Curse

VGJustice · Dec 08, 2005, 06:51 AM // 06:51

I've been playing with my N/Me for a while, and I found a skill chain that works for me. Soul Barbs > Wastrel's Worry > Shatter Delusions > Wastrel's Worry Until Target Dies. Pretty basic, but it does give some flexablility for me. Specificly, when WW ends prematurely. At level 17, I took out a Necro boss Hydra at level 21 in the Crystal Desert because WW would end prematurely before the skill could even recycle. This, and other unfortunate monsters in the area, got me thinking about how exactly WW works.

If I'm fighting any boss at all in the Crystal Desert, WW seems unusually effective. At my current skill levels, Soul Barbs is dealing a measly 27 damage per hex, and when WW ends, it does an additional 38. I can't use Shatter Delusions on the bosses, as much as I'd like to bump my damage up to 48, because WW doesn't last long enough for me to cast it. And WW ends prematurely on every boss that I've encountered faster than the skill recycles, so I'm doing a near constant spam of 27 - 38 - 27 - 38~. Takes them down quick.

Also, this works on Hydras, but it's not as fast. In other words, I can fit in SD to make the damage chain 27 - 48 - 27 - 38~, or something to that effect. This is also basicly true of almost all the melee monsters in the region.

I say almost because it doesn't seem to work on Minotaurs. WW sits there, it's time runs out and it just.... fizzles. I only get the damage from Soul Barbs or SD, but not from WW. Maybe I'm just blind, but something seems a little off there.

If I remember right, WW states "After [set amount of time] this skill ends and deals X damage to target. If the target uses a Skill, WW ends prematurely." So, if it only works on *Skills*, then why can I spam it so effortlessly on the Hydras? I'm not saavy with skill knowledge, but I thought that Skills were basicly physical attacks, stances, and Touch abbilities, and that Spells are Ranged Elemental or Armor Bypassing abbilities. I wouldn't think that the Hydras would have even one *Skill* as they are elementalists. But, then again, why is it that it doesn't work with the Minotaurs that are basicly Warriors?

Am I just blind or did I stumble on something here?

Arcador · Dec 08, 2005, 07:27 AM // 07:27

SKills are everything. If you press 1-8 you use skills. Some skills are not stances, spells, hexes or so, but listed as only skills (troll heal stuff), but all the things on your bar are skills.
I got E/W and I use boneti's defence. I turn it on when I cast a spell it stops working, so spell is a skill.

teny10 · Dec 08, 2005, 07:50 AM // 07:50

Bosses have a nature reisistence against hexes. All hexes last half of their stated duration on bosses. Thus, WW will only last 1.5 sec on bosses which makes it a very good attack skill against bosses. WW, however, will not trigger soul barbs repeatedly. If you want to use soul barbs and spam hexes, I suggest parasitc bond. It will trigger soul barbs repeatedly. Also, any skill will end WW prematurely.

Rajamic · Dec 08, 2005, 08:56 AM // 08:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcador

SKills are everything. If you press 1-8 you use skills. Some skills are not stances, spells, hexes or so, but listed as only skills (troll heal stuff), but all the things on your bar are skills.
I got E/W and I use boneti's defence. I turn it on when I cast a spell it stops working, so spell is a skill.

Actually, there are 2 definitions of "skills" that Guild Wars uses (which is extremely annoying). On the one hand, sometime it does mean anything that can go into a skillbar. But other times, it means Non-spells.

Numa Pompilius · Dec 08, 2005, 09:37 AM // 09:37

WW ends (without doing damage) if the victim uses any skill at all - ie does anything except normal attack. Attack skills, spells, stances, preparations... everything will terminate WW. The reason it doesn't work well on minotaurs is that once they get their adrenaline up they start spamming attack skills.

Bosses, as noted, have half duration on hexes, so WW ends (and does damage) after 1.5 seconds. The shorter duration in this case means it's more likely to actually run its course and do damage instead of ending prematurely.

VGJustice · Dec 09, 2005, 05:59 AM // 05:59

Ok, I guess that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation of the explanation, Numa. That helps a lot.

On the other hand...

Quote:

Originally Posted by teny10

WW, however, will not trigger soul barbs repeatedly.

I don't understand this. Are you saying that the same casting of one skill will not trigger Soul Barbs more than once? Because that's true to what I've seen. Or, are you saying that if I cast WW or a Barbed target, then cast WW again before the first one runs out, the second WW won't activate Barbs? Because that's false. I'd just like to clear that up, can you go into a bit more detail about that?

MsMassacre · Dec 09, 2005, 08:22 PM // 20:22

If you REALLY wanna abuse WW, use it on a ether seal. They have 1/3 duration on hexes, which means WW deals its damage right as it refreshes. With max dom, this makes them insanely easy for a mesmer to nuke.

Re soul barbs and WW, I suspect what they meant is that WW won't trigger barbs repeatedly if you spam it. If you wait til it DEALS DAMAGE then recast, it'll work just fine.

VGJustice · Dec 09, 2005, 08:46 PM // 20:46

[EDITED]I checked the skill combo against a single Hydra, and I figured out where I went wrong. WW doesn't activate repeatedly, the skill was simply ending before I could re-cast it for one reason or another. Basicly, I horribly miss read the skill itself. Still works ok if you immediatly Shatter it, but now I see that WW is really quite useless beyond that. Heh, guess I gotta redesign my N/Me again, huh?