Just a note to say I read tons of info on this and none of it worked. I tried every strategy that was suggested on the forum and found most of the info useless.
In the end, I think it was just luck that finally got me through. I had tried this particular build several times and it hadn't worked. Not sure why it finally did.
I made it through using backfire and empathy with max domination and fast casting. I had no other skills equiped and made sure my weapon was one that required domination magic to make sure that when I could fire, I was doind optimum damage.
Problems - I would appear in the hall with the computer already casting backfire on me. The only way I could ever get a spell off before the double was to use a 1/4 disrupt. Of course then that was used on me. After multiple failures, abandoned disrupt approach. BTW, I have high speed internet w 3meg download, dual 3 gig processors, 2 gigs ram and a smoking video card, so dont even think about trying to say it was connection or computer problems.
- went in with just backfire. Didn't stop him from firing at me. He just kept shooting knocking me down way more than the damage he was taking. Backfire alone does not work.
- Empathy with and without a second spell didn't work. Tried that several times. If there were no other spells, he wouldn't cast anything and just attack. Not sure what type of bow he was using, but he could kill me in just under 15 seconds no matter what I did. Was wearing Rouges armor for max physical protection and tried using Elemental Resistance a few times to see if that would help. Not much change.
Tried a variety of different strategies using one or two spells in combination to test how they worked. In every situation, the computer took substantially less damage than I did. When I did get through, I was down to 10hp and the DG was up over one third his total health. Not sure why I got through, but my conclusion is that the people who post their suggestions are full of crap, or that one of the recent updates to the game has substantially changed the mesmer double battle. Either way, the double battle was pointless and should be dropped from the game scenario. Where the rest of the game seems to be geared to promote teamwork and strategy, this section did nothing more than make me question the capabilites and mental status of the game designers and programmers.
Just my thoughts....
Z

