NotoriousEvil

From personal experience, pvp partying with a mesmer is quite effective. There is the conjure phantasm and phantom pain, which work well in pvp from the illusion line. There are plenty of domination skills too keep casters busy (backfire and other counters), and any enemies in general. (chaos storm for example). As for soloing I'd probably say you wouldn't be quite as effective.

Ander Deathblade

They aren't bad PvE characters. you just have to pick the right skills. a lot of the mesmer skills are anti-opponent. Backfire in PvE will get you little. Conjure Phantasm, if there's a ranger bringing apply poison for example, is fun. I'd just try it. They're good, really.

Ensign

Both, really. Soloing is going to be miserable with a Mesmer, even Monks have an easier time. You don't have good damage, you don't have good healing - it's just a mess.

Even in a team environment Mesmer doesn't really add that much, because so much of that class is built around disruption of key targets for PvP. I think that you really have to lean upon your secondary if you want to play a PvE Mesmer, and really push the AI abuse angle. Something like:

Backfire
Chaos Storm
Empathy
Guardian
Protective Spirit
Shield of Deflection
Shielding Hands
Rebirth

Enemies will stand in Chaos Storms and cast through Backfire/swing through Empathy. Milk that for all its worth. Pile on the defense that every team needs, particularly at higher levels. I don't think it's an *optimal* character for PvE, but it's pretty solid.

Peace,
-CxE

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tektonik

you could also drop 1 or 2 prot skills in favor of Insp energy skills cause in pve doing the absolute most damage isn't AS important as in PvP imo. Meaning 4 attrib is more perferred to just 2 or 3 you have in Pvp

Blackace

The Mantras(Inspiration line) are extremely good for PvE missions that can be too hard to get through. Also get used to using Elemental and Physical Resistance.