Guild Wars 2

New player here and in PvP, Mesmers give me the most trouble. I will have them targeted, then they vanish, pop some illusions and now there is like 4 of them. Retargeting the Real Mesmer is really a pain. I wish their Illusions were called Illusions. So am I missing something? Is there an easier way to target them? Or is it just their class mechanics?

AOE bombs maybe. Kind of depends on your profession and weapon skill set.

That’s sort of the whole point about illusions with mesmers, not knowing who’s the real one.

Yeah, they’re most definitely the most difficult to fight because their mechanics are very different to most other games/classes. If you’re really stuck, try making a Mesmer alt and try out the different weapon sets. Once you’re familiar with them and know what the Mesmer can actually do, it’s a lot easier to fight them.

It’s just their class mechanic. It should be pretty easy to spot the real mesmer, and the clones die very quickly.

The real Mesmer is the one not continuous autoattacking from a stationary position.

Our illusions also won’t dodge or swap weapons and mostly run in straight lines if they move at all.

But their nametags, titles, etc. will mimic the caster’s as part of the class mechanic.

Identifying the real mesmer on sight is easy – the difficult part as a new player is becoming fluent with the game’s targeting system – selecting, locking, switching and so on.

That’s what I struggled with at first anyway – the camera and targeting is extremely clunky so it takes practice to reduce the short delay between “I want to target that person” and actually having them locked on.

Look through all the options for targeting in the menus (such as autotargeting, autolocking) and see what you prefer using.

I used to struggle to beat mesmer often, the best advice I can give is to make one and learn skill animations and playstyle.
Other then that clones don’t dodge, strafe, weapon swap or use long skill animations.

Once again as well, some professions are easier to fight with certain professions. My warrior alt will be shredded by mesmers but on my thief I usually don’t have too much of a problem with them, only because I use their clones against them necromancer….not so much <.<

I’m a mesmer and as u are new and most likely haven’t played a mesmer yet, here a few tips and important infos when facing us:

Find the real mesmer:
- if he uses gs, he is the one who can throw the sword, his clones cant
-he moves around more often
-clones cannot dodge
- he usually backs off

things to be aware off:
mesmers can use stealth and will try to confuse you, so u attack one of their clones. each clone killed could add a condition on you. mesmers are a also very different from eachother depending on what eapon they use.

staff:ranged, great defenders and condition appliers(if traited)

gs: ranged, high dmg,strongest phantasm

scepter: medium ranged,condition based,deals lots of confusion(before nerf,now barely used), can block attacks

torch: more stealth,when stealth is used,causes blind and burning, phantasm causes retaliation and confusion,if in the right hands=biig ouch for u

sword:close combat, (main had and very common for power builds)makes mesmer invul for 2 sec, very fast attacks,mesmer can swap places with one of his clones whithout u noticing
(off hand), phantasm is pretty strong and attacks u very fast and another attack blocking skill
mesmers using sword most likely use blink to either evade u or get straight in your face to kill u.
also:sword usually=high dps,high crit, lotsa dmg

focus: temp curtain block your way, pulls u off cliffs or away from mesmer, can aslo be used to gain retaliation

pistol: strong phantasm, will daze and if traited stun u, phantasms attack are fast so watch out

= mesmers have multiple builds and each on of them will be like facing a whole new class:

Examples:

-mesmers that use immortal build: have retaliation,reflect projectiles and don’t shatter clones,high mobility

=phantasm builds are glasscannons, but watch out for those as their phantasms almost always crit hit u and deal massive dmg. they have a clone every time they dodge and their shatters hit u very hard to so try to dodge when u see clones running at u.

-shattercat builds are never the same as every mesmer has his own version of it. they usually have more hp and toughness(depending on armor choices)than phantasm builds. Extremely high mobility and really tough to beat in spvp…almost seems like they are all over the place.watch out for them jumping at u with one handed sword as blurred frenzy is pretty vicious.

glam mesmers (before nerf.): staff, scepter/focus:
they don’t deal direct dmg ..or its very low..like 200-300, they have high toughness. they usually cast only glamfields,1 on the ground (nullfield, which rips all your boons,cures the mesmers condition and if u enter it adds stacks of confusion on u) glam mesmers love to pull u through all they glam fields so u end up with 15-17 stacks most of the time.glamfields are also feedback,portals and veil.
if hit by confusion, do NOT spam buttons (the higher your stacks, the more dmg it deals and the ticks start. if u don’t hit a button, confusion doesn’t harm u.
it got nerfed down to 50 percent dmg though and barely anyone uses it anymore.

I hope this helps u to understand mesmers a little bit, when facing a mesmer, look at the weapons and know when to back off and when to push in.

most mesmers will dodge or run or use something other than a basic attack so just look around, if someone strafes that’s the mesmer, etc.