Guild Wars 2

I’m not really a fan of the Chronomancer, because I feel like I cripple myself by not playing support/wells. For solo-play, I usually run a zerker setup with Sword/Sword + Greatsword (I’m lazy, sue me).

I still have the Chrono line equipped, though, because I can’t stand playing the pre-HoT Mesmer at quicksand speeds.

With elite specs being supposedly unique and with future installations of GW adding new weapon choices with elite specs (I haven’t played GW1, but it’s what I’ve been told), won’t it be problematic to have our Run Speed Increase stuck in the Chronomancer elite tree? Has this been adressed? Did something similar happen to other professions with the launch of HoT, and if so, how was it adressed?

Would you be willing to give up the Chromancer RSI in order to play a new elite spec which you’d otherwise enjoy over the Chronomancer?

Giving up alacrity, CS and Shield will be way harder than giving up 25% runspeed honestly. As for access to swfitness, you can get near 100% uptime without any boon duration just using focus and SoI.

I do wish that runspeed was made into a baseline trait though. However like several other issues that the chrono line addressed (namely CS reducing the CD on our elites to 76 sec), everytime I bring it up people are quick to shout “But chrono has it, so you’re fine.” Apparently a lot of people who play this game are actually incapable of looking ahead and seeing that when we do get a new elite spec we won’t always be running chrono.

Three things keep me stuck to Chrono – run speed, alacrity and illusion generation. Otherwise I’d happily choose another trait line.

I’m hazarding a guess that the next elite spec may have a different way of improving movement speed – perhaps giving swiftness on blur (if the Mirage leak turns out to be true) and perhaps removing movement impairing conditions, similar to how DD’s dash trait works.

In any case I’m sure they’ll make the next elite spec more appealing than Chrono to sell the next expansion and part of this is including some movement speed buff as part of the traitline.

The chrono shatter spam has become so boring I can’t bring myself to play other than living story… can’t wait for the next expansion.

In a nutshell chrono will forever stay chrono in PvE no matter what. Even if new elite specialization comes anet would need to nerf chrono tree to the ground b4 a new traitline is viable. That’s how strong it is, even after multiple nerfs. Unless ofc the incoming powercreep is outrageous.

zoomborg.9462:

In a nutshell chrono will forever stay chrono in PvE no matter what. Even if new elite specialization comes anet would need to nerf chrono tree to the ground b4 a new traitline is viable. That’s how strong it is, even after multiple nerfs. Unless ofc the incoming powercreep is outrageous.

Theoretically, a new traitline could either offer high raw dps or a new unique way of supporting damage while offering better dps, more like PS warrior right now. The two different specializations would be taken for different reasons in that scenario, they wouldn’t be competing. Obviously we’re not going to get another pure support specialization that competes directly with chrono.

But that’d lead to this weird setup where they might as well reduce the classes to a simple “I want to play XYZ style”, instead of all the minute choices of traits, gear and skills.

Because in the end, there’s always that one optimal setup. And if we get elite specs as differentiated as you say, that’s basically selecting your playstyle full stop. So IMO then they should just make the playstyle the spec pick, instead of requiring so many clicks, most with such ignorable effects.

I don’t remember if I ever said it on the forums, but this was something I remember worrying about when Elite Specializations were announced. A lot of people, not just Mesmers, were hoping for base class fixes in their Elite Specialization, and I was worried what that might mean when we have multiple Elite Specialization choices and may no longer be able to take the one with the fixes.

Obviously, a new one could solve the same problems in different ways, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. I feel similarly about Chronomancers, worried about not using it to its full potential, but wanting the run speed and such.

Honestly I’d even be fine with a “pick your playstyle”. I feel somewhere between traits, skills and gear, there’s just too many options for a dev team as low-output as ANet to handle. It’s like designing Skyrim as an indie studio of 2, tall order.

That being said ,then we’d need cool options, because if user selectability is no longer a thing ,the devs can – and should – go wild to make up for it. That is Chronomancer as a pure buffer/debuffer with virtually 0 damage, but making enemies slow as molasses while making allies go crazy. Enter say the Mirage, virtually unhittable due to highly realistic illusions, swapping with them, all illusions visually executing skills, etc. Oh and in turn very easy to kill if you manage to find the actual Mesmer. Or add another pure damage option which is just an Animist (DaoC class) style pet bomber through and through, pets with limited lifetime without a need to specifically blow them up.