Guild Wars 2

Shortbow/longbow first please.

Ah this would be fun but I’d have to transfer from EU – that is unless there’s enough demand for a sister initiative over here, maybe we could have an EU division and an NA division (and China as well, if anyone playing over there reads this).

The potential overlap synergy for chaos/inspiration/chronomancy is insane.

Mantras anyone?

Could be a fitting skill type, just give them slightly different mechanics and a couple of supporting traits in the traitline and it could work.

Edit: Mind you, if it’s a longbow, then the only cross class thing that makes sense is with warrior or ranger – could be banners then, or maybe stances?

I don’t see a problem with it – as has been said, a nice play on the phrase “gravity well”, and the skill does what it says.

It’s not really comparable to a singularity due to the mechanics (tbh spear #5 vortex is more fitting for that name) – pulsing pulls and then a TBD final effect which I hope will stay as a float but could be changed to knockdown if they feel it’s too powerful. It is bending time/space by the definition, so it does fit chronomancer in my opinion.

I don’t see it as a problem if another profession’s future elite spec overlaps in the name of this skill.

Haha, agreed.

Don’t forget to cast time warp on yourself when doing the time warp. xD

Chaos Archangel.5071:

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

And soon BI and CI will be one trait, which I can’t wait for.

darkprecure, that is very well thought out – I love the concept.

Yes for sure, no icd – you’re right.

JackSpacer.4320:

So I bought a new account, has less that 2k AP and like 150 hours or so on it? Has about 90% account MF. Let me list off the items I have looted off of just random mobs through his travels to get some world completion done.

Dusk
Tooth of Frostfang
The Hunter
Howl

Now let me list stuff I have gotten from dungeon chests

Dusk x 2

Now let me list what he got out of Silverwastes

The Energizer
Carcharias
Rage
Truth x 2
Dreadwing
Stardust x 4
Tinwail
Charrzooka x 2
Kymswarden
Resonator

yeah, I don’t see any problems at all.

…

:(

I have not received a single precursor, playing since launch, nor anything else noteworthy. I think the highest value drop iirc was something less than 50g (can’t remember what it was, but I remember at least a few x10g).

Power shatter could work with domination, illusions (for recharge on shatters and illusion skills mainly) and chronomancy with both clone and phantasm traits.

Trouble is, duelling is still looking to be a solid line for any build – you’ve got vigor on crit, bleeding/confusion on crit and mistrust for any condition build, DE and blinding dissipation for any shatter build, pistol trait for any interrupt build, harmonious mantras for pve builds… going to have to wait and see exact details for chronomancy traits, otherwise I’d still imagine many/most builds will still take duelling for different reasons.

Leonhardt.8164:

Curunen.8729:

Do you like the theme (pink, butterflies, mind/time/space bending mischief)? Yes => roll it.

If you don’t love the theme, you’ll probably be better off rolling something else.

it’s more purple than pink

More magenta tbh, but there’s different shades in the skills varying from purple through to pale purple/pink.

Kelthien.8593:

Curunen.8729:

The more I look at that video and read about the skills and limited trait info we have so far, the more I feel drawn to base mesmer.

..

So yeah, I think I’m going to have more fun with:
- Duelling/Chaos/Inspiration condition interrupt
- Duelling/Chaos/Illusions MtD/PU shatter
- Domination/Duelling/Illusions standard power shatter,
than anything new for chronomancer.

I’m really excited to see how it shakes out. I have a feeling there’s a lot of “OMG chrono is always better” feelings going around which will diminish as we see other elite specs and learn more about chronomancer traits.

For me, I always enjoyed Mesmer in PvE and PvP. We had a few solid builds which needed some tuning and we’d be in a great place. In my opinion, the trait revision did a fantastic job of solidifying our existing builds while strengthening some of our less used ones. We’ve got a few shatter builds now (for power and condition) as well as a few interrupt builds (also shatter and condition). Some boon sharing and support builds were also strengthened and may become viable.

The one weak spot that still remained, again- in my opinion, was our large-group support. ANet hit the nail on the head with the Chronomancer in that respect. The amount of utility Chronomancy affords seems huge. Pulsing gravity wells, alacrity and slow, reduced cast times for all our skills with Alacrity and Continuum Split, and a surprising amount of new interrupt options is great. I can already see a bunch of new combinations opening up.

I think there are two areas of balance ANet should still keep their eye on. Chronomancy needs a place, but shouldn’t be the automatic go-to. Focusing on utility instead of Damage is a good way to do that. Second, Chronomancy shouldn’t be the only way to offer support. I’d really like to see Inspiration get some additional buffs to set itself apart as the “team-friendly boon providing build” and further distinguish the Chronomancy line as the “speed-oriented slow-enemies, hasten-allies” line.

I totally agree the aoe/group support/control stuff is needed – hopefully giving another role for large scale wvw and teamfights other than veil/portal bots, among other things.

I just don’t think I’ll end up playing it regularly at this point – unless the trait selection is absolutely amazing.

Me Games Ma.8426:

The Doctor=Chronomancer

Whoever has claimed that character name in this game had better be playing a die hard chronomancer when HoT hits.

Anything less will be a waste.

Do you like the theme (pink, butterflies, mind/time/space bending mischief)? Yes => roll it.

If you don’t love the theme, you’ll probably be better off rolling something else.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/GW2-Specialization-Calculator-by-that-shaman

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/New-specialization-calculator/

Did you do that on purpose? :p

Now show the same image with one vote for skyhammer.

Autohotkey solves the problem.

The more I look at that video and read about the skills and limited trait info we have so far, the more I feel drawn to base mesmer.

Excessive ground targeting just isn’t my thing, so I doubt I’d use loads of wells together, at the moment while shield looks fun I’m preferring some of our current weapons and I’m quite apathetic towards alacrity.

It’s only really Continuum Shift and Gravity Well I am truly looking forward to – but I don’t think it’s worth speccing in a whole traitline just for the sake of two skills on very high cooldowns.

So yeah, I think I’m going to have more fun with:
- Duelling/Chaos/Inspiration condition interrupt
- Duelling/Chaos/Illusions MtD/PU shatter
- Domination/Duelling/Illusions standard power shatter,
than anything new for chronomancer.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Or if we suppose traits go from 1 down to 3 in each line….

1 (Adept) —->1 (Master) —->1 (GM)
2—->2—->2
3—->3—->3

A build template would be : Dom213/Duel321/Illu132

This is my preference – 123 or abc for top/middle/bottom choices at each tier respectively.

Levetty.1279:

Fay.2357:

Allow me to quote myself.

Fay.2357:

Let’s start with interrupt builds. Standard interrupt will probably be domination, dueling, and chaos. Chaos gives the strong CI/BI effects, along with good staff boosts. Dueling has the incredible pistol trait, along with standard DE for clone generation and other utility stuff. Domination has the amazing reworked CS, along with the power block + upgraded halting strike trait. This a really well-working, strong build. Now, to take chrono, you’d have to sacrifice some of that. You could…but it would be a significant sacrifice. From what we know of chrono, some stuff is comparable to stuff from other traitlines. This makes that sacrifice a viable option, but absolutely not the single best one.

Alright, now lets do power shatter builds. Power shatter is domination, dueling, and illusions. You’d have to sacrifice one for chrono. Domination has incredible damgae amp. Dueling has DE. Illusions has the powerful shatter cooldowns + shatter boosting traits. Chrono might be worth dropping one of those for…but it’ll be a big sacrifice. One that some people might take, but is definitely not the single best choice.

Now lets look at condie shatter. Condie shatter is generally going to be dueling, chaos, and illusions. This is a really strong set, with dueling providing conditions on crit plus DE, chaos giving staff traits and PU, and illusions providing Maim. One of these must be sacrificed for chrono. Again, maybe you could sacrifice chaos, maybe dueling…but it’s a hard choice. One that some people might take, but definitely not the single best choice.

I could do this for phantasm builds, mantra builds, literally any standard build archetype….I could do this same analysis for.

Conclusion
Chrono is an interesting specialization, has some strong utilities, useful traits…and is absolutely not going to be the only option.

Is it weird that I would rather go inspiration over chaos in condie shatter?

Not weird at all – I’m actually more excited about the core buffs to mesmer, like default iElasticity and improved confusing combatants, as well as the mirror traits than the elite spec.

Leonhardt.8164:

Curunen.8729:

Arewn.2368:

New main hand weapon for sure.
Alacricy looks interesting, and hte new f5 shatter looks awesome. And I’m very happy about getting shields.
But we are in such terribly desperate need of a new main hand that I would forgo all of the above for one.

Yes I share this sentiment – I love all the info about the elite spec and am looking forward to play with it.

I would however have preferred a new main hand weapon instead – such as a MainHand Focus.

no mainhand focus is a stupid idea, if that was the other option than im glad they went with shield (which i hate) mainhand focus is so stupid i caan barey wrap my head around it

That’s your opinion – please don’t state is as “fact” that “mainhand focus is a stupid idea”, because there’s a fair few of us on here that like this idea, certainly more than people like yourself who seem to get seriously angry and outright hate the idea of mainhand focus.

I don’t like offhand pistol – I doubt I’d ever use mainhand pistol to any great extent. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a stupid idea.

Arewn.2368:

New main hand weapon for sure.
Alacricy looks interesting, and hte new f5 shatter looks awesome. And I’m very happy about getting shields.
But we are in such terribly desperate need of a new main hand that I would forgo all of the above for one.

Yes I share this sentiment – I love all the info about the elite spec and am looking forward to play with it.

I would however have preferred a new main hand weapon instead – such as a MainHand Focus.

Yeah I’m going to try the chrono/inspiration/chaos ideas, and also chrono/inspiration/duelling.

Can’t let go of that traited focus. xD

Zenith shield most likely – all the zenith weapons are my favourites, apart from greatsword which I think the zenith skin looks ugly.

Knighthonor.4061:

Curunen.8729:

I don’t know whether I will enjoy it as much as some other builds – the biggest conundrum is weapon choice – because I love both staff and focus for crowd control and will have to lose one in order to use the shield… I would so love to have focus in one hand and shield in the other, with some staff/scepter type auto attack.

Second thing is I’m not a huge fan of having loads of ground targeted skills – so for that reason I may not want to go fully into the new spec.

Third thing is it’s hard to choose what traitline to drop to pick up the elite spec trait line – until we see the details of the traits there’s no way to know.

I would like to make a potent condition/control build, and the new effects certainly look to be useful for that – however choosing exactly what to use based on both fun and effectiveness won’t be easy.

I believe Elite Specials dont require you to use shield at all.

Read my reply to the other person who stated this higher up – I’ve already answered that.

Me Games Ma.8426:

I can imagine some great condition interrupt builds with Mistrust and Tides of Time.

Condition interrupt should be a lot of fun with the elite spec.

Going to try Duelling/Chaos/Chronomancer (for CI and staff trait), and Duelling/Inspiration/Chronomancer (latter to trait focus) and see how they both work out as condition interrupt.

Kael.4538:

Lets not get too excited here, Dulfy says that they made DE a dueling GM trait…

Yeah but 6/6/6 means if you pick the duelling tree you automatically have the choice of taking DE.

And anyway, with all the new effects and baseline IP, DE may no longer be necessary in most builds.

Capricorn XI.4390:

Curunen.8729:

I don’t know whether I will enjoy it as much as some other builds – the biggest conundrum is weapon choice – because I love both staff and focus for crowd control and will have to lose one in order to use the shield… I would so love to have focus in one hand and shield in the other, with some staff/scepter type auto attack.

You’re not forced to use a shield. You just now have the option to have one. I may actually just use GS/Sw+P and forgo a shield altogether.

Oh I know – it’s not about that at all, it’s that I would like to have Tides of Time in addition to Temporal Curtain, iWarden, Chaos Storm and Phase Retreat.

At this moment I don’t know whether I will prefer shield to focus or not, but my preference is Staff + Scepter/Focus at this moment.

Nieguen.6235:

gravity well is in the video of the post ^^

Ah I didn’t watch that yet – I see, so looks like each pulse pulls enemies to its centre, and the final pulse does the damage.

Jedge.3619:

Sebrent.3625:

-snip-

@Jedge:
There is a difference between my applying conditions to you and things like Engineer turrets that sit and wait for someone to shoot at.

To get those conditions on you, I have to do something. An attack, skill, etc. to apply them. This is no different than doing direct damage to you. The only difference is that that damage I apply per hit is spread out over a period of time instead of being applied upfront.

Applying conditions is not passive.

Summoning a couple AI that just sit and wait for someone to shoot at … that is passive.

Applying conditions *is passive.* You forgot to mention one thing about the damage being spread out over a period of time. Sure, there is the active component of being applied upfront. However, once I apply a condition on someone or phantasm or clone, I can just walk away and it’ll still do damage – that is the passive component. For direct damage, I have to actually be actively hitting the person continuously. I’d rather not get into a debate about the passivity of GuildWars2. This discussion is about the removal of on-clone death traits.

Applying conditions yourself is not passive – because you need to actively use a skill that hits the target. Only AI applying conditions (clones, pets, minions, summons, turrets…) is passive because you don’t need to do anything.

The damage AFTER applying is passive, however the cumulative damage from certain conditions ticking passively over a period of time is similar to the instant damage from direct damage attacks – where everything is actively unloaded in one moment.

If the conditions are cleansed, then they are doing inferior damage to that instant direct damage spike – so passive damage or not, the direct damage is superior because you take the whole lot in one go.

The main advantage condition builds have over direct damage is the luxury of speccing huge toughness/vitality because of not needing three stats (power/prec/fer) to do damage, and then consequently direct damage builds are usually glassy with minimal condition removal and so are vulnerable to conditions. Swings and roundabouts.

Gravity well is the one I can’t wait to see – I’m guessing like Spear #5 on land with pulsing AoE and a final pulse that pulls all targets to its centre? Or something like that I guess.

I don’t know whether I will enjoy it as much as some other builds – the biggest conundrum is weapon choice – because I love both staff and focus for crowd control and will have to lose one in order to use the shield… I would so love to have focus in one hand and shield in the other, with some staff/scepter type auto attack.

Second thing is I’m not a huge fan of having loads of ground targeted skills – so for that reason I may not want to go fully into the new spec.

Third thing is it’s hard to choose what traitline to drop to pick up the elite spec trait line – until we see the details of the traits there’s no way to know.

I would like to make a potent condition/control build, and the new effects certainly look to be useful for that – however choosing exactly what to use based on both fun and effectiveness won’t be easy.

XerreX.7196:

I’ve got a new main : P

I’m guessing you’ll be saying that for every new elite spec reveal.

“Most chronomancer wells have a fairly high recharge time, however, so be sure to keep the alacrity flowing.”

Hmm, so that will be one of the downsides to manage for successful play.

Sagat.3285:

A revamp version of glamour bomb mesmer…aappreciated but not that innovative.

True, but at least it looks like it will have more depth than the glamour/confusion builds – we’ll have to wait for the details, but I’d imagine with those new effects there should be more options in how to play (compared to mindlessly racking up confusion).

The most disappointing thing is that I will not be able to take staff, focus and shield all at the same time.

I would love to dual wield shield + focus.

Wow! Now that sounds amazing. :o

Exactly what I’ve been waiting for..

Gravity Well sounds like some sort of micro singularity, I love the shield wall skill, and the while concept of manipulating effects like alacrity (and most likely slow) is just awesome.

And that F5… :D The mind games that should be able to be played will be beautiful!

Sebrent.3625:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/ready-up-core-specializations-summary/

Shortly after 4:20:00.

You should realize from reading several of the posts that not everyone has their facts straight. Heck I’ll admit I even got one wrong when posting about the new Duelist minor trait for confusion. I could’ve sworn I heard them say when Mesmer and Illusions are crit as opposed to when they crit.

Heh – I haven’t watched the full thing so followed the run of the rumour mill. xD

Oh, I thought it was supposed to be tuesday as well – I wondered what happened to that hype.

Yep, I bet there will be a lot of these when the patch drops.

Gonna be one tough kitten to kill, that’s for sure.

Sandrox.9524:

skcamow.3527:

Sandrox.9524:

Your build seems nice,however,the video you given,is not doing any favors for it.

Your fights seems to be awfully longish,especially vs necros which you should steamroll especially with “inturrpt build” .

You saying CI is killer for thieves,as a thief main,I never ever got downed on first CI and never ever got downed cause of getting caught with first CI.Im using s/d and always have shadow return when needed.(sword skill)

Thanks for the input. The video was purely meant to showcase the play style, of which I think it does rather well even if not perfect. I realize some of those opponents weren’t especially skilled and I noted that in my OP.

Not every thief runs s/d or withdraw. If a thief can be immobilized and can’t readily cleanse, they’re in big trouble. That kinda goes without saying with any class, but for thieves in particular if they’re stuck in a spot for an measure of time it’s usually worse for them than most other classes.

The necro fight should not have gone on as long. Unfortunately I missed dodging signet of spite when I re-engaged. Also in this version of the build I wasn’t running mantra of distraction, which I do now and it’s much more effective.

Yea,but most thieves who dont run s/d and withdraw run hide in the shadows or shadow embrace.That said thieves w/o condi cleanse will get owned by that build,but that is for every condi build they face. I think your build is like very fun to play but not as strong as the usual builds.This is my opinion of course.

Yes, it is below average in terms of overall strength – especially in the burst damage department. However in the spirit of having fun, it is effective enough to work while having a lot of fun at the same time.

Currently (well, tbh a few weeks ago because I have been on a melee ranger binge since then) I have taken to running double energy and doom sigils (1x corruption in wvw), as well as ether feast for the significantly larger heal, and nightmare runes.

Where the build shines is small scale team fights (2vx, 3vx, etc) – if you have a friend who is on a high dps burst build, you will wreck many things. On its own this build’s moderate sustained damage and weak burst damage (comparing to power/condition shatter) means in a 1vx scenario it has disadvantages. In 1v1 however it is very strong if played right (taking MoD, and then having chaos storm, curtain, diversion, nightmare fear for interrupts) because of the crowd control, damage mitigation and high survivability – with main hardcounters being things that can shrug off a lot of the damage like bunker eles.

Yes, credit where credit is due.

There are a few things here and there which I feel still need to be looked at, but overall I was totally not expecting this level of change – and a lot of it for the better.

Sounds great. So many reflects now it will be so much fun.

I’ll probably be going:
Duelling: Phantasmal Fury, Evasive Mirror, Mistrust
Chaos: Manipulations, Chaotic Dampening, CI
Inspiration: Mender’s Purity, Warden’s Feedback, Shattered Conditions

And yeah, no need for condi removal on the utility bar then – those inspiration traits and focus are more than enough to manage.

So hyped for default elasticity on staff – that was one of the major things I felt this build lacked with not having the extra bounce.

Will probably start off with the standard Blink, MoD, Decoy, MI on the bar, still scepter/focus + staff.

Not sure about heals at the moment – depending on whether mirror is buffed, it’s a toss up between that, ether feast or the mantra. Still leaning towards mirror just for the additional reflect.

Rune choice is interesting now – I might try perplexity, especially with the new confusing combatants and mistrust, as well as all the interrupts.

I can’t wait to try it out.

Hey, I’m not crying! :o

I can’t wait to try out some of these traits – due to the significant changes I’ve gone back to the drawing board in my mind to find out what I truly enjoy and want to get out of the class.

WHAT?!

Mesmer is FIRST?!?

The world must be ending – I can’t believe it! :o

The persisting images trait should really be extended to all illusions, not just phantasms.

Reroll? No way.

No butterflies, no pink, and no style.

I am SO HAPPY clone death traits are gone.

Why? Because the sound effect and visual effect of the explosion is awful and doesn’t fit with usual mesmer sound/visual effects at all.

Now hopefully with all the different small buffs (ielasticity, confusion application, scepter traits, etc) we will be able to have decent skilled condition play without the need of any clone death trait.

Actually I’m looking forward to traiting iWarden, taking phantasmal fury, sharper images and confusing combatants and having it apply a decent amount of bleeds/confusion.

Inspiration is looking to be a solid tree – I’m definitely going to be trying it out first.

But yes, Temporal Enchanter looks like it could do with something more (I think Blind on glamour should also be merged in here).

phokus.8934:

Confusing Combatants will apply Confusion. I don’t see an ICD on it so whenever you or your illusions crit, you’ll apply Confusion – which if kept, is huge when used with Rabid.

Also, blinds and interrupts will cause Confusion as well.

They really did a good job in giving us access to more ways of applying Confusion and with the proposed traits, they want to have Confusion stick longer.

I’m still curious to see what the damage modifier we saw on Confusion was during the AMA. It showed the duration and tick but also showed a three digit number next to it so appear to have a semi-rework of Confusion to make it more punishable.

I must admit I love the sound of the new Confusing Combatants, especially as it will come for free along with Sharper Images.