Guild Wars 2

Drat. I can think of a few friends I’d like to reflect into my enemies.

Still.. It’ll be kinda funny how the damage log would look. “killed by.. Aeoldyn – 8,000 dmg”

Rob if you make players reflectable I may have to consider a new main. Zerker has already reignited my interest in War.

#asurahandball

Wild Blow turns the opponent into a projectile that can be launched into another person.

So.. Lets say one of you warriors knock some poor asura ally into me. Could I activate one of my 400 reflects and bounce my own homie back at you?

I know that it’s still early to tell, but do you feel this should be possible?

And now thanks to one awesome reddit-person there’s an interactive webquiz! Pen and paper begone!

Ross Biddle.2367:

I refuse to entertain this. Your community participation has gone to far!

Ha! You think that’s bad, I still am trying to figure out what possessed me to write this.

But uh.. That’s Chaos for you. You get strokes of Inspiration and you go with it. How else would you achieve Domination in a world where you feel like you’re constantly Dueling your own self-made Illusions?

(Ugh .. See I did it again. I write, stuff happens, I go with it.)

skcamow.3527:

While I always appreciate your writing, I give you the hand in this case for purposefully leaving out Illusions. I don’t leave home without it. I’ll come back when you’ve fixed it.

/weep.

Aye sir.

For the next beta I’ll be trying the build in WvW(along with wells!) I’ll likely be going berserker with cavs or knights or valk trinkets depending on which works best. Leaning towards valk.

phokus.8934:

You have a lot of time on your hands. I miss those days.

xD I actually put this together bit-by-bit in 10-20 minuteish spurts over a week. (wish I could do the same for the grimoire)

(Uh.. Reserved?)

A- Dueling / Chaos / Inspiration / Domination
B- Inspiration / Domination / Dueling / Chaos
C- Dueling / Chaos / Domination / Inspiration
D- Dueling / Domination / Chaos / Inspiration
E- Inspiration / Chaos / Dueling / Domination

DOMINATION

You’ve probably got one of those looks.. the kind that make people uncomfortable when you stare at them, gets them all insecure and squirmy because they feel they’re wrong for arguing with you. You’re the type of Mesmer who likes to be in control of any given situation. You value others opinions, but when you believe you’re correct then it’ll take a battering ram to knock you from your ideals (a battering ram of unyielding logic no less). You’re either a natural leader or that person everyone hates to argue with, but either way you’re will is stronger than most others and you intend to get your way. Try to keep in mind that it’s impossible to always be right, and an alternate perspective isn’t a wrong one.

Your actions decide who will and won’t take action: No one will stomp your allies while you around. All those boons that opponent has? Gone, because you said so. Let no stability stop you, go and dominate your opponents.

• PvP – Lockdown is for you, and you’ll likely want Greatsword for it’s oppressive offense. You’re style is going to be hyper-aggressive in order to keep your enemies constantly trying to react to you rather than stage any sort of offense, and you’ll be often relying on active defense to stay alive rather than tankiness. A keen eye for paying attention to multiple enemies (and of course your allies) is important, and you’ll want to learn how to watch animations. If paired with Chaos, it doesn’t hurt to grab Staff.

Your best bet is to go Confounding Suggestions – Shattered Concentration -Power Block. Your ideal utilities are Mantra of Distraction and Blink though Decoy and Signet of Domination could get fun.

Look into Sigils of Paralysis & Hydromancy / Runes of the Mesmer or Hoelbrak.

• PvE- You’re going to have to get a little chatty, and get really comfortable with the Focus. People who don’t play Mesmer or know dungeon runs well won’t know what you offer or how to best work with you. Explain how you lockdown bosses with reflects like Feedback and iWarden and make sure to type or link “Timewarp” before casts.

DUELING

You’re smart, and you know it. Probably a bit witty, slightly underappreciated, but always on-point when you need to be. You revel in precision and having things done accurately, having no tolerance for sloppiness in your execution, and would rather tackle problems one-at-a-time instead of all at once. You are your own worst enemy, because no one is a bigger critic of your actions than yourself. Yeah yeah, no one is perfect, but in your eyes, that’s no excuse not to try to be. In fact, the beauty of imperfection means we can never stop improving!
You are the reason people fear Mesmer. You’re the devourer of noobs, the burst in the night (Edit: Yeah, uh.. sounded better in my head), the endless army of illusions that smother your enemies both physuically and mentally. For you, the best Mesmer is one with the quickest reflexes. For your enemies, even the toughest have about 10 seconds until death.

• PvP – You’re the Shatter type, so match Dueling with Domination for a winning combination. The best traits for you are Deceptive Evasion and Blinding Dissipation. Get used to a Sword + torch to go along with Decoy and Blink to get all the mobility you need, making it a bit less risky to run around with that greatsword. Conditions will be your worst enemy, but if you’re good at what you do then in many cases you’ll only need one form of mitigation: Not getting hit! (Otherwise mantra of Resolve helps if you don’t trait into Inspiration). Oh, also, Portals will make you meta.

Consider Runes of the Pack or Runes of Lyssa / Sigils of Fire&Air along with Sigils of Energy

• PvE – Your world is one of Mantras, both for the damage boost and the utilities they bring. Instead of Deceptive Evasion go for Harmonious Mantras and be prepared to cycle through different mantras as the situation demands, leaving your other traits for Phantasms (and traiting mainhand sword, your highest DPS weapon).
  You’ll likely want Assassin’s gear if you’re not already in Full Zerker. Runes of the Scholar are one of your best bets.

CHAOS

You’ve tried to keep a wallet, or a planner. You may or may not flake on your next engagement depending on how important it is. Why do something now when you could do it later? Actually, lets just do it now and get it out of the way. You’re unpredictable and hard to follow, but that’s part of your charm. You may randomly plan a trip, or go exploring, or do something that makes everyone around you scratch their heads.. but it makes sense to you. You’re one of the “weirdos,” at least in your own head you are, and are simply allergic to the word ‘normal’. That’s cool, but don’t ever forget that everyone does everything for a reason. “I don’t know why I did that” is no excuse not to go find the answer, even when your heart is telling you something your mind disagrees with. Learn to study people, why do we make certain faces? What does that subtle change in tone mean? Normal people are predictable, read them like a book.

Chaos is a more PvP/WvW-oriented supplementary tree. There aren’t many builds you can create with a focus on Chaos, but it does compliment every other type of build. Shatter, Condition, Support, and Lockdown can all benefit from traits in Chaos. Master of Manipulation personifies a trait that will be almost universally useful, making both Mirror and Blink even more gooder as well as reducing the cooldown of one of our elites: Mass Invisibilty. (“gooder,” didn’t expect that right? How chaotic!)

Shatter – Prismatic Understanding
Support – Chaotic Dampening / Bountiful Disillusionment
Condition – Chaotic Transference / Prismatic Understanding
Lockdown – Chaotic Interruption / Chaotic Dampening

INSPIRATION

You’re that guy/girl. Y’know.. The one everyone loves because they’re always so friendly and giving. That’s you, the team teddy bear. You’re the one who makes people cringe when they hear you cuss – because the words actually MEAN something when they come from you! – and the one who everyone would jump to defend because they know that your side tends to be the right side. Perhaps you are giving to a fault, placing the needs of others above your own. Don’t fall into this trap! You’re not just some supporting character in another person’s life story, and you cannot let your own value be determined by how useful you are for other people. You are one of the rare good ones, but you have to make sure you’re set and strong before you can support others.

Though your words help, it is action that inspires people; be the change you want to see in the world.

• PvP – It looks like you’ll either be boonsharing, mantra healing or dropping some glamours. It is hard to build an inspiration-focused Mesmer that is effective, and as a result most people who focus on support usually REALLY LIKE the playstyle. As of now, the (tested) most effective support Mesmer is Dueling/Chaos/Inspiration Boonshare, but this build is not easy to learn nor is it optimal in every situation. You work very well with Guardians, but be careful not to become redundant if there is too much defense on your team already.
  You’ll want to invest in Staff and the best traits for you are Restorative Illusions for personal sustain, and Illusionary Inspiration though the other two grandmasters also make great options. If you’re going to heal with Mantras, invade your teammates’ personal space and use Mantra of Pain/Recovery for constant heals. Illusionary Defender, Illusion of Life, Signet of Inspiration, Mantra of Concentration are all good supportive options.
  Sigil of Speed is great for boonshare builds. As is Runes of Altruism while Runes of Mercy go great with Medic’s Feedback

• PvE- This’ll be an important tree for no matter what build, as a traited focus is crucial for a lot of PvE content. You can still go boonsharing, essentially running Dom/Dueling/Inspiration but as with all PvE content keep in mind if the situation actually calls for it or not.

While this is more geared towards newer players, I try to keep it entertaining and informative for everyone! Add up the number of your answers and match to the key on the bottom. I left out the “Illusions” line because of how much weaker it is than the other trees (and it’s kind of hard to come up with answers for it. X_x) but anyone considering a condition Mesmer should absolutely invest in Illusions!

What Mesmer Are You Webquiz!

• A) Adventuring through Tyria can be daunting, but …

1) I know exactly where I’m going and already have planned the quickest and most efficient way to get there and complete my goals.
2) I don’t mind. The journey is more important than the destination, I’ll probably see something cool along the way.
3) I have friends and some perma-swiftness, what more do I need?
4) I don’t adventure. I slay. Mercilessly.

• B) Oh snap! Your ally is downed!

1) It’s my responsibility to get them up!
2) No one will stomp them as long as I’m around.
3) Well that’s convenient, the perfect bait to get all my enemies clustered together for one heavy blow. Why risk my life rezzing them when they will rally when I stomp?
4) Sounds like someone needs a quick Mass Invisibility. Sweet, glorious Mass Invisibility.

• C ) My favorite Shatter is

1) Mind Wrack
2) Cry of Frustration
3) Diversion
4) Distortion

• D) To me, Mesmer is all about..

1) Style and finesse. No one looks better than a Mesmer at what they do.. Except me, a better-looking Mesmer.
2) Precision and efficiency. Make them dead fast, move on.
3) Misdirection and confusion. That wasn’t me, that was a clone! Yes, slam your face against the keyboard more as I mine the salt from your eyejelly.
4) Utility. I have every tool for every situation, like the worlds’ most fabulous swiss-army-knife.

• E) If I could only use one of the following, I’d stick with…

1) Glamours
2) Manipulations
3) Illusions
4) Punishment/Control

Linnael.1069:

So are we going with #Geelieve, Young Geezy, or straight up R. Geesus now?

Lmao!

• Chaotic Dampening Reduced from 5% to 2% – This change makes obtaining a flat 20% cooldown reduction rather difficult for any build that doesn’t invest into sword+staff and atleast two ethereal fields… Except when you take into account Alacrity. Chaotic Dampening stacks well with alacrity for a speedy recovery.

• Maimed the Disillusioned Reduced torment stacks from 2 to 1 – With Imagined Burden, Deceptive Evasion, and Chronophantasma this trait is actually rather good for Chronomancer… But not for core Mesmer.

Right now Chronomancer seems like the Pay-to-Win version of Mesmer, and seeing Mesmer further nerfed to accommodate for this elite spec cements that point in further. Do you think that Mesmer is nerfed for the sake of other players, or for the sake of our elite?

Agreed. Seems more sword ele to me.

also RIP Monty Oum. You inspired many.

Hey robert, overall I think that those are good changes.

• Alls Well That Ends Well: Yes! One of the biggest problems with Chronomancer IMO was that we really couldn’t share alacrity in any meaningful way, this change is a nice step towards fixing that and opens up the possibility of well builds.

• Speaking of well builds, Well of Eternity would probably be better if it removed conditions per pulse rather than granting Vigor. Vigor is great, but getting a boon that promotes dodging for standing within a well seems a bit.. not right.

• Both Chronophantasma and Illusionary Reversion seem fair, but kind of hurts the idea of “you don’t need Deceptive Evasion to spawn clones.” If I don’t trait DE, Illusionary Reversion is likely going to be very hard to proc, could we try a one-clone requirement first and see how it works before pushing it up to 2?

• WHAT THE HELL IS GOOD WITH CHAOTIC DAMPENING BRO!? WUTS GUD BRO!? No seriously, can we get that 3% please?

• Can Tides of Time not fail miserably when it hits a wall?

• Well of Alacrity (forgot the actual name) isn’t very strong, even with the well trait. Could you consider changing the end pulse to something more impactful than 5s chill? perhaps adding some damage or another condition.

• Gravity Well is interesting specifically because of the float, it’s what makes it more unique than any other CC and the only time you’d ever see such a cool effect is from the Chronomancer. Please don’t remove this, it’s really what makes the well cool. Could you instead consider adding 1 pull on cast, and increasing the float time to 3s on the final pop? A damage boost would really help too.

Thanks for the feedback, and lookin forward to trying Chronomancer again!

What kind of build do you run?

Its difficult but yeah, better to absorb/reflect the damage with focus or mirror.

Thanks for posting this. A good resource to direct people (and myself) looking for teams.

Sounds like you wanna go PU, either condi or power works.

It also sounds like it’s time for some grueling training in the arena. /CracksKnuckles

• Do you find it fun in pve? Why?
  Yes. Because when you have this many teleports and can send illusions to do your bidding the world is one giant playground.

• Can you describe how it plays in pve?
  Cerebral (or as much as you can get in PvE) unlike most classes that can simply faceroll away, a Mesmer has to be thoughtful about the upcoming encounter and how to manage it. Do you need reflects? Condition removal? Ranged weapon? All melee? In PvE a Mesmer needs and often uses all of their weapons for different content and many different trait setups between open world, dungeons (which varies dungeon-to-dungeon) and fractals.

• What are the things you do?
  I personally get immersed in the open world, I’m a big fan of exploring and finding people doing random things. Striking up conversations, helping with encounters, jumping puzzles ect. Mesmer’s freedom of movement and interesting abilities make it a lot of fun. I’m allergic to dungeons tho, Pyro literally has to drag me out of PvP to do them.

• Is it very different from how you play in pvp? Can you describe what is different?
  Entirely. PvP is much stricter as a Mesmer. You have to outthink your opponent, learn rotations, and actually spend time becoming acquainted with a build that suits you. In PvP need something of a thicker psychological shell, because people hate Mesmer whether they understand them or not, while others expect and sometimes demand you play a specific (shatter) build.
  I love PvP and it’s the main reason I play this game. For me it’s a place to explore new builds/playstyles and find unpredictable fast-paced action. As a Mesmer in PvP, your utilities are more locked. You NEED blink or decoy, sometimes both. You need to know how you’re going to deal with conditions (I rarely run any condi removal though, which sometimes screws me), and you need to keep your team in mind much more than in PvE.

PvP is an entirely different experience than PvE, and luckily it’s a field that Mesmer excels in.

Oooo got ’em.

/constructive

Carighan.6758:

Well I’m left-handed, so it makes sense that I’d use the pistol with my left hand…

Pfft. Everyone knows left-handed people are illusions.

Bhagwad, I’ll give this build a spin this weekend and let ya know what I think.

Did you get the opportunity to try Chronomancer? Or more specifically Chronophantasma? I feel this is the single best trait for Phantasm builds atm, even if it is a pseudo-shatter trait. It allows you to micromanage your phantasms in a really interesting way and milk even more damage/utility from them via shatters.

@Alpha: I don’t think anet is against phantasm builds. I think (due to traits like Persistence of Memory and Chronophantasma) that they want people who play phantasm to still find rewards from shattering, but don’t know how to do that in a way that does t also boost shatter-heavy builds.

Here ya go:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/MirrorBlink-A-Secret-Recipe-for-Mesmer-Burst/first#post5353029

Should explain the Mesmer burst pretty well, complete with a demonstrative video. Some quick notes on building a mesmer:

• Domination/Dueling goes with everything. (Dom: Confounding Suggestions, Shattered Concentration, PowerBlock OR Mental Anguish / Dueling: Furious Interruption OR desperate decoy, Blinding dissipation, Deceptive evasion). Slap on any third trait line behind that and you’re good to go. Best bets are Inspiration or Chaos. (Chaos for PU stealth bursts or lockdown. Inspiration for more survival/condition removal)

• The “meta” weaponset is sword/torch – greatsword … But technically anything + Greatsword can work, just don’t try and throw scepter in there.

• People will hate you -no matter how good or bad you’re doing- simply because you’re playing Mesmer. They’ll call you cheese no matter what build you run. 90% of these people are ego-bruised parrots who have no idea how the class works. (Same could be said for the hate on Eles)

• Thieves are still a big concern. Mastering use of blinding dissipation and shatters in general is your only hope of taking a skilled thief down.

Good luck, and feel free to w/ or hit up the Mes forums if you have any further questions or want someone to pvp with in-game!

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out the song “Shatter Me” by the marvelous Lindsey Stirling. How much more Mesmer can you get!?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Oh, also if you need it

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-How-to-make-a-half-decent-vid/first#

CONTEST

Create an awesome Mesmer video using the song “Shatter Me” (link) as the theme. Video must include:

• Interesting use of Mesmer abilities.
• Gameplay, preferably from all formats. (PvE, PvP, WvW)
• At least one stylish Mesmer.

PRIZES

I will be going out of my way to reach out to miss Stirling herself and submit the winning videos to her as a sort of tribute both to GW and to her hard work as an excellent violinist. If it sounds crazy, it’s not. She’s a person just like the rest of us and can be contacted all the same with a little bit of effort.

• 1st place: 20g & secret prize
• 2nd place: 10g & secret prize
• 3rd place: 5g

(All prizes are coming from my pocket. If anyone has anything to donate, me love you longtime.)

RULES

• One entry per person.
• Entries must be submitted to this thread or PMed to Chaos Archangel.5071
• Videos must be no longer than the duration of the song, (4:50) this does not include any pre/post video credits.
• To avoid copyright issues muting the videos, please do not post videos before the deadline.
• DEADLINE Tentatively set to September 15th.

Hoping to see some good stuff folks!

<3 do it! You’re my hero for this

With stronghold and leagues coming to PvP, why not add some more personalized finishers to give players more to earn.

• Mesmer Finisher ( Requires 1000 hours, Rank 80, & 200 ranked matches played as Mesmer)
• Sylvari Finisher (Complete personal story as a Sylvari)

Something to reward players for their dedication for sticking with a particular class and race. This idea could be further expanded on with Class/Race-specific PvP armor and weapons.

Thoughts?

.. Some new gamemodes. Right now OP and UP are mostly judged on the build’s performance in Conquest. Even in WvW you can build for different types of gameplay: solo roaming, small groups, or zerging. An “op” group build may not work in solo. A solo build usually cant zerg, ect. Makes for much more diversity.

Fighting on-point is fun and all, but is there anything coming down the line that’ll switch things up? No, I don’t mean stronghold. I mean PvP without the overreliance on NPCs.

Capture the flag, 3v3 arenas, 1v1 arenas… anything?

Levetty.1279:

When I said this, you threw a hissy fit.

That is a totally unfair overexaggeration. I threw no fits. I threw nothing, actually. I only responded with ideas I had. Besides, lookit: from the other post “clockdown”

• Wells are interesting, but only Well of Calamity ( 3k Damage + pulsing cripple/weakness/damage) was the most consistently useful/reliable. The high damage is nice, but pulsing weakness is glorious along with Power Block. Second was Well of Action ( 3s Quickness + pulsing Slow/damage ) which was reliable for making it hard to stomp/rezz due to slow and damage. The other wells don’t seem to have much place in PvP, Alacrity well sucks (/shakefist @ levetty for being right) and Precognition requires extreme co-ordination

See. I give props. =P Ross is just doing some overprotective-big-brother trolling.

@Ross there’s a difference between magic bullet and thief bounces: they only harm the target. You don’t have to worry about it bouncing back to you for a benefit, so even if it misses or is blocked its not a big deal.

Needing something to bounce back to you for a condi cleanse is a bigger problem. Increasing the number of bounces could help, but any enemy that dodges/blocks/reflects the bounce in-transit will still screw you.

nearlight.3064:

I choreographed a contemporary dance routine to this song once, does that count for the contest?

Well you’re a Mesmer so.. I don’t see why not. (and I’d really like to see that)=P Got any vid/links?

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out the song “Shatter Me” by the marvelous Lindsey Stirling. How much more Mesmer can you get!?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Oh, also if you need it

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-How-to-make-a-half-decent-vid/first#

CONTEST

Create an awesome Mesmer video using the song “Shatter Me” (link) as the theme. Video must include:

• Interesting use of Mesmer abilities.
• Gameplay, preferably from all formats. (PvE, PvP, WvW)
• At least one stylish Mesmer.

PRIZES

I will be going out of my way to reach out to miss Stirling herself and submit the winning videos to her as a sort of tribute both to GW and to her hard work as an excellent violinist. If it sounds crazy, it’s not. She’s a person just like the rest of us and can be contacted all the same with a little bit of effort.

• 1st place: 30g & secret prize
• 2nd place: 20g & secret prize
• 3rd place: 15g

(All prizes are coming from my pocket. If anyone has anything to donate, me love you longtime.)

RULES

• One entry per person.
• Entries must be submitted to this thread or PMed to Chaos Archangel.5071
• Videos must be no longer than the duration of the song, (4:50) this does not include any pre/post video credits.
• To avoid copyright issues muting the video, please do not post videos before the deadline.
• DEADLINE Voting is finished!

ENTRANTS

• Guapo (My face is Pi) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcafCWKv1HU

• Decimus – https://youtu.be/g2DHLgoJiwc

• Messiah – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSAvmf7MS50

• Buton (Ross Biddle) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySX3QzaIg1c&feature=youtu.be

• Silverkey – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_y4emAQVAY

• Gantsherov – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiY3acPid54

• Blurry – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zNEQJHqZQs

• Elyr(Agendath.4032) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiY3acPid54

skcamow.3527:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Domination: Confounding / Shattered concentration / Power Block or Anguish
Dueling: Phant Fury / Blinding Dissipate / Deceptive
Chaos: SlowInterrupt / CloneShatter / PhantasmShatter

I’m 99% positive that’ll be the meta shatter spec for Chrono, and I’m allergic to cookie-cutter. =[

You meant chrono instead of chaos there …

I think chrono will likely be IllusionSuperSpeed / LongerAlacrity / SlowOnThirdCrit. Supcutie was running this with GS/Sw-Sh

Either is good but especially for GS builds (which will always be meta), using Lost Time is much more worth it due to the frequent crits due to high AA frequency. With that much accessibility to slow, illusion super speed is much more enticing in adept. This increases dps by a fair amount in guaranteeing shatters that before would have been destroyed by AoE cleave.

If you don’t use GS though, Lost Time is much less valuable, making the adept choice much more difficult between SlowInterrupt / IllusionSuperSpeed.

The master choice is very much up in the air depending on what is chosen in adept/GM, and again further depending on which weapons are used.

Interesting. I didn’t consider the effect Lost Time would have on GS. I assumed it was the next target hit. So if you have the buff ready and hit MindSpike or iWave, would that hit all targets with Slow?

Sword 3 clone really does need some sort of distort/evade for at least the first 2s of summoning.

and sword 4 counter needs a faster animation or the same distort effect. It currently is more of a liability when ever used against more than one opponent.

@Menaka: Uh, I actually kind of like Winds of Chaos & Magic Bullet. =P

Carighan.6758:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Cast that bouncing attack and if you’re not in range it wont bounce back to you.

This isn’t really a valid point as you wouldn’t get any secondary beneficial effect from an AE, either. You were not in range.

Anyhow, as far as an easily avoided projectile goes, yes, I guess an AE would have a slightly superior… actually no it wouldn’t. Now we’re mixing up buff-requests.
You’re now stating that the projectile nature is bad. I agree, or rather, I think more things need to be projectiles and those need to be rebalanced as a whole.

But ignore the projectile vs non-projectile debate for a moment. Compare a single bouncing projectile skill to one which casts a projectile at a target, then on impact projectiles fly out from that target to other nearby friendly and enemy targets to produce the AE effect. I don’t see a conceptual problem, they’re two different ways to do AE (chain AE vs radial AE), and nothing more.
You can do either of those with projectiles, or without.

Yeah, my beef is specifically with abilities that have dual effects on-bounce. If I cast iDisenchanter, its usually because I want condition removal… Not conditional condition removal. An AoE is predictable, I cast it and know when I’m getting the effect. A bounce not so much. Worse, I have no control over which of my allies I can assist with it.

@Pyro: On the subject of Furious Interrupt (FI) vs Shattered Concentration (SC), I don’t know if I agree on how much better Shattered is. SC is definitely superior, but I had to try out FI and originally I combined it with the quickness-on-shatter trait along with shield to see how much quickness uptime I could stack. Was cool and all, but chronophantasma simply far outclasses it. Furious Interruption, though, works so well with the shield that I just couldn’t drop it. I knew that SC is great and would likely always be my “meta” choice, but landing 6 seconds of quickness almost every time I interrupted with the shield was really, really enjoyable.

Problem was, for me, that I was using the wrong weapon.

Staff doesn’t benefit nearly as much from quickness as greatsword, and scepter moreso than sword. Granted, I did like how it sped up my wells/mantra and was tons of fun to use. Furious Interrupt is a really good trait IMO, but hamstringed by its competition with Shattered Concentration. For the beta I wanted to climb out of SC’s shadow and give FI some time to shine, and I definitely didn’t regret it.

Chaos was a must for me in this build, mostly because of the staff. Alacrity + Dampening made my cooldowns wither, especially with both wells and shield granting an Ethereal field. It was more of a playstyle thing, but also because since Dom/Dueling works with everything, I knew it’d already be great with Chrono. The changes you’d be suggestion would turn the build into the upcoming “meta” chronomancer build.

Domination: Confounding / Shattered concentration / Power Block or Anguish
Dueling: Phant Fury / Blinding Dissipate / Deceptive
Chaos: SlowInterrupt / CloneShatter / PhantasmShatter

I’m 99% positive that’ll be the meta shatter spec for Chrono, and I’m allergic to cookie-cutter. =[
(Edit: OK, now I’m like 78%)

@Tealots: Like Pyro said … Alls Well that Ends Well is such a disappointment. I tried so hard to like it and make it work but it is actually pretty rare that you’re able to predict a condi dump AND standing in the well for the last pulse. Siiigh. Rework plz.

@Armadeus: Gonna have to try that next time!

@MailMail: Do I think our AoE capabilities need to be buffed? Yeah. What offensive AoEs do we have?

• Greatsword: Mindspike & zerker
• Staff: Chaos Storm
• Shatters, F1/F2

… Anddd that’s about it. Yeah we have null field and feedback, even Mantra of Pain/Distraction. But that’s just the problem: these things are less practical and more situational. You only sometimes take feedback or nullfield. Shatters are dependent on clone production. Mantra of pain rarely ever gets taken. MoDistraction has kitten radius.

Bouncing attacks on phantasms do have a certain novelty, but there is a reason iDisenchanter is one of our worst forms of condition removal outside of a 1v1 and rarely ever gets taken. Theres a reason torch is considered to have 1.5 skills… and did you ever actually notice the alacrity iAvenger gave you? These phantasms not only have no team benefit but they don’t work more often then they do.

Carighan.6758:

Silverkey.2078:

That it is vastly inferior to AOE in number of targets and randomness. So it makes those phantasms fine in 1v1 but worse as the number increases.

The ability type frankly just isn’t comparable.
A bouncing attack can – usually – hit the same target more than once. Also it has a potentially far greater reach. An AE attack hits once in a defined area.

In the case of GW2, it adds that AE attacks are limited to 5 targets, while bouncing attacks are limited to X targets, X being dependent on the attack.

“Inferior”? That’s a pretty crude statement to throw out. Pre-nerf Mirror Blade as an AE would have been (in fact, it’d still be) pretty rubbish, even with hitting 5 allies around the one enemy target. Phantasmal Mage just giving burnin/retal in an area to 3-5 targets each could be superior, but with PMage the whole thing is so weak that I find it difficult to argue whether A or B would be marginally less bad.

But in general? Just not comparable. Say you got two targets and a few allies, set up like this: T1… A… A… A… T2. Casting an AE at either T1 or T2 would hit that target and one ally. Cast a bouncing attack with 5 targets total and you hit them all.

Cast that bouncing attack and if you’re not in range it wont bounce back to you. Worst, cast it and god forbid there was a guardian somewhere in there and it just got blocked/aegis’d. How about when it DOES hit but bounces off the opponent, their pet, some clones, an earth elemental, and somehow gets reflected by some random reflection?

The problem with bounces isn’t just in if it can connect, but the fact that these projectiles are so easily destroyed/evaded that you can’t really predict when you’ll get the reward. How many times do you use iDisenchanter only for it’s projectile to get dodged… and thus you never actually get any conditions removed before you have to shatter it or it gets killed.

Phantasms tend to only get 1-2 attacks off before they die, even worse for the torch/shield phantasms since they have insanely long attack rates. I’d rather something guaranteed to work then having to rely on my opponent to get the benefit.

Tealots.6095:

Treetoptrickster.4205:

Shouldn’t you call the build… clockdown? I’m sorry.

OH MY GOD! Treetoptrickster wins the forums today.

I tried to give him so many +1s for that I broke my wristwatch. =[

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?

Treetoptrickster.4205:

Shouldn’t you call the build… clockdown? I’m sorry.

Chronomancer 4v5 Victory

Alacrity + Blink + Kyhlo = Shameless porting!

Skip the vid, explain to me what happened at 7:57!?

Crushing it on Chronomancer

BUILD

Sword + Shield / Staff or Greatsword (Runes of Hoelbrak ; Sigils of Fire, Energy, & Hydromancy )
Domination: Confounding Suggestions / Furious Interrupt / Power Block
Chaos: Master of Manipulation / Chaotic Dampening / Chaotic Interruption
Chronomancy: Slow-on-interrupt / Clone-on-shatter / Phantasms Resummon on Shatter

THOUGHTS

• Wells are interesting, but only Well of Calamity ( 3k Damage + pulsing cripple/weakness/damage) was the most consistently useful/reliable. The high damage is nice, but pulsing weakness is glorious along with Power Block. Second was Well of Action ( 3s Quickness + pulsing Slow/damage ) which was reliable for making it hard to stomp/rezz due to slow and damage. The other wells don’t seem to have much place in PvP, Alacrity well sucks (/shakefist @ levetty for being right) and Precognition requires extreme co-ordination.

• Chronomancer completely outclasses Mesmer it’s unfortunate but true. In its current state I can’t think of any reason to ever choose Mesmer over Chronomancer. Everything a Mesmer can do, except for boonsharing, a Chronomancer can do better.

• Chronolockdown is awkward at first, especially without DE but is much stronger, able to proc halting strike more, make better use of quickness, and inflict the brutal slow condition. Every single interrupt did … inhales .. Damage/Weakness/Vulnerability/5x Might / 2x Immobilize / 3s slow / 3s Quickness / Random Boon / Random Condition. So many people thought I was a condi build as a result!

• Shield is glorious! Tides of time rocks, it’s become one of my new favorite skills in the Mesmer toolset. It’s as versatile as the focus and quite possibly our best supportive offhand. I really do love it, especially the way the blocks work (take notes sword/scepter). I think shield is probably the best lockdown offhand, Tides not only does decent (about 1.5k each time) damage on hit, but when it interrupts it sets up for nutty bursts! (As seen in the 7:57 video)

• Phantasm play is interesting and takes actual thought. Chronophantasma ROCKS! summoning 2 Avengers, letting them attack and then shattering them for another two strikes of slow saved me more than a couple times. Also, iWarlock got some nice bursts from MantraInterrupt + Warlock hit (5k) daze shatter (interrupt with warlock) and warlock hit on immob’d opponent. It made both phantasms much more reliable and less fire-and-forget.

• f5 is hard and I love it for being so tough/versatile. Though with alacrity I think it could use a bit longer cooldown.

• Gravity Well is inferior to TimeWarp in like.. every way. Warlord had mentioned the same thing I was thinking once I first used gravity well: Give it a pull on the initial hit! Anet plz!

Overall Chronomancer Lockdown is great. Very distinct from shatter due to the lack of DE and still strong and effective. Played properly the amount of control you have over the entire battlefield (of.. 10 people) is phenominal. Not just because of interrupts, but Well of Calamity’s AoE weakness and area denial and Tides of Time’s projectile absorption.

This is going to sound odd, but the biggest thrill of Chronolockdown was the immersion. You can tell how much fun I was having in those clips (especially the “crushing it with chronomancer” clip) and it was largely due to feeling both challenged and unique. No one, not even a shatter Mesmer could do what I did, I felt such a high level of control and that was without even being fully proficient with the build yet. It’s also challenging, with new things to learn and master and a definitive role to play. Looking forward to the next beta!

Oh lawd.. I’m scared to watch. Will have my side of the uploads tonight likely.

I sucked it up with iDisenchanter.
I never used torch, so didn’t worry about iMage
… But shield is the last straw.

STOP BEING AFRAID OF OUR PHANTASMS!
Phantasms with bounce-based projectiles do not work anet. This game isn’t balanced around 1v1s or smallscale encounters, bosses obliterate phantasms in a single swipe, and any block/dodge/blind/reflect/wiggle completely ruins the effect, leaving most of these phantasms on a rather long recharge before their next (likely failing) attack.
I understand if these phantasms are given bouncing attacks out of fear of them being too powerful. On paper, a phantasm that can remove 2 condis and boons per hit seems really strong, so is a phantasm that applies alacrity/slow and so is fury/burning. But in practice, giving these phantasms a bouncing projectile out of fear that any other application would be too strong is actually crippling them. It doesn’t matter how good it’s “supposed” to be if it never has a chance to actually work!

BOUNCES DON’T WORK. SO WHAT DOES?
Phantasms with bouncing projectiles tend to offer a bonus to allies and a detriment to enemies, but more often than not they just tend to do nothing. The bounce often doesn’t even reach back to the Mesmer if they’re not within range, and that’s assuming the projectile ever hit in the first place. As a result, these phantasms have extremely situation application and tend to be nearly forgettable. Ontop of that there’s other problems with said phantasms.

• iDisenchanter has a low cooldown & and a fast attack rate. That’s all well and good, but it dies way too often and has the most obnoxious cast-time ever. Despite the fact that it’s effect is great, this is one of our worst Phantasms simply because of how it attacks. This phantasm only excels in small-scale fights of 3v3 or less, and even then it struggles.
  - (Casts minor Null Field (one pulse), removing 2 condis and 2 boons every 6 seconds in an AoE)

• iMage is still forgettable, because while burning used to be cool.. One stack is pitiful compared to .. oh.. every other kitten thing that applies a condition! The fury rarely makes it back to the Mesmer, and even when it does it’s easy to go unnoticed.
  - (Creates a line of purple fire that lasts 3s every 8s. Enemies that cross the line gain 2s of burning, allies gain 2s fury)

• iAvenger "FOR FREEDO- /miss. "STARS AND STRI- /block “GOOD WORK, SOLDIER!” Even when iAvenger hits, it’s only achievement is the slow it applies to an enemy. Then it just kind of sits there and happily dies thinking itself a martyr. If this phantasm is to be our only consistent method of sharing Alacrity, then by god please allow it to actually share some effing alacrity!
  - (Raises shield and shouts " ’murica!" granting 2s Alacrity & inflicting 2s slow to all targets within 600r every 6 seconds)

What do you think? Do you not mind our bouncing phantasms or would you rather see them changed? If so what tweaks would you make?

Hey.. I went and looked at the other class threads.

“Wahh Tempest is bad.”
“DragonHunter is useless”
“Reaper GS too slow!”
“I am loooving my Chronomancer!”

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

Alright.. This settles it. There is some secret warrior agenda vs mesmer going on here…

I dunno the answer to yer question, but Frifox’s word is law.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/9763687?t=5h000m20s

Here you’ll find gameplay for all the elite specs, Chronomancer starts at 05:00:00…. in German. x.x

This guy kinda failed epicly with Continuum Shift, but otherwise he showcases the wells and some general Chrono stuff. Just a little something to whet the appetite until more footage later tonight!

(Btw the float effect looks dope!)

I love these ideas. I hope a dev sees this for our next elite spec.

Sigh.. That swordsman phantasm idea is too good to even look at without salivating.

Fay.2357:

I’ll be around doing things. I’ll also try to be on the omkitten. If there’s interest, I’ll lead a chrono raid either in wvw or eotm.

What times? Lets do it!

tobascodagama.2961:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Duel/Chaos/Chrono – Lockdown

Can’t see why this isn’t Dom/Cha/Chr. Dueling doesn’t add nearly as much to your lockdown as CS+PB.

Are you taking the line just for Duelist’s Discipline? We should compare Dom vs. Dueling as see if the former really lags behind the latter that much, as far as Magic Bullet’s cooldown goes. Alacrity/F5’s effect on optimal builds is the biggest question mark for this BWE.

Do we have any testers besides Tobasco, NICENIKESHOE, Jurica, Skcamow and Messiah?

I volunteer to try out Support/Bunker builds, since I’m curious about how effective those will be. Not sure exactly how much time I’ll have available, though, so make sure somebody else covers them as well.

You’re right, Dom/Chaos/Chrono is much more ideal for Chrono lockdown. I’m still in that “omg DE must have!” -mentality. The thing is, Dueling also offers perma fury. Combined with [30% crit chance on slowed targets] we could have an opportunity to trait tankier amulets like valk and still deal high damage. (Jurica actually put me on to the idea.)

But as for the purest form of lockdown, dom/chaos/chrono for sure. I’ve got blink, calamity (damage) well, and mantra in mind for this. Immobilizing enemies inside a well is gonna be sweet. Though I really don’t think the shield will outperform the focus here.

Alright guys, today is the day. I’ll be working on compiling the questions on this thread and builds requested. Currently I’ve 3 builds of my own to try out.

Dom/Duel/Chrono – Shatter
Duel/Chaos/Chrono – Lockdown
Chaos/Inspire/Chrono – Support.

Do we have any testers besides Tobasco, NICENIKESHOE, Jurica, Skcamow and Messiah?

Goliath.7546:

Which class is the most faceroll? Which is hardest to play?

This question can’t accurately be answered.

No class on it’s own is easy or difficult to play. It all depends on the build, but each class has easy and difficult builds.

Deimos.. Why did you have to start this flame train up again?