Guild Wars 2

So after June 23rd, I’ve been playing a necro instead of a mesmer because I would prefer not to use PU or Confounding Suggestions (CS).

Predictably, I’m having trouble beating mesmers now with their huge, frequent bursts coupled with long stealth times. I play a celestial well necro (as of now). I’d appreciate tips for how you guys currently deal with mesmers one on one in PvP. I’ve managed to down a few mesmers so far, and come close to winning against a few others, but most of the time the stealth and bursts are too much for me.

Here’s what I’m trying right now with some success. I would appreciate more ideas/tips from you guys…

1. Use locust swarm and dagger AA
The cripple and my swiftness really helps keep mesmers close to me. I use Weakening Shroud, so weakness robs them of frequent dodges and protects me from their crits as well

2. DS #4 to consume their clones and lower burst (the problem is that it’s super easy to interrupt making it rather dangerous when the mesmer is using Power Block)

3. DS #5 is good too. Pretty much impossible to deliberately interrupt

4. Spam marks when mes is stealthed. But it’s risky because I have to be ready to insta dodge.

5. Dark Path #3 dagger to pin them down for some AA

6. The spite tree allows me to stack might when he gets below %50 and cast spinal shivers as well.

But all this only works as long as he’s visible. As soon as the mesmer vanishes and I lose track of where he is in stealth, I’m at risk. If he moves away and initiates a burst from stealth, I have to pray I can dodge in time or it’s game over.

Moreover, I have just one stun break – well of power. A typical mesmer these days will have six instant stuns from range that don’t even break stealth if it’s not an interrupt. So I can’t even dodge away to avoid a burst. Since I have nothing to protect me – no invulns, no blocks, no evades, no damage negation…nothing, I had better pray that I have some LF or it’s over. The heal is also pretty telegraphed, so I try and reserve my well of power (1.5 seconds stab) after exiting DS to reliably use my heal skill.

I’ve noticed that the key is to pounce on the mesmer as soon as they show themselves. You can’t allow them to do their own thing or you’ll always be on the defensive. I need to stick to them closer than kittene on a wet blanket, or I’m never going to come out on top.

But even when I’m on them, the stuns act as a failsafe, allowing time to move away and initiate a burst or go into stealth.

So what suggestions do you necros have to fight mesmers? What do you use to lock them down and avoid their burst? What traits do you find useful? What skills are particularly effective against today’s mesmers with their stealths, burst, and stuns?

I think you are asking a bottom tier class to beat a god tier class.
Is that even possible? Well unless you are fighting against trash mesmer.

Avoid mirror blade and try to LOS the zerker.
If they run s/t you gotta watch for the leap and dodge it.
If they run staff obviously don’t stand in chaos storm.

Don’t ever panic stunbreak their cc, especially illusionary wave since they tend to use that after a large burst because most people tend to instantly heal up and necro heals are just super easy to interrupt.

You have to however stunbreak if they stun+mirror blade or stun+leap you.

Try to negate non-combo shatters by killing clones with staff marks and locust swarm because even with energy sigil you still lack the dodges for that.

Also combo chillblains and putrid mark for ranged weakness if they aren’t close for enfeeble procs. It’s not like they put any meaningful condis on you anyway, except the zerker cripple which you should try to transfer if possible.

If you in dagger set it’s perfectly fine to autoattack the clones if the mesmer is stealthed or far away.

-If you’re built tanky, unholy feast (and by extension spiteful spirit) combined with death shroud can really punish them for attacking you even if they have distortion. You’ll get plenty of retaliation duration off their illusions.
-dodge roll the big shatter damage
-channel skills continue to hit even if they stealth in the middle of it. If you have siphoning, you can see the heal numbers pop up on you to track where they are. (this works on them being downed and stealthed too.) This same trick also works with locust swarm+dagger attacks to find a stealthed mesmer.
-build life force at all times, death shroud is your best friend.

With a stick while they sleep.

Hey bhagwad, thanks for this interesting posts, i think there are a lot of valid points in there. And also thanks for admitting that the class you play in general is over the top, not many people do this.

its fine to say dodge all this blah blah blah.. but what about the daze they put on you and the blind after blind.. it stops counter attacks and holds you in place when the shatter is about to come =C stunbreaks take longer to charge then stuns do.

The thing is, Mesmers are terrible at sustaining their damage. The flavour of the month build (Mantras) is a 1v1 killing machine for sure, but it relies on the opponent’s capability of knowing and reading the burst set-ups.

Though since Necromancers suffer from the “Everything should have a cast-timer, and only on Necromancer”, it is really hard not to get stunned in place and getting bursted down. For this purpose – survivability over power. Do not slot Deathly Perception when you see a Mesmer, take Foot in the Grave instead – in the long run this will help you several times better to survive their Stun→Burst.

Stealth bursts can be unpredictable, though more than often Mesmers do not use the PU trait combined with the Mantras. This means that the stealth uptime will be severely lessened. Get familiar with the timing, and away from a “close range” if possible, for their most lethal skills are heavy hitters up close (Shatter and Mirrorblade). The instant you see a purple swordsman running up to you – Dodge! That thing is is the setup for Illusionary Leap→Swap→Burst. Like I say, create distance if they are in stealth, as they should be unable to burst you down. Did they use Blink to get to you? Great, if you can, go into DS and soak any damage that you might take, and return the pressure. The Mesmer is a great deal weaker than you in melee after depriving from their main burst, and the more defensive cooldowns it has to blow to fight you, the easier it becomes to pick off.

Most Mesmers are not that good – they just picked it up aftear hearing it is OP, so they are terrible at being patient with their burst and defenses. I hate to say it, but if you cannot beat them, there is still a high possibility you can stall for time in order for a teammate (hopefully a Thief with CS rather than SA) to come and poke the Mesmer. The sustain for a Necromancer with the right tools (Warhorn, Signet of Locust, Soul Marks) is quite decent for 1v1’s, so there should be a possibility you can hold out for quite some time. If you know your team lost a fight however, and you are stuck in the 1v1 – prepare to get destroyed. Getting 2v1’d by a Mantra Mesmer and bananas means certain death to almost all except Celementalists sometimes.

All in all, the best way to get a good feeling what their capabilities are is to watch a streamer, or get a Mesmer friend to duel you. Let them explain in detail what and why they do certain things (Helseth is really good at this despite his persona). Once you know most of their tricks you can point out the flaws of the Mesmers who are underpeforming, and you should be able to pressure them harder as they can with you, because no matter what the build, the sustained damage on the Necromancer is better. No, not joking, it is so.

Good luck to all who read this, and feel free to point out mistakes I made.

Mesmers are no where near unbeatable, but yes, they will make it harder then other classes. I’ve beaten Chozen Sin on his powerblock mesm with power necro and it was very possible.

Some things I’ve learned along the way:

• Load up on defensive skills – you have to outsustain/wait for the mesmer to blow some big cool downs, so just poke him sometimes at the start. I use Sarmor, wurm and well of power. WoP is still useful against power mesmers because almost every mesm atm can stack a kitten ton of vuln/blind/immob/bleed. Converting them help a lot, and especially vs condi mesmers.

• learn to use staff – mesmer is too slippery of a class to chase down with melee weapons, use staff AA and use your marks wisely. Later into the fight when u feel confident do some MLG combo like = dark path, doom, dark pact, dagger AA

• you have 3 stunbreaks – so learn to avoid bursts…. mantra of distraction daze? boom wurm outta there. mirror blade coming at you? dodge. more dazes/stuns, but you have no dodges? Sarmor and then hop into DS.

All in all, be patient, dont go ham, avoid them bursts and you should have a reasonable chance.

I will post a video later in the week of me fighting a lotttaaa mesmers (and some other classes) in the angz 1v1 server, and winning

hope this helped somewhat
-Hollts

Siva Mira.3546:

I think you are asking a bottom tier class to beat a god tier class.
Is that even possible? Well unless you are fighting against trash mesmer.

It’s possible or you can at least sustain yourself until backup. I’ve only managed to take down only one mesmer with 0 LF as long as you are not glass/condi you should have around 40-60% of winning or making him retreat in conquest that is.

Aside from the whole “dodge their burst” advice which everyone would give (because it is essential for not getting instagibbed), I would strongly recommend sticking to the mesmer as best as you can. They usually enter stealth after their invulnerability wears off, so do not be afraid to press that dagger 3 right before their sword 2 animation ends and they press their focus 4. At worst, you will force another dodge off of them before they cloak, which you can try to respond to with some staff marks.

Use their clones to blind them if you are running offhand dagger. At worst, you will blind/kill some of their clones/phantasms.

Flesh wurm is really really good. You can escape their burst after they stun you and switch to sword for the big DPS combo, and then respond to their now melee set with some 1200 range staff marks. Remember that they are really squishy and if you manage to get several good hits through their defenses, you will be in a good spot. They will likely have used their sword 2 in an attempt to burst you with their combo, so they will have to blow distortion. If they use a stealth, you can still hit them with marks.

Runes of Vampirism are really scary against mesmers, so be careful with that. Do not overcommit if you haven’t procced those yet, and make sure you have enough shroud or have cooldowns ready to respond to the mesmer the moment mist form wears off. This is the main spot where I lose against mesmers, because they are usually quite capable of resetting the fight and running around until healed unless I get some lucky hits on them while they are stealthed.

All in all – you are trying to beat a really really powerful 1v1 class with a not so powerful one. Mesmer skillcap is higher than necro one, so a good memser player will have an advantage over a good necro player simply by the virtue of having more tools at their disposal. My advice comes from the perspective of someone who wastes their time in 1 v 1 servers playing a marauder amulet power necro all day, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Don’t run out of your base and be spawned camp by a Mesmer for the whole match like this guy : O

Mesmers are strongest against your necromancer at range, because necromancers have garbage ranged options. Their projectiles, be it life blast or necrotic grasp, can be side stepped and are less effective at range while the mesmer’s greatsword grows more effective at range.

A smart mesmer will kite a necro to death. Your job is to not allow them that.

Besides that, it’s a difficult match up because necromancers have hideously long cast times on many of their skills and even longer cooldowns on their heals for no reason whatsoever.

You have to outlast the mesmer. Mesmers have very strong burst but very bad sustained damage, it’s why elementalists are one of the strongest class match up against mesmers, because the ele can weather the burst and outsustain the mesmer.