Curse

Mad Lion · Sep 09, 2010, 10:19 PM // 22:19

I'm new to the Mesmer profession, but not new to the GW series. I mostly play PVE but, I do like AB. Has anyone ran the numbers on which is more damaging health degen or damaging spells. I like the idea of health degen being armor ignoring and all. I was just wondering.

fr.aodhan · Sep 09, 2010, 10:24 PM // 22:24

Degeneration maxes out at -10 pips, regardless of the number of sources, and this is fairly easy to achieve. Meanwhile, DPS is uncapped and determined by your mix of skills. In your average battle, damage more than degeneration will win out by a large margin.

This doesn't mean that degeneration doesn't have its uses, but you shouldn't rely on it as your main source of killing.

Lanier · Sep 09, 2010, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Typically, I have found that running a mix of degen + damage (in situations when you would run with degen anyway) works pretty well. For example, slotting Conjure Nightmare or IoP into a build with Ineptitude, clumsiness, wandering eye, and images of remorse works pretty well.

Luminarus · Sep 10, 2010, 01:30 AM // 01:30

The only degen skills i bother with are aoe in pve. So things like ether nightmare, cop, suffering, because single target damage is pretty meh, and single target damaged maxed at 20dps is even more meh.

**Marty Silverblade** · Sep 10, 2010, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Each pip of health degen/regen is worth 2DPS. So if you have a spell (lets say, Conjure Phantasm) that gives the foe 5 pips of degen, he will be taking 10DPS. Use that formula to determine how much damage you're getting out of your degen skills.

HigherMinion · Sep 10, 2010, 07:21 AM // 07:21

So max degen is about as good as one cast of Searing Heat in HM in terms of DPS...

TheodenKing · Sep 10, 2010, 12:08 PM // 12:08

DPS is more important than degen. But I would point out one thing about degen that should not be overlooked: It creates pressure on targets to not only keep themselves healed, but to remove the degen. While they are removing hexes/conditions, they aren't hurting you (unless smiters/shatterers). In this respect, degen is very effective.

Since you are talking about how to make your mesmer effective, I would say DPS should not be your focus. Interupts, shutdowns, degen, hex stacking... those are your contributions to a team. For example, the post-buff Panic skill is insanely effective versus groups.

Junato · Sep 10, 2010, 02:27 PM // 14:27

I find that in every game that I played that variety of skills can really set some damage. I like using the fire and ice metaphor fire can do damage as well as ice, but when you combine them its killer. It does a lot of damage on the roads.

I Hate Chips · Sep 10, 2010, 03:35 PM // 15:35

In AB a mix will work better, because degen means pressure. If a monk sees a red bar turn pink and go fast lower he will need to use (for instance) 1 patient spirit, because common monks dont have enough hex removals its nearly impossible with all those hexes around these days... If u '' just '' do armor ignoring damage there will be less pressure since the red bar will go down and up again, at a degen-hex, after 10 seconds it will be back to where it was again. and u can spam degen skills on many people its allot of pressure... But still u need a combo, u cant rely on degen skills only since it hasnt a nice spike- ability

Skyy High · Sep 10, 2010, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by HigherMinion

So max degen is about as good as one cast of Searing Heat in HM in terms of DPS...

Except, of course, you can't sidestep a hex, and degen is armor ignoring.

Mad Lion · Sep 12, 2010, 03:38 AM // 03:38

Thanks for all for all the ideas and advice. I use the Health degen and damage combo myself. Right now my skill bar is:

FC=9, Illusion=13, Inspir.=12

Conjure Phantasm = H.Degen
IoP = Degen + Minor damge
Accum. Pain = Deep Wound to counter act healing
Wandering Eye = Damage + interrupt
CoP = Interrupt + H.Degen OR Necrosis = Damage
Hex Eater Sig = hex removal
Lyssa's Aura (Elite) = Energy Manage
Ether Feast = Self Healing

It works for me in PVE. I haven't made it that far down in Factions yet to test it in AB.

Lanier · Sep 12, 2010, 04:16 AM // 04:16

remember that degen doesn't stack past 10 pips meaning there isn't really any point in stacking IoP and Conjure phantism. I would suggest replacing conjure with clumsiness for some extra strait up damage or images of remorese for some more spammable damage (IoR also fuels Accumulate pain so if you are using accumulate, I would suggest Images of remorse over clumsiness).

I Hate Chips · Sep 12, 2010, 10:19 AM // 10:19

arcane echo CoP
Maybe Panic as elite, it's really overpowered atm so if I had a mesmer in pve, I would use it. For energy management u should use drain enchantment or power drain, leech signet etc. And I would suggest some 'Pve-only' skills, with the fast casting of a mesmer some are really usefull.

Premium Unleaded · Sep 13, 2010, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Most PvE skills with cast time are 1s or less, so fc doesn't work on them.

I Hate Chips · Sep 13, 2010, 02:47 PM // 14:47

''Some'', try to read...

Premium Unleaded · Sep 13, 2010, 03:42 PM // 15:42

If you're going to be like that, then one of them is a ward, one set are asura summons, and the last one is ether nightmare. So really, there is just "one" PvE skill that is somewhat useful. Try being more accurate?

I Hate Chips · Sep 13, 2010, 03:55 PM // 15:55

U missed some, but that's not the point atm, I was talking about Ice impie and Ether Nightmare (if u have high enough ranks).
Accurate enough?

The Drunkard · Sep 15, 2010, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Fyi, mesmer damage skills are all damage-ignoring.

If you want to Pvp, I'd stick with damage-related builds (frag spiker, esurge) or degen/pressure related builds (PI+Illusion of pain). Trying to mix the two really doesn't work.