Wastrel's Worry

Is there some big underlying use for this skill that I'm missing?

huh?? the main use for this skill is to cause panic to the player.. he'll be forced to use a skill or spell if he doesn't want to take dmg.. best comboed with backfire, distortion, shame or guilt as these spells punish the player for casting a spell and wastrel's worry punishes him for NOT casting a spell.. nasty =p

Use this skill on bosses. Hexes have a shortened duration when cast on bosses, which actually helps Wastrel's Worry as it activates faster. That's 50-60 armor-ignoring damage every 2 seconds if you can keep the energy up.

Low energy cost + Quick Casting + Quick Recharge = Spammable.

As already mentioned, it help cause panic and forces the use of a skill to remove it. Sets them up nicely for a Cry of Frustration, or other spell based interrupt (e.g. Power Spike).

I also use Wastrel's Worry as a cover hex. Throw Backfire on a caster and then Wastrel's Worry. Since Backfire is on, you don't want to interrupt and if their ally do a hex removal it'll remove the Wastrel's Worry rather than the Backfire. If the caster do cast a spell to remove Wastrel's Worry, quickly do Shatter Delusion to do some damage and then Backfire will do more damage.

It's also useful for hit and run tactics. Throw it on, say, a troll and run - while they're chasing you, they wouldn't be using a skill to remove it. After it kicks it, throw another one on and run - continue with this and it doesn't take long for them to drop.

When I play my Domination Mesmer, I never leave town without Wastrel's Worry.

You can also combo it with Soul barbs to trigger Soul barbs and spam damage not only when WWorry ends, but also when you cast it.

imo the best skill to work with WW is diversion, u cast diversion and WW, making them use a skill, if they dont use a skill, they take dmg

i would rather take dmg from WW then have diversion screw me of a skill for a minute ;(

This skill is good when you use it correctly. React the target or He/She/It suffers some dmg. Diversion, All Powers spell (leak, spike and block) , Backfire and others which can be stack with WW are good. I prefer using WW, Power block then WW again when they can't do nothing but to attack basically.

Another things, WW and Shatter Delusion don't mix. Many mesmers thought it works to end faster with shatter and do Dmg of WW AND Shatter Delusion at the same time.

I agree with Luxa - WW is good against bosses due to their half-duration of hexes. You do 50-60 armor-ignoring damage to a boss every 1.5 seconds, basically just spam WW at him as fast as you can. Because the duration is so short, very few will terminate without doing damage. If you have 45 energy you can spam ten WW in a row, and 500-600 damage in 15 seconds is quite respectable.

This also works on warriors wearing the HoD helmet, because the HoD helmet halves hex duration. It doesn't work as well as against bosses because warriors use more skills, but if you see a "bare-headed" (hiding his HoD helmet) warrior in the arena, it might be worth testing WW on him.

I'm with glountz on this. I've brought a hexing necro to arenas before, and Soul Barbs is just fun with WW. The super-spammability of WW can lead to a lot of Soul Barbs damage, not to mention the pressure on your target to use skills, which will likely result in wasted opportunities and an energy shortage.

You'd be hard pressed to make a HoH-holding build with WW, but for CA and PvE, it's quite a fun skill to use.

In actual pvp, the only real use for WW is to score some efficient damage on a target after setting him up with diversion or shame or whatnot.

The problem with Wastrel's is that you have to babysit a single target to use it effectively. Some builds are made for that. Others prefer to attempt to shutdown multiple targets at once.

One of the main reasons mesmers first pickup Wastrel's, in my experience, is that you can spend your whole pool of energy to shut down a foe and have them do nothing... Only to have them not suffer in any way other than doing nothing. For some people, that's satisfactory, as that's how they want to use their mesmers; To force targets into inactoin. Others want to not only make their target suffer inaction, they want them to fall [lose health] as well.

What works well per person per mode of play differs, so I have no comment on the validity of such a strategy.

Spamming through hex breaker.

I think it would work well with soul barbs, as it's a spammable hex, but I'm still working on my N/Me so we'll have to see how that works out.

I have to agree with Caged Fury et al. The spells low cost, low cast time, insignificant recharge and the ability to Force a spell, which you then block, or to deal damage, is always fun. Backfire - WW - Power Spike (Leak) is a good way to either hurt the caster, or make sure he loses some energy if you use Power Leak.

I like WW, it's in my build, and I can't complain.

With the prevalence of the HoD Warriors, this skill is back in vogue for PvP, even in Halls. The combination of Soul Barbs and Wastrel's is definitely cool, but one of the greatest uses I've seen for it is forcing a Blind Warrior to use up his adrenaline. He has to use a skill (to no effect) every 1 1/2 seconds or take 53+ damage. And with SB on, he takes 27+ either way (not that that's huge damage, but it adds up).

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Here's another vote for Diversion + WW. Every once and a while you can catch a monk asleep at the wheel and disable their hex removal skill. And then it's on like donkey kong.