Guild Wars 2

hey fellow mesmer players,

i just recently started playing GW2 and am fairly new to the mesmer as well as pvp itself (but i really enjoy it ). Even tho i have watched a lot of mesmer guides and having tried most of the builds out already, i still feel completely lost. I thought if i focused on 1 build (GS/SS shatter build) and stick with it for a while, i would eventually get better, but nope….i still suck (very) hard and i cant really figure out, what i am doing wrong. Since i have only played ~70 games of unranked arena so far, it might as well just be a case of “practice”.

If somebody could tell me (if they still remember / are going through the same process as i), what helped them in improving their gameplay, i would really appreciate it. Just please dont link “build”-guides, because i feel like i have seen them ALL already, and they dont really help at all

Play with a team on teamspeak. Learn how to pvp better and you will be a better mesmer. This means knowing when to roam with your team, when to disengage from a fight you know you’ll lose, when to rotate from the point you’re defending etc. etc. A lot of this stuff comes from intuition gained over time. There’s a lot of variables at play in pvp. The key is knowing how to react to these various situations that you are faced with.

I didn’t get better until I consistently played with other people and friends. Yes, it can be rough when you suck or people rage at you, but thick skin is part of the entry fee for participating in pvp anyway.

Lastly, have you looked at guides for kiting your enemy? What about phase retreat and blink spots? Those are extremely helpful guides for all Mesmers.

MailMail.6534:

Play with a team on teamspeak. Learn how to pvp better and you will be a better mesmer. This means knowing when to roam with your team, when to disengage from a fight you know you’ll lose, when to rotate from the point you’re defending etc. etc. A lot of this stuff comes from intuition gained over time. There’s a lot of variables at play in pvp. The key is knowing how to react to these various situations that you are faced with.

I didn’t get better until I consistently played with other people and friends. Yes, it can be rough when you suck or people rage at you, but thick skin is part of the entry fee for participating in pvp anyway.

Lastly, have you looked at guides for kiting your enemy? What about phase retreat and blink spots? Those are extremely helpful guides for all Mesmers.

To Mailmans suggestion, this should help
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Learning-the-trade-of-PvP/first

As for learning to Mesmer, I think you’re going to have to be more specific with what your problem is. It’s hard to address any one thing when there could be so many reasons for your trouble.

Ross Biddle.2367:

As for learning to Mesmer, I think you’re going to have to be more specific with what your problem is. It’s hard to address any one thing when there could be so many reasons for your trouble.

ye, i guess i should have addressed that in my initial post …was a bit worried it might get too long tho :P

i dont really think that my positioning is off, or that my movement is particularly bad: when contesting a point or in teamfighting, i tend to stay at range, letting my teammates do the initiation and try to do as much dmg as possible. When i see an isolated target, i try to jump and burst them. i also avoid going into already lost fights (except maybe when i see, that reinforcements are on their way) and go for farpoint decaps / fullcaps instead.

I feel like my problem is to fight 1on1 effectively. At my level of gameplay it comes more down to player-strenght than class-advantages/disadvantages and imo i loose too many 1on1 fights. Engineers, Rangers and (especially) Thieves are particularly hard. Unless they are supported, or in a 1vX scenario, the heavy armored classes arent really much of an issue (altho some fights tend to last quite a while). Personally i think that my shatter combos get evaded / blocked / mitigated too often. Are there any tricks on how to secure a burst?!

maybe its a rotation issue? (i know, i know, there are no “rotations” in pvp but until my judgement is good enough i still need some guidelines)

for my standard rotations i usually start by getting 3 clones (in order: phantasm > clone-weaponskill > dodge) followed by F2/F3 (F2 for light and medium armored targets and F3 for heavy ones), getting 3 clones again + F1. For the F1 shatter i try to stand in melee range as well, to get the IP bonus. After the F1 shatter and blurred Frenzy-dmg i try to put some distance between me and my target again.

Watch top streamers, that’s probably the best way.

Lord Helseth

Supcutie

They are the current best mesmer streamers in PvP. They are also answering questions, so if you have any feel free to ask them in twitch chat.

Also, on metabattle you can find a brief guide on every build page.

BikeIsGone.8675:

maybe its a rotation issue? (i know, i know, there are no “rotations” in pvp but until my judgement is good enough i still need some guidelines)

for my standard rotations i usually start by getting 3 clones (in order: phantasm > clone-weaponskill > dodge) followed by F2/F3 (F2 for light and medium armored targets and F3 for heavy ones), getting 3 clones again + F1. For the F1 shatter i try to stand in melee range as well, to get the IP bonus. After the F1 shatter and blurred Frenzy-dmg i try to put some distance between me and my target again.

As a shatter mesmer a rotation really won’t do you much good since you have to try to land a burst. That means patiently waiting for an opening to drop your mind wrack. Keep in mind GS can be a lot more effective for a burst than Sword if you are able to land Mirror Blade in melee range. Your Sword #2 is also really useful just as damage negation, don’t think that you need it in combo with Sword #3 for a burst.

You don’t want to just spam F3, it’s an interrupt and should be saved for things like when your enemy heals, plus you want to try to chain it out so you land multiple dazes. F2 is generally useful as another boon removal, or if your opponent has spent their cleanses. If you can instantly land a full shatter then you should just use F1.

BikeIsGone.8675:

Personally i think that my shatter combos get evaded / blocked / mitigated too often. Are there any tricks on how to secure a burst?!

That’s a pretty typical issue that mesmers find when they are struggling. You can try to draw out blocks and evades, for example with Sword #3 or iZerker, and generally the less predictable your actions are the harder it is for your enemy to avoid the burst. It’s pretty obvious when you are trying to set up an immobilize + blurred frenzy + 3 clone shatter, but you can land a lot of damage in other ways, just watch your opponent’s blocks and evades and grab the opportunity when it presents itself.

Did you see supcutie’s mesmer guide https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Supcutie-s-Comprehensive-PvP-Shatter-Guide/first ?

BikeIsGone.8675:

If somebody could tell me (if they still remember / are going through the same process as i), what helped them in improving their gameplay, i would really appreciate it. Just please dont link “build”-guides, because i feel like i have seen them ALL already, and they dont really help at all

When I started, I played WvW exclusively, due to PvP really not being a complete system and WvW interesting me far more. I learned to duel other builds, fight drastically outnumbered, learned to use my mobility skills efficiently and effectively, in general all the parts of the class that you need to know.

Eventually I did more PvP, and adjusted my playstyle to be more appropriate in that setting. That being said, I adjusted my playstyle for a solo type PvP experience, which is what you seem to be having. The biggest problem is that a glassy shatter build is not a solo PvP build. If you don’t have a team that’s backing you up and that you’re working together with, you’ll simply be thief food all day long.

So ultimately, you’ve got a couple of choices. First, you can try to find a team to play with. This will allow you to actually run shatter in a situation that shatter can actually perform. You could also try to pick up some different builds that are more conducive to solo play.

Additionally, you mentioned that you’re new to GW2. I take this to mean that you probably haven’t played much of other classes and/or are unfamiliar with a lot of their mechanics. Until you know every mechanic of every class, how it works, how it doesn’t work, and how to work around it, you’ll constantly find yourself in situations where you don’t know why or how you just died. In order to rectify this, I recommend playing other classes at least to some extent, along with looking at the wiki to learn the skills and mechanics of the other classes.

Lastly, you may want to take a look at my PvP guide: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-A-Mesmer-Guide-to-Solo-Queue/first#post4060868

What I did to improve:
watch videos from good PvP players
read supcutie’s guide and revisited it frequently
Put into practice

Hm… I personally didn’t read any guide and used only builds, I created myself. I was looking at what I enjoy about Mesmer and focused on that. This is how I got to know the profession. Of course having played since launch made it easier, cuz when I was a scrub, everyone else basically was too^^

I also started the game mostly in WvW. It is imo still the best place to learn a profession. Because even playing casually you need to be way more adaptive than in casual PvP. On the other hand, you can get away in WvW with builds and strategies, that wouldn’t work that well in PvP (I for instance sometimes use missile reflection focused build in WvW, where it can work wonders. In PvP I got always crushed using it^^). But that is just my opinion/experience.

Maybe after 6 month into the game I started looking for other builds and reading/watching guides and streams. Now having a fairly good understanding of the profession, I still had troubles against certain builds, in certain situations. And this is why I started seeking help in the forum and through those guides.

After having played for a while different power shatter styles, which I tried to copy from videos and streams, I am now back most of the time to my own builds. I learned a lot about strategies and tactics with those guides and “premade” builds, but ultimately, at least for a casual player, I find it the best to adept the builds you play to your play style instead of adapting your play style to a certain build.

thanks for the great help so far guys, i really do appreciate it!
i just stumbled across this supcutie guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCMS-0WGX4
This is exactly what i was looking for (well its only mesmer vs mesmer, but the commentary is superb), so thanks for pointing me in that direction.
The linked soloQ guide is awesome as well

Cheers

Find a guild/team to play with, it makes a huge difference having people to coordinate with xD

A lot of good advice from above. Practice, try & error. Explore different game styles. find your own. No time eventually you’l be a master mesmer. Watch youtube spvp players for tricks of the trade. Ps: Learn the maps would be my advice. but that’s good for all classes.

/sharpens swords

And if you’d like someone to spar with to help ya analyze your strengths and weaknesses, feel free to hit me up!