Mesmers in HM: Blackout essential?

[eversilentone]

I've been reading around Mesmers' experiences of HM and it seems that B/O is often used, especially for shutting down monks. I wondered if people could give me a bit of a written tutorial on how to effectively use B/O? It's just that even with MoR it seems like I may as well have only those two skills, empathy and a res (leading with empathy then spamming B/O).

Any help people can give would be greatly appreciated. I did think I sucked at PvE until I started trying to do HM with heroes :s

ESO

[Asbjornsalech]

Nah i tried to Vanquish Eastern frontier and well using a blackout (15 DOM) should last 6 secs it lastet 3 i even tried Power Block but it lastet onlyhalf the time 7.5 secs

But empathy and Backfire is so awesome because of the faster attack/casting they do

[Sectus]

I've never used Blackout in HM so it certainly isn't required for the majority of areas.

I have to repeat what the above poster said. Empathy and backfire becomes godlike in HM with how fast the enemies attack and cast.

[Giggles]

The only skill / elite I found that I have been taking almost constantly in hard mode excursions is MoR. The bad guys all do things really fast there, so having the rapid recharge that MoR gives, I find really helps.

[jciardha]

Diversion rarely leaves my skillbar when in HM, however, when using it, pick your targets carefully. For example, when going up against the Jade Brotherhood in HM, I try to drop it on Jade Brotherhood mesmers first, because they will always respond to it with Expel Hexes on themselves, leaving the rest of the party free to hex away without having to worry about the enemy mob removing them. Drop it on skill spammers, such as RoF monks, barrage rangers, etc.

Diversion's effect always seems to last the full amount of time on a target, from my perspective. Most mobs move and cast too fast to make carrying an interrupt bar worthwhile, and I agree that Power Block seems to have a shorter duration in HM, but I don't seem to have that problem with Diversion.