Guild Wars 2

I took up mesmer in PvP this weekend. This is the build I’m playing. It’s a berserker shatter build.

I think I’ve got a feel for it now. Timing interrupts, and understanding when to use distortion I’m working on still. However, there’s some things I’m not sure how to handle at all.

1) Warrior – I’m not sure how to deal with bunkers at all. The best I can come up with is to run away from them in 1v1 situations. Berserker warriors are a challenge too. They force me into rushing everything I do, because I can’t build up illusion due to their cleave, and they have just enough active defenses to prevent spikes 1v1. Bunker or Bersker I am rarely able to outlast heal signet, even with poison.

2) Ranger – The ranger pet always identifies me and rangers quickly target what their pet is following. Bow ranger channel skills and pet make my stealth attempts largely unsucessful. Vs a ranger that knows how to keep track of my position it’s 50/50 whether I’ll be able to out damage them.

3) Thief – This is really hard for me. S/P less so than D/P. D/P has frequent stealths which totally mess me up when it comes to casting illusions. It’s actually the stealth combined with obstacles, that gets me. My illusions and phantasms won’t cast unless I have LoS, which most thieves seem to know how to utilize very effectively. I don’t feel like I have enough active defense measures to counter backstabs. Guessing dodge rolls, decoy, and distortion I have at my disposal, but I often find it hard to down a thief before those are all exhausted. I try to keep in mind that when revealed I have a 4 second window, but it’s still a challenge.

4) Guardians – I feel like guardians counter me very well, similar to warrior. Bunker or Berserker, their cleave, blinds and blocks make it hard for me to get my Phantasms out in a timely manner. I take a lot of damage before I can clear the blinds and blocks, and all too frequently they time their defenses so that I can’t cast my phantasms, and they’ve been wasted so I can’t even use them to shatter. I feel like in 1v1 I should just run from any guardian that knows how to use its active defenses, but Leap of Faith and Judges Intervention make that very difficult.

5) Engineer – I usually run into Condi or Bunker engi’s. Either way it’s rough. I don’t have but a single 2 condition cleanse every 20 seconds, so that makes condi engi’s somewhat challenging, but their conditions are avoidable so as long as I can spike them down quickly enough that their abilities don’t come off cool down I’m fine. Decap engi’s though are like guardian and warriors in that if you are fighting a solid one, you’re better off just running away and not wasting your time 1v1.

As far as necro’s and elementalists, I have yet to fight a build I haven’t been able to figure how to counter them. I don’t feel outmatched vs those two professions.

Shockwave.1230:

I took up mesmer in PvP this weekend. This is the build I’m playing. It’s a berserker shatter build.
Always put 2 sigil of energy on ur weapons if you play shatter with Deceptive Evasion, i personally run a similar build to yours, this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQNAR8clknpTtlpxRNcrNig6B2BefHJFtGrVSBvdhA-TsAg0CnIQShkDJDSSksIN+YVw+DA
Remember that this is not a dueling build, so if you go against classes builded for 1v1 you’ll lose if the player is good.

1) Warrior
wait for them to use their stances, then spike, Staff is by far the best weapon against hambow war, with your skill #2 you’ll avoid every F1 they do
pro tip: moa them

2) Ranger
Dunno, i never used a ranger, i personally try to outdamage them and make a battle of “who die faster”
pro tip: moa them

3) Thief
A good theif will never lose to a good mesmer, the thing i can say to you is that most of the thieves hate to lose, so if you manage to bring em to 30% life, they usually run away feeling like a pro because “you cant kill them!”
pro tip: moa them

4) Guardians
guardians have problems catching you, and if you have the time for a full fight you’ll win if you dont go melee, but usually they can hel your initial burst and call their friends owning you
pro tip: moa them

5) Engineer
engie can outcleans every condition, but they do not mitigate damage or CCs very good, try to put a lot of pressure
pro tip: moa them

As far as necro’s and elementalists, I have yet to fight a build I haven’t been able to figure how to counter them. I don’t feel outmatched vs those two professions.

I don’t see how you’re having trouble using an interrupt build on p/d thief. They’re literally the only spec thieves have that we’re good against. Well maybe p/p but who uses that lol. You have to interrupt their Heartseeker, especially after they cast Black Powder. That’s pretty much all you need to do and they will drop pretty fast with a quick shatter.

It usually is a good idea to leave a 1v1 against a warrior atm. It lasts too long and in the end you’re still probably going to lose. The poison sigils you have should help you out a bit though. Against Hambows you can dodge most of the hammer damage, but once they switch to LB it’s tough to handle with all that burning. Interrupting any of their burst skills can give you a bit of an advantage if you can pressure them hard afterwards.

Bunker Guardians are just very hard to kill by yourself. It takes proper timing and you would have to use that interrupt pretty well. GC Guardians are pretty easy to kill though. You just have to make sure that you dodge their burst, or in your case interrupt it, or you’re going to drop pretty fast.

Engineers can be hard to deal with if they get the jump on you. Other then that they can be bursted rather well, they just have a lot of cc that you have to avoid or else you won’t win 1v1 against them. Also if they drop their turrets it’s a good idea to try and kill them all or run, because fighting the engi with their elite down is a sure way to get destroyed quickly.

Power Rangers can be tough to deal with if you don’t LoS them properly. Other then that they’re pretty glassy like us. Spirit Rangers can be hard to deal with, but I’ve found that they can be dealt with rather easily if you try to cleave their spirits first. Namely the Sun Spirit followed by Stone Spirit.

This is just my take on the matter regarding 1v1s. I wouldn’t say I’m a super good player, but I’m definitely above average.

I’d suggest going OH pistol or torch. The iDualist has a channelled attack which is good vs thieves. The prestige is also really nice for setting up shatter combos, since iLeap is a cue for most players to dodge.