Curse

Soul Monarch · Apr 27, 2005, 08:50 PM // 20:50

I've been creating a custom build for an Illusionary Weapons-based Mesmer/Warrior.

So, here are the current six skills I intend to use:
Illusionary Weaponry (e) - For obvious reasons.
Flurry - More damage output from IW.
Distortion - Fantastic damage reduction here, and the energy drain isn't too bad.
Bonetti's Defense - Used directly after Distortion ends to regain lost energy.
Healing Cignet - Handy skill, no energy cost. Extra useful when used with Distortion.
Illusion of Weakness - As long as it's used BEFORE a battle, it's awesome.

I need some input on what else I should pick up. I have two skill slots left, and no clue what to use. I notice that my current skill set has very low cast times, so I'm not so sure that the Fast Cast attribute is even needed as things are right now.

Please post a few suggestions for those remaining two slots, with explanations.

(I'm open to the concept of being a W/Me if someone can find a good use for Strength attribute skills. I admit, if I don't have a use for Fast Cast, being a Mesmer primary might be shooting myself in the foot.)

JeshterDaggerfury · Apr 27, 2005, 08:59 PM // 20:59

I'm not partial to caster/warrior builds. You end up with the armor of a caster, and some skills of a warrior, requiring you to be up in the monsters faces, getting ripped apart with your inferior armor. To me it just makes more sense to do it the other way around. Even if you are gonna use the same Attribute build, why not be Warrior/Mesmer just for the armor benefit. The only thing you will miss out on is not being able to cast your spells as fast.

Epinephrine · Apr 27, 2005, 09:01 PM // 21:01

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ior-id1057.php

In the above link they have virtually the same build described in the "alternate build" description, except that they use Spirit of Failure instead of Illusion of Weakness, with two illusions taking up the last two slots.(Phantom Pain and Conjure Phantasm), for added damage (after all, you have the energy to cast them).

Soul Monarch · Apr 27, 2005, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeshterDaggerfury

I'm not partial to caster/warrior builds. You end up with the armor of a caster, and some skills of a warrior, requiring you to be up in the monsters faces, getting ripped apart with your inferior armor. To me it just makes more sense to do it the other way around. Even if you are gonna use the same Attribute build, why not be Warrior/Mesmer just for the armor benefit. The only thing you will miss out on is not being able to cast your spells as fast.

I begin to think you might be correct here.

I orginally based this build off Distortion/IW to make up for the caster base weaknesses, but it might make more sense to use the Warrior base with Dist/IW to improve upon it.

But the question remains: What two skills should fill those last two slots? It can't be anything with a high cast time, or anything that eats up lots of energy. Perhaps some of those 5 energy warrior skills?

Epinephrine · Apr 28, 2005, 03:38 PM // 15:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soul Monarch

I begin to think you might be correct here.

I orginally based this build off Distortion/IW to make up for the caster base weaknesses, but it might make more sense to use the Warrior base with Dist/IW to improve upon it.

But the question remains: What two skills should fill those last two slots? It can't be anything with a high cast time, or anything that eats up lots of energy. Perhaps some of those 5 energy warrior skills?

You'll not be able to run distortion as a warrior. Better off with warrior skills to defend. One of the main advantages of going non-warrior primary for IW is that you don't need the strength ability really, as you aren't worried about armour penetration, you don't need high Sword mastery as you can do just as much damage with a 3-4 damage shortsword so you free up all the attribute points for those. You also then get more energy to use on helpful spells and such - as a warrior primary you'll be using 56% of your energy just keeping IW up (you recover 26.67 every 40 seconds, and recast IW at thos times for 15, so you net 11.67) leaving little for other skills. As a Mesmer primary you can have runes to boost your Illusions to nice high levels, and then you employ them to slow your opponent down, to add extra damage and so on. Clumsiness and Conjure Phantasm will give you an edge in combat for example, while slashing away just as well as the primary warrior would, and you can still use defensive stance and such to stay alive.

Ikurei Xerius · Apr 28, 2005, 03:44 PM // 15:44

my build is simialar to this, but i will not reveal it to others. I have found a way to practically be invincible vs anything that cant mana burn/steal.

Sarus · Apr 28, 2005, 04:11 PM // 16:11

Quote:

my build is simialar to this, but i will not reveal it to others. I have found a way to practically be invincible vs anything that cant mana burn/steal.

How about you not post then. At least do us the favor of not cluttering the forums.

As for the original IW build there are some problems. Bonnettis Defense requires adrenaline if I'm not mistaken and you don't gain adrenaline when you use IW because you aren't actually hitting your target. If you really want to take a defensive stance with you try sheild stance. It basically makes it impossible to hit you for ~15 seconds.

Back in the day when 100 blades wasn't elite I ran a beefy IW mesmer that could go toe to toe with warriors etc. Unfortuantely, the DPS of an IW mesmer is no longer that great when compared to a high DPS warrior. Therefore I think the only really viable role is as a caster killer.

In the spirit of sharing here is the "caster killer" build I used to use. I haven't played it since 2 BWE's ago so I apologize if skills were changed around since then.

--------------------------------------
Here's the Mesmer/Warrior build I'll be running after 100 blades got nerfed.

It's primary purpose is to lay the beat down on monks and casters in general. In addition, it serves as a great secondary attacker against warrior/monks due to all the interrupts (no more stupid healing signet behehe). Finally, you can single handidly take down a priest and fast as well. Simply cast arcane conundrum start whacking away with flurry going and when he tries to cast heal area interrupt him.

---- Profession ----
Primary: Mesmer
Secondary: Warrior

---- Comments ----
Primary mesmer gives you access to a plethora of interrupt skills. You won't be taking fast casting because you need to spread your points out in 3 other attribute lines. Secondary warrior gives you access to some nice unlinked skills such as flurry which increase your attack speed. For the newer people you don't want to take warrior as your primary despite the higher armor because of the heinous energy recharge and amount.

--- Attributes ---
Illusion: 12 + 3 (using a major rune)
Inspiration: 10+1
Domination: 8+1

---- Comments ----
The basic idea with attributes is to stack illusion to get the most out of your IW. With 15 Illusion you'll be doing 40+ damage PER hit. Inspiration is the next most important as you actually gain energy from that. The least important is Domination. You don't need any fast casting because all the interrupts already have super fast cast times < 1 second. I believe 1/2 to 3/4 of a second. The few spells you have that do take a little time to cast (arcane conundrum, imagined burden) don't need to go off right away. (You will usually cast arcane conundrum right before you attack)

---- Skills ----
Flurry: (Unlinked) For 5 secs increased attack rate, but you deal less damage.
Distracting Blow: (Unlinked)Disrupts targets current action and adjacent foes
Power Leak: (Domination)If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and your target loses 10-22 Energy.
Power Drain: (Inspiration) If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and you gain 1-25 Energy.
Arcane Conundrum: (Illusion) For 6-25 seconds, "spells" cast by target foe take twice as long to cast.
Imagined Burden: (Illusion) For 8-18 seconds, target foe moves 50% slower than normal.
Illusionary Weaponary: (Illusion) For 30 seconds, you deal no damage in melee, but whenever you attack in melee, target foe takes 8-34 damage

On the Fence:
Ether Feast: (Inspiration) Target foe loses 5 Energy. You are healed 8-24 for each point of Energy lost.
Illusion of Weakness: (Illusion) You lose 50-202 health. Illusion of Weakness ends if damage drops your health below 25% of your maximum. When Illusion of Weakness ends, you gain 50-202 health.
A third interrupt
Backfire
Shame

--- Comments ----
The first two warrior skills are self explanatory. Flurry allows you to hit faster which means more damage. The damage reduction doesn't apply to you because you're running an IW build Very Happy Distracting blow is for interrupting those pesky signets (signet of devotion, signet of healing).

Power leak and power drain are my interrupts of choice against spells. Both are incredibly fast (a must). Power Drain gives you ~20 energy which is huge. This is how I get energy back when I need some. WIth this spell alone I almost never ran out of energy. Power Leak takes away energy from your target so it's a double whammy. Interrupts and ruins energy management for monks.

Arcane Conundrum basically allows you to interrupt every monk healing and protection skill out there. You still have to be quick with some of the 3/4 second and 1 second casting time spells but you can definitely still get them.

Imagined Burden is for targets running away. Not only is great for you but it's great for your team. This is a must have in my opinion. Since it has a long cool down I recommend both mesmers on the team carry it.

Illusionary Weaponry .... duhhhh

My two on the fence skills both have to do with healing. I've found that Ether feast doesn't really help in an emergency. The casting time is just too long which makes you incredibly vulnerable to warriors chasing you. I haven't tested it but Illusion of Weakness looks real promising. In addition you can cast it over your IW and if you get your enchatment removed only the Illusion of Weakness will come off. (Obviously not the case with Rend or the other mass enchatment removals that I don't know about).

MuGz · Apr 28, 2005, 05:01 PM // 17:01

The IW build at first seems crazy wicked! The lack of defense at first seems the only obstacle.. I've made builds of IW that contained IW & 7 other defensive spells and have been a force to reckon with in PvP. However and there is a huge however...

Once people get used to IW builds the outcome is always the same. Strip enchantment, shatter enchantment, Drain enchantment, explode enchantment and any other enchantment destroying skill there is!

Why can one skill do so much damage to this build? Well, most IW builds have at least 4 skills centered around Illusionary Weaponry! Such skills as IW, Bonetties Defense, Healing Signet and another stance. If you attack me the second I see the glowing pink ghost sword emote, I'm going to cast a strip enchantment.

Now your toast for 30 seconds while you wait for IW to recharge. You may have a few other mesmer skills with you to help you out in situations such as these like Conjure Phantasm or Clumsiness. These are great Illusion skills but we come to our second problem. During the 30 seconds your waiting for IW to recharge you will want to have 15 energy set aside to recast it the second it's available. You will also likely be getting an azz whoppin while you run around like a freak waiting for IW to recharge as well. During this time you may need to cast a few of those defensive stances. So how often you'll be able to cast Conjure Phantasm and/or Clumsiness is going to be far and few between.

So what does this all mean? I dunno, but I can tell you that as time goes on and more and more people see IW builds in GvG or the tombs the more likely it will be that they will counter you with an enchantment removal spell. As I have laid out an IW build put in this situation can be pretty damn boring and non effective.

In My Opinion....

MuGz

Soul Monarch · Apr 28, 2005, 05:10 PM // 17:10

In truth, my wish to use the IW build is mainly centered around wanting to make use of Distortion for a Me/W. But just came across this on the skills listing:

Distortion - Stance
For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to "Evade" attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 3-1 Energy or Mantra of Distortion ends.

5 seconds? When did that happen? Last time I had a chance to use Distortion it was a perma-stance.

If it's only 5 seconds it basically takes away any reason I had to use it.

Vindexus · Apr 28, 2005, 05:12 PM // 17:12

Enchantment removal would be a big problem in PUGs and arenas, but if you're on a set team using IW, try to bring Vigorous Spirit, not as big a deal if that gets shattered.

I would recommend bring Imagined Burden, Monks like to run.

shalafifred · Apr 28, 2005, 05:19 PM // 17:19

in beta i played a IW build, and im working to now in the game, i love it

Illusion 12+4
Domination 10+1
Fast Casting 8+1

i use
ilusionary weaponry - at 16 illusion does 43
distortion - at 16 illusion you lose no energy when you do it
blackout - all targets skills are disabled for 6 seconds, yours are disabled for 5 seconds
flurry - attack faster, 33% i believe
channeling - just an enchantment to cover up IW
imagined burden - target is slowed 50% for like 20 seconds
sprint - extra speed is always nice

i would cast IW, then channeling, then flurry/ or distortion, then blackout
then repeat flurry/ or distortinon, then blackout

MuGz · Apr 28, 2005, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Yes Distortion got NERFED hard. In it's current state I find distortion to be one of the worst mesmer spells. 5 secs is nothing, I can run and dodge attacks better for 5 secs. And then on top of that you hit for energy everytime it succeeds HAHAHHA.

Yes, Imagined burden is a nice skill but with an IW build? Nope! It's simply not economical to use a skill that costs 15 energy and slows people down with this build. If your using Imagine Burden then it means your using one less defensive skill for twice the energy cost. Defense is not as much an issue with other builds but if your in the middle of a battle your done for unless your stacked to the teeth with defense.

Channeling, good cover up on the IW... That could work! But how long does channeling last for?

Vigorous Spirit, good suggestion. However most IW builds are Me/Wo or Wo/Me! In that case a monk enchantment does not help so much!

Soul Monarch · Apr 28, 2005, 05:55 PM // 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuGz

Yes Distortion got NERFED hard. In it's current state I find distortion to be one of the worst mesmer spells. 5 secs is nothing, I can run and dodge attacks better for 5 secs. And then on top of that you hit for energy everytime it succeeds HAHAHHA.

Well, crap. Did that get nerfed last Beta, or on release?

If distortion is nerfed, I'm not sure that the IW build is effective for me anymore. It was the combo of those two skills together that made it so useful for me in the previous BWEs.

Now, I admit, it has 5 second duration and a 5 second recharge. Seeing as it supposedly has a null-cast time, maybe it will still be okay. I didn't get much chance to play last evening, but I've got the quest that will give me the ability.

Soon as I get home I'll try it out and see if it can still be made useful. If all else fails I could always recreate my old Me/N build.

MuGz · Apr 28, 2005, 06:06 PM // 18:06

screw distortion it sucks...

You would be better off taking warrior for your second profession and using tactic stances.. like e.g. Bonetti's Defense, Defensive Stance, Disciplined Stance, Healing Signet, Shield Stance, Wary Stance....

Crito · Apr 28, 2005, 06:40 PM // 18:40

if your going to play the warrior have a speed buff or a crippling attack. Running will waste your valuble time, and its true that monks often run.

Mavric · Apr 28, 2005, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Slightly offtopic, anyone know where to get IW now? I went to ToA and there is no trainer there.

Sarus · Apr 28, 2005, 08:45 PM // 20:45

Quote:

screw distortion it sucks...
You would be better off taking warrior for your second profession and using tactic stances.. like e.g. Bonetti's Defense, Defensive Stance, Disciplined Stance, Healing Signet, Shield Stance, Wary Stance....

Bonetti's Defense is an adrenaline based skill which means it is practically useless on an IW build. IW does not count as a hit and thus does not give you adrenaline. You might as well bring unatural signet with you. =/

Quote:

Channeling, good cover up on the IW... That could work! But how long does channeling last for?

Channeling lasts for 46 seconds at 12 inspiration. So yes ... if you must have a coverup for your IW then it's pretty good. That being said if you must have a cover up probably better to use:
Illusion of Weakness - Enchantment Spell
You lose 50-202 health. Illusion of Weakness ends if damage drops your health below 25% of your maximum. When Illusion of Weakness ends, you gain 50-202 health.
The key thing here is you get the health even if the enchantment is stripped. Personally though I woulnd't use a coverup at all. Its one less "good" skill on your bar, plus you waste time casting it AFTER your IW is up which means less time whacking your target. Finally, (see below) nobody is going to strip your IW in tombs or GvG (no good team that is).

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Yes, Imagined burden is a nice skill but with an IW build? Nope! It's simply not economical to use a skill that costs 15 energy and slows people down with this build. If your using Imagine Burden then it means your using one less defensive skill for twice the energy cost. Defense is not as much an issue with other builds but if your in the middle of a battle your done for unless your stacked to the teeth with defense.

I don't know where you normally play but it sounds like you don't get to play on good teams very often. If you are playing as an IW mesmer you should NOT be worrying about defense. To begin with no good team is going to focus fire you from the start. Monks will always be the first target when you are playing a competant team. Therefore, you don't need defense. If you ever do get focused fire it means your monks aren't getting focused and they can heal you. If your monks are dead well you lost anyway so what's the point of being able to drag it out? Every defensive skill you have just means you are using one less offensive skill (which includes interrupts). If you want to tank, play a warrior. IW mesmers should be built to inflict as much damage as possible in as short a time as possible. You basically have a 30 second window to hit something hard and take it down or you're not going to take it down at all. IW's are good at taking down the off monk (i.e., the monk not been targeted by the rest of your team). With the mesmer interrupts you can keep the monk from healing themselves and because IW doesn't need to hit to do damage using things like shield stance, watch yourself, and other basic monk defense skills won't help. Also, a snare is a must unless someone else on your team can pin down or do it for you. If you don't have a snare the monk will just run and you will never kill them before your IW runs out.

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Once people get used to IW builds the outcome is always the same. Strip enchantment, shatter enchantment, Drain enchantment, explode enchantment and any other enchantment destroying skill there is!

This is really only applicable in an arena type setting. In tombs or GvG nobody is going to waste a render enchantments on you. Rends will be saved for the focused target. As for shatter enchantment and those other single enchantment removal skills nobody uses those anyway. Of course I have to reiterate here that we're talking about playing in tombs or GvG. You might run across shatter enchatment in arena but that's to be expected ... people do crazy things in the arena.

MuGz · Apr 28, 2005, 10:03 PM // 22:03

Quote:

Bonetti's Defense is an adrenaline based skill which means it is practically useless on an IW build. IW does not count as a hit and thus does not give you adrenaline. You might as well bring unnatural signet with you. =/

I realize this... However at the same time I found as I played a Me/Wo that once IW ran out I had 10 sec before I could recast it... in that time I found that I was still engaged in melee combat which allowed me to either heal or cast CP. Either way with the few hits I got in I earned enough adrenaline to cast bonnettie's... In fact "Spooky's Illusionary Build" located under "In-Depth" Build section of this site even recommends it. So no, I don't think I'd bring Unnatural signet pffft...

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I don't know where you normally play but it sounds like you don't get to play on good teams very often. If you are playing as an IW mesmer you should NOT be worrying about defense. To begin with no good team is going to focus fire you from the start. Monks will always be the first target when you are playing a competant team. Therefore, you don't need defense. If you ever do get focused fire it means your monks aren't getting focused and they can heal you. If your monks are dead well you lost anyway so what's the point of being able to drag it out? Every defensive skill you have just means you are using one less offensive skill (which includes interrupts). If you want to tank, play a warrior. IW mesmers should be built to inflict as much damage as possible in as short a time as possible. You basically have a 30 second window to hit something hard and take it down or you're not going to take it down at all. IW's are good at taking down the off monk (i.e., the monk not been targeted by the rest of your team). With the mesmer interrupts you can keep the monk from healing themselves and because IW doesn't need to hit to do damage using things like shield stance, watch yourself, and other basic monk defense skills won't help. Also, a snare is a must unless someone else on your team can pin down or do it for you. If you don't have a snare the monk will just run and you will never kill them before your IW runs out.

Ok, there's so much wrong with that statement I don't know where to begin... I have played against many good teams in the tomb and GvG don't be so ignorant. Nobody will worry about me because they will target monks first? True most groups will target a monk first and try to take them out. However some monks are on teams to be a decoy! In such cases teams will split and take out caster second. Mesmer primary can be a caster. "Nobody will waste an enchantment removal on you"? Do you play this game? Or am I the unluckiest guy on earth as the enemy always casts it on me. I don't need defense because I got monks on my team? Right, I guess I shouldn't need offense either seeing as how I got Warriors on my team as well?

Sarus · Apr 29, 2005, 01:35 AM // 01:35

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I have played against many good teams in the tomb and GvG don't be so ignorant

I don't doubt that you have played against good teams in tombs and GvG but what I'm curious about it whether or not you have ever played ON a good team. When I say good team I should probably be more specific. Have you ever played a good team that was designed as an 8 man build? Not just 8 good players that are playing whatever they feel like. I'm not trying to be an ass or anything but there's a big difference. A good 8 man build with an IW should be designed in such a way as to allow the IW to not need to carry defensive skills. IW is about offense. Your monks should be able to keep you alive without you having to rely on carrying 7 defensive skills.

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The IW build at first seems crazy wicked! The lack of defense at first seems the only obstacle.. I've made builds of IW that contained IW & 7 other defensive spells and have been a force to reckon with in PvP.

Don't you think 7 defensive spells is a little much?? I'm assuming you mispoke because every IW build will have at least flurry to increase attack speed. Even then 6 defensive spells? Why? So you can stand around the battlefield longer and do nothing? I don't get it but maybe it's my ignorance.

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True most groups will target a monk first and try to take them out. However some monks are on teams to be a decoy! In such cases teams will split and take out caster second. Mesmer primary can be a caster.

I'm a little confused by this statement. When you say many teams have monk decoys I assume you mean secondary monks that don't do healing? Or do you mean primary monks that don't do healing? In any case that shouldn't matter. Instead of saying monk I'll say healer. You should alway go after the healers first. You are a Mesmer/Warrior so nobody is going to confuse you for a healer. Therefore, you should never be the primary focus of a good team until your healers are dead. If your healers are dead your team probably lost anyway so what's the point of having a ton of defensive stances ... so you can stay alive longer and just drag out the inevitable? That's not to say you won't get focused first. I'm sure there are teams out there that just randomly attack whatever target is wearing green, but then who cares? Like I said before, if you're getting focused then your monks are free to heal you. Furthermore, if a team decides to attack the guy wearing green before they go after the healers they shouldn't be able to beat you in the first place so you're golden either way.

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"Nobody will waste an enchantment removal on you"? Do you play this game? Or am I the unluckiest guy on earth as the enemy always casts it on me.

Honestly ... you're the unluckiest guy on earth. I played an IW mesmer for 2.5 BWE's during which time I played hundreds of tombs matches. I can count the number of times that a team would strip my IW on one hand. I'm not exaggerating either. Let me try to explain why you won't encounter single enchantment removal very often.

Lets take a look at shatter enchantment. Shatter enchantment removes one enchantment on the target. It costs 15 energy and has a 25 second recharge cycle. This seems hardly productive. Most monk enchantments cost 10 energy or less. On top of that monks will be carrying many enchantments so if you strip one they'll just put up 2 others. That means you're spending 5 more energy than the enchantment cost to remove it and once it's removed you can't remove anything for 25 seconds. It's kind of like taking 2 steps forward and then 3 steps backwards over and over. You're never going to make much progress. Now the argument is that IW is worth removing with shatter enchantment and well ... it is. But not many people are going to bring along a single enchantment removal skill just to counter an IW mesmer who probably covered up their IW anyway. So the conclusion is that single skill enchantment removal isn't that good and most people aren't going to be using it. I can't really explain why you were always getting stripped.

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Either way with the few hits I got in I earned enough adrenaline to cast bonnettie's... In fact "Spooky's Illusionary Build" located under "In-Depth" Build section of this site even recommends it. So no, I don't think I'd bring Unnatural signet pffft...

No offense to Spooky but just because Spooky has it in his build doesn't mean it's a good skill to bring. You're gonna have to give a better argument than "Spooky said so." I still wouldn't bring bonetti's defense for the following reasons. It's adrenaline based so you won't be able to use it in the first 30 seconds when you're attacking. A good IW will have an enchantment duration increasing sword. As a result, you're probably gonna have your IW up for 36 seconds (I beleive 20% increase is the highest, could be wrong there though). That means you only have 4 seconds to get 8 adrenaline which just isn't going to happen. SInce you probably won't have 12 tactics bonetti's will only last ~8 seconds which isn't a long time. The whole point of a defensive stance is to use it in extreme emergencies only. Thus you want something that lasts a little longer (sheild stance for example). Finally, as a general argument against using stances at all, if you're in one of the defensive stances it means you aren't using flurry. As an IW mesmer you should have flurry going as close to 100% of the time as possible. Without flurry going your DPS takes quite a hit and like I said before an IW build is an offensive build, not a tank.

Soul Monarch · Apr 29, 2005, 04:39 PM // 16:39

I must be fair, Sarus is right on a very large number of these points.

IW builds really do not suffer from enchantment breaking. Having played Mesmer in every BWE but the last one (which I was out of town for) I haven't ever noticed people carrying around anti-enchant skills just for IW's. A few people will put on hex or enchant breakers, but that's normal. All part of the rock-paper-scissors aspect of the game.

At the same time, that's all the more reason NOT to bring a full set of defensive skills. While you should worry about IW getting broken every time, it will happen occasionally. It's best to have a few decent replacement skills. Now, with the Distortion nerf to 5 seconds only, that complaicates things. Distortion used to be a prime ability for use with IW. The energy drain limited it usefulness while casting, but made it reasonably effective for melee. Now that it only lasts five seconds... well, there are warrior skills that have the same effect and don't drain my energy as much. If you can rely on healing support, it's still viable to sprint in and take down the nearest caster even without those defense skills though.

As for Bonnetti's Defense: This is a perfectly viable skill assuming you have points in tactics. An Illusionary Warrior really doesn't need any points into Swordsmanship, as all the damage comes from the points you've put into Illusion. My orginal intention was to specialize in Illusion, Tactics, and Fast Cast. Although with the most recent build an I may actually consider using Inspiration or Domination over Fast Cast.

The adrenaline requirement for Bonnetti's defense can be built up in almost no time at all, and will most likely be accomplished entirely by accident. (Alternatively, you could spend one of your skill slots for one of the adrenaline charging skills.)

I don't believe all offense is the key, as I have found that a lot of people head straight for the Mesmer. But at the same time, all defense will limit your adaptability just as badly by preparing for something that might never come.