Guild Wars 2

I think a lot of people find PU mesmers OP, whether they are condi PU or interrupt/power PU.

Personally I don’t find them THAT OP. Yes it is hard to kill them, but learning and knowing how to fight them reduces the chances of them killing you and increases your chances of killing them.

Maybe all the PU mesmers forumners here can help us understand you better by sharing with us what are the enemy classes/builds that you find can fight evenly with you or even threaten you.

I am more interested in a 1v1 WvW roaming scenario but feel free to share your even/tough matchups in PvP as well.

What build are you using, and What are the enemy classes/builds that can threaten you or give you a good run for your money?

Maybe I can give my own perspective as a necro main first.

As a Signet Necro, I threaten pretty much any condi builds, including condi PU mesmers, with up to 4 condi transfers abilities. I have learned to time my transfers better, probing for aegis, waiting for dodges, landing a fear before transferring etc.

As a Soul-reaping traited Necro with up to 3 stun breaks and 1 stability, I also can sustain and return the favor against power/interrupt PU Mesmers by using Lifeforce to tank and breakstun their burst (the standard GS2 + blink + shatter + GS 3 + mantra stun combo) and constantly moving away from their clones when they are invis and not stay in their clone’s area of control which greatly reduces the amount of damage that I take, while waiting for my chance to deal them a decisive fear/burst.

I don’t know if PU mesmers feel threatened by a Signet/Soul-reap Necro, but personally having learned all these strategies above and more, like the timing of their invis, what their main skill animations look like, what to do if they are trying to stun/burst me, the decision whether to chase or run if they blink away from me to cast their heal or recast their mantra, I no longer feel like PU mesmers cannot be defeated.

Again, as a sign of good-will from PU mesmers, whether you are condi or power/interrupt, maybe you guys want to share with the rest of the community:

What build are you using, and What are the enemy classes/builds that can threaten you or give you a good run for your money?

I am using Illusions / Dueling / Chaos, though I don’t use PU. Using CI because it’s very, very strong.

Tried PU, and while it’s fun in WvW to feel like a Thief and never risk anything during a fight, it didn’t exactly help out winning much unless an enemy really wanted to 1v1 duel (which is a problem with their intellect, IMO, 1v1 is a stupid idea in general as you risk too much for too little gain). In that sense, PU revived the Blackwater builds of old, preying on those 1v1 highwaymen-players.

Outside of that it felt pointless. So I went with CI instead, and doing some interrupt work. Works really well as in WvW, getting immobilized even for short moments before a cleanse is generally an instant-downed.

PU is way too selfish in pugs. Staying in stealth long really doesn’t help your team succeed but it does help you survive a bit better.

I think it is only worth taking when
1. Too many zergs and havok in WvW roaming, you need it to escape.
2. In PvP, you have a premade team you trust, then you take both portal and PU. It helps your survive a lot better and help you team with clutch portal play together with some sneaky burst.
3. You are not familiar with the mesmer class yet. Need longer stealth to cover your erratic play.

Well in PvP I’ve found good necros very hard to beat. Most can take a full on +4 power shatter with ease, have over the top sustain with shroud, access to immobilise/ movement impediments, hard hitting multiple conditions, life siphon/life transfer and Lich form. You probably would get more useful help in the necro forums on how to beat Mes, but I assure you well built necros are more than capable of taking most mes down. The only true weakness of a necro from a mesmer point of view is taking ranged damage. As for interrupts, they are not easy to pull off, and most necros I’ve played don’t seem too affected by it, unlike fast rotation eles.

Unless the Mesmer is using the Inspiration traitline, conditions are still going to be a problem for them.

I’ve been running a Duel/Chaos/Illu Sinister WvW roaming build lately, and I find Condi Necros and Condi Thieves to be very challenging to fight. Not quite as mis-matched as Mesmer vs Power Thief was pre-patch, but still difficult to the point that I’ll just avoid them oftentimes.

EremiteAngel.9765:

I think a lot of people find PU mesmers OP, whether they are condi PU or interrupt/power PU.

Personally I don’t find them THAT OP. Yes it is hard to kill them, but learning and knowing how to fight them reduces the chances of them killing you and increases your chances of killing them.

Maybe all the PU mesmers forumners here can help us understand you better by sharing with us what are the enemy classes/builds that you find can fight evenly with you or even threaten you.

I am more interested in a 1v1 WvW roaming scenario but feel free to share your even/tough matchups in PvP as well.

What build are you using, and What are the enemy classes/builds that can threaten you or give you a good run for your money?

Maybe I can give my own perspective as a necro main first.

As a Signet Necro, I threaten pretty much any condi builds, including condi PU mesmers, with up to 4 condi transfers abilities. I have learned to time my transfers better, probing for aegis, waiting for dodges, landing a fear before transferring etc.

As a Soul-reaping traited Necro with up to 3 stun breaks and 1 stability, I also can sustain and return the favor against power/interrupt PU Mesmers by using Lifeforce to tank and breakstun their burst (the standard GS2 + blink + shatter + GS 3 + mantra stun combo) and constantly moving away from their clones when they are invis and not stay in their clone’s area of control which greatly reduces the amount of damage that I take, while waiting for my chance to deal them a decisive fear/burst.

I don’t know if PU mesmers feel threatened by a Signet/Soul-reap Necro, but personally having learned all these strategies above and more, like the timing of their invis, what their main skill animations look like, what to do if they are trying to stun/burst me, the decision whether to chase or run if they blink away from me to cast their heal or recast their mantra, I no longer feel like PU mesmers cannot be defeated.

Again, as a sign of good-will from PU mesmers, whether you are condi or power/interrupt, maybe you guys want to share with the rest of the community:

What build are you using, and What are the enemy classes/builds that can threaten you or give you a good run for your money?

I use PU, chaos with condi shatter and confusion on blinds, and I have a lot of blinds. Its an attrition build, I do mid range DPS even for other condi mesmers but I can tank relatively decent.

What gives me most trouble is rampage / stance warriors before I find out that they are rampage / stance warriors. Once I do, I switch to kiting, but often they get me by that time on the 1st encounter.

Bunker / lifedrain necros are 2nd. In fact I had a fight with a necro that lasted over 2 minutes and neitehr one of us could kill each other, just healed back up to full. We walked away to different parts of the map.

Burn Condi Engis and some thieves can down me if they get the jump on me and my cleanses or stunbreaks are on CD. Most thieves I am fine against, but occasionally I run into a D/D thief that just gets me very low on the stealth opener. Burn engis can stack and restack burns very fast, fastest in the game I think, better then Eles.

Bunker burn guards are pretty beast, and while I usually come on top it can get very close.

I do not have troubles with D/D eles like everyone else is having and rangers or bow / rifle warriors are cake for me.