Curse

d3kst3r · Apr 17, 2006, 01:00 PM // 13:00

I was playing as a mesmer in a balanced group in Heroes Arena. We had two mesmers in our team and were getting 10% morale boosts at the Zaishens and getting flawless victories against spike teams. We even made it into HoH several times (tho didn't win it dammit!) and I have to say this skill is an absolutely awesome anti-spike skill. About 50% of the builds we fought were spike and every spike build we were able to destroy flawlessly by having our two mesmers take turns spamming this skill during the spike.
A single Cry would disrupt the entire enemy team allowing us to simply rush up to their faces and force them to play defensive. But with two it seemed they couldn't get a single spike out.
We also had a necromancer spamming Faintheartnedness whenever we went against a ranger spike team. With that on we could see a Dual Shot from a mile away and put a Cry on it before it was even halfway done.
Overall my review of this skill is that it is definitely the future of anti-spike defense and I suspect in 6 months time every HA build will be calling for it to be used.

Poison Ivy · Apr 17, 2006, 01:04 PM // 13:04

If your just using the Mesmers for anti-spike, you might as well have only one.

As long as that Mesmer packs Shadow of Fear and Arcane Condrum with a Echo and Arcane Echo. Energy Tap solve the energy problem ^.^

d3kst3r · Apr 17, 2006, 01:12 PM // 13:12

For the recharge time, having two fast cast Mind Wrack e-surge/burn mesmers working in tandem to drop monks in 1 second is a bit better for the build. And also the recharge time for Cry is a bit long so having two makes it so that every spike attempt can be covered. Our build happened to require a curse necro so it was his job to Wither Malaise secondary caster targets and Faintheartedness Enfeeble warriors and rangers and also Weaken Armor whenever our warrior demanded it.
With all that we were able to kill monks very quickly and render all spike builds that went against us useless.

Valkyries · Apr 17, 2006, 01:19 PM // 13:19

You could also use a Glyph Dom with Cry of Frustration, then you actually do get to use it twice in a row if need be.

Also, Cry of Frustration is really an awesome skill. Not just for spikes (although it is great for that) but almost anything. It costs a lot but it interupts everything and even deals a little damage in the process... how can you go wrong with that?

d3kst3r · Apr 17, 2006, 01:22 PM // 13:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valkyries

You could also use a Glyph Dom with Cry of Frustration, then you actually do get to use it twice in a row if need be.

Also, Cry of Frustration is really an awesome skill. Not just for spikes (although it is great for that) but almost anything. It costs a lot but it interupts everything and even deals a little damage in the process... how can you go wrong with that?

For a single person interrupt it pales in comparison to what Rangers are capable of with Savage Shot and Punishing Shot etc. But the beauty of this skill really is that it has a huge AoE range that triggers on all enemies around the target. It's like having 1 person disrupt 8 people using a single skill which is what is required against a spike.

Sentao Nugra · Apr 17, 2006, 01:24 PM // 13:24

Many teams have included Cry of Frustration in their builds for interrupting spikes. This has been around for a long time in GvG and HA, but it seems to have gone by the wayside for balanced builds (which could be why we see blood spike and ranger spike so much in HA.) The Surge/Wrack Mesmer has become what almost every group runs. While there are other "ADD" Mesmers, as our guild has coined them, that just spam shutdown skills (Guilt, Shame, Diversion and the likes,) it seems as if these are the only 2 builds anyone sees. "The Metagame is the Metagame because it works," but it could sure as hell be more efficient and tweaked if the teams would think to counter their most likely opponents (spike.)

d3kst3r · Apr 17, 2006, 01:30 PM // 13:30

I've also seen Cry used in many balanced builds throughout the countless hours of HA however only recently I've seen it designed into the build as a way of defeating spikes (hence having Faintheartedness necro).

As for the Metagame, it seems that the strength in balanced builds is that they are able to adapt to the situation and have the potential to counter any other type of build while minimalising any weakness within.

Take IWAY for example, that build is designed at forcing lots of pressure against the enemy forcing them to play defensive. However get rid of the spirits and kill off the necros and that build is rendered useless. Thus IWAY has a weakness.

Trappers are good at spreading massive amounts of conditions around while doing a decent amount of damage however a build with good condition removal would counter it very well.

Every "specific" build type has a weakness except for balanced which is designed to be prepared in any situation. Hence why all the top guilds seem to run balanced builds in the World Championship despite us seldom seeing them win Hall of Heroes.

fallot · Apr 17, 2006, 01:49 PM // 13:49

This skill is already used to prevent spike, so I wouldnt exactly call it the "future".

Aera · Apr 17, 2006, 03:57 PM // 15:57

you must have faced crappy teams then...spread out ftw!

Hella Good · Apr 17, 2006, 04:34 PM // 16:34

Cry is a great skill but there is nothing futuristic about it... It does work to stop most spikers (they tend to bunch up) but it's nothing like game breaking or anything... Plus 2 Mesmers with E-denial owns anyway... with or w/o Cry.

Eaimirth Etaivella · Apr 22, 2006, 04:31 AM // 04:31

People have been using this for ages; just more ammo for the "people never notice mesmers!" cannon; gj seeing though-perceptive eyes as very few people realize what just happened to them when they get interrupted via cry.

Just assume it was a ranger.

Shanaeri Rynale · Apr 22, 2006, 08:55 AM // 08:55

cry is a great skill it's only downside is the long recharge time. A drop to 15 from 20 seconds would be an ideal to help counter spike without nerfing.

Run Red Run · Apr 24, 2006, 04:22 PM // 16:22

My guild runs a balanced build for HA and we always bring a copy of CoF. As fallot said, I don't really see it as the future since it's used now. We did run up against a very strong spike that mTv was running using 4 monks to supplement their caster's spike. While I had CoF and Power Drain, I could only pick on one caster because they were smart (unlike most) and spread out...

Kai Nui · Apr 24, 2006, 11:22 PM // 23:22

Just because you're noticing how awesome this skill is now doesn't mean it hasn't always been awesome prior to your discovery. Nothing futuristic about it. I like to bring it as a good interrupt, interrupts skills, deals area damage, and interrupts everyone there too.