Guild Wars 2

I am currently running a bunker build, and it is pretty tough. the only people who were ever able to outlast me in pretty much any group I run in is a good guardian and I constantly get compliments of just how much of a beast my mesmer is.

so imagine my shock when a duel against another mesmer saw me lose roughly half my health almost before I knew it had happened.

now I am NOT saying I am the best pvp Player in the world. I win some, I lose some.

until now, my biggest problem had been thieves. but considering it how tough my build is, this message for took me down so fast it shocked me.

this mesmer even managed to chase me down through the EB jumping puzzle I was navigating through after she killed 1 of my teammates at the entrance, I had made it to halfway through the well when she caught up with me, and killed me yet again.

clearly she was a better player than I. I don’t have a problem with that, I’ve known for some time I’m basically in the middle of the spectrum.

what I want to know is, I had a thought that bunker and glass cannon bills would balance each other.

is this not the case? because while I have no problem losing it to someone that much better than me, I’m still scratching my head on howl she did that much damage that quickly when I am running such a tough build.

frankly, I wish I knew who she was so I could go study at her feet haha

You should be able to interpret most of their build by analyzing your combat log.

Edit:

Fact of the matter is that a glass cannon can chunk down any target in the game. The difference is that another soft target would be evaporated, while a tanky spec will just be “surprised” that they lost a lot of HP.

Keep in mind that Mesmer ‘bunker’ builds typically require some setup time. If you were cold, then you are squishier than when you get going. As an example, the ‘immortal’ build whips out 3 illusions for 9% damage reduction, a phantasm for regen (and prot), and then possibly another phantasm to soak half damage. Those all take time to build up. If you were blindsided, you’d take 40-300% more damage than you would when you have all your stuff rolling.

The trick is that a full tank build still puts out 33-50% of a glass cannon’s damage output, and you take 10-30% of the damage that a gc would take.

What sort of bunker build are you running? I know that one of the only weaknesses of my build is a phantasm focused gc Mesmer. Perhaps it is a weakness for you as well.

Could you tell us what weapons and skills that mesmer was using?
Maybe that could narrow down the possible builds.

you know, you are right. I don’t know what this immortal build is, but it sounds a lot like mine. the 9 percent damage reduction for illusions damage reduction, regeneration from phantasms, protection from regeneration, it cetera et cetera.

also have a full set of soldier Gear, etc

I should have realized that part of the problem was not having illusions out.

she also hit me with shatters very quickly, while still spinning out lots of clones, so some form of shatter cat build I guess

so I may have to use decoy when I see an attack coming so I can get my defensive chain going

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Immortal-Mesmer-Build/first

You can take a look at my build in that thread.

I will say this, a shatter Mesmer is a hard fight, and if they catch you unprepared, it will hurt. However, given that they don’t surprise you, you should be able to beat them without too many problems once you get the hang of it. The only class that will consistently dismantle you is a full phantasm glass cannon Mesmer.

I like to Mirror Blade Izerker dodge roll F2 Mirror Image Decoy F1. I dont care how bunker you are, if you dont dodge/distort youre gonna feel it! Weee i love burst specs. Of course anyone who does happen to dodge has an easy fight after that =)

… Is it bad that when I saw this thread, I almost expected to open it and see a Mesmer saying Mesmers are OP and need to be nerfed?

Ayanavi.1904:

… Is it bad that when I saw this thread, I almost expected to open it and see a Mesmer saying Mesmers are OP and need to be nerfed?

No, it’s merely a sad -yet truthful- observation about the state of things in game

What is your build anyways? I’ll be able to provide more useful comments if I knew a bit more about your build rather than make assumptions and make random comments that may be incorrect.

I play a condition/confusion bunker mesmer and while I can handle most classes/builds with ease, burst-heavy shatter mesmers are a problem. It’s crucial to see their shatters coming and dodge them, otherwise you are in trouble.

Many ppl think they just have to use equip with toughness and vitality, with some defensive traits, and they have a working bunker build. They just increase the damage mitigation to become a “bunker”, but that’s not how things work in GW2. You need some sort of “active defense”, things that avoid damage and not just reduce it. Dodge roll is the most common way, if possible powered by Vigor to roll more often. Then there are a lot of abilities to block or even reflect damage, and on top of it every class has some sort of immunity skills.

Thus, if someone wears offensive equip but manages to use his “active defense” to the best effort, he can outlast a bad played “bunker build”.

Player skill matters a lot in GW2, especially in a mesmer vs. mesmer duel.

Bunker or not, mesmer is still a light armor class. You can’t endure the burst, you must avoid as much of it as you can. Generally confusion mesmer should win against a glass cannon mesmer, but naturally you can still screw it up.
However, if you are some weird power/thoughness/vitality mesmer, then it might be really difficult to beat a glass cannon shatter.

Light armor doesn’t make much of a difference.

EasymodeX.4062:

Light armor doesn’t make much of a difference.

Hmh, yeah, not really. But the point is that you can’t “tank” a shatter burst mesmer in WvW setting.

Master of Timespace.2548:

EasymodeX.4062:

Light armor doesn’t make much of a difference.

Hmh, yeah, not really. But the point is that you can’t “tank” a shatter burst mesmer in WvW setting.

Sure you can. Blurred frenzy through it. Mesmer has more active damage mitigation than any other class in the game, and that is what allows you to tank. Tanking doesn’t mean the same thing in gw2 as it does in other games. Not all tanking is standing with your hands off the keyboard and seeing how much damage you can soak up.

That’s kind of what he said in the prior post.

May I ask what server you were playing on? I had a really similar experience in the EB jumping puzzle, and I may be wrong, but based on your description of what happened, I swear I encountered the same mesmer…..

Bunker meser doesn’t have the heals . So if someone get the drop on you you are kind of screwed. Other bunkers like gardian and ele can heal from nothing to full over and over in short amount of time but Mesmers simply doesn’t have the healing to deal with a good player who isn’t fool by your clones.

Mogar.9216:

Bunker meser doesn’t have the heals . So if someone get the drop on you you are kind of screwed. Other bunkers like gardian and ele can heal from nothing to full over and over in short amount of time but Mesmers simply doesn’t have the healing to deal with a good player who isn’t fool by your clones.

That’s incorrect. Bunker mesmer has 100% uptime on regeneration, as well as an extremely powerful heal in ether feast, which has very high base healing and scales ~1.3 with healing power.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Mogar.9216:

Bunker meser doesn’t have the heals . So if someone get the drop on you you are kind of screwed. Other bunkers like gardian and ele can heal from nothing to full over and over in short amount of time but Mesmers simply doesn’t have the healing to deal with a good player who isn’t fool by your clones.

That’s incorrect. Bunker mesmer has 100% uptime on regeneration, as well as an extremely powerful heal in ether feast, which has very high base healing and scales ~1.3 with healing power.

I play ele as well as mesmer the healing difference between the 2 is not even close. Regen in itself is the weakest form of heal. Ele have 100% regen and access to passive heal on every skill use + another regen that stacks with the perma regen when switch to water and just about every skill in water also heals that’s including the damage dealing skills as well as pure heal skills. And on top of that everytime you dodge in water it also heals and cure condition. And on top of that ele get mist form which also heals when you pop it .

Mogar.9216:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Mogar.9216:

Bunker meser doesn’t have the heals . So if someone get the drop on you you are kind of screwed. Other bunkers like gardian and ele can heal from nothing to full over and over in short amount of time but Mesmers simply doesn’t have the healing to deal with a good player who isn’t fool by your clones.

That’s incorrect. Bunker mesmer has 100% uptime on regeneration, as well as an extremely powerful heal in ether feast, which has very high base healing and scales ~1.3 with healing power.

I play ele as well as mesmer the healing difference between the 2 is not even close. Regen in itself is the weakest form of heal. Ele have 100% regen and access to passive heal on every skill use + another regen that stacks with the perma regen when switch to water and just about every skill in water also heals that’s including the damage dealing skills as well as pure heal skills. And on top of that everytime you dodge in water it also heals and cure condition. And on top of that ele get mist form which also heals when you pop it .

Yes, a fully heal specced ele sitting in water attunement for the entire fight can pump out more healing than a mesmer. It also literally can’t do anything else.

Saying regen is the weakest form of healing is unbelievably wrong. Every 20 seconds, regen is the same as a heal for 2600 + 2.5x healing power. That is not weak. That is not even close to weak.

While a bunker mesmer obviously can’t have the highest heal per second in the game (and I never claimed this), it does have far more than enough healing to deal with and tank any other class in the game when played properly, while at the same time being offensive and mobile. There is no other class that can have the same survivability as a bunker mesmer (not maximum healing, survivability) while additionally being able to easily kill multiple people at the same time.