Looking to begin some PvP

Well, I'm a Mesmer. I've brought my mesmer through the whole storyline and he's my main character. Now that I've finished all of that stuff up, I'm looking to begin playing some PvP. Thing is, I suck at it. I've tried doing some RA, but I just kind of die, and fast too. I try to interrupt enemy monks, but I'm not very good at that either. It's just a lot of luck if I do manage to interrupt it. I try using Migraine to slow down enemy spells, but that doesn't help me much either. I've fought some friends from my guild before and I have practiced interrupting on them. I can get it most of the time then, but I still go back to RA and get beat up.

The main thing I'm asking for here is help. What should I put my points into? What skills are useful? Are there any good spots for me to practice interrupting when my guildies aren't on? Depending on what skills I'm using, what sort of runes should I put on? What's a good weapon I could try to find? And any other general tips that you can give me would be nice. I'm really almost clueless here, so I'll appreciate any and all help.

The thing is, interrupting is a hard job, and the only time you can manage is when you're in a controlled environment, with teammates looking after you. Definitely not RA. I suggest an anti-warrior build, with snares and blinds. This will keep you from dieing by warriors.

Also, RA != PvP as it should be played. ( don't flame me )

This is what I've been doing to practice interrupting. Hopefully it will help you to.

1. Load your skill bar up with 7 interrupts - ideally 3-4 spell interrupts, 3 or 4 action interrupts. The 8th slot is for Ether Feast or some self-heal.

2. Modify your interface and make your target action bar as wide as your screen.

3. Go into Aspenwood as Kurzick, or Luxon, but I find Kurzick better to practice in.

4a. Find a caster target - start out with elementalists as they're easiest to interrupt. Interrupt them to hell. With 7 interrupts, you'll be able to practice a lot!

4b. Keep practicing, moving to Necros, Mesmers, then Monks.

4c. Practice interrupting 2 targets at once - i.e. Seige Turtle with action interrupts and a foe caster with spell interrupts by watching the animations.

5. Practice kiting and interrupting at the same time. This will help out in the long run as kiting is will keep you alive. Also use the self-heal when you're not interrupting. It will keep the melee away from you.

In the end, I found that you don't even use the foe action bar anymore and just watch for animations of foes. You can then be able to interrupt multiple targets in a short period of time. It just gets tricky selecting the targets, but that's all.

Good luck and Happy Interrupting!

I've been working on my Interrupting by just keeping one interrupt on my bar at all times when I played through Prophecies and now Factions. I stink at it, but I'm getting better.

I like piling Domination Spells onto people so they can't do anything or take massive damage if they do, to be honest. You don't need to interrupt someone if they can't do anything in the first place.

Domination mes have no chance w/o healer

People say RA isn't PvP and technically it is, but because it lacks a lot of team aspect, most don't consider it PvP. However, if you want to RA, at a minimum you'll need these things as you'll never be guarenteed a monk.
Condition Removal Hex Removal Self-Heal Res-Signet Once you got these, you'll need to define a build that can affect the most kind of people because you won't know if you're facing all casters, all melee or a mix.

E-denial/Degen works great because it affects all kinds of builds. Whereas Spell Denial could only work on casters and if you don't face any casters, you'll be useless.

Essentially, you want to start with one skill and find other skills that synergizes well with it. Sort of like Poker, you want to make the best hand possible.

Unfortunately, when it comes to RA, you'll only be able to work with 4~6 slots if you want to sacrifice the hex removal and/or condition removal.

With TA/GvG/HA and possibly some of the AB stuff, you can sacrifice the self-heal and maybe even the res signet - if you have a designated res-er on the team. This allows for more flexibility with builds and you can specialize in more than 1 role.

But if you want a quick/dirty e-denial build:

8 Fast Casting, 16 Dom, 10 Inspiration
[skill]Mind Wrack[/skill][skill]Energy Surge[/skill][skill]Energy Burn[/skill][skill]Signet of Weariness[/skill][skill]Ether Feast[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
[skill]Power Drain[/skill] or [skill]Power Leak[/skill] or [skill]Power Spike[/skill]
[skill]Inspired Hex[/skill] or [skill]Shatter Delusions[/skill]


Just press 1,2,3,4 and 5 (if they're casting). This will do some damage to all builds and drain their energy at the same time.

Well I don't want to play in the RA at all really. But to get to the other arenas where you can get your own team beyond that, you need to pass 5 battles in the Random Arenas. I'll have to read through the rest of the posts a bit later since I'm busy now. Thanks for all the responses and helpful hints so far people. If you have more to give, I'll gladly take it.

If you want to do proper pvp, then here's a number of skills you'll find yourself using a lot :
Diversion
Diversion
Diversion
Power Drain

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Agreed on both the diversion and the illusion fronts. Distortion and Crippling Anguish is just too nifty to pass up vs the almost purely melee arenas.

If you end up going Illusion, try using the fancy Signet of Illusion.
Frustration on a target and a SOI Warmonger's Weapon is kinda neat.
I also like that SOI works with Anguished was Lingwah and Generous Was Tsungrai really well as they can both be precast and held until needed. They are wonderful if you aren't using too many energy intensive skills.

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