Curse

SnipiousMax · Jan 24, 2006, 03:43 AM // 03:43

I was wondering how Distortion compares with Physical Resistance in staying alive. I've recently converted to mesmerism, and I've been playing around with the skills. I've been trying to make my Mesmer fairly self suficient (playing mostly in Random arena) and so in order to survive warrior attacks, I've been using either Illusion of Haste + Distortion, or just physical Resistance. Its hard to judge which is better because the groups I've been playing with have had varing levels of skill (better healers, other more pressing targets...etc.) So I was looking for some feedback into which works better...or for which builds is one or the other better for. I've developed a fondness for Physical Resitance because it only takes one slot...but again...just asking input.

agentblade · Jan 24, 2006, 03:52 AM // 03:52

personally i'm not too fond of physical resistant as it lowers ur elemental dmg resistant. As a mesmer u'll usually be the center of attraction which means not just warriors, but rangers will be on ur ass and not all warriors and rangers deal physical dmg. So in that aspect I prefer distortion as u dun take any damage at all but the energy cost is abit high.

I guess the best way to survive as a mes is to have a good monk by your side. But since u're in CA that's tough. Anti-warrior/ranger spells would be the next best thing as u'll find tons of warriors and rangers in CA. Things like Signet of Midnight, Spirit of Failure, etc all works...

Avarre · Jan 24, 2006, 11:26 AM // 11:26

If you're running a high illusion build, take distortion. 75% evasion will play merry hell with their adrenal skills and buy you enough time to do your work with the enemy targets of your choice. Physical resistance is fully inferior as it only gives protection against physical (obviously), and without a cancelling stance leaves you for dead against eles, rangers with ele damage, conjure element warriors, etc.

In random arenas I prefer to take only skills to bring down a certain target... if I'm going anti-war, then I'll bring some warrior negation skills, much like if you would go anticaster, you bring interrupts...

Jack Lost · Jan 25, 2006, 12:30 AM // 00:30

why not put in both spirit of failure and distortion?
should be able to keep you energy high enough with both of them.

SnipiousMax · Jan 25, 2006, 04:29 AM // 04:29

Quote:

Physical resistance is fully inferior as it only gives protection against physical (obviously), and without a cancelling stance leaves you for dead against eles, rangers with ele damage, conjure element warriors, etc.

I wouldn't say inferior...It does last almost 90 secs. You don't have to cast it unless you need it. you only loose 14 armor against eles (big but not to big) and very few rangers/warriors use conjure line. And the way I play, ele's don't have energy anyway. They also die much quicker than warriors do. All that rolled into one, make Physical resistance a comparable skill.

Quote:

why not put in both spirit of failure and distortion?
should be able to keep you energy high enough with both of them.

Yes that does work kiting warriors...but that's all I'd be doing. I have to keep casting the two spells, and eventually I'm gonna run outta energy. I like to much better be able to take a little bit more damage, heal myself, and outlast the warrior. With Ether Feast + Physical resistance... I can take a warrior one on one.

agentblade · Jan 25, 2006, 06:16 AM // 06:16

I've used Physical resistant before and felt that it didn't help much..

But I guess physical resistant and ether feast could work but in my opinion why Distortion is better is that it prevents you from getting deep wounds and interrupts. With Physical resistant a warrior can still eviserate you and with deep wound it really hurts alot. Also interrupt rangers will have a fun time interrupting you.. So in that light I'd say Distortion is much better.

But hey, I believe all spells are useful if used correctly, so keep experimenting..

NatalieD · Jan 25, 2006, 06:24 AM // 06:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnipiousMax

Yes that does work kiting warriors...but that's all I'd be doing. I have to keep casting the two spells, and eventually I'm gonna run outta energy.

Wait, what? Using Spirit of Failure with Distortion is a way to gain energy, at least if you have good scores in Illusion and Inspiration. And it hardly keeps you from doing anything else, since Spirit of Failure lasts 30 seconds per cast, and Distortion can be used even when running around or casting a spell.

Incidentally, it's only "kiting" when you stay on the move to keep an enemy out of range. With Spirit of Failure and Distortion, you can just stand there and let them swing at you.

Savio · Jan 25, 2006, 06:28 AM // 06:28

Physical Resistance won't stop +damage from attack skills, whereas with Distortion none of the damage hits. Bonus for Distortion is that if they don't hit, they don't get adrenaline for their attack skills, whereas with Physical Resistance they can build up for that Final Thrust or Eviscerate, at which point it's not going to matter much that you have +40 armor.

Avarre · Jan 25, 2006, 01:20 PM // 13:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnipiousMax

I wouldn't say inferior...It does last almost 90 secs. You don't have to cast it unless you need it. you only loose 14 armor against eles (big but not to big) and very few rangers/warriors use conjure line. And the way I play, ele's don't have energy anyway. They also die much quicker than warriors do. All that rolled into one, make Physical resistance a comparable skill.

For multiple reasons Savio stated, especially the adrenaline issue, this is incorrect.

Also, rangers with fire damage are quite common. This weakens you, and not every team you face will have a warrior. Whereas distortion can save you when you're at 15 life, running from wanding opponents while your monk races towards you. PhyRes won't.

Also, you mentioned most wars don't use conjure. Yes, this is true. But when they do, you're going to die. Distortion doesn't have that discrimination towards only nonelemental rangers and warriors, it gives protection versus ALL enemies to an extent. For this reason it is superior.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatalieD

Wait, what?

Spirit of failure is very, very easy to remove (unless fighting a random team with no monk, a 30 second hex isn't going to stay on). Furthermore, to reap the full benefit you have to keep distortion spinning and the warrior hitting you, when it would be better to move around to avoid as much flak as possible. (Warriors cunning, the other 'cannot be evaded' attacks/skills come to mind). Distortion isn't a tanking stance, it's a cover stance for a tactical retreat, so that you don't take uncomfortably high damage while running.

glountz · Jan 25, 2006, 01:26 PM // 13:26

If you are Illusion heavy, Simpathetical Visage in addition of Distortion is painful agaisnt warriors. This said, I find it a little underpowered, I would have loved if it worked against any kind of attacks, wanding/arrows as well as melee.

Avarre · Jan 25, 2006, 01:36 PM // 13:36

That would barely make a difference. It would still only drain in adjacent area, and unless you intend to go hugging the enemy casters, not much point. SV is a decent skill, but it is a little lacking, especially if the warrior has a decent amount of energy attack skills... they can still beat you down without adrenaline, or just change target, since SV recharges SO SLOW.

rii · Jan 25, 2006, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Warriors have to hug to do damage -.-
SV drains 3 energy per hit as well... if they try and spike (and so are all hitting one target) then the rate of strikes can nuke out a warriors energy pool pretty fast.
Preferably, use SV in tandem with soothing images and spirit shackles.
As for phy. resistance, I used to love it but ended up (as a mesmer) taking elemental resistance and raping the warriors and rangers with the bountiful supply of hexes there are.
A warrior can use conjure, ji, or orders to suddenly make his physical attack not quite the problem. Eles, rangers/warriors with ele damage, cant do a lot against ele resistance, since as far as I'm aware you cant change ele damage except to another type of ele damage.

Yolanda Kai · Jan 26, 2006, 01:18 AM // 01:18

If there aren't many Rangers doing fire damage then I say there should be... Kindle is simply a great skill and there's enough rapid or multishot skills to make it worthwhile. It's been my favorite prep for a long time, especially since that upgrade that screwed up AoE attacks for killing monsters.

Kindle does high damage, converts physical to fire to get around +AL vs Physical stuff you see really often with Warriors, and stacks with Poison Arrow and other Condition builds. Awesome

So yeah, I say Elemental resistance is gonna be more handy than Physical Resistance, and keeping an evasion skill for the anti-melee one is the way to go.

agentblade · Jan 27, 2006, 05:19 AM // 05:19

kiting a warrior by solely running isn't that easy as it sounds. Most warriors carry sprint and they can cripple. plus the fact to be an effective mesmer is to be able to constantly cast unless u're running interrupt mesmer then u only need to cast when ur energy starts casting. So half the time u have to stand there, thus distortion is still useful..

Turbo Wombat · Jan 27, 2006, 06:53 AM // 06:53

It depends on what skills I'm bringing. I almost allways have high inspiration, so that's never a problem. If I run a domination build, I bring Physical Resistance since I can typically make it undesireable enough for casters to do much of anything. If I'm doing Illusion, I'll almost allways take Distortion with me. though, I must say Rogue's + Physical Resistance + (+5 armor/+5 armor) staff is pretty amusing against warriors. Makes it so the normal crit hits with an axe only do around 19 damage

SnipiousMax · Jan 30, 2006, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Okay a week or so later of playing mostly mesmer, and now I agree that Distortion is better. But what do I do when I want to play a Domination/Inspiration mesmer? Distorition is brutal when it takes away 2 energy per hit.

Ju_Smurph · Feb 01, 2006, 04:37 AM // 04:37

Then consider something like physical risistence or similar, thats assuming your facing primarily warriors...

Or you could use Signet of midnight, or just SoF, Empathy and some other hex...

SoF & Empathy In CA normal gets warriors off your butt when they work out that they are only hurting your slelf, don't most are half dead by this stage.

Also if your aim is to kill a warrior, consider ignorance aswell...

This does not take into consideration anything to handle any other profession