Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

Semi-casual player. Highest level character is a Ranger, currently 65 with decent gear for my level. Love playing it. A couple times I have gone 1 v 1 against mesmers in WvW and got absolutely owned. I fare pretty well against other classes.

One on one against a mesmer what I have found happens is that I quickly find myself looking at 3+ clones, the mesmer and one or more phantoms on me. I am unable to determine which target I need to hit and am dispatched before I can accurately determine who is a clone and who is the mesmer.

Any suggestions for a ranger versus mesmer?

Thanks!

Would help to know what spec you normally use.

Generally speaking try drop some AoEs obviously to destroy the clones. Traps are also very useful especially against a blurred frenzy mesmer (which is basically all of them, using pistol+sword). Since they’ll teleport to you for their rotation and will get hit by the traps.

WvW is not the best field to try out pvp if you are lvl 65, i could basically two-shot you with my lvl 80 full exotic character.
Try out in sPVP until you are lvl 80, or if you want to do WvW run with a group because if you are on 1vs1 (which rarely happens) the % of get your face melted is very high at lvl 65.

Mesmers excel at 1v1. My suggestion is run away and get backup, because you will never beat a decent mesmer with a ranger. Mesmers are especially hard for rangers because confusion absolutely destroys the shortbow, they have projectile reflection and rangers don’t have good AOE or burst to get rid of clones and phantasms quickly.

fishergrip.4082:

Mesmers excel at 1v1. My suggestion is run away and get backup, because you will never beat a decent mesmer with a ranger. Mesmers are especially hard for rangers because confusion absolutely destroys the shortbow, they have projectile reflection and rangers don’t have good AOE or burst to get rid of clones and phantasms quickly.

You’re joking, right? Cond Ranger plus one handed sword/torch plus rampage as one equals dead mesmer. We have amazing AOE abilities, son. They are called “traps” and can be used as large ground targeting spells.

In WvW at lvl 65 you are probably toast; but in spvp mainhand axe is quite good against mesmers. The bouncing kills the clones and also will hit them when they go invisible (unless they teleport out of range). You can also “mark” the mesmer when you first see them (there is a key bind for it, puts a big circle over the real mesmer). That will stay until it stealths.

There is not much you can do though in 1vs1 if they have moa or whatever the ultimate is called off cd- you can’t even LOS them because the phantasms will always get you.

@OP: “…I quickly find myself looking at 3+ clones, the mesmer and one or more phantoms on me.”

The mesmer can ONLY have up to 3 illusions total at any time.

Creating a clone or phantasm when 3 illusions are already up will immediately destroy one to bring it out, always keeping the total at 3 or less.

Panther Chameleon.8465:

fishergrip.4082:

Mesmers excel at 1v1. My suggestion is run away and get backup, because you will never beat a decent mesmer with a ranger. Mesmers are especially hard for rangers because confusion absolutely destroys the shortbow, they have projectile reflection and rangers don’t have good AOE or burst to get rid of clones and phantasms quickly.

You’re joking, right? Cond Ranger plus one handed sword/torch plus rampage as one equals dead mesmer. We have amazing AOE abilities, son. They are called “traps” and can be used as large ground targeting spells.

I do agree that torch is probably the most efficient way to take out clones. However, I think traps are too easily countered by any Range class that knows what to look for.

Don’t get me wrong, traps are AMAZING against melee. But its too easy to counter a Trap build Ranger as range, especially as a Mesmer who can summon new clone every 12 seconds or less and reset fights.

fishergrip.4082:

Mesmers excel at 1v1. My suggestion is run away and get backup, because you will never beat a decent mesmer with a ranger. Mesmers are especially hard for rangers because confusion absolutely destroys the shortbow, they have projectile reflection and rangers don’t have good AOE or burst to get rid of clones and phantasms quickly.

Lol you have no idea about the matchups. Mesmer vs ranger is pretty kitten hard for the mesmer if you know how ranger should be played at all. And people who ignore confusion are automatically bad.

NaturalPortman.9562:

fishergrip.4082:

Mesmers excel at 1v1. My suggestion is run away and get backup, because you will never beat a decent mesmer with a ranger. Mesmers are especially hard for rangers because confusion absolutely destroys the shortbow, they have projectile reflection and rangers don’t have good AOE or burst to get rid of clones and phantasms quickly.

Lol you have no idea about the matchups. Mesmer vs ranger is pretty kitten hard for the mesmer if you know how ranger should be played at all. And people who ignore confusion are automatically bad.

Yes and no, its not about the class but weapon setup. I spent the better part of 2-3 hours dueling a mesmer early this morning, and he was running with a super op bunker build that had 100% uptime on retaliation, confusion, protection, and tons of reflection for projectiles and no matter how low I got him he never died, his clones even had retal. Pretty much after each fight * I only won once * the breakdown showed up to 17k damage done by retal, his damage barely broke 4k. I run a glass cannon longbow/GS build, sometimes like in duels against certain classes I use sword/horn, but either way I shouldnt have to worry about doing 17k to myself, and problem was he had it on for 2-3 minutes straight.

Then after telling him that retal owns me and that I usually do much better on non bunker mesmers, he decides to go glass cannon shatter build * which hurts soooobad btw * and we proceed to duel for an hour and a half, I won 90% of those duels, only ones I lost were when pet bugged, lick wounds bugged, or I derped and made a mistake. The strat I used was I used call of wild, and started casting hunters call way out of range so when I run into range its hitting him * didnt use elite most of the time fyi, I won when I did tho * and then I use troll unguent and switch to longbow for barrage and used barrage on myself. He sometimes stood in it but most of the time he waited for it to go away, but it managed to kill his clones before reaching me.

When he finally came out of stealth in the start Id go for point blank + rapid fire, send pet in with sig of hunt activated and let him smack him, which if it lands I kill him quite fast. My pet literally ended almost every fight, however sometimes instead of switching to longbow and barraging Id stick with 1h sword, wait for his clones to come in for the shatter and use evasive skills to evade the burst, then it was fairly easy to kill him, and no this guy wasnt bad, sure I was better but he was pretty dang good. That is against a shatter build, so against other builds Id say bring healing spring for fighting condi tank mesmers, and against bunker mesmers who abuse retal and reflection, go evasion tank with tons of regen. Only thing I can think of.

Good reflexes and sword or dagger offhand with shortbow beats spike dps mesmers.
You can evade even when immobilized and all their notable dmg is dodgeable or killable.
You have to have good reflexes though.
I have to say it again because it is EXTREMELY important, dodging shatters=win.

When I was running tournies (a few weeks before paid tournies came out but we were winning 90+% of the tournies) I was in part our designated mesmer roflestomper and I did my job kitten well.
(as a condi-trap ranger)

If you want the utter unrushed win, you just dodge the deulist/berserker’s first volley then catch it in a fire trap every time or a weapon swap (geomancy sigil) or at worst sick a pet on it. Most of the time you can still scrape the mesmer with either aoe for some continued pressure.
Then all you have to do is watch for the clone that they can tele-swap with and kite/kill it (if he has 2-3 sword clones out) or just keep an on weapon evade up.

Canines kitten them over, few pay attention to the 2s knockdown or aoe fear/root giving me free wins left and right.

Eventually you’ll start learning things like fighting a good shatter mes that gets 3 sword clones up is a big no no… he will shatter and you will have little time to respond, none if he immobilizes you. That and mesmers that aim for that, the 3 sword clones, have kitten for dodging after that spike since they blew near all their endurance on making clones…
Just watch out for condi mesmers, those are the ones you have to watch out for.
Dodge the deulists first volley and sick a pet on him or kill him some way asap, short of that and the clones causing confusion to anyone near them when they die their, dmg is mediocre. But they can evade/cleanse/distortion for days.

Oh and throwing traps on the mesmer portals make good times

I dont play traps so Ill take your word for it, I tend to just go for the hardest hitting builds. Sadly ranger doesnt really have 1, however it does have a hard hitting pet. It carried me hard, mesmer cussed my bird out alot lol, kept forgetting about its damage and only remembered after It blew him up.

LB Aoe clones.

15chars

yeah i have trouble with them also
last time i was into fight with one droped his hp and puff invisible with 10 clones around
not impossible to kill em but it’s hard 1v1

Batlav.6318:

yeah i have trouble with them also
last time i was into fight with one droped his hp and puff invisible with 10 clones around
not impossible to kill em but it’s hard 1v1

When he goes invisible he is most likely trying to get close to you so he can hit you with his version of pistol whip, or to let clones shatter you, or just to blend in with clones, or hell, all of the above. Just kite backwards when he goes invis and wait for him to surface.

go double axes problem solved i havent tried it out but most axes skills even auto attack bounces off targets

Batlav.6318:

yeah i have trouble with them also
last time i was into fight with one droped his hp and puff invisible with 10 clones around
not impossible to kill em but it’s hard 1v1

They cant have more then 3 and if normally one is Illusion that does not look like the player.

Plus clones won’t show off hand, so that helps know who the real player is.

They are not hard to kill if you stay on target. And that is not hard to do if you are are smart and pay attention

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Batlav.6318:

yeah i have trouble with them also
last time i was into fight with one droped his hp and puff invisible with 10 clones around
not impossible to kill em but it’s hard 1v1

When he goes invisible he is most likely trying to get close to you so he can hit you with his version of pistol whip, or to let clones shatter you, or just to blend in with clones, or hell, all of the above. Just kite backwards when he goes invis and wait for him to surface.

Unless all you do is kite and your fighting a melee nonshatter mesmer (EXTREMELY RARE) few mesmers will use stealth to run up to you let alone to blurred frenzy, at best its stall/kite or use a heal skill while phantasms tick away on the enemy, not many high dps mesmers have an on demand stealth (decoy). If they do though at best its to give them a nice chance to pop that one clone that can be swapped to for an immobilize before shattering or if they’re desperate hit with that 2s stun -> the same and some auto attacks.

Mesmers don’t blurred frenzy from stealth and the only invis that effects clones, so helps shatter, is an elite skill (so not only obvious but rare), to boot shatter specced mesmers have a trait that makes the shatter effect on himself so you know exactly when he starts the shatter so can dodge into the rest of the clones (short of being surrounded by sword clones, a terrible place to ever be against a shatter mes though btw). Without the immobilize blurred frenzy is a terrible offensive ability, anyone can just walk threw the mes or away and only take 1/3 of its dmg at best while the mesmer wastes its distortion (which would have worked a dozen times better as a counter to an enemies spike)

But yeah there isn’t much to do about invisibility besides pick away at phantasms or sword clones in the mean time and watch for any clones that come out of stealth running directly at you (the sword swap->imob clone) oh and i randomly dodge if I know their moa form is up.
Unlike a thief, mesmer stealth really isn’t that big of a deal (short of taking phantasm’s dmg or being melee and so it helps the mes kite).