Curse

Ilya Khan · Jun 06, 2005, 11:31 PM // 23:31

I ran a Mo/Me for my first class...and I love it too much. So, for whatever reason, I created a Me/Mo.

And I don't regret it at all

In fact, I actually play my Me/Mo more (My memo is now lvl 20, my mome is lvl 14)
I must say, just fool around with the skills you would NEVER use...you will see that a mesmer is good because you CAN NOT screw up. I decided to randomly invest in skills I didn't even know I had and, somehow, I did a hell of alot better than I was doing before. Just go ahead, play around with your mesmer

And PS - Try getting your Fast Casting to a max and just play around with the cast time of russurection. It was amazing- I had a 6% chance to fast cast on a wand and whenever that would hit - BAM! 2 second Russurect. It was so much fun to have people wondering what I was using.

Gerbill · Jun 07, 2005, 12:05 AM // 00:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caco-Cola

Hey now! I happen to like Conjure Phantasm.

For one it counter-acts Healing Breeze (or at least slows it down).

You COULD remove it with Shatter Enchantment, sure, but what if they have Aegis also? You remove Aegis (which would end in a few seconds anyways) and they're sitll regenning.

Plus it's also some nice extra damage.

Let's say you drained your monk down to 0 energy. So you cast Wastrels to get an extra 50ish damage in then conjure to keep dealing damage.

I'm not sure how much a -5 health degeneration is equal to in terms of DPS but I wouldn't call Conjure crap.

Why use conjure for that when you can use Shatter Enchantment and deal damage and on top of that Shatter Enchantment is Domination so you don't have to waste any usefull points to Illusion.
Illusion.. well.. Conjure Phantasm.. is the skill defenitly nice at the start.. but it get's old really quickly. it just doesn't cut it later on in the game.

Domination is defenitly the nicest attribute.
I run a Me/N, with Domination/Inspiration and Blood, and a little fast casting.
in PvE I've been able to solo most things because I can keep myself alive with the blood magic skills and ether feast when needed. and just wait for the opponents to kill themselves.
and PvP interrupting, energy draining and skills like Backfire and Empathy are just amazing, especially in the lower level arenas you'll notice that a lot of newby players only look at direct damage and visible DoT (such as Poison and Conjure Phantasm) thus they are wanted skills back then, but if you use backfire and empathy in those arenas it's hardly noticed and you just see most spellcasters cast themselves to death without knowing what's happening, it's quite hilarious if I must say so.

another character of mine is an E/Me I just didn't want to drop the Me spells, especially seeing how Mesmers are amazing against Elementalists being an Elementalist with Mesmer skills is just really nice.
especially seeing how the aura of restoration stacks with Ether feast, that really saved my ass when I solo-ed against 4 charr mobs.

Me/E seems nice because of the fast casting, but I figured, it'd cost a lot of attribute points and those points wouldn't be spend in a magic type thus dealing less damage only a bit faster, so I went for the E/Me, also hiding the Me aspect of the character.

Mesmers are especially nice later on in PvE and in PvP yes, do you need a primary monk when a proper mesmer comes along, nope because the mesmer will help you kill things faster while spending less energy and faster kills mean less damage received.
interrupting can be hard especially in PvP, something I have to get the hang of myself aswel, but if you really can't get the hang of it I suggest you either go practice it or use other skills, there are more things than just interupts to the mesmer.

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 12:07 AM // 00:07

It's weird cause you can see the HoH strategy developing over time.

A few weeks ago it was "warriors warriors and monks" recently it shifted to "ele ele monk" and now people are starting to throw Mesmers into the mix.

But yah a good Mesmer can completely destroy a monk by himself if the other 7 people are concentrating on a different monk.

That way 2 monks are disabled and can't heal the others.

IMO 2 Mesmers should be standard equipment for any HoH team.

Usualy a team has 3 monks so you'd have:

3 monks

the 6 that aren't Mesmers go for one monk, one mesmer goes for another and the other mesmer for the other.

Now monks aren't great damage dealers so you really only have 3 great damage dealers, 3 Air eles at the moment.

That would make a good team IMO, maybe a ranger for Frozen soil.

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 12:12 AM // 00:12

I have three interrupts on my Mesmer. That's what I play.

I could use Empathy to shut down warriors, sure, but warriors go down plenty fast enough without monks to heal them.

So why not be an anti-caster Mesmer? Sure you can get a great damage dealing Mesmer wtih domination magic but there's really no point. If you can interrupt the monks so they don't heal then they die, and then the rest of the team dies cause no one can heal (and the Mo secondaries go down easier because you just backfire them and they're not used to checking if they have backfire, they cast, BAM 120-140 damage).

Quote:

Why use conjure for that when you can use Shatter Enchantment and deal damage and on top of that Shatter Enchantment is Domination so you don't have to waste any usefull points to Illusion.
Illusion.. well.. Conjure Phantasm.. is the skill defenitly nice at the start.. but it get's old really quickly. it just doesn't cut it later on in the game.

Ok but what happens when Shatter enchantment takes away Aegis and not Healing breeze? By the time you recharge they've already healed back the 80+ damage you dealt and then some.

Kuladen · Jun 07, 2005, 01:53 AM // 01:53

I love my E/Mes Water/Domation/Energy. Basically I usually start with maelstrom on the caster so for 10 seconds any spells they cast are interrupted it aoe too. I have backfire/shatter hex/power spike/chaos storm/energy burn/empathy/ice spikes/Maelstrom.

Now against a complete warrior group i admit i'm a bit weak unless I change some things, but get me against one caster or one that hex(I love them :P) and watch things take a hurtin. Infact when i had to fight my mirror easiest thing in the world backfire and the rest were just buff spells, mirror went down in 11 seconds I was laughing the whole time.

Anyway I love mesmer, but I just don't see that many around..

many time I wish I could have a mesmer around with my other characters. Well infact i've made 3 of my 4 characters with mes secondary so..LOL i guess one is always around.

funbun · Jun 07, 2005, 02:20 AM // 02:20

Yeah, I just started up a Me/R this weekend. I got tired of playing Monk and just wanted to change up for a while. At the Ascended level you can tell when their isn't a Mesmer in the group. I takes longer to kill stuff.

Somonee posted: "it's the Mesmer's job to weaken the enemy." I like that.

Also, it's the same way with Monk in terms of visuals. Protection Monks are rare. People can see their health bar increase when a monk heals, but with protection prayers people just don't notice that they take much less damage during battle.

Bousiris Hierophos · Jun 07, 2005, 02:57 AM // 02:57

I am so glad to see this thread! It makes me feel good to know that I'm not the only person out there who appreciates his Mesmer primary. I started playing in the March BWE, and even before I started I had people telling me that I should dump my Me/Mo idea for a Mo/Me ... because "NPCs have infinite energy" or "fast casting is useless in PvE". I was also told by more than one person that if I wanted to make the mistake of playing a Me/Mo anyway, I should forget about using Domination Magic, which "has no purpose in PvE".

But I stuck to my instinct anyway. I currently use Domination/Healing/Fast Casting (and occasionally Inspiration) and have never regretted it. I love Domination Magic as much as I had hoped ... and have learned enough to guess that those who malign Mesmers just haven't seen a good one in action.

I've learned it doesn't matter whether the NPC's have infinite energy, because Mesmers do so much more than just steal energy. I've learned that Fast Casting is very helpful when I'm trying to Power Spike a healer. I've also learned just how effective Domination skills like Backfire and Empathy can be in PvE. Meanwhile, I'm having a blast, because I never stay on the same target too long ... and the concept of stopping others from doing what they do best just appeals to the sadist in me.

My next character will be a Mo/Me, and I can't wait for that.

Let Purple Pride ring from every rooftop in Ascalon! Mesmers unite!

osakaaet1 · Jun 07, 2005, 02:59 AM // 02:59

I play as a lvl 20 Me/Wa myself and I've basically gone:

Illusion 11
Domination 11
Tactics 9
Fast Casting 7

I can still boost a few things further with more runes...

Anyway, I am noticing three things:

1) The Inspiration line seems to be the least used of the 3 mesmer magics.

2) Illusion is primarily against physical and domination for spells.

3) I cannot satisfactorily make an "all-round" mesmer. That is, with a rez and healing signet, I am left with 6 slots. Either I am anti-warrior or anti-caster. Trying to be both weakens you to the point that you're not effective as either. Has anyone found a skill set that allows you to take down both warriors AND spell casters? Maybe I don't need rez and healing signet? Still, I don't want to be inconsiderate for my team by not having a rez...it's impolite and plain stupid.

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 03:07 AM // 03:07

Quote:

3) I cannot satisfactorily make an "all-round" mesmer. That is, with a rez and healing signet, I am left with 6 slots. Either I am anti-warrior or anti-caster. Trying to be both weakens you to the point that you're not effective as either. Has anyone found a skill set that allows you to take down both warriors AND spell casters? Maybe I don't need rez and healing signet? Still, I don't want to be inconsiderate for my team by not having a rez...it's impolite and plain stupid.

I'm pure Mesmer.

No healing signet, no res signet.

If I wanna heal I use Ether Feast, if I wanna res....well then I'm SOL.

As for being both anti-caster/anti-warrior I suppose it'd be possible. I haven't tried it myself but yah it's probably possible.

On one half of your bar you have Energy tap or Drain (I believe drain is the elite version), then 2 power's to interrupt (spike, leak, or drain), and finally backfire. That'd make for a decent interruption bit I would think.

For anti-warrior you'd have like Empathy of course, shatter enchantment (to get rid of any enchantments they might have while dealing damage), soothing images, and maybe illusionary weapon or spirit of failure or something.

Yah, it's possible.

osakaaet1 · Jun 07, 2005, 03:17 AM // 03:17

A rez signet is practically mandatory for PvP.
In my case, I have no Inspiration so Ether Feast only gives me 40-45 health. Meanwhile, my 9 tactics allows for 107 health from my healing signet. Besides, it doesn't matter if it's a signet or Ether Feast, you've basically taken up one slot as a "healing slot".

The only difference between you and I is that you have 7 slots to work with because you don't have a rez signet.

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 04:05 AM // 04:05

That and I get healed for 115 HP instead of 107.

And I know what you're thinking, what difference does 8 HP make in PvP? A lot actually.

There's been a ton of times when I've been on the verge of death (in this case less than 8 HP) to have Ether Feast go through and heal myself then a monk finally get around to me and heal me the rest (or just have a monk go "holy crap that guys dying" and heal me.

Also Ether Feast burns 5 energy from your opponent (that's one energy tap spell that they may use on you, or an Orison (I think Orison is 5 energy, correct me if I"m wrong) that they may use on their allies) and you don't recieve double damage using it.

I've made it to the HoH 5 times (unfortunately I haven't won it, yet) with PuGs (and no res signet) and without exploiting the 'trap a guy til HoH message' bug.

(if you want to count those times It'd be about 8 times.)

So I wouldn't say that Res Signet is mandatory, it's just nice to have.

Haung Yu · Jun 07, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

Tell me one thing: Would you pick a Mesmer whose focus is on Maximum Health Degeneration?

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 05:33 AM // 05:33

Probably not. Necros can do that perfectly fine (it's built into a lot of their skills) but Mesmers have to go out of the way to do that.

But I'm not sure what the DPS for each arrow is (how much damage 1 degen arrow does in a second, two does in a second, etc.) so not sure how much damage one could do with maximum degeneration.

Mesmers are better off disrupting casters IMO as they seem to be the best at it (Rangers second best, hammer warriors third).

NoseJob · Jun 07, 2005, 05:41 AM // 05:41

I use my Mesmer to remove hexes from my teammates, remove enchantments from enemies and disrubt spells. Add some fire-damage from my secondary Elementalist and I think I've got a decent build. I never heard my teammates complain.

Kuladen · Jun 07, 2005, 05:48 AM // 05:48

now if you made a necro/mes whose focused on health degeneration then i'd think you'd got something, or mes/necro whatever. Hmmm might look into this i have a necro/mes but was going blood/domation/death line....oh well i'll see about that later, characters only lvl 5.

Caco-Cola · Jun 07, 2005, 05:49 AM // 05:49

It's a shame you can't do 1v1 so we could test all this stuff out (how fast HP drains and what not)

Haung Yu · Jun 07, 2005, 05:59 AM // 05:59

For your information, 1 pip of health de/regeneration is 2 health per second.

1 pip of energy de/regeneration is 0.33 energy per second, or 1 energy every 3 seconds.

If you want to compare health degeneration, I think the Mesmer isn't second compared to the Necromancer. With Mantra of Persistence (For 30-78 seconds, any illusion magic hex you cast lasts 20%-84% longer), all my DOT hexes almost never stop until the target is dead. With Phantom Pain's deep wound effect, that's an extra 100 damage when the hexes fade. Couple that with Crippling Anguish (50% slower movement, -3 health degen) as part of your DOT chain, it's 30+ seconds of sheer... crippling anguish.

Edit: So don't judge Conjure Phantasm on its own. Play it around with other skills and make it work to devastating effects.

Shamblemonkee · Jun 07, 2005, 11:09 AM // 11:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuladen

now if you made a necro/mes whose focused on health degeneration then i'd think you'd got something, or mes/necro whatever. Hmmm might look into this i have a necro/mes but was going blood/domation/death line....oh well i'll see about that later, characters only lvl 5.

It works very well thankyou, says a Ne/Me17

Off topic I'd just like to say a little thankyou to the game gods for hex breaker and cry of frustration

Haung Yu · Jun 07, 2005, 11:26 AM // 11:26

I thank Balthazar for those Warriors and the other Elementalists by my side.

Blkout · Aug 19, 2005, 07:11 PM // 19:11

I love my two mesmers, I have one character of every profession and two mesmers and I enjoy them them most, necro being second most fun to me. The warrior and monk are by far the most boring professions to play. A mesmer/necro is a blast to play, fast casting combined with hexes and curses makes this character extremely dangerous in a support role.