I haven't tried sPvP yet, but if I were to jump in on my Mesmer - I'd probably go with a condition build based on Sharper Images, and Inspiration / Illusion traits. Clones / Phantasms generate the bleeding condition on criticals, as well as apply Confusion and cripple when killed / shattered. I'd probably run Staff and Sword / Pistol. Staff for the condition / boon spam, Chaos Field + Staff 2, and Chaos Armor. I'm not really a fan of the sword, especially since it's more of a power weapon but it does give you Sword 2 which is a a 2 sec. invulnerability on a short cooldown. Otherwise, I'd go Scepter / Pistol for Scepter 2 (Clone or Blind) and Scepter 3 (Confusion.) Pistol Duelist (Pistol 4) is awesome with Sharper Images and Pistol 5 is a multi stun. Utility skills would probably be Decoy, Feedback, Null Field, or Mirror Images. Feedback is less useful in sPvP but still decent for comboing and harassing ranged. Null field is to deal with boons / conditions. You may even want to try Arcane Thievery if you're having troubles with conditions.
Basic strategy is to kite and apply conditions. Staff 2 / 3 / Pistol 4 / Mirror Images / Scepter 2 means you can crank out a decent number of clones which you can leave up for damage or Shatter (1 to burst down, 2 to apply confusion, 3 and 4 to buy time to escape.) You'll probably want to abuse Line of Sight shenanigans and forced target drops with clones.
You can probably drop Pistol for Torch if you want to run the Prestige for serious mind games. Personally, I think Pistol 4 and 5 is tough to give up.
Thanks for the input. I love using pistol for the barrage phantasms, but I seem to have issues with survivability when I go for that strategy (for some reason). I came up with a new build after my post basically when I saw the "stealth lasts longer" trait and started building around that, opting for a torch instead.
What I've been running tonight is 30 chaos 30 inspiration 10 illusions with sword+torch and staff, mainly for cloaking lasting longer, healing on shatter, and glamour skills lasting longer. On utility, they're actually pretty similar to yours: I have decoy, null field, and Veil (taking advantage of my traits with this one) with Time warp as the elite. Despite the defensive traits, I'm still running a Soldier's Amulet to hold on to as much power as possible, and it keeps my damage at decent levels. And due to the undead rune set
and the 25 minor trait in chaos, I have +5% of my toughness as condition damage
twice, despite only having the 10 points in illusions. Makes for a pretty well rounded build I think.
I basically set up staff 3 phantasm, use staff 5, switch weapons, set up torch 5 phantasm, then kite and teleport around with the sword skills, going in and out of invisibility depending on how much I'm being targeted. I'm
loving all of the stealth tricks (3 of them!) because it ACTUALLY gets people off me, unlike most clone shenanigans I've been trying up until now (as long as call target is in the game, at least). I've been feeling pretty confident taking people on with this, which is a big difference from a few hours ago!
Kinda stumbled into this build myself when I got annoyed and specced ultra defensive, then saw some of those traits at the end of those lines... and rolled with it! It probably needs some tweaking, but it covers a lot of areas I was struggling with. I would love to find a way to get 20 into duelist for the "make a clone on dodge" trait, but I can't spare the points! It's been working great so far, and my buddy and I even took a tourney win tonight.
EDIT: As for getting effects when illusions are "killed" (cripple/confusion), I don't think that actually works when you shatter them. I'll have to test this, but I'm pretty sure that's specifically when people cut them down and not when the mesmer activates a shatter.
EDIT2: I read through your post again... what do you mean by "line of site" tricks when using clones? Can't people hold a target on you even if you run around the corner? I'm interested to know, because I've done a bit of digging, and clone skills don't seems to affect the targeting people have on you (including called target) regardless of what the wiki states. I've definitely had my character throw auto attacks at someone I have targeted, but is currently behind a wall, so I'm not so sure what the usage of that would be...
---
On a slightly different note, does the NA GAF guild do any sPvP? I really got to get in with you guys if there is. I have a friend who I play a lot of it with, but it really sucks being paired with strangers who obviously don't have access to our voice chat. Trying to type stuff out in battle is catastrophic in this game.