How do you play against a condi mirage mesmer in sPvP?

[Xaero.1985]

As the title says, How do you play against a condi mirage mesmer in sPvP? It's the hardest class for me to counterplay. Need tips.

[Arklite.4013]

Same boat. Commenting to follow because I am looking for an answer as well. The few times I've won where catching them off guard with a big maul crit. Usually I just get blown up in a few seconds.

[Jelle.7856]

Run away!!! haha
In seriousness, match up def depends on what build you run and what weapon sets u choose. Boon-beast will def have an easier time than sic-em sniper. Some things to keep in mind:

1. Learn the animations: this might take some practice, but learn the axe animations, burst combos, etc. Get a sense for best times to dodge. I haven't been on for a while so I'm not the most up to date on cooldowns but keep those in mind when fighting.
2. Keep an eye out on your conditions : Keep track of what conditions you have on yourself. If you have confusion limit ur abilities, torment: moment, etc. Also don't condi-cleanse immediately, there is a ramp up, wait till they waste their cooldowns and cake you in conditions, then clear them. Takes some time to get used to but pays off.
3. Maximize the potential of your abilities: Use stealth to your advantage, reset fights if you need... if ur going axe axe, whirlwind 5 can reflect a lot of their damage...not to mention the ricochet is useful for clearing clones. If you're on sword, use the evade frames time against damage. On GS, use the blocks and your auto animation evades. If i remember correctly, you can actually evade twice on the third auto by stowing right before the auto finishes and autoing again. If on longbow, stealth, and LB5 great for clearing clones.

Very minor thing, to keep track of mesmer, just look for boons. Only the main one will have all the boons.

Wrote this briefly so sorry about the mess. GL on the matchup its def a lot of practice.

[Eurantien.4632]

The meta builds at the moment mostly use staff and scepter and rely on dodge for having the clones do most of the damage.

Recognize this and LoS when you don't have defenses available.

Also bear stance, bear stance is a really strong skill vs Condi classes because it's basically a 5-6s Condi invuln. Pair this up with wilderness survival and you've got some solid Condi clear options.

Best thing for you to do is play Condi mesmer yourself and learn how it kind of works.

If you want specific options tell us what your build is and which Condi mesmer builds give you trouble and I'll give you detailed advice.

[Dragonzhunter.8506]

When you fight vs a mesmer, one of the best things to do is going in stealth every time you can (smoke cloud+blast (Swoop, Clarion Bond, Hunter's shot) and let pet to do the damage. Use Target every time you can so you can know which one is the real one. A fight vs a mesmer must be a patient fight, don't rush with Rapid Fire till you are sure he used his reflect/block skills. Dodge all the time you see the clones are coming to you. Kite and try to be most of the time in LoS (again let the pet to do most of the damage). Smokescale seems to be the best pet against them, good for his smoke assault so you can chase him when he is running around his clones, or he is trying to get in LoS.Anyway, everything Eurantien said too.

[Xaero.1985]

@"Eurantien.4632" said:The meta builds at the moment mostly use staff and scepter and rely on dodge for having the clones do most of the damage.

Recognize this and LoS when you don't have defenses available.

Also bear stance, bear stance is a really strong skill vs Condi classes because it's basically a 5-6s Condi invuln. Pair this up with wilderness survival and you've got some solid Condi clear options.

Best thing for you to do is play Condi mesmer yourself and learn how it kind of works.

If you want specific options tell us what your build is and which Condi mesmer builds give you trouble and I'll give you detailed advice.

iam really open to any ranger build right now because it just seems that whatever i do is futile. I cant cleanse all of the constant conditions, can't keep dodging all the incoming attacks w/ condis, mesmer has so many "oh s!@^" buttons/stun breaks/invulns/escapes. It's just a barrage of utility, defense, and conditions...

I keep going against wand pistol and sword/?condi mesmers.

Seriously need help because its so frustrating. It just seems like ranger is completely food for condi mes.

[Koen.1327]

mind you ranger is, in my opinion, the weakest pvp class right now so you have a hard time vs anythingi main both ranger and mesmer, and indeed it's heavily in the favor of the mesmer

condi mirage generally has few ways to escape: blink, staff 2 and 2x jaunt, i would highly suggest to keep soft cc pressure because actual movement speed is really poor right now after the MC superspeed nerf. LB 5 or axe 3 and Stf depending on which build you use to keep cripple/chill. Safe you biggest burst after the mirage uses blink. With soft cc a mirage simply doesn't move an inch even when they dodge.LB 5 is great aoe pressure so the mirage can't cap/hold a node either, just cast it from behind boxes or anything and start from there.

as for your own survival, you can use bear stance if you are struggling, this should make you pretty much immune from condi deaths, just remember to kite until bear stance is up again. Owl is enough most the time for resistance+swoop though and troll heal is a lot better overall

[Jelle.7856]

I actually think ranger is still pretty strong. Of course it's not as strong as its peak in Boonbeast or Druid meta but still pretty competitive for solo queue at least. Usually don't have too much trouble 1v1 any class though mesmer is still the most "annoying" to fight for me.
If you're looking for builds I usually run this one:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POAFc8EbYZBsO2DLiZin0l9rskpdA-z5QXKZGCRnAtHB5XAKNAKind of a bruiser build. Tanky, but generates a ton of might (20+) so you can hit like a truck. The burst is kind of reliant on hitting your axe 4 though so make sure to practice on moving targets. If you want to be even tankier, you can swap out soulbeast for nature magic. Regardless it's worked well for me for plat+.

If you want sic-em, i think this is the usual build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMFlFw6YgsHmJeSXrP7Sm2BA-z5IeKNKCyUIEtEokFgtGAFeel free to play around with the elite skil, amulet and rune. Up to your preferences. The build is still pretty strong though harder to fight FB now :(

[KeyOrion.9506]

Runaway is not an option. All the conditions cause you to kill yourself. If you move torment kills you. If you stay in place the clone bombs kill you. If you use your skills....you still kill yourself. Your basically punished for fighting mesmers as a Ranger. The few times where I've been able to kill one is standing still and attempting to clear conditions as they come...which is not easy.