Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if there was a better way to do this than the mighty teapot build. I accept the sillyness that is exotic pieces and the inital cost of the build but I currently run an zerk build that doesn’t require bountiful sharpening stones to reach 100%. Is there a similar alternative? I know that you can go the clerics way but not using a sigil of concentration would be cool. The real problem is the food is far to expensive.

There is a better way. The [qT] Minstrel’s chronomancer build is here. The big difference here is that this is actually tankier than MightyTeapot’s build thanks to lots of Nomad’s gear and damage reduction food and that [qT]’s build relies on Concentration sigil for 33% of the boon duration.

Try this? It doesn’t relly on on the expansive bountiful sharpening stones nor the concentration sigil. Just base 20% boon duration food. Like Chocolate Omnomberry Creams. which are just like ~6,5s.

It’s worth noting that minstrel gear is ridiculously expensive. If you’re worried about the cost of things, you should get a concentration sigil and leadership runes instead. That way you only need to get 14% duration from your gear, allowing you to use mostly a much cheaper set of gear.

Rising Dusk.2408:

There is a better way. The [qT] Minstrel’s chronomancer build is here. The big difference here is that this is actually tankier than MightyTeapot’s build thanks to lots of Nomad’s gear and damage reduction food and that [qT]’s build relies on Concentration sigil for 33% of the boon duration.

I much prefer Teapot’s version in general, at least for its apparent purpose to carry groups, because it has much more healing. The extra toughness/damage reduction may be helpful for some mechanics/encounters, but if I had to choose one variant to invest in, it would definitely be something more like Teapot’s.

Also, for those interested in a “budget” minstrel build here are my recommendations and ideal ways to obtain the gear:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+cncfCFoh9fCmfCEgilejyMAugM6cEKhWreUb1XF-TByGQBEU5HAOJAbSJY52fIZTQUhKNk7BA6FYn6CkC4rhWA-e

-Exotic Minstrel’s helm, shoulders, gloves: Bloodstone Fen (1x) and Bitterfrost Frontier (2x) PvP/WvW reward tracks. As new LS3 maps get added, more armor gear slots may become available.
-Exotic Cleric’s chest, legs, boots: Buy off TP if cheap, buy for WvW badges, or stat-select them from VB T4 or other reward track armor boxes.
-Ascended Minstrel trinkets: Do LS3 maps. Bitterfrost frontier winterberries seem to be the fastest.
-Ascended Minstrel’s sword/shield: You can choose/rechoose a sword/shield with Minstrel stats by completing/repeating the Caladbolg Current Events.

adelaide.6213:

I much prefer Teapot’s version in general, at least for its apparent purpose to carry groups, because it has much more healing. The extra toughness/damage reduction may be helpful for some mechanics/encounters, but if I had to choose one variant to invest in, it would definitely be something more like Teapot’s

This may not be apparent, but by virtue of running a Minstrel’s Chronomancer you’re actually hurting your groups overall sustain (and DPS) by preventing the Druids from building CA as fast. If your goal is to carry, an extremely good magi’s Druid coupled with well-played normal Chronomancers is generally superior outside of extremely high-pressure encounters like Xera or Matthias or encounters where you’re forced to split regularly like Deimos.

[qT]‘s gear has substantial healing as-is, and you can easily substitute food/runes/sigils/traits to reach higher levels without swapping the stats on your gear. Let’s also not forget that by taking domination over chaos you get access to signet distortion shares, which can be far superior in damage mitigation to any level of healing.

Rising Dusk.2408:

adelaide.6213:

I much prefer Teapot’s version in general, at least for its apparent purpose to carry groups, because it has much more healing. The extra toughness/damage reduction may be helpful for some mechanics/encounters, but if I had to choose one variant to invest in, it would definitely be something more like Teapot’s

This may not be apparent, but by virtue of running a Minstrel’s Chronomancer you’re actually hurting your groups overall sustain (and DPS) by preventing the Druids from building CA as fast. If your goal is to carry, an extremely good magi’s Druid coupled with well-played normal Chronomancers is generally superior outside of extremely high-pressure encounters like Xera or Matthias or encounters where you’re forced to split regularly like Deimos.

[qT]‘s gear has substantial healing as-is, and you can easily substitute food/runes/sigils/traits to reach higher levels without swapping the stats on your gear. Let’s also not forget that by taking domination over chaos you get access to signet distortion shares, which can be far superior in damage mitigation to any level of healing.

Wait, does teapot’s version actually take chaos over domination? That’s so bad. If the point is to carry as a chrono, domination lets a good chrono guarantee survival through various mechanics by sharing distortion. Chaos offers literally nothing.

If you’re carrying by distorting mechanics, and consistently running with a good healer, what’s the point in running Minstrel’s gear then?

Wouldn’t a full knight setup with leadership runes be more ideal in such a scenario?

adelaide.6213:

If you’re carrying by distorting mechanics, and consistently running with a good healer, what’s the point in running Minstrel’s gear then?

Wouldn’t a full knight setup with leadership runes be more ideal in such a scenario?

The point of minstrel gear is to carry without a good healer. Invuln to avoid mechanics doesn’t mean your party can go without healing. Minstrel chrono in theory can also lower the healing load by being completely self sustaining and also healing nearby teammates.

Fay.2357:

adelaide.6213:

If you’re carrying by distorting mechanics, and consistently running with a good healer, what’s the point in running Minstrel’s gear then?

Wouldn’t a full knight setup with leadership runes be more ideal in such a scenario?

The point of minstrel gear is to carry without a good healer. Invuln to avoid mechanics doesn’t mean your party can go without healing. Minstrel chrono in theory can also lower the healing load by being completely self sustaining and also healing nearby teammates.

If this is the goal, then Chaos offers an effective choice in context of Teapot’s build with MoR. With his build, you are supposed to immediately consume your MoR charges so it comes off cd sooner to maximize group healing effectiveness. Because you are trading self-sustain for group-sustain, Chaos helps make up for it in extra damage mitigation.

(Teapot doesn’t do a good job of emphasizing this aspect in his build video, but he executes this playstyle the few times I’ve seen him stream Minstrel chrono.)

Chaos offers enhanced damage reduction, high/perma protection uptime, and extra boon duration to invest more in healing options.

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

adelaide.6213:

If you’re carrying by distorting mechanics, and consistently running with a good healer, what’s the point in running Minstrel’s gear then?

Wouldn’t a full knight setup with leadership runes be more ideal in such a scenario?

The point of minstrel gear is to carry without a good healer. Invuln to avoid mechanics doesn’t mean your party can go without healing. Minstrel chrono in theory can also lower the healing load by being completely self sustaining and also healing nearby teammates.

If this is the goal, then Chaos offers an effective choice in context of Teapot’s build with MoR. With his build, you are supposed to immediately consume your MoR charges so it comes off cd sooner to maximize group healing effectiveness. Because you are trading self-sustain for group-sustain, Chaos helps make up for it in extra damage mitigation.

Sure, chaos offers extra personal damage mitigation…but you’re wearing full minstrel’s gear. Remember, we’re assuming that somebody is running this build because they are a competent chrono that wants to try and carry. If you manage to die while wearing full minstrel’s gear, you are not competent and clearly do not possess the potential to carry a team. It’s a nonissue. Therefor anyone running a full minstrel’s build should be good enough to not die while taking domination instead of chaos (this is not a difficult thing to do, mind you).

Additionally, what part of taking MoR makes you think you’re losing self-sustain instead of group sustain? If continually spammed with the mantra trait, MoR has an absolutely insane healing rate. Personal healing, not just aoe.

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

adelaide.6213:

If you’re carrying by distorting mechanics, and consistently running with a good healer, what’s the point in running Minstrel’s gear then?

Wouldn’t a full knight setup with leadership runes be more ideal in such a scenario?

The point of minstrel gear is to carry without a good healer. Invuln to avoid mechanics doesn’t mean your party can go without healing. Minstrel chrono in theory can also lower the healing load by being completely self sustaining and also healing nearby teammates.

If this is the goal, then Chaos offers an effective choice in context of Teapot’s build with MoR. With his build, you are supposed to immediately consume your MoR charges so it comes off cd sooner to maximize group healing effectiveness. Because you are trading self-sustain for group-sustain, Chaos helps make up for it in extra damage mitigation.

(Teapot doesn’t do a good job of emphasizing this aspect in his build video, but he executes this playstyle the few times I’ve seen him stream Minstrel chrono.)

Chaos offers enhanced damage reduction, high/perma protection uptime, and extra boon duration to invest more in healing options.

It also loses distortion share. Group healing is nice and all, but if your group wipes because you didn’t distort through a mechanic then its useless.

Fay.2357:

Additionally, what part of taking MoR makes you think you’re losing self-sustain instead of group sustain? If continually spammed with the mantra trait, MoR has an absolutely insane healing rate. Personal healing, not just aoe.

You are supposed to consume MoR charges, even if you are full hp, so the aoe heal becomes available sooner. Chaos provides an extra survibility in case you really should have waited to consume MoR charges.

Which variant of Minstrel chrono you perceive to be better depends on your experience of what people typically have difficulty with – big, predictable mechanics (choose Domination,) or messing up a series of smaller ones (choose Chaos.) I also would prefer a player new to mesmer tanking to run with Chaos (in this sense the build carries the player.)

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

Additionally, what part of taking MoR makes you think you’re losing self-sustain instead of group sustain? If continually spammed with the mantra trait, MoR has an absolutely insane healing rate. Personal healing, not just aoe.

You are supposed to consume MoR charges, even if you are full hp, so the aoe heal becomes available sooner. Chaos provides an extra survibility in case you really should have waited to consume MoR charges.

Which variant of Minstrel chrono you perceive to be better depends on your experience of what people typically have difficulty with – big, predictable mechanics (choose Domination,) or messing up a series of smaller ones (choose Chaos.) I also would prefer a player new to mesmer tanking to run with Chaos (in this sense the build carries the player.)

Yeah, that’s really not how it works. The cooldown on the mantra heal is low enough that you’ll never be in a situation where you “needed those charges”. It’s incredibly strong continual healing output, and if you need chaos for personal survival while running full minstrels and the mantra heal, you’re nowhere near good enough to even think about trying to raid without an exceptional druid healer, let alone trying to carry on your own.

Edit: Also, if you’re taking neither illusions nor domination, maintaining 100% quickness uptime becomes substantially harder without perfect rotations. That’s hardly the build you want to give to a new tank…

Fay.2357:

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

Additionally, what part of taking MoR makes you think you’re losing self-sustain instead of group sustain? If continually spammed with the mantra trait, MoR has an absolutely insane healing rate. Personal healing, not just aoe.

You are supposed to consume MoR charges, even if you are full hp, so the aoe heal becomes available sooner. Chaos provides an extra survibility in case you really should have waited to consume MoR charges.

Which variant of Minstrel chrono you perceive to be better depends on your experience of what people typically have difficulty with – big, predictable mechanics (choose Domination,) or messing up a series of smaller ones (choose Chaos.) I also would prefer a player new to mesmer tanking to run with Chaos (in this sense the build carries the player.)

Yeah, that’s really not how it works. The cooldown on the mantra heal is low enough that you’ll never be in a situation where you “needed those charges”. It’s incredibly strong continual healing output, and if you need chaos for personal survival while running full minstrels and the mantra heal, you’re nowhere near good enough to even think about trying to raid without an exceptional druid healer, let alone trying to carry on your own.

Edit: Also, if you’re taking neither illusions nor domination, maintaining 100% quickness uptime becomes substantially harder without perfect rotations. That’s hardly the build you want to give to a new tank…

Would you expect a competent mesmer to be able to carry with a build like this?

(Cleric’s with leadership and some doubloons)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAsen0nB9fiFoBmfCMrhFVj6MJWiprOZn2qlMAGhiD-TVCVABipEk4HAwqnAAoU/ByJOAoEr19HkQ5xM6BIFQmTtA-w

If so, then there’s no need for minstrel’s, because the above build has more healing and damage.

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

adelaide.6213:

Fay.2357:

Additionally, what part of taking MoR makes you think you’re losing self-sustain instead of group sustain? If continually spammed with the mantra trait, MoR has an absolutely insane healing rate. Personal healing, not just aoe.

You are supposed to consume MoR charges, even if you are full hp, so the aoe heal becomes available sooner. Chaos provides an extra survibility in case you really should have waited to consume MoR charges.

Which variant of Minstrel chrono you perceive to be better depends on your experience of what people typically have difficulty with – big, predictable mechanics (choose Domination,) or messing up a series of smaller ones (choose Chaos.) I also would prefer a player new to mesmer tanking to run with Chaos (in this sense the build carries the player.)

Yeah, that’s really not how it works. The cooldown on the mantra heal is low enough that you’ll never be in a situation where you “needed those charges”. It’s incredibly strong continual healing output, and if you need chaos for personal survival while running full minstrels and the mantra heal, you’re nowhere near good enough to even think about trying to raid without an exceptional druid healer, let alone trying to carry on your own.

Edit: Also, if you’re taking neither illusions nor domination, maintaining 100% quickness uptime becomes substantially harder without perfect rotations. That’s hardly the build you want to give to a new tank…

Would you expect a competent mesmer to be able to carry with a build like this?

(Cleric’s with leadership and some doubloons)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAsen0nB9fiFoBmfCMrhFVj6MJWiprOZn2qlMAGhiD-TVCVABipEk4HAwqnAAoU/ByJOAoEr19HkQ5xM6BIFQmTtA-w

If so, then there’s no need for minstrel’s, because the above build has more healing and damage.

Yeah, you could carry as hard as a mesmer can in that build. You’ll be sitting around 1k hp/s, so the only way for you to die is if you tank big attacks that you shouldn’t be tanking. You also have the ability to do consistent distortion share, so you’ll be able to protect at least 5 people from mechanic failures like vg greens, gorseval smashes/prisons, slothy spore shake/fear, etc.

Barring the great debate over minstrels vs zerk…since you asked for a minstrel build and not an argument, this one is mine.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+dn0nBlfiFoB+fCMrhFVjqOZn2q9MJWipjMAGhiD-TByGQB97BAAMlgA4kAEO9CJbCC9U/pc7PQQlfkCwvxAA-e

I can’t stand eating my gold away with bountiful sharpening stones and I am too lazy to make a full minstrel’s weapon set so I share the Commander’s between the Minstrel armor and the zerk/commander’s set I carry around. It’s a toss up for the water sigil on my off hand weapons, been pondering a Transference sigil but the water was a cheap filler sigil til I figure out what to stick there.

Is it the best? Probably not, but it works for me and my tanking needs. It doesn’t use expensive foods or utility buffs, in fact those are whatever you want to use as the Rice Balls are there just to add to the healing output…anything else you want will work. Note, I do carry a zerk/commander’s meta set, I did not replace it with the minstrels and no chrono main should.

On a sidenote using the no concetration method can take away much of the chronomancers utility especially with the chaos build. Use the domination traitline and try to get used to using passive SoI + utility SoI to distort heavy dmg mechanics….soon enough u will be carrying like a bauss. The teapot build is consistent in boon uptime but unfortunately very passive and very easy to lose the rotation if u have to shutter/weapon swap/disengage from the fight to rez etc. Moa also becomes a liability since the cd without domination is 180 sec!

Can someone depict Teapot’s build in gw2skills.net editor and provide a link?
Thanks

Here is a link to MightyTeapots build video and build editor:

- MightyTeapots build video

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dn0nBFohlfC+fCMrhlej6cE6gWreUb1X1MAOtMC-TByGQB8TZGBVaksZOA4kAQunAofod7PsJlg0T9HSB43UL-e – build editor

I made some slight alterations to his recommended gear myself because honestly I didn’t feel like spending hundreds of gold on exotic trinkets. I had an exotic account bound mawdrey backpiece leftover. After exchanging the exotic trinkets for ascended the net loss per item in boon duration is -3% (higher ascended stats make up for 1% boon duration per piece).

Exchanging 3 exotic pieces for ascended ment I thus had to compensate for 9% boon duration loss on other gear. I covered 4% by switching out one of my weapon sigils with a platinum doublon.

This leaves me at 94% boon duration with rice balls and Bountiful sharpening stones with maximum 21% bonus from Chaotic Persistance.

If I switch to chocolate Omnomberry creams as food the provided healing drops futher but boon duration jumps to 114% with Chaotic Persistance leaving more room for error with boons and best of all, the ability to leave out sharpening stones.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dn0nBFohlfC+fCMrhlejyMAOtM6cE6gWreUb1XF-TxxGQBA4kAsJlg0T9HCq8rd7PksnACC50PQKA/maB-e

The build works for me even if not ideal and I like the fact that I can trade the gear over to my main mesmer if I ever wanted to run her as tank.

Side note, the resilient wvw infusion was just me going overboard and is absolutely not needed. The build the way I run it is not to hard on the group healing to pose a problem for druids but to weak to run as group heal on its own.

Rising Dusk.2408:

adelaide.6213:

I much prefer Teapot’s version in general, at least for its apparent purpose to carry groups, because it has much more healing. The extra toughness/damage reduction may be helpful for some mechanics/encounters, but if I had to choose one variant to invest in, it would definitely be something more like Teapot’s

This may not be apparent, but by virtue of running a Minstrel’s Chronomancer you’re actually hurting your groups overall sustain (and DPS) by preventing the Druids from building CA as fast. If your goal is to carry, an extremely good magi’s Druid coupled with well-played normal Chronomancers is generally superior outside of extremely high-pressure encounters like Xera or Matthias or encounters where you’re forced to split regularly like Deimos.

[qT]‘s gear has substantial healing as-is, and you can easily substitute food/runes/sigils/traits to reach higher levels without swapping the stats on your gear. Let’s also not forget that by taking domination over chaos you get access to signet distortion shares, which can be far superior in damage mitigation to any level of healing.

I’ve had similar issues when using a full minstrel heal ele along side a druid for say matthias.

I’ve also seen druids insist on bringing full magi’s in a group that doesn’t need anything close to that much healing. Druid can end up gimping their own CA regen due to overheal, thus resulting in fewer ca rotations.

But explaining that too much healing (power) actually ends up lowering healing output when it is needed ( and gotl stack average) is like getting trying to get blood from a stone at times.

on topic: like any build related to healing, min-maxing is required, and is very much relative to your group.