Guild Wars 2

Hello! I really enjoy sPvP and I absolutely love my Mesmer. However, as we all know, thieves are a serious pain in the neck to deal with. I’ve heard people say that Mesmers can avoid being backstabbed but I never seem to be able to do it. As a Mes, I also have serious problems avoiding a damage spike from thieves (I’m pretty sure surviving one if you’re caught is all but impossible).

I’m currently alternating between 2 builds depending on the arena
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8alknpRttpxBNcrRSqxcqnQ5XrRyBCokf0NA
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpRttpxBNcrRSqxcqnQ5XrRyBCokf0NA

Would anyone like to suggest a better build to fight thieves, prevent backstabbing, or gain better survivability?

Several different viewpoints you can take for dealing with a thief:

1 – Burst their hp down asap => shatter.

2 – Go down the phantasm route and concentrate on defending => likely PU power or pure phantasm build.

3 – Go down the clone death route and concentrate on defending => likely PU condition build.

Of course there may be other methods, but I’d say those are the most effective. 2 and 3 can be very boring, but 1 can be very unforgiving. 1 can put them on the back foot, but requires good timing at landing the burst – equally you can be demolished in the same manner, so depends who connects with their attacks and who misses. 2 and 3 are fairly foolproof, but 2 can be very much restricted to 1v1 and for 3 they can run away without you being able to kill them. Depends how you like to play.

Edit: Of course this also assumes you are able to beat the thief in the first place! Some of them will wreck you, no matter what.

The band-aid fix would be to use Knights amulet and Melandru runes. This would provide you with 2900 armor to survive bursts as well as reduced conditions. The Thief burst is coming, so you’ve got to survive it first.

Now, looking at your build links, they seem to rely on phantasms and cleansing to conditions. If you would like to run something more in line with the meta phantasm build. How about tweaking your build like this?

Link to build

Traits 4/4/0/6/0, moving 4 points away from Illusions line into Inspiration to get the grandmaster minor trait +15% phantasm dmg as well as 20% phantasm hp. This would pay off better than Phantasm Haste. Last trait is open.

Change to Mantra of Recovery for 2+2 condition clears (and optionally trait Inspiration X – Restorative Mantras for 8,000 hp heal). This should address conditions.

Equipping Blink and Decoy gives you 2 stun breakers to deal with Thief dazes and venom.

Your want to pump out 2 phantasm quickly when encountering the Thief. iZerker has some good CC, but really it’s the iDuelist that shines here since his channel attack can serve to track stealth Thieves. If you can get 3 iDuelist up, just use Blurred Frenzy for defense when attacked and the Thief is going to have a bad day.

Pistol #5 serves as a great interrupt when you see or think he’s about to go into stealth. Nothing makes a Thief panic than throwing him off his stealth routine. Save your GS #5 so it can be immediate available if Shadow Refuge is used. Blink to the edge and hit him with the wave. Done correctly, that’s almost a death sentence to Thieves.

Once you get comfortable with this build, you want to replace the runes to Power based ones, and finally replace the Knight’s ammy to Zerker.

Final tips, never stand in Black Powder, never use dodge when he is stealthed, create distance when he stealth or SR, get used to immediate turning of camera to avoid his flank/back stab bonuses.

However, remember this, a good Thief vs. a good Mesmer, usually means the Mesmer will lose. That’s just the current state of things.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWnsIShaWpGeoBzaGB3gM3CO7MyRpDwvCJA-TJRBwAUeCA02fgcZAAXCAA

My preferred tank build. However, moving 2 points (yes, just 2) from Chaos to Domination allows you to grab the trait Empowered Illusion which drastically increases damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWnsIShaWpGeoBzaIR1gMzZfSVIVAKdH2WPB-TJRBwAUeCA02fgcZAAXCAA

my advice pu builds work good on thieves, have your phants hurting him up while he cant find you as you are constantly stealthing. a good 4/4/6 or 2/2/6/4 would work fine