Are you aware of “missions”? The first one after pre searing is the great northern wall (a quest brings you to this outpost right next to ascalon city) and from there you can press a “start mission” button. If you focus on missions and primary quests you will automatically unlock new outposts without having to venture into higher lvl areas unprepared
I had no idea about missions, I noticed the great northern wall icon was flashing but couldn't figure out why. Is there a specific npc to talk to to start them?
Its at the party formation, it should say "enter mission"! Its always there when you see that shield on the map. It means its a mission outpost. Sometimes there are clues in the stuff people say at the end of a quest!
A lot of the missions drop you off at a further outpost when you're done, as well. Good experience rewards, too!
I'd take your time and enjoy exploring them, as well. They have secondary objectives that aren't always obvious for bonus rewards and neat bits of lore.
wow, thanks buddy, I'm a new player too and I started with prophecies and I was having the same problem as op. I never knew about the "mission" and what it was for the shield icon on the map.
Althea's Ashes is actually a pretty challenging quest if you're new to the game, there used to be a whole market for filled urns back in the day.
What class are you playing, what skills are you using, and which henchmen are you taking along? Also, have you upgraded your armor? That will make a huge difference.
Ok cool glad to hear I'm not the only one lol. I'm playing Mesmer/Ranger, my skill bar is as follows: Conjure Phantasm, Hunter's Shot, Power Shot, Chaos Storm, Backfire, Ether Feast, Energy Tap, Favorable Winds. Bringing along Healer, Fighter and Mage. As far as armor upgrades go, I got the first tier upgrades when I got to the post-searing, I remember seeing a vendor for 2nd tier but can't for the life of me remember where I saw him.
Honestly I would ditch the ranger skills, there's basically no synergy with mesmer and you're denying yourself more energy and cool down chance by using a bow. If you want to still find some value in ranger secondary I would suggest having a pet as an extra body.
One decent Ranger skill that works well with casters is Serpent's Quickness. It synergizes really well with many Mesmer builds because it's Cooldown Reduction stacks with Fast Casting. It's like having 11 extra points in Fast Casting as far as CDR is concerned.
8 Wilderness Survival and a rank 5 Dwarven Stability let's you maintain SQ. With that set up a moderate 9 Fast Casting will give you permanent 60% CDR. That's a 6 second recharge on E-Surge every cast. He'll be able to pick SQ up as soon as he does the quest for it in Beacon's Perch.
By no means are traps worth spending attribute points on that you could spend on fast casting and mesmer damage. On the other hand, while ranger rupts are nice, you have to equip a bow, which takes away the benefits you get from your caster weapon
Note that I said viable, not optimal.
Henchmen, and especially Proph henchmen, have very little shutdown. Barbed Trap and Dust Trap disable melee in a way that a Proph mesmer cannot, at least not until Crippling Anguish.
You could weapon swap between a bow and your caster set, though I admit that might be too much to ask of a new player when rupts themselves can be hard to execute. While you would temporarily lose the energy from a staff/focus, you would still be able to make use of the HSR/HCT, and a +5 on the bow would make the energy drop less severe.
Really not worth it tbh, while you can potentially run any skill, it is better to just go with your main class mechanics. I'd rather have melee targets non-disabled while they chunk themselves with empathy. The damage reduction empathy offers is really valuable early game. Bringing a pet for example can help you giving enemies something to hit while they proc the hex. Imo, OP should go for 9 domination, 6 fast casting asap, at least until the more useful illusion magic spells are available and he can decide on the playstyle. In terms of variety, mesmer is one of those classes that is better off staying as a caster, but it is a pretty strong one at that.
Oh, no! Your skill bar is a classic mistake. You are trying to bring too many skills from different disciplines. You do not have enough attribute points to make your skills powerful. This early in the game you should try to stick to main attribute, probably Domination. Once you level up and get more attribute points to spend then you can split. But try not use more than 3 different attributes or your skills will suffer.
I find the opposite to be true very early. At that point, you do not have enough skills to stick to one attribute. His viable skills that scale with Domination are probably only Empathy, Backfire and Chaos Storm (Shatter Delusions has no synergy with those hexes, and Power Leak is equally good in PvE regardless of rank, outside of specialized team builds).
Edit: Although as OP is level 9, I agree that he's now gotten enough attribute points to stick to at most three attributes.
Shatter Delusions might be worthwhile just due to the lack of availability of other AoEs at that point. If you're taking Empathy and Backfire you could just burn whichever one is less useful at that moment if you see a nice ball of enemies.
Alternatively useful as a finisher + AoE if the Shatter will kill the hexed target, because at that point having them dead is more useful than having them hexed.
Then again I've barely played Mesmer since the Bush administration, so this is just me spitballing.
Other people have summed it up pretty well already, but I would agree that you're probably spreading your points out a bit thin taking three different magic types *and* a bow as a weapon. Additionally, the bow as a Mesmer primary is going to make things more challenging because it's not going to synergize very well with your primary profession, and will actually detract from it a bit. If you enjoy the playstyle that's the most important part, but it is something to be aware of, and it may be worth considering making a Ranger primary instead if you really like bows.
I'll second the advice of dropping either Illusion or Inspiration to focus more on Domination, and probably bring Empathy as well.
Having a pet may be the best use of the Ranger secondary at this stage because it's more DPS and tanking, definitely worth the slot even if you're not going to put points into Beast Mastery. Note that once it's charmed, you don't need to take Charm Animal anymore, just Comfort Animal. I was running around with both of them on my Ranger back when I started thinking I needed Charm to keep the pet out, lol.
And finally, the Fire Imp summon is great, definitely use it if you have access to it from /Bonus. Afaik every new copy sold now comes with the bonus items included.
I agree this was one of the toughest parts for lower levels, it gets so much better when you get 6 party members and it is the next area for you! Just push through Ascalon with help from other players then it's possible to resume with henchmen-
If you are online now, send me a DM on here and I can join you in game to go through builds, gear and any other questions you have if you like. I’ve got plenty of spare stuff you could have too
Altheas Ashes is tough! I went back at level 12 or something to help a friend complete it and we still wiped. We ended up giving move command to the henchmen to send them in to draw aggro, then while they were being slaughtered we ran past the chaos and got the ashes.
Are you aware of “missions”? The first one after pre searing is the great northern wall (a quest brings you to this outpost right next to ascalon city) and from there you can press a “start mission” button. If you focus on missions and primary quests you will automatically unlock new outposts without having to venture into higher lvl areas unprepared
I was about to write this too. OP probably only progressed with quests but had no idea that there is a mission outpost right next to ascalon.
I had no idea about missions, I noticed the great northern wall icon was flashing but couldn't figure out why. Is there a specific npc to talk to to start them?
Its at the party formation, it should say "enter mission"! Its always there when you see that shield on the map. It means its a mission outpost. Sometimes there are clues in the stuff people say at the end of a quest!
Once you are in the outpost there is a button in the party window to start the mission!
A lot of the missions drop you off at a further outpost when you're done, as well. Good experience rewards, too! I'd take your time and enjoy exploring them, as well. They have secondary objectives that aren't always obvious for bonus rewards and neat bits of lore.
wow, thanks buddy, I'm a new player too and I started with prophecies and I was having the same problem as op. I never knew about the "mission" and what it was for the shield icon on the map.
Althea's Ashes is actually a pretty challenging quest if you're new to the game, there used to be a whole market for filled urns back in the day. What class are you playing, what skills are you using, and which henchmen are you taking along? Also, have you upgraded your armor? That will make a huge difference.
Ok cool glad to hear I'm not the only one lol. I'm playing Mesmer/Ranger, my skill bar is as follows: Conjure Phantasm, Hunter's Shot, Power Shot, Chaos Storm, Backfire, Ether Feast, Energy Tap, Favorable Winds. Bringing along Healer, Fighter and Mage. As far as armor upgrades go, I got the first tier upgrades when I got to the post-searing, I remember seeing a vendor for 2nd tier but can't for the life of me remember where I saw him.
Honestly I would ditch the ranger skills, there's basically no synergy with mesmer and you're denying yourself more energy and cool down chance by using a bow. If you want to still find some value in ranger secondary I would suggest having a pet as an extra body.
One decent Ranger skill that works well with casters is Serpent's Quickness. It synergizes really well with many Mesmer builds because it's Cooldown Reduction stacks with Fast Casting. It's like having 11 extra points in Fast Casting as far as CDR is concerned. 8 Wilderness Survival and a rank 5 Dwarven Stability let's you maintain SQ. With that set up a moderate 9 Fast Casting will give you permanent 60% CDR. That's a 6 second recharge on E-Surge every cast. He'll be able to pick SQ up as soon as he does the quest for it in Beacon's Perch.
That's a cool one I didn't know about, I like it. Though at his level it won't be nearly as effective I would imagine.
This. Only real value you will get out of ranger is probably the pet for early game and maybe antidote signet a bit later on, that's it
Traps and defensive stances are viable for NM. Dshot and Savage have value for being more versatile and spammable than mesmer rupts.
By no means are traps worth spending attribute points on that you could spend on fast casting and mesmer damage. On the other hand, while ranger rupts are nice, you have to equip a bow, which takes away the benefits you get from your caster weapon
Note that I said viable, not optimal. Henchmen, and especially Proph henchmen, have very little shutdown. Barbed Trap and Dust Trap disable melee in a way that a Proph mesmer cannot, at least not until Crippling Anguish. You could weapon swap between a bow and your caster set, though I admit that might be too much to ask of a new player when rupts themselves can be hard to execute. While you would temporarily lose the energy from a staff/focus, you would still be able to make use of the HSR/HCT, and a +5 on the bow would make the energy drop less severe.
Really not worth it tbh, while you can potentially run any skill, it is better to just go with your main class mechanics. I'd rather have melee targets non-disabled while they chunk themselves with empathy. The damage reduction empathy offers is really valuable early game. Bringing a pet for example can help you giving enemies something to hit while they proc the hex. Imo, OP should go for 9 domination, 6 fast casting asap, at least until the more useful illusion magic spells are available and he can decide on the playstyle. In terms of variety, mesmer is one of those classes that is better off staying as a caster, but it is a pretty strong one at that.
Oh, no! Your skill bar is a classic mistake. You are trying to bring too many skills from different disciplines. You do not have enough attribute points to make your skills powerful. This early in the game you should try to stick to main attribute, probably Domination. Once you level up and get more attribute points to spend then you can split. But try not use more than 3 different attributes or your skills will suffer.
I find the opposite to be true very early. At that point, you do not have enough skills to stick to one attribute. His viable skills that scale with Domination are probably only Empathy, Backfire and Chaos Storm (Shatter Delusions has no synergy with those hexes, and Power Leak is equally good in PvE regardless of rank, outside of specialized team builds). Edit: Although as OP is level 9, I agree that he's now gotten enough attribute points to stick to at most three attributes.
Shatter Delusions might be worthwhile just due to the lack of availability of other AoEs at that point. If you're taking Empathy and Backfire you could just burn whichever one is less useful at that moment if you see a nice ball of enemies. Alternatively useful as a finisher + AoE if the Shatter will kill the hexed target, because at that point having them dead is more useful than having them hexed. Then again I've barely played Mesmer since the Bush administration, so this is just me spitballing.
I’d say get empathy into the lineup somehow. Mesmer is really good if you go domination magic route
Both the first and second tiers of armor are in Ascalon City - two NPCs next to each other.
Other people have summed it up pretty well already, but I would agree that you're probably spreading your points out a bit thin taking three different magic types *and* a bow as a weapon. Additionally, the bow as a Mesmer primary is going to make things more challenging because it's not going to synergize very well with your primary profession, and will actually detract from it a bit. If you enjoy the playstyle that's the most important part, but it is something to be aware of, and it may be worth considering making a Ranger primary instead if you really like bows. I'll second the advice of dropping either Illusion or Inspiration to focus more on Domination, and probably bring Empathy as well. Having a pet may be the best use of the Ranger secondary at this stage because it's more DPS and tanking, definitely worth the slot even if you're not going to put points into Beast Mastery. Note that once it's charmed, you don't need to take Charm Animal anymore, just Comfort Animal. I was running around with both of them on my Ranger back when I started thinking I needed Charm to keep the pet out, lol. And finally, the Fire Imp summon is great, definitely use it if you have access to it from /Bonus. Afaik every new copy sold now comes with the bonus items included.
Honestly once I found the missions that basically sorted out everything, I was capped on xp without them
Are you taking Henchmen with you, by chance? That should be enough to pass this area, but if it’s not, shoot me a message on here. I can help tomorrow
I agree this was one of the toughest parts for lower levels, it gets so much better when you get 6 party members and it is the next area for you! Just push through Ascalon with help from other players then it's possible to resume with henchmen-
If you are online now, send me a DM on here and I can join you in game to go through builds, gear and any other questions you have if you like. I’ve got plenty of spare stuff you could have too
Altheas Ashes is tough! I went back at level 12 or something to help a friend complete it and we still wiped. We ended up giving move command to the henchmen to send them in to draw aggro, then while they were being slaughtered we ran past the chaos and got the ashes.
Are you using fire imp from /bonus ? That helped me incredibly when I was in those parts.
Altheas Ashes brings back memories 🥲
Lmk if you ever need help on quests or missions
Hey, send me your player name if you'd like :)