Guild Wars 2

apharma.3741:

Like I say I think the main problem I’m having is if the thief hits first, then it’s usually GG for me and I should run. If I hit first I can usually put them on the defensive and kill them.

If it’s a question of hitting first, I find things like Runes of the Nightmare work great to mitigate enemy first strikes. I’m not sure if Mirror of Anguish works on Stoned but that could be an option if the problem is Basilisk Venom.

I got 40% Chaos, 40% Inspiration and 20% Dueling. I actually rarely take Chaos and would prefer to go without Dueling (hello Chronomancer!), I do almost always have Inspiration though. My other favourite is Illusions which isn’t on here so…

So there’s been some discussion about giving every trait line an Illusion generation trait a la DE, IR and CP. I think the idea deserves its own thread, especially since one of the threads the discussion was on was deleted.

So here’s my ideas…

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DOMINATION

Replace Furious Interruption with Hallucination: interrupting a foe conjures two clones against them, 5s CD. Furious Interruption never saw much play, partially because Quickness doesn’t affect Mesmer DPS as much as other professions; so I think it’s safe to axe it for something new.

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CHAOS

Extra effect for Descent into Madness: Also create a Chaos Storm when you’re disabled. Chaos Storm conjures a clone against random enemies within 900 range every second. As this is a significant power-up, I think it should become a GM trait; bumping down Bountiful Disillusionment to Master and Mirror of Anguish to Adept.

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INSPIRATION

Merge Protected Phantasms with Persisting Images, add a new Master Discharge Enchantment: conjure a Phantasmal Disenchanter when you hit a target with 2 or more unique boons. Inspiration already has Mental Defence but it isn’t reliable illusion generation, adding Disenchanter helps to remedy that and completes the set.

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ILLUSIONS

Extra effect for Master of Fragmentation: Shatter effects from yourself are doubled in strength, 5s CD. Thought it would be fitting to give Master of Fragmentation, considered a weak GM, something that emphasises mastery over Shatters instead of just more illusions. Might be too strong but Illusions isn’t really used in Power Shatter currently so might as well change things up.

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Keep the ideas coming folks.

medusashadow.3567:

Do not run this build if you can’t handle lot nasty wispers from random strangers cause people are very salty when they see you. I play pu torment mesmer and I get nasty wisper all the time

Not that it matters but in general people have no idea what PU Condi means, they just throw it out to spite you. I play Mesmer Condi with no stealth in PvP (or sometimes with just The Prestige and no PU) and people accuse me of playing PU all the time.

You can support allies with Distortion but I don’t think many Mesmers do that. Using the Shatter means losing your Phants (and therefore your DPS), and the alternative is Blurred Inscriptions which is iffy because Mesmer signet actives aren’t that great (in PvE).

Otherwise a Boonshare Mesmer is certainly possible, but not to the extent of Guardians.

CoD and AC are pretty much rehashes of existing games. HoT is actual new content with new mechanics and stuff.

Seriously, it hasn’t even been a year and people are complaining. Most pre-releases I’ve gone through had been longer than a year.

Kids these days…

Condis work okay in PvP but poorly in PvE. Power is good in either format.

Shatters are still going strong in PvP. In PvE Phants are better. Mantras had its five minutes of fame but have fallen into obscurity again, still decent though.

I don’t know of any Mesmer who runs Celestial successfully. Zerker/Marauder is considered the way to go in PvP (or Rabid/Carrion if going Condi), in PvE it’s a toss-up between Zerker and Assassin depending on how much you like reflects.

Caution: Contents Fragile.

It’s a joke about GW2’s release.

I’m pretty sure Chronophantasma’d Phantasms can be Shattered immediately, they just can’t attack immediately.

Morfedel.4165:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I really think Alacrity is still a bit undertuned in general, but I can understand the worry about how powerful it could be. Also, I think I see this side of Chronophantasma now, although it really does suck that they get dazed in melee range of the enemy you attack (makes them prime for a quick cleave).

I’m strongly opposed to the Illusionary Reversion nerf. I think just a short ICD to prevent rolling the F-keys is far better than this nerf. I would recommend a 3 second ICD; that’d be sufficient here. I also still think the cast times for the utility wells are too long and should be shorter and that some traits need a little bit of work, but otherwise Chronomancer is in a great place.

Also, I personally like the listed change to Gravity Well, but if it’s too weak or something we can always provide that feedback in the next BWE.

Thanks for the hard work, Robert!

You know, I’m wondering, if the illusions are resummoned, do they benefit from the trait Protected Phantasms? If so that may be enough to give them a chance to make their attack. Particularly if you add on Persisting Images and Signet of Illusions.

They do. They also gain Retaliation from Persisting Images.

Although both traits are still really weak IMO. Phantasms are so paper-thin you’ll need buffs on the scale of bugged Signet of Illusions (+200% health) to make those traits worth taking.

Vague Memory.2817:

Embolism.8106:

If you’re playing the build on Metabattle with its almost non-existent condi removal then of course you’ll have problems with condi builds. If you must run Power PU then you can’t run Inspiration, so there’s nothing you can do really.

If you read my post, I am running inspiration, and that isn’t enough. I’m specifically talking about boons being converted to conditions, not condi builds in general.

Thought you meant “even if” you took Inspiration. In this case I’m a bit puzzled as to what build you’re running, you kind of need both Domination and Dueling for a good Shatter build.

If you’re playing the build on Metabattle with its almost non-existent condi removal then of course you’ll have problems with condi builds. If you must run Power PU then you can’t run Inspiration, so there’s nothing you can do really.

Re: Gravity Well’s Float: I’d rather have a functional skill rather than one that looked cool but is functionally useless.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Embolism.8106:

IR wasn’t a substitute for DE by itself though, it kind of needs to work with Chronophantasma for that. And with Chronophantasma I think IR is fine even with a 2 Illusion requirement.

I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled because I used Sceptre-Shield and the Illusion generation was crazy.

Having DE as a must have in every single PvP build is the last thing everyone likes to see but it has been the case for years. One of the main reasons for that is because enemy cleaves our illusions all the time. Now that chrono traitline is added it severely hampers build diversity if DE/Dueling is still a must.

I know, what I’m getting at is IR + CP seems to be an acceptable substitute for DE. If you look at IR by itself it wouldn’t stand up to DE even in BWE1.

I should also point out that during Mantra Madness plenty of people ran without DE (although not without Dueling).

I think the main problem with Mesmer utility (in PvP) is that we’re locked into Portal, which leaves us with two free slots; and one of those slots is generally locked down by Blink or maybe Decoy, leaving us with one free slot for ??? (usually Blink + Decoy).

Our condition cleansing utilities are otherwise pretty good, if not for the fact that our Utility slots are worth somewhat more than other professions… hence why people almost always go for options that don’t involve a slot.

I think making Well of Eternity cleanse conditions every pulse instead of give Vigour (as someone mentioned) would be good.

IR wasn’t a substitute for DE by itself though, it kind of needs to work with Chronophantasma for that. And with Chronophantasma I think IR is fine even with a 2 Illusion requirement.

I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled because I used Sceptre-Shield and the Illusion generation was crazy.

Do people really Shatter with 1 illusion or less that often? I get doing it for utility like Diversion, Distrortion, Boon Stripping or a panic blind/heal/cleanse but generally I don’t Shatter unless I have 2, if not 3 Illusions anyway.

IMO Improved Alacrity should improve all outgoing Alacrity, not Alacrity you receive.

Loving the changes.

ShadowCatz.8437:

Nachyochez.9758:

Firstly, thanks for gathering this Data. Might have to give stand around one day and take a tally to add to the numbers as well!

I also agree that dropping Might and Fury from the SoI is an excellent idea. It gives it a more definitive feel, and makes the Boonshare builds more fun to use!

Also, as much as I hate to see any source of Swiftness get removed from Mesmer, it does seem out of place on Chaos Armor. So, that’s getting +1 from me as well!

Why does it seem out place with Swiftness for Chaos Armour?

I wouldn’t like to see that kind of nerf to my build (staff/sceptre+torch) without anything that could give some kind of swiftness as many of my utility skills also have Ethereal fields that will proc Chaos Armour when blasted with finisher and not every Mesmer would like go for Chronomancer (trait) which would give 25% movement speed as Minor.

Chaos Armour are meant to have defensive capabilities which both Swiftness and Protection provide through their buffs which help to mitigate danger and damage.

Having Swiftness as a possible proc means there’s only a 1/3 chance you’d get Protection when hit. Without Swiftness the choice is only between Regeneration and Protection, meaning 50% chance to get Prot; or 100% chance if Illusionary Membrane is up.

I don’t think anyone can disagree that having a higher chance to get Prot is better than the alternative, especially when the alternative isn’t that helpful when you’re being whaled on.

Also, the original design of the Staff was that each boon/condition skill would apply one less possible boon than condition. Together they were supposed to cover all possible boons and conditions at the time (except Vigour and Immobilise: Stability and Quickness weren’t boons then; Resistance, Slow and Torment didn’t exist and Daze used to be Fear).

Bountiful was Resistance, Fragmentation was Slow nearby enemies when Shifting.

I get that SoI is mostly used for its Swiftness and for its active in boonshare, so people don’t care about the passive; but IMO that’s why we should take a look at the passive and think of ways to improve it.

Exciton.8942:

It gets even trickier if you have downed teammate as well. You don’t know how he is gonna react. He doesn’t know what you are thinking either.

Situations like these makes me wish for integrated voice chat.

Curunen.8729:

Iavra.8510:

Regarding MtD, i’m on Helseth’s side and think that 2 stacks of torment would be much too strong, even more so with Chrono.

Oh I agree completely 2 stacks with current Chrono would be stupidly broken.

I’m saying that currently (not using Chrono), MtD was seriously overnerfed – and personally I believe F2 should apply 1 stack of torment standard being our “condition shatter” button.

I say MtD kind of needs Chrono right now to be on par with power builds, given the 50% nerf.

But what I don’t want to see is a gutting of Chrono on a similar scale to the MtD nerf – ruining some traits or whatever. I’m just worried with how Anet usually nerfs Mesmer – it’s not “a gentle shaving of a few percent” like warrior’s healing signet – it’s “let’s chainsaw this thing to pieces”…

I share your worry, although there hasn’t been quite as much outcry against Chronomancers as I expected; so I’m hopeful we won’t see huge nerfs.

Iavra.8510:

Chrono Condi is actually very powerful (too powerful for my liking, but that’s just my opinion). Since your damage comes from every shatter, F5, iReversion and Alacrity allow for frequent chain shatters.

Build would be Dueling/Illusions/Chrono with Scepter/Pistol + Sword/Torch. You can pick the cleanse Mantra if you like or MoD for control/pistol spam.

My preference was Insp/Illu/Chrono with Sceptre-Shield and Staff. I pretty much stuck to Sceptre-Shield all the time and just blocked everything while spamming Shatters. Insp meant that every time I Shattered I was healing myself, and my blocks can spawn an iDefender who also benefits from Alacrity/Persistence letting it pop very often.

And yeah I too felt it was a bit too powerful. A lot of blocking, constant Shattering and constant healing while shedding conditions like it’s nothing… could actually stand on point and 1v2 or even 1v3.

The Sceptre is a respectable Power weapon, actually. Ether Bolt can do more DPS than Spatial Surge, and Confusing Images does more damage than Blurred Frenzy. And IMO Sceptre-Shield is a great combo, very defensive with great Illusion generation just by blocking constantly. If they make Persistence/Celerity work with Echo… I salivate at the thought.

Regarding Condi Chronos: it seems most Condi Chrono players sacrificed Dueling in favour of Chaos or Inspiration. Chrono makes Deceptive Evasion unnecessary, and without Dueling you can use Carrion instead of Rabid without guilt.

There’s no cast time or animation for conjuring the Phantasm. Not sure about targeting but I think it’s conjured against the source you blocked.

I too have felt that the boons from SoI felt a bit off, seemed like Aegis, Might, Protection and Retaliation are heavily favoured. Did a bit of testing myself and stopped once I got 5 Furies. I did actually get Vigour once, seems like it’s just very rare.

Aegis: 26
Fury: 5
Might: 21
Protection: 30
Regeneration: 15
Retaliation: 35
Vigour: 1

Combined with your results, we get:

Aegis: 19.66%
Fury: 5.56%
Might: 16.24%
Protection: 23.93%
Regeneration: 11.54%
Retaliation: 22.65%
Vigour: 0.43%

Think this might be a good time for a suggestion too… why not remove Fury and Might from SoI’s procs? Fury is rare anyway and one stack of Might is just sad. That leaves SoI with just defensive boons, which I think suits it better. Then equalise the proc chances so they’re all 20%.

Also remove Swiftness from Chaos Armour’s random procs please. The original Chaos Armour didn’t have it, it was added when Protection was changed from a random proc into always granted on casting Chaos Armour, which was then reverted back again but Swiftness remained.

Well the first thing I would add is Dueling. Deceptive Evasion is almost a must, and if you go Rabid you can also benefit from Critical Infusion and Sharper Images. Blinding Dissipation is a great defensive trait and synergises well with Ineptitude (which I would replace Master of Fragmentation with).

Whether you drop Chaos or Inspiration depends on what you’re after defensively. Inspiration grants unparalleled (for the Mesmer) condition cleansing and great self-healing, while Chaos grants superior defence against direct damage and (as you’re already using) Prismatic Understanding.

I would only use Mirror as your heal if you also take Master of Manipulation. If you keep Inspiration I’d consider taking Restorative Mantras and use Mantra of Recovery, it’s not only great healing but also condition cleansing.

If you’re primarily using Signet of Domination for condition damage, I’d replace it with Signet of Midnight instead. I also highly recommend Portal: even if you’re just PUGing it for now it’s a good idea to get used to it for future team-play.

What about a Condition Chrono build, or are you only after non-Chrono builds?

Nachyochez.9758:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Does alacrity affect Rune/Sigil ICDs?

No. All testing I’ve done and seen from the forums is that it only affects the CDs of the skills on your bar and shatters. Trait/Rune/Sigil/Signet ICDs remain unaffected.

It does affect the CD of traits that use skills, such as Mental Defence and Illusionary Inspiration.

If you’d like to see some numbers based on 4k Mind Wracks with Fury on Carrion, here it is:

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CARRION

(Calculating Carrion’s Mind Wrack damage per Illusion)
4*0.24*1.5X + 4*0.76X = 4000
1.44X + 3.04X = 4000
4.48X = 4000
X = 893

Sharper Images: 550*3*0.24 = 396
Total Damage: 4000 + 396 = 4396

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RABID

(Rabid’s Mind Wracks deal about 53% of Carrion’s non-crit damage)
Y = 0.53X
Y = 473

4*0.66*1.5Y + 4*0.34Y = ?
1873 + 643 = 2516

Sharper Images: 550*3*0.66 = 1089
Total Damage: 2516 + 1089 = 3605

nearlight.3064:

So you don’t fully take into account the skills that counter your argument? That’s not biased at all.

Two, if not three of the variables I mentioned are likely to favour Rabid. The direct damage skills that favour Carrion, as you can see, don’t actually contribute a significant amount even assuming they are used on CD under the most ideal conditions (which, in the case of Ether Bolt, the main contributor, is basically impossible).

@Messiah: Rabid also has access to Fury. Hitting 4k with your Mind Wracks doesn’t mean much unless you also tell me the conditions (against how much armour? How might Might and Vulnerability? Rune and Sigil effects?), plus Rabid would also scale up so if you can hit 4k with Carrion you should be hitting ~2.8k with Rabid.

Warriors are immune to conditions? My experience with Warriors has always been that they’re very vulnerable to condition damage. They do have a few skills that grant them immunity but they’re short-lived.

Okay, some number-crunching comparing Rabid and Carrion against a Light Golem. Assume that three Clones are conjured for each Shatter and each Clone only gets one hit before it expires. Assume that Sharper Images deals 550 Bleeding when it procs.

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MIND WRACK

Carrion

• Direct – 2,500
• Sharper Images – 65
• Total – 2,565

Rabid

• Direct – 1,700
• Sharper Images – 750
• Total – 2,450

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CRY OF FRUSTRATION

Carrion

• Direct – 1,000
• Sharper Images – 65
• Total – 1,065

Rabid

• Direct – 700
• Sharper Images – 750
• Total – 1,450

.

Looking at the numbers, Rabid and Carrion are more or less the same when it comes to raw damage. This does not however take into account a number of important factors:

• Clones usually get more than single hit in before expiring. The more hits, the more heavily Rabid is favoured.

• Condition cleansing isn’t taken into account. At first glance this may seem to favour Carrion, but remember you’re also applying Torment and Confusion with your Shatters (which is of course the whole point): unless your opponent immediately cleanses 3 or more conditions, Rabid should come out on top.

• Phantasms are not taken into account. I won’t post more number-crunching but iWarlock favours Carrion by ~300 damage per shot. The iDuelist on the other hand would of course heavily favour Rabid.

• Damage with other skills are not taken into account. Again I won’t post more number-crunch, but for the Sceptre: with Malicious Sorcery, Illusionary Counter and Confusing Images gives Carrion a ~145 DPS advantage if used on CD. Spamming the Ether Bolt chain at point blank range with Malicious Sorcery gives Carrion a ~270 DPS advantage.

It’s temporary, they already said they’ll move it.

ErickDntn.1847:

just to voice my opinion.

I agree with some people here. I think the slow outcome by chronomancer needs to be toned down a little bit.
Other than that, I find that chronomancer is a great spec in a right track so far.
Good job Robert Gee and the devs team

Agreed. I love the Chronomancer, but I do think the amount of Slow you can dish out is a tad OP.

Energy Sigils and Vigour at the same time gives you more fodder, not to mention personal defence. It’s what I do.

I don’t use Undead personally, just citing it as an example. Not everyone who goes into Chaos takes PU (though I don’t go into Chaos, like you I use Duel-Insp-Illu). I’d also say that “cultural” (wut) backlash really isn’t a valid argument, a more valid argument would be stealth being inherently selfish unless you’re playing a roaming ganker role.

Taking Sword as a Condi build is basically defensive, you’re likely be saving Blurred to avoid burst; if it does damage that’s icing rather than your goal (if I’m wrong in my assumption here, feel free to correct me).

Unless you’re up against a Diamond Skin Ele I don’t think the extra Power makes a big difference by itself. Precision on the other hand boosts your defence, improves your Shatter cadence and gives you Bleeding, which is not only more damage but also another condition to be cleansed.

…..

There’s also Toughness vs Vitality. I personally prefer Toughness when I use a build with significant self-healing, i.e. Inspiration builds.

…..

In the case of this build, Carrion’s Power is indisputably better than Rabid’s Precision, so it boils down to Toughness vs Vitality. I’m going to give it a try and see how it feels.

The idea of Wells is that they pulse the same effect (with Chronomancy Wells having an ending effect too). I don’t think Anet would be willing to let Gravity Well break the mold, so suggesting a pull or whatever on cast is unlikely to happen even if it is a good idea.

nearlight.3064:

Carrion is generally a superior amulet on nearly all condi builds in spvp, aside from engineer, as they’re the only class that has an actually strong crit proc as apart of their kit.

Carrion is superior simply becuase the power overall lets you do more damage in the long run than the generally kittenty duration on crit bleed procs that mesmers and necros have. It also ensures that more damage is ultimately done even when condis are cleansed early.

Actually in non-Chrono Condi Mesmer builds Rabid is king because:
.

1. Precision lets you proc Critical Infusion which is important for fueling Deceptive Evasion.

2. Sharper Images. This is great with Duelist and Staff Clones with their multi-hit attacks.

3. Toughness works well with Runes of the Undead and/or Chaotic Transference if you choose to use them.

4. Staff skills except Warlock scale terribly with Power, and CoF/Diversion which are offensive in Condi Mes builds deal little damage.
.

For this build since I’m not using Dueling I am indeed considering Carrion, but my reluctance is because of losing Toughness, not because of Precision (which would indeed be relatively useless without Dueling).

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Embolism.8106:

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Are you a very sad mesmer?

Yes! Haha.

Silverkey.2078:

Embolism.8106:

I feel that Insp-Illu-Chrono is not only a great condition build but also can potentially function as a bunker build. A high Shatter cadence allows you to heal and cleanse constantly, and you can also block very frequently with Sceptre-Shield all while applying heavy condition pressure.

The main benefit of chaos is
1) protection
2) stability
3) in general good boons to share.

When I did run chaos, insp and illusion, I liked the added might to share though. F1 could be a strong boost (guardian staff 4 allows 12 might + healing…, our F1 could do basically the same after boonshare).

I think illusion and in general condi makes a more offensive set up, at the expense of some sustain and support.

Found another awesome thing about taking Inspiration… both Persistence of Memory and Alacrity affects Mental Defence’s CD. With Sceptre-Shield and Chronophantasma you can actually keep iDefender around a lot even if you Shatter constantly.

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Recall needs a buff, but iAvenger I feel is fine, in fact its Slow should probably be reduced from 3s to 2s.

I’d be hesitant to give Mesmers more Alacrity as ATM Alacrity is really strong for a constant Shattering build, and IMO it should NOT cater to non-Shattering builds: builds that don’t use our profession mechanic shouldn’t exist.

The great thing about Chronomancer is it’s making all our build types embrace Shattering. Might not be completely there yet but it’s a great leap in the right direction.

340ms is bad, but if you’re playing from Oceania to NA that’s almost normal. My ping is about 300, 250 if I’m having a good minute.

alexei.9364:

I’ll refrain from commenting on the original question, but something I haven’t seen mentioned so far: Try out a damage rotation with persistence of memory + chronophantasma. There’s nothing quite like it.

It’s bugged to not work with shield 4, though.

My question is does Persistence of Memory reduce the CD Mental Defence?

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Kusa.6438:

I tried to find a good condi shatter build with Chronomancer. You loose too much when you take the trait line that its not worth it.
So far the only real benefit for chronomancer is for Power Block and Power Shatter builds.

If I wasn’t having amazing success with a chrono condi shatter build, I might think you knew what you are talking about.

This. Condi Chrono is absolutely amazing.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Embolism.8106:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

This class needs some balancing.

Quickness application is incredibly OP and Alacrity application sucks balls. Not only is the Alacrity effect pretty average in of itself (you get 2 seconds of CD reduction for every 3 seconds of Alacrity you have, which is… not that much), but you barely get any sources for it. You have the Phantasm, which is basically a huge DPS sacrifice in exchange for giving half the party 1s Alacrity every 8 seconds or so, then you have the kitten CD well that gives the party 3s of Alacrity. Which is, again, only two seconds of CD reduction. On the other hand you have massive amounts of quickness application (Blazblue activation > Time Warp > Quickness Well > Quickness Shield > Blazblue expires > repeat) which is actually an OP boon. I suspect Anet didn’t really think this through.

I propose that Alacrity durations be tripled (yes, tripled) across the board and be made a boon so it scales with boon duration. Some of the Slow and Quickness applications could also be revised to grant Alacrity instead. Personally I like the idea of Lost Time giving AOE Alacrity to the party instead if the target already has Slow on it.

It sounds like you haven’t played it. If you had, you might have noticed that alacrity is adding 2s cooldown for every 3 seconds of alacrity.

Isn’t that what he said?

In any case Alacrity is fine. Getting it on every single Shatter you use is great.

He edited it. Interestingly, on some kind of timing that preempted my quote from him.
Regardless, his entire complaint really kind of relies on it getting the 1s per 3s that he originally stated, because 2s for 3 is actually really, really potent. I get 4s alacrity for a 3-illusion shatter, and with IR I’m at essentially a minimum 2s of alacrity per shatter. It’s making a really big difference in my rotations.

Exactly. I might even say too potent, but it’s too early to make a judgement.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

This class needs some balancing.

Quickness application is incredibly OP and Alacrity application sucks balls. Not only is the Alacrity effect pretty average in of itself (you get 2 seconds of CD reduction for every 3 seconds of Alacrity you have, which is… not that much), but you barely get any sources for it. You have the Phantasm, which is basically a huge DPS sacrifice in exchange for giving half the party 1s Alacrity every 8 seconds or so, then you have the kitten CD well that gives the party 3s of Alacrity. Which is, again, only two seconds of CD reduction. On the other hand you have massive amounts of quickness application (Blazblue activation > Time Warp > Quickness Well > Quickness Shield > Blazblue expires > repeat) which is actually an OP boon. I suspect Anet didn’t really think this through.

I propose that Alacrity durations be tripled (yes, tripled) across the board and be made a boon so it scales with boon duration. Some of the Slow and Quickness applications could also be revised to grant Alacrity instead. Personally I like the idea of Lost Time giving AOE Alacrity to the party instead if the target already has Slow on it.

It sounds like you haven’t played it. If you had, you might have noticed that alacrity is adding 2s cooldown for every 3 seconds of alacrity.

Isn’t that what he said?

In any case Alacrity is fine. Getting it on every single Shatter you use is great.

I feel that Insp-Illu-Chrono is not only a great condition build but also can potentially function as a bunker build. A high Shatter cadence allows you to heal and cleanse constantly, and you can also block very frequently with Sceptre-Shield all while applying heavy condition pressure.

The way I see it, Insp-Illu-Chrono has awesome synergy.
.

• Shatter forever! With Master of Misdirection and Flow of Time, you Shatter CDs are ridiculously low as long as you keep Shattering, and with a condition build you’re always applying Torment and Confusion while doing so. Illusionary Reversion and Chronophantasma means Deceptive Evasion is not required at all, I get 3 Illusion Shatters with minimal effort every time, Mirror Images can mostly be relegated as a stunbreaker.

• Heal and cleanse forever! Add in Restorative Illusions and you’re always healing and shedding conditions. If you need a bit of extra healing and cleansing, Mantra of Recovery is there to help, which also charges a bit faster thanks to Malicious Sorcery.

• Block forever! Traited Illusionary Counter with constant Alacrity is almost always up, and there’s also Echo of Memory and Deja Vu for even more blocking and Alacrity. Against projectile-reliant professions, Tides of Time really ruins their day. Mental Defence throws iDefender into the mix now and then and doesn’t dissolve immediately thanks to Chronophantasma.
  .

The result is a build that is strong both offensively and defensively. In fact I feel I could almost bunker on point with this build in Sceptre-Shield.

And of course the above didn’t even touch on Continuum Split and Time Warp, or the constant Slows thrown out by iAvengers…