Curse

l337_ivi4573r · Jan 22, 2007, 04:39 AM // 04:39

I've been playing the same N/W build for 19 months now, so I recently created a mesmer and know nothing of the profession (Just to get away from the bleak hack and slash of my N/W build). And I was wondering if anyone could give me and tips (I.E. secondary professions/skills) that would prove useful to a pve only mesmer.

Cebe · Jan 22, 2007, 09:33 AM // 09:33

Welcome to an awesome profession.

If you want to cause mayhem and pure irritation I love playing Domination. It has both damage and interrupt capabilities. I use a mix of Domination with a little Inspiration (for energy gain) usually.

A couple of very nice skills if you can get them are Power Return (an awesome interrupt), Cry of Frustration, Spiritual Pain, Empathy. Power Drain is excellent for gaining energy also. The elite Mantra of Recovery I find useful and, if you have prophecies, the elite Power Block.

Enjoy

Avarre · Jan 22, 2007, 10:49 AM // 10:49

The 'meta' PvE mesmer, if anything, is as a domination nuker of sorts.

Typical domination skills;

Spiritual Pain*
Mistrust
Backfire
Empathy
Cry of Frustration
Shatter Hex

*Nerfed for the current weekend.

You'll notice all of these deal strong, armor-ignoring damage, and all of them also are non-elite. Their biggest factors are high energy cost and high recharge - therefore, my most commonly taken elites are Glyph of Renewal (Me/E), Assassin's Promise (Me/A, but significantly less often as it takes many points and can fail), Energy Drain (energy return, for Me/Mo res, somewhat better than Mantra of Recall because of fast recharge mods), and Mantra of Recovery (vastly buffed in this weekend for incredible power of recharge.)

Energy surge is often brought as well, but tends to be overshadowed by more effective choices.

Other common non-elites to bring are Guilt (essentially a fire-and-forget interrupt with decent return), Power Drain (exceptional e-management), Spirit of Failure (marginal energy return).

The illusion line is typically ignored as, thanks to a wonderful developmental trend, damage has vastly increased in Nightfall. Hence, pressure setups in PvE involving degen have become relatively obsolete, as battles are almost always a straight slugfest.

Thom Bangalter · Jan 22, 2007, 11:00 AM // 11:00

MoR+Backfire+Empathy is the new pve meta if they keep the MoR change.

Dean Harper · Jan 23, 2007, 05:24 AM // 05:24

The Mesmer is definately not what you're used to playing a N/W, it is a much more, well, it stays in the background and has a more discreet role in the party. Not to say it isnt an fun! Far from it, the Mesmer is probably the most fun profession to play in my opinion. It may be discreet in what it does but it plays a vital role in the party, stopping others from doing what they want to do and making them do what you want them to do. Mesmers are also very versatile. Their Domination line allows for unconditional damage like an elementalist's nuking abilities. It also allows for high damage when the foe does something such as cast a spell or attack. Domination also allows for interrupting the enemy and doing damage in the process. The Illusion line is mainly for dealing with melee characters by using degeneration and slowing them down. The Inspiration line is all about energy management and stealing energy from the enemy. Fast Casting allows you to so jsut that, cast your spells at a faster rate. Mesmers also have a special ability of copying their spells wiht uninked skills such as Echo and Arcane Echo. So, Mesmers are very effective in battle in different forms and can be used in any way you like. Overall, you have made a good choice in picking the Mesmer as a new character since it also teaches you a lot about the other professions because you have to know about them to know how to counter them and beat them down, so it is a great learning profession. Honestly, Mesmer would be a great first character since you learn so much from it. It is a common minsconception that they are hard to play, but they just take some getting used to. Hope i was of some help to you.

-Dean

*Darcy* · Jan 23, 2007, 04:29 PM // 16:29

Here is a link to the wiki page covering the pros/cons of Mesmer secondaries.
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Seconda...s_for_a_Mesmer

The mesmer's job is to spread around his/her skill effects. You can't play like other damage professions and just concentrate on one monster at a time.

You also need to concentrate on energy management prior to the battle. Don't overload your skill bar with high e-cost skills. Learn to kite to avoid damage and to give yourself e-regen time. A mesmer doesn't have the free energy return of the necro.

Arrows[PURE] · Jan 23, 2007, 05:20 PM // 17:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

The mesmer's job is to spread around his/her skill effects. You can't play like other damage professions and just concentrate on one monster at a time.

You also need to concentrate on energy management prior to the battle. Don't overload your skill bar with high e-cost skills. Learn to kite to avoid damage and to give yourself e-regen time. A mesmer doesn't have the free energy return of the necro.

Absolutely correct, spells like empathy, backfire , guilt, shame, mistrust you can just cast and then forget about that oponent (more so with empathy and backfire do to long lasting durations). I tend to use powerblock in PvE, and if I was having trouble intrupting I would bring along arcane concundrum and put a few points into illusion.
Atm im running spirit of failure and power drain for E-management with about 8/9 in inspiration. I find rangers tend to be best to cast spirit of failure on as they last longer in battle because of those annoying stances

Dutch Masterr · Jan 23, 2007, 06:18 PM // 18:18

here are some good tips to be more effective at what a mesmer does-shut down a specific target...

for most situations stick with either domination or illusion and dont cross them. most of the time i run 10 inspiration and 11 fast cast at all times and then either 16 dom or 16 illusion. now im not saying you CANT cross them, because skills like migraine (illusion) are good with interupts, which mostly come from domination...always have at least 1, preferably 2 energy management spells like energy trap or power drain.

this is very important--dont try to do too many things at once! it helps alot, especially in pvp (pve is a different story) to either go anti-melee/ranger or anti-caster. its not a good idea to cross them. if youre going for specific shutdown, such as warrior or monk, stick to 1 thing. or go more general like anti-warrior, sin, ranger, derv, paragon. there are builds you can create though that can be effectivley used on any type of porfession, like the me/n "recurring soul barbs" build...go to guildwiki and its under "tested builds". this is one of the best (in my opinion) builds in the game.

ainkami · Jan 24, 2007, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Only "good" mesmer DPS build in pve is a me/w IW with flurry
illusionary weapon
flurry
imagined burden
illusion of weakness
blackout
power return

[optional skills]
conjure phantasm/empathy/spiritual pain/wastrel worry/capture signet [optional skills]

16 in illusion
12 in domination
+cast illusion of weakness before battle.
+constantly maintain flurry in battle
+use imaged burden and blackout on monks.
+use power return on elementalist spells and other powerful spells
+ask your monk to keep protective spirit on you and use your optional skills only if your enchant gets stripped

simple & effective

In areas without heavy enchant shattering, the above build is vastly superior to any other mesmer build.

Compare:
Spiritual Pain 106 dmg over 30secs. IW 42x3=126dmg over 3 secs. IW does 1260 armor ignoring dmg over 30secs.

Backfire: 140dmg for 10secs over 20secs. 50% Shutdown Blackout: 6 secs for 12 secs. 50% Shutdown as well. PVE mobs die fast and 12secs recharge is 40% faster recharge than 20secs. Blackout works on all classes and shutting a Boss down for 6 secs (disabling an ele boss to give your monk a break)> 140dmg to boss creatures that have tons of hp.

Empathy: Good damage but done to wrong target. No one should focus on warriors at the beginning and enemy warriors mobs might have healing signet to heal the damage.

DON'T run a pure domination shutdown build. You will do damage, but probably not better than a wa/mo with power attack.
Consistent 42 constant damage & 6 secs Blackout shutdown on monk & bosses will make your a better addition to your team.

Effigy · Jan 24, 2007, 09:19 PM // 21:19

The fact you've overlooked is that you aren't meant to put hexes on focus fire targets. Empathy is great specifically because your team won't be focusing on the melee mobs. Just toss Empathy on them and forget about them while they kill themselves. Backfire makes short work of monk mobs/bosses as well as other casters. IW may do a fair amount of damage, but it's only doing it to one target and that target is occupying your full attention. Empathy alone can easily match your IW dps while you are interrupting and spreading hexes to other targets. Not to mention that you don't have to stand in melee range to use it.

Arrows[PURE] · Jan 24, 2007, 10:19 PM // 22:19

IW not for PvE imo. Even area's without enchant removal its far better to just cast empathy and interupt etc.. like effigy said. What iv also been finding is the enemies seem to kite much more often so you'll have to bring a speed skill and keep reapplying it. Also in PvE battles dont tend to last long anyway, Sometimes by the time youve ran to an enemy its on 10-30% health, giving you 2-4 attacks at most. Thats what I find with hero/hench teams anyway

Thomas.knbk · Jan 24, 2007, 10:45 PM // 22:45

I've never understood why people called mesmers a PvP profession. Domination mesmers are meant to punish you for a certain action, so knowing what your opponents are going to bring is a huge advantage. Following that logic a mesmer should be nuts in PvE. Yet people always.......complain about how mesmers suck in PvE
Not to mention that the mobs cast through backfire.

Effigy · Jan 24, 2007, 10:54 PM // 22:54

Well, that's both true and false. Knowing what the enemy is going to do makes it easier to design an effective mesmer build, and PvE definitely reflects this. On the other hand, using a mesmer implies that your enemy is not going to bunch up in nukes, or stand still while your warriors C+Space them to death, etc. These latter conditions pretty much sum up PvE combat. Mesmers work in PvE, yes, but they aren't necessary or really very attractive (IMO) in that context. In PvP, mesmer ftw no doubt.

Jegred2 · Jan 25, 2007, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

The 'meta' PvE mesmer, if anything, is as a domination nuker of sorts.

Typical domination skills;

Spiritual Pain*
Mistrust
Backfire
Empathy
Cry of Frustration
Shatter Hex

*Nerfed for the current weekend.

You'll notice all of these deal strong, armor-ignoring damage, and all of them also are non-elite. Their biggest factors are high energy cost and high recharge - therefore, my most commonly taken elites are Glyph of Renewal (Me/E), Assassin's Promise (Me/A, but significantly less often as it takes many points and can fail), Energy Drain (energy return, for Me/Mo res, somewhat better than Mantra of Recall because of fast recharge mods), and Mantra of Recovery (vastly buffed in this weekend for incredible power of recharge.)

Energy surge is often brought as well, but tends to be overshadowed by more effective choices.

Other common non-elites to bring are Guilt (essentially a fire-and-forget interrupt with decent return), Power Drain (exceptional e-management), Spirit of Failure (marginal energy return).

The illusion line is typically ignored as, thanks to a wonderful developmental trend, damage has vastly increased in Nightfall. Hence, pressure setups in PvE involving degen have become relatively obsolete, as battles are almost always a straight slugfest.

I'm new to mesmers also, I've been working on fenangling a signet of illusions build that uses a couple borrow/steal spells skills (arcane mimicry and arcane theivery) while having stuff like conjure phantasm to add some degen, and some other fun stuff.

It would rely on you bringing elites on your hero's/ or coordinating with team mates so you can get nice elites like savanna heat or reapers mark to cast out. Shouldn't be too hard to do this.