You know, thinking back, I'm not sure if I can remember a time when Guild Wars wasn't an emotional rollercoaster of rapidly alternating success and defeat. Last time saw me getting all QQ about the Eye of the North's Shards of Orr dungeon, a rambling gauntlet of rather powerful and extremely angry undead - skeletons, zombies, and the like. A hardcore speedhump dropped somewhat casually in the path of our softcore story-based cruising, and quite irritating, all in all. Of course Irritation is my Fuel, and after the last post, I went away and got extremely obsessive about the whole thought experiment that was The Successful Shards of Orr Run. Plans within plans, grand designs, unlikely combos, all that stuff; fretting born of inadequacy, mostly.
(Actually, what I did before that - looking for a bit of reaffirming light relief - was go to the Siren's Call PvP Zone in City of Villains, and get comprehensively owned repeatedly, but that's a post for another day. Suffice to say, it didn't help on the Self-Esteem Front.)
Meanwhile, while I was busy gnawing away at my sanity, wallowing in self-pity, and of course, writing about it all here, my companion in this particular venture, had basically spent a few hours experimenting, and subsequently figured it all out, arriving at a virtually flawless technique for beating the dungeon, the most difficult part of which was convincing me to step foot in the wretched place again for another go!
I like to pretend I'm the brains of the outfit, and my friend has the good grace to humour me on most occasions, but the strategy which unfolded was nothing short of eye-opening. Firstly, group composition. I joked last time about a WoW Raid aimed at 25x L70 Priests, but this is in fact pretty much exactly what we ended up trying:
- Mesmer/Monk (Me)
- Necromancer/Monk (My friend)
- Dunkoro, Tahlkora, Ogden Stonehealer (Smiting Monks/Inspiration Mesmers with Signet of Judgement, Mantra of Inscriptions, Bane Signet, etc)
- Other Dunkoro, Other Tahlkora, Other Ogden Stonehealer (Healing Monks - standard sort of builds)
So that's six Monks, and seven really, as my own skillbar was basically the same as the Smiting Monks. I try to only use Mesmer Elites where I can - professional pride and all, but on this occasion, went with Signet of Judgement, a Monk Elite. Light of Deldrimor helped enormously too.
The real winner however, was the Necromancer, who was using something very complicated with the Ursan Blessing turn-into-a-Bear Elite. Also kept shouting 'I Am The Strongest!' a lot too, implying a build mostly made up of Norn PvE Skills, rather than anything particularly profession specific. And in some manner I'm still not quite sure I fully understand, was managing to actually tank!
Those unfamiliar with GW and more used to WoW, EQ2, etc, will be going 'So what?' at this point, but its a whole other barrel of monkeys in Guild Wars, and until recently, I didn't even know it was possible to have all the monsters consistently attack only one chosen party member, in a reliable and lasting manner. There is no Warrior skill called 'Taunt', or Monk skill called 'Hide', and usually they'll just pile on the first one of you to come in aggro range, or open fire at them, and then very quickly peel off, split up and start mashing on the people you'd least like then to be hitting - typically the Monks. GW Monsters are a lot smarter than the average MMO fare.
This being the case, most builds ideally include some degree of resistance to attack and self-healing, for everyone, and the traditional Tank, Healer, Crowd Control, DPS roles tend to be very nebulous, and often ignored altogether. I often play things fast and loose and don't take a self-heal or resurrect of my own, relying instead on the Heroes and Henchmen to cover me, but that's quite a cavalier way to do it.
Anyway, it worked like this; we'd stop about half a radar-circle away from the clump of monsters. We both plant the AI waypoint flags, making the NPC help stay on that spot. They'll move a certain distance away from it to attack monsters or heal allies, but critically won't follow players that move beyond that range. I waited with them, having long since demoted myself in my own estimation to 'Henchman #5' anyway. The Necromancer then moved off toward the clump of monsters, changed into a bear and aggroed them, pulling using Ursan Strike, then ran back towards us, but, and this is the crucial bit, stopped a short distance away from us. The monsters all piled on, but the Ursan form seems extremely good for personal survival, and due to the precise positioning of the spot chosen, the waypoint flagged henchmen, (and myself), were close enough to cast spells on the monsters and The Necromancer, but the monsters seemed to be slightly too far away to notice us. I imagine spamming out the other Bear skills helped keep the monsters too preoccupied to come after us Monks, Smiting or otherwise, as well.
All this had the effect of keeping every monster on one designated person, and despite the very large damage being taken, three healing monks, with only one tank to focus on, were easily up to the job of keeping them alive. Traditionally, all eight of us are taking a beating at once, and even with three healers, they can be everywhere at once. Meanwhile, me and the Smiting Monks were laying about with gleeful abandon, doing double damage (Holy vs Undead) in knockdown AoE bursts with the Signets.
I guess the technique would work almost anywhere else too, as long as everyone concerned gets the hang of the various distances involved. Swap the Smiting Monks for Fire Elementalists, or whatever the occasion dictates. Actual proper tanking, in Guild Wars! And the best thing is that the 'tank', relying mostly on PvE non-profession specific skills, can be pretty much anyone, although having high HP and Armor to begin with probably helps a lot.
It almost became a pleasure to fight as we worked our way down three levels of this stuff. Nothing went wrong, nothing seemed impossible, and there were a number of interesting puzzle elements involved too, mostly in the form of lighting braziers with timed torches. Some very good looking level design too, including one balcony over a circular glowing lava pit with huge chains in, that looked suspiciously like the Blackrock Spire Lobby bit in WoW.
Things went a bit south during the final boss fight though, with an ill-advised 'all pile in!' order that started us on the swift journey back to "-60%DP Town" again, although having got that far in, it wasn't quite so hopeless playing the Attrition Game for the one last boss. Fendi Nin is quite a technical foe to defeat. He's not so bad in himself, a L29 Curses Necromancer, but has an annoying habit of reincarnating, spawning a 'Soul of Fendi Nin' upon death. This stays around for a short while, and then vanishes, becoming a fresh 'Fendi Nin' again. It's the Soul you have to kill, but fortunately, it doesn't heal between appearances, and we got there in the end. The main difficulty we have was him calling in minions; phantoms and skeletons, upon reincarnating each time, and these all got a bit much, overrunning us, moreso at -60DP.
Still, eventually we beat him, and that's Shards of Orr ticked off in the Dungeon Book, an din a manner that I'm happy enough to call a success! It's repeatable, so we can hone the routine in future, but for now, it's back on with the story!
Having recruited Gadd, we then had to locate Renk, the third of the Asura Eccentrics needed for the Big Science Project. (A Little Help) This turned out to be really easy - a short trip down to the coast in Alcazia Tangle, avoiding some of the worst dinosaurs, a small skirmish to free him from minor Destroyer molestation, and back to Rata Sum, for the final part of this chapter; Genius Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation. Our three Asura crackpots have now put their heads together and built a quite alarming golem factory, based, from the look of it, on the Big Ring Thing from the end of Contact. The device will manufacture an army of golems (Two) which we can use to drive off the Destroyer force menacing the Tarnished Coast.
Trouble is, its not quite ready when the assault starts, leaving it to yours truly to hold the fort. This wasn't so bad, seeing the pair of us split up and defend one Golem-O-Matic each. Probably a bit tricky solo, needing to be in two places at once, but creative use of waypoint flags, and a bit of dashing about ought to cover it. We then get a Golem beacon thing and have to lead the assault. The Golems produced are L20 Dervishes, with all manner of very helpful Monster Skills, which follow you into the fray. After some initial confusion (Just because you have to split up for the first bit, doesn't mean you should stay split up for the rest of it!) we led the Golems into the hive and drove them out. Yay! After the assault, we learn that Gadd, ignoring Vekk's advice, has Crossed The Streams while sorting out the Golem machine, or something, and has been killed as a result of his egotistical pride. We also learn that Vekk is Gadd's son, making the overall victory a touch more subdued than we are accustomed to. On the plus side, and contrary to my expectations, the golems did not in fact run amok and need killing!
In a spirit of contemplative mourning, we waved goodbye to the now-mobilised and battle-ready Asura, and legged it back to the Eye of the North, where the enigmatic Scrying Pool has new things to show me. Seems the Destroyers do in fact have a big leader type. Ogden calls it The Great Destroyer, and tells us that when The Great Destroyer and The Great Dwarf meet, it will be the end of the Dwarves, no matter who wins...
Now its on with the last of the three story branches; The Missing Vanguard, where we pick up the story of Gwen, the bitter and angry Ascalonian Mesmer, and her all-consuming fury at the Charr...
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Something a bit more sensible this week, and another return to the basics of Mesmering; Hexes. Hexes are basically debuffs, almost all magical in nature, as opposed to Conditions, which are more natural in origin. Hexes are a subtle thing, and muck with the enemy in any number of ways, from basic health damage over time, to snared movement, to reduced hit chance and more. Hexes also include the staple of the, ahem, older Mesmer, whose reaction times aren't quite what they once were, the 'pre-interrupt'.
Pre-interrupts are Hexes that when cast on the enemy, will sit there until either a duration expires, or a set condition triggers them. A typical example being Guilt; reaction time is not a factor in this one - the hex will sit on the enemy, and for the next six seconds, if they cast a hostile spell, it will interrupt it, blow up and hurt them instead. The interrupt from one of these hexes is also instantaneous, allowing them to halt even the 0.25s skills which, as seen previously, mere human reflexes alone might not be fast enough to beat. Bravo!
On the down side, the enemy knows it is going to happen, and can, if clever enough, simply choose not trigger it. Saying that, even the most alert PvP opponent is now presented with a dilemma upon seeing the Empathy icon on their debuffs list; stop attacking and wait it out, or wail away and hope to take down the enemy before the Empathy does you in?
Pre-interrupts can also be safely defused via Hex Removal skills, and many are slow enough casting times to be interrupted themselves. This makes straight interrupts a better choice for PvP, for those who are fast enough. PvE monsters rarely notice or care about these though, and so they make a great alternative to the somewhat fraught world of interruption for the slower or more relaxed Mesmer.
The Joy of Hex
Mesmer/Any
Illusion 12, Inspiration 12, Fast Casting 3.
Requires: Prophecies (#2, #8), Eye of the North (#4, #6), Factions (#7)
Equipment: An Illusion Staff. +Energy and +Health are handy, but not required. Illusion Rune and Masque are useful as its mostly Illusion Hexes here and bumping that to 16 makes most of it more nasty!
In contrast to the interrupt build of a few weeks back, this one is mostly aimed at confounding melee attackers, showing that Mesmers needn't necessarily be on Anti-Caster duty all the time. Start with the Mantra of Persistence (#1) prior to engaging. It's a little costly, but extends the duration of Illusion Hexes by about half. #2 to #6 are all Illusion Hexes, so you do get your moneys worth out of the Mantra here.
#2 - Ineptitude is the big hitter, and will heavily damage, and blind, the victim the next time they make an attack. Blind is a particularly useful condition, causing a 90% miss rate while in effect. Migraine, seen previously, is the Anti-Caster Elite Hex of choice for this sort of thing, and Crippling Anguish is a good Elite Hex for a more neutral 'anti-everything' type of build, causing degen and snare effects.
#3 - Clumsiness also causes damage if the victim attacks, AND interrupts the attack as well. #4 - Wandering Eye is similar, but causes lesser AoE damage instead of a big single hit on the victim. These are all Pre-interrupts - for actual attack interruption, consider Signet of Clumsiness, Leech signet and Complicate instead.
Even Casters attack, interspersing use of skills/spells with wand/staff attacks, so these skills are of fair use against those too. #5 - Soothing Images and #6 - Shrinking Armour are more specific. #5 stops adrenaline generation on Warriors and Paragons. Use this as an opening move on the clump of enemies as they aggro. The warriors will break off and come for you, and dropping this on the lead one will usually catch all of them in the AoE effect, scuppering their skills greatly. Most warriors have some energy skills though, so don't relax too much. It is of no real use on Assassin or Dervish melee types, neither of whom get adrenaline skills. #6 is a reasonable health degen, in a build that is short on actual damage, but more importantly, causes Cracked Armor, an AC reducing condition that is very useful against Warriors and Rangers.
#7 - Accumulated Pain is an attack of opportunity, use on anything with two hexes on. This is tricky to keep track of, as the target bar only shows one, or none, down purple arrows, regardless of how many hexes are on them. Use on the warriors after #5 and #6 for best chance of hitting twos; #2, #3 and #5 tend to be triggered too quickly. If successful, it will Deep Wound the target, always helpful on melee adversaries with lots of HP.
#8 - Ether Lord, is my energy management, although there are better skills for pure energy; Energy Tap for example. Ether Lord is handy as it hexes the enemy with energy degeneration as well, good for casters, or in combination with #5, totally locking down Warriors and hampering Dervishes and Assassins.
Quite accessible for a Secondary Mesmer, not using Fast Casting that much, although again, why give up entirely on the Primary? Sub-elements of the build could work well with other hex-based professions - the Necromancer in particular - for a similar debilitating effect. Lack of runes will make the Illusion Hexes a bit less punchy, but they should work almost as well.
It's a fairly supportative 'assist' type of build, meaning that you will still need someone else to do the killing, but this is often the case with Mesmering in general, and on the whole it did seem to be making life easier for everyone else, allowing the other casters to spend more time attacking and less time getting beaten to death by the inevitable rush of enemy tanks. Energy is a bit tight, and perhaps swapping #7 for Energy Tap as well as #8 might help smooth things along. It really did shine against the Jotun warrior types and warrior Destroyers though - usually things go very sour once they get in close and start hoofing people about!
As expected, it did leave me a bit toothless against the casters, although the anti-attack hexes still proved useful, more useful than an anti-caster build would be against melee types. Still, can't be responsible for everyone, and that's why there's eight of you, players or otherwise!