After the Mesmer update in April, a surge of interest in this previously rarely-taken-seriously profession occurred. The build we arrived at (A few of us had this idea when we saw the skill Aneurysm, but never really thought it would be viable) has the dual purpose of regular minor and occasional major damage and locking the enemy out of energy-based skills. A pair of these can keep a target completely out of energy for an indefinite period. This is helpful when dealing with those boss type foes with oodles of health, that cannot be killed swiftly.
The basics of the Skill Bar:
Energy Surge (Elite) - Burns energy out of a single target, does AoE damage relative to energy burned out.
Mind Wrack - Hex spell, causes your non-hexes targeting that foe to drain 1 energy and inflict damage. if energy hits zero, a big packet of damage happens and the hex ends.
Energy Burn - Like Energy Surge, but cheaper and no AoE damage.
Chaos Storm - Small area damage-over-time, also drains energy on each damage packet.
Signet of Weariness - AoE Energy drain, inflicts Weakness condition in all affected targets.
Aneurysm - Gives target back all of their energy. Target takes damage in proportion to energy regained. Everyone around target then loses energy based on energy regained.
This leaves you with two skill slots.
Template Code: OQBDAowjSxAnAqANB7AAAAAHgA
I tend to use the energy burn skills in order, and on most targets I don't actually use Aneurysm, just re-using Mind Wrack and one of the energy drains to deal periodic heavy damage. On Elementalists (who have huge stores of energy), when the Mind Wrack damage packet goes off, I use Aneurysm and watch numbers like 265 happen.
