Guild Wars 2

I am an older player and I don’t have super fast response any more. So I play a phantasm mesmer in sPvP and let the fire-and forget phantasms do their work without me having to actively manage them.

That way I can focus all of my attention on staying alive and recasting the phantasms as needed.

What tips do you have for me about how to best avoid getting hit when they rush me to melee? They seem to be able to tell a clone from me quite easily and ignore the clones.

I use decoy. Are there some other tricks I can learn, other than dodging like a madman?

Decoy + Blink is amazing. You use up two utilities, but it confuses everyone.

Also, what key do you use to dodge. I have a logitech mouse and I bind dodge to pushing the mouse wheel to the side. It helps with my slow reaction (cause it’s really quick).

I would recommend lots of invisibility skills. Osicat has great videos with a condition spec. Where he just bugs the heck out of people.

I also recommend binding dodge to an easy to use location. I bind dodge to pushing the mouse wheel to the right. I can hit it very quickly, which helps make up for my natural clumsiness.

I can get behind the dodge binding idea. Shaky fingers and unexpected twitches tend to lead me to double-tapping keys more than I’d like. I’ve had to unbind double-tap to dodge so it needs to be someplace I can reach quickly. As my joints get worse, I’m also glad I’ve got my Naga.

Phantasmal Defender is still something I turn to from time to time. He’s no longer the retaliation damage farm he used to be, but he’s still a nice bag of health. Decoy is nice. I also favor my staff. Sadly, both of those last two will kill a phantie when you’re at 3.

And then I get frustrated and blow the whole load on a shatter. Because sometimes I just want to see the world burn in an eruption of purple butterflies. … Admittedly, I’m not very good at this whole phantasm thing.

As others have said, Decoy/Mass Invis + Blink or changing direction (misdirection) can help as well as key binding your key utilities/abilities. Every single one of my key abilities is either bound to mouse buttons or specific keys, it really does help a lot.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

I can get behind the dodge binding idea. Shaky fingers and unexpected twitches tend to lead me to double-tapping keys more than I’d like. I’ve had to unbind double-tap to dodge so it needs to be someplace I can reach quickly. As my joints get worse, I’m also glad I’ve got my Naga.

Phantasmal Defender is still something I turn to from time to time. He’s no longer the retaliation damage farm he used to be, but he’s still a nice bag of health. Decoy is nice. I also favor my staff. Sadly, both of those last two will kill a phantie when you’re at 3.

And then I get frustrated and blow the whole load on a shatter. Because sometimes I just want to see the world burn in an eruption of purple butterflies. … Admittedly, I’m not very good at this whole phantasm thing.

Maybe a different build would be better? Have you seen any of Osicat’s Builds?

I double-tap dodge and don’t have a problem. Everything is keybound. No clicking.

I do use the decoy and blink, but I was just wondering if there were some more esoteric tricks that I don’t know about yet.

When I am defending a point and a melee comes running up to me I typically target him and as soon as he is in phantasm range I instantly decoy for the invisibility and run forward through him as I cast the pistol and iBerzerker Phants. and get some range. I always have extra health on the phantasms so he cannot burst them down instantly.

Loco.4561:

Maybe a different build would be better? Have you seen any of Osicat’s Builds?

Aye, they’re a thing of beauty. Especially in his hands. Were my fingers still capable of such elegant magic, I’d sally forth into the sunset with Team Shatter. Sadly, they’ve gone old before their time and I need something a tad slower. I’d go mad with boredom if I had to go pure glowie-clones, but I still rely on them when there’s just too much going on for me to handle. I’m also about 70% PvE, which skews my build choices some.

My reflexes aren’t awesome either. Here’s the phantasm build I use

http://bit.ly/19cwK0i

Basically, I use stealth to hide while the phantasms do their work. The Prismatic Understanding not only lengthens the stealth, but it also gives some “free” blocks on attacks and reduced damage

Laserbolt.6731:

I am an older player and I don’t have super fast response any more. So I play a phantasm mesmer in sPvP and let the fire-and forget phantasms do their work without me having to actively manage them.

That way I can focus all of my attention on staying alive and recasting the phantasms as needed.

What tips do you have for me about how to best avoid getting hit when they rush me to melee? They seem to be able to tell a clone from me quite easily and ignore the clones.

I use decoy. Are there some other tricks I can learn, other than dodging like a madman?

Illusionary leap is a fantastic tool. You don’t need to activate it immediately after using the first part. You can let them run away from the clone, and THEN activate it. This will have the effect of actually opening a gap, and will most likely place them behind you. On top of that, you can do the trick once every 7 seconds or so.

Thanks for the tips!