Guild Wars 2

I have had many successes against mesmers, but I have to admit, they are my nemesis. Shatter mesmers in particular can be a real problem.

I am a zerker s/f elementalist, which I love above all other elementlist specs. Question is simple: how does one deal with shatter mesmers?

I am not interested in “I trample/own all mesmers as a <insert class/spec>”, that is not helpful or even remotely insightful. Let’s have some reasonable strategies or ideas.

Regards

Candar

Dodge through Shatter if you can… If you can’t, pop invuln or Magnetic Wave and wait for Blurred Frenzy to end (likely to decoy) or when they are casting something like Mirror Blade (invuln into burst before they daze), and unload all your arcane skills, phoenix and lightning flash into air attunement burst. If successful you will get them to pop all their defensive CDs including Decoy and Distortion.

Only redeeming factor in this matchup is you can use your instants while dodging. Try also landing a drive-by Phoenix + LF. Helps pressure immensely. SF can’t live outside of its CDs so you have to manage them and your dodges well.

If he reads you first and distorts/stealths through your burst, gg…
Shatter mes is hard because alone you won’t be able to go through all their stunbreaks for your stun-and-spike and it’s relatively hard to kite in SF and esp. GS mesmer. And Sword Torch is even more annoying.

You have to be rather Yolo and run something like 06206 or 56201 with at least double arcane with arcane lightning trait. You run anything more survivable than that and you have to be in a teamfight (to get peels) or catch them at 50% hp (because if you run LF, Mist, A. Wave you can’t one-shot the mesmer).

You have to learn to dodge the key shatters/setups. One of the biggest issues is powelock Mesmers if they’re using the interrupt spec…. Then you’re kittened. There’s a Mesmer I know who can run this, and I hate using this term, but it is a direct counter in the truest sense.

Chaotic interruption screws you over rather hard. In that spec, they have just as much on-demand burst as you do but much more control and active defense…
In other words, have to outplay…

Mbelch.9028:

You have to learn to dodge the key shatters/setups. One of the biggest issues is powelock Mesmers if they’re using the interrupt spec…. Then you’re kittened. There’s a Mesmer I know who can run this, and I hate using this term, but it is a direct counter in the truest sense.

powerlock mesmers r all weak, powerlock is a terrible trait anyway (actually its good but going 30 into top line u cant either take deceptive evasion or chaotic interrupt

especially against s/f eles powerlock is useless cause most skills arent telegraphed at all > mesmer has to hope for lucky interrupts

shatter mesmers got a waaaaay higher chance of winning against s/f eles than lockdown mesmers

Wyrden.4713:

Mbelch.9028:

You have to learn to dodge the key shatters/setups. One of the biggest issues is powelock Mesmers if they’re using the interrupt spec…. Then you’re kittened. There’s a Mesmer I know who can run this, and I hate using this term, but it is a direct counter in the truest sense.

powerlock mesmers r all weak, powerlock is a terrible trait anyway (actually its good but going 30 into top line u cant either take deceptive evasion or chaotic interrupt

especially against s/f eles powerlock is useless cause most skills arent telegraphed at all > mesmer has to hope for lucky interrupts

shatter mesmers got a waaaaay higher chance of winning against s/f eles than lockdown mesmers

I have a bud who does lockdown, shatter. I’d be happy to introduce you!

I haven’t fought him particularly as a S/F ele. So I can’t speak to it.

I have fought him as D/D. It’s not possible to win.

Ralkuth.1456:

Dodge through Shatter if you can… If you can’t, pop invuln or Magnetic Wave and wait for Blurred Frenzy to end (likely to decoy) or when they are casting something like Mirror Blade (invuln into burst before they daze), and unload all your arcane skills, phoenix and lightning flash into air attunement burst. If successful you will get them to pop all their defensive CDs including Decoy and Distortion.

This is interesting, but what are visual tells in order to “dodge through the Shatter”. How long are they in “Blurred Frenzy” for and again, what are the visual tells for this?

I am considering running a shatter mesmer myself to gain an insight into their abilities. Is it easy to learn? Does it have an equal level of skill cap as the elementalist?

Many thanks for the constructive comments in thread, guys.

Candar

Shatter builds run Illusionary Persona which has a rather large animation on the Mesmer (Same as clone detonations when they shatter) and you can tell what they used from the sound too.

Dodging through shatter means dodge into the oncoming clones as they come to shatter you so they blow up while you evade. You can prep for it if they run sword because of iLeap, watch the finger pointing and the pink boot buff. If they use a Decoy or Torch stealth, run the hell away and be ready to pop a CD, likely your Obsidian Flesh.

Blurred Frenzy is 2.5 secs (0.5 precast, can burst here; 2 second evade) and swings 4 times hits 8 times. There is a purple blob buff for it. Wait for last swing, but they will most likely dodge or decoy after or switch GS to kite until shatter back up.

Please do try out Shatter, beats just fighting them because you then know their mechanics and burst patterns. The better a Shatter Mesmer you are the better you will be fighting them.

Oh, read Supcutie’s shatter guide.
You can just google this.

Mbelch.9028:

Wyrden.4713:

Mbelch.9028:

You have to learn to dodge the key shatters/setups. One of the biggest issues is powelock Mesmers if they’re using the interrupt spec…. Then you’re kittened. There’s a Mesmer I know who can run this, and I hate using this term, but it is a direct counter in the truest sense.

powerlock mesmers r all weak, powerlock is a terrible trait anyway (actually its good but going 30 into top line u cant either take deceptive evasion or chaotic interrupt

especially against s/f eles powerlock is useless cause most skills arent telegraphed at all > mesmer has to hope for lucky interrupts

shatter mesmers got a waaaaay higher chance of winning against s/f eles than lockdown mesmers

I have a bud who does lockdown, shatter. I’d be happy to introduce you!

I haven’t fought him particularly as a S/F ele. So I can’t speak to it.

I have fought him as D/D. It’s not possible to win.

thats why i said s/f ele, cause scepter on its own has tons of instahit dmg

most ppl know what d/d eles r gonna do , therefor they r easier to beat (if mesmer for example), meanwhile s/f is mostly instant hits- tons of different combos, meaning the enemy cant interrupt it

and both shattermesmer and lockdown mesmer counter d/d eles cause d/d eles rely too much on boons,and both mesmer types consist of heavy boonrips

Wyrden.4713:

Mbelch.9028:

Wyrden.4713:

Mbelch.9028:

You have to learn to dodge the key shatters/setups. One of the biggest issues is powelock Mesmers if they’re using the interrupt spec…. Then you’re kittened. There’s a Mesmer I know who can run this, and I hate using this term, but it is a direct counter in the truest sense.

powerlock mesmers r all weak, powerlock is a terrible trait anyway (actually its good but going 30 into top line u cant either take deceptive evasion or chaotic interrupt

especially against s/f eles powerlock is useless cause most skills arent telegraphed at all > mesmer has to hope for lucky interrupts

shatter mesmers got a waaaaay higher chance of winning against s/f eles than lockdown mesmers

I have a bud who does lockdown, shatter. I’d be happy to introduce you!

I haven’t fought him particularly as a S/F ele. So I can’t speak to it.

I have fought him as D/D. It’s not possible to win.

thats why i said s/f ele, cause scepter on its own has tons of instahit dmg

most ppl know what d/d eles r gonna do , therefor they r easier to beat (if mesmer for example), meanwhile s/f is mostly instant hits- tons of different combos, meaning the enemy cant interrupt it

and both shattermesmer and lockdown mesmer counter d/d eles cause d/d eles rely too much on boons,and both mesmer types consist of heavy boonrips

Quite right. I will say that S/F ele can be interrupted pretty easily by people who know what to look for. Auto attacks are the main culprit as they’re a good way to augment damage and are all casted, but yeah I love the instant casts.

it probably isn’t possible unless you go full glass. GS outranges scepter

Not much actual advice in here tbh.

Things you should dodge:
- iZerker
- Mirror blade
- Swap/phantasmal mage depending on what their second weaponset is

All three of those are quite doable to dodge, and make a huge difference. Obviously you should also dodge shatters when they’re running at you, but in an actual duel scenario, that’s what happens when dodging swap/mirror blade.

As you have probably noticed, the problem vs shatter mesmer is almost solely to survive through their two stealth reopens (decoy, mass invis). Making good use of the time you are given when they stealth helps quite a bit. Clear clones/phantasms with dragon’s tooth(very helpful), stack some might while you’re at it. Most importantly, spam auto for signet procs. Don’t waste invuln, and don’t dodge in invuln. Bait as much damage into it as you can.

This matchup is not as reliant on fire attunement (meaning the phoenix flash combo), but mostly revolves around air spikes. Even more so than other matchups.

Keep swirling winds and magnetic wave for the offhand swap. Nothing of the greatsword can be reflected or blocked (many people fall for the mirror blade reflect, doesn’t work).

Also buildwise, make sure you’re running a proper setup. 66002 pack runes, fire/air, zerker is my personal preference. Can’t go wrong with that. 06044 works too, but not as well in a straight up 1v1 setting.

Gokil’s statement above is good advice. Izerk is a must dodge. The swirling winds can block the warlock (staff) or duelist (pistol). In all honesty the shatters are fairly easy to dodge bc it’s when all the clones start to run at you. Just care about the daze and mind wrack. True mesmers usually run 2-3 stunbreaks so use your cc ‘s to force these and act upon them. Know that blurred frenzy is a 2 and half second evade and distortion is 4 seconds (with illusionary persona). Mesmers, like thieves, are extremely vulnerable from immobilization. Lately, after the recent update to earth signet (made it essentially pin down), I use it a lot now and it helps extensively with landing bursts to anyone.
All in all, mesmer, like ranger, is one class you always want to stay close to. Don’t let them range you at all. Push in close but be sure to dodge or block iwave on gs bc then they can set up for a nice shatter. Other than this advice, the best thing you can do is roll a mesmer and see for yourself how they operate. I’ve played one extensively over the years besides ele and I can honestly say they are a fairly easy class to figure out.

SaintSnow.6593:

Gokil’s statement above is good advice. Izerk is a must dodge. The swirling winds can block the warlock (staff) or duelist (pistol). In all honesty the shatters are fairly easy to dodge bc it’s when all the clones start to run at you. Just care about the daze and mind wrack. True mesmers usually run 2-3 stunbreaks so use your cc ‘s to force these and act upon them. Know that blurred frenzy is a 2 and half second evade and distortion is 4 seconds (with illusionary persona). Mesmers, like thieves, are extremely vulnerable from immobilization. Lately, after the recent update to earth signet (made it essentially pin down), I use it a lot now and it helps extensively with landing bursts to anyone.
All in all, mesmer, like ranger, is one class you always want to stay close to. Don’t let them range you at all. Push in close but be sure to dodge or block iwave on gs bc then they can set up for a nice shatter. Other than this advice, the best thing you can do is roll a mesmer and see for yourself how they operate. I’ve played one extensively over the years besides ele and I can honestly say they are a fairly easy class to figure out.

if mesmer has a staff, immob is nothing

and i dont think immob is painful for thief tbh

Works fine for me. If the mesmer has a staff I anticipate phase retreat but most mesmers don’t remember to do this. As for thieves, withdraw is the main source to get out of a quick immob. I only use an immob after I’ve forced their heal.
Overall to be honest, immobilization is the weakness of all classes.