Originally Posted by
DrakeWurrum
That's easy, actually.
For starters, the Scepter has a chain-attack for it's spam ability. The Pistol wouldn't have that - no pistol auto-attack does. The other pistol main-hands apply bleeding. It would be easiest to just copy that, but the tricksy Mesmer might do something more inspired by applying a single stack of Confusion with each spam pistol shot. The Scepter attacks do that, however, so maybe there could be some other condition. Fear? Weakness? Maybe the auto-attack spam will be similar to the trick-shot, by bouncing between targets, but without applying any kind of condition?
The second Mesmer skill would have to summon clones - every Mesmer main-hand as one of these (except the Sword having two). I would picture it as some kind of strafing move, so it would "evade" and summon a clone, while circle-strafing - or perhaps instead while teleporting? Or stealthing? That's a Mesmer trick indeed!
Being that the Mesmer typically lacks multiple-target abilities, I could imagine the third skill for main-hand pistol to be some kind of multiple-shot cone attack. Perhaps it even applies a Chill or Blind effect. Perhaps it's even a targeted AoE attack that summons two clones in it's damaging area, while Blinding the affected targets?
One alternative would be to mimic the sword's skillset, but with ranged abilities. Perhaps the second skill summons a clone and then strafes, while the third strafes and then summons a clone. Not the most inspired choice, but it is an option.
Another alternative would be to use no clones at all with the Pistol - again something that no other Mesmer weapon does - and rely entirely on utilities/traits for clones. While not everybody would like that, I have noticed people complaining that they'd love to try having a Mesmer build not reliant on illusions.
Which means both the second and third skill, imo, would be about hitting multiple targets.
I imagine Anet could be more imaginative than me.