Guild Wars 2

Since patch I’ve been having a particularly frustrating time with Mesmer’s in PvP. In WvW they’re about the same as before, but in PvP even the glass Mesmer’s seem to have steel skin. They are shrugging off my initial burst, and then one shotting me as I come out of dodge or stealth. Should I start off with like… a false burst, try to survive long enough to get back into stealth, and then hit them hard on the second go? Any specific counters you can think of would be helpful.

The best counter is to play a better class.

If you want to play a thief, grow a thick skin and be prepared to get used, abused, and blamed for everything.

If you’re a masochist, thief is the perfect class for you. If you think you aren’t a masochist, but enjoy getting used, abused, and blamed on your thief…then I have bad news for you: you’re a masochist.

If you’re getting crushed by a glass power mesmer as a thief, it’s a mechanical issue.

Hi Link.

Condi mesmers pose a bit of a problem of course, but I agree with what Ruru said. You shouldn’t be having that much trouble against a power mesmer (you mention glass mesmer, so I assume power) in a ‘fair trade’ (assuming both have full cooldowns and full health at start of the fight).

Best option is to duel them really, and figure out where you are struggling. We can’t give you solid advice if we haven’t seen you fight them. Maybe post a video if you can.

Edit: You also don’t mention which build/weapons you are using. That would be a helpful start.

What do you run, OP?

Acro staff is pretty strong vs power mes atm, lots of evades, lots of aoe to keep the clones at bay. In particular, wait for the mesmer to use continuum split, as if it’s destroyed the mes returns to that position and you can see the orb even if the mes is in stealth so it’s a perfect vault target if you get the timing right. The auto evade trait also helps a bunch as stopping you getting one shot if you mess up your timing.

I run dagger/pistol…. currently metabuild but with the free slot I run impairing daggers for the immob/slow/damage. I’ve been dueling in private arenas a bit, and what most have been doing is they’ll when I do my initial burst, they’ll immediately pop dodge and mass invis, then throw a billion clones at me that I didn’t see a second before. If I make it past that initial burst, I have a chance, but I’m struggling to keep target as they pop clones and stealth as often as available.

Evasion Power Mesmers are a serious problem for burst classes in general. Particularly problematic for thieves since we are relatively squishy if caught outside of an evade frame. The only way to beat them is to outplay them in my experience.

Link.1049:

I run dagger/pistol…. currently metabuild but with the free slot I run impairing daggers for the immob/slow/damage. I’ve been dueling in private arenas a bit, and what most have been doing is they’ll when I do my initial burst, they’ll immediately pop dodge and mass invis, then throw a billion clones at me that I didn’t see a second before. If I make it past that initial burst, I have a chance, but I’m struggling to keep target as they pop clones and stealth as often as available.

Be patient. D/P can out stealth a Mesmer with relative ease. If they Mass invis, just go into stealth and stay there. They will likely try to burst your black powder if they are going to come out of stealth before you, but they won’t have a target for optimal GS burst so this works in your favour and you can immediately retaliate. When they swap to their defensive set (S/Sh most likely) you can sit comfortably out of melee range wait out the inevitable Blurred Frenzy first and basilisk the shield block which will get a free trigger of pulmonary impact and will likely be the end of the Mesmer if they’ve already popped Distortion.