Curse

NeferJackal · May 13, 2010, 09:13 AM // 09:13

Fascinating stuff for mesmers, I might even come back to Guild Wars if Anet can do it right as they were a favorite class of mine.

In particular im thinking of all sorts of mischief you could do with Frustration+Panic. Let monsters interupt themselves to death! Imagine the carnage possible in hard mode with increased activation speeds.

Or if wanting to be more proactive. Arcane Conundrum, then Cry of Frustration and Cry of Pain, then using Shatter Delusions as a finisher. Aoe damage with a mesmery theme.

Also im pleased to see them lessen the reliance on inspiration by tagging e-management onto other attributes such as arcane conumdrum in ilusion.

And Fast Casting, if they want to make it more useful in PvE, perhaps they are giving it the effect of Mantra of recovery? Instead of casting quicker, your skills is available more often. I know how much people loved the 50% mantra of recovery in the past as it made all those mesmer skills with nasty cooldowns far easier to bear.

That would allow mesmers at least to escape the boredom of being shackled to Assassins Promise for their elite slot if it offers a significant reduction in cd.

Myotheraccount · May 13, 2010, 12:37 PM // 12:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Drunkard

The new symbolic builds might bring bonders back from the dead to support ER protters, but as far as damage is concerned you're going to be better off with esurge or FD.

Discord will NEVER, EVER be replaced by mesmers. Overload doesn't work well with heroes, and these new changes don't help mesmers win the damage departement over necros, since most of the "AoE" skills have been increased to adjacent...big whoop. Pspike with frustration will take around 200hp from a monster, but the 12 sec recharge and lack of AoE doesn't mean it's going to be the new meta. Groups might start bringing a mesmer or two to help with HM damage mitigation, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Youre making it sound like Discord is good. It's not. Just a setup to run inb4 you set up Spiritway or Physical-orientated build.

I dunno how heroes use overload. I just saw that AI uses it like a rupt/activate on attack kind of skill. At any rate you can just spam it and it will hit an activating skill every now and then for an aoe boom. Also, if they update the AI (in case AI really can't use this skill) it should be just godly.

I'm very positive about Mesmers. They already got strong PvE options like Wandering Eye or Clumsiness that are going to be made even stronger. Allot of lackluster skills like Accumulated Pain, Frustration, Migraine, Shatter Delusions, PD, PIetc. that are being neglected now will be brought into play as extremely powerfull options by the looks of it. Mesmers will practically become like Curse Necros but with more damage and less physical buffing. Gwen fans will love it. <3

The Drunkard · May 13, 2010, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myotheraccount

Youre making it sound like Discord is good. It's not. Just a setup to run inb4 you set up Spiritway or Physical-orientated build.

It is good, though outdated due to all the powercreep that's going on. The team has an extreme amount of bar compression that heroes use well: shutdown, damage support, and healing. Discordway is powerful because it is useful in many areas with a decent rate of sucess. Mesmers cannot even compare to discordway- I'm not saying that mesmers shouldn't be used in favor of necros- but rather that mesmers offer little party support and that you will never see 3 mesmer teams that offer the same amount of bar compression that discord enjoys.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myotheraccount

At any rate you can just spam it and it will hit an activating skill every now and then for an aoe boom

I see overload as a faster form of necrosis with a small aoe range. It will not blow up mobs because it's too conditional and will have adjacent range, meaning that without using deep freeze or speccing into illusion magic, you won't be seeing many big numbers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeferJackal

That would allow mesmers at least to escape the boredom of being shackled to Assassins Promise for their elite slot if it offers a significant reduction in cd.

I wish after this update that they would add a condition to AP which makes only assasin skills instantly recharge and kill that build off once and for all.

Mesmers shouldn't need to use it when the skill update comes.

maxxfury · May 15, 2010, 12:17 AM // 00:17

Anets fail update leak thing...AGAIN...

Quote:

Originally Posted by in game text update that doesnt work :P

Fast Casting decreases the activation time of your Spells and Signets. (No effect for non-Mesmer skills with an activation time less than 2 seconds.) In PvE, each rank of Fast Casting decreases the recharge time for your Mesmer Spells by 3%.

Sooo, mes gonna get a recharge time added to FC eh? and no longer able to abuse already quick non-mes spells (but still able to cut down long cast spells to a decent time)

thoughts

Myotheraccount · May 15, 2010, 01:35 AM // 01:35

I think it's fantastic. Will really bring Mes back into PvE play. Anet just has to actually update now. :P

maxxfury · May 15, 2010, 01:39 AM // 01:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myotheraccount

I think it's fantastic. Will really bring Mes back into PvE play. Anet just has to actually update now. :P

and actually as a mes....hopefully ;D

belshazaarswrath · May 20, 2010, 06:11 PM // 18:11

This update has officially taken too long for me to be excited about it.

The Drunkard · May 22, 2010, 01:10 AM // 01:10

Mesmers can now bond...gonna be some fun times

ropes782 · May 22, 2010, 02:24 AM // 02:24

If only there were more AoE mes skills, there can be some decent solo mes builds with Symbolic Celerity + Dolyak Sig + Heal Sig

NeferJackal · May 22, 2010, 07:54 AM // 07:54

How about an aoe combo like this?

Mirror of Disenchantment
Enchanter's Conundrum
Unnatural Signet
Shatter Delusions

MoD to remove any enchants present, followed by a hard hit from EC, followed by the blast fom US and finally detonating EC with SD.

asb · May 22, 2010, 08:06 AM // 08:06

Okay, I've vq'ed a few Factions areas with my guild as mesmer, and the builds that were the most intuitive and fast to learn(asside from being effective and fun) are for me: Panic + Mistrust + Spiritual Pain + Power Spike + WW + Drain Delusions
On the Illusion line I had the best time with Stolen Speed + Clumsiness + Calculated Risk + Arcane Conundrum + Frustration + Technobabble

Bill Clinton · May 22, 2010, 10:53 AM // 10:53

What are you guys doing for energy? I still find it really tough..

EDIT:
Celerity + Signet of stamina is fun.

ALICE WInterLand · May 22, 2010, 04:56 PM // 16:56

I AM LOVING MESMER SKILLS!!!!!........THX anet.....for this long awaited updates for them.thx for saving them.the dark-horses indeed........its like a wholw new gameplay for me suddenly.......its FUN.n POWERFUL!.watch out elem n monk!

and in PVE mode.my mesmer heroes are gonna rule with me TOO!

NeferJackal · May 22, 2010, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Hmm, after fiddling around a bit with the new mesmer skills, ill say that the strenght of the mesmer doesnt lay in pumping out damage numbers. A SoS rit is far better at that.

16 Fast Casting
13 Illusion

Frustration
Arcane Conumdrum
Psychic Instability
Power Return

Slow down a casting foe to a snails pace, the chain the two interupts and keep him and his party on the ass. As well spiking down the target with Frustration powered interupts.

16 FC is 48% reduction in recharge for mesmer spells.

Mirror of Disenchantment is now one of the best Disenchants out there, able to strip a whole group of an enchant for the low price of 5e and recharging in 15, not counting fast casting. Completely shames Lyssa's Balance which is now blatantly underpowered.

Shared Burden is a nasty nasty all in one debuff. Does everyone but the kitchen sink, though im not sure its worth using a precious elite slot on.

Migraine is a disappointment, they didn't go through with the change of making skills easilly interuptible under it

Panic initially seems like a quite useful skill for hard mode, instead of debuffing enemies to normal mode levels, you use their speed against them as long you can keep blanketing them with Panic. Though in the long run i think outright debuffing might be better, as it doesnt depend on enemy activity for interuption. Plus slowing and snares synergies far better with a lot more skills, like the combo at the beginning of the post.

Stolen Speed on the other hand seems to be a potentially useful Mesmer skill to help buff a party's performance and giving him an unique role in providing a buff noone else can do. Though it still depends having a large amount of casters in the group to really take advantage of it. And I think there is better elite choices.

All in all I think Psychic instability may have turned into the suprise hit for this patch, especially if you consider how it interacts with quickening zephyr as mentioned by others. Though a mes on his own can still present a quite healthy uptime on it.

Daesu · May 22, 2010, 06:17 PM // 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Clinton

What are you guys doing for energy? I still find it really tough..

EDIT:
Celerity + Signet of stamina is fun.

Bah...ends if you hit with an attack.

Try Celerity + Signet of Lost Souls instead.

Zai Rhaal · May 22, 2010, 07:35 PM // 19:35

IW+celerity-stamina?

Daesu · May 22, 2010, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zai Rhaal

IW+celerity-stamina?

Sure you can do that, but the new IW works better with Illusion skills on your bar with the extra armor. You dont need as much pure survivability skills right now for IW.

Lishy · May 22, 2010, 08:00 PM // 20:00

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14 fast casting
14 illusion magic
9 inspiration magic

Signet of Spirits
Symbolic Celerity
Wandering Eye
Calculated Risk
Signet of Clumsiness
Ether Signet
Mantra of Inscriptions
Summon Spirits

While a ritualist is more high numbers and support oriented with skills like Splinter Weapon, this build is more anti-melee. You have spirits to lure enemies and deal spikes of 24 damage, and then you spam anti-melee skills. In order to utilize this build properly, you spam Calculated Risk on multiple enemies though since it helps take pressure off of your spirit bait and greatly reduces overall damage to your party from nasty assassins and warriors. Especially useful in HM where enemies deal rofl damage to your spirits. If they miss a spirit, they take potentially as high as 100 armor ignoring damage! DAAAAYUM!!
You may wonder why I am using Ether Signet. This build rarely requires much energy outside of natural regeneration, but it is a very useful skill in emergencies more than enough to fill you up near completely.
A casterset is highly recommended for this build so that enemies have a lesser chance of attacking you.

Verified working in a pure Henchman vanquish of an endgame explorable.

Fun stuff, guys!
There's so many awesome niches and gimmicks now with Mesmer.

dagrdagaz · May 22, 2010, 09:58 PM // 21:58

F*cking assh*les at Anet, they increased recharge time on Energy Drain, Energy Tap and Cry of Pain

Energy Tap is even more useless now.

The change to Empathy wasnt needed, the skill was fine.

Great, Spiritual Pain is ruined

Well, at least for how i used it.
F*cking bastards

Mirror of Disenchantment and Shatter Enchantment are now more annoying when used by foes.

Wandering Eye and Clumsiness, still sux, the Hex duration should have been increased instead, imo.

ooh, somthing positive, more damage from Cry of Frustration

Dont know what Hypochondria was, but it could be interesting now.

Am i impressed with the Mesmer skill changes, NO

Am i happy with the Mesmer skill changes, NO

G4ymBoy · May 22, 2010, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeferJackal

Panic initially seems like a quite useful skill for hard mode, instead of debuffing enemies to normal mode levels, you use their speed against them as long you can keep blanketing them with Panic. Though in the long run i think outright debuffing might be better, as it doesnt depend on enemy activity for interuption.

My guild grouped for FoW (NM) last night with 5 mesmers, a BiP and two rits. We all had different elites and all had arcane mimicry >.> having just two people with panic (let alone the possible 5 we had) was enough to pretty much stop enemies in their tracks, they barely got anything off. So even in NM Panic is the defining mesmer skill imo.

(but i like being a sig spammer more)

EDIT: At the above poster, take some tissues and go back under your bridge, you are an affront to the eyes of the fabulous mesmers.