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How do Illusionary Weaponry builds work?

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Aug 25, 2005, 10:38 PM // 22:38	#1
zehly Sunshine Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: The Wired Guild: Daughters of Ananke Profession: Mo/E	How do Illusionary Weaponry builds work? So I was playing my daily random arenas and lately I've noticed some mesmers kicking my ass.. in melee!!! I would see this: (-45 Illusionary Weaponry) My questions: - Is this kind of build worth it? - Does my weapon need to be max damage? - Do I have to be a Mesmer primary to take advantage of this? - What are the pro's and con's to doing this? - What kind of strategy is involved in using this kind of build? Thanks for the help guys! ~zehly~

Aug 25, 2005, 10:49 PM // 22:49	#2
Eonwe Jungle Guide Join Date: May 2005 Location: New Jersey Guild: Idiot Savants	To answer a few of your questions: No, your weapon does not need to be max damage. You don't even need to meet the requirement of the weapon either. Mesmer primary would be the best way to go, since you can pump Illusion to 16. The downside to any IW build is enchantment removal. Once whoever you're fighting sees those numbers with Illusionary Weaponry next to them, they'll most likely strip it off of you. You can sometimes avoid this by using cover enchantments. A lot of people like to use illusion of weakness for that, but it's not always going to save you from having IW pulled. And when it is pulled, you're pretty useless until you can re-cast it. On a side note you'd probably want to go Me/W so you can use flurry for the added attack speed, without the penalty, along with some other sword skills if you'd like.

Aug 25, 2005, 11:32 PM // 23:32	#3
pagansaint Krytan Explorer Join Date: Jun 2005	Hamstring is a good sword skill for you to use also.

Old

Aug 25, 2005, 11:35 PM // 23:35

#4

octaviancmb

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Profession: Me/

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Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

My questions:
- Is this kind of build worth it?

Under the current NR, no. Once the changes goes through, you betcha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

- Does my weapon need to be max damage?

Not at all. You'll want to use one of the fast weapons (not a hammer). Other than that, your weapon damage will normally be zero. However, since you're basing your melee damage on an enchantment, be ready for it to end, so having a weapon stat and a max-damage weapon will often save you a lot of headaches. I suggest a max/near-max axe with a 6-7 requirement. But you don't have to have it, no.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

- Do I have to be a Mesmer primary to take advantage of this?

Not at all. A secondary Mesmer will do just fine with IW (arguably better if your primary class can get more than 60AR).

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

- What are the pro's and con's to doing this?

Pros: IW beats dodges, all stances, and virtually all forms of damage prevention. You also get to use other Mesmer tricks, since you're playing the best profession in GW. Illusion is just nasty.
Cons: You rely on an enchantment, so build yourself so that when the enchantment is stripped, you're still able to function. Many Mesmers attempt to Arcane Echo IW, but I think this is a bad idea. Instead, make sure you can dish out the pain with IW up or not. Easily done with a W/M or a M/W.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

- What kind of strategy is involved in using this kind of build?

There are a great many strategies for this build. You can model the build after a typical Adrenal-spike Warrior, or you can add a HUGE melee damage component onto a traditional illusion/hex Mesmer. (Note that Adrenal spiking will be problematic with IW up, but once it goes down, spike away.) Your Monks are going to hate you unless you build in a non-trivial amount of defense for yourself.

I've seen several Me/N IW fragility Mesmers around. They dish out pain in a number of ways and kill and kill and kill...

I think a very valid IW build can be made from Me/E or E/Me with high attributes in Illusion, Water, and either Earth, Domination, or Inspiriation (as your skillbar and strategy warrant). You give up being a melee threat when IW goes down, but you add a huge amount of strategic options to your skill bar. Such a build might be particularly effective in Tombs, since you can protect the Monks (and yourself) from enemy Warriors quite effectively with IW and wards.

All of this applies, of course, only after the pending NR changes. Until then IW (along with 58% of the rest of a Mesmer's skills) is pretty much pointless.

Good luck with whatever build you try!
cmb

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Aug 26, 2005, 06:41 PM // 18:41	#5
Guizzy Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Quebec Profession: Me/E	It really does depend a lot on what you want your Illusionary Weaponry build to do. Personally, I've made my build into a Warrior trap. I'm a Me/E with Earth Magic, Illusion and Fast Cast cranked up. I use Earth's protective capabilities to resist to warriors in close combat (Earth armor and Magnetic Earth will infuriate any warrior, and Ele Protect will make Eles barely more useful). In close-combat, nothing can beat my build. Even large groups of warriors ganging on me will be easily dealt with thanks to Earth's prohibitively costly but oh-so-powerful AoE skills (earthquake and eruption). Rangers will soon find that even if I am not specially strong against them (except if they like to pile with their teammates), they can't hurt me much. With earth attunement and Minor Energy Glyph, I manage not to lack mana. But while this build is the king of close-combat, it's also very vulnerable to other Mesmers. Necros can be a pain, but if you sacrifice a skill slot to Hex Breaker, you should be safe enough. The problem is with energy denial and destroy enchantment based Mesmers. With few (if any) skill slot left to protect against these, you can be made useless (or dead) in 5 seconds. A good strategy would be stealth when facing such enemies. Try having a second weapon slot open with a regular Mesmer cane or something like it to switch to when you don't want to advertise to everyone that you are a IW Mesmer. When you are being targetted by such a mesmer, I have found that my best chance to survive is not to fight back.

Aug 26, 2005, 11:44 PM // 23:44	#6
Hart Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jul 2005 Guild: Or Die Trying Profession: Me/	In response to the subject: Poorly. You'll find yourself killing a lot of newbies, but then again, we all kill a lot of newbies. There are much, much, much better things to do with your mesmer than have him run around swinging a sword. You get all the disadvantages of being a warrior without any of the advantages.

Aug 27, 2005, 12:04 AM // 00:04	#7
zehly Sunshine Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: The Wired Guild: Daughters of Ananke Profession: Mo/E	@Hart: What else then would you suggest doing? @Guizzy: Can you give me the specific build (skills/attribs) that you use??

Aug 30, 2005, 12:48 AM // 00:48	#8
NatalieD Desert Nomad Join Date: Aug 2005	I have no idea if it would work in the Tombs (probably not so well), but in the arenas my friend has a great deal of success with his IW Me/W build. His key skills are IW, Flurry, Blackout, Imagined Burden, and Channeling (to cover IW). When I'm playing with him, I use Vigorous Spirit to cover his IW so he can fill the Channeling slot with something more useful, but Channeling works well enough when I'm not around. His warrior secondary is exclusively for Flurry. I don't think it's worth putting any att. points into sword or axe; you can't use most of the skills 'cuz of IW's anti-adrenaline effect, and your non-IW attacks won't be very strong anyway due to low weapon mastery and no strength. Better to invest more into mesmer skills and spend the time in between IWs disrupting enemies.

Aug 30, 2005, 01:03 AM // 01:03	#9
Mango Midget Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Under a hippo. Guild: TC Profession: Me/W	Ok, my main is an IW so here is some info. 16 Illusion = 42 Damage a swipe. (some spells like sheilding hands or frenzy may increase or decrease your damage.) Right now my build is Me/W using: 16 Illusion 9 Fast Cast 4-5 Domination 9 Tactics Illusionary Weaponry (main damage) Flurry (attack speed boost) Distortion (dodge 75% of attacks gives oprotunity to use healing signet) Phantom Pain (Phantom Pain+Shatter Delusions=Damage+Deep Wound) Shatter Delusions (see above) Imagined Burden (Snare to stop that sissy warrior from running ) Illusion Of Weakness (+253 health when your health hits 25%) Healing Signet (Heal, works great with distortion) Feel Free to ask questions and hope that helps. EDIT: Sympathetic Visage can replace shatter delusions if wanted or needed to cover IW. Last edited by Mango Midget; Aug 30, 2005 at 01:05 AM // 01:05..

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