Guild Wars 2

Hey, I can imagine threads like these are made constantly but I have a few specific questions so I thought that warranted me making a new thread myself. Otherwise sorry for wasting forum space! :p

Basically, I’m having a bit of trouble with Gw2 PvP. Sometimes I do alright, other times I feel entirely helpless as I get stomped left right and centre.

Here are some particular things I have problems with in PvP:
- Guardians/Warriors hurting me for insane amounts of damage while being extremely tanky and regenerating all the damage I do to them.
- Hammer users stunning and locking me down again and again and again, to the point where i use up all my dodges and stun breakers and just accept my fate.
- Thieves that come in out of nowhere and 3-shot me, or disappear into thin air when I manage to ambush them (usually only to come back after they’ve healed up and kill me anyway).
- Rangers winning pretty much every 1v1 I attempt against them.
- Most other classes being able to run away with a bunch of dashes if I gain the upper hand in a duel.
- Enemies always knowing who I am and who my clones are. Am I not being elusive/tricky enough or are they exploiting a counter-mechanic like targeting the real mesmer with Ctrl+T?
- Enemies dodging my burst or going invulnerable during it almost every single time I perform it (I’m on a shatter build right now).
- Starting games – am I the only one who has no idea what to do at the beginning of a new sPvP game? Do I go to the nearest capture point? Follow my team? Take a secondary objective?
- People leaving the team. It seems that whenever the enemy team has a decent score advantage, people keep leaving the team, forcing the game to get autobalanced after a while. I find it hard to win in an outnumbered situation, and while I know I can’t stop players from leaving if they deem the game to be unwinnable, I don’t quite know how to make the most of what I have and try and scrape the game back on its feet.

Anyway, does anyone have any tips for what I’ve mentioned above? Are there any other things you can mention to someone who has little idea what he’s doing in PvP? :p

Thanks for reading!

Hi,

First off, let me just start by saying that the mesmer class is not at its best spot right now in PvP. If you enjoy the class and don’t mind having it tough I’d say stick it through and suffer; else try and play some class better suited for the type of meta and game type we have now. These are the classes you struggle against who have much more going for them at the moment. Stuns unfortunately shouldn’t stack but they do…so we all at some point get chained stunned to death.

It is indeed easy to tag the mesmer in order to avoid targetting the clones; although most experienced PvP players don’t have to anymore as they are pretty easy to spot once you get the hang of it.

Ask your teams for the stategy before a games start…if no one speaks then when the game starts wait and see if someone goes for the home point…if yes then proceed and follow the rest of your team at mid…you are much better off helping other teams members capping a point as your clones will add some confusion and clutter…

As for people leaving…its been an issue for a very long time now…get used to it as it sure looks as its there to stay.

I used to play a thief…then I started to run into the same issues you have now…so I switched to guardian, warrior and ele and I’m having a lot more fun…classes aren’t balanced in PvP so either you chose a class that outperforms others or you just suck it up and enjoy being stomped all day.

@Jakkson- have to disagree, mesmer is doing extremely well. I have been messing around with the hybrid shatter/condi mesmer and have achieved surprisingly destructive results. I agree with chain stun, fighting a Mace/Shield Hammer Warrior with full physical utilites, confusion on interrupt and 50% crit chance on stun is ridiculous. My tip from mesmer to mesmer is analyze what your own clones do, and when you notice heavy pressure try to spam clones and then mimic they’re activity while you do. Especially effective on Condition Mesmer using staff and/or scepter because the attack from your illusions is just as effective as your own ^^. Class balance is extremely difficult so I agree with the OP part- Engineer is the current one. They may argue otherwise, but a Bunker Turret engineer is almost impossible to move without doing a 2v1, even when AFK at some points too =(.

@OP- If a target is extremely tanky, probe them a bit. If conditions tick for a small amount, then its just high amounts of Vitality. If power does little, then Toughness is the problem. Thats why I run Hybrid. The only way to beat them with Mesmer if they stun spam is to try and stack as much confusion in a short time as possible then use one stun break (Decoy is great for those, make sure to cancel auto attack when you do) and repeat. Also, counter CC works well. I always run GS or X/Pistol just for that. Or Staff 5 occassionally blinds, or dazes. Thieves are made to hard counter any glass build- just remember, they use resources extremely fast. If they use a utility, minimum downtime on any utility (even traited) is ~28 seconds IIRC. Initiative will burn fast as well- Swords will spam either 2 or 3, not much you can do if they do both. Backstabs are difficult as well, they will chunk you to pieces. Having the same problem with rangers, trying to find space in my build to wreck them. Mesmer and Necromancers have the absolute lowest mobility. We get a total of 3 teleports (ILeap, BLink, Phase Retreat) I think. Swiftness is not gained through any natural build except boons, which is extremely weak in a dueling capacity thus far. I am working on that next. =) The trick with shattering is to not hit your big shot right away, but rather to find a way to lock the target down first. A good method I have found is to use F3 first, then if you are doing Might on shatter, use F4 (full proc for both is easy (for GS 2, then 4, then dodge then switch sword after shatter to do Sword 3, Pistol 4, dodge, )6 clones pump out really quick). Should have Vigor, will have one dodge clone left then you can use the utility that shutters out 2 more clones then use F2 or F1 per preference. And then you have used only 1 utility and if the target is not dead, they either played safe or skilled OR used tons of utilities. I found that most glass builds are best roaming home and mid with the EXTREMELY RARE moments of pushing far when you notice that it is absolutely empty. The loss of team members is common. Not much to say. Hope some of my post helped. It was probably all over the place, sorry. ^^

Edited: Needed spacing and a few punctuation errors. My bad.

With regards to people leaving, if you are playing hotjoin(play now) then that will always happen. 1 because people just quickly jump in to try a build. 2 because they are waiting in the solo or team queue and their match has just started. And 3 because they don’t want to lose.

Tip, if you are out numbered 3 to 4 or 4 to 5 then just switch to spectator mode. This will force the auto balance and then you can just rejoin your old team after, and now you will have the greater numbers. Keeps the match balanced.

I’d just like to say, good questions. I can’t wait for more experienced people to answer them for you better than I can.

@ Serious Thought, mind sharing your Mesmer’s build and the Bunker-Turret Engineer you’ve mentioned? I’m still trying to figure out what everyone is throwing at me!

@Esmee- My Mesmer ~~~~http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRnsISha2oGeqBzaGp1gQ9WqSPJXAKbDqGA-TpRAwAgOCAAuAAIOEAeeAAO3fQdZAA

I haven’t really Engineered but it looks like ~~~~ http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpmq1WxyKseNSiBNqDE6A8iCI6OMu8C-TJRBwAiLDAb/BAXAgEPAAA ~~kind of. It varies a bunch, but that was one I couldn’t do a thing to move. Aggravating to the extreme.

Step.1285:

Here are some particular things I have problems with in PvP:
- Guardians/Warriors hurting me for insane amounts of damage while being extremely tanky and regenerating all the damage I do to them.
Warriors can do that. Most run Soldier’s amulet (tankiest amulet there is) and rely on stacking might to dish out tonnes of damage. They also use Healing Signet that regenerates their health passively, every second. However, all their abilities have huge tells and are rather easy to dodge. As a mesmer, you have a much better chance of killing a warrior than a lot of other classes. Rely on using line of sight, terrain and kiting abilities to the best of your advantage. This stands for all 1v1s.

- Hammer users stunning and locking me down again and again and again, to the point where i use up all my dodges and stun breakers and just accept my fate.
Warrior hammer has 3 stuns you need to be wary of. Earthshaker, which is quite easy to dodge. Staggering Blow, which is quite impossible to dodge. Backbreaker, which is also easy to dodge.
Guardian hammer has an immobilise, a Banish (blowout) and a Ring of Warding for CC.

- Thieves that come in out of nowhere and 3-shot me, or disappear into thin air when I manage to ambush them (usually only to come back after they’ve healed up and kill me anyway).
That’s the thief mechanic. Teleporting and disappearing all over. As a mesmer, I must warn you that this is going to be your hardest match up. It takes a lot of practice to defeat thieves as a shatter mesmer. This means learning what they are doing and countering each of their moves.

- Rangers winning pretty much every 1v1 I attempt against them.
As a shatter mesmer, Rangers are not too bad of a match up. Overall, if you’re having trouble against specific classes, you need to get better at your 1v1s. There is no shortcut or magic build or rotation. Learn what, why and when your enemy does whatever they do.

- Most other classes being able to run away with a bunch of dashes if I gain the upper hand in a duel.
Disengaging is really important in the game. They will do that. You should do that. Call it being a wuss, but that’s clever play. Learn all your Blink spots on every map for escaping yourself. Learn the proper strategies of effectively using Portal and learn when to chase after enemies or when to stay on point.

- Enemies always knowing who I am and who my clones are. Am I not being elusive/tricky enough or are they exploiting a counter-mechanic like targeting the real mesmer with Ctrl+T?
Mesmers aren’t fooling anyone except new players. The more you play the game, the more non-issue telling the real mesmer apart becomes. Clones cannon dodge, strafe or use any other abilities besides their auto attack (the rate of which is also slower). Also, your buff bar gives it away.

- Enemies dodging my burst or going invulnerable during it almost every single time I perform it (I’m on a shatter build right now).
That’s the proper counter play to your burst. In order to make sure you land yours, you need to bait out enemy cool downs, count dodges etc.

- Starting games – am I the only one who has no idea what to do at the beginning of a new sPvP game? Do I go to the nearest capture point? Follow my team? Take a secondary objective?
It is really important to know your role in any PvP game. As a shatter mesmer, you’re usually a roamer. Watch Twitch streams to see how other mesmers move around the map.

- People leaving the team. It seems that whenever the enemy team has a decent score advantage, people keep leaving the team, forcing the game to get autobalanced after a while. I find it hard to win in an outnumbered situation, and while I know I can’t stop players from leaving if they deem the game to be unwinnable, I don’t quite know how to make the most of what I have and try and scrape the game back on its feet.
Unfortunately, this is something we all have to deal with.

Anyway, does anyone have any tips for what I’ve mentioned above? Are there any other things you can mention to someone who has little idea what he’s doing in PvP? :p
The game has a huuuge learning curve. You need to stick to it if you enjoy it and eventually you will get better. The game also has questionable matchmaking, so you’re sometimes placed with opponents that have a much higher skill level than you do. For that, I advise you to use the “Play Now” button instead of “Join Solo” till you get a good idea of how the various maps are played, all the secondary objectives, your class match ups, your class role, rotations etc.

Hope this helped. Good luck!

First of all, it’s ridiculous that they put new people up against experienced people in ranked pvp or even hotjoins…no other MMO puts brand new players in such a situation.

Your best bet is to spectate others or watch streams. So many people try to learn first hand and get frustrated and quit.

If you don’t know what you’re doing and get stomped pretty regularly, then stick to hotjoins and spectating until you get the hang of it. There is no point being a masochist and also hurting others on your team if you don’t feel up-to-speed.

SPESHAL.9106:

First of all, it’s ridiculous that they put new people up against experienced people in ranked pvp or even hotjoins…no other MMO puts brand new players in such a situation.

Exactly. The system prefers short q times over good matchmaking. I dont think that Anet realizes how bad this is for their game and how frustrating it is for every single playertype:

- Veterans who have to explain or debate about basics game after game.
- New players that dont get the time the develop. They get destroyed in game and get verbally abused by teammates since they suck.

Ive played two games just now, both with super short queuetimes and both games looked something like this:

1 x top 100/150 (me)
1 x top 800
3 x unranked

It seems MMR isnt that strict and just matches ppl who are available at that very moment. If that happens to be a group of players who are close in terms of MMR, great. But if noone close is avilable it will match everyone with everyone.`

An MMR system should seperate top players from rookies. Anets system is the worst at doing that.

Serious Thought.5394:

@Esmee- My Mesmer ~~~~http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRnsISha2oGeqBzaGp1gQ9WqSPJXAKbDqGA-TpRAwAgOCAAuAAIOEAeeAAO3fQdZAA

I haven’t really Engineered but it looks like ~~~~ http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpmq1WxyKseNSiBNqDE6A8iCI6OMu8C-TJRBwAiLDAb/BAXAgEPAAA ~~kind of. It varies a bunch, but that was one I couldn’t do a thing to move. Aggravating to the extreme.

Mesmer build looks interesting, going to try it out! And the Engineer-build is indeed something I encountered and struggled with, seeing it in it’s whole now I think I might just try to avoid it on certain classes.

Have fun.
/morechars+15

@Lopez-??????

Thanks for the really helpful replies everyone. Regarding rangers, I don’t know… I just get kited to infinity. They usually keep their distance and spam auto attacks at me while their pet basically acts as a nuisance and messes up my targeting. I noticed that sometimes the ranger would just disappear as well? Do they have access to stealth? I don’t know much about the class unfortunately.

Anyway thanks again for the help. I’ll definitely try looking up streams to get a better idea of what to do.

Step.1285:

I noticed that sometimes the ranger would just disappear as well? Do they have access to stealth? I don’t know much about the class unfortunately

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hunter%27s_Shot

Hi, I’m kinda bad, but I’ll try to answer some of the questions you have.

-Warriors with Hammer/Longbow, Soldier Amulet and Strength Runes are #1 meta. Axe Sword/Longbow is #2 and it can be Celestial for better Condition damage. Either way, they utilise Might-stacking as well as intelligence sigils to compensate for low crit chance and gain controlled burst damage. Warrior skills are all highly telegraphed but hit hard. Common trait setup for Hammer is 0 0 6 2 6. Axe Sword or Shield is 2 0 6 0 6.

-Hammer is easy to dodge if you stay a bit back. He will use Hammer #3 + Leg Specialist trait or attempt LB Pin Down + #3 into Hammer F1 + #5 + #2 + #3 + #4 into LB #2. Dodge the Pin Down. Dodge the Earthshaker or block when he immobs you with Hammer traited #3 (immob 1s). Blind or block or invuln his hammer skills. Staff #2 after Earthshaker. Remember you can shatter off Stability and control him. Hammer #4 is the knockback that is immposible to dodge but very short ranged. It comes out way too fast but you can bait it.

-Guardians that can actually hurt you are Triple Meditation guards using Strength Runes and Zerkers Amulet. Some GS’s may also be slotted with Rage Sigil for suprise rudeness. Setups are usually 2 1 6 1 4 or 2 6 6 0 0 or 0 6 6 1 1. The healing is from Monk’s Focus in the Valor tree; however what makes Guardian great are Shelter and RF when used at the right time. Don’t get hit by too many Guardian Sword Autos, those things hurt like nothing else. You may see the odd Burn Guard somewhere with 1k Burn ticks.

-Turn up sound effects volume for Thieves. You can often start leaving a point and hear the Infiltrator Arrow whoosh sound behind, or that of Stealth House. Start counting after they BP + HS and dodge or Blurred Frenzy and you might see Invulnerable! pop up as they spam Backstab. Play one or play against to anticipate their distance and movement and get a feel for when they backstab. Weave back and forth and face different directions to ruin their Backstab and eat a Facestab so you can shatter them right after. S/D Thieves are a different story though, and you can try bursting them right after flanking strike. However, Mesmer having a very obvious burst setup vs the build with the most evades means you will be fighting an uphill battle. Get a feel for when they are low and start watching for where they will Stealth House/Heal. Save your pulls and pushes/interrupt/daze for this, follow with burst and you will have won.

-Rangers can do something like Shout Beastmaster where they give permanent Regen and Protection to their Raven and pillarhug until the birdy crits you dead, or Spirit you until you get hit by Storm Spirit and meet your maker. Rangers are optimised (because of really, really bad traits) for 1v1 and 1v1 only at the moment. You might see the rare LB/GS Zerker yolo’ing his life away but that’s another matter… They have a famous Stealth + GS #3 to you + GS #5 Backstun + Signet 25% damage + Maul 10k crit combo. Up close they have one block, stealth, Endure Pain/Condi clear and one gapclose to run with but other than that they are paper. They are great if they ledge and just pump out 3k+ auto LB Crits.

-Anticipate their movement. You can Chaotic Interruption a Warrior Rushing away in GS. You can Interrupt a Thief using Hide in Shadows. You can stop them HS’ing away. You can do that to Ele’s using Ride the Lightning. It’s easier if you know they will when they are low. If they pop a stability/endure pain/house/portal just to get away, be content that in a tPvP match, they have used up very important skills for survival in the next fight, which they will not be able to access.

- Decoy/Torch + Mass Invis could give you a few seconds of player confuddlement. Once you start casting/dodging or getting hit though, experienced players will know who you are. Play your Mesmer as if they always know who you are is probably more effective than trying to play pretend (which might still serve a purpose).

-Shatter burst with Sword is one of the most highly telegraphed (#1 being the obsolete Bulls Charge Frenzy Hundred Blades Warrior) bursts and the whooosh and clone coming out (even with stealth, best stealthed and 0 range) is the definitive warning and would almost guarantee a dodge/block/invuln/evade/port. You need to count dodges, or wait out dodge and only swap when clone walks up to enemy again. Either way, plan your next step and anticipate the block. Try to bait out the defensive cooldown, then burst straight after.

-Solo queue: As a Shatter Mesmer, put Portal on close and let someone cap it while you go mid with team and try to win the fight by bursting squishies (you get on other zerkers and condition engi/necro to stop freecasting) and securing stomps/resses (Shattered Concentration allows you to remove Stability and Pull/Push/Daze the stomp/res and sway the teamfight in your favour). As a mesmer, you are squishy. Very. You have to ledge constantly and know where to kite and when to pressure the chaser so you can live to do damage. You have to check home point and portal back to stop decaps or assist in the fight there. You can do Sword/Focus/GS for the classice hard burst or GS/Staff with Halting Strike for more Staff #2 mobility (you can port up and down quite a few specific places). You can also try 4 4 6 0 0 CI spec. Try reading Supcutie’s Shatter Guide. http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ul7cz/supcuties_comprehensive_pvp_shatter_guide/

Also, with sPvP comes the knowledge of a rotation. You want to be at teamfights to sway a node in your favour, and also be there when someone decaps your point. You have to make choices. Ask and think about these things. Learn about map objectives.

Maps:
Foefire is a snowball map where winning mid and holding generally wins you the game since it is strategically and positionally important for map-wide assists.

Temple is an objective heavy map where 1130, 830, 530 and 230 spawns a top buff that doubles capped point gain for about 45-60s, and 830, 230 grants a bottom buff that takes 5 seconds to cap but flips all points in your favour. You fight around these buffs and watch your points and Temple goes by really quickly. You ignore these buffs, and Temple will be a lost game, very quickly.

Forest has Monsters that grant buffs, and side points that are prone to decap. Have someone watch close very carefully and if enemy wipes at mid, be prepared for crossing to home. Skip boss at start and focus at midpoint. If you hold 2 points + win a major fight, go kill the boss. Otherwise, they can steal it. Also, if you can stop bosses running around, your enemy might not know that you are killing it. E.g. Thief tanking Svanir with BP and Auto’ing it down right where it stands.

Kyhlo is a defensive map where good trebbing wins you the match. Mesmer, Thief and to a lesser extent Eles can utilize Clocktower as a teleport platform and go out completely when under pressure. Clocktower has a platform great for knockbacks and AoE and Guardians/Warriors/Engineers can use specialized builds to keep the point neutered or capped with many launches or on-point control.

Skyhammer is great for Mesmers, Engineers and Thieves. Bring your pulls, pushes and stealth and insta-kill with the panels there. Nobody likes this map.

-If you are on the losing team of 4 vs a winning team of 5, go into spectators and pull someone from the winning side to yours for a 4v4. Someone will then join the winning team and you can go back to your own team for a 5v5 (at least for a while). However, I urge you to play Solo/Team queue and learn more about properly rotating and playing as a team. I just realised that you’re talking about hotjoin, but I hope you read this and try out tPvP for real.

Thanks, really great tips. Ralkuth, do you think you can give me some tips on how to stack might with a mesmer? Do I use the Greatsword 2?

I did a 1v1 with a random warrior today and while he wasn’t hurting for much (despite me being on a pure glass cannon build) he was insanely tanky, and all he did was capture points before I could get to them with his superior mobility and have these really long duels with me while his captured points were increasing his score. I simply couldn’t kill him haha. He’d regenerate health at ridiculous amounts despite me being traited for damage, and if I ever had the chance to get him low, he’d start running away. I’d chase him and constantly try and chip at his health with Greatsword autos, but he’d regenerate it all and then turn back when he’s full health to fight me again.

I mean, I killed him twice, but I’m pretty sure it took like 3 minutes of fighting and chasing to do so, and meanwhile his captured points were winning him the game :p. I’m sure might-stacking would’ve come in handy so if there are any techniques to do this I’d love some guidance.

Thanks again!

Those tanky Warriors are Regen Banner spec’d. They may go full Clerics for heavy burst, or Soldier’s for mixed/conditions. Either way, they have undispellable Regen while a banner is near them (reapply every 3 seconds), and a lot of Stun and Immobilise as well as excellent Burst mitigation through Shield Stance and Defy Pain trait. Banner Warriors have the best build for eating burst so it is very difficult to kill them 1v1 if they know what to dodge.

As a mesmer, easiest build to stack might is to use Strength Runes, Zerker Amulet, and spec 4 4 6 0 0 (Chaotic Interruption) which gives you long 5xMight per interrupt. You can try to interrupt his autos and shatter off his stability and push him out to attempt a decap. If you really want to burst, you need to boonstrip his Regen, get Poison on him somehow, and waste all his CDs until you can get an interrupt → full Shatter in.

However, good ones will Warhorn 4 to remove the Sword Immob and dodge just as you Shatter, and try to put weakness on you and nullify your burst.

I suggest you leave the point if it goes on for more than 30 seconds and you are failing to make a dent, unless a friend is incoming. That friend ideally should be a Necro/Engi which can bombard him with conditions (which the Warrior will have difficulty clearing). Don’t fight on an enemy owned point unless you are very sure you can 1v1 him quickly (e.g. Necro vs Condi Engi, Necro will nearly always win; Hambow vs Necro with little Life Force at start of game, Hambow will nearly always win). If not, help out your team or Portal back to home to defend if someone has gone there. The Warrior is holding you up + gaining points and he is winning.

since many others have answered nicely for all other queries, i will comment on this one:

- People leaving the team. It seems that whenever the enemy team has a decent score advantage, people keep leaving the team, forcing the game to get autobalanced after a while. I find it hard to win in an outnumbered situation, and while I know I can’t stop players from leaving if they deem the game to be unwinnable, I don’t quite know how to make the most of what I have and try and scrape the game back on its feet.

Anyway, does anyone have any tips for what I’ve mentioned above? Are there any other things you can mention to someone who has little idea what he’s doing in PvP? :p

Thanks for reading!

this is the current trend in hotjoin (custom arenas hosted by both arenanet and players) and will not change anytime soon.

new games will very often start off as
2 vs 1
3 vs 2
4 vs 3

with many people in spectator mode, waiting to joining the “winning team” so they could ride on the free wins in order to progress their reward tracks faster.

if the early game is
3 vs 2
4 vs 3

and you are on the team with lesser players, and the other team is leading by a lot of points, say 50 – 100 then you should enter spectator mode when you are not in combat, this will force an auto-balance to happen.

wait for a while for auto-balance to kick in and then it should become
2 vs 2
3 vs 3
then you quickly join back your original team.

if all goes well, some “spectator” will notice this and quickly join the “winning team” so the teams would become something like this:
3 vs 3
4 vs 4

repeat if necessary.

however, auto-balance stops working when one team reaches 400 score or higher so you can only do this during the early phase of a match.

Hey Dude good questions, I will help you

I’m a quite experienced PvP player (playing since Beta, was in 3 good teams, currently around top 100 but not that active)

first of all check these links out:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ul7cz/supcuties_comprehensive_pvp_shatter_guide/
- guide for shatter mesmer

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/A-guide-to-spvp-reworked/first
- my guide on teamrotations (pvp tactics)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Guide-2-is-up-Veteran-moves-guide/first#post3394688
- super’s guide on teamrotations

- helseth’s guide on kiting

Then I would recommend you that you pm me (infamous django) I will show you some tricks and kiting spots.

- “Guardians/Warriors hurting me for insane amounts of damage while being extremely tanky and regenerating all the damage I do to them.”
- def guards hurt you because of retaliation. Warriors shouldn’t be able to regenerate your damage. (it’s explained good in supcuties guides)
But one of the best tipps i can give you is not to stand on a point. You are not a class to do that (unless it’s absolutely necessary, for example your team has 490 points and only 1 point and you are the only one to defend with 2 enemies inc)

- “Hammer users stunning and locking me down again and again and again, to the point where i use up all my dodges and stun breakers and just accept my fate.”
- Don’t let them reach you, don’t fight them on a point. Your team gets more points if you win the 1v1 and cap the point afterwards.

- Thieves that come in out of nowhere and 3-shot me, or disappear into thin air when I manage to ambush them (usually only to come back after they’ve healed up and kill me anyway).
- That sadly is reality. You need to kite like a boss and even then it’s hard.

- Rangers winning pretty much every 1v1 I attempt against them.
- Rangers are extremely tanky. But a shattermesmer is one of the only classes who can kill fullbunkers 1v1. After some time you just can’t outheal it anymore. (you really need to NOT fight on points).

- Most other classes being able to run away with a bunch of dashes if I gain the upper hand in a duel.
- I get the feeling you are moving wrong with mesmer. PM me I show you how you should move on the map and what your role is

- Enemies always knowing who I am and who my clones are. Am I not being elusive/tricky enough or are they exploiting a counter-mechanic like targeting the real mesmer with Ctrl+T?
- It’s easy when you get the feel of it. Good players know almost always where you are. You need to make some good stealth and kites for them to loose you. Dodge backward, hide behind your illusions (they tank the dmg on you) and just attack from afar. The key is not not to be seen but not to be hurt.

- Enemies dodging my burst or going invulnerable during it almost every single time I perform it (I’m on a shatter build right now).
Maybe your build or you are bursting to obvious. PM me we will look at that

- Starting games – am I the only one who has no idea what to do at the beginning of a new sPvP game? Do I go to the nearest capture point? Follow my team? Take a secondary objective?
- read my guide watch the videos and pm me^^

- People leaving the team. It seems that whenever the enemy team has a decent score advantage, people keep leaving the team, forcing the game to get autobalanced after a while. I find it hard to win in an outnumbered situation, and while I know I can’t stop players from leaving if they deem the game to be unwinnable, I don’t quite know how to make the most of what I have and try and scrape the game back on its feet.
- Stop playing hot join. If you seriously want to get better and seriously want to start pvp don’t play hot join. Play soloqueue or get a team.
Good players only do hot join when they are waiting for a real game or if they don’t have time for another match, or just to test the burst on a build. It’s not serious, therefore nobody cares about 4v5s and winning or loosing.

If you play thief and especially on legacy of foe fire, back cap when enemy isn’t there.

If you play thief period you need to learn how to backcap.

Good read, thanks for the tips people.

This community is insanely helpful ._.

Thanks a lot! I’ll look into those guides and PM you with any queries I have.

Also yeah I think I burst too obviously. My burst usually involves Sword 3 + Sword 3+ Sword 2 + Mirror Images + Shatter, or Pistol 5 + Pistol 4 + Sword 3 + Dodge + Sword 2 + Shatter. 99% of the time, while I’m doing my sword 2 (during which they should be immobilised), they just break out of it (especially thieves – seriously what is the point of landing any CC on them haha).

I don’t know exactly how to bait cooldowns so I can land a proper burst, since unlike other classes with bursty builds, my burst takes a bit of preparation and it’s easy to see it coming.

You can send out iLeap but not port. Most people dodge when they see your iLeap buff icon or the clone coming out. Wait for their dodge to finish and clone to walk towards the enmey, THEN swap and shatter. That’s how you bait. Thieves with Withdraw S/D have more leeway, but if you know it is up, then don’t shatter just yet. Wait for them to close gap to you and use their Flanking Strike/port in and Larcenous Strike. There is a small window to press F1. Also, you can better land your burst if you daze them before you iLeap, since they can’t evade in immob if they are dazed. You use Mirror Image so Daze → iLeap + swap + MI + BF + F1 should land. But if they have Shadowstep up, Daze and Immob and see what they would do. If they come in again, your trait for shatter recharge while under 50% might proc and you can do the combo without any interruptions.

All I’ve said are on paper though. You have to think, what they can do to dodge my burst. Typical thieves have refuge, I can push him out, I need to save GS 5 for that. I see dodge signet, I’ll want to see when he uses it since he gains triple dodge afterwards and I can’t burst. I see infil signet and he’s a bit far away and winding up Flanking, I need to dodge or Sword 2 now. Most would bring Shadowstep, I need to fake a burst setup so that he would use it, then I stand in the port-back circle and wait for him to approach so he can’t use it a second time to get away. If he uses Refuge + Shadowstep, I can blink GS push him out and make him waste 2 utilities. He’s been autoattacking for a while with Dagger now, he might have enough init for BP, I should try and Sword 2 or avoid blind by other means or preemptively Decoy into a Daze to make him waste HS + BP and burst him…. etc etc.

Think about how a thief would use utils against you, and think about what tools you have to force them. There can’t be a set rotation because players are smart and they react to different situations. However, if you do the baiting then you are controlling the fight and you would be able to steer it in a direction that allows it to be more predictable.

I strongly recommend you read supcutie’s mesmer guide and try out all the combos and tips and watch the videos on Shatter Mesmer. By thinking more, you can up your play.

You can stealth then GS 2 + 3 + Shatter. It’s like a backstab. Anything else like a GS 4 iZerk is too big a giveaway.

You can also GS 2 → Blink to enemy midcast → GS 3 + Shatter for some burst.

You can go behind an obstacle and cast iLeap, it will go around to your enemy and it will be more difficult to react. E.g. hide underneath Waterfall in Foefire while someone is on point and send out iLeap.

You can iLeap then swap to GS for a point blank iZerk while immob’d, or GS 2 + 3 + Shatter.

There are lots of Staff 2 locations that allow you to shake off any pursuer, if you use GS/Staff.

Forgot to mention a key thing in Thief vs Mesmer. Try and dodge Steal since a lot of thieves invest 30 points into it to make it do everything. Use your sword evade or stealth at the right moment or invuln it to gain the upper hand in a fight.
Steal usually is used in BP HS or Larc Strike but of course they can vary it. It’s all about countering counters if you know what I mean.
The best thing to do is to dodge well and correctly since using a cool down for a cool down means that you will run out of options, while nullifying a cool down with a dodge means that over time you will have more options than your enemy (which is what decent players do when they have to handle high tier play). Mesmers have vigor on crit so dodge lots and dodge like a boss.