User talk:Draxynnic

PUGging as a Post-Nerf Mesmer
Aeron Draxynnus

Season of the Phoenix, Day 20:

Finding a PUG proves noticeably more difficult than previously. In fact, the first group that "accepted" me dropped me after about thirty seconds without asking for my build or giving an explanation. Must have realised they'd accidentally accepted a hated Mesmer into their group.

Second group was looking for mission only. Mission successful. Half-hearted, uncoordinated attempt at bonus in last minute or so, unsurprisingly fails due to expiration of time limit. Group disintegrates, although one healing monk remains.

Form bonus group with the addition of traversal Nec, second Monk, dervish, and ranger. Ranger does not show build when requested. Choose to give benefit of the doubt - big mistake. Ranger proves to have a level 15 pet and Ignite Arrows in Hard Mode. Group fails due to lack of popups - Nec, second Monk, and ranger leave.

Form new group with new traversal Nec, prot Monk, and Warrior. Distribute vampiric weapons from Tombs to facilitate suicides. Again, no popups. Attempt to achieve bonus the hard way, rushing Forgotten generals at 3:30 mark. Warrior falls through crack in the fabric of reality, group fails due to too-low damage output, although Ghost is protected.

Recollect Warrior at mission outpost, try again. Again, no popups triggerable from ledge. Prot Monk brings longbow, uses to lure nearest Forgotten general, Cyss Gresshla. Having prepared for dealing with monks instead of defensive enchantments, Cyss proves too difficult to defeat at range.

Repeat strategy with enchantment removal effects prepared. Nearest general proves this time to be Byssha Hisst - reasonably easily defeated. Traversal operation proceeds successfully, and remaining two generals - the two Custodians - defeated.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 21:

Advertise as assassin summoner in Vizuneh Foreign. Accepted into a group fairly quickly - 2 warriors, dervish, paragon (not imbagon) and Discord/MM hybrid. Discuss paragon bringing We Shall Return, but paragon does not know that skill. I bring Dunkoro with hybrid WoH/prot build, dervish brings Tahlkora with almost purely condition removal build.

Group falls at bookstore. Dervish leaves - substitute in new dervish and my own Tahlkora with a more general protection build. Paragon journeys to the Lair of the Forgotten to learn "We Shall Return" from Godaj. Second attempt succeeds.

Local team consists of the usual suspects both times.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 23:

Jokanur? Moladune? Yawn. Been there, done those. Someone else's turn to collect the coins.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 28:

Gate of Madness. Been dreading this one since the nerf of my intended weapon against Shiro. Only takes about ten-fifteen minutes to find a group, however, with Empathy and Glyph of Renewalled EVAS providing a fair contribution to bringing Shiro down.

Should have brought a res sig, though, and some more reliable energy management than Guilt. Using Glyph of Renewal on Mistrust provided effective interruption - Guilt and CoF were largely redundant. Also: Must remember to bring some consumables in case of emergencies. No point having them if they can't be used when called for.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 33:

Hell's Precipice. Joy.

Invited to start a group by another Mesmer after about a quarter-hour. Forming the rest of the group takes another 15-20 minutes, with the usual shortfall. In the end, we go in with one Monk and one Restoration Ritualist. Spark-control duty shared by an A/R using Broadhead Arrow - although he seems more inclined to use Pain Inverter.

First attempt fails just after gaining bonus. Survivors of initial near-wipe fall back to the Ancient Seer, but the Seer is killed when the last two Risen Ashen Hulks crumble into the more dangerous Hands and Fists (near-simultaneously due to That Skill Necromancers Stole From Us) and the surviving party members quickly follow. Monk, as is all-too-common, abandons group. Group decides to counter Ashen Hulk minion-creation by having Necromancers bring Verata's Gaze.

New monk located quickly, but turns out not to have Prot Spirit prepared, and healing alone proves unable to handle those Sparks that remain undisrupted. Third attempt made with Monk prepared for protection, which proves more effective until disconnects from reality eventually lead to my finding myself back at the outpost just before reaching the Armageddon Lords. I hope the group was successful regardless.

Find a second group quickly, containing what appears to be a Prot Spirit-based tanking monk. Reconfigure to use That Skill Necromancers Stole along with related skills while the ProtSpiriter attracts the enemy to herself. First attempt could have gone better when the ProtSpiriter dies in the first engagement, the second achieves success - while ProtSpiriter dies occasionally, the rest of the group is able to survive and move on.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 34:

Few groups looking for Ruins of Surmia, unsurprisingly. About to set out with heroes when a Ranger asks to join up. Accept, and Ranger brings hero monk healer while I bring Olias for a minion army. Use pre-nerf anti-Charr bar from force of habit.

First expedition fails, embrassingly, on a large group of Devourers without encountering Charr. Investigate Ranger's Dunkoro and substitute my own - a heal/prot hybrid with more Vanguard training. Second attempt successful without too much fuss. As is his tendency, Rurik hallucinates the presence of live Charr after we clear the Charr presence from the ruins.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 43: Abaddon's Gate. Would've been laughed at for bringing VoR or CoP anyway. WW FTW!

Three more to go before this book can be turned in to get Holy Lightbringer. Almost enough on 14 pages, really, but might as well go for the full reward - Lightbringer doesn't really matter much for the remaining Elonian missions anyway.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 46: Why does Gwenyth get the heavy pack when I did most of the work? (Editor's Note: Because Gwenyth needs more equipment.)

Season of the Phoenix, Day 47: Only one group forming for Ice Caves by the time I arrive, but group accepts Mesmers readily enough. Ditches second mesmer when group turns out to only have one healer - hope she wasn't waiting too long. Bring Dunkoro along to fill the role - mission completed hitch-free.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 48: Missed Raisu the first time around. Advertise as disenchanter (carrying Air and Drain for the elementalists and Signet for the monks) and accepted into a group easily enough. As per usual, group lacks second healer - hero monk taken instead. Necromancer leaves just before entering, replaced with second Mesmer.

Dismal failure.

Second mesmer dropped, hero monk replaced by human monk's Olias with an N/Rt healer build, while I bring my own as a MM. Group also brings Cynn as an NPC instead of Danika. Seems like it may actually be a better choice - there may be more monsters to fight through in the end that way, but the fighting is easier to control. Mission completed with plenty of time to spare.

Season of the Phoenix, Day 49: Gate of Desolation with the Cavaliers buffed. Only one group recruiting non-Monks when I arrived, but they had no problems accepting a Mesmer's invitation.

Again, another Mesmer was left waiting, but there were members of other professions arriving then as well, so they were probably able to get a group together.

Awakened Carvers were annoying as expected (dratted Vow of Silence), but the Cavaliers on the whole proved... not that much more annoying than resurrectors normally do. Possibly because of the relatively small numbers of the Undead groups, although the Cavalier boss and cronies nearly wiped us - a Ritualist managing to escape and raise the party. Improved target coordination and the summoning of a Golem swung the rematch our way. Remaining mission completed without difficulty.

Two to go...

(Editor's Note: And this is the point at which I got bored. Suffice it to say, it seems that the balance update in question hasn't had a serious impact on the ability of Mesmers to get into parties, at least at the hardmode Zaishen Mission level. Draxynnic 16:08, 20 August 2009 (UTC))

Thanks!
Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for your post on Linsey's Talk page about those who compare SY! spammers to the old Ritual Lord builds. Let's just hope Linsey & Co. manage to figure out just how to properly balance everything out concerning Spawning Power and Ritualists. BTW, this is Nightow from GWGuru :) --68.32.187.152 01:39, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
 * No problem! I hope so to (obviously), although being realistic about it I'm not expecting anything before July - they do seem to be pretty busy over there. Still, better to be on the radar than not! ;) Draxynnic 02:10, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Comment on PUGs
My current guild is small enough that we don't often have enough/interested people to do the Zmissions and Zbounties. So I often lead PUGs as my Monk, and have no problem with taking Mesmers into my team as damage dealers - in fact, I actually prefer taking them over other classes, as Mesmer players 90%+ of the time have a clue about the game. Armor ignoring damage and hexes are extremely important in HM, meanwhile popular classes such as Elementalists often run crap Fire nuking builds with 0 utility, don't kite when being pummeled to death, deal armor sensitive damage, scatter aggro, etc. Of course it's just an example and good Eles can be found too. As a prot Monk, I always try to find a second healer (any class, often Mo, Rt, E/Mo, E/Rt or N/Rt), a Paragon (very underrated too), a MM Necro and a Spirit Spammer (Rt or anyone who can spam the SoS build, including Mesmers). Those are usually the 'core' of the team and I simply fill the rest with as much damage as possible - Mesmers easily filling this position.--Sensei 16:27, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, I agree - the actual changes didn't actually affect me much (I use Assassin's Promise rather than VoR, and CoP I only used as an afterthought). What I was worried about wasn't that Mesmers actually 'were' underpowered but they would be 'perceived' as underpowered by the majority of players as they were before CoP became well known - thus making it hard to get into groups in the first place. As described above, I didn't find that was actually the case - if anything, I've possibly spent less time in 'failed' groups since, possibly because the people who think Mesmers are useless are weeding themselves out and I'm getting into the competantly lead groups like yours instead. (Would you believe I had a group that thought the way to do Grand Court of Sebelkeh was to prioritise the Blaspheme as the prime target whenever it appeared, and called me an idiot when I tried to point out their error? Needless to say, they got nowhere, and I eventually left in order to H/H it.) And yes, part of me dies a little whenever I see someone ping a fire build in HM - even backed with EBSoH, there are better options. Draxynnic 11:19, 21 August 2009 (UTC)