Curse

Arcanis the Omnipotent · Dec 12, 2005, 10:01 AM // 10:01

The Blind Mesmer isnt really all that reliable. Especially for farming that area. Usually, no matter how far you run away from other enemies when you aggro a group, some other group will eventually come out of no where, not be blind and you get raped while trying to manage one group of blinded.

Avarre · Dec 12, 2005, 12:19 PM // 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogDevourer

A Me/Mo should be able to farm decently. Use a standard 55 build, and deal damage with smiting (arcane echo + SoJ + ZF) or Domination. Not nearly as efficient as the original Mo/Me with 16 smiting and Aura of Faith, but good enough if you're only looking for cheap XP. Mesmers lack the ability to deal reliable AoE/group damage so a monk secondary is your fastest and easiest option.

My 55hp build for farming hydras is as follows:

Shield of judgement {E}
Arcane echo
Essence bond
Mending
Healing breeze
Balthazar's spirit
Mantra of Fire
Protective spirit

The nice thing about mantra of fire is it takes effect AFTER protective spirit, meaning, with 55 hp, you take 4s from the hydra fire spells. Also, this will give you additional energy with which to work with.

I let the hydras circle and cast their meteors, then arc echo SoJ. By the time both Shields are finished, all hydras will usually have died (if they were in range to melee from the start).

Stats are something like:

12 smiting
9 heal
8 prot
2 + 3 + 1 insp
rest to faster cast

In any case, thats +10 regen with breeze and mending, which is enough to keep you alive easily versus 5 hydras or so that can fit around you. Count the meteors, when all the hydras have used them, bring up echoed Shield. The only problem i have with this build is sometimes getting smacked with a meteor while renewing Shield, but in that case just wait for the first one to recharge and cast it, finishing off the hydras.

Also, switch the point in smiting to Illusion, use an illu mask, and swap Arcane echo, Soj and MoF with IW, Sym Visage and Power drain and you have the build i use to do smite runs.

Arcanis the Omnipotent · Dec 13, 2005, 02:09 PM // 14:09

When you guys use the 55HP Build for a Mesmer, what armor do you use? The armor I bought for the build (so I didnt ruin my other set) doesnt give me enough energy to really start the build very fast.

Would Enchanters be the way to go?

FrogDevourer · Dec 13, 2005, 02:26 PM // 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanis the Omnipotent

When you guys use the 55HP Build for a Mesmer, what armor do you use? The armor I bought for the build (so I didnt ruin my other set) doesnt give me enough energy to really start the build very fast.

Would Enchanters be the way to go?

You need as much energy as possible. The armor level doesn't matter since Protective Spirit is your main defense. Monks generally use the cheapest ascetic (tatoo) armor, so an Enchanter's armor is your best option.

Sentao Nugra · Dec 13, 2005, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanis the Omnipotent

The Blind Mesmer isnt really all that reliable. Especially for farming that area. Usually, no matter how far you run away from other enemies when you aggro a group, some other group will eventually come out of no where, not be blind and you get raped while trying to manage one group of blinded.

i have played a tank for a long time, and realized how to pull with my agro bubble alone, so running back works just fine to get out of the way w/ the blind build. if you really NEED to improve your agro-ing, buy a longbow.

TGgold · Dec 13, 2005, 06:08 PM // 18:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexed Arcanist

Ugh...you kill them with SoJ alone? That must be torture, not sure I could endure such a slow means to kill.

If you arcane echo SoJ, mins and griffs go down pretty fast : )

Shyft the Pyro · Dec 13, 2005, 06:41 PM // 18:41

This might be a bit off-topic, but my N/Me solved the "farming for XP" problem with two words: Sorrow's Furnace. While I did come up with a few things that allowed me to farm gryphons/minotaurs/hydras, I just couldn't do enough damage alone, and if I designed a build to do damage I couldn't live long enough. In the Furnace, however, I had steady support from teammates and ended up getting XP at a much faster pace. Of course, the occasional green item made up for it, too

I believe my most successful solo build looked something like this:

Channelling
Aura of the Lich [E]
Blood Renewal
Physical Resistance
Signet of Agony
Plague Touch
Epidemic
spammable 5-cost 1-target damage skill (or Mantra of Resolve?)

It was slow, did not kill all the enemies on me at the same time, and could not withstand a lot of attackers, but it did work. I'm hazy on the details, too, since I had several similar builds and it's been a while.

Arcanis the Omnipotent · Dec 13, 2005, 10:46 PM // 22:46

This is what I ended up with at the end of my 55 build

Not much different than what was prescribed to me.

Shield of Judgement {E}
Zealot's Fire
Empathy
Mending
Balthazar's Spirit
Essence Bond
Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze.

12 Smite
9 Prot
8 Heal
6 Dom
Rest into Fast Cast.

Other than the occasional annoying devourer and Distracting Shot, this goes off without a hitch. Empathy is more there for helping when it gets down to a single target and the energy gain off the enchants isnt all that much anymore. Zealot's works because you're constantly recharging Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze, and as long as you dont do them too often, the AoE running doesnt take effect. If it does, keep going and keep attacking them, they'll come back.

Avarre · Dec 14, 2005, 09:35 AM // 09:35

Personally i'd drop zealots and get arcane echo, because the 18s up /45s recharge disparity on Shield of Judgement is really annoying... with Aecho, you can cast 2 SoJ in a row, and a 3rd shortly after. You're avoiding the AoE problem with infrequent casting, but in that case the damage from zealots is also infrequent, and so i think you'd be better off with another 20 (with +enchant % mod) seconds of SoJ.

Also, with the 8 healing you have listed there, you gain 3 life regen from mending and 6 from breeze- you should try to get 9 healing (drop 1 prot for +1 heal maybe) to get a +7 breeze (totalling +10 regen).

Just my thoughts..

glountz · Dec 14, 2005, 09:57 AM // 09:57

I'm sorry to say that, pals, but I have yet to find a true mesmer farm build, here.
Please stop posting Monk/Necromancer farm build as Mesmer ones (when I see only ONE mesmer skill in a so-called "mesmer farm build", I wonder if I am on the right thread.)

Only Flapper McSparkles and Sentao Nugra posted true mesmer farm builds. However the major flaw in their build is that Epidemic transfers blindness to adjacent foes, that is to say a very little radius. If one ennemy is a bit too far, you're dead meat.

Avarre · Dec 14, 2005, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by glountz

However the major flaw in their build is that Epidemic transfers blindness to adjacent foes, that is to say removes blind from one ennemy to spread it on others. If the unblinded ennemy is an aatxe, praise Grenth, you should see him soon.

I've used epidemic with Sig of Midnight vs aatxes, and it seems it works by only giving the condition to the adjacent foes, but not actually removing the condition ifrom the target itself. Perhaps the skill needs a descrip rewrite... of course i could be wrong, i dont really use epidemic as i find it nearly useless.

glountz · Dec 14, 2005, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

I've used epidemic with Sig of Midnight vs aatxes, and it seems it works by only giving the condition to the adjacent foes, but not actually removing the condition ifrom the target itself. Perhaps the skill needs a descrip rewrite... of course i could be wrong, i dont really use epidemic as i find it nearly useless.

Yeah you're right.
I dropped long ago Epidemic because of kind of "healing" the mob you casted this spell on.
But I retested just after your post and edited mine (only pointing out the small radius), cause it seems to works pretty well now. (Wonder if there was a patch fix, because I could swear that when I used it for the first time it was removing the conditions from the target to the adjacent foes).

Avarre · Dec 14, 2005, 03:52 PM // 15:52

Another problem with epidemic is you cannot use things like Mantra of inscriptions to get an overlapping blind. With SoM and Epi having 15s recharge, youll have a 1+ second period where everything can hit you. Plus, there is still a 1/10 chance that stuff hits through blind. This isnt a problem for small groups of enemies, but besides maybe Aatxe, there aren't that many enemies with only physical attacks that its profitable to kill in small groups.

glountz · Dec 14, 2005, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

Another problem with epidemic is you cannot use things like Mantra of inscriptions to get an overlapping blind. With SoM and Epi having 15s recharge, youll have a 1+ second period where everything can hit you. Plus, there is still a 1/10 chance that stuff hits through blind. This isnt a problem for small groups of enemies, but besides maybe Aatxe, there aren't that many enemies with only physical attacks that its profitable to kill in small groups.

Yep but the 5sec distortion save your butt in this case, even if you've not maxed Illusion.

Sentao Nugra · Dec 14, 2005, 05:07 PM // 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by glountz

Yep but the 5sec distortion save your butt in this case, even if you've not maxed Illusion.

hit it right on the nose here, when you see the blind starting to wear off just go into distortion and recast both sig and epidemic for blinds.

my current w/me build is using 7/8 mesmer skills and can get through the aatxe, so something must be working right...

Arcanis the Omnipotent · Dec 15, 2005, 03:55 PM // 15:55

The problem with a full mesmer build is that Mesmers dont have the type of damage prevention skills needed to fight so many enemies all at once.

Shyft the Pyro · Dec 15, 2005, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanis the Omnipotent

The problem with a full mesmer build is that Mesmers dont have the type of damage prevention skills needed to fight so many enemies all at once.

Actually, they do, if you consider the abovementioned conditon placement / evasion chances damage prevention. If they can't hit you, they can't do damage, right?

If you mean it in the Warrior way, though, I can see how you'd be disappointed with only Physical Resistance there to aid you. All that Mesmer farming needs (as clearly illustrated by earlier posters) is a different approach.

The real problem with Mesmer farming is that there is no reliable way to kill multiple enemies at once.