Killing Duncan the Black with a mesmer - a guide

Location: Slaver’s Exile
Purpose: Killing Duncan the Black with a mesmer
Team Setup:

1) Me-XX
Attributes:
FC 8, Illusion 14, Domination 9, Inspiration 9. All Minor Runes one of each attribute, 5x Survivor insignas, Superior Vigor.
Skills: Ineptitude, Clumsiness, Conjure Phantasm, Empathy, Backfire, Conjure Nightmare, Mantra of Lightning Leech Signet.
Weapons:
Illusion Staff +5E/+30HP/20%/20%
Shield +30HP/+10Armor vs Lightning; Chackram 20% Domination, 10% FC

2) N/Rt (Hero), SR 12, Restoration 12
Protective was Kaolai, Weapon of Remedy, Recovery, Mend Body and Soul, Flesh of my Flesh, Spirit Transfer, Spirit Light, Ghostmirror Light

3) N/Rt (Hero), SR 12, Restoration 12
Protective was Kaolai, Recuperation, Life, Mend Body and Soul, Spirit Light, Flesh of my Flesh, Weapon of Warding, Spirit Light Weapon

4) Mo/E (Hero), Divine 10, Prot 10, Smite 11
Life Bond, Life Barrier, Vital Blessing, Balthazar’s Spirit, Reversal of Damage, Spirit Bond, Shielding Hands, GoLE.

5) E/R, Fire 16, ES 12, WS 3
Savannah Heat, Fire Storm, Fire Attunement, Searing Heat, Tennai’s Heat, Glyph of Sacrifice, Meteor Shower, Frozen Soil

6) Mo/XX (Hero), Divine 10, Prot 10, Heal 11
Light of Deliverance, Dwayna’s Kiss, Orison of Healing, Dismiss Condition, Remove Hex, Spirit Bond, Shield of Absorption, Resurrect

7) E/XX (Hero), ES 12, Water 14, Earth 4
Icy Shackles, GoLE, Blurred Vision, Deep Freeze, Freezing Gust, Mealstrom, Water Attunement, Ward vs Elemenrs

8) N/XX (Hero), SR 10, Blood 10, Death 14
Tainted Flesh, Animate Bone Minions, Death Nova, Rising Bile, Animate Shambling Horror, Res Sig, Rotting Flesh, Blood Ritual.


The Dungeon Slaver’s Exile is in my opinion one of the hardest dungeons; even the Catacombs of Kathandrax is a piece of cake in comparison. Since I love playing mesmers and mesmers and PvE are somehow not very compatible. No one would take a mesmer in the team. I took the challenge to do the Last Hierophant Quest with my mesmer and a friend playing an elementalist the other six spots were filled with heros.

The first four parts are really easy to clear out with our team, only Duncan the Black was horrible difficult, since his health is like 25k hit points. Directly upon entering the dungeon, we encountered a patrol to be cleared out. The path to Duncan was pretty straight forward with several spawns of annoying level 28 touchers. Clearing out strategy was as follows: priest (being nuked), defender (being backfired) and warders with Leech signet interruption. Frozen soil was kept up at safe distance so that they could not res. Facing Duncan the Black, firstly clear out the chamber of spawns of touchers. Don’t forget the spawn next to Duncan’s left side (right of you)!
Bonds are applied on the mesmer; switching to Shield +10 armor vs Lightning since Duncan cast channeling spells causing lightning damage. Keeping up Mantra of Lightning is essential for survival. DO NOT kill any spirits attacking you, since you will gain energy from them needed to spam your skills, triggered by Balthazar’s Spirit.
Position your mesmer above the stairs and spam degen spells and anti-melee spells on Duncan. Ineptitude at 14 illusion causes 128 damage. Counted are 222 times ineptitude casted which means a total of 28416 damage (damage from clumsiness, empathy and both the conjure degens excluded). Our guess is that this level 29 Duncan has 25k hit points. He does not heal himself, but the spirits around him (Recuperation) was responsible for his healing. Beware of Disenchant to remove your bonds! In case this happen, get down the stairs and reapply the bonds, Blood Ritual was casted on bonder to faster bonds reapplication. For faster kill, selectively kill the Recuperation spirits (done by my elementalist party member). Heal yourself at a distance using Light of Deliverance and Protective was Kaolai. Our Recuperation and Recovery was additional heal and and burning reduction.

Conclusion: Mesmers in PvP are awesome but are not to be underestimated in PvE either. Even in extreme conditions they perform as good as any other profession.



>> Positioning of your mesmer


>> Damage received by you done by the spirits, damage received from Duncan using his channelling spells are not illustrated here. Dependent on the spells he afflicted 0-42 damage.


>> Duncan after dealing him constant damage and degen.


>> Victory!

Nicely done!

Pity I won't be able to make use of this any time soon (I'm not a Mesmer player)...

Might take secondary Mesmer for the Mantra of Lightning though... now I think about it.

Congrats! I've been tweaking a mesmer build for Duncan as well since no one wants a mesmer on their team... if you'll permit me to hijack your thread. xD

I've actually done it by lowering my health as much as possible (117 was the lowest for me, since I didn't have sup rune armor ready) with DP, unlike you who seems to have high health.

Then... secret skill 1: "Swap". Use it on the spirits! Even if you kill them, they'll respawn at the swapped location great for getting rid of the pesky disenchantment spirits.



Secret skill 2: "Illusionary Weaponry". Doesn't trigger Duncan's Defences, use it with a high dagger mastery and whittle away his health while throwing a clumsiness whenever it recharges.



I had Talkhora use protective spirit on me, while maintaining mending and watchful spirit... no other healing was necessary.


Aren't mesmers great? xD