Loot scaling is not applied to special event drops. It is my understanding that you get just as many special event items in NM as in HM. I have not tried NM, so I can not give a first hand testimonial. I like HM, because many of the builds seem to work better (i.e. Sliver Armor), and because of the golds that drop (27 in about 3 hours). My thought is that, if I am going to waste time doing this, I just well get as much out of it as I can.

Ok, I have been testing several builds... The mist form build from PvX wiki works fine. I dont like it because sometimes I still get interupted too much and I lose all my energy because of the mantra. Around 25-28 kills average in HM. I have another build that uses Shadow Form still. The sliver armor is combined with Ebon battle standard of honor and Intensity so it still packs a solid punch. Around 25-28 kills average in HM. What I have found to be the best build is a degen build I came up with that has already been mentioned on this thread. I have fine tuned the timing a bit so its much more consistent. OgdTkY28ZqBSZQnBuMXkHytMgBA Sorry I dont feel like making it look all fancy. I run in with dark escape as the running skill. Precast Glyph of Sacrifice before running in so that when you cast Shadow Form they can not interupt it. Then I use Battle Standard of Honor + Sliver armor to kill the Broodmother ASAP. Keep wanding the Broodmother to stop her from runnning away when she is almost dead. After Broodmother is dead you really dont have to cast sliver armor ever again. You can if you want. Radiation field is used to start the degen on the nestlings. I dont cast radiation field until I know that sliver armor is targetting the Broodmother because I dont want them to scatter until she is dead and I recharge my shadow form. About THREE seconds after they become diseased I use Vipers Defense. At that time they all scatter. I just stand still and try to keep Air of Superiority and Shadow Form up. I used to run around chasing them and casting vipers defense. I find it much faster to just wait for them to come back to me. I also try to keep radiation field active and I wait for the raptors to come back to me, this usually doesnt take too long. At this point they have almost no health left at all and 1 cast of Vipers Defense will kill them almost instantly. If they walk into the Radiation Field that will kill them too most of the time. Average kills in HM 34. (everyone in the cave) All 3 of these runs take about the same time. With the degen build if I do /age after they are all dead, it tells me I have been on that map 1 minute.

Ether nightmare does not work well without shadow form, or mindbender. The cast time (3 sec) is too long for Mantra of Resolve to cover without wiping out available energy.

Can you use a glyph of sacrifice for an intant cast of ether nightmare? Since thats a degen spell wouldnt it be better suited for a shadow form build anyway?

Yes to both. The problem with the glyph is finding a slot for it. For the first build Gerg posted (third from the OP), could one replace channeling and ether feast with Ether Renewal to free up a slot for more offense? Radiation Field maybe? You should have 3-4 enchantments on you (I think that Ether Renewal counts itself), resulting in +45-60 health and +9-12 energy each time you cast a spell. There are gaps in Ether Renewal, 15 sec duration at 10 energy storage (that is what is spec'd for gerg's build), but that might fit into the duration of Magnetic, Stoneflesh and Armor of Earth. The build I use puts inspiration down to 4 points, that would free up some points for energy storage. You may not need Ether Renewal all that much. Then again, I do not like that build much, as Stoneflesh and Armor of Earth have relatively short durations. I will have to try it tonight.

In looking at things again, I realized that Sliver Form is an enchantment also, 4-5 enchantments altogether with Mindbender. Something like this? Stoneflesh Raptors Elementalist/Mesmer Level: 20 Energy Storage: 12 (11+1) Earth Magic: 16 (12+4) Inspiration Magic: 6 Magnetic Aura (Earth Magic) For 21 seconds, Magnetic Aura has a 75% chance to block melee attacks. Energy:5 Cast:0.25 Recharge:60 Ether Renewal (Energy Storage) For 17 seconds, each time you cast a Spell, you gain 3 Energy and 17 Health for each Enchantment on you. Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:30 Mindbender ( ) For 6..16 seconds, you move 20..33% faster and your Spells take half as long to cast. Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:24 Stoneflesh Aura (Earth Magic) For 16 seconds, damage you receive is reduced by 33, and you are immune to critical attacks. Energy:10 Cast:2 Recharge:15 Armor of Earth (Earth Magic) For 30 seconds, you gain 62 armor, but move 12% slower. Energy:10 Cast:0.75 Recharge:15 Sliver Armor (Earth Magic) For 11 seconds, you have a 52% chance to block attacks and whenever you are the target of a hostile Spell or attack, one nearby foe is struck for 37 earth damage. Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:30 Radiation Field ( ) For 5 seconds, foes in the area have -2..6 Health degeneration. When the portal ends, foes in the area are Diseased for 8..20 seconds Energy:15 Cast:2 Recharge:12 Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration Magic) For 54 seconds, you cannot be interrupted, but each time you would have been interrupted, you lose 8 Energy or Mantra of Resolve ends. Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:20 OgVjkwDGzSoCrlfVlC8Q1CulRAA (this is from GW freaks, not sure it will work in GW templates)