Curse

VGJustice · Aug 24, 2005, 06:42 PM // 18:42

I recently built a Me/W for PvP, and had some minimal success. My question, is is just a lucky group or was there something more that I'm not seeing?

Attributes:
8 Fast Casting
14 Illusion Magic
9 Inspiration Magic
8 Tactics

Skills:
Ether Feast (Insp)
Energy Tap (Insp)
Conjure Phantasm (Ill)
"Shields Up!" (Tac)
Phantasm Pain (Ill)
Gladiator's Defence (Tac)
Physical Resistance (Insp)
Res Sig

The idea was to build off the failure of my last Mesmer, who would get ganged up on by Warriors. It's an ugly thing, and I'd die REAL quick. With this, I could hit myself and any other friendlies with the shout, then buff myself with GD. At that level of Illusion, Phantasm Pain is 3 Degen, so I can get them with 8 total health degen. Energy Tap is there partly to stop Warriors (or rather, their secondary skills), and partly to give me a better Energy Buffer (steals 12 energy at that level). Is there anything I could do to make this better, or should I just give up on him till I can get some better Mesmer skills?

LifeInfusion · Aug 24, 2005, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Wild Blow owns gladiator's defense.

VGJustice · Aug 24, 2005, 07:23 PM // 19:23

oddly, that doesn't help. Care to explain "why" that is?

ElderAtronach · Aug 24, 2005, 07:50 PM // 19:50

Wild blow cancels stance.

If you go Me/W people will assume IW build. So they will either get a ranged attacker to tackle you, or an ele will just blast you if you have physical resistance on.

Morganas · Aug 24, 2005, 08:18 PM // 20:18

This build will be of virtually no help to your team, regardless of how well you can survive.

Elythor · Aug 24, 2005, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Pretty much all your skills are defensive in nature. Conjure and Phantom Pain deals minimal damage. And if a warrior is stupid enough to keep hitting you with Gladiator's Defense....well..he/she is just stupid.

Sorry to say...with no offensive or disruptive abilities your build is kinda useless.

knives · Aug 24, 2005, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Too many defensive skills as has been said. If you have a decent monk then ether feast etc won't be of any use/need except to waste a skill slot. Take skills that work well with the groups build. Got hammer warrior, healing monk, spiker ele (common 4v4 build, annoys me to death as I play an awesome mesmer that can kill any caster, as well as 2 monks) then you should work on degen, energy stealing from the monk, and/or interrupting an ele. Diversion everything else.

I play an illusion/dom mesmer/x (usually necro, because when teams see me with that sub class, they auto assume I'm a frag build running around with virulence, and soon learn that I should have been the primary target instead of the monk

) Otherwise I go me/mo for a nice rezbot if I'm not targeted/interrupted.

VGJustice · Aug 24, 2005, 10:29 PM // 22:29

hmm... ok, ty for the last 4 posts, that helps a lot.

...yeah, I'm a PvP n00b. I'll say it so no one else has to. Guess I gotta rethink the character again. Thanks again.

ratatass · Aug 25, 2005, 12:59 AM // 00:59

Well, don't be too quick on laying waste on your build.

I have a brother that runs a E/W in the Tombs, yes an E/W. You will either loose to a spammer team or some elite guild anyways in a PUG. He does insane close AoE damage and usually gets away with it. Even though it is probably the most wtf noob pwn class you could choose.

Tombs is such a whacked area now anyways that just go with it. But you should take out one skill at a time. I would start with Physical Resistance and Ether Feast. Add some Offense of your choice.

But, if you always get owned by warriors and it annoys you, yes bring your Gladiator defense.

I have for fun sometimes brought Signet of Humility to take out his Elite and then I have taken away his energy with Energy Drain. Is that what you are supposed to do ? No. But if the warriors are pissing you off, do something about it like you say.

Build around your Warrior Defense if thats what you like, since everything is crap and unbalanced anyways in the armpit called : Tombs of Primeval Kings.

You can't go wrong, but a little tweak would have been nice.

Ratatass

Morganas · Aug 25, 2005, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Whatever you do, don't listen to ratass. I know a guy who knows a guy who died thanks to his advice.

Bast · Aug 25, 2005, 04:21 AM // 04:21

I think I'm forced to agree with Morganas here, even though my godly troll build was exposed far too early by his/her diligence.

*profanity*

Ratatass. Stop. Now.

Jhyphi · Aug 26, 2005, 12:48 AM // 00:48

As others have said, way too much defense.

Also, not enough playing to your true strengths and as a team player. Don't worry about the warrior. All you need to do is stall him/her with 1/2 defensive things.

Then the rest of your skills should help shut down a monk and other casters. Your attitude should be, the faster the monk goes down, the faster everything including the warrior smacking at me is dead.

Morganas · Aug 26, 2005, 01:44 AM // 01:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jhyphi

Your attitude should be, the faster the monk goes down, the faster everything including the warrior smacking at me is dead.

Best mesmer attitude is "make the monk and another caster so useless that my team can afford to hit the warrior first".

Lumanis · Aug 26, 2005, 03:26 PM // 15:26

I'm a big fan of ignoring melee myself.
I just do Random / Team arena; so I always use a mix of offense + Defense.

This is one Inspiration / Illusion option:

Price of Failure: For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 1-4 Energy for each miss.
Distortion: For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to "Evade" attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 3-1 Energy or Distortion ends

Price of failure on 1 warrior is enough energy to keep distortion up against 3 warriors without loosing energy.
This can fail when the warrior you hexed runs off and attacks somebody else.

I think this combo gives you alot of the survivability that you want; without giving up too many slots for offense.

__Aria__ · Aug 26, 2005, 09:51 PM // 21:51

Get rid of this warrior stuff and use something like distorsion,soothing images,sympathetic visage if you really hate warriors :P just look in illusion skills line you will find nice tools.

Hell Marauder · Aug 26, 2005, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumanis

Price of Failure: For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 1-4 Energy for each miss.
Distortion: For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to "Evade" attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 3-1 Energy or Distortion ends

Price of failure on 1 warrior is enough energy to keep distortion up against 3 warriors without loosing energy.
This can fail when the warrior you hexed runs off and attacks somebody else.
.

That's Spirit of Failure, NOT Price of Failure. Price of Failure is a necro skill, similar, but causes damage to your attacker whenever he/she misses.