Curse

octaviancmb · Jun 18, 2006, 10:23 PM // 22:23

The best advice I can offer any Mesmer is this: know thy enemy. A Mesmer who comes prepped for what he or she is about to face will win.

Mantras: Mantras are often overlooked (for good reasons in PvP), but in PvE they can mean the difference between "p4wning" and being "0wn3d." Know thy enemy. If the zone uses a predominant flavor of energy damage, take the appropriate Mantra for that energy-type. The Inspiration line is your friend. Know it. Use it well.
Hexes or Enchantments? Will your foes be throwing hexes like mad fiends (Sorrows Furnace, for instance) or will they be armed with vastly annoying enchantments (certain Monk bosses come to mind)? Know thy enemy. Both Domination and Inspiration have tools to make your enemies cry if they use hexes and/or enchantments. Domination's tools kill. Inspiration's tools get you energy (and depending on your secondary, perhaps even a useful skill, too).
Melee vs Magic: What's the breakdown of melee vs spellcasting mobs in the area you're about to enter? Know thy enemy, and let your group know what you're taking. A single Mesmer can shut down an entire army of Warriors or singlehandedly slaughter enemy casters one after the other. You'll often have trouble trying to do both, but you'll never have to lose sleep over it. Why? You know thy enemy.

Each zone has different flavors to it -- and for this reason it's very difficult to provide a general Mesmer build that will always maximize your survival -- we aren't like Sword Warriors who can go through virtually the whole of Tyria with a single build. (Although as several posters have pointed out, things like Distortion certainly help.) But if you know thy enemy, things suddenly become much easier. Plan to embrace a changing build. This is key.

Hemophiliac · Jun 20, 2006, 08:57 PM // 20:57

I'm planning on doing the same thing with my mesmer (full survivor title). Starting in Cantha and once I get to the main land going to Tyria and getting run to the desert, ascending and will be joining 2 man smite runs with my guildies (hopefully). Will be able to be a full rezer (rebirth-vengeance) and can run the visagse (both) for the necro (letting them focus on more curses or blood damage), plus do so other damage......scrolls FTW!

RYCHER969 · Jun 21, 2006, 06:17 AM // 06:17

MESMERS OWN ALL!!!!!!!!!!

I have play my mesmer and ONLY a mesmer for over a year. Never had any desire to go any other way.

My only advice is that you CAN make a balanced build anti caster+ anti melee. When I 1st started playing, all the advice I got was that you needed to go one or the other, not true. You can also distribute atts. in 4 catagories. Fast cast rarely goes above 8 (pve). Chose a main skill or 2 and max that att. Distribute rest to others. If you have just 1 skill of any type, omit it so you can bolster the other 7.

You can run the simplest build and own a quest etc. Ie: backfire+ empathy+ conj phant+ power spike+ power drain+ ether feast+ energy tap+ shatter hex/inspire hex or shatter ench etc.

That is a pretty powerful, albeit simple build, but u have covered ALL bases: casters: mellee; self heal; energy managment.

I am not a big fan of combos etc ( blind + spirit of failure). I have NEVER used blackout , as I feel it should be renamed copp out.

Most players STILL under estimate mesmers......till they meet me

Nothing like being in a PUG when YOU are owning most foes and the empty-shelled warr. thinks he is uber tank, meanwhile you are the one controlling the front lines via clumsiness and interupts...lol

If you want to hook up, my ign= cpt. spalding

ThePadawan · Jun 21, 2006, 06:51 AM // 06:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by RYCHER969

Most players STILL under estimate mesmers......till they meet me

Nothing like being in a PUG when YOU are owning most foes and the empty-shelled warr. thinks he is uber tank, meanwhile you are the one controlling the front lines via clumsiness and interupts...lol

omg u r liek rly uber plz teach meh ur skilz thx ^_____^

Now really, just because Mesmers have been under appreciated doesn't mean that they deserve to be treated like kings all of a sudden. If this was the attitude of the average mesmer in a PUG, I'd never invite one, and I would definately overlook any Mesmer that advertises himself on Local Chat as "teh pwnage pwner" from my party. :]

bobrath · Jun 21, 2006, 08:41 PM // 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by frickaline

Ahhh good old HC D2. Chicken was for sissys.

I always got a kick out of the Chicken Check. Aggro everyone and see who leaves within 5 secs. The good old days. Still have my 89 plague/lfzon hanging around. Good times.

Braggi · Jun 22, 2006, 06:59 PM // 18:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainRansom

I'm not looking for any specific uber one-build-to-rule-them-all or anything... just some general advice from other Mesmers who have made the attempt, or Mesmers who have succeeded to the top. What did you do? General playstyle? When to hench, when to PuG, when to blackmail guildies? I'm probably dumb for trying this with a Mesmer, especially when I haven't played one in a very long time - but hey, why not? Nothing forces "Learn2play" faster than the complete terror of not dying - ever - or I start from scratch.

Enough rambling from me - what say the rest of you?

Although the OP shelved his ambition

the topic is still alive. I don't think trying with a Mesmer being stupid; on the contrary. After I noticed that my messmer plays really cautious (without good selfheal) and rarely dies, I gave it a try. - sidenote: my W/Ne is tougher and has lots of heals, but eventually falls victim of the "just one more enemy"-syndrom -

If you really, really want the title, avoid PUGs like the plague (literally, too much degen is bad for Me

). If you feel social, start your own group to keep control. Don't accept blind invites, ever. Leave your guildies alone until some late missions, its your ambition, not theirs

I play in tyria without my main's wallet, so I have to take skills as they appear. Phantasm is your friend - good, unconditional damage early, moderate cooldown, allows you to kite. Other damage sources are mostly situational from domination, with the odd points going to inspiration or fast cast. Found some uses for wastrel's worry, otherwise the usual suspects.

Monk secondary (multy ressurection) and wish I had taken Necro (both blood and curses have a nice arsenal of damage/selfheal combinations). On the other hand that way it doesn't matter if every single henchman drops to buy you time.

Use full parties unless you can murder the mobs anyway. No heal means even light damage eventually accumulates to threatening heigths and downtime. Apart from a buffer (less damage, more time to select the most dangerous or annoying enemy first) a party also provides unconditional damage, sth a messmer lacks.

Remember to not hand in quests while the grinding is good (similar like for leveling high in pre searing) unless you absolutely need the reward.

Braggi · Jun 23, 2006, 06:20 AM // 06:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobrath

I always got a kick out of the Chicken Check. Aggro everyone and see who leaves within 5 secs. The good old days. Still have my 89 plague/lfzon hanging around. Good times.

I don't know D2 HC and the battlenet good enough. With Sacred HC the point was that everybody there was hardcore. That weeded out the dumb ones really fast. A big difference in attitude and playstyle between HC and SC servers. That -to me - was the advantage of HC.

The survivor title in GW is therefore problem ridden. You may be cautious and careful, but there is no mechanism to assure your fellow players are the same.

About "learning better/ faster" when pursuing the survivor title - I doubt it. You become risk averse. You don't walk the edge. You rarely try out new things.

Avarre · Jun 23, 2006, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Avarre has 6000~ deaths, from testing farming builds and farming, pvp, etc. Survivor that

What I found from d2 HC is people work together a little more compared to normal, where you just biltz until the enemy dies. PvP in HC is still awesome, though.

Undead Preacher · Jun 23, 2006, 06:55 AM // 06:55

I hate that title.. why go through the game playing like a scared little girl?

Avarre · Jun 23, 2006, 07:02 AM // 07:02

The IDEA is similar to the D2HC function... (at least for those that played it without chickenmode)... that you play through the game normally, you are just so hardcore you cannot die.

Unfortuneately people get powerlevels and survive by hiding

Braggi · Jun 23, 2006, 08:15 AM // 08:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

What I found from d2 HC is people work together a little more compared to normal, where you just biltz until the enemy dies.

---

The IDEA is similar to the D2HC function... (at least for those that played it without chickenmode)... that you play through the game normally, you are just so hardcore you cannot die.

Unfortuneately people get powerlevels and survive by hiding

Maybe that is the solution - we suggest to ANet to create an international survivor district for starters. You can only enter with 0 deaths...
Talk about bragging rights

- and that way sportsmen can find themselfs more easily.

Avarre · Jun 23, 2006, 08:18 AM // 08:18

Problem is because GW is team based - in d2, you can solo anything, so dying is your own fault. In GW, it's based on the composition of your team and their actions as well. So its a flawed title since it's not fully in your control unless you hide on the other side of the screen.

Braggi · Jun 23, 2006, 01:46 PM // 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

Problem is because GW is team based - in d2, you can solo anything, so dying is your own fault.

In Sacred you could Solo anything as well, and to level up/ for ladderruns powerplayers prefered to Solo (better EXP/time, as killspeed gains didn't offset EXP-sharing). But the difference between Hard- and Softcore Servers was noticable.

After the chaff was sorted out, hardcore players were way more helpful and friendly, and everybody was in the same survival mode. And players liked to party and socialize - its multiplayer after all.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jun 25, 2006, 07:54 AM // 07:54

If only GvG could be determined by 1-1 duels...

Lets Get to Healing · Jun 25, 2006, 09:01 AM // 09:01

Take a gander at illusion and inspiration, Youll need heals, and blocking/evading/ GL fellow mesmer

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jun 25, 2006, 12:51 PM // 12:51

Hehe the closest I made in gvg for a "kill as many guys as you can" build was
Energy Drain
Energy Tap
Ether Feast
Inspired hex (res sig for arenas etc.)
Vamp Gaze
Shadow Strike
Physical Resistence

...but this build was made back when energy tap and drain were not nerfed; was wicked cool back then heh. Still alright more of an "old school" build than anything, can take out the lord, archers, warriors, and henchies solo which is not saying much but saying that it can is satisfying.

Record was 4 guys...3 of them were wammos so they don't count.

Avarre · Jun 25, 2006, 01:01 PM // 13:01

I cannot see that build killing a real warrior in 100 years. Though mobs hardly count as that, so maybe.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jun 25, 2006, 01:35 PM // 13:35

Haha Avarre this build was back when the taps weren't nerfed, no one really knew how to play a warrior and elite skills in general were somewhat rare.

Sup runes, no any rune went for 75k+...back in the day.

Avarre · Jun 25, 2006, 02:03 PM // 14:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaimirth Etaivella

Haha Avarre this build was back when the taps weren't nerfed, no one really knew how to play a warrior and elite skills in general were somewhat rare.

Sup runes, no any rune went for 75k+...back in the day.

Haha Eaimirth, that's why I said it had no chance of killing a REAL warrior.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jun 25, 2006, 02:22 PM // 14:22

Of course; in all validity no build should be able to win in a 2-1 scenario where as both of the opposers are somewhat skilled.
They were real back then =p...compared to the Iway warriors, todays warriors and the "gale warriors" they are very lacking.
More or less that somewhat explains the build I posted; do I still run it sometimes; yes. Does it still clear up RA;yes. Is it a great build;no. I use it because I enjoy the oldschool feel of it, it was the first build that I had any wonderous success with. Just a jack of all trades build that can handle a wide variety of scenarios and do exceptionally well in none of them. Ironic that I choose not to use my iconic powerblock in every build I use, as many would suspect. It was my first "build" and I still enjoy enjoy using it.

So of course it cannot handle a "REAL warrior" but by the same tokin the real warrior cannot kill a "REAL mesmer" either, and in fact, nothing can.