Guild Wars 2

Yeah! Yeah! Mesmers need to shatter!
Yeah! Yeah! What’s the point of phantasms if you ignore the core stuff thing!?
Yeah! Yeah! It’s weak, blah, blah, blah, and won’t have a chance on the meta, blah, blah, blah.

The third one can be logically debatable and possible that there are good points on why it might not make it on the meta, but I’m a phantasm user and a proud one! With the new chronomancer traits released, along with some revamed and totally awesome traits we got, we have more options for our phantasms more than ever! While we may be overlooked at this current moment by our shatter and lockdown superiors, we still earn ourselves as a honorable mention in the PvP and maybe WvW environments. Even more so that phantasm builds are sought out in the PvE environment, more than the other meta builds. Which is why Anet (Thank you so much, Anet!) created the Chronophantasma trait that allows us to shatter our phantasm without the risk to destroying our own primary method of damage.

This is a preliminary idea for a chronophantasma build that I juggled around. Sadly, I can’t do the exact damage calculations nor deeply research the possible impact in a PvP/WvW/PvE environment partially because I hastily created it. But looking at it and I’m more than excited than ever.

NOTE: Because my body length exceeded 5001 characters, I’m splitting it to separate posts.

Starting with the Chronomancer specialization:

• Chronomancer I – Time Catches Up
• Chronomancer IV – Illusionary Reversion
• Chronomancer VIII – Chronophantasma

Let’s start with the Chronophantasma. This gives us the ability to shatter! Yes! At our current state, we cannot shatter or else we lose out on the phantasm DPS. And not shattering on a phantasm build is equally detrimental because we can’t utilize the fun shatter skills. Chronophantasma is the crux of my build as I see it because we can be more versatile with how we do it. Now there’s ongoing debate of how bursty would it be: shatter instant, then phantasm comes back and immediately attacks again. Which means we have a possible extra burst both from our phantasm attacks and our shatter attacks, given that our hapless opponent fails to dodge.

The Master Traits for the Chronomancer is up for grabs and up for you to decide. Illusionary Reversion (Chronomancer IV), Improved Alacrity (Chronomancer V), and Danger Time (Chronomancer VI) are all viable choices we can choose. I chose the Illusionary Reversion because I don’t think I’ll be getting Deceptive Evasion from the Dueling line. More testing and pondering on that later. Sadly I can’t talk about this because for me, it doesn’t feel worth noting about them. But we gotta have to take oen of them so it’s up to you!

Time Catches up… this one is self explanatory. Our illusions will charge at them at greater speeds, which means less reaction time, and whatnot. Like above, not much to say. However, Time Catches Up easily is the better choice than the other two unchosen ones.

Next is my Illusions specialization:

• Illusions II – Persistence of Memory
• Illusions V – Phantasmal Haste
• Illusions VIII – Master of Fragmentation

For Illusions VIII, I don’t know the full details of Master of Fragmentation. But the summary effect that our shatter skills are improved mean something good.

Now looking at the the entire line, this is entirely meant for shatter builds. Normally, none or very few would ever invest heavily on a shatter-heavy line. But we have to pay attention to the two traits: Illusions II and Illusions V. When we shatter them, our phantasm cooldown decreases a bit. For each phantasm, our cooldowns are reduced by 2%. Not a long perse, but I’d like to look at a more optimistic angle. With Illusionary Persona as baseline plus our potential 2-3 phantasms on the field, we may be looking at a 6% cooldown. Coupled with the Illusionist’s Celerity cooldown, our phantasm charges can be quicker and we can shatter more often because of it.

Illusions V means phantasms attack more often. It speaks for itself and it’s good! Some phantasm builds (like YouTuber AddiktGaming’s) take it.

And finally the Inspiration specialization:

• Inspiration II – Menders Purity
• Inspiration VI – Compounding Celerity
• Inspiration VIII – Illusionary Inspiration

This is hard to do because I have yet to figure out how the Inspiration line will fit in to this phantasm build. The other one I considered was the entire Dueling line. At the state the specialization traits showw in the Inspiration line, it may not be a good choice right now. This choice assumes that the Inspiration traits are fixed and don’t have unnecessary bad internal cooldowns (I think that’s what ICD means when people say it here).

Majority of our investment in this line comes from the minor traits themselves: Persisting Images, Protected Phantasms, and Phantasmal Healing. The first gives our phantasms, as flimsy as they are, extra health to survive one or two more attacks. The second gives our phantasms invulnerability which adds more to their survivability. However, there’s an internal cooldown of 10 seconds as far as I heard. This negatively dampens this trait’s potential by a lot! The third is the Phantasmal Healing. Can this make a nice niche to our build in PvP/WvW matches? Honestly, I can’t wrap my head around it because I don’t know the math. But the extra healing is nice for us.

Inspiration II and Inspiration VI should get little mention because both of them are self explanatory. The former gives us extra condition removal. The latter gives us speed when we shatter, which is also a nice addition with our Chronophantasma traits and other shatter traits. The one thing I’ll focus here is the Illusionary Inspiration. I can actually see a good use in this. This is thought out in haste so understand me in some points:

My current build combines shatter and phantasm together. If I use a shatter skill with the Rune of Strength proc, I can gain extra amounts of might from the shatter alone. Now if I summon a phantasm, I automatically trigger the Signet of Inspiration, which means I spread my extra might around nearby allies. I see very good potential, but the 45 second cooldown might be distasteful.

Assuming that the Inspiration specialization fails to live up to its potential, we have another alternative. The Dueling specialization:

• Dueling I – Phantasmal Fury
• Dueling IV – Blinding Dissipation
• Dueling IX – Deceptive Evasion

Phantasmal Fury is self explanatory, I’m not going to talk about this one.

What I’ll talk about a bit is the other two that I chose, starting with the Blinding Dissipation. Now this gives us a method of passive crowd control as it blinds our foes. Now for me, this is very exciting! Whenever I face thieves, it’s horrifically frustrating that they blind me and I end up messing up my own phantasm summon. Now we have something against them!

The other one, Deceptive Evasion, is debatable today and will be debatable when HoT comes out. Opposers to DE state that we lose a phantasm when we evade, which can nerf the phantasm damage a bit because now there’s only two instead of three. Supporters say that it gives phantasm users more options and keeps 3 illusions out on the battlefield. My opinion is that I’ll grab Deceptive Evasion just for the option to keep 3 illusions on the battlefield. Now if I do grab Deceptive Evasion, I may have to drop the Illusionary Reversion on the Chronomancer line. My thinking is that having both means that at most, you can only keep one phantasm out on the field. It’s still on the works, but with HoT not out yet, it’s still on “paper”.

This is my potential HoT phantasm build and again, I’m super excited to play it when it comes out! Now this post has been made in haste so if you find something that I’m clearly wrong at (or you think I’m wrong at), don’t be afraid to speak out and say why! I’m excited to hear what you guys have to say. I also want to hear your potential phantasm builds post HoT if you use or want to use one!

Why would you take Compounding Celerity when you have 25% perma-speed from Chrono? I think I would much rather have Warden’s Feedback or most likely Restorative Illusions for a heal-on-shatter.

Windwalker.7421:

Why would you take Compounding Celerity when you have 25% perma-speed from Chrono? I think I would much rather have Warden’s Feedback or most likely Restorative Illusions for a heal-on-shatter.

I haven’t made much thought about that line but I actually like that option better than the Compounding Celerity. As for Warden’s Feedback, I’m not keen on taking that. I think that the Phantasmal Warden (PvP) is terrible since it needs to be stationary.

I mainly play phantasm mesmer, but I’m not hyped for Chronophantasma. Yes, I do shatter when convenient. I believe the trait is more interesting for a shatter mesmer than a phantasm mesmer.

You’re risking by using CP (Chronophantasma), because your phantasms will go in a melee range where AoE and cleaves kill your phantasms. Most of phantasms are at range when they finish their animation, except Defender, Desenchanter (depends) and Warden. Berserker and Swordman are in mid range and can, sometimes, be in a safe spot. Warlock and Duelist are at range.

Now, your phantasms or clones need to not die before shatter and if they do, your trait is useless. If they didn’t kill your phantasms yet, they are now in melee range and at mercy of AoE and cleaves. That’s why I believe the trait is superior to a shatter mesmer than a phantasm mesmer.

Depending of your weapon/phantasm choices (Warlock, Duelist), the trait is not good. I will try Chronophantasma trait for sure, but I’m not sold yet. Yes, it gives you an opportunity to do more damage, but at what cost ? I believe they won’t let your duelists/phantasms fire a second time after just shattering it. Just thinking at the spike : phantasm attack, shatter, phantasm attack. It’s making traits like Phantasmal Haste and Alacrity useless. If it stays the same (attacking after shatter), I will of course use it.

As for me, I will go Domination/Dueling/Inspiration for pure raw damage. If I want to do a more support oriented phantasm, I’ll go Domination/Chaos/Inspiration. Chaos and Inspiration works well together, they have traits synergy (Perma regen and protection, Chaotic Persistence + Illusionary Inspiration)

Krispera.5087:

You’re risking by using CP (Chronophantasma), because your phantasms will go in a melee range where AoE and cleaves kill your phantasms. Most of phantasms are at range when they finish their animation, except Defender, Desenchanter (depends) and Warden. Berserker and Swordman are in mid range and can, sometimes, be in a safe spot. Warlock and Duelist are at range.

Now, your phantasms or clones need to not die before shatter and if they do, your trait is useless. If they didn’t kill your phantasms yet, they are now in melee range and at mercy of AoE and cleaves. That’s why I believe the trait is superior to a shatter mesmer than a phantasm mesmer.

Depending of your weapon/phantasm choices (Warlock, Duelist), the trait is not good. I will try Chronophantasma trait for sure, but I’m not sold yet. Yes, it gives you an opportunity to do more damage, but at what cost ? I believe they won’t let your duelists/phantasms fire a second time after just shattering it. Just thinking at the spike : phantasm attack, shatter, phantasm attack. It’s making traits like Phantasmal Haste and Alacrity useless. If it stays the same (attacking after shatter), I will of course use it.

As for me, I will go Domination/Dueling/Inspiration for pure raw damage. If I want to do a more support oriented phantasm, I’ll go Domination/Chaos/Inspiration. Chaos and Inspiration works well together, they have traits synergy (Perma regen and protection, Chaotic Persistence + Illusionary Inspiration)

You’re right about that. They immediately respawn at the opponent’s melee range, which leaves them vulnerable. The goal of a phantasm mesmer is to keep the phantasms alive for them to deal damage while you can fend yourself and/or deal damage as well. While going Domination/Dueling/Inspiration is an equally good choice, I would have to argue that Chronophantasma helps for phantasm mesmers nicely. The potential problem in a traditional phantasm mesmer is two things:

• They can’t use their shatter skills. It feels restrictive sometimes.
• The total amount of DPS a phantasm mesmer deals is equal to a burst from any other class, but it’s spread out. And that can a problem.

Now those problems aren’t always a nuincanse, but there will be cases where phantasm users are outright at a disadvantage because of the two. The burst (especially in PvP since I’m going to refer to it a lot) from a phantasm mesmer is “spread” out sort to say. Any other “bursts” from other classes happen at an instantaneous moment. The phantasm burst is spread out because the attack speed varies from the mesmer itself to the various phantasms with their varius attack speeds and DPS. This results in a slow attrition fight, which I don’t think a mesmer should be in because how innately vulnerable it is.

Chronophantasma solves that. The first is that it frees phantasm users to shatter into any of the special shatter skills it wants to. The second is that even though the respawned phantasms are now vulnerable, the build I have solves much of the problems of trying to summon it again. In the case that they destroy my phantasms at melee after the attempted shatter, my cooldowns from my Alacrity, the Persistence of Memory (Illusions II), and the Illusionists Celerity (Illusions adept trait) helps reduce the cooldown by a significant amount. Soon you can respawn the phantasms again, proccing the benefits from the Inspiration lines.

Good job on the theory crafting here. I guess there’s some hope for phantasm builds, but at the end of every HoT day, every Mesmer will be needing to incorporate shatters and interrupts more so than they did before.

While an interesting and useful exercise, I think this build demonstrates the poor synergy and frequent lack of choices the new skills tree gives PVE phantasm users.

You took Chrono I (Time Catches Up) for perfectly adequate reasons – the other two options in the Adept line are even more underwhelming – but Super Speed for illusions seems rather pointless to me. Phantasms usually spawn already in attack range, and unless you’re fighting that super fast moa in Dry Top, run speed for them has never been a noticeable issue. So this tier seems to be largely a waste. The fact that it only works on shattering also locks you into Chronophantasma, which I have reservations about too.

You then pick Illusionary Reversion for the Master tier. This seems actively counterproductive as you risk overwriting a phantasm with a clone. But, as you say, the choices here are all rather poor for phantasm users. Then for the Grandmaster trait, Chronophantasma. As Krispera says, the fact that phantasms respawn in melee range means this might not be very effective for a phantasm user. But of course it’s a little early to say how this will work out. The two alternatives in the GM are either shatter based or aimed at PVP, so not especially useful.

I’m rather a fan of the Illusions line, so it’s nice to see you pick that next. However, again it shows the weakness of the traits tree for phantasm users. Your choice of Illusions II, Persistence of Memory, takes 6% off the recharge time of all phantasms in the best-case scenario. With Illusionist’s Celerity locked in already, your longest recharge time on a typical phantasm (iBerserker, Swordsman or Duellist) is 16 seconds. A 6% reduction of that is 0.96 seconds. Taking less than a second off your recharge times in the best case only once (because Chronophantasma only works on the first shatter) doesn’t really seem worth it. I would probably pick Illusions I, Compounding Power, instead.

Next you pick Phantasmal Haste, which is so obviously the correct decision I won’t bother to say anyting more about it. After that is Illusions VIII, Master of Fragmentation. Of the three GM traits here, two are shatter based and one is a buff to blinds, so all three are marginal for phantasm users at best. A disappointing end to a trait line that looked promising.

Finally, you pick the Inspiration line, whch as you note, might not fit in and might not be a good choice. The minor traits have some uses, and Inspiration VIII might be handy in group situations, but we’re really making the best of a poor situation here. Inspiration doesn’t have a lot to offer.

Duelling does seem to be a better line, with Duelling I, Phantasmal Fury being an obvious choice as you point out, though as a pistol user I’m going to miss Duelling III, Duellist’s Discipline, for the pistol buffs. The second minor trait, Sharper Images, is also an important part of phantasm damage. But again the Master and Grandmaster traits offer very little to phantasm users. Duelling IV, Blinding Dissipation, works off shatters again and seems more aimed at PVP in any case. Evasive Mirror is too new to say much about, and Blade Training, which would be my personal choice, is nice for the iSwordsman recharge but not especially worth taking for the +50 power, which is only a touch above 2% extra crit. As for the GM traits, Harmonious Mantras might end up the default choice for phantasm users. Mistrust doesn’t seem compelling for phantasms, and Deceptive Evasion, while undeniably useful, does overwrite phantasms and is much more useful for shatter builds.

The other trait lines show similar lack of synergy. Domination starts well, with Domination II, Empowered Illusions. However, the Master traits either buff shatters, signets or interruption, none of which are particularly exciting. The GM traits have Greatsword Training – perhaps suboptimal given the superior performance of iSwordsman/iDuellists, but far from useless – but the other two traits buff shatters and interrupts again. And Chaos doesn’t seem to have a lot to offer unless in a support role.

Given a remit of ‘make a phantasm build using the new trait line’, you’ve made the best of a bad situation. But when half your choices as a phantasm player are “I’m picking this because it’s the least useless” then there’s a problem. Of course, it is early yet and we can hope for more reorganisation of traits to create more viable phantasm builds. I am also far from the most knowledgeable mesmer player, so no doubt there are inaccuracies in the above. But right now it does seem that the new trait lines are poorly laid out for phantasm builds.

Krispera.5087:

I mainly play phantasm mesmer, but I’m not hyped for Chronophantasma. Yes, I do shatter when convenient. I believe the trait is more interesting for a shatter mesmer than a phantasm mesmer.

You’re risking by using CP (Chronophantasma), because your phantasms will go in a melee range where AoE and cleaves kill your phantasms. Most of phantasms are at range when they finish their animation, except Defender, Desenchanter (depends) and Warden. Berserker and Swordman are in mid range and can, sometimes, be in a safe spot. Warlock and Duelist are at range.

Now, your phantasms or clones need to not die before shatter and if they do, your trait is useless. If they didn’t kill your phantasms yet, they are now in melee range and at mercy of AoE and cleaves. That’s why I believe the trait is superior to a shatter mesmer than a phantasm mesmer.

Depending of your weapon/phantasm choices (Warlock, Duelist), the trait is not good. I will try Chronophantasma trait for sure, but I’m not sold yet. Yes, it gives you an opportunity to do more damage, but at what cost ? I believe they won’t let your duelists/phantasms fire a second time after just shattering it. Just thinking at the spike : phantasm attack, shatter, phantasm attack. It’s making traits like Phantasmal Haste and Alacrity useless. If it stays the same (attacking after shatter), I will of course use it.

As for me, I will go Domination/Dueling/Inspiration for pure raw damage. If I want to do a more support oriented phantasm, I’ll go Domination/Chaos/Inspiration. Chaos and Inspiration works well together, they have traits synergy (Perma regen and protection, Chaotic Persistence + Illusionary Inspiration)

I have been thinking about this. I mostly PvE, I love my phantasms and I love the idea/lore of Chronomancer so much that I want to make a phantasm Chronomancer work. I think the best use for Chronophantasia is with /sword, if they keep the instant refire on phantasms up then the fencers will instantly pull themselves back to midrange. Of course it would also work pretty well with warden or berserker. I think you are right that chronophantasia users are going to want to steer clear of pistol.

I am also looking at longer fights, like many of the fractal bosses, and how possible it might be to stagger chronophantasia and full phantasm deaths with phantasm skill recharges. Its not uncommon some places to find myself with 3 phantasms out and their skills off cooldown: gaining shatters, alacrity and potentially an instant re-attack could be appealing. Though you are going to have to lose 2 at certain points in the cycle, Signet of Ether or a simple weapon swap could fill this in. It seems like something that would be worth doing if you are in one of those positions where phantasms are surviving decently and its a long fight. (I know that’s a specific situation)

As it stands though, I think you are likely right, Chronomancer seems likely to be a bit sub-optimal for phantasm builds. (I’ll have to choose which appeals more to me)

So lemme reply to both of you without all the quotes caues both look too long for me to quote! Haha!

First and foremost, I should have said that the build is PvP heavy. Both the arguements from you guys hold a lot of merit if it’s applied in the PvE environment, which I think is the most dominant out of the three (speculation btw). Phantasms can die easily to AoE, especially when at melee range of the opponents. PvE wise, I think it’s better to follow what Krispera said and use her specialization build. Mine’s very simmilar to it as well in the PvE environment.

On a PvP perspective, I’m very optimistic that this build can work because now it gives phantasm mesmers more fluidity in fights. Plus the burst becomes concentrated at the shatter because the phantasms rush quickly, shatter, then respawn to unleash their attacks again given that the opponent fails to dodge.

WvW, I have little to no say in it. I don’t do much of WvW except for finding and taking on 1v1 fights.

I played a phantasm mesmer roaming in WvW for about 1.5 years. It was a lot of fun, but it was tough to win outnumbered fights.

I’m mulling over some builds now that I think are more viable given the changes.

A lot will depend on the final numbers, but the chronomancer specialization will solve the mobility side of things.

The build I’m mulling over right now is very defensive, so I’m trying to decide if it will put out enough damage.

Some other interesting things: Chronophantasma with the super speed on shatter trait means that when your phantasms are low, you can quickly shatter them and refresh their hp. And since they get distortion on the resummon, they have a buffer to survive the burst. If the really don’t have the time to run to a target, f4 shatters them in place. If you have the illusions phantasm shatter reduction trait thing, then you can summon 3 phantasms (if your enemy is nice enough to let you), let them do their burst, shatter them, let them do their burst again, shatter them again, and will have shaved 12% off the cd. If you can get off that full burst, it may be worth dropping dueling for domination, to get the bonus shatter damage on inactive foes (f3 shatter->f1 shatter), 15% illusion damage buff, and blurred inscriptions (for 20% more signet of the ether).