Guild Wars 2

Hi all

I still think that any remaining OP-ness in the chronomancer compared to core mesmer is mostly due to continuum split. And in general, I feel that there is not enough trade-off for running chrono over core mesmer. So I thought let’s go back in time and instead of adding F5, replace the 4 shatters we currently have to more chronomancy-themed ones.

Please give your suggestions on what those could have been.

Here are mine:

• F1: Cry of Pain: a mix of mind wrack and cry of frustration (damage + confusion), but with a slightly reduced damage coefficient.
• F2: Illusion of Haste: Allies gain 1s quickness and 1s alacrity per illusion shattered. I see the chrono has mostly a support specialization, and this does just that.
• F3: Delayed Reactions: daze (0.25s) enemies and slow them (1.5s) per illusion shattered. A natural change to diversion is to apply slow. Up to 6s slow is quite strong and synergies well with Danger Time.
• F4: Continuum Split. Distorsion replaced by CS is an obvious change since both provide some sort of invulnerability. To be a better replacement, maybe CS should bring you back to life if you die during the split? On top of this replacement, I think CS should also not apply to elite skills. This would add a little more depth to it (not used for double casting elite but an actual choice of the best skill to cast) and is very needed considering that the CD of CS is now the CD of F4.

For CS, I first thought of “all skills cast during CS have their recharge reduced by 30%” or something like this, but this looses the flavor of actually going back in time.

That’s what I’ve been saying since a while back. However, I think Master of Fragmentation (and other shatter traits) needs to be heavily considered with any new shatters. I would put my final thoughts on it as:

F1: MW 2.0: Power damage with maybe bonus damage vs slowed enemies.
F2: Cry of Torment: Torment (Because slow and confusion don’t mix in this elite spec).
F3: Stolen Speed: Single target slow enemy and alacrity to mesmer (3-5 seconds per illusion).
F4: CS: Same as current F5.

So how do these interact with MoF? F1 and F2 are fairly straightforward. Cripple with torment is a nice touch. Power damage has a 10% higher crit chance. Mental anguish still buffs the power damage from F1 as it remains only power damage. F3 + MoF = AOE slow and alacrity. F4, same as you mentioned but the reflect bubble would be on the rift, not the mesmer.

So with an F4, F3, F3 combo, you can get a lot of aoe alacrity to your teammates if you bring illusions+MoF. F1 remains power while F2 remains condi but a bit of flavor change that better fits the chrono. Awtew can be changed so that chrono doesn’t have to well spam for alacrity and quickness. Shield phantasms could apply slow but maybe not alacrity (pick something else.) If you really want to go the support route, maybe healing when wells end or per pulse or just back to condi clear from the beta. Potential interaction with Seize the Moment for aoe quickness too on F3. Boon share from TW and SoI + quickness on shatters would still be a thing.

PvP chrono would face a tough choice of team alacrity or ineptitude if they go illusions which makes alacrity easier to balance in PvP as I suspect most people won’t choose the aoe alacrity route unless going support. However, having to take both chrono and illusions to support limits diversity but in a way that I think would create a healthier chrono tank that the prior iteration or at least make it easier to balance with the aoe alacrity support in mind.

PvE chrono would be “forced” to play a shatter role if they want to support with the alacrity and quickness. If Seize the moment is picked instead of Chronophantasmsa, the F4/F3/3 combo would be a bit tougher to pull off without MI etc. Buff base phantasms damage and now we have base PvE mesmer as a DPS role while Chrono can play a shatter support role. Furthermore, it can be either condi or power instead of the current iteration which is only power for support and never a main DPS.