well if I was initially right about Mirror with Manipulation reflecting 4s, I’ll definitely be running that heal every time I trait into Chaos. It’s a no brainer. 
^
You say water under the bridge, I say water off a duck’s back!!!
Please make sure pCaptainAmerica is reliable as a phantasm skill.
How does chronomancer fit perfectly with Mesmer?
Mesmers manipulate reality, including time-space via Blink, Portal, and most obviously Time Warp.
+1 for the obvious.
I definitely feel like Chronomancer will be the most perfectly fitting specialization among all the classes!
I think the chronomancer line will work wonderfully with Inspiration and Chaos!! Support Shatter Mesmers will be a real thing. Boons on boons and ton of alacrity & condition clears!
I’ll definitely be trying it out as one of my first builds!
But is that because chronomancer sounds so incredible strong (and chaos of course) or because you actually think inspiration has a good synergy along with it making it as powerful as other specializations? Because going full support isn’t exactly what’s needed lately due the easy access to healings and boons while still dealing average/good damage (aka celestial).
The only really good synergy I see is the amount of quickness you get from the shield, making it more likely to get your mantra’s off increasing your aoe healing by a lot. The only problem I’m seeing here now is still the problem I have stated in the OP: healing power scaling.
I also hope they don’t screw up the well with bad scaling, because that would mean a support/heal mesmer is never gonna be worth running, but rather a mix of dps and support.
Maybe I’ve put more thought into it than you have, as my focus isn’t on healing. You’ve already stated the obvious weaknesses Mesmers have with healing. My idea was slotting Mesmers in the role of having high sustain while being able to support teammates, similar to the celestial varieties. One with ample condition clears and boon sharing. Here are some of the combinations I’ve thought of based on those 3 trait lines:
These are just a few synergies that I’ve thought of. Just because there’s classes that do similar things doesn’t make it meaningless for Mesmer to do it too. It just means that more classes can fit more roles depending on their preferred play style.
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I think the chronomancer line will work wonderfully with Inspiration and Chaos!! Support Shatter Mesmers will be a real thing. Boons on boons and ton of alacrity & condition clears!
I’ll definitely be trying it out as one of my first builds!
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Must-Have for DE:
With Chronomancer providing a lot of clone management efficiency, I think well have another option.
Two builds that can definitely go without DE:
Disclaimer: This is all fun speculation. We still don’t know completely the traits provided in Chronomancer nor do we know everything other professions will receive so let’s not all get into heated debates.
^ this should be in my new signature until HoT comes out.
Aye, we still need to see the actual finished Chronomancer Specialization’s traits … but I think we can all agree that with the current information it is looking like there will be several quite viable ways to play a shatter mesmer beyond our current simple choice of “Cond or Power Shatter”.
Well, you’re forgetting the support aspect of Inspiration’s Shattered Conditions. It was strong before, but placement (and no IP) made it hard to take. I can already imagine some interesting Chaos/Chrono/Inspiration or Chrono/Inspiration/Dueling. I could even see Chrono/Inspiration/Illusions. So many ways to be supportive now!!
only serves to promote shatter as the go-to mode of playing mesmer. Even moreso than it already is.
Considering every profession uses its class mechanic, I don’t think this is the worst thing ever. There are 3 distinct Mesmer playstyles: phantasm, shatter and lockdown (which is inherently a mixture of the previous two). Everything else is a flavor of one of these styles. That can be condition, mantra, PU, zerk, etc. While condition phantasm builds took a hit with clone death traits leaving, zerker phantasm builds are unchanged. I honestly don’t understand why everyone is so up in arms about Debilitating Dissipation…
The rewind mechanic will potentially pigeonhole mesmers into burst machines that have to execute a perfect sequence of buttons or they’re sub par. Naturally it can and will be used as a bait for burst or reset on a particularly powerful cooldown but these will be far and in between.
I’m glad you use the word “potentially”. While that might be what it’s mostly used for considering the most gamemode metas reward high burst, I can think of other uses for support and utility. Use your imagination.
PvE is a zerkfest rush to deal the most dmg possible while mashing the most buttons available and while Alacrity can facilitate more spam, I doubt it will make much difference.
This is a critique on PvE mechanics/design and only tangentially related. i.e. the problem isn’t exactly what they’re giving classes, it’s the environment of PvE content.
I currently view it as a glorified bomb dispenser. We get our bombs out and blow them. Stuff happens, people die and if they don’t, we die.
That’s sad that you see it that way considering I think Mesmer is very multifaceted. Especially now with these changes. You can now really set up your bombs or have things to do in between bombs being dispensed like phantasms, interrupts and support.
I just want to know if Pyro still thinks 90% of Mesmers will NOT be using Shield because our other offhands are simply much much better. #shade Love you!!
Thoughts on everything soon.
I think shield will have a place in WvW groups. I don’t think shield will have a place in PvE at all, in any way. I don’t think shield will have a place on a shatter build, obviously not on a PU build, and probably not on other condie builds either. It will definitely have a place in interrupt builds.
fixed
Being that it will see use in interrupt builds as well as wvw, I think we can both say that shield will get decent use. Tides of Time is so legit.
In terms of PvE, I think you might be underestimating Tides of Time. In dungeon content and fractals, the Mesmer is constantly switching utilities and sometimes weapons. Feedback is still arguably better that Tides of Time, but the quickness provided is always nice.
Even without the use of alacrity, chronomancer shield skills have special mechanics that allow them to be used more frequently when played correctly. Skilled chronomancers will be able to maximize the effectiveness of these new weapon skills to suit a variety of playstyles.
Weren’t we only shown 1 skill from the shield? It’s possible that we could still get a phantasm along with it, but I find it hard to see how it would function as described in the above quote. That being said, there are still probably better weapons for shatter.
I just want to know if Pyro still thinks 90% of Mesmers will NOT be using Shield because our other offhands are simply much much better. #shade Love you!!
Thoughts on everything soon.
What? Are they unhappy that they are getting a large default Life Force Pool? Or perhaps getting protection when you come out of Death Shroud from your second health pool wasn’t any good :-p
Some people simply aren’t thinking that hard about:
- All the new possibilities and their synergies
- The fact that everything is still in flux … an actual quote from ArenaNet.
Oh well.
I’ve been reading the necro threads recently. Let me assure you, they are hurting REALLY bad with the revamp. I feel awful for them. Along with Mesmer, they’ve always be on the periphery of viability, and they really got the short end of the stick with this revamp. It’s so bad, the forum specialist is even doing a special report for them. LOL 
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Thanks for the interesting thread here darling. Happy to see people interested in discussing these new traits for the Mesmer class in a constructive way!
I actually think this is a pretty solid trait. My initial reaction to this gm is simply that it helps to make GS a quicker more offensive weapon than it already is. It’s not build defining (which is why it shouldn’t be a gm), but it does help you to add a lot more pressure at a higher velocity because your CDs on 2-5 are decreased at such a higher rate. If you’re spawning clones and only AAing then you’re a bad player in any situation. Now let me take the OP’s original post statement by statement:
1) It only works for 1 specific type of weapon.
Most weapon CD traits only work for 1 weapon. The revamped Malicious Sorcery is the only weapon CD trait that doesn’t necessarily need you to wield a scepter for it to be of use to you. At least it seems that way to me.
2) GS and the bonus stat suggests it’s for power builds.
GS has always been a power-based weapon. Again, it makes sense for the GS CD trait to tie into this.
3) It promotes you and your clones spamming autoattacks. So clearly not optimal for either shatter or phantasm builds.
Like I’ve said before, if you’re mindlessly AA-ing and not doing anything else, you’re a bad player. This trait helps your CDs on your entire GS weapon, hence it helps with both shattering and phantasms. There will be points where you are kitting and AAing. There will be points in between other skill usage that you use your AA. This all helps to make your weapon quicker.
So suddenly, u have this interesting synergy between the new Greatsword Training + Sharper Images + the new Confusing Combatants.
While this sounds like a novel idea, I haven’t really seen a decent Rampager build ever. The trait spread is just… weird. I think Countless once upon a time used it on his signet build? Difference is that he wasn’t even using GS.
So in the end, this gm trait MIGHT play an interesting role to give birth to a new build type completely, GS/Staff condi hybrid.
Traitwise, it could be Dom/Duel/Chaos with Greatsword Training (duh!), Deceptive Evasion and Chaotic Interruption.
Solid theory crafting here! You make a good case. IE, condis on crit, and CI with Great Sword Training could possibly be a decent hybrid phantasm build. I see this having most potential in WvW roaming. I fully expect another post with videos showing you rekting the competition when the release comes out.
I actually really like it to be honest. It works really well in any shatter build in order to speed up clone production. It also helps somewhat in phantasm builds because there will come a point where you need a Distortion or sometimes Diversion in which case you might shatter a phantasm.
I LOVE YOUR OPTION B. <3 <3
I don’t know though, I haven’t put much thought into it. Just my initial impression. Thanks for the thread.