Guild Wars 2

Hey there!

I consider myself a somewhat rookie mesmer in sPvP (used to main guardian for over 1,5 year), only 700 or so Ranked games on this toon and I’ve got a couple of problems regarding certain matchups (both sPvP and roaming), that I hope more experienced mesmer players could help me overcome.
I play Sw/T + GS standard full-zerk shatter with MoD as 3rd utility (portal seems to be a wasted utility in soloQ). I know that certain builds function better in certain situations – I’d like to know what can I do with this build to overcome my difficulties.

1.) sPvP
Considering myself a mid lvl player, I am often facing opponents with similar skill level. Around this level, turret engineers are considered widely popular. No, this is not another cry-out post to nerf them, we have enough them on other parts of the forums.
I’d like to ask for possible tips for scenarios when you simply have no other logical choice but to go for the engi. I found that the “leave them to old age” argument is only working, if the rest of your team capitalize on the 4v5 aswell. Have just one random Rambo or w/e and the advantage is gone.
So, yeah, what can I do – if anything – in case I have to take a fight against one?
Going for turrets takes ages and in general, it just feels like I’m wasting my time fighting one (especially if he’s LoSing), yet, there were times where I couldn’t have been more useful to my team on any other nodes.

2.) Roaming
I have difficulties against good cele d/d ele. Might worth noting, that I drop MoD and take the cleansing mantra (otherwise I’d have essentially 0 condi cleanse). Granted, for roaming I take the torch trait as the reduced cd seems to save my life A LOT, so, without boonstrips, this matchup seems to be just a lost cause from the start.
It’s a stalemate at best. By the time I manage to take down his hp (talking about decent eles, with proper rotations and somewhat good situationary decisions), his water is back up and we are back to the start. Meanwhile, he wears me down due to his condi dmg (obv. others factor in aswell).
Kiting seems to be ineffective against these players, as I’m not traited for good phantasm damage, so the damage I’m doing is essentially non-existent in this case.
Again, if by some reason I manage to do the right jukes and get out of harms way, he’s still sitting on 70%+ HP and have easy means to heal again and again.

Thank you for your help in advance!

I don’t recommend the torch trait. As you’ve noted some matchups become far more difficult for the sake of one condition drop and slightly higher stealth uptime. Just keep your distance and play like a power P/D Thief. Landing a full Cry of Frustration once they’ve left water can really screw them over.

Against Engineers you can just range them with greatsword. For example on Temple there are ledges on the sidepoints where you can pump out ranged pressure to your heart’s content. There isn’t much if anything they can do to answer to this. (If they’re LoSing it means you’ve already pushed them off point).

shimmerless.4560:

I don’t recommend the torch trait. As you’ve noted some matchups become far more difficult for the sake of one condition drop and slightly higher stealth uptime. Just keep your distance and play like a power P/D Thief. Landing a full Cry of Frustration once they’ve left water can really screw them over.

Thanks, I will try this one out! So far the torch trait seemed to be an absolute neccessity for my defensive rotations, but looks like I’ve overvalued it. It is indeed true that with frequent boonstrips a lot of the matchups can be easier

Against Engineers you can just range them with greatsword. For example on Temple there are ledges on the sidepoints where you can pump out ranged pressure to your heart’s content. There isn’t much if anything they can do to answer to this. (If they’re LoSing it means you’ve already pushed them off point).

Funny you mention it, as Temple is one of the maps I have no trouble against them – due to the aforementioned ranged spots. I was thinking specifically about Henge on Forest and Waterfall/Quarry on Legacy. With good turret placement (spreading them out), the engi can stay on point, while the turrets will spam you from every direction. The turrets, traited, can generally outrange you (feels like it, might have slightly less range than mesmer GS).
If I go for the point directly, the turrets wreck me.
If I go for the engi, he will kite around the point, I will make no cap progress (or barely any), meanwhile the turrets will spam me.
If I go for the turrets, that are spread out, it will take ages just to take those down and I make no cap progress during the process.

Turret engis you can
1. use range to kill them
2. kill their turret first (this is a pain as the turrets does not get crited)
3. Lure them out, I sometime let them take me down real low and start backing away, they get greedy and follow for a kill then I blow all my CD and kill them
4. Moa
That been said it’s still a pain more often than not I just walk away from them.

Cele DD ele , kite kite kite. I use torch, mass invis and decoy + blink I can fight a equal skill level guy to a draw. The best part is I will never lose as long as I time my stealth right the bad ones will die to my burst and the really good ones just have too much regen for me to kill so it ends at a draw.

Mogar.9216:

Turret engis you can
1. use range to kill them
2. kill their turret first (this is a pain as the turrets does not get crited)
3. Lure them out, I sometime let them take me down real low and start backing away, they get greedy and follow for a kill then I blow all my CD and kill them
4. Moa
That been said it’s still a pain more often than not I just walk away from them.

Cele DD ele , kite kite kite. I use torch, mass invis and decoy + blink I can fight a equal skill level guy to a draw. The best part is I will never lose as long as I time my stealth right the bad ones will die to my burst and the really good ones just have too much regen for me to kill so it ends at a draw.

^ This. Only thing I would add is against turret engis; sometimes a landed burst combo can scare them enough to finish them off, or use it after you range pressure them. A good engi won’t let you get away with it, but imo traiting for turret engi feels like a compromise for less good engis.