Guild Wars 2

Sorry, I’m really argumentative as you could tell.

EDIT: Fixing the bug.

I would like to remark about the chronomancer’s sheild animation for Echo of Memory. The current giant “bubble” that encompasses the Mesmer looks a bit out of place in for a shield skill. I would go as far as to say it looks silly, but perhaps something could be done so it can resemble a mesmer themed block skill on the face of the shield only.

The clock is a nice touch just the “bubble” may need to a second look.

Hey!
In BW3 I played my Chronomancer mostly in High Level Fractals and a bit in Verdant Brink. Overall I really enjoyed the Elite Spec and the changes to it!

Shield —-

- I liked the change to how the block on shield 4 works, now it’s a reliable block when you need it. On the other hand, the phantasm got worse in my opinion. As allready mentioned, the phantasm dies to easy in meele combat and is worthless in a lot of the fractal bossfights. I think he needs some way to survive in combat, maybe by giving him his range back or adding other effects that help him to stay for at least some attacks. Maybe blur? I know, the Inspiration line can provide 1s Blur on spawn, but IMO the phantasm should not be designed to require a whole Specialication-Line only to get one attack out.

- The change to shield 5 was notable and an improvement, but the wave still gets stucked and does not return.

Wells —-
Overall I really like the changes to wells! They all feel a lot better and in place now. Together with the Well-Trait you can give a notable amount of Alacrity to your party, when you really want to go for it. It was very satisfiyng helping out my group by lowering their cooldowns!

- Well of Eternity: Having condi cleanse on Well of Eternity feels a lot better than vigor. I definitly prefer this version.

- Well of Precognition: I really enjoyed this skill! Great change IMO.

- Well of Action: I like the funtionality and flavor and it is certainly a powerful way to apply Quickness to your group.

- Well of Calamity: Not much to say to this one. Besides WoG this was almost the only Well I used in BW1 and 2. Now, since the others got improved, I barely used it in BW3.

- Well of Recall: Great change. Now Chronomancer has the ability to provide Alacrity to the group and it felt very good using this to provide notable “Chronomantic-Support” to your group.

- Well of Gravity: I propose a flavor change to the Elite well. What about changing the first two ticks to both Floats and then a Pull on the third tick? —> Float, Float, Pull. Float looks so cool, I just want to see it more In the current version it’s almost not notable anymore.

Continuum Split/Shift —-
- A question to Continuum Split: I was not able to Shatter (without Illusions) and then cast an Elite Skill (1s casttime) in the 1,5s timeframe you get by using CS on your own, even with Quickness up. By the math you should be able to do that, but it only worked if I had at least one Illusion up. Is this a bug or on purpose? Or am I missing something?
- I can’t remember, was there a visual effect for the duration of the Split (like on Deathshroud)? For example a visible clock over your head that shows the duration. That would also allow more counterplay to this mechanic in PvP (I already see a lot of players complaining how “OP” this is).

- Signet of Illusions does reset all Shatters except Continuum Split. Is this on purpose or a bug?

Overall, Chronomancer looks very solid to me and I had a great time playing it!

@Chrolo: If you could reset CS with signet of illusions, you could do a continuous loop of resets, without ever stopping.

Elite skills tend to have longer cast times. If you haven’t fully finished the aftercast by the time CS ends, it won’t reset it. You can help avoid this by using CS halfway through the cast time of the skill.

I’ve played a fair share of Chronomancer during the last BWE, mainly PVE (including Dungeons, Fractals and the new map of course) and a whole night of PVP duels against my guildmates.

I’ll just comment on things that I think might need some changes or that got some adjustment since the previous BWE:

Shield

—Echo of Memory —
The double channeled block is definitely more useful, but so much slower in terms of Phantasm production. I still think that an option to activate the skill whilst blocking to create a phantasm instantly and stop the channel would be a nice thing to have and it would be slightly more skillful and less boring to use (we will be Chronomancers after all, so anything time-related will be our thing right? ;D) and considering that the Phantasm changed to melee AoE it might not even be too strong, usually it will get cleaved down before it even goes for one attack (slight exaggeration, sorry, but that actually happened quite often). The channeled block duration on the other hand is something that should be on the watch list, the possibility to block for so long twice, could end up being too much. So maybe a 0.25 sec shorter block channel but therefor the option to actively use it to create the Phantasm or at least get the phantasms AoE effect casted on your position, but no phantasm in that case then or something like that.

—Tides of Time—
I really like this skill, the only thing that bugs me is it being bugged still (pun intended). It was mentioned before, but again, the return doesn’t work properly in a lot of situations, the return from a wall only works sometimes and don’t let me get started what happens when you fight on those tree houses …

Continuum Split

I don’t really like the way it feels and overall I think used with 3 illusions up it’s slightly too long. When playing I was always hesitant to use it, because I wanted a high enough duration with it, so I’d try to use it with as many illusions up as I could in that situation, but using it with just one or none felt like a complete waste. What I suggest is to increase the “base” duration with no illusion up to 2 or 2.5 seconds and then let any illusion that is active and shattered increase it by another 1 or 0.75 seconds, so that you end up with 5 or 4.75 seconds max. You’ll have more usage with little to no illusions and less potential ultra spam combos because of the lower max duration. Overall this would put it in the right place I think.

Just an overview to be clear what I mean

2 sec base version with added 1 sec

• 0 Illusions 2 sec
• 1 Illusions 3 sec
• 2 Illusions 4 sec
• 3 Illusions 5 sec

2.5 sec base version with added 0.75 sec (which i prefer btw)

• 0 Illusions 2.5 sec
• 1 Illusions 3.25 sec
• 2 Illusions 4 sec
• 3 Illusions 4.75 sec

In comparison, this is the current version

• 0 Illusions 1.5 sec
• 1 Illusions 3 sec
• 2 Illusions 4.5 sec
• 3 Illusions 6 sec

Other than that, yes it’s still somewhat bugged, but I’m sure the devs are looking into it already.

Wells

I mainly used Gravity Well and Well of Precognition, so I’ll just say something about those, since I didn’t really test the rest that much other than with the alacrity spam build, but I’ll come to that later.

—Gravity Well— (it should definitely be Well of Gravity though ;) )
With the current setup and just one pull at the end enemies have a better chance of getting away, but in PvE you still get the nice stack due to the pull being the last CC (and the float does look great to be fair). The stability was not really that useful or needed in my opinion, I prefer the higher damage, so thumbs up for this one

—Well of Precognition—
This is what I said the last time "Well of Precognition – Probably the worst Well, I can only think of a few scenarios to use it "
That has definitely changed, I really love it now, incredibly useful in all game modes, please do not even think about changing it again, I don’t even miss the “unblockable” part although that could definitely be handy. Not 100% sure about the cast time, but I can see why it’s on there, so it should probably stay that way, even if it feels a little weird on a stunbreaker.

Traits

—All’s Well that Ends Well—
Dunno how to feel about that one, because I don’t like the idea that in upcoming and old content Mesmer will only(mainly) be used for cooldown reduction on the group, I mean yes, a Mesmer has a lot to offer in terms of utility, but usually other classes can do pretty much the same (besides Portal) and let’s rather not talk about the difference in damage. I mean alacrity on ourselves is fine, since Chronomancer should be about time related things in general and alacrity is the only way to counter Chill (besides getting rid of it of course). So it’s not that I don’t like having the trait in that way, but I wouldn’t want to be pushed into that alacrity spam machine corner all the time when it comes to PvE content and I hope it won’t happen for a simple reason, spamming alacrity is the most boring way to play a Mesmer, for me at least. I’m not really sure how to work around that problem, I don’t even know if it’s going to be that much of a problem anyway, but I guess we’ll see.

—Delayed Reactions, Danger Time, Lost Time—
Okay admittedly this part about the slow and related traits is going to be a little chaotic, but I hope it’s still understandable what I mean and why I think there’s no harm in making Lost Time a little bit better. There is a TL;DR version though, just in case :D

The slow traits …I really really want to like them and planned on using them when HoT comes out actually, but it seems to me, after hours of testing in PvE and PvP, that they not really worth it that much anymore as soon as there’s no fellow Mesmer around to help you with putting slow on the enemy. I know it has been considered a very strong condition, but is it really in the current state?

Apart from Danger Time, there are no synergies with other traits for slow and most of the time the extra 30% crit chance is probably not really worth having since you are up to a ~75% crit chance anyway with gear/food/fury (on a damage built of course, could definitely be useful using more tanky gear). The potential in terms of synergy that a Necro, probably the best example, can have with Chill (Chill has a more meaningful impact as well due to it’s movement speed reduction and cooldown increase, might just be me though) is so much better, Bitter Chill, Chill of Death, Chilling Darkness and these are just the traits that aren’t Reaper exclusive. I know Chill was there before and Slow wasn’t, but the list goes on in the Reaper trait line. Please don’t get me wrong, this is certainly not me saying “nerf Reaper please” I enjoyed playing it, it’s rather me saying, please make those Mesmer traits more viable, specifically Lost Time, because right now it’s slightly underperforming.

On paper being able to slow the enemy’s attacks by 50% looks huge, but there are a few things to consider as well:

• Slow does not deal damage and there’s no way to make it deal damage either (unlike Chill on Reaper)
• Instant casts/attacks are still instant and fast (auto)attacks don’t really suffer from it either
• Any channel that is defensive (Blocks, Renewed Focus etc.) even some offensive ones benefit from slow by getting their duration increased by 50%
• It can always be cleansed
• Slow messes with your timing on dodges

Additionally your opponents certainly won’t let you hit them all the time so that your Lost Time stacks build up that easily, they’ll block, dodge or use line of sight (even the NPCs do stuff like that quite regularly in HoT it seems). When I used slow during the duels (in form of Shield Phantasm, Delayed Reactions and Lost Time) and asked my guildmate how effective it was he said “Well, I was surprised that my leap went further” and the other one didn’t even realise that I was using it (they are both experienced players btw). I just couldn’t land enough hits and with the cooldown on the trait (Lost Time) for it to actually go off regularly. It was the same setup that I used in BWE1 and admittedly back then slow was way too strong, but right now, it feels a wee bit too weak, I think we need some sort of middle ground, since you have to give up on so many other good traits and skills for it to actually do something.
In PvE I don’t think it’ll see that much use other than for specific encounters in Raids or you’ll need enough Mesmers around to keep it on the enemy NPCs for longer. I guess it doesn’t seem to be so useful in PvE anymore since the enemies in the Expansion act differently. When Time Warp got it’s slow, using that on a Boss or enemies in the base game the slow seemed to be so strong, too strong at times, but not so much anymore in the expansion (which is actually a good thing), TL;DR: but for a GM trait Lost Time doesn’t actually do enough in comparison to the other GM Traits. The BWE2 version might have been the sweet spot and I can’t remember hearing many/any complaints about it. Oh yea, Delayed Reactions and Danger Time seem fine though just not really worth using if Lost Time won’t perform well and the other Adept and Master trait options are as good as they are.

—All the other traits—..
..the ones that I didn’t mention are just fine in my opinion.

Just one more thing, since I read that so often lately, Chronomancer is not OP, it makes the Mesmer stronger than the base Mesmer, but not OP. Elites are supposed to be stronger than your regular class, what’s the point in calling it Elite anyway then? Of all the classes that I’ve tested, the Mesmer is the one that needs the smallest amount of adjustments. And regardless of current balancing, this was the Beta, not HoT yet and even when that is out, the classes will be balanced again and again, as usual, so there’s no need for all that fuss now, in the end it’s just a game and everyone is free to play whatever, some people seem to forget that every now and then

Thanks for reading :)

One last suggestion:
Allow our phantasms to get the same alacrity we do. Or at least through Flow of Time.

It’s already well established that letting your phantasms sit and attack isn’t an effective pvp approach, and the attack timing potential of chronophantasma+pom might be better anyway, so this would just be a QoL thing that would really only affect mesmers in PvE…which is a good thing.

Autoattack Greatsword weapon stow is still exploitable to reduce the casttime. Was fixed long time ago for ele air dagger and necro axe. It is strange that this change has not been made for mesmers. Nobody wants to constantly stow his autoattack just to get the maximum out of his character, it´s just super clunky and not fun to do.
If you feel like it´s a nerf to mesmer to fix their autoattack then just give the reduced casttime out be default.

So here’s my feedback.

Shield:
I really like the channelled block when being focused.
Tides of Time is great for WvW and interrupting players, also good for baiting out dodges.
Phantasm itself is alright in what it does but being in melee it dies to a stiff breeze.
I feel the block amount and cooldown are balanced in regards to other classes shields.

Continuum Shift:
Useful for double casting or free casting a single powerful skill.
Rift dies very easily but is for counterplay.
Requires a fair bit of set up, planning and positioning to pull off, it feels rewarding when you do.

Wells:
Damage is pretty low except final hit of Gravity Well.
Alacrity generation in a traited wells build is nice and strong but hard to pull off outside a point holding build.
The effects on all of them I thought was spot on.
Damage on well of calamity really should be a bit higher imo.
Need a red colour for enemy differentiation.
Love the float on Gravity Well, glad it could be included.

Traits:
Minors:
All the minors are great, no problems and I can ditch those traveler runes.

Adept:
All really good traits and have their uses, Time catches up being the better imo for PvP areas.
Didn’t try Delayed Reactions but I can see it opening up for a cascade of interrupts.

Master:
Didn’t try danger time but it looks like a solid trait.
Illusionary Reversion and Improved Alacrity are both solid choices in a lot of builds that use shatters a lot and are very competitive.

Grandmaster:
Chronophantasma, fantastic trait especially with iReversion and it feels like an investment.
Lost Time, feels kinda clunky in some ways and that it’s balanced around GS auto. It’s a good trait but I feel I need great sword to really get the most from it…I suck with GS.
Seize The Moment, this doesn’t appeal to me at all but maybe for those using diversion to set up a mirror blade burst will use it.

Alacrity:
I feel that it’s a great and unique mechanic and that it is quite balanced at the moment.
I would love to have a way to really pump it out to team mates for PvE however as was said, messing with cooldowns is very dangerous.

Summary:
All in all I think it’s in a good spot for HoT release, some things might need tweaking later but it’s not useless and it’s got counterplay.
Only improvement I could ask for is something to stop phantasms being simply cleaved out and destroyed instantly in PvE and in some way PvP. That it would solve many problems with chronomancer and base mesmer.

Not a Chronomancer player, but couldn’t help but notice Chronomancers were the most dominate of the new specs in SPvP. You guys might get some QoL changes, but I can’t expect you’re about to get a slew of buffs like some in this forum are requesting. Chronomancers were absolutely wrecking.

The amount of time certain builds go where they’re simply taking no damage was pretty absurd, their damage was on par with a typical burst-oriented mesmer, and stuns for daaaays.

Can we do something about confusion. It’s an absolutely dreadful condition for PvE as is torment.

Why not make both confusion and torment in PvE do the same damage as bleeding, but with the proc bonuses on top? They’re more restricted in application than bleeding, after all.

The illusions traitline is held back by the woeful minors such as a tiny confusion application on shatter, virtually worthless to a power mesmer and even mediocre by condi mesmer standards because the application is so small and short.

When are we also going to see a meaningful change to Cry of Frustration? It’s such a weak and irrelevant shatter, doing a tiny fraction of mindwrack’s damage with a much longer cooldown for no reason whatsoever.

And since you’re not going to make CoF more damaging due to fears of extra burst alongside Mindwrack, why not switch its utility instead? Make Cry of Frustration apply a healthy amount of cripple and slow while granting the mesmer might+fury or some otehr beneficial effect per illusion shattered.

Can we also change Diversion to apply daze duration amount based on the illusion count? It’s got a massive CD and shattering diversion with more than one clone, and especially now with illusionary persona feels like a waste unless it is to strip stability/defiance.

Zenith.7301:

Can we do something about confusion. It’s an absolutely dreadful condition for PvE as is torment.

I’d like to see Mesmers get an inverse-Confusion condition, i.e. take more damage if you’re not activating a skill. Would be great for both PvE and PvP, and fits the GW1 Mesmer theme of control and hard choices (Wastrel’s Worry/Demise).

Call it… I dunno, Anxiety. No, doesn’t sound urgent enough. Panic? Hmmm, sounds too Fear-y. You could call it Wastrel as Angel de Lyssa once suggested, but that doesn’t realllly fit…

Ideally I’d like it to replace Torment, I don’t feel Torment fits the Mesmer very well. It was originally intended to be a Necromancer specialty, but somehow it became a Mesmer one instead.

…..

But this thread is about the Chronomancer, not the base Mesmer or future Elites. Unfortunately, as Chronomancer seems to be all Anet cares about for now.

Did the announced Lost Time change not go through? The description still deferred to critical hits. I’d much rather the ICD be 1 whole second if it meant all hits count rather than only critical ones. This would increase build diversity for slow application.

Skaazi.8264:

Why is there no progress bar to indicate when Continuum Shift is going to end? We get a buff icon which you have to mouseover to see how long the duration is, but it’s really hard to judge anything from it, especially since I’m trying to cast mostly ground targetted skills. I really wish that we could see some sort of progress bar similar to how Druid has one for Celestial form.

As cool as Continuum Split is conceptually, visually it’s super boring.

It might just be graphics settings, but for me there was a pretty cool butterfly effect on my character while split. There was also an hourglass above my head that ticked down, but it was quite hard to see clearly.

No changes for mesmer from BWE3 to release? Was really hoping for a ranged iAvenger :’(

I just hope that iAvenger attack in ranged, throwing his shield that damage, inflicting Slow on enemies and Aclarity on allies in area. (With sound effect attack of BWA 2)