Against Necros: (In general necro doesn’t have that many obvious animations, there are still a couple of important skills that people never pay attention to. Best practice is to make a new necro and try out the weapon skills on golems.)
- Condi burst: The basic rotation is marks 3-2-5, ds 2,3,5, scepter 2
The chill mark sets up a lot of the burst and makes landing the marks a lot easier. The moment you see the first animation from staff, dodge. Staff is a weapon with very long cd’s and a kittenty autoattack, not landing marks is a huge deal for a necro.
For the ds burst, the necro can either cast ds2 first and fear in the last second to ensure it lands or wait for ds3 until the claw has landed to get a third terror tick. Learn to dodge dark path (dodge through it instead of away from it), since it sets up geomancy or makes scepter 2,5 easier to hit.
If you avoid the big parts of the burst, scepter autoattack + low cd’s should be manageable.
Condi transfers: Mark 4 doesn’t look different than the rest. Against other condi classes necros usually hold it back. So if the necro swaps back to staff during combat, try to avoid it.
Dagger 4 is a projectile that you can dodge. Learn the animation and you should be easily able to avoid it unless it’s point blank.
Consume conditions: If you have interrupts, try to hold them back to interrupt the heal. You can bait it out by condi bursting him (if he used his transfers already).
-Minion masters: Take it slow. It’s a very good duel build, but has a hard time protecting the minions against aoe. They usually go with a tanky amulet, so bursting them isn’t really an option.
Only bone fiend is ranged, the rest can easily be kited. Try to kite and kill them, break los frequently (if possible) and doge the flesh golem and dagger 3. Once the minions are down, the necro loses is sustained healing, condi removal and all the investment he made in traits/utilities.
For the minions to actually do damage, some cc (dagger 3, charge, rigor mortis) or soft cc (cripples, chills) is usually necessary. Try to avoid these as much as possible and cure them as a priority.
- Automated response: In general it’s a good trait against necros, although i never really use it. It can be very hard for condi necros to kill you in duel scenarios (although it’s still quite easily possible with a bit of timing). I don’t like to rely on it since outside of duels staying at 25% health for a prolonged period of time usually means getting bursted by another roamer.
Maybe this helps.
Edit: Mesmers:
In general, try to work in bursts. Mesmers have a lot ways to avoid damage (stealth, distortion, blocks, pu boons, vigor). Try to hold big attacks until you can be sure to land them. Against skilled mesmers, winning means autoattacking a lot.
- Shatter: Dodge the sword leap combo. It’s very easy to avoid and with a bit of practice you should never get hit by it.
In general, dodge through the illusions that run towards you. It’s a lot easier to time right.
Avoid getting surrounded by illusions, since it usually sets up shatters without sword and makes keeping track of when dodge a lot harder. Always keep them in front of you.
- Phantasm: Dodge the phantasm attacks. Berserker and duellist are the easiest to avoid and have long cd’s between the attacks. Swordsman is harder and has a low cd. Try to kill it when theres nothing better to do. It can be hard to keep track of warlocks since they don’t have flashy attacks
- Pu condis: Either run away since they can’t catch anybody or prepare for a long fight. You usually only encounter them in wvw or hotjoins. Keep track of your conditions and focus on curing confusion bursts.
Dodge scepter 3. Try not to trigger the scepter block unless you have a clean ready.
Should you really have problems with keeping track of a mesmer during fights, you simply need more practice. Try to go to duel events or duel servers or ask your mesmer friends to practice with you a bit. Tipps like watching out for food buffs or missing second weapon didn’t help me. Focus up, keep track of the stealth (try to count to 3 or 4 to learn when he’ll reappear) and dodges and you’ll do fine.
Necros are tough too.
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