Anyone found any use for Mind blast?

Searing Flames has AoE damage potential, but it requires Glowing Gaze and then it is still:

15+5 Energy for 10 energy back - 10 loss
Mind Blast is 5 energy for 10 back - 5 gain


So you should rather see Mind Blast as energy management, while Searing Flames is a damage elite. Most will probably prefer the AoE damage and just using Glowing Gaze in combo with burning spells. So it would seem that you could do the Searing Heat/Glowing Gaze combo every 7 seconds or so and still get the a wand shot or two in between them. Energy cost = what you're regenning, plus the background cost of Fire Attunement and Conjure Flame.

Or you could get in 3-4 Mind Blasts or Flares (similar damage between the two spells). Energy cost = what you're regenning, plus the background cost of Fire Attunement and Mark of Rodgort.

Either way, you could keep the enemy on fire pretty permanently.

That's not a precise calculation by any means (and what's the best time estimate these days for aftercast anyway? -- I was assuming about 1 second), but it seems likely that Mind Blast beat Searing Flames against a single target -- as of course it should!

Put in Lava Arrows instead of Flare, and the tradeoff against small mobs gets really interesting ...

The only thing is, no serious ele bar should include mark of rodgort or conjure flame. or flare. or lava arrows. I disagree. Ideally, you should have MORE energy than you need if you're not seriously stripped/disrupted. And something like Flare can be a good use of that extra energy.

Conversely, if you're going big-bang (extreme example: Renewal Nuking) you may have time to wand. I think. I've never had a build where wanding was important, or in which I used Conjure Flame ...

I disagree. Ideally, you should have MORE energy than you need if you're not seriously stripped/disrupted. And something like Flare can be a good use of that extra energy. There are better ways to use time as a ele than wasting it spamming flare or wanding. If you figure in the recast time of mindblast, you can be hard pressed just to fit in other spells between casts. Simply casting fireball spans that wait period easily enough. The only real problem with using mindblast would be the more energy hungry skills like rodgorts invocation and immediately following it up against a caster energy target without a focus swap. Then again, the swaps take time as well reducing overal pressure. Its a mixed bag really.