Energy management guide (PvE)

"Energy management" refers to how a character uses various skills to recoup energy above normal energy regeneration or, in general, a plan for utilizing energy in an efficient manner. This article is a brief overview of energy management techniques often used in the Player-versus-Enviroment (PvE) aspect of the game.

In addition to what skills are used, a character's overall build in terms of skill cost, cooldown (i.e. how often a skill can be used), attributes (e.g. Expertise and Soul Reaping), and equipment (e.g. zealous weapon upgrades) are important considerations for energy management.

Energy management attributes
The following primary attributes have passive effects that either directly adds to a character's energy under certain conditions or reduces the overall energy cost of certain skills:
 * Expertise
 * Soul Reaping
 * Critical Strikes
 * Leadership
 * Mysticism

On the other hand, the Energy Storage attribute increases a character's energy capacity rather than adding energy or decreasing skill costs.

Energy management criteria
There are two basic criteria to gauge the usefulness of energy management skills, the net gain of energy over a period of time for the use of a particular skill and the amount of points invested in a skill's attribute. The total benefit from using a skill includes the cost subtracted from the energy gained with relation to how often a skill can be used.

Each attribute point invested for a skill should consider the opportunity cost of spent points, which could lead to diverse attributes with increased or reduced effectiveness of skills based on whether or not a skill is linked to that attribute.

A skill may also have other considerations, which may or may not be directly related to energy management, such as its usefulness when combined with other skills or how easily a skill can be countered.

Considerations When Choosing Skills
While some energy management skills simply provide more total energy, one should consider other important factors such as the following:


 * 1) Difficulty and Opportunity - A skill such as Energy Drain is easy to use and has a wide window of opportunity, requiring nothing more than an enemy target. The elite skill Mantra of Recall has a near-infinite window of opportunity, but a smaller payoff. A skill such as Power Drain will net you significantly more energy, but has a smaller window of opportunity as it requires a spell to be interrupted.
 * 2) Health Costs - Skills like Offering of Blood sacrifice health in addition to the energy cost.  It's generally not a good idea to choose Offering of Blood for energy management if you're an easy target, such as a monk, since you don't want to be sacrificing health while under pressure.
 * 3) Reliability and Vulnerability - Long-duration skills like Elemental Attunement are susceptible to enchantment removal. On the other hand, short-duration skills that need to be spammed in order to be useful, such as Boon Signet, are vulnerable to disabling skills like Diversion. Know that every skill has a weakness, so select one that you'll be able to cope with.

Bonetti's Defense
Bonetti's Defense provides energy whenever a melee attack is blocked, which is useful for any melee build with Energy-based skills.

Flourish
Flourish is really only useful to primary Warriors because it is linked to the primary Warrior attribute Strength. Flourish provides a single, large energy boost while also recharging all attack skills.

Warrior's Endurance
Much like Flourish, Warriors Endurance is linked to Strength. However, unlike Flourish, it provides constant energy to fuel a steady stream of Energy-based attacks.

Archer's Signet
Archer's Signet is an all out attack skill that disables non-attack skills and eliminates the energy cost of you next few attacks. This is especially useful when combined with expensive attack skills.

Marksman's Wager
Marksman's Wager allows a character to gain an amount of energy when an arrow hits but lose 10 energy when an arrow misses. The loss of 10 energy is an acceptable loss if a character is already below 10 energy or losing energy fairly rapidly.

Energizing Wind
This spirit greatly reduces the energy cost of skills by 15, with a minimum cost of 10 energy for skills that cost 10 energy or above. The downside is that all skills recharge 25% slower, although this can be negated through the use of Quickening Zephyr.

Air of Enchantment
Air of Enchantment is extremely efficient for spamming enchantments on a particular ally. 5-energy enchantments such as Reversal of Fortune and Guardian can be cast indefinitely, as the single point of energy will be regained during the cast time. Having at least 12 points into Protection Prayers (or 9 with a weapon of Enchanting) will provide enough time to recast this on that ally at the reduced 1 point cost. Larger-cost enchantments may easily work into the cycle. The drawbacks are that this may not target the caster, the spells must be enchantments for the reduction to apply, it is only possible to maintain this on one ally at a time, and that, as an enchantment, it may be removed (although the spammed enchantments often cover it from single-enchantment removal). While not recommended for a monk trying to keep an entire party alive, it can be a great asset to keep a single target alive. Due to the encouraged enchantment spamming, Zealot's Fire is often used for a cheap source of damage to foes around the target ally.

Blessed Signet
Blessed Signet is used by monks, such as bonders, that maintain many enchantments. Combined with Balthazar's Spirit on a bonder or Mantra of Inscriptions, Blessed Signet can turn maintained enchantments into a source of energy. The main weakness is Blessed Signet needs to be used often and has a slow activation, making it a prime target for interruption. Distracting Shot or Diversion can potentially shut down Blessed Signet and force all but four of the maintained enchantments to drop.

Boon Signet
Boon Signet is another no-cost heal, usable every 5 seconds, which gives energy based on how many enchantments that player is under (2 energy per enchantment, maximum 6 energy). Due the progression of Energy Gain/Second for Boon Signet, each maintained enchantment of the monk on himself will nullify the won energy from that enchant. It allows the monk to heal and gain energy at the same time, and it also frees up the monk's secondary -- it can also allow a prot boon monk to have 16 divine favor and 13 protection (or 16 divine and 15 protection with a second superior rune; hp armor can be used to offset the additional hitpoint cost), thereby focusing on two primary monk attributes instead of having to be spread across three. There are some drawbacks, however; because of the one second casting time, and the relatively low healing and energy per use, the monk must constantly use this ability in order to sustain his energy. This can be problematic, especially in situations where the monk must kite to stay alive.

Signet of Devotion
Signet of Devotion is a no-cost heal, that is particularly efficient against energy denial and opponents without the ability to interrupt. Due to the long casting time, it is often coupled with spells like Guardian, Shield of Deflection, Distortion, and Bonetti's Defense. However, it becomes less useful with a Divine Favor attribute below 13, and is more effective against degen and pressure than spike damage.

Consume Corpse
Consume Corpse can also be a viable energy management skill but this facet is usually overshadowed by its use as corpse control. With no recharge, use is limited only by available corpses, which can be both a boon and a curse for energy management. When primarily used for corpse control, usually only enough points are invested to make the energy gain balance the cost. But, on a character with strong Death Magic, Consume Corpse can provide large amounts of energy.

Offering of Blood
Offering of Blood, while once the preeminent elite energy management skill for monks, has since been patched to lower its overall effectiveness by increasing its sacrifice. Offering of Blood is now mainly used in energy intensive primary necromancer builds or other builds that can gain use out of the Blood Magic investment. The strengths of OoB lie in its relatively fast recharge (15s), its fast activation (1/4s), and that it is guaranteed to provide energy without any special external considerations. The downside is the 20% sacrifice, which, besides potentially costing energy to heal, can be hazardous to use (or with low health, impossible to use).

Signet of Lost Souls
Signet of Lost Souls is a signet with a fast activation time; it's unlikely to be interrupted. Furthermore, it recharges rather fast; spamming of this skill on a low-health target will keep Health and Energy near full. While the skill is powerful, you'll have to invest in the Soul Reaping attribute to make it effective. The second, more limiting disadvantage, is that you have to target an enemy with less than 50% health for it to work.

Reaper's Mark
Reaper's mark is a hex which nets you some energy when the foo it is cast on dies. It has the additional benefit of putting a degen on that enemy, making it likelier that it will indeed die. It's main drawback is of course that the enemy has to die before you actually get energy back! Thus the return is neither sure nor immediate.

Channeling
Channeling is often used in the Heroes' Ascent tournament because of the potentially large number of enemies. Monks very often use Channeling as non-elite energy management. Channeling is particularly discouraged for use in GvG by monks because they are generally supposed to hang back and out of the fight, but in HA, things are more chaotic and hanging back might not even be possible. Such a melee often makes Channeling more effective, not uncommonly to the point of having 5 energy spells actually provide the caster with energy. While Channeling is an enchantment, its low cost and recharge somewhat mitigate the usual drawbacks of enchantment removal.

Drain Enchantment
Drain Enchantment used to be an important skill in Arenas such as Team and Heroes' Ascent. But after the Nightfall update the recharge time was increased to 30 seconds, as opposed to the previous 25. In addition, the energy gain from it was drastically reduced, along with many other highly used Inspiration Magic spells. Perhaps this was done to protect the Dervish profession in competitive play, as many of the buffs used are enchantments. Two people with Drain Enchantment can dramatically reduce the damage potential of a Dervish. Inspired Enchantment offers a slightly shorter recharge time (instant if it fails to remove an enchantment) and a somewhat lower energy gain, similar to Inspired Hex above.

Energy Drain
Energy Drain, changed to a lower recharge in the same patch that changed Offering of Blood, is coming back into use, particularly by monks. The energy stealing nature of Energy Drain is double-sided: you deny the enemy energy, but if that enemy has little or no energy, then the user gains no benefit.

Inspired Hex/Revealed Hex
Inspired Hex has a dual role as energy management and hex removal. As straight energy management, Inspired Hex does not provide much net energy gain and simply as hex removal, it has a relatively high recharge. But, as a combination, Inspired Hex can be useful to provide modest energy to a character while also benefiting the team as a whole by removing a hex.

Mantra of Recall
Mantra of Recall, similar to Energy Drain, has gained popularity with the change to Offering of Blood. It has a relatively high net energy gain over time. While it is an enchantment, it doesn't follow the general trend of timely removal spelling disaster, but using a +20% enchantment length upgrade is undesirable. Casters having a second set of weapons is common (whether to combat energy denial or simply to have a different set of upgrades and modifiers), so the enchantment length upgrade problem is manageable. With a relatively high energy cost of 10, an early enchantment removal can break a user's "rhythm," so care must be taken to reserve some energy for Mantra when it recharges in such a case. For monks, Mantra of Recall also has a particularly useful combination with Contemplation of Purity.

Power Drain
Power Drain provides a very high energy yield and has a low cost but requires that the user interrupts a spell. For some characters, such as primary mesmers (who might be trying to interrupt the enemy anyway), this is not a problem. But, for monks, this might be distracting and detrimental to their efforts as a monk. Some players also seem to simply not have the knack for interruption, making this a poor choice for them. On the opposite, Heroes, being extremely effective interrupters, can use Power Drain even with relatively low Inspiration Magic. In some cases, the enemy might be short on casters so successfully using Power Drain might be more difficult than usual.

Note
The Mesmer energy management skills are relatively versatile and can be used by Mesmer primaries or secondaries without particularly regard to the character's role. In addition, Mesmer energy management skills are all Inspiration Magic spells, so a character can equip several varied skills for energy management with investment into only one attribute.

Attunements
The elementalist attunements (Air Attunement, Earth Attunement, Fire Attunement, Water Attunement, and the elite Elemental Attunement) are extremely effective for elementalists (and the odd "fast cast elementalist" Me/Es), they are also fairly specialized. An elementalist using only one elemental attribute can reduce costs of his elemental skills by 80% by using attunements. Elementalist using more elements can still save an impressive 50% on all elemental skills by using just Elemental Attunement. However, as enchantments, attunements can be removed by the enemy - Aura of Restoration makes a good covering enchantment due to its long duration and low recharge time. It's not uncommon for an elementalist build to rely on dual attunements and their effect can be viewed the other way around: an elementalist with his attunements removed is now 50-80% less effective. It is also worth noting that Elemental Attunement has been changed to tie it to the Energy Storage ability, making it much less useful for secondary elementalists, and even primary elementalists without the attribute points to spare.

Ether Prodigy
Ether Prodigy is useful for elementalist primaries that bring skills from other professions and so attunements are not as useful. Prodigy's strength comes from high efficiency (vs exhaustion) with the ability to recast at any time if necessary(with low energy, after being removed, or even after resurrection). Prodigy is most commonly seen on E/Mos with both elementalist skills and relatively expensive monk skills such as Heal Party, Aegis, or Convert Hexes. Such monk skills are effective without the monk primary attribute, Divine Favor, and with only a moderate attribute investment. Like attunements, Ether Prodigy is an enchantment and so if consistently removed, Prodigy can be rendered useless. The other drawback to Prodigy is the potential damage it deals. The damage can be reduced by careful use of Prodigy and the energy it provides (or even by use of Heal Party).

Ether Prism
Consider combining Ether Prism with Glyph of Lesser Energy to mitigate its high cost.

Glyph of Energy
Glyph of Energy is commonly used in builds that occasionally use expensive spells or repeatedly use spells which cause exhaustion (Gale, Obsidian Flame, Earthquake). For expensive elementalist spells, also consider Elemental Attunement. (combine with Auspicious Incantation to gain 100%-196% of the original cost of that spell for a net cost of 10 energy with a gain of 25-49)

Mind Blast
Midn Blast is highly useful for an Elementalist that uses high ranks of fire magic. Many fire magic skills have high energy costs, and Mind Blast can be a good way to keep th energy that is necesary to cast them. However, its useless in a situation where the player has few energy (such as after being resurrected).

Attuned Was Songkai
A high level in Spawning Power decreases energy costs significantly, rendering other energy management unnecessary. However, it cannot be maintained indefinitely due to a long recharge time. Therefore, there's a certain amount of downtime forcing one to use only low energy cost skills or no skills at all. Casting Attuned Was Songkai costs not only 10 energy, but holding the item will reduce maximum energy since one cannot hold a weapon set at the same time. Bear in mind one should have at least 30 energy remaining when casting Attuned Was Songkai, otherwise no energy will be left for other skills.

Offering of Spirit
Offering of Spirit provides the same energy gain as Signet of Spirits, however it has a shorter recharge time, and if it is used without a spirit in earshot, it requires a 17% health sacrifice instead of not functioning. Higher benefits require more points in Channeling Magic.

Reclaim Essence
This spell is very useful when you have summoned spirits like Life or Restoration. When Life dies, your party is healed for 1...6 health for each second when it was alive, and Restoration resurrects nearby allies when it dies. Your party is healed and you gain energy.

Signet of Spirits
Signet of Spirits requires at least one spirit within earshot for an energy gain. Higher benefits require more points in Channeling Magic. The main advantage which Signet of Spirits has over Offering of Spirit is that it is affected by signet recharge skills. Unlike Offering of Spirit, energy per second of Signet of Spirits can be improved with Mantra of Inscriptions, however it is also vulnerable to signet counters.

Net energy per unit time for selected skills
The following tables list some of the above skills and their net energy gain per unit time. Assuming the given rank for the linked attribute, this is computed for each skill as:

Also,
 * Recycle time is activation time + recharge time for a skill, unless noted.
 * Skills are assumed to always achieve their full effect (e.g. a hex is removed, the enemy has enough energy to satisfy Energy Drain, etc.).

Peace and Harmony
1Bold numbers show the breaking points for maintaining it on another Ally as soon as the duration doubles the (activation + recharge time) 2Maintaining it constantly on yourself only.

Energy Boon
1considering to recast it in a 30 seconds cycle, so Exhaustion doesn't stack

Ether Prism

 * 1) Assuming no other Energy management skills and 4 pips of energy regeneration.

Ether Prodigy
1considering to recast it in a 30 seconds cycle, so Exhaustion doesn't stack

Reaper's Mark

 * 1) Assuming the enemy actually dies within 30 seconds (half that if a boss).

Blood is Power

 * 1) Assuming target ally has 3 or less pips of Energy regeneration.

Blood Ritual

 * 1) Assuming no rounding.
 * 2) Not counting energy regeneration.

Inspired Hex/Revealed Hex
1recycle time is 21 seconds

Inspired Enchantment/Revealed Enchantment
1recycle time is 21 seconds

Second Wind
1This presumes Exhaustion is maintained at the level shown (and Second Wind is cast once every thirty seconds).