wastrel’s
Worry by itself sounds like a lost cause.  However, it makes a great “pressure”
attack in a PvP situation when combined with Backfire or similar Punishment
skills, as either the opponent uses the skill and takes the Punishment damage
or doesn’t use a skill and take Wastrel’s Worry damage (which is easily cast
again).  It also is a good spell to use on opponents that you’ve drained of all
Energy, as they typically won’t be able to use skills at all.

Shatter spells
————–
Shatter Enchantment and Shatter Hex are both Punishment spells that remove an
Enchantment and a Hex respectively, and deal damage to a target.  Shatter
Enchantment is probably the more useful of the two, since nearly all things
will be Enchanted at some point or another, while Shatter Hex does significantly
more damage to an area-effect.  Shatter Hex also has a much faster cooldown…
bring Shatter Hex along if you know you are going to be facing Mesmers,
Necromancers, and the occasional Hydromancer (Ice Golems/Imps in particular like
to toss out Rust and Deep Freeze).

Shatter Delusions is an interesting variant on this theme.  It removes a Hex on
an enemy, and deals damage to that enemy.  You can use this to deal an
additional “kicker” of chaos damage at the end duration of one of your Hexes. It
will always hit the last Hex that you cast on the enemy, so be sure to time it
carefully to get the most damage out of both the Hex that you cast and Shatter
Delusions.  One common use of Shatter Delusions is to end Phantom Pain earlier,
to take advantage of its “Deep Wound” effect.

Other Utility Skills
====================

Arcane Thievery
—————
Arcane Thievery is a spell in the Domination Magic line that steals a random
spell from your targeted oppoenent, disabling that spell for them and granting
it to you.  It has a modest Energy cost of 10, and a quick casting time, along
with a fairly quick cooldown (which is usually exceeded by the effect of this
spell).  Note that you can ONLY steal spells (which makes this mostly useless
against Rangers and Warriors) and the spells that are stolen are not based off
of your enemy’s attributes, but your own.  Thus, if you steal a Meteor spell
from an enemy Elementalist, it will do a small amount of damage unless you also
have a high level Fire Magic attribute.  This makes Arcane Thievery mostly
useless in PvE.  It has limited utility in PvP as well, but sometimes you can
really wreck an opposing spellcaster by removing one of his/her more valuable
spells in the skillbar.  I usually consider this a “lesser” version of the next
skill in this discussion, Blackout…

Blackout
——–
Blackout shuts down ALL of your opponent’s skills, but at a cost of your own
skills being shut down for 5 seconds.  The key to using Blackout (other than a
high Domination Magic attribute to maximize the duration) is to minimize the
penalty against yourself while applying Blackout to the opponent that will be
hurt the most by losing all skills.

Blackout costs a reasonable 10 Energy, has a 1 second casting time, and a 10
second cooldown.  This means that without some sort of adjustments, you won’t
be able to continually Blackout an opponent.  Also, Blackout is a generic skill
and NOT a spell, so it can’t be copied by Arcane Echo.  It can be copied by
Echo (Elite), however, and it is affected by the Ranger’s Expertise attribute.
Being a skill, it can’t be countered like a normal spell, and it cannot be
removed like a Hex or Enchantment.

Chaos Storm
———–
Chaos Storm is the Mesmer’s answer to the Elementalist Area of Effect (AoE)
spells like Maelstrom and Firestorm.  For 15 Energy, it affects a small area of
enemies with Chaos damage over a period of 10 seconds.  While the damage done
by Chaos Storm is less than the damage done by most other AoE spells, it is
Chaos damage (which ignores armor) and one of the few ways to affect a group
offensively with Mesmer magic.  It’s also a great way to shutdown enemy casters
in PvE, along with Backfire.  The Priests in the Thirsty River mission in
particular fall quickly to a combination of Backfire and Chaos Storm.

Diversion
———
This skill is the bane of the so-called “Spammable” skills out there.  It adds
a considerable amount of seconds to the cooldown of the next skill used by your
opponent.  It has an average Energy cost of 10, and a rapid cooldown of 10
seconds.  However, the 3 second casting time hurts this particular spell, so be
sure to have points in Fast Casting.  It is worth noting that Diversion does not
stop a skill from being used, but only stops the skill from being used again in
a short span of time.

It is fairly easy to wait out in PvP, due to the fact that it only lasts 6
seconds.  Thus, it is best used when your opponent is already in the middle of
spamming a skill, like Barrage (Elite) or Water Trident (Elite).  Diversion can
stop a Quick Shot (Elite) build cold, or Divine Boon/Draw Condition spamming.

The 9/29/05 update increased the casting time to 3 second and the cooldown to
10 seconds.

Energy Burn/Energy Surge (Elite)
——————————–
Both Energy Burn and Energy Surge (Elite) are nearly identical, save for the
fact that Energy Surge (Elite) is an area-effect spell.  They both take away
Energy from the target and do 8 points of damage per point of Energy lost. This
not only removes a lot of the enemy’s Energy pool, but it also deals quite a lot
of damage.  The 2 second casting time is a bit of a pain, along with the 20
second cooldown.  Theoretically, you could have three of them in your skillbar,
using Arcane Echo to copy one of them, and burn all of your opponent’s Energy
away while nailing him with about 300 damage… sounds great to me.  Both of
these spells are decent direct damage spells for the Domination line.

Hex Breaker
———–
Hex Breaker is an excellent skill in many respects.  It is a stance (so it has
an “instant” casting time), costs only 5 Energy, and has a cooldown of 15
seconds.  It has a comparable cooldown to the rest of the anti-Hex skills, but
it can’t be interrupted or “distracted”.  Because of the instant casting time,
you can often prevent two Hexes in rapid succession by activating the
second Hex Breaker shortly after the first one is triggered and cancelled.

This skill is best used in classes that don’t already have effective anti-Hex
skills (which is pretty much everything but a Monk or Mesmer).  While Monks and
Mesmers probably should devote their anti-Hex slot to something that affects
all allies, Warriors and Rangers (who both lack effective anti-Hex measures)
will find this to be their best anti-Hex skill.  While Hex Breaker won’t stop a
determined Mesmer, it often mitigates the initial brunt of a Hex combination.

The main problem with this skill is the fact that it is a stance, and thus
carries an opportunity cost.  You can only use one stance at a time, and using
Hex Breaker means that you won’t have Physical Resistance or Distortion up and
running.  Still, this also means that it receives Ranger Expertise reductions,
and it is an excellent way to maintain the “while in a stance” modifiers on
magical items, due to its inherently long duration.

The 8/25/05 Update lowered the duration on Hex Breaker to 15-75-90 seconds, but
this is still pretty lengthy.

The 9/29/05 update increased the cooldown time to 15 seconds, reducing its
utility for preventing several Hexes in a row.

————————–
- Fast Casting (gwmeg3b) -
————————–

Fast Casting is mostly a passive attribute, reducing the time that it takes to
cast your spells. A full table is found in the Appendices, [gwmeg9d].  It takes
quite a bit of points in Fast Casting to utilize it to its full potential.  If
you find yourself using spells with long casting times, it may be worthwhile to
make that point investment.

Fast Casting is the raison d’etre of the Mesmer primary class.  While folks who
dabble in a Mesmer secondary or have no points in Fast Casting may be able to
trigger the same effects as a Fast Casting Mesmer, a Fast Casting Mesmer does
it better, and will be more useful for his/her comrades.  Fast Casting means
faster Hexing, faster interrupts, and faster Energy draining, and when the
spells start flying, you’ll want to be the one who can do the job quicker and
more efficiently.

Mantra of Recovery (Elite)
==========================
There is only one skill linked to Fast Casting, and that is Mantra of Recovery
(Elite).  It is a stance, as almost all Mantras are, and it costs quite a bit
of Energy to use.  Unlike most of the Mantras, this stance has a relatively
short duration, and it only serves one purpose: it halves the cooldown time of
your spells.  This makes it similar to the Ranger skill, Quickening Zephyr, but
without the associated 30% increase in Energy costs.  The short duration pretty
much kills this particular stance, and thus it is probably not a good Elite to
pick for your toolbar, especially with so many other useful stances like
Distortion and Physical Resistance.

—————————-
- Illusion Magic (gwmeg3c) -
—————————-

Illusion Magic is a different avenue of damage available to a Mesmer.  Most
Illusion hexes are Damage over Time spells, applying pips of Health Degen
rather than straight damage numbers.

Illusion Magic also has several utility spells that are unique to the grouping,
including some of the best Snares in the game.

Damage over Time (DoT) spells
=============================
Mesmers are well-known for their ability to quickly apply Health Degen through
DoT spells.  Conjure Phantasm is one of the first spells you get in the game as
a Mesmer (primary or secondary), and just a few points of Illusion Magic makes
this particular hex a very powerful killing tool in the early PvE game.  While
the increased Health of later enemies in PvE reduce the utility of Conjure
Phantasm and other DoT spells, they still penetrate armor which can make it
useful in both the late-game PvE and PvP.

Remember that DoT maxes out at -10 Degen, and also that the final Degen is the
sum total of all Health Degen and Regen (making Degen above -10 useful at times
against Troll Unguent and Healing Breeze).

Conjure Phantasm is one of the iconic skills of the Mesmer, and it does the most
Health Degen out of the Illusion Magic DoT spells.  It doesn’t take many points
to be effective at using this spell, and it has a quick casting time and fast
cooldown.

Phantom Pain has a longer cooldown and casting time, and does less DoT damage.
However, it has the interesting and unusual effect of applying a Deep Wound
when it ends.  One combo to end it prematurely is to apply a Shatter Delusions,
causing more “kicker” damage and quickly applying that Deep Wound effect.

Migraine (Elite) takes up your Elite slot, but combines both DoT and the effect
of Arcane Conundrum, all for the same cost as Phantom Pain.  It is quite
efficient, and it increases your ability to interrupt other people’s spells.

Crippling Anguish (Elite) also does some damage over time, and is quite an
effective snare to boot.  It does take up your Elite slot, however, and the
cooldown and 15 Energy cost may be a bit high for its effect.

Snares
======
Illusion Magic has three useful snares, Imagined Burden, Ethereal Burden, and
Crippling Anguish (Elite).  Crippling Anguish (Elite) applies Damage over Time,
as stated above, and is a great way to combine DoT with snaring.  Ethereal
Burden is expensive, like Crippling Anguish, and has an unbearably high casting
time and cooldown, but it gives back the Energy at the end of the fixed 10
second duration, which may make it a more Energy-efficient snaring skill.
Imagined Burden is the typical snaring skill, with a reasonable Energy cost,
Casting time, and duration for its effect, and is probably the snare of choice.

Other Utility skills
====================

Distortion
———-
This stance is very similar to the Ranger and Warrior defensive stances, as it
gives you a 75% chance to dodge an attack.  Each time this happens, though, you
lose some Energy, making it impractical to use against multiple opponents.
However, you can use it to dodge the attacks of a single Warrior attacking you.
It has a very short duration and an equally short cooldown.  Most Mesmers spam
this skill while trying to get away from their opponent as the 5 Energy cost,
while cheap, is not sustainable over an extended duration of time.

Illusion of Haste
—————–
The only sprint skill for the Mesmer, Illusion of Haste provides a substantial
boost to speed, and removes the Crippled condition as well.  It applies the
Crippled condition at the end of its duration of 5-10 seconds, but with the low
cooldown, you can keep using it to remove the Crippled condition that you gain
from the end of it, as long as you can keep up your Energy cost.  It’s a good
way to either retreat from combat or rush to an objective or through an area.

Illusion of Weakness
——————–
One of the few self heals available to a Mesmer, Illusion of Weakness is an
enchantment that initially does damage to you, but if you are reduced to below
25% Health, it gives back the same amount in healing.  It works great as an
“emergency heal” of sorts, although it is a temporary solution at best, like
the Warrior’s Endure/Defy Pain skills.  If Illusion of Weakness is dispelled,
you still get healed as it heals you when it ends, regardless of whether it
ended from dropping below 25% Health or being stripped away.  It isn’t a good
spell to use in the middle of battle, but given enough preparation time, it can
give you an edge in Health.  A side benefit is the fact that it’s an enchantment
and thus it can potentially last several minutes (as there is no set duration
for this enchantment), giving you the benefit of the “while enchanted” mod for
a very long time.

Illusionary Weaponry (Elite)
—————————-
This is probably one of the most controversial skills among Mesmers, as it is a
sort of one-trick pony that is both effective and easily countered.  There are
many long arguments as to how useful this skill really is, but most of it just
boils down to personal preference.

Illusionary Weaponry (Elite) does Chaos damage instead of your regular damage on
every swing of a melee attack.  It instantly turns your character into a melee
specialist, as Illusionary Weaponry always hits for a set amount of damage (34
points of damage at Illusion Magic of 12), regardless if you are blinded or
your target is evading/blocking.  Every time you swing, whether or not you hit
or miss, it does 34 points damage.  You’ll never do a critical hit, but you’ll
never have that damage reduced by armor, either.  Because it is an enchantment,
and the duration is slightly less than the cooldown time, you might either want
to bring skills to reduce the cooldown time or have an “of Enchantment”
suffixed weapon to increase the duration of the spell. Another option is to use
Arcane Echo to copy it, thus giving you a second version to use to buffer the
duration.

Also, you will want to use the fastest weapon you can get your hands on, which
is either a sword or an axe.  Damage range doesn’t matter, as Illusionary
Weaponry substitutes its damage for your weapon’s damage.  Since the weapon
doesn’t actually deal any damage, you won’t gain any Adrenaline, which is a
disadvantage for Warrior secondaries. Despite this, most IW specialists are
Warrior secondaries, to take advantage of Flurry and Cyclone Axe.

As with other Elites, this skill precludes your use of any other Elite skill in
your skillbar.  However, you should keep it in mind if find yourself in melee
combat often.

Soothing Images/Sympathetic Visage
———————————-
There are two spells in the Illusion line that are specifically designed to
shutdown Warriors.  Soothing Images is an Area-Effect Hex that prevents the
targets from gaining Adrenaline.  Sympathetic Visage is an enchantment that
causes opponents trying to hit the target in melee to lose Adrenaline and some
Energy. Sympathetic Visage is best used on the focused target of a group attack,
which is often the team’s Monk in PvP.  It can be used defensively on yourself
when you find yourself focused by Enemy warriors.  Soothing Images best used on
Warriors as they are charging in, before they start gaining Adrenaline by
attacking, but it probably has less utility than Distortion (which prevents the
attacks altogether) or Signet of Midnight (Elite)/Ineptitude (Elite) (the two
Blind condition skills available to a Mesmer).

The 9/29/05 update increased the Energy cost of Soothing Images to 15.

——————————-
- Inspiration Magic (gwmeg3d) -
——————————-

Inspiration Magic is mostly used for helping the Mesmer rather than harming the
Mesmer’s foes.  In this line, you will find various spells for Energy
reclamation, stances (called Mantras) which aid in defense or spellcasting in
some way, and spells which remove Enchantments and Hexes.  There are even two
interrupts, Leech Signet and Power Drain.

In general, you don’t need to put many points into Inspiration Magic to get a
beneficial effect out of it.  This makes the Inspiration Magic line an ideal
place to “dip” into for non-Mesmer primaries with a Mesmer secondary.

Energy Reclamation
==================
There are many skills in the Inspiration Magic line that allow you to regain
Energy in some way, usually as a side effect tacked onto a different action of
the spell.  For example, Drain Enchantment allows you to remove an Enchantment
from a target while gaining Energy at the same time.

Leech Signet and Power Drain are discussed in the Domination Magic section along
with the rest of the Interrupts, but they both are great ways to give you back
some Energy.

Some highlights among the Energy Reclamation skills in Inspiration Magic:

Channeling
———-
This is a cheap Energy management skill that draws Energy from nearby enemies.
Since the radius of this effect is very close (no more than the radius of a
typical AoE spell), it isn’t very useful for most primary Mesmers, as a typical
primary Mesmer is not supposed to be so close to the enemies.  However, this
spell excels with just a few points of Inspiration magic when combined with
other classes.  Point-blank Area of Effect spells are great combined with
Channeling, as you are likely to be near many enemies when activating these
spells like Symbol of Wrath or Aftershock.  You also can get up-close and
personal with many of the Touch range spells like Vampiric Touch, making
Channeling more useful.

Energy Tap/Energy Drain (Elite)
——————————-
Energy Tap is the earliest Energy management skill that a Mesmer learns in the
PvE game.  It has a cheap Energy cost, as one would expect from an Energy-gain
spell, and gives a net Energy gain even at 0 Inspiration Magic.  The main
problem with Energy Tap is the long casting time, a lengthy 3 seconds.  It is
obviously best used with several ranks of Fast Casting.  While this skill is the
first spell that I would recommend for Energy management in any build, I would
also warn that if you find yourself relying on Energy Tap too often, you might
want to consider the possibility that you are burning through your Energy too
quickly with your current playing style and skill selection.

Energy Drain is the Elite cousin of Energy Tap, and does not have the lengthy
casting time which is the disadvantage of Energy Tap.  It is Elite, so it can’t
be used with other Elites.  The Energy gain is slightly higher as well.

The 9/29/05 update changed these spells by reducing the amount of Energy lost
by the target while increasing the amount of Energy gained by the caster.

Ether Lord
———-
Ether Lord is an interesting spell.  It only has a stated cost of 5 Energy,
which is misleading as part of the effect of the spell is to drain your Energy
entirely.  It is one of the few spells that cause Energy degen.  In effect, it
is like Life Siphon for Energy instead of Life, drawing Energy away from your
opponent and giving it to you.  Because most folks have up to 4 pips of Energy
regeneration, at the top end, Ether Lord puts a world of hurt on your enemy for
a short duration, while granting you faster Energy regen at the same time.

The ideal time to cast this spell is when your Energy reserves have bottomed out
and thus the “Lose all Energy” effect doesn’t hurt you much.  Several builds
rely on maintained Enchantments (such as Protection Monks), and using Ether Lord
on them could put their precious maintained Enchantments in jeopardy as they
fail to maintain the upkeep.

Inspired Enchantment/Inspired Hex
———————————
Both of these spells remove a spell and give you Energy.  The interesting side
effect of these spells is that they also give you the Enchantment or Hex that
was removed, so you can temporarily use those skills as if they were your own,
for 20 seconds.  Sadly, the stolen Enchantment or Hex is based on your own
attributes rather than the attributes of the caster, so unless you are facing
another Mesmer, the “stolen” spell probably will be very weak.

Still, they both have cheap Energy costs, and give you some Energy back, with
more Energy given at higher ranks of Inspiration Magic.  With an effective
“cooldown” of 20 seconds, they cycle quickly enough for use as a main Hex or
Enchantment stripper.

Other Skills
============

Ether Feast
———–
At a casting cost of 5 Energy, Ether Feast is a cheap and fast self-heal skill.
This is a good thing, because Ether Feast is practically a Mesmer’s ONLY self-
heal skill (Illusion of Weakness is the other alternative).  While it requires
a target and thus can only be used in combat, Ether Feast heals a decent amount
and draws 3 Energy from your opponent, making it a mediocre Energy sapping spell
as well.  Because it is the primary Mesmer’s only self-heal, I’d recommend using
this spell in most Mesmer builds, but only if you do not have a better self-heal
available from your secondary class.

The 9/29/05 update decreased the energy drain to 3 (from 5).

The Mantras of Resistance
————————-
There are two Mantra stances that add armor, Physical Resistance and Elemental
Resistance.  They both add +40 Armor, which reduces their respective damage
types by half.  However, Physical Resistance lowers your Elemental Armor, while
Elemental Resistance lowers your Physical Armor.  In general, these stances
probably have more utility than the Mantras of the Elements.  They have very
long durations, even with no points in Inspiration Magic, and they cost a paltry
10 Energy.  You can use Physical Resistance to make a W/Me even more of a tank
than it already is, or use Elemental Resistance to help buffer the damage from
Hydras, Drakes, and Aeromancers.  Because of the extremely long duration of
these stances, the “while in a stance” modifiers benefit greatly.

The Mantras of the Elements
—————————
There is one Mantra for each kind of Elemental Damage.  They provide a percent
reduction (rather than increased armor level) in damage from one specific type
of Element.  The main question to ask when deciding on a Mantra of an Element
is “Will this help me more than Elemental Resistance?”.  In most cases,
Elemental Resistance will be the more versatile and superior option, but you
may be in an area where the Energy gain from taking the elemental damage will
be much more noticable (Ice Imps/Fire Imps and Hydras come to mind).

The 8/25/05 Update lowered the cost of the Mantras of the Elements to 10 Energy
instead of 15 Energy.

Signet of Humility
——————
This signet has only one purpose, and that is to shut down an Elite skill for
1-12-16 seconds.  It has a long 2 second casting time not reduced by Fast
Casting and a 20 second cooldown time.  The list of must-stop Elite skills is
surprisingly small, especially in PvE.  To get the most benefit out of this
signet, you need to be able to support it with some other skill, namely Echo
(Elite) or Keystone Signet (Elite) or perhaps Mantra of Inscriptions.  Still,
even in PvP, this signet has very limited utility due to its long casting time
and limited use.  I’d leave this one at town.

The 8/25/05 Update linked this Signet to Inspiration Magic.

———————————-
- Non-Attribute Skills (gwmeg3e) -
———————————-

There are also a few oddball skills that aren’t linked to any Attributes. These
include some interesting Signets and the two “Copycat” skills that are used to
duplicate spells or skills.

Arcane Echo/Echo (Elite)
========================
Mesmers have two “copy” spells which allow you to duplicate a spell or skill
that you have in your skillbar.  Arcane Echo only works for spells, has a fairly
high Energy cost, and a long casting time, and it fails prematurely if you use a
non-spell skill.  Despite the drawbacks, the possibilities linked to Arcane Echo
make it an effective tool.  Imagine double Meteor Showers or double Chaos
Storms.  Also, you can use it to “reduce” the cooldown of a long cooldown spell
by having another copy of the spell to use.

Echo (Elite) is the Elite version of Arcane Echo, and it works for any skill.
It is far more Energy-efficient and quicker to cast.  The only problem is that
it’s an Elite, and thus takes up your Elite slot.  Still, with Echo, you can
copy all sorts of fancy skills like Debilitating Shot or Blackout.

Arcane Mimicry
==============
This unusual skill allows you to “borrow” a friend’s Elite skill for several
seconds.  This makes Mesmers the only class to consistently utilize multiple
Elites, and thus they are able to make combinations of several Elite skills.
For example, you can borrow Illusionary Weaponry (Elite) from a Mesmer friend
and use it with Hundred Blades (Elite) to deal lots of damage. Note that the
skill that is borrowed uses your own attributes rather than your ally’s, so
if you borrow a skill that is highly dependent on an attribute that you don’t
have (say, a Water Trident (Elite) when you aren’t a secondary Elementalist),
you will get a weak copy of that ability.  While the description of Arcane
Mimicry states that it only copies Elite SPELLS, it actually can copy any Elite
skill, including non-spell skills.

Signet of Midnight (Elite)
==========================
At first glance, this Signet doesn’t seem to provide a whole lot of benefit. At
zero Energy, it can blind an opponent for 15 seconds, but you are also blinded,
and it’s an Elite as well, taking up your Elite slot.  However, it is a great
way to quickly shut down an incoming warrior.  Since the duration and the
cooldown are identical, the Signet can be used practically indefinitely on a
single opponent.  You can also combine this with certain skills to either
transfer the Blind condition to someone else, or spread the Blind condition to
others, giving a “group” Blind.  For example, you can use this Signet along
with Plague Touch (a Necromancer skill) to shut down two separate Warriors.

However, since Blind is a condition, it can easily be removed by Mend Ailment
or Antidote Signet, so keep that in mind.  Also, Signet of Midnight is Touch
range, making it less useful against Rangers.  Ineptitude (Elite) might be a
better choice for ranged opponents.