Casters shutting down other casters in HM

I know that Curses spells are geared mostly towards physical shutdown (Enfeebling Blood & Shadow of Fear, for example).

What are some options for casting professions to shut down enemy casters in HM? Obviously, killing them is shutting down, but in HM some groups are very resilient and can't be killed so easily. I can have a Necro hero toss some Curses to hamper the physicals, but then I'm left with casters.

Pretty much anything from domination magic.
Diversion, Shame, Guilt, Backfire and Interupts are good examples.

Power Block, Cry of Frustration, etc. (I like taking Gwen along to shut down the heavy hitters - lock her on & let her go.)

I guess that "Broad Head Arrow" thing that Rangers do works OK, too.

technobabble

Fevered dreams. Nuff said.

Technobabble, Domination/rupts from a mesmer, or...

1. Get a ranger.
2. Ranger gets BHA.
3. Put a sign around his neck that says, "Caster."

Note that BHA isnt that great on its own, it only becomes powerfull when combined with a warrior or minions hitting the same target.

There are lots of options, but I perfer Illusion on a hero over Dom. I run a build something like this on my Gwen:

Tease, Frustration, Power Drain, Power Return, Inspired Hex, Clumsiness, Wandering Eye, Rez Chant

She can handle melee and casters both, and offers some team support with a little hex removal. But other skills in Illusion work VERY well against casters too. Migraine, Shared Burden, Arcane Conundrum, etc. all help deal with casters.

But if you want to use a Necro, there are options. Soul Leech is the most obvious, but also Depravity, Shivers of Dread/Spinal Shivers, Wither, Malaise, and Mark of Subversion. Ritualist has Warmongers Weapon and Elementalist has Thunderclap as well as some knockdowns.

Mesmer is definitely the best option though.

Since I started out as a Mesmer, I probably can offer you some options lol. No pro, but better than nothing, right? I decided not to list interrupts as their own category since sometimes they do more than just interrupt.

- Slow down their casting time: Sum of All Fears, Frustration, Arcane Conundrum, Shared Burden. Another way to prevent somebody from casting is to chase them down, as you cannot activate spells while moving. More common in PvP, not sure if the AI would respond the same way. Not sure about how the AI takes to this, but I do know after 2-3 interrupts, they start to quiet down in NM lol.

- Disable skills, cause to fail, or not have them available for use: Blackout, Shame, Guilt, Powerblock, Complicate, Ignorance, Power Lock, Signet of Distraction, Signet of Humility, Arcane Larceny/Theivery, Diversion

- Energy denial: Depravity (necro curse), Power Leak, Tease, Signet of Weariness, Drain Delusions, Ether Phantom, Energy Burn, Spirit Shackles, Arcane Languor... not sure about Necro stuff but I think Wither and Malaise are also good for energy denial. Necros have some options too under curses. Not sure how much energy you can deny from the AI, but it might be worth a quick test... you will know if it's working or not soon probably, but I still think this isnt' a good tactic.

- Do it and face a penalty style skills: Visions of Regret, Backfire, Empathy, Overload, Power Spike, Psychic Instability, most interrupts. These skills are good in PvE since they usually have the opposite of the intended effect... instead of shutdown, they will attack or cast through them, triggering the effect. Sometimes though that can be a bad thing, you want somebody to do nothing. They will attack through empathy till death, backfire till it will kill them.

- MISC: Cry Of Frustation (earshot interrupt, any skill, staple), Wastrel's Worry (addicted to this skill, SO versatile - use to punish on shutdown or shutdown [rapid use of skills to avoid damage], draw out skills to interrupt, and it just is a nasty skill. when you see it on you, you know hell is coming), Auspicious Incantation (use it to fuel any high energy/low recharge skill), Power Return (cheap 5s recharge interrupt, doesn't really come faster than this - technically it does but it disables your other skills when you do it. gives the target energy but is used for spamming).

Mantras: This is kind of gimmicky but I'll say it anyways. There are mantras that reduce a TON of damage and give some energy even at 0 inspiration. They cover all the elemental attributes and last a reasonable amount of time (even with 0 spec), are stances (no interrupt, unlikely removal), and recharge pretty quickly. I don't play PvE that much but if you are in an area where you know you will take a lot of fire damage, maybe bringing Mantra of Flame will help by reducing there efficiency as well. There is also Physical/Elemental Resistance which give more armor and no energy, but those are risky as they reduce the armor for the other thing (take more physical armor, lose elemental armor), but like I said, if you are in a themed area with only physicals, maybe those could help too.

Oh I forgot, you are a ranger too... you have interruptions and can cause Daze as well (daze is super obvious and if not properly dealt with, fatal IMO). Don't ask me for skill names though, I think Ranger is too confusing to properly play lol. Look into interrupting yourself. I mean come on, look at punishing shot: 5s recharge, ACTIONS (you could even interrupt attacks with it). There is also a preparation that makes your arrows always interrupt when they critical.