Guild Wars 2

Whats the methods of countering Stealth Mesmers in SPvP?

I notice lately they been giving me issues.

I usually just sit in an AOE and wait for them to come out, unfortunately that both good and bad. Good because the clones or the mesmer him/herself has to cross into the AOE to inflict damage. Bad because they way mesmer works currently you’re just asking to be bursted down.

I mainly fight em in WvW, a bit in PvP, if you can survive the initial burst, A Condi bomb ususually puts them out of commission. But the hard thing is surviving though…

It’kitten and miss. Dodging their GS #2 is very important, but it’s on such a short CD that you might not be able to. Plus they may do it in stealth close up so you don’t see it coming.

What I’ve found is that you need to be aggressive instead of passive. Even if you’re on low health, go after them with your dagger as soon as you see them. Pop up locust swarm, and keep Dagger #1’ing. This will cripple them and make it tough for them to kite you. It will also force them to blow their defensive CDs including distortion which also take clone pressure off you.

Dagger #2 tracks through stealth as well so activate it after a couple of Dagger #1 rotations when you know they’re about to stealth. It prevents them from having breathing space.

Next, make sure you take curses and get Enfeebling shroud. Spamming weakness on a mesmer is critical since it means they can’t get crits off you and also reduces their dodges, allowing you to stay on them more often.

And if possible, use DS #2 and DS #3 to stay on them. When they stealth, use DS #4 and #5.

Notice the key theme throughout – do not give them breathing space. If you let up the pressure, they will burst you down. If you let them dictate the flow of combat, you will die.

I know this is easier said than done, but you have no choice. If they’re stealthed and you have nothing else to do, just run around where you think they may be spamming Dagger #1 and hope you get lucky with the chain.

If you have to go staff, try and land your marks on them…not really doing much damage as such, but just forcing them to react to you instead of you reacting to them. Fearing them and chilling them makes them blow CDs and dodges, allowing you to once again stick close.

Mesmers are terrified of people getting close to them. It makes them panic – I know because I’ve mained a mesmer. When you stick to them, they blow defensive CDs. It’s essential that you don’t give them breathing space.

If all this sounds a bit unfair, it’s because it is. Because stealth is ridiculously OP in PvP and you have to work super hard to counter it. Made worse by the fact that necros have no blocks, no evade skills, no invulns, and not much protection. But these are the cards we’re dealt with.

Note that you have little hope of actually killing a stealth mesmer if they decide to run away. But even if you die, you can last a ridiculously long time . Don’t make it easy for them – go on the offensive – even if it seems suicidal.

At least in conquest PvP when you fight them on point, you’re pretty much guaranteed a cap. If you can do that and last a long time, you’ve at least won the tactical advantage. And if you play your cards right or get lucky, you might even down one.

Stealth mesmers are all about slowly wearing you out.

You aren’t going to be beating stealth mesmers because necromancer has good burst absorption but kitten poor RECOVERY options, meaning you won’t be sustaining yourself for long and the mesmer will keep resetting the fight via stealth.

This applies to pistol/dagger thieves or thieves patient enough such as sword/dagger or even good dagger+pistol thieves who slowly wear you down and run you out of cooldowns instead of being greedy and trying to go for the three shot burst and dying instead.

Contrary to the design idea for the class, an attrition based class, the necromancer actually wants to avoid attrition and wants to end fights as soon as possible.

Stealth mesmer and good thieves are the epitome of an attrition class.

Zenith.7301:

Stealth mesmers are all about slowly wearing you out.

You aren’t going to be beating stealth mesmers because necromancer has good burst absorption but kitten poor RECOVERY options, meaning you won’t be sustaining yourself for long and the mesmer will keep resetting the fight via stealth.

This applies to pistol/dagger thieves or thieves patient enough such as sword/dagger or even good dagger+pistol thieves who slowly wear you down and run you out of cooldowns instead of being greedy and trying to go for the three shot burst and dying instead.

Contrary to the design idea for the class, an attrition based class, the necromancer actually wants to avoid attrition and wants to end fights as soon as possible.

Stealth mesmer and good thieves are the epitome of an attrition class.

This is pretty much accurate. Necromancer is not the attrition class it wa supposed to be. It’s a sponge. You will likely die eventually if you can’t stack up on them fairly quickly, and if they have good removal it’s more of an issue.