Guild Wars 2

I am a GS/LB warrior, generally running Great Justice, Bull’s Charge, Banner of Strength, and Hounds.

Mesmers consistently kick my trash. I haven’t played a mes, so I don’t really understand how their decoys work and what I should do against them. Can someone explain to me how to fight them, or point me to a good guide?

Thanks

Best thing to do is play a mesmer in sPvP.
Barring that, kill their purple phantasms first (they are squishy), use ctrl T to target the mesmer and stack some bleeds on them (easy to see the real mesmer when the bleed numbers are popping off of them), and do what you gotta do. The fact is all classes have trouble with mesmers, especially the well-played ones, so don’t feel bad if they are making you eat dirt constantly. Quite a few builds can teleport a good distance away, so you will need the trait that makes your longbow have 1200 range, or you’ll need a rifle. Mesmers don’t do a lot of damage on their own, and most don’t have a lot of condition removals on low cd.

Ok.

1) – Don’t be a fragile. Don’t be the glass cannon guy. I run with 30k hps, and decent toughness and 50 percent base crit. That allows you to weather their burst/ranged damage whilst you get to them to actually hit them.

2) – Don’t bother with the target (ctrl +T)honestly. When they dissapear it goes anyway, so you’ll be looking for a target wasting time, then trying to retarget. Just play against enough and honestly you can see which one is them as generally they’ll be the one trying to get distance on you/dodge/strafe. Use the target function if you’re telling your team who to focus.

3) – Kill every illusion/phantasm you see as you advance on them, that is where most of their damage comes from. Use GS3 to plow through them. Throw GS 4 at him through illusions.

4) – save dodge rolls for when all the images begin to move towards you for the shatter.

5) – If they blow haste field/chaos field/any sort of aoe field don’t stand in it…just back off/get some distance then come back in.

6) – Never use bullrush/freny/hb off the bat. I generally end up using it late in the battle after they’ve used their escapes.

7) if they moa you (which happens alot), and despite mesmers saying ‘OHH!!! just dodge when that happens!!!’ You will get moad. mainly because they can start the cast whilst still in stealth. All you can do is run away. Don’t do anything else, run and break LOS.

8) I run with sword and board 2ndry. I find the sword leap and shield stun +block overrides anything else in general utility. Mace/shield is better in some situations though (mainly against those people who are going to melee you and not run away constantly).

9) If it’s a 2v1 don’t bother. It’s SO much work and focus to kill a mesmer with a warrior, adding any extra element into that will destroy you.

10) Run endure pain to cope with some bursts.

11) If you think the battle is going badly just run. Mesmers really have no ability (save blink) to catch/snare you. GS3 then 5 /sword 2 out of there.

12) Abilities to watch for : ‘Blurred frenzy’ they look like they’re swishing their sword around violently, they take no damage, and do damage for 2 seconds but remain immobile (it’s up every 8-10 seconds seconds (as appose to our shield block ,2 seconds block, no damage , up every 30 seconds….seems fair…..) . Soon as they do this just move/dodge and reattack.

Chaos field – (any pink/purple circle looking thing with stuff happening in it) – as above

That little purple bubble they envelop themselves is chaos armour, up every 35 seconds, lasts 5 seconds. Keep attacking if they do this. It’s not immunity, it doesn’t give stability so you can still stun them. It also marks them out for 5 seconds as clones won’t copy this.

All in all…they are (bar a guardian) a warriors hardest fight imho. Sometimes it seems their escapes and get out of jail cards are endless, yet they still do as much damage as you do in melee from 1200 away.

Thanks for the excellent advice. In #7, what is “moa” and what am I watching for?

Moa is when they turn you into a Moa bird.. You get useless moa abilities and turn back to normal after 10 seconds. It’s basically the most corny skill in the game, quite a lot of fun to use. You are, however, basically saying you don’t have skill if you use this.

It’s a lame ability with no counter.

A favourite of the mesmer right now is the shatter build. So they generate 3 clones, leap (which immobilises you for 2 seconds) at you and use blurred frenzy shattering all 3 clones at the same time. It generates almost as much damage as a damage specced Hundred blades+frenzy.

But where as a warrior needs to be specced glass cannon, have frenzy timer up/bullscharge + has to take 50 percent more damage during it (so can run it every 60 seconds) the mesmer gets total immunity from damage/cc and can do it every 15 seconds or so.

Imagine being able to do a frenzied HB every 15 seconds and be immune to everything whilst doing it.

This is why using GS 3 well and trying to destroy clones quickly is important, as well as popping endure pain (our 90 second recharge 3 second immunity from damage…) or shield block at the right times.

Mesmers are above all classes at the moment. Their damage is too high for a class which so many defensive abilities and their range. Some say their counter is a staff elementalist for constant aoe to remove illusions.

Shame staff elementalists fall over to all other classes.

Combustive+pin+explosive+sofury+volley+frenzy+root+killshot.

or

Balanced stance+Earthshaker+Backbreaker+Hammershock+frenzy+bull+HB+WA.

or

Bladetrail+Rush+WA+frenzybullHB+eviscerate.

Kill before they kill. EP+DP will give you the time.
If the fight goes longer, you’re dead.
They are -that- OP.

Is longbow AoE damage enough to take down clones? And how to clones react to fire? Will they move out of it, or stay and roast?

Clones won’t do anything if you beat on them. I’ve never used longbows on them before, because that basically means you are trading longbow for another set of weapons since you can’t switch during the fight. Because of how often the mesmer teleports the clones can be all over the place as well, not just crowded together in one spot.

1. Equip Axe on off hand
2. Locate the Mesmer
3. Get close to it
4. Press 5
lol jk but the range on that skill is pretty dam good.

You cant beat mesmer 1v1 with warrior I have my main as mesh and prolly never lost to one because they are easiest class to predict and to dodge… most times when I am 1v1 vs warriors I end up with full HP… But I play different build than other mesmers, maybe there is chance to kill glassy canoons but once they use staff just run away because you dont have any chances!

Mesmers can be a tricky shot due to their illusions & their quick movement, a suggestion would be to target them (CONTROL-T) before they summon their reinforcements which means you can focus on the correct player therefore having a primary objective to take them down!