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[sPVP] Struggling to fight Mirage as a Core Guard - Any advice?


Arklite.4013

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Not sure if this is better posted on the Guardian or Mesmer forum, but I think I'm more interested in the Mesmer answers.

I play Core Meditation Power Guardian - GS + Sw/Focus, high burst, medium sustain, medium mobility. I'm in Gold 2 currently so I'm not totally dumb at PvP but I feel like I haven't been able to improve at this matchup very much since getting back into the game. Granted I'm pretty unfamiliar with how Mesmer works (I've made one and looked at the builds, played a few PvP games but I'm quite the novice), but from my observations on the matchup, it seems like there's a lot of evades with animations that are pretty difficult for me to distinguish (especially among GW2's obvious visual clutter). I think most Mirages I run into usually run scepter/x + staff. I have a lot of condition cleanse, but you guys have a lot of conditions. I'm rarely able to land my burst and I can't keep up in longer fights.

Whenever it's convenient, I'll try to pull/cleave some of the clones down. Is this a waste of time? Should I make a greater effort to kill the clones?

Is there a big condi application window I should be saving contemplation of purity for (or my condi cleanse in general)? I typically try to save it for when they start piling up (using smite condition almost off cooldown) but I'm wondering if there's a specific skill/set of conditions I should be saving it for and I'm getting baited into wasting it or something, but if I don't cleanse aggressively enough I die too quickly. It seems like this fight is kind of a race against time before I run out of condition cleanse and slowly die while being kited.

I think it's called chaos storm - the skill that creates the big pink bubble - is it worth entering/staying inside the bubble to try and fight? I've tried staying outside of it but it just gives them free time to hit me while I can't do much back.

If I start winning, I'm usually unable to chase, and if I lose, I'm rarely able to escape (though this is just an innate guardian passive). Should I run scepter and try to play more defensively?

Accepting any and all advice.

Thank you!

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Mirage bursts application of conditions by use of Infinite Horizon, which make all the clones perform some evade frames while using the Ambush attack that is applying a lot of conditions. For the usual condition build this means just projectiles, which can be destroyed, reflected, LoS’d, or avoided by strafing the line of the bolt itself. It is less a waiting game in general, as we hold our dodges for when you are going for a burst and attempt to turn your attack into our victory. My suggestion would be to solve avoiding application by looking for the Mirage Cloak, attack animations, and getting used to moving out of the line of fire first most, then try to bait their dodges with a false start burst so you do not waste your burst on their dodges.

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@Arklite.4013 said:Accepting any and all advice.Dont waste your evades on phantasmal warlocks.You can try to fake cast focus 4 and jebait them to evade and cancel right in the end (since you claim to not be totally dumb, you should be able to stow,right ?)Shield5 can block almost everything (Except shatters,they are pretty harmless on chaos/dueling tbh).You want to evade pistol phantasm or quickly cleanse this 10-20 stacks of bleeds, be quick on cleansing this bleeds with smite conditions, keep in mind your heal also triggers it.CoP - when you have too many condis and other cds are down/you can cleanse lots of condis and breakstun from pistol5 in the same time :D! Many guard mains dont even realize how broken their gs5, the smartest guardians trying to land it with judge intervention and NOT using the pull to do a lot of damage (follow him so he wont lose the chain).Camping in chaos storm is bad idea tbh :DYou can try to play your scepter and see if its better, but I'm not so sure about it, sword has a gapcloser and some projectile defense on 3rd skill (that will protect you from the most of mirage attacks).Try to be offensive, see if its works?

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I am guardian main. I will start-off with one general advice. Do not play core guardian. As it currently stands (especially after last patch) it is pretty much dead. I would recommend https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/78130/firesage-build-pvp-p3-video#latest instead. Even DH now is better.

If you want to stick to core guardian. Here are a couple of things to take in consideration:

  1. If the mesmer choose to flee, you will not be able to get them. That is almost never the goal though. You want to push them off the point.
  2. You have the ideal weapons. Scepter is very bad against, well.. everything in PvP.
  3. This more off general core guardian advice. With LoR active go all out. Pair with stability if available. With it on CD, kite. Breaking LoS can be very beneficial (and confuses most mirages, since they anticipate you will chase them not the other way round). Use sword symbol wisely. Not off CD. Use it when you need to close gap. It is particularly useful if mirage just summoned phantasms or clones, as you can quickly kill all of them with symbol. GS 2 and GS symbol require timing and knowledge. Hard to put in words, but you want to use them when you anticipate the target will be forced to eat the damage vs using off CD.
  4. You have to run CoP and smite. CoP can turn 6-7 condis into boons. Do not use it with 2 condis on you.
  5. Avoid chaos storms.
  6. Contrary to the believe, mirage have long CDs, and if they do not pace correctly they could be easily out played. The key is timing. Choas storm is 25 sec CD traited. Chaos storm with heal is 35 secs. Heal is 25 sec. Mirage will have more access to dodges and vigor earlier in the fight. If you play aggressive you will lose. You are right that fighting mirage is typically a battle against time. For the mirage not the guardian. The key is managing when to condi cleanse and when to go on the offense.
  7. A typically mirage will do as follows:Summon warlocks.Chaos storm.Switch to scepter and pistol, pistol phantasmThen pistol CC.Most mirages do this to put as much condis as possible on the target in the shortest amount of time. And is almost a disaster, for them, if you are fighting any build that can nullify all condis instantly. Use CoP wisely. Things against more skilled mirages will not go that way, but you are not likely to see them in gold anyway.
  8. If mirage is running scepter and staff, play ultra defensively and fully understand what their opponent is doing, theoretically they should not die. Only problem is sPvP is played on a point and is timed. So that is out the window.

I want to emphasis, most of the time as a guardian you have limited tools to chase (and almost no CC). Very rarely you will want to chase.

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I ran into a core guardian running hammer + sword/focus (iirc) and I run an off meta DPS build. He was prob one of the hardest fights ive had with any guardian builds (aside from support tank FB that can be unkillable for me in a 1v1 lol). They stuck on me, they knew which clone was me and stayed close. Loaded up on boons, Judges Intervention and bursted me. If it all connected, it was nearly a 1 shot.

For condi mirages, its about knowing when to cleanse and what to dodge.

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