Guild Wars 2

So lately I’ve been doing solo queue and team queue with guildies. We do fairly well, until we meet a team with 2 or more hambow warriors, which seems to be quite often. I’m thinking I need a build that is a good counter to them. Any suggestions? Our team varies depending on which class people bring, but we always have a necro and guardian. Thanks!

There is no build to counter them… Best to simply bring another player when engaging them. That’s how you win. If you still cant beat them 4v2, then you might begin to question your friends builds. Or their skill

Look to their weaknesses. A hambow warrior has no mobility on their weapons. Thus, the best way to beat them is to outnumber them and out run them to other points. Make sure you team build has:

1. Boon removal – Stability is a kitten and removing it is key to getting decaps on warriors. That’s what makes bountiful thief, necromancers and shatter mesmers so useful on teams.
2. Mobility – Thieves, mesmers, engineers, elementalists…they can all collapse on a point really quickly, especially on khylo. 3v2, you can easily take out a warrior and stomp him.
3. Stomp Securing – Engineers, mesmers and thieves are brilliant at this. Just taking Elixir S on an engineer pretty much guarantees a stomp on these guys. No clutch guardian bubble is going to stop you.

Most of all, never fight them fair! Ever! If you spend too much time fighting them, they’ll just hold the point forever. Luckily, once you get that point, it’s very hard for them to take it back. They generally only have 1 skill that pushes them back and it’s definitely not enough to take a point. Stick a guardian or another warrior on that point once it’s yours and you’ll out score them in no time.

As with any combat situation, “Know thy enemy”. If you know the weaknesses and strengths of both you and your enemy, you cannot lose. Make sure that somewhere on your team there exists a counter to something. If you build too much in one department for your team build, then you are playing rock paper scissors.

Every team build should be able to do this:

1. Bunk Home
2. Bunk Mid
3. Secure Stomps (Elixir S, Stability from others, Mass Invis, Specialty stomps of certain classes [Shadow Stop on thief, Portal stomp on mesmer])
4. Stop Stomps (Stealth, boon removal, Interrupts)
5. Secure Reses (Guardian bubble, Banner, Elixir R, Elixir S, Mass invis)
6. Peel for allies (S/D Thieves, D/P Thieves, Hammer Warriors etc)
7. Shutdown (Heavy CC builds, heavy pressure builds)
8. Move between points quickly (Roaming, Portals, Shadow Trap, Quick moving classes)

Every player doesn’t need to do all of these, but a good team build covers all of this and more.

I also suggest practicing against them in 1v1 servers. It is very possible to beat these builds. Just face off against them and understand how they work. Play them a bit! There’s no better way to understand how to beat something than to play it!

If it’s one, no problem, but lately it’s been 2-3 per match. :/ My team can’t keep them all busy while holding points. It’s such a hard build to counter, it seems.

SallyStitches.4096:

If it’s one, no problem, but lately it’s been 2-3 per match. :/ My team can’t keep them all busy while holding points. It’s such a hard build to counter, it seems.

Bring your home point bunker into the fight too then. They probably will be playing a two point strategy and if you can get back home quickly, it would really help if you can bring him in. Keep tallies of how many enemies are at each point and as soon as you can’t account for all 5, send home point bunker back home. Luckily, warriors make counting really easy.

Remember that what makes a warrior OP is the fact that they have regen and stability (among other things). So count them! Bring poison and boon removal! Keep applying it until it dies. The more counters you bring, the easier it is. A single thief can be HELL for a warrior in a team fight.

Being a caller for your team means you need as much information as possible coming at you so you can make the right decision. As soon as something isn’t working, figure out what would counter it and get that plan in motion as quickly as possible. Builds with multiple tanky-bunkery people thrive on inaction. Don’t be inactive.

Thank you, very helpful! I’ll talk to my team and work on new builds, if necessary. I’m still experimenting with builds myself, too.

SallyStitches.4096:

Thank you, very helpful! I’ll talk to my team and work on new builds, if necessary. I’m still experimenting with builds myself, too.

Best advice I can give is that there should never be silence on vent if everything is going right. If it is silent, figure out what is going on that is making it so silent. Information is king, so keep on asking for it so you KNOW that you are making the right decision. As soon as you know you aren’t, figure out what will fix that and get to inacting it. Builds with multiple tanky-bunkery people thrive on inaction. Don’t be inactive.

I think it depends what level of play you are at as well. At my level (now around 50% ranking, so right in the middle of the leaderboards) I find most hambow warriors to actually be fairly easy prey for my mesmer. There are a lot of hambow players who are attracted to it for its reputation as being OP and they don’t have a great deal of skill at dealing with fights where things don’t go their way.

In particular, most deal poorly with defensive builds. When I’m on my defensive-oriented PU/phantasm hybrid I can usually wear them down. It does take a while (longer than it should) but I win most of these matches.

My guess is that a build with heavy stun/lockdown would also give them fits.

So maybe I should revisit PU and Bountiful Interruption?

SallyStitches.4096:

So maybe I should revisit PU and Bountiful Interruption?

Try 30/20/0/0/20 (Greatsword/Staff, Lyssa runes, Dual Energy sigils). It has a butt load of stuns and boon removal. Confounding Suggestions for the 30, normal shatter stuff elsewhere. Portal, Blink, Mantra of Distraction, Mass Invis, Signet of Ether. (Props to Helseth for this one). I find it really counters necromancers and warriors as warriors can’t keep up with you and necromancers can’t get a god kitten thing off with all those stuns. Great mobility as you can just place a portal, outnumber them at mid and port back to outnumber them again. In fact, a hilarious way to troll them is to go to far, drop a portal, and then go mid xD. They either leave someone there or they lose the point. Either way, it’s an outnumbered battle or a lost point.

PU is also a very passive spec that doesn’t do much besides stay a point. It doesn’t hold it very well with all those stealths. It really helps to learn a much harder build that in the end will allow you to do more.

That build has little defense and a newer player will get eaten alive by any decent hambow IME.

I run a PU/phantasm hybrid, scepter/torch+GS. I sometimes lose a point temporarily but I usually get it back. There aren’t any mesmer builds that can realistically just stand in a point in the face of an offensive onslaught, at least that I’ve found, though admittedly there are others more experienced who may have.

I’m not new, really, just getting back into PvP after a hiatus. Been playing mesmer for over a year.

Then you may do well with one of the stun/lockdown builds. But don’t buy into the “PU is useless in PvP line” as it is not true, at least, not for typical players (I can’t speak for the higher levels).

Been running Sensotix condition build or shatter (20/20/0/0/30).

What are you running, Qaelyn?

Usually something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR7flwzKqnUToGZ9IipH9WwBckUoavWJF42FC-TsAAzCpImRNjbGzMyZszMEZ9xuAA

Ironically enough, I was just in a group and we got nuked because they had 3 warriors. It was quite frustrating as you’ve observed.

It’s extremely frustrating. My guildies and I are going to test builds later.

Qaelyn.7612:

Then you may do well with one of the stun/lockdown builds. But don’t buy into the “PU is useless in PvP line” as it is not true, at least, not for typical players (I can’t speak for the higher levels).

You’re not training yourself to be good tho. PU is pretty passive play. It’s better to suck for a bit while you learn the ropes than to trick yourself into thinking you’re good with an OP build. In the end, it will be nerfed and you’ll be right back where you started. I highly suggest watching pro mesmers play and learning all the tricks. If you’d like, I can post some of the tricks in that build that really make it shine.

Sally: At least you have a group to play with, I’m still working on that and dealing with PUGing the solo and team queues. Yuck.

Gates: Thanks, but I prefer the phantasm/stealth playstyle over shatter. I don’t think the style is nearly as dependent on the actual characteristics of PU as some do, but if they change it I’ll re-evaluate then. If they force all mesmers to play a shatter style, and I still don’t like it, I’ll just play a different class instead.

In the meantime, I continue to find ways that I can improve my gameplay with my current build and I tinker with new builds as well. If I hit a ceiling, again, I can reassess.

My team isn’t always available, but we do generally have the same people. On the weekdays I usually solo queue. Been playing with both builds, and I definitely see strengths and weaknesses of each, but I like them. I am trying to get a better grasp on Gates build, though. I can tell it’s strong, though!

Use Ether Feast instead of Ether Signet for the Confusing Suggestions build, as your clone uptime is low due to shatters and the likes of warriors chewing right through them. Even Helseth has made that switch back :p

It’s not the easiest to win 1v1, but in any kind of team fight or 2v1 (which you can create often with your mobility from portal/blink/phase retreat) you’re a killer with the daze/stuns and shatters.

Sensotix latest condi build is very good, but more for yolo que or where you lack close/far player in team.