IW for PvE?

Could IW be used in general PvE or would warriors just be more usful? I've tried with henchies and it seems to be ok but can require a bit of healing. I don't want to try with real people in fear of being flamed .

a mesmer is a lot more useful in its other attributes.

as for in pve people use wars as tanks to absorb damage, not to deal high dps like in pvp.
I wouldnt take a IW in any of my groups...

IW can do good damages in PvE, so why not ?

Here's why people don't use IW for PvE:
1) All it does is damage; while this can be done with any other class, thus it's not something unique.
2) Can be stripped and disabled easily
3) There's other elites a lot more useful.

It really depends what skills the enemy creatures have. If there is lots of evade, block, blindness, weakness, high armors, adrenaline denial, other physical or elemental damage reductions or things like that, IW might be a good secondary melee character or maybe even primary if you can cover enchantments and boost their protection somehow. Otherwise warrior will always outdamage them.

It may not be the best thing ever but its really fun. I did Consulate docks with real people and used an IW build and I think I helped out quite a lot as all the rangers using whirling defenses didnt stand a chance against my amazing un-evadable damage ^^.

~A Leprechuan~

Monks will hate you. They'll start the mission thinking they have a mesmer along who can screw with monsters and reduce damage...but they'll find out shortly that they actually have a squishy on the front lines playing tank. When I play monk, I don't want eles going to the front casting PBAoE, and I don't want mesmers going to the front with IW when you could very well be doing a lot more good with your spells.

I have done some Tyrian missions with an IW build.
Informed the monks before we started, they did not mind.
Basic build with 16 illusions, rest split on Inspiration (most) and Fast casting.
Something with IW, Distortion, Spirit of Failure, Ether Feast, Clumsiness.

Monks won't hate you, but make sure the tank aggroes first.

It's a fun build, but works in high end shiverpeaks.
Never tried the last 3 missions with IW.

If your a Me/W then if you use a skill such as flurry then at 16 Illusion magic you would be hitting 42 dmg every 0.88 seconds which isn't bad. If you have healing signet and/or illusion of weakness then you will have a way of healing yourself. The only danger is an enchantment stripper. I don't know how much dmg a Warrior can do as I have never been one.

Mesmers weren't meant be up in melee range. Their armor is weak and distortion also took a big hit in nerfs. Mesmers are more utility characters, interrupts, support and shutdown is what make them fun. If you want to use IW you probably are more suited on a warrior.

No respectable mesmer would take IW into serious consideration in a 'team' environment. If you use a solo build with it, by all means farm away.

Bring along good armor insignias and bring physical resistance. That'll boost your armor above 100 for sure. Unless of course there are elementalists or something.

It may not be the most effective use of a mesmer, but I had a ton of fun with a Me/A IW build I was using. Dark Escape, shadow stepping and resistances can give plenty of survivability.

IW isnt the best elite there is as a mesmer, it can deal a bit of damage, but still it can be stripped away by mesmers/necromancers very easily....


mesmers also dont have max armour like warriors, so it can be a bit risky

I don't think it is really a viable option for most PvE team situations although I had some decent success with it a while back.

It seemed that my teams kept having a few monsters that would drop back into the backline and start mashing on the squishies, and then the tank would feel the need to come rushing back to help out (bringing everything with him/her), so I brought IW as a backup for when this happened. It worked ok becuase the monsters were usually targeting someone else and I had a good amount of damage with it so I could kill them off quickly and the team's tank didn't feel the need to come back and "assist" us in the backline. Also, it helped because the AoE nukers didn't feel the need to waste a MS or other large spell on one or two baddies that were running around...

Like I said, it worked decently but wasn't excellent, and I still prefer other setups. I do think that this is a better use to some degree than trying to stay up on the front line because you aren't quite the liability to the team.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:Me/A_Neutral_IW
I'm not sure how to link it but there it is.
Good armor, as long as there isn't much enchantment removal, I found it in the RA section but it says it can be used for PVE.

Edit: Nevermind it linked itself I guess

42 dam/0.88sec. To one target. Without domination caster shutdown. With 60 base AL. At melee range.

You do not want to be even remotely close to mobs, especially ones that can quite literally devour you in seconds. While IW is an interesting gimmick skill, it is vastly ineffective due to it's range, the reliance on the enchant, and the Illusion line in PvE in general.

there is to much enchant removal in PvE so its very hard to keep up IW and be able to tank with a 60 al armor

Quote: Originally Posted by Richo

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:Me/D_Mystic_IW

This is the most capable IW build I've seen. If you're under attack, slots 4-6 have your back. Because of all the enchants in this build, you're pretty much covered 24/7. Dwayna's Touch works as a nice spike heal, too.

However, if you're still running a flurry build, I'd leave IW at home. These builds are usually low on survivability, and on top of that, just generally easily counterable and able-to-be-seen-from-a-mile-away.

Quote: Originally Posted by uberpwnage