Illisionary Weaponary group build

Or...

You could use 5 Me/E, 2 Mo/X and one Water Ele of some kind (either Fast Cast or plain Water Ele)

You spec them in Illusion/Earth, the rest goes in Inspiration.

Each of your Mesmers has Arcane Mimicry. They all have Illusionary Weaponry except one who has Obsidian Flesh. They all Arcane Mimicry the one who has OF (who himself AM a IW), start with OF then IW, then proceed to start the whacking. The Water Ele ensures the targets are less mobile than the IW Mesmers (hampered by OF). The Mesmers can help with that thanks to Imagined Burden and Ethereal Burden.

When not attacking and waiting the recharge on IW and AM (and OF), the mesmers use their Inspiration skills either to regain energy quickly or defend themselves with stances. Being also specced with Earth, Armor of Earth or Kinetic Armor can come in handy to stay alive while OF is out.

I can't see how this group would not work, but it would require insane amounts of coordination and organisation. It's also very dependant on a single attack means, which I always try to avoid in every of my group (what if you encounter a group that is perfect against your only weapon? I like my groups with solid defense and varied attacks). 50% slow chance = dead IW mesmers. Even with the water ele, they are tons of hex removal in tombs. And with all those squishies, 2 monks doesn't seem like enough. =/

50% slow chance = dead IW mesmers. Even with the water ele, they are tons of hex removal in tombs. And with all those squishies, 2 monks doesn't seem like enough. =/ The concept is that the whole group target one (or at most 2) targets.

A Water Ele can keep anyone slowed even with hex removal thanks to Water Trident. Also, hardly anyone bothers to remove Water Hexes, which can be applied very quickly. My Water Ele has 3 slow spells along with Water Trident. If I want someone slowed; there is absolutely nothing to do against it except killing/interrupting/E.Deny me (and maybe using Spell Breaker, which almost no one uses anyways). Also; it the Mesmers are slowed, it's not as if the Warriors will tear through them. Maybe you've forgotten, but the one think IW Mesmers excel at is owning warriors. To protect themselves, though, your IW Mesmers will have to ball up, which makes them vulnerable to enemy Water Eles, but it's not as if we can count on the enemy bringing one of them, eh? Cause if that was the case, no one'd be running Minion Factories and IWAY groups.

As for the squishies getting pounded; Obsidian Flesh makes the squishies less squishy thanks to its AL bonus. When not using OF, the IW Mesmers can use their Inspiration Stances (Distortion, Hex Breaker) to keep themselves out of harm's way.

As I said, this is in no way a group I'd like to run. It's too dependant on a single strategy and requires builds that few players have an understanding of (good Water Eles are probably less than 20 in PvP, and most players don't have a good understanding of the Mesmer). However, I believe this is theoretically a possible group that could be powerful with competent players at the helm. As it negates Warrior armor, it could rip them down just as quickly, removing the need for your group to overextend themselves in order to get to their targets (the main problem of most losing groups I've been with is that they run past the whole enemy group to get to a single monk. Of course; it's good to follow priorities, but by running past the enemy, you are making your own backlines vulnerable, as well as cut yourself up from your healing base. This group could easily target the Warriors in the front lines and work their way from there as the warriors are not any more resistant to it).

But not a group I would waste more than 15 minutes assembling. I've seen lots of groups that would theoretically work be raped in seconds because it requires players of a skill that won't be available quickly. Any rank 3 can run a decent IWAY, but a decent Mesmer?