Guild Wars 2

I’ve currently got my good ol’ Berserker/Assassins gear setup, as well as a Dire/Rabid setup. As I’m working on ascended Berserker gear, I keep getting soulbound exotics from quests and what have you, and I’m kinda stumped as to what stats I’d like. I’m thinking Knight or Valkyrie, just for solo PvE/Roaming, but I thought I’d check what other Mesmers are doing first. Does support Chronomancer require specific gear? Do Chronos still tank? What gear would a Chronotank use?

Tl;dr; Once you have your Shatter-Burst and Condition gear, what do you gear for next?

Commander gear is the meta for support tank Chrono.

Unlike other classes where one or two sets would work just fine. Being Versatile is basically the key for mesmer. All tough Commander would get you far, and is accepted in most scenarios. I still would have multiple sets for chrono to be optimized, depending on what and where you like to play the class:

Armor:
- Commander (leadership or durability runes)
- Assassin (scholar runes)
- Berserker (scholar or chrono runes)
- Cleric (monk rune)

Weapons: (Concentration/x sigils)
- Commander
- Berserker
- Minstrel

Trinkets:
- Commander
- Berserker
- Minstrel

Maybe some additional condi set with Viper or Trailblazer but that is rather optional.

I’ve been using a mix of Berserker and Commander gear to hit around 66-68% boon duration with fried golden dumplings and no utilities (Because Bountiful Sharpening Stones are expensive) (Leadership Runes and Sigil of Concentration) and haven’t had much cause to use anything else other than sometime switching knight rings on and off.

Even in WvW it hasn’t been terrible since the added might and quickness duration are surprisingly relevant.

Personally, I’m waiting to see if they are going to release pvp versions of the Seeker’s and Diviner’s pvp sets.

Seekers is power(major), precision(major), concentration(minor), and ferocity(minor)

Diviners is power(major), concentration(major), precision(minor), and ferocity(minor)

Both sets would be good although I’d lean towards seekers myself.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Commander gear sounds like it’d be a perfect next goal. Unfortunately, it appears to be crafted, so I’ll either have to powerlevel tailoring or pick up a full set from the BLT. I was hoping I could use all the spare “Choose your own stats” quest rewards you pick up throughout HotS experience.

Malice.8439:

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Commander gear sounds like it’d be a perfect next goal. Unfortunately, it appears to be crafted, so I’ll either have to powerlevel tailoring or pick up a full set from the BLT. I was hoping I could use all the spare “Choose your own stats” quest rewards you pick up throughout HotS experience.

I wouldn’t really bother making more exotic sets, particularly not of specific stat combinations like commander’s. You’d get more mileage out of updating your gear to ascended. Start with trinkets, then weapons, and lastly armor. Insofar as chronotank goes, you can get away with zerk gear with a concentration sigil, boon duration food, leadership runes, and a couple pieces of toughness gear to get aggro in raids.

However, I wouldn’t recommend you try to jump into the chronotank role as it’s easily the most difficult role in a raid party. Instead, try to be the non-tank chrono so that you can learn the encounters first.

GWMO.4785:

Unlike other classes where one or two sets would work just fine. Being Versatile is basically the key for mesmer. All tough Commander would get you far, and is accepted in most scenarios. I still would have multiple sets for chrono to be optimized, depending on what and where you like to play the class:

Armor:
- Commander (leadership or durability runes)
- Assassin (scholar runes)
- Berserker (scholar or chrono runes)
- Cleric (monk rune)

Weapons: (Concentration/x sigils)
- Commander
- Berserker
- Minstrel

Trinkets:
- Commander
- Berserker
- Minstrel

Maybe some additional condi set with Viper or Trailblazer but that is rather optional.

As much as I love the versatility, I must admit it is also a double edged sword. Our stuff is either stupidly expensive (Sigil of Concentration / Minstrel gear /Bountiful sharpening stones) or a pain in the kitten to farm (Leadership / Durability runes). And even the most basic Chrono build requires much effort (Sigil of Concentration + Leadership runes) unlike the usual Zerker+Scholar setup that most classes use and can fairly easy aquire.

It’s still wonderful to have multiple options rather than just being tunnel visioned on max damage. Which is probably why I love playing support’ish classes in games. If only it didn’t require so much more farming just for the basic stuff. I would love to have Arenanet even out the difference abit. Especially the huge bottleneck there is on Freshwater pearls that affects most Chrono builds. I may be looking into cheaper alternatives to sigil of concentration since it is so expensive, but not sure if it is viable.

Also I got a question: You mentioned a Berserker set with chronomancer runes. What would you use it for now that Signet of Inspiration got changed? I recently returned to the game thus still have the Chrono runes but I am working on replacing them with leadership runes. Should I keep them instead?

Fay.2357:

However, I wouldn’t recommend you try to jump into the chronotank role as it’s easily the most difficult role in a raid party. Instead, try to be the non-tank chrono so that you can learn the encounters first.

If you are new to chrono then yes. But the class is and will stay a supportive class. So one way or the other you probably want/need to experience the tanking eventually

Starmiz.3298:

As much as I love the versatility, I must admit it is also a double edged sword. Our stuff is either stupidly expensive (Sigil of Concentration / Minstrel gear /Bountiful sharpening stones) or a pain in the kitten to farm (Leadership / Durability runes). And even the most basic Chrono build requires much effort (Sigil of Concentration + Leadership runes) unlike the usual Zerker+Scholar setup that most classes use and can fairly easy aquire.

It’s still wonderful to have multiple options rather than just being tunnel visioned on max damage. Which is probably why I love playing support’ish classes in games. If only it didn’t require so much more farming just for the basic stuff. I would love to have Arenanet even out the difference abit. Especially the huge bottleneck there is on Freshwater pearls that affects most Chrono builds. I may be looking into cheaper alternatives to sigil of concentration since it is so expensive, but not sure if it is viable.

I personally did not have much trouble getting the gear together. easiest way to obtain in my believes is to farm gold and buy the base mats you need, and from there you basically just craft it. You can turn anything in to gold these days. So should not be that hard.

If you dont have the recipes for lets say ascended commander set, i would suggest to go for first gen stats (like berserker etc), and then change the stats in mystic forge. That way you only would need to make commander insignia’s/inscriptions. Will probably will save you some mats/gold, cause newer stats require the Jeweled Damask Patch as where the old ones are just Damask Patch. Not sure on that one tho, you will have to do the exact calculating yourself.

Starmiz.3298:

Also I got a question: You mentioned a Berserker set with chronomancer runes. What would you use it for now that Signet of Inspiration got changed? I recently returned to the game thus still have the Chrono runes but I am working on replacing them with leadership runes. Should I keep them instead?

It was more of a suggestion actually. If you cant upkeep the quickness with scholar runes, then chronomancer runes could help you out a tiny bit. Since 6th bonus gives you quickness on casting any well. Regardless i would first check out how much boon uptime you have. Aim for 100%. Going beyond is wasted.

Additionally for anyone that wants to make changes to their chrono, maybe it is better to wait. PvP has introduced seekers amulet. And i personally hope Anet will bring this stats combo to Pve as well. But that is a another topic which can be followed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Seeker-Stats/first#post6498311

GWMO.4785:

Additionally for anyone that wants to make changes to their chrono, maybe it is better to wait. PvP has introduced seekers amulet. And i personally hope Anet will bring this stats combo to Pve as well. But that is a another topic which can be followed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Seeker-Stats/first#post6498311

If you’re that worried about the stats on your buffing gear, you should be running full zerk with 1 piece of toughness for tanking. 30% duration from leadership runes, 30% from concentration, 30% from utility food and normal food, and 6% from a platinum doubloon in your backpiece.

As of the recent announcement regarding changes to Ascended gearing (and not having done much of crafting) I do feel rather stressed about getting the vendor ascended things in a timely manner.

I have a Call of the Wild since before, and about 1510ish Laurels to my name at the moment (I’ve been on a long break <_<). What would be the most prudent things to spend them on?

I’m assuming Ascended trinkets. I’ll have to read up on how to acquire weapons.

I’m assuming step 1 is to blow 70 of those Laurels of “Crystalline Band” + “Ring of Red Death”, yes?

Malice.8439:

As of the recent announcement regarding changes to Ascended gearing (and not having done much of crafting) I do feel rather stressed about getting the vendor ascended things in a timely manner.

I have a Call of the Wild since before, and about 1510ish Laurels to my name at the moment (I’ve been on a long break <_<). What would be the most prudent things to spend them on?

I’m assuming Ascended trinkets. I’ll have to read up on how to acquire weapons.

I’m assuming step 1 is to blow 70 of those Laurels of “Crystalline Band” + “Ring of Red Death”, yes?

Laurels are good for rings/amulet. You can also buy trinkets, but they’re costly even with laurels. The problems crop up if you want commander’s stats on your trinkets, because then you can’t get those with laurels. Generally the best place to get ascended trinkets with HoT stats are from the new zones introduced with LS3.

Also, assume that I will only be playing on my Mesmer and only every worry about gear on him, is it worthwhile to invest in Assassins gear over Berserkers gear? I get the impression that many Mesmers prefer Assassins, but choose Berserker Ascendeds in order to share with their alts. Perhaps this is a misconception on my part?

Malice.8439:

Also, assume that I will only be playing on my Mesmer and only every worry about gear on him, is it worthwhile to invest in Assassins gear over Berserkers gear? I get the impression that many Mesmers prefer Assassins, but choose Berserker Ascendeds in order to share with their alts. Perhaps this is a misconception on my part?

Assassin is better if you’re solo/without buffs. Berserker is better when you have spotter + banners + fury all the time.

Fay.2357:

Malice.8439:

As of the recent announcement regarding changes to Ascended gearing (and not having done much of crafting) I do feel rather stressed about getting the vendor ascended things in a timely manner.

I have a Call of the Wild since before, and about 1510ish Laurels to my name at the moment (I’ve been on a long break <_<). What would be the most prudent things to spend them on?

I’m assuming Ascended trinkets. I’ll have to read up on how to acquire weapons.

I’m assuming step 1 is to blow 70 of those Laurels of “Crystalline Band” + “Ring of Red Death”, yes?

Laurels are good for rings/amulet. You can also buy trinkets, but they’re costly even with laurels. The problems crop up if you want commander’s stats on your trinkets, because then you can’t get those with laurels. Generally the best place to get ascended trinkets with HoT stats are from the new zones introduced with LS3.

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see your post while refreshing.

I was thinking of doing the following:

Spend 150 Laurels and 100 Globs of Ectoplasm for 2 x Ascended Rings and 2 x Ascended Trinkets. Aim for Berserkers and then reforge to Commanders/whatever I’d want at a later date.

Are there other things that laurels would be better spent at, that would warrant not spending them, in your opinion?

Additionally, it appears that DeLaina’s Coin Purse and Zhaitan’s Claws are the only Assassin rings available at the moment. I read that one who doesn’t have access to Assassins rings should aim for Berserker Rings, but then aim for Assassins Weapons. Is this still true today?

Malice.8439:

As of the recent announcement regarding changes to Ascended gearing (and not having done much of crafting) I do feel rather stressed about getting the vendor ascended things in a timely manner.

What was this recent announcement?

bearshaman.3421:

Malice.8439:

As of the recent announcement regarding changes to Ascended gearing (and not having done much of crafting) I do feel rather stressed about getting the vendor ascended things in a timely manner.

What was this recent announcement?

It’s part of the 22/2 patch.

http://dulfy.net/2017/02/17/gw2-ascended-vending-and-skill-balance-changes-next-patch/

Ah thank you for the link.