Kokotewa's FoW mesmer build.

I made this build up several months ago, and swore myself never to reveil it. Well so much for that. The damage is insane (outdamages SS necro, ele, etc) easily. Is highly adaptable, and runs on the fly.

16 domination
13 fast casting

Energy Burn
Energy Surge
Arcane Echo
Shatter hex
Empathy
Backfire
Ressurect
Essence Bond

This build assumes alot on the playing ability of your group.
1. Your group has aggro control, if they do not your energy will suffer.
2. Your group still has aggro control, if they do not your damage will suffer.

The build is highly adaptable.
Early within FoW; it can do massive amounts of damage with the skill "shatter hex" 126 per cast to be exact. Echo surge, and use fast recovery gear to give domination skills a 40-50% chance of fast recharge (I use 50%). Cast surge to deal 80 damage to foes within the area, then cast shatter hex on the warrior dealing another 126, followed by another surge for an additional 80. This adds up to 286 so far, when shatter recharges cast it for another 126, making the total 412 which are then easily picked off by other group members. Obviously if there is more than one "hexer" (SS, life transfer, etc) present on the enamy field, echo shatter hex and kill them all in a few seconds (126x2+80+126 as there is a 75% chance of a fast recharge on one of the shatters)

As this sums up early fow, as we grow closer to the undead we have rangers which empathy triggers for each arrow shot. You may echo empathy or surge here.

At the undead, echo backfire and cast it on both skel bonds. They will drop quick as energy burns are piled on to them. After they cast spell breaker cast surge and shatter hex if you have not already to kill them.

Within forge, echo backfire and cast it on both monks. Shatter the empathy placed on the warrior and energy surge to easily conquer these groups.

After this during the cave this build suffers a small difficency. Quickly kill the opposing mesmers with a backfire as they spam Wastrel's Worry (also works for shard wolves later) Echo empathy on the spiders.

We then find more rangers duoed with several monks after this, as earlier echo backfire on both the monks. Drain one and the other will die while healing it. The rangers are brought down with empathy. Drakes are a piece of cake, echo shatter and obsidian flesh does not affect you as you bounce your nukes off the warrior. Backfire the stormrider so it can no longer heal effectivly.

To kill the beach, remove essence bond from the warrior and echo shatter hex to easily kill the beach. Backfire and use surge when needed.

At the forest area, destroy nature's renewal as fast as you can best to have a ranger do it as this will hinder the build. After the removal of renewal the forest easy.

Hope this helps
-(reason of release of this build is that with its release not only more mesmers will easily access FoW: those mesmers include me ^_^)

looks pretty solid man, nice work.

i'll have to try this when i cap Energy Surge ^_^

I use a very similiar build to this one. I agree it does a lot of dmg. Well 4 shards for me in a FoW forgemaster run today FTW!!

Echoing Shatter Hex or Backfire are great ideas that all mesmers should see. While SS is WAY more versatile, and much less conditional, when you have a nice tight group around a tank, nothing beats echoed Shatter Hex for damage.

Question for the OP: why no energy management skills? Domination can be costly, so I normally bring a couple of decent energy-gain skills so I can keep casting in long battles. I also hate the energy cost of Arcane Echo, so I normally use Echo instead of Energy Surge. Here's my FoW/SF mesmer build.

Echo
Shatter Hex
Backfire
Empathy
Power Drain
Drain Enchant
Cry of Frustration
Rebirth

Many of the core skills are the same as the OP's. There are many variations, built around the idea of echoing utility skills that will be most effective for each fight. I personally feel naked without interrupts, so I always carry a couple.

Echoed Shatter Hex is really insane damage...especially in conjunction with good aggro control or the book trick. Groups go down very fast.

I like this build especially for it's versatility. Echo lets me double whatever spell is most needed. As the OP said, echo Backfire for the 2-monk groups. Echo Shatter Hex when there are lots of hexers. Echo Empathy against those Barrage-spamming rangers and watch them kill themselves. Echo an interrupt when you need to shut down a worm, or are short on energy and need to power drain a couple of Eles to refill your energy pool. It is a great all-around build that I use in SF, FoW, and any end-game area with a good mix of enemies.

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Edit: How in the world do you get 50% chance of fast recharge? I thought I was doing good with 30% !!

I just recently made a Mesmer, this is going to be one of the first things I will try.

I really enjoy shatter hex down in FoW, some incredible aoe damage when the tank has a hex or three and aggro.

The one thing I don't like is how delicate your energy management is. Now, the tank should normally have aggro, what with the book trick or "old-fashioned" aggro control, but if essence bond somehow gets shattered (even though it stands a good chance to be under at least one other enchantment) then you will need to spend energy recasting it. You also lose one pip of regen. *shrug* That often seems to be the case though. Very powerful combos also tend to be the most easily broken in PvE.

Did you choose ressurect over rebirth so you can res in battle? Many people dislike the skill lock, but if the group ever gets a near-wipe, rebirth can get someone out of a mob-camped area. On the other hand however, you don't cast it in combat. Just a thought to consider, what about restore life instead of ressurect? You could still res in combat, but with 3 points in healing the dead guy would come back with some energy and health. Now, you would need to be in touch range, so that is a downside, but I don't think you'll be ressing someone that far out of touch range in combat anyway.

I chose ressurect for the reason that the tank can be brought back up at 25% hp if he seems to die-at a max of 3 seconds down time. He can then regrab the book and resume tanking as the monks slam him with a word of healing. As for rebirth, I would suggest another character; as ressurect is the only skill that can be cast at range, and leaves the tank where he stands. Besides, ressurect takes advantage of the mesmer's fc bonus to res on the fly during tough pinches that only the mesmer can do. To touch on restore life, the cast time is long- hardly anyone has a 60% chance for fast cast on it (for a 2sec cast) and it does require the mesmer in the way of a billion mobs that just killed the book tank-not good.

Essence bond is indeed fragile, but is the only skill that can cover the amount of energy we will be spending- ALOT of energy, droves of it. Although fragile it is the only type of energy management that can fit our needs. Otherwise we could use energy tap, drain, power drain, guilt, and shame, and we would likly still not have enough energy to meet our demands. Most importantly essbond is unlinked, and is virtually free energy at no point investment.

Cool I have to try it