Guild Wars 2

My main gripe with taunt is that it forces your targeting on the taunter, which currently means Ranger pets. In that sense I’d say it is better than stun.

Anet doesn’t really like unique offensive effects though, not in GW2.

That reminds me, I’d love a condition that shares the idea of the Wastrel skills, sort of a reverse Confusion. Extra damage while you’re not activating a skill. Would be great for PvE too.

Could be an idea for a control/Confusion-based Elite spec.

Serial Experiments.5407:

In WvW, I look at the clock on the top of the screen. Also, I normally have http://onlineclock.net/ on my other monitor in case we’re in between ticks.

Yeah but the UI should tell us this info. We shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to keep track.

Can we please have a buff that shows the duration remaining for Portal Entre (i.e. the entry portal before you place the exit portal) before it disappears?

Also, would be nice if the duration of Entre is increased from 60s to 72s so it matches the CD. It used to match when the CD was 60s, but when that was raised to 90s (and later down to 72s) Entre’s duration wasn’t touched.

Am I the only person who thinks Chaotic Dampening is really strong even if it only gave Protection on Chaos Armour?

I’m not saying the CD reduction isn’t low but I think together with the above it would almost necessitate it being a GM trait if it gave comparable CD reduction.

Which, actually, might not be a bad idea. Lets people use Chaotic Xference with it and stops them from also using Prismatic Understanding. The question is what trait to push down.

With regards to WvW: I think the main reason condition builds are so strong in WvW is because of +40% condition duration food. if you’re not eating -40% condition duration food as a counter, it’s a huge, huge increase to condi pressure, much greater than any food can give to a power build.

IMO, both +40% and -40% condi duration food need a big whack of the nerfhammer.

As for sPvP, well, I think the fact that no true condition build other than Burn Guard has seen tourney level play says it all. If you’re arguing about condition builds being too effective against newbies (which may or may not be true, not the point here), I’d say balance should not be based on the lowest common denominator.

Bumy.8057:

Embolism.8106:

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

evades, blocks, and most invuns work against condi damage, and you have resistance

I don’t know how delusional you are but, evades and blocks do nothing against condition damage. You can’t evade conditions nor block them once they are applied to you the only way to get rid of them is through cleanse.

You could try avoiding the application. It’s no harder than avoiding a Power based attack.

For example, Grasping Dead is no harder to avoid than Maul, but I bet I know which one you dodge and which you ignore at the time.

no wonder these players think condi is OP. they aren’t smart enough to think of blocking or evading the attacks that apply the condis

You do know why condi builds are so prevalent? Because its a foolproof and mindless gameplay, something the carebears / casuals adore. It doesn’t matter if you attempt to ’ evade or block the attacks that apply the condis ’ because the relevant condi builds APPLY CONDITIONS ON AUTO ATTACK ontop of the ’ condi burst skills ‘. So even if you use your defensive abilities dealing with just the condi burst, then you’re kitten out of luck because in 3 seconds your gonna have another 10+ confusion stacks and 10+ torment stacks killing you regardless of if your moving / not attacking.

Ether Bolt: 2s Torment (it tickles). Ether Blast: 3s Torment (stop that!). Ether Clone: nothing.

Winds of Chaos: 33% chance 7s Bleed (yawn). 33% chance 1s Burning (wow so OP). 33% 5s Vulnerability (I am undone!).
.

Wow! Great response! You really proved your point by saying things like ’ it tickles ’, ’ yawn ’ and ’stop that! ’. Just another delusional nutjob trying to justify his abuse of over the top condition damage scaling.

Okay. Then please state for the record that you believe 2/3s Torment and 66% chance to apply 7s Bleeding or 1s Burning is OP and is what condition builds use to kill you after you mitigate their burst.

GrandHaven.1052:

STOP calling L2P. kitten its the most toxic and frustrating terms in existence! Broken kitten record.

Are you DENYING that Condi mesmer is too strong? Has too much free pressure with ridiculous amount of defence?
Because if you are, i think you might have a problem.
I personally dont care for it because condi mesmer has no cap presence, that does not mean the build is way to strong though. WvW is invested with condi mesmers.

My point is if you don’t even know what you’re talking about (as the quoted poster proved) then chances are your complaints are more a reflection on your own skill rather than whatever you’re accusing.

And this thread talks about MMR. That means it’s about sPvP, not WvW. Wait, you’re the OP so you should know.

Sagat.3285:

uhohhotdog.3598:

Saiyan.1704:

Alhadin.4032:

No other aspect in this game is like……….. insert what you want.

Wrong. This is in regards to trait performances, not mechanics. Grab any trait that’s suppose to have a certain function. DS goes above and beyond that function. It completely counters a build type. Not a class like.. a thief or guard or necro.. a build. All Condi.

Alhadin.4032:

“Have 2 or 3 condi classes 2v1 or 3v1 a DS Ele in the same way”
Why on earth do you have 2-3 condi classes on one team?

That right there, is a misconception that people have. Like it or not, this game has 3 build types: Power, Condi, and Sustains. They’re all equally viable. Mix and match them to suite your playstyle.

DS is a trait that counters condition builds.
There is no trait that counters power builds.
Signet Necro can potwntually soft counter heavy boon sustains. Still, not a hard counter.

You can’t justify Diamond Skin.

There is a trait that makes you immune to crit.

Change Stoneheart to immunity to direct damage when over 90% HP and witness the uproar. If condition builds were as effective or popular as power ones the same uproar would happen.

Don’t forget to make it apply under all attunements! In fact if its current form applied to all attunements I bet people will be singing a different tune.

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

evades, blocks, and most invuns work against condi damage, and you have resistance

I don’t know how delusional you are but, evades and blocks do nothing against condition damage. You can’t evade conditions nor block them once they are applied to you the only way to get rid of them is through cleanse.

You could try avoiding the application. It’s no harder than avoiding a Power based attack.

For example, Grasping Dead is no harder to avoid than Maul, but I bet I know which one you dodge and which you ignore at the time.

no wonder these players think condi is OP. they aren’t smart enough to think of blocking or evading the attacks that apply the condis

You do know why condi builds are so prevalent? Because its a foolproof and mindless gameplay, something the carebears / casuals adore. It doesn’t matter if you attempt to ’ evade or block the attacks that apply the condis ’ because the relevant condi builds APPLY CONDITIONS ON AUTO ATTACK ontop of the ’ condi burst skills ‘. So even if you use your defensive abilities dealing with just the condi burst, then you’re kitten out of luck because in 3 seconds your gonna have another 10+ confusion stacks and 10+ torment stacks killing you regardless of if your moving / not attacking.

That sounds like you’re talking about Condi Mesmers. Let’s look at Mesmer autoattack condi application…

Ether Bolt: 2s Torment (it tickles). Ether Blast: 3s Torment (stop that!). Ether Clone: nothing.

Winds of Chaos: 33% chance 7s Bleed (yawn). 33% chance 1s Burning (wow so OP). 33% 5s Vulnerability (I am undone!).

I think you’re very confused. 10 stacks of Confusion and Torment simply isn’t going to come from a Mesmer’s autoattack, Mesmers don’t even have Confusion on autoattack. What happened is you ate a few full Shatters, one of the most obviously telegraphed and easily avoidable bursts.

Yeah, the more I read this thread the more I’m convinced (not that I wasn’t already) that this is mostly a L2P issue. The people complaining about condi builds don’t even know what’s going on.

Unless HoT includes a lot of mobs that run around for no reason and spam skills like machine guns, Condi Mesmers won’t be used over any other Condi spec.

I’m sure they’ll include Husk-like mobs that are weak to Condi dmg, but it won’t be up to Mesmers to fill that role.

Mantras were OP because of the background recharge “bug”. Instead of just fixing the “bug” and see if things calm down they decided they might as well nerf Mantras while they’re at it.

The “bug” needs to return in a more manageable form (increased Mantra CDs, only kicking in after first charge is expended in combat, etc.), or Mantra builds won’t see the light of day again.

I think Persistence of Memory is potentially better than Compounding Power in a DPS PvE Mesmer. Compounding Power only affects your own (direct) damage AFAIK, while PoM with frequent Shattering (and Chronophantasma of course) means your Phantasm CDs are kept to a minimum: which means you can Shatter and reconjure them constantly for extra damage in Mind Wrack and Phantasm first strike.

Essentially, you’re cutting the down time between Phantasm attacks by Shattering them. I’ve said this before, but I believe Dom/Illu/Chrono may prove to be a stronger DPS build than Dom/Duel/Chrono.

…..

With regards to iAvenger, I suggest increasing the Alacrity given to 1.5s, reduce the down time between shots to 6s and increasing maximum number of bounces to 9. In fact all bounce attacks that cannot hit the same target more than once should have 9 bounces, if we must have this mechanic pushed on us it should affect comparable numbers of targets compared to conventional AoEs.

Well, I’ll say that as a Condi Shatter Mesmer running Inspiration, they aren’t very difficult to kill and not a huge threat to myself either. Confusion is particularly effective on Eles as they’re conditioned to spam their autos for their Signet.

The key I think is to pay attention to their rotations. They almost always open with Air and rotate into Fire, then Earth/Water depending on how much damage you did. Ideally you want to land your burst right after they come out of Water.

Disregarding group Alacrity, it is very, very easy to get high Alacrity uptime on yourself just by Shattering frequently, and Alacrity helps you to Shatter even more frequently; giving you even more Alacrity, and…

If all you played during the Beta was PvE and never Shattered because that’s how non-Chrono Mesmers play, then of course you won’t see any Alacrity.

Zenith.7301:

Embolism.8106:

I hope they make interrupts affect the Defiant Bar on top of proccing their effects. Although maybe that’s already the case, didn’t do much PvE during the BWEs.

With regards to the multiproc problem, just give it an ICD.

Their “solution” is already in place, mesmers just haven’t noticed.

Necromancers did. Chill doesn’t work on mobs with defiance bar, and neither does slow. Instead, they do a small contribution in decreasing the defiance bar upon application.

It’s a really, really bad solution that actually doesn’t fix anything. Especially since mobs with a defiant bar iron up the bar after being interrupted so they become entirely immune to defiance bar reducing effects for a while, which makes chill and slow useless again for that remainder.

Yeah I know control conditions/effects reduce the bar, I’m talking about actual interrupts reducing the bar further than it would if no interrupt took place.

I did play with Imagined Burden during the Beta and it seems like all the Cripples eat up defiant bars like candy.

Zenith.7301:

But this is not even true.

We already use defensive offhands in PvE, they’re called focus and offhand sword. The focus is a purely defensive offhand, used for projectile defense and crowd control (iwarden really does mediocre damage and is stationary).

Offhand sword has the same block shield does, on a way lower cooldown, and that block can be turned into a line wide ranged interrupt.

The shield has the same block as offhand sword, and it’s bad because it only blocks one hit. The warrior offhand sword covers all projectiles, as does the ranger block. The mesmer shield block gets popped by a single projectile and then you eat all the damage.

And what do you get in exchange for that 30 second cd block, a garbage phantasm that does no damage and applies 1 second of alacrity and 2 seconds of slow EVERY 8 SECONDS?

So you have a 30 second cooldown (basically double the cd of usual phantasms) on a crappy phantasms, that is delayed on a 2 second cast of doing nothing (DPS loss)?

Neither Focus nor OH Sword are used for personal defense in PvE. Focus is a group reflect tool, if it provided only personal reflects I can guarantee it won’t see any use in PvE; not to mention reflects have a potent offensive component. OH Sword is used for iSwordsman, the highest DPS Phantasm; not for iRiposte. It’s like saying we use OH Pistol as a CC weapon in PvE.

Truely personal defense weapons that are strong in PvP (Staff, Torch) go completely unused in PvE except in specific circumstances.

Shield 4 is actually really potent if built correctly. Assuming you can proc the Blocks easily (which, as I’ve stated, is not the case in PvE) it conjures two Phantasms, which means with Chronophantasma benefits 4x from Persistence of Memory from itself alone (remember it also benefits from PoM from any other Shattered Phantasm). This makes it an excellent Illusion generation tool and greatly reduces its CD. If the Block component had significant meaning in PvE, it would be good.

Even so Shield 4 is potent because of potential low CD blocking and Shatter fodder, not because of the power of the Phantasm. It definitely needs something given we’re sacrificing half of our offensive Phantasms for it.

I hope they make interrupts affect the Defiant Bar on top of proccing their effects. Although maybe that’s already the case, didn’t do much PvE during the BWEs.

With regards to the multiproc problem, just give it an ICD.

Well, I might as well say this again. I think the problem with shields and all defensive skills in general is not in the skills (weapons) themselves but in the way PvE has so far been designed, i.e. where personal defence is almost completely meaningless. If Anet would (re)design content so the price of going full glass is a swift death, then defensive skills (weapons) will be fine.

Shield 4 would be fine if the Block itself actually has meaning, which is the case in PvP. It is not the case in PvE, hence it becomes useless. Make PvE content challenging in the sense that staying alive is a huge part of DPS (a.k.a. not dying), then Shield 4 would be fine with no changes.

That said, iAvenger itself is pretty useless except kittenter fodder. Anet did say they’re working on Slow in PvE so we’ll wait on that, but the Alacrity is still pretty weak. TGiven how much group Alacrity you can give out with AWTEW, perhaps iAvenger shouldn’t give Alacrity at all: change it to something else? I’d like to say Quickness but that might be a bit too much as well.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/BW2-Chronomancer-Feedback-Thread/first

IMO fix the existing combos first. Most of them are useless and sometimes detrimental if say an Ethereal field overwrites a Fire field.

The Dwarves were one of the races that survived the previous rise of the Elder Dragons thanks to Glint, so… no. If they were minions they would’ve been reclaimed the last time the Dragons rose, and you would think Glint would realise one of the races she protected isn’t an real race.

Yeah, a build that abuses Echo of Memory plays pretty differently to a conventional Mesmer: instead of evasion and misdirection, you let your opponents hit you and punish them for doing so. I’d even run through Ring of Fires just to proc my blocks.

But yes it is more or less useless in PvE. A lot of people have suggested allowing it to be activated again to conjure the Phantasm immediately, although I have a feeling that there are technical difficulties with this and Deja Vu’s mechanic.

Like I’ve said a few times, Echo of Memory is phenomenal because it is a Blocking skill that’s affected by Phantasm CD traits, plus it can double-conjure Phantasms so it benefits twice from PoM; or four times with PoM and Chronophantasma. That’s 8s off its CD plus the CD of every other Phantasm, and every other Shattered Phant also reduces its CD, and… well, the end result is a LOT of Blocking as well kittenter fodder.

Plus Slow is pretty strong in PvP.

…..

All’s Well That Ends Well is an awesome change, exactly what Chronomancer needed. A minor problem is it overshadows Well of Recall and iAvenger’s Alacrity share.

Fixing the bug.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Embolism.8106:

I think it’s because the thief/rogue archetype: hiding in stealth and bursting enemies down in an instant: naturally attracts players who like to win without effort.

Is this why the #1 played class in GW2 is ele, and you see ele’s in multiple figures holding down capture points?

I don’t mean in terms of game balance, I mean in terms of the feel of the archetype. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more former Thieves that jumped on the Ele bandwagon than other professions.

I think it’s because the thief/rogue archetype: hiding in stealth and bursting enemies down in an instant: naturally attracts players who like to win without effort.

IMO, the primary reason people have problem with condis is because they’re still stuck in the mindset of overfilling their build with offensive stuff and leaving themselves with almost no defense. In that sense I think condi builds are a good thing: it shakes up the meta and may reverse the trend of “go completely glass or bust”.

I’d love to see balanced builds being the norm in PvP, instead of pure glass and the occassional bunker (let’s forget d/d Cele Ele exists for a moment).

For the record, as Mesmer who runs Inspiration, I have no more issues with condi builds than I do with power builds; as I actually devote some of my build to defence.

I wonder if anyone used Protective Solace and Blinding Truths with Ventari in PvP? There’s no ICD to either trait so it’s pretty much AoE Protection and Blind every second if you keep moving the tablet.

Not really relevant to the topic, but you’re arguing with a guy that brought us this gem.

I couldn’t really take him seriously after that.

Or just make it not be way slower at range compared to at melee, because its attack speed in melee is actually fine. The problem is once you put even a bit of range between you and the target your DPS plummets.

If that’s not possible for whatever reason then yeah, greatly increasing the projectile speed might help.

Vague Memory.2817:

After playing with shield more in PvP, I found that not equipping it makes a far more effective build. It is more of a support off-hand, but not a very effective one. There are far better off-hands for chronomancer from the existing stock. What would be far more useful is if the block was continuous, or if kept as it is provides the block to near by allies too. But as it stands I can’t see myself equipping it in any of the game modes I play. Pity As I had a nice skin for shield.

I think it’s something you need to build for, i.e. Persistence of Memory + Chronophantasma. With those two traits, the double conjure means you get a LOT of CD reduction when Shattering them, which means more Phantasms AND more Blocking. It’s great.

I prefer my take on Well of Precog for thematic reasons, but I can understand why people object on the (more valid) grounds of mechanics.

The reason I didn’t suggest reversing Blur and Unblockable and leave it at that is because I think on-demand group Blur on a kitten CD is too strong, considering that Distortion is on a 50s CD, is self only and while active prevents you from contesting points.

To make my idea more enticing for people who just want the Unblockable/Blur, the duration of both could be extended so it can be pre-cast while retaining a useful window of effect, but that may become too powerful.

The problem I guess is we don’t know how Unblockable (and to some extent Blur) is going to be utilised in HoT content, so it’s hard to judge what is balanced and what isn’t.

As a ranged weapon, the Sceptre has a problem. And that problem is the fact that the further you are from your target, the weaker it gets.

The reason for this is because the Ether Bolt chain is weird. As most of us know, Ether Bolt is unique in that its chain progresses even if you use it out of combat, but a lesser known anomaly is that the chain only progresses if there are no Ether Bolt projectiles in flight. What this means is the longer it takes for the projectile to hit your target (i.e. the further away you are), the longer it will take for the next projectile to become castable.

This is very noticable when you compare Ether Bolt at melee range to Ether Bolt at maximum range. Melee Ether Bolt is smooth with a RoF comparable to Mind Slash, while Ether Bolt at long range has an obvious aftercast and animation stutter after each attack, resulting in a much lower RoF.

I understand that the anomalies with Ether Bolt are likely concessions to make Ether Clone work. This, however, kills the Sceptre’s DPS potential as a ranged weapon: I’d much rather sacrifice Ether Clone if it means having a ranged MH that is competitive with the MH Sword.

Too long has the Sceptre been held back because of its supposedly superior Clone generation, and while things are getting better; I feel like this is an issue that has mostly been overlooked but is crucial to making the Sceptre viable for DPS.

.

TL;DR: Sceptre’s broken, Anet plz fix.

And with Persistence of Memory, your Phantasms will be off cooldown after they’ve been Shattered twice. It’s perfect.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

TyPin.9860:

This is what I used today:
PvP: Selfish Shatter Chronomancer
WvW roaming: Selfish Shatter Chronomancer

Shattering a million times in a row with sometimes Alacrity up time of like 10 seconds was amazing. I often phase retreated through the same Chaos storm twice, had constantly 1-2 stacks stability, around 10-25 stacks of might (not to speak of the millions of other boons) and could use all those long cool down skills like Gravity Well/Moa or Chaos Storm very very often.

My best encounters: A condi shatter Mesmer in PvP, who I held a point against for 5 Minutes without any condi cleanse until our thieve arrived and took his last 10% HP with a steal^^ Right afterwards a condi guardian came (I had only like 30% HP) and I made him regret coming there :P

EDIT:
Also Chronophantasma, Illusionists Clarity and Persistence of Memory synergize amazingly on Shield

I don’t understand where you would be getting constant stability from. The only source I can see in the build is Gravity Well, which is on a 46s cooldown at best.

My guess is he picked Prismatic Understanding by mistake. It’s probably meant to be Bountiful Disillusionment.

iAvenger is really awesome Shatter fodder (assuming your Blocks are popped), but… that’s about it. The Slow is nice in PvP though.

Rob did say they’re looking at Slow in PvE, so I’ll wait and see what they do with it.

Esplen.3940:

Is there any use for Shield? I find it’s so niche that it’s basically never used. The only time I might use Shield is if I’m headless chickening vs Lupi as a Warrior, but even then a Warhorn is better.

Well… in PvP there is!

Perhaps new content in HoT will be designed so you can no longer ignore your own survivability, in which case shields may make a comeback.

But I doubt it.

The idea of going Illusions instead of Dueling is that although your Phantasms will be weaker without Fury and the extra Ferocity, they will attack much more often because you can Shatter and reconjure them constantly with PoM + Phantasma. You might even use Cry of Frustration just to reset your Phantasm attack CDs.

Plus in the same way Sharper Images is extra damage, so is Confusion on every Shatter. And if you’re Shattering often to reset Phantasms, I think that would add up to be more than what you’re get from SI.

The reason why I don’t go Doom/Energy is because the idea of the build is to not swap out of Sceptre-Shield unless necessary. Earth and Fragility aren’t so much for damage as they are for two more confounding conditions to hinder cleansing.

And yeah, I didn’t go Settler because of the loss of condition damage. Precision does provide a bit of extra direct damage, so it’s not completely useless; but Settler would indeed be a better choice for a much more tankier variant.

Overall I think amulet choice is not too big a deal with Chrono Condi, it’s mostly down to what balance of tankiness and offensive pressure you prefer. Settler for tankiness, Carrion for max deeps, and Rabid for something in the middle.

Kusa.6438:

I feel your build lacks condis. Primarily the ones mesmer can apply very effectively (Confusion and torment).

I had to double check my link to make sure I didn’t post the wrong one. I have absolutely no idea what you mean here…

I think Dom/Illu/Chrono will be good for PvE actually. With Illusionist’s Celerity, Persistence of Memory, Chronophantasma and a healthy dose of Alacrity, you can basically spam Phantasms for their first strike then Shatter them over and over; and with Sceptre no longer being a completely detrimental weapon Malicious Sorcery would be a nice boost.

They already said they’re working on it, but I like what you did.

I think what needs to happen is CoF and Diversion becoming useful in Power builds. The beauty of Condi Shatter is that all three offensive Shatters are useful for damage, but in Power builds CoF is weak and Diversion (in PvE) extremely niche.

Now with the Defiant rework 4s of Daze may become generally useful, but CoF definitely needs something for Power builds.

Yes.

/15chars

Chrono Condi Shatter

The idea is to stay in Sceptre-Shield and block for illusions and Torment, and use all three offensive Shatters to inflict conditions and gain Alacrity.

Illusionary Counter is up a lot with 6s CD + Alacrity, and Echo of Memory/Deja Vu likewise with Persistence of Memory + Chronophantasma + Alacrity. Seriously, iAvenger is the ultimate Shatter fodder, highly spammable with this build.

With all the Alacrity you’ll be Shattering constantly, which means constant AoE conditions and also constant healing and condition cleansing from Restorative Illusions. The result is a build that’s both durable and dishes out heavy pressure.

The primary weakness of this build is its offensive pressure is diminished if you aren’t being attacked, which can be a problem in team fights. Most team fights will have AoEs lying about however, in which case you can simply run in while blocking for easy punishment.

The reason I use Rabid instead of Carrion is because Toughness is much more valuable than Vitality in healing-heavy builds, which this one is with Restorative Illusions. Going Carrion will increase your offensive pressure but you won’t be able to hold off multiple enemies as effectively (which the Rabid variant is quite capable of).

I use Mantra of Recovery + Restorative Mantras because I’m paranoid about conditions, but Alacritised Restorative Illusions coupled with iDisenchanter + Chronophantasma should be enough. Ether Feast and Persisting Images is possibly a better alternative.

If you feel you need more Illusions you can go Illusionary Reversion instead of Improved Alacrity, but I find it excessive: you’ll generate more Illusions than you can Shatter.

Signet of Midnight can be substituted for Blink or whatever stunbreaker you prefer. I personally like the extra condition duration. If you don’t want to bring Portal I’d replace it with iDefender or a second stunbreaker.

The shield is way more than just a bunker weapon in PvP. Echo of Memory and Deja Vu are awesome illusion generation tools with Persistence of Memory, not to mention great mitigation; and you can really control your enemies with the Slow and Tides of Time.

My only complaint is EoM and DV are extremely obvious and smart players simply won’t attack you when you have it up, although in that case it’s as good as a block for the entire duration so that’s not bad either: and it’s good to have powerful skills being well-telegraphed.

In terms of PvE, I feel actually using your Shatter skills is preferable to ignoring them and letting your Phantasms do all the work.

The Herald is an Elite spec that specialises in boon sharing. Why would you expect the base Mesmer to be comparable to that?

The only issue with SoI is Temporal Curtain’s Swiftness not stacking with existing Swiftness, making juggling it and SoI needlessly frustrating. Fix Temporal Curtain and non-Chrono Mesmer travelling would be fine.

IMO it should be scrapped for something else. It’s a nice idea but in practice it doesn’t and never will work properly, unless stealth is made to not break on attack (not advocating it, just saying this is the only way for it to play nicely with everything).