Curse

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 22, 2006, 01:07 AM // 01:07

Speak of your skill experience here in terms of anti-caster shutdown...

Right now, there are 3 ways to shut a caster down, all of which can be combined for some good effects.

Illusion - Migrane {E}, Arcane Conundrum
Domination - anything almost lol
Inspiration - Energy Tap/Drain, Ether Lord *bah*, Power Drain, Leech Signet, etc.

From what I'm aware of, I'd only want to use 2 of these 3 and if possible maybe not even 2, but right now, from what I"ve read over the weeks, it seems that most people who hate getting hit by these spells hate:

Migrane - "Diversion is bad... Migrane is fatal"
Power Block - "losing half your skill bar for 12+s. is ebil"
Energy X - "too nerfed..."

I was trying to figure out through both opinion and experience which is good for the anti-caster realm of magic:

Illusion, which seems more toward anti-fighter, or Domination, which is great if you're good at interrupting, but sucks if you're not that good at it...

I'll always have some inspiration (9-10 points) to keep my energy from going splat, and I use curses for anti-noncasters, so I'm just looking at your opinion/experiences on Illusion for anti-magic and Domination for antimagic.

Note: the Arcane Conundrum + Power Block idea did cross my mind but that seems like spreading a bit thin... Must have 16 in my primary to make it that much more devastating.

The other idea is killing damage:
Is domination more dangerous to kill people? [Energy Burn+Surge + Arcane Echo + Mind Wrack... etc.]

Or is Illusion better? [Frag builds *bah*, degen...]

Your experience and thoughts?

General Typhus · Mar 22, 2006, 01:12 AM // 01:12

Blackout is hellacious. The HoH meta's Migraine+phantasm is unbelievably annoying. E-Denial is obnoxious as always.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Mar 22, 2006, 01:32 AM // 01:32

E-denial is pointless (or almost pointless) with players able to accomplish a 24 point swing in energy at a moment's notice (5 denravi, 12 focus->-5 sword -2 focus)

SilenceWeaver · Mar 22, 2006, 01:32 AM // 01:32

agreed, blackout is ridiculously good at shutting down.
with e-denial or conundrum/migraine interrupt, your target will most likely get some spells off. with the right blackout setup, you can keep a target fully shutdown for a full 30 seconds. blackout also has the advantage of being almost as effective against rangers and warriors as it is against casters, as it resets andren and turns off skills no matter what. In addition, blackout can interrupt, and is invaluable for interrupting that res sig and crippling the user.
I run a me/w build that uses blackout+echo+shame/guilt+distracting blow that keeps a target fully shutdown for 31 seconds while dealing pressure damage and snaring (I actually use my sword). its one hole is it has crazy low defense, and a trapper or other skilled damager will make you feel lots of pain.

Rey Lentless · Mar 22, 2006, 05:30 AM // 05:30

I prefer dom, but I think it takes more skill. Energy and Illusion are easier to use, but they're mainly 1 on 1 shutdowns. That's fine too, but I prefer dom's ability to screw with multiple targets. If you run with multiple mesmers, then energy and illusion are good, but if you only have 1.. I'd make it dom.

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 22, 2006, 01:30 PM // 13:30

Blackout only lets ya shutout one target, however, I'd like to shut out multiples...

Good ideas though, any more? ^^

edit* blackout is melee range right? I'd try to avoid it if I can but there's cons too I suppose...

LightningHell · Mar 22, 2006, 01:33 PM // 13:33

If it wasn't melee, it would be WAY overpowered...

Serra Knightfang · Mar 22, 2006, 02:03 PM // 14:03

I was just curious at how you were planning on shutting down "mulitples"
Unless you want to use pointless spells like Chaos Storm, I don't know of a way

LightningHell · Mar 22, 2006, 02:14 PM // 14:14

Well, Echoing Powerblock (Arcane Echo) and being lucky would do.

xiv · Mar 22, 2006, 02:18 PM // 14:18

for mesmers a great skill to have in hoh is cry of frustration. omg it will mess up a spike like no other. and energy denial is like anti spike but im more about domination

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 23, 2006, 04:02 PM // 16:02

seems everyone is leaning toward domination...

hmm... ^_^

Banebow · Mar 23, 2006, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Quote:

seems everyone is leaning toward domination...

hmm... ^_^

That's probably because you can wreck havok without using hexes in the domination line

Migrane is great, but the enemy can take it off. You can't remove an e-burn, or a blackout.

Kate Bloodspirit · Mar 24, 2006, 12:43 AM // 00:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yukito Kunisaki

Speak of your skill experience here in terms of anti-caster shutdown...

Right now, there are 3 ways to shut a caster down, all of which can be combined for some good effects.

Illusion - Migrane {E}, Arcane Conundrum
Domination - anything almost lol
Inspiration - Energy Tap/Drain, Ether Lord *bah*, Power Drain, Leech Signet, etc.

From what I'm aware of, I'd only want to use 2 of these 3 and if possible maybe not even 2, but right now, from what I"ve read over the weeks, it seems that most people who hate getting hit by these spells hate:

Migrane - "Diversion is bad... Migrane is fatal"
Power Block - "losing half your skill bar for 12+s. is ebil"
Energy X - "too nerfed..."

I was trying to figure out through both opinion and experience which is good for the anti-caster realm of magic:

Illusion, which seems more toward anti-fighter, or Domination, which is great if you're good at interrupting, but sucks if you're not that good at it...

I'll always have some inspiration (9-10 points) to keep my energy from going splat, and I use curses for anti-noncasters, so I'm just looking at your opinion/experiences on Illusion for anti-magic and Domination for antimagic.

Note: the Arcane Conundrum + Power Block idea did cross my mind but that seems like spreading a bit thin... Must have 16 in my primary to make it that much more devastating.

The other idea is killing damage:
Is domination more dangerous to kill people? [Energy Burn+Surge + Arcane Echo + Mind Wrack... etc.]

Or is Illusion better? [Frag builds *bah*, degen...]

Your experience and thoughts?

I'm guessing by "bah" you mean underrated skills that have devastating effects when being used in a meaningfull and fully functional combos right?

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 24, 2006, 03:28 PM // 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kate Bloodspirit

I'm guessing by "bah" you mean underrated skills that have devastating effects when being used in a meaningfull and fully functional combos right?

bzzt, wrong...

baaahh is the sheep term...

As in a build that works vs. the ill-prepared. [aka the idiots]

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 24, 2006, 03:35 PM // 15:35

After looking over some of the premade builds and then doing some test runs in RA and TA, I've found Illusion to be working out better than expected. Combined with Inspiration, it can really crunch both melee and caster. [kill or brutally annoy]

12+1+3 Illusion Magic
8+1 Inspiration
7+1 Fast Casting
8 Curses

Migrane {E} *LOVE THIS SKILL*
Conjure Phantasm
Soothing Images
Power Drain
Ether Feast
Energy Tap *or Drain Enchantment if you're confident* or Leech Signet pow*
Faintheartedness
Res Sig (yay!)

Capable of generating 10 pips of hp degen, this has anti-melee written all over it. On rangers, Faintheartedness + E. Tap = good situation. Of course, rangers are your worst nightmare so be hiding behind a hill or something when you hex them...

Now I do understand hexes can be removed, but the idea is to let Migrane stop the hex removal long enough to Power Drain it. With multiple DoT hexes you can use to cover, I've found that this works well:

melee:
Faintheartedness covered by soothing images, then Conjure Phantasm

ranger:
faintheartedness covered by conjure phantasm and maybe migrane [slows down their skill shots for some reason...]

caster:
oh yeah - Migrane, Conjure Phantasm, *power drain their hex-remover*, Faintheartedness [wham 10 degen]

Don't know why it works so well, can't wait to try HoH with this!