Guild Wars 2

Just trying to understand Chaotic Dampening in HoT. Especially the point with “Reduction per Pulse: 5%”. I guess they are talking about the CD reduction under Chaos armor.

Now, with Staff and nothing else you can create per Chaos storm 2 Chaos Armors (one from combo finisher with Phase Retreat and one from #4). With Torch for instance you can even create 3 Chaos Armors (Prestige into Chaos Storm, Phase Retreat at the end of Chaos Storm and #4).

So let’s look at the trait with only Staff:

• Lay down Chaos storm and Phase Retreat through it —> Chaos armor for 5 seconds:
  5 times 5% CD reduction on Chaos Storm --> 8.75s CD reduction
• Chaos Armor from Staff #4 —> Chaos armor for 5 seconds:
  5 times 5% CD reduction on Chaos Storm --> 8.75s CD reduction

That means within 10 seconds I can reduce Chaos Storm CD by 17.5 seconds. After that combo (10 seconds of Chaos Armor) The CD went through 10 seconds already and was reduced an additional 17.5 seconds. So now there are only 7.5 seconds left of Cool down. In the end, this would half the CD time of Chaos Storm (as well as Chaos armor). Do I understand this correctly? Or does the CD reduction work differently?

5% is apparently a placeholder number, so don’t fixate on that too much. But I do think you understand the new trait correctly otherwise.

It should be 4% or 3% probably, but i’d rather see them nerf after testing as to not break mesmer instantly.

I really like it to be like this.
let’s check all skills with 1 chaosarmor (i bet that’s what anet was dooing cuz the 2nd or 3rd chaos armor is a combo thing which reqires skillful play(i know that’s not true but that’s what i think anet is thinking))

• Phase Retreat
  10s base – 0.5s per second – 2.5s over 5s →7.5s cooldown (0.5s buff)
  double traited:
  8s base – 0.4s per second – 2.0s over 5s → 6s cooldown (stays)
• Phantasmal Warlock
  18s base – 0.9 per second – 4.5 over 5s → 13.5s cooldown (0.9s buff)
  double traited:
  14.4s base – 0.72s per second – 3.6 over 5s → 10.8s cooldown (stays)
• Chaos Armor & Chaos Storm
  35s base – 1.75 per second – 8.75 over 5s → 26.25s cooldown (1.75s buff)

It will probably be tuned down to a lower percentage. Maybe 3% or even 2%. However, lower than would be silly. 2% puts you at a 20% reduction if perfectly chaining your Chaos Armor (#4 plus Combo) which won’t happen in practice.

Phase Retreat aside, #4 and #5 always had a rather high cooldown and a lower percentage would be a nerf to Staff which isn’t really needed.

Thats why 4 is prob good, from what we know so far. Might turn out different in practice.

I bet it’ll have longer ICD in final.

What if you also took Null Field and Feedback. That’s 2 more Chaos Armors. We may also get access to another via the Shield.

• X+Shield
• throw down shield ability that has an Ethereal Combo Field
• swap to Staff
• Phase Retreat.

Sebrent.3625:

What if you also took Null Field and Feedback. That’s 2 more Chaos Armors. We may also get access to another via the Shield.

• X+Shield
• throw down shield ability that has an Ethereal Combo Field
• swap to Staff
• Phase Retreat.

too many cds

Sebrent.3625:

What if you also took Null Field and Feedback. That’s 2 more Chaos Armors. We may also get access to another via the Shield.

• X+Shield
• throw down shield ability that has an Ethereal Combo Field
• swap to Staff
• Phase Retreat.

You don’t need a shield for more Chaos Armor… but shush! You’ll get my build nerfed.

I didn’t say we needed it :-p
It would be darn nice though ;-)
Sword Leap through it so you can then chain it with an iLeap through another field right after .. mwa ha ha.

I’ve been wondering about this, I don’t think 5% is too bad. In theory, that’s a lot of reduction with even just one Glamour.

Lets take Null Field. Cast chaos armor 5 sec later drop c-storm, phase retreat swap to sword/torch combo. 5 sec later Null Field, sword combo, phase retreat…

Now in small scale fights, 1v1s or 2v2s this rotation is easy to pull. As things get more hectic it’ll be far less likely.

What’s amazing about that sequence is really the amount of protection you get.

I’m loving how Chaotic Dampening is changed, helps make Chaos Armor more tactical and staff a more interesting weapon in general. I think 3-5% is legit since the times you will be able to rotate a chaos armor chain is actually pretty situational. More PvP and roaming than anything.

This sounds about right. Needs to have the potential to be more powerful than a flat cooldown reduction, but make the Mesmer work for it. It all seems rather….Mesmery.

At least Thieves will have a use for that gunk they keep stealing from Engis

Let’s not forget that:

• Illusionary Elasticity is now baseline
• Burning / Poison look like they are going to stack like bleeding/torment do.

So our Staff clones will be double-tapping our target and getting several burning from the RNG on WoC will hurt … quite a bit :-)

I’m very excited about that.

I wouldn’t say it is insane, as it does take some skill to chain chaos armor perfectly to get the max amount of CDR, but it is a very solid trait overall. It will be a great staff trait

@Warlord of Chaos:
I agree.

Mesmer has been compensated for Illusionary Membrane being given an ICD … and in a way that is more skill-based so I’m actually happier with this than I would have been if they had removed that ICD.

Now a Mesmer can actually be somewhat tanky … not completely depend on active defenses … we do eventually get hit after all :-p

Everything in the Chaos line is pretty kitten intense, and I love it. I feel like going into Chaos will make Mirror, Blink and Arcane Thievery the BASIC set up, and I’m so here for it!

But back on topic, I really dig the new Staff trait. Gives us very defensive capabilities.

Reading through this thread… I see the first nerf already incoming. I would love Chaotic Dampening to stay as it was in the preview. I personally love Staff, as defensive power or all around awesome condition damage weapon. The Chaos trait line changes play right into my hand