That’s primarily why I don’t use it over putting my energy into Rite of the Great Dwarf instead. Trying to run Hammers consistently, as you say, doesn’t work because of hills, walls, stairs…hell running through doors you break down cancels it lol.
I’ve been skipping hammer as well, except during regroups when it’s fun to play with the spell effects.
In dwarf, I usually just use Inspiring Reinforcement in the direction I want to head, Rite of the Great Dwarf, and the heal if I get overloaded with condis. Once all three of those have been used and my energy is low, it’s back to glint for protection and regen.
So I’ve been running this, which is similar, but a little different:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsXin3geNSuQvJRboHlsP0kS4I6SJ4EtrklZlhNmb+RNgCawe6q/G
More focused on damage reduction and control reduction, especially with the extra stab-stacks.
It’s been working ok in limited environments. I wonder about replacing Hammer with Mace/Sword or Mace/Shield, and whether Mallyx would be a better option than one of my existing elites.
I’m struggling to figure out the ‘engagement’ rotation… Glint heal, Glint elite, swap to dwarf, RotGD, Staff3 works ok so far… Damage inversion, enemy control/superspeed, 50% damage reduction then some temporary ‘immunity’ doesn’t hurt.
From a zerg/group player perspective… I’m still figuring it out.
Super speed provides a huge boost in illusion survival, which is much needed, but still might not be enough to make shatters as viable as other profession mechanics. Even my best shatter only contributes about as much damage as a single Lava Font or meteor shower, with much more set-up involved.
I’ve mostly been running a Staff/GS ranged Dueling/Chaos/Chrono shatter/AoE build. Utilities are Blink, WoCalamity, Veil, and Gravity Well.
It’s working ok… though I’m trying to figure out if I want to try ditching reliance on shatters and just focus on mid-line tanking and well support or pick up Signet of Illusions and Inspiration to beef up my illusions enough that they may survive a bit longer…
With most people still completing PvE content, it’s been hard to get an organized guild group together and really start nailing down some of our new synergies. :-) Having a blast in PvE and roaming though!
I’ve mostly been playing big event swarms, but I’m absolutely loving it.
Running Dueling and Chronomancer, occasionally swapping between Domination, Chaos, and Inspiration depending on my mood for the third slot. Always shatter/alacrity focused.
Overall, I’m really impressed with the support options. Huge quickness uptime from shield, the well, and Time warp (double with Continuum Split). Alacrity is loved by all. Phantasms and clones are surviving way better with the recent change.
It’s a very active profession now, and really rewards skillful play.
I still feel like I’m not really interested in the top line of our chrono traits which revolve around Slows. And I wish the Inspiration line was a bit more helpful. The phantasm/clone survival traits are laughable in PvE with the new buffs but still underperform in WvW.
I think we can build to be a very supportive profession, it’s just not in raw healing numbers.
iDefender, stuns/dazes, interrupts, reflections, and on-demand blind are great ways to prevent damage to the team. Our new Blur well is phenomenal in that regard as well.
Quickness, Alacrity, Vigor, and Regeneration are all solid contributions to supporting our team.
I think the Inspiration line could be tweaked though. Persisting images is too selfish, Inspiring Distortion rarely happens (we don’t distort very often), and Healing Prism was nerfed soooo much. I wouldn’t mind at least one group oriented trait in the center column as well…
I’m a big fan of GS1… wouldn’t change it.
Also, didn’t you JUST make a post almost exactly like this one a week or two ago?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Suggestion-Greatsword-1/first#post5613759
It was seen as a passive playstyle that made the game unfun. All clone death traits were removed from the game several patches ago (though similar traits in other classes still persist).
Which other traits still exist on other classes?
Traits like the necromancer on-minion-death ones are a bit different than our clone death ones. Necromancer minions don’t contribute to the profession’s mechanic (death shroud).
In the case of the Mesmer, those traits directly discouraged use of the class mechanics by providing an alternate way to spend the required resource (illusions).
I liked them as a way to even the playing field when shattering was impossible/unlikely, but I agree with ANet that it was a bit counterproductive to have builds which discouraged shattering.
This is a great change for PvE, thanks so much!
I will echo what many others have said regarding WvW, however. I mostly play a mesmer and our profession’s reliance on our illusions in order to use our class mechanic paired with horrible illusion durability in medium/large battles remains an outstanding pain point.
Maybe a fraction of this damage reduction could apply in WvW, but PvP is kept the same?
Still useless in WvW, but a step forward is still a step forward, right?
Yeah… poor WvW mesmers. :-( I’ll still try to make it ‘work’.
I had pretty good success taking superspeed and the illusion health signet, but it’s still not very ideal.
I’d love to see a portion of this damage reduction carry over in to WvW.
I like it as is… and wouldn’t change much about it.
The non-typical use of the weapon is appealing to me. I love that we channel through it and don’t just swing it around like everyone else. The damage on the auto is a little low, I’d agree to that.
I don’t mind the cleave-in-a-line that it does now, but would always welcome an on-target AoE radius instead. I tend to use the auto more for single target and damage to anyone in the line of focus as an added bonus.
Each skill brings something new to the table, making it a weapon that focuses on diversity rather than redundancy. I’d find it pretty boring if every skill was just a different damage number with a different cooldown.
I think we have staff and sword for our close-range weapon options. I like having a longer range option to complement them. Making it melee would bum me out and remove a lot of our viability at range.
No word yet. We’re not guaranteed to hear anything from ANet about changes for HoT until HoT is released. Any information that is posted is most likely going to be incomplete or subject to change anyways.
If I could change one thing and only one thing, I’d make overloads fire weakened versions if interrupted/canceled instead of nothing. I play WvW a lot and wouldn’t mind a 3.5s channel that gets interrupted being a bit closer to a 4.0s channel.
I wouldn’t really consider Chrono a “control” spec, given it doesn’t really compare to Domination when it comes to control. Tides of Time and Gravity Well are solid control skills but that’s about it, the rest is at most soft CC.
Overall the Chronomancer feels like it augments everything the Mesmer does, so while it does augment control it also augments everything else. Whether this is the nature of the spec (it is, but…) or more an artifact of how flawed the base Mesmer is is up for discussion.
Reason I want to dispute this is because I’d like to see a proper control elite spec in the future.
I’d support that. It’s hard to tell if ANet is going for “theme” or “purpose” with its specs. Chronomancer feels like it’s centered around a “theme”, but doesn’t have a specific focus. It complements a lot of builds, but doesn’t stand out as being the best for a specific play style. Druid, on the other hand, has a very particular focus: support. Whether it’s supporting through pure healing numbers or through damage reductions or stun-breaks: you are supporting.
I’d love to see each line get this kind of focus. I’d love to take Domination, knowing that each and every trait there is somehow bolstering my ability to control. Or have Inspiration be our support line, replacing the selfish phantasm-only traits with group-oriented support.
I feel like there are a few different types of tanking in this game.
Chrono and mesmer seem pretty strong for PvE tanking. We’ve got a lot of access to Vigor, blocks, and protection paired with strong mobility and distractions via illusions. Phantasmal Defender is a unique, powerful skill.
Front-line WvW tanking… bleh. We lack significant stability there. Our mobility is backwards (staff) or requires a clone on a target (Sword leap). Since so much of our defense comes from illusions, and they’re so fragile in AoE situations, we really don’t do as well as we could in that situation. Chrono doesn’t do much to improve that area either as the slows are single targets, the buffs aren’t protective, and so many of the traits require illusions to actually be alive.
I think we’ll see some great PvE mesmer tanks. I think we’ll need another elite spec or two to see any WvW front-line mesmers.
I’d love to see scepter adjusted to fill the role of “ranged single target”, complementing staff’s ranged area damage.
I love dagger’s in-your-face mobility and damage. I’d like to see a MH sword that’s more focused on active survival and stability, giving the profession a front-line option. Blocks, evades, aegis, blinds, and stability would be awesome.
I am loving the chronomancer so far (mainly because it fixes a lot of issues the mesmer had in the first place). My problem still is phantasms, especially the iavenger. The main problem is the instant death of phantasms.
While fighting the red wyvern you cant get close to the it at all and all illusions just die. Mesmer’s should not be babysitting class (especially when you see your “babies” explode lol). I mainly play pve and in it the extreme shutdown of illusions in the new content makes me worried about how mesmers will be treated (like necro and ranger in fractals). Truly i don’t know how to fix this issues without people calling it op
The iavenger specifically is an annoying because it is so unreliable. My idea is split defensive phantasms from offensive phantasms. defensive phantasms should be not be linked to targets but linked to the caster. The idefender, ienchanter and the iavenger need to be linked to the caster and follow the player around. Kasmeer’s phantasms are not linked to targets but to her. So why can’t ours?
How to fix the phantasm lifespan issue? Again, no clue.
This has really popped up for me too. In 1v1 or general PvE, the class is stellar. Love it. Wouldn’t change a thing.
As soon as I start fighting enemies with moderate-to-heavy AoE, the effectiveness of the profession plummets. Wyvern is a great example, WvW group fights are another. Even with the illusion health signet, DE, superspeed, and protection on shatter, I’m still having trouble getting more than 1 illusion to reach its target.
Chronomancer feels much better at this and super speed helps a ton, but it’s still silly that I get excited to see a single phantasm survive long enough to land a 2k damage mindwrack while the elementalist next to me simply taps his Lava Font for a greater impact.
Again- this problem doesn’t seem to exist in smaller fights. Most PvP, roaming, and elite pve mobs feel great.
Mostly been trying out the Ventari legend in WvW this weekend.
It feels like it was designed when strong support wasn’t an option. Then Druid came along and now it feels in an awkward place. Its sole contribution is support, just like the Druid, but its output feels significantly weaker and more demanding of a player’s focus.
My suggestions:
– Boost overall passive healing near the tablet. It’s got a tiny area, but it should be powerful if allies are within that area.- Add a final heal Ventari’s Will that’s bigger than the pass-through heal. It feels really annoying to have to run the thing “through” people all the time. I want to place it in the hottest area and leave it alone so I can use my other skills, not keep zipping it over people all the time. It feels like some sort of healing shake-weight right now.
I played around with healing traits and Ventari a lot this weekend. Ironically what I found out was using herald and keeping regen on always was almost just as effective as using Ventari (because it looses a lot of healing from party members moving/dodging etc). Aside from the near perma projectile block with Ventari it just wasn’t used much. Personally I think it needs a much larger passive heal aoe range. But worst case scenario It stays the same and I just use it when I need a projectile block. =P
Forgot to mention was ticking over 500/s with regen from glint alone, with Ventari the passive regen and heals just wasn’t sticking because people would move/spread out etc.
Same experience here. Herald is a great complement to Ventari… but Ventari by itself doesn’t feel like it has as much output as it should.
Now that Druid sets a bar for healing throughput, I’d like to see Ventari revs, Water eles, and Medkit engis get their healing adjusted to be on the same tier. As a mesmer main… I wouldn’t mind throwing Mesmer’s Inspiration line into that list as well. :-)
Either way, the gameplay is ok… for me it’s just that the numbers need to be worth the effort it takes to drive that little tablet around and right now they just aren’t.
Mostly been trying out the Ventari legend in WvW this weekend.
It feels like it was designed when strong support wasn’t an option. Then Druid came along and now it feels in an awkward place. Its sole contribution is support, just like the Druid, but its output feels significantly weaker and more demanding of a player’s focus.
My suggestions:
– Boost overall passive healing near the tablet. It’s got a tiny area, but it should be powerful if allies are within that area.
- Add a final heal Ventari’s Will that’s bigger than the pass-through heal. It feels really annoying to have to run the thing “through” people all the time. I want to place it in the hottest area and leave it alone so I can use my other skills, not keep zipping it over people all the time. It feels like some sort of healing shake-weight right now.
Preface
I predominantly play WvW in medium/large groups, so a lot of my feedback will be from that point of view.
Shield
Echo of Memory Great skill and LOVING the change to block. 2-5 seconds of block time is a life saver, literally.
The phantasm Melee range requirement kills this for me, unfortunately. A melee phantasm is almost completely ineffective in group WvW battles.
Tides of Time Really enjoy this skill as well. Nice quickness, great stun. The problem I have with this skill and most interrupt builds in WvW is the prevalence of stability and lack of true chain-casting in most in-range targets. This, paired with the phantasm, makes shield an unimpressive weapon in most group situations I’ve been in so far.
Wells
These are all great. Really enjoying them. Calamity is a beast, the Alacrity one is awesome. They all seem to have solid uses. They feel a little slow to cast and the range feels smaller than I’d like, but not all AoEs can be as awesome Chaos Storm. The only criticism I’d say is that mesmers are still locked in to veil/portal duty. I haven’t seen a single Scrapper stealth bomb. The result is that we can’t really use our Wells very often unless the raid is saturated with mesmers.
Traits
I have a difficult time with most of the traits due to the heavy damage and rapid target-switching in WvW. Slow doesn’t seem like the game-changer it is in PvP/PvE as most enemies will just use the slow duration as an opportunity to re-position.
We also have a lot of Slow-oriented traits. It’s had to interrupt targets, but even harder to interrupt a specific target enough to capitalize on Danger Time. Lost Time is neat… but again, it’s infrequent that I find myself really locked on to any one target for very long. When I tried these traits, I’d usually end up slowing random enemies without much impact.
Time Catches Up is the real winner for me here. My shatter success rate has climbed from about 10% to 50%. Paired with Illusionary Reversion, our illusion health signet, and Chronophantasma, I’m finding that I can actually land some shatters from time to time even in mid-density skirmishes. It’s a lot of skills/traits to reserve solely for landing shatters, however. I worry about the new BGs; the confined spaces seem to encourage choke points and that’s exactly where no illusions can hold up.
Overall
For me as a group-oriented WvW player, Chronomancer introduces a few new tools- not all of which have much value in the heat of battle.
Wells provide great AoE and support, however HoT as a whole doesn’t do much to improve the “veilbot” situation so it’s rare that I can slot more than one.
Alacrity is potent, but a reliable shatter cadence is rare. With our utility slots pre-claimed by commanders, alacrity from wells is a non-starter.
Shield’s block skill is great, but the phantasm and tides of time aren’t reliable enough for me to choose this over my other options.
The traits are nice… but our class mechanic is still unnecessarily ineffective in this game mode.
Overall, it’s enough to keep me interested in the mesmer, but I still have the feeling that other professions contribute much more to a group skirmish. Is it a step up? Absolutely. Is it a big enough step to compete with the meta classes/builds? Not in my mind.
Suggesions
Improving illusion survival after a shatter command has been given would be an enormous improvement for all mesmers and nearly every one of our trait lines. A blur, superspeed as baseline, even a stack of stability or a health boost- any one may be enough to get them past that tipping point of usefulness.
Swapping the iAvenger back to a ranged phantasm would significantly help that weapon’s competitiveness in this environment.
Generally, I’m pretty happy with a few of the builds I’ve tried. A solid improvement over the base profession, though there are still some areas of weakness that extend to all mesmers.
That is awesome to hear!
I can’t wait to test it out. With the extra .5% reduction per tick on Chaos Armor.. I’m wondering if Staff can get some pretty gnarly cooldown reduction!
I’m definitely going to be thinking about it.
Much like the elementalist, I really like the versatility of the Revenant. It has some ranged power builds with Hammer, some melee front-line options, some boon support and healing support. It seems like a great profession for folks who value versatility.
If raid performance for each of its roles is solid… I think it’ll be a real win. As a mesmer, I worry that our low DPS and “ok but maybe not necessary support” from Chronomancer won’t get us wanted in a few of the higher-end environments.
This is a great question, and hoping we can get an answer!
We’ve got a lot of interrupt traits that are very powerful. Triggering them on every interrupt opportunity might be overpowered (would that be 3x interrupts on our dazing shatter?)… but it would be underpowered/disappointing to have 0 effect outside of a hit to the defiance bar.
Alacrity is going to make mesmers in group play in all game modes much nicer to have around.
I hope that’s true, I like being wanted to have around.
Old-school mesmer felt like a lot of “get your phantasms up and keep them up for maximum damage.”
Chrono seems to offer a lot more. Maximizing Quickness and Alacrity uptime requires good use of wells and a healthy cadence of shattering. If the impact of “soft crowd control spells” allows our interrupt traits to flourish against defiance bars and challenging PvE enemies, then that’s even better.
Still concerned about our WvW performance, but I’ll be trying it out this weekend.
As for the earlier post about Ele/Tempest feedback… I have to say I agree. I had a blast playing my Tempest and successfully pulling off an Overload felt powerful and rewarding in the same way that a 3-clone shatter requires timing and awareness. I think it’s worth a try.
The only thing worth considering:
Other considerations
- Ele – talk about your boring staple of MMO classes
- Mesmer – Best, most amazing class experience for all time. For all time! ~Kanya West.
Ele theme is in almost every fantasy game, mesmer is pretty much only gw2 at the moment.
It’s true that it’s a unique, awesome play style. I’m the kind of player who really values being a representative of an under-played/under-valued class. That said… it can be frustrating to constantly be fighting against so many game mechanics that don’t enable the class to perform as well. Aoe damage destroying our illusions, PvE resistance to interrupts/stuns, and the underwhelming performance of Confusion in PvE (which has gotten better) all represent real struggles we face that are less of an issue for some other professions.
I’m struggling with exactly this choice right now. I think BWE3 and any changes that go live with HoT are going to be huge deciding factors for me.
Ele seems to have a lower skill floor, especially if you play staff. It’s pretty simple to get high damage, healing, or control contributions just by clicking the appropriate skills off cooldown. The skill ceiling feels pretty high as well, especially if you look in to a dagger/dagger build. The amount of synergy the class gets from the mix of combo fields and finishers is pretty awesome.
I’ll definitely be testing the Chrono out a lot in BWE3, especially in WvW and raids. My concern is that the Wells are our only real new ‘trick’ and that, awesome as they are, they require too much effort/coordination to get the maximum benefit.
If illusions continue to be as frail as they are today, then we’re also at a severe disadvantage with our class mechanic in any encounter with plentiful AoE, which will probably be the case in raiding environments.
GWEN should still be strong.
I’d wager that Druid will be pretty potent and welcome. Perhaps Revenant/Herald as an alternate healer/supporter if the buffs to Ventari legend are substantial.
I’m also hoping a few scrappers help out with group stealth duty.
Otherwise… I’m not hedging my bets on the others. Reaper, Tempest, Daredevil, and Dragonhunter all feel a bit too selfish or inferior to the base options for their respective professions. While I’d love Chronomancers to be a thing and the Wells look great, the weapon options and illusion mechanics still feel clumsy in group situations.
Really looking forward to the patch!
My fantasy wish list:
* Baseline AoE damage reduction to all pet classes, including clones/phantasms.
* 3rd hit of scepter automatically creates a clone next to you on completion and not on projectile hit.
* Reword of Master-tier Inspiration traits to add a non weapon-locked, non-selfish trait (Restorative illusions removes 1 condi for allies as well? Or make it an AoE Heal?)
* CD removal for Healing Prism, now heals for a percentage.
* Add Blur and Mirror to Inspiring Distortion.
I like the idea!
My only issue is that it could be confusing for new players or specific weapons. A flamethrower or grenade engi may not target foes directly so suddenly tossing everything it has under a phantasm and seeing no result could be super confusing.
Some alternate options I’d also be open to that follow the theme:
-Not immunity to damage, but a healthy damage reduction to AoE attacks in general. 30-50% damage reduction to area effect attacks, no impact on single target ones.
-Give illusions a stack or two of stability when commanded to shatter.
-Use some of the impressive new AI that’s coming with HoT to make minions avoid clustering up and give all illusions a priority to stay at range and avoid AoE attacks (I’m looking at you, shield phantasm)
@Fay
Do you run your mesmer in group WvW or do you swap to a different profession? Do you think Chronomancer will bring enough to the table to make it worthwhile or will it still be outshined by other professions?
Just curious. I always struggle with my desire to play the Mesmer in all game types but the disappointment at my performance compared with my alts in medium/large battles.
I and many others have tried our very best to make mesmers viable in terms of large damage output in a zerg. Unfortunately, it’s simply not possible due to the mechanics of the class. You’ll try something, get a bit of success with it, then go play a staff ele for comparison and realize just how incomparable the two are. Ever since glamours were nerfed into the ground, mesmer has been 100% totally nonviable for significant damage output other than in a pick group.
I definitely agree with this. That’s not to say we’re useless… but I definitely don’t think “damage” is my top contribution to my group. Reflects, Pulls, Veil, Portal, and Interrupts are usually where I feel I’m helping the most. Not the most bag-rewarding tasks, unfortunately. A staff ele or well necro will usually land me more income than my mesmer.
I’m really hoping HoT changes this a bit. Shield’s limitless Tides of Time skill, Wells, and faster recharge from Alacrity/F5 may help ease some of the pain a bit. Not sure it’ll overtake the dedicated AoE damage builds, but might get us closer.
Not 100% sure yet… sort of struggling to find a build that’ll work well, so there’ll be some testing in order. I’m mostly a group WvW player, which presents some unique challenges for the profession.
The ones I’ve been thinking of trying out first:
Chrono shatter:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAreRncfClphtfC+fCEgiFcj6sEmtarMAatfpOWr1cF-TlRBABXp8Lw9HwTLAAnAAKV/xMlgkCIihWA-w
Wondering if superspeed, protection, and blur on my phantasms/illusions will be enough to actually land a shatter in wvw. Will be trying it out to test! I would LOVE for it to be successful as I love the play style.
Some kind of interrupt-oriented, mid-range build…
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAreWncfClphtfC+fCEgilTjysFGibgMA2ggqOar2uF-TlRBABXp8Lw9HwTLAAnAAKV/xMlgkCIihWA-w
We’ll see how successful this is.. but I love interrupt/stun based play and the support we get from Wells. I’d love to make something like this work, obviously swapping out utilities as needed… Maybe trying our daze mantra along with the others. It’s just hard not to want to explore the potential of Tides of Time in group play!
I usually don’t keep Portal equipped, I just slot it in when asked.
I agree with others who’ve said that Veil is an over-used tool that removes a skill from a player’s bar and doesn’t always contribute meaningfully to battle. However, 1 skill slot isn’t a whole lot in the bigger picture and when it does work- it works well.
Skill-wise, I will continue to argue that mesmers are in a weird, weird spot. Our class mechanic is all but useless in large battles as our illusions rarely reach their targets. We provide valuable niche utility, but our personal damage contribution is low.
I perform my best when I work within these limitations. If I’m going power-shatter, defend the back line from the few enemies that make it through. If I want to do more support, bring feedback and focus. Interrupt lockdown is a good way to contribute as well.
HoT is going to change a lot. Engineers will be able to add stealth support. We’ll be getting very useful Wells and shield performs wonderfully in large groups.
I’m personally not a big fan of Illusion of Life for large-scale WvW. It’s a janky weird skill with a stupid long cooldown. I’d put Feedback there instead. I love feedback in groups!
I like what you have for Inspiration. I go with the staff cooldown trait for my middle chaos trait instead of the condi damage.
I also loathe the illusions tree. Shatters are pretty unreliable because the illusions often die before they reach their target. It’s super disappointing. Dom and Dueling both have some neat stuff for a third tree… Dom has interrupt oriented things, which will happen plenty with Chaos Storm and the pull from Wall of Reflection. Dueling has some great defensive options and deceptive evasion, which can be handy if you’re just looking for some clones to instantly shatter. In the future… chrono will go awesome there instead.
The basic play style is to hang back and keep feedback and the focus wall up as much as you can. Be sure to use your focus pull before it expires. Toss Chaos Storm in their blob. Then look for anyone who tries to invade your back line and play defense. Double-dodge-shatter them for some burst damage to scare them off and protect your back line. I try not to get too fixated on the big group because there’s not much we can do to support them once our few AoE skills are gone.
Nice! I really love that Engi is sharing some of our utility duty. Having another class on the field with damage reduction, group stealth, and reflects is fantastic.
There will always be concerns about the various ways in which iDefender does/doesn’t hold up compared with the bulwark gyro… but we can just give that feedback during the BWE3.
Psyched to have some utility slots free up for some different skills! I think I’m getting monitor burn-in from having Veil and Portal locked in their respective places for 3 years.
Group WvW, focused on support. Usually something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8dl0nhy0YrawYNQtGLzG05NiRwNHxKaZZAudyA-TVQSAAw+DAA-w
Lots of reflects, a little mantra healing, some boons, veil/timewarp.
Plenty of traits get swapped around depending on the scenario. PU if I need longer veils, Superspeed-on-glamours if asked. Medic’s Feedback if I’m facing a projectile-heavy group.
Shatters are unreliable as heck in group WvW and my illusions rarely survive for more than a second or two. Mesmers, however, provide a ton of utility to the group.
My main contributions are heavy reflect uptime, pulls from the Focus, Veil/Portal duty, and minor support from Chaos Storm and Mantra of Healing.
In 20v20 or more battles… Don’t underestimate the pure damage and protection that comes from our reflect fields!
Looks great! Can’t wait to try the new and improved wells. Thanks so much!
Problem: Phantasms have a hard time surviving in group WvW battles or encounters with heavy AoE damage. Requiring the Avenger to stay in Melee will make its performance unpredictable in these situations. A phantasm only pulsing in melee also cripples its ability to support mesmers who choose to play at range.
Suggestion: Keep the existing ranged attack but still have it pulse Alacrity in a 240 radius.
Benefits: Allows players using ranged weapons (greatsword, scepter, staff) to play at their desired range and still benefit from the phantasm’s pulsing effect. Melee players (just sword!) could still block in melee range and receive the benefit.
Tricky to say… If I had to think about what we’re lacking, my first thought is “we don’t have a solid tanky front-line option”. So I’d vote for that.
Weapon: MH Focus because I’d love to dual-wield Anomalies. Short/mid-range weapon with protection on auto-attack, a “teleport behind your enemy and leave a clone in your place” generator, and a pulsing AoE ethereal damage field.
Elite spec passive: 30% of the damage you take is divided between your active illusions. Grants access to Phantasmal Displacement.
Phantasmal Displacement: Swap positions with your nearest phantasm. Removes movement controlling effects.
Playstyle: A bit more durable than we are now but with a focus on evading attacks through mobility rather than flat-out damage soaking. Goal would be to keep phantasms up and in a save area to swap with while teleporting in and out of combat.
Just wanted to say I loved the vids! I had a great time with a similar build in group WvW and can’t wait to step in to PvP and try yours out.
The second group vid was “private” so I couldn’t see, but since it’s such a group-supportive build, first one was fantastic.
I’m really surprised how often folks stood in the shield stun wave and the wells. I wonder how much practice and display fixes (the big noticeable clock hands don’t always display…) will change the performance of the build.
Until then… I dig it
Shield
Echo of Memory I wish it had some more flavor since we have a LOT of block skills (scepter 2, sword OH, and now shield). It’d be nice if it pulsed a little AoE damage while channeling or something. But I like the phantasm; Alacrity up-time is great and 2 phantasms in one skill is nice as well.
Tides of Time Absolutely fantastic skill. It’s super buggy, however. It doesn’t always return in the right direction, sometimes randomly shooting off at a 45 degree angle. It has trouble with inclines and objects. Sometimes it’ll disappear through a door or wall and never come back.
Continuum Shift
I noticed a lot of bugs with this one this weekend. Sometimes it didn’t last as long as it was supposed to (3-clone shatter would only give me 2s of continuum shift even if my Rift wasn’t destroyed). Other times it would last too long… at one point I had a shift last about 20 seconds.
I’d also like a timer, if possible. It’s hard to tell how long I have left and it’s annoying to look at the little icon and judge based on how rapidly it’s flashing.
Wells
Generally I like the concept of wells, but some are just so inferior that I rarely/never used them. A few tweaks to emphasize each well and give it a more direct purpose would be nice.
Well of Eternity The reduced cast time really helped! I would like to see a condi clear on well completion since it was removed from the trait line.
Well of Action Just never felt this one was useful enough. Short quickness on each pulse would help make it more impactful. Or maybe add a damaging condition like confusion or bleed to make this the “condition build well” or something.
Well of Calamity LOVE this skill. Nice short cooldown, solid damage. Fantastic.
Well of Precognition Another one I just never used. Blocking isn’t a thing that happens reliably enough for this to have an impact on combat. I wouldn’t mind seeing this give pulsing Fury or something to make it the “boon providing” well.
Well of Recall I liked this well a lot. Alacrity was strong, especially when traited. Cooldown feels a little high… but I was happy with this one.
Gravity Well I miss the float, but I like the pulls more. Great skill and I loved this in WvW battles!
Traits
Minors All the minors are pretty solid for me. The Alacrity-on-shatter change really hurt, however. I think it functions well in PvE where it’s very possible to get multiple illusions up, but I struggled a lot with that in WvW where I could rarely get more than 2 illusions up in time for a shatter.
Alls well that ends well Really liked the change here. I miss the condi removal, but I loved this combined with Well of Recall for a strong supportive well option.
Illusionary Reversion I agree that this one suffered a lot from the change. I like the idea of trying out an ICD rather than relying an illusion count threshold. It’d be great to have an alternative to DE for augmenting clone generation.
Improved Alacrity Definitely gives a boost to Alacrity up-time, which I feel is maybe a touch too short by default. It’d be fun to bake in some more ability to share Alacrity with allies here… maybe give allies .25s of Alacrity per shatter in addition to its current effect.
Overall
Generally, I was really happy with where the Chrono was. A few things felt underpowered or awkward, but mostly things felt like they were in a great place.
The biggest concern I have right now is WvW related. I’d really hoped Chrono would be the AoE king and able to boost our performance in group WvW. However, the fragility of our illusions and the continued need for veil/portal duty are still thorns in my side.
Both chronophantasma and IR directly rely on illusions staying alive for a significant period of time, which just isn’t possible in large battles. Our class’s reliance on shatters to activate side effects like boons and alacrity also cripple us severely in situations with abundant AoE.
I’m not sure what the solution is there. Perhaps stability on shatter in addition to Protection in the Inspiration line. Maybe Chronophantasma causes the phantasms to resummon at your side rather than next to the target. Maybe built-in AoE damage reduction on illusions. It continues to be frustrating to have the profession’s performance change so drastically when there are more enemies on the battlefield.
Wells, Tides of Time, and Alacrity go a long way towards helping our performance in those situation and the Chrono stands out to me as a big step forward in that direction. I still think more could be done to address our ability to successfully land a shatter in large, hectic battles.
I’m sort of struggling with Chrono in WvW large-scale, for similar reasons as many other folks.
Illusions not reaching their targets feels even worse for some reason. Super speed on shatter helps a little, but not enough to make the playstyle worth it. The end result is that Chronophantasma, quickness-on-shatter, and IR are pretty much useless in group fights.
I still feel pigeonholed in to portal and veil duty, leaving Blink as my other utility and meaning I can rarely run with a well. Maybe a bigger mesmer population would help… but it means I’m not really getting the most out of the elite spec.
When I have been able to run it, I really enjoy the interrupt builds though. Quickness-on-shatter, when it works, gets my daze mantra ready FAST. The quickness/stun shield skill is SO satisfying when it lands correctly. Gravity Well is fantastic- I’m missing the float but still liking the skill.
Overall, wells are neat. Calamity is fantastic and I like the group Alacrity one with Alls well that Ends well. The “unblockable” and quickness ones feel trashy though- not into those
Shield 5 = raid-wide quickness. Think they might like that?
Quickness is great, for sure. Interrupts are starting to win them over as well. I think it’s an education game at the moment. You’re absolutely right that shield is awesome. The stun wave alone provides an insane amount of control with so many synergies.
Honestly… I think we’d be in a MUCH better place in WvW if another class could provide raid stealth and/or reliable ranged pulls. Getting locked in to Veil and focus limits our choices significantly. I don’t mind running them… but I’d like to swap out of them when I’m in the mood without crippling a group.
Been playing with a Chaos/Ill/Chrono build as well
The Alls Well That Ends Well change was surprisingly potent… not only am I getting huge Alacrity uptime on myself, but the people I group with are commenting on it as well.
Maybe its just me, but Alacrity is my new best friend. The cooldown reduction effect such a game-changer and swaps my rotation around in such a smoother way. Loving it.
Downsides… there are a few. First, well graphics aren’t always displaying for me, especially on uneven terrain. Makes it hard to tell which white-circle is the best one to stand in.
Second, a couple of our wells still feel like underperformers. I’d love a pulsing dmg (even if small) on all our wells to help boost some. I hope blocked attacks become more of a ‘thing’ in HoT. Precognition stands out as a particularly useless Well compared with the others.
Finally… I need to work more on WvW. Our reflection/stealth skills are still so strong and so unique that it’s hard to convince my group to let me run chrono-wells. I would love to run interrupt/shield… but reflects and stealth are just in such high demand it’s hard unless there are a few mesmers around
Ok. Here’s my first night feedback.
Bugs:
– Tides of Time graphic doesn’t always show up when cast on out-of-combat enemies
– Well graphics don’t always show up in large-scale combat (always see my Chaos storm, rarely see my Well clocks in group fights)
– I hear our shield phantasm doesn’t work with illusion cooldown traits in the Illusion line.
What works well:
– Alacrity is a great mechanic
– Wells add a much-needed AoE component to many builds
– Continuum shift is surprisingly powerful and surprisingly difficult!
– Time Catches Up is surprisingly strong. Nice!
What could use improvement:
– All wells should deal pulsing damage, no matter how small. Bags.
– Alacrity-on-shatter would be more impactful/supportive if it extended to nearby allies, even for only 1s per shatter skill use.
– Well cast times feel a bit long.
– The Shield block is weird in PvE on enemies who’s attack animation is slower than its cast time. I find it upsetting to see an enemy start an attack, re-actively channel my block, have my block finish its cast time, THEN have the enemy finally complete its attack. In my mind, no enemy should have its attack time be slower than a block skill. Correct reactive playing should be rewarding, not wasted.
– Alls Well that Ends well still feels underpowered. I like the suggestion of a temporary damage buff addition. Wells clear 2 conditions and provide 10% damage for 5s seems about right.
I’m excited to play, but conflicted about what build I’ll be trying. Probably many!
I’ll be trying out some kind of interrupt build with the shield OH for sure, though I’m not super impressed with interrupts in large WvW battles. Hopefully shield will help with that.
I’ll definitely be spending some time as a chaos/insp/chrono with reflects, a well or two, and alacrity.
Depending on how things shape up, I may look into a more AoE-damage oriented caster. Wells, Chaos Storm, maybe quickness on demand fueling my Mantra of Pain recharge.
I am “sort of ok” with our class mechanic… enough that it works. I’d honestly hoped for a more robust revision/alternative with the Chronomancer though.
I like your ideas… changing “shatters” from a destroy-your-illusions mechanic to a buff-your-illusions one.
Overall, I don’t think keeping phantasms up for long periods should be a goal. It stops people from using 2/5 of their weapon skills out of fear of destroying a phantasm. I like to distinguish them from normal pet classes by encouraging people to think of the phantasms as temporary.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the damage dealt by a phantasm decrease over time, eventually going to nill to encourage players to replace them or shatter them when possible. In exchange, it could be nice to have the supportive abilities (cripple on iZerker, reflect on the Axe man) continue, even after the damage stops. A phantasm should never be useless, but a skillful cast of a fresh phantasm should always be preferred over passively ignoring one that’s been out for a while.
An additional concern I’ve always had is the disparity in playstyles depending on the environment. Interrupt builds are all but useless against bosses and shatter builds are often laughable in AoE heavy encounters. Frequently, I find myself needing to respec and regear when going between a mob-heavy phase of an encounter and the boss, which results in a clunky experience.
I’m not sure what the solution to that is. Give illusions stability and distortion when shattering? Allow interrupt to give some effect on bosses? Make some shatters GTAoE?
I’m running this and loving it:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-R;4ZUV1107RVV71;9;4TUV;0148258138;9;9;0k51-DY10y
It’s very reflect-heavy, which is perfect for large encounters. I’m very hard to land a hit on if you’re using projectiles, between Feedback, mirror from manipulation skills, Chaos Armor, and mirror-on-dodge.
The Mantra trait is also surprisingly helpful on regroups, packing a solid 2.7k-3.5k AoE healing along with some condition cleanse on-demand.
Deceptive evasion is there to give me a little shatter fuel, but I’ll almost definitely be dropping the Dueling line in favor of Chronomancy down the road.
I agree with a lot of what was said above. Generally, the traits in Inspiration are pretty solid, especially in the greater context of how the line has previously been.
If I had to nitpick…
1. Add something else to Medic’s Feedback.
2. Persisting Images feels so weak. Restorative Mantras and Medic’s Feedback are very specific, I feel like this trait needs to be a more general option. Make it apply retaliation in an AoE and I’d be happy.
3. Fix the Mender’s Purity bug so it’s more reliable.
4. Reduce the nerf to Healing Prism. 500-600 health every 10s and a per-illusion healing power isn’t spectacular. I doubt kitten cooldown would be game-breaking but would go a bit further towards giving us some additional sustain.
5. I’d love a tiny tweak to Temporal Enchanter… It’s so clunky to use with skills like Feedback, which often get placed on the enemy. What if the superspeed and resistance were centered on my location instead of the glamour’s?
All in all, the line isn’t bad. The thing that still sticks out to me is: do we really have any builds that would use healing power gear? In my ideal world, each profession has at least one defensive/supportive option which rewards all that +healing gear. With mesmers how they are… it doesn’t really feel like that’s a viable option. Maybe some kind of mantra spammer will be a go-to in HoT with on-demand Quickness…
It’s tough to get something exactly like what we could have in GW1… but there are some options that, when died and combined well, get pretty close.
the Human Cultural T2 looks pretty good:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aristocrat%27s_armor
I just turn off the shoulders/helm and use Vigil boots instead of the clunky ugly ones that come with the set.
For outfits, the Noble Count is definitely a good choice. Exemplar is perfect as well:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Exemplar_Attire_Outfit
Finally, the HoM set is super mesmery. Trench coat instead of short coat… but it fits well. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Heritage_armor_
These days, scepter/Focus and Staff. Nice utility (interrupts, condis, blinds, reflections).
Mostly play WvW. Sword’s a bit tricky for me… to frail in melee range!
I’ve been absolutely loving this for group WvW:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-R;4ZUV1107RVV71;9;4TUV;0148258138;9;9;0k51-DY10y
A few things can be swapped around. Feedback/Temporal Enchanter for MoDistraction and Illusionary Inspiration if you want.
It’s been a great WvW build for me. Less focused on shatters landing, more focus on reflects and support. Sturdy, supportive, with plenty of bags. :-)