Team Build: Markway / Physway 7H

My Player Person

My Player Person

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2010

England

looking for a q8 13-15wE Mursaat Hammer

Mo/

Deasu Deasu>



Markway <3 Needs a lot of micro'ing which is the only annoying issue.

Relyk

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

W/

Triggering MoP and Splinter with spears on casters is a terrible theorycraft.

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Relyk View Post
Triggering MoP and Splinter with spears on casters is a terrible theorycraft.
That is a whole different topic that we can all argue about. Besides last I checked, rits are casters and Markway rits are recommended to use spears. The mesmers are just exploiting ANA, otherwise they would be using spears also.

Quote: Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
Drain and WNWN are interchangeable; but Drain is definitely superior. In terms of energy returned perhaps, but with a drawback. WNWN suffice for most situations otherwise this build would need to switch to Drain Delusions if Drain Delusions is so clearly superior.

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
That is a whole different topic that we can all argue about. Besides last I checked, rits are casters and Markway rits are recommended to use spears. The mesmers are just exploiting ANA, otherwise they would be using spears also.



In terms of energy returned perhaps, but with a drawback. WNWN suffice for most situations otherwise
this build would need to switch to Drain Delusions if Drain Delusions is so clearly superior. Look at the hexes in that build; they all terminate very quickly. Clumsiness, Wandering Eye and Panic all end at unpredictable times already. However, it would synergise well with Arcane Conundrum which would end up filling your blue bar.

Also, protip: if you use spears on all your casters, you will HAVE to micro Splinter. Annoyingly, the AI doesn't prioritise Splinter on the scythe-wielders.

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion
View Post
Look at the hexes in that build; they all terminate very quickly. Clumsiness, Wandering Eye and Panic all end at unpredictable times already. However, it would synergise well with Arcane Conundrum which would end up filling your blue bar.

Also, protip: if you use spears on all your casters, you will HAVE to micro Splinter. Annoyingly, the AI doesn't prioritise Splinter on the scythe-wielders. True, or they can drain Panic. Draining Arcane Conundrum is nice but I suspect they didn't use Drain Delusions because of the drawback.

Good point on the Splinter, that should actually be included in the Usage notes.

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu
View Post
True, or they can drain Panic. Draining Arcane Conundrum is nice but I suspect they didn't use Drain Delusions because of the drawback. You'll hardly notice Panic being removed from one foe, because it's just one proc of rupts. If you Panic a mob of 6, and you drain one or two of them, you're still left with 3-4s window where they can't cast or attack. Not using Drain is just a defence-fag approach to building. WNWN's disadvantage requires they're not casting anything. Are AI smart enough to cast WNWN when a foe isn't casting? Why not just use e-Tap?

Premium Unleaded

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Are AI smart enough to cast WNWN when a foe isn't casting?

Yes and they're very, very good at using it.

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion
View Post
Not using Drain is just a defence-fag approach to building. WNWN's disadvantage requires they're not casting anything. Are AI smart enough to cast WNWN when a foe isn't casting? Why not just use e-Tap? Yes, the AI does attempt to use WNWN when a foe isn't casting. That said, there will be times when the AI "misses" in the sense that WNWN is cast as the foe is about to cast a spell but they are still better at it than a lagged out human mesmer.

As for those short-lived hexes like Ineptitude, clumsiness, wandering eye, mistrust, etc. even though chances are they would not be drained, there is still a chance for them to be drain if Drain Delusion is cast at the right moment. I suppose that is good enough reason for them to use WNWN instead of Drain Delusions.

Relyk

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

W/

Heroes removing inept/wandering/clumsiness with drain delusions is quite rare if it happens at all. The only skills you can about getting removed are Wandering Eye and Mistrust. Ineptitude, Shared Burden, and Clumsiness are on different recharge times, none of them will cycle with Drain Delusions. Wandering Eye will cycle with it, fortunately or unfortunately, heroes will only use this on foes that are attacking or kiting, which makes it inconsistent. In addition, heroes will prioritize using offensive skills before Drain Delusions. You have a maximum of a 4 second interval where heroes will stack Wandering Eye on Clumsiness. Because Clumsiness has a shorter recharge, heroes will end up stacking it on top of Wandering Eye ~67% of the time. That can vary depending on how often Wandering Eye is actually used by the hero. Stick in Arcane Conundrum and you give another cover for both skills and the ability to use Drain Delusions while both skills are recharging.

Heroes removing Clumsiness isn't a big deal. It hits an a per-foe basis so getting it removed on one enemy isn't significant. Because it recharging so fast (~6 seconds), you're not going to miss the damage on a single foe. The same goes for Ineptitude although you can miss that damage against single foes, but it's equally likely to remove the subsequent cast of Wandering Eye or Clumsiness.

Mistrust is even less likely because it doesn't require an enemy to finish using a skill or attack, it triggers immediately. If an enemy doesn't try using a skill for more than a couple seconds (because of constant interruption from Panic and otherwise), it's quite likely he won't try using a spell at all. That can be quite arbitrary to say because an enemy can use a spell after a second or so so you still have the chance of DD removing Mistrust. Like I said at the start, you don't see that happen often, either because Panic gets stack on top or the Illusion mesmer covers it.

Heroes are terrible inconsistent with WNWN and DD is superior energy management in all situations (if not perfectly efficient); if you are using Shared Burden, Panic, and Fragility with the option to include Arcane Conundrum, the disadvantages become trivial.