hex degen support char

[vorpalbunny]

I've been thinking about this sort of build for a while now, as i've wanted to try a hex heavy degen build sometime. Its basically a signet mesmer with the ability to disable elites.

1. Keystone signet
2. mantra of inscriptions
3. signet of humility
4. ether sig?
5. whatever
6. whatever
7. whatever
8. res

Whenever i observed any hex heavy build, their degen was basically shutdown by some sort of elite hex removal (i.e. blessed light, expel hex) or just plain raw healing mitigation (i.e. e/mo with prodigy and heal party). So, my thinking was to just shut down these things by killing their elites. No blessed light= much less hex removal, and no prodigy= little or no heal parties.

Cons:
This build doesn't work as well if the e/mo with hp is running flags.
It takes 3 skills to keep 2 people shut down.
It might be a pain to constantly keep finding you're targets every 10 or so seconds to sig of humility.
You have to have pretty high inspiration to pull this off as well.
Pros: You can put anything in place for the 3/4 extra slots, domination shutdowns, further degen, warrior hate.... succor.

If they don't have any of those, killing a monk's elite is usually pretty effective in partially shutting him down...2 boon prots with no mantra and a degen build= death.

Soo.... is this worth it?

[Almas Darksoul]

I would say no. Blessed Light itself isn't that damaging to hex builds, and this mesmer causes no pressure of his own. Any elementalist attempting to heal will retreat into backline or far backline, where a mesmer can't touch him. For shutting down Heal Party, the best choices are:

Scourge Healing - On a N/Mo usually using OoB/Blood Hexes
Cripshot Interrupts - Harassing from an odd angle so that they can escape before the rival warriors can respond
Plague Touch Warrior sometimes, if rival warriors are well shut down or poor players
Spiking the E/Mo if they ever advance


Generally against a good team, they won't have an emo flagging against heavy pressure builds as leaving heal party range for more than 20-30secs can often be enough for pressure to reach a fatal point.
If you want to run a mesmer, consider a shutdown mesmer with distortion or dark escape. Even Shadow of Haste+Distortion could work well. Work with the monks on him to coordinate pushes against the E/Mos who are healing whenever possible, and have your warriors assuming more defensive roles while this happens. Enchant removal really hurts Ether Prodigy, especially since it now deals more damage upon ending.

[Jeppe]

And also stripping prodigy continually harms the ele's energy pretty well.