Guild Wars 2

Howdy, y’all!

Recently picked up my Chronotank again after a LONG time away, and was always wondering what a good weapon & solid rotation is when you’re generally soloing or participating in meta-events (DS, VB Camps, etc)?

I have every available weapon in my inventory, but I think the typical S/Sh is a bit slow. Not trying to annihilate anything (because this isn’t the class for that), but I’d still like to feel as though I’m providing something useful in as many categories as possible – Damage, Support, and so on.

Thanks all!

Damage: I recommend equipping an elementalist.

Support: sw/sh traited for quickness and alacrity sharing through wells and signet of inspiration.

Most people run Chronomancer with Sword/Shield + Sword/Focus (or Sword/Sword), keeping up three shield phantasms, and using Well of Action/Recall/Eternity, Signet of Inspiration, and Time Warp. With the right build (namely using Chronomancer runes and some boon duration from your sigil, armour, and/or food) you can keep up permanent quickness on your allies.

However, I find all that pretty redundant for open world and meta events. For those, I’d suggest Gravity Well for CC, Blink for mobility, Well of Recall/Calamity/Eternity for additional alacrity and damage, and Greatsword + Sword/X (where X can be any off-hand you want which isn’t Torch).

You won’t be doing much support (aside from the odd portal someone might need and a couple of bursts of alacrity/maybe quickness), but honestly, trying to go for maximum quickness and alacrity when you’re in a blob of 40 people, most of which are camping their ranged weapons and auto-attacking from afar, only to give your boons to a select four/five people due to the target cap… it just feels redundant. Not to mention, you spend so much time trying to cast your wells and whatnot that you might miss out on tagging trash mobs with Greatsword and getting their loot.

Of course, you may go for a more quickness-oriented build in meta events like Octovine or Chak Gerent, where there are distinct DPS phases and people generally stack together, but for zerging around in Dragon’s Stand or any other event chains, you’ll get more mileage from a more selfish build.

Your aim should be shattering often for trash mobs (possibly grouping them together with Gravity Well or Focus #4), and keeping three damage phantasms up for bosses (for a power build, Sword and Greatsword phantasms both work well here). During CC phases, such as when a wyvern is trying to fly away, your primary CC abilities are Shield #5, Greatsword #5, Sword #4, Focus #4, Gravity Well, and F3 shatter. Feel free to use F5 to double up on any of those, especially Gravity Well.

Open world events, go ranger or druid power with axes.

Tag everything and get tons of mob xp. If you want, trait shouts and be sort of suppotive.

PvE soloing go with reaper, trait for unholy sanctuary and just enjoy the ride.

I agree with reaper for OW PvE.
GS + Staff – either you lazily tag everything with marks/wells/shouts or you can jump to melee swtching shroud/GS as needed. Compared to my mesmer necro has much easier life in open world.

GS + Sw/X with wells works well enough. Generally, OW content is quite easy even in HoT, so you want to tag mobs with lots of semi-reliable and quick AoE. Some of the new zones have a decent amount of champs in events, so you can put iZerkers on them and nuke everything else with wells and melee. The rotation is 3 illusions > Continuum Split > nuke > repeat.

Generally, though, the others are right in that Mesmer is a clunky profession for OW content. Chrono gives you some ok abilities, but other classes have an easier time. On the other hand, I find soloing champs (like HoT’s HPs) extremely easy on a Mesmer, so there’s that.

As someone who has recently created a mesmer, I find this thread very informative.

Thoughts on power vs condi for open world/dungeons?

Quarktastic.1027:

As someone who has recently created a mesmer, I find this thread very informative.

Thoughts on power vs condi for open world/dungeons?

Mesmer damage in general is subpar in pve. It’s a pure utility support class.

That being said, open world you want to tag as much and fast as possible so I’d probably say go with power.

Dungeons you are likely looking at what people above mentioned, meaning Sword/x combos. That’s power again.

Not saying condition mesmer doesn’t work, just that others do it better in pve.

Sigh … guys the question wasn’t “what profession should I play in open world”, it was “what should I go for as Chronomancer” … the qq in this thread is real … T_T

btt:

If you are soloing I suggest to go for sword/shield + /sword mainly.
If required, a scepter or the staff are both viable options, altough the staff requires you to use Mantra of Pain.

While at it: I suggest you go for Dom/Duel/Chrono, 222, 131, 333 and run with SoE, MoP, WoC, WoA or Feedback, Gravity. For longer fights or soloing hero points, it may be a good alternative to swap duelling for illusions 122 or 123 and use or use not a scepter, change MoP to WoR, WoP or Feedback if required.

For Meta events and large scale fights, I’d go for Sw/Sh + Staff, SoE, WoR, SoI, WoA, TW. Set up 3 staff phants for a truckload of dps, then stick to the sword and spam everything you have.

greez!

Xyonon.3987:

Sigh … guys the question wasn’t “what profession should I play in open world”, it was “what should I go for as Chronomancer” … the qq in this thread is real … T_T

---

btt:

If you are soloing I suggest to go for sword/shield + /sword mainly.
If required, a scepter or the staff are both viable options, altough the staff requires you to use Mantra of Pain.

While at it: I suggest you go for Dom/Duel/Chrono, 222, 131, 333 and run with SoE, MoP, WoC, WoA or Feedback, Gravity. For longer fights or soloing hero points, it may be a good alternative to swap duelling for illusions 122 or 123 and use or use not a scepter, change MoP to WoR, WoP or Feedback if required.

For Meta events and large scale fights, I’d go for Sw/Sh + Staff, SoE, WoR, SoI, WoA, TW. Set up 3 staff phants for a truckload of dps, then stick to the sword and spam everything you have.

greez!

Exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks a ton to you, sir!

You’re welcome If you struggle somewhere you can also pm me ingame!

Greez!

In addition to your advice on the weapon set, what stats do you recommend to go with that?

Randulf.7614:

In addition to your advice on the weapon set, what stats do you recommend to go with that?

Why berserker ofc

Xyonon.3987:

Randulf.7614:

In addition to your advice on the weapon set, what stats do you recommend to go with that?

Why berserker ofc

Awesome, just the set I had knocking around. Thanks for the advice