User:Malokai92/Guide Index/messy

Mesmers serve as the cookie cutter profession in hero builds. They are pervasive in almost every single hero team. In the past, the fact that players could only have two Mesmer heroes on their team when less useful professions had three heroes dedicated was quite aggravating. With the update making Razah a variable profession and mercenary slots, the issue came up with what players should run in the third slot. The introduction of Zei Ri as the new Ritualist hero essentially makes this an important issue to address. The context of the discussion will be the assumption that if we are using 3 mesmers, we want as much damage as possible.

Background
When it comes to team builds with Mesmers, you generally refer to the Archive:Team - Mesmer Hero Midline. The most common midline involves two Mesmers, one running Domination Magic and the other running Illusion Magic. Historically, the Panic mesmer quickly grew in use after the update as you see it now. The meta use of Mistrust and Cry of Frustration was developed a little later. The Illusion mesmer was not as popular due to the fact it was typically run to counter melee. It also took longer to develop to the current build. As heroes spammed Wandering Eye and Clumsiness indiscriminately, energy was a problem as the current energy management methods were not as refined. Arcane Conundrum was introduced later on, as energy management and synergy with Panic.

Setup
On the Domination Mesmer, Panic is used for mass interruption and the AoE armor-ignoring damage. Panic is on a need-to-use basis, where it is replaced with Energy Surge due to other lackluster elite skills. On the Illusion Mesmer, Illusion Magic is used for defense against melee and the high armor-ignoring damage. Ineptitude is the most common elite used; alongside Wandering Eye and Clumsiness, it provides melee interruption and shutdown and rather insane amount of AoE armor-ignoring damage. To sum it up, the Mesmer midline provides melee and caster shutdown along with abusing hard-hitting spammable armor-ignoring AoE skills. And one of the golden rules of PvE is hard-hitting spammable armor-ignoring AoE skills.

You have access to a third mesmer through either changing Razah's profession or a mercenary slot. The meta favors using as many mesmers as possible, the reason being that other professions lack access to similarly powerful spells. Many team builds hinge on the fact you can run that third mesmer on your team. While the 2 Mesmer midline is generally established, what do you run on a third mesmer? You already have melee and caster shutdown, so a third mesmer is dedicated to damage. Incidentally, both the Domination Magic and Illusion Magic attribute lines provide powerful damage options (hence why they're used in the first place). There is no triangle of power for Mesmer setups, so you have to choose to run a copy of a Domination bar or Illusion bar.

This setup has been lovingly termed 2 Domination, 1 Illusion vs. 2 Illusion, 1 Dom. I will refer to this as the attribute ratio.

Assumptions
We have three mesmer heroes available. Two mesmers use one attribute and the third mesmer uses the second attribute. The builds are described in Mesmer Hero Midline. In this discussion, a choice is given on whether you will be using a Panic mesmer or not in the midline. When arguing advantages and disadvantages over attribute ratio, we would consider the cases where a Panic mesmer is used and not used. This leads to four possible setups: Panic is not considered as we are only concerned about damage output. Therefore this mesmer midline applies for hero setups where you are not in high end PvE or consider Panic unnecessary in the team setup and can manage without it.

Builds
[build prof=me/any dom=12+1+3 fast=10+1 ins=8+1][energy Surge][Mistrust][Cry of Frustration][Unnatural Signet][Optional][Optional][Power Drain][Waste Not, Want Not][/build] [build prof=Mesmer/any illu=12+1+3 fas=10+1 insp=8+1][Ineptitude][wandering eye][clumsiness][signet of clumsiness][optional][Arcane Conundrum][Power Drain][waste not, want not][/build]
 * Energy Surge Mesmer
 * Ineptitude Mesmer

16 Domination Magic and Illusion Magic is assumed based on a player bringing sufficient defense. 16 Domination Magic is a breakpoint for energy surge, the reason 15 is normally ran is the breakpoint for Panic. The current meta leans towards running superior runes on spiking and damage builds to maximize damage output.

Fast Casting
Fast Casting reduces activation time and recharge time. These rates are rounded to the nearest millisecond. Hence the higher the rank in Fast Casting, the more often a hero will use spells. The current bars run 10+1 Fast Casting. I run 9+1 Fast Casting due to 10 Inspiration Magic being a breakpoint for Drain Delusions. Due to 11 Fast Casting giving a flat 33% recharge reduction, this will be used in calculations. A couple ranks above or below this point has relatively little change in effect on skills. Note that the average energy gain from Power Drain and other Inspiration Magic spells depend on investment in Fast Casting and Inspiration Magic.

Comparison

 * Damage - To begin, we will compare the direct damage of both builds. This is not robust as much of the damage is circumstantial and can depend on the conditions given. We will assume the Ineptitude, Wandering Eye, Clumsiness, and Signet of Clumsiness always trigger and Unnatural Signet's condition is met. Accumulated Pain and Spiritual Pain will have their own comparison as it pertains solely to single target damage.


 * Robustness - The next factor to compare is conditions and circumstances. Mistrust and Cry of Frustration obviously have an advantage in cast heavy groups where interruption is vital. Illusion magic has a similar advantage in melee heavy groups where interruption prevents training. Domination Magic has nearby Energy Surge and Mistrust with Cry of Frustration in the area; Illusion Magic has Ineptitude and Clumsiness with Wandering Eye at nearby. The range represents a significant difference in spiking, damage behavior, and average number of foes hit. I consider the circumstances (i.e. area) under which setup is chosen to be very important towards comparison.


 * Flexibility - The final factor will be energy management and utility. How well does each build manage their own energy, what lends the setup to be more flexible, how accessible is utility to the setup? These are all considerations when it comes to universality and hence an impact on effectiveness.

Damage
All skills are assumed to trigger immediately. Aftercast delay is not implemented in calculations. For an arbitrary length of time, delay has no impact on the dps for either build. Casting times use PvXwiki calculations. Recharge calculations are rounded down to the thousandth place.

Damage Efficiency takes the energy efficiency over the time that spell is used. This measures the worth of bringing the skill given optimal conditions (optimality). The higher the value, the more optimal the skill is. Increase in damage increases the value, increases in cost and recharge decrease the value. The energy cost is staggered right to account for signets. Signets weigh heavily toward damage efficiency because they're free. The average damage efficiency represents that average energy efficiency over an arbitrary period of time for a build. Note this doesn't estimate the opportunity cost of the skill nor does it take into account non-ideal conditions.

Damage Per Second = Damage / ( Casting Time + Recharge ) Energy Per Second = Energy Cost / ( Casting Time + Recharge ) Energy Efficiency = Damage / Energy Cost Damage Efficiency = Damage / ( (Energy Cost + 5) / 5 ) / ( Casting Time + Recharge )

* Uses Unnatural Signet AoE damage for simplification purposes.

The difference in average damage efficiency between Illusion Magic and Domination Magic is 1.78 DE. Ignoring signets, the difference is slightly less at 1.46 DE. Cry of Frustration is the main offender, thanks to its mediocre efficiency rating. The Illusion Magic skills feature significantly higher scores. Surprisingly, Energy Surge and Ineptitude have nearly identical efficiency values. The Illusion Mesmer burns .47 more energy per second than the Domination Mesmer, more than a pip of energy (0.33 energy per second). Keep in mind casters only have regeneration of 1.33 energy per second.

One thing to not is that damage efficiency treats energy and time equally. This implies 1 energy is equivalent to 1 second. A more appropriate value would be to weigh it by the caster's regeneration (1.33). This is only useful for individual comparison as the net difference would be the same.

Robustness
The numbers are not a true comparison. The numbers do not account for the number of enemies hit. Unless you are balling, the average number of enemies varies with the range. Heroes will prioritize using Cry of Frustration and Mistrust on casters and Illusion Magic on melee. Your true damage output depends on the initial conditions and the general randomness associated with battles. Hence we are concerned with the robustness of builds. A good way to compare builds is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of skills individually then summarize the general effectiveness as a whole. This list is not exhaustive and should be taken with a grain of salt.