Curse

dangle · Apr 15, 2006, 09:00 PM // 21:00

In PvP, when you cast Phantom Pain on a target, what is the typical reaction? Do they / their monks wipe it off and take the deep wound right away, or just let it run since the degen isn't scary?

wheel · Apr 15, 2006, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by dangle

In PvP, when you cast Phantom Pain on a target, what is the typical reaction? Do they / their monks wipe it off and take the deep wound right away, or just let it run since the degen isn't scary?

Phantom Pain is virtually never used outside of a spike build, so as a monk, when Phantom Pain is first used in a match and a target is spiked, I will continually watch the mesmer casting it, and when the hex hits the target, it's easy to know which target is going to be spiked. When it's not being used in a spike build, I simply leave it on. The deep wound won't do a whole lot outside of a spike build.

dangle · Apr 15, 2006, 10:33 PM // 22:33

thanks

Hella Good · Apr 15, 2006, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Phantom Pain is almost always used with Shatter Del, as a spike facilitating skill and as a spike in itself (20% current health reduction + 80 or so damage is quite some damage in itself, not to mention the 20% less heals). I have actually seen some builds use PP and similar "spike hexes" to confuse the enemy. But this is high level PvP we're talking about here.

dangle · Apr 16, 2006, 03:50 AM // 03:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hella Good

Phantom Pain is almost always used with Shatter Del, ...

Yeah...I'm cooking up a spike build, and I was considering whether or not SD is needed...like if I could count on the enemy to remove PP for me and trigger the deep wound. I sort of forgot about the extra damage that SD does, but I don't know how much domination I'd have anyhow.

d3kst3r · Apr 16, 2006, 07:48 AM // 07:48

Phantom Pain + Shatter Delusions = around 170 dmg and is used to aid spike builds by both decreasing the target's hp by 20% but also dealing a considerable about of dmg. All this is used by a Fast Cast Domination mesmer and can reduce the number of spikers in a spike group by 1 as well as gaining a mesmer who can also double up as an e-denial.

Hella Good · Apr 16, 2006, 08:35 AM // 08:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by dangle

Yeah...I'm cooking up a spike build, and I was considering whether or not SD is needed...like if I could count on the enemy to remove PP for me and trigger the deep wound. I sort of forgot about the extra damage that SD does, but I don't know how much domination I'd have anyhow.

PP/SD spike isn't Illusion max, it's Domi. You just put enough points in Illusion to make it worthwhile and go all the way Domination. You can run Surge or whatever- it doesn't matter. You shouldn't count on Monks removing the PP. The reason why they use PP/SD is that they can time it with the spike (ele, adrenal, ranger, blood, whatever), so that targets drop faster.

Siren · Apr 18, 2006, 06:01 PM // 18:01

I've been having fun with it, definitely. By itself, Phantom Pain is meh. But running it with SD, and a few other select Illusion or Dom skills and you've got one hell of a spiker. Can't quite do the same damage as an Evis Warrior, but it's still nasty as hell--and perfect to finish off targets. I've done that so much in PvP lately and it's delicious every single time.

My current Illusion/Dom build has afforded me a new-found respect for degen/spike combinations. I'm certainly never looking at degen as a "ho-hum" damage infliction, because I've seen what concentrated degen can do, as opposed to the traditional pressure degen team builds. Now it kind of annoys me when I see people shrug-off any form of degen as incidental...because it isn't incidental when played aggressively, heh.