Guild Wars 2

Everytime I play sPvP I’ll be having a good time and a longbow ranger will inevitably show up raining arrows into my face. I just can’t find a way to counterplay it(and I’ve tried).

I usually use the GS/Staff shatter build(the old 4/4/0/0/6) in pvp.

Does anyone have any ideas how to counter it? (I know it’s been around for a while but I was playing pve until recently so it didn’t affect me.)

Kael.4538:

Everytime I play sPvP I’ll be having a good time and a longbow ranger will inevitably show up raining arrows into my face. I just can’t find a way to counterplay it(and I’ve tried).

I usually use the GS/Staff shatter build(the old 4/4/0/0/6) in pvp.

Does anyone have any ideas how to counter it? (I know it’s been around for a while but I was playing pve until recently so it didn’t affect me.)

Okay, First off I gonna tell you what to do with different ranger builds.

The typical LB/GS pew pew ranger will be running Signet of Stone (d-damage immunity) Lightning Reflexes/Quickening Zephyr/And Signet of the Hunt(25% movspeed and a 150% next attack active/Signet of Renewal (Stun breaker/Condi Clear)

As a shatter mesmer the key here is to force them to use their Signet of stone because with it, it will just nullify your bursts.

When I do it, I start of with GS AA, Phantasm, Mirror Blade up close and f3+f2 combo + Mind Stab (+Halting Strike trait pushes this to 70% if you manage to interrupt 2 skills in the process), This will typically wipe away 50-60% of their HP and burn their signet of stone. After that, you can now start to prepare your mind wrack combo.

Now for the other variant, Same Utilities as above but uses SW/Dagger weaponset instead of GS.

-Same process as above and force them to use their signet, But now remember, do not burst them with your mind wrack combo if they are in SW/D weaponset, this weaponset has 3 evades and will nullify your bursts, so don,t forget that/

When you are using SW/X bait them with the leap and immob but do not blurred or shatter, they will typically hit Lightning reflexes which is also an evade and removes Immob, wait like a couple of seconds before detonating your bursts.

The mesmer community will say reflects, or interrupts, but this will only work on bad rangers most of the time, A good ranger will cancel his RF channel and PBS you when they get interrupted while channeling. Also good rangers Have their AA auto cast off, so they can stop attacking you while reflect is up.

Decoy/Prestige works best to close the gap.

For the Utilities, I suggest bringing Mantra Cleanse. Their bursts will start after the wolf fear or entangle/Drakehound/Spider(Spider has 2 immobs which they can chain) immob when fighting on point. Use your cleanse to break free from the CC and re-engage.

^This happens for good rangers, the ones you see spam RF and AA are most often Rangers, they don’t even/swap late when you burst them on melee. If a ranger is sniping you stealth and take cover and do not attempt to re-engage because they will just snipe you to death.

Hope this helps

Mirror his #2 in his face

Line of sight, F4 distortion, F3 interrupt…. ummm, that’s the best I’ve got.

No idea how to do it with double-range. Maybe use the clones as pin-cushions to shield you?

Warden hard counters lb ranger. If you are staff gs, run reflect on distortion and there ya go, you just reflected all the rangers burst. After all, the first major slot for illusions is kinda up to you.

I dusted off feedback and it worked most of the times. Than I swapped it in favour of Mantra of Distraction (more flexible). Dropped decoy since it won’t save you form their channeled burst. Mirror blade+F3 shoould help you. Also blink+iwave is good but you end up burning 2 skills in one go which can be useful in a prolonged fight. But Sticker covered it nicely. Follow his instruction and you will see some improvement

TBH, I just run the trait, Masterful Reflection.

If you’re zerker, you’re not going to miss out on much crit chance for your F1, and you can totally screw over a ranger with a well time reflect on F4.

i find that a traditional shatter build with this small change is enough to end the rangers if you’re able to burst after your reflect.

As a GS/Staff shatter build you will struggle against a LB pew pew ranger, since you dont have an effective way to evade his burst (blurred frenzy) nor gapclose outside of blink. I would suggest sword/pistol and GS.

StickerHappy.8052:

… A good ranger will cancel his RF channel and PBS you when they get interrupted while channeling.

What? Can they cancel after an interrupt? How long recharge they have then on RF? I thought that if I interrupted they got the full recharge.

I always use mantra ’rupt to shut em down

ranger pew pew have like signature moves when they gonna RF you such as (using rampage as one),or after they used thier aoe crap,always watch to not get crippled by the aoe cause they have a trait which boost RF dmg when you are crippled.Smartest thing to do is just blink a bit behind them when they start shooting or use clones as shield.
double range shatter is very easy to deal with them,spam clones with staff wait for his rf hide behind the clones,when he done he is sitting duck to your GS skills.

Get the jump on them first. IF i know im going into a 1v1, i mass inv first, the get some GS phantasm (skills 2,3,4) up while in stealth to then diversion, so he has 25 vulnerability and 50% before he knows whats hit him, then i decoy, and dodge spam his Rapid fire/ knock back and switch to staff to Chaos storm on his kitten / dodge spam for 3x clones, then mind wrack…

usually does the job, just get him on the defensive asap and he is kittened ….PS…SAVE YOUR BLINK/ PHASE RETREAT FOR ENTANGLE .
hope this helps x

Difficult with staff/gs shatter. LoS and positioning, plus heavy burst tbh – draw out their SoS if they have it and other annoyances.

But for a different build, this build eats LB rangers for breakfast:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Vid-Chaotic-Perdition-WvW-PvP/

Curunen.8729:

Difficult with staff/gs shatter. LoS and positioning, plus heavy burst tbh – draw out their SoS if they have it and other annoyances.

But for a different build, this build eats LB rangers for breakfast:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Vid-Chaotic-Perdition-WvW-PvP/

This ^.

Greatsword staff lacks much in the way of reflects.

Once you have reflects however you can easily make longbow rangers kill or nearly kill themselves.

Specifically the masterful reflection trait + anything that grants distortion & the warden’s feedback traits.

Guys, he plays gs + staff…so give him tips with this build. Whats the point in linking him other random specific builds/traits when he already uses what is regarded as the best weapons set and shatter build for mesmers in tpvp.

It’s silly to trait/ change weapons sets JUST TO COUNTER ONE SPECIFIC BUILD ( lb ranger), taking him out of his comfort zone.

Stick to staff + GS ( or take sword + torch depending on team comp) and jsut learn to counter the specific skills rangers use that cause you problems.

You dont need all these reflect traits blah blah blah, learn yo use what you have (cd’s eg. Blink, Phase Retreat, CS, decoy) and trust me, you will soon see lb rangers as a free kill.

Sandrox.9524:

double range shatter is very easy to deal with them,spam clones with staff wait for his rf hide behind the clones,when he done he is sitting duck to your GS skills.

This. Remember they are MORE squishy than you are and even a few seconds of GS spamming will get them worried.

Save your cds for when he pops his power dmg immune signet/ entangle/ rapid fire

Liam McColgan.7689:

Guys, he plays gs + staff…so give him tips with this build. Whats the point in linking him other random specific builds/traits when he already uses what is regarded as the best weapons set and shatter build for mesmers in tpvp.

It’s silly to trait/ change weapons sets JUST TO COUNTER ONE SPECIFIC BUILD ( lb ranger), taking him out of his comfort zone.

Stick to staff + GS ( or take sword + torch depending on team comp) and jsut learn to counter the specific skills rangers use that cause you problems.

You dont need all these reflect traits blah blah blah, learn yo use what you have (cd’s eg. Blink, Phase Retreat, CS, decoy) and trust me, you will soon see lb rangers as a free kill.

What’s the point in not linking alternatives?

If you noticed, I initially commented on gs+staff before offering an alternative which happens to trivialise things like engineers, rangers and all those things shatter builds usually have difficulty with. And as an extra bonus, that 0/4/6/4/0 CI condition build happens to be excellent in pvp as a group support/control, so it’s very relevant in this context.

Anyway, back to shatter, 1200 blink is kitten useful to close the initial gap if you don’t want to waste a stealth. Got to close that gap to melee range asap otherwise it’s gg. Sword allows a luxury of using BF to avoid RF if you happen to get caught out with other skills.

For the record, I play gs+sw/t most of the time.

Edit: Also, regarding Entangle – mantra of resolve solves this problem but you will of course have to sacrifice portal or something. When entangled, hit power cleanse to remove the inmobilise and immediately dodge out of it. You will have a split second to dodge before the immobilise is reapplied.

Thanks for the answers everyone! The mantra cleanse idea was a godsend!

The hard part is that is seems like practice is the only way to get better so off I go!

jenzie.4083:

StickerHappy.8052:

… A good ranger will cancel his RF channel and PBS you when they get interrupted while channeling.

What? Can they cancel after an interrupt? How long recharge they have then on RF? I thought that if I interrupted they got the full recharge.

I always use mantra ’rupt to shut em down

Sorry my bad. They cancel RF when they see reflect up. Also, Interrupt is good with RF IF You manage to interrupt at the beginning of the cast, interrupting it almost at the end is a waste of Interrupts/MoD, because you still ate a lot of damage first hand. UNLESS you have CI so you could still root em onto place and burst em down.

StickerHappy.8052:

jenzie.4083:

StickerHappy.8052:

… A good ranger will cancel his RF channel and PBS you when they get interrupted while channeling.

What? Can they cancel after an interrupt? How long recharge they have then on RF? I thought that if I interrupted they got the full recharge.

I always use mantra ’rupt to shut em down

Sorry my bad. They cancel RF when they see reflect up. Also, Interrupt is good with RF IF You manage to interrupt at the beginning of the cast, interrupting it almost at the end is a waste of Interrupts/MoD, because you still ate a lot of damage first hand. UNLESS you have CI so you could still root em onto place and burst em down.

Ah phew, I totally agree that the RF need to be interrupted fast, the good thing with the mantra is that I don’t need to face the ranger, just have him targeted and it’s instant so with it its quite easy to stop the RF really fast.

pop invis right away and burst in their face. Burst them down to 1/4 and they will pop their invun or invis. stealth yourself again wait it out then burst them down. Do not play defense, it’s a dps race and we should win most of the time.

Mogar.9216:

pop invis right away and burst in their face. Burst them down to 1/4 and they will pop their invun or invis. stealth yourself again wait it out then burst them down. Do not play defense, it’s a dps race and we should win most of the time.

Yeah, agreed.

It’s those nasty axe wielding condi rangers that are the real nuisance tbh.