Guild Wars 2

Hello my fellow mesmers,

I’ve been away from GW2 for a long long while (like 2 years or so). I’ve probably been missing a lot and I tried gaining up on the information today. But the amount of changes to all the classes is just overwhelming!

Before I quitted GW2 I always loved playing my lvl 80 mesmer, shatter builds were all the hype back then. I loved the fact that you have all those clones and phantasms and the amazing cc’s. So now that I’m back to the game I want to play my mesmer again. However due to all the changes in the classes I don’t have the slightest clue anymore about what’s viable. It seems that chronomages are the best option to go with nowadays (for which I will need to buy the expention pack but that will not be a problem).

Now my question to you guys is what kind of chronomage should I build? Or should I perhaps stay like a regular mesmer? For the rest: are there any more things I should really know about before I make my comeback?

I already want to thank you in advance for any possible answers. You guys (and also girls) are great!

Are you interested in PvE, PvP or WvW?

Silverkey.2078:

Are you interested in PvE, PvP or WvW?

This is actually one situation where some advice doesn’t depend on that answer.

Chronomancer fixes an extraordinary amount of problems that Mesmer has. Uselessness in pve, no aoe pressure, lacking defense and defensive effects, exceedingly long cooldowns, all are fixed by chrono.

While elite specs aren’t “supposed” to be upgrades, chrono is just because base Mesmer is so flawed. Chrono is substantially stronger in every aspect of the game.

Silverkey.2078:

Are you interested in PvE, PvP or WvW?

I always used to love WvW. But that’s also because Mesmers served no use in PvE except for that barrier with the focus where you could rebounce arrows with. In other MMO’s I always love PvE.

Fay.2357:

Silverkey.2078:

Are you interested in PvE, PvP or WvW?

This is actually one situation where some advice doesn’t depend on that answer.

Chronomancer fixes an extraordinary amount of problems that Mesmer has. Uselessness in pve, no aoe pressure, lacking defense and defensive effects, exceedingly long cooldowns, all are fixed by chrono.

While elite specs aren’t “supposed” to be upgrades, chrono is just because base Mesmer is so flawed. Chrono is substantially stronger in every aspect of the game.

While I agree chrono is the answer in most game modes, the question of which build to take still does.

Justification.4851:

I always used to love WvW. But that’s also because Mesmers served no use in PvE except for that barrier with the focus where you could rebounce arrows with. In other MMO’s I always love PvE.

As Fay said above, chronomancer actually makes mesmer relevant in PvE even outside of reflects. Our own damage is still low, but we can provide to our team a very strong buff thanks to quickness (actions are faster) and alacrity (cooldown recharge faster). As we can keep those buffs for almost 100% of the time, we increase the damage of our allies by approximately 30-40%, which more than compensate for our own lack of damage.

For WvW roaming, I personally play a non-chrono build (condi shatter with prismatic understanding for stealth, dueling, chaos, illusions). But I think there are good (better) chrono variants (dropping chaos). Finally, we can now play in big WvW groups too, using chronomancer wells to support the melee train and damage the enemy one.