Curse

mf2 · May 04, 2012, 04:17 AM // 04:17

so mesmers were always my fav class, even though admittedly i'm not the best at playing them. i've had people in game tell me they're the hardest class to master, but i guess i like a challenge.

anyway, i definitely like domination magic the most, but i havent played in a couple of years, so i thought i would just get some general ideas on what direction i should go. as of now, not really headed in a farming mode for any particular faction or whatever (norn, vanguard, party, etc). the game has apparently had a lot of patches since i last played, so i'll just lay out what i'm messing around with now and see what people think will be fun for me and what i should be doing in terms of farming, faction points, equipment, etc...

Skilss:

Glyph of lesser energy
arcane echo
signet of capture (see below)
wastrels worry
cry of frustration
backfire
empathy
power spike

I just love the interrupt stuff, even if i'm not particularly good at it

equip:

imposing mask of minor vigor
radiant enchanter attire of superior domination magic
stalwart rogue gloves of minor inspiration magic
radiant enchanter hose
virtuosos performer footwear
Cane: chaos damage 11-22 (20% change half recharge dom magic)
Chakra: energy +10 health +30 +1 domination 20%

first off i know my equipment is not that smart, i realize at the very least, the gloves have to go (had a diff skill set until i realized the skills were not smart so now the gloves are useless).

i have capture signet because i was under the impression you just had to kill a boss with an elite skill to use it. well as i read it, mursaat mesmers were elite and have energy surge, but the signet didnt work on the two that i killed, so apparently the wiki i looked up is incorrect in terms of them being considered actual bosses. guess i'll have to do a mission or something to get it, but that's what i'd like to use

interrupts + AoE just seems fun. i'm sure it's not even close to a good runner or whatever, but i'd like to start playing her again and get her going. while i cant deny i love the nightie with boots look, the main thing im kind of looking at now is getting cool armor for all of my characters and a great deal of that revolves on faction. but maybe for now with this character, i should just focus on hunting down better equipment...but to be honest mesmers seem not quite as dependent on great gear as other classes. i could be way wrong though.

in any case, any domination focused mesmer fans, or just smart players in general, feel free to point out the errors of my ways. my favorite skills for sure are power spike and CoF, but i do like that empathy and backfire basically punish classes for doing what basically they do best. thanks in advance for any friendly advice/suggestions.

BadOwnZu · May 04, 2012, 06:11 AM // 06:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

i have capture signet because i was under the impression you just had to kill a boss with an elite skill to use it. well as i read it, mursaat mesmers were elite and have energy surge, but the signet didnt work on the two that i killed, so apparently the wiki i looked up is incorrect in terms of them being considered actual bosses. guess i'll have to do a mission or something to get it, but that's what i'd like to use

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_mesmer_bosses

Tess80 · May 04, 2012, 08:35 AM // 08:35

Hello fellow mesmer,

A few years ago, mesmers were indeed the hardest class to master (still subjective, but my opinion). This changed with an update on the mesmer skills and the buff to Fast Casting in PvE, which turned them into a class that could not only harass the enemy, but also do considerable damage. That having been said, most mesmer builds do require some thinking to be used at their full potential, instead of just smashing 1,2,3,4 like some other classes can do.

I'll start with the elite skills. You can use a signet of capture on any boss, which will allow you to capture one of the skills that boss has, including his elite skill if he has one. Some creatures are known as boss-like foes, and you cannot capture skills from them. The following link is a list to all mesmer elite skills. You can click on any of them to find out where you can capture it:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...r_elite_skills

As for equipment, it's the same for any class. Just make sure they're all as high as they can be (offhands can have +12 energy for example), and use runes for your attributes (don't forget Fast Casting). Most people tend to like Survivor insignias for health, but anything will work. Do make sure your armor is of maximum level though.

When it comes to skills, I don't particularly like to interrupt directly myself. However, I always run in Hard Mode where mobs cast spells a lot faster, so you might do better in Normal Mode. I'm sure you can have some fun with this build; it's not really great, but I've seen far worse, especially considering you don't have an elite skill yet. The one change I would suggest is to get rid of Arcane Echo. It's expensive, slow and has a long recharge. All of that is acceptible if you copy a good skill (usually the elite) but you don't have one of those. Maybe get something like Power Drain to get some more energy, or the always awesome Unnatural Signet.

As for general suggestions on what to do, I'd start with getting Cry of Pain (Sunspear skill) from Nightfall. It's an interrupt with a guaranteed damage to a big area if the target is suffering from a mesmer hex. After that, getting some elites would be a smart next step. Panic is good, but will conflict with your love for interrupting yourself. As a true interrupt lover, Psychic Instability is probably going to make you really happy. When you start farming, start with Sunspear to improve Cry of Pain. As for the Eye of the North titles, Vanguard, Norn and Asura are all good depending on what skills you like. Though Deldrimor is pretty useless now that they killed "By Ural's Hammer!"

Just my $0.02

TrippieHippie89 · May 04, 2012, 11:54 AM // 11:54

You definately picked the right profession.

I've been playing Mesmer for about 4 years. Mostly PvP, some PvE. I've got builds for just about anything you can think of. My "general" PvE build is this.

Me/E
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Empathy
Backfire
Cry of Pain
Pain Inverter
Psychic Instability
Wastrell's Demise
Wastrell;s Worry

Domination-12+1+1(2) (Depends on how much health you want)
Fast Casting-12+1

I ran a variant for a time, had Esurge-Drain Enchantment-Optional for the last 3, specced a bit into inspiration for drain. Don't run a res as my hero team has 2 copies of UA and 2 other hard res. This build can shutdown, rupt, and pump out dmg like it's nobodies buisness. Give it a shot

mf2 · May 04, 2012, 11:42 PM // 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tess80

Hello fellow mesmer,

A few years ago, mesmers were indeed the hardest class to master (still subjective, but my opinion). This changed with an update on the mesmer skills and the buff to Fast Casting in PvE, which turned them into a class that could not only harass the enemy, but also do considerable damage. That having been said, most mesmer builds do require some thinking to be used at their full potential, instead of just smashing 1,2,3,4 like some other classes can do.

I'll start with the elite skills. You can use a signet of capture on any boss, which will allow you to capture one of the skills that boss has, including his elite skill if he has one. Some creatures are known as boss-like foes, and you cannot capture skills from them. The following link is a list to all mesmer elite skills. You can click on any of them to find out where you can capture it:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...r_elite_skills

As for equipment, it's the same for any class. Just make sure they're all as high as they can be (offhands can have +12 energy for example), and use runes for your attributes (don't forget Fast Casting). Most people tend to like Survivor insignias for health, but anything will work. Do make sure your armor is of maximum level though.

When it comes to skills, I don't particularly like to interrupt directly myself. However, I always run in Hard Mode where mobs cast spells a lot faster, so you might do better in Normal Mode. I'm sure you can have some fun with this build; it's not really great, but I've seen far worse, especially considering you don't have an elite skill yet. The one change I would suggest is to get rid of Arcane Echo. It's expensive, slow and has a long recharge. All of that is acceptible if you copy a good skill (usually the elite) but you don't have one of those. Maybe get something like Power Drain to get some more energy, or the always awesome Unnatural Signet.

As for general suggestions on what to do, I'd start with getting Cry of Pain (Sunspear skill) from Nightfall. It's an interrupt with a guaranteed damage to a big area if the target is suffering from a mesmer hex. After that, getting some elites would be a smart next step. Panic is good, but will conflict with your love for interrupting yourself. As a true interrupt lover, Psychic Instability is probably going to make you really happy. When you start farming, start with Sunspear to improve Cry of Pain. As for the Eye of the North titles, Vanguard, Norn and Asura are all good depending on what skills you like. Though Deldrimor is pretty useless now that they killed "By Ural's Hammer!"

Just my $0.02

the plan was to capture energy surge and use that. the basic idea was to use interrupts that cause AoE damage. backfire and empathy are basically just preventetive/fire and forget skills. the reason i have arcane echo in there was for when i captured energy surge, i planned on basically using that twice at the outset of a fight.

you do have a good point though, NPC mesmers are probably generally better interrupters (i've noticed this with Ranger heroes also).

I do have a few elites but none of them are domination magic...I think I have an elite mantra and a couple of inspiration ones but all from prophecies. Looks like the plan is to farm faction to get some better skills and hunt down a mesmer boss and lay a beatdown for energy surge. Maybe I'll try an inspiration build which i haven't tried before. Is fast casting necessary for a non-interrupter? Although now that I think about it, you don't get a mesmer hero until Eye of North and I just now started Nightfall.

Looking into an illusion gal now, fevered dreams + fragililty looks like it could be interesting if I have a necro hero geared towards conditions (epidemic, etc.). Not sure if health degen or slwoed movement are considered conditions though.

Here's what I came up with for an experimental Illusion mesmer:

Illusion 12
Air Magic 12
Inspiration 3

Glyph of lesser energy
Fevered Dreams
Fragility
Accumulated Pain (decided this was better than Phantom Pain)
Blinding Flash
Enervating Charge
Ether Signet (energy management)
Rez

Probably not perfect, obviously more of a support character than anything but maybe with the right heroes (obviously would need a couple of good tanks and an ele hero for damage output) it could be useful. A R or N to apply poison and bleeding wouldn't be bad either. I was considering shrink armor but 10 seconds is awhile to wait for a condition to take effect, probably would be dead before it went off.

Another thought occured to me while browsing illusion...a W/Me or N/Me with illusionary weaponry might be pretty cool. A R/Me condition spreader would probably work pretty well also.

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadOwnZu

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_mesmer_bosses

not to nitpick but that list also says you can capture energy surge from mursaat mesmer, which isn't the case.

**Marty Silverblade** · May 05, 2012, 03:34 AM // 03:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

equip:

imposing mask of minor vigor
radiant enchanter attire of superior domination magic
stalwart rogue gloves of minor inspiration magic
radiant enchanter hose
virtuosos performer footwear
Cane: chaos damage 11-22 (20% change half recharge dom magic)
Chakra: energy +10 health +30 +1 domination 20%

Fyi, you'll want to put the rune of your most important attribute on the headpiece (which will have an innate +1 to that attribute as well). This way if you want to switch attributes you only need to switch one armor piece rather than two. Saves on inventory slots too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

i have capture signet because i was under the impression you just had to kill a boss with an elite skill to use it. well as i read it, mursaat mesmers were elite and have energy surge, but the signet didnt work on the two that i killed, so apparently the wiki i looked up is incorrect in terms of them being considered actual bosses. guess i'll have to do a mission or something to get it, but that's what i'd like to use

You don't quite understand. There is a mursaat mesmer with boss status, but most of them are just normal. If you want to cap ESurge from a mursaat mesmer you'll need to find the boss version, which is located in Ice Floe. Anet got lazy and didn't give it a special name like they do with most other bosses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

Is fast casting necessary for a non-interrupter?

Well, nothing is ever necessary, but casting faster and lowering the recharge of your mesmer skills are always good things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

Although now that I think about it, you don't get a mesmer hero until Eye of North and I just now started Nightfall.

1) Not true. Norgu can be obtained in Nightfall
2) The mesmer hero in EotN is very close to the beginning. If you like you can pop over and grab a monk, ele, and mesmer hero (all level 20) with very little input, then go back to Nightfall and forget you ever went there for as long as you like.

Quote:

Looking into an illusion gal now, fevered dreams + fragililty looks like it could be interesting if I have a necro hero geared towards conditions (epidemic, etc.). Not sure if health degen or slwoed movement are considered conditions though.

Neither degen nor reduced movement speed are innately conditions, though both of them can be caused by conditions. See here. So cripple (which reduces movement speed) and bleeding (which causes health degeneration) would trigger fevered dreams and fragility but hex spells like conjure phantasm and imagined burden would not.

mf2 · May 05, 2012, 06:51 AM // 06:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade

You don't quite understand. There is a mursaat mesmer with boss status, but most of them are just normal. If you want to cap ESurge from a mursaat mesmer you'll need to find the boss version, which is located in Ice Floe. Anet got lazy and didn't give it a special name like they do with most other bosses.

I killed I think 4 of them in the Ice Floe, and none of them gave it to me. I guess it's not all of the mursaat mesmers in the ice floe, just a select one or two and you can't tell the difference between the two? Guess I'll try and clear the whole area, but those mursaats take down my heroes pretty quick. they usually travel in decent size packs.

Also, I'll have to put a hold on trying to nab fevered dreams. I tried beating ring of fire mission with heroes and actually got pretty far but got nuked by some imps, so for now i can't even get to abaddons mouth to try and cap it.

as much as i hate to admit it there's just not enough people on anymore it looks like, so finding a team to do a prophecies mission probably ain't likely happening. i'll just do some more reading up on the ring of fire mission and see if maybe tweaking my heroes doesnt make it doable.

Pyrthas · May 05, 2012, 04:46 PM // 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by mf2

I killed I think 4 of them in the Ice Floe, and none of them gave it to me. I guess it's not all of the mursaat mesmers in the ice floe, just a select one or two and you can't tell the difference between the two?

You can tell the difference: the boss will be glowing purple. The Ice Floe page on the wiki has a map of all the possible spawn locations of the mursaat bosses. Since there are 6 bosses that could spawn and only 4 locations, there's a chance that the mesmer boss won't spawn, and you'll have to rezone and check again.

Cuilan · May 05, 2012, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Most players don't have much reason to do those missions anymore if most of their characters did it. People are too busy developing their characters, stuff with their guild, farming, and Zaishen quests.

I think the boss that has Fevered Dreams doesn't always spawn and always switches spawn locations with a few other bosses, so it might take a couple trips to get it. As the above person said bosses have a colored glow.

mf2 · May 05, 2012, 06:59 PM // 18:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuilan

Most players don't have much reason to do those missions anymore if most of their characters did it. People are too busy developing their characters, stuff with their guild, farming, and Zaishen quests.

I think the boss that has Fevered Dreams doesn't always spawn and always switches spawn locations with a few other bosses, so it might take a couple trips to get it. As the above person said bosses have a colored glow.

ohhh I see so it will still have the 'mursaat mesmer' name but it'll be purple and probably harder to kill. i saw the map but i guess i didn't realize there would be two versions of the same thing, sounded to me like all the mursaat mesmers there were considered pseudo-bosses. thanks for clarifying.