I play Mesmer almost exclusively, but when I’m not Mesmering I roll Staff Elementalist… And unfortunately the news isn’t too great. PU (Short for Prismatic Understanding, a Grandmaster in the Chaos line) Mesmer have two main variants; power and condition. Power PU Mesmer fight the same as a standard Phantasm Mesmer, they simply sacrifice a chunk of damage for all that insane defense. Condition Mesmer are considerably different, so you should never go into a fight thinking “Oh look a stealth-spamming Mesmer, they’re all the same.”
PU Condition Mesmer have 3 main ways of doing damage:
- Clone Deaths (3xAoE Bleed or Weakness or 3xVulnerability + Cripple)
- Torment & Confusion from Scepter (Very dangerous)
- Staff Autoattack (Burn/Bleed)
CLONE DEATHS
While a staff Elementalist excels at fighting at long range, a PU condi Mesmer excels in close combat largely because of their suicidal clones. The AoE Weakness/Bleeds/Cripple the clones provide are a significant part of PU Mesmer’s damage mitigation, but also a big part of their damage. You going to be at a huge disadvantage trying to fight a PU Mesmer up close because they want your AoEs destroying their clones, it plays into their hands. The best way to prevent this is to CC the clones and keep kiting. Never stop moving and try not to get too close.
TORMENT & CONFUSION
Eles have to cycle through a LOT of skills very quickly to be effective, and even the act of attunement-swapping procs confusion damage (as far as I remember). Most PU Mesmers wield a Scepter, which shoots a channeled confusion beam in addition to being able to counter for Torment. Torment is deadly as hell, able to hit you for 8000 damage if you’re moving and don’t cleanse it and on a very short cooldown. If you can manage to cleanse the torment, you’ll live significantly longer versus PU Mesmer, but again you’re at a disadvantage as all the Mesmer has to do is walk up to one of your AoEs (such as Lava Font) with the counter held out and tap it to damage you.
STAFF AUTOATTACK
Many people are going to advise you that the best way to mitigate damage of a PU condition Mesmer is to simply not attack them. If you’re not destroying the clones or proccing the Torment/Confusion then you’ve cut a huge chunk of enemy damage. A smart PU Mesmer also realizes this weakness and knows a way around it: the Staff.
Winds of Chaos (WoC), the staff auto, shoots a bouncing projectile that can either burn or bleed. On it’s own its not very noticeable, but remember that staff clones also reproduce this attack and 2 clones plus the Mesmer spamming WoC at you will melt you soon enough (plus, the Mesmer can “kill” their clones by overwriting them with new ones). Since staff clones are stationary, its a good idea to kill them if they’re not near you, again you have to make sure you don’t give the Mesmer an opportunity to counter-torment you.
If all that sounds difficult.. well it is. You’re going into a fight with a huge disadvantage versus a PU Mesmer.
Power builds are less arduous: Dodge+Lava font their phantasms and stay close to them and they’re pretty helpless. Condition builds are designed to be able to fight 3v1 in PvP, 5v1 in WvW and can be very dangerous in the right hands… However this comes at a price: They have very little presence in team fights. Their clones become less effective, their conditions are lost in AoE cleanses, and overall they become just another bit of the blob. These builds are better as loners and decappers than team fighters, so your best defense is what you should be doing with a staff anyways – fighting with a team!
