Mesmer: Domination or Illusion?

I need some help. What is the best path to follow Domination Magic or Illusion Magic?

All your help is greatly aprecitated.

depends if you are pvp or pve
in pvp illusion seems much better imo while ine pve domination helps you get quickly through the game

I personally love Illusion... but it's really up to your playing style. In both PvE and PvP though, I've found that a lot of people will expet that you use insperation, or interupting. For interupting, you definately want to go with Dom... otherwise, like I said, it's up to you.

follow my name

11 + 3 + 1 domination
11 + 1 illusion
8 + 1 fast cast

Why settle for only one?

Both are fairly balanced... I prefer domination for conditional damage dealing that mobs cant avoid, and for edenial in pvp. Thus the higher dom level

Domination is superior in my opinion, I don't particularly like Domination since it's what everyone runs but I feel it has more to offer than Illusion.

It's actually one of the concerning things to me about the Mesmer class, in my eyes we have only one functional attribute as Inspiration is inherently a backup attribute and Illusion doesn't seem deep enough to me and the builds that rely solely on it tend to be gimicky in nature such as Illusionary Weaponry, the old Fragility spike. I'm sure someone will point out many ways in which I'm wrong and that's fine but this is the honest impression I've gotten playing Mesmer as my main ever since I got the game, Domination seems to offer me more options whilst Illusion works well in a subsidiary role (Arcane Conundrum in an interrupt build for example).

Sooo... My conclusion would be Domination > Illusion.

All a matter of preference. Play around with both and see what you like more. I prefer Domination.

Illusion is weaker in PvE if you are looking at the health degeneration or damage aspects of it, due to the sheer number of hit points lvl 24+ mobs have. In PvP, though, it seems that at least half of the mesmers I've seen in observer mode are running illusion/inspiration mesmers.

Domination and inspiration are much more... cohesive attribute lines. However, I see little point in "concentrating" on an attribute line since you should really have *every* mesmer skill because they are all good, and changing around your skills and attributes only takes a few seconds.

In PVE it really depends upon where you are. For example, in Dragon's Lair, I've found anti-warrior illusion spells more useful due to the high number of melee fighters and rangers. Carrying one anti-caster disrupt (Power Drain) gets me through it fine. On the other hand, in the Fire Islands and Sorrow's Furnace, I specc for anti-caster domination for faster boss takedown.

This is a really big help! I like the health degen of illusion and the inturups of dom but so hard to dieced!

i do both
domination when there's lots of ele that cast meteor shower
illusion when there's not

Yeah, I don't see why you can't do both. The combo can do a whole range of functions from damage to interruption and more. My mesmer starts battle by unloading a couple of dom. skills (damage), a couple of illusion (degen. and conditions), then I cast Illusionary weaponry, and destroy anything in my path. I chose the road of offense, so I rely on a tank or a healer, but as far as killing power goes, I like to think of myself as unparalelled. The dichotomy of the unbelievable power, but the simultaneous vulnerability make the character the most fun and rewarding of any I've ever played. So if you gotta pick one, the only person who can make that decision is you. Check out the skills pages and decide what roll you want to fill. If you want more options, and the ability to use the character in many different ways, a mix of the two can be very effective in numerous roles.

It depends on what you are dealing with. Illusion is far better if you are playing the anti-tank, domination for the anti-caster.

Do you want people to hate you or do you just want to be perceived as an asshole?

I think that beging a big target is fun that is why I like the monk and mesmer.

I have been doing both and it does work sometimes but i have to always switch my skills around.

people have said before and I will re-say it here, Mesmers aren't one of these professions that you can make one build that does well everywhere. You will be much more effective if you find out what you will be facing and then build accordingly.

I personally use both very frequently, although usually not concurrently, along with some inspiration, and some of my secondary.

I think that early in the game there is almost no better skill than conjure phantasm. There is very little hex removal and monsters have small amounts of health, so they go down quick with a maxed out conjure slapped on them.

I find that fighting against casters is equally fun when using either illusion or domination, and the same goes for warriors. Both lines of magic have some truely incredible spell combos.

illusion or domination. you can be tough either way. but you'll be a complete badass if you team one or the other with inspiration. 16 in dom or illusion with 10 to 12 in inspiration. power drain and drain enchantment are special.

fast casting isn't as important as the other 3 attributes imo.

Personally, I love the combo of a Me/N when you use illusion. Stacking degeneration on any foe (in PvE or PvP) can easily result in 9-10 arrows of degeneration. Even on high level foes, that can very taxing and, by their nature, can allow you to spread those hexes on multiple opponents at once.

To me, Domination mesmers are great at shutting down a single opponent, but if that opponent has any smarts about them (unlike PvE AI, I guess), they won't die from those shutdowns.

i prefer the domination for backfire and interuption skils

Quote: Originally Posted by Jetdoc