Guild Wars 2

I’ve been dueling a s/d thief all day, and have managed to win 2 out of couple dozen games. I’m running a 4/4/0/0/6 gs-s/p build (willing to change), but no matter how much damage I mitigate he jumps around too much for me to land decent shatters. If I manage to get my bearings he goes into stealth.

I know it’s an uphill battle, but does anyone have any tips, or know of any videos I could watch?

Eleivo.2761:

I’ve been dueling a s/d thief all day, and have managed to win 2 out of couple dozen games. I’m running a 4/4/0/0/6 gs-s/p build (willing to change), but no matter how much damage I mitigate he jumps around too much for me to land decent shatters. If I manage to get my bearings he goes into stealth.

I know it’s an uphill battle, but does anyone have any tips, or know of any videos I could watch?

I think the simple answer is: Condi PU.

Sword thieves just have the ultimate escape.

the simple answer is don’t play shatter against thieves.

Yes, you can get lucky but not much else when it comes to target reliant AI and damage.

PU can work but Phantasm builds can as well baring that you have a Staff and a 4 second Phase retreat traited up. which requires at least 4 into Chaos and then 15 into Illusions..

Final answer and generally the best advice, don’t fight a thief 1v1 as a Shatter Mesmer.. or maybe as a Mesmer in general.

Only duelists. Swap GS to Sword/ Sword or Scept/ Sword. Parry until duelist is up again. Play super lame.

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

If you run sword/pistol (which would totally work vs thieves) put 6 in dueling and use the cooldown reducing trait for pistol and sword + evasive deception. If you use sword + sword (you will have 9 second cooldown on your sword 4 block skill then, which is perfect because when a thief goes into stealth, wait 1 second then use the skill, it will basically remove any chance of landing a back stab) then you could put 4 points in dueling 2 points in domination for either cripple on clone death or more illusion damage (both of them will hit kitten the thief).

When you have staff in your hands and the thief goes into stealth, use chaos storm on your location, it has chance of dazing the thief if he gets near + you will get aegis, which will block the backstab. If Chaos storm is on cooldown, move away from the thief but let him think he can land a backstab, then use skill 2 for teleporting away so you buy more time which will make his stealth run out if you time this well.

And that’s basically it, if you know how thieves play, they are oh so easy for mesmers to kill.

PS: to get more damage on staff equip sigil of fire and sigil of air on it, you can do insane damage with auto-attack then.

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

You have literally never fought a decent thief have you, staff is literally THE worst weapon to fight thieves with, they always have one teleport more than you and your phase retreat is merely an inconvenience into their rotation. If you truly want to beat a thief play a really good PU, plain and simple. With Shatter even if you outplay them they may still win, and you can’t burst them in melee range due to their evades. If staff was so effective at fighting good thieves then how come players such as Supcutie, Helseth etc who are top mesmers, lose frequently to average thieves.

Benjamin.8237:

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

You have literally never fought a decent thief have you, staff is literally THE worst weapon to fight thieves with, they always have one teleport more than you and your phase retreat is merely an inconvenience into their rotation. If you truly want to beat a thief play a really good PU, plain and simple.

I definitely wouldn’t go so far to say this. While I agree that staff alone isn’t sufficient to make a fight against a thief easy, it does contribute significantly.

Ignoring for a moment the sheer volume of teleports that either class has, staff provides more mobility and can be used to reduce pressure. Regardless of if the thief can catch up quickly, it can still be used to kite the thief. Overall, the staff increases your mobility, and this is never a bad thing.

The staff also gives some potent defense in 2 forms. First, it gives aegis and dazes through chaos storm. Fighting in chaos storm will provide a lot of damage protection as well as a strong, albeit temporary, area denial.

Lastly, staff provides multiple methods to obtain chaos armor. Chaos armor will alleviate about 30% of incoming damage due to blind, more if you combo it for aoe armor on the clones. That’s a very significant damage reduction. On top of that, you can proc to receive protection and regeneration, which of course both reduce and mitigate the damage you take further.

I used Napalm Cat just because I got so fed up with thiefs and warriors.

What I do is to spam clones and wait in the middle when he backstabs or just near me,blurred frenzy + shatter.

Benjamin.8237:

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

You have literally never fought a decent thief have you, staff is literally THE worst weapon to fight thieves with, they always have one teleport more than you and your phase retreat is merely an inconvenience into their rotation. If you truly want to beat a thief play a really good PU, plain and simple. With Shatter even if you outplay them they may still win, and you can’t burst them in melee range due to their evades. If staff was so effective at fighting good thieves then how come players such as Supcutie, Helseth etc who are top mesmers, lose frequently to average thieves.

It sounds more like you have either never fought a thief on a mesmer or you just did not pay enough attention to your class.

Anyhow, Fay pretty much sums it up, but let’s not forget how useful staff is for blowing up your clones for AoE conditions. The damage outside stealth from a thief is not that bad, that’s why staff is so great, it has so many ways of removing any chance of landing backstab or a burst on the mesmer in general and you’re still being able to provide damage + condition pressure.

I should also note that my information comes from dueling thieves in the obsidian sanctum arena and not from dueling thieves in spvp.

Dirven.3021:

Benjamin.8237:

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

You have literally never fought a decent thief have you, staff is literally THE worst weapon to fight thieves with, they always have one teleport more than you and your phase retreat is merely an inconvenience into their rotation. If you truly want to beat a thief play a really good PU, plain and simple. With Shatter even if you outplay them they may still win, and you can’t burst them in melee range due to their evades. If staff was so effective at fighting good thieves then how come players such as Supcutie, Helseth etc who are top mesmers, lose frequently to average thieves.

It sounds more like you have either never fought a thief on a mesmer or you just did not pay enough attention to your class.

Anyhow, Fay pretty much sums it up, but let’s not forget how useful staff is for blowing up your clones for AoE conditions. The damage outside stealth from a thief is not that bad, that’s why staff is so great, it has so many ways of removing any chance of landing backstab or a burst on the mesmer in general and you’re still being able to provide damage + condition pressure.

I should also note that my information comes from dueling thieves in the obsidian sanctum arena and not from dueling thieves in spvp.

Ok what Pyro said is correct, but he also said that staff alone wont win you the fight. I know for fact that it won’t and it’s a downhill battle fighting thieves as a Mesmer. Is it impossible? No. But kitten hard. Also most thieves in WvW play D/P which is the easiest spec to counter as a Mesmer and the numbers game is slightly different. I’ve met WvW Mesmers whose mind wracks hit for 3k each and while a thief equally hits as hard, due to the way thief vs mesmer fights play out the increased damage seems to benefit mesmer more.

Also I’m a PvP player and I haven’t yet found a thief that is bothered by my staff skills, however (and I hate sounding elitist too) the PvP players I’ve played with are generally of a much higher skill than those I’ve met in WvW (however the two game modes are completely different so you can’t directly compare them).

Sure staff works a bit, but try beating thieves such as Sizer, Chozen, Red Levin, Collero, Astrastea etc “easily” using a staff shatter build. It just doesn’t happen.

Benjamin.8237:

Dirven.3021:

Benjamin.8237:

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief. Always use staff, it will drive them crazy with your number 2 skill, if you play it right they can never land a burst on you. Put atleast 4 in chaos magic and 3 in shatter so you got lowest cooldown possible for skill 2 and 4 on staff, then the next set of traits depend on what you run as second weapon set.

You have literally never fought a decent thief have you, staff is literally THE worst weapon to fight thieves with, they always have one teleport more than you and your phase retreat is merely an inconvenience into their rotation. If you truly want to beat a thief play a really good PU, plain and simple. With Shatter even if you outplay them they may still win, and you can’t burst them in melee range due to their evades. If staff was so effective at fighting good thieves then how come players such as Supcutie, Helseth etc who are top mesmers, lose frequently to average thieves.

It sounds more like you have either never fought a thief on a mesmer or you just did not pay enough attention to your class.

Anyhow, Fay pretty much sums it up, but let’s not forget how useful staff is for blowing up your clones for AoE conditions. The damage outside stealth from a thief is not that bad, that’s why staff is so great, it has so many ways of removing any chance of landing backstab or a burst on the mesmer in general and you’re still being able to provide damage + condition pressure.

I should also note that my information comes from dueling thieves in the obsidian sanctum arena and not from dueling thieves in spvp.

Ok what Pyro said is correct, but he also said that staff alone wont win you the fight. I know for fact that it won’t and it’s a downhill battle fighting thieves as a Mesmer. Is it impossible? No. But kitten hard. Also most thieves in WvW play D/P which is the easiest spec to counter as a Mesmer and the numbers game is slightly different. I’ve met WvW Mesmers whose mind wracks hit for 3k each and while a thief equally hits as hard, due to the way thief vs mesmer fights play out the increased damage seems to benefit mesmer more.

Also I’m a PvP player and I haven’t yet found a thief that is bothered by my staff skills, however (and I hate sounding elitist too) the PvP players I’ve played with are generally of a much higher skill than those I’ve met in WvW (however the two game modes are completely different so you can’t directly compare them).

Sure staff works a bit, but try beating thieves such as Sizer, Chozen, Red Levin, Collero, Astrastea etc “easily” using a staff shatter build. It just doesn’t happen.

Not going to add more since everything has been said and you should just reread the previous posts. Anyway here’s a tip, go fight duelers in obsidian sanctum, it will be an eye-opener for you.

I could probably say the same likewise, fighting the best thieves in the game really teaches you how bad of a spot the Mesmer is right now. Anyway enough arguments, nice to hear someones input.

I will assume that you are running a staff + gs shatter build (like the one in my signature).
There are a few things you can do, you will still loose a ton against thieves as they’re all extremely situational.
First thing is if you have a teammate with yourself- Tell him to peel for you meaning that your enemy kills the thief. You need to have a teammate for this and the teammate is supposed to be able to put enough pressure on the thief to get him of you
Second thing is simple positioning to minimize the amount of damage the thief can do. I don’t really know how to explain this, but I can give you a video that Helseth made for foefire, it includes some kiting spots that minimize thief damage and make them vunerable to your burst (ie they can’t dodge or avoid by porting)
Third thing is run – the thief needs to be really bad our out of iniciative to not be able to catch you.
Fourth, always have chaos armor on yourself and camp in chaos storm a lot to mitigate as much damage as possible. (You don’t need chaos armor while in chaos storm, try to have chaos armor when you’re not able to stand in chaos storm)

I took Osicat’s napalm build and made an interrupt build out of it 0/4/6/0/4. Here is a thief dead in 8 secs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HzmEj5k7Kk

I would argue he killed him self.

Use 4(III,IX)/4(II,X)/6(III,V,XII)/0/0 sword/sword, scepter/focus and you will eat thieves and warriors alive. It’s all about timing, when the thief gets off a stealth, you go into stealth and wait for him to pop. When he uses the stolen item from you, use arcane thievery to steal 3 buffs, making sure to watch out for a dodge. Use your blocks effectively, you can use them when he goes into stealth, but a smart thief would know not to attack when you’re using a riposte skill.

To the Op. I have found that if you count after a thief stealths with d/p you can be sure the thief will attack around second 2-3 or 5-6. Save your dodge until then. Also if they use s/d dodge everytime they use 2-3 combo and don’t dodge otherwise. with a greatsword, save skill 5 until the thief refuges. This will enable you to avoid most of a thief’s damage.

The tears that PU creates in any chat should not stop people fromp laying it.. seems like people are having guilt alot to play one of our best remaining options. dont be guilted into playing a worse spec by map chat.

please dont advise a fair and square shatter mesmers to play Pu or phantasm builds :S
you can beat s/d thieves with shatter too, kite him a bit wait for his first heal then wait for the sword 3 kombination after the evade interrupt the burst strike and use mindwreck combined with mirror blade for example. That maybe wont kill the thief but he will retreat and maybe u can get a luckshot and bring it to an end.
In my opinion the best weaponset against a s/d thief is greatword sword/sword.
You can let the thief run into ur blurred frenzy got a block and still nice ranged damage with gs when the thief retreats. Id personally run with mirror images decoy and blink against a thief. Try to use mirror images right after his 3 evade like mirror blade or combined and wreck him :p

Weez.6315:

please dont advise a fair and square shatter mesmers to play Pu or phantasm builds :S
you can beat s/d thieves with shatter too, kite him a bit wait for his first heal then wait for the sword 3 kombination after the evade interrupt the burst strike and use mindwreck combined with mirror blade for example. That maybe wont kill the thief but he will retreat and maybe u can get a luckshot and bring it to an end.
In my opinion the best weaponset against a s/d thief is greatword sword/sword.
You can let the thief run into ur blurred frenzy got a block and still nice ranged damage with gs when the thief retreats. Id personally run with mirror images decoy and blink against a thief. Try to use mirror images right after his 3 evade like mirror blade or combined and wreck him :p

You haven’t been fighting any decent thieves. If Supcutie can’t do it, neither can you.

On the other hand, if you really think that you can beat a good s/d thief with a shatter build, I invite you to record it and let us all experience your breakthrough.

whos supcutie a sd thief with the same skill lvl beats a shatter mesmer in most cases for sure. But that doesnt mean u cant kill many of those and you have to start running those lame traits too. Everyone loves to run the easiest builds, that doesnt mean they are able to play it… even though its hard with shatter i dont see the reason why you should play pu and phantasm builds cause of that cO
i watched a week ago Teldos stream, he was in a 1on1 arena with seizer and lord helseth and watched the duel between those a bit. helseth won many of those fights , even though he curses all sd thieves and they are both top players. Maybe teldo recorded it you should have a look.
Running a solo or 1on1 build with mesmer means in most cases ur useless in teamfights I personally would rather ask for somebody´s help against the thief and actually do something in teamfights with awesome damage instead of going stealth all day long till everyones kittened and leaves me alone

moonreft.2138:

I took Osicat’s napalm build and made an interrupt build out of it 0/4/6/0/4. Here is a thief dead in 8 secs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HzmEj5k7Kk

I would argue he killed him self.

That is one truly terrible Thief you came across there

Staff I find is the weapon that gives you the best chance of defeating a thief.

Staff #5 provides a daze, weakness and chill which can greatly slow down the damage of a thief. It also provides an Aegis which can prevent an 8K backstab.

Staff #4 provides a blind which causes a Thief to miss their hard hitting attacks. As well as protection for mitigating damage if you do get hit.

Plus you get a Phase Retreat for kiting.

You have decent uptime on chaos armor if you teleport through #5 first before using your #4.

Staff is moreso used for relieving the pressure off of you, perhaps to waste the thief’s skills and initiative to plan a counter attack or wait till your heal is up. When a thief goes invis I usually drop down the #5, teleport through it and run back into it quickly. But once you blow staff cooldowns it won’t help you anymore. However this is usually when i plan out a counter attack, say if I am using a shatter build, by switching to sword/X.

GS is a terrible weapon to fight thieves if you can’t keep your distance. At least with staff when a thief does get close you can defend yourself. Staff is your best friend against a thief.

Or you could run Condi PU, lul.

killahmayne.9518:

Staff I find is the weapon that gives you the best chance of defeating a thief.

Staff #5 provides a daze, weakness and chill which can greatly slow down the damage of a thief. It also provides an Aegis which can prevent an 8K backstab.

Staff #4 provides a blind which causes a Thief to miss their hard hitting attacks. As well as protection for mitigating damage if you do get hit.

Plus you get a Phase Retreat for kiting.

You have decent uptime on chaos armor if you teleport through #5 first before using your #4.

Staff is moreso used for relieving the pressure off of you, perhaps to waste the thief’s skills and initiative to plan a counter attack or wait till your heal is up. When a thief goes invis I usually drop down the #5, teleport through it and run back into it quickly. But once you blow staff cooldowns it won’t help you anymore. However this is usually when i plan out a counter attack, say if I am using a shatter build, by switching to sword/X.

GS is a terrible weapon to fight thieves if you can’t keep your distance. At least with staff when a thief does get close you can defend yourself. Staff is your best friend against a thief.

Or you could run Condi PU, lul.

When playing to win it doesn’t matter what you use. Only that you win.

Just created yesterday s/d thief. Now I can not see ways same lvl mesmer can win vs him. Mesmer ported at range? – F1 or 2. Then 3 3 3 3 evade evade heal 3 3 3 – all his shatter missed – repeat.
And I even don’t speak about some high skill thief tricks, so it can be more deadly

In sPvP I have only ever consistently beaten thieves with a condi staff, sword and pistol build (using null field for boon removal). Haven’t tried it with PU though.

Run a pu build condi, power, or even hybrid and you can destroy just about any thief.

Today forced myself to go OS and fight some ppl,I find that thieves,heavy condition specs and hybrid warriors which a bit more tankish,are impossible to beat in any power mesmer build(non PU) maybe except phantasm build.Against Warriors I get the upper hand from time to time but against thieves and condimancer,I die so fast!
Now im not saying im the best at being a mesmer,I just think that it cant be possible that every thief will get the better of me,or every warrior would just tank me away and kill me.It just feels mesmer class being torn apart,step by step.

ya.. like everyone else said.. shatter is garbage vs thief every other mesmer is great vs thief..

its hard with shatter mesmer to kill a thief s/d especially…..I mean deal with it even if theif is newbie he can kill you with that build same goes for s/p thief dazing you all the time. Dont listen to those who say play PU etc its bad build for pvp and shatter outshine everything else trust me ;-)

I’m going to assume you’re talking about s/d thieves because most other thieves are pretty tolerable on shatter mesmer, and I don’t think they require any special discussion… they’re a pretty even match in terms of who wins with more skill.

I have more trouble with s/x + gs shatter on s/d thieves than with staff/gs shatter. Good thieves will usually have their 2 set if shadowstep isn’t up so they can just get out of a sword 3 immob if you somehow land it.

I think the best time to set up on them is after the evade frames of flanking strike. Flanking strike has really low damage, so it’s fine to eat. Larcenous strike on the other hand must be avoided. The best bursts I see usually go like this:

Thief starts flanking strike -> eat the attack and f2 shatter existing clones as it ends -> dodgeroll phase retreat mw shatter for instant 3 clone shatter.

Thief starts flanking strike -> channel gs2 and dodgeroll shatter as it ends

Basically it seems like after flanking strike is one of the most reliable times to get a hit.

Other than that, it also seems to come down to counting their steal and being prepared to dodge it. Always watch for the CnD animation at range and dodge if they do it when steal is off CD; the same goes for them doing flanking strike at range when steal is off CD as well.

If you can catch them with a good burst, then it comes down to being able to daze their CnD attemps / gs5 them out of shadow refuge to remove their ability to reset and finish them off.

Most s/d thieves in WvW seem to stack the hell out of cavalier gear so it’s hard to 1-shot them, but I have had some success 100-0’ing them with the following chain (with illusionary elasticity):

Mirror Images -> Swap -> Dodgeroll -> Phase retreat + Mindwrack.

I run Air + Fire on staff, so if you get lucky with procs you get a full mirror blade, 4 clone MW shatter, and air + fire procs. I hit all of these and popped a cav-heavy s/d thief for 13k and took him out.

s/d thief is definitely a hell of an uphill battle for shatter mes, and I’d be glad to hear other gs/staff recommendations that arent’ “go play PU / mantra phantasm”

Amityel.5324:

its hard with shatter mesmer to kill a thief s/d especially…..I mean deal with it even if theif is newbie he can kill you with that build same goes for s/p thief dazing you all the time.

Ok, I’m with you so far…

Amityel.5324:

Dont listen to those who say play PU etc its bad build for pvp and shatter outshine everything else trust me ;-)

Hehe wat. You literally just said that thieves will rip you a new one on shatter, and in your next breath you’re advocating that everyone should play the build that thieves rip apart. Ok…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

courtesy of Lissair.4273

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

not really, stack a few pistol phastasm and most theives run away from you

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

not really, stack a few pistol phastasm and most theives run away from you

The mesmer itself has close to 0 damage pressure, since you’re using sword and staff with a rabid amulet and lyssa runes. The iDuelist will have a quite long cooldown since it lacks either cd trait, and it’ll have very low hp because neither phantasm hp booster was taken. On top of that, the duelist won’t do much damage, since both phantasm damage traits aren’t taken, and it’s using a rabid amulet. This means the thief just needs to hit it once, maybe twice with sword auto and it’ll die. Good luck stacking ‘a few’ pistol phantasms.

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

not really, stack a few pistol phastasm and most theives run away from you

The mesmer itself has close to 0 damage pressure, since you’re using sword and staff with a rabid amulet and lyssa runes. The iDuelist will have a quite long cooldown since it lacks either cd trait, and it’ll have very low hp because neither phantasm hp booster was taken. On top of that, the duelist won’t do much damage, since both phantasm damage traits aren’t taken, and it’s using a rabid amulet. This means the thief just needs to hit it once, maybe twice with sword auto and it’ll die. Good luck stacking ‘a few’ pistol phantasms.

sharper images? you bleed stack. pistol phantasm stack bleeds pretty well

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

not really, stack a few pistol phastasm and most theives run away from you

The mesmer itself has close to 0 damage pressure, since you’re using sword and staff with a rabid amulet and lyssa runes. The iDuelist will have a quite long cooldown since it lacks either cd trait, and it’ll have very low hp because neither phantasm hp booster was taken. On top of that, the duelist won’t do much damage, since both phantasm damage traits aren’t taken, and it’s using a rabid amulet. This means the thief just needs to hit it once, maybe twice with sword auto and it’ll die. Good luck stacking ‘a few’ pistol phantasms.

sharper images? you bleed stack. pistol phantasm stack bleeds pretty well

Ok, so you’re ignoring what I said there.

1. The thief will kill any duelists in either 1 or 2 autoattacks. This means they won’t get hurt.

2. Bleeds do damage over time. The thief ca ignore the bleeds temporarily, then clear them once the duelists are dead.

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

Fay.2357:

loseridoit.2756:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/An-unusual-PU-build/first#post4197920

play this build and all thieves will hate you

curtsey of Lissair.4273

Perhaps, but you’ll also be capable of doing precisely nothing other than annoy thieves.

not really, stack a few pistol phastasm and most theives run away from you

The mesmer itself has close to 0 damage pressure, since you’re using sword and staff with a rabid amulet and lyssa runes. The iDuelist will have a quite long cooldown since it lacks either cd trait, and it’ll have very low hp because neither phantasm hp booster was taken. On top of that, the duelist won’t do much damage, since both phantasm damage traits aren’t taken, and it’s using a rabid amulet. This means the thief just needs to hit it once, maybe twice with sword auto and it’ll die. Good luck stacking ‘a few’ pistol phantasms.

sharper images? you bleed stack. pistol phantasm stack bleeds pretty well

Ok, so you’re ignoring what I said there.

1. The thief will kill any duelists in either 1 or 2 autoattacks. This means they won’t get hurt.

2. Bleeds do damage over time. The thief ca ignore the bleeds temporarily, then clear them once the duelists are dead.

hmmmm you have a point. i havnt tested this build against good players. Usually, I find most people surprise that they cannot do damage against me. It usually messes up most thieves play style. It makes them pretty easy kills

Ross Biddle.2367:

killahmayne.9518:

Staff I find is the weapon that gives you the best chance of defeating a thief.

Staff #5 provides a daze, weakness and chill which can greatly slow down the damage of a thief. It also provides an Aegis which can prevent an 8K backstab.

Staff #4 provides a blind which causes a Thief to miss their hard hitting attacks. As well as protection for mitigating damage if you do get hit.

Plus you get a Phase Retreat for kiting.

You have decent uptime on chaos armor if you teleport through #5 first before using your #4.

Staff is moreso used for relieving the pressure off of you, perhaps to waste the thief’s skills and initiative to plan a counter attack or wait till your heal is up. When a thief goes invis I usually drop down the #5, teleport through it and run back into it quickly. But once you blow staff cooldowns it won’t help you anymore. However this is usually when i plan out a counter attack, say if I am using a shatter build, by switching to sword/X.

GS is a terrible weapon to fight thieves if you can’t keep your distance. At least with staff when a thief does get close you can defend yourself. Staff is your best friend against a thief.

Or you could run Condi PU, lul.

When playing to win it doesn’t matter what you use. Only that you win.

That has nothing to do with my post, but okay. you win internets. GJ

You first have to explain to Ross Biddle that you have to win while also having a tpvp viable build, then maybe he’d understand.

OP – I’ll throw this out there for another idea, a build I posted some time ago, updated for recent patches: The Utility Wizard

This non-PU build focuses on blind spam. Mesmer can do it just about as good as thieves. It’s very difficult to bring down, especially for thieves. You can play full bunker using settlers or a celestial alternate that’s surprisingly effective (in build link). The blinds act as additional key saving cooldowns in addition to our already inherent damage avoidance in combat mobility with staff, scepter #2 and focus pulls.

Hype aside, feel free to try it. It takes a bit of practice cycling through your blinds (remember chaos armor always), but the guide should help a bit.

Pichichi.1975:

You first have to explain to Ross Biddle that you have to win while also having a tpvp viable build, then maybe he’d understand.

Or you could bother reading the OP and realize that it has nothing to do with tPvP.

Fay.2357:

Pichichi.1975:

You first have to explain to Ross Biddle that you have to win while also having a tpvp viable build, then maybe he’d understand.

Or you could bother reading the OP and realize that it has nothing to do with tPvP.

Cccccccombo Breaker!

Hey guys! Thanks for referencing me in why Mesmers have such a hard time with Thieves haha.

I just wanted to chime in and suggest that you checkout the Thief matchup section in my guide. It has a lot of protips and things that will help you. The bottom line is that the matchup is a guessing game and you statistically have a disadvantage. This doesn’t mean you always lose though!

If you try to do a lot of the things I mention, you’ll be a lot of thieves. Just keep in mind though that if you are losing, not to be too kitten yourself. It’s an extremely hard matchup and takes time to practice and learn playing against as well as team mates to help peel for you.

This is a direct link to the guide:
http://bit.ly/mesmerguidebackup10

Just scroll down to page 3, click on Thief, and it will take you to the Thief section! Hope it helps!

Oh and I should probably plug to vote for me for All-Stars if you think I deserve it!

Dirven.3021:

It is actually very easy to fight a thief.

You must be fighting very terrible thieves. I agree, though, it is easy to shatter bad thieves that don’t know how to stick and move.