Supcuties

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

Version 2.20

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Table of Contents
Click any section name to jump to that topic.
Table of Contents
1 - Introduction
1.1 - About Me
1.2 - Contact me!
1.3 - My builds
1.4 - Video Resources
2 - About the Mesmer Shatter Build
2.1 - Build Summary
2.2 - Variations
2.3 - Overview
2.4 - Pros and Cons
2.5 - Sigils
2.6 - Amulets
2.7 - Runes
2.8 - Major Traits
Domination
Dueling
Illusions
2.9 - Minor traits
Domination
Dueling
Illusions
2.10 - Weapons and Weapon Skills
Greatsword
Sword/Focus
Staff
Weapon Alternatives
2.11 - Utility Skills
Heal
UT1
UT2
UT3
Elite
3 - Using the Mesmer Shatter Build
3.1 - Quick Tips
3.2 - Shatters
Mind Wrack
Cry of Frustration
Diversion

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Distortion
3.3 - Shatter Tips for Specific Professions
3.4 - Map Protips!
Forest of Niflhel
Legacy of the Foefire
Battle of Kyhlo
Spirit Watch
Temple of the Silent Storm
Courtyard
Skyhammer
3.5 - Water Combat!
3.6 - Pre-game Prep
3.7 - Combat Tips
3.8 - Downed Enemies
Stomping by Class
3.9 - Downed Allies
3.10 - Class-Specific Matchups
Warrior
Ranger
Mesmer
Thief (and Dealing with Stealth)
Necromancer
Elementalist
Engineer
Guardian
3.11 - Bindings and Settings
3.12 - Weapon Rotations
Sword / Focus
Greatsword
Both Weapon Sets
Staff
Flowcharts
3.13 - Being One With Your Clones
3.14 - Game Theory (Macro vs. Micro and Mind Share)
3.15 - Final Words
4 - Donate!
5 - Addendum
6 - Changelog (Gross/Poorly Formatted)
7 - Services

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Introduction

Scientia Potentia est

Knowledge is Power
Theres a thought: Divulge your secrets and with them you give away your advantage. Welp, I
sure threw that out the window with this guide!
This guide has all of my knowledge about competitive and noncompetitive
Greatsword/Sword/Focus/Staff Shatter Mesmer in Guild Wars 2, as well as some additional
insights on game theory and how to be a good person. I want to help make the community as
good as it can be and I believe that competition is good!
This guide will offer some beginner help but will mainly focus on intermediate to advanced tips,
tricks, and strategies. You will find that there are many general tips and tricks as well. These are
still part of your Mesmer repertoire and I think its 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 thats where my guide comes in. I purposely didnt put into my guide
information that you can find on the wiki and in Lyssas Grimoire so that this guide can be
focused on advanced tips, tricks, and strategies etc.
If you like what you read/see in my guide, consider donating! Link is at the top and bottom! I will
be continuing to update the guide, keeping it new with the meta, builds, maps, etc.

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1.1 - About Me
I've always been a fan of fast paced highly technical games. This includes Super Smash
Brothers Melee, which I played competitively and I eventually went to MLG in Seattle for it. I
also played a game called Earth's Special Forces which was a Dragonball Z mod of half-life and
was among the top players in the community. I played WoW competitively as well and my team
climbed into the 2500s before I quit. Currently I am Platinum in League of Legends and aiming
for Diamond by the end of the season!
I also played Forza 4 pretty competitively and was in the top 1% of drifting, my racing clan being
on the top 20 in the world. (Not super fast paced but decently technical)
In Guild Wars 2 I have held the #1 spot on the NA leaderboard in Team Queue and Solo
Queue, and my team while active held 1-5 on the leaderboard for a long time. My team was
sponsored by Absolute Legends for a while but then we took a hiatus.
Tournament placements:
1st MMORPG Invitational
1st Guild Wars 2 Community Pro Invitational
1st All Season of Mist League (Until things fell apart at the end )
1st Community Profession tournament 2 Guiding 5 Mesmer players to victory
2nd Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars Tournament (Anet flew me to Cologne Germany for
Gamescom! Thanks for your votes everyone!!!)
2nd WTS China Qualifiers
2nd Tournament of Legends
2nd Guild Wars 2 NA PAX Regionals
3rd Master of the Mists
3rd ESL 3 times.
1st Mistpedia 2 times
1st place in 15+ 2v2 tournaments
2nd place in 10+ 2v2 tournaments

In gaming and life I like to go by the philosophy that you should aim for value, and success will
come. Also it's important to always be kind and to not look down on people.
Everyone you ever meet knows something you dont. - Bill Nye.

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1.2 - Contact me!

Supcutie.2538
https://twitter.com/HansOnsum
http://www.twitch.tv/hansawesome
www.youtube.com/user/SupcutieTheRed

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

1.4 - Video Resources

My Twitch
My Youtube
Blink Spot Locations
My Montage (Montage)
Shatter vs. Shatter Guide
Phase Retreat Locations (Sensotix Phase locations)
Reference Video with some rotations (linked to later in the guide)
and my Twitter for updates.

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2 - About the Mesmer Shatter Build

2.1 - Build Summary
Build Editor Link
Shatter spec, Greatsword/Sword-Focus and I am now adding info about Staff
4 II VII
4IX
0
0
6 III VII XI
Sword/Focus I do Energy/Generosity
Staff I do Energy/Generosity
GS with Staff I do Air/Fire
GS with Sword I do Air/Energy
Traveler, Hoelbrak, Strength, or Pack runes in team play (depends on how many peels you
have, how many conditions enemy team has, and if you have a thief to give you fury during your
burst together I might take Pack if I had no thief.)
Against heavy condition teams, you could run Lyssa still, but generally I just run Traveler or
Hoelbrak with Generosity and then rely on cleanses from my team. I will address this later but
recently you can also run the cleanse mantra instead of portal.
Berserker's Amulet
Ether Feast, Portal, Blink, Decoy, Moa
Can also do Mantra of Resolve instead of portal. I wouldnt swap out decoy because you need
double stunbreaks a lot of the time.

2.2 - Variations
S/T Variation of Current meta build. (You can also use Illusionary Invigoration instead of
Illusionary Elasticity)
Interrupt Solo Queue Spec
Low Mobility High Burst Torch Spec
The Honorable Mesmer mirror spec Can use Halting Strike or Mental Torment

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2.3 - Overview
Greatsword Portal Greatsword Portal MVP Doyourbestbear 2014
The role of this build is a roamer/dps. You can push any point with this build, but its 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 harms way.
The thing to remember is that if you have abilities like Portal, in addition to being squishy and a
good punching bag for thieves, you will get targeted a lot. Positioning + Greatsword allows you
to keep up good pressure while utilizing your team utility and being safe. I take Blink to teleport
to areas where only other classes that can Blink can follow me. This increases my safety
dramatically. Far Reaching Manipulations increases this safety, more on that later. In addition,
Phase Retreat on Staff allows for very good kiting. Basically youll want to learn the Phase
Retreat spots on the different maps and then play around them, so you always have somewhere
to kite to.
These Mesmer builds have a number of interrupts:
Diversion (Which could hit up to 4 times (4 with Illusionary Persona, 3 without), and CD
resets at 50% health on a 60 second cooldown)
Temporal Curtain
Illusionary Wave
Chaos Storm
Mantra of Distraction if you are running the solo queue spec.
All of these interrupts mean that when someone goes down on either team, you have an
important role in mitigating enemy resurrects through body cleave damage and interrupts on
enemy players who are resurrecting. You can also stomp if you have Distortion up, but usually
Mesmer isnt the highest priority stomper.
Regarding enemy downed body cleave and friendly downed body peels, youll want to lay down
a Chaos Storm if youre using Staff, or consider pulling if you are using Focus. If you know the
enemy who is resurrecting has stability, just keep up the cleave damage or try to shatter it off.
More on this later as well.

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2.4 - Pros and Cons

Pros:
High burst damage.
Team Utility (Portal, Ethereal Field/Chaos Storm, Mass Invis for quick burst combos or
target swaps and for proccing Lyssa and helping to deaggro.
On demand interrupts.
You can peel for team mates with damage and cc
High sustained, ranged, power damage.
Can neutralize guardians quite quickly with Sword/Focus. If you land your Push and Pull
properly, you can neutralize them within 20 seconds. If they get good stunbreaks though,
you could be looking at minimum of around 50-60 seconds for the neut. (You might just
kill them before that)
Blink offers extreme mobility.
Heavy Boon removal on enemies.
Cons:
Thieves trash you pretty hard.
Vulnerable to condition damage without cleanses from allies/Lyssa/Mantra of Resolve if
you are taking it.
If you are forced to 1v1 defending a node, it will almost always get neutralized in the
process.
Shatter build can be difficult for new players.
Map mobility is only slightly above average when Portal is down. You have Blink, Phase
Retreat with Staff, and Temporal Curtain with Focus. I try not to use Blink and temporal
curtain to go from point to point unless I know there will be no fight where I am going the exception to this is if Im going away from a point to neutralize an enemy node real
quick, so by the time I get back the CDs will be almost ready
Squishy, you have to have good positioning based on calls from team mates Numbers,
Respawns, where the enemy Thief is.

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2.5 - Sigils
Sword: Sigil of Superior Energy (50% endurance on weapon swap)
Focus: Superior Sigil of Generosity (60% chance to transfer a condition to your foe when you
critically hit)
Staff: Same as Sword/Focus. Energy/Generosity
Greatsword:
1. Superior Sigil of Air (50% chance to cause a lightning strike on hit)
2. If you are taking S/X, take Energy, if you are taking Staff, take Fire here.
I take Sigils of Superior Energy to help fuel clone spawning. Having access to more dodges is
helpful anyway in order to avoid damage. You should absolutely be taking energy on one of the
slots in both weapon sets. Clone on dodge is a cornerstone of this spec and many other
Mesmer specs as well.
I take Sigil of Air because it does excellent damage for having only a 3 second cooldown. It
helps with ranged burst on Greatsword. You could take Air on your other weapon set if the
enemy didnt have a lot of conditions, but I find that Generosity is extremely useful.
I take Sigil of Generosity because often times youll have one condition left on you keeping you
in combat or that you need to cleanse. This can transfer the poison from Thief Steal, or the
torment from Warrior Sword. Its extremely useful if you use it properly. It almost always procs
immediately when I shatter after swapping to Staff or S/F
I take Sigil of Fire because since youre sitting at farther range most of the time anyway, you are
in less danger, and its good to do more damage!
You could take Doom instead of Generosity, but often times I find Generosity to be better. If
your team has enough poison you dont need it. Also Generosity transfers Torment with high
priority, and you can transfer Fear and Immobilized while CCd or anything with Shatters.
(Remember you have to be in staff when you shatter to proc Generosity.

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2.6 - Amulets
Berserker's Amulet!
You want more damage, this is a burst build, berserker's is perfect.
If you are going up against an enemy composition that is absolutely tunneling onto you, and you
dont want to switch classes, consider Soldiers amulet. I run Soldiers in many 2v2 tournaments
that have a Theif on the other team.
I did the math on Assassins Amulet vs. Berserker Here are the results with Hoelbrak Runes
(very similar to Strength):
Sin does 9.4% more damage on average with 0 might.
Sin does 11.2% more damage on average with 14 might.
Sin does 10.67% more damage than Zerker at 14 might when both have Fury. (Zerker
amulet scales better with Fury)
You are losing 16.67% health with Sin amulet
The bottom line is: You gain 14% more crit on openers leading to more consistent crits, and
higher damage with might, resulting in about 10% +/- 3.5ish percent more damage for 3k health.
So some quick math about using Sin Youre basically doing around 1100 more damage per
big shatter for example. This damage could make the difference, but I would argue that in most
cases, the health is better. If you have 3 or more dps on your team, you should definitely take
Zerker amulet. If you have 2 or less, I would say you can consider Sin amulet.

2.7 - Runes
Travele/Hoelbrak/Lyssa/Strength
Or maybe Pack if your team needs it or you dont have a thief and want Fury for your burst. It is
a good source of Fury which Mesmer doesnt have reliably (you can get 2 seconds RNG proc
from staff bounce) now that Lyssa is nerfed. Most likely though you should just take Traveler or
Hoelbrak and then burst with a Thief or Ele who will give you Fury.
Traveler is helpful for kiting. It will help you dodge grenades from Engineers which is popular
right now. Also, since you will be shattering off swiftness a lot from your enemy, this will help
you kite a lot better. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this runeset.
You can:
1. Jump from the house to rafters on the sides of Kyhlo in combat without swiftness with no
dodge jump. This helps the reliable of that jump without using blink from needing to land
the dodge jump to 100% chance!
2. If you lay down a portal and are waiting for it to activate, if you just walk forward, by the
time the portal activates, you will be perfect distance away with traveler runes to
perfectly Phase Retreat back into the Portal. Helseth

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Hoelbrak is good for high damage like Strength, but you have condition duration reduction on
you (-20%). For many classes that immobilize you, Hoelbrak means that they wont be able to
do many combos that they could do before. You are losing around 3-4 sustained might on
average compared to Strength, however during a big burst you can still reach the same max
amount of might. You can still get 25 might briefly with Hoelbrak to burst with (More realistically
youll be at like 14 or so though). If you are taking condis, these runes are being efficient (its
kind of lame to rely on taking damage for efficiency, but taking condis can be inevitable)
Strength is good for straight damage. I play with Strength in a team setting where I can rely on
my Guard/Ele to cleanse me. You can get away with strength against condition heavy teams but
you need the coordination and proper postioning. Strength is good because if you get the might
from the GS bounces you can actually stack up to 25 might by yourself briefly for burst. Other
than that, you will most likely have 15-20 might all the time in team play anyway from the
Warrior/Ele. This just helps it stay on for longer.
Lyssa is good if you really need the condition cleanse. I run Lyssa in solo queue and against
some condition heavy teams in team queue. There is a cool bug you can do as well Lyssa. It
works best on Sword but you can do it with staff too.
The bug:
1. Requires Lyssa runes.
2. Send out your Illusionary Leap
3. Cast Mass Invisibility
4. Swap with your leap while your Mass Invisibility is casting.
5. The swap will interrupt the cast and proc the Lyssa cleanse on demand.
This was really good before Lyssa was nerfed, since you had access to stability and fury
on demand in addition to a full cleanse.
There are still advantages though!! The Lyssa cleanse has a 45 second internal
cooldown, by proccing the Lyssa without using your Mass Invisibility cooldown, you can can
do the cleanse bug again 45 seconds later instead of 90 seconds; the cooldown of Mass
Invisibility.
In addition, if you think you will be interrupted, you can proc the cleanse early and at
least get the condition cleanse out of it and not have your Mass Invisibility interrupted with
no Lyssa proc.
Now, If you are running Staff you can actually do the same proc by interrupting someone and
dealing damage with the Halting Strike trait while you are casting Mass Invisibility. You dont
have to cancel the cast in this version, but its harder and less consistent. (You can proc with the
interrupt method using S/F too)
Fun Fact: You can also do the Lyssa proc early by casting Mass Invisibility and interrupting
yourself by going off of a jump pad like on Skyhammer.
Pack: Good for Fury and has power like Hoelbrak and Strength! If you see the fury you can try
to capitalize on it and burst.

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2.8 - Major Traits

Build

Domination
First Trait:
Halting Strike (II): Deal damage when interrupting a foe.
This can hit squishies for over 4k, and it does good damage on others as well. It also allows you
to have higher burst potential than Mental Torment. If you Shatter and also land an interrupt you
can do some serious damage!
OR

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

This is the Shatter build; Mind Wrack is your bread and butter! This will help you do more
damage.
Do I pick Halting Strike or Mental Torment?
The math turns out to be something like you need 2.5 interrupts per 11 seconds for
Halting Strike to break even with Mental Torment based on average-ish Shatter damage. This is
actually very hard to do, so it seems like Mental Torment would be better?
Mental Torment is more consistent damage and has more downed body cleave.
Halting Strike however means youre not putting all your eggs in one basket so to
speak, and you have other sources of damage. I strongly prefer Halting Strike. If you miss your
Mind Wrack or the clones end up not dealing the damage you want, Halting Strike gives you
another opportunity.
Halting Strike also makes it so your Chaos Storm is a force to be reckoned with, and
actually zones people a lot more effectively.

Second Trait:
Shattered Concentration (VII): Remove boons on Shatter.
You always take this as well! This is one of the best major traits in this spec. Removing up to 4
(3 without Illusionary Persona) boons on every enemy you Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration in a
team fight is amazingly strong (You get one boon stripped per daze Shatter clone since it only
dazes one person). Allows you to remove stability!!! This means you need to be watching
enemy boons before you Pull, Push, or lay down a Chaos Storm for interrupts, since you
actually have the ability to remove stability and then follow up with CC. There have been plenty
times where my ally is getting stability stomped and I will come over and Mind Wrack ->

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

Dueling
Far-Reaching Manipulation (I): Your Blink and illusion of life become 1200 range instead
of 900.
This is way better than people think. In Guild Wars 2 there are some Blink locations you can
only use with a 1200 range Blink at max range. This means you can gain more ground
defensively, or burst someone from far offensively with a quick Blink -> Shatter. You can finish
casting Illusion of Life out of Line of Sight (LoS) and Range, so you can Illusion of Life and then
Blink away to safety. With Blink only a couple classes can chase you, but if you take this trait,
most likely only a thief will chase you and they may not be prepared for the 1200 range spot.
Many people argue Blade Training makes sense based on straight math, however it's not that
simple. The math changes based on how the play style changes. I like to play around my Blinks
a lot which makes Far-Reaching manipulations more effective in terms of opportunity cost.
(Especially utilizing 1200 range Blink spots)

Alternatives:

Blade Training (IV): More crit and lower CD leap/blurred is really good. I like to take this
against S/D and Pistol Whip Thieves, as Illusionary Leap swap can help counter
Infiltrator's Strike. You wouldnt take this if you have Staff obviously.
Desperate Decoy (V): Deaggroing through stealth is really powerful, that said, this trait
falls behind because you don't stealth when you take a blow that reduces you below
25% health. The way it works is you have to already be below 25% health, and then get
hit again. This means that sometimes you will die and it will never proc at all.
Phantasmal Fury (II): This makes your phantasms do more damage. It can be good but
is rarely ever a better choice than Far Reaching or even Blade Training.

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

You always take this too! Spawning clones and Shattering them is what this build is all about.
There aren't too many tricks with this but I'll list a few things. First, if you're fighting a class that
stealths, they will not be revealed unless they do damage. Which means that if you happen to
dodge right before a Thief backstabs you, they will hit your clone that just spawned and be
revealed instead of remaining stealthed (remember for this trait to work you have to be in
combat). You can also use clones as line of sight for projectile CC when you are stomping
people! Some examples of this would be to dodge inside an Engineers Smoke Bomb if they are

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trying to stealth (you can also just spawn a phantasm on them) or dodging inside a Thiefs Black
Powder. If the Thief tries to Heartseeker back through they will be revealed. In addition, being
able to spawn a clone means you are in combat with enemies nearby so if a Thief is stealthed
and youre not sure how close he is, try dodging for a clone if you have the endurance to spare,
and if it doesnt spawn, he probably rotated out.

Illusions
Compounding Power (III): 3% more damage for each active illusion.
More damage for your shatters, Halting Strike, and GS ranged attacks. I used to take Precise
Wrack here, but since I am running Staff now I mostly stay at range and the extra damage
through compounding power is more optimized.
Things to know about Compounding Power:
Illusionary Persona does not give you 3% more damage.
For each illusion that is shattered, the next shattered illusion will not benefit from
the 3% damage of the one that died right before. An example would be if your
illusions are staggered and running in to shatter, the first one will have 9% more
damage on it, second 6%, third 3%.

Alternatives:
Precise Wrack (I): This is slightly better if you are running Sword/X like Torch or even
Focus. Youll be in close range more often and can land big Mind Wracks, and this will
help you crit 10% more!
Masterful reflection (IV): I used to take this in the days of 100 nades, since I could
reverse the one-shotting back to the engi. Not as popular anymore since I usually remain
at a safe distance anyway. You could maybe consider taking this if you were needing to
fight warriors with Longbow, or Engineers.
Illusionary Elasticity (VII): Extra bounce on bounce abilities Staff, staff clones, and
Mirror Blade.
With the recent bug fix to this trait (allowing staff clones to have the extra bounce), this trait is
excellent! I have to admit, I am sad about not using Invigoration, as it has more
options/gameplay to it, but this is very good now. Basically youre doing around 12000 more
damage with just mirror blade by taking this trait relative to Invigoration. In addition, if you are
point blank with staff clones, you can stack to 25 bleeds along with burning and like 15+ sec of
fury on you. Realistically youll be like 10 bleeds or something, but if you kite around your clones
or you need to be in Staff for defensive purposes, you have a decent dps option with this trait.
Since youre the damage role and youre pew pewing from far range or bursting out of stealth

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the extra bounce is awesome.

Alternative:
Illusionary Invigoration (VIII) (60 second internal CD): Recharge shatter skills below 50% health.
Resetting Shatters when you take damage below 50% health is extremely helpful in 1v1s and
other numbers matchups as well. I've had many many times when I just used Mind Wrack and it
reset, so I get a double Mind Wrack. That damage can be very surprising. Also this means that
you are able to use Distortion earlier in the fight or for a stomp to win a team fight, and then
have another one for defensive uses. You get another interrupt too ^_^. The thing to keep in
mind with this trait is that your health must be below 50% first, then any non-condition damage
you take afterwards will proc the reset. This unfortunately can sometimes mean you will not get
the reset until far below 50%, but usually its pretty close.
Illusionary Persona (XI): Shatter skills have the effect on you as if you were a clone.
Example (1:18)
This means that you can Distortion with no clones up while stunned etc. So if a Thief opens on
you, you can mitigate some damage. This also allows you to interrupt with no clones out. If you
are resurrecting someone and all of your clones got killed and you need an interrupt but can't
take a break to dodge roll to spawn a clone, you can just Mind Wrack/diversion to strip a stability
for example and interrupt. More Mind wrack damage and one more second on Distortion!
Protip/Fun fact: When you use Distortion and have Shattered Concentration, boons will actually
be stripped from nearby enemies, even though the enemies dont take damage. This means
with Illusionary Persona, you can strip a boon AoE around you by using Distortion.

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2.9 - Minor traits

Domination
Illusion of Vulnerability: Apply 3 vuln when you interrupt a foe.
This combined with the 15 point minor allows you to quickly/instantly stack 25 vulnerability on
someone with a 3 clone Diversion Shatter if you interrupt them. Then follow up with a quad Mind
Wrack for massive damage!
Dazzling: Dazing foe applies vulnerability
As before, allows for massive vulnerability stacking.

Dueling
Critical Infusion: Your source of Vigor!
This is super important for the Shatter spec because it helps fuel your dodge roll clones!
Sharper Images: Illusions apply bleeds on crit.
This is just meh since were not a condi spec, but bleeds can't hurt. You can actually stack the
bleeds up pretty high if you have 3 clones auto attacking with you, usually 8-11. Also the bleed
has a chance of covering for poison or another good condition from you or your team, which can
help you win!

Illusions
Illusionists Celerity: Illusion spawning skills recharge 20% faster.
This means 4 seconds off of Berserker cooldown, 5 seconds off of Warden cooldown, and 3.6
seconds off of Phantasmal Warlock. This also means you get 8 seconds off of the cooldown on
Decoy, since it summons a clone. Illusions = phantasms and clones.
Illusionary Retribution: All Shatter skills inflict confusion.
This combined with Cry of Frustration and a good Mind Wrack can land you 8+ stacks of
confusion consistently. This is really good against s/d Eles when they come out of water. Stack
that confusion and they will be hurting!

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If you take Master of Misdirection this can be even more useful. (I probably wouldnt take it
though)
Shattered Strength: Grants 1 stack of might per illusion that is Shattered.
Without Strengh runes by yourself you can get around a constant 6ish stacks combined with the
Greatsword bouncing might stack, and its not uncommon to get around 10-12+ during burst
combos.
With Strength runes and getting the GS bounce, you can self stack to 25 briefly, and with team
mates keep around 15-20 if not 25 constantly in team fights.
History lesson: This was buffed and then nerfed. You used to be able to keep a constant 25
stacks up for your burst :P.

2.10 - Weapons and Weapon Skills

Greatsword and Staff! And some info about Sword/Focus/Torch
Sword offers a low cd invulnerability, immobilize, stun break, boon strip, and position change.
Focus offers interrupt, light field, positional displacement, projectile absorb, and a whirl finisher.
Focus also offers a phantasm that spawns at 1200 range on the target, so you can spawn it and
immediately daze if you need it. You could also spawn the Warden in a windowsill on Kyhlo for
example where someone is using projectiles onto the point to absorb the projectiles.
Greatsword offers an interrupt, boon strip, cripple, might, and tons of damage!
Torch is good for gaining Stealth advantage in certain matchups. Also the phantasm from Torch
cleanses a condition when it bounces to allies, even though it doesnt say it cleanses ^_^ (Yes
untraited). Plus with the extra bounce trait, you can get another cleanse!
Staff:
Phase Retreat is extremely useful as always. Most AOE in the game is <600 radius, so Phasing
out of harms way, even while CCd is really powerful. Also, a lot of damage in this game is setup
with CC, so you can just Phase out of that as well. All in all, this skill equates to a lot of damage
avoidance and mobility. Learn the Phase Retreat locations and understanding how to kite with it
makes this weapon extremely powerful. Phase Retreating properly is a huge part of what
separates good from great players.
And of course Chaos Storm! Really good for putting on downed bodies, and potentially peeling
for team mates.
You will find a lot of this info repeated elsewhere in the guide, but I just wanted this section to
have all of the weapon skill knowledge together in at least one place.
Lets go through the weapon skills!

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Greatsword
1. Spatial Surge

Does more damage the farther away you are.

Hits everything that is between you and the target.
Ticks multiple times, so confusion really hurts when you auto attack.
1500 range on flat ground, even though tooltip says 1200. 1200 range when youre on
different levels with the target.
If you are stealthed and blinded, just auto attack real quick to get one tick and then stow
weapon, you wont unstealth! Your auto attack beam will not be seen by the enemy
either.
If you stow weapon and then press your auto attack key again immediately after you
finish the 3 ticks of damage on the auto, you can cut the time between autos down
immensely. So it would look like 1...tickticktick-stow1...tickticktick-stow1 etc. 2:08 - 2:32,
clip starts with normal auto speed.

2. Mirror Blade

Bounces three times, applying vulnerability to enemies and giving might to allies. This
can sometimes be lame because it will bounce to your clones, where might is basically
useless.
The Mirror Blade will spawn a regular clone on its first hit. This will usually be Shattered
for damage or a daze.
To maximize damage and ensure you get the might, you will want to use this in
close/melee range. Mixed combo 4 (listed below as my favorite) does this exactly.
Mirror Blade is also unblockable. If a warrior or guardian for example are blocking and
you want to begin a combo, just throw a Mirror Blade since it will go through anyway!
Mirror Blade through a light field if it bounces to an ally it will cleanse a condi.
Alternatively if you throw through other fields like Ethereal you can apply confusion for
example.

3. Mind Stab

Strips a boon, does mediocre damage. Good for comboing with Mind Wrack. Basically
its only useful for adding on a bit of damage to whatever youre doing and having a low
cast time.
You will want to have Stow Weapon bound so that you can cancel the aftercast
animation. The aftercast was shortened in a previous patch, but you can still shave off a
little bit. 2:33 - 2:42
This ability just got buffed in damage and radius!
A good tactic vs. thieves now is literally just Mind Stab + Mind Wrack and you can take a

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lot of health. It is almost as large as their Shadow Refuge, so if they refuge you can do
the MW + MS combo and put them on the defense in stealth.
4. Phantasmal Berserker

The phantasm of Greatsword! Applies cripple, does good damage, cleaves, and can be
Shattered.
Word of Warning: Currently if you swap to Greatsword and use the Phantasmal
Berserker on a target immediately, the animation will go off, but the Phantasm will not
spawn, wasting the cooldown. -_- Anet Plz! Example
Many Mesmer Mirrors all come down to the Berserker Spawn RNG. Basically the
Berserker randomly spawns around the target, and sometimes if they are walking
forwards and it spawns behind them, it will never attack. So just watch for this on
enemies, and watch for when it spawns on you. If the enemys doesnt touch you they
most likely wont shatter yet because they want to shatter after the attack.

5. Illusionary Wave

Push Thieves or others out of Shadow Refuge.

Use as an interrupt in addition to a knockback. Like for heals or something.
You would be using this just for a little extra CC and an interrupt, as well as knocking
people off places like rafters at Clocktower or up behind Keep at Niflhel.
For example on clocktower, if someone is attacking onto mid from a side window ledge,
you can Illusionary Wave them from the point and knock them off the outside of the
ledge.
You can use this directly into an Illusionary Leap for some chase action!
If you stand still, this ability will auto turn to hit your enemy. That means you can precast
while running away, then stop briefly before it goes off, and it will do a super-fast 180
turn to hit your target. This is good for baiting and interrupting. It also means you can
precast the knockback, then blink in front of someone and stop, and it will auto turn and
hit them back into your team or wherever you want to knock them (like off a bridge or
something). You can actually keep running and not stop, but it requires you to use about
face key to turn, and sometimes it bugs out and doesnt work.

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Sword/Focus
1. Mind Slash > Mind Gash, Mind spike
This is bugged! If you auto attack and connect/do damage with the first ability in the chain and
then immediately try to use a weapon ability, there will be some weird skill queue lag and the
ability wont go off until around .5 - .75 seconds later. I know this is a bug because you can
connect with the first ability and not queue an ability instantly, but then use a weapon ability
within the .5 - .75 seconds and the ability will go off. I measured this frame by frame in Vegas. It
also happens with other classes who have auto attack chains but not all.
Does mediocre damage, applies some vulnerability. Last attack does a bit more damage
and strips a boon.
You can use falling platforms on Skyhammer and buildings on Kyhlo for example to go
through your auto attack chains in order to store the third one briefly.
If you are stealthed and get blinded, just auto attack once to clear the blind!

2. Blurred Frenzy

Great offensive and defensive ability.

Can use to cover Portal appearance time so you are not CCd off of it spawning.
Can be used to negate burst quickly (although be careful as it does have a cast time, so
it can be interrupted!)
Turns with your target.
Low CD!
If enemy Necromancer has your Portal fully covered in Marks, use Blurred Frenzy while
going through to negate them.

3. Illusionary Leap

9.5 second cooldown stunbreak!

If you stow weapon just briefly after you cast, you can shave off a half second from the
cooldown.
Great gap closer within 600 range.
The clone will actually leap twice. This is helpful because the first time it will do a quick
leap to where the target is, but if the target switches directions or dodges, the second
leap is able to turn towards them and usually catch them. For most people who are
having trouble landing their immobilize, the key is to wait for the second leap.
The leap will follow someone who stealths while the clone is flying out. This means if a
Thief stealths for example, you can still immobilize them, and the second leap will tell
you which exact direction they are at that moment. Usually you can swap, immobilize
and burst still. Otherwise, at least the second leap will give you the exact line direction
they are at the moment the clone does the second leap.

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Leap Finisher! Awesome for Ethereal Fields and other!

If you Portal out of the water while using Vortex, you can Illusionary Leap through it for
Chaos Armor! 1:51 - 2:07
Immobilize is AoE.
Swapping with the Leap will teleport you 600 range back towards where the clone is
(you can no longer swap with the clone if it dies). Just keep this in mind so you dont
move too far away from a ledge if you intend to bait someone down and then port back
up. If you teleport 600 range towards your clone, even if you dont teleport to the clone, it
will AoE immobilize where you teleport to. So you can surprise people with this since its
an instant immob. (The only problem is that you can almost never do this now because
your clone will die)
Immobilize matches up nicely with two dazes, allowing you to force stunbreaks and do
some nice combos!
Leaping through your Temporal Curtain will give you Retaliation!

Inclined terrain with Illusionary Leap (from my tests)

Some terrain, if steep enough, bugs out the leap. If both parties on on the inclined terrain, the
leap will not move during the first leap, and only progress during the second leap, which
basically completely negates the mobility. Sometimes this ends up being okay since the incline
can be small enough that the second leap does the job.
If one party is on non-inclined terrain, then usually the leap will still work, both up and down.
If you are the one on non-inclined terrain, sometimes the leap will try to find a path that is
around the incline. This means instead of going up some stairs, it will go around the side and do
nothing, then try to walk back.
If one party is on the incline, I often notice than the leap will overshoot its target. This
overshooting happens much more often when related to inclines.
Example: 0:00 - 0:34
Word of warning: Currently there is a bug where if you swap to Sword/Focus and use
Illusionary Leap as soon as possible on a target, the animation will go off, but the clone will not
spawn and the ability will go on cooldown. -_- Anet Plz! Second part of clip (same clip as GS 4).
4. Temporal Curtain > Into the Void

Light field, can combine with Warden for Cleansing Bolts (AoE removes condis, but hard
to land)
Give Swiftness to allies and cripples enemies. Quick note, this swiftness will not override
other swiftness that you have, even if that swiftness is a shorter duration. So if you are
chaining Swiftness with Temporal Curtain, make sure to wait until yours runs out first!
The Light Field persists even after you use the Pull. It lasts for the duration of how long

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the Curtain would stay on the ground without using the Pull.
It scares people! Usually forces dodges.
The Pull is instant cast. (You still have to wait 1 second after laying the Curtain down
before you can Pull - and yes this 1 second can be affected by chilled).
Instant cast means you can cast your heal and use this to interrupt someone trying to
interrupt you. (This is referred to as covering your cast)
You can cast it while using Warden in order to Pull someone into a Warden immobilize
combo.
It Pulls multiple targets (up to 5) so if you can group people up, you can AoE immobilize.
It Pulls targets towards the center and it is placed always perpendicular to the angle out
from your character that you attempt to place it at. This means if you want to place it to
Pull someone off of a rafter as they walk by, youll 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 dont want to Pull enemies. Sometimes you can prevent
a random stealth opener or you can Pull someone from somewhere that you didnt look
to see. Might as well!
Can be used to give clones swiftness to help them land their Shatters or to help your
Warden actually get to its target so it will begin attacking. (I say this because a lot of
times it will bug out and stand near the target and not attack)

5. Phantasmal Warden

Absorbs Projectiles (Hide inside of it when needed! Like against Thieves in shortbow,
forcing them to Shortbow 2, or Engineers using Pistol. It also fizzes grenades and
projectiles cast inside its radius. So if you place it on a downed warrior, it will absorb
their down state 2 ability.
Whirl Finisher; Cleansing Bolts with Temporal Curtain. If you think you might be needing
to absorb some projectiles, and/or cleanse some conditions, consider casting the
Warden first, either on your target or something closer, like a pet or closer enemy, then
just lay your Temporal Curtain down on the Warden for Cleansing Bolts.
Is good damage if the whole duration gets off.
Spawns at 1200 range so you could use it for a little extra Shatter damage or a ranged
daze!

Staff
1. Winds of Chaos
Burning/Bleeding/Vuln/Might/Fury. These condition and boons help. Basically the burn
will hit for like 400 and the auto will hit/crit for 300-600. Plus it bounces so you can get a
condition on the enemy and a boon on yourself/your ally. Your clones autos will not do
that much damage but they bounce and apply the burning. This skill ends up being
actually pretty good because the clones will proc the burning which means theyre hitting

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like 400+, potentially way more with might. Compare that to the Greatsword and Sword
clones hitting for like 10-20 damage.
The conditions are also basically cleanse fodder, to help cover conditions like
fear/immobilize/poison/weakness that you want to keep on your enemy.

2. Phase Retreat (Phase Retreat is now bugfixed)

One of the more powerful skills in the game. A 600 range blink with a 10 second
cooldown.
If you are within 1200 range of your enemy and targeting them when you use Phase
Retreat, a clone will spawn.
Allows you to traverse terrain and certain blink locations that can be reached with 600
range. Phase Retreat Locations It only has Kyhlo for now, but I will be adding the others
soon. Sensotix's Phase Locations
You can use this skill while CCd. It is considered a pseudo stunbreak meaning it
doesnt actually stunbreak you, but you can use it to potentially get away while CCd.
With Traveler runes you can activate Portal, run forward, and by the time the Portal
activates youll be in perfect range to Phase Retreat back into the Portal.
3. Phantasmal Warlock
Does more damage the more unique conditions are on the enemy (10% per condition).
Can get large crits!
Travels along the ground meaning it cant cross gaps or move vertically.
Consider casting this while Phase Retreating to maximize rotation efficiency.
4. Chaos Armor
Your source of protection!
You can cast this before entering combat and then swap Greatsword for a little extra
protection/damage mitigation before you swap back.
RNG blinds on enemy which can be clutch.
Random condition applied has a 1 second internal recharge per target.

5. Chaos Storm
Halting Strike means Chaos Storm is very effective at zoning the enemies.
Ethereal field for your team to blast for AoE Chaos Armor.
You can use Phase Retreat to leap through it and get more Chaos Armor
Gives you Aegis, super helpful.
You can use the Aegis to your advantage in the Thief matchup as they have to break it
or wait if they want to open from stealth, allowing you to waste more of their stealth time
and enabling you to condense your mitigations/avoidances to the last part of their stealth
(when they more likely will try to open)
Great downed body cleave.
Great for supporting resurrecting allies.
Can proc Daze, which means you can get some gnarly Halting Strike damage if people

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try to cast through it.

Weakness, Chilled, Poison, all good.
Pulses once immediately upon activation then again each second over 5 seconds. Can
pulse on allies and enemies at the same time.
Good for peeling enemies off of team mates.

Weapon Alternatives
Pistol:
Its good, but Focus simply offers more utility. The way to look at the comparison is that while
pistol does more damage than focus, the damage difference is not statistically significant
enough to lose out on Pulling people and the combos/utility Focus offers. Your main damage is
from Shattering with Mind Wrack and GS, so go for the utility with your off-hand!
Torch:
Helps gain stealth advantage.
Can burst out of stealth hard.
You can leap immobilize > stealth which puts a lot of pressure on the enemy because they dont
know if youll burst out of stealth, so its a win-win for you. They will either pop a cooldown or
you do damage.
The Phantasm cleanses a condition when it bounces to allies even though it doesnt say it will
cleanse. (Yes untraited).
When you stealth it does an AoE blind which is helpful for stopping certain abilities.

2.11 - Utility Skills

Heal
Ether Feast!
If you can get a heal off with 3 Illusions up, it can turn a fight around. Just make sure that you
don't get this interrupted, it has a pretty obvious animation and it's crucial that you get it off.
Important health point levels:
In order to maximize your heal, but heal as soon as possible, I will lay out the health numbers of
when to heal based on Illusions and conditions.
Without Poison:
0 Illusions: 12812
1 Illusions: 12172
2 Illusions: 11532
3 Illusions: 10892

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With Poison:
0 Illusions: 14647
1 Illusions: 14218
2 Illusions: 14007
3 Illusions: 13796
This means, based on the healing per second of Ether Feast if your poison is longer than X
seconds, you should heal while poisoned instead of waiting for the poison to fall off. (Unless of
course youll die, or you know you wont be in a position to cover your cast after the poison falls
off)
0 Illusions X = 6.60
1 Illusions X = 6.6
2 Illusions X =7.24
3 Illusions X = 7.76

Comparison of Ether Feast and Signet Heal

Not very many people are taking the Signet heal anymore, but I figured I would include this
section from a Shatter perspective, just to clear things up. Also I use Sword/X for the
comparison, particularly Focus and Pistol. The numbers would be slightly different with Staff, but
you can get the generally idea if you care.
I am averaging 2 clones for each heal in terms of calculations. It is more likely however that I will
heal with 3 clones for Ether Feast at the moment when I need it. It is also more likely that for the
sake of the signet heal, I should average around 1.0-1.5 clones into the calculation for the
Shatter spec (after reviewing a lot of footage), but I will round up to 2 just to show (which
basically means whatever calculations I do for how much healing the new signet does,
potentially reduce them by 25-50%).
Ether Feast:
5560 Active + 640 per illusion
1280 for 2 illusions + 5560
6840/20=342 health per sec on average.
Signet:
5560 active
220 hps passive +158 hps active then 0 health per second for 35 seconds after cast but
increased damage.
First I will focus on the healing comparison aspect, then I will calculate in the damage increase
of the signet.

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If casting healing signet back to back, you are falling behind Ether Feast 3680 health every 20
seconds. And can only use the active once every 35, in which you would be falling behind 6410
health total compared to Ether Feast.
If only using passive (2 clone average as Shatter spec), you are falling behind Ether Feast 2440
health every 20 seconds.
If you were using the passive with 3 clones, just for comparison, you would still be falling behind
Ether Feast with just 2 clones, 306.67 health per 20 seconds.
This means you would need the signet passive to work for 5.82 seconds before or after (have to
wait for cooldown to come up so the passive is working) the signet active (averaging 2 clones)
to break even with healing potential of one Ether Feast (which is on a 20 sec CD).
But then you will fall behind significantly since the passive will not work for 35 seconds.
For Comparison, if Ether Feast was on a 35 second cooldown, you would need to use 29.14
seconds of passive before or after active to break even.
So you are trading a berserker (3400 damage average on medium test dummy), and Warden
(whose damage will be minor, especially since the start attack animation isnt 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 wont happen most of the time however.
If we do some average number theorycrafting here...
Berserker has a 16 second cooldown, so lets 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 7510% of the cooldown if
you were good, while trying to optimize healing. This means you are missing out on 4 seconds

Hans Onsum, 27

of CD. The DPS of Berserker on medium test dummy as my spec averages out to be 212.5. So
you are missing out on 850 damage slightly over every other cooldown of berserker, using the
signet at 75% efficiency. Which means you are trading 3680 health every 20 sec using the
signet active, and 2440 (so 6120) health using the passive relative to Ether Feast, for potentially
5950 damage from berserker every 32ish seconds. (I said slightly over before, because the CD
on the signet is 35 sec, and two berserkers is 32 sec. So about every 11 berserkers you will fall
behind by one if you were resetting perfectly, meaning not taking into account only being 75%
efficient).
If you were more of a damage spec with a duelist, you could maybe say you do 10k-12k more
damage total every 30-35 ish seconds by using this heal.
It is also hard to place a value on the Warden being reset more projectile absorb. This also
means potentially one or two more seconds on Distortion, or another interrupt/more
confusion/more vuln etc.
All said and done though, I dont 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 isnt 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 harms way
4. Portal an ally from your base to a side node if you need clutch reinforcements, or your
team just wiped.
5. Small repositionings. (4:23) and (3:29)
6. Stomping! (Low priority) (2:35)
You should always be taking Portal in team play. In solo queue you can get away with not taking
it as its efficiency drops when allies arent going to use it as much.
OR

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Mantra of Resolve:
In this meta of celestial amulets, elementalists, engineers, and the occasional necro, this
cleanse can arguably allow you to net just as many points or more as portal. It means you have
an extremely beefy amount of sustain vs. condis, and its AoE!!!!! So if you are 2v2ing with your
thief or someone else, you can save them, allowing them to save you. For example if a necro
AoE fears you and some team mates, you can AoE cleanse them back! I actually take this in
solo queue and when Im not team queueing now over portal. Even in team queues I like to take
this sometimes.

UT2
Blink
I take this because Greatsword's weakness is not having any sort of defense outside of Pushing
people back briefly.
Also you need mobility!
Far-Reaching Manipulation allows you to Blink to spots that dont work with only 900 range. I
refer to these spots as 1200 range Blink spots, or just 1200 spots.
Blink also synergizes nicely with the need for being safe with so much team utility.
Protip for using Blink on very precise 1200 spots (also works on fussy 900 range spots without
Far-Reaching Manip): Normally you can just run straight at the Blink spot you want, for example
Blinking up to the ceiling on clocktower has a lot of wiggle room, many places you can be from
<900 range to 1200 range and in different locations. Blinking up to the terrain across the bridges
on either side of Legacy need to be much more precise however. The best method I have found
to do this, is instead of running straight at the Blink spot, I run at maybe a 45 degree angle away
from it, usually to the side I would go if I decided not to Blink. If you think of the range of your
Blink as a circle around you, this allows the circles 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 isnt affected by revealed. You are actually
able to have revealed on you, and then decoy to stealth!

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Stealth is super good on Mesmer and allows awesome, confusing plays. For example opening a
Portal, and going through while decoy stealthed, then GS 2 > Mind Stab + Mind Wrack.
Make sure that when you do a Decoy into Mass Invisibility or the other way around, that you
hide from the enemy when the first stealth ends on your buff bar. This is because the
unstealthing dust ring will still spawn under you, even though you dont become visible
If you have excess endurance from Vigor or you know youll 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, youll have another clone out for
damage or more healing if you heal while stealthed. Plus if you have plenty of Vigor, you might
as well dodge to get out of potential harms way while stealthed. You definitely dont want to get
CCd just after stealthing.
If you cast Mass Invisibility while stealthed, the stealth explosion will be hidden. Decoy can be
used for this in certain scenarios if you needed people to not know you used Mass Invis. Can
sometimes confuse enemies on how your team got stealthed. Many times people will still know
you used Mass Invisibility, but if you are by yourself with no clones out, the two options are you
either ran away to line of sight, or you used Mass Invisibility. This gives you more time for
cooldowns and opportunity to open up how you want.
This method is also the best for confusing enemies on which clone is the real you since you and
all clones will become unstealthed at the same time.
Alternative:
Illusion of Life
Resurrect allies!
I try to either wait until right before they get stomped, or right away so that we can capitalize on
getting a kill. If you see multiple allies about to go down, consider trying to wait and resurrect
both.
Be careful with resurrecting using Illusion of Life, as the other team will be looking out to
interrupt you!
Protip here mentioned in the quick tips section: You can cast Illusion of Life outside of range
and Line of Sight. So you could begin casting, and go through a Portal and the cast/resurrection
will still go off.

Elite
Mass Invisibility
I now use Mass Invisibility because it allows for team disengages/engages and mid combat
target burst swaps. The better your team is, the better Mass Invisibility is.
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Mass Invisibility:
Quick target swaps with team while stealthed, great for surprise.
Good peeling tool for team mates.
Another Deaggro tool.
Gives access to stability
Can use two of these per Moa (In terms of cooldown length)!
Stealth resurrect allies!
If you cast Mass Invisibility while stealthed, the stealth explosion will be hidden. Decoy
can be used for this in certain scenarios if you needed people to not know you used
Mass Invis. Can sometimes confuse enemies on how your team got stealthed.
Make sure not to do a damaging Shatter (Mind Wrack or Cry of Frustration) so that your
Illusions do damage after you stealth. The damage from those will reveal you. If you are
blowing a Distortion just to cast your Mass Invisibility in order to fully deaggro, you will
probably want the full stealth time.

Moa Morph
I no longer use Moa in my default build, but it does have its benefits.
This ability is extremely strong as long as your team is coordinated. It basically means a free
instant Guardian kill to cap a node, or turning a fight into a 4v3, etc.
Uses:
1. Moa at the beginning of the fight to get an edge.
2. Moa someone outside of the fight and try to gib early.
3. Moa guardian and gib ASAP.
4. Moa someone, probably a Guardian who is trying to resurrect an ally. Warning about this
one, they will continue resurrecting their ally if they started already, even when they get
turned into a Moa. You have to make sure to do it before they start resurrecting or knock
them off.
5. To interrupt someone.

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3 - Using the Mesmer Shatter Build

3.1 - Quick Tips
(Not in any specific order)
Many of these tips will be repeated in their related sections throughout the guide, but this is just
a quick reference area where you can look to learn a few tips and tricks quickly.
Also, this section has quickly become quite long, but I think its a great resource for out of place
and random tips that will help many peoples gameplay in general.

If you use a Shatter, those clones go into their own separate queue. If you spawn more
clones, even though the clone indicator may still show 3, you can spawn 3 more. Then
Shatter those, spawn 3 more etc. This means that as long as your clones are running to
their target to Shatter, you could have 6+ for example out at once.
As this Shatter spec, try not to spawn more clones when you already have 3 out, you are
losing dps.
Use weapon swap and stow weapon to cancel the lag frames on Spatial Surge/Mind
Stab.
Always try to think ahead with Portal use. Where will the battle shift? Will we need to
back cap/apply pressure to their node?
Dodge! You will have a lot of Vigor + Energy runes; many dodges can be used just to
spawn clones. (But dont forget to save some for dodging actual skills!)
I try to not sit at full endurance, since I am then wasting Vigor regen. Unless you foresee
that you will need 3 dodges back to back.
Learn the Blink spot locations! I have a playlist on my YouTube: Blink Locations
I like to Pull as I am casting Moa so that way the person doesn't randomly dodge, and if
they do I can cancel my cast (another good reason to have stow weapon bound).
Try to spread out cooldowns and crowd control. For example don't use Distortion and
then knock someone back, you would be wasting the Distortion.
Many skills can be used offensively and defensively. The most effective way to use a
skill is to have it benefit you in both ways simultaneously. This isn't always possible but
something to think about!
Use Illusionary Leap as dodge bait. It's a win-win for you because if they don't use a cd
or dodge then you can Shatter them. If they do, just don't swap and you forced a cd or
dodge!
Alternatively you can do a really quick swap to immobilize them, and that almost always
forces a cooldown.
If you are blinded, use a Shatter skill like normal, the Shatter from your body will remove
the blind, and you can do it while casting. This prevents people from countering your
casts like Moa, Mage, Curtain, Warden. (Warden is the least worst to have stopped by

Hans Onsum, 32

blind.)
You can activate Portal while doing other things. This means if you are low and afraid to
be Crowd Controlled (CCd) while your Portal spawns, use Blurred Frenzy and cast
Portal while channeling the frenzy. (4:22-4:37 -Defensive Blurred into Portal)
You can precast Illusionary Wave, then turn and use it on someone, or Blink and use it
on someone. (1:21- Illusionary Wave Precast)
People always like to say "I play aggressive" or "I play defensive" Those are both bad.
The best way to play is the best way to play. There is always one best thing you can be
doing at all times. Sometimes this means being defensive, sometimes offensive. That
said, it's extremely difficult to make the best decision all the time, and almost impossible
if you consider slight differences in positioning, but that means there is always room for
improvement. Small positional changes, target switches, the way you move your camera
etc.
In most cases with Greatsword, you will want to be at max range - out of harm's way and
doing good damage + room to react and kite. If you are running Staff/GS the only time
you need to go in is to do a bit more damage and have more access to boon
strip/Interrupts.
That said, one of the combos I will mention is best used in melee range with GS, since
the enemy will be dazed and immobilized. You will be able to do a point black mirror
blade which is good because being close minimizes bounce distance.
If an enemy Necromancer has your Portal fully covered in Marks, use Blurred Frenzy,
Distortion, or Dodge as you go through the portal. Dodging is the best way if you have it
up.
If you need to Blink where there are Necro Marks for some reason, you can dodge-blink
and you will dodge the Marks.
If you are stomping someone and then Blink either to follow them or to get away, you
must type /no (or any emote) in order to break the stomp animation (even if it looks like
youre not stomping, youll 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 thats not always possible.
The stuck bug where you have to use an emote to break free is similar to being stuck
in the stomping animation. To be honest you could just create a macro to do the emote
and bind it to a key or mouse button. If theres a bug hindering my play, I should be able
to counter with a macro.
You can also attack many things in the environment, like Skyhammer fall pads, and
housing on Kyhlo. This allows you to go through your auto attack sequence if you are
chasing someone or want to prep a third sequence attack to strip a boon or whatever.
When calling a target, default is control + T after you have the target targeted by you.
The faster way is to hold control, and then just left click on the new target!
If your clones are CCd, Shatters will stunbreak them. So lets say a necro uses mark fear
to fear all of your clones, just Mind Wrack and they will all run back in! This means that if
you are fighting someone with some sort of CC, and you need to make sure the clones
Shatter without the delay of the CC, you might choose to wait for the CC and then
Hans Onsum, 33

stunbreak it with the Shatter. Also Cry of Frustration makes the clones instantly Shatter
as if they were on the target, still applying confusion, even if they are far away.
Every Shatter has a distinct sound and animation when Illusionary Persona is taken. If
you Shatter and your clones have to run a distance to your target, the enemy might be
able to react and choose how to mitigate the Shatter. One of the advantages of my solo
queue lockdown spec is because Im not taking Illusionary Persona, there is no tell on
what Shatter I just used. (I think its kind of dumb to be honest)
Its extremely important to not back pedal or s key. You are effectively crippling
yourself. Instead, strafe at an angle where you can still attack your target. You will
probably be covering the same if not more ground than someone back pedaling plus you
can potentially dodge projectiles. There are arguably some scenarios where you might
be able to use back pedal. I have not needed it though.
A small protip for min/maxing damage. If a target goes invulnerable and you cant 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 dont become visible.
You must start a cast while on the ground, but you can finish the cast while not touching
the ground. This is useful if you are falling from somewhere while kiting, finding line of
sight, or you need to jump up mid cast to get in line of sight of someone.
You can swap with your leap while in mid-air. But you can no longer swap with your leap
if it dies.
Along with the previous tip, Shatters dont count as instant casted spells, so you can use
them in the air, whereas you cant use the Temporal Curtain Pull in the air (which is
instant).
If you use Blurred Frenzy right as you fall of a ledge, you will not take fall damage where
you normally would, if done properly. (This doesnt seem to be working post patch,
testing)
You can Scepter auto attack chain without hitting a target, so you can precast for the
clone if you want. (The Torment is pretty good now though) The first attack can hit from
about 1100 range instead of 900.
If you are taking Shattered Concentration, Distortion will actually strip boons around your
clones, even though they arent technically shattering on the target and doing damage.
Dont turn off GS auto attack, just get good at stowing weapon. If you turn GS auto off
and do cast 1 manually, the manual auto can't be cancelled by casting GS 2 or 4. But
with auto cast on, the auto can be cancelled. Weird bug but its important that you can
cat GS 2 or 4 when you need it prioritized over auto attack.
If you start keyboard turning before getting immobed, you will keep spinning. You can't
stop it, but if you don't have Mind Stab, Curtain, Leap or Frenzy up, you can do this in
anticipation to at least get a pass at them (If you even have keyboard turn bound)
If you get immobilized right as you are dodging, you can continue dodging and actually
Hans Onsum, 34

dodge through the immobilize. Once you use your two dodges, swap weapons and
dodge again with energy. This is especially op on s/d Thieves -_Can be used to give clones swiftness to help them land their Shatters or to help your
Warden actually get to its target so it will begin attacking. (I say this because a lot of
times it will bug out and stand near the target and not attack)
With Staff, if casting mage - you can de target and the mage will still go off. This means
that you can turn and leap to gap close or position in a certain way and still using the
casting time to do something else - just helping to maximize time.
Use Blurred Frenzy to go through Portal and cancel early - the ability doesn't go on
cooldown and you still get a few really short invuln frames in order to break marks.
If you are in a hot join or a duel and using the interrupt mantra and have like one charge
left. If you exit combat you can swap out for another mantra and swap back. Sometimes
you will get like a 10-20 second cooldown but sometimes the CD will just be back up
again and you can recast for two full interrupts. (Just another part of maximizing time)
Two physics/game mechanics tips are Dodge Jumping and Slide Jumping.
Dodge Jumping: You press the dodge and jump keys at the same time. This allows you
to get to places you wouldnt 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: Dont click! Bind all of your abilities. Preferably in good locations
that are easy to reach with your fingers. I will give an outline of my bindings in part 13!
With GS 5 If you stand still, this ability will auto turn to hit your enemy. That means you
can precast while running away, then stop briefly before it goes off, and it will do a
super-fast 180 turn to hit your target. This is good for baiting and interrupting. It also
means you can precast the knockback, then blink in front of someone and stop, and it
will auto turn and hit them back into your team or wherever you want to knock them (like
off a bridge or something). You can actually keep running and not stop, but it requires
you to use about face key to turn, and sometimes it bugs out and doesnt work.

Hans Onsum, 35


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The Lyssa bug:

Requires Lyssa runes.
Send out your Illusionary Leap
Cast Mass Invisibility
Swap with your leap while your Mass Invisibility is casting.
The swap will interrupt the cast and proc the Lyssa cleanse on demand.

This was really good before Lyssa was nerfed, since you had access to stability and fury on
demand in addition to a full cleanse.
There are still advantages though!! The Lyssa cleanse has a 45 second internal cooldown,
by proccing the Lyssa without using your Mass Invisibility cooldown, you can can do the cleanse
bug again 45 seconds later instead of 90 seconds; the cooldown of Mass Invisibility.
In addition, if you think you will be interrupted, you can proc the cleanse early and at least
get the condition cleanse out of it and not have your Mass Invisibility interrupted with no Lyssa
proc.
Now, If you are running Staff you can actually do the same proc by interrupting someone and
dealing damage with the Halting Strike trait while you are casting Mass Invisibility. You dont
have to cancel the cast in this version, but its harder and less consistent. (You can proc with the
interrupt method using S/F too)
Fun Fact: You can also do the Lyssa proc early by casting Mass Invisibility and interrupting
yourself by going off of a jump pad like on Skyhammer.

3.2 - Shatters
Some info on Shatters from the protip section:

If you use a Shatter, those clones go into their own separate queue. If you spawn more
clones, even though the clone indicator may still show 3, you can spawn 3 more. Then
Shatter those, spawn 3 more etc. This means that as long as your clones are running to
their target to Shatter, you could have 6+ for example out at once.
If your clones are CCd, Shatters will stunbreak them. So lets say a Necro uses mark
fear to fear all of your clones, just Mind Wrack and they will all run back in! This means
that if you are fighting someone with some sort of CC, and you need to make sure the
clones Shatter without the delay of the CC, you might choose to wait and then stunbreak
it with the Shatter. Also Cry of Frustration makes the clones instantly Shatter as if they
were on the target, still applying confusion, even if they are far away.
Every Shatter has a distinct sound and animation when Illusionary Persona is taken. If
you Shatter and your clones have to run a distance to your target, the enemy might be
able to react and choose how to mitigate the Shatter. One of the advantages of my solo
queue lockdown spec is because Im not taking Illusionary Persona, there is no tell on

Hans Onsum, 36

what Shatter I just used. (I think its kind of dumb to be honest)

To adjust the variable of maximizing burst (easier to dodge)/increasing sustained
damage (less easy to dodge), use your Shatters at different points between phantasm
casts. So for example to maximize burst, if you have three clones out, start casting your
berserker, then Mind Wrack right before the casts finishes. This will make your clones
Shatter/start running towards the enemy while the phantasm spawns. This is how you
can get a lot of clones out on the field at the same time.
Shatters share a .25 second cooldown with each other. This is to prevent a bug that was
putting out way too much damage. This shared CD has actually gotten me killed before,
so if you think you might need to cast for example Diversion to interrupt and Distortion to
live in a close time period, try to have some foresight so you dont die!

Mind Wrack
The Shatter spec bread and butter. With an 11.5 second cooldown, you will be Shattering often!
This is the ability where your big damage comes from.
Protips with mindwrack:
Being your main damage, you will want to try to land this as much as possible, and your
enemies will try to avoid/mitigate it as much as possible.
Since you count as an Illusion with Illusionary Persona, you can maximize your Mind
Wrack damage by being in melee range of your target as well as your clones.
The closer your clones are to your target, the less time the enemy has to react.

Cry of Frustration
As the Shatter spec, this is basically like a worse version of Mind Wrack. It still does damage,
but you use it in almost the same way as Mind Wrack. You will basically use this when Mind
Wrack is down and you have clones to Shatter that are not for Diversion or Distortion. This is
also good boon stripping fodder. Typically I like to hit people with CoF if theyre melee and I
have just dropped my chaos storm on them while autoing them in staff.
The exceptions to this are:
If you have a Necro that is using Epidemic to spread your confusion with their condition
modifiers.
If you are fighting an Ele and they just came out of water attunement and your Mind
Wrack is down, you can do decent damage.
You land it on another Mesmer using greatsword. The Greatsword auto attack procs
confusion many times per cast, and the damage will add up.

Hans Onsum, 37

Diversion
Besides Mind Wrack being your bread and butter, Diversion and Distortion are extremely close
seconds. You will be using this for dazing your opponents for example when they are
resurrecting allies, stomping teammates, casting important spells, interrupting Ranger spirit
resurrection pet, or just doing dat damage with Halting Strike!
Some protips are:
Stagger out your clones so that when you Diversion they are separated by the length of
the daze, since daze overwrites. This way you can daze someone for potentially 4
seconds.
Remember this too strips boons. Downside is that each illusion will only daze one enemy
which includes pets, another reason why Minion Master for example is a hard matchup.
If the enemy has stability up, you will want to try to Shatter that off with Mind Wrack/Cry
of Frustration first of course.

Distortion
Often times the flow of battle especially in skirmishes is such that you want to minimize your
damage and susceptibility while in melee range, which means cycling invulns, stealths, dodges,
and pressure. Many times people will complain that they have such a hard time hitting you.
Youre doing it right then! Glass Mesmers survivability comes from damage avoidance rather
than mitigation.
Especially Mesmer vs. Power matchups, Distortion use is extremely important. Of course its still
important to know when to use it elsewhere too.
If you are taking Illusionary Invigoration, remember that on a 60 second cooldown, your Shatters
reset after you get hit with non-condition damage after you are already below 50% health.

If you know the cooldown for the reset is up, you will then want to Distortion something
the enemy uses before you go below 50% health.
Often times I will use Distortion as part of my damaging combos, or when I swap to GS.
This pressures the enemy because they know they cant retaliate, so you force/bait
defensive cooldowns/dodges.
Distortion can be used for resurrecting, stomping, defending, going offensive, covering
your casts, and least importantly - Shattering your clones without them getting you in
combat.

General rule is of course learning to anticipate enemy burst based on tells. Remember, you can
use Distortion defensively and offensively (offensive is mostly the same as when youre 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):

Hans Onsum, 38

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

Quick note on Mass Invisibility: You will want to use it as a cleanse against condi specs, and as
a deaggro/reposition when other things are down against others. Consider not using the Lyssa
bug vs. a Necro that has Corrupt Boon up or the Path of Corruption trait for Dark Path.
Necro:
When they pop death shroud, or you pressure them and anticipate them popping it in defense,
consider Distorting in order to prevent fear and chill. You will want to cover your heal with
Distortion here if you know they have Death Shroud fear up. Mass Invis can be covered too.
Necros have a really obvious tell on their heal. You should be prepared to interrupt it, or at least
make them blow Wurm port to get away from you while they cast it.
Engi:
Engis will often use bombs for offense and defense at the same time by kiting around their
fields. If you Distortion while they are doing this, you can lay in some damage, and possibly
make them pop more CDs than they would have anticipated. You also may need to Distortion if
you get stealth pulled from the new celestial rifle toolkit spec. If for some reason they use elixir X
and get the tornado, put confusion on them. It will hit many times.
Mesmer:
In the mirror match, you want to blow less important CDs first if they allow you to survive the
same. So assuming you have nothing else up. You would Distortion after being immobilized,
maybe being Pulled into immob, or if they swap GS and you are in the open running for LoS.
The ways I use Distortion is evidenced in the Mesmer vs. Mesmer video. If there are enemy
clones nearby you, including the enemy Mesmer, you will want to consider using Distortion to
cover your heal or mass invis cast if you know they have Diversion up.
The Mesmer heal also has easy tells, you should be prepared to interrupt it so your enemy has
to use a defensive cooldown.

Ele:
D/D, when they swap fire, consider Distortion if you are Updrafted with no stunbreak up. This
shouldnt happen though - between Illusionary Leap and Blink. Against S/D, the burst is a lot
more unpredictable, but you know that they will burst you if they are not in air, because they will
most likely swap to air in order to get the lightning strike. This anticipation is partly based on
knowing your opponent. To be honest their burst needs a bit more counterplay. The S/D
matchup which I will discuss later relies a lot on Line of Sight.

Hans Onsum, 39

Thief:
Distortion after a Backstab/Steal if you know they are going to shortbow 2 spam you or if you
are immobilized with nothing up. This is another case of using Distortion to cover your heal or
Mass Invis cast as well. Do not Distortion while they are stealthed, unless the battle is nearing
an end and you see they are desperate and aggressive. They will just wait it out and its 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 Bulls Charge.
Guardian:
If you see the Zealots 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 isnt
anything thats as deadly as a Backstab follow up or Mesmer burst combo that you need to
watch out for. So just use it for some damage avoidance.

3.4 - Map Protips!

Watch my Blink spot locations playlist!!
Blink Locations
Phase Retreat Locations (Work in progress)

Forest of Niflhel
Stay above keep when you are fighting in mid. Greatsword allows you to do a lot of pressure,
plus you stay safe. If you need to burst or cleave a body, coming down from above is fine. You
can always Blink back up! Just make sure if your Blink is down that you are careful, and watch
for classes that can Pull/Push you off.
At Henge you can stay up on the far side of the point opposite the side that is close to blue
spawn. You can Blink, Phase Retreat, and Illusionary Leap back up above.

Hans Onsum, 40

At Mine you can Blink up to the wood platform at the back of the point, and there are spots to
jump up onto the bridge in front of the point. These are all shown in my video.
Usually I use Portal on this map to harass far node/steal bosses/Portal allies out of mid fight to
safety.
I like top open behind Keep on this map. Sometimes we will cross as a team, but this is higher
risk higher reward. If you are playing a 3 point strat with tankier people crossing can be
effective.
If you have to kill a boss, the general rule of thumb is to not let the boss walk around or move,
that way it doesnt move on the map and the enemy will have less of an idea that youre 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 doesnt cleave them. The bottom line is that Mesmer isnt the best class to do
the boss, and trying to dps it without letting it move will take a while. Especially if youre saving
cooldowns near the end to protect from steals. Ideally you would do it with your team mates
after winning a team fight, or if you have a d/p or s/p Thief, they can do it easily with Black
Powder.

Legacy of the Foefire

This map you have the least safety in terms of positioning to fight for the mid point. That said, if
the fight is moving move towards your stairs or their stairs, there are places to Blink to that are
in my video in which you can have safe positioning. By safe I mean only professions with Blink
can get to you unless they want to walk all the way around.
I will usually Portal mid and push far for harass, or Portal close and go mid on this map.
You can do a delayed push far (so you dont get caught early) and then put a Portal on far and
go mid. This pressures their back node because if they leave youll just back cap. Remember if
you are low and you need someone to go through the Portal, it doesnt always have to be you!
You can open it and someone else goes through.
I like to open with a Portal on the terrain that connects to the bridge. You use the 1200 range
Blink spot to get up there coming out of the gate.
Its 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, its 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.

Hans Onsum, 41

If you are being harassed on your back line by a Thief or something, remember to call for peels,
and kite around the Phase Retreat locations with Staff.

Battle of Kyhlo
Mesmer is decent on Trebuchet, but you want to make sure you are utilizing your team utility
skills. Many of the classes that are sent to Treb in higher tier play are classes that you wont
want to 1v1, this is why Mesmer isnt the best choice for Trebuchet.
There are a few good openers for Mes on this map:
Go mid, portal, go gank far with with your other DPS, then portal back mid.
Portal/Gank home and go mid.
You can also portal at the houses near one side point, and get to the other side point.
(First spot and Second spot)
Open on your Trebuchet to get the wall down for your team mates (many times the
enemy Treb will get it down anyway).
Go through the mid path to your rafter side, Blink up to the roof, and gank/Push any
enemies that are coming up rafters off of the edge.
Put a Portal on enemy rafters and open far node then port out.
Immediately go mid with team and try to get their Guard!
Blink is one of the most powerful abilities on this map since there is so much vertical terrain.
You can Blink to the roof on both sides nearest the side points. You can also Blink to the ceiling
of clock tower from the mid point.
When I use Portal here it's usually to assault far point, Portal someone out of mid, or Portal Treb
with repair kit/back capping and Trebbing mid. Since the side points are closer on this map, you
can also portal allies in a rotation from one side node to the other.
If I do go on Treb, I usually only try to Treb mid. Since you can Treb mid and fight people at
Treb at the same time. You can't Treb other points while fighting people because they will Pull
you off with damage before you charge up enough.

Hans Onsum, 42

Spirit Watch
Don't carry the orb unless you have to.
3 point team strategies are more common on this map, so keep in mind your Portal placements
as the orb runner may need reinforcements in different areas.
Greatsword auto attack penetrates sanctuary, so you can just auto attack a Guardian that is
trying to grab the orb. If they line of sight you with the orb pedestal, just walk closer and spawn
clones or Shatter near them. The AoE will reach inside the Sanctuary.
Mesmer is a great option for keeping people off of the orb since you can keep such good range
and have safety with Blink. If you play a 3 point strategy with a Mesmer watching orb, the other
team will most likely have to divert a player or players to stop you from stopping their orb carrier.
Remember though, you still want to make use of your team utility. Although Mesmer is great for
orb watching duty, you should still be team fighting often, and Portalling to backup various
nodes.
Pulls and Pushes are extremely superior on this map against players and especially the orb
carrier. Make full use of Shattering off stability and getting people off of bridges.
There is a Blink spot where you can port up the backside of the side nodes. This is a great
opener choice for Mesmer since you can hide, and then cap after the person leaves. You could
also just gank them from the side. The Side blink spot here up to wolf is now more difficult. You
have to walk onto the flat part of the ground before blinking up. Stand and aim here.

Temple of the Silent Storm

Pull and Push people down pits. Just keep in mind that they will end up in mid point!
Mesmer is a perfect option for going to the underground 3 point cap buff. This is because you
can put a Portal at a point or just above the holes and Portal allies out or cap the buff and
resume playing quickly.
Your Portal will reach from each point to the underground buff. Just watch the timer so that you
will have your Portal up (either the entrance or the exit, as long as the exit still has some time
before it will reset) at 8:30, 5:30 and 2:30. It's also a good idea to have a Portal up for the 11:30
buff.
Remember Greatsword auto attack can go through sanctuary, this helps to keep guardians from
capping the buffs!

Hans Onsum, 43

Opening standing near the top bridge on your side gives you good options.
Mesmer can also be good at staying above and back capping during the 8:30 buff spawns. I just
really like to try to have portal up so I can portal my team mates down below if a fight is going
good or bad.
Mesmer is also a good choice to keep above as you can stay on the top-most terrain
overlooking the top buff, and just poke at people trying to cap the buff while your team battles
below and your thief is decapping.

Courtyard
Line of Sight is your friend here!
You almost never want to just fight in the open in the middle.
Coordinate stealths with your team if you have them.
If you wipe, go out the same gate side together, but potentially switch it up/bait the enemies to
one side, since theyll probably be waiting for you.

Skyhammer
Can put a Portal down on any point and go to any other point. So you can go from A to C!
If you Jump Dodge while you go onto a jump pad, youll go slightly higher.
You can walk over a fall-plate like the ones near the side cap points, then right as it disappears,
lay down a Temporal Curtain. The Temporal Curtain particle effect will be extremely diminished
where the Fall-Plate disappeared (it will still show up a bit on the sides). You can then just Pull
people down the hole - it catches a lot of people off-guard!
Landing on a jump pad stops any fall damage. This doesnt really matter for Mesmer all that
much, but as a side note, if you have a leap ability, you could leap from the Skyhammer, down
to a jump pad and live.
You can walk towards the Portal to the Skyhammer from point B, jump off the edge, and go
through the Portal from the top.
You can stealth and use the cannon on Skyhammer at the same time.
Example (0:34)

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You can auto attack the fall-plates, even if theyre not there, and they will trigger your auto
attack sequence. Also this will not put you in combat!
There is a bug where if you use Blurred Frenzy right as you fall of a ledge, so that you are doing
the animation while falling, you will not take fall damage. This is useful because if youre up at
the Skyhammer, you can Blurred Frenzy off the front while falling and land safely down below.
This way you can gain ground on people or if you have the Skyhammer portal timer debuff you
can still escape. Thanks Zeromis for this fall spot!

3.5 - Water Combat!

*There is no longer water on any of the sPvP or tPvP maps. I will leave this section in so people
can read for WvW or PvE.
I have Mirror Images on my bar instead of Blink underwater. That way if I need to do some extra
burst I can! Mesmer underwater combat can be strong especially because you can confuse
people by using the z-axis more.
Your underwater 5 skill with spear, Vortex, is also a Pull. You can use this to Pull people into the
water.
If you put a Portal on a point or in the water and then open it either in the water or on land where
you need it, start casting Vortex, then take the Portal right as Vortex finishes, the Vortex will
spawn on the other side, Pulling everyone on the point in and doing some damage. It acts as an
Ethereal Field so you can Leap through it for Chaos Armor with Illusionary Leap or Phase
Retreat, your team can also blast it!
If you aim your camera up and then dodge upwards immediately after falling into water, you can
completely negate the downward momentum that you have.

3.6 - Pre-game Prep

You can swap to torch in order to do a blast finisher for your team.
You can use Temporal Curtain if no one else has swiftness, but normally you want to save it.
You should never have to use temporal curtain to give your team swiftness out the gate.
You can use Phase Retreat to leap through certain fields for desirable buffs.
No prep other than that!

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3.7 - Combat Tips

First and foremost you are a damage dealer! This means you need to do damage on focus
targets and kill them in order to win! You can achieve this through synchronizing burst with team
mates, or quickly swapping targets to catch people off guard.
Be extremely careful as you are squishy and enemies like to target you.
I like to think of combat in waves. I go in burst go out, attack a bit, then call out another burst
with my teammates, etc. Remember though that with Staff, its perfectly fine to just stay at range
poking until you are needed in close range to do more damage or offer utility through Chaos
Storm and more reliable Mind Wracks/Boon Strip/Interrupts.
Watch for when allies are getting low so you can peel/quickly begin manually
resurrecting/Illusion of Life/Portal/Mass Invis them.
Listen to your team mates! This is a big one, many times you get caught up in calling things out
and forget to listen. One strategy my teams have used for communication is basically just
saying something important, loudly, over and over. Like if our war is fighting far and they have a
respawn well say You have a thief respawning, thief respawning, thief respawning until they
acknowledge.
If you are opening from stealth, the combo is GS2 > Mind Stab + Mind Wrack. Everything else
Mesmer has will give you away. (This is good all game, not just the first stealth opener of the
game - its like your backstab combo)
Call a focus target. Everyone should know what the target should be at all times, but just get in
the habit of doing it. You are a damage dealer, so if anyone's job, it's definitely your job to know
what to kill. I also find that playing a Mesmer so much has given me a keen eye for finding other
Mesmers coming out of stealth among their clones. You can do this for your team if they are
having trouble. I have protips on picking out the real Mesmer in the Mesmer matchup section.
If a target goes down and your confidence level of getting the kill is pretty good, call the next
target so your team can easily transition.
Watch enemy cooldowns so you know who to swap to etc.
Watch for enemy stabilities, you can Shatter them off which allows your team to CC or go for a
kill. For example I will Shatter off a Necro's stability who is Plaguing or in Lich form, so then I
can just Pull him off of a point and we can immobilize him, making his point presence/damage
output much less.
Can also Shatter off stab from Tornado!
Make sure to call out if you are getting low or need peels or think you will need peels.

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In the same vein, don't run super far away if you're going down. There is more cleave point, but
your teammates are also there and your Guard shouldn't need to leave the point very often.
Make sure to call numbers for your team mates. You can increase probabilities of anticipating
where stealthed enemies may attack based on numbers. Also numbers are extremely important
for knowing enemies rotations, and matching those rotations with advantageous matchups.
One of the most important things you can do in competitively play in general, is to call respawns
and numbers constantly. Your team should always know who is respawning when, how many
people are on the map, where they are, where the enemy thief is etc.
In the recent meta, tanky/bruiser Warrior/Ele comps are common. Here are some things to think
about when playing Mesmer and navigating through rotations:
1. If you are in a 2v2 with a tanky person on your team, and bruisers on the enemy team,
consider just leaving your ally to 1v2 while you use your mobility to rotate to another
point and gank. If one of their players in the 2v2 recognizes you doing this, it will
basically just become a race. This is why Thief is so good for this role, but Mesmer can
do it too.
2. You can use Mass Invisibility to help allies disengage
3. You have strong gank potential with stealth
4. You have good ranged, power dps. Mesmer has some of the best sustained, ranged,
power dps in the game. Use this to pressure people down!

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3.8 - Downed Enemies

Note about stealth regarding stomping: Lets 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, dont worry - there is a bug where anyone doing a stomping animation in
stealth, when they reappear, will look like they are only just beginning the animation to the
person being stomped. For players who know about this bug, they know not to trust the
animation and they will be stomped based on time since the stomping probably started, not the
animation. This is more of just a little bit of knowledge so you know where your animation is at
just in case you are preparing to do a Blink stomp or something.
Protip for this: One way you can outplay people is to actually stealth, stand near them, dodge
cc/dps, then pretend to start stomping right as the stealth ends. They will think you are already
farther into the stomp animation because of the bug and this will usually cause them to use their
downed ability right when they see you. Since you know youre faking them, you then almost
immediately cancel your stomp and start it again, catching them. Good against Thieves,
Mesmers.
Also, ever wonder why your stomp animation doesnt 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. (Its not prorated either, it makes your stomp as
long as it would have been if you started it without quickness at all)
You have a number of things to do. There is no specific order but some you need to use
together:
1. Pull people away from the body.
2. Chaos Storm the body.
3. Cleave the body with damage.
4. Daze people around the body.
5. Remove boons/stability so you can daze and CC.
6. Push people off of the body.
7. Moa someone like the guardian.
8. Stomp with Distortion.
9. Mass Invis team mates for stealth stomps (so they cant be hit by targeted CC/damage.)
If the enemies are dying and you know they backed out and/or you downed people off point, just
let them bleed out.
Also if you have the point in your control and someone is down on point, just bleed them out.

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Be careful they don't get an ally rotating in who will resurrect them! (Using Stealth or tanky
cooldowns)
If you are stomping a Warrior or Engineer, you can just use your clones to body block the
projectile.

Stomping by Class
If you are stomping someone and then Blink either to follow them or to get away, you must type
/no (or any emote) in order to break the stomp. You can cancel the animation by trying to move,
but you will still be locked in place until the animation would complete. The other option is to
cancel stomping first and then Blink, but sometimes thats not always possible.
Engineer

Use clone to body block 2 projectile.

Use Distortion to invuln the 2. (With most downed tells you can just wait to use Distortion
until you see the cast animation. Be quick with your reaction and you should get it!)
Just wait and dodge.
Spawn Warden to absorb projectile.
Can use Phase Retreat + Blink so that clone will block projectile and then you can get a
safe stomp.

Warrior

Body Block with clone

Wait and Dodge
React and Distortion
Spawn Warden.
If they get up with their 3, you can either ignore them (since they wont cap any points) or
you can kill them. If they die in Vengeance, they will instantly fully die.
Can use Phase Retreat + Blink so that clone will block projectile and then you can get a
safe stomp.

Mesmer

Fake cast your stomp. Basically begin stomping, wait like 1-2 seconds then stop, then
start stomping again. When you begin the stomp on the real Mesmer instead of the
clone, it carries through. So you are still able to stomp the real Mesmer when they
reappear. Sometimes they will be in range and you wont need to Blink, other times they
will be out of range. Even if your Blink is down, still worth a try.

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

If they stealth, the second Mesmer that appears is always the real one.
Protips from above:
One way you can outplay people is to actually stealth, stand near them, dodge cc/dps,
then pretend to start stomping right as the stealth ends. They will think you are already
farther into the stomp animation because of the bug and this will usually cause them to
use their downed ability right when they see you. Since you know youre faking them,
you then almost immediately cancel your stomp and start it again, catching them.

Necromancer
Their fear ability, downstate 2, has a long cast time and you can see the green Grenth
animation appear above their head and you will have plenty of time to dodge or Distortion.
Elementalist
This is another fake cast, only much more precise when compared to stomping a Mesmer.
Basically if you can get the fake cast right before they mist, you can Blink over to them and
finish the stomp. If you have the 1200 range Blink you can get them anywhere unless they go
out of line of sight for your Blink. If you have the 900 range Blink though, youll only be able to
stomp them if they dont go in a straight line, which many do as they will want to live assuming
you might not have a 1200 range Blink. If they happen to go behind you and you only have the
900 range blink, you could Phase Retreat while stomping first, then Blink the rest of the
distance.
Can also try the Mesmer stealth stomp protip as mentioned above.
Ranger

Dodge their downstate 2.

Distortion it as well. You can react to this one.
Be careful if they have a pet that runs up to you and begins an animation. The pet still
may have a fear or knockdown command. The combination of the pet CC and their
downstate 2 means they will most likely get off their downstate 3. If this happens, your
only choices are to either try to stomp them real quick, kill the pet if its low enough, or
interrupt the pet. Otherwise its really hard to out damage the resurrection from the pet.
Make sure you arent stomping near clones. If they use the daze on the clone near you,
the lightning will hit you as well since its slightly AoE. This is also why if you are
stealthed you can use the Phase Retreat Blink method to safely stomp if you have
allies who are around and will mess up the stomp.

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Guardian

Dodge downstate 2.
Distortion it as well. You can react to this one.
You can actually Phase Retreat stomp this one and youll be out of range of the
Guardian 2, so you dont have to waste Distortion!

Thief

Blink stop their 2 port.

Consider fake casting to make it easier. This is because if they port at the last second
you wont be able to react.
If they stealth and you just started stomping, youll 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 dont 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. Its worked for me! If you do think you know
statistically where they might go, try Blinking there when they do!
If they blink behind you, you can just Phase Retreat to stomp them too!
Also consider doing the stealth stomping method mentioned in the Mesmer section
above.

3.9 - Downed Allies

If you havent read the first two thoughts in the previous section about stealth and quickness
stomping animations, they apply here too!
1. If you can manually resurrect, do it!! Try to position yourself so that you can do it very
quickly.
2. If you need to, Distortion resurrect. Example
3. Do 1-9 from the previous list under what to do if an enemy goes down.
4. Illusion of life if you are taking that.
5. Consider Portalling that ally out if they're going to die again or go down again, especially
consider if they are Illusion of Lifed.
6. Burst an enemy or stomp an enemy. More situational.
7. You can use downed allies as bait to burst the enemy when they try to stomp or cleave
in melee range. Just be careful because you are squishy!
Also know when to not resurrect. If the body is being cleaved too hard, just back out and
regroup. You don't want more people to die than need to.

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3.10 - Class-Specific Matchups

Go into dueling servers!! You might not find the best of the best, but 1v1 experience is an
excellent foundation for mechanical skill and matchup knowledge.
Meet people! Many specs in the dueling servers arent specs you will encounter in sPvP or
tPvP. Players you meet in solo or team queue can spar with you.
Watch streams, ask the right questions like, what will this person do as they rotate into this point
vs. what I would do? Why?

Warrior
(easy-very hard)
Dodging is really important with this matchup. Youll be dodging Shield Bash, Bulls Charge,
Rush, longbow, hammer, Skull Crack, immobilize, Eviscerate, etc.
If you don't dodge Bull's Charge or Shield Bash, you will most likely need to use a cooldown to
counter, like Blink or Distortion.
In close range I like to have my Illusionary Leap out as long as possible so I can swap and stun
break whenever I need within the time frame.
Use Illusionary Leap to bait dodges and blocks.
Be patient with your Shatters, don't Shatter into their Endure Pain or Shield Block, also watch
for if they are running energy on their swap, as you might get baited into Shattering into a
dodge.
If they Vengeance, just run. No need to take extra damage and blow CC. They can't cap a point
while Vengeanced. Be careful if they Vengeance in a close 2v2 for example as they might try to
resurrect their ally with the Vengeance time.
Many Warriors will cancel Shield Block with Eviscerate, Skull Crack, or a daze for example, so
just be ready that they won't use the full duration.
Hammer has really obvious animations and should be easily dodged, except hammer 4, it
comes out way too fast!
Longbow is also pretty straight forward, just be careful of Pin Down. If they swap longbow, Get
ready to dodge the arcing arrow and the Pin Down. Pin Down was nerfed and it has a tell now
that can actually be reacted to. Also try not to stand in the fire field for too long. Just kite off
point if you need to. Winning the fight is more important than keeping the cap on the point.

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Consider Blinking if you get immobilized.

If they are running Intelligence, be careful when they swap Axe as the Eviscerate is coming!
Same goes with Arcing Arrow if they have Intelligence up.
If its a sword/sword condi Warrior, really make sure to dodge the torment stacking throw sword
they have. Also keep your distance so you are not immobilized. The Torment sword throw
Impale can be thrown with no directional requirement. Keep your eyes peeled.
-If you do get hit by the Torment, try to swap it back onto them with Generosity!
Sword/Sword, Mace/Shield and Longbow/GS are actually dangerous specs too, youll have to
kite a lot and dont get caught on flat ground with no Blink spot. Remember you can always
Phase Retreat if you do get stunned in order to dodge like Hundred Blades or Arcing Arrow.
Basically the GS spec will blend your clones (bow kills them too), and they can use movement
abilities to break immobilize. This means it will be extremely hard to land a Shatter, and they will
be able to stick to you unless you religiously use z-axis Blinks. Youll 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. Dont stun break the daze, use it on the stun. Use Lyssa if you
have too many condis, and consider standing still after you Blink up to z-axis if you have
torment on you.
When stomping, you can use your clone to body block the projectile. You can also body block
for allies who are stomping.
Down fight against a Warrior: If you go down around the same time, the Warrior will win. They
can rally themselves and stomp you/damage you.

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Ranger
*Currently not in the meta too much.
Spirits (medium-hard)
This matchup requires a lot of focus. You will need to watch the animations on their pets, and be
really careful not to get hit by too much.
Particularly watch for their Drakehound or Wolf begin to howl, this will immobilize/fear you
respectively.
Basically you just need to pressure them down with constant damage.
This means counting dodges and keeping track of when they use their evades after they swap
Sword.
If they end up summoning their Spirit of Nature, I will usually just put a Portal down if I have it
and then run. If they pop their Spirit cooldown in a 1v1, thats good. They wont have it up for a
team fight.
If you need to cripple or use some sort of condition on the ranger, watch for their passive condi
cleanse to proc, then subtract 10 seconds from the timer of the match, thats when it will be up
again!
Trap (medium)
Use your clones to trigger their traps.
I mostly avoid fighting in melee range unless I am Shattering in sword/focus.
Use line of sight if you can.

Beast Master (hard)

Try not to 1v1 this. If you have to, burst as hard as you can, try to get them out of their Healing
Spring.
Watch pet animation to avoid/dodge pet attacks.
Not worth killing pets unless they happen to get cleaved.
If they put down the Spirit of Nature pet, make the decision to either run or keep fighting. (I

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usually just put a Portal down and walk away since it gives so much regen to the Ranger). If you
do continue fighting, it can be interrupted pretty easily, just make sure to save something for it.
If the Ranger put his pet on you, watch the animation and dodge. Also kite to places/Blink where
the pet will have to run far and you don't.
For example in clock tower the pet will have to run up all the inclines and rafters to get to the
roof, and then you can just jump down.
Longbow Ranger (Hard to Very-Hard if they have room to kite you)
If they stealth, consider stealthing as well.
Watch out for their pets damage, especially if they are trying to combo you with a daze.
Usually they are squishy so just burst hard!
Watch out for their Invulnerability signet, if it starts flashing, that means they are using the active
to take no damage.
You will most likely be line of sighting in this matchup and trying to work your way closer to
them.
If they stun you, you need to stunbreak to avoid Maul.
If they are using the Longbow 2 rapid fire, you will have to dodge twice to avoid the whole
channel.
Down fight against Ranger: If you go down around the same time, or even a little bit after
them you will lose, as they can self rally.

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Mesmer
(Against GS/SF Even, GS/Staff can be hard because they will kite you, but S/F can be
aggressive and arguably has more kill potential in the matchup)
Be patient watch CDs and count dodges.
If you are doing the honorable GS/SF mirror, consider staying in sword after your combo. This
will allow you to get another leap immob off onto them as they swap GS. You can then just walk
behind them while they are immobed to cause pressure, or you can then swap to GS yourself
and burst.
Blink is really crucial in this matchup. Basically you want to sometimes use your Blink
offensively to burst them in their face. The offensive Blink burst has extremely low counterplay
because its instant, and this is why its strong. You just have to mix up when you do it so you
dont become predictable.
Be ready to cancel your casts/bait interrupts and cancel your own casts if they pop Distortion.
If they have SF out with GS swap up, you will want to be careful in close range since they can
leap immob into GS.
You can no longer swap with Illusionary Leap if it has been killed. This means that if they leap at
you, you can potentially setup a Berserker cleave beforehand from a clone on you, or mind
wrack it and they wont be able to immobilize. The safer alternative though is to just dodge/kite
away.
You should always be able to dodge Illusionary Leap. If you do get immobilized, you will most
likely have to use a defensive cooldown. Dont get immobed.
Watch their invulnerability buffs. Sometimes if you burst right when they are over you can get
damage in.
They key is to mix and match how quickly you Mind Wrack after immobilizing and baiting. Being
predictable is where you will lose against a Mesmer since they have such a low cooldown
invulnerability.
If they use Illusionary Leap Swap + Blurred Frenzy first, you have an advantage because you
can immobilize them by swapping with your Leap immediately after their invuln.
Know which Mesmer is the real Mesmer! Put a target over their head with call target. Default is
control + T, but you can also just hold control and then click on them, which is the fastest,
unless you are already clicked on them (targetting them without the target over their head)!

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If you are the Staff Mesmer use Phase Retreat to kite. If you get immobed you can Phase
Retreat away to mitigate some damage. Use your staff clones to apply condi pressure while you
kite around.
The Staff burst combo that I will mention later is essentially casting Mage, then Mind Wracking
right as the Mage Strike hits if you can. People often dont pay attention to the Mage and it will
hit hard/catch them off guard. Also if you can get them in a Chaos Storm while they need to cast
something, thats a lot of pressure with Halting Strike!

Protips for finding the real Mesmer

Clones:
Never cast abilities
Only walk forward
Auto attack slower than real Mesmers auto attack
Never dodge roll.
Walk straight then turn then walk straight again then turn in segments.
The real Mesmer will most likely have boons than the clones dont, but this isnt true all the time,
just majority.
Real Mesmer will have Mantra and Signet Icons.
Other Tips:
Make sure to dodge Mirror Blade! If give vulnerability to you, might to them, bounces back to
you again, and spawns a clone that they can Shatter.
If the situation presents itself where you will both be Mind Wracking each other, make sure to
Mind Wrack first so that their clones are destroyed. This will nullify some of their damage, as
well as reduce Distortion time if they decide to use that instead.
If you do or do not see the enemy Mesmer stealth, but you see a clone spawn out of midair,
then you know they are taking the Deceptive Evasion trait, and they just dodged there while in
combat. You can use this information to then make decisions on where they might be or be
moving towards.
Mesmers often dodge after their Blurred Frenzy, consider waiting and then sending out your
Leap to immobilize.
Against most people in general and Mesmers too, if you lay down your Temporal Curtain, just
wait for them to dodge like they most likely will, then just pull afterwards!

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If the Mesmer is phantasm (hard)

Try to kill the pets if you can. If you start to fall behind you will need to burst the Mesmer as
much as possible. Try to catch the phantasms and Mesmer in the same burst to maximize your
effectiveness.
You will most likely have to run a lot.

If the Mesmer is a condition spec with Prismatic Understanding or some other stealth
spec
With the Shatter spec I am using, this matchup will either be a stalemate or you will lose. The
game is in their hands since they have so much stealth.
Basically you will just be killing yourself with Confusion/taking condis from their clone death. So
try not to 1v1 this.
Fortunately you dont 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
dont want to get hit by the Torment. In most cases you can see them cast the counterattack.
You can then wait, or attack into it and then dodge the torment attack that is procced.
Versus Chaotic Interruption or similar lockdown spec:
Keep casting to a minimum, use things like Mind Stab, Leap, Shatter, Phase Retreat, Chaos
Armor, you can probably get off Chaos Storm too, which might give you a window to cast.
Fake cast and then mix in some real casts.
Basically once their mantra charges are down youre in good shape.
Save Distortion for Mantra up time.
The Interrupt spec is very opportunistic, so just be ready when they decide to go aggressive.

Down fight against a Mesmer:

Sometimes the A.I. can be weird and will not attack or follow you and then attack.
Sometimes it attacks your downstate clone instead of you.
You will want to try to use your 2 to dodge their Rogue. This can be tough if you go down
at the same time since its hard to tell animations. Typically the auto attack animation is

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slower, and the cast animations come out a little faster.

The second clone to appear after stealthing is always the real one.

Thief (and Dealing with Stealth)

(very hard- hint: its a guessing game and statistically you lose)
The best general tip for fighting Thief, especially with Staff, is to always be kiting towards Phase
Retreat locations. You want to force them to blow blinks to catch you as much as possible. I am
also now running Traveler runes, which I linked in the build in the guide, so I encourage you to
try that out and see how you do!
Mantra of Resolve is good in this matchup because you can pretty much always get a heal off
without poison, whereas without the condi cleanse you basically always heal with poison.
If they are Backstab spec, it's a total guessing game. You want to use probability to pressure
their stealths.
Basically if you see them stealth, you can categorize what to do based on what stealth they use.

Shadow Refuge
First and foremost, if a Thief uses Shadow Refuge and our duel is close. I will just straight up
run away and try to reset.

Other than that you can try:

Wait a few seconds as they most like won't open immediately. (Like I said it's a guessing game
though)
Dodge roll, wait a second, dodge again. Put down temporal curtain, walk through it, Pull, and
kite away.
Put down a Chaos Storm and watch for Aegis. They will either have to wait through it or try to
clear it. Remember if you block their ability while they are stealthed it will not reveal them. But
it will tell you where they are.
If they open on you, Chaos Armor/Phase Retreat kiting!
If they haven't opened on you yet, get ready to Blink away as soon as they open on you.

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Try to save Distortion for in combat when they are in daggers to pressure them or if you need to
close distance on them while they're in short bow.
The other strategy is to put a Portal at max range somewhere and then engage the Thief, or put
the portal down and try to kite them while fighting to max Portal range. Then if they Shadow
Refuge, just straight up portal out. You can wait the full seconds and come back in, or just
leave. Waiting and coming back is still decent, simply because your CDs come back up without
you really having to worry about dodging or blowing CDs in the first seconds of their stealth.
Often times if you go through a Portal and wait the maximum time before coming back, you can
actually reset.
Blinding Powder stealth/heal stealth/or other similar stealth
You know it will be shorter than shadow refuge, so you most like won't need to use Blink or
Distortion. Between dodges and temporal curtain usually they will be forced to open, or short
bow you.
If you see them stealth near a building in their offhand dagger weapon set on Kyhlo or
Skyhammer, they most likely used Cloak and Dagger on a building. This stealth only lasts for 3
seconds.

If they are d/p spec (hard):

This is for Critical Strikes (Executioner) or Deadly Arts (Panic Strike)
If you are dueling them in a server, I find my best results are S/F GS with Shatter Reset, Blade
Training, and taking Mantra of Resolve instead of portal. The strat is to be really aggressive (but
not reckless), and use your first Distortion to go win trades when they are autoing you or not
ready to stealth again.

Use the stealth approximation tips, as well as the general tips down below.
Watch the amount of time left on their vigor buff, when it falls off, usually it will be around 11
seconds until Steal is up again. This doesnt work so well if youre 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, thats a Shadow Shot (Its unblockable)! This means they
probably teleported to you, watch out!
In many of the Thief specs they will resort to shortbow, just strafe dodge back and forth (since
the projectile no longer homes in), and use Greatsword.
If you notice they use the Consume Plasma (the stolen ability from Mesmer), then you might
have a better chance of knocking or pulling them out of Shadow Refuge.
Try not to use Mass Invisibility before Shadow Refuge.

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Youll 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 dont become unstealthed, so youre just wasting endurance and cooldowns.
Just be prepared to deal with the immobilize with a blink or cleanse of some sort, or a Distortion.
Thief can bow 3 evade with this spec 4 times in a row, so be patient with your Shatters.
Also its important to note that Bow 3 was nerfed and there are vulnerability frames on the end
now. So you can time your Shatters properly to burst!
Super important!!! If you can interrupt the Thief in Black Powder, especially towards the end,
they most likely wont be able to Heartseeker out for stealth. If you actually interrupt the
Heartseeker, they definitely wont 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 its slightly harder for them to get a backstab off. Position yourself against a wall
or against an edge, or up against a clone like Ive mentioned before.
If they are s/d spec (hard)
If you are dueling them in a server, I find my best results are Staff/GS with a lot of kiting in staff.
You can Phase Retreat right when they port to you, but you will most likely lose because they
can always get away.
If it's a duel and you are running Sword/X, take Blade Training instead of Far-Reaching
Manipulations.
If it's a tournament, you'll have to use Blinks and get peels from teammates.
There are multiple Blink locations: Above keep on Niflhel, on top of some of the cliff terrain on
Legacy, some Clock Tower places on Kyhlo where the thieves can teleport to you with
Infiltrator's Strike. Use these spots.
If you have to 1v1 them:
Use your Illusionary Leap and kite towards where they used Infiltrator's Strike from,
When they teleport to you swap to your clone. This will help you keep distance and
make them blow more initiative on getting to you.
Once you get to where they are Infiltrator's Striking from, you can begin Shattering
hardcore.
Remember to Shatter during the window after they use Infiltrator's Strike and
before/during Larcenous Strike. They often dodge after Flanking Strike though, so switch
it up.
If they port to you, use Phase Retreat to kite/get away.
What to watch out for!!!
There is a bug where the Thief can jump/use sword port 2 at the same time and they will

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port to you with a ring where they ported from, but when they use Infiltrators Return it
will not return them to that spot. If you notice they are doing this, dont try to kite to their
ring as they will just kite you.
If they are s/p pistol whip (Extremely hard)
You most likely lose this matchup hands down.
At this point I would start implementing strategies to run away and get back to your team.
Once again try to make your way towards their Shadow Return location. Keep moving, and
anticipate when to dodge roll.
Phase Retreat away if they port to you.
They will most likely precast and port into you, so if you can see them, watch their animations,
you might be able to dodge as they port in.
Protips:
If you see the Infiltrator's Signet icon popup in midair, while they are stealthed, that
means they just teleported to you, dodge!
If they just opened on you with a Backstab full combo, run! You won't win if they then just
shotgun you with short bow (it instantly will destroy your clones).
If they Heartseeker you, just dodge and Blink away or use Blurred Frenzy.
A Thief Heartseekering into you is almost a blessing in disguise, Free Mind wracks to the
face if you have it up!
Pay attention to your Chaos Armor Blinds, you might blind their Steal!
Illusionary Leap has 2 leaps. The second Leap will go towards where the Thief is, even if
they are stealthed. If you happen to see what kind of stealth they use you can know if
they are in front of you stealthed and you can still Blurred Frenzy > Shatter them.
If you cast your Warden and they stealth while it is casting, the Warden will spawn on
where they are currently stealthed. This is helpful for knowing if they Blinked somewhere
or just where they are in general. If it spawns next to you, you know they're there, dodge!
If they shadow refuge, you can Pull or Push them out of it, instantly revealing them. This
isn't super reliable in higher tier play as Thieves will either use steal to you and use the
stability for Shadow Refuge, dodge/position correctly inside of it, or if they are s/d they
can use Basilisk Venom to get stability. Worth a try though!
It's hard if you have staff because as soon as you swap to staff they will shadow refuge
and you can't get them out (unless you are taking Confounding Suggestions, but even
still, they might just sit in it and not cast). So just try to play around aegis + dodges +
protection and tons of kiting in and around LoS/Phase Retreat locations while letting
your clones do some work. If you do choose to take Mirror Images, you can Mirror
Images + Shatter as soon as they open on you to counter.
You can always slap a Chaos Storm down on their Shadow Refuge just for a bit of extra
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pressure.
If they Shadow Refuge and you are casting Phantasmal Warden, it will spawn where
they are, so you could potentially Shatter there (only the Illusionary Persona part of the
Shatter would hit) and then Pull, or do some damage. This is also useful because if the
phantasm spawns on you then youll know youre about to get Backstabbed!
In addition, being able to spawn a clone through dodging means you are in combat with
enemies nearby so if a Thief is stealthed and youre not sure how close he is, try
dodging for a clone if you have the endurance to spare, and if it doesnt spawn, he
probably rotated out.

Down fight against a Thief:

They will most likely port away from your rogue.
If you see them stealth, use your stealth too so that they potentially dont hit you with
their downstate stealth opener which will put poison on you.
Just dps!
Usually you will lose, since their downstate auto bounces, and they can avoid your
Rogue.

Necromancer
Terror Condi (medium-hard)
If you run Mantra of Resolve, this matchup because medium or maybe even easy-medium.
Dodge-Daze to proc Reapers Protection and not get hit. (Or just Daze from range).
Be really careful of conditions and consider covering your Mass Invis with a quick Distortion or
Pull so you dont get CC interrupted.
If they Plague or use Lich Form, Shatter off stability and CC accordingly. If you are running Moa,
you can just Moa them immediately. (Same goes any transform)
Necros have a pretty easy to see heal, if they dont have spectral walk or wurm up, you should
try to interrupt it!
Dodge into marks to negate them.
If you have marks on the other end up your Portal:
1. Dodge into the portal is the best, you will have the dodge frames on the other side.
2. Blurred Frenzy cancel into the portal. You can preserve the cooldown and pop the
marks.
3. Distortion.
4. Be careful though as Fear mark can still hit you through Blurred Frenzy!

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This matchup is pretty straight forward, just do a lot of damage! You're basically racing against
your health pool running out.
Keep your distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just get away from them a lot. Also if you are line of sighting,
stay away from the wall slightly so that they cant lay marks down or the dagger AoEs and hit
you.
When you seem them take staff out, get ready to anticipate/randomly dodge marks when they
cast, or outrange them.
A lot of pressure is the solution to this matchup, in addition to keeping your distance. Use your
Staff/GS Range to your advantage.
If you are using staff and they fear you in Deathshroud followed by their teleport Dark Path, you
can use Phase Retreat to make it hit your clone instead of you. Alternatively you can de-target
and Phase Retreat instantly this will put you behind them and it can fizzle their ability.
If you know its the time in your rotation to use Mass Invisibility, look for an opportunity to
precast it while they use deathshroud 5, so you can proc Lyssa runes and instantly cleanse the
immobilize. Or Cleanse with Mantra of Resolve!
Power
If the Necromancer is power spec with dagger, you will most likely need to blow a cooldown if
they immobilize you. Moa Lich, stay out of wells. Do damage!
If they pop Lich, be aware that they can auto attack behind them, so they can actually kite you
and auto backwards. Dont get baited/kited!
Their Deathsthroud autos will hit you SO hard, also if you get hit while below 50% health, Spinal
Shivers will proc and do a lot of damage.
Basically you want to try to interrupt/line of sight Deathshroud (same goes for Lich)

Down fight against a Necromancer:

They siphon your life, you will probably lose.
Try to stealth between their channels, since if they begin the channel on you, it will go
through your stealth.
Just dps!

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Elementalist
(medium-hard, is closer to 50/50, maybe like 60/40 in their favor if they are going Fresh
Air spike)
D/D
Save your Blink for when you get knocked down. Don't Blink too early as they can Flash and
follow your Blink with Flash. You will be kiting around a lot. Use Blink spots to your advantage.
Watch their cooldowns and try to burst them when they are out of water.
Be careful when they swap fire. Burning Speed has evade frames now so you just need to
avoid it or mitigate it.
You will want to kite d/d ele a lot. Stay away from their burn ring so they dont immobilize you in
it. Also every time you pass through the ring, it will burn you, so avoid!
If they Ride the Lightning into you, that's free damage on your part since they are basically CCd.
Usually I'll just Mirror Blade dodge roll Mind Wrack their face. Can over half health eles if they
Ride the Lightning into you. (This isnt always possible since usually they RTL to gap close and
you wont be facing them)
You should be able to dodge their earth knockdown.
Run away from Shocking Aura. Lightning auto attacks do a lot of damage. Also the Shocking
Aura will interrupt your Berserker as it tries to spin into them. It will also interrupt your Blurred
Frenzy.
Try to heal with 3 clones all the time so you can sustain.
Mantra of Resolve helps this matchup a lot since the main reason you die is from taking too
much burn damage.
S/F
If they are s/f, you will have to try to anticipate their burst since it is instant.
S/f is really hard to beat off-point since you cant really line of sight their instant burst until you
are ready.
If you get blinded, use a Shatter like I mentioned in the quick tips to get rid of it quickly.
Burst as often as possible.
If they are running Focus offhand, watch for invulns and use Illusionary Leap/Immobilize as bait.

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My solo queue lockdown spec does pretty well against s/f ele.

Down fight against an Elementalist:

Dps them.
Try to anticipate their 3 cast, and stealth before the channel begins. If the channel
begins before you stealth, it will follow you.
You will probably lose if they use their 3 on you.
If they Mist Form away, you might resurrect first, but their team mate could resurrect
them, or they could go onto the point.

Engineer
Rifle Celestial is EASY
Pistol/Pistol or Shield is easy-medium
For Rifle Celestial, all you have to do is keep your range, and you can dodge nades and trade
more damage back to them. If they line of sight, you will have to go in closer which is what they
want. Just be careful of Blunderbuss and nades through walls, stealth pulls (be ready to
stunbreak), blink/phase/distort away from Slick Shoes, and remember you can knock them back
through walls so you get more distance between you and them when you come back in line of
sight.
If they are a condition spec like Pistol/Pistol or Pistol/Shield:
Try to avoid taking the condi damage. Dodge the poison etc.
Burst hard and often, but keep some distance. Meaning go in and do damage, then look
for some line of sight.
If they are running Elixir R, Pull/Push them out of it before they go down, or stop
attacking.
Stay out of red rings etc.
Often Mesmers don't use Distortion against condis because they don't really know when
to use it and they're constantly getting lower. Make sure to use it early if you have
Illusionary Invigoration If you know the reset isn't up, try to anticipate burst or use it to
pressure them when they are defensive like in a Big Bomb or Smoke Bomb. Since you
know they might be vulnerable then.
Use Mantra of Resolve to cleanse Burn/Poison from nades/Pistol attacks (like pistol
offhand burn)

If they are running bomb nades, just keep harassing them at range, they will have to get off of
the point or find some LoS.

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If they are attempting to stealth with a Smoke Bomb, spawn a phantasm or dodge into the
smoke bomb. The damage they do to your phantasm will reveal them.
When stomping, you can use your clone to body block the projectile. You can also body block
for allies who are stomping.
If they are HGH, just kite/stay at range and you should be fine.
If they are rifle burst, be really careful in close range. If they knock you down, prepare to Blink or
Distortion.
Also if they are rifle, you can watch for an opportunity to precast your Mass Invisibility to proc
Lyssa runes and cleanse their immobilize.
If they are running rifle and you are running staff, you can Phase Retreat to get them to blow the
net immobilize on your clone.
If they are condi/utility, burst often and get out to avoid condis.
Try dodging backwards when they swap into pistol, you may be able to proc their burning trait
on your clone. Phase Retreat works here too.
Mostly I just wanted to go over common builds that you find in sPvP and tPvP. If there is a build
I didnt mention here, a lot of the same logic applies. For example timing your Lyssa cleanse
against condi specs, keeping damage up and interrupting heals on tankier classes etc.
You should mostly always be able to avoid nades, especially with traveler!
Down fight against an Engineer:
Try not to go down near them. If they are able to hit you with their 3 ability, you will take
a lot of damage and be CCd, further reducing your auto attacking damage.
They will probably be able to bomb back your rogue, although it might not die.
They will put conditions on you with their auto attacks. Namely Bleeding and Weakness.
If they are condition, you will probably lose. Your damage will be cut, and they will be
doing extra to you.

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Guardian
Bunker
You will kill them eventually. Just optimize your rotations and Shatter their stability.
To neutralize them quickly, you will want to put down your Pull, wait for a dodge, make sure you
have Shattered stability, or wait until right before you Pull to Shatter stability, then Pull them. If
you can get them in a good position to Pull (which normally they will go to the farthest away
point from the Pull), maybe through dps pressure, then you can get a good amount of the
neutralize underway.
Same goes for the Push.
Between just the Push and Pull, you should be able to fully neutralize them.
If not, just keep dpsing and try again when the Push and Pull come up again.
If you have Staff it can be hard to neutralize a guardian if they dodge the mage strike and have
stability for your Chaos Storm. Basically try interrupting their Empower, Mirror Blade while they
heal into combos, and bait out dodges. You dont want to blow damage into their dodges!
DPS with Greatsword
This is often times really hard, and potentially one of the hardest matchups, IF you dont have
staff. The Greatsword will blend your clones, and they have many gap closers to match you.
If you do have staff, this matchup is actually quite winnable, I would say even medium difficulty.
Basically you just distort their burst, phase their gap closers, and Cry of Frustration/Chaos
Storm/Staff auto their melee pressure.
Just try to land all of your Shatters and look for line of sight/Blink locations.
DPS with Hammer
Hammer has much easier tells, you should be able to dodge most of the abilities. If they precast
ring and teleport to you. You can Distortion and walk out, or just damage them. If you walk to
one side of the ring and dodge all the way across and get the full diameter, you will be able to
dodge and not get knocked down.
Zealots Fire burst
Be really careful when they have the Zealots Fire buff on them and prepare to dodge.
You can actually Phase Retreat and the Zealots Fire will hit that clone.

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This is usually pretty squishy so just keep dpsing!

Downed fight against a Guardian:
You will most likely lose.
Their AoE kills your Illusions if you have any that are meleeing them, and their AoE also
gives them a lot of health in down state.
Your best chance is if you can summon ranged phantasms before you go down.
Unfortunately the only ranged pets we have as this spec are just greatsword clones.

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3.11 - Bindings and Settings

My bindings arent 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.
Its extremely important to not back pedal or s key. You are effectively crippling yourself.
Instead, strafe at an angle where you can still attack your target. Some people argue that you
do need to back pedal sometimes. That may be true, so I have Move Backwards bound to 12 on
my Naga (and not S), but I dont think youll ever see footage of me actually back pedaling.
Once you get used to the range of your targeted spells, I think Instant Ground Targeting is
better.
Shatters: QERT in a row respective to Shatters.
Weapons: 1-5
Utilities: XCV
Heal: Naga 4
Auto attack also bound to: Naga 1
Elite: Naga 3
Take Target: Naga 5
About Face: Naga 7
Auto Run: Naga 10
Stow Weapon: Naga 11
Use/Action: F
Look Behind: Naga 8
Dodge: Shift - This is important! Dont use double tap to dodge. One key is better!
Noncombat bindings (like opening character panel etc) are different but I wont 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 (dont hold, just click - basically as long as you release left mouse before you try
to About Face): Your About Faces will cause your character to turn towards your camera. This
is handy for Phase Retreating because since using Phase retreat always resets your camera to
behind your character, if you left click, About Face > Phase Retreat > About Face, you can
perfectly Phase Retreat in a straight line without worrying about pressing About Face mid turn

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and changing your trajectory. Once the maneuver has been completed, just right click and your
camera will reset behind you as long as you are still running.
If you right click (just click again, even in place without dragging), your camera will follow your
character as you About Face. This method requires much more precision because if you About
Face while you are About Facing (spamming the key), you wont do a perfect 180, you will get
lost in the other angles. The benefit to this version is you dont need to right click to reset your
camera after the maneuver is completed, but its less reliable, especially if you are spamming
the About Face key.
Side Note: If you are having trouble getting consistent 180 camera turns while trying to Phase
Retreat, one thing Ive 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 doesnt really lose you any ground at all.
Below are my game settings:

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3.12 - Weapon Rotations

This part might be confusing, so Ill try to have video links to everything.
First of all, don't spam cooldowns back to back all at once. It's good if you want high damage,
but to maximize your effectiveness, you want to try to line up abilities when they can be used
offensively and defensively at the same time. Mostly this doesn't apply if you are using
Greatsword at range, but a good thing to keep in mind.
Be patient! Sometimes you want to bait and wait before you Shatter. You are a burst class; don't
waste it on enemy damage avoidance or mitigation.
It is extremely common for people to dodge after Berserker, coming out of your immobilize, and
as you send out your leap. When I say bait, these are examples of abilities to use that if you
then wait just a second for the dodge, you can land clean damage on the enemy afterwards.
People also dodge out of Chaos Storm, so just watch for potential places where you can bait
people into losing scenarios.
As an example: Decoy > GS4 > wait for the dodge > time it so that you GS2 + dodge roll or
Mind Stab + Mind Wrack. (I will use Illusionary Leap/Swap as the main bait examples)
These as well as the following are just general guidelines for combos that are meant to help you
see skill flow, of course you will be improvising as well.

Sword / Focus
One Protip for sword/focus is that you can use Illusionary Leap just before dodging, and they
can basically happen at the same time. So in the same ability you can spawn 2 clones. Just
another part of minimizing time and maximizing damage!
Combo 1:
1. Lay down Temporal Curtain
2. Walk through the curtain (optional)
3. Cast Warden but before it finishes!
4. Use the curtain to Pull about halfway through the Warden cast.
5. Illusionary Leap > Blurred Frenzy/Shatter (the Shatter will be Cry of Frustration if you are
coming from GS) (also skip to this step if you are doing the combo from GS to S/F and
you want quick damage/chasing clone/stun break to be ready).
Example 0:53

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Combo 2:
1. Use Temporal Curtain and Pull immediately.
2. Illusionary Leap in to Blurred Frenzy/Shatter!
Combo 3:
1. Illusionary Leap into a disengage/bait.
2. Swap if there is an opportunity and Shatter!
Combo 4:
3. Illusionary Leap into Blurred Frenzy/Shatter!
1:23
Remember, if your Leap and Blurred Frenzy are down, you can still just do a Curtain into
Warden followed by some auto attacks. The combos I list arent meant to be set up and followed
all the time, they are meant to guide and add structure.

Greatsword
I usually like to start with Phantasmal Berserker, but if you think youll be in a situation where the
target will be walking through you or going outside your Mirror Blade cone (like maybe a Thief),
then start with Mirror Blade. That way you can cast Phantasmal Berserker without the cone
requirements.

Combo 1:
1. Phantasmal Berserker
2. Mirror Blade (You can swap order of use on 1 and 2 here)
4. Using these two abilities, usually one will land, or you will Pull 2 dodges.
3. Mind Stab > with stow weapon or swap weapon to cancel after animation
4. Mind wrack!
It's okay to Shatter with 2 clones as the damage is still plenty enough to pressure. Especially
since if you are standing in a place where your clones won't be able to walk to the target.
Example 1:15
Combo 2:
3. Throw/precast Mirror Blade, then Blink into them, dodge roll and Mind Wrack.

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Both Weapon Sets

(for max dps and synergy)
There are 2 combos that use both weapon sets, each one going from one set to the other.
Sword to GS Combo Example (1:02)
GS to Sword Combo Example (with some extra) (1:21)
Important insight about combos starting in Sword
Your curtain (Push and Pull), and the leap before it hits the target, will not put you in combat.
Therefore, if you are using dodging to spawn clones, check to see if you are in combat first. I
note this in Diagram 2 where I note that you do not enter combat until your leap clone hits your
target. This is important because many times as I noted just previously, dodging with your leap
is common to maximize damage potential per time.
If you are stealthed starting in Sword
Gaining combat wont unstealth you, only damage. This means you could do almost the entire
Sword - GS combo and remain stealthed, then just Shatter as you come out of stealth. You can
also use Diversion in stealth to daze people and you wont 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 doesnt
matter where you dodge to either since you will just be swapping with the clone anyway. This
can lead to baiting people into thinking youre going a different direction. 1:27 example of rolling
past enemy to spawn a clone then swapping back.

Combo 1:
1. Greatsword Combo 1
2. Swap
3. Sword combo 1, 2, or 4 (I usually do 4, since curtain is good to save for team synergy)
4. Backout, you can potentially go back in for combo Illusionary Leap > Blurred
Frenzy/Shatter combo again.
5. Swap back to Greatsword!
Combo 2:
1. Greatsword combo 1
2. Use your Mind Stab but stun break the ending animation with Blink, onto the enemy.
3. Dodge roll into Mind Wrack
4. Sword Combo 4

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5. Cry of Frustration.
With this combo, make sure to splice in interrupts and dodges where needed. Keep in mind that
Blink is your out since you are running Greatsword. Only use this combo if you REALLY need
to, or to show off.
Combo 3:
1. Sword Combo 3.
2. Wait to swap, then swap to immobilize and dodge roll away or dodge and Mind Wrack
while walking away.
3. Swap to Greatsword and summon phantasm while walking away, make sure your
camera is facing them though so you can dodge if you need!
4. Turn and Mirror Blade.
3. and/or
4. Precast Illusionary Wave then turn quickly and use it.
This is good if you already did Sword combo 1 or 2 and you are waiting for the second burst
before swapping back to Greatsword.
Combo 4 (My absolute favorite <3):
1. Illusionary Leap
2. Phantasmal Warden
3. The second the Warden finishes -> leap swap + diversion very briefly after (so they are
immobilized and dazed, with the swap daze walking in)
4. Swap to GS as soon as possible after you leap swap
5. GS 4
6. GS 2
7. Mind Wrack + Mind Stab + stow weapon for animation cancel.
If your second daze doesnt 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: 234>5>1

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

Combo 5:
1. GS 2:
2. Dodge immediately or time it so you are dodging an ability. Either way you will want to
dodge in less than or equal to the time it takes for the Mirror Blade to hit the target.
3. Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration (can do it when mirror blade hits, or at a time when you
know you can land the damage)
4. Swap weapon
5. Dodge/Cast Illusionary Leap
6. Swap and Blurred Frenzy
7. Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration
This one is really basic. You would use this if you had at least 50% endurance, and you were
only to use 2 in GS and 2 / 3 in SF (maybe because the other abilities were on CD).
Mind Wrack takes priority in terms of having the opportunity to land it over Cry of Frustration, so
choose at which point to use it. Also remember to interrupt with Diversion at any point in time.

Staff
The staff combos are really simple as each ability is pretty independent. You can cast Chaos
Storm, Chaos Armor, and the Phantasmal Warlock, and then swap to GS and have each ability
still persisting. Its a defensive fire and forget weapon set that basically is just extra steroids for
kiting and utility.
Combo 1:
1. Phantasmal Warlock
2. Wait for the attack to hit
3. Dodge roll > Mind Wrack on them!
Combo 2:
1. Phantasmal Warlock
2. Chaos Storm
3. Swap to GS and do combo!
Combo3 (kind of just a mix of things):
1. Chaos Storm + Cry of Frustration
2. Auto
At this point you could Phase -> GS 2 and then do the GS combos. Just mess around with
it!
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Flowcharts
I have made some flowcharts below to provide visual help and structure some mixed combos
for you. ^_^
These flowcharts are for the old S/F GS spec. A lot of the knowledge is still good/useful
but just remember Staff is pretty much the way to go now, plus dazes are shorter than
when I did the flowcharts because of paralyzation sigil nerf. Generally with S/F now you
will immob into GS 2, not 4 first.
Remember that mostly everything should flow together. You will always be using abilities,
positioning yourself optimally (like heading for line of sight if you are getting low on CDs),
picking your targets, etc.
Explanation about plus (+) symbols in the diagrams. They are meant to guide you on how soon
and what are some good points you can Shatter at, as well as that you can press the Shatters
keys together with others keys at the same time. If you have all the clones out that you are
going to Shatter in a particular situation, you could potentially press one key before the other
key in order to maximize your damage.
For example in Diagram 1 below, I have a + between GS 3 (Stow Weapon) and Mind Wrack. If
you are standing at 900 range and throw a GS 2, most likely youll be able to GS 3 while GS 2 is
still in the air. This means that you could potentially get the damage from the GS 3 off before
using Mind Wrack with the clone that spawns from the GS 2 hitting its target. If you are truly
optimizing damage, you look for things like this around the pluses.

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Hans Onsum, 78

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3.13 - Being One With Your Clones

The number one, single best thing I love about the Mesmer class compared to many other
classes Ive 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 Mesmers 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 thats beside the point here. For this
section we are just trying to learn how to imitate them.

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Stealths and line of sight are your biggest assets for this.
Since clones attack slower than you, its hard to imitate your attacking clones. If you want to
imitate using Greatsword, youll 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 dont have a target and you/your clones will unstealth first because Mass Invis is
shorter than Shadow Refuge. You will go and stand near some of your clones with your weapon
drawn so that when you all unstealth, the Thief unless he was paying attention to the exact
positioning of the clones prior to the Mass Invis (which most people dont do, especially since
the clones could have moved a bit), will have to guess with a backstab, or open with bow
instead (meaning you wont 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 didnt instantly move towards him, but its
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 lets say you had
to stay)
*In order to fake properly you need to have almost no boons, no PvE buffs, or anything that your
clones wouldnt normally have on their buff bar.
You are fighting a class with a Blink or a movement skill and they went around a corner with it. If
you have clones up that are chasing, just walk with them and turn the corners using the shortest
path like they do (combinations of straight lines usually). This can buy you some time as you get
closer.

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

Guild Wars 2 has what is called Theoretical Complete Solvability. The solution to nondeterministic 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)
Its a game of rock-paper-scissors, and we know the solution to this game is a ratio of 1:1:1. You
want to do as many of one thing as you do the others. However! Optimal positioning of
compositions come into play with Guild Wars 2, which is why we do favor certain openers over
others, but dont stick to just one. This means that you dont always want to do safe openers,
because then youll 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-thebest is what is seen in competitive play, and players become accustomed to that as the
standard cost curve.
Meta can develop, but it still depends what people actually end up doing. There are better
statistical choices, and worse statistical choices. Some of the worse choices can be higher
reward albeit higher risk. Also certain things that are considered better or worse depend a lot on
playstyle. Unfortunately though in Guild Wars 2, currently its not usually the case that a 1st
place winning team will be running something other than a combination of apex builds. That
said, my team does a mix of balanced strategy and high risk high reward. If we mix it up, throw
people off, and capitalize on advantages, we have a higher chance of coming out on top.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8

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3.15 - Final Words

Don't spam cooldowns. Just have patience! Play reactively when you need to.
Be nice! Everyone has something to offer. Don't burn bridges for your ego. You'll be surprised
how far being nice and good gets you.
Check yourself! Dont become an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Remember your positioning!
To reiterate: People always like to say "I play aggressive" or "I play defensive" Those are both
bad. The best way to play is the best way to play. There is always one best thing you can be
doing at all times. Sometimes this means being defensive, sometimes offensive. That said, it's
almost impossible to do so, but that means there is always room for improvement. Small
positional changes, target switches, the way you move your camera etc.
Play the builds and other classes! It's free to make any class and learn their skills. This helped
me a lot in terms of knowing what to look for.
In most cases with Greatsword, you will want to be at max range - out of harm's way and doing
good damage + room to react and kite.
Go over my tips and tricks section again!
Thanks for reading!!
Also if you want to have a laugh, checkout my rap.
I am in the processing of making the second one!

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4 - Donate!
If you would like to donate: Donate here!
You can donate with PayPal or Credit Card.
You could also just send me gold in game if you want!

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5 - Addendum
Some info about the Lockdown solo queue spec I run:

I dont run Portal because its less efficient when people arent using it. Plus this allows
me to run Blink, Decoy, and Mantra of Distraction.
A good combo is interrupt > leap immobilize.
People often cast after they dodge, so look for interrupts then!
Speaking of interrupts, its extremely important to use your mantra to actually interrupt
the foe every time. You dont want to miss your interrupt. The only time you would be
blanketing the daze is if you really wanted to cover like an instant cast ability that would
change the outcome of something important.
You get a lot of might from this spec!
Since interrupting people is so important, really focus on waiting for dodges once you lay
down your Temporal Curtain. You can almost always land the pull if you are patient
enough. And on Skyhammer you can just pull/immobilize people into the pits through the
fall plates!

By popular demand, protips in the lockdown vs. lockdown matchup:

Keep casting to a minimum, use things like Mind Stab, Leap, Shatter.
Fake cast to bait mantra use. Basically you want mantra advantage.
Mix in some real casts.
Once their mantra is out, you have crazy advantage.
Remember once they use their mantra, the CD will start, so they could have it up again
and you won't the next time around.
Save distortion for mantra up time.
Basically just comes down to fake casting and landing more interrupts than opponent.
Since the mantra is instant cast, both parties should be able to land both interrupts, so if
you can fake one, you're ahead.
The Interrupt vs. interrupt matchup is very opportunistic, so just be ready when they
decide to go aggressive.

The bottom line: The interrupt spec is good if you dont need the damage as Shatter, but if you
only have like 2 dps you should probably run regular Shatter. Also you might need to run Portal
instead of like decoy on the interrupt spec. This just means you will need hardcore team peels.

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6 - Changelog (Gross/Poorly Formatted)

Kyhlo portal between side nodes.
GS 5 auto turn when standing still.
"Greatsword Portal Greatsword Portal MVP"
Made Version number internal so external link can stay the same.
Halting strike OR mental torment (instead of of)
Halting strike means chaos storm can zone enemies.
If potential thief nearby, dodge for clones, if clone spawns, thief could still be nearby. If like >10
sec passes.
If taking mantra cleanse, can cleanse for allies and changes many matchups.
Added to and Reorganized matchups with new meta specs.
Added a few quick tips/protips
Changed donation link (way nicer now)

Added services section below.

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7 - Services
Contact me for more details:
Supcutie.2538 (in game mail or forums)

One hour: $20 - I record our time and send you a private video. Will cater lesson to what
you need.
One Match reviewed: $15 - I commentate on the footage while watching it, sending you
a private video.
Longer Video: $1 per minute.

Package (one hour and one match reviewed): $30

Video with more info here!

Hans Onsum, 87