Guild Wars 2

I love mesmer, but recently I’ve been so torn on him right now as he cannot seem to compete with my warrior in terms of effectiveness. Double ranged shatter is good, but has a glaring weakness to thieves and in solo que for ranked, I often do not get good coverage (I either get one or two more mesmers on my team or all light armors).

I made my own phantasm build that works pretty good in 1v1s and decent in teams, its jsut at the cost of things like portal or traveler rune so he’s kinda slow, but has good damage (although no boon removal). Any advice?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Phantrupt-Asskicker-CS-Interrupt/first

Instead of using double ranged try using Sword Torch/ Greatsword. Shatter really is the only worthwhile spec for competitve pvp. It might seem hard at first but trust me, you’ll learn to fight thieves eventually. If you want help Im pretty decent at mesmer

Source: Im a top tier thief and I 1v1 top tier mesmers a lot

Elitist.8701:

Instead of using double ranged try using Sword Torch/ Greatsword. Shatter really is the only worthwhile spec for competitve pvp. It might seem hard at first but trust me, you’ll learn to fight thieves eventually. If you want help Im pretty decent at mesmer

Source: Im a top tier thief and I 1v1 top tier mesmers a lot

So you’re a top thief, one who’s also a pretty decent (understands) mesmer, and you get rekt by shatter mesmers?

There are some general qualities of builds that do well against thieves. I’ll point out some builds first and then mention what those qualities are.

PU condition builds are close to a hardcounter against thieves. Condition shatter builds also do very well. Standard lockdown builds aren’t great, but phantasm builds that incorporate lockdown (such as Ross’) do quite well. Standard glassy phantasm builds can also work; though they’re more of a risky idea.

Condition builds are generally strong against thieves. A lot of the more glassy thief builds tend to neglect condition removal in favor of more damage and mobility. If you can load them with conditions, they’ll die.

Passive defense and sustain is a great counter to thieves. If they can’t burst you down right away, they lose a huge amount of the standard advantage that they count on, allowing you to coordinate a defense and offense against them.

Consistently strong pressure is a great way to put a thief on the defensive. Mesmer can accomplish this really well with phantasms. Having applied that pressure, the Mesmer can then follow up with control (interrupts) to keep the thief evading and help the phantasms land hits.

PU conditions combines strong condition pressure with strong passive defense and sustain. Shatter condition builds have better passive defense than standard shatter due to the amulet choice, and that condition pressure can melt a thief quickly. Phantasm builds allow you to effortlessly apply pressure while focusing on either controlling the thief or avoidance with active defense.

I have been running 04046. Sword/pistol scepter/torch with maim and illusionary invigoration. Without a doubt the best build for thieves I have played. Just let them close and shatter away. Even your distortion shatter effects them. So much torment and confusion they jump evade invis and then die. Life is much easier running this in wvw.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Elitist.8701:

Instead of using double ranged try using Sword Torch/ Greatsword. Shatter really is the only worthwhile spec for competitve pvp. It might seem hard at first but trust me, you’ll learn to fight thieves eventually. If you want help Im pretty decent at mesmer

Source: Im a top tier thief and I 1v1 top tier mesmers a lot

So you’re a top thief, one who’s also a pretty decent (understands) mesmer, and you get rekt by shatter mesmers?

I dont get “rekt”. There’s a lot of windows of counterplay on the thief class. If im using BP-HS and the mesmer dazes it then follows up with GS2 shatter I basically die. If the mesmer can bait CDs and live through the initial burst+plasma then they can win. If Im using SD thief if they time it right they can get a clean shatter at the end of flanking strike. If they dodge steal at all the matchup goes into the mesmer’s favor, assuming they’re good of course.

Elitist.8701:

If they dodge steal at all the matchup goes into the mesmer’s favor, assuming they’re lucky of course.

Fixed that one slightly for you.

That being said, you are accurate in that thieves do have vulnerable windows. The key is just that a good thief minimizes those windows drastically, and so certain mesmer builds are much more effective at taking advantage of them. Shatter builds are not good at it.

teef! It seems I’ve fought you loads recently in tpvp, some nice fights (tasbre)

Anyway, I use a 0/6/4/0/4 condition build, focused on duelists, with phantasmal haste and extra range on pistol, with krait runes and rabid amulet, and I can’t say I have any trouble with thiefs, soon as they pop out of stealth there hit with 8stacks of bleed and whatever other conditions I get off between scepter and staff, usally there drag it out, but by then I get another duelist out and there eating around 16stacks of bleeds, I have enough defence with rabid amulet and active defence with staff etc to be able to take there initial burst on the chin, this build also does great against thiefs who run condi removal as the application of condis is so consistent

Fay.2357:

Elitist.8701:

If they dodge steal at all the matchup goes into the mesmer’s favor, assuming they’re lucky of course.

Fixed that one slightly for you.

That being said, you are accurate in that thieves do have vulnerable windows. The key is just that a good thief minimizes those windows drastically, and so certain mesmer builds are much more effective at taking advantage of them. Shatter builds are not good at it.

Shatter is quite capable of taking advantage of said vulnerabilities. Strictly speaking 1 v. 1 isn’t the reason shatter has issues dealing with Thieves in tPvP.

shimmerless.4560:

Fay.2357:

Elitist.8701:

If they dodge steal at all the matchup goes into the mesmer’s favor, assuming they’re lucky of course.

Fixed that one slightly for you.

That being said, you are accurate in that thieves do have vulnerable windows. The key is just that a good thief minimizes those windows drastically, and so certain mesmer builds are much more effective at taking advantage of them. Shatter builds are not good at it.

Shatter is quite capable of taking advantage of said vulnerabilities. Strictly speaking 1 v. 1 isn’t the reason shatter has issues dealing with Thieves in tPvP.

Shatter can do it, but you need to fully devote your attention and resources towards doing so, and that means (to me) that it’s not really good at it. Other builds can do it without needing to focus entirely on the thief.

This is the build I use in sPVP: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7dnsISpa2oGuqB3aGZ2YMdHrUBKXqpSGQyA-TJRTABAs/QGlBo5iAE5TAAA

I find thieves to be trivial to fight. The worst enemy for this build is engineers. I just can’t burn them fast enough, and they dish out good damage to me. Tanky guardians are a pain too, but since they run zerkers so often, they usually aren’t an issue. Warriors, rangers, and thieves are my generally the easiest classes to fight, especially if they don’t know how feedback works.

The point im trying to make is that Shatter is the only viable spec other than maybe 44600 CI which is even harder to learn. So you either learn to deal with thieves through positioning/counterplay or you just play a crappy build like condi mesmer. Your choice I guess.

Since I play condi every thief melts after they open with their elite poison and get a block from scepter in their face, followed by a 2-3 clone F2. They mostly die immediately.