Curse

Kellogs · Apr 06, 2005, 04:16 PM // 16:16

Class: Mesmer

Assumed items:
+1 to Domination Magic
+1 to Inspiration Magic

Attributes: (cost)
Fast Casting: 8 (37)
Domination Magic: 11+1 (77)
Inspiration Magic: 11+1 (77)

Total attribute points used: 191/200

Skills:
1) Backfire - (15,3,20) For 10 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell, that foe takes 119 damage.
2) Chaos Storm - (15,2,30) Create a chaos storm at target foe's location. For 10 seconds, enemies near this location suffer 12 damage each second. Chaos Storm drains 6 energy whenever it strikes a foe casting a spell.
3) Empathy - (10,2,20) For 18 seconds, whenever target foe attacks, that foe takes 25 damage.
4) Energy Drain (elite) - (5,1,20) Steal 18 energy from target foe. This is an elite skill.
5) Energy Tap - (5,3,20) Steal 13 energy from target foe.
6) Ether Feast - (5,2,8) Target foe loses 5 energy. You are healed 24 for each point of energy lost.
7) Arcane Thievery - (10,2,10) For 29 seconds, one random spell is disabled for target foe, and Arcane Thievery is replaced by that spell.
8) Signet of Humility - (0,2,20) Target touched foe's elite skill is disabled for 15 seconds.

I made this character the night before the last beta ended, so i only got to test in the gladiator's arena. Winning 8 times in a row with this in the arena allowed me to practise the skill set (but i must say the reason we kept winning was because I was in a group of 2 monks and one warrior and they kept healing :P) .

I found that this build works quite well against monks, because :
You can steal a lot of energy ( energy tap, energy drain).
Steal one skill, (arcane theivery),
Disable the elite skill (signet of humility)
Then keep attacking with chaos storm and backfire. Healing was quite good with ether feast too...

The big flaw was limited attacking options I think. So guys, criticise, praise improve... give me some comments

walder · Apr 06, 2005, 10:32 PM // 22:32

I like your build for the most part however Empathy seems a little out of place. If your going anti monk why would you need a spell to stop attacks? If your going to use Chaos Storm I would suggest getting some sort of Snare in there. You might want to bring Elementalist as your secondary to get the Water skill line in there where you can get some good movement hindering skills. Thats an interesting idea with Arcane Theivery however you might want to consider Arcane Mimicry so that you will never end up with a random not that crucial skill any Monk might be carrying. Also this will let you get rid of Signet of Humility for a more solid skill. I recommend Energy Burn because it is energy denile and damage in one. Just for reference these are my builds...

Mes/xx (I like to choose anything but Monk as to not draw unwanted attention)

13 Domination, 12 Fast Cast, 9 Inspiration

Mantra of Recovery-E
Power Spike
Energy Burn
Energy Tap
Power Leak
Backfire
Shame
Shatter Enchantment
___________________

Mes/xx

14 Domination, 11 Inspiration, 9 Fast Cast

Backfire
Energy Burn
Mind Wrack
Shatter Enchantment
Power Spike
Energy Drain-E
Power Leak
Energy Tap

These builds have some nice energy drain as well as some damage. I have to say I like the first one better because it allows Backfire to be kept on your target constantly, and you can protect it with Shame. The second build has more damage, and I was thinking about extending to 4 attributes to get Monk secondary for Smiting, but I don't think its worth it due to the fact that people like to kill Monks and I don't like more than 3 attributes for PvP.

Kellogs · Apr 06, 2005, 11:29 PM // 23:29

Thanks for the reply !
I will certainly take aboard your comments which i thought were very good. Now I have two more things to try in the BWE !

1) Take empathy out and replace arcane theivery, and the signet

2) Make another using some water skills using secondary elementalist.

Btw arcane mimicry might not be such a good idea because it doesn't actually steal the skill, it only lets you use it for 20 seconds

P.S maybe i could take out empathy, replace with energy burn, or maybe even diversion because that takes another skill out of commision for 47 seconds !

Edit: I notice your second one has mind wrack on it, does that work well in game? I haven't tried it and was wondering if it's hard to use it at the exact right time... because even if there energy is at one it means you've wasted time/energy.

Tuon · Apr 06, 2005, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHxOnfire

4) Energy Drain (elite)

that's all I needed to see.

STAMP OF APPROVAL

Pharalon · Apr 06, 2005, 11:43 PM // 23:43

If you're designated anti-monk, you really want to fit both diversion and shame onto your bar somewhere.

Kellogs · Apr 06, 2005, 11:52 PM // 23:52

O.K. Just checked out shame, it appears that I could try and drop energy tap because it gives 13 energy and shame, can give 12 if used correctly..

So if I replace empathy with diversion and energy tap with shame... with the other skills blocked off by arcane theivery and the signet of humility, looks like the monk would be pretty confused

But I would need someone like a warrior to finish them off I suppose whilst i blocked their spells, because there simply arnt enough offensive spells... I would only have backfire, and chaos storm....

[Edit] thanks for the feedback guys, am going to bed now will be interesting to read more replies tomorrow (if there are any lol)

fawgre · Apr 06, 2005, 11:54 PM // 23:54

Please don't, I couldn't bear it.

Monks have feelings, too.

walder · Apr 07, 2005, 02:15 AM // 02:15

I'm actually not that big a fan of Diversion because any decent monk will either just wait it out or use a throw away skill to get rid of the hex. Also, Diversion makes for a more defensive play where you just stall the opposing Monk instead of going for the kill. I prefer just doing the most damage because death is the best interrupt of all.

Kellogs · Apr 07, 2005, 07:29 AM // 07:29

Yeah thats a good point. When the time comes I will experiment using the following as starting points:
1) Backfire
2) Energy Drain
3) Ether Feast
4) Arcane Thievery
5) Signet of Humility

Now i know there are only three skills left here, but there are two options :
i) Go for damage dealing
In which case I would use:
Power Spike
Energy Burn
Maybe mantra of recovery (e) but then i'd have take out energy drain for energy tap

ii) Go for spells that would obstruct the monk
Shame
Diversion
Power Leak

I think both would be interesting combinations but the second one would succeed in blocking the monk. Anyway i'll definitely try these in the next BWE

Zrave · Apr 07, 2005, 12:10 PM // 12:10

Diversion is sucking right now, because energy drain is so overpowered.

You can either lock them down by draining them dry while replenishing your energy, or spend rivers of energy with diversion. Really, no contest.

Jia Xu · Apr 07, 2005, 03:58 PM // 15:58

i've used diversion in the past when a monk is frantically trying to heal in the midst of a fight - just delaying one of his skills can drop his healing per second by about 30 (divine favour is evil), which if you are trying to take him out is a nice little edge.

walder · Apr 07, 2005, 07:47 PM // 19:47

Diversion can be powerful when a Monk is losing life fast and you know they cannot afford to wait out the time. But then if a Monk is losing life that fast you might as well save your energy and just let your direct damage dealers finish the job on their own. In those situations Diversion may save a few seconds but that Monk is going down whether you help or not. Also, I prefer to use Backfire in those types of situations because if a Monk needs a heal badly they will be focusing on their health and cast right into Backfire, killing them. This way you don't even need to worry about how long their spells take to recharge.

Lazarous · Apr 07, 2005, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by walder

Diversion can be powerful when a Monk is losing life fast and you know they cannot afford to wait out the time. But then if a Monk is losing life that fast you might as well save your energy and just let your direct damage dealers finish the job on their own. In those situations Diversion may save a few seconds but that Monk is going down whether you help or not. Also, I prefer to use Backfire in those types of situations because if a Monk needs a heal badly they will be focusing on their health and cast right into Backfire, killing them. This way you don't even need to worry about how long their spells take to recharge.

Thats not necessarily true. Consider a situation where a monk is taking lots of damage but being healed for a great deal simultaneously - both by self heals and external heals. Diversion would be a wonderful skill to tip the balance in favor of the damage dealers, and since it has such a fast recycle time you can use it on multiple targets.

walder · Apr 07, 2005, 10:27 PM // 22:27

All Diversion has going for it is that it is easily spammable. This is a great quality to have but if I had Diversion and Backfire on my skill bar I would only use Diversion when Backfire was recharging. This means that right from the beginning I am limiting the use of a skill to 50% of the time. There are better skills to take that I would use more than just 50% of the battle so I tend to keep Diversion off my skill bar.

Lazarous · Apr 07, 2005, 11:19 PM // 23:19

You'd only use an easily spammable skill half the time? Shrug, play how you want but diversion is a very useful skill to have in an anti-monk.