Curse

Stuart444 · Jun 21, 2008, 01:48 PM // 13:48

Ok, still getting used to mesmers (I am starting to love them though) and with my new mesmer, I am not sure what other attribute I should use

so far, I have been using mainly the Domination and fast casting attributes (level 11 now) but I can't decide what i should use between Illusion and Insipiration since I doubt I could use only domination magic moves for the entire game.

Can someone list whats good and bad about both Illusion and Inspiration attribute skills? and if you want, list some moves that would be of use in both illusion and inspiration attribute. End game skills allowed as well since I have about 8 mesmer tomes that i can use ^_^

sixofone · Jun 21, 2008, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Illusion tends to be more early game than late game. (The degen typically doesn't do much to late game mobs.) It does have some good anti-melee skills, though!

Inspiration is primarily your Energy management line. It supplements your other lines, rather than being 1 to invest in whole-heartedly by itself. (You're not going to do much to a mob in PvE with Inspiration.) It also lacks much of an ability to support teammates - no "enchant ally" skills, so its really there just for you.

Also, it depends on what you're talking about: PvE or PvP?

Hope that helps a little!

Upier, Avarre, and others are more experts in this area than I am. Watch for their posts, or search the forum for their posts. You can learn a lot from what they say, and what builds they post!

Stuart444 · Jun 21, 2008, 02:03 PM // 14:03

PvE but I plan to use it in PvP sometime after level 20 anyway.

but for now, Mainly PvE stuff

sixofone · Jun 21, 2008, 04:23 PM // 16:23

For PvE, it's mainly [Ineptitude] and [clumsiness] that you'll find most people doing, plus the PvE skills [cry of pain] and [necrosis]

mwaddoups · Jun 21, 2008, 09:56 PM // 21:56

SoI plus any PvE-only spells can make for interesting combos, particularly summons like Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support, etc.

Avarre · Jun 22, 2008, 04:19 AM // 04:19

Inspiration is mainly a support attribute. Illusion has a mix of offensive and defensive abilities.

The problem with illusion is that there is a cap on max degen (-10), and while most of the effects can be quite useful (such as arcane conundrum), they don't really help in the process of making things dead. It's no use shutting down an enemy if you have no ability to kill it, since PvE tends to be about just blasting through enemies. There's some decent anti-melee as mentioned, but the composition of the rest of the team determines how useful that is.

Inspiration is your primary source of energy management. Get acquainted with power drain, it is one of the best skills in the game for energy management.

I guess I'd say go dom/insp. Domination for primary damage/disruption, inspiration for emanagement and maybe an enchant removal. You can play around with illu/insp bars as well, using ineptitude and clumsiness. Dom/illu is possible, I ran that largely through Prophecies and Factions, but now that PvE skills blow everything away for damage you'd be gimping yourself trying to compress the best skills of two lines into one bar.

zelgadissan · Jun 22, 2008, 04:33 AM // 04:33

Personally I think any good straight mesmer build should be specced into 3 attributes when you get the ability to do so:

11+1 (or 3) +1 in Domination or Illusion
10+1/11+1 in Inspiration
10+1/8+1 in Fast Casting

Inspiration is a necessity for any Me/X. As was said above Inspiration is essentially for Energy management and a few other random skills. [Power Drain], [Ether Signet], or [Channeling] is a solid addition on most any mesmer bar. While Illusion is great in its own way (and my personal preference in PvE), a mesmer splitting itself between Domination and Illusion is essentially castrating itself into trying to be more than it can be.

Inspiration wins hands down; energy is your lifeblood as a mesmer (any caster really). Skills that help you get energy --> a winner is you.

Stuart444 · Jun 22, 2008, 10:06 AM // 10:06

thanks, I'll go Dom/inspiration (although I may try out illusion sometime)

e-mangement will probably be good anyway, I noticed I kept running out of energy alot and I had no energy management skills on my bar at the time (I am still learning how to use a mesmer afterall)

thanks for the answers ^^