Professions and their place in combat

That's assuming we're stupid enough to sit there hitting through empathy.

You'd be surprised. I've fought warriors stupid enough to use FRENZY with Empathy on them.

Assuming Trvth Jvstice would do so only make you look stupid.

there's really little point in assigning "roles" though the ele that runs up front to meteor shower the crap outta the whole mission and dies obviously isn't fitting into the right role.

in pve, unless you're playing with your friends or a really good pug (i've been in a few...they really do exist) there isn't really much traditional tanking. you can off-tank stuff if no one else is attacking it (i.e., shiro in the gates of madness while you kill the lich) but holding agro is too difficult for most pugs to coordinate. the traditional style of tanking (holding agro while the rest of the group heals you or beats the crap outta whatever you're tanking) should be done with a warrior or some other high armor character in whatever build you're running (r/me with mantra of frost and cold resist armor accompanied by greater conflagration and winter for instance...a mob of dying pets and minions in a b/p, etc.).

yeah, i can tank warriors all day on my ele with mist form and serpent's quickness but wtf good am i in a group?

in pvp, the monks are generally the tanks (for lack of a better term) and the warriors are essentially nukers (and eles are sometimes apparently healers...go figure).

roles are greatly dependent on the group build and the task at hand in this game. that's the fun part.

Darkobra, the factions preview event had me playing RA a bit... using a necro with spiteful and watching as sin after sin died to it.. in part due to frenzy, so yes, there are those who will try to kill you through empathy with frenzy on them.

He uses blackout as a warrior.

Blackout = Putting up frenzy and hitting through Empathy.

I see what you did there.

Yeah, they're both equally as useless. What would it accomplish, disabling your own skills for 5 seconds to disable a spell caster's for 3? What would the Distortion accomplish against a mesmer, who will in turn get their skills back within 2 seconds anyway? Not that he'll be able to do a THING about energy surge or energy burn OTHER than attack. -16 energy on a warrior leaves them with 4. An axe attacks frequently. Ineptitude alone if I chose to take that instead of energy surge, (which I probably would. It's a warrior I'm dealing with here) would also leave them blinded. A warrior is at a MAJOR disadvantage against a mesmer. Healing signet? Diversion. But yeah. You seem to know a lot about mesmers, being so territorial over a warrior's disadvantage to them.

Disable the Mesmer's skills at a key point do beat on them for three seconds to possibly finish them off? It is a rather valid tactic.

I'm not saying Warriors > Mesmers or Mesmers > Warriors. I'm saying it's stupid to assume that your opponent is going to hit through Empathy to death, and you seem to be holding onto the notion that most shitty RA Warriors would, so obviously through superior logic, every other Warrior would.

I've taken out Illusion/Anti-Warrior Mesmers before as a Warrior, it's difficult, you are at a disadvantage, but I'd still have to say the decent once I've fought and/or lost against didn't use Empathy, Diversion or Surge/Burn.

Diversion is valuable, since most warriors take a healing signet. Also, the only chance you'd have of actually coming close to finishing that mesmer in 3 seconds with just a black out is to use a sprint or any other speed skill BEFORE the black out, to keep up with them running from you. Energy Surge/Burn lowers their energy, and for a warrior, energy is scarce. It ALSO deals armour ignoring damage which pressures the warrior. Some people buckle under pressure and feel the only way they're going to win is to attack. This is when Empathy comes in. Like I've learned in martial arts, 50% of fighting is mental. Oh, and illusion mesmers won't use empathy, diversion or burns, since they're all domination. Illusion is strictly speed reduction and degen. Not my style.

well said

what do you call an illusion spike for 294 ??

ineptitude: 142
clumsiness: 97
images of remorse: 55
================
294 ouchies

Accumulated Pain
Ancestor's Visage
Arcane Conundrum
Clumsiness
Distortion
Fevered Dreams
Fragility
Illusion of Haste
Illusion of Weakness
Illusionary Weaponry
Ineptitude

Half the skills in the Illusion line which don't do speed reduction or degen. Strictly is not the word I'd use. Maybe you should take a closer look at it.

Don't forget Signet of Clumsiness.

Hey, I don't use Blackout on my Warrior. It was a hypothetical situation. Really my best chance against a Mesmer 1 x 1 would be with a W/E Hammer knockdown build with Shock. But there is rarely a situation where I would face a Mesmer 1 x 1. <-----which is why I started my comment with something like "people don't like posts about 1 x 1 battles."

Images of remorse then adds some degen, which you finish off with conjure phantasm... unless you started with that as the warrior ran towards you... and then apply ineptitude/clumsiness/images of remorse (when recharged) or signet of clumsiness to finish them of.

It also kills many, many casters, cause they like to wand things between casting.

Uhm, ignorance would be a better option? Not sure