Guild Wars 2

New issue I’m running into, how to deal with condi mesmers. I get reapers fine, just kite, give up point if necessary and kill them later. But for condi mesmers, feels like it’s entirely dependent on where the fight takes place and if I can get on a ledge to avoid their shatters.

So guys, halp. How are you guys dealing with them?

In wvw they just run away if loosing so now I do the same. They got like no chase in them. If you got staff you can mitigate some AA from them and clones with staff 5.

Referring mostly to PvP, but yeah, mesmers can’t chase anything in WvW. Learned that lesson when meeting all those dire condi mesmers running full condi food and utilities pre-HoT.

I’ll answer your question, but not in public. I don’t need to eat any more nerfs. Please check your PMs.

Dodge the shatters!!!

Basically just stand there and do nothing. I know this sounds stupid but it WORKS!

Just do nothing but use staff #5 & #3 for healing, dodge any shatters you can, and use CA after getting condi bombed. You do NOT need to fight the mesmer, just tank it by not using skills or moving.

The mesmer can not kill you with confusion if your using very minimal amount of skills, and they can’t torment you down if your not moving. It is however an extremely tough match if you start with zero CA but it is possible to just tank them forever and wait for the +1 or for them to get bored and leave.

Edit: I did forget to mention this doesn’t work very well against viper stat’d mesmers, it’s still much better to burst those types down as quick as you possibly can

Eurantien.4632:

Dodge the shatters!!!

To expand on this, dodge into the shatters. If you dodge away from them they may not explode until after you dodge.

Condi mesmers shatters like all the kitten time though.

Fluffball.8307:

Eurantien.4632:

Dodge the shatters!!!

Condi mesmers shatters like all the kitten time though.

Lol yeah, I I was gonna say they puke out shatters like crazy.

I guess to expand, I can tank and keep a node contested against a condi mesmers for a pretty kittening long time. Tanking on it long enough, pressuring them to get off, getting a few ticks back before getting low enough to run away heal, come back, and repeat. Usually won’t die to them unless I screw up really badly.

The situation I had in mind was I go cap home, condi mesmer contests before I can finish the cap, and the node never gets capped cause I can’t resolve the 1v1. Maybe if I could’ve started out with full CAF…but I can’t now so it sucks.

It’s a good thing condi mesmers aren’t super common, it’s just when I run into them, it’s like beating my head against a wall.

I mostly play condi chrono of all my 80s (like druid, but mesmer is just more fun to me).

Don’t run from torment, the amount of times I’ve seen people kill themselves by panicking and running…

What was said above is good, or if you have distance and nothings on you just pike the other way. Chronos run 25%, normal mesmers dont unless using runes. We have a single teleport almost all will take. We are pretty mobile.

If I am not in range of a druid there is no point chasing them, rare ill catch them assuming everyones CD’s are up.

Oh and I hate the druids that vanish all the time, probably as much as they hate mesmers doing the same :p

1- Dodge or outrange the shatters.
2- Use your celestial avatar #2 wisely.
3- if they start to reset the fight and coming back for you, just walk away.

in pvp most condi mesmers are squishy, i think a lot of them are running viper amulets, so if you’re running BM keep your pet on them at all times. i.e put pet on passive and set attack on the mesmer, it won’t stop attacking and will re-target after stealth.

like others said the two main condi’s from mesmers are torment and confusion. don’t run yourself to death or spam skills and use CAF to clear yourself as needed.
With alacrity their cooldowns become pretty short, punish them as much as you can with your attacks between shatters while the pet keeps the constant pressure on.

I don’t roam WvW much anymore but I would assume most of this would hold true there as well.

It’s that mercenary’s build of sword/shield staff. I guess it’s technically not pure condi, more hybrid.

The usual strategy is mesmer crosses far to 1v1 anyone there, take the point, drop the portal and go where needed. Dunno if the build is considered meta yet, but I usually run into organized teams doing it. Been seeing it pop up more in AG’s etc, and we’ll probably see it more often in tournament play since they have that no no class stacking rule now.

In PvP menders amulet, with SW/D works really well alternate dodges with SW3 and dagger 4. That’s about 5 dodges in 10s, swap to staff, and skill 3 into water field for another evasion. If you acquire to many conditions, go into CA and spam 2-3.

Rinse, repeat find the real mesmer and call your pet to attack it. The pet won’t loose the real one, so just let it be.

I’d say the magic is turning off auto-attack. That’s basically it.
If I had sword / SB and I crossed a Condi Mesmer I lost like 6K HP in 3 seconds till I realized his build. I usually had to let them decap to heal back up and defeat them afterwards.

Just like it was said – dodging a lot and never using unnecessary attacks is the key. Your pet will wear them down eventually and then you just have to pressure them with CC or what not once they drop to around 60% HP.

Wow, each person really does have a different style and it’s great to see the variety. I use a different way:

• All glyphs are traited to drop seeds. If I see many mesmers or reapers on the other team before the start then I make sure I’m running 4 glyphs (at 2 cleanses each) + S&R. The seeds also heal, so they not only clear two condis but they heal up the damage that was caused by the condis you just cleared.

That has to drive a mesmer bug nutz… Not only are the condis being cleared so fast but they aren’t even doing any lasting damage.

• If I see many mesmers or reapers I also ensure that CA is traited to cleanse 13 condis.

• Never forget that they’ll try to instantly reapply condis as soon as you enter CA to get rid of a lot of them. This is what CA skill #2 is for. Another seed, 2 more condis gone.

If you want to go the shout route the run Soldier’s runes. Each shout clears a condi from not only yourself but from all allies. If you’re doing shouts then they’re traited for regen, which is great but I find it to be slow. Personally I prefer the seeds from glyphs but I know people have have been able to seriously kick a** with the shouts too.

If you are running shouts, consider traiting the glyps to drop a seed and then run 4 shouts plus Glyph of Equality. That will not only give you another heal and cleanse, it will also provide you with another stun break (30 sec cd).

Being a condi clearing machine is the start of a good d, but what about offense?

Immob, immob, immob…

I love, love, love Ancient Seeds (Druid bottom elite trait). Striking a stunned, dazed, knocked down or launched foe roots and bleeds them for 5 sec (10 sec cd). Couple that with the passive knockdown on the Smokescale, longbow 4, staff 4, Glyph of Equality, Glyph of Tides and, if you run more healing than dps, the passive knockdown on the Fern Hound….

You get one mesmer raging at their monitor, and maybe cursing you in map chat.

Bristleback’s F2 is on a 12 sec cd and two of it’s passives bleed so that’s your primary dps. I try to keep the mesmers interrupted and immobed as much as possible because it makes it easier to remember which one is the actual mesmer. My own dps helps some, but the Bristleback is what really takes them out. I’m mainly there for CC and to heal the Bristleback.

Now that every single match has 9 reapers or mesmers, I have started default slotting SoR in place of GoE (as well as soldier runes and 4 shouts.)

That gives me 2 complete condi wipes plus a large amount of slow and steady condi clear. I sort of don’t even see how it’s possible to run anything but massive condi clear in this garbage “meta”. And yes I am salty, I need 1 more play session to make it to diamond and I don’t know if I can even bother with that a single time over the next 2 months.

Voluptus.3509:

Each shout clears a condi from not only yourself but from all allies.

It is bugged unless it was stealth patched in yesterdays update. We do not cleanse from allies, only ranger and the pet are affected by rune, gg anet.

Edit: To just make sure ppl understand, the runes work on EVERY OTHER CLASS with shouts as intended, except ranger…

Alot of the comments from above are pretty good. You should try a trooper evade ranger. With almost perma vigor, nonstop evades and good condi removal spam: “guard” you can just kite that darn condi fool. With all the dodges and evades you should rarely be hit by their attacks/illusions.

One thing people forget (both enemy and ranger) is that your pet will follow that slippery stealth mesmer no matter when they pop out of stealth. So keep your pet stuck on the mesmer player while you kite the illusions you can put pressure on the mesmer to play defensive. Now if you are using bristleback pet, as soon as you see they are getting pressured pretty good channel that F2. cause 50-50 they will try and stealth. And channels still follow through stealth. So that mesmer unless they dodge will be hit by at least 10 of those hard hitting spikes.

Dodge into the shatters if you see them coming at you and you have no more evades. So from a pure evade ranger’s PoV that is what works for me. (S/D+SB). So just sic your pet on that mesmer, and evade all those illusions. And if you get hit by too much condis stop moving, clear them and start running around all over again.

And if you try an evade ranger remember to turn off show all npcs in your settings, and turn on show all enemies. Illusions count as npcs, so you will be able to keep better tabs on the real mesmer. While you kite around those illusions dont forget to attack with SB (when in that.) and to use crippling talon in s/d as much as possible. Keep that mesmer on defensive. And if in SB and you know mesmer will go stealth hit #5 daze and the bristlebacks F2. If you time it right you will stop the mesmer for a few seconds and they can eat more of the bristlebacks F2.

Good luck, and hope my PoV helped a little.

Cycle through af very quickly. Use reflect wall and blast/leap. Dodge properly and look for the windows to spike.

Also don’t forget to watch for the imob, if they land it use GS or staff #3 to completely evade the attack and shatter that is going to follow.

Edit: If using GS #3 make sure your not targeting the mesmer or a clone or you’ll complete the attack too early and likely still take some damage, takes practice.

Allison The Strange.4519:

Also don’t forget to watch for the imob, if they land it use GS or staff #3 to completely evade the attack and shatter that is going to follow.

Edit: If using GS #3 make sure your not targeting the mesmer or a clone or you’ll complete the attack too early and likely still take some damage, takes practice.

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regards to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Lettuce.2945:

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regards to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Incorrect.

Ranger is the most nerfed class in the game. For so many years of unreliable and unfriendly design we have been receiving nothing but nerfs unlike other classes.
And being nerfed over and over again while getting no buffs in return is kind of a definition to what the most nerfed means.

Also, I don’t see where’s the harm or how does pasting a joke in signature that has been going around for a long time make someone qualified for giving feedback or not.

If anything, your attitude shows you do stuff according to feelings rather than results. That is a merit to qualify people for advising actually. Just saying. Let’s stick to the topic, shall we ?

It would be interesting to actually go and count the nerfs for each profession over the past 4 years, but you’d have to be pretty bored to do that. Ranger probably leads. Regardless, it’s pretty irrelevant since not all nerfs and buffs are equally impactful.

I mean druid/new pets put us in a reasonable spot for PvP (colossal buff to core ranger; compare and contrast to warrior and berserker), and sure we’ve been nerfed relentlessly since, but we’re still at least usable. Don’t forget the days after spirit ranger died when people would give up before a match started if they saw a ranger on the team. And I do agree with Lettuce we’re still (and honestly have been since day 1) one of the best 1v1 classes in the game. Not necessarily the PvP meta druid, although that’s extremely good, but many WvW builds are absolute monsters in 1v1s.

I don’t know, there is probably a lot of mesmers feeling raked over the coals too. Don’t know how many times, or how long, blurred frenzy, temporal curtain and phantasmal warden have been nerfed/broken.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regards to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Incorrect.

Ranger is the most nerfed class in the game. For so many years of unreliable and unfriendly design we have been receiving nothing but nerfs unlike other classes.
And being nerfed over and over again while getting no buffs in return is kind of a definition to what the most nerfed means.

Also, I don’t see where’s the harm or how does pasting a joke in signature that has been going around for a long time make someone qualified for giving feedback or not.

If anything, your attitude shows you do stuff according to feelings rather than results. That is a merit to qualify people for advising actually. Just saying. Let’s stick to the topic, shall we ?

Disagree with what exactly? You’re focused on the quantity of times ranger got nerfed. I’m focused on the quality. Despite the “numerous” times we got nerfed, we are still definitely the top 3 for 1v1ing. If you care to disagree, I would be more than happy to demonstrate for you. The Druid spec itself is a buff. Shouts being reworked was a massive buff. I even slot one shout in my build now as a thanks to it. Compared to warrior and thief…Druid is amazing. Mesmer got the shaft recently and they’re pretty weak if you know what you’re doing against them: so yes..:my point is valid and still stands. Yours does not. Seems like you’re the one who speaks with his feelings. I’m stating facts and logic that I’ve tested on a daily basis as a dueler myself.

Lettuce.2945:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regards to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Incorrect.

Ranger is the most nerfed class in the game. For so many years of unreliable and unfriendly design we have been receiving nothing but nerfs unlike other classes.
And being nerfed over and over again while getting no buffs in return is kind of a definition to what the most nerfed means.

Also, I don’t see where’s the harm or how does pasting a joke in signature that has been going around for a long time make someone qualified for giving feedback or not.

If anything, your attitude shows you do stuff according to feelings rather than results. That is a merit to qualify people for advising actually. Just saying. Let’s stick to the topic, shall we ?

Disagree with what exactly? You’re focused on the quantity of times ranger got nerfed. I’m focused on the quality. Despite the “numerous” times we got nerfed, we are still definitely the top 3 for 1v1ing. If you care to disagree, I would be more than happy to demonstrate for you. The Druid spec itself is a buff. Shouts being reworked was a massive buff. I even slot one shout in my build now as a thanks to it. Compared to warrior and thief…Druid is amazing. Mesmer got the shaft recently and they’re pretty weak if you know what you’re doing against them: so yes..:my point is valid and still stands. Yours does not. Seems like you’re the one who speaks with his feelings. I’m stating facts and logic that I’ve tested on a daily basis as a dueler myself.

What is the secret to killing the glass evadeattack spamming thieves on my glass ranger. I need to know, ty.

Justine.6351:

What is the secret to killing the glass evadeattack spamming thieves on my glass ranger. I need to know, ty.

CC, if you land 1, wait for the port, hesitate a little long for the dodge, then land the next. Or just spam CC all over the place.

That’s a tough match up, worse than it has been in like 2 years though.

Justine.6351:

Lettuce.2945:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regaruds to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Incorrect.

Ranger is the most nerfed class in the game. For so many years of unreliable and unfriendly design we have been receiving nothing but nerfs unlike other classes.
And being nerfed over and over again while getting no buffs in return is kind of a definition to what the most nerfed means.

Also, I don’t see where’s the harm or how does pasting a joke in signature that has been going around for a long time make someone qualified for giving feedback or not.

If anything, your attitude shows you do stuff according to feelings rather than results. That is a merit to qualify people for advising actually. Just saying. Let’s stick to the topic, shall we ?

Disagree with what exactly? You’re focused on the quantity of times ranger got nerfed. I’m focused on the quality. Despite the “numerous” times we got nerfed, we are still definitely the top 3 for 1v1ing. If you care to disagree, I would be more than happy to demonstrate for you. The Druid spec itself is a buff. Shouts being reworked was a massive buff. I even slot one shout in my build now as a thanks to it. Compared to warrior and thief…Druid is amazing. Mesmer got the shaft recently and they’re pretty weak if you know what you’re doing against them: so yes..:my point is valid and still stands. Yours does not. Seems like you’re the one who speaks with his feelings. I’m stating facts and logic that I’ve tested on a daily basis as a dueler myself.

What is the secret to killing the glass evadeattack spamming thieves on my glass ranger. I need to know, ty.

Literally just hit them during their evade frame. There’s a point where you can cc during the evade. This includes pet taunt, longbow knock back, protect me. Cele state daze isn’t reliable to hit between frames since there’s a small delay between press and cast. And count dodges. Thieves don’t give me a problem at all and I play marauder in pvp. You on NA? If so, I can show ya some tips.

If not, just grab a thief buddy and practice hitting the frames. It’s easier to learn the frames if you play thief first then transfer that experience over on your Druid.

can you post their typical build here so I can go make it in game and play around with it some? ty

Lettuce.2945:

Disagree with what exactly? You’re focused on the quantity of times ranger got nerfed. I’m focused on the quality. Despite the “numerous” times we got nerfed, we are still definitely the top 3 for 1v1ing. If you care to disagree, I would be more than happy to demonstrate for you. The Druid spec itself is a buff. Shouts being reworked was a massive buff. I even slot one shout in my build now as a thanks to it. Compared to warrior and thief…Druid is amazing. Mesmer got the shaft recently and they’re pretty weak if you know what you’re doing against them: so yes..:my point is valid and still stands. Yours does not. Seems like you’re the one who speaks with his feelings. I’m stating facts and logic that I’ve tested on a daily basis as a dueler myself.

It doesn’t. You are misunderstanding expressions. Nerf for Weak in particular.
Being fine doesn’t mean we aren’t the most nerfed class in the game.

Your point is still not valid since you are bringing up points from a different topic that you opened.
My car can be the most damaged in the street yet still the fastest. That doesn’t exclude each other just like viability and being nerfed.

Which still shows that you just felt like hitting the 1st person coming around for no real reason. And you picked someone’s else signature of all places even without having a logical reason to (feelings, aye?)… Again, shall we stick to the topic, please?

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

Pretty sure you’re not qualified to give feedbacks especially with your sig. The most nerfed classes at the moment is warr/thief. Ranger is definitely top 3 in regards to 1 v 1 potential. L2P.

Incorrect.

Ranger is the most nerfed class in the game. For so many years of unreliable and unfriendly design we have been receiving nothing but nerfs unlike other classes.
And being nerfed over and over again while getting no buffs in return is kind of a definition to what the most nerfed means.

Sort of off topic, but can’t resist: I think Mesmer has eaten the most and hardest nerfs by far. Mesmer beats ranger in your definition of most nerfed, hands down. Yes they have this condi build now, and it is literally the only build that is remotely viable and most mesmers don’t even like running it. Speaking from experience, it is a pretty lame build to play, and people play it just because they want to keep playing mesmer. There are no power builds that can compete with condi now, which is hard evidence of the insane nerfage to the class. Power shatter and interrupt cannot compete anymore, it’s sad. Coming to ranger/druid from mesmer I can tell you the amount of bugged/useless abilities/traits etc. on mesmer is larger than ranger. Same with AI/pet issues, worse on mesmer by far.

As for beating them, I think best advice is as above: let pet chew on them and don’t spam stuff too much. Be smart with you condi clear, try to use glyphs/regen/heal, save CA as your oh kitten button. Not moving/spamming too much is important; as torment and confusion are their dmg you can seriously cut their dmg output to you by just keeping that in mind.

Edit: I wrote “beating them,” what I actually mean is not dying to them. If the mesmer isn’t dumb you aren’t going to kill them unless maybe you are condi (most condi variants are very weak to condi). Best thing usually for you is probably a stalemate, or just walk away as they cannot chase at all (e.g. wvw).

Justine.6351:

can you post their typical build here so I can go make it in game and play around with it some? ty

I’m assuming you’re asking for typical thief builds?

Dueling builds:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaWl0MhSnYhTw3Jw/ELIF187X/7PXDEALgXOEE9AA-TpBFABxv/AAPAgGOEAiXG4hTAABHBAA

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaWn8lClOhFOBGmC8Phlriq7myxAYe6v+u3bDygPA-TpBFABNcIAe4EAE/+DA8AAI4IAIeZAA

(Above one, you can swap out guarded initiation for hard to catch if you want, depending on who you’re fighting.)

Meta tpvp builds

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaVn8lClOhFOBGmCkmiFYCTLBEA2NzhwS4K0LNcGaDA-TpBFABiXGAgHAwDnAg43fohDBABHBAA

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAVWn8lClOhFOBGmC8PhFYCTLBEA2NephzQbYOEWCXhA-TZBFABiXGAgLBQ87P0wDAggjAAA

You could go acro with the staff build above instead of DA. That’s just some builds off the top of my head. Sorry for the delay in response, been a busy weekend for me.

Kk ty for the builds.

Hey everyone. My secondary is a Mesmer and I’ve been queuing with it more lately. I just wanted to say you should probably avoid this fight if at all possible. The dueling chronphantasma build outclasses us in a 1v1 situation, unfortunately. Our skills end up killing us.

The dueling version uses a trait called mistrust, which bombs us with conditions when we are interrupted. Unfortunately, many of our skills are channeled and have obvious tells, which makes for easy interrupts and an abundance of confusion. Staff auto attack—actually, all a staff skills—rapid fire, barrage, maul, etc.

Archon.6480:

Hey everyone. My secondary is a Mesmer and I’ve been queuing with it more lately. I just wanted to say you should probably avoid this fight if at all possible. The dueling chronphantasma build outclasses us in a 1v1 situation, unfortunately. Our skills end up killing us.

The dueling version uses a trait called mistrust, which bombs us with conditions when we are interrupted. Unfortunately, many of our skills are channeled and have obvious tells, which makes for easy interrupts and an abundance of confusion. Staff auto attack—actually, all a staff skills—rapid fire, barrage, maul, etc.

I disagree. There’s a druid build that just destroys condi mes. We can test this match up if you want. My druid vs your condi mes.

Lettuce.2945:

I disagree. There’s a druid build that just destroys condi mes. We can test this match up if you want. My druid vs your condi mes.

Let me know how it goes.
I’m not really into the charts but I’d like to hear the insights on where are the weaknesses and which class had the upper hand. I had some players asking around and … Since I hear a lot of people having problems with mesmers while I didn’t really have any – I want to hear the story from both sides.

Thanks beforehand and good luck sparing you two.

Is it a build you can actually use in PvP or one of those 1v1 bow at Foefire mid, no kiting/using the map duel specs?