Want to improve my Mesmer skills focusing on PvP - how should I progress?

I've played Mesmer up to level 45 pre-HoT and have returned now with a new Mesmer boosted to 80 and Chronomancer fully unlocked.

I have no problems blowing up open world monsters and soloing tough enemies in PvE with all kinds of short/medium burst combos. I can also be somewhat effective in sPvP by using the typical damaging weapon abilities and shattering, but have most trouble roaming in WvW.

However, I feel there's a huge gap between what I'm doing and:

1. Proper shatter management (if I make a build that is meant to constantly shatter, I feel like I'm just constantly throwing everything out semi-randomly if nobody kills me)

2. The biggest issue of all I think is proper survival. There are many strong survival abilities at my disposal that I kind of get mesmerised by them, but I feel like that's why I happen to use them in the wrong situations. I'm trying to run Berserker in WvW but when I find a 1v1 I don't know what to do and how to respond and therefore I die in a few seconds.

3. Chronomancer! On top of the other two challenges I almost never dare use Continuum Split because my attempts fail miserably as I fail to make best use of my abilities even without this extra trick. I also feel like running plain Mesmer won't really help me towards this. Maybe I'm mistaken.

So I had been making all kinds of synergistic builds - defense focused, offense focused, shatter focused with heavy clone generation, CC into burst based, etc. and I'm trying to find a build that would give me fewer tools to play effectively with and let me learn them before trying a build that adds another Mesmer trick or mechanic for more options and higher potential, slowly - one by one. Yet I still feel overwhelmed and when I run around in WvW and a Warrior looks at me and absolutely cracks my face in with a massive hammer blow I tend to scrap whatever battle strategy I had then.

I'm not held back by Mesmer's difficulty, but I really want to find a practice path to bridge the gap and steadily grow to a point where I'm making use of all of what Mesmer can do. Can you help me on this path, fellow Mesmers?

What build are you trying to run? You may just have bad traits and skills selected.

For utilities I suggest running blink, mirror images and decoy. When traited, these are low CD stunbreaks (3 of them no less) and all very useful. Blink is great for mobility while fighting someone. Mirror images is great for getting a quick shatter off with more power, an decoy is a great emergency reset, giving you just enough stealth to reposition and get off a burst (or try to blink away if you are running). I also suggest running condi chrono, with staff and scepter/torch or sword/torch (sword if you need a bit more survivability via BF). You lose shield,but you can get off some nasty condition bursts when used with CS.

I've been making all kinds of builds, definitely no bad traits as the skill calculator and wiki are some of my favourite things ever. I can actually perform almost as well with no traits at all, I'm really lacking in the skill usage part.

I just found this post on types of Mesmer and difficulties: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first#post2916347I have tried literally all of them with multiple variations and strategies.

I had thought before that a Phantasm focused build would let me focus on the Mesmer itself while giving little attention to shatters and illusion generation before I move on to a Chronophantasma Phantasm build that also shatters them and then maybe a shatter based build altogether later and so on.

Thanks for those stunbreak tips, though!

I too have returned to game after a time. about 3 years ago, I was doing pretty well wvw roaming power phantasm and shatter including some 1v3 at times and/or PvP but things feel so vastly different now for some reason. it may be partly due to my rusty skills but at the same time the entire scene and way builds and classes attack and responds feels so... different. of course the condi bursts now seem nuts. So I've had to change my build and with the new changes I have a lot of defensive mechanisms including an abundance of blocks, evades, condi cleanse, shatters to my disposal. however I don't seem to be using the full potential of the build either or responding in time. I seem to have a problem with knowing when to do something like the OP or reading the enemy's moves. Everyone also seems to hit really hard with condi and aoe while my stats seem okay but I don't pull off good damage. People seem to be running builds that have high survivability and can take damage and heal up, but somehow still hit hard. It feels quite strange to me, different from how I remember things. before it seemed to be if people opted for survivability they couldn't hit very hard either or it would be glass. But that's just a little rant. I'm following to see if anyone has any advice or personal experience/stories about play skill especially with the new metas, other than what's on a build and on paper.

@takatsu.9416 , That's exactly how I feel, but I'm trying to stop myself from thinking that because, surely, everyone is on more or less equal balance, not as wildly different as it feels to you and me...