Critique My Build thread: Mesmer PvE (FoW) build (Somewhat long)

This build is the result of tweaking my PvE skillset after 3-4 trips to the Fissure of Woe. I feel pretty good with what I ended up with, but I'm interested in having the feedback of fellow mesmers, since I know approximately 0 people who play them as their primary character.

I stuck explainations for each skills I chose, though I didn't bother with explainations for equipment/stat distribution. If you want more information on that, I'd be glad to edit it in later.

Mesmer/Monk (No monk skills used)

Stat Distribution:

Fast Casting: 7 (6+1, from minor rune)
Illusion Magic: 1 (+1, from minor rune)
Domination Magic: 16 (12+4, from superior rune + dom mask)
Inspiration Magic: 12 (11+1, from minor rune)
Protection: 2

2 Attribute Points left.

Equipment:

Crystal Desert Collector Domination Cane + Chakram
Enchanter's Set of armor with above runes, + Major Vigor

Skill Selection:

Echo (Elite) (Domination):
Allows user to copy previously used skill.

I ended up building a lot around this skill. This skill is useful in a lot of situations: it's kind of a "floating" skill spot for those times you need an extra Empathy, Backfire, Shatter Enchantment, or even an extra interrupt. I love this skill.

I decided to use this version instead of Arcane Echo for energy management reasons (Obviously). The appeal of using two Backfires is greatly reduced when it costs you your entire energy pool.

Empathy (Domination):
At 16, it has 21 second duration for 31 damage per hit.

This is a no brainer for me. It's a bread and butter Mesmer Hex, IMO, and it really belongs in almost every PvE Mesmer Build.

Backfire (Domination):
At 16, it has 10 second duration for 147 damage per hit.

Same as Empathy. Bread and Butter Hex, one of the best (if not the best, period) anticaster skills, especially in PvE. In my opinion, of course.

Inspired Enchantment (Inspiration):
At 12, caster gains 13 energy, replaced with enchantment removed.

From suggestion below: Will see how it works.

Power Spike (Domination):
At 16, interrupt deals 107 damage to caster.

My favorite interrupt. Stop a heal and deal damage instead, for a good price. Or, stop that nasty high damage, hexing, cursing spell and make the mob pay a price for trying it.

Power Leak (Domination):
At 16, interrupt drains 26 energy from caster.

Great Anti-Monk skill. Can slow down a monk's healing pretty quick.

With the last two interrupts, I thought about tossing one out in favor of Power Drain, which recovers energy for me. In my experience, however, I'm never THAT desperate for energy.

Chaos Storm (Domination):
At 16, 15 damage per second, drains 7 energy while casting .

I'm skeptical about this suggestion, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Rebirth (Protection):
Skills for the ressurected player are disabled for 9 seconds.

I see the merit in this suggestion, but I might need to dump some more points here from somewhere to lower that disable time.


I know this post was rediculously long, thanks for reading if you got this far. So... thoughts?

Bump. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I would really appreciate some feedback, even if it's an "I don't know what to say" bit of feedback.

I like it! It's a pretty good build. Most of your spells cast fairly quickly anyways, so fast casting isn't too necessary.

The one spell I'd consider putting in instead of Distortion is Rebirth. I know it rarely happens, but there have been times when I as the mesmer was the last one standing. It's also good for mid-melee ressing when you are low on energy and you know the monks are having a hard time. Rebirth allows you to stay away from the fray and get someone up. I'd just make sure I didn't have 40 energy left when I used it... a an echo'd chaos storm can do wonders (see below) just before ressing that guy who will be able to rejoin the good fight soon.

As far as Drain Enchantment... Meh. Go with Inspired Enchantment. You still get energy from stripping it, but you also STEAL it for 20 seconds. In the Hell's Precipice misssion, I never went without Aura of the Lich on me, which was pretty cool.

It seems Ignorance was kind of thrown in there for lack of a better spell... Once all the casters are dead, warriors aren't too hard to take out. Chaos Storm would be a great addition to this build, as it does some pretty decent damage and drains those pesky casters of energy. I usually play anti-caster since so many other classes are more adept at taking out tanks.

I'd put all your points from Illusion into Fast Casting (with the leftovers in Healing) and use Restore Life instead of Distortion.

Drake: I never noticed that Inspired Enchantment also gives energy. Doh! Definitely gonna switch that one.

As far as Chaos Storm, I always felt that it was a skill that tried to do too much - doesn't drain energy that fast, doesn't do too much damage. I'll try it next time and see how it does, though. If that fails, I'll keep an eye out for something better to replace ignorance. Arcane Conundrum comes to mind.

Clam: Now that Distortion is out, and with no Illusion skills for now, I'm definitely removing all my illusion points. I'll probably dump some into inspiration so I'm at least getting a little bit back on my inspired enchantment, then the rest into Fast Cast. Anything left over will go to lowering the skill disable time on Rebirth.

I'll post an update tonight on how things go with the tweaked-again build.

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This is a pretty good one. I may have to steal it. With your permission, of course.

What's wrong with Rebirth? More than a few times, someone's ressed me while the five mobs who killed me in the first place are standing over my corpse and happy to tear me a new one again. Say hello to 15% more Death Penalty. Getting someone OUT of combat so they can heal/reactivate their skills is a great idea.

Tried the build modifications with a last minute switchout of rebirth for restore life. Was not happy with the results. As Pippy said above, there's no point in ressing folks in the middle of packs, which basically reduces the spell to monks/casters outside of the battle (which didn't happen, once) and after battle res.

Inspired Enchantment was beautiful. Much better than before!

Chaos Storm's weaknesses were made apparent within the first few fights. Very little damage, the energy drain had little to no effect on mob's casting rates down there. I felt like a wannabe elementalist in those first few fights. After I stopped using it, my effectiveness immediately went up.

Now I'm left with a decision: I'm going to keep rebirth so I have a useful res, but I need to replace the skill in the 7th slot, Chaos Storm. Thoughts?

hey guys, i was just browsing the forums, and i noticed this has been dead for more than a year , but back to the point, i have a suggestion for replacing chaos storm. Ether Feast!! you have everything in this build from dmg to energy degen to interuption, but not healing of yourself. and with 12 insiration, why waste it all on one skill? Even if you don't like the way it sounds, I think you should try it out ( i would but my mes is currently lvl 3 xD).
Even if you dont like it, Great job on this build, im gonna go try to lvl my mes xD.

this has the same problem as almost every other mesmer build ive seen: It would work better on a E/Me or a N/Me.

having a primary attribute is ftw.


Edit: why didnt i notice it was a necro thread? now i feel dumb

Quote:

Power drain instead of power leak. Monsters essentially have unlimited energy (or more than they'll ever use), so getting rid of monster energy isn't an issue.