Guild Wars 2

My question is, from a shatter Mesmer’s perspective.
Does the new Alacrity (66% cooldown recharge speed up), outweigh the new Illusions basic minor trait, Shattered Strength which gives a flat 30% shatter cool down reduction, along with might stacks?

Will shatter mesmers traiting into Chronomancer be required to play less aggressively?

Uh, well it’s hard to say for sure now until people have actually tried it out, but I’d say that if you’re going with a Shatter build to go with the shatter line, because of the minor trait and the other build possibilities with it; it’s made for shattering.

What I liked about the new alacricity, Double-shatter phantasms, and extra clone-on-shatter was that it provides an alternative for Deceptive Evasion. You can still build around shatters without needed the constant shatter-fuel from the Dueling line, which is super appealing to me!

Chrono seemed to emphasize control/support rather than raw damage. I’d imagine folks who want shatter-dependent damage will probably still see a lot more use from the Illusion line than the Chronomancy line, but can’t say for sure until we see all the traits.

Chrono seems like…. death by papercuts. A strong shatter build is still like a nice big stab in the face.

Kelthien.8593:

What I liked about the new alacricity, Double-shatter phantasms, and extra clone-on-shatter was that it provides an alternative for Deceptive Evasion. You can still build around shatters without needed the constant shatter-fuel from the Dueling line, which is super appealing to me!

Chrono seemed to emphasize control/support rather than raw damage. I’d imagine folks who want shatter-dependent damage will probably still see a lot more use from the Illusion line than the Chronomancy line, but can’t say for sure until we see all the traits.

Chrono seems like…. death by papercuts. A strong shatter build is still like a nice big stab in the face.

I agree with this. It’s not stated that the ELITE Specializations will be better than the core Mesmer, however it will offer a new form of gameplay. Specifically with the chrono, who is more about control and support rather than damage. If one wishes to shatter for pure damage I’am going to assume, the player should stay away from the chrono line to some extent.

The developers did say that elite specializations, will focus more on a specific ROLE during gameplay, more than our core Professions.

Kelthien.8593:

but can’t say for sure until we see all the traits.

Well we know a number of traits already. There’s a few we can speculate
Minor Traits – alacrity
Sheild trait minor or master
Two Grandmaster traits were previewed
Wells will likely get a trait so minor or master

This leaves possibly 7 traits we are unsure of.
If I had to guess, one trait would be based off illusions shattered so 6.

I think illusions will not be taken if alacrity proves to be better for cooldown’s overall.

As I pointed out in the other thread … why not take both. Especially if you want to spread confusion like candy … Chrono/Dueling/Illusions … you’re welcome

DoomKnightMax.6592:

My question is, from a shatter Mesmer’s perspective.
Does the new Alacrity (66% cooldown recharge speed up), outweigh the new Illusions basic minor trait, Shattered Strength which gives a flat 30% shatter cool down reduction, along with might stacks?

Will shatter mesmers traiting into Chronomancer be required to play less aggressively?

This is the big discussion I for see coming into the forums. I think first and foremost, we need to lose the concept of “classic” shatter being top dog. It is no more. With IP being base line and the ability to take 3 entire trait trees, we are simply going to have to wait and see which variety of shatter works best. And now, we have plenty to choose from unlike ever before!

That being said, it appears as though Chrono gives us an alternative to Deceptive Evasion. Alacrity and the traits that retain clones upon shatter both do this effectively. The clone management is very nice upon first glance.

You can choose to go Dueling, Chrono and Domination/Illusions OR you can choose one of Dueling/Chrono and take the others. However, I think it is true that going Chrono will miss out on some dps in exchange for more support (this is an assumption considering traits haven’t been revealed). Don’t forget the lesser traits in Dueling that help to give more overall dps.

Aye, we still need to see the actual finished Chronomancer Specialization’s traits … but I think we can all agree that with the current information it is looking like there will be several quite viable ways to play a shatter mesmer beyond our current simple choice of “Cond or Power Shatter”.

Sebrent.3625:

Aye, we still need to see the actual finished Chronomancer Specialization’s traits … but I think we can all agree that with the current information it is looking like there will be several quite viable ways to play a shatter mesmer beyond our current simple choice of “Cond or Power Shatter”.

This is really shaking out for me as well, and I’m digging it.
The class seems to have a few core play styles (shatter, phantasm, interrupt), but we’re seeing a ton of potential different builds for each one (condi shatter, classic shatter, fast-cast chronoshatter).

Sebrent.3625:

Aye, we still need to see the actual finished Chronomancer Specialization’s traits … but I think we can all agree that with the current information it is looking like there will be several quite viable ways to play a shatter mesmer beyond our current simple choice of “Cond or Power Shatter”.

Well, you’re forgetting the support aspect of Inspiration’s Shattered Conditions. It was strong before, but placement (and no IP) made it hard to take. I can already imagine some interesting Chaos/Chrono/Inspiration or Chrono/Inspiration/Dueling. I could even see Chrono/Inspiration/Illusions. So many ways to be supportive now!!

@Kelthien:
Heck, we may even have a Phantasm-Shatter hybrid thanks to Chronomancer.

• F5 – set
• Summon phantasms w/ shatter resummon trait
• Shatter phantasms
• New phantasms unload their attacks
• Shatter phantasms
• F5 – reset

Might be a Phantasm build centered less on keeping phantasms up and more churning through them.

Back when GW2 was in beta, there were whole threads on trying to get the optimal balance of shatter timing so you could benefit from shatters and get potentially more attacks out of your phantasms through proper timing of shatters and resummons.

Sebrent.3625:

@Kelthien:
Heck, we may even have a Phantasm-Shatter hybrid thanks to Chronomancer.

• F5 – set
• Summon phantasms w/ shatter resummon trait
• Shatter phantasms
• New phantasms unload their attacks
• Shatter phantasms
• F5 – reset

Might be a Phantasm build centered less on keeping phantasms up and more churning through them.

Back when GW2 was in beta, there were whole threads on trying to get the optimal balance of shatter timing so you could benefit from shatters and get potentially more attacks out of your phantasms through proper timing of shatters and resummons.

I think they’ve done a good job at this already with some of the traits they’ve given us in terms of recharge rates. This includes Persistence of Memory in the Illusions trait line.

Taking both Chrono and Illusions will give you a ridiculous amount of uptime on shattering and illusion summoning. I actually for see condition shatter benefiting the MOST from this since taking Dueling/Illusions lends itself to conditions. New meta here we come. Cho said it here first.

Sebrent.3625:

@Kelthien:
Heck, we may even have a Phantasm-Shatter hybrid thanks to Chronomancer.

• F5 – set
• Summon phantasms w/ shatter resummon trait
• Shatter phantasms
• New phantasms unload their attacks
• Shatter phantasms
• F5 – reset

Might be a Phantasm build centered less on keeping phantasms up and more churning through them.

Back when GW2 was in beta, there were whole threads on trying to get the optimal balance of shatter timing so you could benefit from shatters and get potentially more attacks out of your phantasms through proper timing of shatters and resummons.

This could be interesting. I feel like phantasm builds are (currently) going to be significantly weaker than they were previously unless a good number of traits are moved/combined though. Just in the base mesmer traitset, they’re too spread out to take in one build. Adding in chrono means you’ll sacrifice even more.

Fay.2357:

Sebrent.3625:

@Kelthien:
Heck, we may even have a Phantasm-Shatter hybrid thanks to Chronomancer.

Might be a Phantasm build centered less on keeping phantasms up and more churning through them.

Back when GW2 was in beta, there were whole threads on trying to get the optimal balance of shatter timing so you could benefit from shatters and get potentially more attacks out of your phantasms through proper timing of shatters and resummons.

This could be interesting. I feel like phantasm builds are (currently) going to be significantly weaker than they were previously unless a good number of traits are moved/combined though. Just in the base mesmer traitset, they’re too spread out to take in one build. Adding in chrono means you’ll sacrifice even more.

I think phantasm builds will be extremely interesting. For example:
You take, Heal Signet, Signet of Inspiration, Decoy, blink, mass-invis and greatsword. Signet of inspiration (assuming its perma movespeed) will allow you to take runes other than traveler or centaur (wvw focused anyway) so more damaging or for utility. Sword and possibly shield

For traits you go into domination, inspiration, and the chronomancer.
For domination take – illusions deal more dmg, blurred inscriptions, and GS training.
For inspiration, take power cleanse, restorative illusions, and illusionary inspiration (summon a phant would cleanse conditions and provide you with distortion with that trait) Signet recharge is also reduced.

Essentially, every time you activate a signet you get 1 second of distortion and 1 condition removed. If you pop your heal signet for example, its 1 second of distortion and 3 conditions removed through traits. The signet heal also refreshes your phantasms. If you go into the chronomancer tree, you can now shatter phantasms. Phantasms also now get 1 second of distortion upon summon and provide you with permanent regen and have increased HP.