Guild Wars 2

Hey all, long time Mesmer main here who had an idea that may quell some Mesmer hatred. Plus, I finally made the effort to actually post on the official forums so hopefully it’s not a terrible suggestion. The idea comes with a focus on keeping PvP and PvE viability roughly the same while providing more interesting tradeoffs.

Mesmers as a class have a strong focus on mindgames (even if you don’t feel it anymore, clones -do- still cause a minor lapse in certainty), utility, and mobility – at the expense of strengths like sustained damage. Right now, much of the Chronomancer hate from other classes and even within this class comes from the fact that Continuum Split/Shift (F5) feels low-skill high-impact. You hit F5 with clones up, you dump your bar, you reset either manually or automatically to the location and with previous cooldowns/HP.

I think it’s fair to say that it’s pretty hard to mess up once you get used to the way F5 works, and you get arguably the largest benefits of being Chronomancer out of it with very little available counterplay. Additionally, due to the short duration of the Continuum Rift and the effects you’re likely getting out of F5 (CC via GravWell/Moa in PvP or WvW), opponents will rarely have the opportunity to actively break the Rift. Often when it does get destroyed, it’s due to some lingering AoE and not from targeted removal.

The Suggestion is as follows:

• Remove the auto-activation of Continuum Split and require manual activation – location/health/cooldowns/etc do not reset if not activated
• Increase duration/clone to 2s (maximum of 8s including player)
• Remove base 25% movement speed during Continuum Split

What this does in PvE:

1. Allow for use of Continuum Split as a pseudo-Spectral Walk, and allows prevention of getting snapped back to unfavorable location (e.g. Sabetha flame wall) – movement speed decrease becomes the tradeoff for in-combat flexibility
2. Allow roughly the same Continuum Split combos as before, with slight personal dps or flexibility increase – the additional 2 seconds allow 1, maybe 2 more CD-affected weapon attacks if spamming (assuming utilities/heal/elite are already used) or more well-timed keypresses with same result (e.g. any active defenses).

What this does in PvP/WvW:

1. Allow for use of Continuum Split as a pseudo-Spectral Walk for kiting, while providing high risk-high reward for long duration manual activations.
2. Allow Continuum Split to be used more effectively with long cast time skills, with a tradeoff of potential danger to the cooldown reset.

Example: Opponent and Mesmer fight until Mesmer low HP. Mesmer hits F5 and dumps skill bar while running away. Opponent wants to attack Mesmer, but needs to somehow kill Rift before it expires (but after potential CC!) to make cooldowns not reset. The results could be:
Option 1) Rift is killed, Mesmer runs away, no cooldown reset
Option 2) Mesmer manually returns, Mesmer ports back, cooldown reset
Option 3) Rift not killed, Mesmer ports back, cooldown reset

The positioning of the Mesmer is then controlled by the Opponent, with Option 1 being most advantageous for the Opponent. With the above suggested changes, we get the addition of:
Option 4) Rift not killed, Mesmer runs away, no cooldown reset

The Opponent now has an -actual- choice between chasing (the now slower) Mesmer to secure the kill or prevent the option of a cooldown reset by killing the Rift (which now lasts longer).

The Mesmer now has an -actual- choice between disengaging, porting back, and even shattering fewer illusions to get the old duration (instead of being held hostage by opponent camping Rift).

Mesmer is obviously favored in the disengaging situation, but fighting on point becomes more high risk-high reward to the Mesmer since the Rift can get cleaved and destroyed more easily (longer opportunity window), but more skills can be potentially reset.

Bonus points for flavor: the Mesmer can influence (somewhat invisibly) the Opponent’s choice here by the number of illusions shattered, and Continuum Split and Shift actually do what they sound like they do.

I’ve tried to think of the different sides of this suggestion, but the reason I post it here is so other people can expand on or +1 this idea. If possible, let’s try to make this thread constructive and thoughtful, rather than dismissive and poorly thought out.

I like the idea but it seems rather dangerous to use continuum shift rather than actually useful. From what I can understand, if the opponent destroys the rift, the skill is pretty much rendered useless and enters a 90 second or 72 second cool down. Although that’s still the case now, you’re giving the opponent more control over the split than the mesmer. Also in the visual mess of pvp, its kinda hard to focus on whether or not the continuum split should be activated leading to another wasted opportunity. Mesmer however does not have the advantage while running away because the 25% bonus speed is removed, making mesmers slow as they were before chrono. Mesmers still have the choice to return to their original position so Im not sure where you are coming from when you say “mesmers have an ‘actual’ choice”. Overall, an ok idea but mesmers in PvP have a high skill level compared to other classes I don’t think it needs to be higher.

In terms of being dangerous: the idea is to add a new set of risk/reward features while toning down some of the feeling of “no counterplay” from the opponent’s side. The opponent doesn’t have any more control over the split than they do now, unless you go over the current duration.

Mesmer has the advantage while running away because they would no longer have to port back. Unlike what you’re saying, currently you simply do not have the option to not get ported back during CS. In the case of Moa it’s more favored to want to port back for the 90 seconds of cooldown, but with Gravity Well the cooldown would be either the same or 18 seconds longer – not a big difference.

This leads to options for both parties that improve gameplay around the F5 skill. For the Mesmer, they have more control over how they want to use it. For the Opponent, they have the option to break the rift if the Mesmer goes HAM on the duration.