Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I’ve been getting wrecked over and over against chrono as reaper. I can’t seem to land any hits at all. It just seems like its invulnerability after invulnerability and just getting dazed over and over again. How do I beat you guys in a 1v1? Thanks for any help!

Honestly, I’ve never played the reaper so I won’t be much help. I assume you’re going against the GS/shatter builds? Honestly, if you’re good with your timing on the dodge, you can negate all the burst damage. This build can be pretty predictable.

Most of the builds I fight against seem alot tankier than the gs shatter one. Honestly the main problem is that I can’t seem to land any hits. I’m just cced to hell once my stability is down.

Most of the Daze are from illusions, 2-3 can be from MoD but those have an ICD iirc, if you dodge the illusion rushing you you won’t be dazed as much and the illusions will die, opening the Mesmer up to pressure since they will have to get more Illusions up.

The invulnerability is from Distortion which takes illusions to make work for longer than 1 sec, to a max of 4 then there is the Sword 2 which gives evade the Mesmer is rooted while using so when you see the Blur animation back away and don’t waste any CDs for 2.5 secs, and if they run Well of Precognition don’t stand in the well and same thing it causes Blur as well. If you dodge the clones successfully you can cause them melt fast, all Mesmer defenses are active, not passive. You can see if they are running MoD if you look at their buffs iirc if that’s the case they can lock you down with it. Always carry a Stunbreak.

I haven’t Pvped in a while and never played reaper, this is the best I can tell you, some of it may be wrong. Other more knowledgeable players may correct what I say.

Thanks for the help! Yeah so far the only thing I know to get out of is the sword 2. I’ll try to use my dodges better next time I fight them. Whats the cd on distortion? I feel like its up at least twice a fight.

50 secs, but can be faster due to Alacrity from Wells and shatters, or from Using Continuum Shift then popping distortion for double distortion but times of distortion uptime can vary since less clones may be available and that has a 90sec Cd

If you are Na you can add me and I can help show you how to fight Mesmers /Chronomancer.

That would be awesome! I’ll add you when I get on.

Chrono Bunker can be pretty tough. I don’t know how to beat it, really. I’ve been beat using it, of course, but don’t know about that.

See, we have numerous long-duration defenses. Firstly is Blurred Frenzy, which others have explained plentifully by the animation. Invuln, of course, comes from Distortion. Then here’s where Chronomancer comes in and doubles down. 3 seconds of more “Blurred” from the Precog Well, and 4.5 seconds of continuous blocking for Shield. The dazes and stuns will likely fill the gaps between. On top of that, you’ll have to be dealing with slowness while the Chrono is burning his CD out with Alacrity and heals up.

Best way is likely, if they’re defending most of the time, take out all their illusions and chill the Chrono when possible to prevent Alacrity. AoE and cleave should help tremendously, though may backfire depending on traits.

This is all if they’re a Bunker Chrono, of course, at which point it’s just unlikely you’ll kill them in a 1v1.

Most mesmer builds are weak to conditions. With the addition of vipers and sinister you could try one of them and take the chill does damage trait. I know a guy that was getting 1k chill ticks in PvE so while you won’t get that much it’s more likely 700 which is nothing to laugh at. With the enormous application of chill and how it will counter the alacrity on Mesmer and superspeed on clones I would suggest looking into it possibly.

You will also do alright power damage too so diamond skin else and low cleansing targets won’t be a problem either.

The Block skill on Shield is usable again if you attack them during it. Load them with conditions then let them eat them while shielding.

Also – you can make use of unblockable skills while they are shield spamming:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Unblockable

As a power reaper, it’s a really gross fight. There are definitely way more opportunities to be interrupted right through stability just due to the sheer stripping potential.

From a WvW perspective:

My best success so far (as a power/DPS reaper) has come down to Staff/GS x/SR/R with x being Spite or Death Magic. DM is a bit more consistent as the might gain from Spite can be stripped really fast making the line rather ineffective. Make absolutely sure you’re using Blighter’s Boon; the life force is completely necessary.

The big takeaway is to try and interrupt them back as much as possible, and keep as close as possible while maintaining AOE’s and regening life force. Spectral grasp is awesome to drag the real mesmer back to you and interrupt any channels they may have going on (mantra, heal, MI) while gaining lots of life force. Heal/Utilities are best as something like YSIM + Spectral Armor + Spectral Grasp + Suffer +CttB to maximize burst life force gain while not in shroud and lock them down as much as possible.

Enter the fight with max LF otherwise you’re losing. If you don’t have max, run away; you’re not winning.

I’ll usually try to engage via RS2, RS3 and pop the fear into RS4. Either they take a ton of damage and their clones die, or they pop blink. F5’s likely used at this point as they’re either burning cooldowns to burst or avoid death. Likely they’ve retaliated to some extent at this point, so you’re almost out of LF. Ditch shroud and pop your SA if they’ve already used their boon strip from their GS3. If not, ready up SA for the stunbreak/protection and hit the nearest clone or anything with GS3 for quick LF, and be ready to rush dodges and shroud for a little extra durability, for the combo is coming. If they took damage, they’re likely still close. GS5 and reel them into a gravedigger to force a heal and/or blow up clones. Likely, they’ve shifted at this point, resetting cooldowns. Not likely finished yet. If they’re low, likely they’ll blink and/or start channeling either a heal or MI. On the channel/blink, react with grasp to interrupt and pull them back in, negating their stun break and teleport, then open again with shroud 3 and lock them into a fear chain, RS5, an auto or two, then leave shroud, swap to any fear mechanism (I like staff due to its range and chill/marks trigger on stealthed targets and show position), and proceed to catch up, burn CttB, and hopefully you’re good to re-shroud and auto them to death while they have no ways to escape.

Budget your heal as needed, and ideally transfer disabling conditions to slow them down. You’re going to need to be faster than them.

The real struggle is against Scrappers. I’ve yet to beat a competent one or see a competent one even go down. The mobility, CC and control conditions, and general mitigation paired with substantial burst damage is bonkers.

Same Mesmers get eaten alive by Scrappers.

High power range pressure, preferably with a +1. I prefer Zerkerberker

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Same Mesmers get eaten alive by Scrappers.

Scrappers dont counter mesmers at all lol

All the ones I have seen in Wvw roaming have taken care of most Mesmers I have seen go against them, maybe not in Spvp, I haven’t Spvp ed since HoT

I main an engi. I had problems against mesmers. I rolled a mesmers and i played with it a lot in spvp . it helped me a lot. I gained 2 things : first, now i like mesmer really much, second it is now for me much simpler to see where is “the real one”. As an engi i suggest you to take nades for bombing clones down. it is not simple to fight a mesmer but when it gets to you automatic to understand which is the real …. it is not impossible to take it down. Without playing mesmer i could kill only really bad mesmers

Conditions, conditions, conditions, aoe, and superior mobility in combat will give mes a hard time.

PierPiero.9142:

I main an engi. I had problems against mesmers. I rolled a mesmers and i played with it a lot in spvp . it helped me a lot. I gained 2 things : first, now i like mesmer really much, second it is now for me much simpler to see where is “the real one”. As an engi i suggest you to take nades for bombing clones down. it is not simple to fight a mesmer but when it gets to you automatic to understand which is the real …. it is not impossible to take it down. Without playing mesmer i could kill only really bad mesmers

I would do this – play a mesmer for a little while, just stick to hotjoin if you like. Try all the main builds out there with different roles, and the different weapons and you’ll soon spot the holes in defence and weaknesses in offence, and learn when the best times are to hit mesmers with your damage.

I suppose I should have posted this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4whRdvVXtzw

Some things you can take away from it.