Guild Wars 2

Ok so I was roaming alone on WvW, taking Points, killing Dolyaks and taking Camps on my own. I defeated anything that came at me.

3 NPCs at the same time? hah
3 NPCs and 2 server defenders? Fun times.

Then I saw a guy alone running I even got the advantage of seeing him before he saw me. Then after that first attack he killed me before I realize my health had drop in such little time, so instead of complaining and asking for nerfs I want to know how to kill these guys. Any ideas? Tips?

as far as i know, not much you can do about it 1v1, unless you fight in an enclosed space to restrict their movement.

Sounds like he Shattered you. Shatter builds are hard to fight. The biggest thing you can do to help is to stop his cloning with interrupts. That will impede a lot of what he can do. The time to interrupt them is nearly immediately upon engagement because that’s the first thing a mes will do.

I put a clip of me 1v1’n a mesmer in my latest video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuLki4fP648) or, you can view the video (and others) in this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Videos-WvW-DPS-builds/first#post1177930

The just of it:
1) When they Blink/stealth, you dodge to avoid insta shatter. A lot of mesmers run ‘clone on dodge’.

2) Block or Dodge when you see thier clones move in on you: they’ve shattered and the clones are now running to you to shatter.

3) Save your Blinks/Leaps/JI for when they do the same. More often then not, they’re blinking and building clones, so you can sit back, wait for them to rush you, then port over them.

4) Just DPS the crap out of them whenever they come up. Yes, you’re probably going to get hit w/ Confusion & Retaliation from killing them, but w/ decent condition removal and a little patience waiting for them to wear off, you’ll be fine.

That’ it off the top of my head.

~Edit~ The reason you want them burning isn’t so much for the damage, but so you can see which one is actually them! imho.

It really depends on his build as well as yours.
Amins have showed a capable way if you’re running a guardian burst build.
Take a look at my 1v1 duel with a mesmer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTRwBlpvAu4
I am running a totally different build from Amins, so there might be some tricks to pick up
Hopefully you can get an idea how to cope with mesmers. But i agree, they are pretty kitten tough!

Mesmer here! I run a Shatter build: 60% crit on Mind Wrack (50% otherwise), +20% damage on Mind Wrack, +75 crit damage.

Honestly, the profession that’s the easiest to kill for me are Guardians because of their low HP pool. Usually, they are dead after my first burst (17~20k damage in 5 seconds). HOWEVER, if you do survive, clean out confusion right away. I usually end up putting 8 to 12 stacks of it throughout my attacks, so everything you do will hit you for 1.2~2k. I’ve seen people survive with 1/3~1/4th of their health, only to kill themselves with confusion.

The key here is Vitality/Blocks/Dodges/Interrupts/Invulnerability (your elite skill) to help you survive the first burst. Toughness might help, but I’ve not seen a big difference. If the Mesmer has a Pistol, the stun will tell you that a burst is incoming.

After that first burst, the combat might slow down for around 10~12sec. Chances are that a lot of the burst skills will be on cooldown, including clone-generating ones (except clone on dodge). This will be your best window to burst out the Mesmer. A lot of Shatter builds run on low HP/Toughness and minimal condition removal. Cripples/Chills work well, since a Mesmer’s defense is to keep a distance between him and his enemy. If the Mesmer uses a greatsword, pop Stability before going melee.

1) I believe you’ll have an easier time against a Phantasm build than a Shatter build.
2) Shatter-Mesmers are at their weakest after that first burst.
3) That first burst hits hard! Use anything you can to survive it.
4) Mesmers with a staff will be able to survive their downtime easier than the ones running with greatswords, but their initial burst is weaker.

Thank you for the replies and the videos, I guess I need to change my tactics. I really don’t feel like changing my traits because like I said nothing else could kill me and i have a fairly bit of burst as well.

Is funny tho I can kill 1 vs 2/3 but 1 single mesmer can put me down in seconds.

I would honestly think that using a staff is the best weapon against a mesmer. Staff auto-attack is a huge cone and has a 600 foot range, so you can more easily destroy a mesmer’s clones before they get to you. At least use a staff as one of your weapons to combat clones, then switch to something else once you get them down initially (and repeat as needed).

You can also throw up a line of warding to keep some of the clones from getting to you.

Not sure about guardian’s trying to interrupt clones. All guardian impairment skills are high cost knockdown/backs that are best reserved for their own bursts. AoE’ing the clones before they explode is a better tactic.

The one time I was killed by a guardian while using a mesmer is a hammer guardian who is killing my clones as soon as they’re created, that really crippled me quite severely.

I’m struggling with most mesmers, too.

One minute I’m doing okay, then I’ve lost nearly all of my health – are their powers ignoring toughness or are they supposed to hit for 15k+?

I was advised not to do anything when I had confusion stacked on me, so to test if it was this, I didn’t try to fight the next one I met and I still had the big ~15k HP drop mid-fight. Can shatter do this much?

If you want to know what you’re getting hit by, check your combat log after the fight, as I can only speculate otherwise. I’ve never stacked that much with a single shatter myself, but from numbers I’ve seen it’s well within the realm of possibility for a burst to do that much.

There’s a good example by Osicat (who maintains a very popular thread in the mesmer forums) of just how quickly a mesmer can tear down a guard at the 4:20 mark in this video (although this guy looks a little GC): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJzO2btc1iE
He burns the guardian’s block using a daze shatter, then the counterblock (or air rune, not sure) and MW shatter with just a single clone hits for over 10k; if the guard were still standing he could have hit his sword #2 for probably another 6k at melee range for anyone foolish enough to not dodge away.

I am a shatter heavy mesmer myself although NOT SUPER GC becaues my armor stats are in the power/tough/vit but my accessories are in the prec category… I feel that a tanky guardian puts up a more fun and interesting fight than a thief… But honestly I just wanted to thank you for ASKING advice before jumping on the OMG so OP NERF INTO GROUND NOW band wagon… I am sure you also have the thanks of all mesmers that would come across this. Good luck and take the advice of everyone here that gives you constructive ideas.

@Lyca, Hi, how werad I feel find myself in the guardian forums this morning. I usualy spend some time every morning write in the memsmer forums but feel this thread was worth some attention.

I feel guardians to be a interesting matchup in pvp, I run 99% of my pvp in wvwvw eather smal group or solo/dual roaming. One thing with you guys is how big difference you make on the battlefield. A groupfight or a 1 vs 2/x as mesmer i feel guardians on enemy side cause enourmous problems. This as you have the advantage of big fast ressing and substained healing/dmg. I cause of this include alot of fights vs guardians on my forum guide for mesmers and videos.

1 vs 1 is another history, here mesmers who play shatter build have a big advantage, yes the burst we do is good but I feel our ability to longtime immune enemy effects is our best weapon.

Some specific tipps for you vs shatter mesmers.

1 know your enemy, test play vs one many times, see videos of mesmer fight guardians and analyce what we do.

2 Daze, a new mesmer will just cripple you land a sword and hit big burst, this is easy avoided by hit defenses as soon cripple land. When you thu face a more experienced mesmer you first be dazed, this prevent some of your defenses and in some build stack vulnebility. This is where you need to watch out.

3 Dots, burning is agood tip, most mesmers run without condition removal, so stacking conditions can in smae cases help, nowdays thu alot of mesmers run with sigil of generosity who give conditions back.

I include 2 vids. One is with some 1 vs 1 where I fight some guardians and other classes. The first fight is guardian and its a simmilar later on. Can scroll thru most as its other classes between.

1 vs 1 some guardians. 4:05 2 nd guardian. obs this vid show how we land our nuke on guardians. See what to look out for ( daze)

this vid is first some other classes but interesting for you is the fight at 4 48, its accualy one of my guides how to fight teams with guardian support. Rest of vid is just if you want to see how mesmers move to find our weakness.

I hope I could help some, if any other questions abour shatter mesmers have a peak at my guide in mesmer forums “shatter cat” I try help if I can.

/love Osicat

Thank you all for the tips, and last night i did much better didn’t had a lot of 1 vs 1 last night vs mesmers the one I did have was “leveled up” and I noticed a lot of stuff now, like the clones running toward me etc; i didn’t know about that bit before.

I was having an off day too last night getting owned by everything thought heh.

This way already discussed in another topic — why did you create a new one:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/My-Guardian-vs-Mesmer

Seriously the search feature works pretty well.

Just did a search for “mesmer” and it didn’t pull that thread up.

That’s because searching for “mesmer” brings up 555 results and the forum engine doesn’t show you that many. If you search for “pvp mesmer” you’ll get the topic I linked.

Still doesn’t show up, and not only that, a lot of people don’t associate “pvp” with “wvwvw” since those are considered two different aspects to the game.

However, arguing about the search function is really irrelevant.

juno.1840:

That’s because searching for “mesmer” brings up 555 results and the forum engine doesn’t show you that many. If you search for “pvp mesmer” you’ll get the topic I linked.

This thread is hardly cluttering up the forum. Just ignore the topic if you don’t want to read it.

Hammer is the bane of most Mesmers
Auto Attack: High Damage, gives protection/retaliation through blast finishing
Mighty Blow: low CD, high damage, clears mesmer clones
Zealots embrace: locks them down through most of their stealthing, unless they blink
Banish: interupts heals, hard CC
Ring of Warding: locks the Mesmer in place, or can block clones running in.