Curse

Yukito Kunisaki · Nov 20, 2005, 07:26 AM // 07:26

Of all the mesmer blends I've thought about, only one combination came to my mind, being of the anti-caster mentality...

Mesmer/Necro

I've got my only pvp template as a Mes/Nec using skills earned by my other 3 pve characters. I've tried these builds through the patches and updates...

Domination Curses
Inspiration Curses
Domination/Illusion Inspiration [yes, frag build]
Illusion Blood Magic
Illusion Curses

Just a general setup of stats and the like. All of which had either 8 or 9 fast casting for some pretty quick spells.

My question is what your preferences are. My ability to interrupt using the domination spells has gone up a bit from before. [I find myself being less lazy with the hexes and more attentive using surprise interrupts]

In the current metagame for TA and 8v8 pvp, what build do you think would maximize efficiency?

I'm definitely going 10 curses. There are just too many fun stuff in the curses line for a debuffer like me to ignore. Especially the enchantment punishers. Those rock. Anti-fighter skills a plenty as well.

Now for the ones who pvp a ton... With this half curses pvp character, should I sink points into Domination for my anti-caster needs, Inspiration for keeping energy going, or Illusion... for uh, I don't know... Fragility?

Right now, I'm leaning toward the domination line now, but with a problem regarding keeping my energy intake high... I was considering the 12/10/10/8 spread but the 16/9/8/8 is bugging me, but when I try using it, it seems much more effective on my w/n then this mes/nec.

Some hints?

role: debuff any type of opponent from doing their job. I'm not a fan of spiker damage with this guy. That's what my W/N is for.

rii · Nov 20, 2005, 01:01 PM // 13:01

Im thinking atm that the best kind of anti-caster is an interrupter. Hexing can work sometimes but other times it just....backfires. Except for diversion. Diversion is a special skill.

As for 10 curses.... thats not really required. The only thing you need 10 curses for looking at it is pve, and preppers. Preppers hate convert, and convert is everywhere, so drop it. pve....who cares?

The major skills i tend to use from curses outside of foc builds are shadow of fear, sometimes faintheatedness, parasitic bond, price of failure, rend, and maybe spiteful spirit if im hex stacking. only rend and spiteful really need a lot of points in curses to kick ass, and personally im not a fan of rend on non-w/n... to easy to rip them up. The rest of the skills either have fixed duration (pof, para - the actual modded thing is not of consequence, they are miss chance/cover hex respectively) or dont need that many points in curses to have a long duration (shadow/faint)
Defile Flesh is the last one, thats a nice skill also.

As for general set ups for anti-caster, i go either:
fastcasting/domination/inspiration
or if interrupting, fast casting isnt really requred so
domination/inspiration/(curses/illusion/blood)

Staple skills are often:
Signet of Humility: Elite disable for free.... good for spammers, warrior attack elites, and monk energy management like oob
Arcane Theivery: Random? Doesnt matter, most people dont bring spells they dont need.
Power Drain: Lots of energy and an interrupt. Staple anti-caster.
Diversion: The only hex i really like from domination. Still only gets in half the time.

For interrupters its not very hard:
Power Leak: Shortest recharge - the damage is average
Power Block [e] - lets you take two/three casters at once
Power Leak: - excellent/annoying energy denial
Arcane Conundrum:.... annoying, and makes interrupting easier.
Cry of Frustration: interrupts skills, and is aoe. Better than leech.

Manfred · Nov 20, 2005, 06:06 PM // 18:06

mesmers in 8v8 need only shut down the proffesions which are a danger to the rest of the build. Shutting down everyone is too hit and miss for 8 ppl.

Yukito Kunisaki · Nov 20, 2005, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manfred

mesmers in 8v8 need only shut down the proffesions which are a danger to the rest of the build. Shutting down everyone is too hit and miss for 8 ppl.

I suppose you're right. But is it that hard to shut down 8 people? I can see it from an energy manager standpoint...

A majority of the professions are casters, so a majority [not all] of the skills could be anti-caster based...

I figured a minority of the skills can be anti-fighter since there's fewer of those and it really needs only 1-2 skills to shut down a non-caster. Curses has a nice chunk of anti-fighter skills in it so I don't think I'll need to worry about it.

Everything is a danger to a team if they're built to kill them... Assuming a single role has destroyed my team in the past. I went anti-warrior once in a HoH scenario and the enemy team was using no warriors. I got yelled at for not bringing anti-caster stuff... Then I tried again with nothing but anti-caster interrupts and energy denial, with my luck, I ran into an all warrior team... [gah!!]

Since it's impossible to know what you're going to run into, a SINGLE anti-x skill should be on the ready right?

I think meta-game wise, it'd be safe to safe a single or 2 anti-fighter skills would work in a 4v4 and 8v8 scenario.

Enfeeble & Faintheartedness for 4v4
Shadow of Fear & Enfeebling Blood for mobbing PvE or 8v8

2 Curses skills really shouldn't hurt the anti-caster's skill bar in any case.

Best way to destroy a caster? I suppose I really should go the 12 domination/10 inspiration/10 curses/8 fast casting routine.

If I intend to have any staying power, I'll desperately need energy... The Power X interrupts sound really good for this role. Here's my idea for a debuffer with your inputs...

10+1+1 domination
9+1 Inspiration
10 Curses
7+1 Fast Casting

Arcane Echo
Power Block {E}
Power Leak
Power Drain
Drain Enchantment
Shadow of Fear (Faintheartedness for 4v4)
Enfeebling Blood (Enfeeble for 4v4)
Plague Touch / Res Sig

P. Touch is for those rare scenarios where it's 4v4 or the monks are just plain ignorant of your ctrl+clicking your condition icons...

I don't see the 2 energy managers in here being that efficient though. Perhaps throwing in Spirit of Failure instead of Drain Enchantment? This is definitely an energy vaccuum build so I need a consistent input of energy flow...

Arcane Echo is too tempting a skill for me to let go. Double Power Blocking any caster I'm assuming would put them away for a good 13 seconds. Plenty enough time to do something devastating to them on the field...

rii · Nov 20, 2005, 08:22 PM // 20:22

I would say arcane echo is a bit too much energy and not enough result. 15e for the first 13s can be used very well, but after that the 30s cooldown and the high energy req. start to catch up. A single power block is enough. I sometimes use serpents quickness if i need more than 50% denial of skill.

If you want to use sof, you need a few cover hexes. Most people just dont let you have such an energy engine, so either stop attacking till its removed or plain convert it.

Shadow of fear is fair enough but enfeebling blood is not my favorite. If you do use sof in the place of drain enchant (try for 14inspir to give 5 energy per miss) you might as well get price of failure, not only to cover but also to stack miss chance (25/25 = 50 although apparantly it is actually 45 :S). Make sure your prot monk is running guardian and you can (if maintained) count one warrior out, with lots of energy gain and a side line of damage (if frenzied)

I dont like anti-caster/warrior builds. Too much to do in one build, and as you said your running out of energy fast. Why not have one anti-caster interrupter and then one anti-warrior/ranger, and give both some debuffing potential. A character that can only take down warriors isnt nearly as good as one that can take out rangers as well.... if both have a little something extra, be it only rend or similar, they can villify their place on a team since once you do run into a focused build, you can really shaft them.... if its a balanced team you should also have the range and durability of shutdown to defeat them.

Yukito Kunisaki · Nov 21, 2005, 06:54 AM // 06:54

Very good points. Dual hexed warrior = useless. And last I remember, warrior's rarely make up the bulk of a team. [I could just use Enfeebling Blood I suppose and dual hex 1 or 2 of them...]

How's this then?

10+1+1 Domination
9+1 Inspiration
7+1 Fast Casting
10 Curses

Power Block {E}
Power Spike
Power Leak
Power Drain
Spirit of Failure
Price of Failure
Enfeebling Blood
Plague Touch / Res Signet

Well, if Arcane really is that expensive, tossing in a quick 15s. recharge interrupt wouldn't be a bad idea would it?

The spirit and price of failures overlap, so instead of 25% + 25%, it's 25% * 25% which should be 31.25%. [or rather 25% + 25% of 25%, GAH*] Still good though.

thoughts? Good suggestions guys btw...

rii · Nov 22, 2005, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Enfeebling out for parasitic bond. You want to at least cause a headache for their hex removal systems.... if you get the hexes on two warriors at once your looking at a convert (the enemy is i mean) to solve the problem of the fact their screwed.
Most builds take advantage of warriors/rangers to a degree. An all ele team..... make your monks run elemental resistance, and get mass shutdown with prot spirit.

Yukito Kunisaki · Dec 03, 2005, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by rii

Enfeebling out for parasitic bond. You want to at least cause a headache for their hex removal systems.... if you get the hexes on two warriors at once your looking at a convert (the enemy is i mean) to solve the problem of the fact their screwed.
Most builds take advantage of warriors/rangers to a degree. An all ele team..... make your monks run elemental resistance, and get mass shutdown with prot spirit.

Enfeebling is there to shut down warrior trains. They do move in bunches at times and even though they're missing a lot, they're still going to hit hard should the hits do land so Enfeebling Blood serves as a buffer to that. Not just that, but it also works out well as a condition. Their monks need to burn more skillbar space on both condition/hex removal to combat this...

rii · Dec 03, 2005, 08:01 PM // 20:01

Id rather have secure hexes than a yes/no hex and condition situation tbh. Personal preference though i suppose.

Yukito Kunisaki · Dec 03, 2005, 10:05 PM // 22:05

Para bond has energy advantages to it I guess. Let my other players stop the enemy warriors maybe?

5e. 2s. recycle, cover the enemy team with it. A monk looking at all purple teammate hp bars would panic to a degree I suppose...

rii · Dec 03, 2005, 11:32 PM // 23:32

.............are you saying you want to make a parasitic bond bot?

you layer hexes, then para over to make sure that that incredibly expensive images you just cast doesnt get smited off like its nothing.

An idiot of a monk would be scared of a grand total of 16dps -.-