Guild Wars 2

If you’ve seen the previews for our upcoming trait changes, all our weapon traits are getting a shiny new coat of paint except two: Focus, Sword.

The focus trait(focus skills reflect) is fantastic and was already one of the best weapon traits, so that’s understandable.

But the sword? (50 precision wielding a sword/spear)

What. The. Eff?

Of all our weapons, the sword is currently in the most need of a rework. Sword 3 is pitifully unreliable now that the clone is almost always killed and offhand sword skills both pale in comparison to the newly traited pistol.

When the patch drops, there will be no reason to ever trait the sword besides a reduced cool down.

While I applaud many of the currently proposed changes, this is a terrible oversight. Sword is one of our only two mainhand options and is becoming an irrelevant offhand once HoT drops.

What do you think a rework of the sword trait should look like?

• Sword clones inflict decent damage
• Sword attacks have a 25% chance to steal a boon & transfer a condi.
• Crits with sword have a 25% chance to inflict slow

A couple gripes here:

• No ability to trait shield?

• No further support for wells? That well trait is barely worth it. Should be at least 2 condis cleansed if you have to wait in the well for 3s. Or one Condi per pulse.

Much appreciated man! Sooner than I anticipated tbh.

Dude you just made every WvW mesmer everywhere convert to Chrono with Time Marches On.

SLOW ON INTERRUPT! CALLED IT!!

• Activating a shatter gives your illusions super speed. Very clever, I’m liking that.

• Well trait is not worth it imo, no more than 2 wells will be in any build and those cooldowns, even with alacrity, makes the trait unappealing.

• All master traits are legit, hard choice there.

• Lost Time and Chronophantasma are very strong, Quickness on Shatter doesn’t seem able to compete unless traited with Furious Interruption

In my opinion, IP being baseline is exactly what so many builds needed to touch on viability. This is a great change for all builds lacking that extra bit of damage and survivability that made shatter reign over them.

Shatterlock (6/2/0/0/6) was only held back because of the lack of DE, but even having only IP was enough to nearly “one-shot” most zerker specs with a single BlurredFrenzy-> 2-clone shatterburst combined with an interrupt. With the ability to spec 6/6/0/0/6 I see the ability to make a perfect blend of Shatter/Lockdown, since you can now grab Power Block/Confounding/Halting along with having iPersona, Deceptive Evasion, and that new Shatter grandmaster in illusions that combines all the old shatter traits (Reflect on Distortion, AoE Diversion with large radius, ect.)

Speaking of which, we can now FINALLY trait Imbued Diversion with iPersona! That right there makes for some deadly 0-clone AoE daze shatters, meaning halting strikes, AoE weakness (thank you Anet since you gutted Debilitating Dissipation) on interrupt, AND putting skills on a 15s cooldown regardless of weapon choices.

What makes shatter stand out, isn’t DE; its iPersona. With that being baked into Mesmer’s core the only thing separating 4/4/0/0/6 and 4/4/6/0/0 is Decoy. (Standard tPvP Shatter can take Blink, Decoy, and Portal. Standard tPvP Interrupt usually grabs Blink, Portal, Mantra) When the specialization patch drops, shatter builds will be getting a nice buff from the new Mental Torment (+50% damage if opponent isnt using a skill.. which is still rather lockdown esque) AoE Blind on shatter and the aformentioned Master of Frag.

Shatterlock will likely take Master of Frag and Mental Torment, but Mental Torment still requires you to inflict daze/stuns.

The new uh.. “standard” lockdown will be 6/6/6 with Confounding Suggestions, Power Block, and Chaotic Interruption. This means each interrupt will inflict:

• 8x Vuln (if a daze was used)
• Weakness
• Moderate Damage
• Grant 5x Might + Random Boon
• Immobilize + Blind/Cripple/Chill
• +15s cooldown on skill.

15 frickin’ seconds hurts. Especially when you consider how much potential for AoE interrupts we have without including Master of Frag. Now ontop of that, you have to deal with weakness? Weakness cuts the afflicted players damage down considerably, but what has me even more excited is that it stunts endurance (dodge ability) regeneration; making it easier to land shatters. Weapons like Greatsword, Focus, Shield and now even Pistol (assuming every 2 interrupts refreshes Magic Bullet) are going to be devastating in team fights.

But remember that right now its hard not to look at things from the perspective of this current meta. Everyone is getting buffs and new interesting abilitys/mechanics, so its hard to say exactly how powerful this all will be in the future.

6/6/6/0/0/0 is going to be the best lockdown spec unless the interrupt trait new to the CHRONO tree is amazing

Ithilwen.1529:

Chaos Archangel speaking in another thread about an interrupt build:

" Make sure you’re running with Debilitating dissipation in Chaos, AoE weakness is nothing to overlook. "

HAHAHA After the pasting that I have taken in the forums for advocating for Clone Death traits. Here is one of the best of the “skilled gameplay” players advocating Clone Death traits in one of those “skilled” builds.

Does this make his build “cancer?” Is he a bad person? a whiner? A bad player? I’ve been called all of that and more.

Maybe the knee jerk reactionaries failed to consider the beam in their eyes when they castigated me for the mote in mine.

Hey dude,

For one, I saw the lambasting you got in the PvP forums while I was suspended. A big reason I don’t post in those forums much is because of how close-minded and bandwagon-hopping people like to be there, but I don’t think a lot of those comments against you were justified.

And Countless has been a champion of clone-death builds forever. He brings up a good point about how they contradict themselves in removing clone death but buff the stealth of PU. I personally never thought clone death was too passive, but the PU play style of conditions + stealth + clone death is no fun to fight.

Regardless when you make a good build you take what works for that build. Debilitating Dissipation is an excellent trait for any build that can afford it -power or condi- anyone who tries to put that fact down is either a parrot or overcompensating for lack of skill.

Levetty.1279:

I’d say I told you so about Mesmer/Chrono but you know who will burst in and start harrasing me. Instead I will leave him to blindly defend this while arguing with you guys.

What the eff.

I thought we’d made peace and agreed to disagree Levetty?

Zoser.7245:

Wheres is the mesmer compensation about the off-hand weapon? I have not counted how many new utilities receive the guardians but al least 3 + 5 skills from the longbow + heal + elite + 3 new active virtues…. Our F5 perhaps?

Even John Peters has opened a new thread in the guardian’s subforum to receive ideas about how change the tomes.

Pretty sure the compensation comes from F5 and Alacrity. Its looking like we’ll be able to manage our cooldowns well enough to make all our other skills recharge much faster, opening up new combinations, builds, and making certain utilities much more lucrative.

(Double portals. Double Illusions of Life., ECT.)

Whether or not that is good enough compensation remains to be seen, but I already see potential for some interesting plays.

@Sticker: I’m gonna just.. Scrape a little bit of salt off your cheek for my fries if ya don’t mind. =P So they got a larger preview than us, not that big of a deal. Besides, Dragon Hunter is a harder sell than Chrono. I’ve seen more than enough to be hyped for HoT.

(Also. I shall be seeing you in-game soon. Come transfer to Pyros server so we can WvW!)

I know this is hell of an old bump, but I figured instead of starting a new thread I could start editing and updating this one.

I’d like to incorporate lockdown videos from other builds/players (like you Ross) so if you guys have any of yer best stuff to submit, please do!

6 points in Dom isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just more widely agreed that 6 in Chaos makes for a more optimal lockdown build. However you can run 6/4/4 and still be very effective in most tiers of play, it isn’t until you start getting much more competitive that your build choices start to narrow to either 4/4/6 lockdown or 4/4/0/0/6 Shatter.

At the highest level, 4/4/0/0/6 is widely accepted as the most optimal build for tournament play (note: the meta is very different at higher levels, so even though shatter is the most optimal in a fully prepared team, 4/4/6 lockdown tends to hold its own better when you’re solo or with less-coordinated teammates.. but shatter -played well- rocks in all tiers)

Now your choice of 6/2/6 is held back by one thing: Lack of Deceptive Evasion

DE is extremely important. Having a strong clone-production tool is necessary both for your offense and defenses. You’ll be shattering often in a lockdown build, and the potential to chain-daze with F3 is even more important here than in most other builds. Once again, when the specialization patch drops, you’ll be able to full trait 6/6/6 into all three trees and become a lockdown god.

But for now.. either 6/4/4/ or 4/4/6 are the better choices. Your choice of weapon also impacts which traitline may be better for you.

6/4/4 Confounding Suggestions moreso benefits…

• Pistol
• Offhand Sword
• Staff

4/4/6 Chaotic Interruption is preferred with

• Greatsword
• Focus
• Staff

The weapons used in Confounding tend to be more single-target focused, which makes it good for dueling builds. Chaotic Interruption works better in group play, though can also be effective in 1v1s.

Give me a sec and I’ll edit in some links to videos/guides:

Chaotic Interruption with Notations

Lockdown Mesmer Tactics @ Techniques

Videos of both CS & CI

zoopop.5630:

I use lighting/fire burst dgm on great sword. Battle/Intell for sword/pistol.

Using the rune of Pack for 5vs5 arena for 1vs1 i’ll use scholar ?

Trait was i am using the typical intrup traits like halting strike/great sword training etc. Im willing to switch stuff around for 7-0 i am using blink, decoy, thievery with mass invs.

That’s why I asked, theres always little tweaks that makes someones’ build a bit different from others. Firstly, some general stuff:

Your thread title asks for an interrupt build. Builds centered around interrupts tend to build towards Chaotic & Bountiful Interruption as they’re pretty core traits when your goal is to interrupt. Most interrupt builds tend to run 4/4/6.

What you’re currently running is a stunlock-style lockdown build. Confounding Suggestions(which will be buffed gloriously soon) has nothing to do with interrupts; it turns dazes into stuns and extends daze duration by 25%. To capitalize on this you want daze-focused abilities like offhand sword or Mantra of Distraction.

Speaking of Mantra of Distraction, this is a CORE ability for all lockdown builds, and should always be on your bar.

Now if you’re gonna continue with 6/4/4, I’d recommend Runes of the Mesmer. They synergize well with Confounding Suggestions and still offer high damage. You’re better off dropping Greatsword Training for Shattered Concentration in domination, sure reduced cooldowns rock, but having the ability to strip enemy boons (like stability) on-demand is one of the reasons lockdown Mesmer is so valuable in a teamfight and part of what makes the class so dangerous.

For now, rocking Blink/Decoy/Mantra of Distraction is your best bet. If you feel the need for some condi removal… Suck it up or grab some Lyssa Runes! Most talented glass Mesmer in PvP have little to no condi removal. The exception to this is Null Field, as it functions as a team condi removal, area denial, ETHEREAL combo field (chaos armor grants more CC through Blinds/Cripple), and pulses six boonstrips.

Make sure you’re running with Debilitating dissipation in Chaos, AoE weakness is nothing to overlook. Bountiful Interruption is obvious.

• For some alternate sigils to consider: Sigil of Paralysis (Pistol), Hydromancy (on Greatsword), Energy(highly recommended)

• For some alternate utilities to consider: Signet of Domination, Portal

Some sample stunlock rotations..

Daze Mantra → Summon Duelist → Magic Bullet → iLeap/swap →Daze Mantra→ Blurred.

iWave → Summon Zerker → Daze Mantra → Magic bullet → Summon Duelist → iLeap /Swap

Sure. Couple things first:

• which traits are you using?
• which sigils/runes are you using?
• what is your general strategy?

Hey dude, would like to help but I need to know a few things:

• what build are you running? Weapons and all

• how long have ya played Mes?

The Mesmer class isn’t easy to play, but the reward depends on your goal. The class is very trait-heavy, so you often have to know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes of your build to be effective.

You’re right, Mesmer takes positioning, timing, skill, knowledge of the game mechanics, and a bit of luck to be highly effective.. But there IS a payoff.

This class more than most others rewards quick reflexes and creativity. All of your skills have dual purposes and none of your shatters are straightforward. There’s an “art” to learning the Mesmer, and like any art there are certain techniques (blink spots, shatter positioning, clone management, looking stylish like.. All the time, ECT.) that have to become second nature for you to excel.

Also keep in mind that though the game has been out for years, Mesmer builds have remained largely unchanged so many players already know what you’re trying to do before you even have your plan ready. This is part of what makes learning Mesmer in PvP so difficult: people know how to dodge shatters, spot the real Mesmer, time your invisibility, and just how squishy you are.

My advice, without knowing your build, is to find a veteran Mesmer and train with them. There is no easy route for the class and no build is gonna carry you, so it heavily depends on your personal skill. If that doesn’t intimidate you, then you’re on the right path. There are plenty of mesmers here who will be happy to meet up in game and answer any questions you’ll have as well as show ya the tricks of the trade. Good luck man!

(Also.. By the way it’s looking, chronomancer will be even more difficult to use than core Mesmer! Get that practice in.)

I actually made a ranger just for Druid. Let’s check the list off of what it’ll not have.

• large AoE circles? Got traps, elementalists, necros
• full set of support? Guardian staff
• unpredictable boons/condis? Mesmer staff
• melee stuff? Revenant staff.. I think.

So scratching those out, and assuming a unique weapon, I’m thinking the staff will offer a decent amount of CC(cripple or slow on the auto, a root, a knock) some form of AoE buff, and I don’t mean some random boon (unless vigor), a mobility skill, likely a retreat(queue staff ele) and at least one super large AoE skill.

If I get a little deranged, I’d imagine a summon of some sort, similar to spirits. I don’t think it’ll be a 1200r weapon, since short bow and longbow already fill that, so I’m thinking skills will likely be either centered on the caster or within -900r.

So says the 1-week old Ranger!

He’s been playing the game for over a year, doesn’t mean hes been playing PvP that long.

… Regardless, that first post is adorable. OP, the longer you play PVP the more you’ll look back at this thread and LOL at yourself.

Evapor.6849:

Honestly id prefer if you would just ban me because im addicted to this game but with the problems that you know exist I have become so toxic to my teammates and players around me in general.

So.. You’re so frustrated with this game you’ve decided to be unpleasant enough to bring down other peoples’ enjoyment of the game as well.

… And that’s anets fault?

Eggs.3142:

But only guardians responded by making a vow that they would personaly shoot a flaming arrow down its throat and watch as it exploded into a million flaming plant chunks, setting the whole of Maguuma ablaze in the purifying blue white fires of justice so that the scourge would forever be wiped from the face of Tyria

OK.

Slightly more sold on the name now.

Edit: This was made before the stream. I am far more impressed now, will edit shortly!

Of course, coolness is objective when I say so subjective, and we’ve still more to discover about this new class but…

The Dragon Hunter!

• Guardians.. a supporty class is getting more… active support?
• Guards get a longbow.
• Class Mechanic (Virtues) changed. Burning Virtue now .. Burns more! Healing Virtue now grants a leap along with its heal, making it .. Less accurate? Aegis virtue creates a shield that shelters allies from all damage; can’t really hate on that one it’s pretty tight.
• Traps! Made of light! Sorta like symbols but now more Ranger-esque!

Sorry guards, but nothing here is really all that impressive at first glance, hopefully the stream tomorrow will shed more light (get it? get it!?!) on this elite specialization. The Chronomancer spec seems like a much more dramatic change of style from core Mesmer than Hunter does for Guardian.

One down.. Six more to go! Who do you think will have the coolest specialization? I’m betting Necros may give us a run for our money. Dat Greatsword.

Yep yup, no ICD on either Chaotic or Bountiful, which is what makes sword/focus – staff (or GS) an excellent lockdown weaponset.

I don’t math, so the most constructive thing I can say is.. Go back to your warriors! /shakefist

(I jest)

I highly doubt it. It depends on if Chill affects ICDs.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

For “pure” lockdown I’d bet: (Dom/Chaos/Chrono) but it remains to be seen if we can make it without the clone production of DE.

“We”. I haven’t used DE for 6 months. The chains that bind

But your build is crazy squishy and so single-target focused. O.o and you still haven’t taken my advice to shatter more! Would make a big difference.

After the stream it’s official. My three builds will be:

Dom/Duel/Chaos – Interrupt (Sword+Focus / Staff )

Dom/Chaos/Chrono – Lockdown (Sword+Shield / Staff )

Chaos/Inspir/Chrono – Support (Sword+Shield / Staff)

… Jeez, I’d love to go Sword+Sword / Pistol+Shield.

And at some point I’ll try out that awesome new pistol trait

SHOW STARTS AT 12p PST, ROUGHLY 40 MINS

Anet will be hosting their next Points of Interest featuring the Chronomancer soon, don’t miss out!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/catch-a-look-at-the-chronomancer-on-this-weeks-points-of-interest/

Miku Lawrence.6329:

• Note that you can pick glamours too (they’re select-able in the Utility slot).
• CONFUSION PULSES OMFGFGGGGGGGG

RIP mesmer, 2012-2015. Hail Chronomancer overlords.

TOOLTIPS http://i.imgur.com/RslLmYy.jpg

Ripped from Dulfy’s

Chronomancer – Alacrity

• Alacrity make the cooldown text for skils green instead of blue like chill.
• Alacrity increase your skill recharge by 66% while chill decrease your skill recharge by 66%. So if you have both of them on you your skill recharge should be normal. If you are chilled for 3 seconds or so you get an extra second of recharge. If you are under effects alacrity after 3 seconds or so you lose a second of recharge.
• One of your minor traits will give you alacrity everytime you shatter.
• Alacrity can be gained via shatters and the Well of Recall, which is one of the few ways you can give alacrity to allies. We are purposely limiting this a lot since recharge is a very dangerous stat for players to mess with.
• Alacrity is a buff right now and not a boon. You can’t increase it via boon duration buffs. Alacrity stacks in duration, not in intensity. There are some chronomancer traits that make alacrity lasts longer as well.
• Alacrity benfits phantasms since phantasms have skills with recharges. Clones won’t benefit from it as much since they just have auto-attack.

Chronomancer – Shield Skills

• Tooltips: http://i.imgur.com/jPYxrIn.jpg
• Tides of Time (#5 shield skill) is an etheral field so you can proc some combos with it. The wall will attempt to return to your original position. If you touch the wall when it returns, you will get a recharge bonus to make this skill recharge faster.
  Shield #4 skill is Echo of Memory, it is a bubble that will block attack and create a phantasm on the enemy that attacked you or on the enemy you targeted when it ends.
• If you block the attack with Echo of Memory, you get a second skill in its place called Déjà vu. Activating this skill will allow you to block a second time, even while Echo of Memory is recharging.

Chronomancer – Well Skills

• With wells we want to provide some more AoE support.
• Well of Action slow enemies caught in it and when it ends it will give allies a burst of quickness.
• Wells of Recall is your alacrity well. It pulsates alacrity to all allies within its radius. When it ends it will chill enemies nearby.
• Well of Calamity – lowest recharge of all wells. It is a damage well that pulsates a few time with low damage and the final pulse does massive damage (over 50% of the damage on the last pulse).
• Elite – Gravity Well – It pulls all the enemies to the center of the well. It also grant stability to allies standing in it. The last pulse also a float effect which we may remove it since this well applies too many CCs.
• Healing well – Heal you while standing in it and grant vigor. Grant a second heal after 3 seconds.

Chronomancer – Traits

• New grandmaster trait – Chronophantasm. It will summon phantasms with butterfly effects that when shattered while be resummoned immediately (only works once). It only works on phantasms and we are still rebalancing it since it can be too deadly when you shatter 3 illusionary duelists and have them unload immediately. Each phantasm an be only resummoned once.
• Illusionary Reversion is the similar trait for clones. When you shatter clones it will resummon a new clone.You can have it along with Chronophantasm.

Chronomancer – F5 skill

• Continuum Shift – You can use it to catch the Tides of Time wall twice, recharging it twice as fast. However there is a caveat with using Continuum Shift and healing since it will revert you back to your health pre-heal. The Chronomancer wells heals are a bit different.
• Continuum Shift drops a Continuum Rift that marks the location where you will return. If this Rift gets destroyed, it will wrap you back to that location instantly. Other players can counter play it by destroying the rift and dropping an AoE on the location of the rift so the mesmer is wrapped back instantly to your AoE.

O snap. And here I thought I was the undisputed coolest Sylvari Mesmer.

Who the eff do you think you are with that swaggy sylvari? kitten you and your competition!

Its.. Just gone. o_O

Which is actually kind of a detriment, considering my sig has links to guides for players to learn the Mesmer class. When I check my profile it’s there but it is not being displayed in threads. Help?

Best bet is to duel those two classes.

You need to build certain reflexes that only really come with experience. You have to know what to expect and the signs of when a burst is coming, essentially “predict” what’s to come from your opponent. Theres a couple ways to do this.

• Count their dodges. A single dodge takes 10s to recharge (5 with Vigor and sometimes instant with sigils of energy). If they blow two dodges within 10s they’re likely open.

• Watch how they react to your attacks. Don’t assume that your first, second, or third attack will hit them. You’ll have to work through a few defenses before anything lands.

• Mesmers only have 2-3 forms of stealth for 3s every 30s. Which means most of the time the real Mesmer is visible. If they stealthed they probably snuck around behind you, whirl your camera around.

• Duel. No getting around this, its the single most important and fastest way to gain experience against specific classes. Find a dueling room or send a request out in zone chat, plenty of people are more than willing to explain and play with ya.

As far as Mesmer go, send me a PM and I can point you in the direction for people to face and explain how to take on the class.

I didn’t get the reference, but if this was irl I would’ve totally laughed and pretended I did.

/peerpressure

True enough, and edited the OP.

…You’re getting thrown into that I-told-you-so-thread too! Along with pyro, swish, and levetty!

Actually, I’m basing the duration on the pattern of all the shatters.

Mind Wrack/CoFrustration is 1, 2, or 3 bursts depending on clones.
Diversion is 1, 2, or 3 seconds of daze.
Distortion is 1, 2, or 3 seconds of invuln.

Its almost certain Continuum will follow suit. As for the cooldown time.. Yeah total guess. =P Alacrity seems pretty straightforward, but I’ll agree with you that that info on it, besides what it does is scarce. But the concept of a fresh Mesmer-only “boon” is rather unique.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

StormHawk.9862:

What about for like tanky/selfish builds like for commanding?

Who in their right mind goes commanding in WvW on their mesmer?

The Mesmer preparing to be a boss Chronomancer.

Continuum Shift (F5 estimated 80s+ CD) allows us to shatter our illusions to “displace” us from time. This effect allows us to cast freely, eat damage, and do whatever we want in an assumed 1-4 seconds until the effect ends, which then we’ll be reset to whatever state we were in before shattering, cooldowns/health reset and all.

This means we can literally use any skill(s) twice.

Alacrity is a new Chronomancer-specific resource that allows us to lower the cooldowns of our abilities. Mostly trait-focused, Alacrity works on Mesmers, their illusions, and even can be shared to allies in limited form. Alacrity will be gained through shatters, but it is hinted that there will be other ways to gain/grant it. ( Assuming interrupts, Phantasm summons, and on … Mantra charge? )

It is assumed this was the “something just as good” that was hinted before to make up for us only receiving an offhand. Are you happy with this or would you rather have gotten a new weapon besides shield?

I’m thinking the shield may be rather useful in all gamemodes assuming Echo of Memory allows you to grant Alacrity to allies. I’ve had some ideas to what Echo of Memory may do.

• Block all incoming attacks for ~3s, reduce cooldowns by a % per hit. (Either personal or AoE)

• Block the next attack, create a Phantasm that mimics the blocked attack.

• Gain 2s Quickness and/or inflict 2s Slow on block

I think it depends heavily on your goals.

Personally I think the safest bet would be either (Dom/Duel/Chrono) or (Duel/Chaos/Chrono) for PvP/WvW

For “pure” lockdown I’d bet: (Dom/Chaos/Chrono) but it remains to be seen if we can make it without the clone production of DE.

For support: (Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono), again depends on how well we can manage without DE.

At this point, I see little reason not to be excited. Sure there will be bugs, but if what’s been advertised is delivered then we’ve got a lot more than most of us expected coming our way. I still needa make that “I told you so” thread on Pyro

Eodwen.2613:

Here is my pride and joy Thinking of changing the name to “Vlad is not a vampire” though.

Dude that looks SICK!

Hey dude!

For PvP/WvW shatter is a great place to start to learn Mesmer, especially in PvP. Shatter will teach you the basics and fundamentals of the Mesmer class while forcing you to stay on your toes and be very active with how you defend yourself.

Sw/Sw GS works, as does almost any weapon combo besides the scepter, many shatter players nowadays are a fan of GS/Staff.

If you’d like to learn more, the best shatter guide you can find is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Supcutie-s-Comprehensive-PvP-Shatter-Guide/3461238

And also feel free to whisper Jurica or Supcutie with questions. Jurica has a shatter video guide that goes over tips, strategies, and rotations well.

Calliope, I’ll never be able to thank you enough for this awesome shield.

Its so deliciously evil-looking, and the blinking eye screams Mesmer!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Sclerite_Shield_Skin.jpg

My villainous sylvari Mesmer, Aeoldyn.

Ramiel.4931:

I still feel like ANet has lost its original vision of the mesmer. That has not changed at all.

They’re going with the flow, patching up the creaks in the class with minor QoL changes in the hopes that it works. The Chronomancer is just their attempt at shaking up the PvP meta and making room for the mesmer.

And the offhand shield is the most kitten ing evidence of the fact that they neither know nor care what we want.

If anything, the Chronomancer reveal is steering me away from the class I’ve been playing exclusively since launch and that makes me sadder than you can imagine.

Out of curiosity, what were you hoping for? (And so far all of the chrono stuff seems legit for PvE too)

I think its 1s per illusion for a total of 4 seconds. 4 secs is plenty of time to cast quite a few skills, and makes you decide whether to use long-cast time skills like illusion of life or instants like blink and mantra charges.

Remember its not just cooldowns reverted, its damage as well. 20s would be obscene.

That reminds me.. Signet of Illusions will likely be hella valuable when chronomancer drops.

But continuum shift is a two-part skill, so it won’t go on cooldown until after you activate signet of illusions. Unfortunately this means you can’t eternally reset F5.

No confirmation yet on whether or not its a bug though? “I am being punished” after my suspension is over.

Also.. I’ve received 3 infractions in about 3 years. Why is there no sort of.. decay?

Toxsa.2701:

I think you guys are overhyped before you get enough info.

The new F5 can be on 180 CD, and lasts for 5 seconds only. Though it can still be paired up well with long CD elite, I don’t think Anet would make it too OP.

Even if it is, Alacrity management would reduce the cooldown. And to be honest.. I kind of hope it is on a rather long cooldown, 80s at least.

Regardless, the potential applications are excellent. Quadruple Signet of Inspiration is as good as an elite.

Me Games Ma.8426:

Another thought:
What do you guys think? Will Continuum Shift also restore our Mantra stacks?
Would be VERY awesome!

Nearly positive.

Agony .. Torment.. Pain! Pain!… Pain!. .. Pain!

/roflstomp

You know, the more I see the more I’m wondering if DE -or rather, clone production for shatters- will be as mandatory as it used to be.

So many new tactics come with the F5 shatter alone that it’s a bit scarey.

Signet of Inspiration twice?
TimeWarp twice?
Mantra of Distraction twice?
Four shots of MoPain?

Siiick.

Hell, F5 → Phantasm Summon (signet activates) → Signet of Inspiration → F5 → Summon (Signet Activates) → Signet of Inspiration

Chaos Maestro is gonna return with a fury! /cackle

If this isn’t the most clickbait-iest thread title.. I don’t know what is.

Still, cool vid. Love that game.

I wrote a super lengthly analysis on the info… and I cant post it. x_X

Apparently “You cannot post a new topic because you are being punished.” Anyone know how long that lasts?

This is.. Literally.. Everything I was hoping for!

I really like the elite idea countless. Sounds great.

As for confusing combatants, I think it’s just poor wording. It’s likely “you and your illusions cause confusion on crit”

Condition Mesmer is looking really good ATM, tho I’m surprised you’re cool with the whole lack of clone death thing.

The PU buff is.. Odd, but I don’t see it being that big of a deal. Even with duration increases, fact is we still can’t stealth nearly as much as thief because of our cooldowns, so I don’t think we’ll actually be seeing that big of a difference between Mesmer stealth now and when updated. Seems more like an improved escape/disengage or to help stealth runs through dungeons.

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

No matter what anyone else says, no matter what positive spin people try to put on it, Thieves are getting even stronger and we will still have no way to deal with them. Short of receiving active stealth-canceling abilities, Mesmer is and will remain a “PvP-centric” profession that can’t PvP because we are effectively deleted from the game by another profession.

It’s way too early to make this kind of claim.

Everyone is getting stronger, we don’t know what our or any other 6th trait line will add. With these new trait changes we very we’ll may be able to deal with them, hell Mesmer may be able to spec more tanky now while still dealing damage (chaotic dampening).

There’s too much going on to tell.

Edit: as a smash bros player, I’ve developed an unhealthy hate for jigglypuff x.x

Levetty.1279:

There is a difference between lockdown and interupt.

…. Seriously!?

Hey. I tried.