I registered just to say thanks zilzalzigga for your excellent advice. I've been playing my level 19 Mesmer with more pleasure since implementing some of your tactics.
I registered just to say thanks zilzalzigga for your excellent advice. I've been playing my level 19 Mesmer with more pleasure since implementing some of your tactics.
A lot of good advise here. Something I'd like to add is if you're finding yourself in a lot of melee, not being able to kill things fast enough or just aggroing near by mobs...I find the Scepter/Sword is your friend.
Mesmer's my main. I can't find another class that I just easily slide into (that's what he said)... regardless of the weapon set you start out with, switching to Scepter sword, gives you two blocks that give clones and scepter provides you with a clone every 3 seconds (fastest clone-o-mator I believe - please correct this if I'm wrong) so this will benefit you with a lot of shatter.
I currently play a build with gives me constant Protection and Regen. My phantasms have Fury and cause a condition when Destroyed...this means with a scepter you're making a clone every 3 seconds. you can only have a max of 3 clones, so every 3 seconds you're causing a random conditions in addition to whatever else you're doing. Survival, Survival, Survival. 2 phantasm and one clone that will continue go boom, only to be replaced by another clone. And, clones will blow up before phantasms. there have been exceptions and i'm not sure the trigger, but I do know that when I do a solid flow, and gen two Phantasm, my third is a clone and everyone boom clone with a scepter gets replaced by another clone.
I'm level 76 on my mesmer now, and still loving it. In PVE I pretty much use the same tactics and weapon sets I described in my other post. But now with traits, there's some variant. mughzee may be correct about the scepter, I'm not sure. I don't recall if there are traits for scepter refresh times. I know there's one for sword, pistol, and greatsword (the ones I paid attention to). Of those I currently use the greatsword one which reduces refresh times and gives 50 power if I remember correctly.
Putting out clones isn't an issue with my build now though, so at higher levels I won't use a scepter. It may be a good choice earlier. But with timer reductions, dodge spawning clones, crits granting vigor (so I can dodge more), clones causing cripple when killed / causing confusion when shattered ...
Well I could go on. But needless to say, I'm a one man army. I even got rid of one of my skill slots (slot 8 which summoned 2 clones) in favor of something else because I already had plenty of clones to go around.
I'm running a power/precision/condition build. Clones cause bleeding on crit and cripple when killed, so I save shatters just for burst damage. In fact, I can stack bleeding better with this build than I can with my 80 ranger with a shortbow. I can't wait to see what I can do once I get 80, forge my mystic greatsword, and put on my exotic armor set and good jewelry.
Once I do that, I get to learn dungeons, then pvp build(s).
Tenkinn is my Mesmer main and L.O.V.E. that little asura monster!
The best advice I can give is to not over think illusions and shattering. Two simple rules here for Illusions. Illusions are either A) damage dealers and you want them out as much as possible (in most cases keeping phantasms over summoning more clones) or B) disposable through shattering or distraction. (of course they can be balanced to allow both but learning to use them for damage and then shattering or the other order if you prefer, will allow you to understand each of the fundamentals and allow you to tackle some insane situations with ease)
If you choose damage for illusions over disposing them, shatter can still be a very good idea and in this case mostly comes down to situational usage. For damage dealing illusions, weapons such as the greatsword or pistol offhand are great at this. Both weapons summon powerful phantasms that deal a fair amount of damage, and when given traits to amplify this, can churn out some comparable numbers to the damage you directly do. Both also have a way to keep the enemy at bay with a stun, or knockback.
If you choose to use illusions for shattering or confusing the enemy as to your actual location, a staff and scepter are fantastic at it. As others have pointed out, nothing will throw out more clones faster then a scepter. At that point the enemy plays whack-a-clone while you set up the finish with a well placed Mind Wrack to the face. Both weapons also give good control if the enemy does get wise and decide to take you on with skills like shields, blocks, and some good condition damage to keep the hurt on.
Utility skills are a fantastic way to work around some of the missing elements your weapons may be lacking. I can't tell you how many times a simple Blink has saved me.
Traits, like shattering and illusions, can seem overwhelming at first but once you have an idea as to what you want to do (i.e. illusions doing damage or treating them like an unwanted zit) you can start to see what traits would be great to increase these choices. There are lots of ways other then these two plays styles of course but starting out basic like these, lets you understand the core systems of the mesmer a lot faster.
Whether you are treating your illusions as assets or smashing them like last week's old pumpkins, don't forget the best part about the Mesmer, Pink and Purple butterflies that will melt your face off!
p.s. Feel free to hit me up in game if you have any questions. The game is only fun if you have people to play it with
Last edited by Smokes; 11-09-2012 at 05:03 AM.
There is a scepter skill. 20 In Inspiration gives you +Malice and reduces Scepter skills by 20%. I don't even have that yet though! And I did ensure that yeah, when you make the clones they will shatter before phantasms. THough, thinking about it. I don't think that that Trait will make you gen clones faster..not sure though.
Any OP. As you can see, there are a bunch of us in game loving the Mesmer. Hit us up. We'll help you out. I'm on Blackgate / Camerilla.
It doesn't. The trait only effects skills 2 and 3 as they are the only ones with a cooldown.Originally Posted by mughzee
Unless the trait says 'speeds up casting/attack/channeling time of ability' anything that 'reduces' skills for weapons only applies to decreasing the cooldowns for skills used with that weapon.
K, that's what I thought. It makes sense. Thanks for the confirmation!
Keep in mind for Mesmer's this doesn't necessarily mean that all skills will be effected either. Illusion abilities are not effected by reduced cooldowns from weapon reducing traits, they have their own trait that does this. (first 5 in illusion). Consider that no matter what you are using (1hd with off hand, or 2hd weapon), you will have one clone and one phantasm for the 5 weapon abilities, it does someone limit it's usefulness for Mesmer. So just something to keep in mind.
This is incorrect. The trait Greatsword Training in the Domination Tree reduces the cooldown on all greatsword abilities by 20% reducing the 20 second Phantasmal Berserker down to 16 seconds. The Phantasmal Berserker skill can then be reduced by another 20% with Illusionists Celerity in the Illusions Tree down to a 12 second cooldown. Now this only applies to summoning the Illusion under these traits and not the rate at which the Illusion will use its attack. Phantasmal Haste under the Illusions tree will increase the rate at which the phantasm will use its attacks and does not reduce your cooldown to summon the phantasm.
Hope this clears up any confusion on the matter.
While accurate in your time for the specific weapon, there are still bugs to it, including your example. The time displayed is still shown to go no lower then 16seconds on mouse over (the recharge itself is 12) for the greatsword. Other weapons may or may not be "working" as intended or stated and thus my point still stands. People need to be aware that they are not all working and should test out what they want to use for any particular build. So it is something to keep in mind.
For a normal 1hd sword the time does not get the increase from both, and is still bugged to only be effected by Illusion Celereity. 9 and a half seconds is as low as Illusionary Leap will go, because the weapon trait does not stack with the illusion specific ability. I know it is/was like this for the pistol or 1hd sword as off hand but they are not demonstrated in the video. I know the pistol was recently reworked, so hopefully it was fixed when they changed it.
A quick example video taken this morning.
So is your confusion cleared up yet?
Last edited by Xovian; 11-10-2012 at 09:45 AM.
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