Guild Wars 2

The biggest disappointment with Chrono is not being able to play it again until next month’s beta weekend! xD

Those traits should just be in pve/wvw profession specific masteries and removed from traitlines.

I’ve never done that but still think it’s funny.

Use at your own risk.

Ranger greatsword and mainhand sword.

Windwalker.7421:

Can’t really say I agree that the IR nerf was bad at all. I am playing Condie shatter even, which means spamming shatters like crazy, more so than a Power shatter ever would/should, and I’m seeing solid results from IR. I am playing w/o dueling so no DE, and relying solely on IR + Chronophants for illusion generation.

There are still times I have all shatters down, and 2-3 illusions up.

Chronophantasm is simply awesome, and that’s what makes IR still work well IMO.

I was a proponent of a 2s CD on IR instead before, but at this point the current change seems more fluid actually. I’d hate to see kitten CD on it as some have suggested, as this would severely cripple its effectiveness in ways that the 2 illusion limit simply doesn’t.

Now a 2s CD would work just fine, and I wouldn’t mind trying that out, but if it’s anymore than 2s CD, I’d rather keep this 2 illusion limit.

Be careful what you ask for…I guess.

Yeah I’m feeling exactly the same way.

It does rely heavily on having Cp – I haven’t tried playing using IR without Cp but I imagine doing that would cause serious problems. So it seems that if you take IR, you kind of have to take Cp.

I don’t think that rigidity is a good thing though, but the end result currently “works”.

I’ve been wanting this for ages – it’s the primary reason I’ve not used SoI all that much in the past, apart from underwater.

Noss.4105:

I haven’t played Chrono yet, but wouldn’t it be a waste to take those two with DE? I mean, there’s no clone death traits anymore and the usefulness of clone generation is capped by shatter cooldowns.

It’s not a waste if taking Illusions and Duelling for condi shatter with very high alacrity uptime and minimised/traited shatter cooldowns.

Unfortunately I don’t agree with this proposed change – I like being able to take DE with Cp and IR, and funnily enough now having played it, I don’t mind IR as it is with the two illusion requirement – even if not using Duelling but say using Inspiration for the iDefender and scepter/shield blocks with Cp means it’s not difficult to get two illusions out before shattering and then one additional illusion in between shatters to continually proc IR.

Amadeus.5687:

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

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

Very good point and the one big downside.

I haven’t tried in fights with a ton of aoes or other damaging mess laid down around a downed enemy enough to destroy the rift.

I’ve not yet experienced it bugging out to return to a different location though – that must be annoying. :/

Yeah except with F5 you have blink and phase retreat available again immediately after stomping.

Depending on how many buttons you can press in the short space of time while the stomp animation is playing, you could also blow F4 as well if you like, among other things.

It’s much more like the thief’s shadow step stomp seeing as you have to blink away and split back compared with our old portal or usual phase retreat/blink stomp.

Apologies if this is already well known – it’s my first time on chrono this weekend so I was keen to test this out and surprised that it works.

Pretty simple combo which works more like a thief’s Shadow Step stomp, just with an initial setup using F5.

Just hit F5 while stomping – blink away somewhere (and phase retreat too if you like I imagine, although I haven’t had the opportunity to fit it in yet) – F5 back to land the stomp.

Edit: Just checked and you can do F5 – phase retreat – blink – F5 to land the stomp. Interesting uses when trying to stomp in places like Forest Keep etc.

Ok not the most practical use of F5, but a fun one nonetheless.

Xaylin.1860:

I’m having a really hard time with the Duelling line since the rework. I still pick it but mostly for the Major Master / Grandmaster traits. The Adept traits are a mess for anyone not running Pistol (and to some degree Focus). I also still believe that there is a huge amount of redundancy which needs to be cleaned up (Sharper Images + Duelists Discipline + Phantasmal Fury).

I don’t think it should be a Protection trait, though. But Distortion would work.

Something I’d enjoy:

• Make Phantasmal Fury the new Master Minor
• Make Sharper Images an Adept Major
• Remove Bleeding from Duelists Discipline. Make the Duelists attacks pierce instead.
• Remove Desperate Decoy and replace it with a ‘Remove Boon on crititcal hit’ trait.

For me personally this would be a much cleaner set up. Shatter and Interrupt builds would pick Duelists Discipline or the generic Boon removal trait. Phantasm builds can pick Sharper Images (condi/hybrid) or Duelists Discipline (others). Duelling Adept currently really lacks a generic trait which is versatile enough to not be useless in non-Pistol-non-Phantasm builds.

I like these changes a lot and agree it needs sorting out.

If you haven’t played this yet, do it!

The synergy of Cp with MD, PoM and shield block is insane.

Illusions: PoM ~ MtD ~ Ineptitude
Chronomancer: TCU ~ IR ~ Cp
Inspiration: PI ~ RI ~ MD
EF, Blink, any second utility , Decoy, MI/GW
Armour: Dire + Rune of the Nightmare
Trinkets: Dire (WvW), Carrion (PvP)
Weapons: Dire Scepter/Shield + Staff (Energy/Doom)

Holy kitten! :o

I didn’t get to play the previous beta so this is my first time testing chrono and… I love it!

Don’t even care about the IR nerf right now, because Duelling/Chrono/Illusions Sword/Torch + Staff condi shatter is too much fun, even with losing traited mirror, blink and Bountiful Dissipation from Chaos.

Oh and scepter/shield + staff with inspiration/chrono/illusions and mental defence with chronophantasma is… amazing!

It’s a poor trait tbh, too many possibilities of it being a hindrance rather than a benefit – I’d rather it be completely removed and replaced with something else.

Endless Soul.5178:

Dawdler.8521:

Asurans easily beat them all, the attention to detail on ear movement, momentum and small “jumps” is incredible. Poledancing empower ftw.

Agreed! Asuran animations are the best. Ever do the /threaten emote? The put’em up moves followed by an “I’m watching you” gesture (watch how the eyes widen as they point to their own eyes), and completes with an aggressive point and a “Yeah, that’s right” head nod.

Ever stand by idle while wielding an axe? Watch as the sniff something in the air, and then spin around as if the heard something behind them.

Watch as they use a mining pick, it’s like they have trouble lifting that tool. Same with the broadsword.

Do a /cower emote and see what happens. They have the best laugh too.

#AsuranMasterRace

High five!

Oh hell yes, I love the “sniff the air” idle animation when dual wielding. It’s so cute and awesome at the same time.

I think by far the best asura animations are on mesmer and ranger Greatswords. Everything from Mind Stab to Maul to iZerker to Hilt Bash is amazing and has serious weight behind it.

Dawdler.8521:

Are you talking about human animations? Because they are the worst in the game, lol.

Asurans easily beat them all, the attention to detail on ear movement, momentum and small “jumps” is incredible. Poledancing empower ftw.

Then the Charr, which really feel like they put power into everything they do, from hammering to staff magic (if you think Norn/Humans use their entire body tossing a fireball, watch Charr literally raise on their toes lol).

After that Norn, then a tie for last place between Sylvari and Human.

Yeah I agree totally.

Asura animations are on a whole other level compared to everything else. I often amuse myself doing random things such as walking a bit in one direction and watching them flop and straighten up when they stop. The asura animations are so godlike that it’s fun to pop skills while in a safe zone just for the sake of enjoying the animations.

Charr are pretty good (play melee GS+Sw/D chart ranger for very satisfying animations)

Norn, human and sylvari are all pedestrian and in fact some things are not cool or elegant at all.

Remember to watch the boons – if they exit stealth with a nice stack of boons, and prestige/decoy are lasting for 6seconds, then it’s PU.

It should be very easy to tell if a Mesmer is using PU with stealth or simply stealth without PU as soon as they use a single stealth skill.

Binge on Chrono and DD in pvp.

kitten , wb! :o

I’d watch anything backed by cool music.

It’s a fantastic minor trait and one that finally allows more freedom in rune choice especially in wvw instead of being tied to centaur/traveler/air/speed in the past.

Passive movement speed boost means no need to waste skills/utilities for the sake of swiftness (ie temporal curtain) or mobility (ie blink) meaning if a fight suddenly happens on you you’re not starting with a handicap.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Robert can we add new functionality to Master of Fragmentation? Something like activating shatter creates a blast finisher on mesmer himself, kind of fits the name as well.

With IP being baselined, power mesmers are reluctant to pick Illusion traitline because Master of Fragmentation offers less than other traitlines’ GM traits. Illusion is offering too little for power mesmers, most power mesmers who do choose this line are picking it for shatter CD.

While condition mesmers mainly pick this line, they will pick ineptitude any time of the day.

This is a great idea – even if it was only Mind Wrack which was enhanced to a blast finisher with Master of Fragmentation (I mean the 10% extra crit chance is pretty… mediocre), and leave the enhancements of the rest (cripple, aoe daze and reflect) the same.

It would be nice if all ground targeted skills that don’t work underwater were made into spherical pbaoes when underwater.

Yep as they said – if vs a power shatter player, keep a very close eye and count of their cooldowns (as well as dodges but that goes without saying).

If they are using torch and decoy, force them to burn both stealths and keep an eye on when they have been used – remembering one is a stunbreak so after it has been used that’s one less survival option open to them.

If they blurred frenzy, prepare your damage for as soon as the animation and blur effect ends – if they don’t chain into a dodge, blink or other defensive skill they will eat your damage.

F1 will be on a ~12s cooldown which is the minimum window you have between their big bursts – generally most players will go defensive/kite between bursts until their cooldowns reset and this is the time to force them to blow big defensive cooldowns (ie Distortion).

If they blink burst you as an opener, you know one key stunbreak is gone. Always when idling between fights swap to or stay in a weapon set which has immediate access to some defensive skill, be it a block, evade or whatever – it is crucial to have the muscle memory to press the one or two buttons (ie stunbreak into damage avoidance skill). Even from stealth you can see the mirror blade coming and it is easy to dodge providing you always stay aware of where the enemy mesmer(s) are. I haven’t seen many people using mantra if distraction recently so there’s less worry about stun bursts than say last month.

If they are using staff, be sure to not stand in chaos storm (in case traited for interrupt effects and damage). If pistol, watch out for magic bullet and try to los the duelist. The only other commonly used cc tool is F3 but this is on a fairly long cooldown, and iWave but that is easy to see and avoid. There are not a huge amount of dazes/stuns if they are not using mantra of distraction so you should be free to do what you want. Not many people use focus pull anymore, or offhand sword daze.

You need to be aggressive if they are glass and take control of the fight because they don’t have the hp or toughness to prevent it.

Summarising, watch – Distortion, Blurred Frenzy, prestige/decoy, blink, any mantras (Condi removal or daze), Diversion and dodges. Force them to burn those early and hit them hard.

There’s a lot more to say but someone else can type that for you.

Yes please, along with smarter npcs who try to res their allies and also stomp you if they down you. More like the HotM profession npcs, just better.

It’s no fun mowing through mobs without needing to stomp anything.

Excellent! Less than a couple of months.

Fantastic! That’s a lot earlier than I was expecting.

StinVec.3621:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Purdy^.

Curunen.8729:

StinVec.3621:

Curunen.8729:

Nice thread, bookmarked.

I wonder if those nice datamined dragonfly wings may show up.

I’m really looking forward to those wings for one of my characters. Hopefully it will not be much longer of a wait.

Nice character.

The only thing I’ve bought from the gemstore in the past were transmutation crystals, and gems to convert to gold. Those dragonfly wings may be the first gemstore skin I’m interested in buying.

Thank you very much. I like her a lot and I have other characters that are slight variations on the overall design or simply in alternate colors.

Looking forward to what today’s item(s) will be.

Curunen, if you are interested, you can quickly gain 3 transmutation charges in about 7-10 minutes doing map clearing on three of the small and quick cities with a new character. Just an alternative way of gaining them if you were unable to purchase more and in a pinch, but wanted to change a character’s look.

Oh no I meant in the past when we used to use transmutation crystals and no wardrobe, and it was to transmute Order armour across characters – that’s when I bought some.

I get more than enough charges now from pvp reward tracks and have a lot already.

Unfortunately I don’t have all the dire trinkets so I’d like someone to test just how ridiculously godlike this will be in wvw roaming.

Damage type: Condition
Playstyle: Shatter
Intended role: Trolling enemy groups, soloing objectives, etc.
Things of note: Traited Mirror and blink with alacrity is just… drools…
Gametype: WvW small group or solo roaming
Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhQQNArfWlsnhy0YRawRNwtGLvGl5KMcjAaAkTNR9wesLLA-TFSHABCt/gb6D6QDDjq/cnSwjU+JwTKAgTpQAAEgZWml5MDM0hO0hO0h2MH6MH6MnZhAUMHA-w

Not sure on the Illusions GM trait – could go MoF for the cripple on F2, aoe F3 and reflect on F4, but also the scepter trait may be nice.

(Harder), better, faster, stronger.

Yes thank you for explaining, that is understandable.

I think the issue is aoe chaos armour from blast finishers on our ethereal fields (which are most of our fields) could be a little more potent when compared with blasting of other more useful fields (ie water).

Leaps, projectiles and whirls are good, but blasts could provide an additional effect – perhaps aoe stability or some other boon/condition?

Khyber.1284:

Oddly I rarely ever drop any fields when using prestige, i forget. more would be nice though.

I sometimes prestige into chaos storm as an opener.

Other than loads of aoe chaos armour, I have no idea.

Would be nice to have one or two blast finishers other than the prestige.

LTREEVEY.2348:

Curunen.8729:

Well it is thematically different from Chill given the skills and class that applies it.

It’s like saying roll burning and bleeding into one condition – although they are also thematically different.

I agree there should be more unique effects so conditions don’t feel like they overlap each other in function.

I think bleeding and burning was a bad example as the effects of slow and chill arent thematically different (impairing movement) They are very similar. Slow reduces action/skill speed. Chill reduces movement /cool down speed. To me, if chill reduces movement speed, it should be all movement, including actions and activation. The cool down reducer effect fits confusion far better than it does chill. Chill should be GW1 equivalent of dazed and slow just sounds…stupid

The effects may not be thematically different (slow and chill), but the principles are:
- slowed down and debilitated through being too cold
- slowed down due to supernatural time dilation effecs

What about Weakness – surely then Chill should also incorporate endurance regen reduction and glancing blows because if you’re cold you’re not going to be able to dodge as frequently or hit as hard?

They should remain separate conditions – although I do appreciate there being so many conditions and the condition system is a mess in terms of application, effects and cleansing.

Well it is thematically different from Chill given the skills and class that applies it.

It’s like saying roll burning and bleeding into one condition – although they are also thematically different.

I agree there should be more unique effects so conditions don’t feel like they overlap each other in function.

Garm.9750:

Someone have mentioned melee ranger. GS / Sword + dagger == tons of mobility and evades.

Yeah, it often surprised me how easy it was to engage/disengage from any fight unless an enemy really was intent on chasing.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Yeah but the use of the sword is annoying to play and not intended gameplay. Does not mean it can’t be used. I prefer GS, much more easier to use and 90% of all stuff I do it’s more than enough.

Nevermind if it’s intended or not, swoop + reverse hornet’s sting + forwards monarch’s leap can cover a huge amount of ground and all on very low cooldowns.

With the amount of evasion on those weapon sets (especially with offhand dagger) and also the chill nerf it’s easier to gtfo of any situation and run circles around many situations. Only disadvantage is having to be in melee range to deal damage (other than throwing GS 4 and dagger 5).

PopeUrban.2578:

Played since release and I only personally know of one person that ever got a precursor drop (not counting the people that got them farming the original megakarka event in the first LS event)

My advice to anyone that wants a precursor is simply to spend their time stockpiling legendary crafting mats in stead, and wait for the precursor crafting masteries in HoT.

The Masteries should be infinitely more fun as they’re all sort of thematic quests/scavenger hunts, and they don’t have the potential to waste your time.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this game, it’s that you should never ever do anything with the intention of it rewarding you with a randomly dropped precursor.

Yeah, no point in gambling or praying to random drops now with Masteries around the corner.

New simple look (first image)

And an old look (second image)

I think I’ve gone backwards… the older one looks better. :/

StinVec.3621:

Curunen.8729:

Nice thread, bookmarked.

I wonder if those nice datamined dragonfly wings may show up.

I’m really looking forward to those wings for one of my characters. Hopefully it will not be much longer of a wait.

Nice character.

The only thing I’ve bought from the gemstore in the past were transmutation crystals, and gems to convert to gold. Those dragonfly wings may be the first gemstore skin I’m interested in buying.

Don’t discount melee ranger with GS leap, sword double leap, LR and SotH. Played right it’s extremely mobile.

Nice thread, bookmarked.

I wonder if those nice datamined dragonfly wings may show up.

BojacDR.2104:

Gotta agree that armor on male mesmers leave a lot to be desired but luckily came across something that suited my style nicely.

haha, awesome!

Very excited!

And the thief spec is the first thing to properly tempt me back to have a serious alt character, in a long, long time.

Fay.2357:

Tbh, a BD condie shatter build should be able to tear most power shatter builds a new one, particularly if you’re using sword. Blurred frenzy allows you to dodge the bulk of their bursts if you combine it with a stunbreak quickly enough. Blinding dissipation can be used predictively to help with that as well. High toughness from rabid allows you to eat a couple bursts without dying, and landing a couple full shatters will literally outright kill most power shatter builds due to lack of cleanse.

Condie shatter is considered worse than power shatter in teams due to being functionally useless against a lot of popular matchups, not because the direct matchup between it and power shatter.

Yeah, I don’t use blinding dissipation so my fault.

You know why?

The sound effect really grates on my ears…

Yes it’s stupid. :p

I’ll also attribute it to being the first day I’ve played in like 6 weeks so a bit rusty.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

I’d also point out that the general advice on the board is that power shatter outmatches condi shatter.
So going by that, popular opinion would be that you’re already at a significant disadvantage going condi shatter vs power shatter.

(((yes it does, and I’m not playing a “meta” condi build anyway seeing as I don’t use blinding dissipation or scepter)))

If he did have The Pledge, though, I’d suggest that that’s probably his only condi cleanse. 2 cleanses can clean out torment/confusion, but if you ensure a deeper condi stack he’ll be ticking damage during that stealth. Adding some bleed sources to your condi shatter build could improve your performance against low-cleanse builds like pledge+PU.

(((as I said my mistake on the torch trait. In any case we could both dodge each other’s bursts all day long so most of the time it was stalemate because neither was landing much damage on the other whether power or condition.)))

I’d also ask if you’re running carrion or rabid.
I imagine carrion is going to have a harder time against power shatter both by the nature of toughness vs vitality, and because physical damage will do less against stealth builds than dueling builds by virtue of having a deeper condi stack (bleeds) ticking against them while they are in stealth, while the power is doing you no good while they are stealthed.
I’d be curious to hear the experiences of anyone who has tried both Rabid and Carrion builds extensively in sPvP, if it matches up with my thoughts.

(((rabid, although I should switch to carrion because I play very aggressively because of using sword clones which otherwise get cleaved down fast)))

Lastly, I’m curious if you think that PU outmatching anyone in a 1v1 is a good reason to make balance decisions.

(((Yes. Regardless of “unsupported dedicated gametype”, I’d wager many players value the result of 1v1’s above all else because of being human and yes my opinion is it should absolutely be a factor in balance decisions. Not the overriding factor, but a factor nonetheless. In wvw you can avoid 1v1 but then what’s the point in playing, and in pvp 1v1 happens all the time – whether on a side node or anywhere away from a teamfight. It’s not always possible or the best solution to out rotate. Nevermind wvw where not running PU vs someone running PU is pretty much no contest.

The other subjective thing is both playing and fighting against PU is just so boring seeing as it often ends in a draw or stealth and running away. I’d rather die to stun/interrupt+burst tbh – at least there will be a result of the fight…)))

Iavra.8510:

Power shatter only rarely goes into Illusions, so i would doubt he had The Pledge traited. Especially if he had PU, going for that trait means either giving up on Domination (100% stun, vuln-spam, shatter damage or power block) or Dueling (DE, blinds, perma-fury, vigor).

I can imagine power shatter going Inspiration for the cleanse and heals, but Illusions is kinda unlikely.

Good point, my stupid mistake.

Noss.4105:

The raging outsider is right, PU is disgusting atm. I don’t think there’s any other trait in the game that is as overpowered as PU. Not only does it double your stealth uptime and stack you with boons, it also makes it a lot harder to counterplay the burst.

Revert it back to +1 second and it would still be perfectly viable grandmaster trait. Maybe put a super speed or something on it.

I agree, it’s crazy.

On a related note I was playing condition shatter without PU (bountiful disillusionment is more fun) but using sword/torch earlier today and fought against a good power shatter mesmer using PU and sword/torch plus GS – the double stealth duration together with torch cooldowns had me at a significant disadvantage, for example where I had to use several cooldowns to mitigate damage they could wait many things out in stealth. I believe PU encourages sloppy gameplay, but when it is used well it is often uncounterable unless you yourself also run PU (and then things just end in a stalemate).

Dawdler.8521:

Because they are fugly thats why.

If I wanted to be a pigeon, I wouldnt be playing GW2.

lol, yeah this. xD

Miss Lana Too.5794:

Tapioca.9062:

Curunen.8729:

I don’t like the Electro Blue – it’s just too intense (same with the other Electro dyes).

I’m still deciding but am more tempted to get one of the Glint’s dyes.

Is it worth ignoring prices in this case and getting the colour you want (assuming it costs at least more than a few gold), or is it better to use the opportunity to buy what is currently expensive?

How is this even a question? Do you seriously need advice on whether to get something you want or something you don’t want that’s expensive? Get what you want.

Or – as may be the case with some – if you’re missing a handful that you can’t cover with all your bday presents, find out what ones are the cheapest on the TP and get the others you need from the presents.

With all my characters (except the revenant nameholders) getting one exclusive dye each, I would still be missing 8 colours<

Yes, this.

I can afford the dyes I’d like, but haven’t bought them yet because of saving for a legendary so it still means shelling out tens of gold.

The question is how volatile are the prices and is it worth ignoring price entirely when making the choice if what is now 1k gold will one day be 10gold and vice versa.

Yeah, I’m itching for another beta with the elite specs as I missed the last one.

I don’t like the Electro Blue – it’s just too intense (same with the other Electro dyes).

I’m still deciding but am more tempted to get one of the Glint’s dyes.

Is it worth ignoring prices in this case and getting the colour you want (assuming it costs at least more than a few gold), or is it better to use the opportunity to buy what is currently expensive?