Guild Wars 2

They nerfed Alacrity from 66% to 33%. because it was considered to good a boost for teammates, correct?

However this nerfed the cooldowns of the mesmer as well.
Those were based on having 66% alacrity.

They should increase the duration of alacrity on the mesmer and/or reduce some of the mesmer cooldowns, so that it compensates the loss of going from 66% alacrity to 33%.

66% alacrity was too strong for team mates in PvE. It was also to strong for self in PvP.

yes… but they won’t. just go back to playing core mes. No matter what you play, taking a core line will be better than taking chrono…. unless you want to play a mindless utility bot.

Silverkey.2078:

66% alacrity was too strong for team mates in PvE. It was also to strong for self in PvP.

To strong on all Mesmer builds in pvp?

Maybe they could reduce duration of some cooldowns as said to compensate for the 33% alacrity nerf? Or you consider it right for all mesmer builds to receive the nerf to 33%?

My mesmer is an alt I am trying more lately, so maybe I dont see it right but
a 33% nerf in alactrity seems quite large as your abilities were based on having 66%.
Meaning every single mesmer cooldown with Chrono slotted, is nerfed bigtime in duration now with this change.

So I thought longer duration alacrity for the Mesmer personaly, would maybe be fair and/or a few cooldowns lower.
It wouldnt change the duration of alacrity that it can give to teammates.

Uncle Dalty.8327:

yes… but they won’t. just go back to playing core mes. No matter what you play, taking a core line will be better than taking chrono…. unless you want to play a mindless utility bot.

I rather play dps power/condi, than a no dmg dealing utility build.

They could just reduce the CD of our skills a bit rather than give us another must have trait or something … I’m happy about the alacrity nerf but not about our CD increase.

Yashuoa.9527:

Silverkey.2078:

66% alacrity was too strong for team mates in PvE. It was also to strong for self in PvP.

To strong on all Mesmer builds in pvp?

Maybe they could reduce duration of some cooldowns as said to compensate for the 33% alacrity nerf? Or you consider it right for all mesmer builds to receive the nerf to 33%?

My mesmer is an alt I am trying more lately, so maybe I dont see it right but
a 33% nerf in alactrity seems quite large as your abilities were based on having 66%.
Meaning every single mesmer cooldown with Chrono slotted, is nerfed bigtime in duration now with this change.

So I thought longer duration for the Mesmer personaly, would maybe be fair and/or a few cooldowns lower.
It wouldnt change the duration of alacrity that it can give to teammates.

Uncle Dalty.8327:

yes… but they won’t. just go back to playing core mes. No matter what you play, taking a core line will be better than taking chrono…. unless you want to play a mindless utility bot.

I rather play dps power/condi, than a no dmg dealing utility build.

I love mesmer and think it needs an update, but it bothers me when there is misunderstanding going through the community.

“To strong on all Mesmer builds in pvp?”
Yes, it was too strong for pvp. Even after the shield changes, many teams were still bringing multiple bunker chronos. Having a class that can survive that long while targeted is not healthy for the game.

“My mesmer is an alt I am trying more lately, so maybe I dont see it right but
a 33% nerf in alactrity seems quite large as your abilities were based on having 66%. Meaning every single mesmer cooldown with Chrono slotted, is nerfed bigtime in duration now with this change.”

No, this is not true. Where is your evidence for this statement. I have seen this statement going around a lot. However, just because a lot of people have said it, doesn’t make it true. The original mesmer skills and weapons retained their initial cool downs. Therefore, you at least know that these were not balanced around alacrity. Most of the skills were not balanced around alacrity. That is why alacrity turned out to be a lot more powerful in pvp and pve than they were expecting. For example, the chrono shield has a cool down time that is similar to that of other classes based on the duration of perfection. However, when a chrono has permanent alacrity at 66%, the cool down becomes ridiculously low compared to that of other classes.

The rest of your statements sound legit. I am just concerned with the stuff that appears to be false.

Xstein.2187:

Yashuoa.9527:

Silverkey.2078:

66% alacrity was too strong for team mates in PvE. It was also to strong for self in PvP.

To strong on all Mesmer builds in pvp?

Maybe they could reduce duration of some cooldowns as said to compensate for the 33% alacrity nerf? Or you consider it right for all mesmer builds to receive the nerf to 33%?

My mesmer is an alt I am trying more lately, so maybe I dont see it right but
a 33% nerf in alactrity seems quite large as your abilities were based on having 66%.
Meaning every single mesmer cooldown with Chrono slotted, is nerfed bigtime in duration now with this change.

So I thought longer duration for the Mesmer personaly, would maybe be fair and/or a few cooldowns lower.
It wouldnt change the duration of alacrity that it can give to teammates.

Uncle Dalty.8327:

yes… but they won’t. just go back to playing core mes. No matter what you play, taking a core line will be better than taking chrono…. unless you want to play a mindless utility bot.

I rather play dps power/condi, than a no dmg dealing utility build.

I love mesmer and think it needs an update, but it bothers me when there is misunderstanding going through the community.

“To strong on all Mesmer builds in pvp?”
1.Yes, it was too strong for pvp. Even after the shield changes, many teams were still bringing multiple bunker chronos. Having a class that can survive that long while targeted is not healthy for the game.

“My mesmer is an alt I am trying more lately, so maybe I dont see it right but
a 33% nerf in alactrity seems quite large as your abilities were based on having 66%. Meaning every single mesmer cooldown with Chrono slotted, is nerfed bigtime in duration now with this change.”

2.No, this is not true. Where is your evidence for this statement. I have seen this statement going around a lot. However, just because a lot of people have said it, doesn’t make it true. The original mesmer skills and weapons retained their initial cool downs. Therefore, you at least know that these were not balanced around alacrity. Most of the skills were not balanced around alacrity. That is why alacrity turned out to be a lot more powerful in pvp and pve than they were expecting. For example, the chrono shield has a cool down time that is similar to that of other classes based on the duration of perfection. However, when a chrono has permanent alacrity at 66%, the cool down becomes ridiculously low compared to that of other classes.

The rest of your statements sound legit. I am just concerned with the stuff that appears to be false.

What is false about the statements?

1. I specifically asked about ALL Mesmer builds.
I disliked bunkerchrono too (both playing vs it as playing it).
But there are other Mesmer builds besides that build and those werent considered good enough with 66% alacrity.
So aparently it may not have been to strong for all Mesmer builds.
Also it was a question so it cant be false.

2. I specifically said with chrono slotted.
Meaning the cooldowns when using chrono, that were used to 66% alacrity when it was up, now have 33% when it is up.
Meaning you reduce them less=cooldowns are higher now.
Its simple fact or evidence if you will.

Maybe you misunderstood/misread yourself.

I just don’t see the need to change alacrity because I think mesmer is great right now (it’s the other classes which are too strong). The one thing I would change is increasing our sustained damage because:

• we don’t have enough in PvP shatter builds to follow up on our burst
• we don’t have enough to have decent bruiser builds
• we don’t have enough in PvE to make sure that we can do something else than buffbot (and in particular to make sure that having 2 mesmers in a party is not a huge DPS loss)

The stronger alacrity is, the less likely it is for this problem to be fixed. Also, alacrity as it stands is balanced because this way, chronomancer is not always the best choice in PvP (and still, it kind of is). Now we can get good results with alacrity if we build around it.

Now there are many ways to fix the sustained DPS problem, but I think the best way is to change the phantasm concept. I have a post coming soon to give my suggestions on the subject, but many have already given good ideas.

Yashuoa.9527:

What is false about the statements?

1. I specifically asked about ALL Mesmer builds.
I disliked bunkerchrono too (both playing vs it as playing it).
But there are other Mesmer builds besides that build and those werent considered good enough with 66% alacrity.
So aparently it may not have been to strong for all Mesmer builds.
Also it was a question so it cant be false.

2. I specifically said with chrono slotted.
Meaning the cooldowns when using chrono, that were used to 66% alacrity when it was up, now have 33% when it is up.
Meaning you reduce them less=cooldowns are higher now.
Its simple fact or evidence if you will.

Maybe you misunderstood/misread yourself.

1. The first one wasn’t false, I was just pointing out that alacrity was nerfed for reasons pertaining both to pve and pvp. I was answering your question. I also realize that the alacrity nerf hurt other builds as well. However, there are other ways to improve those builds besides buffing alacrity all the way up to 66% again. In fact, I do think self alacrity should perhaps be buffed, just not all the way up to 66%. That is way to high. It didn’t work for multiple reasons.

2. Ya, of course your cool downs get lower cool downs relative to the 66% alacrity. However, I did not say this statement was wrong.

“your abilities were based on having 66%”

This is the statement I am saying is false. Most, and perhaps all, of your abilities were Not balanced around the assumption that you have so much of 66% alacrity on yourself.

The simplest change would be reverting Flow of Time back to 1 second per illusion.

It makes no sense to first cut Flow of Time down to 0.75s/illusion and then after some time axe alacrity to 33%. Sure one or the other is understandable, but both together is overkill.

Xstein.2187:

Yashuoa.9527:

What is false about the statements?

1. I specifically asked about ALL Mesmer builds.
I disliked bunkerchrono too (both playing vs it as playing it).
But there are other Mesmer builds besides that build and those werent considered good enough with 66% alacrity.
So aparently it may not have been to strong for all Mesmer builds.
Also it was a question so it cant be false.

2. I specifically said with chrono slotted.
Meaning the cooldowns when using chrono, that were used to 66% alacrity when it was up, now have 33% when it is up.
Meaning you reduce them less=cooldowns are higher now.
Its simple fact or evidence if you will.

Maybe you misunderstood/misread yourself.

1. The first one wasn’t false, I was just pointing out that alacrity was nerfed for reasons pertaining both to pve and pvp. I was answering your question. I also realize that the alacrity nerf hurt other builds as well. However, there are other ways to improve those builds besides buffing alacrity all the way up to 66% again. In fact, I do think self alacrity should perhaps be buffed, just not all the way up to 66%. That is way to high. It didn’t work for multiple reasons.

2. Ya, of course your cool downs get lower cool downs relative to the 66% alacrity. However, I did not say this statement was wrong.

“your abilities were based on having 66%”

This is the statement I am saying is false. Most, and perhaps all, of your abilities were Not balanced around the assumption that you have so much of 66% alacrity on yourself.

It looked as if you only quoted the things you considered false, as you said
‘’The rest of your statements sound legit. I am just concerned with the stuff that appears to be false.’’

How are at least some abilities as chrono, not balanced around having 66% alacrity from time to time on yourself?

They designed the chrono spec.
They introduce alacrity.
They choose the 66% number.
They even add stuff like a trait that increases the duration of it on yourself by 50%.
They add alacrity duration numbers to wells and other spells.

I would hope that they balance the chrono build and its abilities around having some alacrity uptime on yourself.
If its not balanced on having alacrity (not constantly, but here and there from spells),
than it means the alacrity numbers and traits are just picked without any balance in mind, which I hope is false.

Why do you think they choose the alacrity number of 66%, and alacrity duration on spells and traits? According to you, not with keeping balance of the spells in the build in mind. So for what reason are those numbers chosen?

Yashuoa.9527:

Xstein.2187:

Yashuoa.9527:

What is false about the statements?

1. I specifically asked about ALL Mesmer builds.
I disliked bunkerchrono too (both playing vs it as playing it).
But there are other Mesmer builds besides that build and those werent considered good enough with 66% alacrity.
So aparently it may not have been to strong for all Mesmer builds.
Also it was a question so it cant be false.

2. I specifically said with chrono slotted.
Meaning the cooldowns when using chrono, that were used to 66% alacrity when it was up, now have 33% when it is up.
Meaning you reduce them less=cooldowns are higher now.
Its simple fact or evidence if you will.

Maybe you misunderstood/misread yourself.

1. The first one wasn’t false, I was just pointing out that alacrity was nerfed for reasons pertaining both to pve and pvp. I was answering your question. I also realize that the alacrity nerf hurt other builds as well. However, there are other ways to improve those builds besides buffing alacrity all the way up to 66% again. In fact, I do think self alacrity should perhaps be buffed, just not all the way up to 66%. That is way to high. It didn’t work for multiple reasons.

2. Ya, of course your cool downs get lower cool downs relative to the 66% alacrity. However, I did not say this statement was wrong.

“your abilities were based on having 66%”

This is the statement I am saying is false. Most, and perhaps all, of your abilities were Not balanced around the assumption that you have so much of 66% alacrity on yourself.

It looked as if you only quoted the things you considered false, as you said
‘’The rest of your statements sound legit. I am just concerned with the stuff that appears to be false.’’

How are at least some abilities as chrono, not balanced around having 66% alacrity from time to time on yourself?

They designed the chrono spec.
They introduce alacrity.
They choose the 66% number.
They even add stuff like a trait that increases the duration of it on yourself by 50%.
They add alacrity duration numbers to wells and other spells.

I would hope that they balance the chrono build and its abilities around having some alacrity uptime on yourself.
If its not balanced on having alacrity (not constantly, but here and there from spells),
than it means the alacrity numbers and traits are just picked without any balance in mind, which I hope is false.

Why do you think they choose the alacrity number of 66%, and alacrity duration on spells and traits? According to you, not with keeping balance of the spells in the build in mind. So for what reason are those numbers chosen?

They put alacrity with 66% but we could only get it from shatter, shield and one well. And they said “we’ll be watching this, since manipulating cooldowns is dangerous”. Then they add alacrity on all wells.

So no, this number was a choice just to see if it worked. And it gave too strong results, so they brought it down. If you look at the cooldown of our new skills, you realize they seem very legit without alacrity. The block/cooldown ratio of shield 4 is similar to other block skills but also produces a phantasm. The heal gives fairly high healing, with the price that you have to remain in it for full benefits. Everything is well balanced on its own. Alacrity was really what made the balance tip.

The only thing I could potentially agree with is the alacrity on shatter back to 1s, but I am not sure it is a good idea.

And in general, alacrity should not fix all of our problems:

• There are other things in the chronomancer line than alacrity. If those are too underwhelming, then let’s try to improve them instead of buffing the alacrity.
• if our PvE DPS is too low, let’s try to improve it instead of buffing alacrity.
• if shatter mesmer is unviable, let’s try to improve it instead of buffing alacrity
  etc….

Yashuoa.9527:

Xstein.2187:

Yashuoa.9527:

What is false about the statements?

1. I specifically asked about ALL Mesmer builds.
I disliked bunkerchrono too (both playing vs it as playing it).
But there are other Mesmer builds besides that build and those werent considered good enough with 66% alacrity.
So aparently it may not have been to strong for all Mesmer builds.
Also it was a question so it cant be false.

2. I specifically said with chrono slotted.
Meaning the cooldowns when using chrono, that were used to 66% alacrity when it was up, now have 33% when it is up.
Meaning you reduce them less=cooldowns are higher now.
Its simple fact or evidence if you will.

Maybe you misunderstood/misread yourself.

1. The first one wasn’t false, I was just pointing out that alacrity was nerfed for reasons pertaining both to pve and pvp. I was answering your question. I also realize that the alacrity nerf hurt other builds as well. However, there are other ways to improve those builds besides buffing alacrity all the way up to 66% again. In fact, I do think self alacrity should perhaps be buffed, just not all the way up to 66%. That is way to high. It didn’t work for multiple reasons.

2. Ya, of course your cool downs get lower cool downs relative to the 66% alacrity. However, I did not say this statement was wrong.

“your abilities were based on having 66%”

This is the statement I am saying is false. Most, and perhaps all, of your abilities were Not balanced around the assumption that you have so much of 66% alacrity on yourself.

It looked as if you only quoted the things you considered false, as you said
‘’The rest of your statements sound legit. I am just concerned with the stuff that appears to be false.’’

How are at least some abilities as chrono, not balanced around having 66% alacrity from time to time on yourself?

They designed the chrono spec.
They introduce alacrity.
They choose the 66% number.
They even add stuff like a trait that increases the duration of it on yourself by 50%.
They add alacrity duration numbers to wells and other spells.

I would hope that they balance the chrono build and its abilities around having some alacrity uptime on yourself.
If its not balanced on having alacrity (not constantly, but here and there from spells),
than it means the alacrity numbers and traits are just picked without any balance in mind, which I hope is false.

Why do you think they choose the alacrity number of 66%, and alacrity duration on spells and traits? According to you, not with keeping balance of the spells in the build in mind. So for what reason are those numbers chosen?

Look, I think they tried to balance the overall class with alacrity. However, they just did not balance many of the individual cool downs around alacrity. Ya, they did everything you said

They designed the chrono spec.
They introduce alacrity.
They choose the 66% number.
They even add stuff like a trait that increases the duration of it on yourself by 50%.
They add alacrity duration numbers to wells and other spells.

And guess what, when they did all of this, you would think the class would be somewhat balanced, since they chose all the numbers. However, it wasn’t. It was OP.

“If its not balanced on having alacrity (not constantly, but here and there from spells),
than it means the alacrity numbers and traits are just picked without any balance in mind, which I hope is false.”

This is not necessarily the case. For example, they could have initially used the cool downs of similar skills in other classes as “guidelines” for what to make the cool downs of the chronos skills. They could have then proceeded to balance the class as a Whole around alacrity. For example, if they saw the class wasn’t doing enough damage, they could have boosted alacrity. Therefore, they could have tried to balance the class without properly considering all the effects of all the skill cool downs. Echo of memory originally gave 4.5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds without alacrity, or .15 sec of protection/sec. Crystal Hibernation gives 3 seconds of protection every 25 seconds, or .12 sec protection/sec. These are somewhat similar. However, with 66% alacrity, the chrono got 4.5 sec of protection every 18 seconds, or .25 sec of protection every sec. Do you think they balanced the shield expecting chronos to get this much protection in pvp? If they did, they probably wouldn’t have had to dramatically decreased the length of protection on the shield and then later dramatically nerf alacrity.

“Why do you think they choose the alacrity number of 66%, and alacrity duration on spells and traits? According to you, not with keeping balance of the spells in the build in mind. So for what reason are those numbers chosen? "

Thats a good question. I don’t know. Why did they decrease it to 33%. Why not have it at 33% originally? I don’t know, but obviously the class as a whole turned out differently then they expected. If they were originally correct about their reasons for choosing 66% on alacrity then they would have never nerfed it.

@ Silverkey
I agree.

It would be good indeed to not make alacrity fix all issues, but use other methods to fix issues.

@ Xstein and at both.
I agree.
So basically they didnt know well enough yet if 66% would be to much or not (maybe release came to early), so after seeing it in effect more on the live servers they tuned it down?

Well of precog was nerfed, a lot of bunky amulets removed, energy Sigil is no longer instant free doge.

Less related but quickness revive functionatity being nerfed also makes defensive well placements over all less effective

Not that all of the above is nessisarily a bad thing but how would 66% alacrity be to strong anymore? Even if it was, couldn’t this easily have been resolved by increasing the cooldown on just shield block and well of precog?

Cant we just change Improved Alacrity to from 50% increased duration to 100% effectiveness on self?