Surge of the Mists

Hi All, i am trying to understand how to deal with break bars. I set everything up and got my staff and tablet and such and i still suck ( and i really suck ) so what am i doing wrong? Surge of the mists ( staff 5 ) just goes right through the mob and i hit for maybe 2 or 3 of the attacks ( i tried that melee assist attack setting ) I back up and still do it and I'm out of the hitbox, although i do really suck at this game and i could totally be not seeing it.....but the bar is always still pretty much full. Any tips? i want to be better but its hard to practice with suck limited time/chances.

Thanks!

Generally speaking you're doing the right thing. Surge just works like that, there are some other skills which cause break bar damage, too. See https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiance_Bar#Control_effects for what else works.

However, when you're in PvE, there are probably other players around. Just like health pools, the defiance bar scales with the number of players around. Meaning that you alone won't be able to handle it, everyone has to pitch in (a bit).

Hydromancy sigil on staff.

Staff 5, Staff 2, Jade Winds, Elemental Blast, Chaotic Release

For me I use hammer also so I add in,Hammer 3, Hammer 5

SotM will crush alot of breakbars in one activation if it's less than 5 players. Sometimes you will need to chain your other CCs as well for 10+ scaling and rev has alot.