Curse

Dean Harper · Jul 28, 2007, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Hello, my name's Dean. I was looking over the "Mesmer Basics" sticky thread posted by Ensign and I was quite disappointed by what i saw, no offense meant to you Ensign. I feel a better basics thread is needed for new Mesmers that covers frequently asked questions, each attribute line, discusses current meta-game builds and updates and just gives a more welcoming feeling to new Mesmers who need to know a few things. This is just a basic rough draft, where as new content will be added when you, the readers post about it. Thanks!

The Beginners' Guide

#1 The Attributes

Fast Casting: Contrary to common belief by many individuals, this primary attribute is very effective and important to a Mesmer in many ways. First, and most importantly, Fast Casting allows the Mesmer to shoot off spells more quickly than any other professions. Though, thanks to the recent update, it also effects Signets' casting time as well. Fast Casting allows the Mesmer to get an upper hand over other casting professions because, say at about 9 FC, a Mesmer casting [skill]Meteor Shower[/skill] against an Elementalist casting the same spell will finish casting about 1.5-2 seconds faster than the Elementalist. This means that the Ele will be standing within the Mesmer's Meteor Shower for 2 seconds, allowing only 1 second to escape the Area of Effect(AoE). The Mesmer on the other hand, will be able to escape the opponent's Meteor Shower because they were able to move about while the Ele was still casting. This can be of a HUGE advantage in the heat of battle where every second counts. In addition to all of this, Fast Casting allows Mesmers to be the best in-battle resurrection characters. In combination with spells like [skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill] and [skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill], Mesmers can shoot of reses as fast or even faster than someone using a Resurrection Signet. And most importantly, they can use them multiple times!

Domination: This attribute is the Memser's main staple of damage. Though not as high of damage as any Elementalist, the Domination line allows the Mesmer to hex foes and deal damage over time for completing certain actions such as casting a spell or attacking. It also provides a decent amount of interrupting and shutdown skills. Such skills include [skill]Blackout[/skill][skill]Power Block[/skill] and [skill]Diversion[/skill]. Most Mesmers rely on this attribute for thier basic builds in PvE (Player vs. Environment), but it does equally well in PvP (Player vs. Player). Domination basically reduces the effectiveness of an opponent in battle, hurting them for completing a certain action or depleting their ability to act. Such skills as [skill]Empathy[/skill] and [skill]Backfire[/skill]. Domination also utilizes skills such as [skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Guilt[/skill] and [skill]Mistrust[/skill] to disrupt enemy skills and spells while giving a benefit to the Mesmer, whether that be draining energy or dealing damage to the foe. Skills like [skill]Energy Surge[/skill] and [skill]Energy Burn[/skill] are mostly for dealing damage but fit in well with bars that deal in energy denial.

Illusion: Perhaps the Mesmer's most underestimated attribute, Illusion deals with one main focus, adding Degeneration to the opposing team's health bars. Illusion Mesmers use skills like [skill]Conjure Phantasm[/skill] and [skill]Images of Remorse[/skill] for spammable degeneration skills. In PvE, Illusion is more suited for the earlier game, as degeneration has less of an effect on higher level enemies, while it has place mostly in Alliance Battles, Random Arenas, and Team Arenas in PvP, using skills such as [skill]Ineptitude[/skill] and [skill]Illusionary Weaponry[/skill]. Some people may say that Illusionary Weaponry is somewhat obsolete, and it basically is, but it still has some use in these PvP environments. Illusion is also meant as a "slowing" attribute. Each skill within this line slows opponents in one way or another, whether it be a slow death with [skill]Conjure Phantasm[/skill] or a slowing of damage dealt with [skill]Ineptitude[/skill] or even the slowing of movement and casting, [skill]Imagined Burden[/skill] [skill]Arcane Conundrum[/skill] [skill]Frustration[/skill]. Also, using skills such as [skill]Clumsiness[/skill] and [skill]Signet of Clumsiness[/skill] to counter attacks, Illusion can be called the Anti-Melee line, especially when combined with a Necromancer's Curses line.

Inspiration: The Mesmer's energy pool. This attribute is the staple of a Mesmer's energy and energy upkeep. It allows for not only basic energy gaining, but also for the stealing of energy from opponents. Thrown into the mix are interrupts, such as [skill]Leech Signet[/skill] and [skill]Power Drain[/skill]. An assortment of useful skills called Mantras are also part of the Inspiration line. These stances allow the Mesmer to achieve less damage from certain sources, while gaining energy, as well as recharging signets and lengthening the duration of Illusion hexes. Even though the majority of this line is used for support, there are some skills Such as [skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill] and [skill]Ether Phantom[/skill] that reduce the effectiveness of an opponent while giving you a boost in energy. Inspiration is what keeps a Mesmer going during battle, and most builds are not viable without some form of Inspiration or another (no pun intended).

#2 What Does A Mesmer Do?

The Mesmer. A very versatile and jack-of-all-trade-like profession. The Mesmer is a class that can do many things when combined with different professions. For instance, when combined with a Monk, the Mesmer can be an avid party support class as well as an interrupter using skills like [skill]Power Leak[/skill][skill]Draw Conditions[/skill] and [skill]Mantra of Recovery[/skill] Mesmers can also combine very well with a Necromancer, using hexes from the Illusion line in combination with hexes from the Curses line. Mesmer/Ranger has few roles in most parties but can be useful in condtion spreading, with skills like [skill]Epidemic[/skill] and [skill]Hypochondria[/skill]. Mesmer/Warrior can be an effective Illusionary Weaponry build, using a Warrior's many Increased Attack Speed(IAS) skills. Mesmer/Elementalist is probably the most often used combination, as a Mesmer has skills that allow the Elementalists' deadly spells to be cast more quickly and with more efficiency. Mesmer/Ritualist is often used when the player wants to deal more damage through Domination and Channeling skills. Mesmer/Assassin is another very good option for Illusionary Weaponry builds and adds a defensive side to Mesmers when using Shadow Arts skills. Mesmer/Paragon and Mesmer/Dervish are also very effective condition users with the elite [skill]Extend Conditions[/skill]. However, a Mesmer can be EXTREMELY powerful using only Mesmer skills. Shutdown is probably one of the most important roles of the Mesmer, especially in PvP. Shutdown builds often include skills such as [skill]Diversion[/skill], [skill]Blackout[/skill], and [skill]Power Block[/skill] Energy Denial (or E-denial) builds are often used in PvP to shutdown opponents by draining their energy and not allowing them to use their skills. Builds for Memsers will be explained in the next section, along with some more example skills.

#3 Builds and Their Uses

Damage Builds:

PvE:

Basic PvE Mesmer:

[skill]Energy Surge[/skill][skill]Wastrel's Worry[/skill][skill]Empathy[/skill][skill]Backfire[/skill][skill]Mistrust[/skill][skill]Inspired Hex[/skill][skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

Domination: 12+1+3
Inspiration: 9+1 or 10+1
Fast Casting: 9+1 or 8+1

Note: This is a very basic build and can have many variations.

Basic FC Nuker:

[skill]Fireball[/skill][skill]Breath of Fire[/skill][skill]Rodgort's Invocation[/skill][skill]Auspicious Incantation[/skill][skill]Meteor Shower[/skill][skill]Echo[/skill][skill]Fire Attunement[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

Fast Casting: 10+1+1
Fire Magic: 12
Inspiration: 8+1

Note: Also a very basic build and there are better nuking builds out there, such as the Mind Blast Nuker. This build is not available to me personally, so please pm it to me so i may post it. Thanks!

Ineptitude Spammer:

[skill]Ineptitude[/skill][skill]Clumsiness[/skill][skill]Signet of Clumsiness[/skill][skill]Arcane Echo[/skill][skill]Auspicious Incantation[/skill][skill]Ether Signet[/skill][skill]Mantra of Inscriptions[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

Illusion: 12+1+1
Inspiration: 10+1
Fast Casting: 8+1

Note: This build is a basic Ineptitude build, of which there are many variations, please feel free to tweak with it when you use it in-game.

PvP:

E-Surge Mesmer:

[skill]Energy Surge[/skill][skill]Energy Burn[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Shatter Enchantment[/skill][skill]Diversion[/skill][skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Power Leak[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

Domination: 12+1+1
Inspiration: 9+1
FC: 9+1

Note: This is one of the more basic, and maybe even obsolete builds in PvP, but it still sees use, as well as being one of the only damage based Mesmer builds in PvP.

FC Mind Blast Nuker:

[skill]Mind Blast[/skill][skill]Liquid Flame[/skill][skill]Fireball[/skill][skill]Smoldering Embers[/skill][skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill][skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Fire Attunement[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

This is the much sought after FC Mind Blast Nuker build. It utilizes a Mesmer primary to engage high points in Fast Casting and quickly spam multiple high damage spells. Here are the attributes as seen on wiki:

Attributes:

Fast Casting: 12+1+2
Fire Magic: 12

Shutdown Builds:

PvE:

There are no real PvE shutdown builds because of the fact that PvE is about killing, not making the opponents weaker and then killing. Or just about killing as fast as possible.

PvP:

Hex Eater Vortex Mesmer:

[skill]Hex Eater Vortex[/skill][skill]Diversion[/skill][skill]Shatter Hex[/skill][skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Power Leak[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill][skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Attributes:

Dom: 12+1+1
Insp: 10+1
FC: 8+1

Note: This is one if not the most effective build in the current GvG metagame and is widely used by most top teams.

MoR Shutdown:

[skill]Power Drain[/skill][skill]Power Leak[/skill][skill]Diversion[/skill][skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Shatter Enchantment[/skill][skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill][skill]Mantra of Recovery[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Attributes:

Dom: 11+1+1
Insp: 10+1
FC: 10+1
Healing Prayers: 1

Note: These two builds are basically the same, except for the elite, but they serve different purposes, one to shutdown enemies quickly, the other to shutdown enemies and provide support and damage through HEV and Shatter Hex.

Interrupt Builds:

PvE:

Fast Casting Interrupter:

[skill]Mantra of Recovery[/skill][skill]Power Spike[/skill][skill]Cry of Frustration[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill][skill]Empathy[/skill][skill]Drain Enchantment[/skill][skill]Remove Hex[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Attributes:

Dom: 12+1+1
Insp: 9+1
FC: 9+1
Healing: 3

Note: This is a common bulid utilizing the interrupt spells of the Domination line and the Elite skills Mantra of Recovery to recharge those spells as quickly as possible. It also utilizes its high investment in Fast Casting to support the team quickly with Remove Hex and Resurrection Chant.

Energy Denial:

PvE:

Again, like Shutdown, Energy Denial builds are not commonly used in PvE because they do not deal damage, which is the main focus of that style of play.

PvP:

Panic E-Denial:

[skill]Panic[/skill][skill]Shatter Enchantment[/skill][skill]Auspicious Incantation[/skill][skill]Ether Phantom[/skill][skill]Drain Delusions[/skill][skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Guilt[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

Dom: 12+1+3
Insp: 9+1
FC: 9+1

Note: This build is widely used in Hero's Ascent in the current metagame, and gives team-wide energy denial and keeps monks from casting their healing skills, therefore depriving the enemies of their support. I highly recommend this build for all Memsers in HA.

Interruptiion Guide By Shanaeri Rnynale:

Quote:

Find below are my thoughts on Interrupting and shutdown in general, but focussing on the Mesmer profession. It’s not meant as a be all and end all guide as 1, I don’t know everything about the subject, 2, i’ve been known to be wrong and 3/ It doesn’t mention builds as there are some threads on that already and 4/ it’s mainly PvE focussed.

The notes are from some of my Guilds training session we hold, and i'm told they were useful so I hope they are for you too. What it does do(I hope) is outline some of the mechanics and tips I’ve learned in *cough* hours of playing a mesmer.

Anyway, it’s quite an essay and I hope people find it useful. As I said, it's not meant to provide people with builds; but hopefully outline the concepts and thoughts behind Interrupting and Shutdown so when you are in the creation of build the basic mechanics are understood.

Interrupting and Shutdown.

Why do it?

It may seem obvious but the purpose of an interrupt or a shutdown(I&S) skill is to deny your enemy the use or effect of that skill/s. So what you may say, when we can just overwhelm with damage. But we’ll come to that later.
Lets take an example from PvE. The Ruby Djinn’s in Elona will cast searing flames at your team. If allowed through, this will equate to around 120-140 damage per affected team member, plus the heavy degen of burning; which at -7 degen equates to a health loss of 14Hp per second for around 6 seconds. Giving a total affected team damage if unhealed of a minimum of 204damage(assuming normal caster armor). Regardless of the precise numbers, the point being is it will hurt..

Now of course the monks will heal this off, but that costs them energy and a skill downtime If it costs energy it increases pressure on the team, which in turn increases the chances of a characters death. Get enough pressure and the team will wipe.

Now what if stop the searing flames from hitting?

Players won’t get hit for 204, the monks won’t need to use energy and skill and the net effect is a reduction in pressure for the entire team.
Remember, it’s not damage that kills a team, its pressure. Especially pressure on the energy and skills downtime of the monks.

Killing before being killed is now prevalent in PvE. Steam roller AoE is now pretty much cookie cutter mandatory in some elite places, DoA for example. However stopping that spellbreaker cast by a Margonite monk, Invoke lightning from an Ele can make a team’s chances of surviving the quest substantially greater.

The basics of interrupts.

The base line, your physical limitations

Human being’s reactions are not instant; we require a certain amount of time to react. This reaction time forms one of the core factors in interrupting. Typically this is between 0.22 and 0.27s, trained athletes can get this down to about 0.17s but this is rare and related to twitch reflexes.

A twitch reflex is just doing something, without engaging any kind of decision making at all. It’s an instinctive reaction that operates outside of the brain. The phrase trigger happy, where one just pulls the trigger based on no criteria, only that your nerves went pull.

Google reaction times, to determine what yours are. The best ones those that you have to react when only a certain shape appears.

Trigger happy interrupting, although it will decrease reaction times, will make your interrupts far less effective. We’ll come onto why later.

The base line, your computer and connectivity

One of The other fundamental factors is your ping time and the speed of your PC. Although PC performance is of less importance here, than in say UT2004 if your PC can only manage 20 fps then your interrupts will be less reliable. A useful tip is to turn the graphics settings down.

Ping time is simply the time it takes for the ‘I’ve hit skill x’ request to go through the internet to the Anet servers. Typically this is around 0.1 to 0.3s although it can be longer. If it’s too long then active interrupts may be very difficult. It seems as though the international districts have a higher ping time than local ones, so it’s important to bear this in mind.

Other factors, after cast

After pretty much every skill use there is a small amount of downtime before you can move or cast again. This time is called aftercast. For rangers this time is 0.5s, for other professions it’s 0.75. Exceptions to these skills are stances or shouts with no activation times

One of the effects of Aftercast is to absorb some of the effects of ping lag, but it is a consideration in interrupts as it puts another delay into you trying to hit the next interrupt. I.e you can’t just go bam bam, there is always a delay and you need to be aware of it

Other factors.

For a Mesmer, fast cast can significantly help reduce the cast time of interrupts, but will only speed up spells.

For a ranger, the flight time of the arrow is included in the total time to interrupt. Therefore being closer, favourable winds, being higher or having a faster firing bow can be critical.

Rangers can also only interrupt when not obstructed and in line of sight.
Warrior/other interrupts of course need to be in melee range

Therefore we can summarise one’s base minimum interrupt time as
Cast time(-FC reduction)+(reaction time+ping response time+decision making time)

For example. Power spike cast time 0.25sec on a Mesmer with 9 in FC is 0.16s . Lets say you have a ping of 0.2s and a reaction time of 0.24s.
Therefore the fastest skill you will be able to hit with power spike is 0.16+0.2+.024=0.6 seconds.

Moving on

But that’s not the end of the story. Remember I mentioned that a trigger happy interrupter is a poor interrupter.? This is why.
Generally interrupt skills have a high recharge time or penalties associated with use, so the skill you interrupt has to be worth both the energy usage and the penalty you pay for using it.

Here’s some examples.

Dwayna’s kiss 5 energy, 1 second cast time, 3 second recharge.

Heal other. 10 energy, 0.75s cast time. 3 second recharge.

Interrupting these skills is not generally worth the time as
1. The cast time is close to that of our minimum
2. The recharge time is very short, meaning that for our 15-20second interrupt skill recharge we have only disabled that skill for 3 seconds. Meaning they can cast it 3-5 times before our interrupt recharges.

Now, there are exceptions to this, which we will come onto later.
So basically, assuming it’s a monk we are trying to shut down she will have other spells that will prove more effective to hit. For example:

Restore life, gives your team chance to finish off the mob before they res

Aegis, gives their team protection from attacks and has a recharge time of 30seconds, so it’s easy to hit and costs a lot of energy.

Spell Breaker is a critical skill to hit, it has a long recharge and for an annoyingly long period makes the target immune to caster damage.

Heal area/party/LoD, although a fast recharge of 5 and 8 seconds respectively, it buffs the entire party making your job harder.

Going Deeper

In addition and to increase the complexity only some interrupts affect certain skills.

Skills come in the following classes
Skill: The most basic skill type. Provides various effects. Every icon on your bar is a skill

Attack: Attacks an enemy.

Bow Attack: Attack that requires a bow.
Melee Attack: Attack that requires an axe, dagger, hammer, or sword.
Axe Attack: Attack that requires an axe.
Dagger Attack: Attack that requires a dagger.
Lead Attack: Begins some attack chains.
Off-Hand Attack: Requires a lead attack or other circumstance.
Dual Attack: Usually requires an off-hand attack.
Hammer Attack: Attack that requires a hammer.
Scythe Attack: Attack that requires a scythe.
Sword Attack: Attack that requires a sword.
Pet Attack: Attack that requires a pet.
Spear Attack: Attack that requires a spear.

Chant: Provides positive effects that trigger on various circumstances.

Echo: Provides a positive effect which generally triggers or refreshes when a chant or shout ends.

Form: Transforms the user and provides various effects.

Glyph: Affects the next spell or spells you cast.

Preparation: Enhances your attacks.

Ritual: Creates a spirit.

Binding Ritual: Affects all allies.
Nature Ritual: Affects all creatures.

Shout: Usually provides a positive effect on allies in earshot, sometimes specific targets or foes in range.

Signet: Has no energy cost but usually has a long casting time and/or recharge time.

Spell: Various effects.

Enchantment Spell: Provides positive effects.
Hex Spell: Provides negative effects.
Item Spell: Creates an item to hold which has effects when held or dropped.
Ward Spell: Creates a defensive area effect.
Weapon Spell: Provides positive effects which cannot be removed by foes.
Well Spell: Exploits a corpse to create a temporary area effect.

Stance: Provides positive effects for the user.

Trap: Provides an area effect usually triggered by enemy presence.

More information can be found on here and at various GW info sites

It is vital to learn which interrupt affects what action

So for example, power block only affects spells and chants. Therefore trying to use it on heal sig, a glyph, stance or trap will not interrupt and you will waste it.

Cry Of frustration deals will skills so will affect all the above

Clumsiness is next attack so a heal sig, or trap usage will not trigger it

Another factor to consider is the previous hex or action you did to that foe, that could still be working on it.
For example. Casting backfire on a caster and then interrupting the next spell that follows is a waste of a backfire invocation. Unless urgent like a res, wait till backfire wears off and then resume.

So if you are trigger happy, you may you only not stop the skill that will help you the most, but you are also likely to waste the interrupt on a skill in which it won’t even affect. Not only that, but you wasting the interrupt will have no effect on the total pressure on the team, in fact it may well increase it.

Remember damage doesn’t cause team wipes. Pressure does.

Therefore in our interrupt time calculation we need to include another value. The Decision making time. I.e the time it takes for you to decide should I use this interrupt or not..
For the starter at interrupting this is by far the longest time, and can in some cases be over 1 second, especially if the skill being used is unknown to you.

So in our power spike example we get Power spike cast time 0.25sec on a Mesmer with 9 in FC is 0.16s .

Therefore the fastest skill you will be able to hit with power spike is 0.16+0.2+.024+thinking time =at least 1 second

More bad news

Some skills cannot be interrupted, are subject to non interrupt skills, or need to be interrupted more than once. Kunnevang’s monster skills and Nightmare refuge in Kannaxi for example.

Some bosses have half casting speed and half hex duration, meaning if you are trying to hit a 1 second cast that will be reduced to a .5s second cast, which is outside of our normal minimum time.
Also some monsters carry two copies of a skill, meaning if you stop one. It will use the copy.

In addition you can’t simply stand around waiting for your target to use the skill you want. You will be:
• Kiting
• Wanding
• Being aware of how things are going in the fight
• Deciding if the target you are waiting to interrupt is still the best option
• Looking at the radar and team chat
• Casting other spells at the targets

And all the while this is going on, you have to hit that spell that if it got through could undo all your teams hard work or even be the tipping point in which the pressure gets too much and your team wipes.

Cool huh?

Now for the good news.

Making up the odds

Some skills allow you to increase the cast time, thus giving you more time to think and react. Arcane conundrum and Broad Head Arrow to name but two. Dazed is a very desirable condition to inflict on a caster, not only does it make your job easier, it slows down their rate of cast and makes whatever they are cast easily interruptible(meaning you may not even need to use an interrupt skill).

If you are playing, or practicing interrupting then AC or dazed is an essential part of your bar. If you are playing Mesmer fast casting of at least 9 will also be of great help. Personally if I am playing interrupt I switch in armor piece with a major fast cast rune on, then switch it out when I don’t need it.

Skill line shutdown and extended recharge.

It is possible to equip skills that cause an extended outage on your opponent. I.e increase the recharge time of the interrupted skill to more than what it should be. This is obviously a very valuable thing to do as it not only reduces the pressure on the team for longer, but also gives you a greater range of skills that you can interrupt and still have an effect.
Skills such as power block, psychic distraction, distracting shot, and those causing knock down are all valid and useful ways of extending the shut down period. Be aware that skills such as power block are spells only though. Knowing what attribute line a skill in makes power block very effective as you can choose an easier skill to hit and still get the one you want.

An interesting side effect of psychic distraction is that it seems be able to punch through mantra of concentration, so if faced with that it may be worth a try.

Making it better. The pro-active shutdown or interrupt

There are two main types of interrupt and shutdown skills. Those that work while your target IS doing stuff, and those that linger about and are triggered BY your target doing stuff.

By use of these proactive shutdown skills we can negate a lot of the downsides of ping, reaction and thought time and still achieve the right result.

However these have downsides. You can’t always pick and choose what skill will be affected, they are vulnerable to hex removal and often the penalty paid is often smaller than that if you used an active shutdown.

There are a few Mesmer skills that allow you to do this, guilt(spells cast on your party), shame spells cast on their party, diversion(awesome shutdown skill. Esp if you have a high fast cast and can outcast the target), mistrust(like AoE backfire). Clumsiness is also an proactive shutdown as it waits until your target attacks before triggering the interrupt and finally hex breaker is useful if you are in a hex heavy area.

Necro skills, such as spinal shivers fall into this category also, as when cold damage is applied and you the energy the target is interrupted.

Although skills such as backfire, empathy, spirit shackles and say Migraine cause a player to pause(and therefore shutdown) what they are doing or about to do. I personally don’t class them as shutdown skills as the pause is optional, not inflicted.

Other oddities and fun to use are skills that steal, or globally deny use of skills. Arcane thievery(esp echo’d) can be devastating to a monster, especially as they only have 4-5 skills to choose from.

The use of pro-active shutdown, can be devastating especially when combined with advanced interrupts and shutdown techniques.

Advanced Interrupts And Shutdown Techniques.

We’ve seen how the effects of our physical body, technology can affect how well we interrupt and shutdown a target. We’ve also seen how the use of some skills can mitigate theses limitations.

We also touched on the downside to these pro active shutdown skills, in that very often the penalty paid is smaller than an active one, they are vulnerable to hex removal and you can’t really choose what you will stop.

To help us get around these, we have one weapon up our sleeves. Anticipation.

Anticipation is the art of observing the skill being used, knowing what the next one will be and then casting the interrupt at the same time as the follow up is starting to cast. Anticipation allows us to short cut the decision process(we’ve done it already) and also helps in hitting the faster casting 0.75 and less reliably 0.25 second cast spells.

In addition watching the casting animation is an excellent guide as to when your target is about to cast, there is usually a fraction of a second of animation before the skill starts to be used. Use this animation to reduce the time to interrupt. Back in the days before the skill warm up bar this was the only way to do it. Also if you listen carefully different skills make a different sound, that can also be of great use in learning anticipation and interrupting while kiting.

Typically anticipation knocks about 0.5 second off of our total cast time.
To be a great interrupt/shutdown player you need to know the effects and priorities of pretty much every skill in the game(or at least the most common ones). Know the areas in the game intimately, know in advance what skills to prioritise on, what to hit and what not to, and apply that knowledge in fractions of a second.

Not only that, but you have to be focussed on the entire battlefield and have acute situational awareness so that you are ready to react to the slightest priority change.

Yes it’s hard work to learn, yes it requires a level of awareness in play that is very different to that of the renewal nuking or SF ele(as valid and satisfying as that role is) but it brings ones understanding, enjoyment and satisfaction of play to a whole new dimension. It’s both a challenge mentally and physically and for those who want to try something new or improve on it’s well worth the time.

Thoughts about hard mode and Cry Of Pain.

Since every mob has effectively fast cast and fast recharge, active interupts such as powerblock, spike etc have lost a great deal of reliabilty. Of course taking arcane conundrum increases the cast time to what it would be normally but then you lose another precious skills slot.

Since skills have a substancially reduced recharge time there is now often no point in trying to interupt. In my view you are better to deny the use of the skill rather than interupt.

For the mesmer, proactive interupts such as guilt, shame,mistrust, and especially diversion are a godsend. since the mobs still have limited skill bars, diversion can quickly make that annoying shiverpeak protector an easy kill. Especially since diversion will shut down the skill for longer than a normal interupt will. Try to use diversion in the same way you would use predictive interupts(i.e start to cast just before the skill you want to disable starts to cast) and you'll find it's effects immense.

Also, dont understimate the value of sig of humilty and SV/AV in hardmode. Monsters love to physical attack and SV/AV is devestating in some areas(such as the Scarabs in Maguma).

When in hardmode diversion never leaves my bar

Naturally a broadhead arrow ranger, can make things easier still, so in an area where shutdown is essential a BHA magrid or Jin can really help.

Cry of Pain is an excellent interupt skill. The temptation is just to use it as a nuke and cast it as soon as the trigger hex is applied, but when used when backfire or empathy is about to expire on the monster it's effects are amplified.

To sum up

• Human factors, not only game mechanics affect our ability to interrupt and shut down
• Some Interrupts only work on selected skill types
• Be choosy about what you interrupt.
• Don’t always rely on active interrupts, proactive ones can be just as effective and reliable
• Use Anticipation to get ahead of the game
• Learn skills, environments and to read the situation.
• Practice, practice and practice.
• Have fun

Note: This Guide is basically complete. Any other builds you would like submitted, please post and I will update ASAP.

Note: Most of these builds are from PvX Wiki. All credit to those builds in particular go to their authors.

-Dean Harper

moko · Jul 28, 2007, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Ensigns basics posted at: 04-14-2005, 07:10 AM

gfg.

anyways; remove Extend Conditions from this, it's trash and should never be mentioned. O.o

also E Denial builds are fairly old by now. the best you could use ATM would be more ether phantom/drain delusions spam.

for interrupt, try a PD bar and a power block one

for shutdown you should include mor, migraine.

FC mind blast nukers work very well; do that over the echo stuff imo.

can't comment on the builds since you havn't added them but i'll come back later, looking alright for now however.

only thing is that you should make clear what belongs to pve and what to pvp; not that people end up taking FC nukers into "pvp".

Dean Harper · Jul 28, 2007, 10:37 PM // 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

Ensigns basics posted at: 04-14-2005, 07:10 AM

gfg.

anyways; remove Extend Conditions from this, it's trash and should never be mentioned. O.o

hmmm, i seem to have seen some effective Extend Condtions builds on pvx wiki, but ill look into it, im not gonna remove it right away.

Quote:

also E Denial builds are fairly old by now. the best you could use ATM would be more ether phantom/drain delusions spam.

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:Me/any_Panic_E-Denial

Quote:

for interrupt, try a PD bar and a power block one

for shutdown you should include mor, migraine.

FC mind blast nukers work very well; do that over the echo stuff imo.

all of these things i am planning on adding, and thank you for your input, im just adding the echo because it is a basic nuker build for beginning Me/E players, ill add the FC Mind Blast as a more advanced version

Quote:

only thing is that you should make clear what belongs to pve and what to pvp; not that people end up taking FC nukers into "pvp".

I know, i just havent written that in yet, it will be implemented when i finish with the builds.

thanks for your input!

moko · Jul 29, 2007, 02:47 AM // 02:47

DOH! how could i forget about Panic.

and the reason extend isn't so good is that conditions usually don't last their full duration anyways. i'm not sure which one exactly you would like to last longer..

and not all wiki builds are viable you know.

and i just noticed your post didn't include gole! shame on you. :P

(and i found a typo in "Domination" the attribute, teeehe *is a nub lol*)

Francis Demeules · Jul 29, 2007, 03:16 AM // 03:16

Just to add about some informations (yours are correct, but just thinking about what I will write and by looking ALL the skills at the same time and not following the popular builds around). A basic is a basic, renewed is ok but we still thinking with all skills around on what a mesmer can do (Popular skills or not)

If we look carefully each attributes, we can also say:

-Domination also reduce the effectivness of an opponent during a battle. Its like a punishment as Action/Damage system. You do that action, then you receive that damage (For both Health and/or energy pool or the skill bar). Until you 'achieve your personal goals' in the fight.

-Illusion, I call it the Slow attribute. Almost every skills is about to slow something. A slow death (Degen), slow damage (Interrupt melee, blind or no gaining adrenaline), slow running (Imagined burden for example) and slow casting (Arcane Conundrum as another example). Its the only one that it contains many apply conditions skills such Deep wound and Blind (Signet of Midnight is the exception because its an unlinking attribute). This attribute doesnt really touch the energy pool of the opponent with some exception.

-As for Inspiration, many players use it as an energy management or protection. That is somewhat true. But If we check the skills correctly, we can see that attribute is like Domination and Illusion mix but playing with the energy pool than the health of you and the opponent (Remove or Gain). You can interrupt, remove an enchantment or hex and even creating a energy degeneration to your foe (Ether Phatom or Ether Lord... somewhat useless to many players but it creates a energy degeneration so why not putting in it too). In all, this attribute is really to play with the energy than health.

just rude · Jul 29, 2007, 06:16 AM // 06:16

With the exception of Mokone, I have to ask what game are your guys playing?

Skycluster · Jul 29, 2007, 03:50 PM // 15:50

For the illusion line...you could add more to it. Like Francis said its a slow line. But it also has alot of spells that interupt melee attacks or damages (Signet of Clumsiness, Clumsiness, Images of remorse) which I use in both pvp and pve.

And plus its soon getting another melee interupter which is gonna be AOE in GW:EN Huzzah!

Dean Harper · Jul 29, 2007, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Ok, so i added all you said i should in the Attributes lines, plus i Added a few skills in there. A few Builds were also added in the Damage and Shutdown positions. I am having a problem getting Migrane to show up in the original post: [skill]Migrane[/skill] so i dont know how to get it up there... anyway, give me some more feedback, i would especially love to see BUILDS!

Note: once all of the guide has been finished, i will go back and organize it into a more acceptable format, in a more linear order.

just rude · Jul 29, 2007, 08:28 PM // 20:28

Ensign wrote this is another post on weapon swaps that turned into a discussion about the proper use of a mes, at least some parts.

Here, it is hot shit if you get it.

"At its peak effectiveness, you understand when an opponent really wants to use their skills, when they need to, and you drop a Diversion on in those circumstances to stifle action for a time.

What you get to do with Diversion is remove a player's ability to make optimal plays.

The point isn't knocking off a skill, it's making them play with their finger on escape, making them spend time not casting waiting for Diversions to wear off or, even better, not casting because they expect a Diversion to land soon. It's not about disabling skills, it's about time and manipulating the pace of the game."

he is specifically talking about diversion but he really shows what the essence of a mes should be, and how it should be played. You can substitute the word mesmer for the word diversion at the comments hold true.

if you want build I suggest you go into obs mode. Builds have nothing to do with playing a mesmer effectively.

I run this

Pblock, Blackout, Pdrain, SH.Enchant, Ienchant, Eburn, Diverson, res. FYI Pdrain and IE are in insp the rest are dom, unless u run a hard res then it maybe resto OR Healing OR N/A.

The bar is super fantastical, it blows away any MoR going easy. I cant even tell you the number of ways this can be played both offensively and defensively. It defeats ur opp b4 you even play. There isn't a single build in the current gvg meta that this cant hinder.

I love HEV as well and u get to run a funny focii that looks cool and increases your damage. The Dom+1 20%+20% recharge wand is awesome with HEV.

120+25%=sweetness AND it rips enchants and that PBAoE dmg. Great skill.

MoR if you suck ty I dont give a RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO what rank you are you would be more effective w/o MoR if you were any good.

evy

Francis Demeules · Jul 30, 2007, 12:44 AM // 00:44

[skill]Power Block[/skill][skill]Diversion[/skill][skill]Guilt[/skill][skill]Mistrust[/skill][skill]Blackout[/skill][skill]Shatter Enchantment[/skill][skill]Shatter Hex[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

A PvE Shutdown of my own. It can be useful a shutdown to stop a healer in a group like Doylak of Elementalist casters boss from Nightfall or Faction (great damage and fast casting). You're here to shutdown, so you let the rest of your team to kill the foes while you make them vulnerable.

[skill]Conjure Phantasm[/skill][skill]Images of Remorse[/skill][skill]Arcane Conundrum[/skill][skill]Imagined Burden[/skill][skill]Clumsiness[/skill][skill]Ineptitude[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

A box of tricks in the illusion line. Degen foes, slow casting to casters and make them easy to interrupt with Power Drain (inspiration) and gain a quick energy at the same time. Ineptitude and Clumsiness good against melee or ranged physical attackers like Bow and Spear user. Against melee, its very frustating while they try to rush with arcane conundrum on them.

Avarre · Jul 30, 2007, 10:38 AM // 10:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by just rude

MoR if you suck ty I dont give a RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO what rank you are you would be more effective w/o MoR if you were any good.

MoR can be incredibly useful, however the player has to be actually good to use the rapid interrupts and diversions to the maximum overall effect.

I'm terrible at interrupting (400 ping yeye) so I go with Pblock or HEV, which are both amazing skills as well, for different applications. Take out a great deal of defensive capability with a power block on their RC or SoD, then focus disruption on their LoD with your offense blowing stuff up. HEV keeps warriors clean of minor war hate (water hexes, etc) while knocking away Aegis and other defenses.

My typical (pvp) bars recently have looked along the lines of;

Power Block, Blackout, Mirror, Diversion, Shatter, Glyph, Pleak, Res

HEV, Mirror/Blackout, Shatter, Diversion, Drain, Pdrain, Pleak, Res

As far as Mesmers, and especially domination, the quoted message has it pretty exact. Your interrupts, shutdowns, and diversion give you the influence to disable enemies at key points in the game, allowing you to break weak links and hinder their defensive or offensive designs.

As for PvE;

Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Hex, and Cry (pain or frustration).

With these four, you cannot go wrong, no matter what the other four slots are.

Pericles · Jul 31, 2007, 04:13 PM // 16:13

Hey,
people in this thread are constantly referrign to 'the mind blast nuker build' but no1 bothers to post it so i would appreciate it if some1 would post it for me.
thx in advance

Dean Harper · Aug 01, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pericles

Hey,
people in this thread are constantly referrign to 'the mind blast nuker build' but no1 bothers to post it so i would appreciate it if some1 would post it for me.
thx in advance

im looking for the build, but i cannot find it anywhere, if someone could please post it themselves, ill post it in the main article. (this is stated above)

Sword · Aug 10, 2007, 07:47 AM // 07:47

Just a guess what this mind blsast nuking mesmer build is , although ive never heard of it . its most likely mind blast, lava arrows , fire attuntment, other skills that might be there are: glyph power(nice now in new skill balance) , fireball, liquid flame

Cathode_Reborn · Aug 15, 2007, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Commenting on the 3 pve builds:

1: E-Surge and Energy Burn are horrible in pve. It's a decent amount of armor ignoring damage but, horrible recharge....many other classes can outdo that way too easy. I think people excited about E-Surge being aoe....it's still bad in pve.

2: Might as well be replaced by a primary ele

3: Seems a tad bit decent. A max sunspear rank with Necrosis can put that build to shame though.

Timotheos · Aug 15, 2007, 04:17 PM // 16:17

Well since I mostly only play mesmer now, (except occassionaly when I go monk 55 but thats too boring) I think I should write something.

I really have to ask why anyone would use Energy burn for PvE, I must agree with Cathode-it's horrible. As for Energy surge, it's survivable but I stopped using it as elite because there are loads better to choose from.

ok the MoR thing: it's very usefull, you can double spam Clumsiness >:] and overall i think it's not a bad choice for general PvE-especially as most mesmer hexes have long recharges.

But where is Echo?? Doesn't anyone use it on a mesmer? I find it extremely useful when facing big crowds-echoing Mistrust is very fun or any other interrupt-what will you do in Gate of Pain when you have 2 or more terrorwebs casting meteor shower at the same time?

and here is some stuff I usually run in PvE:

Power Drain and Inspired Hex are almost always on, they'r good energy management
When I run Illusion, I like to Ineptitude + Epidemic or just simple Migraine
Lately Ive been using Echo a lot on a domination bar with Empathy and Backfire and things like that ^^

And a very important detail: Mesmers can be the best in-combat ressers with their fast casting, all you need is a good ress skills like Ressurrection Chant (the range isn't that bad but the recharge can be annoying) or Flesh of my Flesh(you lose half you health, but it's quick and has no recharge)-I think you should write something about that under Fast Casting

edit: oopsy, wrote it wrong: it's Power drain not Energy Drain-horrible mistake, id never use it in PvE ><

Dean Harper · Aug 15, 2007, 11:46 PM // 23:46

Im taking into consideration what you have said about E-Burn, and im going to leave those builds bc this is a beginnger's guide, giving a beginning memser something to base their builds off of.

I am going to add in MoR builds, but Echo really isnt used THAT often by most Memsers, there are better choices for elites such as MoR. Thanks a lot for reminding me about resing, i had totally forgotten, and will add it in soon.

Migrane is more of a PvP skill, PvE doesnt need slower spell casting, though in an interrupt build it is viable, but Mesmer interrupt builds are not so common anymore because Rangers can do it a lot better.

I always take inspired hex and drain enchantment as my energy skills, and to be honest, Energy Drain is a waste of an elite in PvE, there are skills that are better for energy management, and non elite, such as drain enchantment.

Dean Harper · Aug 19, 2007, 06:35 PM // 18:35

Alrighty, should we sticky this? Or does it need more work be4 stickying?

Dean Harper · Aug 28, 2007, 12:43 AM // 00:43

any more comments???

Pericles · Sep 04, 2007, 12:46 PM // 12:46

Hey,
people were mentioning 'mindblast nuker' in this thread but i didn't see any build references, so could some1 post me a typical mesmer/E mindblast nuker build? I tried the search function btw

. thx in advance