Guild Wars 2

I am trying to make a Chronomancer interrupt/lockdown build.

But no matter what I do, I have to give up stuff.

• If I drop dueling, I miss out the Pistol trait, the condi stacks, the mantra trait and vigor on crits…
• If I drop Chaos, I miss out on CI and the ultra awesome Staff trait
• If I drop Domination, I miss out on halting strike, CS and boon removal

It makes me furious… and I love it. I can see so many different Lockdown build variations. Especially with Chrono allowing you to get essentially 100% crit chance against slowed enemies and slow effect on interrupt makes for a potentially very powerful lock down burst build.

I also tried to theory craft a chrono shatter build. Same issue there.

As far as I can see it, ANet has done a very good job. Chronomancy gives very interesting options without outshining what we already have. And you are left with so many options. It is amazing!

But I think I will try a Chro/Dom/Duel lockdown build with full assassins gear (maybe with captain trinkets or simply assassins exotic trinkets), Sword+Pistol and Sword+Shield. 100% crit chance, I am coming^^

We shatter lovers have exactly the same problem.

We could spec into Dom/Duel/Illu, but lose the F5, alacrity, and 25% speed boost
Or drop Domination and the over-the-top MW damage and boon stripping
Or drop DE, and hope the Chrono traits are enough to compensate
Or drop illu, the recharge on shatters and Master of Fragmentation

And I love it. For the first time since launch, we will have (for a time) different variations of the same play styles.

Sorel.4870:

We shatter lovers have exactly the same problem.

We could spec into Dom/Duel/Illu, but lose the F5, alacrity, and 25% speed boost
Or drop Domination and the over-the-top MW damage and boon stripping
Or drop DE, and hope the Chrono traits are enough to compensate
Or drop illu, the recharge on shatters and Master of Fragmentation

And I love it. For the first time since launch, we will have (for a time) different variations of the same play styles.

Well not really. Its all about théorycrafting.
Shatter spec beeing burst spec, there is no way you give up Domi (+60% damage modifier)
Beeing a burst spec, you dont really need cd reduction (chronomancer giving you your cd twice and some alacrity, and sinc eits a burst, your target is supposed to be dead at the end of the burst unless big outplay/missplay)
Sure it would be nice to have those cd reduction, and you’ll probably be able to, if (we will know once we test it out) it appears that chronomancer’s trait can make up for DE and make mesmer able to drop Duel spe.

So in the end it will be: Chronomancer domination illusion. If it doesnt work out due to a lack of clone, it will be Chronomancer domination duelist.

It’s very unlikely that we see mesmer domi + duel + illu as F5 is really really strong and chronomancer’s trait too
i’m still waiting to see how much life will get the crystal left when pressing F5 and if destroying it force the repress (restoring CD) or just rupt the continiuum shift, disabling the mesmer to get benefit from it (no CD/healt/etc. refund).
So i wont bet on it till i know that

Mattmatt.4962:

Well not really. Its all about théorycrafting.
Shatter spec beeing burst spec, there is no way you give up Domi (+60% damage modifier)
Beeing a burst spec, you dont really need cd reduction (chronomancer giving you your cd twice and some alacrity, and sinc eits a burst, your target is supposed to be dead at the end of the burst unless big outplay/missplay)
Sure it would be nice to have those cd reduction, and you’ll probably be able to, if (we will know once we test it out) it appears that chronomancer’s trait can make up for DE and make mesmer able to drop Duel spe.

So in the end it will be: Chronomancer domination illusion. If it doesnt work out due to a lack of clone, it will be Chronomancer domination duelist.

It’s very unlikely that we see mesmer domi + duel + illu as F5 is really really strong and chronomancer’s trait really strong
i’m still waiting to see how much life will get the crystal left when pressing F5 and if destroying it force the repress (restoring CD) or just rupt the continiuum shift, disabling the mesmer to get benefit from it (no CD/healt/etc. refund).
So i wont bet on it till i know that

I agree that Domination is the last trait line I would sacrifice. But it’s not ALL theory crafting. For example, if chrono does make up for the loss of DE, you could have dom-duel-chrono builds as well as dom-illu-chrono depending on the play style of the player. dom-illu-chrono probably won’t work for sword builds, because the gained clones would die too quickly, being melee (in the current build, you dodge just a few seconds before shattering, max), but could work for double-ranged builds.

Something has to give and I personally am okay with giving up Chaos for Chrono.

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=“Chronomancer”,2,5,8-“Domination”,3,4,9-“Dueling”,3,6,7

I used to do well without it in my interrupt mesmer spec initially so, not a huge loss i my mind.

Sorel.4870:

And I love it. For the first time since launch, we will have (for a time) different variations of the same play styles.

Oh, we’ll settle down into three stable builds soon, but it definitely is fun right now to speculate on what those will be.

I am sad that I can’t dip into Inspiration for Mender’s Purity anymore, was nice having that condi cleanse on my heal. I can’t see giving up Chrono or Dueling and not to mention, that Chaos staff trait is making my favorite weapon look so awesome it hurts. Going to have to find other ways of condi removal I guess. It’s nice knowing we will have to make choices again!

Going to pop in here and just say, this is how the new system increases build diversity even with fewer options. This is how that happens. :P

Yes, options hurt so good :-p

It’s like we’re being Mind Wracked

Good, it’s about time.

Finally some real sacrifices to make – hopefully each choice will produce builds similar in strength.

I’m so glad we can’t have all the good traits together – so every build is going to have some weakness, whether it is condition removal, control, damage, support, defence etc.
And I love there are one or two big reasons to take every tree:
- CS, SC, MT and PB in Domination
- Minors, DE, Blinding Dissipation and a few others in Duelling
- Chaotic Dampening, Master of Manipulation, CI/PU/BD in Chaos
- Mender’s, Warden’s Feedback, RI, SC and the minors in Inspiration
- 20% illusion cooldown and 15% shatter cooldown, torch trait, scepter trait, MtD, MoF in Illusions
- and of course all the amazing traits in Chrono

I love these tough choices and that no one will be able to cheese the system by going a few points here and there in different trait lines – so for this reason, GJ Anet.

Of course in practice there are bound to be overpowered classes/builds, underpowered and everything in between, as well as bugs – but at least in theory/on paper it looks much better so far than what we have currently.

For PvP, everything is looking good.

I’m curious about PvE though. Those that have crunched the PvE numbers for far longer than me have their concerns and they look valid to me … will see how that pans out.

Sebrent.3625:

For PvP, everything is looking good.

I’m curious about PvE though. Those that have crunched the PvE numbers for far longer than me have their concerns and they look valid to me … will see how that pans out.

Shatter builds are not good for pve but yea the same problem arises if you pick the phantasm traits

The wells alone are a huge PvE boost. This counts but for Chronomancer only. I do not think that normal Mesmers will be much better off with the new trait system than they are now.

TyPin.9860:

The wells alone are a huge PvE boost. This counts but for Chronomancer only. I do not think that normal Mesmers will be much better off with the new trait system than they are now.

No, they’re not. They’re handy for tagging in open world situations, but they give almost nothing for a dungeon mesmer.

TyPin.9860:

The wells alone are a huge PvE boost. This counts but for Chronomancer only. I do not think that normal Mesmers will be much better off with the new trait system than they are now.

I think that is why there is concern.
If a Mesmer would be better off with the traits from the baseline specializations than they would be from Chronomancer then they won’t take chronomancer. Not taking Chronomancer means that they then won’t have access to Wells (nor Shield). So that means they’d still be lacking in the AOE cleave department … still far behind other classes, especially Elementalist.