Curse

Themis · May 21, 2006, 12:18 AM // 00:18

You all know Mesmers are among the top priority targets, especially in TA, GvG, HA. Moreover, i respect my Monks (being often a Monk myself

), i don't like being their main healing target...

We have a few stances for defending ourselves, though : Distortion, Mantras of various shapes and colors... But with the new skills, and especially with the new professions since Factions, perhaps there're better solutions ?

i've seen a few Assassin stances (in the Shadow Arts line) :

Dark escape (cost 5, rech 30) : Stance. For 5-13 seconds, you move 25% faster and take half damage. Dark Escape ends if you successfully hit with an attack.

Viper's defense (cost 5, rech 10) : Stance. For 30 seconds, the next time you are struck you are teleported to a nearby random location. The foe who struck you is Poisoned for 5-17 seconds.

Shadow of haste (cost 10, rech 30) : Stance. For 5-17 seconds you move 25% faster than normal. When Shadow of Haste ends, you return to the location where you activated Shadow of Haste.

They're (obviously) not perfect, there're (certainly) other solutions. Any opinions ?

Hella Good · May 21, 2006, 12:50 AM // 00:50

I believe Dark Escape is quickly becoming a favorite for Mesmers in GvG. Check out a few high ranked games, if there is a Me/A he will probably be carring Dark Escape. I don't like the random teleportation one- it's like playing with dice, it might send you directly into the jaws of the shark, which is never a good place to be (unless you are a Cleaner fish but that's a whole different story). Shadow of Haste is... well, you need to know very well where you want to be and what you want to be doing when it starts and when it ends. You can use this to run in and Blackout a Monk. I still think Dark Escape is probably the best one.

fatboyslimerr · May 21, 2006, 08:42 AM // 08:42

Yeh, I've seen Dark Escape used nicely by top ranked guildies. Their Me/A suddenly starts to take major warrior damage or ele damage, and since its not important that mesmers use their staff damage, dark escape is a perfect way to make you last longer since you take half damage and you can almost out run a warrior (lasts longer than sprint). I dunno if you need to invest majorily into shadow arts to make it work good and I dunno if it triggers if you cast a spell. Does that count as attacking ??, I don't think it does but if anyone knows ??

Non assassin wise, distortion is great at 14 domination (so you only lose 1 energy). If your Me/Mo (I have some prot points) guardian is a good option and doesn't make you lose energy but it is an enchantment and can be easily removed.

Armor of mist is another idea but you have to invest to deep into water magic to make it worth while, so I don't consider it.

To be honest I don't use stances as a mesmer. I try to spam spirit of failure plus reckless haste (thanks for build hella) and thats like 70% chance to miss and when they do you gain energy.

Just some ideas

sno · May 21, 2006, 09:09 AM // 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatboyslimerr

and I dunno if it triggers if you cast a spell. Does that count as attacking?

No, it doesn't count as attacking.

Quote:

Non assassin wise, distortion is great at 14 domination (so you only lose 1 energy).

Illusion, not domination.

Quote:

If your Me/Mo (I have some prot points) guardian is a good option and doesn't make you lose energy but it is an enchantment and can be easily removed.

guardian requires too many points in prot to be effective, distortion is way better, always.

Quote:

Armor of mist is another idea but you have to invest to deep into water magic to make it worth while, so I don't consider it.

dark escape > armor of mist

Quote:

To be honest I don't use stances as a mesmer. I try to spam spirit of failure plus reckless haste (thanks for build hella) and thats like 70% chance to miss and when they do you gain energy.

that's only useful if you're going to be an anti-melee mesmer. If you're going for monk-shutdown, or any sort of caster hate (ie. interupts) you don't have time to sit there and shut down the warriors. The idea behind distortion (or dark escape) is that you can quickly defend yourself if necessary, to avoid death

Imo, if you can afford all the points into illusion, go with distortion for sure. Otherwise dark escape is a very viable option, provided you don't need to use your secondary for anything else.

fatboyslimerr · May 21, 2006, 10:30 AM // 10:30

Sorry I meant illusion not domination.
I use spirit of failure as my main energy gain in combo with my teams hex spammer so it isn't easily removed. I consider it a cast and forget about it spell. As in I can cast it on a couple of warriors (5 second recharge with MoR) then get down to some anti monking. Refreshing every 30-40 seconds or something. And since power leak is pretty much the best e-denial skill ever I only need to use it + shame then I can mvoe onto some anti warrioring using spirit of failure then return to that monk.

I agree distortion is way better than armor of mist, that was just an idea.
But for domination mesmer (with a few points in protection prayers) guardian is my only option really. I'll work out attributes to boost it later but its better than nothing.

So yeh, as sno said, dark escape is pretty much the best since mesmers don't need to attack to do their job, so you can keep up only taking half damage which will piss warriors right off, and hopefully mean they won't target you anymore. Plus its a speed buff so u can run away and even by secondary flag runner in GvGs.

Terra Xin · May 21, 2006, 11:22 AM // 11:22

I'm trying to anticipate the likelihood of what element a person is most likely to be in pvp... I've narrowed it down to lightning and fire... mantras

I'm so happy they doubled the energy gain to 2... oh wo...

Greater conflagration + mantra of flame is good... but you have to be a ranger or ranger secondary.... like.... pfft.

SkyeFerina · May 21, 2006, 11:45 AM // 11:45

I play Domination mesmers in PvP, and use /E secondary so I basically have to rely on the monk in PvP which I hate. Anyone reckon they should put some sort of defensive skill into the Domination line? Trying to think how it would keep in the "spirit" of Domination magic... are any of the Mantras worth taking in peoples experience?

Themis · May 21, 2006, 11:51 AM // 11:51

As i stated in another thread, GC+Mantra of flame is very good indeed (except that experienced W will switch to a non-elementary weapon... anyway).
You should have GC casted by a R primary at beginning of battle, and battlefield needs to be rather small (not good on GvG, for instance). Works fine in HA.

I've even seen GC along with Winter : this allows Mantra to be triggered on almost all types of damage. But once more, experienced opponents will consider these spirits as top priority targets... leaving you without any defense.

fatboyslimerr · May 21, 2006, 11:51 AM // 11:51

They should make a skill similar to venegence (smiting prayers), kinda like empathy as well so whenever you get attacked that person takes the same amount of damage they hit you for. Could be called mirror and could be an elite. Or some kind of enchantment, whenever you are attacked in melee, you block that attack and lose 2 energy or something similar to distortion but your guarenteed to block and so lose more energy.

The Great Conflagation + Mantra of Flame would work but in GvG the GC spirit would be noticed and killled quickly. The only mantras used are resolve (for trappers) and persistance (for illusion degen hexers)

Hella Good · May 21, 2006, 03:51 PM // 15:51

I think SV/AV (whatever you wanna call it these days) is a great War disabler. Yea, if they are smart, they switch targets, but seriously majority of Wars just keep banging on you. I think I'm gonna play around with Dark Escape, I find the Assassin protection skills very interesting and definitely less demanding on the nrg than Distortion is.

fatboyslimerr · May 21, 2006, 03:54 PM // 15:54

Whats SV/AV ?? I'm useless with remembering initials and abbreviations.

Hella Good · May 21, 2006, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Sympathetic/Ancestral Visage.

fatboyslimerr · May 21, 2006, 10:06 PM // 22:06

I've seen top mesmers using aura of displacement to simply retreat miles away when they are getting bashed a lot. Thats one option and wouldn't require any points in assassin since its general spell. Could be great for flag running, possibly. Its just something a bit different. One second warrior is bashing away at a mesmer, then next his targets disappeared into thin air, true mesmer style. Great stuff

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 21, 2006, 11:21 PM // 23:21

I have given serious consideration to A.parry; although elite is completely disables a warrior/ranger/whatever might be bashing on you.

0% chance for ranger interrupts this way; which is nice.

fatboyslimerr · May 22, 2006, 11:43 AM // 11:43

gwonline.net doesn't make entirely sure what A.Parry does. Does it cost 1 adrenaline to use and you block the next attack used against you and gain 4 adrenaline (with no recharge time) so it can be spammed with no worry about energy ? Basically self sustaining block skill ? I reckon you don't even need that much tactics for it too work well so it probably is a good option. Might give it a try

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 22, 2006, 01:38 PM // 13:38

Too bad it doesn't charge itself; but your attack speed is close enough to the warriors with a +10% speed attacking wand; so you can spam it indefinatly due to its 1 sec recharge.

With 9/10 tactics many more options open
Bonneti's defence
Reposite spam

fatboyslimerr · May 22, 2006, 01:42 PM // 13:42

I wouldn't want to use too many other warrior skills, and thus lose affectiveness as a mesmer. I'm thinking of a. parry as a one off, great defense skill. You can just wand attack for a bit, since it only costs 1 adrenaline, while its recharging, then use it.

But if it doesn't recharge itself it becomes slightly less spamable. I wouldn't use this on my GvG mesmer, this would be a HA build special I think. MoR is too good not to use in GvGs.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 22, 2006, 02:16 PM // 14:16

You know my take on MoR ^_~;
Yet this is imo a broken skill...disables a war; and its over
1 skill; useless warrior...broken

SkyeFerina · May 22, 2006, 03:52 PM // 15:52

I'm sure it doesn't work like this in practice but Shadow of Haste has potential as a great kiting skill, I'm going to try it just for fun.

See the dumb warrior lumbering after you, SoH and leg it. He uses Sprint to stay with you, so kite him away to a forgotten corner of the battlefield...then pop-up behind him, wave, and carry on with what you were doing. Said warrior resolves his anger on a nearby inanimate object, and dejectedly trudges back, dragging his axe behind him.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 22, 2006, 03:57 PM // 15:57

Unless they see you use it; wait at the point where you used it; then adren spike your face ='(

However recall works for that purpose as well; except without the adren spiking part.