Curse

Evan The Cursed · Jun 13, 2005, 09:04 PM // 21:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrokenSymmetry

Counter to expectations, Otyugh's Cry does not affect the non-aggresive, charmable animals that roam most zones.

Yes, it does.

But now people are telling me that it works on non-charmable "animals" apparently. This I did not know.

Icarium · Jun 13, 2005, 09:09 PM // 21:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrokenSymmetry

Counter to expectations, Otyugh's Cry does not affect the non-aggresive, charmable animals that roam most zones. It only affects the aggessive monsters that ANet has classified as "animals".

Because Otyugh's Cry doesn't work on pets of opposing rangers, I don't see a use for it in PvP. Though having it affect other rangers' pets would be fun, and fit in with GW's paradigm that there must be a counter against everything, and currently there are no specific counters against pets (although requiring an extra skill for pets, blocking your skill bar, can be seen as a "counter" against pets).

i think in PvP the pet is it's own counter, anytime i have a pet attacking me, ill poison + dismember + axe twist + executioners strike / power attack / "thrill of victory" . .(whatever of those three i have on) 9 times out of 10 thats 8 seconds with no skills (skill bar blacks out) for Mr. Ranger followed by a sprint + frenzy and thats it for Mr. Ranger . . its only really good if the ranger is right close by though

Lebdan · Jun 14, 2005, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan The Cursed

Wastrel's Worry is another one I can think of.

I mean sure sometimes you'll get lucky... but how much can you rely on luck?

Edit: Though I wonder... would a Wastrel's Worry -> Shatter Delusions work?

Wastrel's Worry will only work if the opponent doesn't use any skills. It's great for elementalists and monks, as they have near to none skills. The 5 energy cost helps a lot too.
Just uh, if Wastrel's Worry is "Shattered", you won't have the Wastrel's Worry damage added to your Shatter Delusion's.

Mind Wrack is a good hex btw. You can fill your skill bar with energy drains (mesmers have at least 3) and add spirit shackles.

Ryoushi · Jun 14, 2005, 12:33 AM // 00:33

Yeah, Mind Wrack works great with Spirit Shackles. The Gargoyles near Kryta use it a lot and it really gets annoying >_>

My pick would have to be those stupid mesmer mantras, with the exception of recovery. They change all damage to certain elements (or something like that :P)...way too specialized for my tastes.

Bingley Joe · Jun 14, 2005, 12:46 AM // 00:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryoushi

My pick would have to be those stupid mesmer mantras, with the exception of recovery. They change all damage to certain elements (or something like that :P)...way too specialized for my tastes.

Ohh.. but I do like Mantra of Concentration. Makes Healing Spring very workable in heavy combat

Silmor · Jun 14, 2005, 12:51 AM // 00:51

Quote:

Divine Spirit (Enchantment Spell) For 1..9 seconds, Monk spells cost you 5 less Energy to cast. (Minimum cost: 1 Energy.) 10 Energy/.25 sec cast/60 sec recharge

I can't believe I forgot about this one, I think I mentally blocked out its existence after trying it out. I can't think of a skill more useless than that one.

WNxInterceptor · Jun 14, 2005, 01:14 AM // 01:14

I don't think those Mantra's are really that useless. Think about this.. R/Me: Mantra of Frost, Winter, Greater Conflagration. ALL damage becomes cold damage and you are abosrbing X% cold damage and gaining energy every time you get hit. You see a problem with that?

Red Locust · Jun 14, 2005, 02:27 AM // 02:27

There aren't any useless mesmer skills, most of them just require some creativity and a specific build to work. Sometimes a little trivial, but definitely not useless.

Sausaletus Rex · Jun 14, 2005, 02:48 AM // 02:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by WNxInterceptor

I don't think those Mantra's are really that useless. Think about this.. R/Me: Mantra of Frost, Winter, Greater Conflagration. ALL damage becomes cold damage and you are abosrbing X% cold damage and gaining energy every time you get hit. You see a problem with that?

Yes, that you've spent three slots including your elite for defense like what you could get from simply using a skill that gives you more protection like Armor of Earth and far less energy than you'd gain from something like Channeling (I've used the Mantras and the energy gain they give you is pitiful. It's one energy a hit so you need to get hit by the correct elemental damage at least once a second to even double a Ranger's regeneration and the protection against that elemental damage isn't very much unless you have something else to protect you too. Unless you plan on getting hit a lot of times for a little damage then yyou're pretty much planning to get killed before you can gleen any effective energy gain). And, for it to be effective for your team, everyone's going to need to be a Mesmer of some sort for Mantra of Frost because you can't guarantee that you're the foe that the enemy is going to target. Plans that require your enemy to play along usually aren't going to work very well, after all.

That said, if you could get everything to focus on your taking Ran/Mes with your setup and if they had solid support from a healer, then you would have a lot of energy and not a lot of damage even though you'd only have five slots to do anything with that. There are no "useless" skills now that JokeSig is out of the game. Each and every skill can be put to some use in some combination in some situation that makes it worthwhile. It's just a matter of finding those uses, combinations, and situations where that particular skill is more optimal than anything else. Not all skills are equal and not everything is perfectly balanced - meaning there's broken things to run that don't require a lot of skill - but for any given skill there's some way of taking advantage of it. The challenge is finding it.

Evan The Cursed · Jun 14, 2005, 06:34 AM // 06:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebdan

Wastrel's Worry will only work if the opponent doesn't use any skills. It's great for elementalists and monks, as they have near to none skills. The 5 energy cost helps a lot too.
Just uh, if Wastrel's Worry is "Shattered", you won't have the Wastrel's Worry damage added to your Shatter Delusion's.

Really? I was under the impression that spells were considered "skills" in Wastrel's Worry's case. I was also under the impression that ending the hex any other way but through using a skill would do the damage - but I see the hex needs to go the full three seconds first.

Well, that's good to know.

Ollj · Jun 14, 2005, 06:39 AM // 06:39

theres no useless spell apart from the developers joke.

Myodato · Jun 14, 2005, 09:35 AM // 09:35

Any damage done by Wastrels Worry is a bonus, but that's not what the spell is for.

A Mesmer's most potent offense is his hexes, so the thing he has to be most careful of is hex removal. Casting Wastrels Worry on top of a cast hex protects the important hex from removal. As Worry is spammable, if it is removed, chances are you can put it back on faster than the real hex can be removed. Cast Backfire + Spirit Shackles, then drop Wastrels Worry on top, and your target can't do anything without taking a hit.

Caco-Cola · Jun 14, 2005, 12:32 PM // 12:32

I use wastrels on those running targets.

Mr. Warrior starts running, he sure isn't gonna be using any skills while trying to save his arse.

So run after him with wastrels, cast it a few times, and he's dead.

Sure you can poison him and leave it but if he's a W/Mo too then you got a problem.

WNxInterceptor · Jun 15, 2005, 12:19 PM // 12:19

Sausaletus: The guild I'm in is currently working on team builds, so this is just something I came up with and thought I'd mention. As for Armor of Earth reducing the damage more, are you really sure? 46% Reduction from max inspiration on Mantra of Frost, 115 Armor against Cold from the Ranger Fur-Lined armor, and if you REALLY felt like it you could throw in that Elemental resistance stance, dont remember what it's called right now. Now I do highly doubt that Armor of Earth is going to reduce damage more than that. My post was never meant to say "this build is godly and can't be beaten", it's just something I'm working with and thought I'd mention it since someone decided to say that Mesmer mantras are useless.

Arothian · Jun 15, 2005, 12:28 PM // 12:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granamyr

How to lose 10 energy:

Divine Spirit (Enchantment Spell) For 1..9 seconds, Monk spells cost you 5 less Energy to cast. (Minimum cost: 1 Energy.) 10 Energy/.25 sec cast/60 sec recharge

I'm not so sure. With the quick casting time of some of the monk 5 energy skills, I can rattle off a lot of heals for 4 less energy each, atleast 3 within that 10 seconds to save me 2 energy. Most of the time I can save more than that. Also, if you do some quick heals then start a longer casting spell right at the end, you still get the energy bonus, which could be nice on skills such as Healing Seed. Granted, its long recharge time makes it less useful, I wouldn't call it completely useless. I have used it once or twice in a pinch when energy is getting low to fire off some massive healing.