Guild Wars 2

Of all the classes I face as an engineer (new main) and ranger (used to be main), mesmers give me fits. Playing around with one in spvp didn’t give me the “aha” moment that most other classes did.

Every class needs a class that gives it fits.

So what gives mesmers fits? What beats a Mesmer?

What should I look for in terms of your cooldowns, timing, mechanics to take you down better?

Look, I’ve tried and do ok but boy you all confuse me (pun intended).

Well the first point is that we’re very weak against conditions.

Condition necros mainly. Going up against good ones is very tricky if you don’t put them on the back foot immediately – that or kite like a sheepdog.

Condition anything for that matter…
Maybe it’s a pet peeve of mine, but in general my arch enemies are not thieves or bunkers, not builds that can run for all eternity or regen like freaks of nature… No, I detest condition builds and will do everything in my capacity to survive against and/or destroy them!

It’s a sad fact I have joined the dark side of traveler runes for roaming (yes I feel dirty), because I love to laugh in their faces with full -condition duration runes+food – at least until the ticks all add up and I need to keep on kiting.

;)

Like Me Games Ma.8426 and Curunen.8729 said, conditions are really good against most Mesmer builds. My favorite professions for that are Necro and Engi. Since Engi is your main you only need to look for a decent condition build unless you already did that.

I do play full condition as one spec and healing/support as the other.

My trouble is keeping my eye on you. Sure, I can figure out which Mesmer is the “real deal” by seeing who has buffs or who dodges. But, it just takes time. During that time, I find that a good Mesmer is confusing me and making me chuck conditions at anything but them.

So even though I have the condition damage to beat up a Mesmer (well some of them at least), it is really hard to land it fast enough on the right one!

Tried target selection (marking) but you all stealth on me then I get to tab thru to reacquire.

Maybe I am just an old man, but anyway to speed up the process of figuring out “Where’s Waldo”?

It’s a matter of practice. I’m still not that great at it myself and I play mesmer.

Quoting from Supcutie’s shatter guide…

Clones:

- Never cast abilities
- Only walk forward
- Auto attack slower than real Mesmer’s auto attack
- Never dodge roll.
- Walk straight then turn then walk straight again then turn in segments.

The real Mesmer will most likely have boons than the clones don’t, but this isn’t true all the time, just majority.

Real Mesmer will have Mantra and Signet Icons.

The two that I find most useful to watch for are dodge rolls (automatic giveaway) and non-linear movement such as changing direction or moving in a circle.

But mostly it takes practice. Spectating PvP can help but mostly you just have to fight them yourself.

Spotting the real mesmer is one thing – getting your fingers to press the right buttons to reselct them as a target is the harder skill IMO.
Edit: As Qaelyn said, with practice you’ll just know which one is real – also if you know some skills then it makes it easier – for example if they’ve just used phase retreat, you know that they will be the target directly behind the clone (unless dodge/phase retreat combo).

Nearest target, next (and maybe previous) target and call target all need to be easily accessible so that you can retarget and highlight them in the space of a couple of seconds.

Alternatively you can also use the cursor to select them, as long as there is enough clearance between them and their illusions, and you are not under any immediate pressure.

Most of your condi’s as an engi are aoe. Just throw grenades, drop bombs, point your elixir gun in the general direction of where the mesmer last stealthed. Also use big ‘ol bomb and shield 4 to keep them off you if they’re sword/x. As soon as I identify the real mesmer I always ctrl+t him. It drops when he stealths but it helps you maintain target when he uses phase retreat or illusionary leap.

Engineers give me fits like no other.

Blind shags Mesmers hard as well. That causes a Mesmer to fail at summoning Phantasms, which count for a significant chunk of damage in most builds. Chill will slow down movement and skill cooldowns. Poison reams your heal abilities. Engineer -in certain specs- also has good access to Immobilize and Knockdowns, both of which will give a Mesmer issues. Remember, you’re fighting a class that needs to be able to control both the pacing of a fight, and the enemy’s movement. Mesmer access to Stability and Condition removal is low, abuse those factors.

As for “Which is the real Mesmer?” Clones and Phantasms alike spam one attack, infinitely. You see someone who varies their attack pattern or dodges, you’ve got the real Mesmer.

Condi Necro and Engis . Other than that good players of every class can beat me but it comes down to how well I play vs how well they play.

one thing about mesmers that is a bit different from other classes is that we have true variety of builds. But no matter the build the key is
1. know which one is the real mesmer.
2. keep pressure on the mesmer the whole fight.

Mogar.9216:

Condi Necro and Engis . Other than that good players of every class can beat me but it comes down to how well I play vs how well they play.

one thing about mesmers that is a bit different from other classes is that we have true variety of builds. But no matter the build the key is
1. know which one is the real mesmer.
2. keep pressure on the mesmer the whole fight.

edit: As an engi bait the mesmer close to you and drop your elite on him/her you should win most of the time. I never let let an engi get in 900 of me because I died so many times to that trick

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Engineers give me fits like no other.

Oh, I need to play mine against yours sometime. I’m up to level 77 now and finally getting the hang of it.

Super fun in PvE and WvW events, though I haven’t gotten it into PvP lately. (Haven’t been playing as much due to actually forcing myself to get real work done!)

FWIW, as a PU/phantasm hybrid mesmer I personally find engineers usually my second-toughest fight (necros are worse). And conditions are the main reason.

Thanks guys. This has indeed been helpful. Mesmer is a class a bit harder to mess around with in sPvP and get the hang of how to beat.

Yep. It is the reacquisition which gets me too often and I do love my AE which does help quite a bit.

Mesmers really mess with me when the fight is not 1 v 1 and I have to pay attention not just to who is the Mesmer but say a thief trying to knife my back. I get that is part of the whole point of the Mesmer but these tips do help!

Happy to duel with you sometime if you’re in NA.

Bombsaway.7198:

Thanks guys. This has indeed been helpful. Mesmer is a class a bit harder to mess around with in sPvP and get the hang of how to beat.

Yep. It is the reacquisition which gets me too often and I do love my AE which does help quite a bit.

Mesmers really mess with me when the fight is not 1 v 1 and I have to pay attention not just to who is the Mesmer but say a thief trying to knife my back. I get that is part of the whole point of the Mesmer but these tips do help!

Mesmer/Thief is one of the best combo for 2 player in the game. Esp if both are the same race. It is a free ticket for the thief to dps as it is hard for people to keep track of all the clones and mesmer and still know when the thief pops out of stealth for a burst. I used to have a steady steam of thief friends who are more than happy to roam with me and together we’d get away with murder lol

Mesmers are weak against conditions. But the one that hurts harder than anything else is immobilize. It shuts down the kiting, it disables the dodging (and by extension clone generation through deceptive evasion), and it prevents us from leaving AoE poison, fire, pulsing fields that rip through us like nothing else.

As a general rule of thumb, if you see a mesmer pop their f4 shatter (invuln shatter) you’ve won. Pressure like hell once they can be damaged again and they’ll drop. Most mesmers will save their f4 shatter for clutch stomps since it kind of blows up their DPS and immediately identifies them to an opponent.

Bombsaway.7198:

I do play full condition as one spec and healing/support as the other.

My trouble is keeping my eye on you. Sure, I can figure out which Mesmer is the “real deal” by seeing who has buffs or who dodges. But, it just takes time. During that time, I find that a good Mesmer is confusing me and making me chuck conditions at anything but them.

So even though I have the condition damage to beat up a Mesmer (well some of them at least), it is really hard to land it fast enough on the right one!

Tried target selection (marking) but you all stealth on me then I get to tab thru to reacquire.

Maybe I am just an old man, but anyway to speed up the process of figuring out “Where’s Waldo”?

Here’s an idea. Instead of trying to think “Which one is the player” ask yourself “which ones are AI?”. Because clones are AI they come with some predictable behavior. So, for example, if you try luring the mesmer to fight somewhere where there’s cover to break LoS, then what you can do when the mesmer stealths (or anytime really) is shift your position around the side of a house, cliff, or tree. That will cause the clones to run in straight lines to reposition to attack you. At that point you can either destroy them as they cluster together, or mentally mark the little cluster as AI, and look for the odd one out (the player).

Condition Thieves, Necromancers and Engineers are hellishly annoying in 1v1.
But I digress, because I don’t fight 1v1 – I don’t do fair fights, especially not as a Mesmer.

In general, my bane are Guardians. Reflects, area denial, cleansing, boons to out-do Null Field, little reliance on conditions I could send back, good at making people survive TW burst, gain more from me stealthing than I do.

Sure, alone they’re rarely a problem. But like I said I don’t do fair fights in the first place. And in the situations where the fights aren’t fair – either way – the enemy Guardians are what makes the enemies are annoying to fight. Or make me misjudge whether we should attack or not.

(edit)
Worse, Guardians can supersede me in PvE, too. They can reflect, they can control conditions, they can’t control boons as well, granted, they take more to kill, they don’t have any noticeable condition component and they work better as heavy cleave. Grrrrr.

As people have said condis will wreck a mesmer. Id also suggest rolling one, at least to level 60, just so you can see how they work. Other than that Cntrl+T will mark the real mesmer until they pop in stealth again. Also look under the health bar for signets and food. Clones will never have either of those and thats what helps me the most when fighting mesmers.