Supcutie's Comprehensive Mesmer Shatter Guide v1.06

Hans Onsum, 1

Supcutie’s

Comprehensive Mesmer

Shatter Guide! This is a pay-what-you-want guide! Pay 0 dollars, 1 dollar, 5, 10, 100 dollars,

whatever you want!

http://www.pitchinbox.com/redirect/5336518254

Hans Onsum, 2

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

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

Distortion

Hans Onsum, 3

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

Raid on the Capricorn

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

Flowcharts

3.13 - Being One With Your Clones

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

3.15 - Final Words

4 - Donate!

Hans Onsum, 4

1 - 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 GS /SF 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.

Hans Onsum, 5

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.

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 faced 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.

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.

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

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

and my Twitter for updates.

Hans Onsum, 6

2 - About the Mesmer Shatter Build

2.1 - Build Summary

Build Editor Link

Shatter spec, Greatsword variation/Sword-Focus!

20 I VII

20 I X

0

0

30 III VI XI

Sword (Energy)

Focus (Force)

Greatsword (Energy)

6 Lyssa Runes - Remember to put one on your underwater helm too!

Berserker's Amulet

Ether Feast, Portal, Blink, Illusion of Life/Decoy/Null Field, Mass Invisibility

2.2 - Variations

Staff version of Shatter

Confounding spec with Mantras I've been testing

Confounding spec with Illusions instead of Inspiration

Hans Onsum, 7

2.3 - Overview

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, illusion of life, and moa that are up,

you are almost always the best target for the other team. 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.

This build has a number of interrupts:

Diversion (Which could hit up to 4 times, and CD resets at 50% health on a 60 second

cooldown)

Temporal Curtain

Illusionary Wave

Moa

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, typically I'll Pull first so

that I can remain in my safe areas, then I'll spawn clones and daze if need be. If the enemies

have stability I'll probably go down into the fray for a full Shatter to rip boons and then daze or

Push/Pull. More on this later as well.

Hans Onsum, 8

2.4 - Pros and Cons

Pros:

High burst damage.

Team Utility (Portal, rez, Moa, Mass Invis for quick burst combos/Lyssa

cleanse/deaggro).

On demand interrupts.

You can peel for team mates with damage and cc

Pretty good 1v1.

Can neutralize guardians quite quickly. 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:

Vulnerable to condition damage without cleanses from allies/Lyssa.

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 bad without Portal. (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!

2.5 - Sigils

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

Focus: Sigil of Superior Force (5% damage - only get it when you're using this weapon set)

Greatsword: Energy! (50% endurance on weapon swap)

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

Greatsword and sword or focus as the Shatter spec. Clone on dodge is a cornerstone of this

spec and many other Mesmer specs as well.

I take Sigil of Superior Accuracy because it is a flat stat. Sigil of Energy has a 10 second internal

cooldown which is shared by other sigils with a cooldown. This means for example that if I were

to take fire or air and one of them procced, I wouldn't be able to get the energy from my energy

Hans Onsum, 9

runes when I swapped for some seconds. You always want that endurance!!

5% more damage turns out to be slightly better than 5% crit, but the 5% crit will net you slightly

more vigor. (Usually never a problem though)

2.6 - Amulets

Berserker's Amulet with Berserker's Jewel!

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.

2.7 - Runes

6/6 Lyssa!

Stats:

165 precision - Burst build, more crit is good, gives more vigor up time.

10% condi duration (we don’t care about this)

Gain a random boon for 10 seconds when you heal - Super awesome, can give

protection, aegis, swiftness, etc.

The awesome part! “When you use an elite skill, lose all conditions and gain all boons

for 5 seconds.” Dat condi cleanse so guuud! Also stability is cool.

2.8 - Major Traits

Build Editor Link

Domination

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

This is the Shatter build; Mind Wrack is your bread and butter! You always take this.

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

boons on every enemy you Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration in a team fight is amazingly strong

Hans Onsum, 10

(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 or

Push, 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 -> diversion/curtain Pull 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.

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.

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.

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, he 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

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

Hans Onsum, 11

Powder. If the Thief tries to Heartseeker back through they will be revealed.

Illusions

Compounding Power (III): Do 3% more damage per clone you have out.

This means that 3 clones + you with illusionary persona nets 12% more damage. If I am sitting

above keep and attacking people or waiting a second to Shatter, this is more damage! This

damage also applies to the clones when you Mind Wrack them. It turns out this nets you more

damage overall and even potentially more burst than taking 10% Mind Wrack crit through

Precise Wrack.

Alternatives:

Precise Wrack (I): If you were doing a kiting build where you Shattered a lot but didn't

use too many abilities, I suppose this would be better. Also if you wanted to trade 20%

Mind Wrack damage for Halting Strike then you could take this to make up for it. But

more on that later.

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.

Illusionary Invigoration (VI) (60 second internal CD): Recharge shatter skills below 50%

health.

Resetting Shatters when you take damage below 50% health is almost an auto win in a 1v1 if

it's up and the enemy had just a few cds down to begin with. I've had many many times when I

just used Mind Wrack and it reset, so I get a double Mind Wrack. That damage is crazy!! 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! Also

Hans Onsum, 12

adds 3% damage to Compounding Power.

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 instantly stack 25 vulnerability on someone

with a 3 clones 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: Perma-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, and 5 seconds off of Warden cooldown. This

also means you get 8 seconds off of the cooldown on Decoy, since it summons a clone.

Illusions = phantasms and clones.

Hans Onsum, 13

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!

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

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

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.

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

Sword/Focus and Greatsword!

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!

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!

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

Hans Onsum, 14

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!

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

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

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.

Hans Onsum, 15

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!

Sword/Focus

1. Mind Slash > Mind Gash, Mind spike

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.

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

Hans Onsum, 16

Chaos Armor! 1:51 - 2:07

Immobilize is AoE.

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

died at (you can still swap after the clone 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.

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

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)

Hans Onsum, 17

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!

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!

Weapon Alternatives

Off-hand 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!

Hans Onsum, 18

2.11 - Utility Skills

Heal

Ether Feast!

If you can get a heal off with 3 clones 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.

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 19

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

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).

Hans Onsum, 20

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

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

You should always be taking Portal.

UT2

Blink

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

people back briefly.

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

Hans Onsum, 21

<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!

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 22

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

you!

You will pretty much always take this, especially if you are not pushing far as like a back cap

roamer.

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 resurrect will still

go off.

If you are Pushing far more often, use Decoy instead.

Elite

Mass Invisibility

I now use Mass Invisibility because I like Lyssa too much (The cleanse is extremely crucial

now)!

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 de-aggro, 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.

Hans Onsum, 23

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.

Hans Onsum, 24

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/Illusionary Leap (You can actually shave off around .5 seconds from Illusionary

Leap cooldown by stowing weapon immediately after casting).

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

Dodge! You will have almost permanent vigor + energy runes; many dodges can be

used just to spawn clones.

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 or Temporal Curtain.

Hans Onsum, 25

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.

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 (or

Distortion) while going through to negate them.

You can proc Lyssa by casting your ultimate like Mass Invisibility, then going off of a

jump pad to interrupt your ult, and Lyssa will still proc. There is actually a bug where you

can cause Lyssa to proc and then cancel your Mass Invisibility, but I’m not sure how to

reproduce.

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

must type /sit (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.

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 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.

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

Hans Onsum, 26

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

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”).

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!

Hans Onsum, 27

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 if the Mesmer has Illusionary Persona.

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 as well.

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.

Hans Onsum, 28

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 is Mind Wrack

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

boon stripping fodder.

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.

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, etc..

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.

Use this to strip boons (although if the enemy has stability up, you will want to try to

Shatter that off with Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration first.)

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.

The thing to remember is that on a 60 second cooldown, your Shatters reset when you reach

get hit after you are below 50% health.

Hans Onsum, 29

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.

I will go more in depth about when to use cooldowns when I make my class vs. class guide.

General rule though 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 it’s 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):

3.3 - 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 deagro/reposition when other things are down against others.

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 30

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.

Thief:

Distortion after a Backstab/Steal if you know they are going to shortbow 2 spam you. 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.

Hans Onsum, 31

3.4 - Map Protips!

Watch my Blink spot locations playlist!!

Blink Locations

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.

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 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 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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 32

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.

If you are being harassed on your back line by a Thief or something, remember to call for peels,

or in our case just have an Engi ready to cleave on your body.

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:

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 33

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.

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!

Opening standing near the top bridge on your side gives you good options.

Hans Onsum, 34

Raid on the Capricorn

This map currently isn't in tournament rotation because of water balance, but I will talk about it

briefly.

I generally don't go to the water buff because it is dominated by Rangers, Thieves, and

Warriors.

That said, kiting people into the water can be useful. If you have swiftness, your spear 2 and 4

will make you go farther than normal. Just like a Warrior Charge with swiftness.

I usually ignore the cannon as well, just dodge and call it if people are using it.

Elixir of Heroes on the boat! If you are passing by try to grab one of these. It gives you a few

seconds of invulnerability and can catch people off guard.

You can Portal from the closest two sides of the side nodes to each other. I might open with a

Portal on close node or above the ship and then push far node.

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 and 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.

Example (0:34)

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!

Hans Onsum, 35

3.5 - Water Combat!

(Placed after the maps section because it relates to Capricorn only is sPvP and tPVP.)

Semi useful for Mesmer. 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, then go into the water, you can open your Portal, start casting

Vortex, then take the Portal right as Vortex finishes, and it will spawn on the other side, Pulling

everyone on the point in, doing damage, and it acts as an Ethereal Field so you can Leap

through it for Chaos Armor.

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.

No prep other than that!

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.

Watch for when allies are getting low so you can peel/quickly begin manually

resurrecting/Illusion of Life/Portal/Mass Invis them.

Hans Onsum, 36

Listen to your team mates! This is a big one, many times you get caught up in calling things out

and forget to listen.

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, so then I can just Pull him

off of a point and we can immobilize him, making his point presence almost zero.

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.

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.

If you have allies fighting at side nodes, or near enemy base, make sure to call out if you killed

one of the enemies in a team fight somewhere else. If not that enemy might respawn at your

teammate won’t be prepared.

Hans Onsum, 37

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.

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. Cleave the body with damage.

3. Daze people around the body

4. Remove boons/stability so you can daze and CC.

5. Push people off of the body.

6. Moa someone like the guardian.

7. Stomp with Distortion.

8. 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.

Be careful they don't get Illusion of Life resurrected or Signet of Undeath resurrected..

If you are stomping a Warrior or Engineer, you can just use your clones to body block the

projectile.

Hans Onsum, 38

Stomping by Class

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

/sit (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 pings you can just wait to use Distortion until

you see the cast animation. Be quick and you should get it!)

Just wait and dodge.

Spawn Warden to absorb projectile.

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.

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.

If they summon their illusion, just dodge if you are low.

If they stealth, the second Mesmer that appears is always the real one.

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.

Hans Onsum, 39

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.

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, or kill the pet to stop it if the pet is

low enough. Otherwise it’s really hard to out damage the resurrection from the pet.

Guardian

Dodge downstate 2.

Distortion it as well. You can react to this one.

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!

Hans Onsum, 40

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 1-7 from the previous list under what to do if an enemy goes down.

4. Illusion of life. Consider Portalling that ally out if they're going to die again or go down

again.

5. Burst an enemy or stomp an enemy. More situational.

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 41

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,

consider keeping your distance so you have enough time to react to the Pin Down arrow. If not

just pressure them really hard in melee range and consider Blinking if you get immobilized.

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. This means they can turn around, go to

walk away, and throw it over their shoulder. So just keep your eyes peeled!

The hard part of the warrior matchup is actually in the sword/sword mace/shield spec and the

greatsword/longbow spec. If you are on flat ground, you will probably lose to these specs.

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.

Hans Onsum, 42

Ranger

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. This is like a .65 win for you, since they potentially won’t have it up for the next

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

Hans Onsum, 43

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.

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.

Mesmer

(Against GS/SF Even, GS/Staff advantage is with SF)

You should always be able to dodge Illusionary Leap. If you do get immobilized, you will most

likely have to use a defensive cooldown.

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)!

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.

Hans Onsum, 44

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.

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 condi 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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 45

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

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 you lose)

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

Usually I 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.

If they haven't opened on you yet, get ready to Blink away as soon as they open on you.

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.

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

Hans Onsum, 46

bow you.

If they are d/p spec (hard): 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. 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. 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 ebfore.

If they are s/d spec (hard)

If it's a duel, 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!

Hans Onsum, 47

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 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.

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!

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 while letting your clones do some work. If

Hans Onsum, 48

you do choose to take Mirror Images, you can Mirror Images + Shatter as soon as they

open on you to counter.

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!

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

(medium-hard)

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.

Stay out of Wells, and constantly move to avoid aoe.

Necros have a pretty easy to see heal, interrupt it!

Dodge into marks to negate them.

This matchup is pretty straight forward, just do a lot of damage! You're basically racing against

your health pool running out.

If the Necromancer is power spec with dagger, you will most likely need to blow a cooldown if

they immobilize you. Other than that, just do damage!

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 49

If they put Marks on your Portal and you need to go back through, consider going through with

Blurred Frenzy or Distortion. Just be careful, the Necro fear mark can still hit you through

Blurred Frenzy.

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.

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!

Elementalist

(medium-hard, is closer to 50/50, maybe like 60/40 in their favor if they are going Fresh

Air spike)

Save your Blink for when you get knocked down. Don't Blink too early if they are d/d, 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.

If they are d/d be really careful when they swap fire.

If they are s/d, you will have to try to anticipate their burst since it is instant.

Try to heal with 3 clones all the time so you can live.

S/d 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 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.

Hans Onsum, 50

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.

If they are running Focus offhand, watch for invulns and use Illusionary Leap/Immobilize as bait.

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

(medium-hard)

If they are a condition spec:

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 since it can reset!

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 51

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hans Onsum, 52

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.

DPS with Greatsword

This is often times really hard, and possibly one of the hardest matchups for Mesmer. The

Greatsword will blend your clones, and they have many gap closers to match you.

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.

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.

First person to send me mail in game with the phrase “Environment defines action” gets a gift!

(If you don’t get a reply, someone else got it).

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.

Hans Onsum, 53

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 11 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

Stow Weapon: Naga 10

Use/Action: F

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

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

Hans Onsum, 54

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:

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.

Hans Onsum, 55

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

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.

Hans Onsum, 56

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.

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

Hans Onsum, 57

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

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.

Hans Onsum, 58

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

*Depends if the interrupt is important! Like hitting a Thief out of a Shadow Refuge, or helping

secure a stomp etc.

Hans Onsum, 59

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.

Flowcharts

I have made some flowcharts below to provide visual help and structure some mixed combos

for you. ^_^

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.

Hans Onsum, 60

Hans Onsum, 61

Hans Onsum, 62

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.

Stealths and line of sight are your biggest assets for this.

Hans Onsum, 63

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 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)

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.

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

Hans Onsum, 64

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 thought 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

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.

Hans Onsum, 65

Go over my tips and tricks section again!

Thanks for reading!!

Hans Onsum, 66

4 - Donate!

If you would like to donate: http://www.pitchinbox.com/redirect/5336518254

It will open up a gateway page where you just enter name and amount, then it will take you to

PayPal!