Guild Wars 2

I am a roaming warrior and as a roamer I have noticed a lot of phantasm mesmer builds as of late. I find this unfortunate because it seems like it is impossible to beat a decent one (as a warrior) no matter what type of build I go and it frustrates me that I am powerless to stop it.

Fellow mesmers, if you have some general tips on how to fight one and best increase the odds of beating one, it would be appreciated. Or do you guys just consider us warriors free badges?

Those that are knowledgeable on mesmers but also know alot about warriors are also welcome to discuss some of their builds and some of their strategies when it comes to dealing with them.

ty

All mesmers use phantasms, so it might be easy to confuse a phantasm build for just a regular old mesmer.

That said, dodge izerker, it’s easy to see the summon and the zerker coming. Other than that, nothing drops a phantasmal duelist faster than letting it unload on your retaliation filled kitten .

Option 3: Run away.

Option 4: wait for the 25’th patch, and cross your fingers?

:(

Yeah wait till the 25th patch when, if traited, we can run even faster with phantasms out and they get the HP bonus from SoIllusions IMMEDIATELY. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

For roaming, very little. Phantasm-spec is a nearly pure 1v1 build. If you do face it 1v1 (a combat mode which is usually least-priority for MMO developers as their game isn’t meant to be played solo in many situations, or at the very least to encourage you to group up whenever possible – and this is one such encouragement), disengage before you can be harmed. Dodge the Phantasmal Berserker and get the hell out.

Make it a group fight. Make it a 3v3, a 5v5, punish the Mesmer for running such a super-1v1-focused build. As soon as the sides grow larger, that build is worth less and less ,and I’d argue that at 3v3 is sort-of it’s breaking point. It starts to feel rubbish from there on out.
(Core reason why I switched out of it now, as great as it was for killing off solo players in WvW, that’s all it does well. It does it really well, but it’s too specialized for my taste.)

Basically, counter it by not giving a fair fight. The Mesmer isn’t, so why should you? In fact, you should never give your enemy a fair fight, that’s to be avoided at all costs.

Well yeah. Draw the mesmer to a confined space where your attacks will hit him and his phantasms at the same time. One option.

One really effective tactic against phantasm mesmers in 1v1 situations is to utilise the power of Greatsword.

You want to enter the battle positioned away from the phantasm mesmer, and take advantage of swiftness + GS 3 and 5. However you’re going to be aiming these away from the phantasm mesmer. This will render the phantasm mesmer useless as he will be unable to catch you.

Eventually phantasm mesmers will cry at their lack of mobility, and inability to kill outside of 1v1’s and switch over to a more effective build.

You win.

Rock-paper-scissors, you’re a rock, we’re a well.

Run away… no, really, unless there is some special circumstance there like you dropping on a completely unsuspecting mesmer with slow reaction, you can’t win.

On the other hand, mesmer won’t really be able to catch you if you run.

i agree with other, just run away. warior is free badges for phantom mesmer 1v1

Generally, you are gonna have a pretty rough time against a Phantasm Mes if you dont keep the pressure on them.

That 20/20/0/25/5 build that everybody is copypasting is pretty easy to to spot, since most folkes that run it have signet of illusions and full zerkers.
Whilst most folkes will tell you they are OP UKILLABLE GUUGUGEHEGHDFJGDF they are easier to deal with than most phantasm specs since they have more or less zero defence once you get ahold of them.

First thing to do is try and spot the phantasm casts and interrupt them, most Mesmer players will switch weapons sets when their phantasm gets interrupted, if you manage to stop the second cast, congratulations, the fight is yours unless you seriously screw up after this.

If you cant stop the casts, don’t panic.
Focus on outmanoeuvring the Mesmer, try and put the Mesmer between you and its phantasms so they will run into your melee attacks.
Try to kill phantasms, but don’t relent on the Mesmer themselves, if you give them to much room to breathe they will just happily poop out more phantasms and heal up.

Most folkes running this build aren’t all that good at the game, so you just need to outplay them.

EDIT:
If you don’t have interrupts break LOS with the mes during their cast, and it will be obstructed. Alternatively, stand on a rock and spam /laugh.

As a phantasm mesmer, it’s true that I view warriors as an easy kill. But…I’ve been surprised at least three times by three different warriors who have given me a terrible time. I looked at the rank of one of them after the match was over and he was r51. Go figure. Here’s what he did.

He killed my phantasms as soon as they spawned. Took a couple of seconds from his busy schedule to do this each time. They spawn right next to the caster, which leads to the second tactic.

Stay on top of him!. Whether you use cripple, immobilize, stuns, superior mobility, whatever, you simply…have to…stay with the mesmer. If you can’t do that, you lose. The GS has some excellent mobility skills that can get you on top of the mesmer even after he blinks away. If he stealths, spend the time killing his phantasms, and when he pops, jump right back on him. Remember, immobilize, stun, cripple…whatever it takes.

Having close to 100% swiftness uptime during combat is critical. A phantasm mesmer doesn’t usually have easy access to swiftness unless they’re using centaur runes. That will help you catch up with them quickly. Just pray they don’t have arcane thievery. When I know in advance that I’m going to face a very experienced warrior, I put thievery on my bar, but otherwise I don’t take it, preferring to take Signet of illusions instead.

When you stay that close to him all the time, you can also get his phantasms as soon as they appear. A pure phantasm mesmer without the phantasms is just…pathetic. There’s nothing more he can do other than hit you with blurred frenzy. Which as a warrior shouldn’t really hurt you that much.

One of the times I fought the r51 warrior I was able to down him after a long time and nearly dying several times myself. I was so full of admiration, I refused to stomp him. On other occasions I’ve complimented warriors for their excellent play after I was killed.

Make no mistake, these guys were obviously pros. They knew exactly what they had to do and they executed it flawlessly. It’s not easy, but it can be done.

Three ways:
1: try to stop the summoning of phantasm by blinding them or obstructing them by LOS.
2: kill the phantasm as fast as u can and jump top of the real Mesmer.
3: escape. Phantasm mesmer cannot kill anyone who just don’t wanna stay and fight.

Specifically, If he use s/p gs, his weakness is defense. Jump on top of them and fight. If he uses s/p scepter/s or s/p staff, his weakness is attack. You can get rid of them and disengage the fight.

I use phantasm mesmer only in spvp with s/p scepter/s. If u fight with me and u die since the block and attack has great damage. If u disengage, I just stay and wait in the point area. However, the more people in the fight, the less useful of phantasm mesmer.
You need to be more skillful than him so that you can win.

One HB will destroy a phantasm.

That said, be sure you remove Retaliation first if it’s there.

The retaliation built into my phantasm build in TPvP is my favorite way to kill thieves and warriors. Used to stack it up with Confusion as well in WvW, but that’s been rendered worthless. I no longer bother.

thanks for the advice everybody. I have been able to beat a few phantasm mesmers but I think they were bad. But the advice was really good. Some of them I flat out just couldn’t beat, but that is to be expected right?

Basically what others have said already – stay close to the Mesmer and try to dodge their Phants. Destroy them as soon as they’re summoned, and keep pressure on the Mesmer. Swiftness (Signet of Rage, Charge) and cripple/immobilize are your most precious boon/conditions here.

If you’re running GS, try to stay in a line with them and their Phant, and use GS3 to whirl past them and kill the Phant in the same attack. If you’re running MH Axe, use the auto attack chain to kill Phants and then Eviscerate on the Mesmer. If you’re running MH Sword, use Savage Leap to close the distance and then cripple/immobilize and follow up with Flurry or 100B or whatever other burst damage skills you have.

Other than that…it is going to be a hard fight because it’s essentially 4 vs. 1 when you go up against a Phant Mesmer.

Don’t bother, you will lose. You have enough mobility and mesmers don’t, so just run away and chose another target.

I solo roam as a phantasm mes, and it’s true that I’m never very afraid of a warr.

I’m not too familiar with your class, but condi spec warrs tend to do better against me. Either those, or the ones that can outrun me TBH, condition builds of any class tend to fare a lot better against the phantasm mes. Most still die though.

You have to time your dodge and keep pressure on the mesmer. Phantasms only deal damage every 5 secs or so. If you dodge INTO them you will avoid most damage. Don’t bother with killing the phantasms the mesmer can summon them faster than you can kill them but your ae damage will most likely be enough to kill the ones that’s close to you. You have to try and damage the mesmer the whole time.

dot forget phantasm mesmer, mostly have signet for phantom hp and sometimes have defender up. so it not so easy kill phantasms as u say