Curse

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jul 08, 2006, 09:15 PM // 21:15

First off...
Healing breeze; basic overview
Pros
-Heal over time; more of an advance "I/target will be hit for a few points over time and it will reduce pressure on our team" spell
-Can target any friendly target for a decent amount of non-situational healing power
Downfalls
-Enchantment; can be stripped, or more importantly shattered
-If a target needs health, it most often needs it sooner rather than later
-Expensive
-Does not stack with other healing breeze
-Regen cannot exceed 10

Healing is most often left to either monks or elementalists in my experience (I lack extensive factions experience, rits may help fill a void in this roll). This is because most healing spells are very quick to cast (1/4-1 second) and have quick recharge times. Due to this; fast casting is of little benefit when compared to healing efficency and heal capacity. Monks benefit from divine boon and divine favor, getting more "bang" for the buck in terms of magic point usage. The ability to spend 5-7mp and heal for over 200 hp in 1/4 of a second is of a great "boon" to monks and when compared to the mesmer's healing power the next closest thing would be a fast cast word of healing; which becomes situational and still lacks the efficiency of the heal (and most importantly is elite). Elementalists fill this void with quanity, not quality as the monks did. With ether prodigy they can spam heal party, heal other, dwana's kiss or whatever other healing spell you choose to spam indefinatly. So although a mesmer could get the heals off twice as quickly as the elementalist, the elementalist would have twice as many heals to begin with, and 2.5x as many when mana reserves are depleted.

Now onto inspiration ether feast vs healing breeze as a self heal
Ether Feast
-2 second cast time (ok...due to fc; add 40% fc gear and you won't notice)
-Drains 3 energy
--target down 3 (good)
--target must have 3 (bad)
---target almost always has 3 (good)
-heals 41xenergy points lost (3)
-is inspiration magic (determining factor)
-5 energy (icing)

Healing Breeze
-Regen 7 for 10-12 seconds (meh regen 140-154)
-all of the stuff posted above

In short ether feast is "better" since it is inspiration magic (basically the determining factor) and its lessor energy cost. It heals for more at rank 12; and it is often(always...) higher rank due to mesmer runes.

Francis Demeules · Jul 08, 2006, 09:46 PM // 21:46

A Ritualist can do like 100 to 500 Healing Party by killing his spirits and cast it quickly. The things is, he must recasts all his spirits (3-5 sec each spirit). They have Recuperation fo a Mending+3 to all allies in spirit's range and more.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jul 08, 2006, 09:50 PM // 21:50

So elementalists still rule in terms of spam heals? Or have the rits taken that title?

Phoenix Denfer · Jul 08, 2006, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Eaimirth, thank you again for taking the time to explain your view. I will definately keep this in mind with my mesmer and rethink ether again.

I have also considered going rit secondary after I get through the first two canthan coop missions. Basicly, I'm bored with monk secondary. It seems the only purpose is for the hard rez and everyone and their brother has it as a secondary. (oh and to solo hydras.

)

Good thoughts to consider.

Francis Demeules · Jul 08, 2006, 10:22 PM // 22:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaimirth Etaivella

So elementalists still rule in terms of spam heals? Or have the rits taken that title?

Take charge about Feast of Souls. A non-elite spell which require to destroy any ally spirit nearby (including Ranger spirits)
If they spam 1 spirits, they can easely destroy it for approx 100 HP (97 at lvl 14 spawning Power which I am now). While under Ritual Lord (Reduce the recharge time of Binding Ritual by a %), which its a instant SKILL and not an enchantment, they can spam spirits more often and Sac for full Health Party.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jul 09, 2006, 04:05 AM // 04:05

So...is that a yes?

Ohh and no problem ^_~; /mo is perfered because mesmers typically have everything in their primary.

Francis Demeules · Jul 09, 2006, 12:11 PM // 12:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaimirth Etaivella

So...is that a yes?

Ohh and no problem ^_~; /mo is perfered because mesmers typically have everything in their primary.

I can say its a yes until stop spamming spirits

Since Faction. /Mo have a new rez skill that I like sooooo much with Fast casting: Resurrection Chant. Its like 10 sec to cast. But with FC, its less than that

Avarre · Jul 09, 2006, 12:35 PM // 12:35

Res chant is 8 seconds, but gives the ress'ed person your current hp% and x% energy. Nice spell (though the 1/2 cast range makes getting tanks up risky).

Eaimirth, eles are still the lords of spam heal with HP and Extinguish (remove 1 condition from all party members). Rits tend to be spamming spirits (you want the spirits up for their effect, not to just kill them for the enemy..), necros with SR occasionally have HP/Ext as well but can't match prodigy.

As for previous... feast > breeze hands down (as selfheal on mes), no contest. Instant heal + low cost + mesmer attribute win the day.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Jul 09, 2006, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Think my tell of pro/cons was a bit more descriptive; but basically because it is inspiration magic is why it is the better of the two spells. If it cost 10 energy; and was heal over time, I would still take it over breeze simply due to its attribute.

Good to know elementalists still have a purpose in life.

zeroxy · Jul 10, 2006, 05:54 PM // 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

To finish your build more.. what I run is;

Images of Remorse
Conjure Phantasm
Energy Drain
Mantra of Persistance
Drain Enchant
Spirit of Failure
Distortion/interrupt/etherfeast
Res Sig

16 illu
10 insp
10 fc

In General PvEing (Missions, FoW, Urgoz etc..)
Would rez signet be a better choice or res chant?

Btw what's wrong with energy tap?

Robin_Anadri · Jul 11, 2006, 12:18 AM // 00:18

Althought the healing and res discussions are useful, I'm not quite sure we're helping the OP with their Illusion magic question....

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeroxy

In General PvEing (Missions, FoW, Urgoz etc..)
Would rez signet be a better choice or res chant?

Btw what's wrong with energy tap?

IMHO, a hard res > res sig *always* in PVE, even Rebirth. That wasn't so much true in the betas before they changed the mechanics of res sig (it used to recharge after you got a certain amount of XP, not just on morale boosts.)

I'm quite fond of res chant because you bring your target up at (usually) full health with no skill disable. The half range is dangerous, but I look at it as being like a better, partially ranged Restore Life.

Otherwise, I'd go Me/Rt and bring Flesh of My Flesh, due to the short cast time and full range. If you've got the skill slot free, Generous Was Tsungrai (or however you spell it) is a handy synergy for that one as well as providing some decent self heal in non-rez situations.

I'm a grudging convert to Ether Feast for self heal, I was an HB Me/Mo for the longest time because I liked being able to throw a breeze on team members in trouble to back up the monk, but the points have been pretty clearly made. Being Insp, an instant heal and only 5 en plus bonus (tiny) edenial... it wins.

I *like* Energy Tap. I tend to bring it right next to Ether Feast, usually.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

Factions has made Illusion magic a pure joy for PvE *and* PvP. Two builds you may want to look at are the Me/N Barbspike and Fragspike. They're discussed at length elsewhere in this forum but basically Barb spike is Illusion/Curses and uses the hex Soul Barbs which damages your target whenever they are hexed or enchanted, and the Illusion elite skill Recurring Insecurity, which is a hex that is reapplied whenever your target is hexed. So - put Soul Barbs on then Recurring Insecurity - then cast cheap fast cast hexes like Conjure Phantasm and Parasitic Bond - they get a double-tap of damage from Soul Barbs because RI reapplies. Fragspike uses Fragility which causes damage when your target suffers or recovers from a condition and the death necro elite Virulence which causes 3 conditions to manifest provided your target already is suffering from a condition. You don't spec to death magic, since your DM level controls the duration of the conditions Virulence causes, and you want them to be short so that the "recover" part of the Fragility damage hits as soon as possible. Pre-Factions the initial condition was Deep Wound, provided by Phantom Pain + Shatter Delusions, but since we have Accumulated Pain now, peopple usually do Fragility -> Conjure Phantasm -> Accumulated Pain -> Virulence -> Epidemic -> more illusion degen (which you usually don't have time to get off as your target dies.)

Another fun way to enjoy Illusion magic in PvE is to use Mantra of Persistence to greatly increase the duration of your hexes, so you can apply degen overkill that last for a looong time, with damage spikes from things like Ineptitude, Clumsiness, and Accumulated Pain.

Distortion is a lovely defensive skill, Crippling Anguish/Shared Burden are lovely snare elites, Ethereal/Kitah's Burden are snares with a small energy return, Imagined Burden is a lovely thing. SV/AV to frustrate adrenal based tanks.

More fun that running Dom in PVE, in my experience.

Avarre · Jul 11, 2006, 11:33 AM // 11:33

Tap is slow, and gives relatively little benefit (5-7 net generally). I don't like it.

My favorite res spell is vengeance, 2s ressurect at full hp is king for mid-battle ressurects (no additional dp, full energy). Especially if a caster goes down. Chant and rebirth are good as well but aren't as powerful midbattle (and so, so much less fun).

jesh · Jul 11, 2006, 06:19 PM // 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

Res chant is 8 seconds, but gives the ress'ed person your current hp% and x% energy. Nice spell (though the 1/2 cast range makes getting tanks up risky).

Eaimirth, eles are still the lords of spam heal with HP and Extinguish (remove 1 condition from all party members). Rits tend to be spamming spirits (you want the spirits up for their effect, not to just kill them for the enemy..), necros with SR occasionally have HP/Ext as well but can't match prodigy.

As for previous... feast > breeze hands down (as selfheal on mes), no contest. Instant heal + low cost + mesmer attribute win the day.

You're using the wrong skill. Take Spirit to Flesh instead of Feast of Souls, and an extra non-essentual spirit, such as Pain or Destruction. In this way, you chose which spirit is sacrificed for a heal, and you don't lose the effects of your other spirits.

Avarre · Jul 12, 2006, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Considering I didn't mention any particular ritualist skills, how can I use the wrong one?

Saphatorael · Jul 12, 2006, 10:59 AM // 10:59

Ineptitude+Epidemic = frustrated Oni in The Deep ^^

There's loads of things that you can do with illusion, but mesmerizing gets even better when you start comboing both illu and dom magic.
In pvp, Migrainers also use dom interrupts and insp magic interrupts.
You can go pure degen, anti-melee, anti-(almost)everything... I wouldn't bother checking out this thread anymore, even, as i encourage people to develop their own playing style, and this is definitely the case with mesmers imho.

Avarre · Jul 12, 2006, 11:02 AM // 11:02

Quote:

In pvp, Migrainers also use dom interrupts and insp magic interrupts.

In PvP, migraners spread migrane and cover degen to at least 2 targets and focus on keeping several casters crippled while a designated interrupter does the job of interrupting. Generally afaik