http://hudshideout.blogspot.com/2008/08/night-in-guild-warskinda.html

Thats about as detailed as I get

My usual GW fight goes like:

Order tank to engage monsters.

Then let aggro bring in everyone else.

One or two monsters come straight for me even though I have done nothing.

Debuff them so that they start taking damage. By clicking on them, the tank is coming back to pull them off, which he does, leaving a furball centered on him.

I step back out of the fight, free of aggro.

I tab around looking for the healer or failing that, nukers.

I shut. Them. Down. That makes me smile :)

I was tired last night, only got to level 14. Just working on some side quests for money and salvage items to upgrade my gear until I work more on the main quest again.

This is an important point. Actual movement in an MMO that works.
You can, for example, run away from AoE spells, move behind someone to get away from a mob.
Since you took Ranger, you may want to get the run skill as soon as possible. This will allow you to kick in the run skill to get away from particular mobs. Nothing ticks off mobs (or PvP’ers) more than a runner…hehe.
Mobs will forget about you and people will call you names, and you can smile…

The collision detection can also be a detriment. I still remember being out and about and henchmen trapping me in a corner, and I had to map out..ARGH.

But, heroes can be controlled, and the strategies involved in all this makes GW so much more than the standard MMO.

Waiting with bated breath on your further adventures..

Its been over a year since I played so any advice I give is out of date but as has already been mentioned you should probably stick with a full Mesmer bar for the moment. A lot of Mesmer skills work well in combinations so the slot given over to the less than impressive pet could probably be better used with another Mesmer skill.

With a few points in Inspiration Spirit Shackles is a great skill – It complements Empathy nicely to drain energy every time a mob attacks. Good against casters (even healing mobs are too dumb to stop attacking) but equally against non casting classes who have small energy pools but still need a bit of energy for their special skills. Throw in Energy Burn and Mindwrack and you have the basis of a nasty Energy Denial combined with Damage Dealing build.

Also – don’t forget that even though GW has no taunt skills it does allow body blocking. Don’t be afraid to move around in combat to put a beefy warrior between yourself and a nasty mob. With practise you can actually hand over mobs from your character to another by standing behind the desired recipient. I have even used that technique to pull mobs off my healer and move them to my tank. Just be careful not to expose too much of your back to your foes because hits in the back while fleeing are automatic criticals.