Guild Wars 2

The build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfC1qhVoBmpBMrhlTj68IiirjMAShgqOav2vF-TJBGABzv/QaPBgCuAAAcQAAA

So basically, when trying to come up with something that Chronomancers could play in the coming season I first asked the question, ‘What have Chronos lost post balance patch that prevents them from being effective?’ The answer’s pretty obvious: alacrity doesn’t work anymore, which pretty much wipes out wells and anything built around it. Also, the protection from chaos armor has lost some of its duration, so the Chaos line in general has become slightly less useful. Then, I considered what we still have. Inspiration had one slightly annoying nerf and a load of useless buffs, but all in all the line still functions well. We still have Moa and Portal.

I tried to come up with a build that encompasses the last few saving graces of the Mesmer profession, with a couple of twists.

Since there’s no point in taking alacrity with wells, I opted for slows on interrupts. There’s no internal cd and both your skill 5s are aoe interrupts, so you can spread a significant amount around.
Illusionary Reversion is now basically the least kitten trait out of the three, but they’re all kitten.

Inspiration is pretty standard, apart from Mental Defense instead of Illusionary Inspiration. The build in general has much less boons than the previous meta one so there’s really no point in bringing it.

The interesting part is in domination. I chose Domi for its utility, rather than its offensive characteristics. With aoe interrupts power block is really effective, and confounding suggestions gives you an on-demand stun which is really useful for a bunker. I chose Blurred Inscriptions instead of removing boons on shatter because you dont need the extra offence and it reduces the cd of moa by 40s. This made me think of Signet of Midnight, turning it into an on-demand invuln and condi remove, a stunbreaker, and because of Inspiring Distortion, you can use it to give invuln to allies around you. It makes it a perfect supportive utility skill.

Which Amulet do you use?

I am not really convinced by the benefits of the signets here. Moa has a long CD, so you get very little benefits from the distorsion and condi removal. So you have essentially one condition and 1s invuln every 24s. Not really amazing. Not to mention that distorsion means you loose cap, which is somewhat annoying.

I think bunker chrono still works with Paladin (or maybe as some suggested with more healing), I just don’t quite see how your signets help much with that.

Jourdelune.7456:

Which Amulet do you use?

Paladin’s.

I go for Paladin’s because without stealth, you’re pretty much cannon fodder for thieves. Paladin’s gives you a little extra stopping power. Otherwise, I’d probably have opted for Marauder’s.

I’ve changed the build somewhat btw: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8encfC1qhVoBmpBMrhlTj68IiisjMAShlreav2vF-T5AIABrv/QYPBAAuIAAA

Silverkey.2078:

I am not really convinced by the benefits of the signets here. Moa has a long CD, so you get very little benefits from the distorsion and condi removal. So you have essentially one condition and 1s invuln every 24s. Not really amazing. Not to mention that distorsion means you loose cap, which is somewhat annoying.

I think bunker chrono still works with Paladin (or maybe as some suggested with more healing), I just don’t quite see how your signets help much with that.

I’ve actually changed the build up a bit now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8encfC1qhVoBmpBMrhlTj68IiisjMAShlreav2vF-T5AIABrv/QYPBAAuIAAA

This way your phantasm skills also proc the same invuln and condi removal (+boon sharing, although the build itself doesnt necessarily produces boons, but teamfights do)

I find this way you get to capitalise on the signets trait a little more.

The CDR on Moa is REALLY noticeable in games, I’ve found. And also signet of midnight has no cast time and is a stunbreaker, meaning it can be used on-demand in any situation. Since’s its on demand, as in as soon as you press the button [in any situation], you’re granted the invuln + blind (negating two instances of damage, not one; aoe). This means that the 1s is enough because you would only use it as a reactionary tool, and because the distort is low you can just about to justify it on point. You also get to save team-mates which makes people like you

to be honest out of all the builds ive been tampering with, this is one of the more successful ones.

Oh and, Chronobunker doesn’t work anymore. That build was completely based around alacrity which, as you know, might as well not exist in its current state. Plus, Mesmers still don’t scale well with healing power (plz don’t mention mantras)

But yeah my tweaks lend the new build towards a more bruiser-esque build. Hence, I mow call it Chronobruiser

i dont know if you saw Helseth last stream going condi standrd build illu/due/chro sw/p+staff
with NO condi cleanse OMFG and handling necros 1v1 and 1v2
now i saw his condi burst wasnt so hight but still he manage to pressure them fast and again with no condi cleanse
didnt catch his amulet .

i just wish condimes would be a thing …..

messiah.1908:

i dont know if you saw Helseth last stream going condi standrd build illu/due/chro sw/p+staff
with NO condi cleanse OMFG and handling necros 1v1 and 1v2
now i saw his condi burst wasnt so hight but still he manage to pressure them fast and again with no condi cleanse
didnt catch his amulet .

i just wish condimes would be a thing …..

He had a Mercenary Amulet when I saw him.

I remember seeing him playing his condi build and seeing a necro and saying “that should be an easy kill” and indeed killing him in no time. Helseth can just play against most classes with being barely hit. But it is unranked soloq, he would not do that so easily against a player near his level.

I gave it a try (I haven’t seen the build but I can guess) and it seemed pretty effective and really fun. I used merccs and double geomancy/intelligence with scrapper runes

it lets me weapon swap combo pretty well (ileap, swap, wep swap (geomancy),shatter for crit damage) and i get 50% vigour uptime

Silverkey.2078:

messiah.1908:

i dont know if you saw Helseth last stream going condi standrd build illu/due/chro sw/p+staff
with NO condi cleanse OMFG and handling necros 1v1 and 1v2
now i saw his condi burst wasnt so hight but still he manage to pressure them fast and again with no condi cleanse
didnt catch his amulet .

i just wish condimes would be a thing …..

He had a Mercenary Amulet when I saw him.

I remember seeing him playing his condi build and seeing a necro and saying “that should be an easy kill” and indeed killing him in no time. Helseth can just play against most classes with being barely hit. But it is unranked soloq, he would not do that so easily against a player near his level.

Someone posted something about this in the PvP forums as well:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Lord-Helseth-s-condi-build/first#post5987606

Helseth was switching between mercenary, rabid and even viper. The build isn’t anything new, we’ve all played it before pre-HoT (just not with the new amulets) and he even stated as such on stream. It reminds me of the build countless used to run, just without signets.

Much of the build premise centers around chronophantasma and double duelists which creates some intense single target pressure, hence why it can easily 1v1 just about anything assuming good skill.

I think the difference (why people were all of the sudden very curious about it) is that he’s very good and makes even sub-optimal builds look decent. To Silverkey’s point though, this would would be farming fodder for the enemy team in a competitive environment.