So... I'd like to be an Illusionary Weaponry Beastmaster...

Cross-posted from the Guild Hall forums. Apologies in advance for the bad structure, and the sheer eye-stabbing pain of the build itself.

I know what you're thinking, "Bugger me, he's snapped". I've played two characters these past few Beta Weekends... the now dime-a-dozen Me/W with Illusionary Weaponry, and a R/W melee Beastmaster. They may not be perfect, but I love 'em. But I don't like playing two characters. So hey... why not make a half-arsed attempt at combining my two favourite characters into one super-freak character with stupid hair? WHY NOT!

I just love how Mesmers look, so it's decided... Mesmer primary. I don't care how nice Expertise is, Mesmers look sexy. Now, the two attributes I like the most are Illusion Magic (solely for Phantasm and Weaponry) and Beastmastery. As nice as it would be to go 12/12 and dump the excess into Fast Casting, that'd leave me with no means of healing myself. Since I heart PvE and the arena, I'm not going to stand for that! Realistically, that leaves me with three choices for a third attribute. Inspiration Magic, picking up Ether Feast. Wilderness Survival, going for Troll Unguent. Or, I could always rely on pickup party Monks...

Hahahahahahahaaaa! Joking, joking. So, Inspiration or Wilderness? Unguent is certainly riskier, relying on regen rather than a nice, solid health health. Unguent can be cast at any time, whereas Ether Feast not only needs to be cast on a target, but a target with at least 5 energy. I'd rather risk relying on +regen than needing to leech off a target, but if you know better, then please, feel free to kick me in the face. Believe it or not, I'd like this to actually work.

Fast Casting: 3+1 (6)
Illusion Magic: 11+4 (77)
Beast Mastery: 11 (77)
Wilderness Survival: 8 (37)

Why the +4 Illusion Magic? A friend nabbed me a Superior Illusion rune (+3), so I might as well just run with the health hit. Beast Mastery is at 11 for the skill Tiger's Fury. At 11 Beastmastery, it'll last 10 seconds for 10 energy, making it an ample substitution for Flurry, and a perfect partner for Illusionary Weaponry. Now, the skills...

Illusionary Weaponry [Illusion Magic] (15,1,40) For 30 seconds, you deal no damage in melee, but whenever you attack in melee, target foe takes 40 damage. This is an elite skill.
Tiger's Fury [Beast Mastery] (10,0,5) All your non-attack skills are disabled for 5 seconds. For 10 seconds, you attack 33% faster than normal.
Conjure Phantasm [Illusion Magic] (10,1,5) For 14 seconds, target foe experiences health degeneration of 5.
Arcane Conundrum [Illusion Magic] (10,2,20) For 30 seconds, spells cast by target foe take twice as long to cast.
Troll Unguent [Wilderness Survival] (5,3,10) For 10 seconds, you gain health regeneration +7.
Call of Brutality [Beast Mastery] (10,0,25) For 30 seconds, attacks by your animal companions have 38% base armour penetration and deal +10 damage.
Comfort Animal [Beast Mastery] (10,1,1) You heal your animal companion for 81 health.
Charm Animal [Beast Mastery] (10,10,0)

I probably should have tacked on a glowing "bad build alert", before that. I can see it's got some pretty big holes, but you can see what I've tried to do. The pet is the crux of this build, taking up 4 skill slots. I figured that with the combined damage of Illusionary Weaponry and a well-trained pet, I could make up for the loss of Flurry and Hundred Blades. Arcane Conundrum is the odd-one-out skill. It's anti-caster, but I realise that given the heavy armour penetration of this build, it'd serve me well to ditch the skill for something else. But I just couldn't find anything that suited me. Perhaps another pet call? Another Illusion spell? I'm stumped.

Anywho, thanks for sticking with me. It's late over here in Blighty, and I'm sure this was an absolute pain to read. Please, tear this build to shreds, kick it's face off. But don't just say "Me/R with a pet is gimp, mate," because like I said earlier, I honestly want to make this work. Cheers!

I'm not much of an IW buff, but I'll give it a shot anyway:

First, don't underestimate Troll Unguent, unless you're heavily targeted (can't really imagine IW builds to be big on the 'list of people to take down'), a nice, steady regen is better than getting a big blob of health upfront.
Also you may want to find a minor rune of Survival, as I 'think' you get an extra pip at 9 for Troll Unguent.

As for replacing Arcane Conundrum well, you're a melee character; so getting a speed buff is probably a good idea (Illusion of Haste, or one of the other skills in Survival). Alternatively you could pick up Sympathetic Visage, and make Warriors think twice before going toe to toe with you.

I would say you lack spell interruption... so maybe going inspiration over wilderness survival might be a good idea after all.

If you really don't want to interrupt spells, then I would drop Conundrum for Phantom Pain.. with your illusion lvl, it's nearly a phantasm, that does about 100 more damage when it ends or is removed.

A rune of survival wouldn't make a difference on this build since it's a Mesmer primary. He wouldn't be able to put a Ranger rune in his armor.

I wonder if Apply Poison would still poison the enemy with IW on. That could be a nice combo.

Ah you're right, my bad.

Well according to this article, anything that requires you to cause a 'to hit' doesn't count, as IW is a like a point blank spell. And with the current description for Apply Poison; "For 12 seconds, enemies struck by your attacks become poisoned for 3-13 seconds." My guess is no it wouldn't work.

While Arcane Conundrum and Conjure Phantasm are good skills in normal IW Me/W build, I don't think it would be wise to take them on this build. If anything you will need an interrupt of some sort, and I always like to take an enchantment buff. As your build is, you leave your IW really open to enchantment removal.

Also, I know that you like pets, but those three skill slots lost to animals buffs and revives are really hurting you. If you replaced those with maybe a trap, and a few evade skills, you could tweak this into a really nice build.

hehehehe, this is similar to a IW build I have stashed. I had the same idea and took a pet along with IW. I dont plan on trying this build out though, too many other more promising ones. Good luck.

i think thats a problem with the game so far.. people who play tend to be a bit too competitive and serious for my tastes. i would rather be like spooky and look at the lighter side of things and have fun.

if you want to run with a mesmer/ranger that uses IW and beastmastery, go for it. nobody says you actually have to be good at anything or killing stuff. i posted this build at TGH but everyone took it too seriously..

Don't let people discourage you! Let fly with the fun builds! I do have a suggestion or two, but take what you see fit, and leave the rest.

First, the easy one.... At least in the arena, and probably most other places, I would drop Comfort Animal for something that does more against the target (Call of Haste would be my preferance - to make the most use of your other damaging buff call). Most pets are generally ignored in the arena from what I have seen, but if you wanted to add a heal (and damage reduction) back in look at call of feeding or call of healing. It will cost you less energy overall and allow you to focus on attacking.

Second, you are right - I agree that Arcane Conundrum does not seem to fit your current build. There are so many other choices that would increase your effectiveness (the following all come from the Illusion section).

Illusion Magic
Soothing Images (availability)
Description: For 8-18 seconds, target foe cannot gain adrenaline.
*Less damage to you.

Imagined Burden (availability)
Description: For 8-18 seconds, target foe moves 50% slower than normal.
*Lets you get to target to smash it.

Illusion of Weakness (availability)
Description: You lose 50-202 health. Illusion of Weakness ends if damage drops your health below 25% of your maximum. When Illusion of Weakness ends, you gain 50-202 health.
*Cast it before you start, heal up, go fight, and get a nice health boost when you need it...

Distortion (availability)
Description: For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to evade attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 3-1 energy or Mantra of Distortion ends.
*A great way to stay alive while casting/healing with Troll Ungent - but it really eats your energy....

Clumsiness (availability)
Description: For 4-7 seconds, if target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted, target foe suffers 10-76 damage, and Clumsiness ends.
*Teach those nasty targets to dare to hit you back!

Sure there ar holes in your character, but with the right timing, there will be holes in other characters too.

Thanks for responding, folks. Much appreciated.
I'm a tad worried about letting my pet die right off the bat (bam, there goes half my skill bar), but it can't hurt to try. If Fluffles gets killed, I can always yell at the tanks. Hooray!

See, now this could be interesting. While it certainly doesn't increase the build's damage abilities in any way, if you take out the energy loss, it stands to be one of the better run-away skills. Now, at Illusion 10 it hits the "Lose 1 energy" spot. But surely, at 15 Illusion Magic that would be zero energy loss. Here's hoping!

Interrupts are always nice, but it'd probably be best to leave interrupts to those good at it. Since all the Ranger interrupts use bows, and Mesmer interrupts are blacked out during Tiger's Fury, I'd rather just leave them at home. As for enchantment removal, I've never had to worry with that before. Every time I've been hit by a Rend Enchantment, my team's already lost. When disenchantment priority is on some piddly little Mesmer, all hope is lost.

It's worth trying, but when using Illusionary Weaponry, theoretically every melee attack is a miss, and for Apply Poison to kick in the attack must connect. Even so, would it truly be worth it? It costs five more energy than Phantasm, which has 14 second duration compared to Apply Poison's 12. The two could stack for some meaty health degeneration, but to do so you're looking at using 25 energy before the first blow is struck.

I'll have to agree with Tymbrimi, you'll probably want to replace Comfort Animal for something more focused. If it's healing, then go for the calls he mentioned, but because of the unlikelihood of my pet being focus fired, I'd rather just let my pet die (yes, I'm a terrible master) and use Revive animal. The 6 sec casting time isn't too bad when compared to the 8 sec skill lock when you res with Comfort, plus with your points in Beast Mastery your pet will be brought to life with near full health.

If you really want some kind of heal for the pet, I would swap Comfort with Call of Feeding. If your target is trying to kill the animal instead of you, then your IW + Tiger's Fury should be able to finish him off before your pet dies.

Since you're high in illusion, I agree with Tymbrimi on Illusion of Weakness as your emergency healing instead of Troll Unguent. Troll Unguent at level 8: +7 health regen for 10 seconds. That gives you 140 health. Illusion of Weakness at 13: extra 215 health when your health bar hits below 25%. I don't like troll unguent for its 3-sec cast time. That should be the time for you to run away instead of standing around taking more hits.

Arcane Conundrum is good at slowing down casters but it's only really good when you're using it with some interruption skills. Replace it with some other illusion skills so you'll have something to do if someone removed your enchantment. Phantasm is nice, but take a look at anti-tank skills like Soothing Images or Sympathetic Visage. They come in handy when enemy warriors are attacking you or killing your team's monk.

Like tymbrini mentionned, you should probably pick up Imagined Burden. Usually when being IW'ed someone would just start running, which would severely cripple your damage input. (and put you through the recharge time). And unless they're quick on the Remove Hex ball (which most teams aren't) it should be much of an advantage in your favor.

Well, my Guildies got back to me on this one, and general consensus was "Hahahaha, ha, hahaha." It didn't go down too well. You're right, really. Illusionary Weaponry and Beastmastery builds are notorious for being skill-hungry, so trying to fit both into the same cramped skill bar was perhaps a tad too optimistic. Anywho, back to the drawing board. Illusionary Weaponry has to go bye-bye, as I heart my warthog chum too much.

So, pipe dreams out of the way... now I'm thinking Any Mesmer Line/Beastmastery. The aim, a tad more realistic, to stand out of harm's way and let Fluffles do all the tanking. Pack Mesmer skills to weaken/ensnare the target, making for faster tuskings. Now, since I haven't really played with Domination/casting Mesmers much, this is going to be painful.

Domination has lots of nice interrupts, I'm aware of that. But since I'm adamant on bringing Fluffles along, and Fluffles has armour penetration practically falling out of her arse, it'd be nice to make a Warrior-smasher out of her. Coming after my casters? We'll make them pay, won't we? We'll make them all pay...

So... what Mesmer lines will help my four-legged friend take out melee quicker? Domination has the ever-popular Empathy, which can pile on a little extra damage every time the foe attacks. Other than that, Domination is mostly anti-caster, and given their shoddy armour, it'd be a waste to take a pet to them. Illusion sounds lovely, if only for the snares. Three flavours of snare, each of them sexy. Illusion also packs Soothing Images, which ought to put an axe/hammer Warrior entirely out of action. Inspiration could be used to keep up on Energy, since each call uses 10, or Spirit Shackles could be used in conjunction with Soothing Images, which'll keep any Warrior entirely void of skills other than signet rings.

So, for the purposes of this cockup, let's say...

Fast Casting: 2+1 (3)
Illusion Magic: 10+2 (61)
Inspiration Magic: 8+1 (37)
Beast Mastery: 12 (97)

Fast Casting is... just there. Even though Illusion/Inspiration skills have long casting times, I can live with 'em. Beastmastery 12 to get the absolute most out of the calls, especially from Armour Penetration. Illusion 10+2 because of what I picked for my Elite, and to knock Soothing Images length as high as possible. Inspiration's there for the lovely Spirit Shackles, which should be the coup de grace on cocky Warriors.

1) Crippling Anguish [Illusion Magic] (15,1,20) For 18 seconds, target moves 50% slower and suffers health degeneration of 3. This is an elite skill.
2) Soothing Images [Illusion Magic] (10,2,5) For 18 seconds, target foe cannot gain adrenaline.
3) Spirit Shackles [Inspiration Magic] (10,3,5) For 20 seconds, target foe loses 5 energy whenever that foe attacks.
4) Spirit of Failure [Inspiration Magic] (10,3,10) For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 3 energy for each miss.
5) Call of Feeding [Beast Mastery] (10,0,55) For 60 seconds, attacks by your animal companions have 11 base damage reduction, and gain 17 health when they hit.
6) Call of Brutality [Beast Mastery] (10,0,25) For 30 seconds, attacks by your animal companions have 41% base armor penetration and deal +11 damage.
7) Call of Haste [Beast Mastery] (10,0,25) For 30 seconds, your animal companions have 25% faster attack speed and move 33% faster than normal.
8) Charm Animal

Why so many calls? Brutality for ripping through armour, Haste for catching up with a snared opponent, and Feeding on the slight offchance the pet gets targeted. Why Crippling Anguish? It's the best snare bar none, in my opinion, and I can't say there's any other Elites that are looking too suited to this "build". Soothing Images and Spirit Shackles to be slapped on any muppet who decides to go Rambo. And Spirit of Failure because... well, nothing else fit. Hah, I'm bad at this.

Woo?

How about Necromancer primary for Weaken Armor and Barbs?

Mmm. I don't like how Necromancers look (it was the style that drew me to Mesmer), but I'll give it a shot. Doubtless, you know better. Beastmastery/Curses/Marksmanship? Or would using a bow even be worth it, given the loss of focus?

I must sadly agree (I love mesmers personally), that if you just want to de-buff the other character and let the pet eat them then necro might be the way to go. However, I would go a different route....

I would suggest changing from Inspiration to Domination and adding in some damage spells from the Mesmer side. With any luck the target will not know if they should try and heal/remove the hexes or run from the pet. Ignoring either will be mistake.

To make some room I would look at the following to remove:

Soothing Images: Its nice to power down a warrior, but most warriors are not going to be attacking the animal, and I would rather kill anyone then just powerdown a small group of people.


Spirit Shackles: Is tempting to leave in for those pesy warrior monks, (although the most dangerous melee character I saw was a Mo/Wa) if push came to shove I would still rather kill them then slow them down.

Spirit of Failure: I would take this out. Giving them a chance to miss and a bit of energy gain is nice, but KILL, KILL!


Crippling Anguish: I keep going back and forth on this one.... Slowing the target nice for your pet, but not as necessary as your pet is already sped up, and the health degen is nice in general.

Things I would consider adding:

Empathy (availability)
Description: For 8-18 seconds, whenever target foe attacks, that foe takes 3-25 damage.

Panic (availability)
Description: Target foe and all adjacent foes are hexed with Panic for 8-18 seconds. While hexed, they suffer energy degeneration of 2 and take 10-68 damage whenever they use a signet ring. This is an elite skill.
(a Nasty surprise for the healing signet spamers...)

Clumsiness (availability)
Description: For 4-7 seconds, if target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted, target foe suffers 10-76 damage, and Clumsiness ends.


Conjure Phantasm (availability)
Description: For 2-12 seconds, target foe experiences health degeneration of 5.
Add some damage and really up the health degen!

Illusion of Weakness (availability)
Description: You lose 50-202 health. Illusion of Weakness ends if damage drops your health below 25% of your maximum. When Illusion of Weakness ends, you gain 50-202 health.
Again.. a self heal when you need it most


Ineptitude (availability)
Description: For 4-9 seconds, if target foe attacks, that foe takes 10-68 damage and becomes blinded, and Ineptitude ends. This is an elite skill.
Talk about messing up a warrior's day!

Phantom Pain (availability)
Description: For 10 seconds, target foe suffers health degeneration of 1-3. When Phantom Pain ends, that foe suffers a deep wound, lowering that foe's maximum health by 20% for 5-17 seconds.
Heap on that life degen up to a max of 10 (20 health per second!)


Anyway... just my thoughts. I hope that they help!

Weaken armor and barbs work with physical damage, something IW is not. Besides I have to say that the most popular IW builds lately are R/Me for the high armor and stances they offer.

Whoever said that IW builds aren't on the target list is wrong, for me they are No.1 target because of their high DPS (also because I have 0 anti-caster capabilities and that is why I don't go for monks).

He said he ditched the IW portion of the build, I was giving him suggestions so his pet could pump out more damage