Guild Wars 2

Before I begin, this is not a whine thread. I want honest advice on this.

I don’t know much about mesmer builds, but these builds seem to have solid damage on their phantasms and seem to stack conditions pretty well.

My problem fighting them (strictly 1v1 situation), if I try and down their phantasms I find myself at a SEVERE hp loss once I run around and kill the phantasms first, basically the mesmer gets free shots on me while I stupidly run around and down their phantasms. So I assumed I should go for the mesmer directly, but this seems even worse as the phantasms just rain down damage on me and by the time I pop their stun breaks / staff phase shift I’m basically already dead.

What is the best way of fighting these mesmers? It seems that no matter what you do you are in a lose/lose situation with them. Go for phantasms, mesmer gets tons of free shots at you, go for mesmer, phantasms kill you for free.

I’m usually too busy failing early and getting into stealth to start over, but elsewhere on the board I’ve seen:

Dodge the initial attack from the phantasm and kill it, then get on the mesmer.
The mesmer usually has negligible damage compared to the phantasm.

Maybe next time I’ll keep my cool long and get to try this out. ^^

they are vulnerable to conditions. dodge their phantasm creation attacks. use aoe if you have it. when i play mesmer i usually run this spec and rarely lose 1v1, if i do it’s usually to some BS thief when i have no defensive CDs up or a heavy condi class that I can’t burst fast enough.

It requires a lot of stuff that to me is very high skill level play if the mesmer is good. I just don’t think that is a fair design. I’m not saying skill shouldn’t matter it just seems very auto-pilot if there is any kind of skill diffrence level or even comparable skill level the mesmer wins pretty easily. Mesmers are a very op 1v1 class.

roll a minion necro.

guza.6170:

roll a minion necro.

moa says hi.

I´ve asked the very same question in another forum…
One of the advices was to run out of their LOS, so the illusions gather and fall prey to aoe.
I was also adviced to dodge the iZerker when the animation comes…
Though I wasn´t able to pull this off yet :/

The only phantasm worth killing is duelist.

Sprawl.3891:

they are vulnerable to conditions. dodge their phantasm creation attacks. use aoe if you have it. when i play mesmer i usually run this spec and rarely lose 1v1, if i do it’s usually to some BS thief when i have no defensive CDs up or a heavy condi class that I can’t burst fast enough.

There are lots of bad players though that doesn’t mean anything. I;ve killed plenty of mesmers on my guardian 1v1. A well played mesmer is extremly hard to beat 1v1. You have to do almost everything right and they don’t have to do close to everything right. Very low skill cap class 1v1. Any class with strong pets is by nature intrinsically low skill cap class 1v1.

Classes that abuses the actual gameplay mechanic, as in dropping targets, are all broken by design.

Coming from GW1 and see the royal kittened up class balance in this game brings tears to my eyes. Yes, the pvp here can be fun at times, but the fact remains – if players are of the same skill, there is no class balance.

I will never accept the argument that this is a team game – balance the freakin classes for 1vs1 – simple as that.

It just feels like there’s “too much to dodge”. Like literally. If you dodge iberserker you will get hit by something else shatter or some kitten. Then you take the next 5 seconds waiting for mesmer to unstealth while all the clones / phantasms are hitting you for free.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Classes that abuses the actual gameplay mechanic, as in dropping targets, are all broken by design.

Coming from GW1 and see the royal kittened up class balance in this game brings tears to my eyes. Yes, the pvp here can be fun at times, but the fact remains – if players are of the same skill, there is no class balance.

I will never accept the argument that this is a team game – balance the freakin classes for 1vs1 – simple as that.

Classes weren’t 1v1 balanced in the slightest in gw1.

I wouldnt even complain about target drop considering how much this game absolutely loves to play itself once you do have a target save a few skills. Which is part of why phantasms are actually annoying.

There isn’t much you “have” to dodge. Zerker is obvious and I leap if they’re running it. If duelist dies from cleave/aoe the pressure drops.

I 4-5 of my abilities have cleave, and the shortbow obv has aoe so I exploit it. Not that they are easy kills.

If you’re running Pistol/Pistol and get that glue shot, you can start to mess with them. But again berserker aint the biggy it’s duelist. Annoying as all hell.

There’s a design issue with any “pet” mechanics, be it illusions, minions, elemental or actual pets.

In a fast pace game with no cast bar, you need to be 100% focus on observation to counter your opponent.

The greatest strength of “pets” is their ability to distract you. The extra target(s) to monitor has a huge impact on concentration especially if they have powerful skills – CC or insane burst-.

It wouldn’t be that much of an issue if the game wasn’t so fast paced or if the “pets” didn’t have such bursts.

What class to do you play?

For me they are dangerous but there is a typical pattern… I play sword/p and shortbow thief so that’s all I can offer. But the mechanics might also apply… daze/blind.

The typical ones I run into are the GS and S/P.

When engaging them I watch for the hand raise of the iberserker coming. I either daze shot them or blind/go invis with blinding powder or black powder. This makes them miss it.

When they stealth I stealth if I have blinding powder or refuge still because this is when they hit you with the sleezy pistol shot from stealth then case the duelist on you. They seem to depend on that stealth time alot and if your not targetable then they cant do kitten.

If you cant stealth your gonna have to break that sun quick and dodge roll to evade a majority of the duelist attack.

They go down smooth when you get on them… I have a harder time with the more survivable ones that kill me with confusion and conditions from chaos armor.

Aquin.3192:

What class to do you play?

For me they are dangerous but there is a typical pattern… I play sword/p and shortbow thief so that’s all I can offer. But the mechanics might also apply… daze/blind.

The typical ones I run into are the GS and S/P.

When engaging them I watch for the hand raise of the iberserker coming. I either daze shot them or blind/go invis with blinding powder or black powder. This makes them miss it.

When they stealth I stealth if I have blinding powder or refuge still because this is when they hit you with the sleezy pistol shot from stealth then case the duelist on you. They seem to depend on that stealth time alot and if your not targetable then they cant do kitten.

If you cant stealth your gonna have to break that sun quick and dodge roll to evade a majority of the duelist attack.

They go down smooth when you get on them… I have a harder time with the more survivable ones that kill me with confusion and conditions from chaos armor.

I play engineer, and yes I’m aware that conditions melt mesmers but the thing is that I can’t even get close to a decent mesmer and far range grenade shots are complete guesses/ gambles. Not to mention I rarely play nades because I dislike the kit.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Ranger Beast Master builds where they just stand there and watch me while dodging and evading, waiting for their pet to take huge chunks out of me. Why are there builds in this game that have AI delivering more damage than players themselves?

When it comes to Mesmers, I either take them by surprise or I run away. That’s pretty much it.

hackks.3687:

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Ranger Beast Master builds where they just stand there and watch me while dodging and evading, waiting for their pet to take huge chunks out of me. Why are there builds in this game that have AI delivering more damage than players themselves?

When it comes to Mesmers, I either take them by surprise or I run away. That’s pretty much it.

Yeah beast master builds are pretty hard to kill too, but you can beat them as long as you get your hits in. And the AI (pet) is actually dodge able / avoidable.

I like and agree with your thoughts Hackkz. There seems to be a great imbalance in this game between some classes on the thought, energy and reflexes contributed vs results delivered.

I was dueling with a ranger like that last night and the fights lasted 2-3 minutes and afterwards im sweating at my keyboard while the AI did the work…

But I choose engagement over ease and still enjoy my class… but the question is – should it really be that easy?

waka.9826:

hackks.3687:

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Ranger Beast Master builds where they just stand there and watch me while dodging and evading, waiting for their pet to take huge chunks out of me. Why are there builds in this game that have AI delivering more damage than players themselves?

When it comes to Mesmers, I either take them by surprise or I run away. That’s pretty much it.

Yeah beast master builds are pretty hard to kill too, but you can beat them as long as you get your hits in. And the AI (pet) is actually dodge able / avoidable.

agreed. it’s definitely avoidable. my problem is that I don’t know rangers well enough to be able to spot whether they’re BM or not until their pet has taken a huge chunk out of my HP.

I just don’t like the idea of building yourself to be as tanky as possible while waiting on the game’s AI to do what theoretically you logged in to do – i.e. PvP

edit: to keep on topic – I agree that when fighting a mesmer you need like two or 3 extra dodges, they just chuck so many things at you. You have to dodge the Phantam attacks, you have to dodge the shatters, you have to dodge the iLeap, you have to dodge Magic Bullet, and once you get them with Immob or Stun they pop Phase Retreat or Decoy or Mirror Image. They just outgun you with damage, CC, and avoidance. That’s why I either take them by surprise or just run away.

hackks.3687:

waka.9826:

hackks.3687:

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Ranger Beast Master builds where they just stand there and watch me while dodging and evading, waiting for their pet to take huge chunks out of me. Why are there builds in this game that have AI delivering more damage than players themselves?

When it comes to Mesmers, I either take them by surprise or I run away. That’s pretty much it.

Yeah beast master builds are pretty hard to kill too, but you can beat them as long as you get your hits in. And the AI (pet) is actually dodge able / avoidable.

agreed. it’s definitely avoidable. my problem is that I don’t know rangers well enough to be able to spot whether they’re BM or not until their pet has taken a huge chunk out of my HP.

I just don’t like the idea of building yourself to be as tanky as possible while waiting on the game’s AI to do what theoretically you logged in to do – i.e. PvP

You can usually tell by the weapons they use / how tanky they are / which pets they use. If they have atleast 1-2 signets they are almost 100% a BM ranger.

Basically you gotta pay attention to the phantasms.

-If all of the clones/phantasms start running toward you (and you’re not out of LOS) the mesmer just used a shatter. Dodge through the phantams, not away.

- If only one of the phantasms is running toward you, then the mesmer likely has his sword out and used the 3 skill. How this works is he can use the skill again to swap locations with it and immobilize you. Then he does sword 2 to slash a bunch and turn invulnerable. To avoid this simply dodge toward the phantasm.

-If he stuns you with a pistol shot, stun break it.

That’s really all you need to know. Conditions and AoE work better than single target direct damage because of how slippery they are. I used to have a lot of trouble with them on my power necro, then I switched to conditions and don’t have much trouble anymore.

lettucemode.3789:

Basically you gotta pay attention to the phantasms.

-If all of the clones/phantasms start running toward you (and you’re not out of LOS) the mesmer just used a shatter. Dodge through the phantams, not away.

- If only one of the phantasms is running toward you, then the mesmer likely has his sword out and used the 3 skill. How this works is he can use the skill again to swap locations with it and immobilize you. Then he does sword 2 to slash a bunch and turn invulnerable. To avoid this simply dodge toward the phantasm.

-If he stuns you with a pistol shot, stun break it.

That’s really all you need to know. Conditions and AoE work better than single target direct damage because of how slippery they are. I used to have a lot of trouble with them on my power necro, then I switched to conditions and don’t have much trouble anymore.

You’re talking about how to beat a shatter mesmer, he’s asking how people deal with phantasm mesmers.
You also left out the audio cues of a shatter mesmer’s burst, which is the best way to defend against them.
I have a lot of problems against phantasm mesmers on my guard bunker but when I play dps I have no problems at all. You have to have enough AoE to destroy the phantasms while still pressuring the mesmer. If you’re not running enough AoE you just have to pressure them to the point they can’t get too many phantasms off. That’s the only good advice I can give. Obviously you have to dodge the phantasms. If they shatter they have to recast them and you can force interrupts which can just kill them.
Sorry for the terrible English, on my awful tablet.

If you’re an engineer, grenade kit is the easiest way to deal with such a mesmer. You either dodge the phantasm generating attack or keep eyes on the animations of said phantasms to dodge their attacks.

Grenade kit offers you fat AoEs that is the most reliable way to deal with a mob of illusions. One thing I do need to remind you of is that phantasm mesmers will probably have retaliation on their phants, so be careful.

If you absolutely can’t stand grenades, the only other worthwhile option would be the bomb kit. Big O’ Bomb can give you much needed space and crapping bombs on point will blow up any phantasms trying to melee you. The downside to this approach is that the Mesmer itself can easily kite around you while sending phantasms to their demise.

Engineers with the HGH build is actually one of the Mesmer’s best counters.

Phantasm mesmers are quite strong 1on1. Can be very hard to beat. First thing, always include your class in threads of this nature. The most important thing is to dodge the sword spin clone , and if you can quickly find the real Mesmer get him on him hard. They are still often vunerable to conditions.

Another thing, is phantasm mesmers are not particularly strong in team fights, much less so than shatter, so it might be you need to avoid the 1on1, and beat them in the 5on5.

Try to use many avoiding skills/dodges in the beginning, their opening is crucial. That’s why instagib thiefs are hard for them. After that put a lot of pressure on them forcing a defensive cooldown (most of the times either blink/decoy/distortion, but they dont really want to use distortion because it destroys their damage and pressure off the target. After they’ve used that cooldown be carefull, he’ll summon another phantasm, dodge it’s attack and go for the mesmer again. When he has to use his panic distortion you’ve practically got him since he got no damage anymore and you can finish him off. Put as much pressure on him (melee is the best) since it will make it harder for them to summon a new phantasm.
Hope it helped

~r41 phantasm mesmer

Lumines.3916:

If you’re an engineer, grenade kit is the easiest way to deal with such a mesmer. You either dodge the phantasm generating attack or keep eyes on the animations of said phantasms to dodge their attacks.

Grenade kit offers you fat AoEs that is the most reliable way to deal with a mob of illusions. One thing I do need to remind you of is that phantasm mesmers will probably have retaliation on their phants, so be careful.

If you absolutely can’t stand grenades, the only other worthwhile option would be the bomb kit. Big O’ Bomb can give you much needed space and crapping bombs on point will blow up any phantasms trying to melee you. The downside to this approach is that the Mesmer itself can easily kite around you while sending phantasms to their demise.

Engineers with the HGH build is actually one of the Mesmer’s best counters.

This is slightly misinformed. Grenades are a great way to pressure form range, but you’re not going to kill the phantasms with it since they’re cast at your location and not the mesmer’s. If you’re spamming nade’s at your feet to kill phantasms and clones then you’re too close and likely out of position for the fight and even more likely to be in a lot of trouble. Not to mention that a Mesmer’s GreatSword does more damage at it’s max range than it does at close. Which leads to the conundrum of when should I be in close and when should I be at range. At max range grenades are easily avoided by anyone paying attention though you’re likely to clear out a few clones. Get to close though and you get a magic bullet, an immob from iLeap, and shatter in your face while eating a Blurred Frenzy. It’s an insanely tricky fight.

Also, HGH is not a counter to Mesmers. Conditions are a decent counter to mesmer. HGH just stacks might, and Mesmers can rip that off in a variety of ways.

If you’re running shield, have you tried reflecting the iDuelist’s volley and block stunning the iZerker? Tends to kill/disable them for long enough so that your AOE’s from bombs/grenades/other kits have an opportunity to eliminate the illusions.

If you’re not running shield and have decent power, I retaliation may be an option too.

Lumines.3916:

If you’re an engineer, grenade kit is the easiest way to deal with such a mesmer. You either dodge the phantasm generating attack or keep eyes on the animations of said phantasms to dodge their attacks.

Grenade kit offers you fat AoEs that is the most reliable way to deal with a mob of illusions. One thing I do need to remind you of is that phantasm mesmers will probably have retaliation on their phants, so be careful.

If you absolutely can’t stand grenades, the only other worthwhile option would be the bomb kit. Big O’ Bomb can give you much needed space and crapping bombs on point will blow up any phantasms trying to melee you. The downside to this approach is that the Mesmer itself can easily kite around you while sending phantasms to their demise.

Engineers with the HGH build is actually one of the Mesmer’s best counters.

unless they have retal then u auto kill yourself. lol