Chronomancer Changes for Next BWE

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Posted by: Robert Gee

Robert Gee

Game Designer

Next

Thanks for all the feedback that was posted over the beta weekend. I spent a lot of time reading over all the posts I could on chronomancer and making notes to figure out what to change in preparation for the next BWE and I wanted to post here to let you know where things are headed.
The good news is that Chronomancer seems like it’s in a pretty solid place. The number of bugs was low and general sentiment seemed positive for how things are working so far. As a result I’m only looking to make a few adjustments between this BWE and the next one. Let’s go over the changes and the thoughts behind them:

Gravity well: Changed functionality. This well now pulls every pulse for a total of 3 pulls. The final pulse grants 5 stacks of stability to allies in the area.

  • General sentiment from feedback was that the PULL was what was important to selling Gravity Well rather than the float. We’ve gone back to the earlier version where it does the standard 3 pulls but pulled out the ending stun to prevent kitten long AoE CC. I’m still a little concerned about how hard it is to stun break this thing but since it’s got a relatively long cast time and moderate area of effect I think it’s safe to try.

Echo of Memory: Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from working with the traits Illusionist’s Celerity and Persistence of Memory. Lowered slow applied by phantasm from 3s to 2s.

  • The slow from these phantasms seemed a little too good considering they could hit multiple targets (especially if you got 2 of them out). With the fixes to traits that lower the recharge of this skill it seemed appropriate to reduce it a bit.

Well of Eternity: Lowered cast time from 0.75s to 0.25s

  • The idea behind this skill has always been to wait for the big heal at the end, so it didn’t make sense for the cast time to be as long as it was. Healing numbers still might be adjusted in a future BWE.

Chronophantasma: Increased Daze duration from 1s to 1.5s

  • Did anyone try spamming Illusionary Berserkers with Continuum Shift and Chronophantasma? This specific combo isn’t the only reason we are adjusting this trait, but we are watching the types of spikes that are coming from Chronomancer in general.

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Alacrity
The last few changes are related to alacrity. We felt that as it was currently, alacrity wasn’t hitting the right level of impact due to how easy it was to get from the minor trait and how little you could share it with allies. These changes are intended to try and improve how alacrity feels to interact with though traits and skills.

  • Flow of Time: Reduced alacrity per shattered illusion from 1s to 0.75s
  • Improved Alacrity: Increased alacrity duration bonus from 33% to 50%.
  • All’s Well that Ends Well: Changed functionality. This trait now grants 2s of alacrity to allies standing within the well when the well ends.

Slow Stacking
Finally let’s talk about Lost Time. Currently we don’t have plans to change this trait for the next BWE but it’s on our watchlist. This is trait is pretty fun and synergizes well with the other traits while working into the theme of chronomancer. However it can get a little blown out when used with certain skills (looking at you Spatial Surge). We’ll be keeping an eye on this one during the next beta event.

I hope this post has helped to explain our thoughts on the current state of Chronomancer and as a reminder these changes reflect our current thoughts and plans for the next BWE. We may add, subtract or change notes between now and then.

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Posted by: lordkrall.7241

lordkrall.7241

“General sentiment from feedback was that the PULL was what was important to selling Gravity Well rather than the float. "

Noo
I loved my float

Krall Bloodsword – Mesmer
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square

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Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

Nooo…
Illusionary Reversion + All’s Well that Ends Well = My bunker is dead…

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Posted by: Teutos.8620

Teutos.8620

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Well, that sounds bad I hoped that would provide a viable alternative to deceptive evasion for clone generation.

I will try it out in the next BWE. Maybe it sounds worse for me than it really is.

EU – Multiple times #1 SoloQ pre Dec 2014 (pure MMR based ladder)
Primoridal (S1) & Exalted (S2) & Illustrious (S3) Legend

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Posted by: philheat.3956

philheat.3956

No change to Continuum Shift CD + double elite?

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Posted by: Mallekay.8967

Mallekay.8967

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Wouldn’t it be more plausible to set an ICD of lets say 5 secs to prevent chain shattering? I also thought, this trait was intended to eliminate the need for DE.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I will be honest here – I am quite upset with the change to Illusionary Reversion.

Going with ideas from other members on here, I’d rather see it be made a grandmaster trait and maintain original functionality of always returning one clone on shatter.

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Posted by: cDKI.8352

cDKI.8352

Good to see cooler heads balancing the chrono instead of some of the forum-goers :P

I like the changes specifically to Gravity Well and IR.

Gravity well looks like a cool set-up for a team combo, rather than just a well that you hope people stay in long enough to end. The pull ability has been popular in MOBAS (Dota 2, for example); hopefully it will be just as popular in pvp.

IR was kinda cheesy in terms of you using ILeap and then spaming shatters until target was dead, I think it will still be considered as a good trait even after the nerf.

Is there any consideration towards reworking or buffing Well of Recall? The well just seems kinda bla considering mesmers already have AoE alacrity, and 5.5s chill on a 45 second cool-down feels really weak.

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Posted by: Robert Gee

Previous

Robert Gee

Game Designer

Next

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Wouldn’t it be more plausible to set an ICD of lets say 5 secs to prevent chain shattering? I also thought, this trait was intended to eliminate the need for DE.

ICD is another option I think. If it proves too weak in the next BWE we can look at trying this or some other solution.

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Posted by: Korusef.3714

Korusef.3714

Will you address the terrain issues of Tides of Time?
For example if you use it on the edge of a cliff, close to a wall or on a terrain with a boulder, it won’t return.

Also it is not said enough: THANK you for all the hard work. You are making Mesmer great again.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I have an idea for IR – how about applying some kind of stacking effect like Fencer’s Finesse does.

So for example, you shatter with no illusions -> a clone is returned and you receive an effect, call it “Time Lag” (I can’t think up a more catchy word).

This effect lasts for 5 seconds (can be adjusted upwards to balance – maybe 7 seconds would work best) and can only be at a maximum of 2 stacks. Therefore say you hit F1 (no illusions, self shatter) – one clone is spawned and you get 5 seconds of time lag. You then follow up with F2 – both you and the clone shatter and then you end up with 2 stacks of Time Lag with a few seconds remaining on the first.

Now if you followed up immediately with F3, Illusionary Reversion would not proc because you are at max stacks of Time Lag, one of which must expire before shattering will return a clone again.

The overall idea here is to still give the possibility of chain/sequential shatters up to 2 times and then have a sort of “ICD” which limits the chain unless you manually spawn additional illusions.

The visual icon on the bar will provide a cue for yourself and enemies to know when IR will proc so you can easily keep track of it.

This effect should persist through Continuum Shift preventing mindless shatter spam.

Is this too messy/complicated?

(edited by Curunen.8729)

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Posted by: arkealia.2713

arkealia.2713

Any plan to add Quickness and Resistance to Signet of Inspiration? Or would it be too strong with the Illusionnary Inspiration trait coupled with Chronophantasma?

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Posted by: Falkor.7932

Falkor.7932

What about spending your mantras during continuum split? Currently you do not get them back when you revert.
I think Gravity Well should attack at the end (maybe an explosive blast finisher?) instead of granting stability. Maybe have it deal more damage to CC’ed foes? It seems like more of an attack elite than a support elite.
Would also like to recommend again that the edges of your screen get a purple glow similar to shroud while shifted.

“One time! I slightly blew some of us up one time, and you won’t let it go.”
- Explorer Bekk

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Posted by: Assic.2746

Assic.2746

Gravity Well
Massive knockdown 1-3s at the end would fit the name of this skill.
Or the knockdown could be caused by leaving the area of Well of Gravity when you do it without any stability. It would be caused by a difference in gravity and air pressure, all that things (losing consciousness).

(edited by Assic.2746)

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Or maybe just make IR require 1 (separate) clone to be shattered in order to return 1 clone, rather than 2 of any illusion.

That will at least require burning endurance (DE) or a weapon or utility skill in between shatters in order to get the extra clone.

Edit – I just realised this doesn’t work so I’ll go back to my previous post. It’s late and I’m tired.

(edited by Curunen.8729)

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Posted by: Rising Dusk.2408

Rising Dusk.2408

I really think Alacrity is still a bit undertuned in general, but I can understand the worry about how powerful it could be. Also, I think I see this side of Chronophantasma now, although it really does suck that they get dazed in melee range of the enemy you attack (makes them prime for a quick cleave).

I’m strongly opposed to the Illusionary Reversion nerf. I think just a short ICD to prevent rolling the F-keys is far better than this nerf. I would recommend a 3 second ICD; that’d be sufficient here. I also still think the cast times for the utility wells are too long and should be shorter and that some traits need a little bit of work, but otherwise Chronomancer is in a great place.

Also, I personally like the listed change to Gravity Well, but if it’s too weak or something we can always provide that feedback in the next BWE.

Thanks for the hard work, Robert!

[VZ] Valor Zeal – Stormbluff Isle – Looking for steady, casual-friendly NA raiders!

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Posted by: Embolism.8106

Embolism.8106

Do people really Shatter with 1 illusion or less that often? I get doing it for utility like Diversion, Distrortion, Boon Stripping or a panic blind/heal/cleanse but generally I don’t Shatter unless I have 2, if not 3 Illusions anyway.

IMO Improved Alacrity should improve all outgoing Alacrity, not Alacrity you receive.

Loving the changes.

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Posted by: NICENIKESHOE.7128

NICENIKESHOE.7128

Do people really Shatter with 1 illusion or less that often? I get doing it for utility like Diversion, Distrortion, Boon Stripping or a panic blind/heal/cleanse but generally I don’t Shatter unless I have 2, if not 3 Illusions anyway.

IMO Improved Alacrity should improve all outgoing Alacrity, not Alacrity you receive.

Loving the changes.

Except it can’t exactly provide sufficient replacement against DE in PvP setting with 2 illusion requirement. Any random cleave will render this trait pointless. I understand this change is to address the burst potential with IR, but it also hurts mesmer sustain damage substantially.

Say a mesmer no longer wants to trait DE. He can summon 2 illusions with each weapon set. A random cleave of a single clone or phantasm (which is probably the easiest counter I’ve ever seen) will deny him of IR and he’s left with 1 illusion. So he has to swap to another weapon set and so on. If the AoE/cleave remove both illusions, that mesmer is going to find a hard time to keep up 3 illusions or any sort of damage.

So what will the mesmer do? He goes back to DE.

Solution to this would be to add 3s ICD as suggested above, solve the burst craziness but maintain sufficient sustain for this trait to be viable.

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Posted by: Embolism.8106

Embolism.8106

IR wasn’t a substitute for DE by itself though, it kind of needs to work with Chronophantasma for that. And with Chronophantasma I think IR is fine even with a 2 Illusion requirement.

I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled because I used Sceptre-Shield and the Illusion generation was crazy.

(edited by Embolism.8106)

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

Gravity well: Looks like it will be a better skill, going to miss making enemies fly off into space though.

Echo of Memory: Good changes I think it might be better if you lower the slow a bit more and increase the attack speed.

Well of Eternity: I think all wells could do with this

Chronophantasma: Not really sure if thats needed, if 1 sec isn’t enough for them to avoid it then they deserve to be hit. Also starts making it shakey if its worth taking this to get some shatters in dungeons.

Illusionary Reversion: Can you slap some asinine requirments on the resource generating traits of other classes too?

All’s Well that Ends Well: Well that seriously hampers our ability to actually fit wells on our bar unless all Chronos go inspiration as well. The stun break well is useless and we now have to bring null field/Resolve, leaving room for one utility well. I was thinking about this earlier and my thought was maybe replacing the vigor on Well of Eternity with remove a 1 or 2 conditions per pulse (and throwing this out there but with this change I thought of changing All’s Well that Ends Well into an increase to the end effects of wells, so more damage on calamity, more quickness on action etc). Looking forward to testing the alacrity changes though.

I think in general wells need some increase in power as well just to give them an extra kick and a complete rework on Precognition. I think Chronomancer has the same problem that the main class has, a bunch of interesting skills and traits but not quite there in effectiveness because of a reluctance to buff them due to the strength of our shatters in PvP, which is holding us back in PvE and large scale fights.

(edited by Levetty.1279)

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Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

I strongly agree with a 3s ICD on iRev instead of the 2 clones restriction.
And for the wells, I really liked the condition cleanse, because mesmers need it, especially since wells pushes us on a less mobile playstyle. If people found it underwhelming, as I mentioned in the big feedback post, some added boon stripping fit perfectly the duality of chronomancer and its wells.

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Posted by: Embolism.8106

Embolism.8106

I think making Well of Eternity cleanse conditions every pulse instead of give Vigour (as someone mentioned) would be good.

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Posted by: Nilgoow.1037

Nilgoow.1037

Any comment on Slow and the interplay of Lost Time+Danger Time in PvE on bosses? Will enemies currently immune to CC get the debuff with a reduced/no effect to allow for the bonus crit, or are those traits irrelevant for PvE?

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Posted by: NICENIKESHOE.7128

NICENIKESHOE.7128

IR wasn’t a substitute for DE by itself though, it kind of needs to work with Chronophantasma for that. And with Chronophantasma I think IR is fine even with a 2 Illusion requirement.

I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled because I used Sceptre-Shield and the Illusion generation was crazy.

Having DE as a must have in every single PvP build is the last thing everyone likes to see but it has been the case for years. One of the main reasons for that is because enemy cleaves our illusions all the time. Now that chrono traitline is added it severely hampers build diversity if DE/Dueling is still a must.

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Posted by: Robert Gee

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Robert Gee

Game Designer

Any comment on Slow and the interplay of Lost Time+Danger Time in PvE on bosses? Will enemies currently immune to CC get the debuff with a reduced/no effect to allow for the bonus crit, or are those traits irrelevant for PvE?

We have a tech solution in the works CC effects like slow, chill, cripple, etc on defiant creatures. I don’t want to say too much about it since I’m not sure when it will ship or how much it will change before then but we do want your traits to work on bosses.

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Posted by: Fashion Mage.3712

Fashion Mage.3712

I like the changes to Gravity Well. Considering the offensive gravity-theme, this feels much more fitting.

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Posted by: Embolism.8106

Embolism.8106

IR wasn’t a substitute for DE by itself though, it kind of needs to work with Chronophantasma for that. And with Chronophantasma I think IR is fine even with a 2 Illusion requirement.

I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled because I used Sceptre-Shield and the Illusion generation was crazy.

Having DE as a must have in every single PvP build is the last thing everyone likes to see but it has been the case for years. One of the main reasons for that is because enemy cleaves our illusions all the time. Now that chrono traitline is added it severely hampers build diversity if DE/Dueling is still a must.

I know, what I’m getting at is IR + CP seems to be an acceptable substitute for DE. If you look at IR by itself it wouldn’t stand up to DE even in BWE1.

I should also point out that during Mantra Madness plenty of people ran without DE (although not without Dueling).

(edited by Embolism.8106)

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Posted by: Chesshire.7485

Chesshire.7485

I am enjoying these changes, especially the change to All’s Well That Ends Well. This will give us the edge for Alacrity that will sell it. I do like the change for the Flow of Time. I am hoping to see a little bit of a change with the Echo of Memory Phantasms themselves, but I do also see the need to nerf them. Thank you so much for buffing the Improved Alacrity Trait. Most importantly thank you guys for all the Time and Effort you guys put into this amazing game. I cannot wait patiently for the next BWE event and I am even more anxious for the Expansion pack. Keep rocking Tyria guys!

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Posted by: CandyHearts.6025

CandyHearts.6025

I strongly agree with a 3s ICD on iRev instead of the 2 clones restriction.
And for the wells, I really liked the condition cleanse, because mesmers need it, especially since wells pushes us on a less mobile playstyle. If people found it underwhelming, as I mentioned in the big feedback post, some added boon stripping fit perfectly the duality of chronomancer and its wells.

Quoting this because I also agree 100%.

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Any comment on Slow and the interplay of Lost Time+Danger Time in PvE on bosses? Will enemies currently immune to CC get the debuff with a reduced/no effect to allow for the bonus crit, or are those traits irrelevant for PvE?

We have a tech solution in the works CC effects like slow, chill, cripple, etc on defiant creatures. I don’t want to say too much about it since I’m not sure when it will ship or how much it will change before then but we do want your traits to work on bosses.

Can we also look into interrupt-based traits as well? The mesmer has a ton of those traits that don’t work on bosses either.

I also want to say that All’s Well That Ends Well is a great direction, but why not a 20% cd reduction with it too?

2s of alacrity on large cd wells seems still a bit low for a trait.

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Posted by: DaShi.1368

DaShi.1368

Gravity Well is definitely an improvement that can make it worth taking over Moa for PvP, and useful for open world PvE. However, the float is really fun. How about making the third pull a float instead?

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Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

Great changes overall.

Personally, I feel there needs to be condition removal somewhere though. Every single other group of utilities can provide condition remova: arcane thievery, the mantra, null field, traited signets, pDisenchanter. Condition removal either needs to be baked into one of the wells or provided on the trait.

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Gravity Well is definitely an improvement that can make it worth taking over Moa for PvP, and useful for open world PvE. However, the float is really fun. How about making the third pull a float instead?

It could be an initial pull, the second pulse a Chill, the Third a Slow with the detonation a Stun.

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Posted by: Daishi.6027

Daishi.6027

I don’t think Illusionary Reversion change is that big a deal. If you are running things like DE and Chronophantasma I see this being even less of an issue… However if it did turn out to be weak I do not think an icd is a good option unless we are talking about anything less than 3 seconds.

Btw we ever going to get that global cooldown on shatters removed? It’s not good to leave band-aids on for to long.

“I control time and space; you can’t break free.~”
“Maybe I was the illusion all along!”

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Posted by: Toeofdoom.6152

Toeofdoom.6152

All that looks reasonable to me. The alacrity changes are very similar to what I suggested elsewhere

I feel it’s really important to have an alternative to DE so the only thing to keep an eye on is illusionary reversion. In small fights I expect the new one stacks up just fine, but in larger fights… illusions die very fast. That’s particularly important when you consider chronomancer is making bunker/brawler type builds much more plausible. I’d be more comfortable with an ICD as it treats both large and small fights equally – still, we’ll see if this one works fine in the next test

You could also alter the trigger to be 1 phantasm OR 2 clones, that would prevent chaining too.

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Posted by: AlphatheWhite.9351

AlphatheWhite.9351

Throwing my voice against the icd idea on IR.
Clones are only valuable on shatters, and in pvp they get cleaved in .5seconds.
ICD means you can only pop one illusion with one shatter, then pop the next shatter immediately to take advantage of that illusion…then you don’t get to pop another clone for not just 3s, but the remaining cooldown of mind wrack.

I’m not very happy with the new change either though, largely because it makes Chronophantasma almost a default pick.

I think I’m the one who came up with the idea of swapping IR into GM (and Seize the Moment down to master), and I’m curious how that would impact your perception of the power of the trait.

edit: I’m also sad because changing IR handicaps my efforts to create a pve build that can compete with Eles in the dungeon meta. I was getting close

(edited by AlphatheWhite.9351)

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Posted by: Nivessa.4258

Nivessa.4258

Robert, how about for Gravity Well you make it so first pulse gives 2 stability to allies in the well, 2nd pulse does the pull, 3rd gives 2 stability to allies, and the final is the float? The float was so neat and special for that skill, and to take it out and just make the final part of it give stability is pretty bland.

Also, can you guys please fix all the trait/clone/phantasm graphic bugs that have been going on since the trait update? So many are still bugged. :<

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Posted by: Swish.2463

Swish.2463

Looking at gravity well and your fears about the triple pull.

Meanest already have a similar skill to what I will suggest, which is pistol #5

Rather that three pulls aand then float what if is well applied let’s say chill then slow then pulled and then floated or something along those lines.. Making it the all around cc elite skill with chunkier condition applications followed by the harder interrupting cc burst.

This mleans standing in the well is a bad idea but allows for a break and counter play from players to get out of the way in some situations without nuetering the potency of an elite.

~Elyssion~
“Gw2, It’s still on the Table!” – Anet

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Posted by: madhatter.5289

madhatter.5289

I loved the gravity well float affect, it made the skill very unique and it was favorite aspect of the Chronomamcer. Please consider bringing it back

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Posted by: Shriketalon.1937

Shriketalon.1937

Since people love the float (and rightly so, it’s hysterical), how about the following change to gravity well. Rather than have three pulls in a row, have a combination of three effects…

1st pulls.
2nd knocks down.
3rd floats.

The net effect will be similar (three CC effects, no more, no less), but it will feel a lot more thematic appropriate for gravity. Gravity pulls them in, gravity pins them down, and reverse gravity sends them flying. More fun, same balance.

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Posted by: Gabriell.4856

Gabriell.4856

Gravity well: Changed functionality. This well now pulls every pulse for a total of 3 pulls. The final pulse grants 5 stacks of stability to allies in the area.

  • General sentiment from feedback was that the PULL was what was important to selling Gravity Well rather than the float. We’ve gone back to the earlier version where it does the standard 3 pulls but pulled out the ending stun to prevent kitten long AoE CC. I’m still a little concerned about how hard it is to stun break this thing but since it’s got a relatively long cast time and moderate area of effect I think it’s safe to try.

Why worry about it? Something similar is already in the game and you guys haven’t done anything about it for years. Gaurdian’s Ring of Warding says hello. Try stun breaking out of that!

I know it is two totally different abilities but the intent is similar, AOE CC.

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Posted by: Walrusaur.5840

Walrusaur.5840

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Alacrity
The last few changes are related to alacrity. We felt that as it was currently, alacrity wasn’t hitting the right level of impact due to how easy it was to get from the minor trait and how little you could share it with allies. These changes are intended to try and improve how alacrity feels to interact with though traits and skills.

  • Flow of Time: Reduced alacrity per shattered illusion from 1s to 0.75s
  • Improved Alacrity: Increased alacrity duration bonus from 33% to 50%.
  • All’s Well that Ends Well: Changed functionality. This trait now grants 2s of alacrity to allies standing within the well when the well ends.

I think rather than nerfing illusionary reversion, it should be mutually exclusive with chronophantasma. They both serve essentially the same purpose, but lead you down two separate paths (phantasm dps, versus alacrity/shatter), and are probably too powerful in combination.

Regarding the alacrity on shatter nerf. This i am unsurprised by. Sad (it was incredibly fun), but unsurprised

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Posted by: Walrusaur.5840

Walrusaur.5840

Since people love the float (and rightly so, it’s hysterical), how about the following change to gravity well. Rather than have three pulls in a row, have a combination of three effects…

1st pulls.
2nd knocks down.
3rd floats.

The net effect will be similar (three CC effects, no more, no less), but it will feel a lot more thematic appropriate for gravity. Gravity pulls them in, gravity pins them down, and reverse gravity sends them flying. More fun, same balance.

I love this idea. Being able to float people on land is just to good an idea to pass up.

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Posted by: Telekinesis.8312

Telekinesis.8312

Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)

  • Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.

Wouldn’t it be more plausible to set an ICD of lets say 5 secs to prevent chain shattering? I also thought, this trait was intended to eliminate the need for DE.

ICD is another option I think. If it proves too weak in the next BWE we can look at trying this or some other solution.

PvE Perspective only! —

On realistic terms.. the 2 illusions seem to add another level of gameplay to summon atleast 1 phantasm and 1 clone during the first shatter in continuum split and another phantasm after 2 shatters.. but there’s a bwe for testing :-)

As far as icd goes, 2 second icd seems worth it, that would net us about 3 shatters within the split rather than 4, and we cant spam it, rather keep a track of time which promotes higher level gameplay to get the 3 shatters +1 no illusion shatter during the split. 5 sec icd is a dead trait over 50% alacrity increase. With the 2 second icd, we have a choice of either a continuum split burst or consistent damage with alacrity duration increase.

Continuum split was very fun to use for the condition burst considering for the most part, we need to use continuum split at a location where it cant be cleaved/hit easily by pve mobs or keep the mobs dazed or interrupted during the split. Also, when 4 illusions are shattered for continuum split, the illusions dont run to the target, and most of the time, applies only your shatter conditions if your close to the target which coincides with the above mentioned split location usage.

Also, using continuum split with 4 illusions doesn’t spawn a clone with illusionary reversion.. is it intended or?

(edited by Telekinesis.8312)

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Posted by: Telekinesis.8312

Telekinesis.8312

Alacrity
The last few changes are related to alacrity. We felt that as it was currently, alacrity wasn’t hitting the right level of impact due to how easy it was to get from the minor trait and how little you could share it with allies. These changes are intended to try and improve how alacrity feels to interact with though traits and skills.

  • Flow of Time: Reduced alacrity per shattered illusion from 1s to 0.75s
  • Improved Alacrity: Increased alacrity duration bonus from 33% to 50%.
  • All’s Well that Ends Well: Changed functionality. This trait now grants 2s of alacrity to allies standing within the well when the well ends.

Regarding alacrity, 0.75 sec + 0.375 sec with improved alacrity gets us to about 1.12 sec and with the well change that’s a good 3 second alacrity with each well that we share. but this benefits only power builds as condition builds dont use wells, so the alacrity nerf hits the condition builds harder.

While our previous specs in pve never could reach top tier dps, with chrono with high level and positional/continuum split/cooldown based gameplay, we could get closer.. and while sharing alacrity is cool, we’r pumping the team’s dps, but falling down on our own. while utility is important to get a mesmer into a dungeon, i also think it’s important that mesmers can actually deal high dps if they spec to it or want to. There should be an option to either deal high damage or deal mediocre damage and give various buffs to friends/allies.

At the end of the day, mesmers shouldn’t become a tool only to up other classes dps by granting them alacrity and quickness while we deal low/mediocre dps. rather we should have an option to deal more damage while not being very team focused. i hope that’s achieved with chrono at the release of HoT.

(edited by Telekinesis.8312)

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Posted by: Kaiyanwan.8521

Kaiyanwan.8521

Well, at least for open world, the change of Illusionary Reversion will cause two things:

1. Everyone will still have to pick Dueling for Deceptive Evasion
2. People will pick Improved Alacrity or Danger Time over Illusionary Reversion, as it is usless if you have Deceptive Evasion anyways…

Goodbye build variety, welcome back Deceptive Evasion.

Edit: Maybe it can still work with Chronophantasma, if the respawned phantasm works as illusion which it should, and alacrity gives enough CD reduction on double-traited GS to bring Mirror Blade CD down fast enough. We will see.

(edited by Kaiyanwan.8521)

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Posted by: Exciton.8942

Exciton.8942

Very good change to well of eternity!
But can we get some similar cast time reduction to other wells as well?
For example, well of recall has 1 second of cast time just to give allies 3 seconds of alacrity. It would be too weak at its current form especially considering the well trait change.

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Posted by: Xalugami.2096

Xalugami.2096

I felt like the Chronomancer was incredibly refreshing to play during this last BWE. I may not post in forums often or keep up on knowing DPS meta and whatnot, but I really wanted to throw in my feedback to help the Chronomancer release in an enjoyable state.

The changes here to Gravity Well seem interesting, except I feel like the Float made it significantly more unique and made the skill very fun. It was powerful, but I felt like that was justified for having a 3 second start up before the Float happens and it having a 90 second cooldown as an Elite skill. Having the counter to this skill be knowing not to stand in the Well and make sure you get out of its area in time before you take on the devastating final effect is pretty neat, since you then need to setup a reason for them to be in when it expires. If it’s only going to have 3 pulls then that wont be as interesting and seems like it might be entirely useless in PvE outside of some mob stacking, rather than the 2 seconds refuge for anything you get when they Float. I think having a single initial pull to the center to start it up and dealing only the pulse damage until the Float would be perfect; that way it retains the concept of racing out of the Well in time and includes a pull that would make it so you would first need to strip Stability for maximum chances of landing the skill. Hopefully you reconsider working in Float for this Elite skill, I don’t want to run Time Warp for another few years.

Echo of Memory’s fix/change seems justified. I wanted to mention for Tides of Time, the wall has a bad habit of disappearing completely, which takes away its return trip effects and doesn’t allow you to reduce its cooldown (which the skill really needs on that long of a base time). I’m not sure if there’s anything you can do to fix that easily or not but its very annoying losing half of the functionality on a skill due to issues with terrain.

I agree with everyone else here saying iReversion just needs an internal cooldown instead of a illusions limit. Almost defeats the purpose of the trait if you need that start up cost for it to work.

Alacrity I felt was in a weird spot. From my experience with Chronomancer I hardly felt the effects of Alacrity helping, and dropping the duration of it on its introductory trait seems like it would make it worse. I think keeping self-Alacrity per illusion at a full 1 second rather than 0.75 would be nice so it’s at a flat number on the base specialization, and it would make the impact of the 50% Improved Alacrity trait a lot more appealing. Adding Alacrity at the end of Wells is a really good idea, but also takes away Chronomancer’s access to Condition removal. On top of that, Well of Recall’s main use would have to get changed a bit since you can just run other Wells for party wide Alacrity when they end instead of relying on this skill’s main trick.

Stacking Slow with Lost Time I felt was good. You’d have to be heavily built into Precision to constantly earn enough critical hits to gain charges. Even at 100% crit chance there’s very few skills you could do to pile on all 5 charges, so the Slow does have its downtime while you rebuild you charges between skills. It did seem a little stronger with GS, but the time between auto attacks needing to finish 2-3 times to gain enough charges still barely gave 50% uptime on Slow. For needing to build completely into one stat, sacrificing other stats to do so, and ignore other interesting traits just to make it possible to get roughly 50% uptime on Slow is a huge leap to make and should at least stay viable for people who want to have that playstyle.

Sorry for the wall of text, didn’t know how else I could fit all my opinions for these any shorter.

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Posted by: xsmooth.5180

xsmooth.5180

Here is food for thought for you making changes already, why not wait until the rest of the specializations are released then make changes. I think it is unfair to make changes at the time due to the fact that other specializations will be made “over powered” and then you will find yourself reverting back to the current state. When you are taking the Chrono trait line you are sacrificing power/survivability from the current builds.

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Posted by: tertle.4621

tertle.4621

The nerfs seem quite reasonable (though I’m a little sad about alacrity) and not over the top considering some of the kitten we could pull.

Especially Chronophantasma which I was thinking during the beta needed a 2s daze, so I’m happy to only see 1.5s rather than other nerf (ICD etc).