(edited by Embolism.8106)
[sPvP Guide] The ChronoWard: Bunker to Glass
WHY A CONDITION BUILD?
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You may be wondering why the ChronoWard is a condition build. Perhaps you’ve heard about how Mesmer condition builds are selfish duelists, capable of winning most 1vs1s (with time) yet unable to hold points and completely useless in teamfights. It seems like a Condition Mesmer is something you’d run in custom dueling servers instead of a real Conquest match.
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And that was true… until the Chronomancer came into play. Why? Becuase Chronomancy is strongly focused on Shattering: Flow of Time grants Alacrity on Shatter, and Chronophantasma allows you to Shatter Phantasms twice; which works wonders when combined with Persistence of Memory. Unlike the traditional Power Shatter, these benefits don’t just come from Mind Wrack: they come from any Shatter used. The more you Shatter, the more benefits you gain.
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A problem with this is that Power builds don’t get a lot out of Cry of Frustration or (outside of specific circumstances) Diversion. So even though you’d be using all your Shatters frequently to get all the Chrono-goodies, you’re not really getting much else. This is where condition builds come in: with Illusionary Retribution and Maim the Disillusioned, every Shatter inflicts Confusion and Torment on hit; allowing you to put a lot of pressure on your foes while enjoying the Chrono-goodness.
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Another reason why Chronomancy is good for Condition Mesmers is the nature of Alacrity. Condition Mesmers are about offensive pressure from non-autoattack skills (Shatters mainly), which as you can imagine benefits immensely from Alacrity. This is in contrast to Power Mesmers that are more about burst with little pressure in-between: Alacrity reduces the downtime between bursts, but otherwise does not benefit their offensive pressure the way it does for Condition Mesmers.
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The last big reason to go with a Condition Chrono is the specialisation limit. While Power builds utilise two specialisations: Domination and Dueling: for most of their offensive power, Condition builds require only Illusions. When you add Chronomancy to the mix, Power builds find themselves in a quandary: do they go Dom-Duel-Chrono and forgo any defensive specialisation (Inspiration, Chaos), or do they sacrifice an offensive specialisation for some survivability? A Condition Chrono however has no such dilemma: Illusions and Chronomancy are all it needs, allowing you to freely choose your third specialisation.
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TL;DR: why a conditon build? Because Condition Mesmers rely heavily on the same mechanic the Chronomancer uses to dispense its goodies: constant Shattering. You also have a lot more freedom as a Condition Mesmer when it comes to specialisation choices, which is a reason why the ChronoWard has such versatility.
SAMPLE BUILDS
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Below are two sample builds for the ChronoWard. Bear in mind that these sample builds are just that: samples, and you are strongly encouraged to make your own build. They are here to show how much versatility the base ChronoWard has.
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The combination of Settler and Inspiration makes you very durable and resistant to conditions. Along with your blocks and evades, this allows you to outlast your foes even when outnumbered. Lack of reliance on stealth and teleports lets you sit on points, an ability the traditional Mesmer cannot replicate. The result is a reliable bunker that can also dish out significant condition pressure.
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While it isn’t quite Guardian level when it comes to team support, ample access to AoE Slow and group Quickness allows you to maintain a significant team fight presence; especially when it comes to securing revives and stomps. Well of Precognition is very powerful when used at the right time, negating enemy damage without having to yield a point. Be careful however when using Distortion, as Inspiring Distortion can cause your entire team to decap.
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Your primary weakness is CCs due to a lack of Stability. This may seem like a crippling weakness for a bunker and you may be wondering why Chaos isn’t recommended instead. In practice I find that Chaos, while extremely resistant to CCs and direct damage, leaves you vulnerable to conditions and does not give you the ability to rapidly recover like Inspiration; making it considerably less forgiving survivability-wise.
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In the absence of Chaos, you can contend with CCs through your ample supply of active defences and, should one slip through, your Alacrity-fuelled stunbreakers. Note that while Phase Retreat is not a stunbreaker it can be used while disabled, as can Diversion and Distortion if you’re in a pinch. All things considered the lack of Stability is not quite as crippling as it may seem.
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Overall, the ChronoWard Support Bunker is a nice, easy build to play; providing great survivability and support without significant concessions in offensive pressure.
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The Hybrid Burst has two faces. At first it plays like your typical ChronoWard: keeping to the safety of Sword-Shield while battering foes with a non-stop tsunami of Shatters. Once its target is sufficiently weakened it reveals its other aspect: a powerful burst, combining the sheer damage of Power with the inevitability of conditions. Executed well, few could survive the ChronoWard’s attention.
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Your typical burst will open with Illusionary Counter, then a Well of Calamity beneath your target followed by Magic Bullet to keep them in place; finishing off with the Duelist and Confusing Images. A Mind Wrack (or another Shatter) inflicts a secondary burst and resets the Duelist for another salvo.
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As mentioned, you should only execute your burst after whittling away your opponent’s defences (i.e. cleanses) to ensure a kill. As you are quite vulnerable while in Sceptre-Pistol it may be wise to remain in Sword-Shield until your foes have executed their own bursts, particularly in non-1vs1 situations. Gravity Well is excellent for bursting down a target while keeping their allies occupied by physics.
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A solid understanding of other professions and builds is required to play the Hybrid Burst well, which combined with its inherent fragility makes it somewhat more advanced than the Support Bunker. Played well, the rare combination of pressure and burst makes the ChronoWard Hybrid Burst very rewarding.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
AMULETS
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Settler
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- TOUGHNESS, Condition Damage, Healing Power
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The Settler amulet is great if you want as much survivability as possible. Having Toughness and Healing Power makes Inspiration an ideal pick, although Chaos is also a tempting option if you want more offensive pressure. This is the most forgiving amulet to use and is good for inexperienced players, but skilled players can also find use for this in bunker builds.
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Rabid
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- CONDITION DAMAGE, Precision, Toughness
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The Rabid amulet is the jack-of-all-trades for ChronoWards, providing Toughness for survivability and Precision for a bit of offensive boost. Like most jacks however it suffers from being master-of-none, particularly when it comes to offensive power: Precision is relatively useless without Dueling, and even with Dueling its contribution is not earth-shattering. Still, if you are unsure whether you want to be tanky or glassy, the Rabid amulet is an acceptable compromise.
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Wanderer
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- CONDITION DAMAGE, PRECISION, Expertise, Toughness
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A variant of Rabid that trades Toughness for Expertise (condition duration), for players who don’t mind losing a bit of survivability for more offensive pressure. However, it should be pointed out that Expertise may not be as useful as it seems: offensive conditions are easily lethal with no extra condition duration if not cleansed, and if they are then Expertise is meaningless. Bear this in mind if you’re choosing between Rabid and Wanderer.
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Carrion
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- CONDITION DAMAGE, Power, Vitality
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Another step up from Rabid on the tanky-to-glassy scale, the Carrion amulet can be considered the counterpart to Marauder. Compared to Rabid, Carrion’s Power contributes a lot more offensive pressure than Precision; but its Vitality does not synergise with Inspiration or Chaos like Rabid’s Toughness does. Overall, it’s a strong amulet for ChronoWards that want to pummel their foes, but are not ready to make the jump to Sinister’s full glass.
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Sinister
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- CONDITION DAMAGE, Power, Precision
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The Berserker of condition builds has finally come to sPvP! This is the ultimate glass cannon amulet for the ChronoWard. With it you will decimate your foes with both direct damage and conditions, but without active defences you will implode at the first sign of trouble. Fortunately Mesmers are chock-full of active defences, and the Chronomancer brings a lot of new toys to our kitten nal. For the ChronoWard willing to risk it all for the thrill of victory.
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Viper
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- CONDITION DAMAGE, POWER, Expertise, Precision
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Viper is to Sinister what Wanderer is to Rabid. Again while the addition of Expertise is, on paper, a damage boost; in practice it will generally be either overkill or wasted. Still, some players may be able to make it work (for example, with short but powerful conditions like Burning… maybe). Not recommended unless you know exactly what you’re after.
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Rampager
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- PRECISION, Condition Damage, Power
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A generally inferior variant of Sinister. In theory it could be used by players who prefer a bit more direct damage from their hybrid, but as it majors Precision instead of Power; the effect is mediocre at best. May be useful in maximum crit chance builds with Danger Time, but otherwise this amulet can be ignored.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
WEAPONS
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Shield
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The Shield is core to the ChronoWard because of the synergy between Echo of Memory/Déjà Vu, Chronophantasma and Persistence of Memory. Together they allow each cooldown cycle of EoM to provide 8s of CD reduction for all Phantasm skills, including EoM itself. This has two major implications:
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- EoM’s effective CD can become much, much lower than 24s when you also factor in Alacrity and PoM from other Phantasms, giving the ChronoWard the highest Blocking uptime of all professions and builds by a huge margin.
- EoM will greatly boost your illusion generation from all your Phantasm skills, on top of the boost they already get from running CP and PoM and gaining Alacrity, which in turn boosts EoM and your other Phantasm skills even more… a beautiful positive cycle.
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This synergy pretty much dictates how the ChronoWard plays. Instead of the stealth and evasion of traditional Mesmers, ChronoWards often want to be hit so Déjà Vu can be procced. Both your defence and illusion generation are somewhat dependent on this: failure to proc Déjà Vu can cost you. Fortunately this is not difficult: even if you aren’t being targeted during a team fight, you can usually find some stray AoEs to proc your Blocks off of.
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The Phantasm it conjures, the Avenger, is not bad either. While it doesn’t do much damage even with Sinister, it does provide a healthy dose of group Alacrity and Slow; giving you and your team a bit of an edge. Its relatively slow attack speed is offset by the frequency it can be reset with CP or reconjured.
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So that’s a lot about one skill, and honestly if Echo of Memory was the Shield’s only skill it would be enough. But the Shield also offers Tides of Time, a strong AoE CC that also grants Quickness to allies and destroys projectiles. There are a lot of uses for ToT, but it is notably good for stomping or ressing: the Stun greatly hampers enemy ressing or stomping attempts while the Quickness allows your allies to stomp or res faster.
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For the ChronoWard, the Shield is your bread-and-butter; providing illusion generation, defence, control and support: all in a handy two-skill package. Use it and love it.
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Main-Hand Sword
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It may seem strange to use a purely Power-based weapon in a condition build, but as the Mesmer’s condition damage comes primarily from Shattering your choice of weapon does not significantly limit your offensive capabilities. With that in mind, the Sword is a great weapon to pair with the Shield (or with another off-hand).
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So why use the Sword? The main reason is Blurred Frenzy, giving you even more active defence and covering for Echo of Memory’s weakness: while some skills can bypass Blocks, nothing can bypass Blur. That said Blur itself is not infallable, and Retaliation damage goes right through it. Bear this in mind if you’re low on health, as if your opponent has Retaliation using Blurred Frenzy can kill you rather than save you.
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Apart from Blurred Frenzy, the Sword also grants you spammable Vulnerability (which if nothing else is a cover condition) and a semi-spammable boon strip. Both of these effects can be administered by Sword Clones if you don’t feel like entering the fray yourself.
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Last but not least, while Illusionary Leap does not count as a Leap finisher, its chain skill: Swap: does. This can be useful for proccing Chaos Armour off your utility Wells, especially when using Chaotic Dampening.
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Sceptre
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Our only main hand alternative to the Sword, the Sceptre is the quintessential Mesmer condition weapon. That does not however mean you should rely on its autoattack to deal damage: it is terrible and the Sceptre’s overall condition pressure is weak compared to Shattering. So what’s the Sceptre for?
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The Sceptre is a burst condition weapon. While it cannot output constant condition pressure, it excels at inflicting large stacks of conditions at once with Illusionary Counter and Confusing Images. This can easily seal a kill if you know your opponent is out of cleanses, which you should force with your Shatters before applying your Sceptre skills for the coup de grâce. Note that Sceptre skills also scale very well with Power, making it extra potent for hybrid builds.
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Think about what you want when choosing between the Sword and the Sceptre. If you feel too squishy, go with the Sword. If you think you need more bite, take up the Sceptre. If you just can’t choose, you can always use both!
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Staff
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While the Staff is often considered the other classical Mesmer condition weapon, it actually has more similarities with the Sword than the Sceptre. This is because despite its higher autoattack DPS than Sceptre, the Staff lacks the ability to inflict condition bursts: what it does have is an kitten nal of defensive skills.
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With that in mind, you’d take the Staff for the same reason you’d take the Sword: more sustain. It provides a low CD teleport (which can be used when disabled) and ample access to Chaos Armour, a reliable source of Protection with Chaotic Dampening (and is pretty useful in its own right). Chaos Storm’s on a rather long CD, but provides AoE Aegis and Daze invaluable for both personal defence and team fights.
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Apart from its defensive skills, the Staff also provides a wide variety of conditions. While they might not do all that much damage, it does mean a lot more cover conditions; making enemy cleansing that much less effective.
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Overall, the Staff is a really solid choice for your second weapon set regardless of your build. If in doubt, wield a Staff.
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Pistol
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Often considered the condition DPS off-hand thanks to the Duelist’s multiproccing of Sharper Images and Duelist’s Discipline, the Pistol is a good choice for the offensive-minded ChronoWard; but due to the aforementioned reliance on traits should only be taken if you’re speccing Dueling.
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The Duelist particularly shines in hybrid builds (Sinister being the definitive one), capable of dealing large amounts of both direct and condition damage. Note however that the combination of Dueling, Pistol and Sinister results in a rather fragile ChronoWard, so care should be taken when swapping from the safety of your Shield to your Pistol.
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The Pistol also gives you access to Magic Bullet. While it looks complex, in practice the only effect you can rely on is the Stun against your first target. Boring, but very effective; and a good opener before you lay down the hurt with Duelist and maybe a Sceptre burst.
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All things considered the Pistol is relatively niche, and its use can easily backfire if you don’t know what you’re doing; but utilised well it provides a potent offensive burst as a counterpart to the Shield’s defence.
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Torch
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Like the Staff, the Torch is deceptive. While it appears to be a condition weapon, it actually provides relatively weak condition pressure; its true purpose being, like the Staff, defence. The Prestige is the best personal stealth at your disposal, although as the ChronoWard requires Persistence of Memory you won’t be able to take The Pledge; which would otherwise be a significant boost to its potency.
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The Mage is a weak Phantasm even in condition builds, and its long CD does not do it any favours. Thankfully as a ChronoWard you have access to a lot of CD reduction for your Phantasms, alleviating this weakness somewhat. The Mage does provide access to Burning, a relatively rare condition for Mesmers: if nothing else it is an extra cover against cleanses.
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If you do not wish to use the Staff but don’t want to deal with the inherent fragility of the Pistol (or if you aren’t using Dueling), the Torch is a solid off-hand option.
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Focus
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The Focus, in general, is not a good pick for sPvP. Reflection is somewhat situational, and in any case if you go Inspiration then it’s almost criminal not to take Restorative Illusions. The Warden itself is relatively ineffective damage-wise as enemies will rarely stick around it for long. Temporal Curtain does provide a strong AoE Pull, but it is not enough to make the Focus work.
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Off-Hand Sword
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The off-hand Sword has little to offer to the ChronoWard. As a purely Power-based weapon it won’t do much damage in condition builds, and if you’re running a hybrid then the Pistol will serve you better. It does provide a bit of defence through Illusionary Riposte, but that’s a drop in the ocean compared to what the Shield does.
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Greatsword
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As a Power burst weapon with almost no defensive capabilities, the Greatsword is the worst of the worst for the ChronoWard. As with the off-hand Sword, hybrid builds are better off running Sceptre with Pistol for their hybrid burst needs. To ChronoWards, the Greatsword does not exist.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
HEALING SKILLS
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Ether Feast
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The classic Mesmer heal remains as universally useful as ever. Ether Feast gives you a lot of health on a very reasonable cooldown, no frills attached. Don’t know what healing skill to use? Ether Feast. You can never go wrong with it.
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That said, there is some complexity. Novice Mesmers tend to panic and cast their heal immediately when they eat a burst and lose their illusions. This obviously doesn’t take full advantage of Ether Feast, so it’s important to remain calm and conjure any illusions you have available (provided you can safely do so) before Feasting on their Ether.
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Well of Eternity
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At first glance, Well of Eternity looks like something for team support; a poor choice if you only want selfish healing. In fact, Well of Eternity is a great choice for the lonely Chronomancer: not only does it provide reasonable healing, it is also the only Mesmer heal that cleanses conditions out of the box. This can be a dealbreaker if you are not running Inspiration, as it means you can forgo a cleansing utility without making yourself completely vulnerable to enemy conditions.
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If you’re using Chaotic Dampening, note that the oldest field always takes precedence in combos. That means if you cast Well of Eternity then add an Ethereal Field, any Leap finisher will result in Light Aura instead of Chaos Armour until Well of Eternity ends.
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Mantra of Recovery
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Mantra of Recovery allows you to heal even when disabled, provided it’s been charged. The channel time is a huge detriment and makes MoR pretty much unusable without supporting traits. With Inspiration (or Dueling) however it becomes a powerful heal that also cleanses a lot of conditions. Definitely consider using this if you’re running Inspiration, but otherwise there are better options.
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Mirror
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A rather weak heal (for the Mesmer) with a low CD. Out of the box it doesn’t really compare to Ether Feast in terms of raw healing, so you should only use Mirror if you take Master of Manipulations from Chaos. The reflection (especially with MoM) seems useful but in practice is situational in sPvP, generally not worth the loss of healing.
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Be generous when using Mirror. As its low CD is its primary advantage you want to use it on CD if possible. The amount healed, as mentioned, is low; so there’s not much sense saving Mirror for a rainy day: it’s not likely to make a difference unless your opponents are projectile-heavy.
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Signet of the Ether
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While Signet of the Ether is generally considered a poor choice for sPvP, the nature of the ChronoWard (high uptime on active defences) can make good use of the passive healing. More importantly, Signet of the Ether recharges all Phantasm skills on cast, including Echo of Memory: this almost guarantees you kitten of Blocking right after discharging the Signet. That said, as the downtime on EoM is already very low, this synergy is not quite as useful as it seems; but it definitely is nothing to sniff at.
UTILITIES: MANIPULATIONS
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Blink
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- Recommended: YES
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A stunbreaker that also teleports you out of harm’s way, possibly to advantageous terrain… Blink almost defines the traditional Mesmer. The ChronoWard however is much more survivable and doesn’t have to rely as much on evasion and misdirection for defence, so Blink’s importance is somewhat diminished.
Even so, the ability to break stun and get out of harm’s way in an instant is not something to take lightly, and Blink remains one of the best utility choices a ChronoWard can make; especially if you’re leaning towards glassy instead of tanky.
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Arcane Thievery
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- Recommended: NO
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With its relatively long CD and target requirement, Arcane Thievery is an unreliable condition cleanse. It does have extra functionality in that it sends conditions to enemies and steals their boons, but overall it is what I call a “luxury” skill: nice, but there are more important (and reliable) skills to fill your bar with.
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Mimic
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- Recommended: NO
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Mimic is fun when paired with Portal, but that’s about the limit of its usefulness: its CD is too long justify using with much else. In the frenetic combat of sPvP you simply don’t have a utility slot to spare for things like this.
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Illusion of Life
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- Recommended: NO
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Illusion of Life has one of the lowest CD and cast time of all revival skills, but unfortunately remains just as useless. It doesn’t fully revive allies unless they kill someone, so it mostly helps revived allies to reposition themselves somewhere easier to fully revive. Again, you have better skills to use.
UTILITIES: ILLUSIONS
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Decoy
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- Recommended: YES
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The other quintessential Mesmer stunbreaker, Decoy trades the ability to teleport with stealth. In general this makes Decoy less reliable than Blink: if you’re Immobilised you’ll continue to eat a burst that’s already in progress, and even if not you’ll likely take damage while moving away. The stealth however prevents follow-up attacks, which may be more useful when you’re low on health.
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In general, if you’re choosing between Blink and Decoy, go with Blink. These skills are first and foremost stunbreakers, and reliability wins out here. On the other hand, you could always take both if you’re feeling cautious.
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Mirror Images
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- Recommended: NO
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On paper Mirror Images seems pretty good for a build without the on-demand illusion generation of Deceptive Evasion. In practice you’ll find that the Disenchanter gives you more illusions over time, especially with Persistence of Memory and Chronophantasma.
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It does also function as a stunbreaker, but without offering the “get out of jail” effects of Blink or Decoy it just isn’t worth a slot. You may be able to use the two Clones for a Distortion after breaking a stun, but Decoy also provides a Clone if you’re so inclined.
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Phantasmal Disenchanter
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- Recommended: YES
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A lot of people consider the Disenchanter a condition cleansing skill. In truth the Disenchanter is pretty unreliable at cleansing conditions thanks to its long cast time and bouncing attack. What it is very good at is stripping boons, a potent ability for those not using Shattered Concentration.
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For ChronoWards, the Disenchanter also serves a secondary but no less important function: Shatter fodder. With its reasonably low CD and availably regardless of weapon set, you’ll find the Disenchanter invaluable for augmenting your illusion generation and proccing Persistence of Memory, making your ChronoWard sleeker and more efficient.
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Phantasmal Defender
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- Recommended: YES
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Similar to the Disenchanter, the Defender helps fund the ChronoWard’s Phantasm generation. Its damage-sharing effect is generally considered weak for traditional Mesmers due to its fragility, loss on Shatter and unnecessary drawing of damage from other illusions.
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The ChronoWard however uses Chronophantasma, allowing the Defender to persist after Shattering; which also serves to “heal” it to full health. This makes the Defender a lot more useful, although I’d still go with the Disenchanter if you can only choose one.
UTILITIES: WELLS
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Well of Calamity
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- Recommended: YES
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Given that Well of Calamity is a direct damage well, it may seem out of place in condition builds outside of hybrids. In fact Well of Calamity is also a great defensive skill: it applies Weakness, a defensive condition the Mesmer doesn’t otherwise have much access to; as well as being an Ethereal field for Chaotic Dampening users. All of this in a 20s CD bargain.
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Well of Action
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- Recommended: YES
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Essentially a mini-Time Warp, Well of Action is great for team support and is also useful when stomping or ressing: the Slow hampers enemy stomp or res attempts while the ending Quickness fuels yours. If you’re always finding yourself in the middle of team fights, then this is the Well for you.
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Well of Precognition
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- Recommended: YES
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A powerful Well for both solo and team play, granting effective invulnerability to all your allies without preventing capture point contribution. It also functions as a stunbreak, basically guaranteeing you a 3 second reprieve after breaking stuns. An Endurance boost at the end (combined with your natural regen) gives you a dodge should you need more downtime.
As with Blurred Frenzy, Well of Precognition does not prevent Retaliation damage. Unlike Blurred Frenzy you are not forced to attack when you cast it, so enemies are much less capable of using this against you.
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Well of Recall
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- Recommended: MAYBE
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Well of Recall is good. AoE Chill and Alacrity is good. The problem however is both (short duration) Chill and Alacrity are effects that take time to bear fruit, which is fine but in the fast-paced arenas of sPvP you generally want skills that have good impact right now; and utility slots are at a premium. I’d say your slots can be put to better use, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with the Well itself.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
UTILITIES: GLAMOURS
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Null Field
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- Recommended: YES
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If you do not have condition cleansing from other sources (Inspiration, Well of Eternity) then a cleansing utility is recommended. Null Field is probably the most straight forward way to get cleansing, and as a bonus also strips boons and functions as an Ethereal field.
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Feedback
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- Recommended: MAYBE
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As I’ve mentioned before with the Focus and Mirror, reflection is a relatively situational effect in sPvP; and while having it as a side effect of your healing skill is fine, I’m not certain it’s worth dedicating an entire utility slot to. However, if you know your opponents are projectile-heavy then Feedback is certainly a very good choice.
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Portal Entre
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- Recommended: YES
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The ultimate team support skill, Portal allows you and your allies to effectively be in two locations at once. This gives your team unrivalled ability to rotate between points: an enormous advantage.
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I recommend all Mesmers to run Portal regardless of build, although generally without a coordinated team you’d find that the only ally benefiting from your Portals is yourself. But even if you’re the only beneficiary, Portal is a great skill for point rotation and hilarious troll escapes.
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Veil
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- Recommended: NO
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No. Just no. Avoid this skill like the plague. Outside of WvsW, Veil has no use. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Never use this in sPvP. Even if you’re running Prismatic Understanding, there is always something better to use than Veil.
UTILITIES: MANTRAS
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Mantra of Pain
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- Recommended: NO
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Even Power builds rarely use Mantra of Pain, so as a condition build or hybrid you shouldn’t use it either. A rare few Mesmers like to use this with Restorative Mantras for a low CD group heal, but honestly this is a gimmick that won’t ever work against decent opponents.
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Mantra of Distraction
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- Recommended: YES
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While interrupts have traditionally been the domain of Power builds, there’s no reason why a condition build (or hybrid) can’t make use of them. That said if you do use Mantra of Distraction then you should ideally have a few traits to support it, which means dipping into Domination or Dueling (or maybe Chaos).
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Mantra of Resolve
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- Recommended: YES
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The alternative to Null Field, Mantra of Resolve has the advantage of being instant (allowing you to use it while disabled) and, on paper, cleansing more conditions over time. On the other hand it needs to be prepared and doesn’t have Null Field’s other benefits.
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If you’re going into Inspiration then you can essentially get Mantra of Resolve on Mantra of Recovery, making Resolve somewhat redundant. Still, this is a viable alternative to Null Field with or without Mantra-supporting traits.
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Mantra of Concentration
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- Recommended: NO
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The Stability granted by Mantra of Concentration is generally too short to be useful, although it could be used to cover for the cast time of important skills (such as Mantra of Recovery). More interesting is its ability to break stuns, but as with Mirror Images it lacks the ability to mitigate bursts in progress. Again, not worth a slot compared to Blink or Decoy.
UTILITIES: SIGNETS
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Signet of Domination
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- Recommended: MAYBE
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The extra condition damage is tempting for a condition build, but similar to Well of Recall it doesn’t really have much immediate impact. The long duration active Stun on the other hand does, but it is on a rather long CD. Overall Signet of Domination is nice, but I question whether it’s worth one of your valuable utility slots.
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Signet of Midnight
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- Recommended: YES
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The extra condition duration makes this another tempting Signet to use, although as with Expertise amulets it’s practical benefit is questionable. Signet of Midnight also functions as a stunbreaker, and while it’s not on the level of Blink or Decoy it does inflict Unblockable AoE Blind to help mitigate damage; which gives it a yes from me as a decent stunbreaker that provides a nice little benefit when unused.
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Signet of Inspiration
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- Recommended: MAYBE
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The Chronomancer already has 25% movement speed so the periodic Swiftness from Signet of Inspiration isn’t particularly useful. In any case this is a Signet for boon sharing builds, which the ChronoWard, unfortunately, isn’t quite able to become due to the inability to use both Chaos and Inspiration at the same time. Still, if you want to try for a boon sharing ChronoWard, you definitely want this.
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Signet of Illusions
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- Recommended: NO
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The active effect of Signet of Illusions is relatively useless for the ChronoWard as between Master of Misdirection and Alacrity your Shatter CDs will be quite low to begin with. The passive effect certainly helps your illusions survive, but with all the Shattering you’d be doing this isn’t very important.
ELITE SKILLS
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Continuum Split
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Wait, Continuum Split is an Elite? Well no it isn’t, but as the use of Continuum Split is tied to Elite skills I think it’s worth talking about here.
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To start off: you should never use your Elites without also using Continuum Split. For long CD Elites (Time Warp and Signet of Humility), only using them while Splitted means cutting down their CD to Continuum Split’s CD, which with Alacrity (and Master of Misdirection) can be as low as 46s. For Elites with CDs similar to Continuum Split (Gravity Well and Mass Invisibility), this allows you to double-cast said Elite (although you can do this with long CD Elites too if you’re desperate).
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Note that as with all Shatters, Continuum Split is instant. This means you can use it while casting another skill, a useful trick for Elites (or other skills) with long cast times such as… basically all of them, except Time Warp.
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Be mindful of your positioning when casting Continuum Split. As the rift can be destroyed, using it while standing in an enemy AoE or in enemy cleave range could mean getting pulled out before you can cast your Elite, or worse just before you cast your Elite; forcing it onto its normal long CD.
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There are other uses for Continuum Split other than Elite support, but those are outside the scope of this article.
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Time Warp
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Time Warp and Portal are the two skills people usually think of when they hear “Mesmer support”. The big brother of Well of Action, Time Warp lasts longer, covers a larger area and applies both Slow and Quickness at the same time; an absolute gamechanger for team fights. As with Well of Action it is great for both stomping enemies and ressing allies.
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While the traditional Mesmer has to contend with Time Warp’s hefty 180s CD, Chronomancers can get Time Warp on as low as 46s CD. An incredible bargain and merits serious consideration for all ChronoWards.
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Gravity Well
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The ultimate AoE CC skill, back-to-back Gravity Wells provides a whooping 6 seconds of interrupts, and deals good damage in hybrid builds too. As you might imagine, this can be devastating in team fights and is also perfect for preventing enemy stomps and resses. If you don’t know what Elite to use, use Gravity Well.
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Signet of Humility
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The single target counterpart to Gravity Well, Signet of Humility takes one foe out of the fight for 10 seconds; more than enough time to mop up their allies. As the Moa comes with a good escape skill it usually isn’t that useful for securing a kill against the Moa itself.
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As you’d only use Signet of Humility during Continuum Split, the passive effect should pretty much always be active. While not especially notable, 20% off all disabling effects certainly is nothing to sneeze at.
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Mass Invisibility
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Before Gravity Well, this is the Elite Mesmers go for when they don’t know what to use. It is a decent escape skill (though the long cast time hampers this somewhat) and is also good for initiating team fights, especially with Prismatic Understanding. In general though this is a relatively low-impact Elite, and unless you have specific designs for it I’d recommend taking one of the others.
SPECIALISATION: CHRONOMANCER
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One of the two core specialisations of the ChronoWard, for obvious reasons. Without Chronomancer you won’t have shiny new toys like Continuum Split, Alacrity and, of course, the Shield. The innate 25% speed boost and reduction to movement hindering conditions (including the dreaded Chill) is also a useful boon.
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Adept
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- Delayed Reactions
Slow is a strong condition, and Slowing enemies on interrupt makes them more vulnerable to further interrupts; making this a self-synergising trait. As ChronoWards have great interrupt potential, this is a solid pick even outside of dedicated interrupt builds.
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- Time Catches Up
Tired of watching your illusions chasing down a fleeing target for a Shatter? No more with Time Catches Up! While this trait doesn’t seem to give any tangible combat benefit, in practice it makes Shattering a lot smoother and more reliable. Definitely a good trait for the Shatter-heavy ChronoWard.
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- All’s Well that Ends Well
Flow of Time generally provides all the Alacrity you need if you maintain a fast Shatter cadence (which you should), but if you’re using a few Wells then there’s no harm in taking this trait to fill in the gaps. Also provides Alacrity for your allies, so there’s that too.
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Master
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- Danger Time
Hybrid ChronoWards should definitely consider Danger Time to improve their burst. As you’d be conjuring Avenger a lot, Slow should be plentiful even without other sources; but of course the more Slow you can inflict the better. Unfortunately as Chronophantasma is a core trait you cannot get Lost Time, but Delayed Reactions and Well of Action are other good sources of Slow.
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- Illusionary Reversion
I personally find that I have ample illusion generation with the base ChronoWard, but if you feel like you need more then there’s always Illusionary Reversion. It doesn’t generate Illusions out of the blue, but allows you to maintain your illusion count easily once you get started.
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- Improved Alacrity
With this trait, you can easily achieve perma-Alacrity on yourself without much effort. Even if you could already achieve perma-Alacrity during combat, Improved Alacrity allows you maintain it long after combat ends; readying you for the next engagement sooner.
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Grandmaster
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- Lost Time
As Chronophantasma is core, Lost Time is not an option. Otherwise however it can be very useful when paired with Danger Time, and can shut down foes with almost uncleansable Slow through constant reapplication.
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- Sieze the Moment
Quickness isn’t that useful for Mesmer DPS (due our weak autoattacks), so this trait is somewhat questionable in sPvP. Instant on-demand Quickness however is very useful when stomping or ressing.
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- Chronophantasma
As this is a core trait you don’t really have a choice here. To reiterate why Chronophantasma is core: its interaction with Persistence of Memory and Echo of Memory/Déjà Vu grants you a lot of CD reduction for Phantasm skills, which means (along with CP’s own effect) superb illusion generation and Blocking uptime.
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Aside from this, Chronophantasma is also a powerful burst component for hybrid ChronoWards; allowing your Phantasms to attack twice with a 1.5s delay. For the Avenger it cuts down on the rather long downtime between its attacks, generating a lot more AoE Alacrity and Slow.
SPECIALISATION: ILLUSIONS
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The other core ChronoWard specialisation. Illusions provides all the ingredients you need to make a Condition Mesmer: Illusionary Retribution gives all your Shatters Confusion, and Maim the Disillusioned gives them all Torment. Together with Flow of Time, that’s a lot of goodies you’re getting every time you Shatter.
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On top of this, Illusions also lowers CDs across the board with Illusionist’s Celerity and Master of Misdirection, further augmenting the effects of Alacrity. Can you feel the synergy? It’s almost disgusting.
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Adept
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- Compounding Power
Compared to Persistence of Memory this is a relatively low-impact trait. Still, for non-ChronoWards it’s an acceptable dump if you don’t need the other, more specialised, traits. Note that the direct damage increase doesn’t apply to your illusions, although the condition damage increase does.
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- Persistence of Memory
A core ChronoWard trait. Thanks to Chronophantasma, every Phantasm you conjure is a potential 4s CD off itself and every other Phantasm skill. Coupled with Illusionist’s Celerity and Alacrity, that’s a lot of Phantasms!
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- The Pledge
Gives you a lot more uptime for The Prestige, especially when you’re using other stealth skills and/or Prismatic Understanding. The condition cleansing aspect is rather minor and isn’t something you can rely on. It’s a shame this isn’t available to the ChronoWard, but the Torch remains a strong defensive weapon without it.
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Master
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- Shattered Strength
Even in a hybrid build Maim the Disillusioned results in a lot more damage than Shattered Strength. No contest as far as the ChronoWard, or indeed any Condition Mesmer, is concerned.
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- Phantasmal Haste
A bad trait. If you Shatter your Phantasms before they get a second attack this this is wasted, and if you Shatter your Phantasms after they’d normally get their second attack without Haste then it’s still wasted. Since you’d be Shattering a lot, this trait is always wasted.
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- Maim the Disillusioned
The definitive Mesmer condition trait. Most of your damage as a Condition Mesmer will be from this. As your opponents need to be moving to take full damage (not that they seem to need much encouragement) you should generally stay at a range, but close enough that you can quickly duck in to apply a personal Shatter.
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Grandmaster
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- Ineptitude
A strong defensive trait that also provides a bit of extra damage. Unfortunately as the ChronoWard tends to Block a lot the Blind is often wasted during a Block, but as there really isn’t much competition in this tier you may as well take this and get a bit of extra Confusion.
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- Master of Fragmentation
Master of Fragmentation seems like a great trait to use with the Shatter-happy ChronoWard. However, while MoF does improve all your Shatter skills, it does so in a half-hearted manner: the improvements it makes are situational at best and almost negligible at worst. Ineptitude is generally the better trait regardless of your build.
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- Malicious Sorcery
Interestingly, Malicious Sorcery’s attack speed boost applies to nearly everything; from channelling Mantras to ressing and stomping. The CD reduction coupled with Alacrity makes Illusionary Counter almost spammable, giving you both great offense and decent mitigation. A good trait for Sceptre users.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
SPECIALISATION: INSPIRATION
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Inspiration is a powerful defensive specialisation (thought some say that Chaos is better), providing superior healing and condition cleansing through Restorative Illusions. Mender’s Purity synergises wonderfully with Mantra of Recovery, and indeed you should generally only take MoRec if you’re speccing Inspiration.
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Be aware that as Distortion prevents capture point contribution, Inspiring Distortion has a tendency to work against you during team fights by forcing your entire team to decap when you just want to defend yourself.
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Adept
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- Medic’s Feedback
A good trait for the support-minded ChronoWard. Between this and all the Quickness, Slow and control effects the ChronoWard can potentially access you can revive allies from nearly any situation.
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- Restorative Mantras
A good boost to Mantra of Recovery’s healing. Remember that this is a group heal (as with most Mantra effects) so it can provide some support during team fights too. Mantra of Pain can be used with this for a reasonably spammable heal, although decent opponents will punish you for spending so much time channelling.
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- Persisting Images
If you’re not particularly support-minded and aren’t using Mantras then Persisting Images is the way to go. The health boost is rather negligible but the Retaliation can be surprisingly effective, dealing healthy damage (especially in hybrid builds) to enemies that cleave or AoE your Phantasms.
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Master
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- Warden’s Feedback
Reflection is situational in sPvP, and in any case if you’re not taking Inspiration for Restorative Illusions, what are you taking it for!? Don’t use this, or the Focus for that matter.
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- Restorative Illusions
The definitive Inspiration trait, and synergises beautifully with the ChronoWard. With all the Shattering you’d do, you’d be healing and cleansing conditions like crazy. I’d almost consider this a core trait, but then I can’t claim the ChronoWard is the most versatile Mesmer build. Always take this if you’re speccing Inspiration.
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- Protected Phantasms
Terrible. Even in 5vs5 team fights this trait is unlikely to make much difference. A WvW trait that has no place in sPvP.
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Grandmaster
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- Mental Defence
Mental Defence bypasses the long cast time of Phantasmal Defender to give you… the Phantasmal Defender. Note that any CD reduction that affects the Defender skill also affects the ICD on this trait, meaning Alacrity and Persistence of Memory both affect Mental Defence. A solid pick providing both extra illusion generation and mitigation.
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- Illusionary Inspiration
As the ChronoWard will have Phantasms up quite a lot, Illusionary Inspiration could be a way to gain perma-Regeneration. Regeneration isn’t that strong however, so the main reason to use this trait is for boon sharing. Unfortunately as a ChronoWard you cannot use both this and Chaos, so what boons you can share is rather limited.
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- Temporal Enchanter
If you’re running a lot of Glamours then this could be a useful trait, although its impact is questionable. The duration increase is somewhat minor, the Super Speed isn’t helpful and the Resistance, while nice, is too short. Even with a few Glamours I would lean towards Mental Defence.
SPECIALISATION: CHAOS
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Some people claim that Chaos is the better Mesmer defensive spec, and they do have a point. If you’re after superb damage mitigation and the only real source of Stability as a Mesmer, Chaos is the way to go. I personally prefer Inspiration because Chaos provides no answers for enemy conditions, but there’s no denying that for raw defence Chaos wins, hands down.
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Adept
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- Descent into Madness
Pretty much useless in sPvP. Falling in Skycancer will likely kill you Descent into Madness or no. Do not use.
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- Illusionary Defence
If you’re not using any Manipulations then this is the way to go. Provides a healthy amount of damage mitigation, nothing earth-shattering but nothing to sneeze at either.
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- Master of Manipulations
Blink is great, so what’s better than Blink? Blink with lower CD and reflection, of course. This also makes Mirror a kinda-sorta viable heal if you’re so inclined. Note that if you reflect a projectile in stealth you will be revealed, so take care when using this with Mass Invisibility.
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Master
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- Mirror of Anguish
This is what you use when you don’t want the other two traits. It doesn’t actually prevent you from being CC’d so its usefulness is dubious outside of 1vs1s, and the ICD is rather long for what it does.
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- Chaotic Transference
If you’re using Settler or Rabid then Chaotic Transference can be a nice boost to your damage. Otherwise though it’s rather boring, and not very high-impact compared to Chaotic Dampening.
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- Chaotic Dampening
Unless you don’t have Leap finishers and Ethereal fields you should pick this, even if you aren’t wielding a Staff. Chaos Armour is easy to get as a Mesmer (and especially as a Chronomancer), so getting guaranteed Protection with it is a great bargain. The CD reduction on Staff skills is also nice, overall granting you a lot of mitigation.
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Grandmaster
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- Chaotic Interruption
A good offensive trait even without a dedicated interrupt build, effectively turning most CCs into Stuns on top of its other effects. That said you should probably only use this in an interrupt build unless you’re really averse to Bountiful Disillusionment.
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- Prismatic Understanding
Provides a sizable boost to your stealth skills, a good trait to take with the Torch (especially since The Pledge isn’t available) and Decoy. The boons it provide help mitigate enemy cleave and AoE.
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- Bountiful Disillusionment
As the only real source of Stability for Mesmers, this is great: the ChronoWard Shatters a lot, so you will in turn be getting a lot of Stability. The other boons it grants to you and your allies aren’t bad either: of particular note is Resistance on Continuum Split, as conditions are one of the things that don’t get reset when you Shift back. The default choice unless you’re running stealth or interrupts.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
SPECIALISATION: DUELING
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An offensive specialisation for the hybrid ChronoWard, Dueling provides a reasonably reliable source of Bleeding from Sharper Images and the best source of personal Fury. It also includes a few useful defensive traits like Critical Infusion and Blinding Dissipation, giving you some mitigation even as you go full glass on your foes.
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Adept
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- Phantasmal Fury
The Avenger doesn’t do a lot of damage, so if you use this trait it will mostly be for the Duelist. On the other hand the Duelist can inflict more Bleeding with Duelist’s Discipline (albeit with less direct damage), so the only reason to use this is if you aren’t wielding a Pistol (which you probably are if you’re taking Dueling).
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- Desperate Decoy
While this looks like a good defensive trait, it is actually a trap. When Desperate Decoy procs it interrupt whatever actions you are doing (to prevent you from immediately revealing yourself), including things like casting your heal, ressing and stomping. As there’s no way to stop this happening other than not going below 50% health, there’s a good chance this trait will kill you by proccing at the most inopportune moment. Do not use unless you feel lucky.
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- Duelist’s Discipline
Gives the Duelist that much more bite. While the CD reduction on interrupt doesn’t affect the Duelist that much thanks to the ChronoWard’s awesome Phantasm CD reduction, it does make quite a big difference for Magic Bullet. Definitely use this if you’re running the Pistol.
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Master
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- Blinding Dissipation
A very good defensive trait especially with the ChronoWard’s Shatter cadence. Pair this with Ineptitude and you also got a recipe for more Confusion on Shattering. Unless you’re looking for something specific, this should be your go-to trait for this tier.
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- Evasive Mirror
If you know your opponents are very projectile-heavy then this is a great trait to use. Otherwise however Blinding Dissipation is more generally useful.
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- Fencer’s Finesse
While Fencer’s Finesse provides a nice bonus for Sword wielders, it mostly cannot compete with Blinding Dissipation’s mitigation. May be useful for hybrid builds that don’t mind losing defence for a bit of extra damage.
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Grandmaster
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- Harmonious Mantras
Obviously a great trait for Mantra users. While Mantra of Recovery should generally be used with Inspiration, it can also be viable with this. The main reason to take this trait however is to give you extra charges for Mantra of Distraction.
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- Mistrust
A bad trait. 2 stacks of Confusion isn’t very impactful even in an AoE, especially for a GM trait. If you’re running an interrupt build you’re likely using Mantra of Distraction, and would benefit more from Harmonious Mantras.
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- Deceptive Evasion
With the base ChronoWard’s illusion generation, taking Deceptive Evasion is mostly overkill. However, if you aren’t using Mantras then you may as well take this. If you really, really don’t need more illusions then you might take Mistrust. Maybe.
SPECIALISATION: DOMINATION
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For hybrid ChronoWards, Dueling is usually the superior offensive spec. That said Domination does provide some very potent traits for interrupt builds as well as the ultimate boon stripping trait Shattered Concentration, so it certainly isn’t a spec to discount lightly.
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Adept
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- Confounding Suggestions
A great trait with or without Mantra of Distraction. While the Daze to Stun aspect is not that great without it (particularly since Diversion will replace the Stun with a Daze if the target is hit more than once), it does also extend the duration of your CCs; so it remains a useful pick for any build.
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- Empowered Illusions
A nice damage boost for hybrids, but as one of your Phantasms is always Avenger the effect is somewhat diminished. Still, if you’re not too sure about Confounding Suggestions then this is a safe pick.
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- Rending Shatter
A rather weak trait further overshadowed by the amount of Vulnerability you can dish out just from choosing Domination. With the ease you can reach the Vulnerability cap this is liable to do nothing at all, and otherwise just doesn’t compare to its alternatives.
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Master
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- Shattered Concentration
One of the most powerful sources of boon stripping in the game, you should almost always pick Shattered Concentration if you go into Domination. With the amount of Shatters you’d be doing your opponents will struggle to keep any boons at all. A no-brainer pick unless you really, really like Signets.
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- Blurred Inscriptions
If you use a few Signets and really, really want lower CDs for them then you might consider Blurred Inscriptions. The Distortion effect sounds nice on paper but in practice is only really useful for Signet of Midnight, the sole instant-cast Signet. The cleansing effect is likewise rather minor.
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Some people try to use Blurred Inscriptions with Inspiring Distortion, but since Distortion prevents capture point contribution that is not welcomed in sPvP; and as a ChronoWard you won’t be able to take both Domination and Inspiration anyway.
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- Furious Interruption
As mentioned a few times, Quickness doesn’t improve Mesmer DPS very much, and Quickness on interrupt is hardly on-demand; making this a poor choice even in interrupt builds. Shattered Concentration is a much more useful trait.
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Grandmaster
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- Imagined Burden
As you really shouldn’t be wielding a Greatsword as a ChronoWard, this isn’t up for consideration. Even with a Greatsword you likely wouldn’t run this in sPvP, as it provides little extra burst and simply isn’t build-defining like its competitors are.
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- Mental Anguish
A good boost to Mind Wrack (and to a small extent Cry of Frustration) damage, especially when paired with disabling effects. For hybrids that aren’t running interrupt builds this is a safe choice.
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- Power Block
The Holy Grail of interrupt traits, this allows you to shut your opponents down every time you interrupt them. If you’re good with this you wouldn’t be doing much less burst than if you took Mental Anguish either.
RUNES
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As there are a lot of runes (and sigils), most of which are not relevant to the ChronoWard, I am not going to go through all of them in detail. Listed here are runes that at least somewhat contribute to your offensive power, so purely defensive runes are ignored. That is not to say you should not use them: you are very much encouraged to use whatever suits your build.
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Condition
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- Rune of the Guardian
I expect many people will think Rune of the Guardian is be perfect for the ChronoWard, so I’ll ward this off first. It isn’t. It’s not bad, but 1s Burning is really quite minor and any opponent that will hit your Blocks multiple times is an opponent you can beat without this Rune.
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- Rune of the Nightmare
You’ll generally find that Rune of the Nightmare gives you the most overall damage out of your conditions (provided they don’t get cleansed). More interesting is the long ICD Fear on hit which can help mitigate suprise attacks. A solid amulet for any ChronoWarrd build.
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- Rune of Scavenging
Primarily for Carrion users, Rune of Scavenging gives a decent chunk of extra condition damage as well as providing some extra survivability through life steal; which Carrion, being a relatively glassy amulet, can definitely appreciate.
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- Rune of the Sunless
The reduction to enemy condition duration may be of minor benefit if you’re not running condition cleanses. More importantly, this turns all your Elites into AoE Fears, making them even more game-changing during team fights.
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- Rune of the Undead
For Settler and Rabid users. A straight up boost to condition damage and a slight bonus to survivability, simple but effective. Especially useful for Settler users to augment their somewhat low offensive power.
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- Rune of Tormenting
As the primary source of your damage is Maim the Disillusioned, Rune of Tormenting is a solid boost to your offensive power. As a big condition duration boost however it runs the risk of being nullified by cleanses, making this slightly situational.
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Hybrid
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- Rune of Adventure
Hybrid builds tend to skimp on defence, so an extra dodge every (potentially) 10 seconds is a welcome boost. A solid rune for the hybrid ChronoWard.
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- Rune of the Aristocracy
As Might affects both direct and condition damage, Rune of the Aristocracy is especially effective for hybrid builds; though it remains useful for any kind of condition build.
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- Rune of the Berserker
A considerably more offensive variant of Rune of Adventure. If you’re after maximum damage at any cost, Rune of the Berserker is a fitting choice.
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- Rune of the Chronomancer
While it does not provide any boost for condition damage, on-demand Quickness on Wells can be useful for the Well-inclined hybrid ChronoWard; especially as Sieze the Moment is not available.
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- Rune of Lyssa
Offense-wise, Rune of Lyssa is very weak, providing only marginal benefits to direct and condition damage. Its primary draw is what is essentially a full condition cleanse when you cast your Elite, which can be very useful for builds that otherwise don’t have much cleansing.
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- Rune of Vampirism
The former king of glass cannon survivability remains a potent source of sustain. While it does not provide benefits for condition damage, it can certainly find use amongst hybrid ChronoWards looking for extra healing.
SIGILS
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Swap
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- Sigil of Doom
Poison is difficult for Mesmers to access and has the potent effect of weakening heals, making Sigil of Doom a very solid choice for any condition Mesmer.
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- Sigil of Energy
Dodging is so central fo GW2 combat that no profession or build can say no to Sigil of Energy. Personally I’d recommend everyone use at least one of these, if not two.
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- Sigil of Geomancy
If your lack Precision and want to access Bleeding as a cover condition (it really doesn’t do that much damage) then Sigil of Geomancy can be for you. Doom provides a much rarer and stronger condition though.
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- Sigil of Leeching
If you want more survivability and have already taken Sigil of Energy then Leeching is a good sigil to take. The effect is not that significant however and I’d generally recommend an offensive sigil instead.
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Critical
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- Sigil of Air
For the hybrid ChronoWard who wants more burst. As Sigil of Air cannot crit itself the lack of Ferocity is not a problem.
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- Sigil of Earth
If you have Precision and want Bleeding then you want Sigil of Earth instead of Geomancy (unless you’re really interested in AoE Bleeding). Best used for non-Dueling builds on a non-Staff weapon so it can be utilised as a cover condition.
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- Sigil of Fire
Sigil of Air not enough burst for you? Add Sigil of Fire for maximum burst! The AoE damage is nice but generally not that significant.
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- Sigil of Generosity
If you’re skimping on condition cleansing then definitely consider investing in Sigil of Generosity. Highly unreliable, but better than nothing and can be a good supplement for other cleansing sources.
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- Sigil of Torment
Unlike Bleeding you pretty much always have access to Torment, so this is purely for extra damage and provides no cover. For single target pressure however Earth is better unless you’ve invested in Torment duration.
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Constant
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- Sigil of Bursting
Sigil of Bursting increases your condition damage stat rather than your raw condition damage, so it’s generally weaker than you might expect. Still it’s one of the few ways to boost your condition ticks.
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- Sigil of Corruption
If you’re really confident in your ability to stay alive then Sigil of Corruption may be for you. Otherwise I think there are better sigils to take.
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- Sigil of Frailty
As both Staff and Sword can inflict Vulnerability easily this is only really useful on the Sceptre for cover. Unlike other condition-inflicting sigils this one doesn’t require Precision.
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- Sigil of Purity
The Precision-poor Mesmer’s Sigil of Generosity. That said it can also be used by the Precision-rich to supplement Generosity if they’re really worried about conditions, although at that point it may be time to invest in more reliable options.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Reserved for future use.
While I won’t pretend I read everything, I am surprised you don’t mention celestial amulet. This feels like a very reasonable choice for the builds you present.
While I won’t pretend I read everything, I am surprised you don’t mention celestial amulet. This feels like a very reasonable choice for the builds you present.
I considered it but I’ve yet to see a working Celestial Mesmer build. I feel like it’s an amulet for professions that can facetank, which the Mesmer isn’t even with Restorative Illusions.
If I’m proven wrong however I’d definitely add it in.
Top notch guide, thank you.
That is the most verbose way to describe a pretty straight forward Chrono Condie-Shatter build. ;-)
However, a good source of information none the less and a lot of work and time went into it. I didn’t read large parts though, because as I said, the build concepts are pretty obvious and common as with Chrono you don’t really have that many options on how to build for Condie Shatter. (Or hybrid too. It’s all neat, but I have to say I have tested various hybrid setups with Chrono time and again, and I always end up back at either Power or Condie, but both together just never really seems to work well.)
And all that said, I feel Condie Shatter is currently rather weak in comparison to Power shatter. Even more so than before HoT and the recent patches. The old MtD was simply way stronger than any Condition build now with the nerfed MtD. I am a huge fan of Condie Shatter builds, but I mostly play Power Shatter now because it’s just so much more effective in PvP. (And unlike pre-HoT, we can be rather tanky/survivable too thanks to Shield & Wells.)
While the offensive portion of Condi Chrono is pretty straight forward, the main point of this is actually PoM + CP; which I think a lot of people are overlooking. Under ideal situations this means 6.4s CD for Echo of Memory, not taking into account PoM from any other Shattered Phantasm.
My main goal with this guide then is to highlight the incredible defensive power of the Mesmer possible with the Chronomancer, which most people are not aware of due to being stuck in the mindset of “Mesmer = glass burst”.
So yes, offensive-wise the ChronoWard doesn’t outshine Power builds, but even a glassy ChronoWard can sit on points (note that neither sample I posted uses stealth) for a long time.
It’s also meant to be a rather general guide for sPvP. A lot of the stuff I went through (Mesmer in general, basically) can apply to any Mesmer, not just these builds specifically.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Great comprehensive guide.
I’ve been running a similar bunker build with Settler amulet since HoT’s release and didn’t even realize how easily I could modify it a bit (to the Hybrid Burst build sample here) to be a very potent glass cannon. Love this much more than the standard power shatter and feels much more fun to play, for me at least.
My god, so much info! Thanks for this very informative guide. I have recently tried out alacrity mesmer on a power build, and I’m loving it atm. Your reasons why condi is better for alacrity make a lot of sense and I shall be trying it out very soon, although for some reason I’ve never been a big fan.
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Despite the respect for the time you put into it I do’nt think you are offering any “build” as such. I mean you recommend more than half of the spells of the game, almost every weapon possible and every trait. So … is that just your way of seeing every mesmer related stuff or a real build at last ?
Plus I don’t really like the lack of uniqueness of the build. It’s very simple, it’s a spam your shatters build without any addition to it.
As for the shield it blocks damage but not conditions in a lot of scenarios and it is not as potent as it seems in many situations. Plus it’s so obvious and people are already used to it. It’s almost a breathing space for any opponent when a chrono uses his 4’s shield spell.
I start to think that the Chrono is in a crap spot in PvP at least. It’s a veeeery obvious specialization with a lot of massive flashy effects and obvious aoe which are for most (except gravity well) super easy to dodge in a second. Compared to the lovely op Dragon Hunter who can stun locks the whole planet in a matter of seconds the Chrono wells and shield are quite … sad.
But it’s just my bitter opinion on the matter.
Despite the respect for the time you put into it I do’nt think you are offering any “build” as such. I mean you recommend more than half of the spells of the game, almost every weapon possible and every trait. So … is that just your way of seeing every mesmer related stuff or a real build at last ?
Plus I don’t really like the lack of uniqueness of the build. It’s very simple, it’s a spam your shatters build without any addition to it.As for the shield it blocks damage but not conditions in a lot of scenarios and it is not as potent as it seems in many situations. Plus it’s so obvious and people are already used to it. It’s almost a breathing space for any opponent when a chrono uses his 4’s shield spell.
I start to think that the Chrono is in a crap spot in PvP at least. It’s a veeeery obvious specialization with a lot of massive flashy effects and obvious aoe which are for most (except gravity well) super easy to dodge in a second. Compared to the lovely op Dragon Hunter who can stun locks the whole planet in a matter of seconds the Chrono wells and shield are quite … sad.
But it’s just my bitter opinion on the matter.
I go through every weapon and skill to give my thoughts on them. If it seems like a lot are “recommended” it’s because there’s a lot of leeway without taking away from the core build. The point of this guide is not to dictate “this is how you MUST build it” (except in cases where something is so bad it should never be taken), it’s to give (hopefully sound) advice on making your own build.
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The shield blocks conditions just fine: you’re falling into the same trap people who complain about “condi cancer” fall into, they think the only counter to condi is cleansing when in fact the exact same defences against direct damage also apply to condi application. The difference is if direct damage goes through your defences you take the full consequences immediately (which can very well be death), whereas with condis you have a second chance with cleanses.
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As activating Block is pretty much instant it’s not at all difficult to put it up just before an opponent’s attack lands. Even if that’s the only hit that’s all you need to use it again, conjure a second Phantasm, Shatter them and get it all back within seconds. As I mentioned before, under ideal conditions you can use Echo of Memory every 6.4s, which means you’re blocking 70% of the time. That’s 70% of the time they can’t attack you (not quite true of course), whereas you can still attack them with Shatters.
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This, by the way, is what makes the ChronoWard unique. Lots of Mesmers use the shield, many use Chronophantasma, but very very few use Persistence of Memory. There’s a very good reason it’s core.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
“To start off: you should never use your Elites without also using Continuum Split. For long CD Elites (Time Warp and Signet of Humility), only using them while Splitted means cutting down their CD to Continuum Split’s CD, which with Alacrity (and Master of Misdirection) can be as low as 46s.”
46s? Not 51s (76.5*0.66 ~ 51 )? Btw how you reach alacrity 100% uptime ,assuming shatter hard and almost no alacrity from avengers ( dying due shatters/aoe, not in range,…). Did you check it?
I think blocks pehaps will be less useful (stealth too though), as soon as ppl learn to save/use right their unblockable (bunch of new unblockable skills was introduced in HoT) skills.
Sometimes I use build like that http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAreWncfC9fi1fC2qBEgilnj6sACgDDdxynDo+PP0FF-TpQZQA+9HAlBAA
But get bored fast from slow pace of non glass builds tbh.
Alacrity increases CD recharge speed by 66%. That means for every second, 1.66 seconds of CD is reduced. Divide the normal CD by the Alacrity-time to get how many Alacrity-time units needs to pass for the CD to finish. Each Alacrity-time unit corresponds to 1s, so that’s also how much real time passes.
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76.5 / 1.66 = 46
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You can count on Alacrity from Avenger pretty well actually. The first hit shouldn’t be difficult to get, Déjà vu gets you a second Avenger with a second hit, Chronophantasma resets them for a third and fourth hit, and by the time they’re gone the next round of Echo of Memory is almost ready. Since you want to be close for Shatters anyway you wouldn’t be out of range often, especially when standing on points.
With Unblockable attacks the main ones you worry about are the ones that also CC, and fortunately there’s not too many of those. Notable ones include traited Test of Faith (which I fully expect to be nerfed at some point), Reaper’s Mark and Wail of Doom.
Yeah, you are right with 46s.
Block often used when escaping from fight, thus I exceed range limits.
To counter blocks you listed I would add revenant with Phase traversal + staff2\staff5 (meta now, juts ppl not used to specs), DH’s Spear of justice/pull and deflecting shot traited with Heavy light (it CC 1 per 10 sec from bow skills, some ppl adapt to switch to bow right when enemy is blocking), engies’ magnet and slick shoes(in lesser degree), warr’s Fear me (shoutbow not in meta now though).
For me it feels like anet slightly pushing mesmer from standard shatter to more tanky and utility builds.
(edited by Mak.2657)
There are indeed more Unblockable CCs now, but a beauty of Echo of Memory is 1. its CD can get very low, and you can proc Déjà Vu easily if you use it reactively; and 2. it’s divided into two 2.25s sections, so if the first one if interrupted the next one isn’t far behind. In practice I find that DHs are the only ones that give me real trouble, but I also feel they’re a bit overtuned at the moment.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
I wanted to do some sPVP again so I took the Hybrid build out for a spin. I love it and felt like I kicked kitten in the 3 matches I played (not that many matches but still a nice first impression). I did, however, use Rabid amulet but intend to switch to sinister once I get better.
Great effort and “guide” to condi mesmer, i do applaud encouraing people to come with their own builds and your insight is very helpfull.
Ther is only one point i dont agree with you and that is Mirror heal.
I find it very ussefull with revenant runes and traited.
If you compare it with ether heal ,you can clean 2 more conditions in about same time (+5 sec) and reflect a LOT of ranged dmg ,and tnx to runes not negliable 2 sec resistance every 12sec.
I use it with Null field for a lot of resitance condi clears and boon striping.