Plague of Chaos Mesmer Build

I decided I'd torture myself again and go over the Factions skills to see if I could figure out any builds. I checked the new Necromancer skills and this just came to me as I read about discord. I figured this could go for either Mesmer or Necromancer, so here it is.

Fast Casting: 7 and up
Illusion Magic: As high as it can go
Death Magic: As high as it can go

Mantra of Persistence
Accumulated Pain
Illusion of Pain
Phantom Pain
Drain Enchantment
Rising Bile
Rotting Flesh
Discord (Elite)

Start of with Mantra of Persistence. Cast Illusion of Pain then Fragility and Phantom Pain, thus giving Illusion of Pain some protection from Hex removal. After that, cast Rising Bile and then Accumulated Pain. This will put on Deep Wound, whereupon you can use the spammy goodness of Discord to continually deal damage while the opponent suffers massive degen from Illusion of Pain and Phantom Pain. You can throw in Rising Bile for that last bit of surprise spike damage and Rotting Flesh to prepare any nearby opponents for when you turn on them. Rising Bile can be replaced by Resurrection Signet if you want some rez. Suggestions? Once again, ways to add in Energy recovery would be appreciated.

Unfortunately, Illusion of Pain will end before you pull that combo off, giving them a free 200 health. Fragility's damage is also far too little to be of use.

How do you figure that? With Mantra of Persistence it will last for a good 20 seconds. By the end of it, without removal it will cause, if I did my math right, 400 points of damage, subtract 200 for the gain and you still have a net loss of 200. I just checked Guildwiki and the recharge time is 5 seconds, so it would be quite easy to maintain Illusion of Pain on the target. Combine that with the constant spamming of discord with its 63 damage, 1 second casting time, 2 second recharge time and 5 Energy cost, and it could potentially work. Yes, there is always the potential for premature Hex removal, but if memory serves, the vast majority of the skills that can remove multiple Hexes at once are Elite. If you're a Mesmer, there are better ways to spend your Elite slot and if you're a Monk, then there's DEFINITELY better ways to spend your Elite Slot. If Deep Wound from Accumulated Pain is removed, well, that's what the end of Phantom Pain and Rotting Flesh are for. Perhaps removing Fragility and putting in a way to remove the inevitable Healing Breeze like Drain Enchantment would make this build a bit better. Any other suggestions?

Out of interest what is Discord? :S

Is it Virulence renamed for no reason what-so-ever?

Oh and just as a guess if you recast Illusion of Pain, wont it class it as it 'ended' and give them a free 200 health for no helpful reason? Otherwise you could just keep it on them for 16-18 seconds and recast it for a constant -10 degen...

Discord deals damage for 5 cost, 1 cast, and 2 recharge, a fairly decent amount for the price (I think it scales up to 71-79, something like that), but only if the foe is suffering from a condition and then is either enchanted or under a hex.

Sounds like a more specific and more spammable version of Wastrels Worry.

Yeah, I just realised that Mantra of Persistence actually lowers the amount that you heal. So, not bad, though degen Mesmers, in my experience, are much too easy to counter, especially with the likes of Expel Hexes now.

While I did not test it, if you reapply illusion of pain it may consider that an end to the skill and then a start again (much like the elementalist skill ether prodigy) and so heal them. If that is the case, spammability matters only if you plan on jumping to different targets.

If you re-cast Illusion of Pain when the first is nearing its end, the amount they would be healed would be lessened. The main reason I would cast it on them again before the first one ran out would be to keep it in its original position covered by other Hexes so it can't be as easily removed. Also, in regard to the Expel Hexes spell, it's an Elite Skill, and I could honestly think of a few other Elite Skills I'd pick over Expel Hexes like Power Block or Ineptitude. Purge Conditions might be a threat which is why I included Rotting Flesh to put the Diseased condition on them and anyone else that got close to them if they did use it to remove the Deep Wound.

I wouldn't use Desease. It's a risky condition to use in PvP. Unless you are Tainting everyone or plan on spamming Heal Party, swipe it for something more... controllable. That Persistance Mantra isn't going to be of much use with 0 points in Inspiration... You can probably replace it with some nrg management skill. Opt for cheaper more effective hexes/conditions. (IoR for example) Other than that it looks alrite.

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