Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s roundup of Guild Wars 2 posts from the official site, professional journalists, and fan sites. I’ve been doing this kind of weekly summary for about a year for a smaller audience of my guild (The Nightwing Coven [TNC] in the SPQT alliance) plus non-gamers who happened to visit my blog. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to do the same thing for a larger audience of Guild Wars 2 fans as part of the team here at GuildMag.

As all fans are aware, ArenaNet tends to release new information on an irregular basis, with masses of new stuff followed by sometimes painfully long droughts. This week is a propitious one for me to start with, as it co-incides with the mesmer reveal and additional information coming out of ArenaNet. I’m lucky there’s so much to share, but past experience says it’ll dry up too quickly.

The first group of posts all pre-date the accidental leak of the mesmer skill video at a Danish fan site:

• Guild Wars Insider — Hey Bookah! ”Hello, unintelligible readers, if you didn’t know already, this is the first iteration of the Hey Bookah column. It’s a fairly simple process and set-up. First, you mail your query to question@guildwarsinsider.com. After you complete that ridiculously complicated task, I will read your question and decide whether or not it is worthy of my genius. If I deem it unworthy, I will still answer your question and reply via e-mail. If your question is deemed worthy, however, I will feature it in one of my annual Wednesday Hey Bookah columns — lucky you!”
• GW2Guru — We’ve finished recording our first track: The 12 Days of Wintersday! “It’s uh, uncensored, so keep that in mind.”
• Guild Wars Insider — The Great Guild Wars 2 Profession Battle Begins. “So we’ve decided to start a battle of the professions here on GWI. It’s a simple contest where each week we pit two Guild Wars 2 professions against one another, and you decide the winner.”
• Ten Ton Hammer — Most Anticipated Game of 2012 Finals Poll. “We asked our readers to vote for their most anticipated games in two categories: MMOGs and PC RPGs. After three weeks of intense voting that had communities warring against each other to score the most votes for their game, our Most Anticipated Games of 2012 finalists emerged. Now we’re asking you to vote for your most anticipated game overall. Will it be Guild Wars 2? Firefall? Diablo III? We can’t tell without your votes!”
• Hunter’s Insight — Upcoming Mesmer and Beta. “We’ve heard about and been told that the closed beta for Guild Wars 2 would start before the end of the year, so that date must surely be approaching fast along with other information.”
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars‘ elite areas — The Underworld. “All is still quiet on the Guild Wars 2 front, and I’m almost thankful since I was hoping to be able to go over The Underworld in Guild Wars this week. There’s a lot more to say about this area because it’s so much more difficult, but you can do it — I promise. The general tips I gave last week apply to this area as much as the others, so take a moment to skim through those as well.”
• Guild Wars 2 Guru — When It’s Ready! ”With the window for closed beta and the final profession reveal slowly shrinking, I’ve noticed that the community has been steadily growing more restless. In fact, I’d say it’s bordering on hysteria. And why not? We’re all excited to see beta finally come at long last. While we’re all sitting here rubbing our hands and licking our lips eagerly however I wanted to point out why all this waiting is a good thing.”
• GuildWars2PvP — Team Arenanet Interview Part 5: Jonathan Sharp. “GuildWars2PvP is proud to present to you part 5 of our ‘Team ArenaNet’ interview series! We’ll be talking to all five members of the team ArenaNet fielded for the Guild Wars 2 ESL Exhibition Matches and PAX Developer Tournament.”
• Attached to Keyboard — Searching For Skills. “I wrote this post a couple of weeks back and was really not sure if it was worth posting or not. There’s a lot of negativity bouncing around the Guild Wars 2 universe right now, some deserved, most not, and I didn’t think adding to it was the right thing to do. Re-reading it now, it seems less of a flamefest and more of a constructive criticism so it’s getting a posting.”
• Flame Throwing — Content Gating: What is it and why is it good (or bad)? Part 1. “This is the first in a three post series about Content Gating in MMOs. I’m going to be looking at what Content Gating is, whether Content Gating is good for a game, and then take a look at Content Gating in Guild Wars 2.”
• Ashenfold Cartel: Interview with Jeff Grubb and Eric Flannum!

“Q: What is the general maturation rate of a charr, the age they are considered adults, and when do they join the military?

“Jeff Grubb: Charr mature at about the same rate as humans, though they are active in the military from a very young age. Once a cub is weaned, he or she is placed in a fahrar, a group of cubs of similar ages, under the leadership of an older charr, who treats the group as a military unit. This fahrar is the cubs’ first warband, and the ties formed here will continue into adulthood. There is no exact moment when a charr is considered an adult, though most fahrars consider it to be when they no longer need adult supervision and are treated as a full military unit. There is no moment that the charr joins the legions — legion and charr are one in the same.”

• Guild Wars 2 Brasil — Interview with Guild Wars 2 Lead Game Designer Eric Flannum.

“Q: Will the game give some tools to the strategic-minded players in the WvW, such as marking a target, tracing a route, or things like that?

“Eric Flannum: For players at the group level they will be able to ping the map, draw on the map, and call targets just like they did in the original Guild Wars. For coordinating larger groups of people we’re developing some new systems which we’ll be able to talk about once they’ve undergone a bit more development.”

This post arrived after the embargo leak on Monday, but before the full reveal:

• Hunter’s Insight – Mesmer Skill Video Breakdown. “After each Guild Wars 2 profession reveal I try pick through their skill videos to scope out anything I can. As we’ve learned more about the game, in depth study has become far less necessary, but I’ll still do my best I don’t think I’ve done this without being able to name the skills before, and the leak certainly takes some of the context away from the official mesmer reveal tomorrow. Although I’m sure we can guess at some of them.”

And these are all post-reveal posts:

• ArenaNet — The mesmer. “Mesmers are magical duelists who rely on deception and confusion to keep their opponents in check. Indecision is their greatest ally. Using powerful illusions to distract, they make sure they never go toe to toe with an enemy; they use their powers and tactics to set up an unfair fight. Just when you think you’ve figured out what the mesmer is doing, illusions begin to shatter, clones start to fade away, and you realize you’ve been swinging at empty air all along. It’s hard to keep your eye on the real mesmer.”
• Massively — ArenaNet unveils the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer. “Broken embargoes and leaked videos aside, longtime fans of Guild Wars 2 are expressing a complete lack of surprise at today’s Mesmer reveal. ArenaNet finally unveiled the long-awaited eighth class this morning: the iconic Mesmer, the class that’s been nearly synonymous with the Guild Wars name since 2005. OK, maybe that’s a little on the dramatic side, but after fans waited through seven other classes, two books, and quite literally years of development news, it’s Kind of a Big Deal. Now it’s finally here, so what’s it like? Let’s take a closer look at the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer class.”
• Game Informer – Lifting The Veil On Guild Wars 2‘s Mysterious Mesmer Profession. “News that the mesmer would be returning as the eighth and final class in Guild Wars 2 leaked earlier this week, but you may not yet understand the complex mechanics that make this such an interesting addition to the GW2 roster. I spoke with ArenaNet game designer Jon Peters and system designer Jonathan Sharp to get a better sense what makes the mesmer special.”
• Now Gamer — Guild Wars 2 Mesmer Reveal: ArenaNet Interview. “Guild Wars 2 is on track to really shake up the online RPG market in 2012, and the reveal of the Mesmer — the 8th and final profession — underlines just how much effort has gone into ArenaNet’s sprawling epic. We caught up with Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum to discuss the Mesmer class and why he feels that the game will raise the bar for all online RPG titles to follow.”
• GWOnline.net — Head to Head: Mesmer vs Thief. “With the mesmer right off from the press, I thought I’d do a head to head with it. And who best to compare with than the … thief? What was I thinking? Well, in a recent interview, a dev described the mesmer as “a fencing, dueling, finesse, mind game profession”. Does it sound like a thief? Also, there are many commonalities. High mobility, lots of disables, sneak-based skills like stealth, can use a sword and pistol, do I really need more? Players who like to annoy other players (or foes) will be interested in those two professions.”
• Reddit — Jon Peters: Ask Me About Professions. “Hi, I’m Jon Peters. I’m a systems designer on Guild Wars 2. I design stuff like skills, character classes (professions), and combat. Like we posted on the blog, I’m here to answer your questions about professions, combat, skills, my work on Guild Wars 2, what it’s like to work at ArenaNet, and stuff like that, so ask away.”
• If the raw form of the Q&A session at the reddit site is confusing, you can check out Guild Wars Insider — edited Jon Peters chat. “Making sense of the chaos.” Guild Wars 2 Journal also has a more readable version. There’s also this condensed view of just the ArenaNet team’s comments.
• Guild Wars Insider — Guild Wars 2 Mesmer Officially Revealed. “Today ArenaNet officially announced the 8th and final profession for Guild Wars 2: The Mesmer. With the its ability to wield stronger and more powerful illusions, the mesmer moves up from a support role to take its place as the versatile master of magic in Guild Wars 2. The mesmer relies on a wide range of abilities to make it a formidable foe”
• Guild Wars Insider — ArenaNet Announces Guild Wars 2 Closed Beta: December 16th. “In the Reddit AMA Guild Wars 2 Developer session, Jon Peters of ArenaNet announced the words we’ve all been waiting for.”
• Massively — Guild Wars 2 to ‘officially enter closed beta’ this Friday. “While it’s something — and definitely more than anything we’ve seen so far — the population at large shouldn’t expect to see closed beta key applications and giveaways popping up all over the place. NCsoft seems to be continuing its pattern of very limited testing for GW2. Still, it’s a step in the right direction for eager fans.”
• Under the Pale Tree — Shattered Illusions. “How exactly they were going to work was something people were wondering about for a long time, since in Guild Wars 1 Mesmers relied heavily on hexes and interrupting, both of which are mechanics that aren’t present in Guild Wars 2. Somehow, ArenaNet needed to rebuild the profession almost entirely to work within the new game mechanics, while still keeping the core of what Mesmers are.”
• Guild Wars Insider — The Complete Developer IRC Chat. Eric Flannum, Izzy Cartright, Jonathan Sharp, and ArenaNet Community Managers answer questions on IRC.
• Hunter’s Insight — Mesmers of Guild Wars 2. “It isn’t much of a surprise that the 8th profession is the mesmer. I could go on about how long it has been suspected. It’s here now though and that is what matters. It also matters that the content, the mechanics and skills of the mesmer are impressive both visually and tangibly. As Arenanet expounds in their mesmer page, and as we’ve seen in the skill videos, mesmers are all about illusions. I was surprised at just how direct and solid seeming those illusions were however. I had originally imagined the mesmer as much more of a support type, but while it does have support, I didn’t fully comprehend the needs of Guild Wars 2. Each profession needs to be able to fight and defend itself on a basic level before it starts helping out its teammates.”
• SagelikeOne offers some advice on Guild Wars 2 Beta Scams (YouTube video).
• Kill Ten Rats — Mesmer Metagame. “One profession is Guild Wars 2 is the direct descendant of its ancestor in the original Guild Wars. The warrior now has significant ranged weapon mastery. The elementalist became one of the most versatile on-the-fly professions. The ranger got blended with Pokemon, and the necromancer decided to turn into a plague-bearing cockroach with friends that don’t decay as fast. Nope, it’s the freshly officialized mesmer.”
• Hunter’s Insight — QFT: The Mesmer. “Been a while hasn’t it? Well for the most part I started to find the QFTs very difficult. During conventions there were too many interviews to count, and outside of conventions there was generally too little to comment on. But here we are. A post where I troll through the questions and answers of various interviews and selectively decide what you get to read! Fun!”
• Is it wrong to point to our own postings in the weekly wrap-up? Because you really should read Draxynnic’s post on how the mesmer wasn’t quite what was predicted: “Okay, so we probably didn’t catch you with Minstrel thing. Even if you somehow hadn’t got wind of the leak a couple of days beforehand, if you were paying attention to the evidence you probably pretty much already knew what it was going to be… or you were desperately hoping that somehow it would turn out to be a ruse.”
• Dragon Season — Professions: Mesmer. “I saw her strolling casually through the market place, lost in her world and her thoughts. Her outfit stroke me as rather peculiar… Elegant dress, no doubt, but a bit too light armor for someone holding a scepter and a pistol in her hands while bearing an impressive greatsword strapped on her back. An obvious sign that things were just not how they appeared to be… While I followed her as discreetly as possible, trying not to lose sight of her but also remain unnoticed, I sensed someone staring at my back. I turned abruptly and saw — it sounds unbelievable, I know — my Mesmer standing there, observing me! I turned around again to find that the person I’ve been stalking had vanished. The third time I turned my head I knew, beyond any doubt, that there would be noone there to meet my eyes… People were looking at each other bewildered, stumbled on, rubbed their eyes in apparent confusion. And she was nowhere to be found, as if she had never existed, as if she’d been a ghost.”
• Conjure Phantasm – You wanna see crazy!!!? “Now that it’s arrived I’m rather lost for words. Prior to a few days ago, the last time I worked on the website was 1.5 months ago. The enthusiasm I had has dissipated, and yet here I am at 2 AM. I’m happy with illusions. The build-em-up and tear-em-down play style reminds me of something, but I just can’t put my finger on it. Perhaps the early days of Factions when I thought that spirit-to-healing skill Life Feast (I think) was the epitome of support. Maybe it’s reminiscent of Team Fortress 2′s buildings. It can’t be the Guild Wars minion dismissal skills, since I hardly played it.”
• MESMER.me — Eyecandy. “Feast your eyes upon the sweetest eyecandy you ever saw. I’ve captured every new mesmer image from across the web today, including the minstrel.”
• MESMER.me — Imagine it. “Nobody can be told what the mesmer is; you have to play it for yourself. Unfortunately, unless you’re one of the lucky few getting into the closed beta starting on Friday, you won’t get a chance to spin illusions for quite some time yet. Never fear! I have plucked a few quotes from interviews with the developers, where they describe what it’s like to play it.”
• Greibach’s Normal Form — Phantasms and Clones and Betas OH MY!. “Although it was already spoiled on Monday, today was the official release of the Mesmer! In fact, I have to admit that I was surprised by the level of detail we received and how much it improved my outlook on the final Profession. Without further ado, I’m going to dive right into the meat and potatoes of the Mesmer’s equipment and abilities.”
• Under the Pale Tree — Beta? Sooner than we thought! ”Right now is a great time to be a Guild Wars 2 fan, with more info having been released today, thanks to dev chats on both reddit and an IRC chat. Among the bits of info that got out during those chats were some more information about the Mesmer reveal (like the differences between clones and phantasms — clones are mainly just for distractions, for example), an amusing Mesmer elite skill that turns an enemy into a moa bird, WvW info (500 people on a map at a time!)…and an answer to possibly one of the most burning questions that people have been asking for years.”
• Jar of Bees — Glacial Drift. “Since the splurge of Guild Wars 2 updates around Gamescom, there don’t seem to have been any updates really worth noting. There’s some interesting articles about sound technology and advancements in cinematic dialogue techniques, but really that stuff doesn’t enthrall me. We wanted game news, landmark announcements, hard data!”
• Guild Wars 2 survey (Link goes to the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page.) “We’re currently working with a company called Digital Kitchen on a survey. We are interested in how you originally got into playing MMORPGs — what were some of your favorite games in the genre and what elements of gameplay are most important to you. We’re also interested in hearing about some of your most memorable MMO gaming moments and gain insights and ideas around how we can bring more players into the Guild Wars universe.” Update: ArenaNet posted earlier on Friday that they now have enough participants for the survey.
• The Vigilant — Mesmer Reveal Recap. “Yesterday was the big reveal for the final profession, and along with it there were quite a few surprises which included interviews and a live Q&A with devs. For all of those whom weren’t able to keep up with the downpour of new information this post is dedicated to summing up all of the info regarding our beloved final profession.”
• GWOnline.net — Rubi Bayer. “Guild Wars columnist, guild leader, podcaster and now tv show host. Rubi Bayer is a busy woman with many talents. Yesterday being the grand premiere of the new Guildcast tv show, GWOnline took the opportunity to ask Rubi some questions about the show, Guild Wars and her feelings about Guild Wars 2.”
• Guild Wars Insider — The Story Behind the Mesmer Video Leak. “Earlier this week we reported that the Mesmer skill video had been leaked to the web by Gamereactor Denmark, just two days before ArenaNet’s official announcement. The accidental post eventually lead to the wide spread news that the notoriously secret last profession had arrived. One thing we have mentioned several times before on the Guild Wars Insider Podcast, is the tremendous job that ArenaNet has done in building community, and more importantly, presenting their company as undeniably human. This often leads it’s fans and friends to have what is essentially an unbiased kneejerk reaction to such leaks, as we (yes, GWI included) often feel the need to jump to ArenaNet’s defense when we feel they’ve been wronged. In this case, fans and friends in general felt the developers, who take great pride in showing off what they’ve accomplished, were in a sense “robbed” of the reward they worked so many long hours for. At GWI, the article went through numerous revisions as we tried to separate ourselves from that initial reaction, to report what happened, not what we felt happened. After reading our article once again… yeah, we did a pretty bad job of hiding our inner fanboy.”
• GuildWarsOnline.net — Your mesmer has evolved. “In Guild Wars the first, mesmers did a number of tasks: (1) interrupts, whether proactive or reactive, (2) punishment, (3) denial of service, whether via energy, snares, daze, etc, and (4) health degeneration. Only later did mesmers learn to do actual damage, a tradition they kept alive for the next 250 years. Mesmers stayed alive using stances (mantras), kiting, as well as using the shutdowns mentioned before. They were also known for fast-casting. I’ll review how Guild Wars 2 mesmers fare in these areas.”
• GW2Fans — Introducing the GW2Fans TeamSpeak Server. “We now have a TeamSpeak 3 server ready for use. Everyone is welcome to use it, smaller guilds can even request their private channels by sending me a PM with the guild name and desired slots (maximum 40). This way, they can cut down on their own costs, while supporting GW2Fans! “
• GameBreaker.tv — GuildCast: The Guild Wars 2 Show. “In this our premiere episode, we find that Shawn can utter only one word: “Mesmer.” He is obviously mesmer-ize — get it? Mesmer — ized. Never mind. Shawn described the class a cross between the Mesmer in Guild Wars 1 and the Ritualist. Rubi admits that all the classes in Guild Wars 2 play quite differently than they did in the previous game. And speaking of playing the game, ArenaNet announced that beta has begun. However, those looking to get in may still have to wait a while. The beta, starting this Friday, is by invite only, and there is no form you have to fill out. How is Anet picking the testers? We have no idea.”

We also have a few community events:

• Blade Radio presents Jingle Jangle 2011. “Blade Radio‘s Jingle Jangle event has been a tradition for quite a few years now and coincides with Guild Wars Wintersday.”In the spirit of celebrating friendships both old and new in the gaming community and sharing the joy of the season we continue the tradition. Though it is shortened from the original 12 days the Jingle Jangle event is still an occasion where we at Blade Radio show our appreciation to our listeners for supporting us all through the year. So once again we are proud to celebrate with you our loyal listeners and wish you all very Happy Holidays and good wishes for the coming year!”
• Crossing Tyria — Hall of Monuments Secret Santa Event. “Season’s Greetings! Tis the season to be giving! The members of Crossing Tyria and the Cult Alliance would like to invite you to the Hall of Monuments Secret Santa Event on December 17th, from 12-3pm EST in Lion’s Arch Traditional Chinese District 1. For this to work what we need you to do is post a wishlist below! Post your top 10 wishes. Your top 2 will be something expensive and your bottom 8 will be things that are not so expensive. Your posting will sign you up and put you in the mix to get someone to farm for as well! When you make your posting you must put your in game name at the end of the posting so your secret Santa can look at your Hall of Monuments calculator. You will find out who your secret Santa is on the 17th! Make sure you come as the character you signed up as so there is no confusion. If you cannot stay for the whole time and need someone to pass your gift on, let us know. We can also do that for you. Just please make sure your gift makes it to your person so no one feels left out. “
• December 30th — Ankh Alliance New Years Bash — Frost Gate Outpost – 4-7pm PST (Sorry, no URL for this item.)

Bonus non-GW2 post:

• Fantasy Armour and Lady Bits.

“Why does my opinion matter? I’m an armorer. I make actual armor that people wear when they hit each other with swords. When making armor I have to strike a balance between comfort, protection, range of motion, and appearance. My experience has made me more than a little opinionated on the subject of fantasy armor.

“I intend to set the internet straight. See below for how to do it wrong, how to do it right, and why you might care.”

For those of us not lucky enough to get Beta invitations, we can console ourselves with Wintersday 2011 instead.

If have an event coming up that you’d like to have mentioned in an upcoming post, you can send the information to community@guildmag.com.

Now with 50% more butterflies!

Okay, so we probably didn’t catch you with Minstrel thing. Even if you somehow hadn’t got wind of the leak a couple of days beforehand, if you were paying attention to the evidence you probably pretty much already knew what it was going to be… or you were desperately hoping that somehow it would turn out to be a ruse.

If you were really paying attention, you might even find that some of their mechanics look quite familiar. I’m not just talking about Vassar’s Chaos Storm from Fan Day, either – there had been a lot of speculation flying around on how the mesmer could retain it’s feel when so many of the mechanics it had once relied on – interrupts, hexes, energy itself – had been removed. A particular focus came on the concept of ‘punishment’ demonstrated in Guild Wars 1 by hexes such as Empathy, Backfire, and Visions of Regret – which mesmer pundits suggested replacing by a special condition (Confusion) or an illusion that attacked the victim when they triggered the punishment (revealed in interviews as Backfire, one of the torch offhand skills). Also discussed were area invisibility spells, illusionary fighting clones to supplement the mesmer’s own fighting capability, and other clones that served primarily to confuse the issue on the mesmer’s actual location… all things that have come to pass.

Attack of the Clones!

Whether this has been a case of the company taking inspiration from the fanbase, convergent thinking from the same starting conditions, or simply the Infinite Monkeys principle in action is left for the reader to decide.

What I don’t think anyone called, however, was just how important these would turn out to be for the profession. The creation of these clones come from regular skills, and from what we’ve heard so far, it’s sounding like it might well be impossible to avoid having at least one or two of these on your bar. However, this appears to be a good thing, since the class mechanic revolves around these illusions, or, rather what you want to do with them when they’re no longer useful – detonating them for damage, control-based conditions, or protection (in case the enemy isn’t taken in).

Another surprise is in the mantra mechanic. A lot of speculation focussed on how mantras or fast casting could be reincorporated into GW2 mechanics, but most of them concentrated on something that was more along the lines of a class special mechanic, possibly a bit like elementalist attunements but… different. Instead, we have skills that effectively have long casting times, but when near completion can be held in potentia to be released at a moment’s notice. This allows the mesmer to prepare powerful effects in advance that can later be fired off much faster than skills of similar power would normally be able to be activated.

The armaments of the mesmer, possibly more than any other profession, have proven to be a matter of controversy over the months, possibly more than any other profession… and not just because it had longer to develop (and, some would say, fester). Primarily, this focussed around the pistol and the sword.

Yup, these two.

On one side of the firearm debate came those who felt that the aristocratic, duellist nature of the mesmer (primarily from out-of-game artworks from Guild Wars 1 – see below for an example) suggested an adoption of pistols as they were developed and possibly even that mesmeric magic, dealing as it does with the mind, needed something like a firearm as backup as a defence against those who refused to be manipulated. Others, including myself, felt that the mesmer’s own magic should serve as a sufficient offensive force, through bolts of chaotic energy should the mind trickery fail.

The end result seems to be a compromise between those positions. Pistols are available as an offhand weapon… but their primary purpose seems to be essentially as a ‘seed’ to generate a pair of illusory gunners to support the mesmer. In the video reveal, the pistol-armed mesmer is seen to fire the pistol herself as well, but the effect is currently unknown – and unless the mesmer’s pistol breaks the normal rules for offhand weapons, pistol-armed mesmers seem likely to remain primarily reliant on their sword or sceptre in combat.

I don't need to do my own fighting! I have FRIENDS!

This controversy, however, paled in respect to that regarding swords. Now, most Mesmer fans had accepted some time ago that swords would be among the mesmer’s armoury, most likely as their melee-range weaponry, largely as a result of this image from the original Prophecies promotional material:

Abra-ka-Stabya!

Where the controversy grew, however, was in how that sword would be used. Elementalists and necromancers are both capable of fighting in melee with daggers and axes respectively, but neither actually physically strikes their opponent with their weapon – instead, they use their weapons as foci to cast close-range spells. Looking at the image above, some mesmer fans felt that that was not enough, and that Guild Wars 2 represented a chance to finally fulfil the promise of the image above of the mesmer as a fencing duellist, employing illusion to confuse the enemy before setting up a killing blow. Others feared that such an image might corrupt the image of the mesmer as a figure that concentrates on wreaking havoc on the foe’s thoughts and perceptions and doesn’t feel the need to resort to brute force.

Personally, I always felt that it was possible for the two to coexist – in a game where weapon choice makes such a difference to how a character plays, there is no reason to believe that what one mesmer does with a sword necessarily needs to impact on what another does with staff or sceptre. From what we’ve seen so far, that does appear to be something that ArenaNet has successfully pulled off – the duellists have their swordplay, the pure casters have a range of options, and so far both sets of players seem to be happy with the result.

One of the surprises, however, was the greatsword’s position in the lineup. Few people called the greatsword at all, but I don’t think anyone predicted its actual purpose – not as a melee weapon, but as the mesmer’s primary long-range (the one skill we’ve seen actually does less damage the closer you are to the target) weapon of destruction alongside the more support- or defence-oriented staff and sceptre. I guess it’s one of those things that makes sense in hindsight – as a magical focus, the greatsword can essentially be regarded as a sharper, pointier, more dangerous version of a staff.

Betcha didn't see THIS one coming.

Now we’ve discussed the weapons and predictions, the overall question regarding what we’ve seen is… is it mesmery?

I think the answer has to be yes. There are some dissenting voices, but we always knew adaption into the Guild Wars 2 system would bring changes, with some elements being left by the wayside while others are expanded on or completely new. There’s less of a feel of the subtle mind trickery and certainly a greater focus on blasting the enemy with the raw, chaotic forces of magic, but that’s to be expected both from the more visual-oriented form of the game, and the new philosophy that every profession should have a decent source of direct damage. However, the overall feel of the mesmer as the controller and deceiver has been maintained, and the new additions all serve to add to that rather than detracting from it. Certainly, there doesn’t appear to be anything that better fits another profession… although I dohave a sneaky suspicion that the reason Lightning Field and Storm got removed from the elementalist was so that it doesn’t compete with Chaos Storm.

Now I'm here... now I'm there.

I’d always thought (okay, since the guardian release) that unless the mesmer proved to be an outright fail that it would probably sit in among the top three, with the guardian and elementalist and above the engineer. Now that we’ve had a glimpse, I think I am comfortable slotting it into the top two (why yes, I am man enough to shoot pink lightning) – most of what I really like about the elementalist is also present in the mesmer and guardian, and I like each of those more. Whether it rises to the top or not will require more information and, likely, experience in play.

So, what are your thoughts on the release? Brushing up on your books of illusion, or planning out how you’re going to go about pinning one down and killing them? Have any correct predictions you’d like to claim (be polite now) or incorrect ones you’re willing to own up to? Comment below!

As we reported on earlier, today the Mesmer has officially been announced. Because of this occasion ArenaNet decided to hold the first “Ask me Anything’ on Reddit. Here you can ask Jon Peters (Almost) Anything about Guild Wars 2 and the newly revealed Mesmer! Keep an eye out on http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/ to see where the Reddit’s AmA will be held.

ArenaNet Systems Designer, Jon Peters, will be doing a Reddit AMA tomorrow morning at around 10am! We’ll tweet the link when it’s up. ~RB

If you cannot make it to the AmA, GuildWars2Guru is hosting yet another IRC Dev Chat where you can propose your questions to both Jon Peters and Jonathan Sharp! Do you want to join in? Then head over to the IRC chat of GW2G at 11:30 AM PST/7:30 PM GMT, more information can be found below.

How to Connect to IRC:

If you are unfamiliar with IRC, you can join by using our web client. On the date and time of the chat, our web client will be changed to automatically have you join the dev chat channel and our official Guru channel. You may converse freely with each other in the Guru channel as the live chat goes on.

Otherwise, those who have their own IRC client can connect to the following server:

irc.gamesurge.net 6667
The channels: #gw2devchat and #guildwarsguru

How to Submit a Question:

On Dec. 14th we will begin taking questions on IRC at 10:30 AM PST/6:30 PM GMT. We’ll have a few mods there ready to take  your questions. All you’ll need to do is message one of the mods with  your question(s).

The live chat will be logged, formatted and posted on our forums once the chat is over. So get your thinking caps on and your questions ready for Wednesday and we’ll see you there!

Sources: https://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/status/146708493141946370
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/guild-wars-2-guru-presents-t24536.html

That’s right, ArenaNet has finally released their shocking new profession for public consumption! Go and have a look at it here!

Once you’ve consumed it’s full glory, a translated article on the new profession can be found from a Norwegian site here, and another from GameInformer here.

Sources:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/
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?PostPageIndex=1

Earlier today it was announced via the Guild Wars 2 Twitter that the final profession to be revealed will be the mesmer. This announcement came after videos of the mesmer had been leaked by some gaming websites, all of which will be made officially available on Wednesday’s reveal. Until then, we’ll leave you with the official Twitter message:

Yes, Mesmer is the final profession. Seems like someone jumped the gun. Official reveal will be on Wednesday, stay tuned. ~MK

Prepare to be mesmerised...

Source: https://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/status/146332021520728064

It’s November already, the temperature outside is dropping rapidly for those on the northern part of our world and so you’ll be spending more time at home. Have no fear though – our new issue will be there to keep you entertained! While we’re hard at work rebooting our podcast under a new name: Dynamically Spoken and looking at the way we’re currently distributing the magazine we managed to create this new magazine for you all to read.

Also as of note, we’ve been transferring issue 6 into our renewed HTML format which you’ll be able to find a link to at the bottom of this post as well!

Depths of Tyria takes your right into the depth. We take a look at topics like the destroyers, the religion of the dwarves, the dungeon structure of the dungeons in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, and give a special highlight to one of the most treasured places of the original Guild Wars: the Catacombs, which you’ll be able to explore in Guild Wars 2 as well!

If you manage to get exhausted after reading all of these articles we have plenty of relaxation for you as well! What about some exciting fan fiction, interviews with Charlie Dayman and Rubi from Massively – or even a special vacation offer from Embark Beach Travels! If even that’s not enough for you, we also take a look at the relationship between the skritt and the asura, the community response to the engineer and plenty more! Don’t forget to take a look at our GamesCom Roundup, which is chock full of Guild Wars 2 interviews, videos, screenshots, hands-on impressions and more for you to enjoy!

• The Catacombs
  Learn more about this mysterious network of passages deep below Ascalon.
• On The Tube With Daelin Dwin: Music Special
  Daelin Dwin looks at four amazing covers of the original Guild Wars soundtrack by Jeremy Soul.
• The Destroyers
  Learn everything about the beings created out of fire and stone: the destroyers. Their history, present and future!
• Dutch’s Talk with… Rubi (Massively)
  In Dutch’s next community talk we chat it up with Rubi from Massively and Guildcast.
• Humans of Elona
  Elona, Land of the Golden Sun, is a region where the sun is brightest and is home to the three human provinces of Istan, Kourna, and Vabbi.
• The Decaying Diary
  In 1075AE, Abaddon was not destroyed. Not completely. Shortly after Kormir’s ascension, one lone traveller unwillingly finds himself amidst a plot to bring back the God of Secrets; but as he struggles with his own torments, he must make an impossible choice that could break Tyria forever.
• GamesCom Roundup
  We went to GamesCom and went home with quite a lot of footage, interviews, screenshots, hands-on impressions and much more!
• Mercenary Heroes winners!
  Check out these awesome winners of our mercenary hero contest all with their own unique style. Laughs are guaranteed.
• Featured Artist: Charlie Dayman
  He has won multiple prizes in various Guild Wars contests, master of multiple art styles and much more.
• Dwarven Religion
  The dwarves may not survive until Guild Wars 2, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting. Their religion is a huge story plot for most of the original Guild Wars and the expansion: Eye of the North.
• Fall of Gods (Chapter 2 & 3)
  A continuation of Konig Des Todes’ fan-fiction from issue 7.
• Skritt and Asura: Deep Hostility
  Littleboat takes a deeper look at the relationships between the skritt and the asura.
• Embark Beach Travels
  Are you tired of your hometown? Want to go out on a well-deserved vacation? Then check out this action-packed offers from Embark Beach Travels!
• Community Reaction to the Engineer
  If there’s one profession that stirred up the community, it’s definitely the Engineer. With its steampunk-like feel it brought up mixed feelings towards this profession.
• Dungeons: The Structures and Their Builders
  Ever wondered the story behind the dungeons which you stumble upon during Eye of the North? In this article you’ll find out just what that story is about.
• Children of Legend
  Dassk, a human whom no longer had any connections with his homeland, ventured into the Northern Shiverpeaks territory in search of an item which he is tasked to find.
• Poetry submissions
  Inspiring poetry about the dream of the sylvari and the difficulties which the charr have to overcome.
• End of the line
  The last tidbits.

As always, we’re a community driven project so we appreciate all the feedback we can get. If you want to submit your own piece of work you can do so by checking out: http://www.guildmag.com/submit.

For the renewed HTML version of issue 6: From the Mists, follow this link: http://guildmag.com/html-re-release-issue-6-from-the-mists.