Curse

electrikamish · Jun 15, 2005, 07:46 PM // 19:46

I have a lvl 14 me/r, nevermind the ranger, I only use mesmer spells. This may be the problem. You see, when ever i play in the arena, I cant heal fast enough, and the tanks ALWAYS kill me. I used doimination magic, to kill casters. I decided that illusion magic, which slows and hirts over time, would be best to kill these brutes with. They still hack me to death. No matter what resistance spells I use, I die. Die die die. It also seems that the only heal spell HE EVER GETS is ether feast. Its too crappy. Its down right shitty. I can't disrupt my enemies when I'm dead, or at least not yet.

I need to know what anyone else does to

1. stop the **** tanks

2. heal themselves(is there a spell outside of inspiration magic - cause aside from ehter feast, its kinda shitty, and I have to give it points so I dont die)

3. distrubute points (I have alot of fast casting and domination)

Mesmers seem like the best at a glance - they do not attack you, THEY ATTACK STRATEGY ITSELF. that is the best. anyone can have 400 hitpoints, but they also have like 40 mana. Mesmers take the mana. They kill by immobilizing the overlooked. This is good, but to do all this I need to stay alive long enough to do anything. Help me. I frikin need it.

BlackArrow · Jun 15, 2005, 07:51 PM // 19:51

In the Shiverpeaks Arena (I'm assuming thats where you're playing since you're level 14) use Empathy on the warriors. They will still hurt you but since they are usually don't knoe to stop attacking so they kill themselves too.

I also have played a mesmer in the shiverpeaks recently (lvl 15 now) and I use all domination magic in there. There are even less monks in the Shiverpeaks Arena than in the Competitve Arenas at LA so you might want some Inspiration magic for Ether Feast or Wilderness Survival fromt eh Rnager half for Troll Unguent.

Ollj · Jun 15, 2005, 07:52 PM // 19:52

emphaty and chaos storm makes them useless in melee.

Winterclaw · Jun 15, 2005, 07:53 PM // 19:53

1. Imagined burden then run
2. Be a monk.

3. Lower fast casting a little, put points into other attributes.
4. Tweak your built out of the arena.
5. You don't have armor and you are oriented to be an anti-caster, you won't be able to do much against warriors.

Zorque · Jun 15, 2005, 07:58 PM // 19:58

I haven't RPed a mesmer yet, so some of these might be unavailable to you yet:

Clumsiness - Hex Spell
For 4-7 seconds, if target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted, target foe suffers 10-76 damage, and Clumsiness ends.

Imagined Burden - Hex Spell
For 8-18 seconds, target foe moves 50% slower than normal. (or etheral burden if you got it)

Physical Resistance - Stance
For 30-78 seconds, you gain +24 Armor against physical damage, but you lose -24-14 Armor against elemental damage.

Spirit of Failure - Hex Spell
For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 1-4 Energy for each miss.

Play around with different builds, see what works. You don't want to pile on too many anti-melee skills that will take away from your anti-caster spells where mesmers shine. Slow them and run, if you can't stop to cast spell then don't, if they are chasing you that means they aren't doing damage to anyone else and you are helping your team even if it doesn't feel like it.

Reiden Argrock · Jun 15, 2005, 08:06 PM // 20:06

your not a healer, don't try to be

grimmolly · Jun 15, 2005, 08:07 PM // 20:07

These are other options, since warriors are a mediocre DoT without adrenaline or energy. I'd throw in imagined and/or ethereal burden though.

Soothing Images - Hex Spell
For 8-18 seconds, target foe cannot gain adrenaline.

Sympathetic Visage - Enchantment Spell
For 8-18 seconds, whenever target ally is hit by a melee attack, all nearby foes lose all adrenaline and 3 energy.

Zeru · Jun 15, 2005, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Mesmers are not anti-warriors. That is a necro secondary's job mostly but there are other things like ward of melee and blind that work as well. The only anti-warrior thing that's effective would be one of the two adrenal denying skills (offensive vs defensive; sympathic visage and soothing images).

Arena frankly isn't that great for mesmers; arena demands that you be self-sufficient as you can count on there being at least 1-2 complete idiots on your team and often you're without a monk too. Mesmers are not a self-sufficient class.

Kuku Monk · Jun 15, 2005, 08:45 PM // 20:45

I get my tail handed to me on a silver platter in the arenas regularly. Stinks to be a Mesmer in PvP, but it's very enjoyable in PvE.

Dazzler · Jun 15, 2005, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Distortion is your friend: it's a stance (0 casting time, can even be cast WHILE you are casting something else): for 5 seconds foes have a 75% chance to miss you. Each time they miss, it takes from 3-1 energy from you. Keep this stance on whenever someone is close to you and combine it with other spells mentioned here...and some energy-stealing spells to get back the energy you are spending on Distortion.

Basically Empathy + Clumsiness + Distortion should be able to kill or drive off a warrior that is attacking you.

mr_boo · Jun 15, 2005, 10:10 PM // 22:10

I don't play a Mesmer, but my Guild Mate does. When he was in Shiverspeaks Arena, he would primarily focus in on Domination Magic up to the point that he was doing well over 100 HP of damage per spell on a Backfire'd caster; He also used Empathy to help at least hurt the Warriors before going down. My Guild Mate did complain often though that he was often the first one targetted and the first to go down, but that just goes with the terrortory until you can start to get in some organized PVP action with Monks backups and such.

On the Ranger side (sorry if you don't really care of this), you could always use Whirling Defense...it blocks (IIRC) 75% of melee and arrow attacks...and depending on whether you're hurt or not, you can always cast Troll Ungent after Whirling Defense to activate some HP regen...I wouldn't use this tactic later on in PVP, but in Shiverspeaks Arena it's good enough.

BrandonIT · Jun 15, 2005, 10:47 PM // 22:47

That Whirling Defense suggestion is pretty good.

You're not going to be able to beat a Warrior one-on-one. It's what Warriors do, they kill people with big heavy things.

As a mesmer, your skills are focused on mainly stopping opposing casters and giving your side the advantage.

As a Mesmer/Monk, Level 15, I've got 10 in Domination Magic, 4 in Fast Cast, and 8 in Healing Prayers. The Domination Magic I've gotten through a Domination Mask and a Minor Domination Rune on it, for a total of +2.

You should drop Fast Cast because until you get the last 50 or so attribute points you're missing, you're better off focusing on more power for your spells. Plus, if you're not doing a ton of interrupts, or doing 5-8 second casting time spells, it doesn't matter a whole lot.

I really like Energy Burn at Domination Magic Level 10. It's 64 points of damage almost immediately, and costs the warrior 8 points of energy, which to someone who only has 20 to begin with, is a lot.

Then Empathy, which at a Level 8-10 of Domination Magic is fairly potent. It's like 20 seconds and costs 20 health per hit.

Then I like Chaos Storm. At Level 10 Domination, it's 11 points of damage for 10 seconds.

Combine this with a good Focus Item with +Energy (no - regen though!) and some armor, and you can possibly do pretty good.

Not having a monk on your side is not an immediate loss, but a monk can counteract all the damage you're dealing to the warrior. So if you don't have a monk, make it your mission to kill theirs first. If the other team has a monk and you don't, that's probably just about the end of the battle right there.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't fight to the last man or woman!

All the above is, of course, just my opinion, and is drawn from my admittedly limited experience.

Sythion · Jun 16, 2005, 06:46 AM // 06:46

You said you were ranger secondary, right? Throw dirt is your new best friend. You also now love Troll Unguent and Storm chaser. You now have arena survivability, and can dump the redundant inspiration line (only really strong against casters) and focus on domination.

Myodato · Jun 16, 2005, 11:18 AM // 11:18

If you stop hurting casters to deal with the warrior that's pounding on you, then you may aswell let yourself die, because the warrior has already done his job. By all means take spells to protect you, but don't bother trying to kill the warrior - you won't do it without help (unless he's really stupid).

All you need to do is keep yourself alive long enough to let your team turn their attention towards the offending warrior. Keep you anti-caster offensive, but throw in Distortion and Illusion of Weakness. Imagined Burden and/or Illusion of Haste help too, but alwasy be careful when running as a single auto-critical can really mess up your plans.

Once your defences are up, keep your concentration on enemy casters, preferably taking one down as soon as possible. Take the pressure off your team, so that they can take the pressure off you.

Even in random arena, teamwork is still the key factor.

Charlatan · Jun 16, 2005, 01:34 PM // 13:34

If you have or get Signet of Midnight, that's a good spell to use vs. Warriors - it blinds both of you, but since you personally aren't attacking all that much, it has much less of an effect on you.

Oh and what they all said too - you're not (necessarily) an anti-warrior. And you're not a healer. It's a team game (oh and in 4 vs 4 PvP you're probably gonna be the primary target!).

skystride · Jun 16, 2005, 05:53 PM // 17:53

Trying to be good at everything will means you can't excel in any one thing. You should rely on your teammates to fill the gaps.

Can you exaplin what you mean by this:
"They kill by immobilizing the overlooked"

I am perplexed trying to figure this statement out.

ringking · Jun 16, 2005, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Domination/Illusion. Conjure Phantasm, Phantom Pain, Energy Burn, Shatter Delusions, then re-conjure. As a mesmer you shouldnt really be targetting a warrior but if you have to you can certainly race thier dps with these skills, and kill them if you have any help at all.

Terminal · Jun 16, 2005, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Cast Distortion. 75% chance to dodge for 5 seconds with a recharge of 5 seconds. So you can technically keep it on for ever. Apply Imagined Burden. Keep using the Q, S and E keys liberally. Don't present your back for hits. Follow up with Chaos Storm, Phantasm, keep up Distortion at all times and you'll be just fine.

Mesmer as a class isn't meant to go 1 vs 1 against a Warrior without some support. Where Mesmer really shines is against casters like Eles and Monks. GL.

Aranador · Jun 17, 2005, 02:29 AM // 02:29

Yup - mesmers are right up there on my 'kill' list. Them and necros. Soft AC makes weapons more effective against them, which puts extra stress on the monk to keep them alive. And killing a necro or mezmer means there isnt that horribly annoying scuz putting out all those horrid hexes that really ruin everyones day. Fact is - I dont care much if a warrior is beating on me, but the moment a mezzer or necro decides I need a few hexes is the moment my day starts to go down hill.

Anyway - try some snaring type powers

Eho · Jun 17, 2005, 07:24 AM // 07:24

Pretty amazing how little people know about mesmers.

You just need distortion and spirit of failure to not only render a nearly 100% miss rate, but with high skills, you could actually gain 2 energy per swing.

Or just Ineptitude to blind.

Or if you actually want to kill them, Empathy/Clumsiness/Sympathetic Visage, or 3 degens under illusion can render a ~30sec -11 degen w/ Mantra of Persistence.

Energy Surge and Burn do good damage to every class, too.

Warriors cannot touch a mesmer if they don't want them to, most mesmers are focused on casters though.