I’ve been feeling pretty good about my ability to play my condishatter build and generally have been fine against others playing this build in pvp.
But just recently, I’ve run into a couple other players playing more or less the same build concept, and I’ve been squarely beaten by them in WvW (including a couple of duels). Two of the fights came down to me getting moa’d (I’m not running moa – I use gravity well). But generally, I feel like I’m missing some concepts in how to best fight against a condi shatter build.
put pressure first with 3 clones out. bait the dodge and shatter. use MOA in 1v1 as GW is group.
use blind if possible. evade the shatter with sword.
pressure with staff – harras weapon mainly which can do some 4k dmg (not dps)
clean and the right moment after the shatter burst
try to put poison constantly which negate 33% healing
practice
General advice fighting in PvP but certainly applies here – very important to try to daze or interrupt heal when they get to 50% (most players will pop around this time). Either chain daze F3, shield 5 or chaos storm. You want to save these important CD’s for those moments if possible.
What cleanses do you use? Chaos or inspiration? Weapons?
In general: wait for the opponents burst, then cleanse (if you are running nullfield then you can cast it if you see the burst coming) try to get the others cleanses on CD and gg
This is a particular instance I find Sword/Torch far better than Scepter/Shield, and one of the main reasons I prefer that weapon set (with Staff being the second weapon).
You can evade their shatters, use extra stealth (which in a mesmer vs mesmer fight is always an advantage), cleave with all of your attacks (sword hits aoe, torch hits aoe, staff is aoe bouncing, aoe F3 with Master of Fragmentation because you don’t need MS). All of that makes life so much easier – the flipside being you need to coordinate skill usage into burst condition application, enhanced by mirror images and F5.
When they’ve burnt a few shatters is the ideal time to unload a huge condi bomb (assuming Inspiration for shatter cleanse). If they’re not running Inspiration then you are more able to avoid their damage and and equally able to burst them back.
Thanks for all the suggestions! Looks like I just need to practice and choose my moments more carefully.
I’m sticking with my scepter mainhand always (sword and shield offhand) build. It takes me a while to learn new builds, so I usually only do it when there are balance changes.
I’ve honestly won against other condishatter Chronos by simply bursting them after they have bursted me. My counter burst applies condis and cleanses their condi burst, whilst their shatters are still on cooldown from their initial burst.
I think a lot of times it come down to who blow up F4 first. Because you know after they blow up F4, you have a good chance to stun/moa them or interrupt their signet of illusion.
