N/Me Skill Strategy Questions

[Rychster]

I am fairly new to this type of game. I have been playing quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and have gotten pretty good but still have work to do. I generally play on the weekends and am not the youngest out there for sure so I may be lacking in the quickness arena :happy05:

I use a speedpad and have macro'd the ctrl-space and other target buttons and have caught on how to use it pretty well. I initially started with a W/M build and have since stopped playing it (Lvl 8) because I am more interested is perfecting my N/Me build who just reached lvl 10. I love playing him because it is a challange and at the same time I am a newbie so I'm curious as to what it will bring.

Now that that is out of the way here is my problem:

My Atts:

Lvl:10
Illus: 4
Dom: 1
Inspir:1
Blood:6+(Ragged scar pattern +1)=7
Death: 0
SR:3
Curses:3
Refunds 24/24

I have 35 energy with +4 regen

I am finding out that the higher I go, the harder it is to disperse my attributes to better myself (or at least it seems). I think I need to concentrate on Curses and SR for now but not sure....

My current skill set: (assuming 8 slots open but when I play with a friend I tag along the resurrect which deminishes yet again my abilities)

Mesmer Skills
Conjure Phantasm (5 degen for 5 sec) - Illus
Backfire (10 sec, 42 dam) - Dom
Empathy (9 sec, 11 dam when att) - Dom

Nec Skills
Vampire Gaze (38 health steal) - Blood
Life Siphon (18 sec, 2 for 2) - Blood
Dark Pact (-10% H, 28 shadow dam) - Blood
Insidious Parasite (10 sec, Steal 8 when att'd) - Curses
Shadow Strike (29 shadow dam, above 50% +29 H) - Blood

I have these unlocked skills:

Primary

ABH
Blood Renewal
Dark Pact
Deathly Swarm
Faintheartedness
Insidiouse Parasite
Life Siphon
Mark of Pain
Parasitic Bond
Putrid Explosion
Shadow Strike
Soul Barbs
Vamp Gaze
Vamp Touch
Vile Touch

Secondary

Backfire
Chaos Storm
Conjure Phant
Empathy
Energy Burn
Energy Tap
Ether Feast
Illus of Haste
Imagined Burden
Mantra of Flame
Power Leak
Shattered Delusions

Now I need advice here on my skill selection and how to better myself in combat. Knowing that I don't play a ton and like it simple as much as possible and play PvE alone or with one other friend, I need a strategy that fits my thirst for draining life while using a wand to stay away from melee combat. Should I change my attributes to make Domination my second best att?? Not sure what to do.

My general strat with the current skill set is to:

Backfire (if spell mob)
Conjure Ph + Life siphon (this gets them down pretty fast, healing me in the process)
Empathy

repeat

I've used soul barbs in the past with moderate success and I usually tag along another hex spell because of it.

I just don't know what I will be better at when I gain more levels and so it is hard to distribute my att points to focus on my abilities.

Any insight to a skill set (that I have now or should strive to obtain) and the use of such skill set would very much be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. I know this a long post.

[Rychster]

I know it's a long post above but I will summarize my questions here.

Based on my skills avail and my current skill set listed above, what would be the best strategy for PvE against most mobs (i.e., what order of spell casting and priorities would you do?)

Also, I am asking whether it would be a good idea to switch around my attributes to better suit the stronger spells in the future that I have not unlocked yet? Specifically, should I forgo the Illusion route for the domination route based on what I have chosen as a skill set. I am looking for opinions from experienced N/Me players.

Thanks

[Feynt]

Well being level 10, that would place you squarely in Ascalon, perhaps not even completed one story quest yet. At this stage of the game everything has a rather low HP count, so try this spell combo:

Life Siphon, Faintheartedness, Parasitic Bond, Conjure Phantasm. With 4 Blood magic and 4 Curses, the first three spells cause -5 HPR (hit point regen) and Conjure Phantasm brings it down to -10 which is the most you can cause. Alone you can kill any single target in Ascalon in about 7 seconds or less (so that means about 5 or 6 Illusion Magic as well to make Conjure Phantasm last long enough for the kill). With those three attributes done, raise Soul Reaping to about 5 and you'll get enough energy to keep up the killing in a party with no problems what so ever. In a party however you work a bit differently. Instead of casting all the spells on one target, you instead cast the first three on one target, and then Conjure Phantasm on whatever your friends are killing.


If life degen isn't your game, Domination, Illusion, and Death magic also work quite well together or in pairs.

Death magic can raise an army to help your party out, the average sustainable army size being 4 for the first little while (5 if your party has momentum, 6 for a short period of time but usually one of your bone horrors will keel over in a few seconds after the sixth appears).

Domination magic is more of a reactive set, prevention and punishment for doing things you don't want (Empathy and Backfire being obvious, but also Power Leak, and Chaos Storm (stops casters while doing damage over time)). As you go further you'll have more skills in that group to interrupt spell casters for a long time.

Illusion magic usually isn't used on it's own, but Conjure Phantasm, Imagined Burden, and Shatter Delusions all work well together (Shatter Delusion being a Domination spell). Conjure Phantasm does degen, and if you end it prematurely (during the last second or two that it's active for instance) with Shatter Delusions it can cause spikes of damage. Likewise with Imagined Burden, which can stop rampaging warrior types in their tracks for a good long while, and then when they reach a target to beat on you can Shatter Delusion them for damage (since slowed movement is no longer useful).


Mark of Pain is also remarkable in parties if you can get your party to group enemies together. Especially once you reach the shiverpeaks (where enemies tend to clump together in fights, lots of enemy warrior types and your own tanks that are capable of handling them by this stage) this spell becomes pretty useful in reducing the overall health of an attacking horde so the fight goes by quicker.

I suggest replacing Dark Pact with something else, Energy Burn perhaps.

[Rychster]

Well being level 10, that would place you squarely in Ascalon, perhaps not even completed one story quest yet. At this stage of the game everything has a rather low HP count, so try this spell combo:

Life Siphon, Faintheartedness, Parasitic Bond, Conjure Phantasm. With 4 Blood magic and 4 Curses, the first three spells cause -5 HPR (hit point regen) and Conjure Phantasm brings it down to -10 which is the most you can cause. Alone you can kill any single target in Ascalon in about 7 seconds or less (so that means about 5 or 6 Illusion Magic as well to make Conjure Phantasm last long enough for the kill). With those three attributes done, raise Soul Reaping to about 5 and you'll get enough energy to keep up the killing in a party with no problems what so ever. In a party however you work a bit differently. Instead of casting all the spells on one target, you instead cast the first three on one target, and then Conjure Phantasm on whatever your friends are killing.


If life degen isn't your game, Domination, Illusion, and Death magic also work quite well together or in pairs.

Death magic can raise an army to help your party out, the average sustainable army size being 4 for the first little while (5 if your party has momentum, 6 for a short period of time but usually one of your bone horrors will keel over in a few seconds after the sixth appears).

Domination magic is more of a reactive set, prevention and punishment for doing things you don't want (Empathy and Backfire being obvious, but also Power Leak, and Chaos Storm (stops casters while doing damage over time)). As you go further you'll have more skills in that group to interrupt spell casters for a long time.

Illusion magic usually isn't used on it's own, but Conjure Phantasm, Imagined Burden, and Shatter Delusions all work well together (Shatter Delusion being a Domination spell). Conjure Phantasm does degen, and if you end it prematurely (during the last second or two that it's active for instance) with Shatter Delusions it can cause spikes of damage. Likewise with Imagined Burden, which can stop rampaging warrior types in their tracks for a good long while, and then when they reach a target to beat on you can Shatter Delusion them for damage (since slowed movement is no longer useful).


Mark of Pain is also remarkable in parties if you can get your party to group enemies together. Especially once you reach the shiverpeaks (where enemies tend to clump together in fights, lots of enemy warrior types and your own tanks that are capable of handling them by this stage) this spell becomes pretty useful in reducing the overall health of an attacking horde so the fight goes by quicker.

I suggest replacing Dark Pact with something else, Energy Burn perhaps.

Thanks for your input. I will try out the spell combo you suggest and maybe will shift some points toward curses now. I like that Mark of Pain as well. I will give that a try.

[Feynt]

Also while you may not want to think about summoning an undead horde, Soul Reaping plays well with bone horrors. Having a few little guys running around the fight, dying off mid battle can provide you the energy you need to spread your malignant influence to the entire enemy group.

[Rychster]

Also while you may not want to think about summoning an undead horde, Soul Reaping plays well with bone horrors. Having a few little guys running around the fight, dying off mid battle can provide you the energy you need to spread your malignant influence to the entire enemy group.

Good point. It's just so hard to level up that I wish there were more precious points to move around:-)