Fragspike Revisited

I was having fun with this in Aspenwood and Eternal Grove (Master's reward first try! )

Mesmer/Necromancer

Illusion Magic 16 = 12 + 1 + 3
Fast Casting 12 = 9 + 3 (yeah, i use two sups. Shoot me. :P)
Inspiration Magic (the rest of the points)

Armor: Rogue's chest, Enchanter's for the rest
Weapon 1: +13/-1 Illusion wand, and the collecor +15/-1 illusion focus
Weapon 2: Gorrell's Staff

1. Fragility
2. Conjure Phantasm
3. Accumulated Pain
4. Virulence {E}
5. Images of Remorse
6. Conjure Nightmare
7. Energy Tap
8. Ether Feast (for Aspenwood) / Rez Sig

The first weaponset gives me 64 energy, i use this if I think i'm going to need Conjure Nightmare for finishing an enemy (like a Siege Turtle.) Otherwise I use Gorrell's staff.

Basically the core of this build is to cast spells 1-4 in order on your target. Fragility causes 21 damage for gaining and losing conditions. Conjure Phantasm causes 5 degen, but more importantly it's the second hex, meeting the requirements of Accumulated Pain, which then causes a deep wound (spike lowering their max health by 20% and fragility damage -21.) Then you hit Virulence, and your target aquires Disease (-21), Poison (-21), and Weakness (-21). I hit Images of Remorse, doing damage becuase target is usually attacking and stacking on 4 more degen. Because you have no points in Death Magic, the conditions from Virulence only last 3 seconds, at which point your target recovers from all 3 at once (-21 -21 -21).

On most targets, that's gg. If they live long enough after IoR is cast I'll suck energy out with Energy Tap.

On the big targets I use Conjure Nightmare and renew IoR.

Ain't perfect, no self-heal and you'll spend some time waiting for energy to come back up particularly if you've exhausted the energy pool on high-energy weapon set, but it's *fun*. The "WTF??" factor in Aspenwood was a hoot.

But then, that's the joy of being a mesmer.

Conjure Nightmare is wasteful. I'd get rid of it. Otherwise the idea of using Cume Pain with Frags is pretty nice.

I second what hella said; conjure nightmare is trash; we also must keep in mind the power of mend ailment and its current popularity.
-edit
nevermind about mend ailment then, but why a single target spike in pve?

Quote:

nightmare isnt that bad, its awsome when you have energizing winds and mantra of persistence up.

too bad we cant have 2 secondary classes =|
fragility + virulence + crystal wave ftw!

Too bad for 25 nrg you can not only outperform Conjure Nightmare with other skills but you can blow it out of the door. Heck, IoR + Conjure gives what 9 degen for 15 nrg, plus like 55 dam if target is attacking... Seriously, 25 nrg is ridiculous for what you get. I'd rather use Illusion of Pain- I'll keep the Mantra of Persistance, pay my 10nrg cost, spam IoP around, risk healing my targets if hex is removed, and it will still be better than Conjure Nightmare...

Considering Wastrel's Worry does more damage than Conjure Nightmare and is a more useful attribute...(64x5=320 whilist 8degenx15seconds=240) or looking at it as a strick time-damage ratio (64/3=21.333>16) Wastrel's is still the better of the two.

Then again it is in a different attribute; but this is pve so I'm looking for more aoe damage in the build; or a super fast efficient way to completely kill/disable a key/hazardous character. Which I just don't see in the build.

What really baffles me is why you use conjure nightmare when you have images+phantasm already in your current build.
The fact that you use two sup. runes; but one in fast casting despite deminishing returns. I could understand 2 for a solo illusion magic build but that would require one in inspiration and one in illusion; solely for mantra of persistence.

Well, never said it was perfect.

Of course you folks are right about Conjure Nightmare and Fast Casting, I actually took Nightmare out of the build last night and lowered FC to 9 (6 + 3) and brought inspiration up and pack both Energy Tap & Ether Feast and never switch off my Gorrell's Staff.

As far as "super fast efficient way to complete kill/disable a key/hazardous char" like I said, by the time I've cast the IoR, unless it's a siege turtle or something the target is done for. Maybe 5 seconds. If it *is* a siege turtle a few more seconds of degen & reapplying Virulence when it recharges finishes it off.

But this isn't a solo farming build or a PvP build. It does ok in Aspenwood and RA because those are Random. Did passibly in AB but not great because you have a level of preparation for contingencies available to you when you can pick your 3 team mates before going in. In PvE this works really well in combination with your team to bring down targets fast. Also, if there's something really important like stopping an afflicted assassin before it kills a Tree Singer, I don't *need* any help stopping them in seconds.

I think people just reading the build are understimating the spike. More than half the time I never see the "recovery spike" go off, because the spike from activating Virulence kills the target.

I don't bring MoP because I really don't need the duration of the hexes increased. I suppose i might if I was using IoP, and I'll play around with that tonight.