Guild Wars 2

Share your speculation for secondary classes for Mesmer.

Chronmancer seems to be one of the secondary classes since the new skills seem to focus on a giant clock coming from the Shield.

PHANTASM MASTER!!!!!!!
(but we srsly need bug fixes first)

Gimme! Something with cosmos and space and stars and galaxies and those things! I call astromancer!

If the mesmer they showed on the trailer is a specialized class then it might be a chronomancer based on the clock like aoe animation.

Long distance sprinter

Can someone explain or share a video of what chronomancer is?

Well anything that gives a playstyle which doesn’t rely on or use clones/phantasms at all would be a nice change.

Curunen.8729:

Well anything that gives a playstyle which doesn’t rely on or use clones/phantasms at all would be a nice change.

I would support that! My Barbie Dream Fantasy would be that our specialization replaces our phantasm skills with similar ground-targeted AoE effects. For example, instead of iMage casting a confusion projectile, we’d place an AoE that pulses confusion similar to a necromancer’s wells. Our shatter skills would cause these to “explode” for an added effect inside the area.

frifox.5283:

Can someone explain or share a video of what chronomancer is?

A mage type class who can manipulates space and time.

GW1 had it as one of the upcoming professions of their Utopia update but it was cancelled.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

The clock ability very well might be the chronomancer’s version of illusions. The knockdown at the end is possibly a shatter effect. I think we’re looking at a crowd-control spec, which is absolutely perfect to contrast with the base dueling spec we’ve had for almost three years.

I am excite.

Maybe if we get MH Pistol, it’ll be Duelist or Fast Caster, something reminiscent of GW1’s mesmer’s who specialized in minimizing channeled skills, so quickness focused or at least with numerous 1/4s activation skills.

I’m completely fine with using phantasms on my mes, and i’m not a shatter spec. I actually like phantasms. What I’m hoping for is to be able to max out damage without having to resort to slotting all mantras or having to shatter my phantasms.

I’m hoping the specialization involves having a more viable melee set up than we currently do. The 1h sword has seen too much neutering…maybe some traits to buff it back. I do also like the chronomancer ideas being thrown around…aoe slow + aoe damage would be nice. Maybe even more quickness. I just wouln’t want this new oh shield aoe to be another light field.

Also I hope this is a target centered aoe and not a ground cast one.

It’s a bit quick to judge anything, but he did mention that, with the example of ranger, specialized profession will have new heal, utilities, elites and most important of all, class mechanics. So I’m more interested in what will replace shatters than just the shield.

Basically, with our new secondary class, we will be able to stack swiftness with focus 4.
Enough said, the hype is real.

But in all seriousness I hope we get main hand pistol, because an offhand shield isn’t looking too attractive for an offensive weapon. Hopefully we get more damage rather than condition orientated changes.

MORE POWER! MORE BURST! MORE CRIT!

ODB.6891:

I’m completely fine with using phantasms on my mes, and i’m not a shatter spec. I actually like phantasms. What I’m hoping for is to be able to max out damage without having to resort to slotting all mantras or having to shatter my phantasms.

I’m hoping the specialization involves having a more viable melee set up than we currently do. The 1h sword has seen too much neutering…maybe some traits to buff it back. I do also like the chronomancer ideas being thrown around…aoe slow + aoe damage would be nice. Maybe even more quickness. I just wouln’t want this new oh shield aoe to be another light field.

Also I hope this is a target centered aoe and not a ground cast one.

You know that percentile modifiers do not affect phantasms?
You know that you only get up to 16% damage increase with Empowering Mantras (that means you only get up to 4×4% damage from each readied mantra, read: every activated slot, not per charge of mantra.)

Why the hate on phantasms triumphant distortion and you can deal epic aoe damage in WvW with them. and then go immune to all damage for 3 seconds at a time.

Ehem. Me and a friend of mine talked about it for a while and we came up with an interesting idea for Chronomancer-Mesmer.

Something like a Glamourmancer that summons permanent effect fields until they leave combat, die or shatter them for special effects that can boost them and their allies or hurt their enemies. The have high AoE spike damage via shattering their fields. They are still time based and specialize in hastening allies and slowing enemies. Of course the effectiveness of their fields is balanced with long or short cool downs and a reliance on allies for fights but can compete decently with enemies due to cripple and other slowing effects that keep them in the Mesmer’s fields. And are ultimately extremely strong point defenders if they bunker down.

Seems cool, maybe a little OP, but I like that it kind of seems like a Mesmer.. but not…

Honestly, if its anything that can control the battlefield with heavy cc or interrupts ill take it. I love running heavy control specs in almost every game I play, whether it be dominator in rift, dom mes in gw1, or CI mes in gw2. I am hoping for chronomancer though

CruleD.7380:

ODB.6891:

I’m completely fine with using phantasms on my mes, and i’m not a shatter spec. I actually like phantasms. What I’m hoping for is to be able to max out damage without having to resort to slotting all mantras or having to shatter my phantasms.

I’m hoping the specialization involves having a more viable melee set up than we currently do. The 1h sword has seen too much neutering…maybe some traits to buff it back. I do also like the chronomancer ideas being thrown around…aoe slow + aoe damage would be nice. Maybe even more quickness. I just wouln’t want this new oh shield aoe to be another light field.

Also I hope this is a target centered aoe and not a ground cast one.

You know that percentile modifiers do not affect phantasms?
You know that you only get up to 16% damage increase with Empowering Mantras (that means you only get up to 4×4% damage from each readied mantra, read: every activated slot, not per charge of mantra.)

Why are you telling me all these things that I already know? I’m a bit confused by your response. Traits boost phantasm damage…we have two of them. 16% is a lot of damage increase..that is very straight forward…and it is directly related to empowering mantras. There is no equivalent trait related to any other utility type. Not sure what you were getting at with this reply. I hope this is not a result of thinking that I somehow disagreed with your post about phantasm master or bug fixes, because I like phantasms already and everyone wants bug fixes.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Honestly, if its anything that can control the battlefield with heavy cc or interrupts ill take it. I love running heavy control specs in almost every game I play, whether it be dominator in rift, dom mes in gw1, or CI mes in gw2. I am hoping for chronomancer though

I’d love that! I always felt like our class’s weaknesses showed as soon as we set foot into a large battle. All those phantasms/clones are easily destroyed and our single-target domination isn’t always as useful to the team as a large AoE.

An emphasis on AoE and group control would be a fantastic way to round out the profession.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Honestly, if its anything that can control the battlefield with heavy cc or interrupts ill take it. I love running heavy control specs in almost every game I play, whether it be dominator in rift, dom mes in gw1, or CI mes in gw2. I am hoping for chronomancer though

I would really love it… there’s already a lot of ideas about time and space manipulation in these forums, I hope ANet picked something from here

More crowd control without the need of kittening mantra of distraction (I hate everything about mantra of distraction)…

About time!

Hoping there’s some good physical effects, ragdolling, and so on associated with the new class mechanics.

Alternative thought on the mesmer skill we saw: Timed explosion? Maybe the clock is actually a timer that indicates when the shattering effect, or whatever it is, will happen? Or perhaps it has more to do with timing, in which the longer it’s not activated by the mesmer the more damage it will do?

Just some thoughts, since there’s no proof it’s actually a CC ability.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

It’s a bit quick to judge anything, but he did mention that, with the example of ranger, specialized profession will have new heal, utilities, elites and most important of all, class mechanics. So I’m more interested in what will replace shatters than just the shield.

too many "s"’s here.

It was A new heal
New utilites and traits
A new Elite skill
A new Weapon
Changes to class mechanic (extremely vague could just be added conditions or damage boost, these do qualify as changes)

For instance the Ranger in the video still clearly had a Wolf Pet, there’s no replacement or serious change to the class mechanic there as far as i can tell.

Kelthien.8593:

Curunen.8729:

Well anything that gives a playstyle which doesn’t rely on or use clones/phantasms at all would be a nice change.

I would support that! My Barbie Dream Fantasy would be that our specialization replaces our phantasm skills with similar ground-targeted AoE effects. For example, instead of iMage casting a confusion projectile, we’d place an AoE that pulses confusion similar to a necromancer’s wells. Our shatter skills would cause these to “explode” for an added effect inside the area.

That would be magnificent.
I really like the concept of the mesmer, and the unique things it does, but I also get sick of those transparent kittenbags pretty often.

Dondagora.9645:

Alternative thought on the mesmer skill we saw: Timed explosion? Maybe the clock is actually a timer that indicates when the shattering effect, or whatever it is, will happen? Or perhaps it has more to do with timing, in which the longer it’s not activated by the mesmer the more damage it will do?

Just some thoughts, since there’s no proof it’s actually a CC ability.

Timed explosion would be extremely lame considering engineers can do the same with a toolkit, without any cd (bomb kit autoattack)

Swish.2463:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

It’s a bit quick to judge anything, but he did mention that, with the example of ranger, specialized profession will have new heal, utilities, elites and most important of all, class mechanics. So I’m more interested in what will replace shatters than just the shield.

too many "s"’s here.

It was A new heal
New utilites and traits
A new Elite skill
A new Weapon
Changes to class mechanic (extremely vague could just be added conditions or damage boost, these do qualify as changes)

For instance the Ranger in the video still clearly had a Wolf Pet, there’s no replacement or serious change to the class mechanic there as far as i can tell.

Don’t you think its weird that they said “most importantly, new class mechanic” if they are just boosting stats. They probably realise such a small change would not be more important than new traits, utilities or a new weapon.

Dondagora.9645:

Alternative thought on the mesmer skill we saw: Timed explosion? Maybe the clock is actually a timer that indicates when the shattering effect, or whatever it is, will happen? Or perhaps it has more to do with timing, in which the longer it’s not activated by the mesmer the more damage it will do?

Just some thoughts, since there’s no proof it’s actually a CC ability.

Looked like a timed explosion. I still find it very likely that it’ll also have some sort of (randomized) support or disables attached to it. After all skills that “just do plain dmg” aren’t really mesmer-style are they? :) And even though it would be a new specialization it’ll have parallels to mesmer mechanics

Btw.. i like the idea of Glamourmancer with Shatter Skills affecting aoe-fields instead of illusions

Chronomancer is my first pick too!

We currently cannot use LB, SB, Hammer, Dagger, Shield and Warhorn. God, I hope it’s not Warhorn…

A warhorn that summons an army of butterflies that rain hell upon your enemies. Why not?

I’d love to see something really bizarre, like a mainhand torch. Realistically speaking, I think we can expect something like a mainhand pistol. Shield will probably emphasize lockdown, pistol could be power shatter.

Stormbolt.7293:

I’d love to see something really bizarre, like a mainhand torch.

Dual torches ftw! That would be confusing!

Wishlist:

• Chronomancer. Excels at manipulating time. Wields a shield in addition to current weapons. Phantasms does no damage, but apply effects which dilate time instead. Time Warp instead slows enemy movement and attacks. Veils becomes a wall which speeds friendly projectiles while slowing enemy projectiles to a crawl. And so on.
• Illusionist. Excels at misdirecting enemies. Clones have full HP and show more natural behavior. Phantasms no longer look different (apart from weapons and attack animations, ofc) and also behave more natural between attacks. New elite summons 16 temporary clones of Mesmer + surrounding allies which don’t actually do anything, just have lots of HP, block shots and confuse everyone.
• Counter Mage. Adept at using the enemies’ own attacks. Additional ways to reflect and redirect. Can direct damage to a different friendly willing ally from another one. Can reflect some melee attacks. Lots of counters and counterstrikes, but very few actual attacks, cannot deal damage when not pressured. Elite completely swaps targeting for a specific target, causing them to heal your side and debuff their own.
• Chaos Mage. Adept at random but powerful effects. Less control over damage, large variance with lower average but high spikes. Lots of randomized conditions and boons. Can cause enemies to no longer deal reliable damage, control or effects.

Carighan.6758:

Wishlist:

• Chronomancer. Excels at manipulating time. Wields a shield in addition to current weapons. Phantasms does no damage, but apply effects which dilate time instead. Time Warp instead slows enemy movement and attacks. Veils becomes a wall which speeds friendly projectiles while slowing enemy projectiles to a crawl. And so on.

This is particularly interesting. What if the Chronomancer had abilities that could actually affect cast animations and their lengths? That would synergize very nicely with the lockdown traits we already have.

Chronomancers with the ability to inflict unique condition “clumsiness” which would be the opposite of quickness: skills activate 50% slower! I’m 90% sure mesmer specialization is indeed chronomancer, due to these concept arts: http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-06/gwe-concept-chronomancer2.html That is clearly a shield on the back that looks similar to the one the mesmer was wielding in the HoT trailer.

Smirgel.9460:

Chronomancers with the ability to inflict unique condition “clumsiness” which would be the opposite of quickness: skills activate 50% slower! I’m 90% sure mesmer specialization is indeed chronomancer, due to these concept arts: http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-06/gwe-concept-chronomancer2.html That is clearly a shield on the back that looks similar to the one the mesmer was wielding in the HoT trailer.

That would be so awesome considering you could then reliably interrupt short cast time skills

idk what a Chronomancer would really entail, but if it’s all based on manipulating time, then I see more abilities like Time Warp and Power Block.

One way unique ability it could give us that I immediately thought of was increasing enemy cast times. This would have fantastic synergy with interrupt builds, making skills easier to interrupt. It would be like a new condition perhaps? Maybe add a 1s cast time to all enemy skills for 5 seconds? idk

MailMail.6534:

idk what a Chronomancer would really entail, but if it’s all based on manipulating time, then I see more abilities like Time Warp and Power Block.

One way unique ability it could give us that I immediately thought of was increasing enemy cast times. This would have fantastic synergy with interrupt builds, making skills easier to interrupt. It would be like a new condition perhaps? Maybe add a 1s cast time to all enemy skills for 5 seconds? idk

You mean a condition like chill?

Swish.2463:

MailMail.6534:

idk what a Chronomancer would really entail, but if it’s all based on manipulating time, then I see more abilities like Time Warp and Power Block.

One way unique ability it could give us that I immediately thought of was increasing enemy cast times. This would have fantastic synergy with interrupt builds, making skills easier to interrupt. It would be like a new condition perhaps? Maybe add a 1s cast time to all enemy skills for 5 seconds? idk

You mean a condition like chill?

I didn’t know chill effected cast times. I thought it was just recharge rates and movement. #noobstatus

MailMail.6534:

Swish.2463:

MailMail.6534:

idk what a Chronomancer would really entail, but if it’s all based on manipulating time, then I see more abilities like Time Warp and Power Block.

One way unique ability it could give us that I immediately thought of was increasing enemy cast times. This would have fantastic synergy with interrupt builds, making skills easier to interrupt. It would be like a new condition perhaps? Maybe add a 1s cast time to all enemy skills for 5 seconds? idk

You mean a condition like chill?

I didn’t know chill effected cast times. I thought it was just recharge rates and movement. #noobstatus

It doesn’t #notnoobstatus

Based on the shield and the clock, I’m guessing like most of you that the Mesmer Specialization grants access to the shield, and probably will be called Chronomancer. For a less obvious guess, I’m going to go with the idea that Chronomancer summons “clocks” as ground effects instead of clones, and the shatter skills shatter the clocks instead, dealing more with quickness and manipulation than condition damage.

I’d love to see something really bizarre, like a mainhand torch. Realistically speaking, I think we can expect something like a mainhand pistol. Shield will probably emphasize lockdown, pistol could be power shatter.

Torch is one of my favorite weapons in this game purely off the idea that it’s so logical, but so nonstandard. Torches used to be a staple in an adventurer’s toolkit before the whole pop culture fantasy trend took over the genre. My only complaint is that is seems so underused right now. The Mesmer torch skills don’t really make me feel like I’m using a torch.

I’d love to see a Specialization in the future that allows main hand torch. It could be called Performer or something (the name sounds potentially underwhelming, but I just want to get across the existing Mesmer theme it could capitalize on). The skills could allow you to breathe fire and, I don’t know, juggle torches. ;P

I’d also really love to see a Magician one, as in real life magician, just because it’d be hard to imagine them justifying a “cards” weapon unless it’s somehow class specific, but I think it would be awesomely perfect for Mesmer.

It is definitely Chronomancer. The clock themed ability they used in the teaser was a dead give away. I’m a bit disappointed that they chose to go that route with Mesmer instead of simply making Chrono into its own class (was hoping for the metal plating theme that the original GW1 Chronomancer concept had).

That said, I want Chronomancer in the game somehow – this works if nothing else.

Perhaps the specialization will take away our shatter skills and the illusions trait line in place of the specialization skills and traits?? Is this how we think it’ll work perhaps?

It’ll be interesting what happens.

Yeah that’s how I think the specialisations will work. Replace the last traitline (and the profession-specific stat accordingly) with a new traitline that uses minor traits which synergise with the new profession mechanic and major traits that affect the new weapon and skill type.

If this is the case, pure mesmer will be shatter spec which I think fits nicely. It always felt awkward to me that phantasm specs ignored the profession mechanic 90% of the time.

The new Specialization will be the “Chronomancer”
It’s the obvious choice. And so many fun possibilities with
skills that alter time. Should be fun.

After reading the new interview and thinking about it, I agree with the theory that we’ll be getting a new trait line that replaces the last one. Clones and phantasms won’t be going anywhere since it would be impossible to phase them out, since literally every item a Mesmer can use spawns them. We’ll probably sacrifice shattering for some other mechanic instead that may or may not use illusions. My guess is that the new mechanic will replace shattering. Shatter and hybrid Mesmers will want to stick with the default build, the specialization will work well with lockdown and support Mesmers. Condition Mesmers could go either way. Not sure which utilities will be replaced.

LoreChief.8391:

It is definitely Chronomancer. The clock themed ability they used in the teaser was a dead give away. I’m a bit disappointed that they chose to go that route with Mesmer instead of simply making Chrono into its own class (was hoping for the metal plating theme that the original GW1 Chronomancer concept had).

That said, I want Chronomancer in the game somehow – this works if nothing else.

Chronomancer will bring me back to GW2 after a two year hiatus. Me and my level 80 Mesmer cannot wait to see what they do with specializations.

(Anyone listen to The Sword? Chronomancer I and II are amazing songs…)

Stormbolt.7293:

After reading the new interview and thinking about it, I agree with the theory that we’ll be getting a new trait line that replaces the last one. Clones and phantasms won’t be going anywhere since it would be impossible to phase them out, since literally every item a Mesmer can use spawns them. We’ll probably sacrifice shattering for some other mechanic instead that may or may not use illusions. My guess is that the new mechanic will replace shattering. Shatter and hybrid Mesmers will want to stick with the default build, the specialization will work well with lockdown and support Mesmers. Condition Mesmers could go either way. Not sure which utilities will be replaced.

Maybe instead of shattering, Chronomancers could focus on switching places with clones (like Leap). Like, the clone is saving the Chronomancers place in time to return to later. Fits with the “masters of time and space” thing.

I just imagine having a ranged spec and swapping places with a distant clone when an enemy gets too near to do ranged damage again. That’s what I want!

I would like to see chaos damage reintroduced and see balance go out the window
(for those who don’t remember, in gw1 most mesmer skills ignored armor completely)
maybe in form of an elite, for the next 5 second you ignore armor