Guild Wars 2

Hey, I’m trying to understand no green circle tactic at vale guardian. From what I understand each Mesmer suppose to give distortion to their own subgroup using SOI assuming the raid setup is mirror 5-5. My question is how do u time this as chronotank? You have to watch out for 4 things; blue circles, good rotation, green circle duration, time your SOI + move the boss at the correct time by keeping your eye on the timer. It’s like looking at your left and right at the same time whilst running in the jungle at night trying to avoid hitting your head to a tree. 1 mistake and u’re going to smash your face into the tree. It’s still bad for the 2nd dps mesmer but they can at least afford to just focus on timing the green circle since they don’t have to tank and move the boss.

I need few clarifications;
1) Mesmers give distortion using SOI to their own subgroup to survive no green circles
2) F4 gives distortion to random players so using this will mostly likely make you miss giving distortion to your own subgroup team mate so it’s better to use SOI.
3) You can also give distortion to your own subgroup by summoning phantasm using sword skill 5 and shield skill 4 which procs illusinary inspiration > blurred inscription >Inspiring distortion
4) Can you also maximise distortion time sharing to your subgroup by F4 shatter 3 phantasm and then SOI?

If all of this is wrong; Can a more experienced mesmer with no green circle tactic explain this to me in detail? Thanks.

Ok, so lets clarify the mechanics here.

Distortion share is accomplished with a minor trait in the inspiration line. The trait makes it so that when you, the mesmer, receive distortion, it provides 1 second of distortion to 5 nearby allies. This effect has a 5 second internal cooldown and can be procced by any source of distortion. The sources of distortion you can use include distortion on signet cast, coming either from actually casting a signet or the trait from casting a phantasm → signet. You can also provide distortion from the actual distortion shatter itself. None of your distortion sources are inherently aoe. The only aoe is provided by the trait.

Now as for your general comments on it being a ton of things to watch when you’re the tank…yeah, it is. Ultimately you do have to pay attention to a bunch of stuff and execute the distortion share perfectly every time. It’s not an easy thing to do, and it takes practice and experience to pull it off.

Fay.2357:

Ok, so lets clarify the mechanics here.

Distortion share is accomplished with a minor trait in the inspiration line. The trait makes it so that when you, the mesmer, receive distortion, it provides 1 second of distortion to 5 nearby allies. This effect has a 5 second internal cooldown and can be procced by any source of distortion. The sources of distortion you can use include distortion on signet cast, coming either from actually casting a signet or the trait from casting a phantasm -> signet. You can also provide distortion from the actual distortion shatter itself. None of your distortion sources are inherently aoe. The only aoe is provided by the trait.

Now as for your general comments on it being a ton of things to watch when you’re the tank…yeah, it is. Ultimately you do have to pay attention to a bunch of stuff and execute the distortion share perfectly every time. It’s not an easy thing to do, and it takes practice and experience to pull it off.

Thank you for the clarification, much appreciated.

For starters, there’s also a slightly less efficient but much easier way to do it.

Instead of Well of Recall, use Signet of Midnight. That’s a short cd insta cast distortion share. To make up for the missing Well of Recall, only summon iAvengers, you want now 3 of them.

You can also just use sword + nothing and nothing + shield. That way you will always be on sword shield wich makes it much easier to proc the Concentration sigil while tanking and doing stuff.

The only thing you have to be aware of: Distortion share has kitten icd. So if you see a green circle, do not summon any phantasms or use SoI, as it may block you from sharing Distortion.

Wahoo

Xyonon.3987:

The only thing you have to be aware of: Distortion share has kitten icd. So if you see a green circle, do not summon any phantasms or use SoI, as it may block you from sharing Distortion.

Wahoo

Thanks for pointing that out. This no green circle tactic is extremely annoying. xD

Anka.5086:

Xyonon.3987:

The only thing you have to be aware of: Distortion share has kitten icd. So if you see a green circle, do not summon any phantasms or use SoI, as it may block you from sharing Distortion.

Wahoo

Thanks for pointing that out. This no green circle tactic is extremely annoying. xD

Its also not the easiest tactic to fight VG. If you are new to raids as a chronomancer (and it sounds like you are) you might have better success by not going with this tactikittenil you have the general mechanics of the fight down better

From what i’ve seen so far, even though it definitely is complicated it comes with some perks like not actually pulling the boss around during last phase but stacking on it and healing through active areas. It makes concentrating on distorting greens easier and lowers the risk of separated players not getting the distortion share, the aoe is actually pretty small if im not mistaken. Saffice to say, it’s not worth trying unless the dps is optimal since the overall risk is higher.

OriOri.8724:

ts also not the easiest tactic to fight VG. If you are new to raids as a chronomancer (and it sounds like you are) you might have better success by not going with this tactikittenil you have the general mechanics of the fight down better

Yes, thank you word filter. Thank you for protecting our children from the phrase “tactic – until” [sic], because clearly the intent was malicious.

These word filters…

This is actually pretty easy to do now with the SOI changes since you can now keep 100% quickness/alacrity by just spamming skills off of CD so you don’t have to try to sync your rotation with the green circles.

The easiest way imo is to alternate signet of inspirations and signet of ether for the distortion, saving your F4 as a backup in case you mess up. This allows you to spam the rest of your skills for alacrity and quickness upkeep.

The only thing to watch out for is to refresh your phantasms and proc your traited SOI right after the green circle, since there is a cooldown on the distortion share. General rule of thumb that works pretty well (since green circle is about a 5 sec channel) is to not proc the traited SOI or other distortion if a green circle is already channeling.

When this strat, it is best not to move. Moving just spreads out the team and risks someone being outside the distortion share radius. Also, moving is pretty pointless as backspawned green circles no longer matter. We generally stack on the edge of blue and red. In phase 5, just heal through the single floor aoe that you can’t avoid. Pretty easy with 2 druids.

kowolo.7619:

This is actually pretty easy to do now with the SOI changes since you can now keep 100% quickness/alacrity by just spamming skills off of CD so you don’t have to try to sync your rotation with the green circles.

The easiest way imo is to alternate signet of inspirations and signet of ether for the distortion, saving your F4 as a backup in case you mess up. This allows you to spam the rest of your skills for alacrity and quickness upkeep.

The only thing to watch out for is to refresh your phantasms and proc your traited SOI right after the green circle, since there is a cooldown on the distortion share. General rule of thumb that works pretty well (since green circle is about a 5 sec channel) is to not proc the traited SOI or other distortion if a green circle is already channeling.

When this strat, it is best not to move. Moving just spreads out the team and risks someone being outside the distortion share radius. Also, moving is pretty pointless as backspawned green circles no longer matter. We generally stack on the edge of blue and red. In phase 5, just heal through the single floor aoe that you can’t avoid. Pretty easy with 2 druids.

Wow! So, you also heal through the platform damage. I’m going to try this tactic today. It does sound like this tactic makes VG fight fairly straightforward. But it does require 2x Mesmers to have good control over their profession.

zoomborg.9462:

From what i’ve seen so far, even though it definitely is complicated it comes with some perks like not actually pulling the boss around during last phase but stacking on it and healing through active areas. It makes concentrating on distorting greens easier and lowers the risk of separated players not getting the distortion share, the aoe is actually pretty small if im not mistaken. Saffice to say, it’s not worth trying unless the dps is optimal since the overall risk is higher.

As someone that has to PUG the raid, it’s so much easier to find a chronomancer that can handle it than it is to find four people to get to the circle in time. Now we just need to get distortion share up to 10 people and Vale Guardian at least will be tolerable.

Well yes, its easier to find 1 competent player than it is to find 4 if you are pugging. But if you are just learning raids and are playing a chronomancer it will probably be easier on you to not have to worry about this. If OP can pull if off great, if not I don’t think he should feel forced to go this route

Anka.5086:

2) F4 gives distortion to random players so using this will mostly likely make you miss giving distortion to your own subgroup team mate so it’s better to use SOI.

Create two subsquads and put one Chronomancer in each subsquad. By being in the same subsquad as the Chronomancer, boon, effects, stunbreak etc applications on allies will prioritize those in your respective sub squad.