Curse

Kaleban · Jun 16, 2005, 02:59 AM // 02:59

I like the 'toon of the Mesmer, and the skills of the Mesmer have more style I feel than the cannon that is the Elementalist.

That being said, is it worth it to take a Mesmer primary, and rely on useage of energy management skills and decent items to have a large enough energy pool to take advantage of both Fast Casting and, say Air Magic?

My idea is to combine an offensive element, either Air or Fire, with the Echo line of skills, Fast Casting, and skills like Channeling for Energy Management. In PvE, this character would probably focus on nuking while occasionally shutting down NPC healers whenever they are encountered.

In PvP, this character would focus on interrupts and domination skills, while using whichever element is chosen to either do spike damage when needed (air or fire) or do throw up defenses from the earth and water lines. Alternatively, Echo-ing Meteor or Earthquake could also be pretty impressive.

I guess the main question is that, in PvP, is Fast Casting more valuable than Energy Storage as a primary attribute, given the availability of several energy management skills in the Mesmer class, along with the various elemental attunements?

shalafifred · Jun 16, 2005, 03:08 AM // 03:08

i have not tried that sort of build much but a build thaty i enjoy playing every once in a while is mesmer/elementalist using echo - backfire and blinding flash, backfire 2 monks and blind some warriors warriors

Charlatan · Jun 16, 2005, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Seems like many of the Elementalist skills are pretty high in energy cost, because of the fact that primary E's get Energy Storage. So if you're gonna be dishing out the Elementalist spells, I think you'd have to factor in Energy Tap or the other Mesmer spells that regain you energy. It really boils down to whether the reduction in cast time for the slower E spells (due to your points in Fast Casting) is worth the reduction in energy pool. I dunno, maybe experiment with one of those weapons that gives you +15 E and -1 E regen, and see if you can combine that, Energy Tap/Drain and the Elementalist spells into something effective.

Alodarn · Jun 16, 2005, 02:03 PM // 14:03

I had exactly the same idea pre release, and it was the first character I tried.

However, it didn't gel for me, as I found myself still running dry very quickly, because the energy tap spell(s) don't recycle *that* fast, they are nice to keep you ticking over as a mesmer, but not to keep up the spammage that elementalists do.

So I ended up just waiting on spell recharge/mana ... which kinda defeats the whole idea of fast casting.

In the end, I restarted as EL/ME and I havn't looked back.

JYX · Jun 16, 2005, 02:28 PM // 14:28

I made an experimental build a while back for a guy who wanted a Me/Ele. Using dual attunement you won't run dry, and the same idea of using arcane echo and air magic applied there. Its here if you're interested, its not the most efficient way of doing things, but its close, and you get to be a primary Mesmer nuker >.>

note: switch energy tap with something like Drain enchantments. Or whatever energy boosting spell you feel like.

Another route you could go with Mesmer/Ele is fragility build. It can put out about 70+ DPS on one person. Thats gotta hurt some, although its slightly conditional in that...if your target does something like....run off....you're screwed. Freyas made a nice fragility build right here. Some people prefer Ranger primary with fragility and poison arrow. It dosen't do as much damage as the Me/Ele fragility build, but its less focused so if fragility dosen't work, you have other stuff you can be doing.

Crystal NightingGale · Jun 16, 2005, 03:43 PM // 15:43

My Me/E build is illusionist and fire. Works out pretty well. I can drain health and energy as well as nuke enemies with fire spells. I mainly use firestorm and Rodgot's Invocation. Both of these spells take up 40 energy but I also have energy drain which steals 14 energy from enemy. Very useful elite skill if you are primary mesmer. For mesmer side, I mainly use conjure phantasm and phantom pain. I also use backfire and spirit shackles(great hex agaisnt spell casters). I also sometimes use other spells to regain energy like spirit of failure but energy drain does the job quite fine.

For this build, you will need a high illusion and fire. My illusion is 12 and fire 11. Also, it is a good idea to have a pretty high fast casting too. I think mines is 9 or 10. Energy drain is inspiration, so have a decent number here as well. I think I have 6 here, that's why I can steal 14 energy.

Kaleban · Jun 17, 2005, 11:09 PM // 23:09

Ok, so I thought about this build and came up with a few ideas. Your post on the Air Nuker was interesting Everous.

So here's what I figured. During PvP, this Me/Ele would function as the groups primary (i.e. ONLY!) Mesmer, flinging around the caster hate with much enjoyment. In PvE, the character can annihilate mobs quickly.

The way this is accomplished is through total role switching on the skill bar. In PvP its your standard Mesmer setup (whatever that is lol), focusing heavily on Domination and Inspiration. In PvE, the skill bar would be half Elemental attacks and the other half Mesmer Energy management, or however many are needed.

I guess this role switching would also screw up people in PvP, since most people don't expect a Mesmer to start flinging around Meteors or Earthquakes right? As you can probably tell I don't have much experience in PvP, mostly arena, but it seems to me that those who go all out in a big "alpha-strike" generally win. And this character is best suited to that role I believe.

[edit] Ok, so after re-thinking this, I came to the following conclusion: I may be trying to do too much with one character! I wanted a Mesmer capable of doing interrupts and such in PvP, as well as having an Elementalist nuker for PvE/P. After looking through the tables though, the question remains, is Fast Casting truly necessary to function as an interrupter, seeing how most of the Mesmer interrupts have very short casting times?

If the answer is no, then its okay to pick Ele primary for the energy and use the Mes as secondary. If the answer is yes, FC IS necessary to play a Mez in high end PvP, then for PvE, the Me/E needs to just be good on energy conservation.

timmo567 · Jun 18, 2005, 01:10 PM // 13:10

I'd prefer fast casting over energy management IF you could use runes on your secondary profession. Thats the only thing against it imo, I have a 16 Air magic at the moment and it is a very big difference to a 12 air magic. I have changed secondary 20 times in the last 2 days and have deleted and created PvP Characters many times as well. Finally it was right in front of me.

It's not my job it Backfire. It's not my job to give them a 5 arrow degen DoT, it my job to deal damage. So I'm back to E/Mes using all Ele skills with Air attunement and Ele attunement so I never run out of energy. My only problem is recharge times and what skills to bring now. 3 slots are taken up by rez (the best skill you can have), 2 attunements, blind and gale (I like to blind warriors/rangers and knockdown monks when they are low health so they cannot prevent themselves from dying).

Bit off topic but yeah, lol. I'd stick with the Ele because of the rune situation

Kaleban · Jun 18, 2005, 09:37 PM // 21:37

I honestly did not even think about runes, lol.

I guess it all boils down to whether Fast Casting is a more valuable attribute than Energy Storage in a PvP environment, at least if you're playing as an interrupter. It would also allow you to deal out lots of damage quickly, but have not nearly as much stamina for a slugfest.

I dunno, I can't decide between going Ele or Mes primary, and its really bugging me.