I assume quite some interviews will appear online today so I might as well make a thread to compile them. Here's a start:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/mesmer/

http://www.gamereactor.no/artikler/127551/Fortryllende+illusjonist/

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/guild_wars_2/b/pc/archive/2011/12/14/lifting-the-veil-on-guild-wars-2-39-s-mysterious-mesmer-profession.aspx?

http://games.on.net/article/14477/Exclusive_Guild_Wars_2_Class_Info_The_Mesmer_Returns

And check out the fun little thing ArenaNet did on the Guild Wars 2 Home Page.  Nothing straight up about the Mesmer.

Originally posted by Unlight

And check out the fun little thing ArenaNet did on the Guild Wars 2 Home Page.  Nothing straight up about the Mesmer.

Yeah, that was pretty hilarious and I wonder which dev was trying to sing.

Anyway, with the info on the main page, old Mesmer fans cannot be disappointed with what the new Mesmer has got...

Confused Condition

The mesmer introduces a new condition to our set called confusion. An enemy with confusion on them takes damage each time they activate a skill. This condition stacks in intensity, so the more confusion an enemy has, the greater the damage.

Shattering

The mesmer has special abilities that can shatter illusions. Shattering will destroy all illusions and create a secondary effect. There are four different shatter skills:

• Mind Wrack—Destroys your illusions and does damage to opponents near them.
• Cry of Frustration—Destroys your illusions and gives the confused condition to nearby foes.
• Diversion—Destroys your illusions and stuns nearby foes.
• Reflection—Destroys your illusions and places a barrier around the mesmer, which reflects enemy projectiles.

The Mesmer got some really interesting abilities, I can't wait to try them!

I love the confused condition. I was worried with no hexes, that we wouldn't have that ability. Backfire and Empathy are great skills that senergises well with other things. Beyond that, it is a classic mesmer mechanic to make your opponent have to think about what to do, and use that time they are thinking to cause them even more grief.

And Leap and Illusionary Leap are classic mesmer tricks. Things that confuse, and also affect players. When fighting a mesmer, you won't know which one is real, and making the wrong choice could be fatal.

It seems like they have the heart of the class well intact.

Originally posted by Dubhlaith

I love the confused condition. I was worried with no hexes, that we wouldn't have that ability. Backfire and Empathy are great skills that senergises well with other things. Beyond that, it is a classic mesmer mechanic to make your opponent have to think about what to do, and use that time they are thinking to cause them even more grief.

And Leap and Illusionary Leap are classic mesmer tricks. Things that confuse, and also affect players. When fighting a mesmer, you won't know which one is real, and making the wrong choice could be fatal.

It seems like they have the heart of the class well intact.

They've actually got the ability "Backfire", which is now a Torch Illusion that attacks the enemy, whenever the enemy attacks.

All the images die in one hit :/ in 1v1 ok, but in WvWvW?

Originally posted by mazut

All the images die in one hit :/ in 1v1 ok, but in WvWvW?

You've got to take into account that it's a demo, and not necessarily an actual representation of exact damage capability. These skill demos all tend to be short, too, so 1-shotting an image might be for saving time to run a shorter demo.

Originally posted by mazut

All the images die in one hit :/ in 1v1 ok, but in WvWvW?

There are two types.

Clones are the weaker ones who are perfect duplicates of you and are used to misdirect.

Phantasms are purplish entities vaguely resembling you and are tougher and do more damage.

I can see both being extremely useful in PvP. :)

Originally posted by cinos

Originally posted by mazut

All the images die in one hit :/ in 1v1 ok, but in WvWvW?

There are two types.

Clones are the weaker ones who are perfect duplicates of you and are used to misdirect.

Phantasms are purplish entities vaguely resembling you and are tougher and do more damage.

 

I can see both being extremely useful in PvP. :)

Yeah, I can see myself using "Illusionary Leap" to force my opponents attention on the clone and the followed by veil and whilst my opponent is wondering up gone, out of my veil emerges a Phantasm I summoned or manybe another clone. :P