Guild Wars 2

I like Well of Eternity as it is, gives it some synergy with Continuum Shift. Distributing the final heal to the pulses ruins this.

AoE Slow for Lost Time sounds like a good idea.

I like Well of Eternity as it is, gives it some synergy with Continuum Shift. Distributing the final heal to the pulses ruins this.

AoE Slow for Lost Time sounds like a good idea.

EDIT: fixing the bug.

Well and having it be a final pulse ruins the skill for me, because it’s hard to keep everyone grouped up for a whole 3 seconds, at least in WvW. Maybe if a commander calls for a water field you can drop it at the same time but then you’re just overlapping a water field with an ethereal field so you’re not really helping that much.

Or if I really need the healing myself I have to sit there like a target dummy for 3 s, I just don’t see why this would be a good thing…

Because it’s the only heal you can cast while Continuum Shifted and still get a benefit… that’s a pretty good thing in my books.

I don’t think that’s worth losing to cater to disorganised WvW groups. Not to mention AWTEW has the same mechanic, next thing you’ll be asking for Alacrity to be on-pulse as well. Either go all the way or not at all, and in this case I think it’s better to go with not at all.

tobascodagama.2961:

Phloww.1048:

Hmm….I’m trying out other elite specs and notice their stunbreakers have very short cooldowns. Well of Precognition is 45 secs long and the stability only applies to the mesmer. Think the cooldown’s too long? Maybe shorten it down to at least 35 or 40 secs?

Yeah, but we also have multiple other stunbreak options on shorter cooldowns, and Precog does a lot for us beyond just breaking stuns.

While that is true, Well of Precognition currently has a casting time while all other stunbreakers are instant. There were a few times where I was casting it and then get interrupted (whether by mob or I try to dodge into it for the blur.

Phloww.1048:

tobascodagama.2961:

Phloww.1048:

Hmm….I’m trying out other elite specs and notice their stunbreakers have very short cooldowns. Well of Precognition is 45 secs long and the stability only applies to the mesmer. Think the cooldown’s too long? Maybe shorten it down to at least 35 or 40 secs?

Yeah, but we also have multiple other stunbreak options on shorter cooldowns, and Precog does a lot for us beyond just breaking stuns.

While that is true, Well of Precognition currently has a casting time while all other stunbreakers are instant. There were a few times where I was casting it and then get interrupted (whether by mob or I try to dodge into it for the blur.

The cast time is why it also grants Stability. See also: Well of Power, and other stunbreakers with cast times.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

parisnicholson.3684:

Not sure if this is just an aspect of wells but…

Enemy Chronomancer Wells dont show up as a red ring (indicative of enemy AoE) and Chrono v Chrono duels are pretty silly as a result. How do we differentiate our wells from the enemies? Especially in situations where everyone is unloading AoE…

:heads to wvw to start dropping wells under the zerg:

Hehe that is hilarious

Embolism.8106:

The cast time is why it also grants Stability. See also: Well of Power, and other stunbreakers with cast times.

Ah, my fault for not looking at every stunbreaker and assumed all stunbreakers are instant cast. >.<

Xyonon.3987:

ANet we ALL here just want to have some sort of range attacking phantasm with an aoe skill. IAvenger, IDisenchanter and IMage all suffer greatly from the (original) bounce mechanic and the desire to be ranged and aoe. There is no better time than now to change those phantasms together. Please make up your mind.

We ALL do not want another range attacking phantasm. I know I don’t. They explained clearly why the ranged attack was changed to melee. What they need is simply a survival increase for the iAvenger…which does not necessarily mean changing it to yet another range attacking phantasm. They can start by treating it similar to the iSwordsman and have it pop in and out of melee to execute its attack and generate the alacrity + slow. The iSwordsman does a great job of this already. They could simply modify its behavior to be like a shield bash charge…like warrior shield 4…only leap back out of melee after executing the attack…again…similar to iSwordsman. They could combine this type of change with whatever they have been alluding to regarding increasing pet/minion/gyro survival improvement. They have enough range phantasms already…at least 4 (iMage, iDuelist, iWarlock, iDisenchanter). Both iSwordsman and iBerserker already have mechanics that get them in and out of melee to execute their melee attacks…they just need to add something similar to the iAvenger. Its past time they improved AI survival anyway…they need to do that regardless since there are AI units that will be melee regardless like ranger/druid pets.

ODB.6891:

We ALL do not want another range attacking phantasm. I know I don’t. They explained clearly why the ranged attack was changed to melee. What they need is simply a survival increase for the iAvenger…which does not necessarily mean changing it to yet another range attacking phantasm. They can start by treating it similar to the iSwordsman and have it pop in and out of melee to execute its attack and generate the alacrity + slow. The iSwordsman does a great job of this already. They could simply modify its behavior to be like a shield bash charge…like warrior shield 4…only leap back out of melee after executing the attack…again…similar to iSwordsman. They could combine this type of change with whatever they have been alluding to regarding increasing pet/minion/gyro survival improvement. They have enough range phantasms already…at least 4 (iMage, iDuelist, iWarlock, iDisenchanter). Both iSwordsman and iBerserker already have mechanics that get them in and out of melee to execute their melee attacks…they just need to add something similar to the iAvenger. Its past time they improved AI survival anyway…they need to do that regardless since there are AI units that will be melee regardless like ranger/druid pets.

That’s actually not a bad idea! I didn’t thought of having iAvenger have the same behavior as iSwordsman. It could possibly work for iDefender as well, although I think that may confuse people. But yeah, if they decide that melee with AoE buff/debuff is the best way, then the illusions just need to have more survivability to be fine. That would be nice if each phantasm has some utility purpose in addition to damage or whatever their role is (if that makes sense).

Put iAvenger as it was in the BWA 2 (ranged, throwing his shield as Captain America, with sound effect of attack that had). Just change, of bouncing his projectile on enemy, by dps AoE when it strike.

iAvenger must attack on distance, not melee, ranged attack its faster starts, better then launches the projectile with damage AoE. A melee is a nerf, dies very quickly, and the beginning of attack is very slow (as far as, iAvenger what is running, and then strike on enemy), the enemy see it and dodges very fast (on pvp is useless).

iAvenger attacking on distance is more accurate. Ranged attack launching a projectile, then do AoE damage with the sound effect of attack (add the sound effect attack, on BWA3 not have this sound, and if the previous BWA2 yes had)

Melee is the most ridiculous, increase life the iAvenger health will not solve its survival, it going to be similar to iDefensor? Increase life as the iDefensor? No please. Put to distance to shoot a projectile, then hitting AoE, and the problem is solved.

In the BWA 2 it was faster and more accurate attacking, nothing more invoke, attacking the enemy with the sound effect of attack, and it was what characterized him. The change was arose by bouncing projectile, because many of you did not like.

Been thinking about Seize the moment. Not only do I think you should get some quickness from yourself shattering but you should also apply that quickness in an aoe around you. Could provide Mesmer with some support options for fights that are more mobile.

The answer to iAvenger lies in The Saga of Biorn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU

Have him summon at range and simply whack his shield a couple times, inflicting slow on enemies in an area effect (such as warrior warhorn), and buffing allies in the same fashion. Make the shield smack sound distinct. Enemy players will need to focus the iAvenger to remove him. Enemy mobs will continue to spam ridiculous area effect, and probably lay waste to him like everything else until Anet address the problem :)

I’ve played around with Chronomancer a bit more and i’m really happy with the way ittis right now.

One note though

Echo of Memory: Like I said in a previous post, I love the new block.
The phantasm however is just dissapointing now. Just dies & does nothing.

Instead of Alacrity & Slow, it would make more sense if the phantasms casted Taunt instead.
If they’re going to die they better die while tanking a few auto attacks possibly saving someone. Would also go well with the “shield” theme as well.

A defensive CC focused phantasm instead of a damage one.

Overall I think Chronomancer is in mostly a good place. I just think that Lost Time needs to apply stacks for non-crits as well (maybe raise ICD to 1/2 second to compensate) so that carrion or crusader (especially cursader due to to danger time synergy) builds can make use of it.

Shield is almost perfect, the phantasm just seems a bit slow and unreliable, but thats also every phantasm ever besides izerker, so yeah..

Chronomancer was good overall in the first BWE and just needed some fine tuning. Now they just made it ridiculously easy to keep up “Alacrity”. You can spam your wells and shatter skills to keep up a PERMANENT 20-30 seconds of alacrity(this includes your party members too). So that is a continuous 66% increase skill recharge, combine that with sword 2 skill “Blurred Frenzy” and you never even have to dodge roll. I was reading through some of the previous posts and every is talking about how how they liked or disliked the changes to shield skills, traits, and there viability. I however did not see one post on how it is extremely easy to maintain alacrity (too the point where a 10 year old could do it). Has the community as a whole just accepted that this is a must and just as refused to say anything out of fear that they may nerf it? Or am I really the only one who noticed?

In my personal opinion, a class should be fun, useful, and require a certain amount of skill to play, not just the knowledge of button mashing and using a skill as soon as it is off cooldown. That is exactly what is happening to chronomancer. If I wanted to play a button mashing game I would play Guitar Hero or Super Smash Bros.

You can mash buttons in any game and get a result. If you want to mash buttons go right ahead. But every good player knows that’s not what happens in good, optimal play. And when you compare your description next to a pros careful consideration of skill use the results show.

I can’t really take your assessment seriously.

Of course 100% alacrity uptimeis possible. Now, demonstrate why that’s actually a problem.

Reading the previous responses about Illusionary Avenger, it seems like people are upset because:

1) The previously ranged Illusionary Avenger was able to deal damage while still being able to survive by staying out of mobs’ cleave.

2) The current melee Illusionary Avenger dies quickly from mobs’ cleave due to low health

I know Anet had their own reasons for changing it to melee range, but I feel like these changes could keep it as a melee phantasm while buffing its ability to survive until it delivers its payload:

1) Have the iAvenger spawn with its own Echo of Memory.

2) Have the iAvenger pulse alacrity and slow instead of it being on hit.

I feel these suggestions fit very well into the iAvenger’s theme of being a support phantasm, and address the issues other mesmer players are having with it.

The All’s Well that Ends Well change makes it feel noticably overpowered, to the point where in group content, I feel as though I can’t help feeling as though I’m putting everyone at a severe disadvantage running anything but AWtEW with a full or close to full set of well utilities.

It’s the warrior banner syndrome, where they have so many interesting utilities, but get pidgeonholed into using the same thing all the time due to one option just being far, far too effective.

Embolism.8106:

I like Well of Eternity as it is, gives it some synergy with Continuum Shift. Distributing the final heal to the pulses ruins this.

Agreed. It’d also break the well-nature. 3 ticks of effect X, then 1 tick of effect Y. In this case, thrice a condition is removed, then there’s one heal.

f5 has been pretty buggy, sometimes it refuses to return me to my old time line well past the duration.

Also the animation on some skills or mobs don’t really sync with slow and makes it a bit awkward, problem is I doubt there is any real time to polish a lot of that up.

But I’m really enjoying it <3

In general, Chronomancer is a really nice specialization. It’s fun and add things to some of the weakest parts of mesmer. It also goes well with any other mesmer line and can be used in a lot of different builds.
All it needs is some small tweaks.

Traits
Overall I find them quite good, but I think the grandmaster ones lack that tiny bit of performance to be on the good spot. And mainly this is a problem when you compare them to the rest of the traits, since grandmaster traits should be the most rewarding.

• Lost Time should give 3s of Slow. It’s a bit strange that an Adept trait is granting more slow and it doesn’t have a limiting mechanic, while Lost Time requires a set up to deal less amount of Slow. I think the Slow time granted should be exchanged between both traits.
• Seize the Moment. I’ve tested a lot, rewatching my recordings and the conclusion is the quickness is not enough. Half of the time this trait is useless (since it doesn’t activate with self shattering and 1s with 1 illusion is already half eaten by human time reactions and latencies). It needs to grant quickness to self shatter or increase the one granted per illusion.
• Chronophantasma. I don’t have a problem with the time, since phantasms already have a 0.75s internal CD. But the stun, I find it’s just too much. Phantasms are locked in the ground, and melee ones have a harder time, since enemies move and they need to catch them, putting themselves in dangerous situations where they die before attacking.
  I think Daze would be the ideal CC applied.
  Thought it apply stun instead of daze, and now knowing the daze time is about 1.5s, I find it is a bit too much. Still thinking 1s is the ideal.

And one last thing, All’s Well that Ends Well alacrity time is too much, 1-1.5s would be the ideal. It makes Well of Recall weird and an entire group of skills are used for a sole purpose instead of what those skills were designed for, just like with confusion glamour.

Shield
Both skills are very interesting and add a different playstyle. The problem is both are weirdly bugged. Block sometimes are bypassed by CC or some attacks, and Times of Tide doesn’t return in specific situations someone already has pointed.
About iAvenger, I like being a melee phantasm, but it should be created at the start of the block, so it has more chances to do its work, and the skill now can summon 2 phantasms, making it more successful having in mind the poor situation of phantasms creation.

Wells
I like the SMALL.big design of our wells, but in some of them, the small pulses are too weak compared to the final. It’s frustrating that you only use them for the final pulse.

• Well of Calamity. With a quite offensive build, the small pulses only do crits about 700-800ish when the final can deal +4000. The skill is lost if enemies get out of the are before the final pulse triggers, and this is critical in WvW and zerg fights.
  Damage from the small pulses should be buffed.
• Well of Eternity. Same happens. You need to wait nearly 4s for the final healing, and meanwhile you only get AoE 4s of vigor, which is very low.
  Small pulses need some healing of more appealing and defensive boons to counter the fact that you are locked into well’s area and you’re an easy target.
• Well of Recall. With All’s Well that Ends Well trait, the alacrity granted is underwhelming, specially because its purpose is done better with the trait than the skill itself. Being a skill based of recharge rate, the alacrity granted should be around 1.5s or 2s, so the skill is used more for what it’s been designed and not to have another well that grants alacrity.
  And another reason is All’s Well that Ends Well makes it worse, buffing the final pulse while small remain the same.
  The rest of well are much better designed, and good examples of how these should be.

Continuum Split
Mindblowing, amazing, one of a hell of fun… Whoever had the idea of this skill, kitten good job.
So good it needs some tone down, and I’m pointing to time granted per illusion, being a max time of kitten (1.5s from self shatter +1s per illusion).
6s is too much and it only make us to spam as much skills as we can.

Finally, here’s a video of some of my experiences with Chronomancer and some blasting things we can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Z5D5Uo8J8

Overall I’m really happy with everything.
The animations are a selling point on their own coupled with the sound (the “ticking” wells are amazing), the splitting is a lot of fun, the wells are really cool and add much-needed group support and interrupt integration, and the shield is a really good weapon.

I have a few ideas or rather worries, though:

• Power creep: This isn’t chronomancer specific. Overall, elite specs feel significantly more powerful than base classes across the board. This is – hopefully – the intended design, as I genuinely like that, but I still worry about the overall power increase. Stuff already dies too fast in PvE and PvP pre-elite-specs.
• Continuum Split: Is a bit finicky to use. Maybe make it have a base duration of 2-3s, and then +1s per illusion?
• All Is Well That ends Well: I’d just replace it with something which doesn’t mangle what each individual well is used for. No real ideas here, just… please no condi cleanse or alacrity.

New Well of Precognition is great, awesome utility skill.
My only fear about this skill is that the basic mechanics of PvP/Conquest are disencouraging every Mesmer to use this – Blur will decap a point, right? Dropping this well on a small point will negate all capping from you and teammates. I don’t know, that doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe this mechanic should be changed for outgoing Blur.

Correct me if I’m wrong, my knowledge might be outdated.

Overall, I’m loving the Chronomancer. Its not a damage king and I’m 100% fine with that. It has great utility and team support. There are several things that need to be toned down and/or changed though.

AWTEW – This is a problem. This current iteration just makes a full set of wells mandatory in groups. The alacrity for all wells has to go. Make group alacrity baseline for a couple of the wells…two at the most. I vote well of action for one…as it seems most themed for speed increase. Make this trait do something entirely different…something that won’t make a full set of wells the expectation in groups.

iAvenger – Give this phantasm more mobility…like the warrior shield #4 shield bash mechanic…but with an iSwordsman twist. Let it leap in and back out of melee to perform its attack/group buff/group debuff and survive. Shield #4 should also summon the phantasm on initial block as well. It is way too easy to cancel this block and cancel the phantasm summon as a result. I also think protected phantasms should be baseline…or give this phantasm a block upon initial summon.

Continuum Shift – While I love the concept, this seems doomed to a PvP based nerf. Lesser skilled players are going to continue to try to face roll and get crushed by this…instead of countering it properly by attacking the rift. We all know what happens when they come to the forums en masse to complain…even if the complaint isn’t really valid. I would honestly prefer this to get changed somehow instead of the entire espec getting nerfed to preserve it. Please don’t give it the dhuumfire treatment where the entire profession/espec gets punished for it. This is really a PvP tool anyway…make it less of a nerf target so PvE doesn’t get smashed in the face for it.

On a side note, I think the cool down on time warp is a bit outdated now.

I don’t see how AWTEW in it’s current state is anything but fantastic. Alacrity is the new mesmer thing. We should be providing it and it shouldn’t necessarily mean it requires a bar full of wells.

With well of recall alone you can spread quite a bit. One, maybe two more wells (eternity/gravity) and shouldn’t need more than that and you still have two slots open.

tetrodoxin.2134:

New Well of Precognition is great, awesome utility skill.
My only fear about this skill is that the basic mechanics of PvP/Conquest are disencouraging every Mesmer to use this – Blur will decap a point, right? Dropping this well on a small point will negate all capping from you and teammates. I don’t know, that doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe this mechanic should be changed for outgoing Blur.

Correct me if I’m wrong, my knowledge might be outdated.

Blurr is an Evade and still allows you to count on point.

Ansau.7326:

• Chronophantasma. I don’t have a problem with the time, since phantasms already have a 0.75s internal CD. But the stun, I find it’s just too much. Phantasms are locked in the ground, and melee ones have a harder time, since enemies move and they need to catch them, putting themselves in dangerous situations where they die before attacking.
  I think Daze would be the ideal CC applied.

They actually are suppose to be dazed, but there’s a bug that makes daze on NPCs act like stun, and I guess illusions are NPCs.

Now, to the Devs: You’re going to hear a lot of QQ from bad PvPers and WvW roamers, but PLEASE be reasonable with nerfs! Take your time with them! And try only to consider high end PvPers for PvP balance. Don’t nerf things less than an hour after release either! Listen to reason, not whining. People are not in a state of mind that promotes good decisions when they are frustrated, so QQers ask for unreasonable nerfs instead of figuring out ways to improve because it’s easier. I really feel this needed to be said again.

So, my full opinion on chronomancer (PvP mostly). First things first: I love the theme and the gameplay. It is a lot of fun and feels very unique.

The specialization opens a role that was somewhat weak in core mesmer: team fights. Because of its core mechanics, with illusions dying fast in a team fight and shatters offering spike damage but no sustain damage, core mesmer shines in duel and small fights where it can burst down an opponent faster than most classes. But in team fights, its damage potential is quite reduced and its survivability is low.
Chronomancer manages to compensate for the weakness in team fights thanks to strong defensive tools, unique support and new AOE abilities. I have been playing, like many others, bunker builds with great success, being very survivable and very supporty at the same time.

The problem I believe is that chronomancer also manages to reinforce mesmer in its usual role (burst roamer). The combination of CP and alacrity (not to forget F5) allows for a very high shatter cadence, allowing more frequent bursts. And at the same time, there is no loss of survivability thanks to the shields and wells, and even some added team support. In summary, chronomancer can now be stronger in duels AND stronger in group fights than current mesmer WITH THE SAME BUILD. Therefore, I know people won’t like it, but I think a few things need to be nerfed.

More specifics on each skill/trait:

• shield: the shield is really a great weapon. The channeling block is really nice. However, comparing to other shields, the ability to double block + get a phantasm out of it is too strong. I believe the block should be reduced to 1.75s to be more in line with other professions (it would be 3.5s of block in 30s CD, compared to warrior 3s block on 25s CD, on the + side we get a phantasm, on the – side, if we block nothing we get only 1.75s block).
• wells: most of the wells are in a very good spot right now. Well of recall still feels a bit outshined right now considering how much alacrity we get from the trait, maybe a CD reduction would make sense but that depends on how alacrity evolves. Well of Precognition may be a bit too good, it feels like its CD is a tad too short, but this may be because of all the alacrity we get.
• continuum split: still very strong but I am not sure I would change anything because it has counterplay and is not that easy to use right. Maybe prevent shatters from happening during the split to avoid megabursts.
• Alacrity: I will be honest, I think alacrity is way too strong right now. The effect is good (I would not nerf the CD reduction on it), but I think we get it too easily. I think Flow of Time is just too good. I would change it to not proc without illusion up (while I would change seize the moment to proc with IP) or I would move it to a major trait to make sure it does not come for free. I think perma alacrity should not come without significant efforts. Having this trait as a GM would allow to have a well defined “slow line” (Delayed Reactions, Danger Time, Lost Time) and “alacrity line” (All’s Well that Ends Well, Improved Alacrity, Flow of Time). Seize The Moment could be the minor instead (quickness does not add much to the mesmer burst, so it is safer).

Really, I know people will hate me for suggesting nerfs, but it is simply that I love chronomancer but I know it is too strong, everyone knows it. I would rather the nerfs hit the right spot and only prevent the burst roamer build to be too strong while keeping the team fight-bunker in a right spot. I want balance and build diversity.

Silverkey.2078:

I think perma alacrity should not come without significant efforts.

You can’t get permanent alacrity by spamming shatters without illusions, even with Improved Alacrity.
You’ve either gotta be using wells, or be actually shattering illusions. For example,
with Improved Alacrity, if you shatter Mind Wrack at full illusions on cooldown, and Cry of Frustration on cooldown with one illusion up, and Diversion and Distraction on cooldown with no illusions up, you will just barely fall short of 100% alacrity.
Investment? You’re taking a Major trait and spamming your shatters while keeping illusions up. That’s a lot of investment! And if you do it with Wells, that’s multiple utility skills and another Major trait. Using f5 to keep up your alacrity? That’s the opportunity cost of everything else you would do with your f5 time.

It already requires “significant investment” to get 100% alacrity, and I feel like I’ve entered bizarro-world, to see you of all people ignoring that.

Silverkey.2078:

I know it is too strong, everyone knows it.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Everyone knows that it’s strong.
Only some people, like you, think that it’s too strong.
But most of the elite specs are strong!
Revenant continues to mop the floor with base classes, by the numbers (and the cc)!
You appear to be viewing this from the a telescopic focus on Chrono, but the context is that chronomancer is sitting on the level that Anet appears to want for elite specs!

Silverkey.2078:

I would rather the nerfs hit the right spot and only prevent the burst roamer build to be too strong while keeping the team fight-bunker in a right spot. I want balance and build diversity.

Increased dps is not a problem. The burst roamer build gets more dangerous by increasing the burst, not by increasing the dps. Alacrity contributes absolutely nothing to the instantaneous burst.

With regards to Alacrity, Flow of Time should definitely not become a Major. Alacrity is as core to Chronomancy as Continuum Split (I’d argue more so), it should not be possible to build a Chronomancer without Alacrity.

Improved Alacrity however is excessive. Flow of Time gives all the self-Alacrity we need, and if you want more Illusionary Reversion should be the trait to go with (ATM IA seems to be taken over IR most of the time).

I’d like to see IA replaced, perhaps with another Alacrity-sharing trait so we’re not so reliant on Wells. Say 50% of Alacrity you gain is shared with allies, and AWTEW becomes “Wells grant 1s Alacrity and 2.5s Protection to allies when they end”. This isn’t an entirely altruistic trait either, remember Phantasms also benefit from Alacrity if there are no allies to share it with.

…..

With regards to Shield 4, I still believe the Block is too long even disregarding its synergy with PoM (4.5s over 30s plus 2x Phantasms that AoE Slow/grant Alacrity). The Mesmer already has a lot of active defence, IMO its Block should be good but not equal or (as is the case) straight up better than other shield blocks.

Many people have suggested reducing the Block duration to 1.5 or 1.75s, and I agree. It remains a very strong Block, and better than most other Blocks if you trait for it (which is fine).

Forum ate my post.

Anyway, Silverkey, I don’t think your suggestions are totally off the mark. It does seem like a little too much of our group support is pushed onto a single trait. Which is not necessarily a problem in itself! But it is something worth commenting on and discussing.

It does put Well of Recall in a weird spot, though, because it’s not enough Alacrity to build around without AWTEW but with AWTEW we’re better off taking a different Well (e.g., Precog) for almost as much Alacrity plus another effect we want.

Maybe AWTEW needs a slight nerf to Alacrity duration? Like from 2s to 1.7s or something. Just enough to shave a couple of seconds off a full F5 Well rotation, which could make WoR more desireable by making up the difference.

Making Flow of Time compete with Chronophantasma is an interesting idea, but ultimately I don’t think it’s the right one. I’d be more inclined to suggest making Chronophantasma into the Adept minor so that the GM Master tier looks like Lost Time vs. Seize the Moment vs. Flow of Time. But CP is kind of the new Deceptive Evasion at this point… you can’t give it away for “free”, but it’s always going to be stronger than anything else you put at the same tier.

Except that CP isn’t as situational as DE is, which makes it even more mandatory. (I mean, a Phantasm DPS build could conceivable take Dueling and skip DE, but it’s hard to imagine ANY Chronomancer build that doesn’t benefit immensely from CP…)

I loved chrono. Its a lot of fun.
Very minor feedback:
Continuum split bugs out if it gets killed. It respawns and when the CD finishes it casts again and closes.
Continuum split can revive me from defeated state but only sometimes. It was very jarring.
Well of action is lacklustre. It just doesn’t do a lot.
Gravity well should pull first. It made being in it wierd and using it wierder.
Well of precognition is amazing, except that the final pulse isnt great. I’d like it to make all allies next attack unblockble.
Dont touch well of eternity. Its perfect.

Also, condensing my feedback from another thread…

I feel like Gravity Well should have a larger AoE. Without Pull on cast it’s not difficult for enemies to escape the Well, and with a 1s cast time it’s a bit tricky to land on running targets in WvW and the centre point of Foefire.

I suggest increasing its radius from 240 to 360, and increase its CD from 90s to 120s.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Silverkey.2078:

I think perma alacrity should not come without significant efforts.

You can’t get permanent alacrity by spamming shatters without illusions, even with Improved Alacrity.

No, but nobody spams shatters without illusion. It does not need investment because mesmers usually try to get their F1 or F2 with illusions, so the alacrity comes for free on top of what mesmers already did. When I played, I didn’t focus on alacrity, I was just playing my game, and it just happens I got very high alacrity uptime.

Silverkey.2078:

I know it is too strong, everyone knows it.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Everyone knows that it’s strong.
Only some people, like you, think that it’s too strong.
But most of the elite specs are strong!
Revenant continues to mop the floor with base classes, by the numbers (and the cc)!
You appear to be viewing this from the a telescopic focus on Chrono, but the context is that chronomancer is sitting on the level that Anet appears to want for elite specs!

I think many other elite specs (or sword revenant) also need to be tuned down. I just played mesmer more so that is the one I have an opinion on what can be tuned down.

Silverkey.2078:

I would rather the nerfs hit the right spot and only prevent the burst roamer build to be too strong while keeping the team fight-bunker in a right spot. I want balance and build diversity.

Increased dps is not a problem. The burst roamer build gets more dangerous by increasing the burst, not by increasing the dps. Alacrity contributes absolutely nothing to the instantaneous burst.

The burst roamer does not finish its victims in one burst (not anymore at least). So having the next F1 on a 6-8s CD instead of 10-12 makes a big difference. Also, the roamer trades it superiority in small fights for difficulties in big fights. That is the balance. Now you can get both. Balance lost.

If you look at the changes I suggest, there is nothing extreme. Because I think chrono is not broken OP, it’s just a bit too much. I do not nerf with a hammer like a-net usually does.

Embolism.8106:

With regards to Alacrity, Flow of Time should definitely not become a Major. Alacrity is as core to Chronomancy as Continuum Split (I’d argue more so), it should not be possible to build a Chronomancer without Alacrity.

That is a weak argument honestly. I could say “slow is core to chronomancy, you should not be able to build a chronomancer without slow” and I would not be more right or wrong than you are. I like alacrity, I just think we have too much of it too easily (maybe I am the only one to think this way).

Improved Alacrity however is excessive. Flow of Time gives all the self-Alacrity we need, and if you want more Illusionary Reversion should be the trait to go with (ATM IA seems to be taken over IR most of the time).

I’d like to see IA replaced, perhaps with another Alacrity-sharing trait so we’re not so reliant on Wells. Say 50% of Alacrity you gain is shared with allies, and AWTEW becomes “Wells grant 1s Alacrity and 2.5s Protection to allies when they end”. This isn’t an entirely altruistic trait either, remember Phantasms also benefit from Alacrity if there are no allies to share it with.

I’m in principle fine with this. I just think the PvE community won’t be.

Silverkey.2078:

That is a weak argument honestly. I could say “slow is core to chronomancy, you should not be able to build a chronomancer without slow” and I would not be more right or wrong than you are. I like alacrity, I just think we have too much of it too easily (maybe I am the only one to think this way).

You would be more wrong than I am because Chronomancy is the only way to gain Alacrity in the entire game, and a lot of balancing seems to be done with Alacrity in mind. Slow on the other hand is available to multiple professions including the base Mesmer, and it has no where near the impact of Alacrity to the entire profession.

I do believe we have too much personal Alacrity too easily, hence why I’m for the removal of Improved Alacrity. Take that away and I think it will be much harder to maintain excessive personal Alacrity without wasting your Shatters.

At the highest level, I think I would leave everything as it is with Chronomancer for the moment. It doesn’t seem like anything is totally broken.

With the number of changes being introduced, it feels like it is going to take more than one weekend to start finding the optimal balancing points. I felt like Chronomancer had the potential to be strong, but I felt like I only unlocked some of that potential.

As many other people noted here, lots of the elite specs seem really strong. At first, I just attributed it to the fact that I didn’t know how to play against them (e.g. I must have been staying too close to reapers in a lot of fights). But many of the elite specs I ran into seemed very powerful. My team got crushed in Stronghold one game because a druid kept healing the hero they had summoned. I couldn’t generate enough damage to take it down (of course, I probably should have realized and targeted the druid, but it was pretty amazingly effective).

If there was anything changed, it would be neat to see the iAvenger be a little more survivable. If it needs to be different than swordsman, maybe it could give itself 3 seconds of protection when it attacks.

Thanks for all the hard work. I’m looking forward to playing Chrono!

Side note: a benefit to a new IA “50% of Alacrity you gain is shared with allies” is it improves our Alacrity-sharing skills. Well of Recall for example becomes 5s self-Alacrity but 7.5s shared Alacrity, or 6s/9s with my suggested AWTEW.

Zintrothen.1056:

Ansau.7326:

• Chronophantasma. I don’t have a problem with the time, since phantasms already have a 0.75s internal CD. But the stun, I find it’s just too much. Phantasms are locked in the ground, and melee ones have a harder time, since enemies move and they need to catch them, putting themselves in dangerous situations where they die before attacking.
  I think Daze would be the ideal CC applied.

They actually are suppose to be dazed, but there’s a bug that makes daze on NPCs act like stun, and I guess illusions are NPCs.

Ups my fault, I thought it had Stun applied :P

Embolism.8106:

Silverkey.2078:

That is a weak argument honestly. I could say “slow is core to chronomancy, you should not be able to build a chronomancer without slow” and I would not be more right or wrong than you are. I like alacrity, I just think we have too much of it too easily (maybe I am the only one to think this way).

You would be much more wrong than I am because Chronomancy is the only way to gain Alacrity in the entire game, and a lot of balancing seems to be done with Alacrity in mind. Slow on the other hand is available to a lot of professions including the base Mesmer, and it has no where near the impact of Alacrity to the entire profession.

Well to be fair the only class which can grant slow is mesmer on time warp. The rest is only by corruption/transfer.

I do believe we have too much personal Alacrity too easily, hence why I’m for the removal of Improved Alacrity. Take that away and I think it will be much harder to maintain excessive personal Alacrity without wasting your Shatters.

Well we agree on the problem, we just have different solutions to it, but I am very fine with your solution. Also, on a philosophical level, a trait which just increases the duration of an effect is a boring trait while alacrity sharing is fun. I do wonder though if the reason they didn’t do that is that they didn’t want 1 mesmer to provide alacrity to everyone around. That is why IA only affects the alacrity on yourself and not party-wide alacrity. But already after BWE1 I suggested to change improved alacrity to shared alacrity.

Silverkey.2078:

Well to be fair the only class which can grant slow is mesmer on time warp. The rest is only by corruption/transfer.

The Daredevil and Druid also has access to Slow.

Embolism.8106:

Silverkey.2078:

Well to be fair the only class which can grant slow is mesmer on time warp. The rest is only by corruption/transfer.

The Daredevil and Druid also has access to Slow.

Ok you win :p

Silverkey.2078:

Embolism.8106:

Silverkey.2078:

Well to be fair the only class which can grant slow is mesmer on time warp. The rest is only by corruption/transfer.

The Daredevil and Druid also has access to Slow.

Ok you win :p

Where’s my prize?

Embolism.8106:

Silverkey.2078:

Ok you win :p

Where’s my prize?

My eternal respect?

Well let’s have some respect for the developers reading this thread and back on subject with constructive feedbacks hmm hmm… Yep chronomancer rocks!

The Chronomancer looks fine atm.,

except the shield skill 4, Echo of Memory.
The melee range from the Phantasm now is not good, the range and bounce was much better.

Ross Biddle.2367:

You can mash buttons in any game and get a result. If you want to mash buttons go right ahead. But every good player knows that’s not what happens in good, optimal play. And when you compare your description next to a pros careful consideration of skill use the results show.

I can’t really take your assessment seriously.

Of course 100% alacrity uptimeis possible. Now, demonstrate why that’s actually a problem.

There is a major difference between a player who knows how to play their class and your casual/meta players. The main player base are the latter, you make not take it seriously but they will and I guarantee this will become a meta in no time once they realize it.

100% Alacrity upkeep time is a problem for 1: It makes the general populace of players lazy, they no longer have to have any kind of skill to play a class since all there skills will be off 66% faster so all they have to do is button mash without a care in the world, 2nd problem is how do you expect ArenaNet to produce any challenging content when most of the players do not even know how to play there class and basically expect to be hand feed. Perfect example of this is Fractals, Dungeons, World Bosses, and alot of PvE content, all the player has to do is stack here and stack there and use all there skills repeatedly. What type of skill does that take, ohh thats right it does not take any.

It has been proven time and again that ArenaNet caters to the whims of the general populace, so for the casual/meta player its perfect, while the so called “Pros” as you stated know there is a time and place for everything suffer.

For you to not ever realize the downside for 100% Alacrity up keep time proves you are the Former and not the latter.

So I CANNOT take your feedback seriously, since you clearly do not understand the gravity of this situation

Well. Here’s my consolidated feedback for the Chronomancer in BWE3.

.

Chronomancer is in a really good place right now. Shield, Wells, Continuum Shift, traits… everything feels smooth, polished and, most importantly, fun. Some numbers might be a bit overtuned but overall there are no glaring mechanical flaws that need attention.

Things that I think could do with some tweaking:

.

[ECHO OF MEMORY/DEJA VU]

kitten Block on a 30s CD that also conjures two Phantasms that Slow/Alacritise is a bit much considering the Mesmer is already well-endowed with active defences. I suggest reducing the Block duration from 2.25s to 1.75s. Also, Malicious Sorcery really, really needs to stop reducing Block duration now that we have a continuous Block.

.

[WELL OF CALAMITY]

Given that it’s meant to be our damage well, I don’t see why it has lower pulsing damage than Action and Recall. Should be at least on-par if not a bit higher. As it is it seems to be used more for its low CD proccing of AWTEW than for its actual effects.

.

[WELL OF PRECOGNITION]

For such a strong effect I wonder if kitten CD might be a bit on the low side. I’d suggest at least increasing it to 50s.

.

[GRAVITY WELL]

Without Pull on cast, the AoE is a bit too small especially when you also take into account the 1s cast time: it can be tricky to land on fast-moving targets and isn’t difficult to escape if you’re not caught dead-centre. I suggest increasing its radius from 240 to 360, and maybe increase its CD from 90s to 120s to balance it out.

.

[ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL]

[IMPROVED ALACRITY]

I’d like to talk about these two together. There’s some complaints about Alacrity sharing being too Well-dependent, and the Mesmer having a bit too much personal Alacrity. I’d like to fix this by changing these two traits to:

All’s Well that Ends Well: Wells grant 1s Alacrity and 2.5s Protection to allies when they end.

Improved Alacrity Bounty of Time: 50% of Alacrity you gain is shared with up to 5 allies within 360 range.

With these changes, Alacrity sharing becomes more about sharing your Flow of Time than Wells. It also serves to improve our Alacrity sharing skills: iAvenger gives 3s Alacrity to allies and Well of Recall grants 7.5s or 9s with AWTEW (provided you’re affected).

.

[DANGER TIME]

If it’s not possible to let our Illusions benefit, then I think this trait needs a buff. Say 40% extra crit chance instead of 30%. Mesmer personal DPS is really low, Chronomancy doesn’t really fix this.

.

[LOST TIME]

I feel like this trait is needlessly complicated. Why not just “your critical hits inflict 3s Slow, 5s ICD”? It’d be much easier to balance what kind of Slow uptime you want without having to take into account different weapons and their rate of fire. I’d also consider swapping this trait with Danger Time and buffing Danger Time up further, to give a sort of personal DPS alternative to Chronophantasma.

.

[SIEZE THE MOMENT]

It’s a good trait but needs a bit more to compete with Chronophantasma… allow the Mesmer itself to count as an Illusion for this. All other traits that scale with Illusions Shattered do this, why should this be an exception? Plus as established Mesmer personal DPS is really bad, Quickness is much less valuable to us for DPS purposes than other professions.

Zetrik.4397:

There is a major difference between a player who knows how to play their class and your casual/meta players. The main player base are the latter, you make not take it seriously but they will and I guarantee this will become a meta in no time once they realize it.

100% Alacrity upkeep time is a problem for 1: It makes the general populace of players lazy, they no longer have to have any kind of skill to play a class since all there skills will be off 66% faster so all they have to do is button mash without a care in the world, 2nd problem is how do you expect ArenaNet to produce any challenging content when most of the players do not even know how to play there class and basically expect to be hand feed. Perfect example of this is Fractals, Dungeons, World Bosses, and alot of PvE content, all the player has to do is stack here and stack there and use all there skills repeatedly. What type of skill does that take, ohh thats right it does not take any.

It has been proven time and again that ArenaNet caters to the whims of the general populace, so for the casual/meta player its perfect, while the so called “Pros” as you stated know there is a time and place for everything suffer.

For you to not ever realize the downside for 100% Alacrity up keep time proves you are the Former and not the latter.

So I CANNOT take your feedback seriously, since you clearly do not understand the gravity of this situation

• Alacrity reduces your cool downs by 40%, not 66% (ty AlphatheWhite)
• The chronomancer shield is balanced around alacrity and cool down reduction. The chronomancer is designed to receive a lot of alacrity.
• The fact that people stack and mash buttons is a problem with dungeons, world bosses, fractals, etc. It is not a problem due to alacrity or that should concern alacrity. If you are in a raid where people move around a lot, not very many people are going to get alacrity.
• Alacrity is not necessarily that bad for a mesmer because they lack sustain damage. While 100% alacrity for free isn’t a good thing, as others have mentioned, its not for free. You may get 40% reduced cool downs. However, you are giving up stealth time, proper shatters (not just spamming), and skills. Additionally, there is no denying that someone who plays chronomancer, or any class, under alacrity with proper technique is going to do a lot better than those who mash buttons (a lot, lot better)

BWE3 FEEDBACK

• AWTEW: As I have mentioned before in the second beta, I do not think the alls well that ends well trait should be changed. In the first beta, the chronomancer severely lacked the ability to share alacrity. Now it works out about right.

• Flow of time: This also received a 25% nerf between betas. Now, without improved alacrity, it seems to be in a good place.

• Improved Alacrity: this is the one that might need a few changes. During the first beta everyone took IR because it had no significant costs and IA only made alacrity last 25% longer instead of 50%. Then everyone complained that there was not enough alacrity while others complained we could summon illusions too easily. As a result, IR was nerfed and improved alacrity was buffed by 100%. After these changes, everyone started to take IA over IR. I think they just need to find some middle ground between these two traits. If 50% longer is too much, drop it down to 33%. Now, I am also not totally against the idea of changing it so 50% of your alacrity gained is shared with allies. However, the problem with this is that if you are mainly using wells, and you and your allies are all standing in the wells, your allies will be getting significantly more alacrity than you are. This doesn’t quite make sense to me since in my mind it makes sense that the chronomancer should get more alacrity than others and should be the only class that is somewhat balanced around it. Therefore, I think the trait description should remain the same, and where it is at in the trait line. The only thing that should change is the numbers of how much longer alacrity lasts on you.

• Shield: I agree that the block duration should be reduced to 1.75 seconds. Besides the op complaints, this also makes for some quicker play, which I enjoy. This is old news, however, I would also like to put in my vote to have iavenger throw his shield at the enemy from a distance, with the sound like it was before. Alacrity will then be granted to allies in an AoE from the enemy.

Xstein.2187:

• Improved Alacrity: this is the one that might need a few changes. During the first beta everyone took IR because it had no significant costs and IA only made alacrity last 25% longer instead of 50%. Then everyone complained that there was not enough alacrity while others complained we could summon illusions too easily. As a result, IR was nerfed and improved alacrity was buffed by 100%. After these changes, everyone started to take IA over IR. I think they just need to find some middle ground between these two traits. If 50% longer is too much, drop it down to 33%. Now, I am also not totally against the idea of changing it so 50% of your alacrity gained is shared with allies. However, the problem with this is that if you are mainly using wells, and you and your allies are all standing in the wells, your allies will be getting significantly more alacrity than you are.

So, why not instead something like “When flow of time triggers, grant nearby allies 50% of its effect”, and make it mutually exclusive with AWTEW, which currently has practically no trade off to taking it. (The current alternatives are superspeed to illusions when shattering which is lackluster, and slow when interrupting, which is almost useless due to anything worth interrupting having defiance)

It would open up two different paths for alacrity sharing, well based alacrity, as is currently available, but also allow the potential for a heavily shatter oriented playstyle without ramping the alacrity provided to allies even further due to the mutually exclusive aspects.

Due to the fact that such an alacrity source would practically require 3 illusions on each shatter in order to keep up with AWTEW, it might even bring some use to the currently underutilised mirror image, phantasmal defender and phantasmal disenchanter as a source of clones to shatter.

It’s an avenue that pushes condition builds more than power ones. While power builds end up dealing a decent amount of incidental damage through the damage attached to wells, condition builds, don’t. What they do benefit from is high illusion shatters, due to inflicting a stack of confusion and torment for each clone.