Guild Wars 2

messiah.1908:

Saturn.6591:

messiah.1908:

condi shatter mesmer – chorno doesnt really suit condi shatter. slow with confusion doest work well. but still this build works but do you really want to take condi chorno into pvp (same as condi shatter before)

Didn’t actually test that yet, but you do not have to use slow as a chronomancer. You could go for DE, increased scepter attackspeed, and quickness on shatter (and the rest of the traits like you want/what makes the most sense for you with a condi shatter build). Could be a hard decision between improved alacrity duration and clone on shatter, though. Possibly with staff and scepter/shield or so. Maybe you don’t even need DE; dunno (as I didn’t test it yet). But I assume you’d get quite some clone-production going with the scepter auto-attack, lots of shatters and a kinda high alacrity uptime.

slow from shield
goind DE means i dont take chaos so no stability and protection and reflect while getting 1 more clone every 8 sec inaverage and little bleeding stakcs.

with chorno i dont have problem to create clones although its not fast as i would want it to be like DE.

This is my dilemma also – losing Stability on Shatter, traited mirror and blink for reflects, protection and regen, and increased boon/condition duration from Chaos.

In exchange though we do get superspeed illusions, +25% movement speed allowing use of things like Tormenting Runes, fastest possible cooldowns on shatters and everything else, more illusion generation (helped by Cp), and of course the benefits of F5.

Ultimately I’d say it might be better to go Chaos/Illusions/Chrono with Scepter/Torch (for extra condi removal through the pledge) + Staff traiting bountiful disillusionment, mirror and so on.

I absolutely believe that Improved Alacrity is better than Illusionary Reversion if taking DE and Chronophantasma – because the amount of illusions will be in excess anyway and IR is just overkill. If not taking either one of DE or Cp then perhaps IR is more useful but I haven’t tested that yet. The extra alacrity uptime certainly works better for me than one potential extra clone to shatter.

Surely you could ignore them and try to out rotate/ focus other players/points in conquest and focus the npcs in stronghold? It’s not like they’ll be able to hurt and stop you.

Disclaimer – I haven’t played much pvp since HoT so not yet faced this minstrel build, due to finishing off the pve zones first.

First of all Soldiers amulet isn’t doing you any favours.

Neither are the vulnerability sigils – don’t use them.

You need to think about what role you want to perform in conquest – do you want to bunker on point, roam to +1 fights and burst enemies, deal damage through condition or power (or hybrid and sacrifice defence), be a dedicated team support and so on. It’s difficult to try and do all those things at the same time because you’ll end up mediocre in all departments.

The setup of Illusions/Inspiration/Chrono is actually pretty good for a condi build.

Unfortunately Focus currently is not a good choice of offhand in pvp – you’re better off taking Pistol or taking Staff. This in turn gives you the freedom of traiting Restorative Illusions which is an amazing trait.

If I was playing Scepter/Shield and Sword/Focus I might run Domination/Inspiration/Chronomancer and take Mantra of Distraction along with Gravity well and Power Block for an interrupt build. Double Hydromancy/Energy sigils and of course the Mental Defence/Chronophantasma to provide some damage mitigation when taking a Marauder amulet. And also taking both Danger Time and Delayed Reactions. That’s if you’re determined to stick with that exact weapon setup.

Otherwise with Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono I’d run Scepter/Shield+Staff and go full condition with Maim the Disillusioned, Restorative Illusions, Chronophantasma plus Mental Defence plus Persistence of Memory for fast shield block cooldowns.

Regarding Sigils, as a rule Energy sigils are still amazing even if you don’t have Deceptive Evasion. Hydromancy is good for control if building for that, Doom for neutering healing and providing a cover condition.

Sorry I’m typing this from a phone so it’s all very brief and not a properly detailed reply. I’m sure someone else here can provide a much better answer but I hope this helps a little.

Severe issues at the moment (for the last couple of hours).

Can’t get past the character select screen at all.

Hope it is fixed to apply retroactively.

What about the dragonfly backpiece – will that be a glider skin too?

Salty ranger.

The Chrono traitline is almost entirely focused on speeding up/slowing down gameplay, almost entirely quality of life benefits and the only defence comes from boosting skill cooldowns and cast times to have defensive skills available more frequently. There’s no passive stability, protection, aegis or any other number of random boons, conditions, condition removals, heals, and so on that are thrown around like sweets in the game. The trait line is very focused and has tradeoffs at every tier.

Simply taking Chrono is a big sacrifice for us in terms of trying to choose which two other core trait lines can fit, especially given many build’s reliance on Deceptive Evasion, all good Condi cleanse and support in Inspiration, all the good boons/defensive utilities in Chaos, all power builds pretty much requiring Domination and all condition builds requiring Illusions.

Flow of Time was already reduced from the first BWE and is perfectly fine. Improved Alacrity is fine too and a tough decision between that and the other Master major traits.

If AWTEW is nerfed then it would ruin Chrono teamfight potential, because as it is precious utility slots must be sacrificed for wells (ie Blink, Decoy Portal, Condi cleanse, superior heals, Mass Invis, Time Warp, Moa and so on). As it is, Chrono is not a clear winner over a build with three core trait lines.

Does anyone have a list of all the new foods and recipes added with HoT?

Sorry but I can’t seem to find much information on this.

Better just add build templates so players can 1 click swap build before joining a team if Stronghold pops up in hotjoin.

Between RI competing with WF in the Inspiration traitline, along with untraited projectile destruction being buggy, and now not being able to pull people off terrain, I’m leaving my Focus in the bank.

It went from the best offhand a few years back to now arguably one of our weakest offhands.

Herald, Reaper, Scrapper, Druid, Chronomancer, Daredevil and Dragonhunter are NOT horizontal progression…

Yet they are locked behind a system that is meant for horizontal progression.

Only maybe Tempest and Berserker (I’ve not played Berserker so this is just a guess based on fighting against them in pvp) could be considered horizontal.

amiia.8139:

Curunen.8729:

The problem is what happens in 6 months time? When players return to wvw, pvp, fractals, raids, or whatever their preference is and these maps and up mostly empty? I don’t think the meta events in any of these maps will be attractive enough to draw a significant population by this time next year.

I have no problem with the difficulty of content in HoT. My problem is that elite specs should not be locked behind content that is contrived and has nothing thematic in common with the spec itself (no npc trainers, no elite specific quests, etc…). Therefore I find the hero point challenges and requirement excessive and a potential problem for players in the future once the map population declines.

And what happend in GuildWars1 when new xpacs were shipped? Sooner or later players will be in less quantity. Ask Yourself – You have our community for dumb guys that don’t have brain and will try to force solo everything? Or they are smart to team up or use map chat to ask for help? I never rejected player that was asking for help when I was near because this is not a reason to shame. Helping makes community stronger.

Oh I tend to help if someone asks in map chat, so I can see your point. If there’s enough players in the map then yes if someone asks for help they are likely to receive it.

But I know that when I’m finished exploring all the zones and unlocking any achievements I feel are worth the effort, I’ll be returning to pvp/wvw. I just wonder how many other players will do the same to their respective modes (assuming raids are attractive and other pve players return to other content) whether there will be sufficient population in the HoT maps to offer help when people ask for it.

Zetsumei.4975:

Just get rid of the cheese timers.. that’s all I ask.

This might be the best solution here.

Or at least increase the time.

I bet that Caladbolg will be the new legendary greatsword and the precursor for it will require this broken piece as part of the collection, even if it is just a one handed sword now.

But we’ll just have to wait and see once they announce more legendaries.

Veneratio.1980:

Herald fully unlocked.
All Rev armour skins.
Level 28 mastery
Story finished

ALL as a solo player. I waited around at a few hero challenge for 5 mins til someone else showed up but never joined party.

GG Anet. HoT is awesome l!

Yes it isn’t a problem now – I’ve soloed a lot of the content, story, unlocked all of chronomancer…

Only a few hero challenge champs of the ones I’ve done so far require at least one other player (granted I’ve not done any yet in Dragon’s Stand) but you can get enough of them solo to unlock a full elite spec.

The problem is what happens in 6 months time? When players return to wvw, pvp, fractals, raids, or whatever their preference is and these maps and up mostly empty? I don’t think the meta events in any of these maps will be attractive enough to draw a significant population by this time next year.

I have no problem with the difficulty of content in HoT. My problem is that elite specs should not be locked behind content that is contrived and has nothing thematic in common with the spec itself (no npc trainers, no elite specific quests, etc…). Therefore I find the hero point challenges and requirement excessive and a potential problem for players in the future once the map population declines.

Well I said “kitten it” and decided to just spend the gold I had been saving up on a Legend from the TP when it dipped down to around 900g over the weekend.

The only precursor crafting I do will be for the new legendaries, once future ones are added to the game.

Agreed, Traited Mirror/Blink and Bountiful Disillusionment are the two primary reasons I take Chaos.

But as Ross said, it’s fitting Chaos in your build, because it’s still hard to give up DE in any build.

Well I find that even though it’s “wow alacrity, spam all the things”, “wow quality of life benefits”, the traitline is geared highly offensively and results in you being glassier than usual – unless you pair it with Chaos or Inspiration (or both if full bunker but I’ve never tried that so don’t know how effective it is).

I find it has more in common with Duelling – but without the priceless benefit of DE.

Tbh I’m mainly using Chrono to offset the MtD nerf, as well as allowing free rune choice with the built in 25% movement speed. Otherwise I think I’d rather take Chaos.

It’s going to be a real chore once most players have finished the content and returned to their preferred game areas/modes.

Well having finally got through it I can say a few things [SPOILERS]:

Telekinesis.8312:

Curunen.8729:

I’d rather run with full berserker if I wanted to play glass.

Even with Sinister/Viper, conditions still take time to tick, but you lack all the damage mitigation of toughness and also all the ferocity.

Your underestimating condition damage if you meant it for pve.

Sinister for now imo, viper’s gonna take time to aquire anyway.

Oh I meant pvp or wvw, sorry. All my comments are generally pvp or wvw, and I don’t like being glassy while dealing DoT against other players. I prefer straight up burst and big crits if playing glass.

I’d rather run with full berserker if I wanted to play glass.

Even with Sinister/Viper, conditions still take time to tick, but you lack all the damage mitigation of toughness and also all the ferocity.

Thanks, I’ve only got 5 more things to unlock and this will be helpful – will watch later in the day.

If they made it function on self shatter, I might consider using it instead of Chronophantasma.

All shatter traits should function on self shatter.

I’d like to know this as well – do you get back sigils/runes and infusions when salvaging ascended items?

It’s a weird one – great damage in power builds, kind of passable in hybrid builds, but pretty pathetic in condition builds.

I think it should deal some sort of AoE condition or boon application, keeping to the theme of the Chaos traitline around boons and conditions.

I’d go with a 7/10.

As usual stunning environment art/design, gliding and mushrooms are a lot of fun, music is good too. The atmosphere in each map is great.

Only downside is the contrived content gating, but otherwise I’m enjoying it a lot so far.

Mesmer is by far the most fun, but Revenant is probably currently the easiest/most rewarding to play.

I find mirror is weak if untraited but very strong if traited.

I pretty much never use it if not taking Chaos, and pretty much always use it if taking Chaos (I always trait master of manipulation in Chaos).

Hehe I agree on most skills as well as the sound effects.

Blink/teleports are glorious, mirror is so satisfying, all greatsword skills equally satisfying, mantra charging is so cool, all the elite skills cast animations and effects are awesome (the sound on mass invis, amazing). I could go on and list most skills – this class is such an aural and visual joy to play.

However two things which are a little irritating for me:
- Blinding Dissipation sounds like squelching some rotten fruit, kind of unpleasant.
- Alacrity ticking is a bit annoying after a while.
- Chronophantasma buzzing sounds like angry bees around the phantasms rather than butterflies.
- The whirring/buzzing on Masterful Reflection is jarring, I don’t like it.

Matryoshka.1607:

ScribeTheMad.7614:

Think of it not so much as a specialization to play, as something to get for finishing the rest of the content so you can stick it on a shelf.

It’s like a trophy.

It would make more sense to make it an achievement or a trophy and not a new play style, then. Really questionable design decision.

This.

And also the grind for elite specs is totally meaningless – there’s no theme unlike when you look at precursor crafting. If each elite spec had a themed progression/unlock system then perhaps it would feel more like fun rather than a chore. For example class npcs that would train us and elite spec specific challenges to complete to learn new skills/traits.

Add to that players hoping to enjoy a majority of the new content playing as the elite specs. They could have locked trophies, themed weapon/armour skins, achievements and so on behind a grind instead but left all the core traits and skills easier to access for people to play with.

Even as a main only player I’m finding this a chore. Elite specs locked behind hero points, hero points behind masteries, masteries behind farming XP…

I don’t agree with the sensational “Chrono is kitten OP Nerf it right now before we all get murdered!!!!111!” because several other elite specs are disgustingly overpowered.

However I do agree that many things will need to be balanced in the near future to curb this power creep. For example I find Shield is too strong compared with other offhands so I would imagine that:
- block channel duration could be reduced to around 1.5s
- tides of time might receive a target cap
- slow output from traits and shield skills might be reduced
- well of precognition may have a slight cooldown increase
- F5 could do with adjustments for example 2s base duration on self shatter and then only +1s per illusion shattered (max 5s duration compared with 6s we have now).

But at the same time there’s several things on scrapper, reaper and herald that also need looking at. In any case I doubt anything will happen before the end of this year because I believe the power creep is intentional to sell the expansion.

Leodon.1564:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

It’s clunky and slow, providing relatively less benefit than equivalent gap closers from other classes (most of which are an attack on top of being a gap closer).
The premise that you can swap with a clone would be cool if it actually fooled anyone, or even if you weren’t relying on the clone to survive.

Not everyone uses S#3 as a gap closer only. Personally, I probably use it for defensive purposes just as much as I use it as a gap closer (e.g. drop clone on enemy, dodge away, swap when opponent chases you and is about to land a hit). Comes in handy to avoid being hit by things like a Warrior’s Eviscerate.

It could use a tune-up in responsiveness but I’ve learned to live with it.

Oh I’d happily like to use it more defensively and with more trickery again but since the older change to not swapping if the clone died together with the pathetically short lifespan of the clone makes it more like “quick use swap before it’s rendered useless”.

In my experience it’s only possible to do mind games if in a very small fight, ideally 1v1, facing classes/builds with minimal aoe/cleave that might vapourise the swap clone in less than a couple of seconds. Yeah I agree it’s still possible to do the mind games by leaving the clone out and baiting enemy action, but the situations are limited given the current form of the skill.

Hence I believe it’s better to just go all out and make it a proper gap closer.

I tried Chaos/Illusions/Chrono with Scepter/Shield + Staff briefly, in order to have traited mirror, blink, bountiful disillusionment, chaotic transference and all the Chrono goodies.

Seems to work quite well although it is “slower paced” with the loss of DE. But traited mirror and blink with alacrity are great and I love the stability on shatter.

Anyway I still prefer Duelling/Illusions/Chrono with Sword because it’s faster, more mobile and more aggressive (but also more vulnerable).

Tough choice for sure between Chaos, Duelling and Chrono. Each one has its benefits and clear downsides.

What, seriously? You can’t throw people off walls/cliffs anymore? :o

Well that settles it, Shield >>> Focus.

Tormenting runes are pretty nice tbh. Didn’t think I’d find them useful again since the MtD nerf, but it helps quite a bit for sustained pressure.

Torch has one benefit of condi cleanse, and the burns while pathetic are at least another cover condition/additional damage.

Daniel Handler.4816:

… you realise that because of how illusions work there is no possibility for juking with your version. You would just swap with the clone who is also next to you, for a pretty useless immobilize. Range immobilizes always beat meele immobilizes.

Not to mention you can’t perform the skill during a dodge. It would change nothing over the current model, and would be pretty bad for shatter combos , killing the six clone shatter.

I know the sword clone would immediately run for your target, but I can’t think of another way around that – other than maybe locking the initial ground location like continuum rift while letting the clone run where it wants.

The immobilise is currently in melee anyway, but my concern is adding it to an initial leap might make it too powerful.

The point is swap would then be the escape rather than the means of engaging, so you could just leap/shatter and then swap back to the “rift” location.

Which skill wouldn’t you be able to do while dodging? The leap? Well that’s the same as what we have now – a 1/2 second cast. And it wouldn’t matter with swap because then that becomes the escape/juke option.

An example is you could leap -> dodge/shatter on your target -> swap back and run/reposition. Compared with now – cast ileap -> dodge/swap -> shatter.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Curunen.8729:

Actually more like Infiltrator’s Strike (thief sword 2) but with cast time, 12s cooldown compared with initiative, no immobilise on the initial target, no condi removal and obvious fragility of swap clone.

Gives a chance for enemies to avoid leap shatter combos.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infiltrator's_Strike

I think it’s a great idea. You’ll get a lot of salty thieves, though.

Considering thieves are already engulfed in a mountain of salt I doubt this would make it much worse. xD

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Curunen.8729:

I don’t care about the stun break – it makes sense to remove it. But the side effect of making dodge/swapping clunky bothers me quite a lot.

I am very much in favour of deleting sword 3 entirely and replacing it with something like Spear 2 (but teleport instead of travelling time). Fed up with the constant band aid changes to it.

1/2 second cast time (giving enemies a chance to react to the blink)
Spawn a clone at your position and then blink to your target, crippling them. Can teleport up or down terrain.
600 range
5 second option to swap position with your spawned clone and immobilise nearby targets.
12 second base cooldown

Just reversing the whole thing while maintaining the teleport would be so much better.

So the mesmer version of Shadowstep, basically.

Actually more like Infiltrator’s Strike (thief sword 2) but with cast time, 12s cooldown compared with initiative, no immobilise on the initial target, no condi removal and obvious fragility of swap clone.

Gives a chance for enemies to avoid leap shatter combos.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infiltrator's_Strike

I don’t care about the stun break – it makes sense to remove it. But the side effect of making dodge/swapping clunky bothers me quite a lot.

I am very much in favour of deleting sword 3 entirely and replacing it with something like Spear 2 (but teleport instead of travelling time). Fed up with the constant band aid changes to it.

1/2 second cast time (giving enemies a chance to react to the blink)
Spawn a clone at your position and then blink to your target, crippling them. Can teleport up or down terrain.
600 range
5 second option to swap position with your spawned clone and immobilise nearby targets.
12 second base cooldown

Just reversing the whole thing while maintaining the teleport would be so much better.

frifox.5283:

Wouldn’t that actually a good thing since that would not interrupt the dodge evade frames but rather wait for dodge to finish and fire BF’s evade right after to max evade duration?

So far it just seems almost like a self daze and you still get hit.

I haven’t had the situation to test accurately but I’m not sure the evade itself persists.

The dodge animation persisting through swap is really messing with my game.

You kind of have to slow everything down and input things one at a time or it gets really kittened up.

For example when you expect blurred frenzy to activate after swap and nothing happens because your character was mid dodge…

Agreed, the lack of vitality on any of these is a problem.

nearlight.3064:

Curunen.8729:

Tough choice between Wanderer’s and Viper’s though.

I think Viper is better than Sinister for us, but they’re both full glass.

I just wish Wanderer had 1050 toughness and 560 precision instead of the other way around, but I think I will stick with it.

Wanderer’s is power/toughness/vitality/concentration on PvE.. But a condi amulet in pvp… Why is this? I have the perfect mightstacking dragonhunter build that needs this amulet with power stats to function :/

Yeah I don’t get that – weird naming choice tbh.

Anyway it’s better than the poor variety of condi amulets we had before.

I’ve tried Viper with tormenting runes and that can output a pretty crazy amount of hybrid damage in pvp, but I don’t like being glass anymore.

I like Wanderer’s more than Rabid, but the precision is a bit excessive in my opinion just for the sake of SI and on crit sigils – would rather have 1050 toughness and 560 precision.

In anycase either Wanderer or Viper with tormenting runes is finally something good for condi shatter.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Jeez.. Even the tempest runes suck!

Those Herald Runes look promising though.

… What the eff are concentration and expertise?

Boon duration and Condition duration.

lorddarkflare.9186:

Simzani.4318:

- No rebindable righ click.
- Can’t set left click to automatic.

Half done job as usual by arenanet. It’s sad that some amateurs mods made years ago are better than this.

Right, but that mod was not dealing with the same internal limitations.

I will continue using Combat Mode, but this is hardly poor work.

Agreed, it’s a good start but I will continue using the combat mod until this action camera gets properly fleshed out.

Dondagora.9645:

Barely a nerf and people QQ’ing like this already?

It really screws with the flow if you like to swap mid dodge because now the dodge animation will continue through the swap and prevent use of other skills.

I never thought I’d find it so much fun but it is amazing.

Ohoni.6057:

The new map is frustrating until you get Gliding->Bouncing shrooms->Updraft, but then it becomes a LOT of fun.

Agreed – with those things it is a lot of fun to fly and jump around.

It also seems to have an annoying side effect:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/illusionary-leap-swap-bugged

Not happy about this – I agree just delete ileap and make a new skill.