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Supcutie’s

Comprehensive Mesmer

Shatter Guide! If you feel this guide deserves a donation and want to support me

Donate Here!

Version 2.20

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Table of Contents

Click any section name to jump to that topic.

Table of Contents

1 - Introduction

1.1 - About Me

1.2 - Contact me!

1.3 - My builds

1.4 - Video Resources

2 - About the Mesmer Shatter Build

2.1 - Build Summary

2.2 - Variations

2.3 - Overview

2.4 - Pros and Cons

2.5 - Sigils

2.6 - Amulets

2.7 - Runes

2.8 - Major Traits

Domination

Dueling

Illusions

2.9 - Minor traits

Domination

Dueling

Illusions

2.10 - Weapons and Weapon Skills

Greatsword

Sword/Focus

Staff

Weapon Alternatives

2.11 - Utility Skills

Heal

UT1

UT2

UT3

Elite

3 - Using the Mesmer Shatter Build

3.1 - Quick Tips

3.2 - Shatters

Mind Wrack

Cry of Frustration

Diversion

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Distortion

3.3 - Shatter Tips for Specific Professions

3.4 - Map Protips!

Forest of Niflhel

Legacy of the Foefire

Battle of Kyhlo

Spirit Watch

Temple of the Silent Storm

Courtyard

Skyhammer

3.5 - Water Combat!

3.6 - Pre-game Prep

3.7 - Combat Tips

3.8 - Downed Enemies

Stomping by Class

3.9 - Downed Allies

3.10 - Class-Specific Matchups

Warrior

Ranger

Mesmer

Thief (and Dealing with Stealth)

Necromancer

Elementalist

Engineer

Guardian

3.11 - Bindings and Settings

3.12 - Weapon Rotations

Sword / Focus

Greatsword

Both Weapon Sets

Staff

Flowcharts

3.13 - Being One With Your Clones

3.14 - Game Theory (Macro vs. Micro and Mind Share)

3.15 - Final Words

4 - Donate!

5 - Addendum

6 - Changelog (Gross/Poorly Formatted)

7 - Services

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Introduction

Scientia Potentia est

Knowledge is Power

There’s a thought: Divulge your secrets and with them you give away your advantage. Welp, I

sure threw that out the window with this guide!

This guide has all of my knowledge about competitive and noncompetitive

Greatsword/Sword/Focus/Staff Shatter Mesmer in Guild Wars 2, as well as some additional

insights on game theory and how to be a good person. I want to help make the community as

good as it can be and I believe that competition is good!

This guide will offer some beginner help but will mainly focus on intermediate to advanced tips,

tricks, and strategies. You will find that there are many general tips and tricks as well. These are

still part of your Mesmer repertoire and I think it’s worth mentioning them! Thus, if you play a

different spec or profession, you may still learn something!

For skills, traits, and other basic info, visit http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mesmer!

Also, I would like to forward everyone to Lyssa's Grimoire- The Mesmer Handbook.

If you are a beginner or my guide is a little confusing for you (or not!) it is a fantastic “guide of

guides” that has information on additional builds, vocabulary, damage numbers, and plenty of

information for Mesmer in PvE, as well as links to Mesmer WvW information. It lacks sPvP and

tPvP insights and that’s where my guide comes in. I purposely didn’t put into my guide

information that you can find on the wiki and in Lyssa’s Grimoire so that this guide can be

focused on advanced tips, tricks, and strategies etc.

If you like what you read/see in my guide, consider donating! Link is at the top and bottom! I will

be continuing to update the guide, keeping it new with the meta, builds, maps, etc.

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1.1 - About Me

I've always been a fan of fast paced highly technical games. This includes Super Smash

Brothers Melee, which I played competitively and I eventually went to MLG in Seattle for it. I

also played a game called Earth's Special Forces which was a Dragonball Z mod of half-life and

was among the top players in the community. I played WoW competitively as well and my team

climbed into the 2500s before I quit. Currently I am Platinum in League of Legends and aiming

for Diamond by the end of the season!

I also played Forza 4 pretty competitively and was in the top 1% of drifting, my racing clan being

on the top 20 in the world. (Not super fast paced but decently technical)

In Guild Wars 2 I have held the #1 spot on the NA leaderboard in Team Queue and Solo

Queue, and my team while active held 1-5 on the leaderboard for a long time. My team was

sponsored by Absolute Legends for a while but then we took a hiatus.

Tournament placements:

1st MMORPG Invitational

1st Guild Wars 2 Community “Pro” Invitational

1st All Season of Mist League (Until things fell apart at the end )

1st Community Profession tournament 2 – Guiding 5 Mesmer players to victory

2nd Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars Tournament (Anet flew me to Cologne Germany for

Gamescom! Thanks for your votes everyone!!!)

2nd WTS China Qualifiers

2nd Tournament of Legends

2nd Guild Wars 2 NA PAX Regionals

3rd Master of the Mists

3rd ESL 3 times.

1st Mistpedia 2 times

1st place in 15+ 2v2 tournaments

2nd place in 10+ 2v2 tournaments

In gaming and life I like to go by the philosophy that you should aim for value, and success will

come. Also it's important to always be kind and to not look down on people.

“Everyone you ever meet knows something you don’t.” - Bill Nye.

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1.2 - Contact me!

Supcutie.2538

https://twitter.com/HansOnsum

http://www.twitch.tv/hansawesome

www.youtube.com/user/SupcutieTheRed

1.3 - My builds

Up to date versions will always be found at http://www.twitch.tv/hansawesome

1.4 - Video Resources

My Twitch

My Youtube

Blink Spot Locations

My Montage (Montage)

Shatter vs. Shatter Guide

Phase Retreat Locations (Sensotix Phase locations)

Reference Video with some rotations (linked to later in the guide)

and my Twitter for updates.

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2 - About the Mesmer Shatter Build

2.1 - Build Summary

Build Editor Link

Shatter spec, Greatsword/Sword-Focus and I am now adding info about Staff

4 II VII

4 I X

0

0

6 III VII XI

Sword/Focus I do Energy/Generosity

Staff I do Energy/Generosity

GS with Staff I do Air/Fire

GS with Sword I do Air/Energy

Traveler, Hoelbrak, Strength, or Pack runes in team play (depends on how many peels you

have, how many conditions enemy team has, and if you have a thief to give you fury during your

burst together – I might take Pack if I had no thief.)

Against heavy condition teams, you could run Lyssa still, but generally I just run Traveler or

Hoelbrak with Generosity and then rely on cleanses from my team. I will address this later but

recently you can also run the cleanse mantra instead of portal.

Berserker's Amulet

Ether Feast, Portal, Blink, Decoy, Moa

Can also do Mantra of Resolve instead of portal. I wouldn’t swap out decoy because you need

double stunbreaks a lot of the time.

2.2 - Variations

S/T Variation of Current meta build. (You can also use Illusionary Invigoration instead of

Illusionary Elasticity)

Interrupt Solo Queue Spec

Low Mobility High Burst Torch Spec

The “Honorable” Mesmer mirror spec – Can use Halting Strike or Mental Torment

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2.3 - Overview

“Greatsword Portal Greatsword Portal MVP” – Doyourbestbear 2014

The role of this build is a roamer/dps. You can push any point with this build, but it’s best used

in team play including smaller skirmishes, and less in 1v1s. I will have a rough tier list of Shatter

matchups later on.

Positioning is extremely important with this build. You do a lot of damage and take a lot of

damage. You will rely on teammates, stealth, and Blink spot locations to get out of harm’s way.

The thing to remember is that if you have abilities like Portal, in addition to being squishy and a

good punching bag for thieves, you will get targeted a lot. Positioning + Greatsword allows you

to keep up good pressure while utilizing your team utility and being safe. I take Blink to teleport

to areas where only other classes that can Blink can follow me. This increases my safety

dramatically. Far Reaching Manipulations increases this safety, more on that later. In addition,

Phase Retreat on Staff allows for very good kiting. Basically you’ll want to learn the Phase

Retreat spots on the different maps and then play around them, so you always have somewhere

to kite to.

These Mesmer builds have a number of interrupts:

Diversion (Which could hit up to 4 times (4 with Illusionary Persona, 3 without), and CD

resets at 50% health on a 60 second cooldown)

Temporal Curtain

Illusionary Wave

Chaos Storm

Mantra of Distraction if you are running the solo queue spec.

All of these interrupts mean that when someone goes down on either team, you have an

important role in mitigating enemy resurrects through body cleave damage and interrupts on

enemy players who are resurrecting. You can also stomp if you have Distortion up, but usually

Mesmer isn’t the highest priority stomper.

Regarding enemy downed body cleave and friendly downed body peels, you’ll want to lay down

a Chaos Storm if you’re using Staff, or consider pulling if you are using Focus. If you know the

enemy who is resurrecting has stability, just keep up the cleave damage or try to shatter it off.

More on this later as well.

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2.4 - Pros and Cons

Pros:

High burst damage.

Team Utility (Portal, Ethereal Field/Chaos Storm, Mass Invis for quick burst combos or

target swaps and for proccing Lyssa and helping to deaggro.

On demand interrupts.

You can peel for team mates with damage and cc

High sustained, ranged, power damage.

Can neutralize guardians quite quickly with Sword/Focus. If you land your Push and Pull

properly, you can neutralize them within 20 seconds. If they get good stunbreaks though,

you could be looking at minimum of around 50-60 seconds for the neut. (You might just

kill them before that)

Blink offers extreme mobility.

Heavy Boon removal on enemies.

Cons:

Thieves trash you pretty hard.

Vulnerable to condition damage without cleanses from allies/Lyssa/Mantra of Resolve if

you are taking it.

If you are forced to 1v1 defending a node, it will almost always get neutralized in the

process.

Shatter build can be difficult for new players.

Map mobility is only slightly above average when Portal is down. You have Blink, Phase

Retreat with Staff, and Temporal Curtain with Focus. I try not to use Blink and temporal

curtain to go from point to point unless I know there will be no fight where I am going -

the exception to this is if I’m going away from a point to neutralize an enemy node real

quick, so by the time I get back the CDs will be almost ready

Squishy, you have to have good positioning based on calls from team mates – Numbers,

Respawns, where the enemy Thief is.

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2.5 - Sigils

Sword: Sigil of Superior Energy (50% endurance on weapon swap)

Focus: Superior Sigil of Generosity (60% chance to transfer a condition to your foe when you

critically hit)

Staff: Same as Sword/Focus. Energy/Generosity

Greatsword:

1. Superior Sigil of Air (50% chance to cause a lightning strike on hit)

2. If you are taking S/X, take Energy, if you are taking Staff, take Fire here.

I take Sigils of Superior Energy to help fuel clone spawning. Having access to more dodges is

helpful anyway in order to avoid damage. You should absolutely be taking energy on one of the

slots in both weapon sets. Clone on dodge is a cornerstone of this spec and many other

Mesmer specs as well.

I take Sigil of Air because it does excellent damage for having only a 3 second cooldown. It

helps with ranged burst on Greatsword. You could take Air on your other weapon set if the

enemy didn’t have a lot of conditions, but I find that Generosity is extremely useful.

I take Sigil of Generosity because often times you’ll have one condition left on you keeping you

in combat or that you need to cleanse. This can transfer the poison from Thief Steal, or the

torment from Warrior Sword. It’s extremely useful if you use it properly. It almost always procs

immediately when I shatter after swapping to Staff or S/F

I take Sigil of Fire because since you’re sitting at farther range most of the time anyway, you are

in less danger, and it’s good to do more damage!

You could take Doom instead of Generosity, but often times I find Generosity to be better. If

your team has enough poison you don’t need it. Also Generosity transfers Torment with high

priority, and you can transfer Fear and Immobilized while CCd or anything with Shatters.

(Remember you have to be in staff when you shatter to proc Generosity.

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2.6 - Amulets

Berserker's Amulet!

You want more damage, this is a burst build, berserker's is perfect.

If you are going up against an enemy composition that is absolutely tunneling onto you, and you

don’t want to switch classes, consider Soldier’s amulet. I run Soldier’s in many 2v2 tournaments

that have a Theif on the other team.

I did the math on Assassin’s Amulet vs. Berserker – Here are the results with Hoelbrak Runes

(very similar to Strength):

Sin does 9.4% more damage on average with 0 might.

Sin does 11.2% more damage on average with 14 might.

Sin does 10.67% more damage than Zerker at 14 might when both have Fury. (Zerker

amulet scales better with Fury)

You are losing 16.67% health with Sin amulet

The bottom line is: You gain 14% more crit on openers leading to more consistent crits, and

higher damage with might, resulting in about 10% +/- 3.5ish percent more damage for 3k health.

So some quick math about using Sin – You’re basically doing around 1100 more damage per

big shatter for example. This damage could make the difference, but I would argue that in most

cases, the health is better. If you have 3 or more dps on your team, you should definitely take

Zerker amulet. If you have 2 or less, I would say you can consider Sin amulet.

2.7 - Runes

Travele/Hoelbrak/Lyssa/Strength

Or maybe Pack if your team needs it or you don’t have a thief and want Fury for your burst. It is

a good source of Fury which Mesmer doesn’t have reliably (you can get 2 seconds RNG proc

from staff bounce) now that Lyssa is nerfed. Most likely though you should just take Traveler or

Hoelbrak and then burst with a Thief or Ele who will give you Fury.

Traveler is helpful for kiting. It will help you dodge grenades from Engineers which is popular

right now. Also, since you will be shattering off swiftness a lot from your enemy, this will help

you kite a lot better. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this runeset.

You can:

1. Jump from the house to rafters on the sides of Kyhlo in combat without swiftness with no

dodge jump. This helps the reliable of that jump without using blink from needing to land

the dodge jump to 100% chance!

2. If you lay down a portal and are waiting for it to activate, if you just walk forward, by the

time the portal activates, you will be perfect distance away with traveler runes to

perfectly Phase Retreat back into the Portal. – Helseth

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Hoelbrak is good for high damage like Strength, but you have condition duration reduction on

you (-20%). For many classes that immobilize you, Hoelbrak means that they won’t be able to

do many combos that they could do before. You are losing around 3-4 sustained might on

average compared to Strength, however during a big burst you can still reach the same max

amount of might. You can still get 25 might briefly with Hoelbrak to burst with (More realistically

you’ll be at like 14 or so though). If you are taking condis, these runes are being efficient (it’s

kind of lame to rely on taking damage for efficiency, but taking condis can be inevitable)

Strength is good for straight damage. I play with Strength in a team setting where I can rely on

my Guard/Ele to cleanse me. You can get away with strength against condition heavy teams but

you need the coordination and proper postioning. Strength is good because if you get the might

from the GS bounces you can actually stack up to 25 might by yourself briefly for burst. Other

than that, you will most likely have 15-20 might all the time in team play anyway from the

Warrior/Ele. This just helps it stay on for longer.

Lyssa is good if you really need the condition cleanse. I run Lyssa in solo queue and against

some condition heavy teams in team queue. There is a cool bug you can do as well Lyssa. It

works best on Sword but you can do it with staff too.

The bug:

1. Requires Lyssa runes.

2. Send out your Illusionary Leap

3. Cast Mass Invisibility

4. Swap with your leap while your Mass Invisibility is casting.

5. The swap will interrupt the cast and proc the Lyssa cleanse on demand.

This was really good before Lyssa was nerfed, since you had access to stability and fury

on demand in addition to a full cleanse.

There are still advantages though!! The Lyssa cleanse has a 45 second internal

cooldown, by proccing the Lyssa without using your Mass Invisibility cooldown, you can can

do the cleanse bug again 45 seconds later instead of 90 seconds; the cooldown of Mass

Invisibility.

In addition, if you think you will be interrupted, you can proc the cleanse early and at

least get the condition cleanse out of it and not have your Mass Invisibility interrupted with

no Lyssa proc.

Now, If you are running Staff you can actually do the same proc by interrupting someone and

dealing damage with the Halting Strike trait while you are casting Mass Invisibility. You don’t

have to cancel the cast in this version, but it’s harder and less consistent. (You can proc with the

interrupt method using S/F too)

Fun Fact: You can also do the Lyssa proc early by casting Mass Invisibility and interrupting

yourself by going off of a jump pad like on Skyhammer.

Pack: Good for Fury and has power like Hoelbrak and Strength! If you see the fury you can try

to capitalize on it and burst.

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2.8 - Major Traits

Build

Domination

First Trait:

Halting Strike (II): Deal damage when interrupting a foe.

This can hit squishies for over 4k, and it does good damage on others as well. It also allows you

to have higher burst potential than Mental Torment. If you Shatter and also land an interrupt you

can do some serious damage!

OR

Mental Torment (I): 20% more Mind Wrack damage

This is the Shatter build; Mind Wrack is your bread and butter! This will help you do more

damage.

Do I pick Halting Strike or Mental Torment?

The math turns out to be something like you need 2.5 interrupts per 11 seconds for

Halting Strike to break even with Mental Torment based on average-ish Shatter damage. This is

actually very hard to do, so it seems like Mental Torment would be better?

Mental Torment is more consistent damage and has more downed body cleave.

Halting Strike however means you’re not “putting all your eggs in one basket” so to

speak, and you have other sources of damage. I strongly prefer Halting Strike. If you miss your

Mind Wrack or the clones end up not dealing the damage you want, Halting Strike gives you

another opportunity.

Halting Strike also makes it so your Chaos Storm is a force to be reckoned with, and

actually zones people a lot more effectively.

Second Trait:

Shattered Concentration (VII): Remove boons on Shatter.

You always take this as well! This is one of the best major traits in this spec. Removing up to 4

(3 without Illusionary Persona) boons on every enemy you Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration in a

team fight is amazingly strong (You get one boon stripped per daze Shatter clone since it only

dazes one person). Allows you to remove stability!!! This means you need to be watching

enemy boons before you Pull, Push, or lay down a Chaos Storm for interrupts, since you

actually have the ability to remove stability and then follow up with CC. There have been plenty

times where my ally is getting stability stomped and I will come over and Mind Wrack ->

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diversion/Interrupt with Storm, Pull, or Push to stop the stomp. Easy as that!

Dueling

Far-Reaching Manipulation (I): Your Blink and illusion of life become 1200 range instead

of 900.

This is way better than people think. In Guild Wars 2 there are some Blink locations you can

only use with a 1200 range Blink at max range. This means you can gain more ground

defensively, or burst someone from far offensively with a quick Blink -> Shatter. You can finish

casting Illusion of Life out of Line of Sight (LoS) and Range, so you can Illusion of Life and then

Blink away to safety. With Blink only a couple classes can chase you, but if you take this trait,

most likely only a thief will chase you and they may not be prepared for the 1200 range spot.

Many people argue Blade Training makes sense based on straight math, however it's not that

simple. The math changes based on how the play style changes. I like to play around my Blinks

a lot which makes Far-Reaching manipulations more effective in terms of opportunity cost.

(Especially utilizing 1200 range Blink spots)

Alternatives:

Blade Training (IV): More crit and lower CD leap/blurred is really good. I like to take this

against S/D and Pistol Whip Thieves, as Illusionary Leap swap can help counter

Infiltrator's Strike. You wouldn’t take this if you have Staff obviously.

Desperate Decoy (V): Deaggroing through stealth is really powerful, that said, this trait

falls behind because you don't stealth when you take a blow that reduces you below

25% health. The way it works is you have to already be below 25% health, and then get

hit again. This means that sometimes you will die and it will never proc at all.

Phantasmal Fury (II): This makes your phantasms do more damage. It can be good but

is rarely ever a better choice than Far Reaching or even Blade Training.

Deceptive Evasion (X): Create a clone when you dodge.

You always take this too! Spawning clones and Shattering them is what this build is all about.

There aren't too many tricks with this but I'll list a few things. First, if you're fighting a class that

stealths, they will not be revealed unless they do damage. Which means that if you happen to

dodge right before a Thief backstabs you, they will hit your clone that just spawned and be

revealed instead of remaining stealthed (remember for this trait to work you have to be in

combat). You can also use clones as line of sight for projectile CC when you are stomping

people! Some examples of this would be to dodge inside an Engineer’s Smoke Bomb if they are

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trying to stealth (you can also just spawn a phantasm on them) or dodging inside a Thief’s Black

Powder. If the Thief tries to Heartseeker back through they will be revealed. In addition, being

able to spawn a clone means you are in combat with enemies nearby – so if a Thief is stealthed

and you’re not sure how close he is, try dodging for a clone if you have the endurance to spare,

and if it doesn’t spawn, he probably rotated out.

Illusions

Compounding Power (III): 3% more damage for each active illusion.

More damage for your shatters, Halting Strike, and GS ranged attacks. I used to take Precise

Wrack here, but since I am running Staff now I mostly stay at range and the extra damage

through compounding power is more optimized.

Things to know about Compounding Power:

Illusionary Persona does not give you 3% more damage.

For each illusion that is shattered, the next shattered illusion will not benefit from

the 3% damage of the one that died right before. An example would be if your

illusions are staggered and running in to shatter, the first one will have 9% more

damage on it, second 6%, third 3%.

Alternatives:

Precise Wrack (I): This is slightly better if you are running Sword/X like Torch or even

Focus. You’ll be in close range more often and can land big Mind Wracks, and this will

help you crit 10% more!

Masterful reflection (IV): I used to take this in the days of 100 nades, since I could

reverse the one-shotting back to the engi. Not as popular anymore since I usually remain

at a safe distance anyway. You could maybe consider taking this if you were needing to

fight warriors with Longbow, or Engineers.

Illusionary Elasticity (VII): Extra bounce on bounce abilities – Staff, staff clones, and

Mirror Blade.

With the recent bug fix to this trait (allowing staff clones to have the extra bounce), this trait is

excellent! I have to admit, I am sad about not using Invigoration, as it has more

options/gameplay to it, but this is very good now. Basically you’re doing around 12000 more

damage with just mirror blade by taking this trait relative to Invigoration. In addition, if you are

point blank with staff clones, you can stack to 25 bleeds along with burning and like 15+ sec of

fury on you. Realistically you’ll be like 10 bleeds or something, but if you kite around your clones

or you need to be in Staff for defensive purposes, you have a decent dps option with this trait.

Since you’re the damage role and you’re pew pewing from far range or bursting out of stealth –

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the extra bounce is awesome.

Alternative:

Illusionary Invigoration (VIII) (60 second internal CD): Recharge shatter skills below 50% health.

Resetting Shatters when you take damage below 50% health is extremely helpful in 1v1s and

other numbers matchups as well. I've had many many times when I just used Mind Wrack and it

reset, so I get a double Mind Wrack. That damage can be very surprising. Also this means that

you are able to use Distortion earlier in the fight or for a stomp to win a team fight, and then

have another one for defensive uses. You get another interrupt too ^_^. The thing to keep in

mind with this trait is that your health must be below 50% first, then any non-condition damage

you take afterwards will proc the reset. This unfortunately can sometimes mean you will not get

the reset until far below 50%, but usually it’s pretty close.

Illusionary Persona (XI): Shatter skills have the effect on you as if you were a clone.

Example (1:18)

This means that you can Distortion with no clones up while stunned etc. So if a Thief opens on

you, you can mitigate some damage. This also allows you to interrupt with no clones out. If you

are resurrecting someone and all of your clones got killed and you need an interrupt but can't

take a break to dodge roll to spawn a clone, you can just Mind Wrack/diversion to strip a stability

for example and interrupt. More Mind wrack damage and one more second on Distortion!

Protip/Fun fact: When you use Distortion and have Shattered Concentration, boons will actually

be stripped from nearby enemies, even though the enemies don’t take damage. This means

with Illusionary Persona, you can strip a boon AoE around you by using Distortion.

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2.9 - Minor traits

Domination

Illusion of Vulnerability: Apply 3 vuln when you interrupt a foe.

This combined with the 15 point minor allows you to quickly/instantly stack 25 vulnerability on

someone with a 3 clone Diversion Shatter if you interrupt them. Then follow up with a quad Mind

Wrack for massive damage!

Dazzling: Dazing foe applies vulnerability

As before, allows for massive vulnerability stacking.

Dueling

Critical Infusion: Your source of Vigor!

This is super important for the Shatter spec because it helps fuel your dodge roll clones!

Sharper Images: Illusions apply bleeds on crit.

This is just meh since we’re not a condi spec, but bleeds can't hurt. You can actually stack the

bleeds up pretty high if you have 3 clones auto attacking with you, usually 8-11. Also the bleed

has a chance of covering for poison or another good condition from you or your team, which can

help you win!

Illusions

Illusionists Celerity: “Illusion” spawning skills recharge 20% faster.

This means 4 seconds off of Berserker cooldown, 5 seconds off of Warden cooldown, and 3.6

seconds off of Phantasmal Warlock. This also means you get 8 seconds off of the cooldown on

Decoy, since it summons a clone. Illusions = phantasms and clones.

Illusionary Retribution: All Shatter skills inflict confusion.

This combined with Cry of Frustration and a good Mind Wrack can land you 8+ stacks of

confusion consistently. This is really good against s/d Eles when they come out of water. Stack

that confusion and they will be hurting!

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If you take Master of Misdirection this can be even more useful. (I probably wouldn’t take it

though)

Shattered Strength: Grants 1 stack of might per illusion that is Shattered.

Without Strengh runes by yourself you can get around a constant 6ish stacks combined with the

Greatsword bouncing might stack, and it’s not uncommon to get around 10-12+ during burst

combos.

With Strength runes and getting the GS bounce, you can self stack to 25 briefly, and with team

mates keep around 15-20 if not 25 constantly in team fights.

History lesson: This was buffed and then nerfed. You used to be able to keep a constant 25

stacks up for your burst :P.

2.10 - Weapons and Weapon Skills

Greatsword and Staff! And some info about Sword/Focus/Torch

Sword offers a low cd invulnerability, immobilize, stun break, boon strip, and position change.

Focus offers interrupt, light field, positional displacement, projectile absorb, and a whirl finisher.

Focus also offers a phantasm that spawns at 1200 range on the target, so you can spawn it and

immediately daze if you need it. You could also spawn the Warden in a windowsill on Kyhlo for

example where someone is using projectiles onto the point to absorb the projectiles.

Greatsword offers an interrupt, boon strip, cripple, might, and tons of damage!

Torch is good for gaining Stealth advantage in certain matchups. Also the phantasm from Torch

cleanses a condition when it bounces to allies, even though it doesn’t say it cleanses ^_^ (Yes

untraited). Plus with the extra bounce trait, you can get another cleanse!

Staff:

Phase Retreat is extremely useful as always. Most AOE in the game is <600 radius, so Phasing

out of harm’s way, even while CCd is really powerful. Also, a lot of damage in this game is setup

with CC, so you can just Phase out of that as well. All in all, this skill equates to a lot of damage

avoidance and mobility. Learn the Phase Retreat locations and understanding how to kite with it

makes this weapon extremely powerful. Phase Retreating properly is a huge part of what

separates good from great players.

And of course Chaos Storm! Really good for putting on downed bodies, and potentially peeling

for team mates.

You will find a lot of this info repeated elsewhere in the guide, but I just wanted this section to

have all of the weapon skill knowledge together in at least one place.

Let’s go through the weapon skills!

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Greatsword

1. Spatial Surge

Does more damage the farther away you are.

Hits everything that is between you and the target.

“Ticks” multiple times, so confusion really hurts when you auto attack.

1500 range on flat ground, even though tooltip says 1200. 1200 range when you’re on

different levels with the target.

If you are stealthed and blinded, just auto attack real quick to get one tick and then stow

weapon, you won’t unstealth! Your auto attack beam will not be seen by the enemy

either.

If you stow weapon and then press your auto attack key again immediately after you

finish the 3 ticks of damage on the auto, you can cut the time between autos down

immensely. So it would look like 1...tickticktick-stow1...tickticktick-stow1 etc. 2:08 - 2:32,

clip starts with normal auto speed.

2. Mirror Blade

Bounces three times, applying vulnerability to enemies and giving might to allies. This

can sometimes be lame because it will bounce to your clones, where might is basically

useless.

The Mirror Blade will spawn a regular clone on its first hit. This will usually be Shattered

for damage or a daze.

To maximize damage and ensure you get the might, you will want to use this in

close/melee range. Mixed combo 4 (listed below as my favorite) does this exactly.

Mirror Blade is also unblockable. If a warrior or guardian for example are blocking and

you want to begin a combo, just throw a Mirror Blade since it will go through anyway!

Mirror Blade through a light field – if it bounces to an ally it will cleanse a condi.

Alternatively if you throw through other fields like Ethereal you can apply confusion for

example.

3. Mind Stab

Strips a boon, does mediocre damage. Good for comboing with Mind Wrack. Basically

it’s only useful for adding on a bit of damage to whatever you’re doing and having a low

cast time.

You will want to have Stow Weapon bound so that you can cancel the aftercast

animation. The aftercast was shortened in a previous patch, but you can still shave off a

little bit. 2:33 - 2:42

This ability just got buffed in damage and radius!

A good tactic vs. thieves now is literally just Mind Stab + Mind Wrack and you can take a

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lot of health. It is almost as large as their Shadow Refuge, so if they refuge you can do

the MW + MS combo and put them on the defense in stealth.

4. Phantasmal Berserker

The phantasm of Greatsword! Applies cripple, does good damage, cleaves, and can be

Shattered.

Word of Warning: Currently if you swap to Greatsword and use the Phantasmal

Berserker on a target immediately, the animation will go off, but the Phantasm will not

spawn, wasting the cooldown. -_- Anet Plz! Example

Many Mesmer Mirrors all come down to the Berserker Spawn RNG. Basically the

Berserker randomly spawns around the target, and sometimes if they are walking

forwards and it spawns behind them, it will never attack. So just watch for this on

enemies, and watch for when it spawns on you. If the enemy’s doesn’t touch you they

most likely won’t shatter yet because they want to shatter after the attack.

5. Illusionary Wave

Push Thieves or others out of Shadow Refuge.

Use as an interrupt in addition to a knockback. Like for heals or something.

You would be using this just for a little extra CC and an interrupt, as well as knocking

people off places like rafters at Clocktower or up behind Keep at Niflhel.

For example on clocktower, if someone is attacking onto mid from a side window ledge,

you can Illusionary Wave them from the point and knock them off the outside of the

ledge.

You can use this directly into an Illusionary Leap for some chase action!

If you stand still, this ability will auto turn to hit your enemy. That means you can precast

while running away, then stop briefly before it goes off, and it will do a super-fast 180

turn to hit your target. This is good for baiting and interrupting. It also means you can

precast the knockback, then blink in front of someone and stop, and it will auto turn and

hit them back into your team or wherever you want to knock them (like off a bridge or

something). You can actually keep running and not stop, but it requires you to use about

face key to turn, and sometimes it bugs out and doesn’t work.

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Sword/Focus

1. Mind Slash > Mind Gash, Mind spike

This is bugged! If you auto attack and connect/do damage with the first ability in the chain and

then immediately try to use a weapon ability, there will be some weird skill queue lag and the

ability won’t go off until around .5 - .75 seconds later. I know this is a bug because you can

connect with the first ability and not queue an ability instantly, but then use a weapon ability

within the .5 - .75 seconds and the ability will go off. I measured this frame by frame in Vegas. It

also happens with other classes who have auto attack chains – but not all.

Does mediocre damage, applies some vulnerability. Last attack does a bit more damage

and strips a boon.

You can use falling platforms on Skyhammer and buildings on Kyhlo for example to go

through your auto attack chains in order to store the third one briefly.

If you are stealthed and get blinded, just auto attack once to clear the blind!

2. Blurred Frenzy

Great offensive and defensive ability.

Can use to cover Portal appearance time so you are not CCd off of it spawning.

Can be used to negate burst quickly (although be careful as it does have a cast time, so

it can be interrupted!)

Turns with your target.

Low CD!

If enemy Necromancer has your Portal fully covered in Marks, use Blurred Frenzy while

going through to negate them.

3. Illusionary Leap

9.5 second cooldown stunbreak!

If you stow weapon just briefly after you cast, you can shave off a half second from the

cooldown.

Great gap closer within 600 range.

The clone will actually leap twice. This is helpful because the first time it will do a quick

leap to where the target is, but if the target switches directions or dodges, the second

leap is able to turn towards them and usually catch them. For most people who are

having trouble landing their immobilize, the key is to wait for the second leap.

The leap will follow someone who stealths while the clone is flying out. This means if a

Thief stealths for example, you can still immobilize them, and the second leap will tell

you which exact direction they are at that moment. Usually you can swap, immobilize

and burst still. Otherwise, at least the second leap will give you the exact line direction

they are at the moment the clone does the second leap.

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Leap Finisher! Awesome for Ethereal Fields and other!

If you Portal out of the water while using Vortex, you can Illusionary Leap through it for

Chaos Armor! 1:51 - 2:07

Immobilize is AoE.

Swapping with the Leap will teleport you 600 range back towards where the clone is

(you can no longer swap with the clone if it dies). Just keep this in mind so you don’t

move too far away from a ledge if you intend to bait someone down and then port back

up. If you teleport 600 range towards your clone, even if you don’t teleport to the clone, it

will AoE immobilize where you teleport to. So you can surprise people with this since it’s

an instant immob. (The only problem is that you can almost never do this now because

your clone will die)

Immobilize matches up nicely with two dazes, allowing you to force stunbreaks and do

some nice combos!

Leaping through your Temporal Curtain will give you Retaliation!

Inclined terrain with Illusionary Leap (from my tests)

Some terrain, if steep enough, bugs out the leap. If both parties on on the inclined terrain, the

leap will not move during the first leap, and only progress during the second leap, which

basically completely negates the mobility. Sometimes this ends up being okay since the incline

can be small enough that the second leap does the job.

If one party is on non-”inclined” terrain, then usually the leap will still work, both up and down.

If you are the one on non-”inclined” terrain, sometimes the leap will try to find a path that is

around the incline. This means instead of going up some stairs, it will go around the side and do

nothing, then try to walk back.

If one party is on the incline, I often notice than the leap will overshoot its target. This

overshooting happens much more often when related to inclines.

Example: 0:00 - 0:34

Word of warning: Currently there is a bug where if you swap to Sword/Focus and use

Illusionary Leap as soon as possible on a target, the animation will go off, but the clone will not

spawn and the ability will go on cooldown. -_- Anet Plz! Second part of clip (same clip as GS 4).

4. Temporal Curtain > Into the Void

Light field, can combine with Warden for Cleansing Bolts (AoE removes condis, but hard

to land)

Give Swiftness to allies and cripples enemies. Quick note, this swiftness will not override

other swiftness that you have, even if that swiftness is a shorter duration. So if you are

chaining Swiftness with Temporal Curtain, make sure to wait until yours runs out first!

The Light Field persists even after you use the Pull. It lasts for the duration of how long

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the Curtain would stay on the ground without using the Pull.

It scares people! Usually forces dodges.

The Pull is instant cast. (You still have to wait 1 second after laying the Curtain down

before you can Pull - and yes this 1 second can be affected by chilled).

Instant cast means you can cast your heal and use this to interrupt someone trying to

interrupt you. (This is referred to as ‘covering’ your cast)

You can cast it while using Warden in order to Pull someone into a Warden immobilize

combo.

It Pulls multiple targets (up to 5) so if you can group people up, you can AoE immobilize.

It Pulls targets towards the center and it is placed always perpendicular to the angle out

from your character that you attempt to place it at. This means if you want to place it to

Pull someone off of a rafter as they walk by, you’ll have to turn so that you are facing

directly toward or away from the rafter edge so it lays down parallel with the edge.

If you lay it down just to gain swiftness, consider Pulling when the duration would end

anyway, unless specifically you don’t want to Pull enemies. Sometimes you can prevent

a random stealth opener or you can Pull someone from somewhere that you didn’t look

to see. Might as well!

Can be used to give clones swiftness to help them land their Shatters – or to help your

Warden actually “get” to its target so it will begin attacking. (I say this because a lot of

times it will bug out and stand near the target and not attack)

5. Phantasmal Warden

Absorbs Projectiles (Hide inside of it when needed! Like against Thieves in shortbow,

forcing them to Shortbow 2, or Engineers using Pistol. It also fizzes grenades and

projectiles cast inside its radius. So if you place it on a downed warrior, it will absorb

their down state 2 ability.

Whirl Finisher; Cleansing Bolts with Temporal Curtain. If you think you might be needing

to absorb some projectiles, and/or cleanse some conditions, consider casting the

Warden first, either on your target or something closer, like a pet or closer enemy, then

just lay your Temporal Curtain down on the Warden for Cleansing Bolts.

Is good damage if the whole duration gets off.

Spawns at 1200 range so you could use it for a little extra Shatter damage or a ranged

daze!

Staff

1. Winds of Chaos

Burning/Bleeding/Vuln/Might/Fury. These condition and boons help. Basically the burn

will hit for like 400 and the auto will hit/crit for 300-600. Plus it bounces so you can get a

condition on the enemy and a boon on yourself/your ally. Your clones’ autos will not do

that much damage but they bounce and apply the burning. This skill ends up being

actually pretty good because the clones will proc the burning which means they’re hitting

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like 400+, potentially way more with might. Compare that to the Greatsword and Sword

clones hitting for like 10-20 damage.

The conditions are also basically cleanse fodder, to help cover conditions like

fear/immobilize/poison/weakness that you want to keep on your enemy.

2. Phase Retreat (Phase Retreat is now bugfixed)

One of the more powerful skills in the game. A 600 range blink with a 10 second

cooldown.

If you are within 1200 range of your enemy and targeting them when you use Phase

Retreat, a clone will spawn.

Allows you to traverse terrain and certain blink locations that can be reached with 600

range. Phase Retreat Locations It only has Kyhlo for now, but I will be adding the others

soon. Sensotix's Phase Locations

You can use this skill while CCd. It is considered a “pseudo stunbreak” meaning it

doesn’t actually stunbreak you, but you can use it to potentially get away while CCd.

With Traveler runes you can activate Portal, run forward, and by the time the Portal

activates you’ll be in perfect range to Phase Retreat back into the Portal.

3. Phantasmal Warlock

Does more damage the more unique conditions are on the enemy (10% per condition).

Can get large crits!

Travels “along the ground” meaning it can’t cross gaps or move vertically.

Consider casting this while Phase Retreating to maximize rotation efficiency.

4. Chaos Armor

Your source of protection!

You can cast this before entering combat and then swap Greatsword for a little extra

protection/damage mitigation before you swap back.

RNG blinds on enemy which can be clutch.

Random condition applied has a 1 second internal recharge per target.

5. Chaos Storm

Halting Strike means Chaos Storm is very effective at zoning the enemies.

Ethereal field for your team to blast for AoE Chaos Armor.

You can use Phase Retreat to leap through it and get more Chaos Armor

Gives you Aegis, super helpful.

You can use the Aegis to your advantage in the Thief matchup as they have to break it

or wait if they want to open from stealth, allowing you to waste more of their stealth time

and enabling you to condense your mitigations/avoidances to the last part of their stealth

(when they more likely will try to open)

Great downed body cleave.

Great for supporting resurrecting allies.

Can proc Daze, which means you can get some gnarly Halting Strike damage if people

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try to cast through it.

Weakness, Chilled, Poison, all good.

Pulses once immediately upon activation then again each second over 5 seconds. Can

pulse on allies and enemies at the same time.

Good for peeling enemies off of team mates.

Weapon Alternatives

Pistol:

It’s good, but Focus simply offers more utility. The way to look at the comparison is that while

pistol does more damage than focus, the damage difference is not statistically significant

enough to lose out on Pulling people and the combos/utility Focus offers. Your main damage is

from Shattering with Mind Wrack and GS, so go for the utility with your off-hand!

Torch:

Helps gain stealth advantage.

Can burst out of stealth hard.

You can leap immobilize > stealth which puts a lot of pressure on the enemy because they don’t

know if you’ll burst out of stealth, so it’s a win-win for you. They will either pop a cooldown or

you do damage.

The Phantasm cleanses a condition when it bounces to allies even though it doesn’t say it will

cleanse. (Yes untraited).

When you stealth it does an AoE blind which is helpful for stopping certain abilities.

2.11 - Utility Skills

Heal

Ether Feast!

If you can get a heal off with 3 Illusions up, it can turn a fight around. Just make sure that you

don't get this interrupted, it has a pretty obvious animation and it's crucial that you get it off.

Important health point levels:

In order to maximize your heal, but heal as soon as possible, I will lay out the health numbers of

when to heal based on Illusions and conditions.

Without Poison:

0 Illusions: 12812

1 Illusions: 12172

2 Illusions: 11532

3 Illusions: 10892

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With Poison:

0 Illusions: 14647

1 Illusions: 14218

2 Illusions: 14007

3 Illusions: 13796

This means, based on the healing per second of Ether Feast if your poison is longer than X

seconds, you should heal while poisoned instead of waiting for the poison to fall off. (Unless of

course you’ll die, or you know you won’t be in a position to cover your cast after the poison falls

off)

0 Illusions X = 6.60

1 Illusions X = 6.6

2 Illusions X =7.24

3 Illusions X = 7.76

Comparison of Ether Feast and Signet Heal

Not very many people are taking the Signet heal anymore, but I figured I would include this

section from a Shatter perspective, just to clear things up. Also I use Sword/X for the

comparison, particularly Focus and Pistol. The numbers would be slightly different with Staff, but

you can get the generally idea if you care.

I am averaging 2 clones for each heal in terms of calculations. It is more likely however that I will

heal with 3 clones for Ether Feast at the moment when I need it. It is also more likely that for the

sake of the signet heal, I should average around 1.0-1.5 clones into the calculation for the

Shatter spec (after reviewing a lot of footage), but I will round up to 2 just to show (which

basically means whatever calculations I do for how much healing the new signet does,

potentially reduce them by 25-50%).

Ether Feast:

5560 Active + 640 per illusion

1280 for 2 illusions + 5560

6840/20=342 health per sec on average.

Signet:

5560 active

220 hps passive +158 hps active then 0 health per second for 35 seconds after cast but

increased damage.

First I will focus on the healing comparison aspect, then I will calculate in the damage increase

of the signet.

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If casting healing signet back to back, you are falling behind Ether Feast 3680 health every 20

seconds. And can only use the active once every 35, in which you would be falling behind 6410

health total compared to Ether Feast.

If only using passive (2 clone average as Shatter spec), you are falling behind Ether Feast 2440

health every 20 seconds.

If you were using the passive with 3 clones, just for comparison, you would still be falling behind

Ether Feast with just 2 clones, 306.67 health per 20 seconds.

This means you would need the signet passive to work for 5.82 seconds before or after (have to

wait for cooldown to come up so the passive is working) the signet active (averaging 2 clones)

to break even with healing potential of one Ether Feast (which is on a 20 sec CD).

But then you will fall behind significantly since the passive will not work for 35 seconds.

For Comparison, if Ether Feast was on a 35 second cooldown, you would need to use 29.14

seconds of passive before or after active to break even.

So you are trading a berserker (3400 damage average on medium test dummy), and Warden

(whose damage will be minor, especially since the start attack animation isn’t very good right

now) and 1-2 Shatters, which are most likely not Mind Wrack with the way rotations work (and

would give maybe 150 hps average for 1 second using passive), for falling behind in the health

calculated before compared to Ether Feast.

Less Burst healing/healing per second as Shatter spec than Ether Feast, but getting higher

burst potential – another berserker (and maybe a duelist as a variant Shatter spec).

Is Berserker/Warden as my spec or Mage/Berserker, Duelist/Berserker, Mage/Duelist in other

specs etc worth that much health? Remember that you will not be able to utilize both phantasms

immediately after the reset because of weapon swap. And if you need the healing signet active,

then you are potentially not optimizing the CDR that the signet gives (using the active after

phantasm CD is already going).

It is also important to note that the only reason the signet is better than Ether Feast is if the

player is able to utilize the CDR. It is more synergetic of course to use the heal when you need

a refresh on CDs, and the heal at the same time. This won’t happen most of the time however.

If we do some average number theorycrafting here...

Berserker has a 16 second cooldown, so let’s say you are pretty good about resetting the CD

with the heal, you will only be able to reset the CD slightly over once every two CDs. In addition,

I think on average it would be fair to say that you would be resetting 75±10% of the cooldown if

you were good, while trying to optimize healing. This means you are missing out on 4 seconds

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of CD. The DPS of Berserker on medium test dummy as my spec averages out to be 212.5. So

you are missing out on 850 damage slightly over every other cooldown of berserker, using the

signet at 75% efficiency. Which means you are trading 3680 health every 20 sec using the

signet active, and 2440 (so 6120) health using the passive relative to Ether Feast, for potentially

5950 damage from berserker every 32ish seconds. (I said slightly over before, because the CD

on the signet is 35 sec, and two berserkers is 32 sec. So about every 11 berserkers you will fall

behind by one if you were resetting perfectly, meaning not taking into account only being 75%

efficient).

If you were more of a damage spec with a duelist, you could maybe say you do 10k-12k more

damage total every 30-35 ish seconds by using this heal.

It is also hard to place a value on the Warden being reset – more projectile absorb. This also

means potentially one or two more seconds on Distortion, or another interrupt/more

confusion/more vuln etc.

All said and done though, I don’t feel like currently I would take the healing signet as Shatter

spec, even if it does reset phantasms. Much more of a percentage of my damage comes from

Mind Wrack. (Always the top on breakdown from duels/matchups). Which means that increasing

the phantasm damage isn’t helping the spec as much as just surviving longer through sheer

healing in order to Mind Wrack more.

UT1

Portal: The plaaaaays!!!

Uses:

1. Defend a point by putting a port on close for example and going mid. Then porting

yourself or an ally back to defend.

2. Go offensive on an enemy point by putting the Portal in mid or somewhere mid-ish, then

pushing far and using it as a harassing tool.

3. Use to Portal allies out of harm’s way

4. Portal an ally from your base to a side node if you need clutch reinforcements, or your

team just wiped.

5. Small repositionings. (4:23) and (3:29)

6. Stomping! (Low priority) (2:35)

You should always be taking Portal in team play. In solo queue you can get away with not taking

it as its efficiency drops when allies aren’t going to use it as much.

OR

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Mantra of Resolve:

In this meta of celestial amulets, elementalists, engineers, and the occasional necro, this

cleanse can arguably allow you to net just as many points or more as portal. It means you have

an extremely beefy amount of sustain vs. condis, and it’s AoE!!!!! So if you are 2v2ing with your

thief or someone else, you can save them, allowing them to save you. For example if a necro

AoE fears you and some team mates, you can AoE cleanse them back! I actually take this in

solo queue and when I’m not team queueing now over portal. Even in team queues I like to take

this sometimes.

UT2

Blink

I take this because Greatsword's weakness is not having any sort of defense outside of Pushing

people back briefly.

Also you need mobility!

Far-Reaching Manipulation allows you to Blink to spots that don’t work with only 900 range. I

refer to these spots as 1200 range Blink spots, or just 1200 spots.

Blink also synergizes nicely with the need for being safe with so much team utility.

Protip for using Blink on very precise 1200 spots (also works on fussy 900 range spots without

Far-Reaching Manip): Normally you can just run straight at the Blink spot you want, for example

Blinking up to the ceiling on clocktower has a lot of wiggle room, many places you can be from

<900 range to 1200 range and in different locations. Blinking up to the terrain across the bridges

on either side of Legacy need to be much more precise however. The best method I have found

to do this, is instead of running straight at the Blink spot, I run at maybe a 45 degree angle away

from it, usually to the side I would go if I decided not to Blink. If you think of the range of your

Blink as a circle around you, this allows the circle’s edge to approach the Blink spot at a slower

rate, giving you more opportunity inside the range that will work. Basically the relationship

between the variables is such that if running straight at the Blink spot is 90 degrees or

perpendicular, then any angle towards the parallel will increase the window of opportunity. Pick

an angle that works for you!

UT3

Decoy

Stunbreak and stealth! Pretty low cooldown, and isn’t affected by revealed. You are actually

able to have revealed on you, and then decoy to stealth!

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Stealth is super good on Mesmer and allows awesome, confusing plays. For example opening a

Portal, and going through while decoy stealthed, then GS 2 > Mind Stab + Mind Wrack.

Make sure that when you do a Decoy into Mass Invisibility or the other way around, that you

hide from the enemy when the first stealth ends on your buff bar. This is because the

unstealthing dust ring will still spawn under you, even though you don’t become visible

If you have excess endurance from Vigor or you know you’ll swap while stealthed, consider

dodging as you decoy. This is because if you dodge while stealthed you will spawn a clone and

give away your position. If you spawn the clone as you decoy, you’ll have another clone out for

damage or more healing if you heal while stealthed. Plus if you have plenty of Vigor, you might

as well dodge to get out of potential harm’s way while stealthed. You definitely don’t want to get

CCd just after stealthing.

If you cast Mass Invisibility while stealthed, the stealth explosion will be hidden. Decoy can be

used for this in certain scenarios if you needed people to not know you used Mass Invis. Can

sometimes confuse enemies on how your team got stealthed. Many times people will still know

you used Mass Invisibility, but if you are by yourself with no clones out, the two options are you

either ran away to line of sight, or you used Mass Invisibility. This gives you more time for

cooldowns and opportunity to open up how you want.

This method is also the best for confusing enemies on which clone is the real you since you and

all clones will become unstealthed at the same time.

Alternative:

Illusion of Life

Resurrect allies!

I try to either wait until right before they get stomped, or right away so that we can capitalize on

getting a kill. If you see multiple allies about to go down, consider trying to wait and resurrect

both.

Be careful with resurrecting using Illusion of Life, as the other team will be looking out to

interrupt you!

Protip here mentioned in the quick tips section: You can cast Illusion of Life outside of range

and Line of Sight. So you could begin casting, and go through a Portal and the cast/resurrection

will still go off.

Elite

Mass Invisibility

I now use Mass Invisibility because it allows for team disengages/engages and mid combat

target burst swaps. The better your team is, the better Mass Invisibility is.

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Mass Invisibility:

Quick target swaps with team while stealthed, great for surprise.

Good peeling tool for team mates.

Another Deaggro tool.

Gives access to stability

Can use two of these per Moa (In terms of cooldown length)!

Stealth resurrect allies!

If you cast Mass Invisibility while stealthed, the stealth explosion will be hidden. Decoy

can be used for this in certain scenarios if you needed people to not know you used

Mass Invis. Can sometimes confuse enemies on how your team got stealthed.

Make sure not to do a damaging Shatter (Mind Wrack or Cry of Frustration) so that your

Illusions do damage after you stealth. The damage from those will reveal you. If you are

blowing a Distortion just to cast your Mass Invisibility in order to fully deaggro, you will

probably want the full stealth time.

Moa Morph

I no longer use Moa in my default build, but it does have its benefits.

This ability is extremely strong as long as your team is coordinated. It basically means a free

instant Guardian kill to cap a node, or turning a fight into a 4v3, etc.

Uses:

1. Moa at the beginning of the fight to get an edge.

2. Moa someone outside of the fight and try to gib early.

3. Moa guardian and gib ASAP.

4. Moa someone, probably a Guardian who is trying to resurrect an ally. Warning about this

one, they will continue resurrecting their ally if they started already, even when they get

turned into a Moa. You have to make sure to do it before they start resurrecting or knock

them off.

5. To interrupt someone.

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3 - Using the Mesmer Shatter Build

3.1 - Quick Tips

(Not in any specific order)

Many of these tips will be repeated in their related sections throughout the guide, but this is just

a quick reference area where you can look to learn a few tips and tricks quickly.

Also, this section has quickly become quite long, but I think it’s a great resource for out of place

and random tips that will help many peoples’ gameplay in general.

If you use a Shatter, those clones go into their own separate queue. If you spawn more

clones, even though the clone indicator may still show 3, you can spawn 3 more. Then

Shatter those, spawn 3 more etc. This means that as long as your clones are running to

their target to Shatter, you could have 6+ for example out at once.

As this Shatter spec, try not to spawn more clones when you already have 3 out, you are

losing dps.

Use weapon swap and stow weapon to cancel the lag frames on Spatial Surge/Mind

Stab.

Always try to think ahead with Portal use. Where will the battle shift? Will we need to

back cap/apply pressure to their node?

Dodge! You will have a lot of Vigor + Energy runes; many dodges can be used just to

spawn clones. (But don’t forget to save some for dodging actual skills!)

I try to not sit at full endurance, since I am then wasting Vigor regen. Unless you foresee

that you will need 3 dodges back to back.

Learn the Blink spot locations! I have a playlist on my YouTube: Blink Locations

I like to Pull as I am casting Moa so that way the person doesn't randomly dodge, and if

they do I can cancel my cast (another good reason to have stow weapon bound).

Try to spread out cooldowns and crowd control. For example don't use Distortion and

then knock someone back, you would be wasting the Distortion.

Many skills can be used offensively and defensively. The most effective way to use a

skill is to have it benefit you in both ways simultaneously. This isn't always possible but

something to think about!

Use Illusionary Leap as dodge bait. It's a win-win for you because if they don't use a cd

or dodge then you can Shatter them. If they do, just don't swap and you forced a cd or

dodge!

Alternatively you can do a really quick swap to immobilize them, and that almost always

forces a cooldown.

If you are blinded, use a Shatter skill like normal, the Shatter from your body will remove

the blind, and you can do it while casting. This prevents people from countering your

casts like Moa, Mage, Curtain, Warden. (Warden is the least worst to have stopped by

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blind.)

You can activate Portal while doing other things. This means if you are low and afraid to

be Crowd Controlled (CCd) while your Portal spawns, use Blurred Frenzy and cast

Portal while channeling the frenzy. (4:22-4:37 -Defensive Blurred into Portal)

You can precast Illusionary Wave, then turn and use it on someone, or Blink and use it

on someone. (1:21- Illusionary Wave Precast)

People always like to say "I play aggressive" or "I play defensive" Those are both bad.

The best way to play is the best way to play. There is always one best thing you can be

doing at all times. Sometimes this means being defensive, sometimes offensive. That

said, it's extremely difficult to make the best decision all the time, and almost impossible

if you consider slight differences in positioning, but that means there is always room for

improvement. Small positional changes, target switches, the way you move your camera

etc.

In most cases with Greatsword, you will want to be at max range - out of harm's way and

doing good damage + room to react and kite. If you are running Staff/GS the only time

you need to go in is to do a bit more damage and have more access to boon

strip/Interrupts.

That said, one of the combos I will mention is best used in melee range with GS, since

the enemy will be dazed and immobilized. You will be able to do a point black mirror

blade which is good because being close minimizes bounce distance.

If an enemy Necromancer has your Portal fully covered in Marks, use Blurred Frenzy,

Distortion, or Dodge as you go through the portal. Dodging is the best way if you have it

up.

If you need to Blink where there are Necro Marks for some reason, you can dodge-blink

and you will dodge the Marks.

If you are stomping someone and then Blink either to follow them or to get away, you

must type /no (or any emote) in order to break the stomp animation (even if it looks like

you’re not stomping, you’ll still be locked in place for the duration of the would-be

stomp). You can cancel the animation by trying to move, but you will still be locked in

place until the animation would complete. The other option is to cancel stomping first

and then Blink, but sometimes that’s not always possible.

The “stuck bug” where you have to use an emote to break free is similar to being stuck

in the stomping animation. To be honest you could just create a macro to do the emote

and bind it to a key or mouse button. If there’s a bug hindering my play, I should be able

to counter with a macro.

You can also attack many things in the environment, like Skyhammer fall pads, and

housing on Kyhlo. This allows you to go through your auto attack sequence if you are

chasing someone or want to prep a third sequence attack to strip a boon or whatever.

When calling a target, default is control + T after you have the target targeted by you.

The faster way is to hold control, and then just left click on the new target!

If your clones are CCd, Shatters will stunbreak them. So let’s say a necro uses mark fear

to fear all of your clones, just Mind Wrack and they will all run back in! This means that if

you are fighting someone with some sort of CC, and you need to make sure the clones

Shatter without the delay of the CC, you might choose to wait for the CC and then

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stunbreak it with the Shatter. Also Cry of Frustration makes the clones instantly Shatter

as if they were on the target, still applying confusion, even if they are far away.

Every Shatter has a distinct sound and animation when Illusionary Persona is taken. If

you Shatter and your clones have to run a distance to your target, the enemy might be

able to react and choose how to mitigate the Shatter. One of the advantages of my solo

queue lockdown spec is because I’m not taking Illusionary Persona, there is no tell on

what Shatter I just used. (I think it’s kind of dumb to be honest)

It’s extremely important to not back pedal or “s” key. You are effectively crippling

yourself. Instead, strafe at an angle where you can still attack your target. You will

probably be covering the same if not more ground than someone back pedaling plus you

can potentially dodge projectiles. There are arguably some scenarios where you might

be able to use back pedal. I have not needed it though.

A small protip for min/maxing damage. If a target goes invulnerable and you can’t hit

them, stop auto attacking. That way you can begin auto attacking right away once they

are available to be hit. This will help you cut out the time between auto attacks where

you might fall if you had continued to attack.

Make sure that when you do a Decoy into Mass Invisibility or the other way around, that

you consider hiding from the enemy when the first stealth ends on your buff bar. This is

because the unstealthing dust ring that occurs when a stealth ability falls off of you will

still spawn under you, even though you don’t become visible.

You must start a cast while on the ground, but you can finish the cast while not touching

the ground. This is useful if you are falling from somewhere while kiting, finding line of

sight, or you need to jump up mid cast to get in line of sight of someone.

You can swap with your leap while in mid-air. But you can no longer swap with your leap

if it dies.

Along with the previous tip, Shatters don’t count as instant casted spells, so you can use

them in the air, whereas you can’t use the Temporal Curtain Pull in the air (which is

“instant”).

If you use Blurred Frenzy right as you fall of a ledge, you will not take fall damage where

you normally would, if done properly. (This doesn’t seem to be working post patch,

testing)

You can Scepter auto attack chain without hitting a target, so you can precast for the

clone if you want. (The Torment is pretty good now though) The first attack can hit from

about 1100 range instead of 900.

If you are taking Shattered Concentration, Distortion will actually strip boons around your

clones, even though they aren’t technically “shattering” on the target and doing damage.

Don’t turn off GS auto attack, just get good at stowing weapon. If you turn GS auto off

and do cast 1 manually, the manual auto can't be cancelled by casting GS 2 or 4. But

with auto cast on, the auto can be cancelled. Weird bug but it’s important that you can

cat GS 2 or 4 when you need it prioritized over auto attack.

If you start keyboard turning before getting immobed, you will keep spinning. You can't

stop it, but if you don't have Mind Stab, Curtain, Leap or Frenzy up, you can do this in

anticipation to at least get a pass at them (If you even have keyboard turn bound)

If you get immobilized right as you are dodging, you can continue dodging and actually

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dodge through the immobilize. Once you use your two dodges, swap weapons and

dodge again with energy. This is especially op on s/d Thieves -_-

Can be used to give clones swiftness to help them land their Shatters – or to help your

Warden actually “get” to its target so it will begin attacking. (I say this because a lot of

times it will bug out and stand near the target and not attack)

With Staff, if casting mage - you can de target and the mage will still go off. This means

that you can turn and leap to gap close or position in a certain way and still using the

casting time to do something else - just helping to maximize time.

Use Blurred Frenzy to go through Portal and cancel early - the ability doesn't go on

cooldown and you still get a few really short invuln frames in order to break marks.

If you are in a hot join or a duel and using the interrupt mantra and have like one charge

left. If you exit combat you can swap out for another mantra and swap back. Sometimes

you will get like a 10-20 second cooldown but sometimes the CD will just be back up

again and you can recast for two full interrupts. (Just another part of maximizing time)

Two physics/game mechanics tips are Dodge Jumping and Slide Jumping.

Dodge Jumping: You press the dodge and jump keys at the same time. This allows you

to get to places you wouldn’t normally be able to get to in certain circumstances. For

example if you are crippled or chilled in combat, you will not be able to make the jump on

Temple of the Silent Storm from the top near the bell, over the wood piece and to the

other side. Since dodging always makes you move at the same speed regardless of

movement impairments, if you dodge and jump at the same time, you can clear the gap

as if you are not chilled/crippled. You also go slightly farther with a Dodge Jump than a

regular dodge with in-combat movespeed. Here are some examples of Locations where

you can Dodge Jump: 2:14 Dodge Jump 1 and 2:23 Dodge Jump 2.

The second mechanic is Slide Jumping. This plays off of the idea that momentum you

gain from sliding/falling down a surface carries with you briefly. So you will slide off of

something and then jump to go extra far. This is extremely hard and not very useful (in

fact I think it might be frame perfect, meaning you have one frame to execute it), but

something where if you find a spot, it could win you a matchup! Here is a comparison:

Slide Jumping

One last general tip: Don’t click! Bind all of your abilities. Preferably in good locations

that are easy to reach with your fingers. I will give an outline of my bindings in part 13!

With GS 5 If you stand still, this ability will auto turn to hit your enemy. That means you

can precast while running away, then stop briefly before it goes off, and it will do a

super-fast 180 turn to hit your target. This is good for baiting and interrupting. It also

means you can precast the knockback, then blink in front of someone and stop, and it

will auto turn and hit them back into your team or wherever you want to knock them (like

off a bridge or something). You can actually keep running and not stop, but it requires

you to use about face key to turn, and sometimes it bugs out and doesn’t work.

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The Lyssa bug:

1. Requires Lyssa runes.

2. Send out your Illusionary Leap

3. Cast Mass Invisibility

4. Swap with your leap while your Mass Invisibility is casting.

5. The swap will interrupt the cast and proc the Lyssa cleanse on demand.

This was really good before Lyssa was nerfed, since you had access to stability and fury on

demand in addition to a full cleanse.

There are still advantages though!! The Lyssa cleanse has a 45 second internal cooldown,

by proccing the Lyssa without using your Mass Invisibility cooldown, you can can do the cleanse

bug again 45 seconds later instead of 90 seconds; the cooldown of Mass Invisibility.

In addition, if you think you will be interrupted, you can proc the cleanse early and at least

get the condition cleanse out of it and not have your Mass Invisibility interrupted with no Lyssa

proc.

Now, If you are running Staff you can actually do the same proc by interrupting someone and

dealing damage with the Halting Strike trait while you are casting Mass Invisibility. You don’t

have to cancel the cast in this version, but it’s harder and less consistent. (You can proc with the

interrupt method using S/F too)

Fun Fact: You can also do the Lyssa proc early by casting Mass Invisibility and interrupting

yourself by going off of a jump pad like on Skyhammer.

3.2 - Shatters

Some info on Shatters from the protip section:

If you use a Shatter, those clones go into their own separate queue. If you spawn more

clones, even though the clone indicator may still show 3, you can spawn 3 more. Then

Shatter those, spawn 3 more etc. This means that as long as your clones are running to

their target to Shatter, you could have 6+ for example out at once.

If your clones are CCd, Shatters will stunbreak them. So let’s say a Necro uses mark

fear to fear all of your clones, just Mind Wrack and they will all run back in! This means

that if you are fighting someone with some sort of CC, and you need to make sure the

clones Shatter without the delay of the CC, you might choose to wait and then stunbreak

it with the Shatter. Also Cry of Frustration makes the clones instantly Shatter as if they

were on the target, still applying confusion, even if they are far away.

Every Shatter has a distinct sound and animation when Illusionary Persona is taken. If

you Shatter and your clones have to run a distance to your target, the enemy might be

able to react and choose how to mitigate the Shatter. One of the advantages of my solo

queue lockdown spec is because I’m not taking Illusionary Persona, there is no tell on

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what Shatter I just used. (I think it’s kind of dumb to be honest)

To adjust the variable of maximizing burst (easier to dodge)/increasing sustained

damage (less easy to dodge), use your Shatters at different points between phantasm

casts. So for example to maximize burst, if you have three clones out, start casting your

berserker, then Mind Wrack right before the casts finishes. This will make your clones

Shatter/start running towards the enemy while the phantasm spawns. This is how you

can get a lot of clones out on the field at the same time.

Shatters share a .25 second cooldown with each other. This is to prevent a bug that was

putting out way too much damage. This shared CD has actually gotten me killed before,

so if you think you might need to cast for example Diversion to interrupt and Distortion to

live in a close time period, try to have some foresight so you don’t die!

Mind Wrack

The Shatter spec bread and butter. With an 11.5 second cooldown, you will be Shattering often!

This is the ability where your big damage comes from.

Protips with mindwrack:

Being your main damage, you will want to try to land this as much as possible, and your

enemies will try to avoid/mitigate it as much as possible.

Since you count as an Illusion with Illusionary Persona, you can maximize your Mind

Wrack damage by being in melee range of your target as well as your clones.

The closer your clones are to your target, the less time the enemy has to react.

Cry of Frustration

As the Shatter spec, this is basically like a worse version of Mind Wrack. It still does damage,

but you use it in almost the same way as Mind Wrack. You will basically use this when Mind

Wrack is down and you have clones to Shatter that are not for Diversion or Distortion. This is

also good boon stripping fodder. Typically I like to hit people with CoF if they’re melee and I

have just dropped my chaos storm on them while autoing them in staff.

The exceptions to this are:

If you have a Necro that is using Epidemic to spread your confusion with their condition

modifiers.

If you are fighting an Ele and they just came out of water attunement and your Mind

Wrack is down, you can do decent damage.

You land it on another Mesmer using greatsword. The Greatsword auto attack procs

confusion many times per cast, and the damage will add up.

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Diversion

Besides Mind Wrack being your bread and butter, Diversion and Distortion are extremely close

seconds. You will be using this for dazing your opponents for example when they are

resurrecting allies, stomping teammates, casting important spells, interrupting Ranger spirit

resurrection pet, or just doing dat damage with Halting Strike!

Some protips are:

Stagger out your clones so that when you Diversion they are separated by the length of

the daze, since daze overwrites. This way you can daze someone for potentially 4

seconds.

Remember this too strips boons. Downside is that each illusion will only daze one enemy

which includes pets, another reason why Minion Master for example is a hard matchup.

If the enemy has stability up, you will want to try to Shatter that off with Mind Wrack/Cry

of Frustration first of course.

Distortion

Often times the flow of battle especially in skirmishes is such that you want to minimize your

damage and susceptibility while in melee range, which means cycling invulns, stealths, dodges,

and pressure. Many times people will complain that they have such a hard time hitting you.

You’re doing it right then! Glass Mesmer’s survivability comes from damage avoidance rather

than mitigation.

Especially Mesmer vs. Power matchups, Distortion use is extremely important. Of course it’s still

important to know when to use it elsewhere too.

If you are taking Illusionary Invigoration, remember that on a 60 second cooldown, your Shatters

reset after you get hit with non-condition damage after you are already below 50% health.

If you know the cooldown for the reset is up, you will then want to Distortion something

the enemy uses before you go below 50% health.

Often times I will use Distortion as part of my damaging combos, or when I swap to GS.

This pressures the enemy because they know they can’t retaliate, so you force/bait

defensive cooldowns/dodges.

Distortion can be used for resurrecting, stomping, defending, going offensive, covering

your casts, and least importantly - Shattering your clones without them getting you in

combat.

General rule is of course learning to anticipate enemy burst based on tells. Remember, you can

use Distortion defensively and offensively (offensive is mostly the same as when you’re lining up

a combo or getting ready to do some fakes to burn enemy CDs). I will go through the classes

and give a few tells that are good to look for (most of these are pretty self-explanatory):

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3.3 - Distortion (and some Shatter) Tips for Specific Professions

Quick note on Mass Invisibility: You will want to use it as a cleanse against condi specs, and as

a deaggro/reposition when other things are down against others. Consider not using the Lyssa

bug vs. a Necro that has Corrupt Boon up or the Path of Corruption trait for Dark Path.

Necro:

When they pop death shroud, or you pressure them and anticipate them popping it in defense,

consider Distorting in order to prevent fear and chill. You will want to cover your heal with

Distortion here if you know they have Death Shroud fear up. Mass Invis can be covered too.

Necros have a really obvious tell on their heal. You should be prepared to interrupt it, or at least

make them blow Wurm port to get away from you while they cast it.

Engi:

Engis will often use bombs for offense and defense at the same time by kiting around their

fields. If you Distortion while they are doing this, you can lay in some damage, and possibly

make them pop more CDs than they would have anticipated. You also may need to Distortion if

you get stealth pulled from the new celestial rifle toolkit spec. If for some reason they use elixir X

and get the tornado, put confusion on them. It will hit many times.

Mesmer:

In the mirror match, you want to blow less important CDs first if they allow you to survive the

same. So assuming you have nothing else up. You would Distortion after being immobilized,

maybe being Pulled into immob, or if they swap GS and you are in the open running for LoS.

The ways I use Distortion is evidenced in the Mesmer vs. Mesmer video. If there are enemy

clones nearby you, including the enemy Mesmer, you will want to consider using Distortion to

cover your heal or mass invis cast if you know they have Diversion up.

The Mesmer heal also has easy tells, you should be prepared to interrupt it so your enemy has

to use a defensive cooldown.

Ele:

D/D, when they swap fire, consider Distortion if you are Updrafted with no stunbreak up. This

shouldn’t happen though - between Illusionary Leap and Blink. Against S/D, the burst is a lot

more unpredictable, but you know that they will burst you if they are not in air, because they will

most likely swap to air in order to get the lightning strike. This anticipation is partly based on

knowing your opponent. To be honest their burst needs a bit more counterplay. The S/D

matchup which I will discuss later relies a lot on Line of Sight.

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Thief:

Distortion after a Backstab/Steal if you know they are going to shortbow 2 spam you or if you

are immobilized with nothing up. This is another case of using Distortion to cover your heal or

Mass Invis cast as well. Do not Distortion while they are stealthed, unless the battle is nearing

an end and you see they are desperate and aggressive. They will just wait it out and it’s a big

CD to burn.

Warrior:

If you get knocked down and have no stunbreaks. If you get immobilized (pin down, throw

bolas) with no Blink or cleanse. If you see them Eviscerating you and you have no dodge roll. If

you get stunned by mace or Bull’s Charge.

Guardian:

If you see the Zealot’s Fire buff on the enemy Guard, expect burst soon. If they begin precasting

the chains from a distance consider dodge rolling first, otherwise last resort distort, since they

could port onto you. Against bunkers, Distortion stomps and rezzes.

Ranger:

Shortbow, longbow, and wolf all have pretty good interrupts that you may need to distort after if

they are setting up burst. If you see their spirits casting abilities, consider distorting. There isn’t

anything that’s as deadly as a Backstab follow up or Mesmer burst combo that you need to

watch out for. So just use it for some damage avoidance.

3.4 - Map Protips!

Watch my Blink spot locations playlist!!

Blink Locations

Phase Retreat Locations (Work in progress)

Forest of Niflhel

Stay above keep when you are fighting in mid. Greatsword allows you to do a lot of pressure,

plus you stay safe. If you need to burst or cleave a body, coming down from above is fine. You

can always Blink back up! Just make sure if your Blink is down that you are careful, and watch

for classes that can Pull/Push you off.

At Henge you can stay up on the far side of the point opposite the side that is close to blue

spawn. You can Blink, Phase Retreat, and Illusionary Leap back up above.

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At Mine you can Blink up to the wood platform at the back of the point, and there are spots to

jump up onto the bridge in front of the point. These are all shown in my video.

Usually I use Portal on this map to harass far node/steal bosses/Portal allies out of mid fight to

safety.

I like top open behind Keep on this map. Sometimes we will cross as a team, but this is higher

risk higher reward. If you are playing a 3 point strat with tankier people crossing can be

effective.

If you have to kill a boss, the general rule of thumb is to not let the boss walk around or move,

that way it doesn’t move on the map and the enemy will have less of an idea that you’re doing it.

For a Mesmer to accomplish this, you need to rotate clones and ideally make the boss turn to hit

each clone so he doesn’t cleave them. The bottom line is that Mesmer isn’t the best class to do

the boss, and trying to dps it without letting it move will take a while. Especially if you’re saving

cooldowns near the end to protect from steals. Ideally you would do it with your team mates

after winning a team fight, or if you have a d/p or s/p Thief, they can do it easily with Black

Powder.

Legacy of the Foefire

This map you have the least safety in terms of positioning to fight for the mid point. That said, if

the fight is moving move towards your stairs or their stairs, there are places to Blink to that are

in my video in which you can have safe positioning. By safe I mean only professions with Blink

can get to you unless they want to walk all the way around.

I will usually Portal mid and push far for harass, or Portal close and go mid on this map.

You can do a delayed push far (so you don’t get caught early) and then put a Portal on far and

go mid. This pressures their back node because if they leave you’ll just back cap. Remember if

you are low and you need someone to go through the Portal, it doesn’t always have to be you!

You can open it and someone else goes through.

I like to open with a Portal on the terrain that connects to the bridge. You use the 1200 range

Blink spot to get up there coming out of the gate.

It’s also good to open behind the little huts in mid, so your team can react and intercept enemies

going close or mid.

When 350 points is nearing, it’s time to start having lord strats in mind. You need to be ready to

either defend, Portal your team mates to the enemy lord, or continue fighting (you could also

just do lord before 350 points to throw them off!). The Portal range isn't unlimited though, I place

my Portal near the top of the steps on our ridge, and it will reach to about the first set of stairs in

their base. You can test this to find good places for your team though.

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If you are being harassed on your back line by a Thief or something, remember to call for peels,

and kite around the Phase Retreat locations with Staff.

Battle of Kyhlo

Mesmer is decent on Trebuchet, but you want to make sure you are utilizing your team utility

skills. Many of the classes that are sent to Treb in higher tier play are classes that you won’t

want to 1v1, this is why Mesmer isn’t the best choice for Trebuchet.

There are a few good openers for Mes on this map:

Go mid, portal, go gank far with with your other DPS, then portal back mid.

Portal/Gank home and go mid.

You can also portal at the houses near one side point, and get to the other side point.

(First spot and Second spot)

Open on your Trebuchet to get the wall down for your team mates (many times the

enemy Treb will get it down anyway).

Go through the mid path to your rafter side, Blink up to the roof, and gank/Push any

enemies that are coming up rafters off of the edge.

Put a Portal on enemy rafters and open far node then port out.

Immediately go mid with team and try to get their Guard!

Blink is one of the most powerful abilities on this map since there is so much vertical terrain.

You can Blink to the roof on both sides nearest the side points. You can also Blink to the ceiling

of clock tower from the mid point.

When I use Portal here it's usually to assault far point, Portal someone out of mid, or Portal Treb

with repair kit/back capping and Trebbing mid. Since the side points are closer on this map, you

can also portal allies in a rotation from one side node to the other.

If I do go on Treb, I usually only try to Treb mid. Since you can Treb mid and fight people at

Treb at the same time. You can't Treb other points while fighting people because they will Pull

you off with damage before you charge up enough.

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Spirit Watch

Don't carry the orb unless you have to.

3 point team strategies are more common on this map, so keep in mind your Portal placements

as the orb runner may need reinforcements in different areas.

Greatsword auto attack penetrates sanctuary, so you can just auto attack a Guardian that is

trying to grab the orb. If they line of sight you with the orb pedestal, just walk closer and spawn

clones or Shatter near them. The AoE will reach inside the Sanctuary.

Mesmer is a great option for keeping people off of the orb since you can keep such good range

and have safety with Blink. If you play a 3 point strategy with a Mesmer watching orb, the other

team will most likely have to divert a player or players to stop you from stopping their orb carrier.

Remember though, you still want to make use of your team utility. Although Mesmer is great for

orb watching duty, you should still be team fighting often, and Portalling to backup various

nodes.

Pulls and Pushes are extremely superior on this map against players and especially the orb

carrier. Make full use of Shattering off stability and getting people off of bridges.

There is a Blink spot where you can port up the backside of the side nodes. This is a great

opener choice for Mesmer since you can hide, and then cap after the person leaves. You could

also just gank them from the side. The Side blink spot here up to wolf is now more difficult. You

have to walk onto the flat part of the ground before blinking up. Stand and aim here.

Temple of the Silent Storm

Pull and Push people down pits. Just keep in mind that they will end up in mid point!

Mesmer is a perfect option for going to the underground 3 point cap buff. This is because you

can put a Portal at a point or just above the holes and Portal allies out or cap the buff and

resume playing quickly.

Your Portal will reach from each point to the underground buff. Just watch the timer so that you

will have your Portal up (either the entrance or the exit, as long as the exit still has some time

before it will reset) at 8:30, 5:30 and 2:30. It's also a good idea to have a Portal up for the 11:30

buff.

Remember Greatsword auto attack can go through sanctuary, this helps to keep guardians from

capping the buffs!

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Opening standing near the top bridge on your side gives you good options.

Mesmer can also be good at staying above and back capping during the 8:30 buff spawns. I just

really like to try to have portal up so I can portal my team mates down below if a fight is going

good or bad.

Mesmer is also a good choice to keep above as you can stay on the top-most terrain

overlooking the top buff, and just poke at people trying to cap the buff while your team battles

below and your thief is decapping.

Courtyard

Line of Sight is your friend here!

You almost never want to just fight in the open in the middle.

Coordinate stealths with your team if you have them.

If you wipe, go out the same gate side together, but potentially switch it up/bait the enemies to

one side, since they’ll probably be waiting for you.

Skyhammer

Can put a Portal down on any point and go to any other point. So you can go from A to C!

If you Jump Dodge while you go onto a jump pad, you’ll go slightly higher.

You can walk over a fall-plate like the ones near the side cap points, then right as it disappears,

lay down a Temporal Curtain. The Temporal Curtain particle effect will be extremely diminished

where the Fall-Plate disappeared (it will still show up a bit on the sides). You can then just Pull

people down the hole - it catches a lot of people off-guard!

Landing on a jump pad stops any fall damage. This doesn’t really matter for Mesmer all that

much, but as a side note, if you have a leap ability, you could leap from the Skyhammer, down

to a jump pad and live.

You can walk towards the Portal to the Skyhammer from point B, jump off the edge, and go

through the Portal from the top.

You can stealth and use the cannon on Skyhammer at the same time.

Example (0:34)

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You can auto attack the fall-plates, even if they’re not there, and they will trigger your auto

attack sequence. Also this will not put you in combat!

There is a bug where if you use Blurred Frenzy right as you fall of a ledge, so that you are doing

the animation while falling, you will not take fall damage. This is useful because if you’re up at

the Skyhammer, you can Blurred Frenzy off the front while falling and land safely down below.

This way you can gain ground on people or if you have the Skyhammer portal timer debuff you

can still escape. – Thanks Zeromis for this fall spot!

3.5 - Water Combat!

*There is no longer water on any of the sPvP or tPvP maps. I will leave this section in so people

can read for WvW or PvE.

I have Mirror Images on my bar instead of Blink underwater. That way if I need to do some extra

burst I can! Mesmer underwater combat can be strong especially because you can confuse

people by using the z-axis more.

Your underwater 5 skill with spear, Vortex, is also a Pull. You can use this to Pull people into the

water.

If you put a Portal on a point or in the water and then open it either in the water or on land where

you need it, start casting Vortex, then take the Portal right as Vortex finishes, the Vortex will

spawn on the other side, Pulling everyone on the point in and doing some damage. It acts as an

Ethereal Field so you can Leap through it for Chaos Armor with Illusionary Leap or Phase

Retreat, your team can also blast it!

If you aim your camera up and then dodge upwards immediately after falling into water, you can

completely negate the downward momentum that you have.

3.6 - Pre-game Prep

You can swap to torch in order to do a blast finisher for your team.

You can use Temporal Curtain if no one else has swiftness, but normally you want to save it.

You should never have to use temporal curtain to give your team swiftness out the gate.

You can use Phase Retreat to leap through certain fields for desirable buffs.

No prep other than that!

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3.7 - Combat Tips

First and foremost you are a damage dealer! This means you need to do damage on focus

targets and kill them in order to win! You can achieve this through synchronizing burst with team

mates, or quickly swapping targets to catch people off guard.

Be extremely careful as you are squishy and enemies like to target you.

I like to think of combat in waves. I go in burst go out, attack a bit, then call out another burst

with my teammates, etc. Remember though that with Staff, it’s perfectly fine to just stay at range

poking until you are needed in close range to do more damage or offer utility through Chaos

Storm and more reliable Mind Wracks/Boon Strip/Interrupts.

Watch for when allies are getting low so you can peel/quickly begin manually

resurrecting/Illusion of Life/Portal/Mass Invis them.

Listen to your team mates! This is a big one, many times you get caught up in calling things out

and forget to listen. One strategy my teams have used for communication is basically just

saying something important, loudly, over and over. Like if our war is fighting far and they have a

respawn we’ll say “You have a thief respawning, thief respawning, thief respawning” until they

acknowledge.

If you are opening from stealth, the combo is GS2 > Mind Stab + Mind Wrack. Everything else

Mesmer has will give you away. (This is good all game, not just the first stealth opener of the

game - it’s like your backstab combo)

Call a focus target. Everyone should know what the target should be at all times, but just get in

the habit of doing it. You are a damage dealer, so if anyone's job, it's definitely your job to know

what to kill. I also find that playing a Mesmer so much has given me a keen eye for finding other

Mesmers coming out of stealth among their clones. You can do this for your team if they are

having trouble. I have protips on picking out the real Mesmer in the Mesmer matchup section.

If a target goes down and your confidence level of getting the kill is pretty good, call the next

target so your team can easily transition.

Watch enemy cooldowns so you know who to swap to etc.

Watch for enemy stabilities, you can Shatter them off which allows your team to CC or go for a

kill. For example I will Shatter off a Necro's stability who is Plaguing or in Lich form, so then I

can just Pull him off of a point and we can immobilize him, making his point presence/damage

output much less.

Can also Shatter off stab from Tornado!

Make sure to call out if you are getting low or need peels or think you will need peels.

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In the same vein, don't run super far away if you're going down. There is more cleave point, but

your teammates are also there and your Guard shouldn't need to leave the point very often.

Make sure to call numbers for your team mates. You can increase probabilities of anticipating

where stealthed enemies may attack based on numbers. Also numbers are extremely important

for knowing enemies rotations, and matching those rotations with advantageous matchups.

One of the most important things you can do in competitively play in general, is to call respawns

and numbers constantly. Your team should always know who is respawning when, how many

people are on the map, where they are, where the enemy thief is etc.

In the recent meta, tanky/bruiser Warrior/Ele comps are common. Here are some things to think

about when playing Mesmer and navigating through rotations:

1. If you are in a 2v2 with a tanky person on your team, and bruisers on the enemy team,

consider just leaving your ally to 1v2 while you use your mobility to rotate to another

point and gank. If one of their players in the 2v2 recognizes you doing this, it will

basically just become a race. This is why Thief is so good for this role, but Mesmer can

do it too.

2. You can use Mass Invisibility to help allies disengage

3. You have strong gank potential with stealth

4. You have good ranged, power dps. Mesmer has some of the best sustained, ranged,

power dps in the game. Use this to pressure people down!

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3.8 - Downed Enemies

Note about stealth regarding stomping: Let’s say you are stealth stomping someone. Your

stealth fades right as your character is raising their arms up in the animation. Oh no, the enemy

can see you! Actually, don’t worry - there is a bug where anyone doing a stomping animation in

stealth, when they reappear, will look like they are only just beginning the animation to the

person being stomped. For players who know about this bug, they know not to trust the

animation and they will be stomped based on time since the stomping probably started, not the

animation. This is more of just a little bit of knowledge so you know where your animation is at

just in case you are preparing to do a Blink stomp or something.

Protip for this: One way you can outplay people is to actually stealth, stand near them, dodge

cc/dps, then pretend to start stomping right as the stealth ends. They will think you are already

farther into the stomp animation because of the bug and this will usually cause them to use their

downed ability right when they see you. Since you know you’re faking them, you then almost

immediately cancel your stomp and start it again, catching them. Good against Thieves,

Mesmers.

Also, ever wonder why your stomp animation doesn’t match up when you are stomping with

quickness? Basically if the quickness will end before the stomp animation concludes, then

normal timing will resume regardless of how fast the animation is going. This means that if you

start a stomp with quickness and it fades in the first second, your animation will go super fast

like you have quickness, but after you stomp you will still have to wait a second as if your

animation slowed back down to the normal rate. (It’s not prorated either, it makes your stomp as

long as it would have been if you started it without quickness at all)

You have a number of things to do. There is no specific order but some you need to use

together:

1. Pull people away from the body.

2. Chaos Storm the body.

3. Cleave the body with damage.

4. Daze people around the body.

5. Remove boons/stability so you can daze and CC.

6. Push people off of the body.

7. Moa someone like the guardian.

8. Stomp with Distortion.

9. Mass Invis team mates for stealth stomps (so they can’t be hit by targeted CC/damage.)

If the enemies are dying and you know they backed out and/or you downed people off point, just

let them bleed out.

Also if you have the point in your control and someone is down on point, just bleed them out.

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Be careful they don't get an ally rotating in who will resurrect them! (Using Stealth or tanky

cooldowns)

If you are stomping a Warrior or Engineer, you can just use your clones to body block the

projectile.

Stomping by Class

If you are stomping someone and then Blink either to follow them or to get away, you must type

/no (or any emote) in order to break the stomp. You can cancel the animation by trying to move,

but you will still be locked in place until the animation would complete. The other option is to

cancel stomping first and then Blink, but sometimes that’s not always possible.

Engineer

Use clone to body block 2 projectile.

Use Distortion to invuln the 2. (With most downed tells you can just wait to use Distortion

until you see the cast animation. Be quick with your reaction and you should get it!)

Just wait and dodge.

Spawn Warden to absorb projectile.

Can use Phase Retreat + Blink so that clone will block projectile and then you can get a

safe stomp.

Warrior

Body Block with clone

Wait and Dodge

React and Distortion

Spawn Warden.

If they get up with their 3, you can either ignore them (since they won’t cap any points) or

you can kill them. If they die in Vengeance, they will instantly fully die.

Can use Phase Retreat + Blink so that clone will block projectile and then you can get a

safe stomp.

Mesmer

Fake cast your stomp. Basically begin stomping, wait like 1-2 seconds then stop, then

start stomping again. When you begin the stomp on the real Mesmer instead of the

clone, it carries through. So you are still able to stomp the real Mesmer when they

reappear. Sometimes they will be in range and you won’t need to Blink, other times they

will be out of range. Even if your Blink is down, still worth a try.

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If they summon their illusion, just dodge if you are low.

If they stealth, the second Mesmer that appears is always the real one.

Protips from above:

One way you can outplay people is to actually stealth, stand near them, dodge cc/dps,

then pretend to start stomping right as the stealth ends. They will think you are already

farther into the stomp animation because of the bug and this will usually cause them to

use their downed ability right when they see you. Since you know you’re faking them,

you then almost immediately cancel your stomp and start it again, catching them.

Necromancer

Their fear ability, downstate 2, has a long cast time and you can see the green Grenth

animation appear above their head and you will have plenty of time to dodge or Distortion.

Elementalist

This is another fake cast, only much more precise when compared to stomping a Mesmer.

Basically if you can get the fake cast right before they mist, you can Blink over to them and

finish the stomp. If you have the 1200 range Blink you can get them anywhere unless they go

out of line of sight for your Blink. If you have the 900 range Blink though, you’ll only be able to

stomp them if they don’t go in a straight line, which many do as they will want to live assuming

you might not have a 1200 range Blink. If they happen to go behind you and you only have the

900 range blink, you could Phase Retreat while stomping first, then Blink the rest of the

distance.

Can also try the Mesmer stealth stomp protip as mentioned above.

Ranger

Dodge their downstate 2.

Distortion it as well. You can react to this one.

Be careful if they have a pet that runs up to you and begins an animation. The pet still

may have a fear or knockdown command. The combination of the pet CC and their

downstate 2 means they will most likely get off their downstate 3. If this happens, your

only choices are to either try to stomp them real quick, kill the pet if it’s low enough, or

interrupt the pet. Otherwise it’s really hard to out damage the resurrection from the pet.

Make sure you aren’t stomping near clones. If they use the daze on the clone near you,

the lightning will hit you as well since it’s slightly AoE. This is also why if you are

stealthed you can use the Phase Retreat – Blink method to safely stomp if you have

allies who are around and will mess up the stomp.

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Guardian

Dodge downstate 2.

Distortion it as well. You can react to this one.

You can actually Phase Retreat stomp this one and you’ll be out of range of the

Guardian 2, so you don’t have to waste Distortion!

Thief

Blink stop their 2 port.

Consider fake casting to make it easier. This is because if they port at the last second

you won’t be able to react.

If they stealth and you just started stomping, you’ll still land the stomp. Otherwise just

cancel, attack a bit, then start the stomp again.

Many thieves will teleport behind you (obviously this is super general advice, but it gives

you the idea), so if you don’t have time to restart the stomp animation, depending on the

level of play and if you know the enemy Thief or not, consider just Blinking behind you

the distance that they might Blink. It’s worked for me! If you do think you know

statistically where they might go, try Blinking there when they do!

If they blink behind you, you can just Phase Retreat to stomp them too!

Also consider doing the stealth stomping method mentioned in the Mesmer section

above.

3.9 - Downed Allies

If you haven’t read the first two thoughts in the previous section about stealth and quickness

stomping animations, they apply here too!

1. If you can manually resurrect, do it!! Try to position yourself so that you can do it very

quickly.

2. If you need to, Distortion resurrect. Example

3. Do 1-9 from the previous list under what to do if an enemy goes down.

4. Illusion of life if you are taking that.

5. Consider Portalling that ally out if they're going to die again or go down again, especially

consider if they are Illusion of Life’d.

6. Burst an enemy or stomp an enemy. More situational.

7. You can use downed allies as bait to burst the enemy when they try to stomp or cleave

in melee range. Just be careful because you are squishy!

Also know when to not resurrect. If the body is being cleaved too hard, just back out and

regroup. You don't want more people to die than need to.

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3.10 - Class-Specific Matchups

Go into dueling servers!! You might not find the best of the best, but 1v1 experience is an

excellent foundation for mechanical skill and matchup knowledge.

Meet people! Many specs in the dueling servers aren’t specs you will encounter in sPvP or

tPvP. Players you meet in solo or team queue can spar with you.

Watch streams, ask the right questions like, what will this person do as they rotate into this point

vs. what I would do? Why?

Warrior

(easy-very hard)

Dodging is really important with this matchup. You’ll be dodging Shield Bash, Bull’s Charge,

Rush, longbow, hammer, Skull Crack, immobilize, Eviscerate, etc.

If you don't dodge Bull's Charge or Shield Bash, you will most likely need to use a cooldown to

counter, like Blink or Distortion.

In close range I like to have my Illusionary Leap out as long as possible so I can swap and stun

break whenever I need within the time frame.

Use Illusionary Leap to bait dodges and blocks.

Be patient with your Shatters, don't Shatter into their Endure Pain or Shield Block, also watch

for if they are running energy on their swap, as you might get baited into Shattering into a

dodge.

If they Vengeance, just run. No need to take extra damage and blow CC. They can't cap a point

while Vengeanced. Be careful if they Vengeance in a close 2v2 for example as they might try to

resurrect their ally with the Vengeance time.

Many Warriors will cancel Shield Block with Eviscerate, Skull Crack, or a daze for example, so

just be ready that they won't use the full duration.

Hammer has really obvious animations and should be easily dodged, except hammer 4, it

comes out way too fast!

Longbow is also pretty straight forward, just be careful of Pin Down. If they swap longbow, Get

ready to dodge the arcing arrow and the Pin Down. Pin Down was nerfed and it has a tell now

that can actually be reacted to. Also try not to stand in the fire field for too long. Just kite off

point if you need to. Winning the fight is more important than keeping the cap on the point.

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Consider Blinking if you get immobilized.

If they are running Intelligence, be careful when they swap Axe as the Eviscerate is coming!

Same goes with Arcing Arrow if they have Intelligence up.

If it’s a sword/sword condi Warrior, really make sure to dodge the torment stacking throw sword

they have. Also keep your distance so you are not immobilized. The Torment sword throw

Impale can be thrown with no directional requirement. Keep your eyes peeled.

-If you do get hit by the Torment, try to swap it back onto them with Generosity!

Sword/Sword, Mace/Shield and Longbow/GS are actually dangerous specs too, you’ll have to

kite a lot and don’t get caught on flat ground with no Blink spot. Remember you can always

Phase Retreat if you do get stunned – in order to dodge like Hundred Blades or Arcing Arrow.

Basically the GS spec will blend your clones (bow kills them too), and they can use movement

abilities to break immobilize. This means it will be extremely hard to land a Shatter, and they will

be able to stick to you unless you religiously use z-axis Blinks. You’ll need to be careful for Pin

Down when they swap longbow. I like to use my Warden when they swap bow, which forces

them to use their longbow 3 or burst skill to kill the Warden before they can pin down (which

gives me more time on my CDs). Just be careful to dodge the longbow 3 if they cast it at the

Warden!

With the Sword/Sword Mace/Shield spec, be really careful in melee range, and always try to

have your Illusionary Leap ready. Don’t stun break the daze, use it on the stun. Use Lyssa if you

have too many condis, and consider standing still after you Blink up to z-axis if you have

torment on you.

When stomping, you can use your clone to body block the projectile. You can also body block

for allies who are stomping.

Down fight against a Warrior: If you go down around the same time, the Warrior will win. They

can rally themselves and stomp you/damage you.

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Ranger

*Currently not in the meta too much.

Spirits (medium-hard)

This matchup requires a lot of focus. You will need to watch the animations on their pets, and be

really careful not to get hit by too much.

Particularly watch for their Drakehound or Wolf begin to howl, this will immobilize/fear you

respectively.

Basically you just need to pressure them down with constant damage.

This means counting dodges and keeping track of when they use their evades after they swap

Sword.

If they end up summoning their Spirit of Nature, I will usually just put a Portal down if I have it

and then run. If they pop their Spirit cooldown in a 1v1, that’s good. They won’t have it up for a

team fight.

If you need to cripple or use some sort of condition on the ranger, watch for their passive condi

cleanse to proc, then subtract 10 seconds from the timer of the match, that’s when it will be up

again!

Trap (medium)

Use your clones to trigger their traps.

I mostly avoid fighting in melee range unless I am Shattering in sword/focus.

Use line of sight if you can.

Beast Master (hard)

Try not to 1v1 this. If you have to, burst as hard as you can, try to get them out of their Healing

Spring.

Watch pet animation to avoid/dodge pet attacks.

Not worth killing pets unless they happen to get cleaved.

If they put down the Spirit of Nature pet, make the decision to either run or keep fighting. (I

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usually just put a Portal down and walk away since it gives so much regen to the Ranger). If you

do continue fighting, it can be interrupted pretty easily, just make sure to save something for it.

If the Ranger put his pet on you, watch the animation and dodge. Also kite to places/Blink where

the pet will have to run far and you don't.

For example in clock tower the pet will have to run up all the inclines and rafters to get to the

roof, and then you can just jump down.

Longbow Ranger (Hard to Very-Hard if they have room to kite you)

If they stealth, consider stealthing as well.

Watch out for their pet’s damage, especially if they are trying to combo you with a daze.

Usually they are squishy so just burst hard!

Watch out for their Invulnerability signet, if it starts flashing, that means they are using the active

to take no damage.

You will most likely be line of sighting in this matchup and trying to work your way closer to

them.

If they stun you, you need to stunbreak to avoid Maul.

If they are using the Longbow 2 rapid fire, you will have to dodge twice to avoid the whole

channel.

Down fight against Ranger: If you go down around the same time, or even a little bit after

them you will lose, as they can self rally.

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Mesmer

(Against GS/SF Even, GS/Staff can be hard because they will kite you, but S/F can be

aggressive and arguably has more kill potential in the matchup)

Be patient – watch CDs and count dodges.

If you are doing the “honorable” GS/SF mirror, consider staying in sword after your combo. This

will allow you to get another leap immob off onto them as they swap GS. You can then just walk

behind them while they are immobed to cause pressure, or you can then swap to GS yourself

and burst.

Blink is really crucial in this matchup. Basically you want to sometimes use your Blink

offensively to burst them in their face. The offensive Blink burst has extremely low counterplay

because it’s instant, and this is why it’s strong. You just have to mix up when you do it so you

don’t become predictable.

Be ready to cancel your casts/bait interrupts and cancel your own casts if they pop Distortion.

If they have SF out with GS swap up, you will want to be careful in close range since they can

leap immob into GS.

You can no longer swap with Illusionary Leap if it has been killed. This means that if they leap at

you, you can potentially setup a Berserker cleave beforehand from a clone on you, or mind

wrack it and they won’t be able to immobilize. The safer alternative though is to just dodge/kite

away.

You should always be able to dodge Illusionary Leap. If you do get immobilized, you will most

likely have to use a defensive cooldown. Don’t get immobed.

Watch their invulnerability buffs. Sometimes if you burst right when they are over you can get

damage in.

They key is to mix and match how quickly you Mind Wrack after immobilizing and baiting. Being

predictable is where you will lose against a Mesmer since they have such a low cooldown

invulnerability.

If they use Illusionary Leap Swap + Blurred Frenzy first, you have an advantage because you

can immobilize them by swapping with your Leap immediately after their invuln.

Know which Mesmer is the real Mesmer! Put a target over their head with call target. Default is

control + T, but you can also just hold control and then click on them, which is the fastest,

unless you are already clicked on them (targetting them without the target over their head)!

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If you are the Staff Mesmer – use Phase Retreat to kite. If you get immobed you can Phase

Retreat away to mitigate some damage. Use your staff clones to apply condi pressure while you

kite around.

The Staff “burst” combo that I will mention later is essentially casting Mage, then Mind Wracking

right as the Mage Strike hits if you can. People often don’t pay attention to the Mage and it will

hit hard/catch them off guard. Also if you can get them in a Chaos Storm while they need to cast

something, that’s a lot of pressure with Halting Strike!

Protips for finding the real Mesmer

Clones:

Never cast abilities

Only walk forward

Auto attack slower than real Mesmer’s auto attack

Never dodge roll.

Walk straight then turn then walk straight again then turn in segments.

The real Mesmer will most likely have boons than the clones don’t, but this isn’t true all the time,

just majority.

Real Mesmer will have Mantra and Signet Icons.

Other Tips:

Make sure to dodge Mirror Blade! If give vulnerability to you, might to them, bounces back to

you again, and spawns a clone that they can Shatter.

If the situation presents itself where you will both be Mind Wracking each other, make sure to

Mind Wrack first so that their clones are destroyed. This will nullify some of their damage, as

well as reduce Distortion time if they decide to use that instead.

If you do or do not see the enemy Mesmer stealth, but you see a clone spawn out of midair,

then you know they are taking the Deceptive Evasion trait, and they just dodged there while in

combat. You can use this information to then make decisions on where they might be or be

moving towards.

Mesmers often dodge after their Blurred Frenzy, consider waiting and then sending out your

Leap to immobilize.

Against most people in general and Mesmer’s too, if you lay down your Temporal Curtain, just

wait for them to dodge like they most likely will, then just pull afterwards!

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If the Mesmer is phantasm (hard)

Try to kill the pets if you can. If you start to fall behind you will need to burst the Mesmer as

much as possible. Try to catch the phantasms and Mesmer in the same burst to maximize your

effectiveness.

You will most likely have to run a lot.

If the Mesmer is a condition spec with Prismatic Understanding or some other stealth

spec

With the Shatter spec I am using, this matchup will either be a stalemate or you will lose. The

game is in their hands since they have so much stealth.

Basically you will just be killing yourself with Confusion/taking condis from their clone death. So

try not to 1v1 this.

Fortunately you don’t see this in higher level tournament play, but try not to 1v1 it.

If you do need to 1v1 it, just try to land your Shatters when you can see them. Count dodges,

and watch for weapon swaps. If they are running Scepter, really watch for when they block, you

don’t want to get hit by the Torment. In most cases you can see them cast the counterattack.

You can then wait, or attack into it and then dodge the torment attack that is procced.

Versus Chaotic Interruption or similar lockdown spec:

Keep casting to a minimum, use things like Mind Stab, Leap, Shatter, Phase Retreat, Chaos

Armor, you can probably get off Chaos Storm too, which might give you a window to cast.

Fake cast and then mix in some real casts.

Basically once their mantra charges are down you’re in good shape.

Save Distortion for Mantra up time.

The Interrupt spec is very opportunistic, so just be ready when they decide to go aggressive.

Down fight against a Mesmer:

Sometimes the A.I. can be weird and will not attack or follow you and then attack.

Sometimes it attacks your downstate clone instead of you.

You will want to try to use your 2 to dodge their Rogue. This can be tough if you go down

at the same time since it’s hard to tell animations. Typically the auto attack animation is

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slower, and the cast animations come out a little faster.

The second clone to appear after stealthing is always the real one.

Thief (and Dealing with Stealth)

(very hard- hint: it’s a guessing game and statistically you lose)

The best general tip for fighting Thief, especially with Staff, is to always be kiting towards Phase

Retreat locations. You want to force them to blow blinks to catch you as much as possible. I am

also now running Traveler runes, which I linked in the build in the guide, so I encourage you to

try that out and see how you do!

Mantra of Resolve is good in this matchup because you can pretty much always get a heal off

without poison, whereas without the condi cleanse you basically always heal with poison.

If they are Backstab spec, it's a total guessing game. You want to use probability to pressure

their stealths.

Basically if you see them stealth, you can categorize what to do based on what stealth they use.

Shadow Refuge

First and foremost, if a Thief uses Shadow Refuge and our duel is close. I will just straight up

run away and try to reset.

Other than that you can try:

Wait a few seconds as they most like won't open immediately. (Like I said it's a guessing game

though)

Dodge roll, wait a second, dodge again. Put down temporal curtain, walk through it, Pull, and

kite away.

Put down a Chaos Storm and watch for Aegis. They will either have to wait through it or try to

clear it. Remember if you block their ability while they are stealthed – it will not reveal them. But

it will tell you where they are.

If they open on you, Chaos Armor/Phase Retreat kiting!

If they haven't opened on you yet, get ready to Blink away as soon as they open on you.

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Try to save Distortion for in combat when they are in daggers to pressure them or if you need to

close distance on them while they're in short bow.

The other strategy is to put a Portal at max range somewhere and then engage the Thief, or put

the portal down and try to kite them while fighting to max Portal range. Then if they Shadow

Refuge, just straight up portal out. You can wait the full seconds and come back in, or just

leave. Waiting and coming back is still decent, simply because your CDs come back up without

you really having to worry about dodging or blowing CDs in the first seconds of their stealth.

Often times if you go through a Portal and wait the maximum time before coming back, you can

actually reset.

Blinding Powder stealth/heal stealth/or other similar stealth

You know it will be shorter than shadow refuge, so you most like won't need to use Blink or

Distortion. Between dodges and temporal curtain usually they will be forced to open, or short

bow you.

If you see them stealth near a building in their offhand dagger weapon set on Kyhlo or

Skyhammer, they most likely used Cloak and Dagger on a building. This stealth only lasts for 3

seconds.

If they are d/p spec (hard): This is for Critical Strikes (Executioner) or Deadly Arts (Panic Strike) If you are dueling them in a server, I find my best results are S/F GS with Shatter Reset, Blade Training, and taking Mantra of Resolve instead of portal. The strat is to be really aggressive (but not reckless), and use your first Distortion to go win trades when they are autoing you or not ready to stealth again. Use the stealth approximation tips, as well as the general tips down below. Watch the amount of time left on their vigor buff, when it falls off, usually it will be around 11 seconds until Steal is up again. This doesn’t work so well if you’re shattering off the vigor, but you can always add about 11 seconds to whatever the vigor time is. If you see a black line come into you, that’s a Shadow Shot (It’s unblockable)! This means they probably teleported to you, watch out! In many of the Thief specs they will resort to shortbow, just strafe dodge back and forth (since the projectile no longer homes in), and use Greatsword. If you notice they use the Consume Plasma (the stolen ability from Mesmer), then you might have a better chance of knocking or pulling them out of Shadow Refuge. Try not to use Mass Invisibility before Shadow Refuge.

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You’ll really want to make sure you cover your casts in this matchup. They have an on demand interrupt with Headshot and their Steal will daze as this spec. If you see arrows coming out at you from stealth, consider letting them hit you sooner than later. If they miss, they don’t become unstealthed, so you’re just wasting endurance and cooldowns. Just be prepared to deal with the immobilize with a blink or cleanse of some sort, or a Distortion. Thief can bow 3 evade with this spec 4 times in a row, so be patient with your Shatters. Also it’s important to note that Bow 3 was nerfed and there are vulnerability frames on the end now. So you can time your Shatters properly to burst! Super important!!! If you can interrupt the Thief in Black Powder, especially towards the end, they most likely won’t be able to Heartseeker out for stealth. If you actually interrupt the Heartseeker, they definitely won’t be able to recast it before the powder disappears. When they stealth, constantly turn your character in different directions, like 90 degrees or more, that way it’s slightly harder for them to get a backstab off. Position yourself against a wall or against an edge, or up against a clone like I’ve mentioned before.

If they are s/d spec (hard)

If you are dueling them in a server, I find my best results are Staff/GS with a lot of kiting in staff.

You can Phase Retreat right when they port to you, but you will most likely lose because they

can always get away.

If it's a duel and you are running Sword/X, take Blade Training instead of Far-Reaching

Manipulations.

If it's a tournament, you'll have to use Blinks and get peels from teammates.

There are multiple Blink locations: Above keep on Niflhel, on top of some of the cliff terrain on

Legacy, some Clock Tower places on Kyhlo where the thieves can teleport to you with

Infiltrator's Strike. Use these spots.

If you have to 1v1 them:

Use your Illusionary Leap and kite towards where they used Infiltrator's Strike from,

When they teleport to you swap to your clone. This will help you keep distance and

make them blow more initiative on getting to you.

Once you get to where they are Infiltrator's Striking from, you can begin Shattering

hardcore.

Remember to Shatter during the window after they use Infiltrator's Strike and

before/during Larcenous Strike. They often dodge after Flanking Strike though, so switch

it up.

If they port to you, use Phase Retreat to kite/get away.

What to watch out for!!!

There is a bug where the Thief can jump/use sword port 2 at the same time and they will

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port to you with a ring where they ported from, but when they use Infiltrator’s Return it

will not return them to that spot. If you notice they are doing this, don’t try to kite to their

ring as they will just kite you.

If they are s/p pistol whip (Extremely hard)

You most likely lose this matchup hands down.

At this point I would start implementing strategies to run away and get back to your team.

Once again try to make your way towards their Shadow Return location. Keep moving, and

anticipate when to dodge roll.

Phase Retreat away if they port to you.

They will most likely precast and port into you, so if you can see them, watch their animations,

you might be able to dodge as they port in.

Protips:

If you see the Infiltrator's Signet icon popup in midair, while they are stealthed, that

means they just teleported to you, dodge!

If they just opened on you with a Backstab full combo, run! You won't win if they then just

shotgun you with short bow (it instantly will destroy your clones).

If they Heartseeker you, just dodge and Blink away or use Blurred Frenzy.

A Thief Heartseekering into you is almost a blessing in disguise, Free Mind wracks to the

face if you have it up!

Pay attention to your Chaos Armor Blinds, you might blind their Steal!

Illusionary Leap has 2 leaps. The second Leap will go towards where the Thief is, even if

they are stealthed. If you happen to see what kind of stealth they use you can know if

they are in front of you stealthed and you can still Blurred Frenzy > Shatter them.

If you cast your Warden and they stealth while it is casting, the Warden will spawn on

where they are currently stealthed. This is helpful for knowing if they Blinked somewhere

or just where they are in general. If it spawns next to you, you know they're there, dodge!

If they shadow refuge, you can Pull or Push them out of it, instantly revealing them. This

isn't super reliable in higher tier play as Thieves will either use steal to you and use the

stability for Shadow Refuge, dodge/position correctly inside of it, or if they are s/d they

can use Basilisk Venom to get stability. Worth a try though!

It's hard if you have staff because as soon as you swap to staff they will shadow refuge

and you can't get them out (unless you are taking Confounding Suggestions, but even

still, they might just sit in it and not cast). So just try to play around aegis + dodges +

protection and tons of kiting in and around LoS/Phase Retreat locations while letting

your clones do some work. If you do choose to take Mirror Images, you can Mirror

Images + Shatter as soon as they open on you to counter.

You can always slap a Chaos Storm down on their Shadow Refuge just for a bit of extra

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pressure.

If they Shadow Refuge and you are casting Phantasmal Warden, it will spawn where

they are, so you could potentially Shatter there (only the Illusionary Persona part of the

Shatter would hit) and then Pull, or do some damage. This is also useful because if the

phantasm spawns on you then you’ll know you’re about to get Backstabbed!

In addition, being able to spawn a clone through dodging means you are in combat with

enemies nearby – so if a Thief is stealthed and you’re not sure how close he is, try

dodging for a clone if you have the endurance to spare, and if it doesn’t spawn, he

probably rotated out.

Down fight against a Thief:

They will most likely port away from your rogue.

If you see them stealth, use your stealth too so that they potentially don’t hit you with

their downstate stealth opener which will put poison on you.

Just dps!

Usually you will lose, since their downstate auto bounces, and they can avoid your

Rogue.

Necromancer

Terror Condi (medium-hard)

If you run Mantra of Resolve, this matchup because medium or maybe even easy-medium.

Dodge-Daze to proc Reaper’s Protection and not get hit. (Or just Daze from range).

Be really careful of conditions and consider covering your Mass Invis with a quick Distortion or

Pull so you don’t get CC interrupted.

If they Plague or use Lich Form, Shatter off stability and CC accordingly. If you are running Moa,

you can just Moa them immediately. (Same goes any transform)

Necros have a pretty easy to see heal, if they don’t have spectral walk or wurm up, you should

try to interrupt it!

Dodge into marks to negate them.

If you have marks on the other end up your Portal:

1. Dodge into the portal is the best, you will have the dodge frames on the other side.

2. Blurred Frenzy – cancel into the portal. You can preserve the cooldown and pop the

marks.

3. Distortion.

4. Be careful though as Fear mark can still hit you through Blurred Frenzy!

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This matchup is pretty straight forward, just do a lot of damage! You're basically racing against

your health pool running out.

Keep your distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just get away from them a lot. Also if you are line of sighting,

stay away from the wall slightly so that they can’t lay marks down or the dagger AoEs and hit

you.

When you seem them take staff out, get ready to anticipate/randomly dodge marks when they

cast, or outrange them.

A lot of pressure is the solution to this matchup, in addition to keeping your distance. Use your

Staff/GS Range to your advantage.

If you are using staff and they fear you in Deathshroud followed by their teleport Dark Path, you

can use Phase Retreat to make it hit your clone instead of you. Alternatively you can de-target

and Phase Retreat instantly – this will put you behind them and it can fizzle their ability.

If you know it’s the time in your rotation to use Mass Invisibility, look for an opportunity to

precast it while they use deathshroud 5, so you can proc Lyssa runes and instantly cleanse the

immobilize. Or Cleanse with Mantra of Resolve!

Power

If the Necromancer is power spec with dagger, you will most likely need to blow a cooldown if

they immobilize you. Moa Lich, stay out of wells. Do damage!

If they pop Lich, be aware that they can auto attack behind them, so they can actually kite you

and auto backwards. Don’t get baited/kited!

Their Deathsthroud autos will hit you SO hard, also if you get hit while below 50% health, Spinal

Shivers will proc and do a lot of damage.

Basically you want to try to interrupt/line of sight Deathshroud (same goes for Lich)

Down fight against a Necromancer:

They siphon your life, you will probably lose.

Try to stealth between their channels, since if they begin the channel on you, it will go

through your stealth.

Just dps!

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Elementalist

(medium-hard, is closer to 50/50, maybe like 60/40 in their favor if they are going Fresh

Air spike)

D/D

Save your Blink for when you get knocked down. Don't Blink too early as they can Flash and

follow your Blink with Flash. You will be kiting around a lot. Use Blink spots to your advantage.

Watch their cooldowns and try to burst them when they are out of water.

Be careful when they swap fire. Burning Speed has evade frames now so you just need to

avoid it or mitigate it.

You will want to kite d/d ele a lot. Stay away from their burn ring so they don’t immobilize you in

it. Also every time you pass through the ring, it will burn you, so avoid!

If they Ride the Lightning into you, that's free damage on your part since they are basically CCd.

Usually I'll just Mirror Blade dodge roll Mind Wrack their face. Can over half health eles if they

Ride the Lightning into you. (This isn’t always possible since usually they RTL to gap close and

you won’t be facing them)

You should be able to dodge their earth knockdown.

Run away from Shocking Aura. Lightning auto attacks do a lot of damage. Also the Shocking

Aura will interrupt your Berserker as it tries to spin into them. It will also interrupt your Blurred

Frenzy.

Try to heal with 3 clones all the time so you can sustain.

Mantra of Resolve helps this matchup a lot since the main reason you die is from taking too

much burn damage.

S/F

If they are s/f, you will have to try to anticipate their burst since it is instant.

S/f is really hard to beat off-point since you can’t really line of sight their instant burst until you

are ready.

If you get blinded, use a Shatter like I mentioned in the quick tips to get rid of it quickly.

Burst as often as possible.

If they are running Focus offhand, watch for invulns and use Illusionary Leap/Immobilize as bait.

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My solo queue lockdown spec does pretty well against s/f ele.

Down fight against an Elementalist:

Dps them.

Try to anticipate their 3 cast, and stealth before the channel begins. If the channel

begins before you stealth, it will follow you.

You will probably lose if they use their 3 on you.

If they Mist Form away, you might resurrect first, but their team mate could resurrect

them, or they could go onto the point.

Engineer

Rifle Celestial is EASY

Pistol/Pistol or Shield is easy-medium

For Rifle Celestial, all you have to do is keep your range, and you can dodge nades and trade

more damage back to them. If they line of sight, you will have to go in closer which is what they

want. Just be careful of Blunderbuss and nades through walls, stealth pulls (be ready to

stunbreak), blink/phase/distort away from Slick Shoes, and remember you can knock them back

through walls so you get more distance between you and them when you come back in line of

sight.

If they are a condition spec like Pistol/Pistol or Pistol/Shield:

Try to avoid taking the condi damage. Dodge the poison etc.

Burst hard and often, but keep some distance. Meaning go in and do damage, then look

for some line of sight.

If they are running Elixir R, Pull/Push them out of it before they go down, or stop

attacking.

Stay out of red rings etc.

Often Mesmer’s don't use Distortion against condis because they don't really know when

to use it and they're constantly getting lower. Make sure to use it early if you have

Illusionary Invigoration If you know the reset isn't up, try to anticipate burst or use it to

pressure them when they are defensive like in a Big Bomb or Smoke Bomb. Since you

know they might be vulnerable then.

Use Mantra of Resolve to cleanse Burn/Poison from nades/Pistol attacks (like pistol

offhand burn)

If they are running bomb nades, just keep harassing them at range, they will have to get off of

the point or find some LoS.

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If they are attempting to stealth with a Smoke Bomb, spawn a phantasm or dodge into the

smoke bomb. The damage they do to your phantasm will reveal them.

When stomping, you can use your clone to body block the projectile. You can also body block

for allies who are stomping.

If they are HGH, just kite/stay at range and you should be fine.

If they are rifle burst, be really careful in close range. If they knock you down, prepare to Blink or

Distortion.

Also if they are rifle, you can watch for an opportunity to precast your Mass Invisibility to proc

Lyssa runes and cleanse their immobilize.

If they are running rifle and you are running staff, you can Phase Retreat to get them to blow the

net immobilize on your clone.

If they are condi/utility, burst often and get out to avoid condis.

Try dodging backwards when they swap into pistol, you may be able to proc their burning trait

on your clone. Phase Retreat works here too.

Mostly I just wanted to go over common builds that you find in sPvP and tPvP. If there is a build

I didn’t mention here, a lot of the same logic applies. For example timing your Lyssa cleanse

against condi specs, keeping damage up and interrupting heals on tankier classes etc.

You should mostly always be able to avoid nades, especially with traveler!

Down fight against an Engineer:

Try not to go down near them. If they are able to hit you with their 3 ability, you will take

a lot of damage and be CCd, further reducing your auto attacking damage.

They will probably be able to bomb back your rogue, although it might not die.

They will put conditions on you with their auto attacks. Namely Bleeding and Weakness.

If they are condition, you will probably lose. Your damage will be cut, and they will be

doing extra to you.

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Guardian

Bunker

You will kill them eventually. Just optimize your rotations and Shatter their stability.

To neutralize them quickly, you will want to put down your Pull, wait for a dodge, make sure you

have Shattered stability, or wait until right before you Pull to Shatter stability, then Pull them. If

you can get them in a good position to Pull (which normally they will go to the farthest away

point from the Pull), maybe through dps pressure, then you can get a good amount of the

neutralize underway.

Same goes for the Push.

Between just the Push and Pull, you should be able to fully neutralize them.

If not, just keep dpsing and try again when the Push and Pull come up again.

If you have Staff it can be hard to neutralize a guardian if they dodge the mage strike and have

stability for your Chaos Storm. Basically try interrupting their Empower, Mirror Blade while they

heal into combos, and bait out dodges. You don’t want to blow damage into their dodges!

DPS with Greatsword

This is often times really hard, and potentially one of the hardest matchups, IF you don’t have

staff. The Greatsword will blend your clones, and they have many gap closers to match you.

If you do have staff, this matchup is actually quite winnable, I would say even medium difficulty.

Basically you just distort their burst, phase their gap closers, and Cry of Frustration/Chaos

Storm/Staff auto their melee pressure.

Just try to land all of your Shatters and look for line of sight/Blink locations.

DPS with Hammer

Hammer has much easier tells, you should be able to dodge most of the abilities. If they precast

ring and teleport to you. You can Distortion and walk out, or just damage them. If you walk to

one side of the ring and dodge all the way across and get the full diameter, you will be able to

dodge and not get knocked down.

Zealots Fire burst

Be really careful when they have the Zealot’s Fire buff on them and prepare to dodge.

You can actually Phase Retreat and the Zealot’s Fire will hit that clone.

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This is usually pretty squishy so just keep dpsing!

Downed fight against a Guardian:

You will most likely lose.

Their AoE kills your Illusions if you have any that are meleeing them, and their AoE also

gives them a lot of health in down state.

Your best chance is if you can summon ranged phantasms before you go down.

Unfortunately the only ranged pets we have as this spec are just greatsword clones.

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3.11 - Bindings and Settings

My bindings aren’t perfect, but they work to the point where the amount of finger movement is

negligible relative to a potentially more optimized setup.

I have a Razer Naga mouse as well, so many of my bindings are on there.

I unbound turn left and right, and made Strafe Left A and Strafe Right D.

It’s extremely important to not back pedal or “s” key. You are effectively crippling yourself.

Instead, strafe at an angle where you can still attack your target. Some people argue that you

do need to back pedal sometimes. That may be true, so I have Move Backwards bound to 12 on

my Naga (and not S), but I don’t think you’ll ever see footage of me actually back pedaling.

Once you get used to the range of your targeted spells, I think Instant Ground Targeting is

better.

Shatters: QERT in a row respective to Shatters.

Weapons: 1-5

Utilities: XCV

Heal: Naga 4

Auto attack also bound to: Naga 1

Elite: Naga 3

Take Target: Naga 5

About Face: Naga 7

Auto Run: Naga 10

Stow Weapon: Naga 11

Use/Action: F

Look Behind: Naga 8

Dodge: Shift - This is important! Don’t use double tap to dodge. One key is better!

Noncombat bindings (like opening character panel etc) are different but I won’t list those.

Weapon Swap: Tilde (default)

Protips for About Face:

You must have Free Camera Enabled for the left click trick. If not, your left click will assign the

same rules to your camera as right click does even with Free Camera on. (Free Camera only

affects left click)

If you left click (don’t hold, just click - basically as long as you release left mouse before you try

to About Face): Your About Faces will cause your character to turn towards your camera. This

is handy for Phase Retreating because since using Phase retreat always resets your camera to

behind your character, if you left click, About Face > Phase Retreat > About Face, you can

perfectly Phase Retreat in a straight line without worrying about pressing About Face mid turn

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and changing your trajectory. Once the maneuver has been completed, just right click and your

camera will reset behind you as long as you are still running.

If you right click (just click again, even in place without dragging), your camera will follow your

character as you About Face. This method requires much more precision because if you About

Face while you are About Facing (spamming the key), you won’t do a perfect 180, you will get

lost in the other angles. The benefit to this version is you don’t need to right click to reset your

camera after the maneuver is completed, but it’s less reliable, especially if you are spamming

the About Face key.

Side Note: If you are having trouble getting consistent 180 camera turns while trying to Phase

Retreat, one thing I’ve learned is that the ending of Phase Retreat will do a quick reset of your

camera to be behind your character at the end of the spell. This means that if you are using the

right click method, wait until the spell is completely over before you try to turn again, otherwise

you might end up trying to spam it and your camera will be sideways (or somewhere else

between the perfect 180). Being patient doesn’t really lose you any ground at all.

Below are my game settings:

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3.12 - Weapon Rotations

This part might be confusing, so I’ll try to have video links to everything.

First of all, don't spam cooldowns back to back all at once. It's good if you want high damage,

but to maximize your effectiveness, you want to try to line up abilities when they can be used

offensively and defensively at the same time. Mostly this doesn't apply if you are using

Greatsword at range, but a good thing to keep in mind.

Be patient! Sometimes you want to bait and wait before you Shatter. You are a burst class; don't

waste it on enemy damage avoidance or mitigation.

It is extremely common for people to dodge after Berserker, coming out of your immobilize, and

as you send out your leap. When I say bait, these are examples of abilities to use that if you

then wait just a second for the dodge, you can land clean damage on the enemy afterwards.

People also dodge out of Chaos Storm, so just watch for potential places where you can bait

people into losing scenarios.

As an example: Decoy > GS4 > wait for the dodge > time it so that you GS2 + dodge roll or

Mind Stab + Mind Wrack. (I will use Illusionary Leap/Swap as the main bait examples)

These as well as the following are just general guidelines for combos that are meant to help you

see skill flow, of course you will be improvising as well.

Sword / Focus

One Protip for sword/focus is that you can use Illusionary Leap just before dodging, and they

can basically happen at the same time. So in the same ability you can spawn 2 clones. Just

another part of minimizing time and maximizing damage!

Combo 1:

1. Lay down Temporal Curtain

2. Walk through the curtain (optional)

3. Cast Warden but before it finishes!

4. Use the curtain to Pull about halfway through the Warden cast.

5. Illusionary Leap > Blurred Frenzy/Shatter (the Shatter will be Cry of Frustration if you are

coming from GS) (also skip to this step if you are doing the combo from GS to S/F and

you want quick damage/chasing clone/stun break to be ready).

Example 0:53

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Combo 2:

1. Use Temporal Curtain and Pull immediately.

2. Illusionary Leap in to Blurred Frenzy/Shatter!

Combo 3:

1. Illusionary Leap into a disengage/bait.

2. Swap if there is an opportunity and Shatter!

Combo 4:

3. Illusionary Leap into Blurred Frenzy/Shatter!

1:23

Remember, if your Leap and Blurred Frenzy are down, you can still just do a Curtain into

Warden followed by some auto attacks. The combos I list aren’t meant to be set up and followed

all the time, they are meant to guide and add structure.

Greatsword

I usually like to start with Phantasmal Berserker, but if you think you’ll be in a situation where the

target will be walking through you or going outside your Mirror Blade cone (like maybe a Thief),

then start with Mirror Blade. That way you can cast Phantasmal Berserker without the cone

requirements.

Combo 1:

1. Phantasmal Berserker

2. Mirror Blade (You can swap order of use on 1 and 2 here)

4. Using these two abilities, usually one will land, or you will Pull 2 dodges.

3. Mind Stab > with stow weapon or swap weapon to cancel after animation

4. Mind wrack!

It's okay to Shatter with 2 clones as the damage is still plenty enough to pressure. Especially

since if you are standing in a place where your clones won't be able to walk to the target.

Example 1:15

Combo 2:

3. Throw/precast Mirror Blade, then Blink into them, dodge roll and Mind Wrack.

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Both Weapon Sets

(for max dps and synergy)

There are 2 combos that use both weapon sets, each one going from one set to the other.

Sword to GS Combo Example (1:02)

GS to Sword Combo Example (with some extra) (1:21)

Important insight about combos starting in Sword

Your curtain (Push and Pull), and the leap before it hits the target, will not put you in combat.

Therefore, if you are using dodging to spawn clones, check to see if you are in combat first. I

note this in Diagram 2 where I note that you do not enter combat until your leap clone hits your

target. This is important because many times as I noted just previously, dodging with your leap

is common to maximize damage potential per time.

If you are stealthed starting in Sword

Gaining combat won’t unstealth you, only damage. This means you could do almost the entire

Sword - GS combo and remain stealthed, then just Shatter as you come out of stealth. You can

also use Diversion in stealth to daze people and you won’t be revealed. 0:39

Important tip about Illusionary Leap (partially redundant)

You can cast it and almost immediately dodge, in addition to using stow weapon for the

cooldown reduction. This allows you to basically spawn two clones almost immediately. So

when I use Illusionary Leap in many of my combos I will dodge as I send the Leap out. It doesn’t

matter where you dodge to either since you will just be swapping with the clone anyway. This

can lead to baiting people into thinking you’re going a different direction. 1:27 example of rolling

past enemy to spawn a clone then swapping back.

Combo 1:

1. Greatsword Combo 1

2. Swap

3. Sword combo 1, 2, or 4 (I usually do 4, since curtain is good to save for team synergy)

4. Backout, you can potentially go back in for combo Illusionary Leap > Blurred

Frenzy/Shatter combo again.

5. Swap back to Greatsword!

Combo 2:

1. Greatsword combo 1

2. Use your Mind Stab but stun break the ending animation with Blink, onto the enemy.

3. Dodge roll into Mind Wrack

4. Sword Combo 4

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5. Cry of Frustration.

With this combo, make sure to splice in interrupts and dodges where needed. Keep in mind that

Blink is your out since you are running Greatsword. Only use this combo if you REALLY need

to, or to show off.

Combo 3:

1. Sword Combo 3.

2. Wait to swap, then swap to immobilize and dodge roll away or dodge and Mind Wrack

while walking away.

3. Swap to Greatsword and summon phantasm while walking away, make sure your

camera is facing them though so you can dodge if you need!

4. Turn and Mirror Blade.

3. and/or

4. Precast Illusionary Wave then turn quickly and use it.

This is good if you already did Sword combo 1 or 2 and you are waiting for the second burst

before swapping back to Greatsword.

Combo 4 (My absolute favorite <3):

1. Illusionary Leap

2. Phantasmal Warden

3. The second the Warden finishes -> leap swap + diversion very briefly after (so they are

immobilized and dazed, with the swap daze walking in)

4. Swap to GS as soon as possible after you leap swap

5. GS 4

6. GS 2

7. Mind Wrack + Mind Stab + stow weapon for animation cancel.

If your second daze doesn’t come in, you might have to skip GS 4 after the weapon swap.

If you are maximizing dps, you will mostly be using abilities when they come up, and swapping

whenever you can.

If you are setting up combos though, sometimes you will wait.

For example one of my favorite rotations to do against Shatter mes is to do my GS 1 combo,

swap S/F, do step 5 of sword combo 1, then Decoy, do Pull -> Warden, but stay in sword. Then

if they Leap to me I can Blurred Frenzy followed by a Leap into them which I can then transition

into my favorite GS/SF mixed combo (4)!

General skill priority:

GS: 2>4>5*>3>1

SF: 2≥3≥4>5>1

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*Depends if the interrupt is important! Like hitting a Thief out of a Shadow Refuge, or helping

secure a stomp etc.

Combo 5:

1. GS 2:

2. Dodge immediately or time it so you are dodging an ability. Either way you will want to

dodge in less than or equal to the time it takes for the Mirror Blade to hit the target.

3. Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration (can do it when mirror blade hits, or at a time when you

know you can land the damage)

4. Swap weapon

5. Dodge/Cast Illusionary Leap

6. Swap and Blurred Frenzy

7. Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration

This one is really basic. You would use this if you had at least 50% endurance, and you were

only to use 2 in GS and 2 / 3 in SF (maybe because the other abilities were on CD).

Mind Wrack takes priority in terms of having the opportunity to land it over Cry of Frustration, so

choose at which point to use it. Also remember to interrupt with Diversion at any point in time.

Staff

The staff combos are really simple as each ability is pretty independent. You can cast Chaos

Storm, Chaos Armor, and the Phantasmal Warlock, and then swap to GS and have each ability

still persisting. It’s a defensive fire and forget weapon set that basically is just extra steroids for

kiting and utility.

Combo 1:

1. Phantasmal Warlock

2. Wait for the attack to hit

3. Dodge roll > Mind Wrack on them!

Combo 2:

1. Phantasmal Warlock

2. Chaos Storm

3. Swap to GS and do combo!

Combo3 (kind of just a mix of things):

1. Chaos Storm + Cry of Frustration

2. Auto

At this point you could Phase -> GS 2 and then do the GS combos. Just mess around with

it!

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Flowcharts

I have made some flowcharts below to provide visual help and structure some mixed combos

for you. ^_^

These flowcharts are for the old S/F GS spec. A lot of the knowledge is still good/useful

but just remember Staff is pretty much the way to go now, plus dazes are shorter than

when I did the flowcharts because of paralyzation sigil nerf. Generally with S/F now you

will immob into GS 2, not 4 first.

Remember that mostly everything should flow together. You will always be using abilities,

positioning yourself optimally (like heading for line of sight if you are getting low on CDs),

picking your targets, etc.

Explanation about plus (+) symbols in the diagrams. They are meant to guide you on how soon

and what are some good points you can Shatter at, as well as that you can press the Shatters

keys together with others keys at the same time. If you have all the clones out that you are

going to Shatter in a particular situation, you could potentially press one key before the other

key in order to maximize your damage.

For example in Diagram 1 below, I have a + between GS 3 (Stow Weapon) and Mind Wrack. If

you are standing at 900 range and throw a GS 2, most likely you’ll be able to GS 3 while GS 2 is

still in the air. This means that you could potentially get the damage from the GS 3 off before

using Mind Wrack with the clone that spawns from the GS 2 hitting its target. If you are truly

optimizing damage, you look for things like this around the pluses.

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3.13 - Being One With Your Clones

The number one, single best thing I love about the Mesmer class compared to many other

classes I’ve played in many other games is that you can confuse people. Even in high tier play!

Here I will give you some examples of how it can happen and things you can do to increase the

confusion.

Reminder

Clones:

Never cast abilities.

Only walk forward

Auto attack slower than real Mesmer’s auto attack

Never dodge roll.

Walk straight then turn then walk straight again then turn in segments.

Clones also typically have less boons than you do, but that’s beside the point here. For this

section we are just trying to learn how to imitate them.

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Stealths and line of sight are your biggest assets for this.

Since clones attack slower than you, it’s hard to imitate your attacking clones. If you want to

imitate using Greatsword, you’ll have to attack once, then de-target the enemy, and retarget to

attack since stowing weapon will give you away. Imitating sword would be much harder since it

is a faster attack animation to begin with, but the same logic applies. Usually though I am found

out before I have that opportunity.

Examples

You are fighting a Thief. You have 3 clones out and yourself. The Thief stealths with a Shadow

Refuge, so you use Mass Invisibility to stealth all of the clones. Your clones will stop moving

because they don’t have a target and you/your clones will unstealth first because Mass Invis is

shorter than Shadow Refuge. You will go and stand near some of your clones with your weapon

drawn so that when you all unstealth, the Thief unless he was paying attention to the exact

positioning of the clones prior to the Mass Invis (which most people don’t do, especially since

the clones could have moved a bit), will have to guess with a backstab, or open with bow

instead (meaning you won’t get Backstabbed). As soon as the Thief unstealths, if the clones are

in range, they will begin running towards the Thief, you should follow suit. The Thief might

realize which one is you based on the fact that you didn’t instantly move towards him, but it’s

still pretty close. But see, you potentially avoided a Backstab simply by standing still! (You could

have just used Mass Invisibility and ran away, but for the sake of the scenario let’s say you had

to stay)

*In order to fake properly you need to have almost no boons, no PvE buffs, or anything that your

clones wouldn’t normally have on their buff bar.

You are fighting a class with a Blink or a movement skill and they went around a corner with it. If

you have clones up that are chasing, just walk with them and turn the corners using the shortest

path like they do (combinations of straight lines usually). This can buy you some time as you get

closer.

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3.14 - Game Theory (Macro vs. Micro and Mind Share)

Guild Wars 2 has what is called Theoretical Complete Solvability. The solution to non-

deterministic gameplay is through optimal statistical calculations.

In high end tournaments, you have almost all of the information about the game (outside of what

the players do during the game), sometimes minus enemy builds. This means at any one point

during the game, you have a lot of information that you can parse through to help narrow down

your “if-then” statements on how you will conduct yourself carrying forward in the match, mostly

depending on what the enemy does. So think about numbers, class matchups, builds, rotations,

take it all in and make the best decision!

Guild Wars 2 openers (The intransitive gametype)

It’s a game of rock-paper-scissors, and we know the solution to this game is a ratio of 1:1:1. You

want to do as many of one thing as you do the others. However! Optimal positioning of

compositions come into play with Guild Wars 2, which is why we do favor certain openers over

others, but don’t stick to just one. This means that you don’t always want to do safe openers,

because then you’ll become predictable. Safe openers may be the statistically superior option,

but being predictable can often be worse than being safe. So sometimes go for an aggressive

strategy opening to push the enemy node!

Some perspective from Ian Schrieber: “Over time, with a sufficiently large and skilled player

base, the things that give an edge (no matter how slight that edge) will rise to the top and

become more common in use. And players will adapt to an environment where the best-of-the-

best is what is seen in competitive play, and players become accustomed to that as the

“standard” cost curve.”

Meta can develop, but it still depends what people actually end up doing. There are better

statistical choices, and worse statistical choices. Some of the worse choices can be higher

reward albeit higher risk. Also certain things that are considered better or worse depend a lot on

playstyle. Unfortunately though in Guild Wars 2, currently it’s not usually the case that a 1st

place winning team will be running something other than a combination of apex builds. That

said, my team does a mix of balanced strategy and high risk high reward. If we mix it up, throw

people off, and capitalize on advantages, we have a higher chance of coming out on top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8

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3.15 - Final Words

Don't spam cooldowns. Just have patience! Play reactively when you need to.

Be nice! Everyone has something to offer. Don't burn bridges for your ego. You'll be surprised

how far being nice and good gets you.

Check yourself! Don’t become an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Remember your positioning!

To reiterate: People always like to say "I play aggressive" or "I play defensive" Those are both

bad. The best way to play is the best way to play. There is always one best thing you can be

doing at all times. Sometimes this means being defensive, sometimes offensive. That said, it's

almost impossible to do so, but that means there is always room for improvement. Small

positional changes, target switches, the way you move your camera etc.

Play the builds and other classes! It's free to make any class and learn their skills. This helped

me a lot in terms of knowing what to look for.

In most cases with Greatsword, you will want to be at max range - out of harm's way and doing

good damage + room to react and kite.

Go over my tips and tricks section again!

Thanks for reading!!

Also if you want to have a laugh, checkout my rap.

I am in the processing of making the second one!

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4 - Donate!

If you would like to donate: Donate here!

You can donate with PayPal or Credit Card.

You could also just send me gold in game if you want!

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5 - Addendum

Some info about the Lockdown solo queue spec I run:

I don’t run Portal because it’s less efficient when people aren’t using it. Plus this allows

me to run Blink, Decoy, and Mantra of Distraction.

A good combo is interrupt > leap immobilize.

People often cast after they dodge, so look for interrupts then!

Speaking of interrupts, it’s extremely important to use your mantra to actually interrupt

the foe every time. You don’t want to miss your interrupt. The only time you would be

blanketing the daze is if you really wanted to cover like an instant cast ability that would

change the outcome of something important.

You get a lot of might from this spec!

Since interrupting people is so important, really focus on waiting for dodges once you lay

down your Temporal Curtain. You can almost always land the pull if you are patient

enough. And on Skyhammer you can just pull/immobilize people into the pits through the

fall plates!

By popular demand, protips in the lockdown vs. lockdown matchup:

Keep casting to a minimum, use things like Mind Stab, Leap, Shatter.

Fake cast to bait mantra use. Basically you want mantra advantage.

Mix in some real casts.

Once their mantra is out, you have crazy advantage.

Remember once they use their mantra, the CD will start, so they could have it up again

and you won't the next time around.

Save distortion for mantra up time.

Basically just comes down to fake casting and landing more interrupts than opponent.

Since the mantra is instant cast, both parties should be able to land both interrupts, so if

you can fake one, you're ahead.

The Interrupt vs. interrupt matchup is very opportunistic, so just be ready when they

decide to go aggressive.

The bottom line: The interrupt spec is good if you don’t need the damage as Shatter, but if you

only have like 2 dps you should probably run regular Shatter. Also you might need to run Portal

instead of like decoy on the interrupt spec. This just means you will need hardcore team peels.

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6 - Changelog (Gross/Poorly Formatted)

Kyhlo portal between side nodes.

GS 5 auto turn when standing still.

"Greatsword Portal Greatsword Portal MVP"

Made Version number internal so external link can stay the same.

Halting strike OR mental torment (instead of of)

Halting strike means chaos storm can zone enemies.

If potential thief nearby, dodge for clones, if clone spawns, thief could still be nearby. If like >10

sec passes.

If taking mantra cleanse, can cleanse for allies and changes many matchups.

Added to and Reorganized matchups with new meta specs.

Added a few quick tips/protips

Changed donation link (way nicer now)

Added services section below.

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7 - Services

Contact me for more details: Supcutie.2538 (in game mail or forums) One hour: $20 - I record our time and send you a private video. Will cater lesson to what you need. One Match reviewed: $15 - I commentate on the footage while watching it, sending you a private video. Longer Video: $1 per minute. Package (one hour and one match reviewed): $30

Video with more info here!