Guild Wars 2

Longtime mesmer player here, since Gw1. I can’t seem to figure out all of this sword/greatsword/pistol hype. (In PvP of course, PvE is a joke)

I tend to do well for myself in PvP (usually top player in unranked, 50% top player in ranked), but i don’t use PU or any of that DPS. I use staff scepter/torch with illusion, inspiration and dueling. Rabid amulet, undead runes, sigils of earth and energy. Signet of inspiration, illusions; null field. Im fond of dancing around and applying conditions while being hard to take down. The only class i have trouble with is necromancers. I eat DPS mesmers and thieves for breakfast.

Sometimes i feel like warrior ADHD types have crept over into the mesmer zone and taken over the mesmer meta with flashy, spammy DPS. Either that, or i wasnt born with the reflexes to use a shatter build. Anyone else in this situation?

I look forward to chronomancer when we can finally have some AoE

Condi mesmer is perfectly viable in PvP. I think it is not desired as much in high tier because it does not fit the role assigned to mesmer as well (bursting people down) because the burst is a tad slower. But very efficient nonetheless.
As for PU: shatter mesmer used to work fine before PU was accessible in their build, it still does even better. PU just makes thing easier (too easy?)

Alex Shatter.7956:

Sometimes i feel like warrior ADHD types have crept over into the mesmer zone and taken over the mesmer meta with flashy, spammy DPS.

But I totally just 360 no-scoped that Thief with a difficult to land Prestige/Mirror Blade/Mind Wrack/blink combo bro!

If Power Burst being the Mesmer meta build annoys you, blame ANet for making it the plainly superior option for anybody who cares about actually accomplishing something in PvP.

Condi Shatter is a fairly viable alternate build, but it’s already been nerfed several times and will probably get nerfed again between now and when we actually get ours hands on Chronomancer for real.

Condi in sPvP is doing just fine. No, you don’t need PU and yo can change it to something else. Yes, you do lack burstiness but you gain tankiness.

No one forces you to play meta.

Condie Mesmer pvp is very lackluster atm. It’ll work for hotjoin or random low range matches, but the drop off in effectiveness that it eventually experiences is extremely fierce. You’ll end up against a lot of teams where you’re literally useless. You won’t be able to even have a hope of making a meaningful offense against anything, and it really sucks. Chrono is going to change this significantly, but that’s the case right now.

Again, you can certainly use it and it’ll certainly work in hotjoins and stuff, but it’s not even remotely viable against a more meta team comp.

Well the main problem with condi mesmer is that its a 1v1 oriented build that can’t hold a point to save its life (in fact it needs to kite and go off point to survive). Basically you’re supposed to hold the point in a 1v1 until you either win, or someone comes to +1 the fight in your favor (shatter mesmer, power ranger, thieves should do that). However because so much of a mesmer’s defenses involve teleports or stealth, they really can’t hold a point at all, which is my beef with the build. Its just not ideal for conquest.

Other builds that are 1v1 oriented, such as trap or settler ranger, D/D ele, or cele or MM necro to name a few, don’t have that glaring problem. They can 1v1 just as well as condi mes, if not better, and they’re tools and defenses let them keep points from being decapped.

Although to be fair, power shatter mesmer isn’t capable of pointholding either. Its just typically given a +1/decapper role rather than a 1v1 role. Condi mes can’t really fulfill the +1er role because that necitates burst to secure a kill quickly after defensesive cooldowns are blown in a 1v1, and condi can’t do that as quickly or as reliably.

I do expect condi mesmers to be very powerful in stronghold, since portal is still great there and they’re free to roam across the map without concern for holding points, and they’re 1v1 potential really shines in that environment.

Also, Pyro, why have chrono based condi builds been seen to be more powerful? I didn’t really get a chance to try them out, but is it due to slow and alacrity and whatnot?

Alacrity and the other illusion generation boosts makes your overall shattering rate much higher, and this drastically increases the pressure you can apply.

Strong access to both slow and interrupts broadens your capabilities into a disruptive role as well, capable of locking down a point in heavy disables while applying condie load. Additionally, you have that quickness as well, which is a great boost to your team for stomp utility.

Slow is worth a second mention. You have good options for slow application, and this makes an immense difference through a fight, providing both damage mitigation and offensive opportunities for your allies.

Basically, chrono gets more potent offense while also picking up a whole slew of new offensive and defensive utility capabilities.