Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

Has anyone experimented with any chronomancer builds for PvP with both shield and focus? I love to use focus in all my builds—it’s just a really fun weapon to use—but I also want to mess around with the new hotness at the same time.

I doubt it’s possible to make a absolute top-tier build with this constraint, but I don’t mind—it’s not like I’m a top-tier player in the first place (plus, it feels like focus missed out on a lot of the recent balance patch love). I just am looking for something that’s durable enough and powerful enough to feel like I’m contributing to fights.

I’ve been messing around with something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRArd8OWUNqznYIiOyAoC2p6kNarWA-TJxHABXXGIgTCwJ7PAwTAAA
But I can tell it could use some improvement and focusing.

Thanks!

Yeah I’d also go Dom/Insp/Chrono with Sword/Shield + Scepter/Focus.

The biggest problem right now is the choice between Restorative Illusions and Warden’s Feedback.

If Warden’s Feedback was say swapped with Restorative Mantras in adept so we could also trait it with RI I would happily take the Focus no problem. But the untraited projectile destruction is bugged (projectiles can still hit you) and RI is simply a much better trait for survival. It’s sad but RI is so amazing that any mesmer build going into Inspiration benefits from it. I’d only take Warden’s Feedback in PvE now, if I played that, but in PvP it can’t compete with the condi removal on shatter.

Anyway I have been playing this: EDIT wrong link!
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8OnknBlph1fCUrhlTj68IiirjMAWggqOar2tF-TJxHABXXG4k9HE7iAAwTAAA

Similar build with Staff + Sword/Shield because staff is simply better in PvP.

The Slow on Interrupt and Danger Time are the best choices here I find, and allows you to do solid sustained direct damage thanks to the many crits without needing to perform high spike bursts. Chronophantasma is of course the superior grandmaster and synergises best with Mental Defence.

Confounding Suggestions is better when taking staff becase of the extra source of Daze. Empowered Illusions would be better with Focus because fewer sources of Daze unless taking Mantra of Distraction.

Well of Precognition is the dogs kittens (lol weird censor) – so so amazing to use. Third utility slot is a toss up. I like Decoy for another stunbreak but Portal or anything else is an option.

Time Warp is totally superior to Gravity Well. My biggest beef with Gravity Well is that it does not play well with interrupts, because the only possible chance to interrupt is on the initial knockdown – once floated an enemy won’t be interrupted for the final Pull. So I don’t like it unfortunately.

I sometimes trait Medic’s Feedback because it’s a useful trait in teamfights.

Awesome, thanks so much. Let me give this build a try and see how well I can play it.

It’s sad that Focus is just not good enough in pvp at the moment, nevermind the fact of using two offhands requires both scepter and sword – when usually one plus either staff or greatsword is better.

I think moving Warden’s Feedback down to an adept major trait would be a good start and encouraging more people to use it.

Playtest reports:

Chronomancer remains a lot of fun despite my inexperience with F5. Shield is great, and I switch to sword basically to use the shield skills.

Illusion generation is pretty rough without staff. Scepter’s clone-on-block isn’t a good replacement for staff 2. It’s particularly bad since sword 3’s clone is so unreliable. Maybe I should run mirror images.

Well of Precognition is fantastic. It’s just what the build needs to be a sustained disruption threat.

Power scepter is in pretty good shape. Skill 3 hits nice and hard. I’m not good at using the AA for clone generation, though.

Focus could use some love, as you say. I’d love to see Warden’s Feedback stay as a master trait, but increase the area or duration of the focus skills. Raising the curtain height so it reflects more consistently would be great, too.