Nuker question... Me/E vs E/X (Long)

Hi

I'm new to this game (didn't participate to beta events, except from the first one E3 for everyone)

I started a character, and leveled it to 15.
Primary profession Mesmer, secondary profession Elementalist.

I love to play nuker, and I've been playing Nuker in DAoC... so I thought I'd give a shot in Guild Wars as my first character.

From reading skill pages, I thought this (Me/E) would be a powerful combo.
going to spec fully in Fire (12) and fast casting (10), and Inspiration (8)

This worked like a charm until now, against Monsters. Basic strategy was to let tanks rush in, I follow through and do massive damage with AoE (Firestorm, lava font, phoenix, etc)


Now, I do have problems...


First, since getting to high level (relatively), there appears monsters with a lot of counter to mages, such as 'backfire', 'disrupting shot/chop' etc...

so I'm wondering whether my mage is going to survive PvP, which undoubtedly will have many anti-caster builds... Especially for a pbaoe mage, it will be actually hard to even cast a spell with so many interuption options available...


Second, my mage runs out of mana VERY QUICKLY. It's true, I do have Rogue's set for increased AL vs physical damage for the cost of -1Energy each piece of armour, but... my total energy is something like 35, and in every battle, I have to wait for recharges... (I'm using mana stealing skills too!)

which leads me to think...
Maybe I should've chosen to play as an Elementalist Primary, since "Energy Storage" at level 10 (instead of fast casting) would give around +30 in energy... which would be more than enough to last a whole battle...

Would that be more efficient than having "fast casting" at 10 in terms of a "nuker"?
PBAoE wouldn't be casted as fast as a mesmer primary...
and I would lose the ability to throw infinite fireball (1/2 recharge time + fast cast + arcane echo as mesmer) provided that there's enough energy...

but I wouldn't have to wait for mana to fill up or even to mana tap someone... which is basically time lost since i'm not doing any damage while stealing mana...






So what do you all think?
any solution to mana problem to mesmer?
or as a nuker, Elementalist primary is the way to go, and my Me/E should look for another playing style?



Thanks for your advice in advance.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/nuker-id218.php

i've looked at that waayyyy before... doesn't really help me in Me/E problem in energy...

try using both elemental attunement and fire/water/air/earth attunement... thats 80% energy eneregy you will be getting back.

I say, stay with your mesemer... as long as you are not going to use alot of exhausion. Instead of changing class all over the place, make something new... think outside the box to make this character strong, and extraordinary.

one more thing... alot of Fire E have trouble in PvP as it aren't that effective... most people wear fire resistance armors + people will simply move away from 5-10 sec AoE (at most you get them for 3 sec before they move out).

Yea I was looking at a Me/Elem as well for a supreme nuker, but I don't think I could do without Energy Storage, so I decided on Elem primary. I'm sure there are Me/Elem builds that would work really awesome with fast-casting, but they're probably just not real obvious (and nuking may not even be the best role for this mix).

quoted for truth

I would suggest, looking at the skill listing. You can get a good idea of how to pair the two up. If you find you are having the most problem with warriors interrupting i would maybe up fast casting a lil more (via runes or attributes) and then take mantra of concentration when you are going to cast something for big damage and long casting time. That will let you get that off as an opener and then start laying the law down with quicker spells.

Stay with your Mesmer, the fast cast is worth it.

Don't try and out-think people too much when it comes to PvP. Yeah, some people will have anti-caster builds. There is no way to build a character strong to everything.

The best players know that sometimes you just die. It's a huge game of rock paper scissors out there. The only way to survive is to play the best rock you can, while making friends with paper and scissors and letting them cover your butt.

Quote "The best players know that sometimes you just die. It's a huge game of rock paper scissors out there. The only way to survive is to play the best rock you can, while making friends with paper and scissors and letting them cover your butt."

wow so true

Thanks for the advice, i really appreciated it

I'll stay with Me/E as a nuker since its not all that common (at least i didnt come across a lot of them yet...) and i'll try to improve it