Curse

The Color Of Hope · Jun 27, 2007, 11:47 AM // 11:47

A while back I was playing a nuker in random arenas and I kept getting shut down by blackout messmers,

Now I have a messmer and I can't find a build to shut down other ppl with can I get some help?

TGgold · Jun 27, 2007, 05:55 PM // 17:55

[skill]Power Block[/skill] is a good place to start for a lot of shutdown builds, especially if you're anti-caster. [skill]Power Drain[/skill] and [skill]Power Leak[/skill] are fairly staple skills with Power Block. [skill]Diversion[/skill] is good for all-around shutdown. And, of course, [skill]Blackout[/skill]. The important thing about Blackout is that it can act as an interrupt, acts as shutdown, and it can remove all the adrenaline from a warrior.

There's no real "one shutdown build to rule them all" with mesmer. You need to pick skills that do exactly what your goal is.

Div · Jun 29, 2007, 12:52 PM // 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Color Of Hope

A while back I was playing a nuker in random arenas and I kept getting shut down by blackout messmers,

Now I have a messmer and I can't find a build to shut down other ppl with can I get some help?

I hope you weren't trying to cast your meteor shower with that awesome 5 second cast. Someone did that to me, and I managed to shatter enchant+drain enchant+ether feast+power block it before it finished casting. Needless to say, that was pretty awesome.

Skycluster · Jun 29, 2007, 04:39 PM // 16:39

I know shutdown is great an all...But if your playing RA, you should get some dmg in there...I mean when I see a mesmer ONLY spamming diversion in RA they show off as a little bit useless. Bring power block and maybe diversion but really your trying to kill the guy as well, so keep that in mind.

Dean Harper · Jul 02, 2007, 12:26 AM // 00:26

Shutdown is better for more competitive environments, such as GvG. Blackout is really fun to use on unsuspecting monks, along with a well placed diversion: sweet bliss. I dont bother with shutdown in RA or TA because it is basically useless; the point of those PvP arenas are to kill the opponents, not shut them down. They are just too short of matches.

-Dean

Francis Demeules · Jul 02, 2007, 03:22 PM // 15:22

It works well in alliance battle to stop a Minion Master, Monk,etc. Blackout can be used against Sin too to waste their chain combo for 6 seconds (I have 16 in Domination) and even a touch Ranger before he activate a stance or stop spamming his touch skills. Good to know Blackout removes the adrenaline too, making the Warrior or Paragon restart to build up.

Pericles · Jul 02, 2007, 03:39 PM // 15:39

Why is blackout used so often? Agreed, u shutdown your opponent, but you also shutdown yourself, so whats the point?

Phe Belladona · Jul 02, 2007, 05:36 PM // 17:36

the reason blackout is so good is you CHOOSE when to disable yourself and opponent. for example your team wants to kill something in a spike you can do a lot more by sacrificing your attacks and stopping a monk doing anything OR the other team wants to spike you black out their warrior you've just saved your team from a death and their warrior needs to wait 6 secs and then try to build adren again (when he's ready you can black out again - the warrior will HATE you and thats fun)

as with most mesmer skills TIMING and TARGET is what makes them powerful, using diversion on something that isnt going to use a skill is pointless as is using migraine on say a hammer warrior but both these skills are non the less powerful when timed and targetted wisely.

phool · Jul 02, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

I really love blackout. Echo blackout and AoD blackout exist but generally it's just one of the very many good skills to squeeze into a standard dom mesmer's bar. Strong offensively (spike assist mainly but not exclusively) and defensively (stops a shadow prison sin in their tracks, irritates the hell out of a bb warrior, for example), very versatile. I always try to put it on a TA mesmer.

Mantra of recovery+diversion and power block are very good choices for shutdown as is migraine and equivalents (mor+power return+frustration is a lot of fun).

I agree with the posters saying for RA you should be capable of some amount of damage. Illusion is generally the better choice for RA mainly because of this.

stueyman2099 · Jul 03, 2007, 01:17 AM // 01:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pericles

Why is blackout used so often? Agreed, u shutdown your opponent, but you also shutdown yourself, so whats the point?

As u say, it's a skill where you trade a character for a character for a period of time, but there are 2 very important reasons you use it. The first is timing. Playing against a team with 2 monks (in gvg) if u kill 1, then black out the other, you have a time frame with no monks opposing you while you are down 1 shut down. This can cause a party wipe when done properly. The second is adrenaline. A warrior/para needs time to build adren up, and you end up costing them not only the time they spent building adren, but the time taken to build again.

Avarre · Jul 03, 2007, 04:01 AM // 04:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pericles

Why is blackout used so often? Agreed, u shutdown your opponent, but you also shutdown yourself, so whats the point?

Defensively, you can disable disruption to allow another person to get a cast through. You can blackout warriors on the spike or after watching them build adrenaline to neuter the enemy offense.

You can use it as an interrupt.

Offensively, you can shut down monks on a spike, you can shut them down when under heavy pressure to force a break. You can combine it with other shutdowns to cripple the backline for a push.

Blackout is a team skill - it's almost never used for the Mesmer (you can catch spikes on yourself), it's used to amplify the effects of what your group as a whole can do, by eliminating opposition temporarily, be it to your defence or to your offense. The ability to control when this is done is the power in blackout - along with the adren wiping factor. What you need to remember is always to blackout in an uneven manner - that is to say, what you lose needs to be less than what they lose. The style of the enemy skillbar (long recharge skills aren't worth aiming blackouts for, that includes your own skillbar) and the timing of application are important with that. Due to how variable target priority is, disabling two characters will have a difference in actual reduced team power. That is why the timing of blackout is the most important factor - a monk is ten thousand times more important when the team is breaking and they need some quick RCs or LoDs, and that's when losing him for 6 seconds is worse than your mesmer for five.

This is further affected by the state of the enemy - if you've got huge pressure on one monk already, blacking out the other removes well over 50% of the backline's capacity. If you combo power block and blackout, you can eliminate nearly the entire backline for a quick push- where sacrificing your Mesmer skills for 5 seconds is well worth knocking out the monks for a short period - giving you an opportunity to exploit. Blackout can be used liberally in a defensive manner, but in terms of offense it is something you have to co-ordinate with your team in order to make the best use of the small window.

Essentially, the more importance that falls to a single character - ie: he's doing the most shutdown, or healing the most damage, or dealing the most damage, the more vulnerable he is to a blackout as that takes out the most from the other team. Much like diversion, the use of any shutdown skill is to remove key skills from the offensive or defensive capacity of the team in order to provide openings to break them. Reading the state of the match and understanding what poses the biggest challenge to your team, be it defensively, offensively, in terms of mobility etc, is important for every class in how they handle themselves, but shutdown has some of the greatest capacity to effectively remove it. Hence, by applying blackout your goal is to shift the balance of power between the two teams far enough to achieve a breakthrough, or to hold up against their attempt.

The Color Of Hope · Jul 03, 2007, 12:32 PM // 12:32

Phychic Distraction akts like blackout but without shutting you down completly and if you arcane echo it you can put enough pressure on a monk to shut him down complety until your other teamates take him out of take out his teamates

Francis Demeules · Jul 03, 2007, 03:09 PM // 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Color Of Hope

Phychic Distraction akts like blackout but without shutting you down completly and if you arcane echo it you can put enough pressure on a monk to shut him down complety until your other teamates take him out of take out his teamates

I think you mean Power Block instead Psychic Distraction because PD is a fast recharge interruption with a small disable for 1 interrupted skill.

KikiRae · Jul 03, 2007, 07:54 PM // 19:54

I don't know if this is mentioned, but you can use me/a with shadow walk, blackout, and dash to cancel it.. I use it sometimes. And other shutdown spells such as the ones mentioned.

Francis Demeules · Jul 04, 2007, 01:33 AM // 01:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by KikiRae

I don't know if this is mentioned, but you can use me/a with shadow walk, blackout, and dash to cancel it.. I use it sometimes. And other shutdown spells such as the ones mentioned.

Not mentionned in this thread about using a Shadow step Blackout but it was already thinking with Aura of Displacement + Blackout during the beta of Faction.

Shadow walk, Blackout and waiting 5 seconds before using Dash (disable yousrelf too)? I dont know if you use Dash almost at the same time before you finish to cast Blackout.

weretoad · Jul 04, 2007, 02:09 AM // 02:09

does mantra of recorvey work with blackout to create a lock?

Dodo The Extinct · Jul 04, 2007, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Quote:

does mantra of recorvey work with blackout to create a lock?

Mantra Of Recovery does not effect Blackout. Mantra Of Recovery effects spells, and Blackout is a skill.