Me/N Black & Blind

Fast Casting 10
Domination 16
Illusion 4
Inspiration 10

Skills:
1. Empathy - 31 damage per swing
2. Spirit of Failure - 25% chance to miss, 4 energy gain per miss
3. Wastrel's Worry - 68 damage after 3 secs if no skill is used
4. Signet of Midnight - touched foe and I are both blind for 15 secs
5. Plague Touch - transfer a condition from me to touched foe
6. Blackout - touched foe and I cannot use skills for a time (7 secs for him, 5 secs for me)
7. Distortion - 75% chance to evade, -2 energy per evaded attack
8. Res Sig - self explanatory

I used this build a bunch of times in the Competition Arenas and it seemed to do what I wanted it to do for the most part: take 2-3 foes out of the battle for a while. The one drawback I have found is that most of my skills are touch range, so I have a little trouble against a ranger who focuses on me.

As the warriors charge at my group and me, I cast Empathy and Spirit of Failure on one of them, usually the one charging at me. When he gets to me, I use Sig of Midnight to blind him. If he ignores the blind and keeps swinging, I get 4 energy every time he swings because of SoF. If he or someone else cures the blind, I start Distortion and get a net gain of 2 energy per swing. All the while he's taking 31 damage per swing since he has Empathy on him. If there is another melee attacker somewhat near me, I Plague Touch him to get rid of the blind on me. If there is no other melee'er, I Plague Touch the original target of Sig of Midnight. Then I seek out a caster, usually a monk or monk secondary. I get into touch range, cast Wastrel's and then quickly Blackout and wand/evade the enemy until I get my skills back. From there on out, its a sort of ad hoc strategy. I blind who needs blinding, recast SoF and Empathy as necessary, and try to keep Blackout on one enemy when I can.

As I said, my one peeve with this build is rangers. I have a hard time getting close enough to them for Sig of Midnight or Plague Touch without taking massive damage or losing lots of energy (from Distortion). I would also like to find a way to weasel Diversion into this skill set so I can divert the inevitable Mend Ailments that will get rid of blind.

Critiques? Comments? Suggestions?

Replace plague touch with plague sending maybe? Signet the war and then send the blind on you to the ranger. Evil!

Not a bad idea gimpy. Should I be concerned with the 10% health loss from plague sending though? I have no self heal, only ways to prevent people from landing attacks/using skills. I'll play around with it and see what happens.

Not a bad build if I do say so myself. Shut out the warriors or rangers to blackout the casters.

Staying in touch range sounds dangerous as heck though.

It is dangerous, but the aim of the build is to de-fang those who would hurt me while in touch range. I really have a problem with those teams who have lots of condition removal, which is not a lot in the Competition Arenas.

EDIT: Also, those warriors will be coming at me and end up in touch range anyway, so might as well have them play into my hands, right?