Spooky's Illusionary Warrior
Originally Published by Sausaletus Rex
So you want to play a melee character, but find yourself thinking "I'm not interested in being a Warrior primary, I want something more like a rogue" - which might then leave you thinking you're out of luck, right? Wrong! For those looking to play a slightly different take on a close range combatant, the Mesmer/Warrior might be right up your alley.
Attributes
Fast Casting {P}: 9 (8+1)
Illusion Magic: 13(11+2)
Tactics: 11
Points Spent: 191
Points Unspent : 9
Skills
Illusionary Weaponry {E} (Illusion Magic)
Conjure Phantasm (Illusion Magic)
Phantom Pain (Illusion Magic)
Bonetti's Defense (Tactics - Requires Sword)
Defesive Stance (Tactics)
Disciplined Stance (Tactics)
Healing Signet (Tactics)
Flurry (Unlinked)
Gear
Armor: Level 20 Rogue's Set (60AL +10AL vs. Physical)
Headgear: Costume Mask (Illusions +1)
Runes: Fast Casting (+1), Illusions (+1)
Sword
Shield
Focus
Normally, the Mesmer would not make an ideal candidate for
the front lines, due to her relatively low armor rating which would seem to be
a complication .. but we're not interested in taking hits, so instead
we'll focus on bringing along skills that will help us evade damage. To that
end, we have three Tactics stances: Defensive, Disciplined, and Bonetti's
Defense. Mostly, these skills serve the same purpose: a 75% chance to block
incoming attacks. 'If they're the same, then why bring 3?' you might ask. To
which I might answer that each of these skills lasts around 10 seconds, but
ranges from 45 to 60 seconds to recharge. In my own experience with this build,
i've found that having three stances is enough to keep me through most battles,
and helps to have a stance available when I need one while working through the
cool down times. Each of these stances varies a little, something we'll discuss
shortly.
So now that we know how we intend on staying alive .. how are we going to do
any damage? After all, it doesn't help nearly as much as you might think when
your only qualification in battle is being 'less likely to die' - you need to
give as well as receive! To these ends, our primary source of damage comes from
Illusionary Weaponry. The description of this skill might be confusing to some
people .. you deal no damage in melee, but target takes damage? What's that all
about? The easiest answer is that the damage you deal in melee is not
determined by the strength of your weapon, or in your skill with using it -
when using Illusionary Weaponry, the only thing that matters for damage is how
many points you have in Illusion Magic. You can use a 3-4 damage short sword,
and still be putting out 30+ damage a swing. So find yourself a sword you like,
and use it solely for looks. The best part of all this is that we can ignore
our Swordmanship line completely, and put those Attribute points to better use
elsewheres.
'Hang on a second,' you might think. 'If weapons are irrelevant, why are we
using swords? Can't I smack something with a hammer instead?' Well, you
certainly could if you wanted to, but there's a reason for using swords. Out of
all the current melee weapons, swords have the best base attack speed. Since it
doesn't matter how hard our weapon hits for, only that we hit, we want
to make our attacks as fast as possible. This is also why the skill Flurry was
included on the build, to increase our rate of attack, since the 'deals less
damage' penalty does not apply to Illusionary Weaponry. While the skill Frenzy
would last longer, it also puts us considerably further into harms way by
making any hit that gets through a critical one. Between the two, Flurry is
better suited here, but that is a matter of personal opinion / play style.
Rounding out the skills list, we have two tried-and-true Mesmer standby skills,
Conjure Phantasm and Phantom Pain. Having these skills along provides a greater
degree of flexibility to the build, you can provide ranged damage if needed, or
have an alternate means of attack if your IW is put out of commision. Having
Fast Casting on this build helps a good deal with these skills - you can stack
both onto a target before charging in to melee range. Phantom Pain is an
excellent "cast first, then attack" skill - not for its damage (low
health degen) but for its side effects of causing a Deep Wound (targets maximum
health is decreased by 20%) - I can't begin to count the number of times that
this move has finished off an enemy, especially if you come across a self
healing boss.
Lastly, we have the Healing Signet. This is so .. we don't die. This is the
most efficient self-heal skill to be used with this kind of build, since we
already have points invested in Tactics. To use the Mesmer's self-heal would
require points invested in Inspiration, which ends up leaving us spread a
little too thin.
So now that we know a little bit more about what we have, and why, let's take a
look at a typical example of how this build would handle in combat. After using
Phantom Pain and Conjure Phantasm, we want to get into melee range with
Illusionary Weaponry. The first of the stances you'll want to use (if you are
the target) would be Defensive Stance - since the catch here is that it ends if
you use a skill. Might be problematic for Warriors, but we're doing our damage
without having to use new skills thanks to IW. If you find yourself getting hit
hard, you might want to use Disciplined Stance, for its additional bonus to
armor levels - as its drawback (can't gain adrenaline) doesn't affect us at all.
And lastly, if you find yourself wanting for energy in the middle of a fight,
use Bonetti's Defense - which grants us energy for each attack we parry.
As with every build that can be put together, this one too, has its weaknesses.
Since we rely almost entirely on Illusionary Weaponry as our source of damage,
then we run into problems against enemies that have the potential to remove
enchantments. On its own, IW lasts for 30 seconds, with a recharge time of 40 -
meaning you only need to wait 10 seconds in between each use, which isn't too
bad. But if someone shatters your enchantment right after you use it, the 40
seconds of recast might feel like a very long time.
For those interested in this approach, but want to try a more 'advanced'
version - you can try subbing out two of your defensive stances (keep
Bonetti's) and replace them with Distortion and Spirit of Failure. The idea
being (hopefully) SoF and Bonetti's can provide enough mana to keep Distortion
fueled and running. However! This is a very mana-hungry build, and if things go
wrong in the middle of a battle, it can be hard to recover from. Save this
approach unless you really want a challenge.
And there you have a brief look at but one possibility for the melee Mesmer.
There are plenty of other combinations - find the skills and the approach that
you feel most comfortable with. One thing is for certain however - you'll be
the envy of all those back row casting Mesmers that wish they led a more
exciting life style.
