Getting the most out of your Mesmer. (Raveneye don't read)

[Onnie]

Just kidding. ;)

Just to help out with the group so I can set Xell up right on her spells to cooridante with Graven and Erudite. What I'm running her with is of course, the hit point loss, area damage (IF the monsters stay where it is casted at grumble) backfire. Last night I also had up Predator Pounce for George so our NPC healer didn't hit him so much, Troll for me, rez, creature comfort and of course so George shows up the Tame Creature.

Here's what I thinking of doing though is dropping the area damage for engery burn however... energy burn really isn't that effective. What I want is that friggen Shackles, with each attack your engery drops. What I would do with it is cycle through our targets and drop it on em as needed. Now I know that won't touch Signets but here is where it gets jicky on backfire with Signets.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Now I have Xell's Fast casting up to 8. The big thing with Backfire, and I'm sure you guys noticed it last night, is bloody recharge time. Let me tell you how I use it and usually when if it is up.

In a perfect situation I usually hit a boss with it when they have about 2/3rds health. That's when their big damage spell might be getting ready to go off or they will be getting ready to heal soon, so it is blocked. Signets I have actually blocked with it but it is almost a perfect timing thing. I don't know if that's an accident or luck or a bug and they shouldn't be blocked but there you have it.

When the meter on Backfire is about the first 1/3 through I seems to block everything, around half some stuff starts getting through the last 1/2 to 1/3 forget it is even there but I'm still waiting for it to recharge. I'm sure you guys were as frustrated as I was on some of those tower guys that kept healing up. Okay, where's Xell and stopping that healing stuff? Recharging. That's why I'd love to have the spell that burns up Energy everytime you attack. I'd pop the casters and go back to support on draining the heavy hitters.

Engery burn really isn't effective as Backfire for stopping healing however combined with shackles and hands down replacement for my area damage.

Anyways, just thought we could talk about it so I can set her up better for grouping with you guys.

--Onnie

[Erudite]

We can get Spirit Shackles for you, if you don't already have it. Just have to get you a Signet of Capture - boss mobs in Northern Kryta (North Kryta Province, Nebo Terrace, Watchtower Coast) use it.

More on skill lineups later...

[Erudite]

Okay, skill lineups. The 8 skills I load are really only varied but what build I'm using at the time - the general effects are pretty similar.

Skill #1 - Aura of Restoration (restores life with every spell cast by me).

Skill #2 - Kinetic Armor (I use this in every build).

Skill #3 - A cheap spammable nuke for general usage and to refresh Kinetic Armor. With a fire build, this is Flare. Otherwise, it's usually Stone Daggers.

Skill #4 - An AE nuke. Fireball, more often than not.

Skill #5 - An AE DoT. Firestorm or Symbol of Wrath.

Skill #6 - A directed heal. Almost always Heal Other, as I don't usually bother healing myself outside of AoR, and Heal Other is very efficient.

Skill #7 - Heal Party, for times when AE spells are clobbering us.

Skill #8 - Rez.

I have a fair amount of flexibility and will play around with my lineup from time to time, but the above seems to be the most consistent in terms of dealing damage while still providing some spot-healing/recovery utility.

So, things that help me specifically are stripping enchantments from mobs (Ward Against Elements leaves me almost useless unless I'm built for smiting) and hex removals (Backfire also limits me). Also, snares and knockdowns that trap mobs in my AE DoTs are especially helpful.

[Raveneye]

Raveneye's loadout is pretty straightforward. He's designed to do the most damage as quickly as possible, thus he's currently specced Sword as it's best for damage dealing. Hammer seems to be best for interrupts and knockdowns, and Axe seems to be the way to go for devestating special attacks.

When specced for Sword he's got:

Skill #1 - Well of Suffering - Necro skill - uses a corpse to create an AoE that causes -3 health regeneration in all nearby enemies. I'll bust this one out when surrounded by grouped foes.

Skill #2 - Galrath Slash - adds 30 damage on successful hit

Skill #3 - Sever Artery - opponent bleeds (DoT) for 18 seconds. NOTE: My current sword has an enchantment that adds 12 seconds to this, so most opponents will continue to bleed out until dead.

Skill #4 - Pure Strike - Hits for 18 additional damage and cannot be evaded or blocked.

Skill #5 - Power Attack - Hits for 24 additional damage

Skill #6 - Soul Feast - Necro - exploits a corpse to heal 140 damage

Skill #7 - Signet of Capture

Skill #8 - Resurrection Signet

I've occasionally swapped in an addition sword attack for the Signet of Capture. I tried the two different attacks that supposedly interrupt opponents actions, but they never seemed to be working that I could tell, and they negate any damage dealt to cause their "proc", so it seemed worthless.

[GravenStone]

My current loadout:


Awaken the Blood - Increases my Blood and Curse levels by 2 for 39 seconds. I pop this when facing bosses and the like.
Shadow of Fear - An AOE debuff that slows the attack rate of all affected mobs by 50% for 23 seconds.
Shadow Strike - My token DD, does 41 points of damage and heals me for the same if the target was > 50% health. This latter effect appears bugged as it deals double damage - which I use to my advantage as an opening attack.
Life Siphon - Debuffs target with -3 health and buffs me with +3 for 22 seconds.
Putrid Explosion - consumes a corpse to deal 94 damage to all adjacent mobs. I use this to weaken crowds, or clear coprses when going against NPC necros.
Animate Bone Fiend - creates an undead minion with a range attack. I can also swap in Bone Horror (same level minion, but no range) or Bone Minions (creates two lower level critters). The last one is likely of less utility now that there's a cap on the number of minions a necro can have, related to his level and Blood magic skill.
Capture Signet - also will swap in whatever spell appears useful for the mission
Rez Signet

Raveneye, if you ever decide to open a slot, I can also cast Well of Sffering, but mine is good for -5 health regen, and I think jumps to -6 when I activate Awaken the Blood.

[Onnie]

Well, I got shackles and so far... I'm not that impressed with it. Part of that is a catch 22 though I think.... I need to check if something is effecting it. Which, if I'm right, really stinks Bixie Droppings.

I think my Fast Casting is effecting it. It does not stay on NEAR as long to actually be useful. (i.e. the spell is not staying on as long because I have such a high fast cast, now we are getting into engery problems with it dropping off and wanting a recast.) This is what I was running into when I was using it with Erudtie. Either there was no need to actually cast the friggen wench because the Monster bottom'd out to death so fast might as well forget it OR, I'd hit it from the get go but because due to sticking on time.. once the healing started it was already off again but I'm in a re-charge period.

Now I've got to look at the spell again but my Domination attrib is the highest out of anything. I think it's something like 12 because most of the spells I use fall in it. I did get a spell I really fell in love with and that one steals the targets spell randomly. My spell replaces theirs.

Have tested it to see if they can steal back and it appears not so even though the stealing spell replaces the one I took on their spell list. It is not a recharge time thing (at least I don't think so) because I'll have the other spell for awhile. After the stolen spell disappears then recharge starts up. However, as of yet I have not been able to steal any healing spells even though I can steal any type of classes spells (i.e. not just Mesmer but Elems, Necro.) and I have stolen Monk spells but not Healing (as of yet.) I beginning to think it might be just offensive spells except one thing...

I stole last night off a ummm... heck they throw the rocks at you and thump the ground. In the jungle, walking stick looking things. Anyways, I stole a spell that helps recast time or engery costs on Earth spells. Now that was the first "support" spell I've stolen so....

Also have another spell that's called Blackout. I was dancing when I got it. However, here's the sucky side to it...

Even though it completely disables the Targets total skill list (either spells or combat skills) for 5 seconds (mine as well) I've got to be practically standing on the friggen target. It would of, for example, never of gone off on those tower guys that were up in the air for that mission I was on with all of you. I would not of been able to, "Reach Target." I will get up something that helps with anything that buffs up against Elem attacks.

Gonna keep the spell stealer, that one is nice.

If we know we are facing one heck of a nasty boss, I can see loading up Black Out to stop all skills on the beast. Just keep in mind I'm going to have to have Location Location Location. ;) Just curious if you know Graven if your hit point reductions and mine stack? I know that posion does with mine. For that though, I've got to bow it. If I bow it, I can Area posion.

--Onnie

[GravenStone]

Well, I got shackles and so far... I'm not that impressed with it. Part of that is a catch 22 though I think.... I need to check if something is effecting it. Which, if I'm right, really stinks Bixie Droppings.

I think my Fast Casting is effecting it. It does not stay on NEAR as long to actually be useful. (i.e. the spell is not staying on as long because I have such a high fast cast, now we are getting into engery problems with it dropping off and wanting a recast.) This is what I was running into when I was using it with Erudtie. Either there was no need to actually cast the friggen wench because the Monster bottom'd out to death so fast might as well forget it OR, I'd hit it from the get go but because due to sticking on time.. once the healing started it was already off again but I'm in a re-charge period.

The only thing that should be affecting the duration on hexes you cast are your level in the corresponding attribute. Otherwise they should stick for the allotted time unless the target 1) dies or 2) has the hex dispelled by another mob.

<snip>Also have another spell that's called Blackout. I was dancing when I got it. However, here's the sucky side to it...

Even though it completely disables the Targets total skill list (either spells or combat skills) for 5 seconds (mine as well) I've got to be practically standing on the friggen target. It would of, for example, never of gone off on those tower guys that were up in the air for that mission I was on with all of you. I would not of been able to, "Reach Target." I will get up something that helps with anything that buffs up against Elem attacks.

Pretty sure that ability has range = Touch, so yes you need to be in melee range of them. I also thought it locked you down for the duration of the spell? I remember seeing one that did that to both caster and target...

Gonna keep the spell stealer, that one is nice.

If we know we are facing one heck of a nasty boss, I can see loading up Black Out to stop all skills on the beast. Just keep in mind I'm going to have to have Location Location Location. ;) Just curious if you know Graven if your hit point reductions and mine stack? I know that posion does with mine. For that though, I've got to bow it. If I bow it, I can Area posion.

--Onnie

As far as I know, hit point reductions do indeed stack from differing sources. The probable exception being if you have multiple NPCs trying to cast the exact same spell on you, but I can't verify that to be true. Maybe an arena session is in order to give it a try? Although we might have a hard time convincing the other side to leave us alone so we can nuke and DoT each other...

[Erudite]

Maybe an arena session is in order to give it a try? Although we might have a hard time convincing the other side to leave us alone so we can nuke and DoT each other...

When we get around to getting a guild hall (no idea how much it costs - we should really check), we're allowed to scrimmage there.

Arena combat is pretty fun, if you haven't checked it out. Takes lots of practice, though, and I suck at it so far. :lowrazz:

[GravenStone]

Guild halls don't even become an option until you're Ascended... talked to the fella in Lion's Arch about them and that seemed the obvious conclusion.

[Erudite]

Really? I thought you just had to have a sigil (won in the high-end arena, or purchased). I know you need a cape, though, before the guy in Lion's Arch will let you look at halls.