Guild Wars 2

Wow… everything looks just… perfect.
The shield now feels more like a melee-defensive weapon (which is exactly what I was hoping for). The well of eternity condition cleanse is also exactly what I wanted. I am partly sad for iRev, but it seems others were happy with it.

knockdown, float and then pull

Is that the effect on each successive pulse (with no CC at the end)? I’m impatient to see how bad-kitten that looks :O

By looking at all professions, I would say you have all done an amazing job and our feedbacks seem perfectly answered

I think I’m gonna cry, it’s so beautiful.

I believe in Geesus!

Thank you!

Robert Gee.9246:

• Gravity Well: Now performs a knockdown, float and then pull. No longer gives stability on end. Increased final damage by 50%

Why not pull -> float -> knockdown? Stacking enemies should be a preferred starter to land following skills. And CCed targets are harder to escape from the center despite the small radius.

I’m happy with the changes. Most of feedback were taken by the devs.

Shield channeled block is giving mesmer a breathing room and damage mitigation.

Wells changes are awesome and I really like Well of Eternity. It makes Chrono Wells build even more viable. Before, I was using either a condition cleanse such as MoR or Null Field or Mender’s Purity trait. Making Well of Action the viable ’’second’’ damage well is also interesting.

Well of Eternity’s recharge was 20s in BWE2. In BWE3, is it 20s → 30s or 20s → 25s?

I got a problem. I will just want to stand in Gravity Well from the enemy all the time just for the animation of being KD, lifted, than pulled back.. Will be like an invisible Hulk attacking you

I too was hoping for the icd (or other) approach to IR, but I’ll learn to live with Chronophantasma being required to go with IR.

I think .25s icd on Lost Time stacking will have the desired effect, though it does nerf the trait for Blurred Frenzy/Confusing Images.
Not sure why the nerf to 5 stacks from 4 was considered necessary with the icd add. Maybe consider making the slow application apply to all targets of an aoe attack? (making it useful in WvW zerg, for example).

The Well changes are fantastic.
The iAvenger changes are also marvelous.
Changing the Tides of Time “poof” is fantastic.

I’m very happy.

This looks fantastic. I’m especially excited for the changes to Echo of Memory/Deja Vu and the Wells. The new Gravity Well should be tons of fun, and the new Well of Eternity will probably become my open-world PvE heal of choice.

Seriously, you just keep nailing it with Chronomancer.

These changes are amazing, look at those wells! Thank you Robert, ready to test them all.

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Recall now pulses despair and ends in happiness.

Awww.

nice, I like almost all of this. I still think illusonairy reversion should have the icd, only because the illusion requirement is just weird

other than that looking good!

These are very good changes! I’m so happy with what was done with the shield feedback.

Thank you so much for allowing me to use my shield happily in PvE now. Would have preferred a radius on the phantasm of 360 but it will do!

I don’t have much criticism for any changes other than Well of Recall and chill. Any enemy with a breakbar is immune to the effects of chill, and the defiance bar break from chill is not only small, and the current function is not a solution because once a bar is broken the mob goes completely immune to bar depletion effects, which also means it goes completely immune to Chill without the side benefit of defiance bar depletion.

Really good job with these chronomancer changes, they do make a difference for PvE players.

P.S. Please tell us you guys are aware of the current state of AoE and illusions/pet classes. In more intense dynamic events and many fractal bosses such as Archdiviner the illusions already die as soon as they spawn, sometimes before they even do a single attack.

Robert Gee.9246:

The primary reason for the order of effects is due to how it looks with multiple foes. I tried other permutations during testing but this one looks the best for the following reasons:

1. Putting the pull anywhere but last makes the rest of the skill look bad because the enemies are all in one ball the whole time with their models overlapping.
2. When the knockdown is placed after the float the animations don’t blend properly resulting in the skill looking like the knockdown was out of sync.

Thanks for the explanation. I am sure mesmer, as a trolling profession, can trade a little functionality for aesthetics.

Just to reiterate, could you clarify the cooldown of well of eternity? In BWE2, it was 20 seconds. Is it being moved to 25 or to 30?

oh and thank you so much for returning Float to Gravity well!!!

Those shield changes look excellent.
I can see it having problems, namely opponents stealthing to remove themselves as a target, potentially stopping the phantasm spawn.
That being said, that’s reasonably manageable outside of 1v1’s with no other targets nearby.

Thank you, Robert Gee!!!! I am happy that you guys look into our feedbacks and try to help make the profession better. Can’t wait to try Chronomancer in BWE3!

I’m glad you made one of the wells remove conditions cause I was wondering how I’m gonna be able to remove conditions when I have all 5 wells during BWE2.

Is the Well of Eternity now 25 or 30 sec cooldown? During BWE2, it was 20 secs.

I know it’s not related to Chronomancer specifically, but is there any chance that the offensive shattering skills (Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration) could have a bit more damage to them? Or illusions not getting killed instantly upon summoned (maybe add a .25 or .50 secs that they are invulnerable upon summoned)? Currently in PvE, shattering doesn’t really do a whole lot of damage compare to just keeping 3 phantasms alive.

Overall, I am thankful for the changes of Chronomancer. I think….I may end up going for a legendary shield.

Edit: Are the wells usable underwater in BWE3?

Protected Phantasm tbh should be a baseline function of illusions at least in PvE. Nothing more aggravating than summoning a phantasm on tequatl to see it dead before it even starts its attack animation.

I still think at some point they’ll realize that AoE resistance is necessary for pets/illusions so classes based on AI are not kitten in large scale WvW and PvE dungeons/raids/DE.

The Gravity Well change seems cool, but pullx3 > Blowout also sounded pretty cool.
Shield changes seem great, mesmer has too many single blocks already. Continuum Rift – This shatter still feels pretty weak in application, I feel like the rift’s existence is enough as a marker for where that mesmer will revert to, rather than being a source to force them out of it. I have a feeling it will significantly reduce it’s usability in PvP.

As long as work is being done to tone down the amount of slow output from chronos and that the continuum split is finally able to be destroyed is great (there needs to be solid counter play). One thing though, any clarification on the wells finally being distinguished as ally or enemy? For the last two weekends they have had ally rings on them regardless is if it is an enemy’s. Needs the red line for distinguishing.

Falkor.7932:

The Gravity Well change seems cool, but pullx3 > Blowout also sounded pretty cool.
Shield changes seem great, mesmer has too many single blocks already. Continuum Rift – This shatter still feels pretty weak in application, I feel like the rift’s existence is enough as a marker for where that mesmer will revert to, rather than being a source to force them out of it. I have a feeling it will significantly reduce it’s usability in PvP.

To be fair, that’s kind of the idea.
CS at a minimum is a use of an elite skill on a much shorter cooldown, it’s like a super-mimic that costs your illusions to use (and gets some shatter side-benefits). Being able to do more than one skill on top of that is gravy, and gets pretty powerful. The counterplay from destroying the rift is essential.

CS without any reduction in usability via counterplay would be extremely powerful no matter how you slice it.

Wow, this is awesome.

The shield is getting some really powerful buffs, and I like the new wells. Sound very good. The new Well of Eternity also solves the condi problem on Chronomancers.

Poor Well of Precognition… It did not deserve this. I especially liked the duality aspect on that one, but blur and endurance is just too defensive imo.

I’m also sceptical about Gravity Well. I really imagine these different CCs to look odd on larger enemies and again, I loved the stability for allies at the end. Now it’ just a CC plus damage.

Aside from those, the changes are amazing though.

Another point-blank melee phantasm that will die almost instantly? Please no. Give Avenger its range back.

I’m incredibly happy with these adjustments, particularly where the shield is concerned. It’s great to feel like our feedback is taken into account.

I share the worry stated by some others here, that the new melee iAvenger will die far too quickly in a lot of circumstances. But I recognize that that’s largely an overall-phantasm problem, and not really specific to the iAvenger.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Falkor.7932:

The Gravity Well change seems cool, but pullx3 > Blowout also sounded pretty cool.
Shield changes seem great, mesmer has too many single blocks already. Continuum Rift – This shatter still feels pretty weak in application, I feel like the rift’s existence is enough as a marker for where that mesmer will revert to, rather than being a source to force them out of it. I have a feeling it will significantly reduce it’s usability in PvP.

To be fair, that’s kind of the idea.
CS at a minimum is a use of an elite skill on a much shorter cooldown, it’s like a super-mimic that costs your illusions to use (and gets some shatter side-benefits). Being able to do more than one skill on top of that is gravy, and gets pretty powerful. The counterplay from destroying the rift is essential.

CS without any reduction in usability via counterplay would be extremely powerful no matter how you slice it.

Which is fine except when you enter the realm of PvE and realize your rift can often die before you even use a skill ;(.

Verdant Brink DE’s were a rude awakening to illusion and rift fragility to rampant AoE spam from mobs.

I wish the rift was only for WvW/spvp or ignored aoe and required single targeted attacks to break.

You know why few people use offhand sword? Because the phantasm dies immediately. Like someone suggested, “support phantasms” should retain their bounce but simply shift its supportive effect to an AOE instead that is procced when it attacks. While the block is a significant buff, I can’t help but think this phantasm will suffer similarly to that of pSwordsman.

Overall, fantastic changes. I’m so proud of the devs for actually taking into account constructive criticism and implementing things based off of feedback. Ever since the revamp, you guys have continued to build my confidence in your team.

The meta is changing at an alarming rate. Wells will be meta by 2016. Thank Lyssa!

My suggestion for Lost Time would be:

Whenever you gain alacrity, your next attack slows (3s icd)

Fits in with the chronomancer theme of “I steal time from you, and give time to allies”. I’m not sure why Lost Time is tied to critical hits in the first place.

MailMail.6534:

You know why few people use offhand sword? Because the phantasm dies immediately. Like someone suggested, “support phantasms” should retain their bounce but simply shift its supportive effect to an AOE instead that is procced when it attacks. While the block is a significant buff, I can’t help but think this phantasm will suffer similarly to that of pSwordsman.

Overall, fantastic changes. I’m so proud of the devs for actually taking into account constructive criticism and implementing things based off of feedback. Ever since the revamp, you guys have continued to build my confidence in your team.

The meta is changing at an alarming rate. Wells will be meta by 2016. Thank Lyssa!

I think I want them to fix illusion survivability in PvE and WvW rather than stick to a band aid of ranged phantasms to avoid mechanical flaws of the class.

Illusion survivability is an issue with no easy solutions. It’s a fine balance. I’ve always thought they could do better with Protected Phantasms but that’s a discussion for another thread.

PvE can just make them AoE/cleave immune just like they are to Subject Alpha’s attacks. Remove them from the aggro table to avoid exploits on bosses with no single target attacks.

For WvW it’d be of little issue to give pets/minions 70-80% aoe resistance, they still take full damage from single target attacks.

Voila, fixed minions/spirit weapons/illusions/ranger pets.

Thanks, Geesus. We very well appreciate all the time that goes into all of this work on and off of the forums and especially the transparency in involving the players in feedback.

Robert Gee.9246:

• Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target.

This may be great for stacking PvE encounters, but the 240 radius sounds quite small to make a mark on PvP and other more mobile encounters. Maybe 360 radius would fix it?

Also, does Illusionists Celerity (Reduce recharge on illusion-summoning skills, -20%) and Phantasmal Haste (Phantasms attack more often, +20%.) now work on Illusionary Avengers? Illusionists Celerity was definitely not working in BWE1, but I don’t recall testing it in BWE2. Most weren’t running the Illusions trait line so there wasn’t a lot of noise about it on the forums.

Gav.1425:

Thanks, Geesus. We very well appreciate all the time that goes into all of this work on and off of the forums and especially the transparency in involving the players in feedback.

Robert Gee.9246:

• Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target.

This may be great for stacking PvE encounters, but the 240 radius sounds quite small to make a mark on PvP and other more mobile encounters. Maybe 360 radius would fix it?

Also, does Illusionists Celerity (Reduce recharge on illusion-summoning skills, -20%) and Phantasmal Haste (Phantasms attack more often, +20%.) now work on Illusionary Avengers? Illusionists Celerity was definitely not working in BWE1, but I don’t recall testing it in BWE2. Most weren’t running the Illusions trait line so there wasn’t a lot of noise about it on the forums.

They were both working in BWE2. It was even stated as a change before BWE2.

People don’t understand internal cooldowns?

morrolan.9608:

People don’t understand internal cooldowns?

There’s an illusion counter to show you how many illusions you have, there’s no visible timer for ICDs.

Looks great!

Can you comment on why Chronomancers don’t receive a shield trait? Personally – I think it’s a bit silly since by choosing Chronomancer you’re already sorta specializing in Shield but the other Elite specs seem to think otherwise. I think merging it with Improved Alacrity would be nice.

Also – is Deja Vu a full channel block now like the original skill or is it still a single hit block? That seems like it might be very potent defensively if so.

Robert Gee.9246:

This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target.

This mean the phantasm now has to be near the enemy in order to activate his buff?
As long as the he doesn’t reach his target he won’t cast any buff?

This mean the phantasm now Hit a single target?
if it is like this, you have some strange happiness and satisfaction.

may be you forgot about I-warden. This is now a run and die phantasm, but you are happy.

I’m not gonna despair before I test all this stuff, but all in all it doesn’t seem to fix Chrono in WvW large scale battles…

Robert Gee.9246:

BWE3 will change the single block to a continuous block … Tides of Time has some new behavior to bounce if it hits a wall

This sounds good and I’m looking forward to see how it works.

Robert Gee.9246:

Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target.

In large scale fights, I can’t rely on illusions. Every WvW mesmer has to put up with his own class mechanic being completely broken in this scenario, so I wasn’t really betting my money on iCap… and I really love the buffs, but… I’m concerned that the melee attack will never hit. If it doesn’t, will the phantasm pulse alacrity anyway? Also, the requirement for melee range will make this another suicidal maniac illusion, ready to step in all the AoEs and cleaves where it will be obliterated in a split second

Robert Gee.9246:

Gravity Well: Now performs a knockdown, float and then pull. No longer gives stability on end. Increased final damage by 50%

I liked the triple pull, but functionally this should work the same. I’ll test it and see…

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Action: Increased damage per pulse by 17%. Lowered aftercast by 0.2 seconds.

I’m not one of those moaning about the buffs, but… you still need to sit in it (or around it and then jump in) for 3 seconds for Quickness.

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Calamity: Lowered aftercast by 0.2 seconds.

I already stated elsewhere that the damage on this well feels low even when the enemies will stick in it for the full duration, not that many of them will… it simply doesn’t work. And the conditions given off by a single tick, even if nice, are not enough to give up Mantra of Pain damage and support/survival, even with all the clumsyness of a 2.75s cast.

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Eternity: No longer gives vigor per pulse to allies but instead removes conditions from them. Increased recharge to from 25s to 30s. Increased base initial heal by 25%

The changes seem good, except the cooldown increase. Wasn’t it 20s in BWE2? A 50% increase on CD seems hardly justified.

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Precognition: Updated functionality. Now gives blur for 1 second per pulse during its active portion instead of on end. When it ends, allies within the well regain 35 endurance.

Wait… so the Unblockable is gone? It’s now a purely defensive spell?
The Unblockable thing was the only useful part of the previous iteration, considering the bug (unlimited targets) on Communal Defenses that makes everyone in the melee zerg block constantly…

Robert Gee.9246:

Well of Recall: Lowered recharge from 45 seconds to 40 seconds. Updated functionality of this well. It now chills for 1 second and deals damage every pulse then gives 5 seconds of alacrity to allies when it ends. New pulse damage is 70% of previous end damage. Effects have been updated to reflect this new behavior.

I’m pretty sure that this alacrity on the last pulse will never land in WvW. Make this 2s Alacrity per Pulse. And 2s Chill. And maybe it’ll be worth the 1s cast time (I’m still adamant that all wells should have 0.25s cast time like the necro’s) and 40s CD…

Robert Gee.9246:

Lost Time – Added a 0.25 second delay between earning stacks of this buff

Does this work correctly with Tides of Time on a large number of targets?

I like the shield changes, it gives us much more control over the summoning, a multi hit block and the buff/debuff of the phantasm sounds much improved. Tides of time was great and with it returning if it hits an object will make it spot on.

The well changes I look forward to trying, I especially like the idea of a well that pulses blur and can see a lot of ways it would be useful.

I still have doubts about illusionary reversion but we’ll see and I can understand your concerns.

Lost time, I don’t know why you don’t switch it to building stacks per skill or weapon skill used if the greatsword auto is causing such a balance problem. Similar to how in fractals the grawl shaman bubble used to be able to be destroyed with one icebow then it was changed to 1 stack per skill and it fixed it.

In general just the changes we would need, however:

Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target. Removed old phantasm description.

The fat part is a really bad idea actually for anything outside of pve. For pvp/wvw: We all know a major issue for phantasms is cleaving attacks most classes got on their auto attacks. It just clears up the phantasms way to fast for them to be of any use. Even izerker is therefore often a casualty, despite it’s attempts to evade. Turning avenger in a melee phantasm will make it so vulnerable that it’s pretty useless in pvp/wvw situations. even more so with chronophantasm dazing them after use, they will be more about shatter food then anything else.

Despite the buff being just perfect (by the looks of it), I really hope you guys considered the above and will make the phantasm leap in and out like izerker does, or preferably even doing the leaping a bit better (blink in and out of melee range would be just awesome and would fit the timemage theme of chronomancer)?. Nobody wants a phantasm that is just popped to be an instant accidental casualty.

Also – yea, another Melee Phantasm isn’t fun and this guy was already a bit too similar thematically to the Defender – throwing his shield is what set him apart.

How about making his attack a returning rather than bouncing shield toss? Slowing any enemies caught in the path of it and granting allies alacrity.

@Robert Gee,
The time some people proposed change on phantasm i knew already something like this would happen.
So I’m going to give you the ultimate idea.
I.Avenger should strike his shield on the ground, creating circle wave (call it echo of time i don’t mind) when striking the enemy or passing trough allies, deal damage and buffs.
We are playing an action’s game. So i don’t mind if the enemy can block or jump to avoid the wave. So you even give a purpose to jump, you make everybody happy, and you add a third dimensions move in pvp.

If you want to make it Op add a knock down on the wave. So simple it is.
Change idefender in the same way. He need even more the knockdown, as stopping the enemies.

@Dastion
I don’t think a shield trait is necessary. Going chronomancer automatically gives you overall reduction via Alacrity. Tides of Time has a built in reduction as well. Lastly, the phantasm block attack gives you Deja Vu which compensates for the lack of a trait.

If there were such a shield trait, I would imagine it actually giving your block Deja Vu and causing Tides of Time to return to you.

Robert Gee.9246:

• Well of Precognition: Updated functionality. Now gives blur for 1 second per pulse during its active portion instead of on end. When it ends, allies within the well regain

Unblockable from this was the only thing that made me excited about chrono. Don’t remove it. Guards have too much power in WvW and need a counter.

Nice, you made my suggested changes on Well of Precognition and Echo of Memory/Deja Vu
(Except still an offensive effect on the final pulse of the well, but I won’t mind)

PS: Maybe it would be great if we could cast Echo of Memory another time after we blocked a attack to quit blocking and summon that phantasm earlier.

Anyway looking forward to try them out

These changes are looking great! Evasion well? Condi removal well? 240 radius alacrity? OMG YES! Keep up the good work!

Wow, I was expecting little tweaks here or there at best, these are great. Can’t wait for BWE3 to try it out.

Robert Gee.9246:

• Echo of Memory/Deja Vu: Changed functionality. Now blocks all attacks for a short duration rather than a single attack. If this skill fully channels, summon an Illusionary Avenger. Deja Vu is available if any attack is blocked during the channel time.
• Deja Vu: Fixed a bug which allowed players to constantly cancel cast this skill to get a longer than intended uptime of the block effect. Canceling this skill now removes the Time Echo buff.
• Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target. Removed old phantasm description.
• Tides of Time: This skill now attempts to bounce back if it hits a wall. Fixed a bug where the time freeze caused by this skill would not show a stun icon in the status bar.

Perfect! This really solves the complaints I had about the Shield. It’s looking like a really solid weapon now, and the block/iAvenger changes improve its usefulness in PvE by a lot.

• Well of Eternity: No longer gives vigor per pulse to allies but instead removes conditions from them. Increased recharge to from 25s to 30s. Increased base initial heal by 25%
• Well of Precognition: Updated functionality. Now gives blur for 1 second per pulse during its active portion instead of on end. When it ends, allies within the well regain 35 endurance.

Neat.

• Illusionary Reversion: No changes.
  • There is a pretty clear division of people that would rather have an ICD on this skill and those that prefer the illusion requirement. After some thought we’ve decided we prefer the current version (illusion requirement) as it is an easier to understand limitation when compared to internal cooldowns. I know that some have asked that this requirement be toned down to 1 illusion required but this wouldn’t solve the original problem of being able to get large bonuses from your shatters without an investment.

I’ve come around on this, I think the 2 illusion requirement is probably fine. I still think we need better clone generation that isn’t tied to DE, but clone-on-shatter probably wasn’t the right way to create a DE alternative. Shatter two, get one free is still pretty handy.