Guild Wars 2

Proof: http://intothemists.com/guides/6201-cant_catch_me_gingerbread_mesmer
(I replaced decoy with Blink shortly after making the post/guide)

This was a build that I averaged a 55+% win rate, both pre and post heart-of-thorns, basically making use (/abusing) the evades provided by the dodge action to contest a point. With blink and portal, it provided you insane mobility, allowing you to basically contest any point of your choosing, easily sustaining against an average of two to three people depending on the enemies build.

The intent of this post is to highlight the difference between this core mesmer bunker, which never particularly took off into meta, and remained a personal homebrew favorite, versus the Chronobunker that we are seeing so prevalently.

Chronomancer::
+ Well of Precognition: 3 sec aoe evade, stunbreak, ethereal field, 30 endurance gain, 1s stability, 45 sec cd – alacrity benefits. (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Precognition)

This skill is, quite frankly, overstatted* (overpowered). Compare this to Guardians Renewed Focus (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Renewed_Focus) for example, which is a personal invulnerability, prevents capture point, channeled, and 90 sec cd. For those benefits, you can get some trait benefits, and you replenish your virtues. It’s not a 1:1 comparison, as you can’t do that across classes, but just look at the huge difference those two skills provide

+ Echo of Memory -> Deja vu: I still need to play with chronomancer more to fully understand how this works, since I’ve still primarily been playing my core spec, but the amount of block uptime this skill seems to provide from the description is insane; 4.5 seconds of CHANNELED block (vs. block one attack and counter) from one skill alone with a 30 second internal cd, summon a phantasm after fully channeling.

+ Continuum Split: Let’s give you an option to double cast any skills you want every 90 (- aclacrity benefits) seconds.

What Chrono “Loses”:
- Some Mobility: No real slots for Blink AND Portal. This is slightly alleviated by perma +25% movespeed.

- Glamour AoE Resistance/Superspeed: Runes of resistance alleviates resistance loss. And you don’t really need resistance when you can condi cleanse out the wazoo with shatters.

- Personal evades: Alleviated by AOE Evade with cd reduction.

Just wanted to post my insight into just WHY Chronomancer is so powerful, as someone who played bunker mesmer pre HOT

Hmm… I feel like I need to work on presenting controversial information to stir up conversation.

So (in my opinion), core bunker mesmer was strong prior to HOT due to the following traits:
Restorative Illusions : Condition removal on shatter, and heals.

Bountiful Disillusionment : Easy Access to stability for stomps among other boons.

Deceptive Evasion : Additional Shatter Fuel, adds to visual noise, additional condi pressure, fueled by endurance replenishment sigils and runes. This is not needed in Chronomancer, as variations of the chronomancer bunker allow you to keep illusion count up through other means, as well as illusion count not being completely necessary for the survivability of this build.

Bountiful Disillusionment and Restorative Illusions are two VERY powerful traits shared among the two builds. Was I being selfish by pointing out only stuff exclusive to the chronomancer setup? Possibly. Probably.

Perhaps Restorative Illusions needs to be weaker when shattering without a single clone up. Like no condi removal, or the heal should be significantly weaker.

Bountiful Disillusionment also does not seem to have any scaling based on illusion presence. Is this something that should be adjusted?

At the end of the day, the entire package of Chronomancer Bunker is “too much”, but I hope it can be adjusted without gutting the core mesmer.

alemfi.5107:

Hmm… I feel like I need to work on presenting controversial information to stir up conversation.

So (in my opinion), core bunker mesmer was strong prior to HOT due to the following traits:
Restorative Illusions : Condition removal on shatter, and heals.

Bountiful Disillusionment : Easy Access to stability for stomps among other boons.

Deceptive Evasion : Additional Shatter Fuel, adds to visual noise, additional condi pressure, fueled by endurance replenishment sigils and runes. This is not needed in Chronomancer, as variations of the chronomancer bunker allow you to keep illusion count up through other means, as well as illusion count not being completely necessary for the survivability of this build.

Bountiful Disillusionment and Restorative Illusions are two VERY powerful traits shared among the two builds. Was I being selfish by pointing out only stuff exclusive to the chronomancer setup? Possibly. Probably.

Perhaps Restorative Illusions needs to be weaker when shattering without a single clone up. Like no condi removal, or the heal should be significantly weaker.

Bountiful Disillusionment also does not seem to have any scaling based on illusion presence. Is this something that should be adjusted?

At the end of the day, the entire package of Chronomancer Bunker is “too much”, but I hope it can be adjusted without gutting the core mesmer.

you want to nerf 3 abilities that was there pre hot and not touch any of the chrono stuff ..

Why is mesmer community so self-defeating? This is like the post trait revamp patch back in June when Mesmers openly suggested nerfs to themselves and guess what happened? Anet nerfed traits that didnt need nerfs and over nerf on others.

Mogar.9216:

alemfi.5107:

Hmm… I feel like I need to work on presenting controversial information to stir up conversation.

So (in my opinion), core bunker mesmer was strong prior to HOT due to the following traits:
Restorative Illusions : Condition removal on shatter, and heals.

Bountiful Disillusionment : Easy Access to stability for stomps among other boons.

Deceptive Evasion : Additional Shatter Fuel, adds to visual noise, additional condi pressure, fueled by endurance replenishment sigils and runes. This is not needed in Chronomancer, as variations of the chronomancer bunker allow you to keep illusion count up through other means, as well as illusion count not being completely necessary for the survivability of this build.

Bountiful Disillusionment and Restorative Illusions are two VERY powerful traits shared among the two builds. Was I being selfish by pointing out only stuff exclusive to the chronomancer setup? Possibly. Probably.

Perhaps Restorative Illusions needs to be weaker when shattering without a single clone up. Like no condi removal, or the heal should be significantly weaker.

Bountiful Disillusionment also does not seem to have any scaling based on illusion presence. Is this something that should be adjusted?

At the end of the day, the entire package of Chronomancer Bunker is “too much”, but I hope it can be adjusted without gutting the core mesmer.

you want to nerf 3 abilities that was there pre hot and not touch any of the chrono stuff ..

Read the entire post. I never said I wanted to nerf those. Those were just things I threw up there in addition for consideration (stir up controversy). Read the original post on what I thought made Chrono too strong.

rchu.8945:

Why is mesmer community so self-defeating? This is like the post trait revamp patch back in June when Mesmers openly suggested nerfs to themselves and guess what happened? Anet nerfed traits that didnt need nerfs and over nerf on others.

I’m not actually a mesmer main, and I’d actually like for anet to NOT touch any of the core stuff, but stating what chronomancer stuff was OP apparently does not bring any discussion about whether or not those aspects are actually op. I personally think well of precog is WAY too powerful (see Renewed focus comparison). Just trying to promote active discussion on what we think makes chrono bunker so powerful so that the community as a whole comes to a conclusion on what parts are broken and HOPEFULLY anet can take note and balance accordingly.