Curse

Guardian of the Light · Nov 11, 2005, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Well I like the Illusionary Weaponary Mesmer but they have no place in HoH. I also created the 100 blade team http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=74121. This is my 2nd Group Build idea

This Build is basically IWAY turned on its head this is what u need

3 Illusionary Weaponry Mesmers (for a good build click this http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ior-id1057.php
1 Counter Monk Mesmar
1 Ranger(primary or secondary) with fertile season
2 Healing Monks
1 Prot Monk

This Build Basically takes advantage of the fact that IW and choas damage ingnores armor. Fertile Season Inproves armor which is ingnored by IWs so basically your fellow teammate all get armor and the enemy does too but it does them no good.

I'm not too sure this Build will work and I'd like any input you can give me

Sum Gai · Nov 11, 2005, 03:11 AM // 03:11

Fert gives +HP too, so you're still making them hard to kill. Throw in all the Enchantment Removal (Well of Profane is going to completely own this). Also, Bonetti's Defence is an adrenal skill, and you don't gain adrenaline while attacking with IW. Can anyone say wasted skill slot?

Tainted Poon · Nov 11, 2005, 04:07 AM // 04:07

I just hate the thought of casters rushing into the fray especially mesmers, but IW does do some high quality damage over time and to have 3 on someone sounds pretty damn good and maybe you should have all 3 running blackout constantly having your target unable to do anything, got to have a snare I think because if your target runs one of them will body block the other 2 (crippling shot maybe?) and I dont think that specific build is effective as it could be

Iere · Nov 11, 2005, 04:19 AM // 04:19

You haven't taken away the two things that make IW suck:

1. Mesmers are squishy, no matter how much HP you tack onto them- fertile season might make it easier to stop, say, a ranger spike-- but anything armor-penetrating? Ouch.

2. Enchantment removal > IW builds. Same with any decent mesmer.

knives · Nov 11, 2005, 04:25 AM // 04:25

There was a thread awhile back that consisted of 4 iw mesmers, 4 monks. Monks ran spellbreaker on mesmers, don't remember whatcombination of heal/prot/smite the monks ran though.

Tainted Poon · Nov 12, 2005, 02:15 AM // 02:15

or maybe have ranger bring greater conflag for physical so the mesmers can pop on one of the mantras that reduces fire damage and gives you energy, sucks how they are in a diff category though and winter if all ele spike

Guizzy · Nov 12, 2005, 05:09 AM // 05:09

Or...

You could use 5 Me/E, 2 Mo/X and one Water Ele of some kind (either Fast Cast or plain Water Ele)

You spec them in Illusion/Earth, the rest goes in Inspiration.

Each of your Mesmers has Arcane Mimicry. They all have Illusionary Weaponry except one who has Obsidian Flesh. They all Arcane Mimicry the one who has OF (who himself AM a IW), start with OF then IW, then proceed to start the whacking. The Water Ele ensures the targets are less mobile than the IW Mesmers (hampered by OF). The Mesmers can help with that thanks to Imagined Burden and Ethereal Burden.

When not attacking and waiting the recharge on IW and AM (and OF), the mesmers use their Inspiration skills either to regain energy quickly or defend themselves with stances. Being also specced with Earth, Armor of Earth or Kinetic Armor can come in handy to stay alive while OF is out.

I can't see how this group would not work, but it would require insane amounts of coordination and organisation. It's also very dependant on a single attack means, which I always try to avoid in every of my group (what if you encounter a group that is perfect against your only weapon? I like my groups with solid defense and varied attacks).

Kyp Halcyon · Nov 12, 2005, 11:52 PM // 23:52

just wondering if instead of obsid flesh you could use armor of mist, does that affect using the IW?

knives · Nov 13, 2005, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guizzy

Or...

You could use 5 Me/E, 2 Mo/X and one Water Ele of some kind (either Fast Cast or plain Water Ele)

You spec them in Illusion/Earth, the rest goes in Inspiration.

Each of your Mesmers has Arcane Mimicry. They all have Illusionary Weaponry except one who has Obsidian Flesh. They all Arcane Mimicry the one who has OF (who himself AM a IW), start with OF then IW, then proceed to start the whacking. The Water Ele ensures the targets are less mobile than the IW Mesmers (hampered by OF). The Mesmers can help with that thanks to Imagined Burden and Ethereal Burden.

When not attacking and waiting the recharge on IW and AM (and OF), the mesmers use their Inspiration skills either to regain energy quickly or defend themselves with stances. Being also specced with Earth, Armor of Earth or Kinetic Armor can come in handy to stay alive while OF is out.

I can't see how this group would not work, but it would require insane amounts of coordination and organisation. It's also very dependant on a single attack means, which I always try to avoid in every of my group (what if you encounter a group that is perfect against your only weapon? I like my groups with solid defense and varied attacks).

50% slow chance = dead IW mesmers. Even with the water ele, they are tons of hex removal in tombs. And with all those squishies, 2 monks doesn't seem like enough. =/

Guizzy · Nov 13, 2005, 05:18 AM // 05:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by knives

50% slow chance = dead IW mesmers. Even with the water ele, they are tons of hex removal in tombs. And with all those squishies, 2 monks doesn't seem like enough. =/

The concept is that the whole group target one (or at most 2) targets.

A Water Ele can keep anyone slowed even with hex removal thanks to Water Trident. Also, hardly anyone bothers to remove Water Hexes, which can be applied very quickly. My Water Ele has 3 slow spells along with Water Trident. If I want someone slowed; there is absolutely nothing to do against it except killing/interrupting/E.Deny me (and maybe using Spell Breaker, which almost no one uses anyways). Also; it the Mesmers are slowed, it's not as if the Warriors will tear through them. Maybe you've forgotten, but the one think IW Mesmers excel at is owning warriors. To protect themselves, though, your IW Mesmers will have to ball up, which makes them vulnerable to enemy Water Eles, but it's not as if we can count on the enemy bringing one of them, eh? Cause if that was the case, no one'd be running Minion Factories and IWAY groups.

As for the squishies getting pounded; Obsidian Flesh makes the squishies less squishy thanks to its AL bonus. When not using OF, the IW Mesmers can use their Inspiration Stances (Distortion, Hex Breaker) to keep themselves out of harm's way.

As I said, this is in no way a group I'd like to run. It's too dependant on a single strategy and requires builds that few players have an understanding of (good Water Eles are probably less than 20 in PvP, and most players don't have a good understanding of the Mesmer). However, I believe this is theoretically a possible group that could be powerful with competent players at the helm. As it negates Warrior armor, it could rip them down just as quickly, removing the need for your group to overextend themselves in order to get to their targets (the main problem of most losing groups I've been with is that they run past the whole enemy group to get to a single monk. Of course; it's good to follow priorities, but by running past the enemy, you are making your own backlines vulnerable, as well as cut yourself up from your healing base. This group could easily target the Warriors in the front lines and work their way from there as the warriors are not any more resistant to it).

But not a group I would waste more than 15 minutes assembling. I've seen lots of groups that would theoretically work be raped in seconds because it requires players of a skill that won't be available quickly. Any rank 3 can run a decent IWAY, but a decent Mesmer?

glenn_rolfe · Nov 13, 2005, 09:38 PM // 21:38

We've really got to catch up Guardian (ingame name S W O R D Y ). I ran an IW build in tombs last month with 4 me/W, 1 me/n, 1 prot, 2 healers

I ran the me/n to energy deny their major enchant stripper and run consume corpse and shadow of fear for iway.

Our basic tactic was to run in, spam out some degen hexes like phantom pain and conjure phantasm, hit the target with some snares like ethereal burden, snare off their wars as well with imagined burden, then hit IW and hack. After we hit IW we got life bond cast on us as a cover enchant to give us some sort of chance to survive the enchant stripping. We'd also arcane echo the IW.
We could never get passed burial mounds, and really only beat up on very noobie teams, and we had energy managament problems that I didn't figure out. We also packed eoe for the win on one mo/r monk as a last desperate attempt to steal a win.