Curse

Yaladwen · Jul 29, 2005, 04:45 PM // 16:45

Hey all, getting ready to head to the mall to buy GW tonight. Been browsing every site and forum I could find and I think I have a very indepth knowledge of the game so far, at least for someone who hasn't started in yet! Anyways, I am leaning toward a Mes/Ran. My idea is to use the ranger for maxing Beast ability for the charm & pet heal skills only. The rest can be for useful Mesmer skills. If I pump up the level of the pet will he work OK with my mesmer? I havent heard of this being done in any search I could do on the forum, so any ideas would be great, thanks!

P.S. This is my 3rd MMORPG and I have been at it for 4 years, I can't wait to delv into a game that looks THIS cool.

ComMan · Jul 29, 2005, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Do not use Beast Mastery. Search the word "pet" on the froum and see all the terrible things people say about them.

JoDiamonds · Jul 29, 2005, 06:59 PM // 18:59

Uhhh, to be a little more constructive than ComMan:

Pets are generally not very powerful, but they do help keep enemies off of your (in PvE), and if you keep your Beast Mastery high, they do meaningful damage. (With a low Beast Mastery, they really are mostly pointless.)
Mesmers are a lot of fun, but definitely trickier than some other classes to play. If you think you are up for it, go for it, but be aware from the start that they just aren't as straightforward as Warriors. Or Monk healers. Or Elementalist blasters. Or Ranger Archers. Or Necromancer Minion Masters. Or, well, nearly any class.
Mesmer can be very powerful in PvP, which many players get into later on, so it could be a fine thing to start with.
Mesmers and Rangers are the two classes that are best at messing up other characters (especially in PvP, but even in PvE, especially for stopping enemy healers). Any Me/Ra or Ra/Me is going to be good at stopping other people from accomplishing what they want to do. That's more or less the essence of the Mesmer-Ranger class combination. (This assumes you are using a bow and some interruptive skills.)
Do consider all the differences between being primary Ranger vs. primary Mesmer (not trying to sway you either way, but it is important):
- Mesmers get more energy and more energy regeneration. It's often not obvious to first time players, but getting higher maximum energy and more energy regeneration is rare, especially energy regeneration. If you are a primary ranger, you can safely expect to have 75% of the energy regeneration of a primary mesmer pretty much all of the time.
- Mesmers, however, get Inspiration, an entire attribute devoted to getting more energy. This is true even for seconary mesmers.
- Like energy, armor is pretty immutable. Rangers will almost always take less damage than mesmers. This isn't an exciting difference, but if dying frustrates you, it could be an important difference.
- You can only use runes from your primary class. Runes increase your attributes. Very few things in the game increase your attributes (besides leveling up and getting more attribute points, of course). If you expect to use more Ranger or more Mesmer attributes, this is an important consideration.
- Any plan you have now is likely to go out the window several times while playing. =) Since Guild Wars provides attribute refunds, this is ok, and you can expirement with other things. But your primary class really is forever (well, until character #2 . So make sure your primary is something you are comfortable playing with for a good long time.

Yaladwen · Jul 29, 2005, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Wow, thank you! Most recently I played an everquest enchanter, max level doing raiding. Mesmer sounds like a more in-depth enchanter, so I think this is great for me. I have never enjoyed melee..and I do enjoy pets, so I think I will give this a go. At WORST, I would have to make a new charactor, at best, I would have a blast, lets give it a whirl then.

(Too bad the pet options are soo few

)

XxArsenykxX · Jul 29, 2005, 09:01 PM // 21:01

With my charater I also decided on the Ranger Secondary, primary being Necro. I have been using a pet ever since the first Ranger mission when you have to tame the Melandru's Stalker. Now if I'm ever to go out, I can't imagine doing it without a pet. I know it's kind of strange but I feel like having it really helps me alot.

I have a high Beast Mastery so it does well, and it's a Level 20 now so it can take some damage off of me whenever I'm soloing missions or quests. The only thing I don't like about it is that it works off of AI like the Henchmen. It would be much better if you could exercise some control over it. After all I did take the time to tame it and make it my minion, why couldn't I call it back whenever it's energy gets low.

Some people think pet's are useless, but some love them. My advice is to try it for yourself, if you like it keep it, if not get rid of it.

Kishin · Jul 29, 2005, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComMan

Do not use Beast Mastery. Search the word "pet" on the froum and see all the terrible things people say about them.

Rather, do not use Beast Mastery unless you're willing to devote extreme amounts of attribute points, the kind only achievable by a Ranger primary. With decent Expertise and Ferocious Strike, BM is pretty much infinitely self sustaining.

In the case of a Mesmer, I think it would interfere too much with your...well, Mesmering. Your pet doesn't really help you shut down your opponents, and damage isn't a Mesmer's purpose (Although Burn + Surge + Shatter Enchant is certainly savage to behold at times). It just seems to pull the character in two separate directions, especially since you're not maximizing the pet's abilities by giving it skills, where its power really comes from. Furthermore, you're also weakening your Mesmer side by denying it a wider range of skills.

So in the end, I wouldn't recommend a pet on a non damage dealer.

Rajamic · Jul 30, 2005, 07:54 AM // 07:54

To do Beastmastery properly, you need to bring Charm Animal, Comfort Animal, Call of Haste, Ferocious Strike, and at least one other pet attack. Add in a res, and you've taken up 6 of your 8 skill slots. With all that, you may as well have an extremely high BM stat. Not much room left, particularly since you still don't have a self-heal or self-defense move in there yet.

Hell Marauder · Jul 30, 2005, 01:19 PM // 13:19

Beastmastery isn't working and isn't cost effective right now, but in future it may be after some changes. Right now just get a pet and level it up to lvl 20 in pve so you can always come back to play with it anytime you feel like.

ElderAtronach · Jul 30, 2005, 01:42 PM // 13:42

I would suggest against beastmastery if you're not a ranger primary. However, you can still get great mileage out of your other ranger skills. Serpent's quickness combined with the mesmer's slow-charging spells is a great combo.

Darriths Novastar · Jul 30, 2005, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yaladwen

Wow, thank you! Most recently I played an everquest enchanter, max level doing raiding. Mesmer sounds like a more in-depth enchanter, so I think this is great for me. I have never enjoyed melee..and I do enjoy pets, so I think I will give this a go. At WORST, I would have to make a new charactor, at best, I would have a blast, lets give it a whirl then.

(Too bad the pet options are soo few

)

the mesmer doesn't have the crowd control like an EQ Enchanter the only spell ive seen like that is the monk pacifism.
you could do epidemic and pacifism....if you were a me/mo

Swarnt Brightstar · Jul 30, 2005, 02:12 PM // 14:12

Hmm.... If you wanted to use a pet then I would suggest using the domination magic line to inflict damage, wouldnt really say that any other would work... Or you can go ranger primary and use apply poison, ignite arrows and/or kindle arrows then have the rest be domination magic, but no pet!

Tourist · Jul 30, 2005, 10:35 PM // 22:35

I'm dabbling with a PvE Necro/Ranger Minionmancer/Beastmaster. It's going really slow- I'm teaming up with a friend's Ranger/Necro but she isn't online very often for us to play together, so I'm still in post-searing ascalon. I'm going to focus on 3 attributes: Beast Mastery, Death Magic, and Soul Reaping as a minor secondary focus(say, level 6-8 but probably no higher). Keep mostly pet skills loaded and a couple minion skills- Bone Fiends once I can get them(those are the ranged ones, right?) and maybe something to either heal them or strengthen their damage, depending on what's handy and what I feel like using at the time.

Honestly, it's not a very serious build, DEFINITELY not a power build, and more for "well let's try something different!" purposes than anything. Besides, it's just fun watching my strider take point for an army of undead minions!

Rajamic · Jul 31, 2005, 08:42 AM // 08:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darriths Novastar

the mesmer doesn't have the crowd control like an EQ Enchanter the only spell ive seen like that is the monk pacifism.
you could do epidemic and pacifism....if you were a me/mo

Epidemic and pacifism are not compatible. Epidemic spreads conditions only, and pacifism is a hex. The only way to do what you are describing is with the elite version of Pacifism: Amity.