How to fight mesmer?

[Cerberus.6948]

Pretty general question, I know. I am not playing gw2 for that long but have fun with it. So maybe im missing the obvious. I am running sword weaver water/arcane/weaver. Do you cleave their clones? Retargeting is hard. So have you to go through this chore and find him again and again. With the occasional stealth he is just a pain in the ass and i dont know how to get damage on him. I tried the cleave method but was just mediocre. What are your methods? Regards Rubicon

[Loboling.5293]

With ele, there is really only two important things for fighting mesmer. Watch for shatters and avoid them. (yes they are instant, but they take 3 clones to be next to you for maximum damage, you can see them coming an avoid them mostly - at least triple shatters)

Second advice is to learn to identify mesmer's quickly, you want to spread as much aoe as possible. You shouldn't spend much time focusing down clones, but rather dealing aoe damage where you believe the real mesmer to be. Generally, you form a rhythm (they the mesmer can break with some skill) where you are following the mesmer, breaking his clones as they form, and evading any spike clone burst combos; eventually you wear the mesmer down.

[Cerberus.6948]

So its mostly dodging shatters and hurt him with aoe as good as you can? I think I have to test mesmer myself to get to know him better ;) I have no idea were dmg is coming from. All I heard is that there are shatter builds, which likely have dmg spikes. All i know is, that the clones annoy me as hell ^^ Especially with more targets than this one mesmer.

[Emtiarbi.3281]

@Cerberus.6948 said:So its mostly dodging shatters and hurt him with aoe as good as you can? I think I have to test mesmer myself to get to know him better ;) I have no idea were dmg is coming from. All I heard is that there are shatter builds, which likely have dmg spikes. All i know is, that the clones annoy me as hell ^^ Especially with more targets than this one mesmer.

Mesmer is really good against people who don't understand it. The best thing you can do is try it out a bit and understand its mechanic :)

[Malafaia.8903]

@Loboling.5293 said:With ele, there is really only two important things for fighting mesmer. Watch for shatters and avoid them. (yes they are instant, but they take 3 clones to be next to you for maximum damage, you can see them coming an avoid them mostly - at least triple shatters)

Second advice is to learn to identify mesmer's quickly, you want to spread as much aoe as possible. You shouldn't spend much time focusing down clones, but rather dealing aoe damage where you believe the real mesmer to be. Generally, you form a rhythm (they the mesmer can break with some skill) where you are following the mesmer, breaking his clones as they form, and evading any spike clone burst combos; eventually you wear the mesmer down.

I'm not the most experienced one, but i can tell from my experience that it's easier to fight mesmers as an Ele.When i'm playing druid it's always a pain in the ass. I would really like to know the answer to this topic too.How to identify the "real" mesmer when you have to do single target damage?

[Mayama.1854]

How to identify the "real" mesmer when you have to do single target damage?

The one that does more than autoattacks

[Bezerker.2379]

@Mayama.1854 said:

How to identify the "real" mesmer when you have to do single target damage?

The one that does more than autoattacks

Clones do not move in special ways (always run towards a target) and just cast autoattacks.

You can tell the real mesmer by the way they move and cast.

[sokeenoppa.5384]

Long time ago before hot one of the top mesmer players got that same question. Wanna know what he answered?"Haha..well you can roll another mesmer" :D

[Cerberus.6948]

Thanks for answers. I think testing mesmer is best ;)

[Ithilwen.1529]

I am not a top Mesmer player.. but if you want to duel a couple of rounds, I think you'll quickly understand how to discern the real Mesmer. That's long been a flaw in the class design. It's patently obvious which is the real player if you know what to look for.

Give me a call in-game.

[RopeDrink.6048]

I can't speak for Ele, just as a new Warrior // first-time GW2'er. It's safe to say I've met a hell of a lot of Mesmer's in my short time in GW2 (they're pretty popular it seems).

I have a single AoE ability (with non-negligible damage) - it is enough to melt nearby clones yet it has a moderate CD, thus it can't be relied upon for sustained fights. When not pushing out AoE damage I'm using the extra evade CD (along with regular dodges) to mitigate as much as possible while identifying the player, typically spread over intervals and preferably without wasting defensive CD's.

As a warrior, the only Mesmer's that gave me trouble so far where those bursty-sword types that phase in and hit you with nasty stunlocks. Even then, you can typically out-duel them most of the time, provided you direct damage to the right target (obviously) and aren't caught in a 'which-is-which' loop too long or dunking CD's into clones. In short, don't be a button-masher. You're going to lose target whether you like it or not, and nothing feels worse than one-shotting a clone with that big CD you were itching to get off cooldown. If I see Mesmers running at me or standing still, I tend to ignore them and look for the one that clearly isn't AI controlled. That sounds super obvious, I know, but it is always worth remembering - I've seen players leave capture points to chase AI clones or dumping CD's into them often enough. Don't be that guy.

Having said that, it's not like I'm a high-ranked player or even a veteran of standard play, but I would assume the above is more common sense nonetheless, no matter which class you play, so be alert, be defensive, and be patient.

[P Fun Daddy.1208]

I would recommend dagger over sword for a better chance against mesmers; cleaving clones isn't really worth it since if they're smart they'll be pumping them out faster than you can kill them (and they'll shatter them for maximum damage). Dagger has the rather large advantage of decently big AoE on short cooldown in the fire #2 and water #3 skills, as well as (it seems to me) just overall better abilities (the fire/water dual is glorious).

You also have to do enough damage to kill the mesmer, since you most likely can't sustain him forever. Sword is bad at that.

I go dagger/focus, earth 5 is very strong against mesmers since they've been forced into a stealth class; once you have the point, it's not very risky to pop it since they won't be able to stand on point unstealthed for long enough to decap. Similarly, one of your primary concerns should be minimizing their stealth uptime by sweeping with fire 2 and water 2, and potentially Evasive Arcana dodges. They generally can only spawn clones next to themselves or you, which gives you a good hint as to where they are. If you see clones sprint at you, dodge when they would reach you.

[sephiroth.4217]

I use tab target, generally picks the Mesmer before the clones.

Otherwise I rely on AoE to kill clones or pin point the real mes. (clones take more damage)

[Master Ketsu.4569]

A C T I O N C A M E R ACTIONCAMERA

[Amadeus.5687]

Another old but good tip, ia to allways dodge into the clones when they run towards you for the shatter! Allways move around and try keep an eye on their movement.if they all suddenly rush towards you, dodge trough them.sometimes if you dodge backwards to early, the shatter animation wont trigger and the clones follow you and shatter you at your new position

[Samnang.1879]

save ur big attacks after they've used up their blocks and distorts and their sword 2 (blurred frenzy)interrupt if u can

[extremexhero.9178]

The real mesmer will usually have the boons and conditions on it, while they can spawn clones with some boons you can tell the real one apart, also auto attacks are a lot faster and they are the only ones that dodge roll and tend to actually move around. Remember that clones themselves don't do much damage but the phantasms which are the purple guys are the ones you watch out for. The attacks from them are the ones you want to dodge roll away and you can see them coming all the time if you pay attention. Now as for the shatter mechanic you will want to watch out for all the clones running towards you so just have good distance from them and when they all stop attacking and start running to you it is incoming. Shatter relies on dazing you as well so running stability during stances can make the fights simpler as mesmers have a trait to stun on daze from which the shatter spike is built around. Finally there are only 3 stealth skills 2 of which are 30s cool down and the 3rd is an elite no one ever takes and then trait is 40 second cool down.

[dragonkain.3984]

Edit: Nevermind, I suppose u asked on how to beat them with ele, eles can just go super tank+condi cleanse water+earth build and slowly kill any mesmer unless he uses 2 moas in a row on you.

[Malafaia.8903]

@Ithilwen.1529 said:I am not a top Mesmer player.. but if you want to duel a couple of rounds, I think you'll quickly understand how to discern the real Mesmer. That's long been a flaw in the class design. It's patently obvious which is the real player if you know what to look for.

Give me a call in-game.

This works really well, i played a bit with a chronomancer Staff/ Sword&Shield and you start to know some key abilities, like staff 2 (the real mesmer is the one that appears behind). Problem is when there's a crowd of clones, things start happening and if you lost track when they use their skills it's hard to know where to look at to get these "signals".And, thrust me, a good mesmer will just auto-attack between his cooldowns just to lure you. It's a fucking mind game (like the ones you play with stealth thief).

@Amadeus.5687 said:Another old but good tip, ia to allways dodge into the clones when they run towards you for the shatter! Allways move around and try keep an eye on their movement.if they all suddenly rush towards you, dodge trough them.sometimes if you dodge backwards to early, the shatter animation wont trigger and the clones follow you and shatter you at your new position

That's a really nice tip to avoid their burst damage. If things are running towards you, the burst is coming, lol. And dodging INTO the clones is the safest way to avoid it. I've burned a lot of Lightning Reflexes for nothing, lol.

[czerwoni.9563]

@Mayama.1854 said:

How to identify the "real" mesmer when you have to do single target damage?

The one that does more than autoattacks

or moves more

[Amadeus.5687]

@Malafaia.8903 said:

@Ithilwen.1529 said:I am

not

a top Mesmer player.. but if you want to duel a couple of rounds, I think you'll quickly understand how to discern the real Mesmer. That's long been a flaw in the class design. It's patently obvious which is the real player if you know what to look for.

Give me a call in-game.

This works really well, i played a bit with a chronomancer Staff/ Sword&Shield and you start to know some key abilities, like staff 2 (the real mesmer is the one that appears behind). Problem is when there's a crowd of clones, things start happening and if you lost track when they use their skills it's hard to know where to look at to get these "signals".And, thrust me, a good mesmer will just auto-attack between his cooldowns just to lure you. It's a kitten mind game (like the ones you play with stealth thief).

@Amadeus.5687 said:Another old but good tip, ia to allways dodge into the clones when they run towards you for the shatter! Allways move around and try keep an eye on their movement.if they all suddenly rush towards you, dodge trough them.sometimes if you dodge backwards to early, the shatter animation wont trigger and the clones follow you and shatter you at your new position

That's a really nice tip to avoid their burst damage. If things are running towards you, the burst is coming, lol. And dodging INTO the clones is the safest way to avoid it. I've burned a lot of Lightning Reflexes for nothing, lol.

it is a very old and simple trick, but quite nice yes ☺But I honestly think thats why many new people have a tough time with mesmer. The gsme mostly teach you dodge backwards, duo to all the AoE and stuff. But vs a mesmer thats often counter produktive, which sorta makes it the odd one out.Chronomancer and the hatste on shatter trait made it less important, cause the clones would get close fast. But with more mirages on the scene i more often, find the need to dodge forward instead of backwards ☺

[otto.5684]

@Cerberus.6948 said:Pretty general question, I know. I am not playing gw2 for that long but have fun with it. So maybe im missing the obvious. I am running sword weaver water/arcane/weaver. Do you cleave their clones? Retargeting is hard. So have you to go through this chore and find him again and again. With the occasional stealth he is just a pain in the kitten and i dont know how to get damage on him. I tried the cleave method but was just mediocre. What are your methods? Regards Rubicon

I do not play ele but I do play mesmer and against mesmer.

1. Identify the memser from the clones. Typically an easy task since clone AI stay still and do not do much except auto attack.
2. Cleave the clones/phantasms when possible.
3. If you are fighting condi mesmer, use condi clear after they shatter.
4. Power mesmer, try to avoid shatters. They typically cannot shatter as much as condi mesmer, but it is far more danegerous.

Power mesmer is easy to understand and not so difficult to counter. Condi mesmer on the other hand is far more difficult (especially chrono). If you do not have fairly strong condi cleanse it is a losing battle.

[Mayama.1854]

Power mesmer is easy to understand and not so difficult to counter. Condi mesmer on the other hand is far more difficult (especially chrono). If you do not have fairly strong condi cleanse it is a losing battle.

I think mirage makes power way more dangerous than condi because of the stuns of sword ambush and the insanly fast clone generation with dodge + jaunt.