Guild Wars 2

Mesada.1723:

Hi guys new Mesmer here not long created but enjoying the game again with this class. Sorry for my lack of knowledge of the class in general and bow to you guys understanding of the Mes . Just wondered if there any type of Hybrid build I could use in PVE and WvW without having to change everything gear/weaponwise continually between said gametypes I don’t want to be the worlds best just adequate in both disciplines ive just rerolled from three years as a thief thanks in advance.

Hey Mesada! I were waiting to see if someone with more knowledge about the Mesmer proff. answeared you, but it dosn’t seem like it!
I’m confused about your use of the word “hybrid” are you meaning hybrid as in a mix of Condi/Power dmg? or are you using Hybrid as in “functional in both PvE and WvW?”

I’m afraid I can’t help you with it if it’s a Condi/power build you are looking for, but if it is the second option I can share what i do!

I use this loadout when I’m doing WvW roaming:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBYuwI-w

And when I go do solo open world I change it to this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCmfCUrhFij6sBugOzMASgFquS70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBYuwI-w

And when I do big group events and command I use this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfC1fitfCmfCUrhFij6sBugPzMASgFquS/0QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBYuwI-w

And when I do dungeons I use this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfC9fitfCmfCUrhFij6sBugPzMASgFquS/0SF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSB41wI-w

So as you can see I simply use the same gear loadout in everything I do, and only swap a few traits around as needed, sometimes bringing more reflects if needed in PvE.
I shameless is using the rotations they show off here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/PvE-The-New-Chronomancer-Dungeon-Rotation

When I do dungeons and all credits goes to Fay!
But my build is amazing and really fun in WvW and it’s working fine for me doing Open world content, probaly not the best dmg, but you don’t go down all the time either and you have something to do all the time!

Fay.2357:

This statement implies that anybody is actually roaming in WvW atm.

This is a faulty assumption, nobody is roaming, even at high tiers. In T2 (FA) prime time, there’s maybe a 2-3 people roaming on any given map.

While Fay is totally right, that roaming have been pretty dead, I would just like to add that it’s slowly starting to live up again! I at least The last two days in T4 on EU have seen some good fights and stuff! Dueling have start to live up again aswell, so that is great!
But hence, I’m afraid it’s far to early to say what is the roaming Meta, many of the players I meet are running new and intrestring builds they are testing out!

If you are running with the Shield off hand, I would highly recommend trying to use:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Defender

It will bolster your defence very nicely and I’m using it in a allmost full Zerker build aswell!

Hey both of you! Thanks for the interest in the build! So far I am still playing the build, I have tested some different things with the food and Sigils!

What i’m using and think is the best so far looks like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBYuwI-w

And this will ofc. come out like bragging, but I still haven’t lost a single 1vs1 and I have been doing plenty of duels! Duels against good roamers that beat me, when I’m using other builds! I can still win outnumbered fights, have a few 1vs3 laying around and some sweet 1vs2, which all will be put into a footage soon enough!
The build is still the most fun roaming build I have ever played and my succes rate with is great! You can fight anything and feel you can win, you don’t have to fear ranged, melee, power nor condi!

The only thing that can be “annoying” sometimes, is it can be hard to down super tanky and sustainy people in a 1vs2 and that Daredevils with the remove immobilse on dodge trait, I simply can’t kill xD But oh well, it’s a Thief and they can’t kill me either, so I don’t mind!

But yeah, I’m slowly getting some footage for a new video with the build in the “live”, but I have been busy in “prime” time and still not that many people doing WvW these days! Have been better today tho!

But I would for sure recommend trying the build out, for nothing else then that’s it’s a lot of fun to play and very different from classic mesmer builds!

Debuti.6017:

Hi mate, using similar build than yours. It works very good, and very fun to use as well.

Aside of some very skilled thief’s, I only have problems with heralds because they have more defense than us with that build, and they can also get rid of our blocks with shiro legend.

Do u have any particular strategy to defeat heralds?.

Cheers

I have actually still not met a really good Herald, but the ones I have had dueled using the Shiro legend, I have just made sure to dodge, stand in well/chaos storm or use shatter 4 to avoid the two unblockable attacks!
I don’t really feel like they have many hard hitting skills either, more hard hitting multi attacks and hence the two attacks that can’t be blocked haven’t felt like a big deal to me!
Made sure to stop attacking them as soon as they use the herald heal and tried to burst after their defence have been used. I felt like I had more sustain then they had, so while it were longer fights I just slowly grinded them down and won in the end!
But as I said, have yet to truely meet a good one!

Good Daredevils S/D with the sprint dodge I can’t kill, they can’t kill me either, but I simply can’t lock them down to burst :P

nakedziggy.3187:

Amadeus, are you still running the Berserker-bruiser build you previously linked in other threads?

For reference, it’s the one below.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5BBXEgEV/ZLlgMpEj89HaT3DAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBQ3yI-w

Yes i am indeed :-) atm. Im testing the heal on crit food to see if I prefer it over the passive healing one and I have also played around with some different sigils! The only thing nagging me is the low WvW population atm. Due to all doing PvE and it taking some time to find fights! But the build is a blast whenever you find a fight! :-D

I have no idea for how zerging as a mesmer is going, because I never did that!
But man the roaming have been a blast! I’m having soo much fun and doing a lot better ever since I got hand on the Chronomancer, I’m not sure if it’s just fitting my playstyle a lot better or if it’s because people just don’t get what’s going on!
But winning outnumbered on a regular basic against zerglings which is the best!

Hey there!

I’m made a build a lot smilair to what Debuti have posted in the betas!
Mine looks like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5BBXEgEV/ZLlgMpEj89HaT3DAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBQ3yI-w

I personal prefer to not play with the well trait, since for that to be usefull I have to stand in the well when it ends, and I’m not a huge fan of that! If you want more defensive mix in more Toughness! Since you have a lot of healing going in the build, you gain the most from that!

But for a more in depth explenation about the build you can read this wall of a text:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Bruiser-Chronomancer-build-Roaming-Video/first#post5583534

and if you are into watching the build in action, I had a short montage made doing the beta here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqGwObGcatU

I have yet to play it in live, been busy with PvE, but seeing as nothing really have changed, it should still work wonders

1.Calamity —> For same reasons as you! And all the chaos armor it helps me getting!
2.Action --> Because it’s truely a utility skill that both help me stomp, ress, burst and defend!
3.Precognition —> Because who dosn’t like safe stomps and resses? But only uses in sPvP with a team
4.Gravity --> It’s massive damage and CC is awesome, but it’s up against TW, and that’s a kittene!
5.Eternity —> Only use it with a Team in sPvP, it’s super awesome, but for oslo play Mirror wins hands down!
6.Recall --> Just can’t find room for this one, unless doing PvE for the Alacrity, but find it kinda boring

Fay.2357:

Wish granted! Distortion now lasts 4 seconds!

You can thank me later.

Fay, are you in a trolling mood today? :P

Utility:

Heal Skill – Mirror:
I choose Mirror, for two reasons: 1. it’s very short CD makes wonder with the (4) rune bonus and also the reflect uptime is insane when it’s working with Alacrity! There is no other heal I would take over this one, since you wanna proc that (4) all you can!

Utility skills:
Blink: Cause you need a good stunbreak, and this one comes with a short CD, a reflect and mobility/position, what’s not to like?

Well of Calamity: It’s a ethereal field on a 20 sec CD, that will be helping you getting all that sweet chaos armor we need! Beside that it’s a 4-5k critting AoE beast that can help you deliver some nasty blows, while helping you do some area denial with it’s weakness and cripple!

Signet of Illusions: I’m running this one, both for it potential with resetting my shatters (and they are the bread AND butter of this build), but also because it really helps the clones/phantasm not dyeing in outnumbered situations. The Phantasmal Defender you summon every now and then can actually soak a bit of dmg with this signet + the Persisting Images, before sending it to its glorious butterfly death.
But this utility slot is pretty open and could be swapped out for:

Well of Action or Well of Precognition, both bringing another Ethereal field, area denial and helps you survive.
Decoy, for another solid stun break and stealth
Phantasmal Defender or Disenchanter, to be even more tanky, immune to conditions and laugh at their boons.

Elite:
I really love to use Time Warp, it’s great for stomping, delivering bursts, giving a area denial zone and boost your defense for 10 sec thanks to the massive AoE slow! It also works great with F5 shatter
Another great pick is the Gravity Well, for setting up massive AoE burst and chain CC! I will probably swap between these two, depending on what I feel like today.

Trait Lines:

Chaos:
This one is bringing us Master of Manipulation, for that short Mirror CD.
It’s also the place where all our yummy protection comes from and futher pushing clone generating with Staff thanks to Chaotic Dampening.
Bountiful Disillusionment is taken because we only have one stun break and we are going down fast if stunned! Lucky for us we shatter all the time and that means a nice amount of stability, which also helps stomping! Chaotic Interruption can also be used, in special if running with Gravity Well

Inspiration:
This is the goodie bag trait line! This is where we get out anti condition and some of our amazing sustain from! Persisting Images —> See Signet of Illusions.
Restorative Illusions, it’s a condi clear on every single shatter (and we do that all the time) and when you shatter with 3 clones your roughly looking at a 1500 heal! And landing a 3 clones shatter is at least every 8 second when Mind Whack goes off CD! I were often stuck with more clones then I could shatter!
Last of the bat is Mental Defence, which is a decent trait! The Defender can actually soak a fair bit of dmg. for you, which ain’t bad. It also means when you use shield 4 twice, you will suddenly have 3x Phantasm, which you can double shatter! yes please.

Chronomancer:
I went with Time Catches up, because it felt like my shatters would hit for more often, then without it! But this is only a guts feeling, and it might be totally worthless! That said, it’s visuel super pleasing to turn your clones into homing missles! Delayed Reactions could be worth taking instead, in special with CI.
Illusionary Reversion and Chronophantasma are both taken to keep up your clone army, so you can shatter all day and all night.

The impportant part: Why is the sustain so amazing?
Let’s do some very rough math (without taking into account the healing power and rounding up), because I’m lazy: Over a 30 sec fight you will get the following:
1x Rune of the Defender: 4000hp
3x Mirror (thanks to Alacrity): 4000×3 = 12.000
3x Mind Whack(Again ty Alacrity): 3×1500= 4500
1x CF: 1500
1x Diversion: 1500
Perma Regen: 130×30 = 3900

Now put in Bowl of black pepper Cactus Salad for: 85×30 =2550
And you get: 29.950 health doing that 30 sec fight!
And that is coming with a large protection uptime, lots of blocks and evades! More often you will not even get healed, because you are allready at max health!

Strength of the build:
Insane sustain, large amounts of Active Defence, decent AoE burst dmg and sustained shatter dmg.
It comes with a vastly different playstyle, compared to the PU burst mesmer builds! You no longer have to fear conditions and your actively fighting your enemy all the time!
It gives the player a tons of tools that scale with the players own gaming skills. Meaning a huge potential for outplaying other and constantly improve. And it’s super fun to play!

Weakness
Now, what are this builds weakness? I didn’t lose a single 1vs1 the entire beta weekend, but the two servers I were up against didn’t have many roamers and many were testing beta toons, so it’s hardly a good evidence for anything. What I did find tho were:

Boon stripping/stealing/corruption will hurt you
A ton of Poison with cover conditions
Coordinated chain CC (Only matters in outnumbered)
High burst attacks from stealth (No Active Defense to help you)

Not that any of this ever killed me in a 1vs1 situation tho. but it would often turn a 1vs2 into a lose for me.

So that were all for now! Thanks for reading the long post!

Amadeus Dustslinger.

UPDATE
Ello everyone! Here comes a update! I have a new video and changed the build link to the most up to date!
Here is a new video of the build in the live HoT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LysX64V4pRI&feature=youtu.be

I have also

As promised a video containing more fights and a build link with explanition to why I pick what I pick and my opinion on what else you could bring.

First of the build link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcEAcS5Riq/slSQmUiR++Dtp7BhLCAAPAgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezbezbezSBYuwI-w

This were the runes/sigils/traits and mostly utility I used doing the beta weekend and what you see in my videos.

Next of, the video, but first disclaimers!
Disclaimer 1. I’m fully aware that most of these people is either A. Not very good or B. Totally new to their beta toon and what a Chronomancer can do. And let’s be honest, often they are both A and B. But what did you expect? it’s outnumbered, you don’t win outnumbered if they are as good as you, unless your build is OP! But I only had time to play over the weekend and sadly my WvW matchup week didn’t bring many Roamers with it, so I got the footage I got!
Disclaimer 2. I’m making mistakes, and I’m making lots of them! But I have about 100 hours as a mesmer and maybe soon 20 hours as a Chronomancer! I’m fully aware of I’m not fully useing the Signet and the F5 shatter, but I’m still learning.

With that said, here is a video of a few 1vs2, 2×1vs3 and a single 1vs4 that’s a brutally one-sided stomp from my side against people on their new shiny beta toons.

(it’s 09:42 min long)
and if you missed it the other day, here is an awesome fight I also had:

(it’s 04:37 min long)

Okay about the build:

Weapons:
The build is using Staff and Sword/Shield: Why?

Staff:
The Staff is taken because it’s the weapon with the best defensive capability’s and an amazing clone generator with Alacrity and Chaotic Dampening. It’s the best weapon to produce Chaos armor with, and with Chaotic Dampening+ a well, it’s spitting out protection uptime. The build is purely based on shatters, where it deals it damage and regen it’s life from, and clone generating is key.

Sword:
I’m using main hand sword for the Blurred Frenzy evade frame , the immobilize and extra leap finisher, not much else to say here.

Shield:
The shield is what creates the love with Rune of the Defender! potential 4 seconds of blocking, yes please! it’s double Phantasm is the best shatter fooder you can get with Chronophantasma and shield 5 is just rocking my boat in outnumbered fights, in combo with Sword 3, it helps me setup the AoE Well attacks.
Also it’s fancy as ****!

Sigils:
I went with a Bloodlust on the staff (it’s a great stomping weapon), since we are doing WvW and a good player should be able to fast stack up the 25 stacks, which a just great.
I went with a sigil of Air on each weapon set, for more burst dmg. Here we could probaly use Blood (for more sustain) or Fire (for more AoE).
Last I have a leeching on the shield for the 1k Lifesteal, but you could probaly go with a Energy or Hydromancy instead.

Stats:
I’m going almost full Zerker, with 2 defensive trait lines slotted and a utility trait line and defensive weapons, your defense comes from your active defence, protection and high sustain! But it’s no good just outliving people, you need to kill them aswell and hence we take the most offensive stats we can get. I put a little bit of soldiers in their for a tiny larger health pool and some toughness, but it might not be needed.

Food:
Take your pick
Bowl of black pepper Cactus Salad: for even more sustain
Omnomberry Pie: For Life steal on crit
Bowl of Nopalitus Saute: For 20% Boon duration, you gets a lot of them

Runes:
Rune of the Defender all the way! That’s the stuff that makes the build awesome! (2) actually gives you 2 second of regen, without a ICD, so when people keep hitting you while blocking that’s pretty much perma Regen uptime! + it with the chaos minor and you have perma regen.
With Mirror being pretty much a 10 sec. heal in combat thanks to Alacrity and Master of Manipulation, you are seeing a new aegis every 10 sec! Yummy! The (6) is a 4100ish heal on a 30 sec CD, what not to like? Sure you need to block, but we got plenty of that!
The only thing you need to watch out for is the random Aegis you sometimes get from Chaos Storm, that can mess up the (6) if you ain’t lacking hp!

Celeras.4980:

I don’t understand what you think you are showcasing in that ranked video. You got a single kill in the match at about 10 minutes in 1v1 versus a Ranger, barely. The rest of the time your team had the numbers in virtually every encounter. Your damage and utility didn’t seem very impressive, and your sustain certainly wasn’t either as you dipped fairly quickly any time the numbers weren’t skewed in your favor. I didn’t notice a single instance in which Chaotic Interruption “kept someone in a well”. And on top of that you threw your shield into obstructions no less than 5 times, which just makes it looks inconsistent at best.

I didn’t even see anything to show that you even fulfilled a role for the match. What did you think you were showing us?

His quite literally just showing “Here’s a video of the build in a ranked match.”

Stormbolt.7293:

Chaotic Dampening just doesn’t measure up to what the constant alacrity from shatters that Illusions enables, plus the raw damage and cc that the traits give. Chaotic Interruption is still a very nice trait, but it suffers from a painfully high opportunity cost now. I can’t justify taking it over the entire Illusions tree anymore. Condis are a problem with the build I linked, but you can easily replace blink with Null Field or Arcane Thievery since shield makes blink/decoy a bit less mandatory.

While you are right about the Chaotic Dampening CD reduction compared to to the illusion line, don’t forget that It can give a allmost 75/80% protection uptime if your just running with one well, and even more if you have several wells! that is not to be sniffed at!

Silverkey.2078:

While I love the line, I do think it lacks “punch” (supportive punch that is)…

Anyway, I wish to read more stories about “me” and the 6 different mesmer lines in the future.

I agree, it really does feel like it’s a far mor selfish support it gives! The line is amazing for the mesmer (Can’t play without it now), but the group healing/supporting just leave much to be desired!

And yes please Chaos, more of the “me” and the 6 different mesmer lines!

The well combo I ended up using the most, were Gravity Well Into Calamity for massive dmg! It were really easy to land these two together when the enemies had used thier stunbreak!
But the WvW build I ran most of the time, only used Calamity, where I comboed it like: Cast Sword 3 —> Calamity --> Swap with clone, into Immob —> Shield 5 and boom!
Shield 5 —> Calamity —> Sword 3 —> Swap —> Boom! Also worked great, which I manged to do qutie well here:
https://youtu.be/c7934FfIJ4I?t=2m32s

But Calamity is super awesome with it’s 20 secs CD, all the Chaos armor it gives and you can do some serious area denial with it! When I toyed with the healing well I would toss the two together and people would ate an amazing burst, while I healed!

Can I please have more of your conversations with the different trait lines? Maybe something with Illusion sitting in the cornor crying?

I’m digging the build tho, and since I have played the beta all weekend with out Dueling, I feels it’s safe for me to say: DE really isn’t needed to have a high clone generating, in special not, when you are running staff + Chaos and a few wells!

It’s probaly these 3 traitlines I would go with for a Chronomancer lockdown build!
Also:“Chaos/Inspiration For an awesome support build”, it also makes for awesome tanky/sustain shatter bruiser build

Debuti.6017:

I am a bit afraid to give up dueling not only as per the clone generation (which could be replaced with mental defense), but also the blind on shatter and vigor generation.

Also, with so many boon generation have u tried to use +20% boon duration food?

lot of fury, quickness and protection uptime…

Anyway very nice build, and seems very fun to play

The clone generation is a non isuse honestly, more often then not I’m stuck with more clones then I can shatter! But if I had to run with dueling I would swap outthe Signet for Null field (one more field to get chaos armor from) and run -40% condi food, and I think that should cover it! Remeber most condi attacks can be avoided aswell!

I’m planning to give 20% boon food a run, and try the passive healing food aswell, since the -40% food seems like overkill (but don’t have acces to it in the beta)
But yeah the build is super fun

I’m running inspiration instead of dueling, so they are no problem at all for me! also useing the -40% condi food, but think I will swap it out for the passive regen food!
But both the well and the signet of my build could be swapped out for like Null Field or the heal mantra, for more condi removal!

I agree that moving into a melee cluster is a bad move xD Honestly most of them probaly wasn’t aware of how hard that well can hit them for!
But all 3 warriors had Rifle, and ranged pressure really is not much of an issuse, in combat it’s mirior as at max 10 sec CD and it last for 4 secs so the reflect uptime is crazy! So I normaly just go for the ranged!
1vs1 ranged in speical dosn’t stand a chance, think I got a clip where a P/P Daredevil tested my ranged defence I could keep it up for like 1 min where he barely had room to deliver any damage!
But yeah more CC would help, but I do have a lot of stability going on all the time aswell!

Ello everyone!

Here is a little preview on how the build have been working in BW3! This time I had 6x Rune of the defender in the bank and the result is perfect! This is just a preview and there will probaly come a longer WvW roaming video later this week!

Disclaimer 1. I still make a lot of mistake, but haven’t played mesmer for that long and the build is still very new to me.
Disclaimer 2. They are average WvW roaming players, not fully aware of what I can do. I know they ain’t the best of the best, but it were still a one hella of a fight

Anyway, here is the video, it’s only 4:32 min long, but let me know what you think!

I’m having a blast with my build and I feel like a vastly different playstyle then what a lof of the “meta” builds have to offer! It got a lot of sustain, a lot of active defence, still a solid burst potential and most important for me: It’s a lot of fun and it have an amazing skill curve to climp, it’s gonna be an amazing ladder to climp! Didn’t loose a single 1vs1 yet and have done a several duels ect. Sadly not the best weekly matchup I have and not that many enemy roamers
But will have a link to the build and more details/feedback on the build later this week!

Cheers Amadeus

I just wanna say Rune of the Defender + the new 2 sec block <3 <3 more feedback later

Intrestring Intrestring!
For the first build
I’m honestly not sure if it’s overkill with swiftness, that you bring Focus, SoI, and a sigil of speed + Rune of the pack! I mean in a fast paced sPvP battle Sigil of Speed + SoI (and Teammates) often leave me at at like 1 min and 30 secs of swiftnes! With all that I think you are overdoing it honestly

The quickness stacking with superior sigil of Rage seems intrestring, and I might have a look into that! atm. I just really have loved used Battle sigil for might stacking to spread around the love!

My Boon share Chronomancer is probaly gonna look like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWncfC1filfCGoBUrhlej6cDKhWzMAugMqeUb1ZF-TZxEABjXG4hzAAN7PAwhAghHAAA

It will be more a team fighter on the point, going for all the resses and stomps, while spreading the boon love
I found while roaming a ton last beta weekend that I could stack Protection and chaos armor like a mad man, when running with enough Alarcity + staff and wells! Juggling between Staff and sword at the right moment felt sweet! The new 2 sec block gonna make it even more tanky

Yeah I have the bug aswel!

tobascodagama.2961:

Silverkey.2078:

Do they mean the focus now stacks swiftness?

Not quite. I think they mean that it’ll always set your Swiftness to exactly 12s?

Also what I understood, bust that seems odd! They where really not very clear about it tho

10% dmg buff to AA on sword

and PU 100% —> 50%

Chaotic Dampening, 2 sec —> 2,5 sec instead

Robert Gee.9246:

Shield Functionality Updates
The single block on Echo of Memory didn’t differentiate it enough from the block on offhand sword and could be difficult to use in some of the more intense areas of the jungle. BWE3 will change the single block to a continuous block, however as a cost to that the phantasm is now summoned at the end of the channel even if you block an attack at the start. This allows you to have more control of which enemy the phantasm is summoned on but don’t cancel the skill or you won’t get the phantasm! The phantasm itself has also been overhauled to be more reliable about spreading its buffs to allies and enemies alike. Finally Tides of Time has some new behavior to bounce if it hits a wall, however given the variable amount of terrain in our game there may still be some instances where it will not return.

• Echo of Memory/Deja Vu: Changed functionality. Now blocks all attacks for a short duration rather than a single attack. If this skill fully channels, summon an Illusionary Avenger. Deja Vu is available if any attack is blocked during the channel time.
• Deja Vu: Fixed a bug which allowed players to constantly cancel cast this skill to get a longer than intended uptime of the block effect. Canceling this skill now removes the Time Echo buff.

Rune of the Defender and me are going to have the time of our life in WvW with this! <3

Some feedback on the Chronomancer:
The wells:
Well of Eternity: ½ sec cast timemade it a lot more smooth to play with! I still won’t use it for solo play, but Im running it in my sPvP support/boon share build and my team loves it! I do think 1/4 sec cast time, as promised would make it spot on tho!
But would trade the Vigor pulsing for, like 2 boons removed on final heal any day!

Well of Action: Still enjoying this well in team situations a lot! Used it a bit for solo play, where it also shine as the mini time warp it is! Great for stomps/rezzes

Well of Calamity: Ended up as my main well for solo roaming, the 20 sec CD is perfect for spawning more Chaos armor all the time, and the dmg. can be really beasty! 4-5k crits in AoE is not for fun! Nothing to complain about here either.
Well of Precognition: I just don’t like the design of this well! Both the pulse effect and explosive effect is something you want on demand, when the guardian is healing ect. But it’s also a stunbreak and it just feels odd whenever I try use it. Maybe if the stunbreak were AoE, instead of only a selfish one?

Well of Recall: Don’t think I will be using this ever in PvP, but it seems great in PvE from the stuff I have seen posted, so nothing much to add here.
Gravity Well: This one still needs to have the CD reduced to about 70ish seconds before I would run it over other elite’s! Might be fun in a interrupt build, but didn’t have time to play around with that sort of build. I do prefer the pulsing interrupt over the final float burst tho!

Traits:
All’s well, That ends well: I am now using this in my sPvP support build, and it felt very rewarding to play with wells with this trait! Great change!

Illusionary Reversion: I honestly felt the change were just fine, my build had no trouble getting 2 clones up before every shatter, and it still supported my snowball play style very well! I think the trait is fine now, and would personally prefer it like this, over the 2 sec ICD.

Chronophantsma: As I mostly use my phantasms kittenter fodder, I didn’t feel much difference from 1 sec daze going to 1½ sec daze! Still an amazing trait and really loving it. It feels really strong and grandmaster worthy, but not sure if it’s to strong!

Time Catches up: Just wanna add I ****ing love the **** out of this trait! it’s visuel sooo pleasing to see the super speed illusions, but it also makes my shatters hit far more often! It’s amazing!
Time Marces on: I love it! <3 All I wanted to say

Shield: I don’t have any complains about the shield, I’m really loving it! It feels very smooth to use the block (please make Sword and Scepter block’s block effect instant like shield) and the wall is just amazing to play with! I think everything is in a nice spot with the shield and I personal like the IAvengers bouncing attacks! The 2 second slow were justified, and the IAvenger still feel very useful.

Continuum Split: It’s sooo hard to use this shatter well! The potential is amazing and it’s super fun to use! I’m just really bad at it! Time Travel stomps are fun to use it with, but a bit of waste! What I have found is tho, often when the little token is killed, it will just bug out and never return you to the spot. One time it even bugged out so bad, that the token just kept being there after killed, and a few minutes later it expired and I were returned from Borderland Mid camp to the Redlake bridge. It still feel super powerfull when you double Time warp the Stronghold boss… or whenever you Double Time Warp really! When I’m trying to say it’s a very very powerfull “extra” benefit from picking the Elite, even while I’m super bad at using it! It’s also mostly when I have used this, in pretty much anyway, I afterwards have gotten whisper about “wtf” just happend!

In general, the Chronomancer is just a ton of fun to play with! Everything from the overall theme, well designs and new traits working into the older ones, it just feels great! But while it’s a lot of fun for me to play, a lot of the people that afterwards have whispered me had quite a difference experience! Which I’m annoyed about, cause I truly wanted to make a no stealth build that wouldn’t feel as frustrating to fight against. But most of them, simply felt the dmg output were way to high, compared to the builds sustain, active defense and clone generating. Now, the game ain’t designed around 1vs1, but the only two profession I really felt a threat from, were Mesmer and Thief, both of the stealth burst professions. The rest… Not so much. Also I would prefer the game to always feel “fun” for people, not frustrating.
I can obvious not tell if it’s too strong, mostly because people still need to get used to the new stuff it brings. But I do honestly feel it’s in the gray area of "this might be a bit overtuned in PvP situations.

I didn’t do any dungeons and stuff, so no Idea how good it is there! But the wells where a nice AOE addition doing some of the open world events!

-Amadeus

Ello Mesmer Forum!
So here goes my feedback on the Chronomancer for second Beta weekend, the WvW roaming build I ran (and plan to play) and a montage from the time I had to roam around in WvW with doing the weekend!

First off, some disclaimers:
I’m still new to mesmer, and I literally just made the build and went into WvW with it the very same day! So don’t expect any twitch play, but a lot of stupid mistakes! Like, never using the Signet of Illusions, even when I really could use the shatter!
The gear and rune choice were lackluster, you only had Exotic gear and your jewels came with celestial stats in the “socket” spot. I used rune of the Ogre, but that were purely because I lacked anything better.
All of the fights are against the standardish skill level of most WvW players, I know they ain’t amazing kitten roamers, but that’s really not the point of my feedback anyway!

So, the build is gonna look like this when I get the game:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlphtfCeoBUrhFij6cDugOzMASgFqOT70QF-TVCEABRcFASU9gtUCykyPy3fQRVcaT3DAPAgHOIABAQAu5NzmtZwQH6QH6QHa38m38m38mlCgulRA-w

And here is the video of me in WvW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_4cKSaTdPI&feature=youtu.be

So the build idea is based around a lot of active defence and sustain to fight in outnumbered situations, which it succeeded in doing most of the time. There is a good “snowball” effect to it, so when you get rolling, you really get rolling, pumping out a very fast gameplay, where you allways have something to press (As a spoiled Engineer player I like that). When you juggle it right, you have a good 65-75% protection uptime, and Chaos armor is up for like 50% of the time if you do it right! (I failed a lot at it, none the less).
With Chaotic Dampening and Alarcity you have a great clone uptime from the staff, which I think the video demonstrate quite well! The constant many clones shatter, makes Restorative Illusions and Bountiful Disillusionment lifesavers! (Serious, the trait names of are horrible to spell for a non native English speaker!!)
While the burst damage ain’t even close to that of the normal spike build, I still felt I had a solid and constant barrage of damage going, which seemed at a fine scale to bring close to anything down!
There is no stealth in the build, but that’s just me not being a fan of that sort of gameplay! and I’m really enjoying all the condi clear and reflecting it brings!
The only thing I lost to were good PU mesmer and Thief, where the problem were two fold:
First off does the build shine when it can pump out constant shatter and pressure, both for my sustain and damage, but also so I keep the CD’s reduction going! This ain’t gonna happen when they stealth!
Second, you use active defence to handle burst, which is quite hard when you can’t see it!
In special did I have some trouble with one of the [BNF] mesmers, might have been Nûbu, which ran a really glassy GS stealth build.
The rune of the defender will hopefully help on that, since it will give me more sustain to recover from the attacks. It heals for about 4k.

So that were the build for you!

I have been enjoying doing that aswell this beta weekend ^^ It’s Time Travel stomp! It’s pretty neat to get away from the heat every now and then!

It have tho, also showed that F5 sometimes bug out when they kill the little token thingie, and I don’t return to where it was! :/

Gray.9041:

Staff

• targets – if it’s an AoE weapon, give it 5 targets on all AoE skills. 3 targets isn’t much, and we already get a 3-target evadey weapon in the sword.

• Dust Strike – as has been suggested, a smoke field would combo nicely here.

Physicals

• Bandit’s Defence – not so happy about the cooldown increase, as we could’ve used the extra defence, but I can understand it given the knockdown.

• Distracting Daggers – I don’t really get the duration on this? it feels like it should work like mantras, where the cooldown happens after they charges are used up.

Most “AoE” melee weapons only hit 3 target’s, take a look at guardian Greatsword or Warrior Greasword! I do think Vault should hit 5, not sure if it did.

Dust Strike should in no way become a smoke field, since suddenly staff also turns into a stealth based weapon, which ain’t the intention of the entire evadey high risk elite spec as I see it. Futhermore, if it did, the stealth attack would need some serious nerfing, 2 seconds knockdown is only “fine” (barely) cause the staff it self have no in build stealth. Take a look at sword, a 1 second Daze.

Bandit’s Defence should at least be 15 seconds, if not 20 second! The Berzekers new 10 second stunbreak, which is only a stunbreak, were recived as borderline OP. This 10 second stunbreak, into a block that does a knockdown is just bunkers o.o But I think 15 seconds is fine to toy around with for the first beta.

Distracting Daggers should not work like a mantra, it would be plain silly to copy Mantra of Distraction! It’s allready in a salty spot for most mesmer players sinces it comes with a default 3 casts (compared to mantra 2), a 1 second charge (compared to 2,5 sec cast) and build in power block increased cooldown on interrupted skill. The only thing makeing it “ok”, is it’s 900 range, and you can actually dodge it + the 15 sec window span you have to use it in

Turamarth.3248:

Silverkey.2078:

So let’s compare

• mantras of distraction: 2 cast by default, 3 if traited; distracting daggers: 3 by default
• mantra of distraction: 5s CD between uses, distracting dagger didn’t seem to have any
• mantra of distractions: 2 3/4s loading, distracting dagger: 1s loading
• distracting dagger: power block without trait

the only benefit of ours is the 5s shorter CD, but almost 2s of those are spent casting anyway. And the daze is shorter, but I have already said I would have liked shorter daze for the mantra. I see it as an interrupt tool, not a way to disable someone for a long time.

This is called balance

You forgot 1200 range instant cast versus 900 range projectile.

That’s actually a good point aswell!

Silverkey.2078:

So let’s compare

• mantras of distraction: 2 cast by default, 3 if traited; distracting daggers: 3 by default
• mantra of distraction: 5s CD between uses, distracting dagger didn’t seem to have any
• mantra of distractions: 2 3/4s loading, distracting dagger: 1s loading
• distracting dagger: power block without trait

the only benefit of ours is the 5s shorter CD, but almost 2s of those are spent casting anyway. And the daze is shorter, but I have already said I would have liked shorter daze for the mantra. I see it as an interrupt tool, not a way to disable someone for a long time.

This is called balance

While I agree the skill balance seemed off here, Distracting Dagger’s have to be used within 15 seconds after you cast it, so you can’t precas it the same way as Mantra of Distraction! I do think so, it should be either nerfed to 2 daggers or have a longer CD.

Also also, the 10 sec stun breack, into a block, into a knockdown were just bunkers! He said the CD would be increased to 15 sec, but way to make the zerker stunbreak on 10 sec, that just… stun breaks… (Which were insane to begin with) Look weak! He seemed to have some trouble understading balance to other classes <.<

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Amadeus.5687:

While I’m really digging all you have going for you, and also palyed around with something along the same lines, I’m just left asking: How did you deal with conditons? I allways ended up at the same spot: I have no condition removal!

Also I had a great time running a boonshare Chronomancer, they can for sure do that aswell =p

By not getting hit! (just like normal shatter Mesmer. =P) Also, Hoelbrak (-20% condition duration applied) runes helped, especially compounding ontop of Time Marches On ( -25% Cripple/Chill/Immobilize )

What did you run for boonshare? How was it?

But them burn guardians and all their instant burning!!! I just find it so hard to play without some condition removal on demand hehe

I ran this build: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMEaAZYA-w~
I used Rune of the Pack, Sword/Shield (Strength/Fire) Staff (Strength/speed). The swiftness stacking wasn’t really for me, but for my team and the door breakers.

I went with the Healing Well, Blink, Well of Action and Signet of Inspiration and Time Warp!
Normally using Illusion or Dueling instead of Chronomancer I lost out on some might stacks or Fury, but I felt that were made up with the very positve effect Chronomancer had on my shattering rates! The Swiftness and slow uptime were simply amazing and I felt I had a much larger team fight impact beside just shareing my boons, now I had a lot more AoE to toss around + the AoE healing. I used a Marauder Amule, but a more bunkerish Boon share build might be what I toy around with next beta!

My stomping ability were great with all the slow/quickness/stability and when I played around with rune of mercy aswell, so were the ressing! I also used All’s well that end’s well, but it felt like overkill with our elementalist and guardian both bringing a lot of conditon removal aswell
So all In all I were very happy with it!

I agree with most of the stuff said here! The most important being that the Chronomancer in it’s design is just super fun to play! It really felt like everything had been given a large amounbt a tought and synergy to it! I enjoyed that aspect the most!

That said: F5 I would be very sad to see nerfed, and I would rather see more counterplay added to it instead! There is allready counterplay in form of destroying the node, but it dosn’t really feel that big to do it! Hence I would like to see that when the memser is returned there his stunned for 1, or maybe 2 seconds + everything he used doing the shift won’t be resat. That would be counterplay and make it even more improtant to spawn it the right place!

Chronophantasma, I’m still not sure I find to strong, rather I feel it finally makes you able to build a phantasm build where the enemy have to target your phantams to counter it! I spend a lot of time dueling with friends and while I won everything in the start, they begun to pick up counter play in the form of nuking phantasm. I think the Daze should be changed to a stun tho, so you can’t send them off for a gatling gun shatter right after!

While I’m really digging all you have going for you, and also palyed around with something along the same lines, I’m just left asking: How did you deal with conditons? I allways ended up at the same spot: I have no condition removal!

Also I had a great time running a boonshare Chronomancer, they can for sure do that aswell =p

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

The issue right now is Alacrity is basically one of two things:

1) Total crap on most skills because the durations suck.
2) Insanely OP on builds that get 100%.

So I need to revise my statement on shatterway builds being okay, they’re a bit more than that lol. https://youtu.be/V_PSqt6DtSM Case in point.

Increasing durations and reducing the per-second intensity of the boon makes it more of a legit boon that is easier to balance. Right now it’s either going to suck balls (because you only give/get a tiny amount of it) or it’s gonna be massively OP (because you’re giving too much of it). Increasing duration and reducing intensity makes it 1) less kittenty in most cases and 2) less OP in specific cases. I think this is pretty reasonable.

Honestly I don’t have any problem with how Alacity works! in a real combat sitaution you won’t be able to keep a 100% rotation up, even in PvE that will be quite the pain!
In general that video ain’t really showing anything of intest! I mean, it would be the same as a guardian or elementalist showing just how much burning they could stack in a perfect situation (Hint: it’s a lot)
Any AoE attacks would mess up the entire rotation in that video! Also Also it seems like he uses Dueling/Chronomancer/Illusions= No real condtion removal either, so it would be near useless in PvP!

Telekinesis.8312:

so.. i’v been playing it a lot more.. the superspeed on illusions when you activate shatters is really really good. i’v been spoiled with that trait, cant seem to play without it :-(

I totally feel the same way haha

I have had a lot of fun with Well of Action, tossing it on downed enemies and friends! The slow will make enemies ress slower/stomp slower so you easier can interrtupt/Stomp/ress yourself, and the 3 quickness when it goes booms works as a great second wind if your still not done! In general Wells should be tossed at contested points and with a coordinated team, since they require a lot of teamwork to actually make work!

messiah.1908:

slow can be transffered. testing it with necro and revenant who trasfer their condi to me

Good good! As long as it can be transfered and cleansed, I don’t think Slow and the amount we got acces is to much!

WizardBro.4510:

Umm yeah we all knew Mesmer was good in everything but it’s suoper broken in pvp now

So you base that the Chronomancer is OP in PvP, on a condition Mesmer in PvE that unloads everything he got on a mob standing still? Great, much evidence such wow!

BlackBeard.2873:

Wow, I am really liking chronomancer, and will probably make this my main after the launch (especially b/c tempest is dog-crap).

However, I do fear it will get nerfed a bit, as it is pretty OP atm. With the right build, you can basically instantly pull off two 3-clone shatters (no mirror images) sequentially (if you shatter at least one phantasm, you instantly get that phantasm + 1 illusion from illusionary reversion), and 3 3-clone shatters in short order (with time for phantasms to do their thing too. Honestly, something is probably going to be done to reduce the sheer volume of clone output possible. With the rate you make clones, phantasms, and shatters it is like constantly bursting as opposed to burst…lull…burst. I have been trying power builds, but there is probably some double-ranged PU build that just plays like old phantasm/PU builds and pumps out a fast supply of phantasms while hiding in stealth.

Even given that, however, the skill-cap is clearly very high and there are a lot of build options this seems to open up.

While the clone output is indeed very high, you can counter it by killing the phantasm (Who still die very fast) and hence completly bypass the Chronopantasma That said, it is still very strong and a very GM worthy trait!

Also, I’m getting mixed reports about slow can be cleansed and transfered, while others says it can’t! I have yet to get a chance for testing it, but what are other people’s experince?

FJSAMA.2867:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Oh, and I missed the part where you get 17s of alacrity from the 17-shatter rotation I posted above. And quickness that whole time if you took Seize the Moment instead of Chronophantasma, so the channel time on Signet of Illusions is .625s instead of the usual 1.25s. Might have time to add something else into that rotation before you revert f5.
Well of Precognition to make your shatters unblockable, maybe?

What if i tell U that all shatters go on 1s cd after you use one of them? 4s f5 would let you kittenter chain if i count right.

It actually dosn’t put them on 1 sec CD to do a shatter! Try it out, it’s like, 0.2 sec or something! When that is said what Aplhawhite suggest is really not gonna work in a real fight! Cause all these actions happpens doing the same 4 secs, and even a dodge roll, blocks ect. will mess most of the roation up! Sure you can faceroll your keyboard, but it’s not really gonna do that much

Iavra.8510:

F5 -> F4 -> F3 -> F2 -> F1 -> F5 (or any other order, really, as long there’s F5 at both ends) while creating a new clone after every shatter is hardly counterable and puts the mesmer on 1 cd.

But one dodge from the enemy will avoid pretty much all the damage, while it is fun to do that faceroll with BD for lot’s of boon to share, it’s hardly gonna kill anyone!

Also, Wells feedback time!!!

First off, my fav. is Well of Action! It’s the best ressing/stomping tool I ever had! You just drop it on the down dude and everything the enemies do there goes in slow mo! Plenty of time to interrupt the one trying to stomp your dude and then finish the deal with quickness boost to get him all the way up or back into the fight if his up! It’s like a mini time warp on 30 demand! Nothing I want changed here! It’s awesome

Well of eternity, I have played around with this as my healing skill, and I actually really like it when I’m with a coordianted team! Playing a boonshare build it feels nice to share some healing! I think it’s in a pretty good spot, but having it remove a condition or two by defualt would make it perfect! Or if it just were a water field!!

Well of Precognition: We used this in a few rounds, and while we had a single fun time where we nuked a Guardian that used shelter right after, the well just overall feels kinda weak and the stunbreak on it just feels of! The unblockable attacks is something that needs a lot of timing to really matter! Maybe if it were only 30 second it would feel better, but right now I just can’t see myself use it.

Well of Calamity: This one were amazing to use in PvE, but I can hardly find room for it in my PvP build! The 20 sec CD is spot, and the damage + Cripple/Weakness felt perfect! I think it can see uses killing trash mobs in dungeons! Nothing I wanna change here.

Well of Recall, this one needs a ton of coordination aswell to be really usefull! The main problem it had compared to the other ones, were they had to stay in it all the time for the good stuff, compared to just be there when it ends, That made us stack in a group, which is really bad in PvP… I think it works fine in PvE! Hence, we talked about it would be better if they changed the chill to apply every pulse, maybe 2-3 chill (cause 5 secs seemed a bit weak aswell) and then end with a 3-4 secs Alacity boom

Gravity Well – This one just feels all around lackluster, in special compared to the double moa or time warp we can do now with F5! The enemies just instant run out of it! So I will support the other people that have suggest Immobilise or cripple on the pulse, something to make it feel more “elite”

Also Also, I just love all these Eternal Fields so I can get more Chaos Armor and reduce my staff CD’s (Make it 3% plox)

Ithilwen.1529:

I notice that the shield 4 Phantasm seems to grant Alacrity only once. If true, this is either a bug or a subtle nerf.

It does give Alacrity everytime it shoots it bounces 3x times, so 1x Slow, then 1x Alacrity and then 1x Slow again… also it have a loong CD on it’s attack

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Or.. Y’know. Could leave the traits as-is and make Slow half as effective on bosses duration-wise.

I agree with this! Love the slow acces, it’s a lot of fun to play around with!

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Black Perception.1639:

This class is OP! why would I play anything else? all the other characters cant even get me to 50% hp xD utter faceroll but I love it.
Basically if you dont play chrono ur gonna be weak and pathetic… same with PU … wow… A-Net needs to revisit how to balance classes…

The bolded part pretty much made me discount everything else you said.

PU does nothing to increase your personal power, so going without it doesn’t make you weak.

As far as chronomancer’s power, do consider that to take chrono you are giving up some direct damage buffs.
Illusions, Dueling and Domination all have a personal %damage and an illusion %damage increase, with different balance for each line.
Taking chronomancer guarantees that you are losing those trait damage increases, in exchange for the time manipulation mechanics. Danger time is the only trait in the line directly related to damage, and it’s pretty situational.

If you can make up for the dps loss with Alacrity and the other traits, that’s great! But do remember that you’re starting at a deficit, and you HAVE to make up the difference to catch up with Ill/Duel/Dom on dps.

I agree with all you said here!

Also it should be noted that "Flow of Time " is one second of Alacrity pr Illusion you shatter, and you give one second for yourself aswell! So it can fast get crazy!!!