Curse

d3kst3r · Feb 22, 2006, 08:08 AM // 08:08

16 domination
13 inspiration
4 fast casting

Diversion, Echo, Backfire, Blackout, Arcane Thievery, Ether feast, Energy Tap, Rez

Usage: Echo Diversion with Arcane Thievery on Caster A, bang 3 skills disabled
Backfire on Caster B and call it, your team should gang him ensuring a quick death
Blackout spam on Caster C, zomg he can't do nothin either!

If you're low on mana or low on HP just Echo Ether Feast or Energy Tap and voila, back up again.

PS. got 2 team mates down? Echo Rez Sig!

Lady Lozza · Feb 22, 2006, 10:39 AM // 10:39

Can you actually echo res sig? I know you can't use mantra of signets on it.

I've personally not found arcane thievery a particularly useful skill, except on other mesmers. IMHO if you have another mesmer in your team arcane mimi-cry is better, or signet of humilty which will leave the elite disable as opposed to just a random spell.
Next if this is a arena build have a think about backfire, as a hex it is easily removed and experienced players do not cast until it is removed.
Finally if you want to spam blackout, you have to have mantra of recovery equipped because it has a 10 recharge (5 after your skills get blacked out).

d3kst3r · Feb 22, 2006, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Yes rez sigs can be Echo'd but not Arcane Echo'd. And Signet of Humility can be used instead of Arcane Theivery but personally I like Arcane coz it adds a bit more fun and variety in.
As for Blackout spam, it takes 10 seconds to recharge and lasts 7 seconds giving the caster a 3 second window to throw in a spell. As well as that, it disrupts the current spell of the caster.

From personal experience using Arcane Thievery I've gotten really good skills like Empathy, Arcane Echo etc. and even a few lower ones like Reversal of Fortune which also have helped me stay alive. And if you go up against a Domination mesmer use Echo Arcane Thievery for further shutdown and give them a taste of their own poison.

Lady Lozza · Feb 22, 2006, 11:38 AM // 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by d3kst3r

As for Blackout spam, it takes 10 seconds to recharge and lasts 7 seconds giving the caster a 3 second window to throw in a spell. As well as that, it disrupts the current spell of the caster.

This is precisely my point. An experienced monk can heal their party completely in those 3 seconds. Furthermore if no one has hit them with energy drain they will have a pretty good bar of energy to cast those very expensive but very good spells in their arsenal.
Mantra of Recovery will reduce the recast time of blackout so that, when your skills have recovered (and theirs have not) you can black them out again.
As a side note I should mention that echo+blackout is not a particularly good combo because of an effective recast time of 50 seconds.

Echo + blackout + echoed blackout = 14 seconds of blackout -> recast blackout 3 seconds later, recast echo blackout 30 seconds later.
It would be nearly impossible to cast blackout twice off the one echo because of the recharge time.

Recovery + blackout x 3 (at fastcast of 10 - which is about what most mesmers use) = 21 seconds of blackout -> recast 15 seconds later.

Finally you are only using 2 inspiration spells IMHO you would be better spending extra points in FC rather than inspiration.

Avarre · Feb 22, 2006, 11:54 AM // 11:54

Play Me/E and knock the enemy down during those 3 seconds. With gale. Gale is good.

Exhaustion doesn't hurt that much, really... your spells don't cost that much and usually aren't saved up to spike with.

d3kst3r · Feb 22, 2006, 11:58 AM // 11:58

Sounds good. If I replaced Arcane Thievery with Gale and put a little into Air magic I'd have a triple shutdown mes.

Lady Lozza · Feb 22, 2006, 12:01 PM // 12:01

lol Avarre, that is actually a very good idea

Will need a 5 in air magic.
Blackout + gale about four or five times before exhaustion stops you casting. Assuming a 52 energy pool.

Avarre · Feb 22, 2006, 01:04 PM // 13:04

5 in air isn't really a problem... 5 air, 4 illu for -2 distortion (using that for awhile in CA/TA, the energy loss is negligible). 14 in dom, 9+1 fast cast, enough points left for 10+1 inspiration or whatever

Gale is also such an awesome kiting spell... usually I just toss it at random warriors for the fun of it.

ZephyrLuneGlaciale · Feb 22, 2006, 02:33 PM // 14:33

Just for the reccord,
quoting Lady Lozza "when your skills have recovered (and theirs have not) you can black them out again."
It's barely impossible to do that on a good caster (He would be running all over the map on would use the few seconds u need to catch back to cast).

Interesting build though....

Lady Lozza · Feb 23, 2006, 09:52 AM // 09:52

lol Zephyr, you follow them as soon as you get the first blackout off. A lot of the maps can be won by simply knowing how and when to move in pvp.
Using gale, hamstring, any form of speed buff (illusion/windborne), pindown, etc - depending obviously on 2ndary) would also prevent players from moving and/or make it easier to catch them.

Avarre · Feb 23, 2006, 11:35 AM // 11:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZephyrLuneGlaciale

Just for the reccord,
quoting Lady Lozza "when your skills have recovered (and theirs have not) you can black them out again."
It's barely impossible to do that on a good caster (He would be running all over the map on would use the few seconds u need to catch back to cast).

Interesting build though....

For the third time... GALE GALE GALE!

Anyways, they can't cast while running, they have to stop. When they do, maybe they get off one really fast spell (orison of healing is not going to destroy your team) before you hit them again with blackout.

Dragannia · Feb 23, 2006, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Lozza

This is precisely my point. An experienced monk can heal their party completely in those 3 seconds. Furthermore if no one has hit them with energy drain they will have a pretty good bar of energy to cast those very expensive but very good spells in their arsenal.
Mantra of Recovery will reduce the recast time of blackout so that, when your skills have recovered (and theirs have not) you can black them out again.
As a side note I should mention that echo+blackout is not a particularly good combo because of an effective recast time of 50 seconds.

Echo + blackout + echoed blackout = 14 seconds of blackout -> recast blackout 3 seconds later, recast echo blackout 30 seconds later.
It would be nearly impossible to cast blackout twice off the one echo because of the recharge time.

Recovery + blackout x 3 (at fastcast of 10 - which is about what most mesmers use) = 21 seconds of blackout -> recast 15 seconds later.

Finally you are only using 2 inspiration spells IMHO you would be better spending extra points in FC rather than inspiration.

Take Serpents Quickness as well, and its duration should last until Echo is recharged, in which case you start Echo BOing again. SQ gives them about a 1 second gap however.

I tried this build yesterday. It's hard to use, we were undefeated in TA.

By the way, Mantra of Recovery does NOT reduce Blackout's recharge, as it is a skill.

WoofWoof · Feb 24, 2006, 03:08 PM // 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by d3kst3r

Yes rez sigs can be Echo'd but not Arcane Echo'd.

Yep. Can definitely be done. However, I am thinking that if you get to a situation where you need to actually Echo your rez then your team is already hosed. I was on a few RA teams that even triple Rezzes wouldn't save...

QuixotesGhost · Feb 24, 2006, 05:30 PM // 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Lozza

An experienced monk can heal their party completely in those 3 seconds.

Flip side of this is that a good warrior should be able to kill someone in those 7 seconds that you give him.

I really like that gale idea. I gotta try that out.

LouAl · Feb 27, 2006, 10:43 PM // 22:43

Just wanted to make the point that Echoing BO works well and can keep them PERMANENTLY BO'd for 30 seconds, and I love the idea of throwing a gale at them in the middle of it all...

(if you wait the full 7 sec duration it does not work and the full time is actually 31 seconds as the last BO would be full duration)

You cast echo
Then BO (orig)
6sec later cast Echo'd BO
6sec later cast BO (orig)
6sec later cast Echo'd BO
6sec later cast BO (orig)

You are really only waiting through one recharge of your echo'd BO so it fits within the 20 sec timeframe of echo, but after that 1st cycle of 30 sec BO you would be back to waiting out the remainder of the 30 sec recharge of the echo.

Unfortunately this also costs 55 energy, but you will regen some, since you will not be wating much during BO.

Just for poops and giggles I tried this on my W/Me. He was able to keep up with the energy (by switcing weapons/foci around), and he was able to hit sprint after the first or second BO. I also only had my attb lvl at 8 so the duration of each BO was 5 seconds and the total was 25 seconds of BO.

Wretchman Drake · Mar 19, 2006, 06:55 AM // 06:55

Nice build, however the lack of Hex Removal kind of bothers me after getting hexed alot today

LightningHell · Mar 19, 2006, 07:51 AM // 07:51

I'm really happy somebody Mesmer likes Gale, because now the Eles are getting quite a bashing

The only two classes that I actually use are Elementalist and Mesmer, anyways.

Backfire doesn't do anything to a team anything above average.

I would like Shatter Hex, but that's your choice.

Dragannia · Mar 19, 2006, 10:42 AM // 10:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

I'm really happy somebody Mesmer likes Gale, because now the Eles are getting quite a bashing

The only two classes that I actually use are Elementalist and Mesmer, anyways.

Backfire doesn't do anything to a team anything above average.

I would like Shatter Hex, but that's your choice.

Backfire is a great skill if you know how to use it. That is, watch for a particular combo, then slap a Backfire in the middle of it with Fast Casting and watch them kill themselves. Or, get a cover hex, and shut someone down for 10 seconds. The 10 second shutdown is worth it, IMO, though personally, I prefer Diversion.

d3kst3r · Mar 19, 2006, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragannia

Backfire is a great skill if you know how to use it. That is, watch for a particular combo, then slap a Backfire in the middle of it with Fast Casting and watch them kill themselves. Or, get a cover hex, and shut someone down for 10 seconds. The 10 second shutdown is worth it, IMO, though personally, I prefer Diversion.

Yeah Backfire should be treated like an Ace of Spades up your sleeve. Never use it at the start allowing your enemies to know you have it. Also slip it in during a frantic moment in battle where the enemy is spamming skills. I've found that using Backfire this way has killed many unwary people.

NinjaKai · Mar 19, 2006, 11:26 AM // 11:26

The build as it is I would only consider using in a caster heavy mission like ring of fire ones which are riddled with mursaat.