Guild Wars 2

I was gone all weekend and couldn’t test.

Were there any major conclusions on chronomancer that came out of the second beta weekend?

The tweaks were pretty small, basically just tuning and tweaking. So most of the BWE1 feedback still applies.

The biggest changes were Gravity Well and All’s Well That Ends Well. Gravity Well went from 3 damage ticks + 1 Float to 3 ticks of damage + Pull. All’s Well went from clearing conditions on Well expiration to granting Alacrity on Well expiration.

Honestly, there are valid arguments on both sides of both of those changes. I definitely prefer the BWE2 version of Gravity Well, but All’s Well was pretty good either way.

The All’s Well change created an entirely new build: Alacrity/Quickness support.

The All’s Well change left a lot of people scrambling for more condi cleansing. It’s been suggested that Well of Eternity be modified to cleanse condis, and that suggestion has been met with general approval.

Illusionary Reversion killed rolling your face across the f-keys to win, but made every other build that used it even more reliant on Chronophantasma and/or DE.

The Chronophantasma change was met with a large “?”, and people still suggesting that they just change it so phantasms inherit their predecessor’s attack timer.

Despite weakening personal alacrity generation overall, the alacrity change combined with the IR nerf made Improved Alacrity arguably stronger than IR. Builds that take IR over IA tend to also take Chronophantasma, with some few exceptions (like taking Deceptive Evasion and Mirror Images).

The nerf to slow on iAvenger didn’t seem to change much, except to make people realize that iAvenger just kind of sucks in PvE.

People noticed that Tides of Time is kind of amazing, except for that crazy issue that makes it go poof if it hits anything (like the open air on the edge of the tree platforms in Verdant Brink). Not a bug, apparently???

Revenant made us realize once again that despite all the qq about condi mesmers, we still have less damage potential than pretty much every other condi class.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

The All’s Well change created an entirely new build: Alacrity/Quickness support.

The All’s Well change left a lot of people scrambling for more condi cleansing. It’s been suggested that Well of Eternity be modified to cleanse condis, and that suggestion has been met with general approval.

Illusionary Reversion killed rolling your face across the f-keys to win, but made every other build that used it even more reliant on Chronophantasma and/or DE.

The Chronophantasma change was met with a large “?”, and people still suggesting that they just change it so phantasms inherit their predecessor’s attack timer.

Despite weakening personal alacrity generation overall, the alacrity change combined with the IR nerf made Improved Alacrity arguably stronger than IR. Builds that take IR over IA tend to also take Chronophantasma, with some few exceptions (like taking Deceptive Evasion and Mirror Images).

The nerf to slow on iAvenger didn’t seem to change much, except to make people realize that iAvenger just kind of sucks in PvE.

People noticed that Tides of Time is kind of amazing, except for that crazy issue that makes it go poof if it hits anything (like the open air on the edge of the tree platforms in Verdant Brink). Not a bug, apparently???

Revenant made us realize once again that despite all the qq about condi mesmers, we still have less damage potential than pretty much every other condi class.

Thats a pretty good summary /clap

Can I just also say that the damage on the wells is excessively poor. It’s bad enough that the damage is back ended but the end damage is out done by mantra of pain. The team bonuses and the conditions are kinda nice but it would be nice if the final damage could be boosted by 50% or more as enemies are given a full 3s to gtfo.

I’d like to see illusionary reversion go down to 1 clone required (not mesmer) then we have a valid option to deceptive evasion.

I felt the alacrity generation was pretty decent, I’ll leave the math to Frifox as to whether a well shatter build has potential in PvE. I really hope so as it was kinda ok.

Shield in PvE I felt was completely useless. I’d like it if the block summoned iAvenger when you activate it and had the channeled block with you getting the second block if you actually did block an attack.

Didn’t get to test it in WvW or PvP, I’ll leave that sort of view to people who would have extensively tested it. Hint hint Menaka =P

Overall Chron feels good to play, the “time marches on” on trait is my favourite, and means I can finally have an armour set without travellers runes on. Clone and phant generation is good.

Wells in general still suck because of cast time, best effect is at the end, and will generally only hit for 1 tick in pvp because people just move out of it. I made a lot of suggestions for BWE1 so I won’t fully elaborate here, but making the well radius bigger would help. Gravity well and calamity are the only ones worth slotting, but not both at the same time. As they are now wells are better for PvE and maybe WvW zerging.

Shield: I just don’t like the way this functions as an off hand. Likely better suited to premade teams but not pugs. Not enough damage on the phant, and the block skill is just awkward to use. Likely to replace off-hand sword as worse off-hand, i.e won’t get used. Tides of time is okay but the block/phant skill kill it for me.

Like I’ve said a few times, Echo of Memory is phenomenal because it is a Blocking skill that’s affected by Phantasm CD traits, plus it can double-conjure Phantasms so it benefits twice from PoM; or four times with PoM and Chronophantasma. That’s 8s off its CD plus the CD of every other Phantasm, and every other Shattered Phant also reduces its CD, and… well, the end result is a LOT of Blocking as well kittenter fodder.

Plus Slow is pretty strong in PvP.

…..

All’s Well That Ends Well is an awesome change, exactly what Chronomancer needed. A minor problem is it overshadows Well of Recall and iAvenger’s Alacrity share.

Embolism.8106:

Like I’ve said a few times, Echo of Memory is phenomenal because it is a Blocking skill that’s affected by Phantasm CD traits, plus it can double-conjure Phantasms so it benefits twice from PoM; or four times with PoM and Chronophantasma. That’s 8s off its CD plus the CD of every other Phantasm, and every other Shattered Phant also reduces its CD, and… well, the end result is a LOT of Blocking as well kittenter fodder.

Plus Slow is pretty strong in PvP.

I’m still not entirely convinced by this, but it does make for an interesting build concept that I know I was thinking about trying in PvP, but didn’t get around to. I’m not entirely convinced because the usefulness of a single block skill in PvP has always seemed somewhat “meh” to me, so this just becomes a slow phantasm summon unless you’re placing yourself in front of your opponent’s blade. Which was a mindset I thought they were explicitly trying to walk us away from, with the trait changes.

That being said, it doesn’t really address that Echo of Memory is more-or-less entirely useless in PvE, without some kind of significant change.

AtomsOrSystems.9420:

I’m not entirely convinced because the usefulness of a single block skill in PvP has always seemed somewhat “meh” to me, so this just becomes a slow phantasm summon unless you’re placing yourself in front of your opponent’s blade. Which was a mindset I thought they were explicitly trying to walk us away from, with the trait changes.

Multiple blocks that will follow up with Slow application is very useful in PvP with all the AoE and Thieves flying around.

Yeah, a build that abuses Echo of Memory plays pretty differently to a conventional Mesmer: instead of evasion and misdirection, you let your opponents hit you and punish them for doing so. I’d even run through Ring of Fires just to proc my blocks.

But yes it is more or less useless in PvE. A lot of people have suggested allowing it to be activated again to conjure the Phantasm immediately, although I have a feeling that there are technical difficulties with this and Deja Vu’s mechanic.

Conclusion #1:

The next BWE can’t come soon enough!