Curse

bele · Jan 10, 2006, 10:30 PM // 22:30

Actually we were 2 Mesmers running.

I'm going to try to make a resume of this my first 2 weeks in CA.By this time I've
over 40K faction, so i've played quite a few time. My consecutive win record is 17 and my consecutive loss 8 more or less. My ratio is awful

I've tried several builds, but this one is the one if've used the most
1.- Blackout
2.- E Drain
3.- Conjure Phantasm
4.- Cripling anguish
5.- Life Siphon
6.- Distontion
7.- Ether Feast
8.- Rez

In this weeks i've learned more about this game than in the last months, and see how different PvP and PvE are.

My problem is that i'm facing always the same tactic again and again, and again.
Here is it.

Team formed.
1.- No monk.
The Enemy Strong Warrior sees nice Mesmerin (me) and goes straigth away for her. Doesn't matter what's in the middle (actually, the W, R and E of my team are doing the same, targeting their Me,N or E if there are.
2.- Then, although there has been called the enemy spellcaster i don't attack it, since i have 1,2, sometimes 3 W running to me.
3.- I cast conjure, life shiphon, and crippling. If there is only 1 W, i try to follow calls. The Strong W sees his heath dropping really fast and moves really slow. Now sometimes my team changes target and finishes it. Only sometimes.
4.- If there are 2 W comming to me i've only 1 chance, run to my W, to seek some protection. Sometimes i run far away, taking the W with me. I have Distiortion always running for protection.

This is a very schematic resume of what happens. The results are very different, but most of the times i'm the first diying, and i hate it.

I've seen many builds posted here, but most of them, well, are just attack ones, the Mesmer that uses them is going to die quite fast most of the time, even if their dmg output is higher than this one. Seen anti-caster ones too, but wtf? your'e facing Warriors in the very beggining of the match. CA is covered with them.
I've been pwned by by those kind of Mesmers, backfired, Mind Wracked ..., but many times enemy Mesmers and me die the first ones

So, here some questions for a noob Me

Is it time to move to TA? Is my build just plain awful? How can i survive longer?

I'm not asking for the super-marvelous build either, since nothing is going to stop W to come to me.

TA, means, basically to have a Monk in your team, and means too alot of previous strategy and try and failure too. I'm thinking that if i want really learn sth i should go there.

Or

I'm i missing sth?

I know this post is quite long and messy. Probably nothing new for you.But I'd thank a bit of advice

Thanks alot in advance

Mr. Squish · Jan 11, 2006, 01:59 AM // 01:59

Ok, first off, I'm assuming you mean energy tap instead of energy drain, as you can't have energy drain and Crippling Anguish.

As for survival, the mesmer's got some options. Distortion I don't have a ton of experience with using, but when I run my warrior in CA, the evasion does slow the killing. Most people in CA won't think to bring Wild Blow or any other anti-stance skills, so that's one option for you. If you're /N or /E, you have options like enfeeble, armor of earth, blinding flash, blurred vision, shadow of fear, ward against melee, and some others as well. Every one of those will hamper a standard CA warrior.

Now, as for your build itself, I'm wondering what, exactly, your focus is. It looks like you're trying for -10 degen, but there are probably better ways to use your skill slots. If you want to really go anti-warrior, the illusion line gives you ineptitude and clumsiness. If you get both those skills off on a single target, at 16 illusion, your target's next attack fails, he takes 184 damage, and is blinded for 10 seconds. Snares are a good idea, but you can pack Imagined or ethereal burdens. That's where I'd start with a build to really hamper the warrior-and-ranger rich environment of CA.

As for teams, though, my experience has been that there tend to be more balanced teams there. In that case, you can probably depend on your monk, who's likely running boon prot, to keep you decently alive (though maybe pack enfeeble), while you can run a surge, blackout, interrupter, whatever.

agentblade · Jan 11, 2006, 04:49 AM // 04:49

usually for me, CA is where i go when I'm really bored and just want some quick pvp action. Also I'll usually use CA to see if certain skill combos can work or the range of certain attacks and stuff like that. And not testing to see if my build is strong enough to win battles. That can only be done in TA cos GW is a team game, ur build may be good but if the rest of ur team members are doing nothing u will still lose.

My suggestion is to move onto TA and gain more experience in PvP. CA is a bad place to learn abt team work really.

For mesmers u have to accept the fact that we're much weaker than all the rest. Therefore a good mesmer usually has a good monk to back him up. Usually I know that monk is good if he can keep me alive. And when a mesmer is alive long enough, the team usually has an easier time winning. I've yet to see an effective self-defense mesmer who can do both shutdown and self defense at the same time..

Abt CA, the build i like to run is Sig of midnight plus plague tough. With those two u can shutdown 2 wars. Throw in Spirit of Failure and distortion u'll never run out of energy. It's hilarious to see 2 wars swinging wildly at me but not hitting and me having full energy. But of course casters kill me quick...

Yeah my advice, go TA. It's much more fun there.

Vermilion Okeanos · Jan 11, 2006, 06:27 AM // 06:27

clumsiness and inteptitude are both VERY powerful skills to take down warrior, the funny thing is... so few people use it...? Use echo or arcane echo to really make this thing shine. The time that you see a warrior who understand these 2 deadly skill, you just found yourself a rare specie. You can kill ranger quite effectively with these 2 as well (give those interrupt ranger a taste of their own medicine!).

one can usually tank 2-3 warrior with spirit of failure on 1 and distortion of 1 energy, for awhile that is.

I was playing with iron mist the other day (again), there are no better enjoyment to look at warrior walking to you with high degen (phantom pain is almost a must). I used mantra of recovery -> iron mist, just to recharge it faster on the first shot. Etheral burden was another one just in case (when this build work well, you got people cursing and swearing at you in both british and american style). Although I became really weak against caster, it is ok, my team got that usually (if i don't charge out in front). The trick is that stay way at the back line until opponent warrior charge toward the front line (then you will be out of their caster's range + being able to target their warrior).

If you must, you still can go me/w and bring some stances to block attack while being a caster shutdown.

Elrodien · Jan 11, 2006, 09:16 AM // 09:16

Heheh I just gotta laugh at this one, sorry.

You have just caught a glimpse of what it is like to play a monk in PvP. Try a monk in the arenas and see how much more attention you get.

I seen a good mesmer in the CA once who defended herself very well. Using distortion, she ran over to the tank/ranger and cast midnight followed by spirit of failure. She kept doing this on my ranger - and because I had no spells on my skill bar, all I could do was wait until the blindness lifted (no antidote sig either /doh).

I don't play mesmers so I don't know if there is anything better than this, but I was impressed with the combo.

bele · Jan 11, 2006, 06:34 PM // 18:34

Thanks alot for the Replies. They are very positive, and answers many of my questions.

your'e right Mr Squish, it's not E Drain, but Power Drain. What i intended with this one is not only to put heavy degen on anything and/or slow W but be able to harass a bit the casters too and Blackout is really annoying when a monk is degened and suddenly , ouch he cannot heal himself

I've tried several of the skills your mention, Clumsiness, Ineptitude, spirit of failure... probably not with good results

What i didn't try was the combo Signet of midnight and Plague touch, wich seems really good one to self defense.

About the Monks
yeah, i got a glimpse indeed . When a Monk is there, suddenly i fell, so free

.

Quote
"And not testing to see if my build is strong enough to win battles.That can only be done in TA"
/Quote

I think your'e right here, and follow your suggestions agentblade.

I'll try my best there. Now comes the other pain.
TO FIND A GROUP

Thanks Again all

Mirelle

Yanman.be · Jan 11, 2006, 06:41 PM // 18:41

the build could be made more effective though

you're running domination ( blackout ) , blood magic, ( siphon), illusion ( conjure ), and inspiration ( ether feast ) ..and probably some fast casting too? maybe you should lose dom and blood magic, as they don't offer you that much..domination is more spellcast, and blackout isn't THAT good for you ( spamming distortion e.g.)

Tiyuri · Jan 13, 2006, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by bele

Thanks alot for the Replies. They are very positive, and answers many of my questions.

your'e right Mr Squish, it's not E Drain, but Power Drain. What i intended with this one is not only to put heavy degen on anything and/or slow W but be able to harass a bit the casters too and Blackout is really annoying when a monk is degened and suddenly , ouch he cannot heal himself

I've tried several of the skills your mention, Clumsiness, Ineptitude, spirit of failure... probably not with good results

What i didn't try was the combo Signet of midnight and Plague touch, wich seems really good one to self defense.

About the Monks
yeah, i got a glimpse indeed . When a Monk is there, suddenly i fell, so free

.

Quote
"And not testing to see if my build is strong enough to win battles.That can only be done in TA"
/Quote

I think your'e right here, and follow your suggestions agentblade.

I'll try my best there. Now comes the other pain.
TO FIND A GROUP

Thanks Again all

Mirelle

Mirelle, simply put, the very best thing you can do is find some experienced people - in game - who can show you the ropes.

For people to want to do this you'll need a good amount of skills unlocked. So unlocking some skills or tallying up some faction is a great place to start.

Infact if you're interested perhaps you could play with my guild some time, we regularly teach new guys (and we're pretty good too

).

My in game name is Tiyuris Uriah, if you're interested.

Warskull · Jan 13, 2006, 10:52 AM // 10:52

In your build the stats seem diluted. I see domination, illusion, blood, and inspiration skills in there. That is at least four lines, possibly more. You want to make the most out of each skill and have a very cohesive build.

Another part of the issue is how CA works. In CA you can't rely on any members of your team to be competent. To put it bluntly, the monks can't heal and most of the other players don't have a clue what damage output is. The concepts of spike and pressure are entirely lost on them. Thus the builds that perform well are the builds that can carry a bad team. These tend to be well built warriors who can overpower monks, monks who can stop damage, and degen that can try and kill. Of these degen has the problem of often relying on an allies to finish off a weakened or near death enemy only to find out the W/Mo on your team is too busy trying to duel a stance tank. CA is chock full of horrible players.

As a mesmer you will have two major options, the domination line or the illusion line. I highly suggest running the illusion line in CA, no matter how well you play the dom line your allies will consistantly let you down and fail to kill anything. The illusion line will let you perform some shutdown while at the same time degening the enemy.

Try this:
12+1+3 Illusion
11+1 Inspiration
6+1 Fast Casting

Power Drain
Crippling Anguish
Imagined Burden
Conjur Phantasm
Phantom Pain
Drain Enchantment
Mantra of Persistance
Rez Sig

This is a basic degen build. Turn on mantra of persistance and snare a warrior with crippling anguish. You then cover it with conjur and snare another warrior with imagined burden. Once against cast conjur phantasm to cover it. You then cast conjur on the rest of the members and can toss phantom pain on choice targets for extra degen. Use power drain to interrupt somewhat slow casting skills and gain massive boosts of energy. Drain enchantment will perform similarly.

The weakness of this build is that you will have a rough time overpowering some of the more common warrior and ranger self-heals (heal signet and troll ungent.) As a result you may need the help of your team to finish an enemy. At the same time, while an enemy is snares you can kite him forever. However I have found the players in CA are fairly dim and will not kite an obviously snared warrior. Many players seem to believe if a warrior starts hitting you that you must stand still until one of the two die. However if the rest of your team is even mildly competent they should be able to finish something off.

Remember in CA you can't win them all and often times you will lose due to poor teammates. However keep practicing your kiting and interrupts. Also remember to rez your allies as quickly as possible. In CA it often times will come down to which team is quicker on the rez (and again your allies will very often blow it.)

You will find however mesmers perform much better in organized teams where people can take properly advantage of the shut down or pressure you apply.

LoKi Foxfire · Jan 14, 2006, 06:56 AM // 06:56

It's kind of funny because I got into TA from CA with a really good team of 2 monks, 1 mesmer, and me running an air elementalist build. I think almost every time in TA I had the entire opposing team trying to kill me while I was blasting them with lightning orb. :<

Cold · Jan 16, 2006, 12:21 PM // 12:21

I like to run away from some W/Mo and then when we settled far from the others, I put on Physical Resistance, Illusionary Weaponary and Flurry. This is how W/Mo looks like after a couple of seconds ->

High Ryder · Jan 16, 2006, 01:27 PM // 13:27

As far as wars and rangers go in Ca, distotion + spirit of failure ftw. Becuase there is no monk for alot of CA matches, Id add ether feast. Its a really good self heal should keep you alive if you mix defense with equally good offense. You also use too many attributes imo. Get rid of the blood use phantom pain. Its a good hex to use when covering conjure and crippling anguish. Crippling anguish is a good elite, but if you use sof distotion ownage combo then you dont need ca as muchso you can change your elite to migrane to better handle casters. So you wanna go degen go with sof distotion ether feast rez conjure phantom migrane. Last one is a free slot, id go with either powerdrain/drain enchant/backfire/clumsiness/interrupt that does dmg. This isnt final it isnt a set build but for degen id recomend it to look like this. Other wise have fun kiting .

Tellani Artini · Jan 16, 2006, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Don't forget Spirit Shackles, the funnest Ranger shutdown skill in the game

Salemo · Jan 16, 2006, 05:18 PM // 17:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cold

I like to run away from some W/Mo and then when we settled far from the others, I put on Physical Resistance, Illusionary Weaponary and Flurry. This is how W/Mo looks like after a couple of seconds ->

you can't use 2 stances

physical resistance and flurry are both stances.
but flurry and illusionary really work good together

Red Locust · Jan 17, 2006, 12:59 AM // 00:59

How exactly are you getting owned by warriors? Crippling anguish and life siphon take care of 1 warrior right off the bat; most teams hardly bring hex removal, let alone two, so that warrior should never touch you.

You have distortion for the second warrior. All you need is distortion and power drain to keep it going and keep yourself alive while you run from the warrior. So that's two warriors completely taken out of the game. If desperate, take drain enchantment to fuel your distortion. Then surely you should be able to keep it up vs. even 2 warriors.

If the warriors are intelligent, they'll stop chasing you pointlessly. If not, well you just took 2 people out of their team in exchange for one of your team. You'd have to stand still and do nothing to lose to just 2 warriors with this build.

skaterman · Jan 17, 2006, 02:24 AM // 02:24

Hey "bele" can u tell me the attribute you use for the original build u posted? And what armour did you use?

Mithie · Jan 17, 2006, 02:30 PM // 14:30

Hi, swap out life siphon for inspired hex.
Swap out ether feast for malaise.