WEAPONS
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Shield
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The Shield is core to the ChronoWard because of the synergy between Echo of Memory/Déjà Vu, Chronophantasma and Persistence of Memory. Together they allow each cooldown cycle of EoM to provide 8s of CD reduction for all Phantasm skills, including EoM itself. This has two major implications:
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- EoM’s effective CD can become much, much lower than 24s when you also factor in Alacrity and PoM from other Phantasms, giving the ChronoWard the highest Blocking uptime of all professions and builds by a huge margin.
- EoM will greatly boost your illusion generation from all your Phantasm skills, on top of the boost they already get from running CP and PoM and gaining Alacrity, which in turn boosts EoM and your other Phantasm skills even more… a beautiful positive cycle.
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This synergy pretty much dictates how the ChronoWard plays. Instead of the stealth and evasion of traditional Mesmers, ChronoWards often want to be hit so Déjà Vu can be procced. Both your defence and illusion generation are somewhat dependent on this: failure to proc Déjà Vu can cost you. Fortunately this is not difficult: even if you aren’t being targeted during a team fight, you can usually find some stray AoEs to proc your Blocks off of.
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The Phantasm it conjures, the Avenger, is not bad either. While it doesn’t do much damage even with Sinister, it does provide a healthy dose of group Alacrity and Slow; giving you and your team a bit of an edge. Its relatively slow attack speed is offset by the frequency it can be reset with CP or reconjured.
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So that’s a lot about one skill, and honestly if Echo of Memory was the Shield’s only skill it would be enough. But the Shield also offers Tides of Time, a strong AoE CC that also grants Quickness to allies and destroys projectiles. There are a lot of uses for ToT, but it is notably good for stomping or ressing: the Stun greatly hampers enemy ressing or stomping attempts while the Quickness allows your allies to stomp or res faster.
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For the ChronoWard, the Shield is your bread-and-butter; providing illusion generation, defence, control and support: all in a handy two-skill package. Use it and love it.
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Main-Hand Sword
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It may seem strange to use a purely Power-based weapon in a condition build, but as the Mesmer’s condition damage comes primarily from Shattering your choice of weapon does not significantly limit your offensive capabilities. With that in mind, the Sword is a great weapon to pair with the Shield (or with another off-hand).
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So why use the Sword? The main reason is Blurred Frenzy, giving you even more active defence and covering for Echo of Memory’s weakness: while some skills can bypass Blocks, nothing can bypass Blur. That said Blur itself is not infallable, and Retaliation damage goes right through it. Bear this in mind if you’re low on health, as if your opponent has Retaliation using Blurred Frenzy can kill you rather than save you.
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Apart from Blurred Frenzy, the Sword also grants you spammable Vulnerability (which if nothing else is a cover condition) and a semi-spammable boon strip. Both of these effects can be administered by Sword Clones if you don’t feel like entering the fray yourself.
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Last but not least, while Illusionary Leap does not count as a Leap finisher, its chain skill: Swap: does. This can be useful for proccing Chaos Armour off your utility Wells, especially when using Chaotic Dampening.
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Sceptre
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Our only main hand alternative to the Sword, the Sceptre is the quintessential Mesmer condition weapon. That does not however mean you should rely on its autoattack to deal damage: it is terrible and the Sceptre’s overall condition pressure is weak compared to Shattering. So what’s the Sceptre for?
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The Sceptre is a burst condition weapon. While it cannot output constant condition pressure, it excels at inflicting large stacks of conditions at once with Illusionary Counter and Confusing Images. This can easily seal a kill if you know your opponent is out of cleanses, which you should force with your Shatters before applying your Sceptre skills for the coup de grâce. Note that Sceptre skills also scale very well with Power, making it extra potent for hybrid builds.
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Think about what you want when choosing between the Sword and the Sceptre. If you feel too squishy, go with the Sword. If you think you need more bite, take up the Sceptre. If you just can’t choose, you can always use both!
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Staff
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While the Staff is often considered the other classical Mesmer condition weapon, it actually has more similarities with the Sword than the Sceptre. This is because despite its higher autoattack DPS than Sceptre, the Staff lacks the ability to inflict condition bursts: what it does have is an kitten nal of defensive skills.
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With that in mind, you’d take the Staff for the same reason you’d take the Sword: more sustain. It provides a low CD teleport (which can be used when disabled) and ample access to Chaos Armour, a reliable source of Protection with Chaotic Dampening (and is pretty useful in its own right). Chaos Storm’s on a rather long CD, but provides AoE Aegis and Daze invaluable for both personal defence and team fights.
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Apart from its defensive skills, the Staff also provides a wide variety of conditions. While they might not do all that much damage, it does mean a lot more cover conditions; making enemy cleansing that much less effective.
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Overall, the Staff is a really solid choice for your second weapon set regardless of your build. If in doubt, wield a Staff.
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Pistol
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Often considered the condition DPS off-hand thanks to the Duelist’s multiproccing of Sharper Images and Duelist’s Discipline, the Pistol is a good choice for the offensive-minded ChronoWard; but due to the aforementioned reliance on traits should only be taken if you’re speccing Dueling.
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The Duelist particularly shines in hybrid builds (Sinister being the definitive one), capable of dealing large amounts of both direct and condition damage. Note however that the combination of Dueling, Pistol and Sinister results in a rather fragile ChronoWard, so care should be taken when swapping from the safety of your Shield to your Pistol.
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The Pistol also gives you access to Magic Bullet. While it looks complex, in practice the only effect you can rely on is the Stun against your first target. Boring, but very effective; and a good opener before you lay down the hurt with Duelist and maybe a Sceptre burst.
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All things considered the Pistol is relatively niche, and its use can easily backfire if you don’t know what you’re doing; but utilised well it provides a potent offensive burst as a counterpart to the Shield’s defence.
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Torch
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Like the Staff, the Torch is deceptive. While it appears to be a condition weapon, it actually provides relatively weak condition pressure; its true purpose being, like the Staff, defence. The Prestige is the best personal stealth at your disposal, although as the ChronoWard requires Persistence of Memory you won’t be able to take The Pledge; which would otherwise be a significant boost to its potency.
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The Mage is a weak Phantasm even in condition builds, and its long CD does not do it any favours. Thankfully as a ChronoWard you have access to a lot of CD reduction for your Phantasms, alleviating this weakness somewhat. The Mage does provide access to Burning, a relatively rare condition for Mesmers: if nothing else it is an extra cover against cleanses.
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If you do not wish to use the Staff but don’t want to deal with the inherent fragility of the Pistol (or if you aren’t using Dueling), the Torch is a solid off-hand option.
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Focus
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The Focus, in general, is not a good pick for sPvP. Reflection is somewhat situational, and in any case if you go Inspiration then it’s almost criminal not to take Restorative Illusions. The Warden itself is relatively ineffective damage-wise as enemies will rarely stick around it for long. Temporal Curtain does provide a strong AoE Pull, but it is not enough to make the Focus work.
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Off-Hand Sword
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The off-hand Sword has little to offer to the ChronoWard. As a purely Power-based weapon it won’t do much damage in condition builds, and if you’re running a hybrid then the Pistol will serve you better. It does provide a bit of defence through Illusionary Riposte, but that’s a drop in the ocean compared to what the Shield does.
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Greatsword
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As a Power burst weapon with almost no defensive capabilities, the Greatsword is the worst of the worst for the ChronoWard. As with the off-hand Sword, hybrid builds are better off running Sceptre with Pistol for their hybrid burst needs. To ChronoWards, the Greatsword does not exist.
