First Time Mesmer working Dom vs Ill for PvE

Hi. First time Mesmer here, trying to ascend, cap elites and have fun in Cantha and Tyria. (Tyria based btw)

Only level 15 Me/N right now, mostly due to leveling done outside of the Marketplace using the easy 3000xp quests. Now I want to run through the desert, ascend and start capping my elites. Doing my homework, I've scratched out a Domination Build and an Illusion Build I hope to run in PvE PUGs and with henchies. Please help, as I don't have a ton of time to test them, due to running around trying to get the right collector weapons, get places, etc.

Domination - A do everything damage build, when it's never advisable to do everything...
Backfire - For the casters (Damage)
Empathy - For the fighters (Damage)
Wastrel's Worry - For everything - did wonders on a worm I ran into once (Damage)
Power Drain - Interrupt (energy mgmt)
Power Spike - Interrupt (Damage)
Diversion - Just a cool spell (Anti-caster)
Ether feast - Never know what you get with the monk (Self-Heal, sortof)
RezSig

What I like about it (in principle) - I can do damage over time, and all PvE foes fight/cast through the pain. I can interupt the messy stuff.
What I don't like - Only one e-managment skill. Long cast times on the main damage spells requires points to be spread between dom, insp and fc. (not lvl 20 yet...)

Illusion - Degen Build
Mantra of Persistence - If I'm going to be casting hexes, might as well max them out.
Images of Remorse - Cheap hex
Ancestor's Visage - Good e/adr denial, and I need a second hex
Accumulated Pain - Damage plus deep wound
Auspicious Incantations - Not getting much love on the boards, but I have a plan for this e-management skill
Conjure Nightmare - also a largely disliked skill, because of the high energy
Power Drain - My favorite eManagement + Interrupt
Illusion of Weakness - Self Heal enchantment

What I like about it (again, in principle) - Can spread hexes and conditions to foes really softening them up. The idea is to start with Persistence, cast IoR and Anc Visage on one person, followed by Acc Pain. Hit Auspicious Incantations followed by Nightmare on a new foe, for -8 health degen and an instant 40 or so energy. Not bad. Go back to the IoR, AV, AP combo on a new person with Power Drain used as much as possible to interrupt and get the energy.
What I don't like - Obviously no rez, at the expense of the Illusions of Weakness emergency self heal. This build just doesn't have enough spaces...

Since I am on my 4th day as a Mesmer I welcome all comments. Once I get to fire islands, Mantra of Fire will be in place of all self heals. It's pretty easy to get all of these skills, especially with a 4k run from Ascalon to Sanctum Cay.

Some comments:

Domination - Drop Wastrel's Worry, it's a nice spell in very specific situations (like wurms, as you said, since hexes/conditions last 1/2 as long on them), but against regular mobs, which is what you'll be facing most of the time, WW just isn't worth it. I suggest bringing Shatter Hex instead, since you plan on doing some damage.

Diversion, again, has a very specific use - that is to shut down a single target. In most situations, your team will be up against multiple mobs, where disabling one or two skills from one mob is next to useless. Leave Diversion for Monk bosses later in the game.

Ether Feast, consider swapping this out for Inspired Hex, Drain Enchantment or Energy Tap for energy management (or an elite e-management skill when you get one).


Illusion - The big issue here is that Ancestor's Visage (or Sympathetic Visage) isn't a hex, it's an enchantment you cast on an ally. Whenever a mob strikes that ally in melee, every mob beside that ally will lose all adrenaline and three energy. That being said, I don't recommend bringing this as it's Shatter-bait (free 100 damage for any enemies carrying Shatter Enchantment), and plus, if you're in a PUG, chances are that the enemies will be all over your team rather than focused on one target...

Energy management may be a problem if you're using Mantra of Persistance + Conjure Nightmare. MoP is costly - 15 energy every 30 seconds meaning you'll only have a little more than 2 pips regen if you maintain MoP. In PvE, I don't recommend it simply because mobs die too quickly for MoP to be effective.

CN, as you mentioned, is disliked because of its energy cost. You more or less have to make a build around CN to use it effectively (i.e. spamming it). If you're going degen, I suggest Conjure Phantasm instead, as it's a cheap, easily spammable skill.

The recharge of Accumulated Pain is what kills it for me. The damage is pretty poor also, and Deep Wound is perhaps better acheived with Phantom Pain (which fits in with your degen build nicely).

To be honest I have no idea how to use Auspicious Incantation. It sounds likea gimmicky skill for gimmicky builds, and it doesn't quite fit into your one. Drop this for Res.

Again, like your Domination build, you should consider swapping your self-heal (IoW in this case) for some additional energy management.

I will stand by WW...but only in fow. A fist full of interrupts, shatter enchantments, shatter hexes, and other such skills and this skill becomes...very powerful.
On a seperate note, I am on a conquest to kill any degen/fastcastnukers that I see in game

just for all those wondering =p

You'd be suprised what a little degen can do .. ok, a lot of degen, to the effect of -10 plus whatever else you can throw on the monster. Works especially well on a monk who can't heal through it, healing breeze isn't that effective against that much degen. That said, my Cantha skills aren't pure degen.

I ran domination through prophecies, (with wastrels as boss killer) and discovering illusion and its usefulness against everything that attacks (assassins/marksmen)

Ineptitude {e} if you have it
clumsiness
images of remorse

that will take care of 90% of anythingn you come up against in cantha, bosses need a little more

illusion of pain - careful with that one
accumulated pain

drain enchant or interupt of some type is useful, as is energy tap for me as my energy management is poor... I like spamming spells.

As for your domination build, see if you can put shatter hex into it, and trust your monks to keep you alive. They no longer feel that a mesmer isn't worth their time healing.

For your illusion build you might consider switching to Me/E. I typically run it for Glyph of Renewal, but for you glyph of lesser energy might have some use with conjure nightmare.

Must kill degen build...

Ok, I soo should read the opening post. Tyrias bosses drop like flies with wastrels (and your henchies will keep you alive just about long enough to drop one boss).

The domination build you have there should see you through the desert, though I would still exchange shatter hex for backfire, especially in shiverpeak area when going up against things like ice imps which do hex your warrior.

Drain enchant is nice if you're up against a certain mursat monk boss... just try to have the 10 energy left to get rid of her elite when the time comes and keep wastrels on her.

Good luck with it all

*edit: Eaimirth Etaivella, it's not that bad. I had the same opinion on degen builts until quite recently (2 days after factions came out) and I was stuck looking at the illusion line. One on one, you should be able to take down a illusion mesmer with a domination mesmer, but then, cantha doesn't have many domination mesmers and the majority of what's in the city is non-caster.

Well, backfire and empathy are going to be your two most frequently most skills in the game. I wouldn't take power leak, power spike is much better in PvE. Hmmm... got Guilt? I'm sure that's a good defensive spell + e-management.

For illusion, I see what you're trying to do, Cast nigtmare with auspicious incantation, that's a nice combo, but 25 gain of energy (at least... I forgot percentage of auspicious) is a lot of energy, so try and use nightmare when you have just over 25 energy, to get the added gain.

Ancestors visage should be casted on warriors, for your build, you should stay as far away from melee attackers as you can. As someone pointed out, this is an enchantment.

Good luck with your adventures^^

Thanksgramps,

You said you were a level 15 Me/N. Are you going only Mesmer? The necro can be your very best friend.

You have fast casting, and illusion + the ability to inflict conditions with damage.

The necro has a few damaging spells with the ability to steal life from target foe or from foe's enchantments. The necro has the ability also to inflict damage while giving yourself conditions. The use of Feavered Dreams (elite) or fragility (illusion), you can damage adjacent foes, then use Condition transfer spells (from necro) and then do more damage and give conditions. You can also make yourself immune to disease (necro elite) but if anyone touches you (foes), then they get diseased, and then cast chaos storm around you. That will cause AoE to kickin and make them scatter. The scattering will make them touch other enemies so they can become diseased. Thanks to Fragility, that will incure even more damage.

You are not limited to only your primary profession, so have fun with the combination of the two. Empathy + Enfeeble + insidious parasite will cause more damage to foes and more healing for you.

I have a N/Me, so I know how to use this combination well. Beating the doppleganger was really easy.

As far as skills go? WW is great vs bosses and wurms. It doesn't work too well vs others though.

I don't know enough about Faction skills to comment on what is good or bad or what goes well with what unfortunately.

But hope this helps you out.

Just go interrupts like the Domination Hench. I rlly don't like doing PvE with my Mesmer- I feel it's somehow limiting.

Here is an all purpose PvE build in part, which focuses on the Illusion line.

Ineptitude {E} - captured in Tyria: Southern Shiverpeaks, Mineral Springs.
Clumsiness
Images of Remorse
Conjure Phantasm
Accumulated Pain
Distortion

Put 16 in Illusion, and the rest in Fast Casting. Ineptitude+Clumsiness is famous for annihilating fighter-types, and for 15 energy you can quickly put -9 health degen on an enemy with IoR and Phantasm (which notably renders Conjure Nightmare as obselete). If you need additional firepower, put Accumulated Pain on an enemy after hitting them with IoR+Phantasm to inflict Deep Wound. That is a great help against annoying heal-spamming Monks. Check out some of the other Illusion spells, depending on the situation they may be of use. Illusion of Pain is one to consider, it's great when needing those few final blows to finish of an enemy.

Illusion has become much more fun to play with the release of the new Factions skills, and I highly recommend it. Talous' Staff (green) is a great weapon to use with this build, but it's obtained considerably far into the game. So look and see if anyone's selling them; my guess would be that you'll have to pay 5-15k.

Does anyone know if you can cap Ineptitude somewhere in Cantha? My degen Mes/Nec is Canthan and I sort of don't feel like trekking alllll the way up to Mineral Springs from Lion's Arch :P

I'm having lots of fun with the Illusion line, by the way, much more fun than I ever had with the Domination line when I still had my Tyria mes (whom I deleted and recreated as a Canthan mes). At the moment, I'm using Conjure Phantasm, Images of Remorse, Accumulated Pain (here, have mass degen and a deep wound. See ya!), Enfeebling Blood/Faintheartedness, Drain Enchantment, Power Drain, Signet of Disruption and a rez. I find myself tearing through most PvE areas with this build. Playing a Mesmer has never been more fun.

I believe the purpose of any character is to kill the enamy as quickly and efficient as poosible. This is for two reasons, 1. you can better spend your time on another enamy, and 2. that enamy cannot spend his time on you.

Illusion magic well...to best account for its damage requieres mantra of persistence. If the target you are facing is not going to be dead within 40 seconds...well illusion magic is a great skill set. I just cannot think of a place where anything won't be dead by that time.

Not to mention conjure phantasm has given most mesmers a bad name.

Ineptitude
Clumsiness
Images of Remorse
Phantom Pain
Power Drain
Leech Sig
Cry of Frustration
Inspired Hex
Rebirth

Is what I have been running for a very long time

Images of remorse is a factions skill though...