I've played only PvE, so my suggestions are for it
1.- Chaos storm. Even in the conditions you're saying it's not worth a slot for that. You could use, f.ex Cry of frustration on just one of them to interrupt the whole group of casters, and that, to interrupt them, is more important than the dmg or the small loss of energy
2,3.- Energy burn, energy surge. Yeah, used it a lot in the whole game (energy burn), finished it, and find it useless now.
4.- Shatter hex . I find it a must, but well, it depends on what do you want to do.
5.-a,b good ones c .- ?????. Throw it d.- good if you want to use your Elite for anything else and still want echo, beware the high cost.
6.- Uber for killing any tough caster
). But, at such a high cost, not very echoable. (35 energy cost with echo and 45 for Archane echo if want to cast 2 backfires ).
7.- emphaty.
30 dmg everytime they attack seem nice, if they attack often ( Charr's f.ex ) , don't do great dmg and don't have big hp, but further in the game the foes have more health , attack not that often but do more dmg per attack.
You want to do loads of dmg, but for that is better you go for a fragility or such premade build. Take a look at the forums and you'll find several examples for that.
Agree with White Design here. Mesmers have IMO too focused skills, and a far too short skillbar to spread it trough all what a Mesmer can do. Ask yourself what do you want to do and fit your skillbar acordingly.
Not very Constructive i know, but even with a 750K exp Mesmer i'm still learning how to use it efectively.
I'll trow here one of the builds i use in FOW,just as example
Backfire, arcane conundrum,Cry of frustration,Power Leak, Clumsiness, Shatter hex, Echo,Signet
Conditions of this build (THIS is important, and thats why i made this build this way)
fow has short fights and many casters. This is mainly an anti-caster build, but with echo + Clumnsiness can be also usefull agains warriors or melee fighters (160 dmg + 2 interrupted attacks). The bad side of this build is that has no energy management, so if battle goes long you'll have troubles. Have maxed Dom and Ill.
This build can be critisized, but the idea is that you cannot have a "All using" build, but have to adapt to the situations your'e facing.
Just my 2 cents
)
