Curse

EinValentine · Jun 16, 2005, 06:34 PM // 18:34

I have recently finished off all the skills in my original secondary (Mo/N) and now with the change in skill point aquisition (which has given me a windfall of skillpoints) I have decided to start working to make Mesmer a viable secondary for me as well.

So, for those experienced Mo/Me players out there, what are your top 10 Mesmer skills for use as a Monk secondary?

Where should those precious points go first?

octaviancmb · Jun 16, 2005, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Mesmer has a lot to offer your primary Monk profession, but if you're like me, you find that there's a limited amount of things you can pay attention to, and attention is your smallest resource; thus, using a Mesmer for what they excell at (interruption) is probably not the wisest road.

So you could go two ways...the "cast and forget about it" approach, using dominate or illusion magic to hamper or annoy an opponent with backfire, spirit shackles, energy burn, health degen through conjured phantasms, etc. This is certainly a valid way to go if find you need that kind of support in your groups.

However, where I think Mesmer will really shine for you is your second option: energy manipulation via Inspiration Magic. Energy Tap, Energy Drain, and all the other various ways of scoring more energy for your Monk will be highly useful. No real need to pay much attention to use the majority of them. Just click C and hit the skill, then return to healing/protecting your party. Inspiration also gives you a wide variety of defensive stances you can use to defend yourself. Stances, being, you know, stances, aren't enchantments and thus not subject to the more popular means of removing your vital personal protections.

Another useful skill you might take, and one I know many Mesmers are fond of, is Arcane Echo. It's particularly useful in combination with your key healing, protection, and smiting spells. Throw a Healing Seed on two front line fighters, for instance, or have access to two Aegises. It's a very valuable skill, allowing you to double the effectiveness of one of your spell choices. (Echo is much the same, but takes up that prized elite slot which most Monks reserve for something else...)

Zyuu · Jun 16, 2005, 07:23 PM // 19:23

hex breaker and channeling are 2 of my favorites

Z

Neo-LD · Jun 16, 2005, 07:35 PM // 19:35

echo, arcane echo, hex breaker, and any mantra are all good even with no points in their attribute.

I recommend putting lots of points in inspiration. Energy drain is VERY good, and inspired hex is quite useful (remove backfire/migraine from self, cast on the mes who casted it o you :P)

Shoddy · Jun 16, 2005, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Hex Breaker

Energy Tap is a 3 second cast I think, so that probably takes it out of the running for most monks in 8v8.

If you're doing 4v4, you might want some offensive spells and perhaps something like Leech Signet to interrupt rezzes.

Vindexus · Jun 16, 2005, 08:45 PM // 20:45

Hex Breaker ftw. Channeling in Tombs. I don't like inspired hex because of the long recharge.

Khift · Jun 16, 2005, 10:44 PM // 22:44

I imagine that Mantra of Resolve is a very nice spell for a Monk in tombs. After all, would you rather lose 4 energy or get hit by Power Block?

notwist · Jun 17, 2005, 07:38 PM // 19:38

chanelling is good since it steals 1 mana from every enemy around you when you cast a spell. i also like to use inspired enchantment sometimes as well.

Tutompop · Jun 18, 2005, 04:51 PM // 16:51

It might be me but i've found channeling to be a rather disappointing skill since you need to get unnervingly close to mobs/players to make it work. Sure in pvp they're going to be close anyway so why not but as far as pve goes, monks usually try to stay out of aggro range right? It seems like it is necessary to get within a few feet of the mobs to steal that power.

I noticed this first in ring of fire at the lava spitters. We aggroed somewhere between 10 and 12 of the blasted things and I thought OOO channeling is going to really shine here. The warriors were solidly built and took quite a beating for the longest time (we eventually killed them all) and it gave me some 10-15 minutes to test the range of channeling. At first I stayed about 1/2-3/4 of the way of spell range and noticed my power dropping and thought that couldn't possibly be right since i should actually be gaining power each cast with channeling on. So I checked and it had not been stripped so i moved in a bit closer with the same result. So I inched in a bit more within 4 or 5 character lengths of the frontline warriors and way too close to the spitters for comfort. Wham my power shot up and channeling kicked in, after 3 casts I was at max energy given the number of mobs in the area. Unfortunately the mobs took notice of this and i started taking hits and was forced to retreat.

My point being, while a monk can take a few hits from a lava spitter hitting for 40-50 damage; an aataxe from the underwolrd hitting for 200+ damage a swing is completely different story if it aggros you. How do you compensate or manage aggro in this case?

Caco-Cola · Jun 18, 2005, 05:05 PM // 17:05

Hex breaker for damage and hex removal (faster than remove Hex too I think).

Energy Drain/Energy tap (whichever, depends if you wanan use an elite slot) for when the enemy mesmer is draining you or you just need a quick fix of energy.

Arcane echo maybe to just get another energy tap slot (or another healing spell slot, whichever).

Empathy may be nice. Not many times when a warrior is wailing on a monk do they expect for the monk to fight back with any serious force.

Uh...I dunno. guess that's it for now.

Chaynsaw · Jun 19, 2005, 03:42 AM // 03:42

Illusionary Weaponry With Sword Ftw Omg Wtf

It automatically edited my all caps message and churned out something indescribably BLAND!

Hex Breaker, Arcane Echo, Mantra of Lightning, Channeling, Energy Tap are my favorites... I might look into using more.

EinValentine · Jun 19, 2005, 05:30 AM // 05:30

Thanks all.