Meta adjustments following 24th June update - discuss
Hi all,
Given the interesting skill updates, I wanted to get your views on changes to the current meta team. I’d appreciate to see your ideas based on my below adjustments/team. Personally don’t use +5SR, so keep that in mind with below. I’ll go through it 1 hero at a time:
ST: remains the same for me. No difference for melee or caster player.
Build: ST, Displacement, union, shelter, BoC, Armor of Unfeeling, fallback, blocked res. I haven’t used spirit gift as it isn’t maintained outside of combat (*hint hint 2weeks*), though it is perhaps also a nice cover enchant. Signet of creation isn’t used well by heroes, so pass from me.
BiP: same for both caster and melee player. Does not change. I prefer blood bond over strip enchantment especially since buff on minions. Also a nice heal if a melee enemy dies in your backline and/or cover hex for Mesmer hexes. Life over recuperation, else you start the fight low on energy in your BiP, which seems suboptimal.
Build: BiP, Spirit transfer, MBaS, blood bond, life, SoLS, PwK, Spirit Light.
SoS: (nearly) same for caster and melee. Remains roughly the same, though splinter weapon gets cast on Minions more frequently since recent updates. So I consider bringing it for casters even.
Build: SoS, splinter weapon, Spirit Light, PwK, MBAS, Spirit Siphon, SoH + Arage for melee, bloodsong and lamentation for casters. Arage on casters doesn’t work great as you need to be surrounded by at least 2 enemies before heroes cast it. Lamentation is nice cover hex for Mesmer hexes. If you don’t want splinter weapon on casters go for rejuvenation.
Mesmers: for melee and caster the same. Little changes here imo. 3x esurge or 2x esurge and 1 panic. Enchanters conundrum seems cool, but hero AI doesn’t use it particularly well (yet? :))
Build: resurgence/panic, mistrust, CoF, unnatural signet, shatter hex, spiritual pain, power drain, 2x drain enchantment, 1x res. I prefer double drain enchant over 2 res and shift 1 res to ST blocked. Open to see other arguments, haven’t had big issues with this.
Now it gets interesting: I think the last spot used to always be the ineptitude Mesmer. However, given the rise of minions, it could become different:
MM: small differences between caster and melee. I understood from Chthon that Order of Undeath (OoU) is used more frequently and hits solid. So I actually think that OoU should be picked over fallback/incoming combination. The faster casting time will let MM lag behind less and so double IMS might not even be necessary anymore. Still is a decent heal, but refreshing now seems more important than healing minions.
Build: OoU, Bone fiend, vamp horror, SoLS, masochism, fallback, Stand your ground (SYG) and for melee/ranged/para find their weakness (FTW). Currently testing whether SoLS can be dropped for withering aura. Seems worthwhile for some builds + energy management of MM is better with cheaper bone fiends. For casters I’d go with putrid bile or never surrender. You can always choose to run double IMS MM, but I think the increased hero usage of OoU + damage nerf of mesmers can make this a worthwhile trade off.
Of course there is the ineptitude Mesmer, stays the same for melee and casters:
Build: Ineptitude, wandering eye, accumulated pain, signet of clumsiness, drain enchantment, arcane conundrum, Fallback and SYG.
The idea is that, depending on area, you switch out what you need. Many corpses and need melee hate? Drop 1 esurge and take MM with Inept Mesmer. No corpse is 4x mesmers. Little melee threat? Go Mm with 3x dom Mesmer.
One can also consider dropping a dom Mesmer for tclap ele, but I am not yet convinced it performs better than 3x Mesmer.
What are your guys thoughts? Please feel free to drop any ideas that come up, or explain what trade offs you consider that aren’t mentioned above.
Cheers and enjoy!