Guild Wars 2

Surprise. I’m actually pretty clueless and suck at this game.

I’m going to be in a 1v1 duel tourny tomorrow. I’m going to lose in the first match most likely (single elim) because I’m fighting a Mesmer. If it’s a shatter Mes, no problem. But it won’t be. Because conditions are the meta.

WvW is one thing. I don’t know how to deal with them in sPvP. I can give myself the condition removal to stay alive, but I can’t do enough damage to kill them. Eventually, as per tournament rules, we’ll have skills disabled. This will hurt me far more than them since a large number of their condis come from weapon skills and traits anyway. All of my condi removal is from shouts (unless I also trait for Purity).

If I go medis, I lack a large amount of condition removal but have more damage (typically running less tanky with medis). Ugh, you get the idea.

What’s the trick? How do I reliably beat an experienced condition Mesmer as a Guardian in sPvP? What builds work? Which weapons?

That said, I’m having ridiculous amounts of trouble with condition necros as well. The best I can do is starve them of things to convert by playing meditations, but even then I have a very hard time keeping up with the conditions they put out anyway. If I try to burst them down, I’m too squishy to reliably take them down if they’re any amount of tanky before their conditions work me down.

I’m honestly stressing out over this. I found my counter to S/D Thieves, but I can NOT find a way to reliably beat these two professions as a Guardian. For reference, the tournament is profession locked, but not build locked, so I can build dance.

Oh, and spirit rangers.

Right now the condition burst is pretty powerful, and difficult to stem off.

Just for the hell of is i went full healing power, staff/mace/shield with energy for rolls 0/0/20/30/20 maximizing healing power, and sure I stay alive against one condi burst mesmer or necro, even engineers, but I don’t do any damage to threaten them.

I think your best bet is to think offensively in as much of an aspect as you can without stepping outside of the defensive zone and being a glass cannon, because you typically wont GC them down faster than they will you.

Stability at the moment is a fairly strong must against necros

Absolute resolution as you well know is very strong because of the 3 condition wipe + regen and small burst heal.

As far as mesmer, the conditions come from the ground effects and clones, either by clone death or by auto attack. The clones die fairly fast, but phantasms are stronger.

I think necro is the bigger threat honestly since they have a direct chance to stack conditions on demand, versus mesmer random chance of 2 or 3 different boons on a fairly slow tick.

I have honestly not seen “too” many spirit rangers, so I haven’t noticed them.

You could try runes of lyssa to combine with renewed focus to drop all conditions and gain all boons, as well as contemplation of purity, then after that work in a build you are comfortable with.

There was another guy on here earlier who was doing gs/staff with a anti meta build, which had a few posts. He seemed to do good and beat well known mesmer, supcutie. I’m not too into the serious crowd to know what build it was he was on though. Video was on that post so you could analyse the fight if need be.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Top-50-SOAC-Stunningstyles-Tpvp-Build-Video/first

There is the post if you wanted to evaluate the build and video to see if you could adapt it into your own gameplay/style maybe.

reread your post and noticed you already feel comfortable with the conditions, but its the time constraints that pressure you…

Pack a bunch of condition removals and glass cannon damage. Remove the first two sets of conditions with your condition removals while bursting them down.

like timidobserver mentioned, i feel like your best bet would be to bring a lot of condi removal, and a LOT of damage.

my experience with condition/shatter mesmers or condi necros while being successful is when you’re able to stay on them like no other and apply nonstop pressure. don’t let them control the pace – which i feel you have a lot of practice with already. GS and sword i feel would be good against a mesmer. lot of AoE, fast paced attacks, some control via a pull, and mobility. so it’s good you’re an expert at those sets.

in terms of build though, that’s what i’m trying to think of. iirc, you mentioned before you were most comfortable playing the Healway. would you be willing to switch it up right before you play? obviously, you’ll get some practice in before hand.

i feel meditations are a good way to go. you have one mass condi convert (though dangerous against a necro), another one condi cleanse every 16s, and you can pack purity as well as signet of resolve for two passive cleanses every 10s. JI gives you another port as well. obviously, can trait for medi’s to heal which are really strong but then that dictates 30 into Valor right off the bat.

i used to run a 0/0/30/20/20 which is semi-bunker. so you can pick up absolute resolution as well which is even more condi cleanse. but then, i fear you might be losing out on some damage needed to shut those condi builds down.

I found med builds work wonders on them. AH builds not so much. Most mesmers I have killed I had to chain hit kill. If the fight went on too long I lost. By chaining I mean gambling JI with whirl and smite condition. With a high damage build that makes mostly anybody flinch and panic. But again the emphasis is on end the fight fast. GL

yea, i felt that too. the longer the fight dragged on, the less edge i had in fights against varying mes / necro’s.

In regard to the condition Mesmers, be careful using melee AoE against them, since many will trait to inflict a number of conditions on clone death. Whirling Wrath may clear the clones, but you could spike yourself with conditions in the process, and those sort of Mesmers can have two or three more clones up in a couple seconds. Personally speaking, I’ve always found our ranged weapons to be the fastest and safest way to deal with condition Mesmers, since the clones can’t inflict conditions on you if they aren’t near you when you die. It also gives you more time to respond to bleed-inflicting projectiles from the clones, and makes it easier to conserve your dodges for big attacks, like Chaos Storm or the iDuelist’s volley.

If you’re fighting a Shatter Mesmer, AoE and melee is safer, and you just need to keep stun breaks/cleanses ready for their combo. Watch for the clone rush, remove CC, and dodge toward the clones. The Mesmer will be exposed and at their weakest after a Shatter, so push your advantage and force them to burn their CD’s. Standard Mesmer counter-tactics apply (calling target on the real one, watching for strafing/dodging/healing, turning off monster names in your options, etc.)

About Necros, aggressive play is the best strategy. It’s way too difficult to try to cleanse and heal through the Necro’s endless waves of AoE condition spam, so the best way to handle them is to DPS them down. Be careful with using any burst damage you have while they still have Death Shroud available, since after the recent patch, Spectral Armor + DS can absorb huge amounts of damage, and builds investing in Soul Reaping get Spectral Armor automatically at 50% HP. The good news is that your average condition Necro isn’t especially strong in DS. They have access to small amounts of Bleed, Chill, Fear, Torment, and potentially Immobilize, but Burning from Dhuumfire is going to remain their primary source of damage. Anticipating Doom to avoid Fear and the subsequent Terror damage is critical for keeping pressure on the Necro, and moderate, well-timed cleansing should be able to keep you in the fight until they leave DS. A Necro without Life Force is a squishy Necro – I don’t know if the tourney rules will permit them to build any LF beforehand, but if not, come out swinging to put on lots of pressure from the start, while dodging the Marks and the other unpleasant AoE’s they’ll probably try to throw at you early on.

For Spirit Rangers, the general consensus is that their Spirits need to die first. Try to take out the offensive spirits (Sun and Storm) first. Doing so will severely hinder the Ranger’s offensive capabilities, and will make taking out the Stone Spirit and Spirit of Nature much less stressful. Once the Spirits are dead, you’re basically fighting a Ranger without utilities or an Elite. Speccing for some AoE is recommended to kill the Spirits efficiently, but past that, stick to the same strategy as above – strong DPS and cleansing to pressure your target until it’s dead.

All of this advice comes from my personal experience, so others may disagree, but hopefully at least some of it will be useful. Best of luck!

Sounds pretty spot on honestly Soryuju.

Good insight on the spirit rangers, because without those 2 pets (sun and storm) he wont be stacking as much burning and getting extra damage, can they be AOEed easy enough like our spirit weapons? Or are they fairly durable.

CMF.5461:

Sounds pretty spot on honestly Soryuju.

Good insight on the spirit rangers, because without those 2 pets (sun and storm) he wont be stacking as much burning and getting extra damage, can they be AOEed easy enough like our spirit weapons? Or are they fairly durable.

My personal impression is that they’re more durable than our Spirit Weapons, but I couldn’t give you numbers on it. I only have a vague idea because I honestly try to avoid fighting Spirit Rangers 1v1 in tournies. Even if I do manage to take them down, it takes way too much time for me to do it, and that gives the Ranger plenty of time to get help from their teammates. It’s much more efficient for me to bring a buddy along to kill the Ranger and his pets before the other team’s roamers arrive. In a duel setting like this one, though, that’s obviously not a factor, so 1v1ing with a proper build may be more viable.