Curse

SkyeFerina · May 18, 2006, 09:36 PM // 21:36

Sorry if it's been done before, but I'm having pretty good success in Team Arenas with this build and I'd like to know what you think. It's quite flexible and is fun to play, but it might benefit from honing a bit, I'm not too sure about a couple of the inclusions and input would be great.
Mesmer / Elementalist

Domination 16
Inspiration 12
Fast Cast 7

1. Shame
2. Energy Burn (Empathy)
3. Power Leak
4. Diversion
5. Shatter Enchantment
6. Drain Enchantment
7. Glyph of Renewal [E]
8. Res Signet

Start by finding an necro or ele before going for the monks. Glyph and 2 Power Leaks on their long spells and you've knocked them out of the early game - they'll be playing energy catch up. You can peel off those attunements with Drain Ench for some energy, it keeps them out for even longer as with no energy they'll want to use Attunements asap rather than blow their recovering energy pool with their first two spells.

Monk shutdown might not be quite as focussed as a full shutdown build but seems pretty useful.

Start with a dual Shatter Enchantment and Drain Enchantment or vice versa depending on your energy. Shame him, and you can continue like this using glyphed shames or stripping off his enchantments as necessary. Diversion is nice as Shame is wearing off (if he's waiting it out), and Burn him for good measure. (I'm really not too sure about E-Burn in the build but it did seem to keep the monk that bit quieter.) Keep an eye out for Guardian with a finger hovering over the 3 key and Power Leak it. Maybe the monks we faced weren't that good, but the build seens to work really rather well.

It's obviously an anticaster build and sometimes this makes you feel like a lemon against all those A's, W's and R's. In RA I switch Burn out in favour of Empathy (and take Feast which unfortunately dilutes things a bit

), Shatter Ench is great for those Wammo's. Most don't even realise their enchantments have gone till they're below half health. I'm not the biggest fan of Diversion due to long cast time...any suggestions?

E-management isn't a problem 90% of the time. I've thought about switching Drain Ench for Power Drain but I love the former - I've seen in other forum posts that enchantment stripping isn't viable strat against monks, but from experience so far that doesn't seem to be the case.

Let me know what you think, thanks in advance!

Themis · May 18, 2006, 11:01 PM // 23:01

Well, it's a cute build you've got there !

I just think that Diversion is not of much use (as targets usually don't live long enough ^^) i would advise Spirit Shackles instead : usefull against Assassins and Rangers. You could consider Mindwrack with SpSh, but i can't see what it could replace... E-burn, perhaps ?

sno · May 18, 2006, 11:06 PM // 23:06

For TA you need shatter and drain, end of story. I'd switch out power leak for complicate, as you're not edenial, and shouldn't try to be (because it will suck

). As for ele's, they have expensive casts, and rely on their attunes for any hope of energy management. If you strip the attunes right when he casts them, thats 45 seconds of him having no energy management. He'll put himself through edenial more effectively than you will.

Complicate is great because it's a skill interupt that will distract signets. If a monk doesn't cast through shame, he can spam sig of devotion, which complicate takes care of nicely. It also works wonders on res sigs. I'd drop burn for blackout or backfire, do not take empathy because you're not warrior hate, and even if you were empathy wouldn't be the thing to use (spirit shackles would, or spirit of failure if you needed more energy management.)

Backfire is nice because bad monks (which are plentiful in TA) will cast right through it, killing themselves instantly, which shortens easy battles. Even against good monks backfire can be used effectively, as it works similar to shame (he won't likely cast through it.) If you backfire a good monk, and immediately shatter enchant, he'll likely CoP, and if he has no enchant he's wasted his CoP for 10 seconds and still has backfire on him. He'll then likely go for inspired hex or veil, both of which are easily interuptable.

As for diversion vs. shame, I really prefer spamming diversion (against good monks) because shame can be easily removed (boon+CoP.) diversion cannot be removed, and must be waited out. You can therefore time a shame to be applied just after diversion ends, because he'll very likely be ready and waiting to cast something. I use diversion primarily, and then shame (in the same way, just as diversion ends) when I need energy.

I find this build can be pretty rough on energy vs good monks (since they don't cast through shame often.) If you have trouble keeping your energy up you can switch backfire for blackout or possibly try bringing power drain (although complicate is by far the ideal choice.)

You may want to try mantra of recovery[e] as well, using the same skillbar. This allows infinite chains of diversion and shame (and backfire, if you choose to bring it.) The problem I find with Recovery is that you don't have the option to cast 2 things back to back, which is very nice in some situations. Also it's harder on energy to maintain Recovery than it is to use Glyph (which is cheaper) whenever you need it.

SkyeFerina · May 19, 2006, 12:46 AM // 00:46

Really interesting spin on things, thanks guys. One of the things I like about the build is the ability to annoy not just monks, but also eles and necros. I realise it's not as strong anti-monk as it could be, but you never know what TA is going to throw at you...I guess all teams have a monk and maybe the best benefit to the team is removing him as efficently as possible, but it's not as much fun being focussed

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

I'd switch out power leak for complicate, as you're not edenial, and shouldn't try to be (because it will suck

)

Ah but when you do catch that Guardian the monk is sooo annoyed! I'm not trying to be edenial, but being able to completely knock out a caster at the battle start is great...4 vs 3 for a while at least! Losing Power Leak (sob, don't make me!), granted I can still disenchant the eles but a) they still have significant energy pool left and b) I have nothing up my sleeve against those necros. Complicate does look like a very nice option though against those res / healing signets. Will definitely look into it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

As for diversion vs. shame, I really prefer spamming diversion (against good monks) because shame can be easily removed (boon+CoP.)

Surely Shame would block CoP from working?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

I'd drop burn for blackout or backfire

Yeah, Burn does feel like an odd-man-out although Glyphed Burn is useful against most people if the monk is down. As far as Backfire goes, I used to love it but the 3s cast now annoys me. I suppose seing as flexibility is my bag it could be splattered all over their other casters, but I think I'd have to ramp up my e-managment. I hadn't really thought of Blackout, it can be used on anyone too. Nice idea, although I tend to stay at arm's (wand's?) length.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

I find this build can be pretty rough on energy vs good monks (since they don't cast through shame often.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

You may want to try mantra of recovery[e] as well, using the same skillbar.

I've not used it before, but having looked at the description I agree with you about the mana implications for MoR. The thing I love about Glyph is being able to quickly double Shatter which provides a lovely spike, or double Drain if mana is low. I used to use Echo but the Glyph is slightly less clunky to use and is recharging as soon as it's casted unlike Echo which takes beards.

NatalieD · May 19, 2006, 01:46 AM // 01:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyeFerina

Surely Shame would block CoP from working?

CoP isn't a spell, so it won't trigger Shame. Or Backfire, or any other hex like that. Diversion works on any skill, though, so CoP is no defense. That's (one of many reasons) why Diversion is awesome.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 19, 2006, 05:19 AM // 05:19

Diversion is only a delay for CoP; not a counter. Yet it is one of the best defenses against it (that I will admit). I still perfer blackout; but diversion will (temporarly) stop blackout.

Even arcane theft will not stop CoP (due to its skill status)...I swear there is no real counter for this skill.

NatalieD · May 19, 2006, 08:21 AM // 08:21

Diversion is "only" a delay for any skill. The point is that a minute-long delay is really very significant.

JR · May 19, 2006, 03:42 PM // 15:42

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