Guild Wars 2

I would like some tips fighting mesmers.

Basically what happens is that somewhere in the fight I eat a big clone kaboom and my hp drops to near zero or zero.

I find it fairly difficult to get control of the fight, with all the mesmer invulnerability, stealth, mobility and cc like dazes/stuns (which I cant always get out off to avoid that huge health drop spike).

I play mostly engi atm as soldier rifle.

There are fights where I last very long vs Mesmers and I get them very low but than, eventually I eat a big cc that I cant get out off anymore (stuff on cd) and than I cant avoid the huge kaboom on me.

Feel free to give tips vs them as any class (your class or the class you want to use the PoV from, as I like to try out some other classes besides engi too).

Yashuoa.9527:

snip.

Switch to Mesmer or Ele. Better defense, offense and utility. Eventually you will run out of defenses and they will kill you unless they screw up massively. So just switch if you actually want to be competitive.

Just burst down the real mez as fast as you can.

If you can’t, then kite the clones.

If you’re getting shattered on after a cc, then you’re probably fighting too close to the mez. You’re using a rifle, use it.

So long as its just the mez by himself, most of his skills have big tells (pretty much every time they raise their hands, you need to dodge) and you can avoid them. Put on ‘analyze’ so you can pop him out of stealth with your grenades, so he can’t hid his big tells.

Mez’s are much more dangerous when they’re +1 you. If that happens, you’re better off disengaging

Assuming a power build, keep track of the weapon set that they are in and mind wrack. Mind Wrack is the big damage shatter that has a 10 second cooldown, but it’s really only effective when you have multiple clones/the mesmer around you, so it’s almost like a melee abilty.

If a mesmer has mind wrack up he can spike you.

If they have staff out, you want to almost be recklessly aggressive. Watch out for the Warlock phantasm and chaos storm. If you notice you’re surrounded by clones change your position because you can get mind wracked.

If they have sword out, you want to watch out for illusionary leap into blurred frenzy into mind wrack. That’s basically it.

If they have greatsword you want to be agressive, you need to avoid Berserker phantasm, and mirror blade. Mirror blade and Mind Wrack is their biggest hitting combo.

The thing that will usually get people is a stealth burst of Mirror Blade and Mind Wrack. To avoid this, note where you last saw the mesmer before they stealthed and first look to use LoS to avoid mirror blade.

If you can’t LoS then you’ll want to simply run directly away from where the mesmer stealthed because that causes you to maintain distance allowing you to see mirror blade coming giving you time to dodge. This is what you’ll be using most of the time since PU gives so much stealth uptime.

If you are expecting them to blink in order to land their burst you have to dodge or use a defensive cooldown, Stealth blink burst has no tell but it can only be used every 30 seconds. Though be aware they can do something similar with illusionary leap, but there’s the huge tell of you being immobilized and you have enough time to activate a defensive cooldown.

I may have missed some things, but that should be all the important stuff.

You can actually random dodge much of mesmers bursts since its actually a bit clunky rather than fluid unless done from stealth. Overall though, unless you play a marauder/zerk class that isn’t theif/mes, you should be able to do fairly well against shatter mesmer 1v1.

Soldier engi does fine because it has high sustained damage, can bait defensive cooldowns to lock the mesmer down, and can invuln through a burst if timed correctly.

Mesmers generally cannot survive against a tanky offensive class (meaning your engi build, cele ele, MM or sig nec) in a duel while sitting on the point, so they basically have to let you get a decap or even full cap, since they will die pretty quickly if they try to stand on the point. If you play anything condition based like trap ranger or burn guard, your chances will be really high against PU-shatter mes, although inspiration shatter with mantra of pain will be a harder matchup.

Kudos for not crying “mesmer is OP” but asking for help (I wouldn’t say mesmer isn’t OP, PU is over the top at the moment and it carries a ton of bad players). If you are on EU, I’d be happy to meet up with you in game and show you the tricks of the mesmer trade. I’ve been maining mesmer since ToL1 (aka the time where mesmer was complete and utter kitten), so I will be able to show you more things than just simple mirror blade bursts and how to counter them + I used to main engi so I’ll be able to help out also by telling you what you need to do with your skills ect instead of just what to avoid. You can beat a mesmer 1v1 as an engi if you use the correct tactic. However as of the PU days, if the mesmer starts losing he can easily just stealth up and leave, that is presuming he doesn’t use all his stealths during the 1v1 which most will do.

Yep as they said – if vs a power shatter player, keep a very close eye and count of their cooldowns (as well as dodges but that goes without saying).

If they are using torch and decoy, force them to burn both stealths and keep an eye on when they have been used – remembering one is a stunbreak so after it has been used that’s one less survival option open to them.

If they blurred frenzy, prepare your damage for as soon as the animation and blur effect ends – if they don’t chain into a dodge, blink or other defensive skill they will eat your damage.

F1 will be on a ~12s cooldown which is the minimum window you have between their big bursts – generally most players will go defensive/kite between bursts until their cooldowns reset and this is the time to force them to blow big defensive cooldowns (ie Distortion).

If they blink burst you as an opener, you know one key stunbreak is gone. Always when idling between fights swap to or stay in a weapon set which has immediate access to some defensive skill, be it a block, evade or whatever – it is crucial to have the muscle memory to press the one or two buttons (ie stunbreak into damage avoidance skill). Even from stealth you can see the mirror blade coming and it is easy to dodge providing you always stay aware of where the enemy mesmer(s) are. I haven’t seen many people using mantra if distraction recently so there’s less worry about stun bursts than say last month.

If they are using staff, be sure to not stand in chaos storm (in case traited for interrupt effects and damage). If pistol, watch out for magic bullet and try to los the duelist. The only other commonly used cc tool is F3 but this is on a fairly long cooldown, and iWave but that is easy to see and avoid. There are not a huge amount of dazes/stuns if they are not using mantra of distraction so you should be free to do what you want. Not many people use focus pull anymore, or offhand sword daze.

You need to be aggressive if they are glass and take control of the fight because they don’t have the hp or toughness to prevent it.

Summarising, watch – Distortion, Blurred Frenzy, prestige/decoy, blink, any mantras (Condi removal or daze), Diversion and dodges. Force them to burn those early and hit them hard.

There’s a lot more to say but someone else can type that for you.

as a engie you have also tool kit and maybe you use elixir S sou you can mitigate a lot of dmg you just have to learn how to use it you have to predict some combos from mesmer but it requires some experiences in pvp for sure ;-) PU mesmer is hard match up but if you are both equally skilled mesmer shouldnt be able to kill you and you shouldnt be able to kill him in 1vs1

Not much to add here, but as I mostly play a bunker type, usually I just do my best to try and outlast the Mesmer long enough for my teammates to arrive and wreck the Mesmer or force him to disengage.

Be as aggressive as possible. This will force the mesmer to use their cooldowns more defensively as well as kite more, relieving pressure off yourself.

I feel for you Yashoua. I think (and I play mesmer too) mesmers need to be rebalanced for sure. Let me list:

Invisibility
Manouvrability
Daze/stun
Interrupt
Range
Invulnerability
Burst spike damage

Should a class, really have all these things? d/d eles are hard enough to deal with, let alone this. As someone who plays mesmer in PvP a lot, I still believe I should be nerfed. It just seems highly unbalanced.

Another mesmer can come to me, mass invisible, shoot me down in an instant without giving me a chance to get any of my clones out and I know my husband and guild mates feel the same.

On a side note: how to report macros or hacks in PvP? A particular thief (I don’t suppose I can say her character name?) for SURE MUST use a macro. If she hits you alone, you are 100% dead because it all happens too fast for even a normal human response. If you are lucky enough to have support, you can wittle her down. But, it is an utter joke. Rant over