SwissMercenary,Feb 8 2005, 12:09 AM Wrote:Blackout is really not too an impressive of a skill, ever since the recent changes. Diversion is nice, however. Backfire/Arcane Connundrum on a Monk = the team is typically able to remove the hex, considering the urgency.
As for mesmer interrupts, they can't exactly disable a monk, bar a lucky Power Leak. 1 second casting time on most Monk skills = extremely difficult to react.
Now, I appreciate the power of Mesmers - I think of them to be targets of utmost priority. Monks of course, still get the utmost-utmost priority award.
Energy draining being very much higher up then interrupts.
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Yep, we're really chewing on nits--as priority really depends on other more immediate factors like: what's available to attack, momentum of party, et al. That isn't my focus however. Mine is an excuse to discuss through the game's skills.
I do not like Blackout. It doesn't last nearly long enough.
I can typically assume the monk will be casting or using skills a great % of his time. This is a safe assumption with most humans. If the current casted spell is not interrupted, the next one will be. However, that shouldn't be necessary. Interrupt Mesmers should have fast cast, less than 1/2-1/3 a second is needed. Plenty of time--unless the healer themselves is a fast cast Me/Mo. Then the anti-cast interrupts are probably better spent against El's Necro's.
Remember Cry of frustration? That's a fun interrupt.
Mesmer skills do not generally "only" interrupt. There's always a secondary quality to to thier skills, like damage or mana leak
Aside on Mana draining skills: Typically, its very easy to drain mana to very low levels. With more than one mesmer, it almost always happens--especially since many early mesmers choose chaos storm for extra damage. Chaos storm steals energy whenever the foe casts a spell in a given area. This is one reason why 'not moving' is bad for monks. Localized area of effect spells over time that would be ineffective otherwise suddenly approach their full potential.
Power Leak: Oh boy. Interrupt and drain mana off target. Very fun.
Power Spike: interrupt and big damage.
Diversion is fun. Hex removing means time spent removing hexes rather than healing (or something else). That's a good thing for the Mesmer's team.
I've also had the honor of using this a few times:
Power Block: If target foe is casting a spell, that spell is interrupted. The interrupted spell and all spells of the same attribute are disabled for 3-13 seconds for that foe. This is an elite skill.
Lots of interrupts, and hexes available. Can't assume your party will take care of your problems for you, but if they do, they're spending time cleaning up Mesmer's messes rather than fighting/healing/etc, meanwhile the mesmer is interrupting left and right.
I'm really glad to have you to discuss Skill sets with Swissmercenary. I'm sure the rest of the lurkers appreciate it too.
Care to write a bit more about Monks and Necros? :D
I'm severely lacking in the Necromancer experience department, and monk as a primary healer too. I've only had them as secondaries and witnessed some excellent monks in PvE.
I am primarily interested in what Necromancers can do, how you would describe and group their skills, and what synergies you can create by using skills in conjunction with Necro skills and how it works with various other profession skills.
For anyone reading that request, that is how you should be approaching Professions. What kinds of things can these do? How can I make them work together? Can I think of how I want to make it work with other skills?
A few times, I've had 3-4 Monks in our high level PvE groups. The healing was insane. Funny as heck too. We could survive anything.