Hello/question!

Hello, I'm new to the boards.

Welcome!

The first character I really played was my mesmer, starting off as a mesmer/warrior(because I saw the build in the pvp character creation section, and I thought I nicely dressed crazy in a mask with a sword was cool) but anyway, mesmer warrior sucked. So I was pure mesmer. After I ascended(my 2nd char to ascend, just a couple days ago) I tried Me/N. Than Me/E. Now I'm back to Me/N.

That's a good choice, you know what you're doing. You might want to look into monk and ranger secondaries aswell, just to test, monk is the only one I'd actually expect to see anyone like besides necromancer for a mesmer secondary.

So, Me/N was fun with all the constant degen, elem was fun too, but I figured it'd be best left to elementalists and their massive energy.

Yep, you got it.

Just today, I was doing Ice Caves, and there was a Me/N in my group. Seemed to be a MM, which I thought was cool, so I tried it...but lvl 14 minions diddn't seem like the best idea.

You bet, going with what your primary profession is is usually the best route to go.

Now, still Me/N, but I'm wondering: How many hexes can be applied to one target anyway? Seems they all work, but I've really never been able to tell if Phantaom Pain and Summon Phantasm stack. Much like my teammates, I cant see how much damage I'm doin either, with hexes, anyway.

Unlimited. That's really the problem with mesmers, you can't see what you're doing a lot of the time, and monsters die so quickly that using energy denial and hexes is usually a waste of your energy. Monsters die so quickly that by the time you've cast your skills on them, they're already dead.

Now, I do like my domination spells, but it would seem constant degen would be just as effective PVE as shutdowns and other such things.

Degen is definitely one of the stronger things you can do, but it's not really worth it in PVE. Some good hexes to use are ones like Clumsiness, Ineptitude, Backfire, Empathy, and a few others. You just have to see for yourself. You just don't want to be wasting your time and energy on the wrong stuff, and you'll discover this through time.

So, I guess my question is, whats the best bang for my...um, energy? Hex'm like a mofo, or shutdowns/forcing my enemies to commit suicide.

Well, unfortunately there's no right answer. Mesmers aren't meant for major damage, and you just have to look at what you can do to help out. Maybe that means using Sympathetic Visage on your warrior and Mind Wrack on all the monsters attacking him. I think you know what works and what doesn't, even though it's not always noticeable.

PVE, that is. I'm in bold up above. =)