Guild Wars 2

What do you guys do against this? It’s like a permanent lock out from every skill you have. Even if you stun break they just dump another daze on you. God forbid there happens to be a thief around spamming daze as well.

Hope you have an ally nearby. Basically all you can do.

I knew that was the answer. How do you fix this necro problem? Have another class around that doesn’t suck clearly. Sadly that’s how to fix a lot of our problems. Here’s hoping something in HoT surprises me.

heavenswrath.9850:

What do you guys do against this? It’s like a permanent lock out from every skill you have. Even if you stun break they just dump another daze on you. God forbid there happens to be a thief around spamming daze as well.

would help a lot if you could describe the scenario

• what gametype
• what weapons did the mesmer use
• what is your spec

can’t do much with 0 information.

Foot in the grave helped but after nerf dunno. Call them out in map speak and make them feel bad about themselves and their cheesy build?

Or just hit plague and try and wait them out till someone comes along.

Not much, really.

Lockdown Mesmers rely on those big interrupt bursts, it takes both practice and luck to get away alive. If you manage to not die in first 20 seconds, then you can apply counterpressure on them and often they end up badly.

The hard part is surviving that long, though.

Mantra of Interruption (forget its actual name) + pistol 5 + the stun signet is a ton of lockdown. But to be fair without it mesmers would just be a wet pattern on the floor after every fight.

Only thing you can do yourself is use the wurm port and run. Hope the mesmer doesnt blink and catch up to you or even worse a thief being anywhere in sight.

If it gets so bothersome that you have to change your build, you can consider using reapers protection and start a control/damage chain and hope you can land enough damage . Frankly that trait shoulnd’t have a cooldown as long as 60 seconds when we have no stability.

I feel like a lockdown mesmer is a good counter to necros (especially power necros). First of all you need to understand how a lockdown mesmer build works:

A lockdown mesmer’s damage bursts come from Halting Strikes, phantasms, and Mind Wrack. They also have the ability to almost instantly stack 25 stacks of vulnerability which further increases their damage.

Other essential traits a lockdown mesmer might take are Chaotic Interruption and Bountiful Interruption which immobilize and apply soft cc conditions to you and give the mesmer 5 stacks of might on interrupt. Occasionally you might come across some mesmers who run Confounding Suggestions which has a 50% chance to cause a simple daze to turn into a stun. Those builds usually have a lot of upfront power damage and their phantasms hit like a truck.

A lockdown mesmer’s weakness is usually condition damage and of course stability. Some lockdown mesmers use Shattered Concentration however which means even if you do manage to get stability they will probably keep shattering clones on you until it’s removed.

They are rather harmless (not including their phantasms) if they spam all their interrupts and they’re all on cd. Just try running away or bating out their interrupts. Also, don’t be foolish and spam channeled skills or skills that have a long cast time. And like when fighting most mesmers, avoid or cleave their phantasms.

*And also, FYI, this isn’t a cheese build. Lockdown builds require perfect timing and awareness. If a lockdown mesmer beats you, it’s because they outplayed you, not because of some faceroll 1111ing. *

For your refrence, here is a link to a thread in the mesmer forum that will give you more information about lockdown builds: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/The-Lockdown-Mesmer-Thread

Here is a link to a thread in the mesmer forum that has a list of many lockdown videos: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Videos-Lockdown-Mesmer-in-the-Mists

Here is one video in particular of 2 lockdown mesmers dueling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc9YefWH66M

heavenswrath.9850:

What do you guys do against this? It’s like a permanent lock out from every skill you have. Even if you stun break they just dump another daze on you. God forbid there happens to be a thief around spamming daze as well.

Dodge.

You see the phantasms running towards you? Time to dodge.

fluxit.8247:

*And also, FYI, this isn’t a cheese build. Lockdown builds require perfect timing and awareness. If a lockdown mesmer beats you, it’s because they outplayed you, not because of some faceroll 1111ing. *

This IS true, it’s a hard build to play, but don’t forget that necros are basically the easiest possible target for them. Long animations, poor access to stability, no vigor, no blocks. It’s like sitting someone at a piano and asking them to play chopsticks: they might actually BE a concert pianist, but they don’t HAVE to be to play chopsticks :p

Falcon.8713:

heavenswrath.9850:

What do you guys do against this? It’s like a permanent lock out from every skill you have. Even if you stun break they just dump another daze on you. God forbid there happens to be a thief around spamming daze as well.

Dodge.

You know, I had considered trying to interrupt my own abilities, like baiting with a heal then canceling it myself. But it still goes on multiple seconds of cooldown.

I’m not sure what other benefit Mesmers get from actually interrupting, but it’s one possible way to handle it. Cancel-casting can be your friend.

One tip I recall seeing is to go into death shroud and just don’t cast anything. The shadowy stuff hides your actions a bit, so they will frequently try to blow their interrupts on absolutely nothing.

Hey dude! Hopefully I can help shed some light on dealing with lockdown Mesmer.

To start, there’s a difference between a lockdown mesmer -which refers to the general playstyle- and an interrupt Mesmer, which refers to a specific build revolving around a specific trait: Chaotic Interruption (Chaos XI) which immobilizes you everytime you’re interrupted.

I’d explain how the style works, but you can find all of that information here.

So in the build you likely encountered, here’s what you need to know about the Mesmer.

• Every Mesmer interrupt will apply: 2k+ damage / 3x Vuln (8x if Daze) / 2s Immobilize / Cripple, Chill, or Blind / 5x Might / Random boon / Ultimate satisfaction

• Every Mesmer weapon (except torch) can interrupt you. Focus, GS, and Staff are favorites.

• Very likely using a power build.

• Has up to 5 different interrupt sources. Two of these 5 will be 1200r and instant (and in a pitiful-but-useful AoE)

MESMER PERSPECTIVE

Necros are a lockdown Mesmer’s easiest opponent by far. Death Shroud is very interruptable, as is Axe and Dagger, many utilities (including heals) and Staff Auto. You must keep this in mind: on fair ground this fight is already in the Mesmer’s favor. Any sort of Weakness you can apply will go a long way into stuffing the damage, but it’s very likely the Mesmer will be trying hard to interrupt just about everything you do.

A good lockdown Mesmer will wait for you to attack first, baiting you out with some Phantasm summons and maybe some autos to try and force you to attack. Remember that only 2 interrupts are instant which means all of the other interrupts you’ll likely be able to see coming and avoid. You guys do have a range advantage on us, and staying beyond ~800r forces us to use our Mantra interrupts (the instant ones, can see the mantra ready in our bar). Once those two mantras are gone, the fight becomes a bit more fair.

We don’t do well in prolonged battles, once our mantras are blown things become a pretty hectic struggle to lock&burst as fast as we can. I don’t exactly know how DS management works, but some of the better Necros I faced usually waited until after the mantra was blown (or until they were around 60% health) before popping a full deathshroud, which soaks up our other interrupts. Our instant mantra interrupt goes on a 36s CD when blown which gives you about a half minute of opportunity to .. do your necro-deathy things.

THE NECRO ADVANTAGE
Conditions screw us pretty badly, like most Mesmer, but Weakness and Blind in particular are brutal. Lockdown Mesmer MUST consistently land interrupts about every 10-15 seconds to win against tougher opponents. We must use all our shatters, both our phantasms, and even condition damage in addition to interrupts to pressure an opponent down. This all means that we’re very powerful in the beginning of a fight and really start dwindle as it goes on, since we can’t rely on autoattacks or low-cooldown abilities.

It’s a fight that’s definitely in the Mesmer’s favor, and may feel impossible at first, but remember that none of our daze/stuns do any damage without interrupting. Don’t try to spam skills inbetween getting dazed, that’s what we want. Be patient and watch us, react instead of act, and the dance very will could be yours to win.

And if a Mesmer interrupts your Heal, you’re probably going to die unless you cancel the cast and dodge the interrupt. Unfortunately interrupting Consume Conditions is probably one of the easier things in the world to do, and it can really put a Necro on the back foot.

You may ask “Well what if they anticipate the cancel cast and interrupt the next heal?”. They might, if they know you as a player, but the majority of the time, people play against the class, not the player. You only start playing against a player once you know how they play, and unless you consistently see the same people, that isn’t going to happen.

Plus, that sort of interaction starts getting deeper into reading your opponent, which I think is the key to enjoying a competitive environment. You just have to play completely differently against this particular Mesmer build, or you’re going to eat garbage repeatedly until you try something different. A little unfortunate from a new player perspective because it’s going to be infuriating, but as long as you keep in mind that it isn’t a personal affront to die in PvP, you can pick yourself back up and try, try again. It’s also good to keep in mind that dying in PvP doesn’t necessarily mean the other guy IS better, or even THINKS he/she is better.

Remember all of that, and you’ll keep a nice, level head when facing off with a frustrating build like this.

If you are fighting a good lockdown Mesmer, the only way you will get your heal off is getting stab somehow or using teleports to get out of range/ los. Unless you do one of those 2 things, a good lockdown mes will basically force you to have no heal. This fight is definitely not a easy fight for a necro, but all it takes is one good condi burst/power necro proc to put the Mesmer in a very bad place. As Rym said though, the hard part is surviving long enough to find a opportunity to burst.

To go with what Drarnor said, most lockdown mesmers (Even Chaos Archangel) will use a mantra if you don’t cast anything for 1-2 seconds (Except me). Be sure that you are careful of diversion as well. If you get diversioned by a clone, immediately stop attacking until the clones have died or you will suffer a triple interrupt which is basically GG to the mes.

All in all, play careful, survive, and look for opportunities to burst. Try to bait the mantras as much as possible , and when the mantras are on cd, this fight is a lot easier, and the Mesmer will normally play more defensively. However, do not underestimate a lockdown mes. One interrupt is all it takes to get chain interrupted/bursted and lose all of your ds or health. If you happen to fight me, you basically don’t have a chance, but fortunately I am just one person

Also, now would be a great time for Holts to post his duels on his necro vs my shatter and CI mes

You know, technically I almost always do that in anticipation of an attack. An 80%ish success rate has spoiled me into sloppiness. xD

Chaos: “He’s gonna spam something…. Now!” /mantra

Warlord: “He’s gonna expect me to spam something…. Now!” /dance

Oh warlord, you never fail to remind me xD

@Chaos That seems to be about how 90% of our fights go lol.

@Holl I know you have our duels, and I think it would be great to show the necro community how to (Somewhat) fight a lockdown Mesmer.