Guild Wars 2

TLDR: I’m not saying that the shatter traits are bad. They are anything but. However, I do not see how they are in the least related to the concept of “Chronomancy.” I would prefer to see this intense shatter playstyle as it’s own elite spec… named Mind Flayer(?). Instead, focus on the time/support abilities seemingly intended to be the focus of the new ‘playstyle’ brought to mesmer with Chronomancer.

Even though they are very strong traits, I personally feel like all of the shatter traits are very misplaced in the Chronomancer elite spec. I don’t get what time-manipulation has to do with shattering the crap out of illusions. It is basically like just taking mesmer’s base gameplay and amplifying it. We know mesmers shatter. That’s their profession mechanic. I find it a very uninteresting way to advance the elite spec when there could be so many other new and exciting options. Plus the well trait is just plain horrible. My alternatives are below.

I would really prefer to see some kind of trait that causes conditions on you or allies to perhaps tick slower or simply shorten in duration. Sort of like a reverse alacrity for condi’s giving you more time to cleanse them or regen while they tick down. Maybe a trait that lets you rally a nearby ally if you shatter Diversion quickly enough while they are in downed state or maybe even when your continuum shift ends and ‘resets’ time.

As for the well trait, maybe wells could grant stability instead of condi removal making it easier to stay useful while standing in them. Standing in an alacrity well doesn’t do much if you spend that whole time on your kiester. Nobody is going to stand in your well simply to have condi’s removed, and there is no guaranteeing that they will even have condis on to remove in the first place. And if they DO, by the time the well has finished ticking down in its entirety they may have already lived out their duration.

As a bit of an extreme idea, we could use some sort of new stasis locking condition that prevents boons from being applied, sort of, in a way, like resistance but anti-boons? Perhaps this could be applied when struck by a phantasm or when afflicted with torment or something similar.

All of these would be more interesting than… let’s see what happens if mesmers could shatter everything twice, then get new things to shatter to replace the ones you just shattered, and then lets use mirror images and shatter again and possibly continuum shift and shatter, shatter, shatter, shatter.

I love pretty much all the other elite specs (though I didn’t try Dragon Hunter). I was disappointed by Chrono. It just doesn’t feel like a cohesive design in some ways. It feels like trying to take the base mesmer, make its shatters more powerful, and give some significant cooldown reduction abilities. Even continuum shifting, while interesting and a great idea, seems to be nothing more strategic that a more powerful version of the mimic utility we already have.

Contniuum shift can stay as it is core to the spec, but I really think the traits need to be more thematically tied. The shatters have amazing synergy with other trait lines, yes, but it just doesn’t feel like a Chronomancer to me or even one single elite spec. It feels like at least two.

I would hate to see those traits go but you do have a good point. I wouldnt mind more alecrity stacking and more time shifting abilities in place of shatters for days. It would fit the theme alot better. I enjoy playing the Chrono ALOT but you do make fair points of how it does seem more shatter crazy than what you would expect. A suggestion I think would be great and time themed is freezing or displacing illusions in time and allow a massive shatter instead. I do understand how that could be difficult to allow for balance sake but would be thematically epic IMO.

When they announced Chronomancer i was sure it will come without shatters. I was just testing it and it’s broken beyond messsure. I can Shatter 4 mindleslly use signet to rech shatters, turn back time and do it again. Shatter 4 times 4 skills, IT’s like 16x Shattering. What the?
REMOVE SHATTER SKILLS! People will love it!
There a lot of cool op combos without shatter. I tried them, but shattering 16 times is just better.

It’s a fairly common theme.
Dragon-hunter doesn’t really seem especially-equipped for hunting Dragons.
Chronomancers have a number of effects that are basically “Does X… because time?” where the flavour text tries to make it thematic…
Tempests… are not tempests. Hell, I’d say their overloads aren’t really overloads either, but what should be a storm-mage is basically just an arch-mage or an ‘elemental commander’ or something.

I think Tempests and Reapers make sense. I was never fond of the idea of Dragon Hunters, but I could see it fitting to a degree (traps & bow… you know, Smaug from The Hobbit was weak to a precise shot from a bow in a weakspot in his underbelly)…

And I know that it’s an imperfect approach to elite specs as they stand now, but ANET really wants to hear our concerns, and frankly I think this is a big one.

If elite specs are going to be the way professions progress in the future, they need to be more cohesive. You can’t do all the cool things in one elite spec because when the next expansion comes around, you won’t have any new ground to tread because the bases have been covered.

Elite specs need to be precise and focused in their playstyle options. This will mean that if you don’t want to use a specific style of play, you can opt to use another, or the base set. This is how, from what I understand, ANET imagines the future of the professions. Losing focus and piling in loosely related mechanics (no matter how nice to have or how well implemented) will cause problems down the road for implementing other future elite specs.

*Boring part
No one will play chrono if you can’t mind wrack in it. In fact, it was designed for it. I would also like to point out that using signet of illusions in continuum shift does not work as well a people think in pvp. Most use of it has been on golems. However, doesn’t mean they may have to make it so you can’t use signet of illusions in continuum shift. We just have to wait and see. I’ve never got killed by a mes that used this combo. Ive also never seen a vid of it used in pvp while they were successful in the whole match compared to other rotations. shattering continuum shift = dodge and run away. This will ruin the whole set up for the mes. Its too easy to see coming, unlike bursting from stealth. Continuum shift time is really short. One dodge by your opponent can ruin it.

*More interesting part
As for the shatters, I have not played gw1. However, I know all of the mesmer’s shatter abilities are named after skills the mesmer had in gw1. Mostly they’re for turning your opponent own stupidity against them and messing with their mind. Mind wrack in gw1 did damage and drained energy from the opponent. Cry of frustration interrupted a foe and gave them damage when they attacked, much like what confusion does with cry of frustration today. Diversion added recharge time to the opponents next skill. Similarly diversion today makes it so you can’t use skills for a short period of time. Distortion gave you a 75% chance of blocking attacks, distortion grants invulnerability for a very short period of time. The numbers are changed between these traits and the effects are slightly different. However, you can definitely tell how they came up with the traits and how some of them mess with peoples minds, mainly diversion and cry of frustration. I think they added mind wrack and distortion from gw1 more for utility and variety. It can’t be just about theme. Right now they have direct damage, condition damage, and interrupt, and protection. All cover different aspects. Similarly many of the chronomancer wells do damage, notably well of calamity. How does damage do with time? Well it doesn’t really. However, AoE damage is something mes has been suffering with since launch. They just don’t have it compared to other classes. Well of calamity probably won’t be used much. However, at least chronomancer will have the option of providing a little more AoE damage. You can’t have all skills based on utility. With only theme in mind, I also don’t think any of the mes current shatters need to be replaced with more chronomancer like shatters. Its nice to have a little distinction between the specialization and original class. In gw2 it seemed like the mes was more about messing with people and punishing them for their mistakes. In gw2 the mesmer adapted some skill that control space-time. They had time warp that gave quickness and invisibility that bent light around them. They also had skills like portal that essentially created a wormhole in space. Now we have the chronomancer that is even better at controlling time. In my opinion its kinda cool to see how the mesmer slowly adapted over time into the chronomancer. Thats just a little lore and history incase you didn’t know it. I find it interesting at least.

I’m not saying that shatters should be removed when you spec into Chrono. But the elite spec shouldn’t be about shattering. The way traits are right now, the shatter traits are always going to be the best traits to take.

I also was not even thinking of Sig of Illusions.. I played without it and was still wiping people in PvP. Additionally, this isn’t about PvP specifically, and it’s also not about the current state of the game or even balancing numbers. Those things can be easily changed to reflect the meta if need be. This is about the problems that thematically irrelevant traits create for future elite specs or even deciding how to create traits for them.

I DID play guild wars 1, and I have played GW2 since launch. I don’t need a “history lesson.” None of those skills have to do with Chronomancy. They are mesmer skills, and I don’t understand why they should be buffed via a “Chronomancer” elite spec.

It is my belief (a very strong one at that) that we need to have elite specs very precisely tuned to the theme that they are trying to represent. If they are not, nobody is going to be able to intuit down the road why a chronomancer is better at shattering than a “Performing Artist” or a “Mind Flayer.” It is going to become a disjointed and confusing mess to remember what specs you want to trait into to create the playstyle you want.