Guild Wars 2

So do any other mesmers have trouble chasing opponents without swiftness?

Everyone will have trouble chasing down opponents without swiftness. Osicat has an inventive solution though. I believe it works by targeting the fleeing enemy, turning your back to them and using Phase Retreat (Staff #2) then turning around and using Blink to close the gap even more. I’ve never used it but the logic behind it is sound.

By the way, Temporal Curtain works both ways. You can place it in front of an enemy to cripple them when they run over it then use it again to pull them towards you.

Sword/Focus is your best bet for chasing people down, particularly if, as Crossplay points out, you’re good at moving around with Phase Retreat.

Outside of that, we have pretty limited chasing potential. Our mobility is mostly on long cooldowns, and any that isn’t – Illusionary Leap, for instance – tends to have short range. On top of that, we don’t have a ton of lockdown or the ability to burst with little to no setup.

Besides focus and swiftness of runes what osi does a lot if target a mob between him and the one whos chasing, blink past the mob and phase retreat. If on range then iLeap can be done also.

Edit: check his build post, he explains his tricks there very good

how need chase enemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETYd7ntcQY0

not

On the upshot we can use this as an argument against mesmer’s being OP

Player 1: “Hermagerd I always die to mesmers”
Mesmer: “Did you try running away?”

Just saw that video.

I understand your frustration, but this is alot due to the fact you run a phantasm spec in wvwvw. This kind of builds demands your opponent to stay and fight, if they stay they die and this is prime reason its close to op in Duels, especialy spvp? duels. In wvwvw shatters have a big advantage as its a lot more mobile spec.

A phantasm spec to be fully effective need to have phantasm spawned and on emey, if enemy move to a distance or even terrain kite the phantasms the spec get less effective.

Notive in this fight 1:35 how the ranger try to kite but fial due to the fact the mesmer have superior mobility.

/Osicat

I also have this problem. I made a video about it a couple weeks ago. Sometimes, if I’m super bored I’ll chase them even though I know it’s pointless, but most of the time I don’t even bother. Our slow speed makes sense to me though and I think it’s fair, even though it can be frustrating at times. But I think someone mentioned it above me, but I used to use centaur runes and focus for farming cursed shore, and I think mesmers are probably one of the fastest classes with that combo, it’s pretty much 100% swiftness uptime.

Crossplay.2067:

Everyone will have trouble chasing down opponents without swiftness. Osicat has an inventive solution though. I believe it works by targeting the fleeing enemy, turning your back to them and using Phase Retreat (Staff #2) then turning around and using Blink to close the gap even more. I’ve never used it but the logic behind it is sound.

By the way, Temporal Curtain works both ways. You can place it in front of an enemy to cripple them when they run over it then use it again to pull them towards you.

Just to clarify – the direction that Phase retreat tosses you is always relative to where your targeted enemy is. You will always get tossed away from your target. The direction you face is completely irrelevant (unless you have nothing targeted at all).

Dhampyr.2104:

Crossplay.2067:

Everyone will have trouble chasing down opponents without swiftness. Osicat has an inventive solution though. I believe it works by targeting the fleeing enemy, turning your back to them and using Phase Retreat (Staff #2) then turning around and using Blink to close the gap even more. I’ve never used it but the logic behind it is sound.

By the way, Temporal Curtain works both ways. You can place it in front of an enemy to cripple them when they run over it then use it again to pull them towards you.

Just to clarify – the direction that Phase retreat tosses you is always relative to where your targeted enemy is. You will always get tossed away from your target. The direction you face is completely irrelevant (unless you have nothing targeted at all).

Actually, if you have a specific setting in your settings, it’s possible to ignore your target, but that will also make your staff auto attacks be skill shots, so…

Other solutions, however, are targeting enemies, critters, neutrals behind you and then casting Phase Retreat, or de-targeting, turning around, and then pressing Phase Retreat. If all else fails, you can blink ahead of a different opponent or Blink to a spot that lets your Phase Retreat position you well. It’s really more of standard combination to boost yourself, but be careful of Blink —> Phase Retreat past an opponent, because they can just turn around.

Since fully understanding the usefulness of blink and watching Osicat’s videos I’ve had a lot more luck at stopping people fleeing; blinking forward suddenly and hitting them with an appropriate skill (iZerker for cripple, Magic Bullet for Stun, etc), and popping my heal to proc rune of air 6

Since I actually favour greatsword for my non-staff option (And thus take long range manipulation) this usually gets me close enough that if they persist in trying to flee all they’ll do is save their pretty face as I blast them in the back.

Blinking in front of the enemy and than immediately phase retreating to get even further ahead of them is a personal favorite. ^^

GS and S/P or S/F along with blink is usually enough to catch most people. Honorable mention – Null Field or Thievery to rip swiftness.

I always trait for Far Reaching Manipulations, so Blink and Arcane Thievery are usually enough to close the gap and rip swiftness so I can finish them off.

I also attached a Sigil of Ice to my Greatsword so if Blink and Arcane Thievery are on cooldown, Illusionary Beserker + a proc of Chilled can also help me stay in attack range with Spatial Surge.

I almost always have centaur runes on my armour, so sometimes just maintaining swiftness myself has been enough to keep me within attack range.