Quote:
Originally Posted by Labrie
Thing is, I use a knock down warrior with Bull's Strike, I think the longest I've seen a mesmer run from me with distortion is 30 seconds at most, then his energy gets drained and I knock him down as he runs away. Crushing Blow + Holy Strike = Dead.
Wrong again. Distortion lasts 5 seconds for a 5E cost, and with a -1E per whiff. you EARN .5 energy each time you dodge one blow as you're running. Since a kiting Distorter isn't spending energy for anything else, you can last a looooooooooong time kiting and Distorting Warriors or Rangers who are not set up in other ways to stop you. It's even a viable strat with -2E a whiff for most agile Mesmers.
- Bull's Strike ftw? Not a chance. You have barely a 25% chance that it'll even connect through Distortion. Tha doesn't even take into account that when one sees you activate it, they can stop on a dime to avoid the small chance of getting knocked down.
- Let's say BS connects (as it will at times)... Crushing Blow ftw? Negative. Even when knocked down (BS, Gale, etc.) Distortion is fully functional. All your carefully constructed knocked down combos are very likely to whiff, whiff, whiff.
- Holy Strike? That's actually a good question. It's a skill that has to touch, so this is the only time I'll join you in foruim theory by saying it SHOULD whiff often as well. I'm not sure though but will find out.
I've gone against enough Warriors of all types to know that the only ones that consistently kill me in Distortion with their native skill sets are those using unevadable skills like Wild Blow, Pure Strike, and Irresistable Blow. And even THAT only works if I'm not packing Ether Feast (+125 every 8 seconds with -5E drain to enemy) or if I'm not focused on energy drain in general. All those unevadable attacks need energy to work, so constant E.Drain or E.Tap with Ether Feast as I Distort+kite keeps them near 0E as I get health back.
Of course I can't always bring those skills, so kite+Distort works against 80% of the Warriors just fine. Unless I decide to solo kill them instead.