Curse

Made In Ascalon · Nov 23, 2006, 07:06 AM // 07:06

This is a build I recently happened upon. In RA, it kicked ass, and when my teams happened to be good enough to get into TA, it still did well. Hypothetically, I think it can work well in HA with some tweaking, but I'm not the best at getting teams.

Build:
+1 Illusion mask with a +3 rune
Superior vigor ofcourse
Minor inspiration rune
Minor fast casting rune

PVP sword of Enchanting, +5 energy inscription
Whatever focus you fancy

16 Illusion magic
11 fast casting
9 inspiration magic

Skills:
Distortion
Images of Remorse
Power Drain
Power Return
Clumsiness
Illusionary Weaponry
Frustration
Res Sig ofcourse

When I first thought up this build, I wasn't sure what to think of its utility, but once I used it I loved it. Before going into battle, cast IW. If targeting a caster, cast frustration and then attack them. When they use a spell, case power return, dealing 53/6 (can't remember off the top of my head). The pressure of interruption combined with IW, which ignores block/evade and blind, a monk will get extremely pressured, if not die. Use distortion when targeted by melee, and when attacking melee be sure to use clumsiness (when followed by an IW hit, this will automatically deal 138 damage). Also, frustration actually works with the attack interruption of clumsiness currently. Either the skill description is wrong, or the skill itself was programmed wrong, but either way it does. This can give you a spike of 180+ damage to an attacking target. Power drain was added because energy will eventually become a problem, and if you're desperate you can follow power return with it to mega interrupt your target.

Whatcha think? =o

(For the record, IW kicks ass)

Dragannia · Nov 23, 2006, 07:17 AM // 07:17

The opponent laughs at you, Drains your enchantment, then laughs at you some more for being useless for 35 seconds? You don't even have Symp Visage to cover your IW.

Made In Ascalon · Nov 23, 2006, 07:38 AM // 07:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragannia

The opponent laughs at you, Drains your enchantment, then laughs at you some more for being useless for 35 seconds? You don't even have Symp Visage to cover your IW.

I used this in RA dude. No one brings enchantment removal.

If I was doing this in HA, ofcourse I'd trade out a skill for a cover. I'd probably take out clumsiness and replace it with illusion of haste, though, considering that SV has a 30 second recharge time and kiting would be a problem.

And...this build isn't BASED on IW. It wouldn't rend it completely useless for 35 seconds; if it actually did happen, I would have switched to my staff and focused on interrupting. Not very bright are you?

Riotgear · Nov 23, 2006, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Doesn't seem cohesive at all. How do you want to project yourself as a threat? With IW? You don't have Flurry or Imagined Burden. With interrupts? You don't have Power Leak or Power Spike, CoF is a poor choice in RA as Web of Disruption is better. With clumsiness and IoR? You don't need those to kill warriors, just beat on them with IW! No self-heal, so unless you plan on keeping distortion up forever, anyone with a clue can kill you easily.

Not good.

Yanman.be · Nov 23, 2006, 10:56 AM // 10:56

No IAS = meh

stueyman2099 · Nov 23, 2006, 11:36 AM // 11:36

IW was popular about 15 months ago, no one uses it anymore, we've found better ways to kill.

Made In Ascalon · Nov 23, 2006, 11:47 AM // 11:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

Doesn't seem cohesive at all. How do you want to project yourself as a threat?

With...this build.

Quote:

With IW? You don't have Flurry or Imagined Burden. With interrupts? You don't have Power Leak or Power Spike, CoF is a poor choice in RA as Web of Disruption is better. With clumsiness and IoR? You don't need those to kill warriors, just beat on them with IW! No self-heal, so unless you plan on keeping distortion up forever, anyone with a clue can kill you easily.

Not good.

First of all, what's CoF? I like it when people spell out their skills instead of abbreviate them and expect people to follow.

You're thinking that if you don't subscribe to a single theme then the build must suck. Everything is supposed to work separately but together, and in case one part fails I can continue with another.

Images of Remorse was chosen as a cover hex. 5 energy, quick recharge. It had nothing to do with me wanting to take out melee faster when I chose it.

Yes, IW will kill warriors. However, I brought clumsiness because, combined with frustration, it automatically spiked 130+ damage. It was useful for taking out targets quickly, or diverting monk healing.

And, because I don't have power spike/leak I can't interrupt?...no. I wanted to fully take advantage of Frustration, so I could dish out 1 interrupt every five seconds dealing 53 damage each, with a power drain thrown in to regain energy.

Mesmers are always extremely easy to kill unless you focus your build on defending. If I don't have a monk, I just play defensively, and if I have a good one then it would be a waste of a skill slot just to include ether feast.

That's just what my mindset with it at the time was. It worked really well too, I've been experimenting with some better alternatives though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yanman.be

No IAS = meh

The build wasn't based on IW alone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stueyman2099

IW was popular about 15 months ago, no one uses it anymore, we've found better ways to kill.

IW was never popular.
I use it all the time. It is one of the best mesmer elites IMO, but I'm biased because I think it's cool.
I don't abide by these imaginary flavor rules. I like to have fun.

Dragannia · Nov 23, 2006, 12:15 PM // 12:15

Okay, let's do some thinking.

IW's main threat is its constant, unavoidable damage. Guardian, stances and the like have no effect on it. Conversely, it also suffers from many similar things to melee such as kiting and slowdowns. In addition, you also lack the disruptive power of Warriors and Assassins and the raw damage of other melee classes.

Traditionally IW has used Flurry to boost its damage dealing capabilities. It increases the damage dealt by a mighty 150% and is an extremely solid choice for an otherwise non-threatening melee class. You lack it. In addition, you also lack some sort of slowdown such as Imagined Burden, and any old Mo/A will easily outkite your damage to a fraction of what it was. Your damage capabilities will not be made up by Frustration and interrupts; are you seriously contemplating on interrupting 1/4 cast times from RoF?

In addition, I've seen a huge surge of enchantment removals even in RA; pretty much every Mesmer will have Drain Enchantment now, because the amount of Dervishes running around guarantees energy. You CAN be an interrupter, but then you're reduced to a half-build by a common, everyday skill. That's not a good basis for a build.

You also have no self heal. Distortion will not keep you alive forever; an Elementalist will rip into you, as will Warriors- you don't exactly have a lot of E-management, you'll run out of energy soon enough and then you're vulnerable. The basis for every RA build is self-sustainability.

Made In Ascalon · Nov 23, 2006, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragannia

Okay, let's do some thinking.

IW's main threat is its constant, unavoidable damage. Guardian, stances and the like have no effect on it. Conversely, it also suffers from many similar things to melee such as kiting and slowdowns. In addition, you also lack the disruptive power of Warriors and Assassins and the raw damage of other melee classes.

Traditionally IW has used Flurry to boost its damage dealing capabilities. It increases the damage dealt by a mighty 150% and is an extremely solid choice for an otherwise non-threatening melee class. You lack it. In addition, you also lack some sort of slowdown such as Imagined Burden, and any old Mo/A will easily outkite your damage to a fraction of what it was. Your damage capabilities will not be made up by Frustration and interrupts; are you seriously contemplating on interrupting 1/4 cast times from RoF?

Reversal of fortune I presume.

You're being unrealistic. The point isn't to kill monks when there are monks, it's to apply pressure. Unless you set up for domination, you're more than likely never going to be able to kill a monk alone.

I can't argue against not having a slowdown though, it really just didn't occur to me at the time. Even when monks kited me I didn't really have a problem. A monk running around in circles is a monk not helping the rest of the group. Anything with a 3/4-1 second cast time was interrupted pretty easily whenever they stopped.

My build really did best against necroes/elementalists, not so much other mesmers.

(For the record, I didn't need your step-by-step. I've been aware of it for over a year)

Quote:

In addition, I've seen a huge surge of enchantment removals even in RA; pretty much every Mesmer will have Drain Enchantment now, because the amount of Dervishes running around guarantees energy. You CAN be an interrupter, but then you're reduced to a half-build by a common, everyday skill. That's not a good basis for a build.

...I don't...really follow. What is a common everyday skill to you?
It's spammability is why I chose it over anything else, hence frustration.

Quote:

You also have no self heal. Distortion will not keep you alive forever; an Elementalist will rip into you, as will Warriors- you don't exactly have a lot of E-management, you'll run out of energy soon enough and then you're vulnerable. The basis for every RA build is self-sustainability.

Mesmers aren't exactly the most self-sustainable class. For healing, they're limited to...ether feast. Unless they spread points into a secondary class attribute. I only really got screwed when I went up against a dervish with Avatar of Grenth and wild blow.

coldplay · Nov 23, 2006, 01:47 PM // 13:47

no one uses IW anymore, even not in RA

Alleji · Nov 23, 2006, 02:45 PM // 14:45

IW is a terrible, terrible skill, but I think it's a great learning tool, just like mending and firestorm - when you've learned that these skills suck, you're one step closer to becoming a better player.

jummeth · Nov 23, 2006, 02:47 PM // 14:47

To be frank, the best layout for IW mesmer is still Me/W with Daggers.

But since 40DPS is easily negated by most monks without a sweat (not taking into account damage mitigation via skills or *kiting*) then it shows why IW mesmers are so very rarely use. In the case of a mesmer, they can drain your IW as soon as its on. And you are pretty much useless for 40 seconds.

Mesmers are watched as soon as they are discoverered in Arenas samely in HA or GvG. As soon as you see someone is IW, then you either have a laugh and just drain it away or just don't care about it.

Build for RA shouldn't be classed as "kickass" unless it can actually stand up to any situation. NB, Hammer and Axe warriors auto attacks are about 35-40 DPS. (ie. we have not counted on the fact that warriors can use attack skills to inflict conditions and/or +dmg)

You also neglected to use Illusion of Weakness which is a staple IW self heal.

For interupting, by what Dragannia means is that your interupts have a long cool down with. Also they can only interupt spells. Save Cry of Frustration (although you are not speced into Domination)

So to re-iterate the points again, they pressure you cause is not much higher than that of a warrior auto-attacking. Second, you have 40 less AL than the warrior who is in melee. You are liable and have no counters to most warrior hate conditions and hexes. All except for blind.

Quote:

Mesmers aren't exactly the most self-sustainable class. For healing, they're limited to...ether feast. Unless they spread points into a secondary class attribute. I only really got screwed when I went up against a dervish with Avatar of Grenth and wild blow.

The old IW mesmers speced 12 into tactics for an godly 150 heal. as well as the fact that they had a 16 illusion Illu of Weakness. But again, the reason its not used in most any sort of pvp is that, it just doesn't do enough. Keep trying though.

TheOneMephisto · Nov 23, 2006, 03:11 PM // 15:11

Kiting >>>>> you. You seem to realize that a monk kiting is exactly what he wants to be doing. A monks job is to mitigate damage, right? Guess what kiting does... mitigates damage, FOR FREE! Either way, snares >>> you. Enchant removal >> you. Interrupting IW >> you. Spiking you, wanding your distortion to drain energy, and spiking you again >> you.

Legendary Shiz · Nov 23, 2006, 03:28 PM // 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Made In Ascalon

Reversal of fortune I presume.

You're being unrealistic. The point isn't to kill monks when there are monks, it's to apply pressure. Unless you set up for domination, you're more than likely never going to be able to kill a monk alone.

I can't argue against not having a slowdown though, it really just didn't occur to me at the time. Even when monks kited me I didn't really have a problem. A monk running around in circles is a monk not helping the rest of the group. Anything with a 3/4-1 second cast time was interrupted pretty easily whenever they stopped.

OH MY GAWD. I just rofled my pants.

If you can't kill a monk, what's the point with this build? The point of applying pressure (which, this does a horrible job doing so) is so that eventually the pressure will be too much and the other team will fold. You have no attack speed buff, no snare for the other team. You made a very scrub build, even scrubbier.

Somebody /close this please.

JR · Nov 23, 2006, 03:50 PM // 15:50

There is no Random Arena section for a reason.