Instruct a neophyte W/ME in the ways of skills and attribute distribution!

I know I'm a newb leecher, but I've gotten ace help here before, so...

I'm a Lvl 10 W\Me. Bad choice, apparently, but I'm determined to make the most of it. (Who thinks I should ditch Mesmer when I can?) I need some help in making a build. I have 45 attribute points and the following skills:

NO ATTRIBUTE
For Great Justice!
Ressurection Signet
Wild Blow
Frenzy

TACTICS
Watch Yourself!
Healing Signet

SWORDSMANSHIP
Gash
Sever Artery

STRENGTH
Endure Pain
Power Attack
Sprint

INSPIRATION MAGIC
Ether Tap
Energy Feast

ILLUSION MAGIC
Conjure Phantasm
Imagined Burden
Distortion

HAMMER MASTERY
Mighty Blow
Hammer Bash

DOMINATION MAGIC
Backfire
Shatter Delusions

AXE MASTERY
Cyclone Axe
Dismember
Executioner's Strike
Penetrating Blow

I'd like a general PvE build, although if you want to help me from getting massacred a PvP that would be nice too. I'm wanting to switch to Axe, since I hear it's better, but right now I only have a good sword. Anyone know where to get a nice Axe?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think I have ever seen a W/M, so make the most of it! Be creative. Cast things like Backfire and Imagined Burden on casters before you run in to Dismember and Power Attack them. Boom, no more enemy monk. I think you could make it work, just play around a bit. It's not popular because "it's complicated".

Uh, no. Backfire and Imagined Burden are both 15 energy skills from different Mesmer attributes, Backfire has a 3s cast without Fast Casting, IF he actually has enough energy to cast both he will be pretty much useless for a few seconds and neither skill is going to be very useful without massive attribute point investment. Actually, Imagined Burden probably still won't be useful since most of the PvE mobs never run away in Normal mode.

Just face it, W/Me in PvE isn't very useful. Stick to using mostly Warrior skills until you can change your secondary profession.

Starting off with a new warrior can be challenging,..luckily warriors start off with some basic good skills.

A few example builds(with the skills you currently have available:
Axe:
Dismember
Penetrating blow
Executioner Strike
Cyclone Axe
" Watch Yourself"
Healing Signet
" For Great Justice"
Resurrection Signet

Healing Signet can be replaced if you were to play with hero monks or humans, seeing as they are more reliable than henchmen monks.

Sword:
Sever
Gash
Power Attack
Sprint
"Watch Yourself"
Healing Signet
" For great Justice"
Resurrection Signet

Same as with the Axe build, usage of deep wound, though its relient on foes bleeding, so be mindfull that you can actually make them bleed.
Bleeding + deep wound + follow up with power attack does some nice damage early on, same with the Dismember + Penetrating + Executioners Strike Combo. Watch Yourself is a nice cheap way to buff your party.

Try to meet the requirements of your axe / sword and shield. Maybe through the usage of runes.

As you can see warriors can get by just fine without the usage of 2ndary skills. Doesn't mean to say that there arent builds that do heavily rely on them, for instance certain farming builds like Vengefull was Kahnai on warriors and there is even a very nice Underworld Soloing build using Mesmer secondary.Written by Dont Feel No Pain in the farming section of this forum.

Though you wil be a far way of doing those farming truns now. Mesmer secondary was quite usefull when armor buffs still stacked with multiple skills, like physical resitance with watch yoruself or elemental resitance andw atchyourself / dolyaks signet, etc etc, even distortion before its many changes was quite usefull for warriors.

You will want to stay clear, as mentioned before of casting spells,... with 20 base energy and a natural regen of 2 pips its just not worth it as a warrior to cast those heavy spells.

Hope this helped and its always good to ask for advice.

cheers,


Nick Courage

Well, I got a decent Axe so I've switched to Axe Mastery, but I still feel like W/Me is hopeless. I just don't have enough energy.

What do you guys think I should switch to (and while we're at it, how do I do that)? Monk for traditional Paladin?

Going with a monk secondary can be a good option, with skill suchs as purge condition or purge signet(be mindfull of the energy loss though) or even the usage of hard resses, such as rebirth or resurrection chant, even though resurrection signet might be the viable option for a mid-combat res.

The healing skills of the monk-line are usually too energy intensive for a warrior to run, e.g. Healing Breeze. yet there are some farming builds that are exceptions to that rule, but same with the mesmer 2ndry wait till you get more experienced as a warrior or further into the game to try those.

You can change your 2dnary once you are Ascended(prophecies), become Weh No su(factions) or get to the CHantry of Secrets(NIghtfall) so just take your time and enjoy the game while getting used to playing a warrior.



Cheers,

Nick Courage

there are a couple of skills that might help a warrior if he plans on taking aggro illusion of weakness is a nice heal when the monk lets you down and the different mantra really help out to a warrior. just a thought not many people use mesmer because they dont know much about it can be a great class to compliment any other class

Go to a skill trainer and get [skill]mantra of flame[/skill][skill]mantra of frost[/skill][skill]mantra of lightning[/skill][skill]mantra of earth[/skill]. Throw your junk skill points into inspiration magic and you can greatly reduce the amount of elemental damage you take. I have run a W/Me for 18 months now doing that. You just have to switch out the mantra depending on the area you are in, mostly you will be using mantra of flame as most enemies use fire magic, but in the maguuma jungle they use some lightning and in the shiverpeaks they use some ice so just mix and match to the area you are in.

There's a few things your can pull from mesmer that might be useful, depending on the enemies your facing.

Hex breaker
Mantra of (element)
Physical Resistance
Elemental Resistance

So Warriors are reliant on Healers, I guess? Because I can't find any efficient way to heal myself on my lonesome.

And I don't see those mantras at the Ascalon skill trainer.

Yes, you shouldn't invest too much in self heals, the monk in your party's likely quite a bit more efficient at healing than you are. Of course, you can make the monk's job easier by reducing the amount of damage you take with stances and stuff.

There aren't a whole lot of skills available to anyone at that point in the game (unless they've unlocked them earlier on another character). Don't feel bad about playing a crappy build for a while.

The Mantra's can be gotten at different parts of the game. I'll list them for you:

Mantra of Flame: Quest "Trying Times" in Sardelac Sanitarium
Mantra of Frost: Quest "Helping the Dwarves" in Yak's Bend
Mantra of Lightning: Quest "Graven Images" in North Kryta Province
Mantra of Earth: Quest "The Royal Papers" in Fisherman's Haven (note: this city is rather far into the game)

Or you can buy the skills in Yak's Bend (Flame), Lion's Arch (Frost), Port Sledge (Lightning), and Droknar's Forge (Earth). I recommend doing the quests to get them though, as Droknar's Forge and Port Sledge are VERY late in the game.

Healing Signet isn't efficient?

Yea use frenzy too it makes it cast 33% faster
Leave the healing to monks and use armour buffs and stances, those mantras are quite good but bit like hard work switching for me

Mesmer secondary is good choice for a warrior. Apart from abovementioned Mantras (which I don't recommend, since they are stances and you, as a warrior, need an Increased Attack Speed stance instead) there are W/Me skills you can use in your warrior build:

[skill]Sever Artery[/skill][skill]Gash[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill]
[skill]Eviscerate[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill]
[skill]Dismember[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill]
[skill]Hamstring[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill]
[skill]Skull Crack[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill]

[skill]Leech Signet[/skill] - free interrupt from a distance, for example when you aproach a monk who is casting Aegis (I have used this is Domain of Secrets a lot)

[skill]Ignorance[/skill] - used this when solo farming warrior bosses

[skill]Sympathetic Visage[/skill] - used in several farming builds (W/Me solo smite run)
[skill]Signet of Humility[/skill] - sometimes helps against overpowered SF ele bosses in HM

Well, at the very least I need to get out of Ascalon and to Yak's Bend or something, because I can't get those skills around Ascalon. Since I apparently can't change until level 20, then I guess I have plenty of time to experiment.

Question: In PvP, I usually do this:

Cast Conjure Phantasm on a target - usually a lead Warrior - to start draining his health; hit For Great Justice for more adrenaline; Gash/Sever Artery him; Watch Yourself to buff everyone, repeat. And I always have him almost killed when I get five spells cast on me from the dude's backup and my health starts draining at the rate of approx 10 pips. If I Health Sig then I just get smashed for extra damage and die, and I never, ever get support from my monks. So I die.

Is this my fault or my monks'?

little bit of both

Your attack combo is very sound and does work well on everyfoe youll face.

Concider Eather Feast as a secondary heal and Hex breaker or Physical resistance to bolster your defences. VS physical attackers Physical resistance will negate the penalty for using Healing Signet. Hex Breaker is a great way to preprotect vs hex casting foes allowing you to get in close without facing slow/degen hexes.

In the desert a War/Mes is very powerfull. Cap Illusionary Weapons as soon as you can, you'll need a run down to Camp Rankor for it. It comes in handy in locations where you are likely to be blinded lots.

Ignore that, Ignore anyone who tells you to get a run!

You'll probably find this the least helpful post here, as alot of people seem to do. But for me it was the best thing anyone ever told me...

Forget all about builds and skills and just play with what you have... Also since it's Prophicies do all the quests you can find as there's lots of free skills to be had rather than paying for them.

Really it's best just to forget what anyone is telling you what to play as you'll only learn by making mistakes by yourself, not being told what to play or what to do by others. Especially since alot of things people are suggesting are way out of reaching distance for you. Once you have a hang of the game and your level 20 start to worry about builds. For now experiment with your own ideas, play with what you have and see where it takes you, as I guarentee you... You will learn a hella lot more that way. After all thats how this game was meant to be played... Developing your own character! How did you think the old Vets got through the game in the early stage? They didn't have anyone to ask and it worked out ok for them.

This thread is like a trainwreck, a convention of TTN veterans.

Listen, forget you even have a Mesmer secondary (except for MAYBE a useful stance, such as Hex Breaker or a Mantra vs Whatever in an area with lots of foes who deal Whatever damage). Pick a weapon, put the majority of your points in that, then in Tactics, and the left-overs in Strength. Make sure your Healing Signet heals for a decent amount; it's a good skill and one of the few healing skills that actually has a place on a Warrior bar. Leave the healing to your monk(s), leave the spellcasting to your spellcasters (do not bring Conjure Phantasm on a warrior ever) and do what a warrior does best: own face and apply immense amounts of pressure.

The builds Courage posted above are pretty decent, so I recommend sticking to those.

Illusionary Weaponry is a crap elite even for Mesmers, let alone Warriors. Don't get run anywhere; the best way to learn is to fight (and struggle and probably fail) through the game yourself. We've all been there and we've (hopefully) came out better players.

I really love people that bash builds with 0 experiance using them.

He asked for help, and you tell him that no its a terrible choice he screwed up?

Mesmer is a perfectly good secondary for a war, its all in how you use the skills. Illusionary weapons work wounders if you understand how and where to use them, its just one slot on your bar not your entire skill bar.

Test everything yourself and find what you think works or is just fun to play.

I'm definitely going to experiment around - it's not like you can really ever screw yourself up forever in this game.

On a side note, I didn't realize how easy and NECESSARY it is to upgrade your armor. I went from a 27 to a 50 full suit plus helm, and the difference in PvP is amazing.

For a starter warrior, healing signet is actually not too bad to have on your bar. Just remember that you will be taking extra damage when activating the signet, and be sure to have a way to reduce the damage, or simply use it when it's not going to kill you.

I find that if I have a run in my skills, and simply run away in a loosing fight works wonders too. Don't be afraid to run away from a fight that you are not going to win. Especially in such an early stage of the game, the enemies will leave you alone if you run far enough. When you are at a safe distance, you can then heal up however you want to.

As for the mesmer secondary, it has its places, but at this early stage, stick to skills that don't have any attribute attached to it. Someone mentioned, "Epidemic" which comes in handy and will give you an idea of what is it like to chain up your skills.

Most importantly, as many have already mentioned, try out different things, and find out why they worked, and why they didn't. Hope you'll have fun.

I don't need to have played a warrior IW build to know that it's absolutely terrible and that he'd be doing a lot more damage playing a normal warrior with a better elite.

And yes, getting the max armor you can have for the area is pretty important . It increases your chances of survivability, as does having a speed boost and Healing Signet.

The only time I see IW being good is in blind heavy areas (like parts of the Asuran lands in GW:EN, but the OP doesn't need to worry about that yet).

IW is never good on a Warrior. You can work around the blind just as easily, and with non-elite options. It also doesn't tie your secondary profession to Mesmer.