Stalled again with The Tuesday Club, another missed session meant that it was down to two of us once more, to find productive, constructive and entertaining ways to occupy the evening. This was mostly in the form of a number of secondary quests, and of course, "filling in the corners".
The various Guild Wars World Maps have always fascinated me. Starting in Pre Searing Ascalon, pressing 'M' and seeing this vast, richly imagined and exotic continents, all fuzzy with ignorance. The Post-Searing map of Tyria is a thing of mystique and beauty in and of itself; icy mountain ranges, red baked flatlands, exotic jungles, shifting deserts and remote, rock island chains. Later, as you start exploring, these region 'uncover' and fill in with details - towns, outposts, mission areas - the unknown with it's hidden promise fades, to be replaced with the sense of achievement - been there, done that, and as the Cartographer Title inches toward 100%, the idea of being able to collect whole lands as trophies settles in, and of course the best thing about a mapping exercise like this, is that once you've done it, it's done. No endless repetition on this quest...
I love it, and got a similar kick out of World of Warcraft and Everquest II's maps too - converting the unknown to the known, but sheer dint of curiosity, and fighting and xp be damned! As a kind of side exercise for these off weeks, we sometimes take our Nightfall Characters to Tyria - the Prophecies world, via the Lion's Arch boat, and re-explore these lands again, unlocking the various outposts in the old world. Of course, we've done these before, but it's another title, and to be honest, it was a long time since I last worked through the Kryta lands and missions, and back then, I was a R/N, not a Me/P, so it's refreshing enough.
We also had a number of good rampages through Kourna, in the 'side areas', off the beaten track of the main quest; Barbarous Shore and The Floodplain of Mahnkelon, both agreeable enough, but not terribly different from the Jahai Bluffs or Arkjok Ward. Quite looking forward to a proper change of scenery soon! In particular, the southern end of Barbarous Shore saw us stumble into a quite populous Corsair settlement, with hilarious consequences, involving some pretty hectic fighting - thoroughly enjoyable, and I even came out of it with a Mesmer Elite Skill Capture; Simple Theivery, and a green (Unique) Mesmer staff; Morlah's Staff. There seems to be something for everyone down there, with lots of different Corsair Bosses, many of which can drop greens, so do pay them a visit!
All this personal Mesmer Love is serving only to push me further toward the purple path really, and I now only carry 2 out of 8 Paragon skills, and have gotten rid of the spears too. A complete 100% Mesmer skillbar isn't far off, I suspect. Still, at one point during the mayhem last night, I had three Elite skills on the go, (One equipped, one captures, one stolen), and having been on a bit of a skills binge, am now discovering all manner of complex and fun Mesmer combos. Three skills in particular stood out.
Firstly, Mantra of Frost. Quite a specialised stance skill, it's a longish buff that does 40% damage reduction vs cold dmage, and gives you 2 energy if you're hit by any. Not terribly useful in the simmering veldt, you might think, but one of my constant Hero companions, is Acolyte Jin, whom I've basically set up in an identical manner to my first character, the R/N Beastmaster (who always just uses R skills anyway). Jin continually drops Greater Conflagaration (All physical damage turns to fire), and then Winter (All elemental (i.e. fire) damage turns to cold). I then get the mantra going, and presto...ALL incoming damage is reduced and gives me energy!
Then there was Shame. This is basically an anti-monk version of the Mistrust Hex spell you saw me banging on about last time. Good vs Monk Bosses - any time they go to heal or enchant another enemy, I slap this on, the heal fails and I steal energy. Not quite as spectacular as the AOE damage that Mistrust causes, but then I was using that one as well, and really seem to be developing into a quite potent anti-caster specialist in general, good against Elementalists, Necromancers, Monks, Dervishes, Ritualists and other Mesmers. I'm less effective vs Rangers, Warriors, Paragon sand Assassins, but then I expect there are various anti-tank measures available to the Mesmer as well.
Lastly, fun spell of the night was Inspired Hex. The Hex version of Inspired Enchantment, this one lets me strip a Hex (Debuff or DOT usually) from myself or a party-member, (which gives me energy), and then the skillbar icon itself becomes the Hex I just removed, allowing me to use it on the monsters that cast it in the first place for 20s or so. Poetic justice that appeals to me immensely! What with Simple Thievery as well, I was stealing two different enemy spells at a time at points, and all in all, being a Mesmer is a great way to try out all the other spells and skills in the game, without all that tedious skillpoints and buying them!
Having said that, Simple Thievery is a bit hit and miss, and a number of times, I'd end up having stolen a skill that needs a specific weapon equipped to use at all, swords, scythes, etc, and of course many of the skills stolen by any of my theft-spells rely on class attributes I simply don't have, for their 'green number' boosting of effects, which can be annoying. i.e. Stealing Pious Renewal when you have 0 points in Mysticism isn't terribly helpful. Still, in the case of Simple Thievery, while I have their skill, it's disabled for them, so denial alone is still useful.
I even managed to swipe a Charm Animal from one of the Hekets. If I could then find a tameble animal within the next 20s, it's entirely possible I could have ended up with a Ranger pet of my own - not quite sure, but without an extremely contrived setup of monster, skills, party and animals, I'll never know. Something to try at any rate! (My guess is that I'd tame, and then keep it for the remainder of that zone, but lose it at the next outpost, not being able to start the next zone with Charm Animal in the skill-bar.)
I'm fascinated to see what else Mesmers get in the coming outposts and cities - plenty more skill trainers to go. Many of these techniques are a bit overkill for the general wandering trash, where a large mob of our Minion Master's undead can just carve us a path, but where it all shines is on the bosses. It's also occurring to me, for the same reasons, that a well played Mesmer must be a bit of a nightmare in PvP, but I'm in no hurry to test that out just yet, having on just started my apprenticeship really.
One thing I enjoy as much in these games as doing a thing once, and ticking it off a list, is playing a complicated and unpopular class, and understanding it well, and I'm definitely starting to get there with the Mesmer now. Just as well really, we're starting to see Lv24 Elementalist 'yard trash' with horrific casting powers, and from here on, I suspect that being able to lock enemy casters down and rob them blind is less and less about flashy showmanship, and more and more about plain old survival...