Guild Wars 2

I know that thieves are more or less a direct counter to shatter Mesmers in sPvP, bit I was wondering what people do to best deal with them. Outside of Moa (which I now always run and save for thieves), what other tricks do we have to mitigate their burst and, more importantly, their followup after their burst?

Believe it or not, If you’re using shatter, against good thieves, you just have to get lucky.

I’ve given up PvPing as a Mesmer, solely due to thieves. There is no more completely one-sided profession matchup in the game. Stealth is a broken mechanic we have absolutely no way of dealing with. It’s a joke even to the devs, but they’re sure as heck not doing anything about it.

Clearly from the changes you could see the thieves along with engies are the favored children.

Hate to say it. I am sorry.

But on the flip side, Medi Guards eat thieves alive too.

So yeah Zerk to Zerk thieves will eat you, so the best thing I can suggest is use a different build.

It does bug me too that even if I make some amazingly placed blink after their burst, they can just mindlessly mash F1 and be right back on me (with minimal penalty if the steal fails). Buy anyway, I don’t want to turn this into a complaint about thieves, as I really am just looking for some constructive help.

I think it depends on the build. If it is d/p and they are using that pistol heart seeker combo to get back into stealth, you actually can get pretty reliable at interrupting that. Basically you see them throw down the field right at their feet, wait a tad (just takes practice to learn the timing) and hit them with a daze (say MoD) as they heartseeker. Most stand there like idiots for a sec and eat your burst, or they reflexively dodge, or they start mashing their other abilities. Either way it really levels the playing field IF you are also zerk and can quickly capitalize on it.

That’s one tip that works for me in some cases. As others have said, there are some thief builds that really do just hard counter zerk mesmer. But really that’s as it should be, builds have counters, and for us as mesmers that counter usually takes the form of a thief.

As others have also said, if you want to build specifically to beat thieves you can, but then you will have other weaknesses. I know you asked for specific advice about beating thieves, but I hope you take the following seriously: In the PvP ecosystem thieves just eat us, as we eat other classes. Just accept it, try to laugh, or at least not let it get you to, when a thief insta-gibs you, and get back to kicking kitten and enjoying your mesmer. I think in this game trying to have a class/build that just dominates every other class/build you encounter makes for a less enjoyable experience.

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

I’ve given up PvPing as a Mesmer, solely due to thieves. There is no more completely one-sided profession matchup in the game. Stealth is a broken mechanic we have absolutely no way of dealing with. It’s a joke even to the devs, but they’re sure as heck not doing anything about it.

+1, exactly my feeling. Mesmer against thief is so unfair and I dont see Anet doing anything about it.

I mostly play medi guard now, at least I feel like I have a shot against most classes, unlike Mesmer.