Noobhelp: My Illusionary Warrior Build is Farked!

Hi all - just started playing a couple of weeks ago and I researched builds and decided on a Me/W who specializes in Illusionary Weaponry, just because it was different (heck, the classes in and of themselves sort of counter each other, but I just thought it was cool).

Here's the Guild Wars Guru suggestion for Skills:

Illusionary Weaponry (E)
Power Leak
Arcane Conundrum
Savage Slash
Distracting Blow
Frenzy
Hundred Blades
<free slot>

With Imagined Burden and Illusion of Weakness as situational skills.

PROBLEM: 100 Blades is now an Elite skill as well and seemed to be one badass part of this build. Any experienced players/builders have other suggestions for something to substitute to keep this build strong, or even make it stronger?

The Suggested attributes for the above are:

Fast Casting (P) 3 (2+1)
Domination Magic 9 (8+1)
Illusion Magic 14 (12+2)
Tactics 10

Related Question: When will I be able to capture elite skills (otherwise: when and where will I get my Illusionary Weaponry *drool*)

Thanks for humoring a noob all!

My main is IW and here is my build:
Illusionary Weaponry
Distortion
Flurry
Healing Signet
Conjure Phantasm
Phantom Pain
Illusion of Weakness
Imagined Burden(to stop the sissy warriors from running from a mesmer )

I hope this helps.

BTW:Illusionary Weaponry is capturable at the Iron Mines of Moladune by a shadow boss named Digo Murkstalker usually found before the Seer.(Digo is a tricky one that he is )

Uh, saying "don't copy my build".

Of course he's going to copy it, hell I might copy it and see if it's any good, and then revamp it from my perspective. The point of sharing builds is to help others experiment and try them as well. If you're expecting to just have it as "your build"...what's the point of sharing it?

If you want to replace 100 Blades you might look into cyclone axe. It is similar and a nonelite. I've not directly tested this combo yet, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work based on the skill descriptions.

You should have some kind of healing like healing signet. Mesmers tend to be the next target after monks so i suggest that you should put some defensive stances too and use the rogue armor. Also if you want some aoe damage there this axe skill "cyclone axe" which you can use to replace hundred blades. Doesn't Frenzy double the damage you receive or was that flurry? Don't use the stance that makes you receive double damage since it will kill you real fast. Illusion of weakness is a nice add to this build by the way. Oh and I suggest you use a weapon that makes you enchantments last 10-20% longer. You should also use rez sig if your going to the competition arena. I'm not sure if this build is good for pve though, you could try it though.

You get illusionary weaponry in the mission where you kill Markis much later in the game. You can start catching elite skills in the ascension missions also later in the game.

Once again this build is mostly for pvp purposes =). Its difficult to use it in pve, but who knows.

For PVE this sort of build can be a lot of fun. Flurry works better with IW than Frenzy, Illusion of Weakness is a good "emergency heal". You might look into Fragility and inflicting conditions. Definitely adding a weapon that lengthens enchantments will help (even if it is a staff and you have to switch to weapon, it makes a big difference). Healing of some sort: signet, ether feast, illusion of weakness (which can also cover IW from those that like to remove enchantments) will help a great deal.

IW can be gotten in Snake Dance, I think, the one just south of Camp Rankor, from a shadow boss. But as was said, significantly further in the game.

Great suggestions - thanks. Sorry to hear you can't get IW until later in the game.

I suppose one would just try to find some good wands/staves to get them by? My dmg with my staff at my level (11) is about 6-12 depending on the mob right now, but then again I'm mainly a support character. I think the point of IW is to hit without actually hitting, so no points need to be spent on sword/axe, correct? I take it cyclone axe will actually hit when used in conjunction w/ IW as well?

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Well, I tried IW myself. You can ditch all those attack skills. IW activates none of them, not even distracting blow. Maybe bring some illusion hexes or stances. Do not bring anything addrenaline required or anything that requires you to hit.

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HB was primarily for the doubled damage. You might wanna carry one or two debuffs such as shatter/drain enchantment. Staples for your warrior would be illusion of weakness for the 275 health reserve, flurry of course, and phantom pain+shatter delusions for the quick deep wound. My IW mesmer carries wastrel's worry for various runners and for a quick bit of damage for approaching enemies. If you do play in arenas alot, healing signet is also very helpful, even though it may not be appealing.

EDIT: level 8 signet for best results.

Here's a build i've been playing with for a few days based upon the fact that you don't need any points into the weapon skill, just one with a fast attack speed...

R/Me

Illusionary Weapon
Tiger's Fury
Ethereal Burden
Conjure Phantasm
Lightning reflexes
Whirling Defense
Distortion
Res Signet

Illusion 12
Expertise 9 +2 +1
Beast 9 +1

More of an Anti-Warrior Build but its hell of alot of fun to play.

Using the PvP ranger armor of Rawhide Vest, and rest studded leather to protect against lightning, and the chakram with 12 energy +5 armor and +45 health if enchanted you have 40 energy and 3 pips of regain.

AND you are low on the attack list

I think only like 2 or 3 people have noticed that hundred blades was an elite... or else there wouldn't be so much controversy about it.

Just a thought, well, if u're going sword, just use the non-adrenal sword skills and some hard hitting tactics strikes and you should be hot to go... What's more, u can use inspiration to steal energy or illusion to dodge better... going toe to toe with an enemy melee warrior is bad...

suggestion:

10+2 Illusion
10 tactics
10+1 inspiration

Illusionary Weaponry {E}
Arcane Echo [to copy IW incase it's stripped]
Distortion [getting hit by enemy warriors is not fun]
Energy Tap / Ether Feast depending on monk competence
Illusion of Haste
Seeking Blade
Pure Strike
Savage Slash / Thrill of Victory! / Desperation Blow

Energy heavy so a bit of energy draining should help. Spam like crazy and crush ur enemies ^_^

No reason to use Pure Strike and Seeking Blade with IW. IW always hits anyway, even if you are blinded. Reason being that its not an attack, its damage that is triggered by your attack animation.

I just posted what I feel is a really reasonable illusionary weaponry mesmer/warrior build under the threat topic "A Better Illusionary Warrior." I'll leave you to read that if you're interested, but there are a few points I made in that topic I want to mention here because they haven't been made yet and I think they're important to consider.

First you have to think about every aspect of illusionary weaponry and try to fill out whatever drawbacks it has without being inefficient about it. That's essentially easier said than done, however, as it becomes confusing on exactly how to do that. Here is, in my personal opinion, the most important things about a build that uses illusionary weaponry.

Illusionary weaponry is an enchantment, and there are plenty of ways to get rid of it. Most of those ways, however, are going to be the sorts of things you worry about having to deal with when you deal with an enemy caster. So that means two things: it means A) you need to consider what you're going to do with IW gets removed and B) you should focus on being able to prevent enemy casters from removing it. So immediately that means you should be thinking about building an anti-caster before you start thinking about building an I-Weaponeer. So right there that takes care of at least three skills that you know you'll want to be using. Illusionary Weaponry, Flurry/Frenzy, and at least one spell interrupt skill. Why do I say flurry/frenzy is a basic nessecity of this build? Because that's the second most important thing to consider besides staying alive: killing the enemy. The quicker they die, the longer you live. So while at the same time you need to be thinking about your anti-caster defense to preserve your IW, you want to capitalize the most on its power before it ends after 30 seconds. So you want to throw in either flurry or frenzy in order to do just that. I prefer flurry because the loss of damage doesn't effect your attacks made with IW and I tend to die too early when I'm taking double damage from frenzy for 8 seconds.

Anyway, that still leaves 5 skill slots that, honestly? You could do whatever you wanted with dude. I mean, when you honestly come down to it, if you can prevent the enemy from dropping your IW and you can make the most of it while you have it then that's all the consideration you really even need to give to that skill. The rest of your time should be spent focusing on what else your character can do, in order to make your character more versatile and effective overall. You could just use up the rest of those 5 skill slots with things to butter up your IW skill or make it even more nifty, but personally, I like to have the ability to play more than one role or at least the flexibility not to rely so heavily on one skill for my effectiveness.