Curse

tarbok1 · Jan 28, 2007, 02:25 AM // 02:25

Is it possible to play a mesmer in PVE with henchmen/heroes primarily and not have difficulties? I've been experimenting with one and find that they are fairly weak in PVE and tend to die often. Yes I can shut down the mesmer/monk mobs, or do some damage to the warrior mobs when they come in but I haven't found a build that really "works" for me yet.

Any suggestions?

Redfeather1975 · Jan 28, 2007, 02:50 AM // 02:50

I have played through with henches for a number of classes.
I still play with people, but wanted to know if every area was henchable with any profession.
I've found that it is so far, and I'm sure other people would agree.
Although i imagine a mesmer would be a little more difficult.
Bosses are very easy with the right skills, but mesmers aren't designed for quick and dirty fights. It's more about being prepared with the right skill set.
I found that for trash mobs Spiritual Pain+Arcane Echo+Assassin's Promise or Glyth of Renewal was good.

Avarre · Jan 28, 2007, 06:15 AM // 06:15

It's not hard at all. Don't try to play it as shutdown, but rather as mass damage - Cry, Mistrust, Spiritual Pain, Demise, and just wreck havoc.

Redfeather1975 · Jan 28, 2007, 07:48 AM // 07:48

Yeah, the PVP mesmer mindset won't get great results in PVE.
You have to adjust and use skills differently. Like the fact that mesmer's can copy spells and their damage is armour ignoring and stuff.
There are some good skills for PVE. Let's hope they stay that way.

LightningHell · Jan 28, 2007, 11:31 AM // 11:31

In PvE, mobs aren't worth to be shut down - they get killed quickly anyway. Focus on damage.

the_jos · Jan 28, 2007, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Reconsider your play style.
I've yet to get my mesmer through a large part of Elona, but my monk is progressing steady now.
I've had difficulties with the Dzagonur Bastion mission (PuG did it), but the rest was not that hard.
Stay away from aggro and let the rest of the team do the damage.

Same goes for the mesmer.
You are not the primary damage dealer.
You should make it easier for your heroes/hench to deal damage.
Or to evade damage.
Call targets and focus on an other enemy yourself.

If you have prophecies, consider Ineptitude.
Nightfall: Signet of Clumsiness
Core: Clumsiness
The casters in PvE cast right through those.

I know, it's not the mass damage a Ele or Necro can do, but it's nice to have an enemy almost down before the rest of the team gets to focus it.

What skills are you currently using and with what attribute points?

Alex Morningstar · Jan 28, 2007, 02:49 PM // 14:49

Here is what I have been running around with lately with my nightfall mesmer after running over to LA for a few skills.

Attributes:
16 Domination (Headpiece + Sup Rune)
10 Inspiration
9 Fast Casting (minor rune)

[skill]Energy Surge[/skill][skill]Spiritual Pain[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill][skill]Arcane Echo[/skill][skill]Mistrust[/skill][skill]Chaos Storm[/skill][skill]Wastrel's Worry[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

AE either Energy Surge or Spiritual Pain, throw Chaos Storm at casters (preferrably in midcast) to disrupt and drain their energy, yes it will scatter them. Add in some Mistrust and Power Drain. Spam WW inbetween. Between me, the heros and any guildies I am with mobs don't really like this build.

GourangaPizza · Jan 28, 2007, 03:24 PM // 15:24

sorry if what I ask is off-topic, because I do not want to start a new thread for a small query. Is there any general PvE illusion builds out there? Degen skills are not working really well because most of the time things go down too soon before the degen had its full effect.

Currently I'm running:
Ineptitude [Elite]
Clumsiness
Conjure Phantasm
Arcane Conundrum
Channeling
Power Drain
Ether Feast
Res Signet

Rockby Quickfoot · Jan 28, 2007, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Here is what I do with my Mesmer in PVE. He's my main character and this has worked through all of Prophecies, Nightfall, and I'm working on Factions now. I'm a Mesmer/Monk

Empathy
Backfire
Conjure Phantasm
Energy Surge
Power Spike (I intend to replace this with Echo to Echo Lightbringer's Gaze/Energy Burn or Surge)
Energy Burn/Lightbringer's Gaze (If engaging demons in combat)
Heal Area (Quick self heal that doesn't rely on there being an enemy to target, like using Ether Feast)
Rebirth

I have 15 Domination, 11 Illusion, I think 9 Healing Prayers (enough to put Heal Area at 110 HP), 7 Fast Cast, and two leftover in Protection Prayers.

When I go into battle, if there's a cleric, I cast Backfire on him, cover it with Conjure Phantasm. Usually kills itself with it's own healing spells, Backfire does 140 damage. Empathy on warriors or dervishes. When it recharges, Backfire on any eles or other casters in the area. Energy surge and Energy Burn for quick spikes. Up till now I've used Power Spike if the opportunity presented itself, but I'm not too good at that and usually I'm too late, so changing that up for Echo is something I plan to do soon. Heal Area if you need a fast heal and Rebirth when saving the party from a near wipeout. I've saved many, many a party with Rebirth

EDIT: For the last guy who asked about Illusion Builds while I was writing my post. Generally, I've tried to use some Illusion spells and mix it up like that, and I used to be all about Illusion back in the day, but I've found Domination is just much better for slaying. It's easier to go with than Illusion since the degen is usually never realized on a monster.

Dean Harper · Jan 28, 2007, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Mesmer is not used as shutdown in PvE, it is meant to kill quickly with skills in the Domination line like Energy Surge, Empathy, Spiritual Pain, Backfire, Chaos Storm, Energy Burn, Wastrel's Worry, and Mistrust. Illusion can also work well if you focus on the skills Sig of Clumsiness, Clumsiness, Conjure Phantasm, other degen skills, and an elite like Crippling Anguish. Either way, you have to deal a good amount of damage and have at least two monk heroes or henches backed up by Ether Feast and a energy skill, one of the most popular being Leech Signet. In a sense, you need to focus on being an elementalist type damage dealer in a Mesmer's body. (Me/E with ele skills works really well too.)

P.S: How do you put skill tags in your posts?

Dean Harper · Jan 28, 2007, 07:08 PM // 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockby Quickfoot

Here is what I do with my Mesmer in PVE. He's my main character and this has worked through all of Prophecies, Nightfall, and I'm working on Factions now. I'm a Mesmer/Monk

Empathy
Backfire
Conjure Phantasm
Energy Surge
Power Spike (I intend to replace this with Echo to Echo Lightbringer's Gaze/Energy Burn or Surge)
Energy Burn/Lightbringer's Gaze (If engaging demons in combat)
Heal Area (Quick self heal that doesn't rely on there being an enemy to target, like using Ether Feast)
Rebirth

I have 15 Domination, 11 Illusion, I think 9 Healing Prayers (enough to put Heal Area at 110 HP), 7 Fast Cast, and two leftover in Protection Prayers.

When I go into battle, if there's a cleric, I cast Backfire on him, cover it with Conjure Phantasm. Usually kills itself with it's own healing spells, Backfire does 140 damage. Empathy on warriors or dervishes. When it recharges, Backfire on any eles or other casters in the area. Energy surge and Energy Burn for quick spikes. Up till now I've used Power Spike if the opportunity presented itself, but I'm not too good at that and usually I'm too late, so changing that up for Echo is something I plan to do soon. Heal Area if you need a fast heal and Rebirth when saving the party from a near wipeout. I've saved many, many a party with Rebirth

EDIT: For the last guy who asked about Illusion Builds while I was writing my post. Generally, I've tried to use some Illusion spells and mix it up like that, and I used to be all about Illusion back in the day, but I've found Domination is just much better for slaying. It's easier to go with than Illusion since the degen is usually never realized on a monster.

Just wondering, where does your energy management come from? (Take Leech Signet instead of Power Spike, you get energy from spells, and if its not a spell, you still interrupt them.)

Also, you cant Echo Esurge because they are both elite skills

And instead of Energy Burn, id suggest Spiritual Pain, it does more dmg.

Katari · Jan 28, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

Assasin's Promise
Spiritual Pain
Unatural Sig
Mistrust
Ressig/Rebirthsig
Phantom Pain
Spirtual Pain
Energy Burn, Backfire, an Interupt, whatever

16 Dom
16 Deadly

If you trust the group enough, replace PP/SD with some interupts, or some other hexes. Or if you fon't trust them, Dash/Return work well too.

Renegade26 · Jan 28, 2007, 08:29 PM // 20:29

A guildwiki development of what Katari has written, that works excelently in Nightfall: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:M...tural_Assassin.

Alex Morningstar · Jan 28, 2007, 11:29 PM // 23:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Harper

P.S: How do you put skill tags in your posts?

[ skill]Skill Name Here[ /skill]

Like that, sans the spaces inside the tags. I'm pretty sure the spelling of the skill has to be exact too.

Dean Harper · Jan 29, 2007, 03:26 AM // 03:26

i tried that and it didnt work....

Terra Xin · Jan 29, 2007, 07:44 AM // 07:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Harper

i tried that and it didnt work....

The skill names are case sensitive. So if you entered:

[skill ]energy surge[/ skill]

instead of

[skill ]Energy Surge[/ skill]

(removing the spaces in the brackets...)

then it's not going to show. This also applies to shouts... making sure you include "" tags, as well as the exclamation mark at the end... including any capitals - "Watch Yourself!" - like that.

Anyway, if PvE had more variety in how you go about killing things, rather than just click click click click = dead, then I think the Mesmer would be able to use some of their more... left out skills.

Rockby Quickfoot · Jan 29, 2007, 11:42 AM // 11:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Harper

Just wondering, where does your energy management come from? (Take Leech Signet instead of Power Spike, you get energy from spells, and if its not a spell, you still interrupt them.)

Also, you cant Echo Esurge because they are both elite skills

And instead of Energy Burn, id suggest Spiritual Pain, it does more dmg.

I have no Energy management program

I just use em sparingly at times >.> And yeah I realized what I said later and that I couldn't Echo Energy Surge.

Maca · Jan 29, 2007, 12:10 PM // 12:10

here what i was runnig last few days, pretty easy to do most of the missions in NF.Even Shiro with hero/hences allthough i used [skill]Psychic Distraction[/skill] , works great on him.
16 dom
10 insp.
9 fc.

[skill]Empathy[/skill][skill]Backfire[/skill][skill]Ether Feast[/skill][skill]Energy Surge[/skill][skill]Spiritual Pain[/skill][skill]Cry Of Frustration[/skill][skill]Guilt[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

often replace something ( cof, backfire...) with power drain, but this build is pretty easy to play and does a lot of dmg ( for mesmer:P)
about illusion your build seems pretty stanard to my knowladge, but i would replace channeling and Arcane Conundrum with something else, maybe images of remorse, its cheap skill and channeling is not really that good in pve unless you are planing to run into the mob:P

jedi mad hatter · Jan 31, 2007, 03:47 AM // 03:47

The build I normally use is similar to that, and gets the same kind of results:

[skill]Empathy[/skill][skill]Backfire[/skill][skill]Mistrust[/skill][skill]Spiritual Pain[/skill][skill]Wastrel's Demise[/skill][skill]Echo[/skill][skill]Energy Tap[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Dean Harper · Jan 31, 2007, 05:01 AM // 05:01

I use:

[skill]Echo[/skill][skill]Spiritual Pain[/skill][skill]Energy Burn[/skill][skill]Unnatural Signet[/skill][skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill][skill]Leech Signet[/skill][skill]Ether Feast[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

it works pretty well in most situations, including FoW and UW.