Some help plz re: Echo and Arcane Echo and its mechanics

Arcane Echo - Enchantment Spell
If you cast a "spell" in the next 10-26 seconds, Arcane Echo is replaced with that spell for 20 seconds. Arcane Echo ends prematurely if you use a non-spell skill.

Echo {Elite} - Enchantment Spell
For 10-26 seconds, Echo is replaced with the next skill you use. Echo acts as this skill for 20 seconds.

Can anyone please explain to me exactly how these two work?
for example, if I cast Arcane echo and then cast
Conjure Phantasm - Hex Spell
For 2-12 seconds, target foe experiences health degeneration of 5.

will it make the phantasm spell last for 20 seconds?

if not, does this happen with echo??

my next question,

If I chose Me/E
is it possible to do echo or arcane echo and then immolate to basically set my opponent on fire for 20 seconds because that's the duration of the echo/arcane echo?

Immolate - Spell
Target foe is struck for 5-41 fire damage and is set on fire for 1-3 seconds.

No. Neither Echo nor Arcane Echo in any way affect the spell you cast. No extended durations or anything. They do exactly what the skill description says they do, and nothing more.

Cast Arcane Echo.
Cast Other Spell.
Other Spell goes off and works exactly as it always does.
Arcane Echo is REPLACED on your skill bar by a second copy of Other Spell, which remains for 20 seconds. After the 20 seconds are up, the second copy of Other Spell disappears from your skill bar and Arcane Echo returns.

You can't do anything with the copy of Other Spell that couldn't have done with the original, it functions exactly like Other Spell always does.

The only point to ever echoing anything is to get around the recharge time. Echoing something with a short recharge time is pointless, you can just cast the original again. You Echo something with a long recharge time so you can cast it twice in the time you ordinarily can only use it once.

I see, thanks. So then it would generally be a bad idea to use echo on a damage over time spell like conjure phantasm because they don't stack if you cast it on them twice, right?

Quote: Originally Posted by kitono

"The only point to ever echoing anything is to get around the recharge time. Echoing something with a short recharge time is pointless, you can just cast the original again. You Echo something with a long recharge time so you can cast it twice in the time you ordinarily can only use it once"




If i understand this correctly it is only a freeb on recharge time correct (and could be useful for DoTs if cast on 2 seperate tagets)? It will still consume the same engery as the original. So one might look for a hi-recharge + low-energy spell to compliment with Echo as us Mes types are always watching the blue hehe.

I am a newb and havnt gotten it yet so I havnt been able to experiement on my own. Interested to know what more epxerienced players use it in conjunction with?

Any penalties incurred on an echoed skill are lost when the 20 seconds are up, so some people use Glyph of Sacrafice with a long cast echoed spell, such as Meteor Shower. Actually, especially meteor shower
Nothing like being smacked to death in no time flat by two nigh-simultaneous meteor showers.

You could echo a skill with a short, but not quite spammable, recharge time, and spam it, like Water Trident, I'd imagine.

Also, you can echo an elite spell (arcane echo it, anyway, since you couldn't both have echo, and another elite at once, barring the use of Arcane Mimicry + echo, which is actually feasible o.O), and have it twice in your bar. Why settle for only 10-12 seconds (depending on your "of enchanting" mod) of Ether Renewal out of 30, when you could have it on almost constantly?

And you don't even need any point in illusion to make use of it, really. No matter how many you have, you only copy the skill for 20 seconds. The only thing attribute points invested garners is more time to use the skill you want to copy, and that's not really an issue. 10 seconds is enough to cast even the longest casting time spell around.

Great fun skill, and with both Arcane Echo and Echo, you can have 3 copies of a given spell on your toolbar easily.