Curse

Gigashadow · Sep 26, 2005, 08:42 AM // 08:42

I am a Me/N, but for PvE I generally have 7 mesmer skills equipped, plus well of power as my elite (at skill level 11, so it's 5 health pips for 17 seconds).

I'm rather attached to my mesmer skills, and was wondering if I changed secondaries, if any of the elementalist wards would be a better choice than the well of power -- this is all for PvE.

In particular, ward vs melee or ward vs harm sounded the most interesting. On the plus side, I won't have to wait for something to die, or be fighting with necros for corpses -- plus casters often aren't where the well ends up anyway. On the minus side, I will have to run up with the warriors to drop the ward.

Ward vs melee is a 50% melee evade -- so not useful vs bowmen or magic. It has the added advantage of potentially avoiding effects such as knockdowns though. It's also not elite, which is nice.

The elite Ward vs harm is +22ar vs everything, which is about a 33% damage reduction (and +50ar vs fire, which is a little too specific). It doesn't avoid any effects though. How do people find skill this turns out in PvE? More useful than well of power?

Sagius Truthbarron · Sep 26, 2005, 08:50 AM // 08:50

Well. It depends. If you play with henchmen then get wards. If you play with real people keep the Well of Power. All the real players today want from any non-E/W/Mo is Well of power. :|

Racthoh · Sep 26, 2005, 09:33 AM // 09:33

I question the use of wards in PvE, ward vs. melee the most. The only use I can find for it is for soft targets, and if your soft targets are being attacked your warrior didn't aggro properly (or the rest of the group didn't let the warrior aggro properly, more often than not it's the leeroy's fault). If there is any enemy that a warrior needs to avoid the attack from then they should be smart enough to bring in some tactics stances.

In which case the same can be said about well of power. The corpses should be dying up by your warriors and they should only need a well of blood (if anything) to compensate for any health they may have lost during the initial first kill. But in which case you have monks for a reason since no one leaves home without them so you don't even need the well to begin with. If your casters are running out of energy half way through the fight then something has obviously gone wrong. Jumping into the wells would only risk taking aggro off your warriors (if the aggro situation is optimal and your warriors have the attention of everything). In any case, Blood is Power would be a much better elite to bring (and you would only have to have 8 blood magic to get full effectiveness as well). With BiP, you don't have to wait for a corpse (in case the battle does go wrong) and for situations where there is no corpse to exploit (IE. Fissure of Woe - Shadow Beasts, Skeletons).

The same can be said about Ward vs. Harm. These spells are exceptional on a w/e since they'll be the ones taking all the aggro.

Makkert · Sep 26, 2005, 09:41 AM // 09:41

both are usefull skills.

However when I try to use WoP in PvE pickup groups, I noticed that casters seem to evade (read: don't move towards) the WoP for unknown reasons. I think they are caught up in the moment, and the calling is missed by them.
A ward is more controllabe since you can move towards the players you want to protect.
I use Wells myself also on my secondary X/nec, but i'm starting to think of goign wards. When there is a (good) minionmaster in the team, I usually try not to steal the corpses from him/her.

In short WoP is an excellent skill, but somehow it is not fully abused by teams often...
So I am pondering the same question as the OP: maybe take wards....