Curse

Xyonmonkey · Mar 02, 2006, 03:03 PM // 15:03

Xyon's Illusionary Weaponry Build
Illusionary Weaponry Build

Mesmer/Warrior
Level: 20

Fast Casting: 9 (8+1)
Illusion Magic: 13 (11+2)
Tactics: 11

Illusionary Weaponry [Elite] (Illusion Magic)
For 30 seconds, you deal no damage in melee, but whenever you attack in melee your target foe takes 36 damage.
Energy:15 Cast:0.71 Recharge:40

Clumsiness (Illusion Magic)
For 7 seconds, the next time target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted and target foe suffers 81 damage.
Energy:10 Cast:0.71 Recharge:10

Phantom Pain (Illusion Magic)
For 10 seconds, target foe suffers Health degeneration of 3. When Phantom Pain ends, that foe suffers a Deep Wound, lowering that foe's maximum Health by 20% for 18 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:1.42 Recharge:15

Defensive Stance (Tactics)
For 9 seconds, you have +24 armor and you have a 75% chance to "evade" melee attacks and arrows. Defensive Stance ends if you use a skill.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:45

Deadly Riposte (Tactics)
For 8 seconds, while you have a sword equipped, you "block" the next attack against you, and your attacker takes 20 damage and begins Bleeding for 38 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:10

Disciplined Stance (Tactics)
For 9 seconds, you gain +24 armor and have a 75% chance to "block" attacks. Disciplined Stance ends if you use an adrenal skill.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:60

Healing Signet (Tactics)
You gain 122 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.
Energy:0 Cast:2 Recharge:4

Flurry (Warrior other)
For 5 seconds, your attack rate is increased by 33%, but you deal 25% less damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:5

This build is a bit different than many of the other illusionary weaponry builds, and I wanted some input to see if you guys think it'd be good.

I'll just go over the skills one by one. Illusionary Weaponry is there because, well, its an illusionary weaponry build. For those who don't know, it deals no melee damage but 34 damage for each time it hits.

I included clumsiness because I thought, being on the front lines, you would be fighting warriors quite often, and 81 damage is awesome.

Phantom pain is a good opening move, if you use it and dps the person down to below 20%, when the deep wound effect goes off their health goes to one.

Defensive stance is included for melee survivability. Without it and disciplined stance, you would die far to fast on the front lines.

Deadly ripste is included to help you do a bit of damage while you wait for your IW to recharge. I've found it to be quite a nice way to keep healers healing your target, and soon those monks run out of mana. Does nice damage too if the other person isn't being healed.

Healing signet is included for a way of survivability. With the amount of tactics you have it heals you for a nice amount. Reduces your dependence on healers.

Flurry is one of the most important moves on there. You should be using flurry every chance you get while your ilussionary weaponry is up. Because the damage decrease is only effective on melee damage, it has no effect on your damage you're doing. You can be using a lvl 1 sword and still be doing major dps.

Fallbacks to this build include having your IW being taken off mid fight. That is when you need to fall back from the front lines and start using clumsiness or phantom pain on people. Deadly riposte helps too if you stay in the melee fray.

Another fall back is that mesmers don't have a lot of armor. You must be careful and pop the 2 defensive stances in order to keep yourself alive. The rogues set is generally best for the build, I advise everyone using this build to get it for the physical damage decrease.

Feel free to post your thoughts and questions

fear my warrior · Mar 02, 2006, 03:53 PM // 15:53

Completely useless... no res sig.

glountz · Mar 02, 2006, 04:14 PM // 16:14

No movement control skill or speed buff. Kiting will own you.

Xyonmonkey · Mar 02, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

So i should add sprint into the mix somewhere? Oh, and the res sig can be subbed in for deadly riposte in HoH

glountz · Mar 02, 2006, 05:11 PM // 17:11

Not sprint. You have no point in Strenght.
You are high in Illusion. Illusion of Haste would be fine but you can't remove crippling. Try to slow your ennemy with Ethereal or Imagined Burden or both (even better). Covered by a easy spammable hex, of course (like Conjure phantasm, a lot better than Phantom pain).
Forget all your stances and take Distortion. Mana loss doesn't hit that much.
And finally, you have no cover enchant. If someone drain/shatter/inspire your IW, you're dead meat.

Xyonmonkey · Mar 02, 2006, 05:14 PM // 17:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by glountz

Not sprint. You have no point in Strenght.
You are high in Illusion. Illusion of Haste would be fine but you can't remove crippling. Try to slow your ennemy with Ethereal or Imagined Burden or both (even better). Covered by a easy spammable hex, of course (like Conjure phantasm, a lot better than Phantom pain).
Forget all your stances and take Distortion. Mana loss doesn't hit that much.
And finally, you have no cover enchant. If someone drain/shatter/inspire your IW, you're dead meat.

Thanks for the info, I'll rework my build

tuperwho · Mar 02, 2006, 05:23 PM // 17:23

Illusion of Weakness and distortion are all you need for survivability and "healing". This will free up all those stance and heal spots, as well as letting you put the attribute points in illusion instead of tactics. Personally, I was using backfire and empathy in my IW build, but I like the idea of clumsiness even more.

Dragannia · Mar 02, 2006, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Sympathetic Visage. You NEED it as a cover enchantment. How come no one ever remembers this? Also, it's an Illusion attribute skill, so it synergises nicely.

Take Flurry and Distortion, and ditch Deadly Riposte. Use Distortion when you're being wailed upon by Warriors, and use Flurry when you solo against a single enemy.

mortalis doleo · Mar 02, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyonmonkey

So i should add sprint into the mix somewhere? Oh, and the res sig can be subbed in for deadly riposte in HoH

i cant find a good reason to bring IW mesmers into HoH, but regardless, do you plan on not bringing res sig into RA/TA?

Xyonmonkey · Mar 02, 2006, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Thanks for the help people, but now I have a bunch of attribute points. Should I do inspiration? Possibly some swordsmanship to allow me to at least do some damage?

Avarre · Mar 03, 2006, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragannia

Take Flurry and Distortion, and ditch Deadly Riposte. Use Distortion when you're being wailed upon by Warriors, and use Flurry when you solo against a single enemy.

DR + flurry + clumsiness + IW = better anti-warrior setup than distortion... you block the first 2 attacks, by they time they actually hit you you've done 98 + 50~ + 2(42) = 200+ damage. And DR has nice recharge (plus it just got buffed! yeeeha!)

Dragannia · Mar 03, 2006, 09:46 AM // 09:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

DR + flurry + clumsiness + IW = better anti-warrior setup than distortion... you block the first 2 attacks, by they time they actually hit you you've done 98 + 50~ + 2(42) = 200+ damage. And DR has nice recharge (plus it just got buffed! yeeeha!)

But then you're wasting an extra skill slot. Personally, I prefer just to use Distortion, take Shatter Enchantment, wail on the enemy Monk for a while with Distortion on, dodging enemy attacks and Blacking-out the Monk, and when the Warriors finally give up in disgust at the lack of hitting (and when they DO hit, their adrenaline goes POOF), activate Flurry and continue wailing on their Monk. Since both have 5 second recharges, this strategy works well.

Avarre · Mar 03, 2006, 10:17 AM // 10:17

Clumsiness is not a waste, it can be used for 97 damage against ANY enemy. Yes, casters attack too. Distortion is better versus rangers, but DR will kill warriors faster. Your choice...

Xyonmonkey · Mar 03, 2006, 02:26 PM // 14:26

Avarre and Dragannia made good points. I'll look into it

Mordakai · Mar 03, 2006, 07:04 PM // 19:04

I've never tried a IW build, but was thinking Blackout might be a good back-up skill. I mean, you're doing 34 dam. regardless of skills, but blocking out Warrior skill bar for 6 seconds would be fun.

Plus, any enchants or stances you have up stay (of course, you can't recast them for 5 seconds...)

EDIT: Doh, Dragannia already suggested Blackout. I missed it.

How's This Sound:

ILL: 16
Dom: 13

IW (E) (what's dam. at 16?)
Clumsiness
Distortion
Illusion of Haste or Etheral Burden

Dom:
Blackout
Shatter Enchantment

Flurry
Rez Sig

Avarre · Mar 04, 2006, 01:15 AM // 01:15

42 damage at 16 illu.

You'd be better going with a major rune for 14 dom, that's the breakpoint to 7s blackout which is a little more useful now that the recharge time was increased.

Dragannia · Mar 05, 2006, 09:59 AM // 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

42 damage at 16 illu.

You'd be better going with a major rune for 14 dom, that's the breakpoint to 7s blackout which is a little more useful now that the recharge time was increased.

Wait, why is it more useful now that the recharge is increased?

I for one HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the new update, simply because of the Blackout nerf. At 12 seconds, my Blackout build (with Serpent's Quickness) gives them a 2 second gap instead of the previous one second, though Echoing still works reasonably well (barely).

Murder In China · Mar 05, 2006, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Because shutting down a monk for 7 seconds is deadly.

Dragannia · Mar 06, 2006, 01:25 AM // 01:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murder In China

Because shutting down a monk for 7 seconds is deadly.

I mean, he said that Blackout, with a twelve second recharge is better than before at 10 seconds. Or have I misunderstood something...?

LouAl · Mar 06, 2006, 10:12 PM // 22:12

The update killed Black out for me...
I used to be able to Black out someone for 30 seconds (no gaps at all) and now it is only 21 seconds continuous

oh well. That 2 sec increase in recharge really screwed it over. Oh, wait maybe it is still possible...yup, but just barely