Guild Wars 2

I’m not saying they’re totally OP omg nerf hammer. I’m honestly wondering, how do you kill a good mesmer? Every time I think I found the real one, it’s a clone. Rinse and repeat and die. I honestly have no idea how to fight them one on one.

I am a spiker build. Specifically, 100nades Engineer. I’m not really looking for build specific ways of defeating them, just in general, how do you keep track of where the real mesmer is if they don’t suck?

The more you play against them the easier it gets, but understanding their utilities helps a lot. There are three utilities that are probably confusing you. The first is Mirror Images, which is a stun breaker and summons two clones. The second is Blink which is just a teleport. I don’t think these two break your target though so these shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Decoy is the other utility which summons a clone and stealths the mesmer, forcing you to lose target. In this case, know that the mesmer will only be stealthed for 3 seconds, so wait a bit and the real one will pop back up again. Also, some mesmers spec for a trait that stealths them for 3 seconds when they reach 25% health.

Mesmers that choose to use the staff also have a stunbreaker that teleports them away from their opponent and creates a clone where they were. So if you are facing a mesmer using staff, when this happens, the correct mesmer is the one in back, furthest away from you.

Also look for any sigils that stack/titles under name and to see if they have an off hand weapon. Clones have none of these. Also world completion badges. That is like a huge target over the players head.

for single target classes its a pain in the kitten for aoe classes throw as much aoe as you can to melt through the clones, also as stated look for player only giveaways,
such as strafing, dodge rolling, back peddling or using different skills,

also mark the target, this will let you stick on them by hitting T, unless they stealth, then it’s refreshed.

and long channeling skills that focus a target will continue to focus them if they stealth/teleport.

Try to identify the real mesmer the following way. If it backs up, rolls, stops attacking for a second, mark it with your assist key and it will stay on it, unless he stealths.

Learn to identifity when a shatter is coming, you will see an illusion spawn from the mesmer and charge quickly at you, that should be dodged otherwise burst is to follow. If you are using elxisir s, use that to dodge the burst if u get rooted and caught.

3. Some engy aoe immobolizes will prevent mesmer shatter if u time it right.
4. 100 nades isnt the best 1on1spec unless u get the drop on someone, probalby y u have trouble w mesmers, so either avoid 1on1, or fight em more conventionally and try to aoe like a motherkitten to get them down.

You can always tell which mesmer is which there’s so many tells; if he goes invis it’s the last one out of invis, and its always going to have black smoke at his feet.

Practice makes perfect.

Here is a really subtle one, the real mesmer has an off hand weapon. Duplicates freqently (if ever?) dont display the weapon in the off hand.
Obviously the tranluscent clones are easy to identify.

No duplicate never have an off hand. And if you are fighting under water they don’t even have a weapon at all! I hope both of these are an oversight on the part of Anet.

At any rate, oversight or not, its something u can use to spot the real mesmer.

The real mesmer will strafe/dodge/use skills. That’s how you see him.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

The real mesmer will strafe/dodge/use skills. That’s how you see him.

that plus he might have buffs or boons.

He’s also more durable than his clones.

yh, and when u try see where real mesmer, u die ^^
best counter mesmer is run away, mesmer bad follower

Can clones have buffs/conditions on them?

Yes, they can receive buffs and conditions as well as having a few trait-based ones.

With 100 Nades you are going to have to be especially careful against a Mesmer. They have a lot of Blink skills they can use while Immobilized or Disabled. Basically this is the least likely target to ever get hit by a Nade Spike.

Make sure you dodge roll into any shattering clones, so they blow up while you are evading. Keep very mobile so the Sword Swap has a much more difficult time of landing. The biggest goal is just avoiding the Shatters and making sure you keep damage on the real Mesmer. If it’s a Phantasm build just AoE them down with the Grenades. If you ever want the combo to land then you probably have to feint it once or twice before hand. If they are a staff build you won’t ever land it fully. 100 Nades isn’t exactly useless without the combo though, so just keep at it.

Someone above though was also right. You can always run when the going gets tough, because Mesmers have a hard time chasing. They might be able to stop someone for a short time, but with 100 Nades you should be able to get away if things go wrong.