Showing Posts For Syrenead.6327:
Have you ever noticed that the rocks in the garden of Caudecus Manor form the face of Caudecus if you stand right in front of the npc?
I think there is a difference between the best build for a (1) beginner mesmer or a mesmer who does not know the dungeon very well and (2) an experienced mesmer who knows the dungeon well. For the first type of mesmer I would recommend a tankier build, with some more vitality and healing power. I think greatsword and sword focus with 20/20/0/30/0 is a great build to gain experience with the class and with a dungeon. It allows you to melee with sword and go range with greatsword when things get too heated. When you get more experienced with the dungeon, full berserker and sword/sword and sword/pistol is probably be the best build that can do the most damage. So that is something to work towards.
I would also generally recommend to experiment with different builds and weapons in dungeons you know well, to really get to know the class. So also try out a shatter build and a mantra build, try a staff, a scepter, even try a torch.
Teleporting skills, mesmer phantasms or blink do not have effect on the Spider Queen spraying poison. But running around, that’s what causing her to spray poison aoe’s. Dodging in the corner might not count as moving to trigger the poison attack.
I don’t think the problem is ranged or melee, the problem is moving. The spider queen sprays poison if anyone moves. If you stack to melee near the stairs and even one person moves an inch, she sprays poison and it’s pretty hopeless because there is no escape or room to dodge.
You can also range her, spread out, just do not move if you don’t want to be sprayed with poison. And don’t run to rez someone who is downed. You will both be poisoned and die. Better to let them rez themselves.
You can even have half the party melee her and one or more party members range. As long as nobody moves.
In TA Story at the end you can reflect Eir’s attacks. The attacks do huge damage; so does feedback on her.
In Ascalonian Catacombs you can reflect the poison of the little spiders before the Spider Queen.
Karka’s and Oozes have reflectable attacks. There are some Oozes in CoF path 2 (Lavafield) where you can use feedback to shut them up.
You can also usually reflect all kinds of turrets (net turrets, fire turrets, ice turrets and rocket turrets). There are few exceptions, only one I can think of are the rocket turrets in CM path 3, which you have to destroy with the air blast gun.
There are also some guild bounties where you can reflect to do huge damage. Unfortunately I forgot which ones.
… continued…
I used to run a 20/20/0/30/0 build, but I find the new 20/0/0/20/30 build more useful and adaptable. It gives more survivability in case of running through trash mobs, through illusionary persona. And it’s a lot of fun to play, it can do tons of damage. An encounter with mobs or a boss usually ends with my mindwrack.
Come to think of it, the perception trait line does not have such good traits in comparison with the illusion trait line. Bleeding from illusions probably is not necessary in a berserker build; and a boss usually has reached its bleed cap from other party members. The clone on dodge you can replace by mirror images so you can use it situational instead of override phantasms. Critical infusion seldom has a use and if it does, you can probably better get vigourous revelation and also give vigor to your allies. Phantasmal haste is probably better than phantasms having fury.
I also have tried a mantra build (20/30/0/20/0), which can do a lot of damage with four charged mantra’s, but has not a great deal of survivability and is not fun to play.
And I tried sword/sword and sword/pistol, because of the recent stigma that has been put on greatsword mesmers, but I found that my survivability with that build was pretty low. In Orr, I can roam easily by myself with sword/focus and greatsword, but I kept dying with sword/sword and sword/pistol. The same was true for dungeons and in between and during dying I did not do a lot of damage, just a lot of frantic dodging…
I bring all weapons to the dungeon and change my traits, weapons, armor and utilities constantly, according to what the situation needs.
Weapons:
- berserker sword, focus and greatsword with sigils of perception,
- berserker sword, focus, greatsword and pistol with sigils of the night,
- berserker sword, greatsword and staff with sigils of fire,
- berserker greatsword with sigil of nullification,
- berserker focus and pistol with sigil of accuracy,
- rampager scepter with sigil of malice,
- soldiers torch with sigil of energy.
1. I always take a dungeon potion for every dungeon/fractal and take power/precision food.
2. I bring two sets of armor: one berserker with scholar runes and one berserker with centaur runes for running through trash. Also it gives me the opportunity to switch if my armor is broken and repairing is inconvenient.
3. I often start with a sword, focus and greatsword with sigil of perception. This gets me to 25 stacks pretty fast.
4. After 25 stacks I switch to sword with sigil of the night for night dungeons/instances (or fire for day dungeons), focus with sigil of accuracy and greatsword with sigil of the night (or fire).
5. For stacking to pull mobs, I use sword/focus and staff (start of with chaos storm/chaos armor and then switch to sword/focus, shatter). Feedback when there are a lot of projectiles involved; and I mostly try to get down a focus 4 in the middle as an extra reflect or as a light field for combo’s.
6. For other mobs, I try to focus pull them to a wall or corner when that is useful and nail them down with sword 3.
7. For bosses it depends on the boss; some I melee (with sword/focus and scepter/pistol), some I alternate melee with ranged (with sword/focus and greatsword), some I only take ranged with scepter/pistol and staff or greatsword (the ones that move a lot around or do tons of damage). Especially when I have 25 stacks of 10 precision built up, I try not to go down and lose them. In a party with a lot of condition professions, I might choose staff instead of greatsword against a boss.
8. For running through trash, I slot a torch, blink/ veil, decoy, mirror images (+ f4 and illusionary persona gives 4 seconds of distortion). I give party speed with my focus 4 or runes of centaur. Sometimes mass invisibility if that is helpful and there is no thief.
9. For killing graveling burrows, I use focus, sword (blurred frenzy), greatsword and mindwrack.
10. I run a 20/0/0/20/30 full berserker phantasm/shatter build on armor, weapons and trinkets (except for one or two soldier trinkets). I start with phantasms, shatter when my phantasms are almost off cool down (which is pretty fast with illusionists celerity) and replace them with new phantasms.
11. I switch my traits and utility skills according to what the situation needs. For instance party composition: if the party does not seem to stack much vulnerability, I switch to rending shatter. If the party stacks a lot of might, I slot signet of inspiration. If party members prove to be a bit squishy, or with bosses that do lots of damage, I slot phantasmal defender and signet of illusions. For bosses with a lot of boons, I choose shattered concentration and arcane thievery and try to melee them with sword when I can (I have found phantasmal disenchanter and null field not working too well in those cases).
12. I provide reflects when needed with traited focus and glamour mastery + feedback. When reflects are not needed I will take mender’s purity.
I think retaliation (Vengeful Images-trait) is also important to take into account when trying to maximise DPS. For instance, Phantasmal Defender with Signet of Illusions can do considerable amounts of extra (retaliation) damage against dungeons bosses with a lot of AOE damage.
Phantasmal Warden placed next to a stationary dungeon boss, HP buffed with Signet of Illusions and traited with Vengeful Images probably also does a lot more damage than a Phantasmal Duelist, when you take the retaliation damage into account. For moving bosses the Duelist is probably better, though.