dominatoin Mesmer

Why use any elite but Power Block for a Domination build?

Also, since you can't do much besides anti-caster you had might as well carry Warstel's Worry (which I believe spell's don't remove) to get a few extra hits in. Might work a little better than Mind Wrack.

Shame or Guilt is a good compromise:
Steals energy and interrupts a spell. Doesn't give you much extra (14-15 at most with high domination, and the spell costs 10), but it helps forward energy denial, helps fuel you if only slightly, and still interrupts or stops a person from casting for a bit. When it wears off after 10-11 seconds, your other energy denial skills will hopefully be ready to use again.

As for the build itself, no time to comment really.

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It depends on your team. If you are well protected by warriors and monks in your squad, then you do have a specialty job. Backfire one caster and interrupt a 2nd as he casts, laying down Mind Wrack when he's near zero energy. Even if he stops casting, you have helped your team.

However, in arenas or on average teams, you may have some defensive troubles. You are completely vulnerable to several offenses, like Ranger Arrows and melee warrior madness.

If they attack with conditions like poison, bleed and/or deep wound, you have absolutely no protection from death if your friends don't help. As a matter of fact, if you miss interrupting a cast, hexes and conditions from another Mes or a Necro will eat at you too. If you can accept that risk (all builds have risks), then keep at it.

Still, you may want to trade in one interrupt (Power Spike maybe) at least for some kind of defense. To defend against one of the ones above, you can look for any kind of anti-warrior/Ranger or anti hex or conditions. Necros, rather than Mesmers are anti conditions, so to be anti-hex with a Dom/Insp build you have a few choices.

I say consider Inspired Hex for being cheap (5E) and easy to recast whild netting you energy (but Illusion is low, so don't expect much from recast). A big negative is you can't re-use it for a long time once you snag a spell.

Shattered Hex for you would be perfect if not for the high cost of 15E. You don't have any other high costs, but you are planning to constantly cast for Mind Wrack pain, so you will be low.

Still, you get an awesomely powerful skill, allowing your build to do 148 damage to ALL nearby enemies if you are Hexes (run in and cast). It recharges decently, and it allows you to be of some kind of help to your team, as you are now a solo caster-hunter and nothing else. Use it on your hexed warrior buddy who's knee deep in melee and he will thank you for the mega-damage. Simply look for pink down arrows on your team bar.

There are quite a few anti-melee stuff in Illusions, not Domination. You may want Spirit Shackles in Inspiration as it gives the overall best results IMHO, and helps your team when you are focused on a caster. You will want to run from Warriors and Rangers with this build, so also consider the expensive 15E of Imagined burden. Even with no Illusion points, you get 8 seconds to kite away.

I do think you can benefit from energy grabbing, but it may be tougher than you think (explained below). Power Drain may still be useful if you got rid of Power Spike. You get twice as much energy for a lower cast time, and you have made the opponent lose the energy from their skill attempt. You do, of course want energy, but you are left to get it by waiting. It's your call.

The big thing to consider with a Mind Wrack build is that unfortunately, like no other strategy in Guild Wars, you are blindly making decisions with little info to go on. Everyone else gets stats, info bars, colored symbols, visual effects.... SOMETHING to tell you that your strat is successding. Mind Wrack? You're on your own.

You can only do mega damage with energy burn and energy surge IF they actually have the 10 units of energy that you are dispelling. They have to be used early before Mind Wrack is cast or damage is low. Once you know they are low (their casts, and your dual Energy zappers), guess when to get Mind Wrack to work, and deliver a final hit with Power Drain. This is why Energy Drain may offer a few issues if you choose it... there may be no energy to drain!

If it worked, cast Mind Wrack again, wait at least three seconds for their slight recharge (check for Shatter Hex use elsewhere?) and then use your Signet of Weariness to connect MW again. Two times is realistically what you may expect in a sequence since they will stop casting and run until near full E. Chase them and punish with your Energy zaps after they have recharged for some more painful damage.

I'm not clear on one thing thatI hope to learn with my Mesmer. I know that if I use my +27E -1 regen focus item, if I use up all my energy and switch to a +10E focus item, my actual energy is at -13 (showing 0) and nees to recharge to positive numbers before it show anything. Can you zap a person to -x energy well below zero as well? If so, can you spam Mind Wrack every 5 seconds (or more with Echo!) while they are trying to reach 0? I will test it tonight if I can.

LMAO ... if that DOEs in fact work .. come back and tell me please!!

No, it doesn't. MW must be on them when they hit zero to do anything. I'm starting to not care for MW.

Mind wrack I find to be very overrated in PVP, much like backfire. Draining energy, however, is not. It's one of the most general yet effective things a mesmer can do. Energy draining can cripple a caster, healer, warrior or ranger. Of course, it will be more effective on some people more than others.

Of course, you will be vulnerable. But that's what your team is for. One thing I think every mesmer should take into a battle is hex breaker. It has very little E cost, a short recharge, and can save you many times throughout a battle. It's like a mini interrupt. The enemy caster doesn't get their spell off, and they get hurt.

Defense against warriors and rangers is a bit harder. If you're focusing on stopping a caster, that's your weakness right there. Every build has a weakness in this game; it's that balanced. The best you can do is bring a skill like signet of midnight that causes blindness. One of my friends who also plays a mesmer went warrior secondary, put his extra points into tactics, and brings along Watch Yourself for emergency situations. Of course, it's not the most effective solution, but that's just to show you that people make up their own builds all the time.

So for PVP, in my opinion you should drop out backfire first. You have no quick hexes to cast over it, so it will be dispelled nearly instantly by a good team. Secondly, drop mind wrack. It just isn't worth the trouble it takes. You don't want to focus on getting that to go off instead of just draining the energy or interrupting.

Instead of Mind Wrack, I would take Wastrel's Worry. Once you've drained their energy, slap that on them. You're much more likely to have someone not be able to cast a spell for 3 seconds. If they do cast one, slap it on again with such a short recharge time. Most likely they'll either be too low to cast another spell, or their small cast one will be recharging. You'd be surprised too how many people don't notice that it's on them and just take the damage. Sure, it's only about ~60ish damage, but every little bit counts.

Secondly, I would take empathy. You have no anti-fighter skills at all besides energy draining. Throw on an empathy, then keep wastrel's worry on a tank, and he's going to have to hurt himself one way or the other. If he uses a remove hex, it takes away WW and leaves him with empathy. If he uses a skill, he's going to need to hit first to gain adrenaline. And with all of the energy draining/interruption skills you have there should be no way a W/Mo can remove the condition.

Lastly, for the sake of your build I would take energy drain over mind surge. It isn't often in PvP you'll find a big group together that will warrant using surge. And you'll drain/gain much more energy using energy drain. If you want to keep it, though, replace power drain with energy tap like you were thinking about doing. You need some way to get energy back. If you mistime the interruptions or something, you'll be in trouble.

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