Curse

Yukito Kunisaki · Dec 21, 2005, 11:24 PM // 23:24

After some frustrating runs in CA and TA, I needed to deal with those VERY annoying 1s. cast time spells and still pull off a decent fight of turning people's damage to 0 and spells off for a bit... After some play testing, this came about. However, be warned, if your team doesn't work, then the build won't work AT ALL...

10+1+1 Domination
6+1 Illusion
6+1 Fast Casting
9+1 Inspiration
9 Curses

12/10/9/7/7

Yow...
Had to use careful consideration with spell atb breaking points...

Arcane Conundrum [10s. of double cast time should be plenty if it's a heated fight. 7 illusion is the breaking point]
Power Block {E}
Power Leak
Power Drain
Spirit of Failure
Enfeeble
Price of Failure
Plague Touch / Res Signet

In terms of being ease of use, this is the build to top, for me at least. After looking at other Mesmer possibilities and combinations, this is the cookie cutter build in my eyes for people having trouble mesmerizing...

...such as myself...

It is perfectly feasible to replace Power Drain with Ether Feast if you're in desperate need of healing. At 111 hp every 8s., it's an awesome heal for 5e. However, you lose a large chunk of e. management. And it kind of kills the efficiency of the build. With Arcane Conundrum, you'll want 3 interrupts minimum.

As far as strategy goes, I find that using Arcane Conundrum on any type of monk is the best bet since most of the other spell casters have longer cast times vs. a monk's 1s. barrage of protection and healing prayers.

Power Block allows 13s. of uselessness which will give you ample time to go after another caster and use your 2 other interrupts against them. You DO NOT want to use Arcane Conundrum on your Power Block victim. Why? It's wasted if you nail them and shut them out for 13s. if the Illusion only works for 10. I'd only use Arcane with Power Block out of desperation. [which happens, thankfully, not as much as I thought I would.]

So Power blocking one foe, while Arcane Conundrum + Power Leak/Drain another foe will leave both of them in the gutter substantially. You can trade in leak for spike, but this build was geared toward no damage and all disruption...

Spirit of Failure + Price of Failure + Enfeeble stack well so that the enemy is hitting only a little over half the time and when they do hit, they're doing VERY little damage...

Plague Touch and Res Sig are good options for your circumstances though I imagine everyone will want Res sig fo sh0...

Problems?

Anti-casters? Well, it depends really, YOU in essence are an anti-caster and with 3 interrupts and one spell lagger, you're very threatening on the field. Just be wary of Rangers, they'll tear you in half using Choking Gas + Tiger's Fury. Even your best interrupts won't work if you're doing situps... Hex them asap if they're distracted by teammates and life will be easier for ya.

Conditions and enemy hexes? That's a given, let your monk handle it or at the very least, Plague Touch Dazed onto an enemy caster...

Any ideas for complimentary builds to this one? I'm pretty certain I can't make this build any stronger in terms of raw disruption. [think, no damage, just make sure the foe can't do anything worth a grain of salt...]