Guild Wars 2

you’re running a standard shatter mes build (4/4/0/0/6) in tpvp (or even a phantasm build if you want), and come up against either an s/d permavade thief or d/d(p) thief that fancies their stealth more than you do.

your weapons are gs and staff because you normally fight from a range and dodge around in close combat while shattering from time to time.

your utlities are decoy, blink and either arcane thievery/mirror images with the heal being either feast and elite being mass invisiblity.

QUESTION: how do YOU beat the pesky thief?

i ask this because it’s basically the permavade thief that i have trouble beating in a match; i am able to down a d/p thief from time to time if i’m quick enough and i keep my illusions corralled within shatter radius to provide a deadly burst for when they leave stealth to backstab.

the s/d and d/d thieves work very quickly with getting damage down, it can be hard to summon up the necesarry illusions to provide the necessary damage to counter them, and even then it can be harder to pin damage on them with their own slew of teleportations, offhand dagger stealths and evades that their abilities offer along with damage spikes.

tell the mesmer community your approach against these builds

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Tips-on-Fighting-a-Thief-in-sPvP

It is possible to beat a thief, alltho the thief doesn’t have to be too experienced to kill you.
You can’t make any mistakes if you end up against one,
but don’t think it’s impossible to beat them

What I mostlikeley do is go for a distortion when they jump on me, most likeley they’ll jump back, that’s when you try to close in on them and try a shatter blink combo.

I’m not saying that this works for the full 100%, but it does work from time to time when I’m trying it myself. It is very tricky to fight a thief, most likeley I just pull off and try to get away, but when I really have to fight them (keeping a point contested for example, when no one of your teammates is able to help you out) I just don’t panic out and try to make the best of it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

You can be the pain in the kitten for thiefs in teamfights aswell, if you stealth for example first. Who attacks first most likeley wins it. Suprise the thiefs, they like it

How do I beat a thief in sPvP?

If its organized (TS/premade) I ask a buddy to come and kill him with me. I’m there to win the game, not boost my ego by trying to solo kill the most evasive class in the game.

If its random, I hope he is a worse player than I am.

Yep, that simple.

Don’t forget to use Chaos Storm on yourself 1-2 seconds after they go stealth. Also use GS Wave to push them out of SR and reveal.

Soo for S/D perma evade, the daze mantra does wonders against them into your shatter daze mindwrack when set up right. So try that out. Also the last utility your using is arcane thievery which is buggy and MoI is really good, but if your shatter just take a portal. Place it somewhere safe before traveling out so if you were pressured too hard(or simple out of cooldowns) you can reset yourself or just get out of a toxic situation. This is awesome vs a thief who just got a good jump on you, you can wait abit and re-enter the portal if need be and shatter bomb targets when you reappear. But Staff GS isn’t ideal to fight thieves (you need to watch your positioning the most since your ranged you wouldn’t think that would be a problem but don’t let a thief get a jump on you it should be the other way around), you are basically needing to learn how to kite with that weapon set up. Which is fairly easy if you know how to effectively use staff and your shatters correctly. I suggest searching for supcuties guide on staff blinks. For example you can use staff 2 skill to gain distance between you and enemies while also being able to blink on top of objects that put you atop of everything like ledges, walls, hills etc. But you need to be on your toes, dodge roll their steal(or distortion it) will set them back a lot in scrimmages against you. If they got the steal off and you see them wanting to drink the elixir, daze or interrupt that. If they shadow refuge GS 5, blink into if need be to force them out of it. If they dodge rolled the GS 5 then your best bet is to leave the scene and not use your storm til they pop out of stealth and continue to pressure you. But you shouldn’t be waiting for them to get out of SR simply because they will be looking todo 2 things, either SB immob you into SB 2 spam or get off a nasty backstab. So your best bet is reposition, possibly place a portal there leave the scene and return if need be. But in the end fighting a thief comes down to how well you know how to Mesmer, how to shatter and simply outplay your enemy. People say thief counters Mesmer, but that only applies to bad Mesmer. Keep that in mind, because if you play right that thief will be begging for mercy, to which they wont receive.