Curse

MasterDinadan · May 03, 2006, 06:21 AM // 06:21

I've been playing a lot of PVE since Factions came out... and I'm noticing a huge lack of Mesmers.
Are mesmers any good in PVE? Or do people just not like to play them? Personally... mesmers are one of my favorite classes to play in PVP, so I really wanna RP one to the point where I can participate in alliance battles at least... but I'm starting to wonder if there isn't some problem with mesmers in RP?

On the other hand, it certainly couldn't be any more difficult than trying to find a group as an ASSASSIN.

Arkantos · May 03, 2006, 06:23 AM // 06:23

Most people say mesmers are meant for PvP.

Avarre · May 03, 2006, 06:32 AM // 06:32

And most people are remarkable shortsighted (offence not targetted at above poster). Its the simplicity triagle:

Damage + Tank + Heal

And mesmers fall halfway between damage and heal (damage prevention), and have less visible and direct damage - alot of mesmers play domination nukers, which generally suck. As a result many people don't know what mesmers are supposed to do and generally don't choose them.

Sidrakket · May 03, 2006, 07:29 AM // 07:29

Clumsyness, empathy, backfire, power spike, cry of frustration.

Are just some of the good skills. Remember the AI is stupid. Caster mobs are going to cast with backfire on them. Melee mobs will keep swinging away, killing themselves on empathy and clumsyness. Cry of frustration is the required all purpose interupt. I like it best.

Conjure phantasm is also okay if you dont try and cast it on things that people are attacking. -5 degen for a few seconds isnt much, -5 degen for 10 seconds is 100 damage. I dont personaly like it however.

Max illusion and domination. The empathy+clumsyness combo is realy realy good. From illusion you can also get something like ineptitude if you want.

Shatter hex is nice in a hex intensive area.

Mesmers are great. Chaos damage is high and unresistable. It just requires something else to happen first. Because of this mesmers should not assist. They need to solo along with the group to manipulate the mobs. You can often times kill a couple things in the time the entire rest of the group kills 5 or so. If you tried to attack what everyone else was attacking however you would not have contributed much of anything. Its all about indirect damage.

And never ever take energy burn in pve, ever. Its recast to too slow, its cast time is long, and its just crappy.

MasterDinadan · May 03, 2006, 08:38 AM // 08:38

Thanks, I think a PVE mesmer is actually going to be a lot of fun for me to play... and anyways, it will be worth it when I actually make it to the Alliance battles, because Mesmer is unquestionably my favorite PVP character to play.

Terra Xin · May 03, 2006, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Yeah I dont take e-burn or e-surge... nor would I take any form of E-denial into PvE, wast of time sapping 1 persons energy when you fight them in mobs. I wouldnt even take E-burn for the damage, it doesnt seem to do that much.

I tend to take a good degen build, and roll my targets. Being in a party helps. Empathy and Backfire are a general must have. I make good use of phantom pain and similarly Accumulated Pain. Good spells those two.

shoot n loot · May 03, 2006, 12:48 PM // 12:48

umm.. on my mesmer ive found its easiest to do heavy dmg and get groups goin /elementalist and being an echo nuker

what im using now is somthin alogn lines of

Flare
Arcane Echo
Meteor
Bed of Coals (slap it down then meteor them so they get knocked down and catch on fire)
Power Drain (for your own benefit
Dragons breath
res sig

chose your own other skills, i keep 12 in fire, 15 in Fast cast, and rest in Inspiration (for e management somewhat), in the end, flare is one of best skills cas with this much fast cast, although energy expensive, you can spam the hell outta it (no recast time)

Sidrakket · May 03, 2006, 09:34 PM // 21:34

I tried that for a while, but its just not as good. Elemental damage is resistable, and if you want an echo nuker just get an ele.

The dual atunement fast cast flare spammer can be useful in places that take doubble damage from fire magic i suppose. But again, resists. You could also use that half-range bit slightly higher damage spammable water nuke. THis would let you use channeling and literaly gain back more energy than you spend =D

Me/N can be useful in pve also with putrid explosion doing decent damage with 12 in death. You could also go blood and be a BiPer and make some blood wells. I once was primary healer with just blood wells=P The softer targets died easy but me and the smart warrior managed to kite around and own everything and win the mission =p

SkyeFerina · May 03, 2006, 09:51 PM // 21:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by shoot n loot

umm.. on my mesmer ive found its easiest to do heavy dmg and get groups goin /elementalist and being an echo nuker

But then you're not a mesmer anymore, just a quick-draw lower damage ele....

The great unwashed masses in PvE simply don't understand mesmers as we a) don't carry big scary sticks b) don't have obviously visible damage like meteors falling out of the sky. For the same reason when I went water in PvE some ppl said to me "Are you actually contributing to this battle at all or just tagging along?" Ok so maybe water was a bad choice in PvE...but it's quite visually subtle.

As a mesmer you have to be content with beavering away in the background. Like someone said, don't focus on the main target or your spells are wasted. Most ppl fail to notice that the next target they cycle to is nearly dead, or that the monk failed to heal himself once, or that the party polished off a mob with no damage done by their eles since you shut them down.

It can be a thankless task, but IMHO it's the most fun class to play. I went questing with a warrior friend in the desert, the irritating bit where waves and waves of Storm Riders keep on coming...we finished them all off super quick, and she said "Wow, that was twenty times easier than last time!" With the right build for the situation you're king of the hill. And if you can't get into PUG's for missions, just take henchies and pop back to the mission area when you're done. Quite often the same ppl who rejected your join request are shouting for a second party following their abject failure. Laugh internally and move on.

Spread that Mesmer Love!

Cjlr · May 04, 2006, 12:42 AM // 00:42

There's a lack of EVERYTHING in Factions right now.

A typical district is 30 Assassins, 15 Ritualists, 2 monks, 1 elementalist, 1 warrior, and maybe a necromancer or a ranger to "balance things out".

Although, I bet if there were more mesmers they'd be as ostracized by idiots and worshipped by the erudite as they were/are in Prophecies.

Ju_Smurph · May 04, 2006, 04:36 AM // 04:36

Power Return is an absolute staple skill in PVE as we all know Monsters Energy regen is insane, so it does not matter. The other thing i love about this skills is that it's 'FC' So i can interuppt while playing an illusion mesmer...

lhurgrokoyv · May 04, 2006, 07:23 AM // 07:23

1 skill for pve mesmers:

wrastrels worry+boss monster=GG free morale and drop

Avarre · May 04, 2006, 07:30 AM // 07:30

Wastrel's Worry has no greater effect in Cantha, bosses no longer have half hex duration.

Even before that, bringing a skill to fight bosses only was redundant and silly.

Lord Flash Heart · May 04, 2006, 08:36 AM // 08:36

Im enjoying mesmer outings with all mesmer teams in PvE in Tyria for some time now, and im sure we will see the same thing happening in Cantha. As we all know mesmers are very flexible and can properly prepare for almost any kind of enemies.

Hope to see your mesmers in Cantha soon

Lady Flashheart, aka Flash Heart

lhurgrokoyv · May 04, 2006, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

Wastrel's Worry has no greater effect in Cantha, bosses no longer have half hex duration.

Even before that, bringing a skill to fight bosses only was redundant and silly.

well actually, you can farm bosses grenths footprint soloing as a mesmer to get lots of greens that you can sell 1-2k each afterwards

Avarre · May 04, 2006, 10:23 AM // 10:23

You can also bring conjure phantasm as your only skill to FoW, sure it will work, but it's not the most effective way.

Wastrel's was never am efficient skill to bring. It most certainly isn't now.

Alexander V · May 04, 2006, 11:07 AM // 11:07

I tend to use WW a fair bit to finish things off. It's cheap to cast and fire & forget and then I move onto the next target.

The one thing you have to get used to as a PvE mesmer, is other people saying "Yeahhh!!! Did you see me pwn him! Man I love being a wammo!" This usually happens after you have just killed a particularly nasty boss or mob, having watched el'Wammo make 1 hit the entire battle. It's kinda satisfying in a weird way to know that it was you, but just not say anything

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 04, 2006, 11:05 PM // 23:05

Shatter hex puts ele's to shame...
2x hex, cry+e surge (yea I use it in pve; but have a reason)
...this adds up to 120x2+40+80x2(a.echo)
440 damage before the ele even finishes casting that shower...
I would like to see any other character in pve do that kind of damage in such a short duration ^_~

Kai Nui · May 05, 2006, 12:23 AM // 00:23

PVE Mesmer is very tough to play in PVE as opposed to everything else. They have extremely weak armor and people don't want them, so you'd better have something to offer. Warriors on the other hand don't have to worry about anything, they just press buttons after they've pressed Space Bar and gotten a certain amount of hits.

Avarre · May 05, 2006, 07:16 AM // 07:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kai Nui

PVE Mesmer is very tough to play in PVE as opposed to everything else. They have extremely weak armor and people don't want them, so you'd better have something to offer. Warriors on the other hand don't have to worry about anything, they just press buttons after they've pressed Space Bar and gotten a certain amount of hits.

When you factor in distortion and that all caster AL is the same, mesmers are one of the hardier caster-classes in PvE.

Warriors ALWAYS have to worry... about aggro management, about how much is targetted at them, about which enemy to target and when to spike it down, etc. Many warriors are no more intelligent than henchmen, and people accept aggro splatter as the norm now that there is no book.