Curse

swordfisher · Apr 05, 2006, 07:18 PM // 19:18

[GvG]

I am, to put it simply, infatuated with the new mesmer elite, Psychic Distraction. It can interrupt any skill and disable it for 10 seconds, and recharges in 2 seconds. The problem is, it kills the rest of your skillbar (not including itself) for 8 seconds every time you use it. This is a significant drawback, especially because you need to have some way to pay the energy costs to use it repeatedly.

[This is not my first Psychic Distraction build- the 'Psychic Assassin' can be found here, and I would love some feedback on it as well.]

Psychic Distraction is, regretably, an energy hungry RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO. It all but demands that you tap yourself out using it, because you'll have eight seconds of downtime one way or the other. I still believe that passive energy management is the key to using Psychic Distraction- the more interrupts you can chain together before having to take a break, the greater a presence you are on the field. So after much thought and consideration- here is my build.

Me/N

Domination 9+1
Inspiration 11+3+1
Fast Casting 8+1
Curses 8

Psychic Distraction, 10e 1/4 2s
All of your other skills are disabled for 8 seconds. If target foe is using a skill, that skill is interrupted and disabled for 10 seconds.
Mantra of Inscriptions, 10e - 20s
For 90 seconds, your Signet skills recharge 50% faster.
Signet of Disenchantment, - 2 15s
Signet. Lose all Energy. Target foe loses one Enchantment.
Leech Signet, - 1/4 45s
Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you gain 15 Energy.
Hex-Eater Signet, - 2 45s
Target touched ally and up to 2...4 adjacent allies each lose one hex. You gain 1...6 Energy for each Hex removed this way. (GuildWiki doesn't have the value for this skill at 15 Insp)
Spirit of Failure, 10e 3 10s
For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 5 Energy whenever that foe fails to hit in combat.
Price of Failure, 10e 3 10s
For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks and takes 19 damage whenever that foe fails to hit in combat.
Parasitic Bond, 5e 1 2s
For 20 seconds, target foe suffers health degeneration of 1. The caster is healed for 78 when Parasitic Bond ends.

At the core of this build is the Price/Spirit combo. This is a tried and true E machine, with the bonus of also being a little bit of warrior hate. At 9 Fast Cast, Price and Spirit take about 2 seconds to cast. Parasitic Bond is here as a cover hex, and may be switched out.
Both Price and Spirit should be cast and recast frequently, to double up on energy gain and cover for removal/expiration. This is an energy investment in itself, costing 25e a go to cast and cover the two.
The signets are present as energy management (leech sig, hex eater) and anti-energy managment (sig of disenchant). Signet of Disenchantment is just a little bonus utility to be used anytime you find yourself near zero (or close enough to focus swap down to zero), while leech signet and hex eater give your energy pool a little kick in the pants every 23 seconds, hopefully providing enough energy to put a Spirit/Price/Para down.

(My original build had Signet of Disruption instead of Signet of Disenchantment, giving me an extra interrupt every 15 seconds at no energy cost. I decided I'd rather make this build a little more multifunctional, but I'm not 100% sure it's the right thing to do.)

Spoony · Apr 06, 2006, 09:06 AM // 09:06

Well im glad u took my advice and done a psychical distraction caster, than an assasin. A few things about this build, before u start spamming that elite, make sure ur high on energy, and hexed ur target with other skills already. The rest is quite.... ok.

swordfisher · Apr 06, 2006, 11:53 PM // 23:53

I may do a little overhauling of the build, however. The problem is that, even with a hugely specced mantra of inscriptions, leech signet is still inferior to power drain in almost every way. At 15 Inspiration, Leech Sig brings in 15e if I interrupt a spell. Power Drain nets 26e (twenty freaking six, and that's accounting for the 5e cost of the spell), and recharges about 2 seconds slower...without a mantra to speed it up. But if I switch leech signet for power drain, then the only thing really benefiting from mantra of inscriptions is hex-eater signet (which I do like).

So I'm revising a bit. Leech Signet gets changed for Power Drain and Signet of Disenchantment (I'll miss it) gets switched for Signet of Disruption. Under Mantra, Signet of Disruption has a 15 second recharge, making it one of the faster interrupts available, and free to boot. Power Drain complements it at 25 seconds, giving some versatility, and allowing me to strategically pick spells to interrupt before commiting to Psychic Distraction (and going interrupt-berserk). Hex Eater gets to stay, and refreshes every 23 seconds.

New skillbar is:

Psychic Distraction*
Spirit of Failure
Price of Failure
Parasitic Bond
Mantra of Inscriptions
Signet of Disruption
Hex-Eater Signet
Power Drain

Hella Good · Apr 12, 2006, 01:04 AM // 01:04

I'm not quite sure how a Psychic Distraction build wll play out but it is my understanding that the other skills on your skill bar should be such that you can get some sort of benefit from them while you are shut down. I think Spirit of Failure is an interesting choice and I like it. I guess stuff like lengthy hexes will be nice. I'd also take Arcane Conundrum. Hook up some SoF, cover-up, hook up AC, cover up, start distracting. I don't know if the Sigs will be any use btw, I'd rather use an armor stance (ele of physical res) and the new stance armor, maybe also Illusion of Weakness and some chants armor, too.