mirage or chrono

so i just hit 80 and have a bunch of hero points ready, but which is better for pve, mostly solo or duo

tried doing search but this forum mostly says class is bad lol

There's a reason it mostly says the class is bad. Everyone always thinks they're gonna delve into it and secretly discover everyone else is just terrible and the class is massively overpowered. It's a fun class, it's my favorite class, but it's not good. Most nerfed class in the game, gutted trait lines, it's a shell of its former self. It's got a few broken traits and abilities that is the cornerstone of why it's good in raiding, because of the multiplicative nature of the game's boon system, but in other game modes it's not good.

But for PvE single target you can try the phantasm build http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAw6FlVw2YesOWJOyWaNdA-zRIYR09XG1FCVUBpnAA-e

The idea is to mirror image and greatsword 2 and then begin casting greatsword 4 and immediately use F4, then cast all your phantasms, gravity well, use your healing skill to reset your phantasms and cast them all again, then F4 will be over with so you can use your phantasms again, healing skill to reset your phantasms and use them again, gravity well. There's different starts points for the rotation but this is the basic idea.

I have legendaries so I swap the sigils as needed, so flame is good for tagging and helping with AOE. You can also swap out both utility phantasms for Well of Calamity and Mimic for extra aoe and tagging if you want. Sword/Sword does more damage on single targets but for just general PvE I like to use shield for the extra utility, Shield 5 is good AOE and stun and Shield 4 can really up your survibility against a group of enemies.

Mirage can be fun in PvE, but I don't have a build on hand and I don't mess with it as much.

atm looks like im stuck anywaty. game says lost connection, everytime i reach the pof quest section to put fires out.. can imediatly log back in and play anywhere else but this quests broke for me

@Sindrela.1846 said:atm looks like im stuck anywaty. game says lost connection, everytime i reach the pof quest section to put fires out.. can imediatly log back in and play anywhere else but this quests broke for me

depends what content you enjoy.is it pvp ? doesnt matter since you can choose eitherwvw ?pve?if pve is it open world?, solo ? squads, parties with friends?fractals or dungeons? raids?and what do you want to be? support, power dps, condi dps ?For condi dps -> mirage, alwaysFor support -> chrono, ONLYfor power dps -> chrono, ONLYfor fractals/dungeons power dps chrono, for raids power chrono, condi mirage and support chrono are good.for wvw mesmer is bad at everythingfor open world/squads I prefer cmirage personally, but power chrono is OK too, just a preference.

Most of the complaints about the class being bad are from the PVP/WvW perspective. For PVE, the profession is fine.

I recommend going with the chronomancer as the first choice, for several reasons:(1): The run speed boost is a massive QoL upgrade. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.(2): If you ever find yourself in a group, the trait Seize The Moment gives everyone near you permanent quickness, which is the best boon in the game. I sometimes run buff chrono in the overworld, and it is a massive force multiplier.
(3): The burst rotation with continuum split and all of the phantasms can do a massive amount of damage in a very short amount of time.

The mirage was designed to be a dueling spec. Most of its abilities can be divided into either being evasive, or doing condition damage. It doesn't have the punch and strength of the chronomancer.

Pick what is most fun for you. I love my Chrono.

ideally you want access to both and you end up choosing the one you enjoy playing more

i only recommend trying chrono first because it is cheaper/more accessible to gear up compared to mirage. otherwise get both

the choice really doesnt matter, both will work everywhere, except when youre playing with hardcore people

@Sindrela.1846 said:so i just hit 80 and have a bunch of hero points ready, but which is better for pve, mostly solo or duo

tried doing search but this forum mostly says class is bad lol

Depending on your interest. I would recommend condi mirage for open world over chrono. Chrono surely works, but mirage have a larger bandwidth of things you can do. Raids, they are about equal. Fractals favour high damage so chrono. Chrono has support build, while mirage does not.

Personal opinion, mirage plays and runs way more smoothly than chrono.

You character can have two equipment tabs and three builds, so eventually you'll be able to have both. I run Condi DPS Mirage and supportive Healing Wells Chrono with a little Condition Damage on my gear so I can handle some basic enemies myself.

Both of these are on the same character, I just have to switch tabs.

Chrono is "good" (and i use that word very loosely) in both PvE and WvW. Power/precision for PvW, Minstrel's for WvW. Mirage is only "good" in PvE (condi).It depends on what content you're doing. I'm doing WvW with support Chrono, and open world with a precision crit build. It's "ok", but if you read the forums on Mesmers you'll understand how bad they are right now. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with a Mesmer, it's still a fun class to play, just don't expect any miracles, and expect to be annoyed by your skills not working.

As for Chrono vs Mirage, i think Crhono is currently in a better state right now of the two.

atm im struggling between my scrapper (just got barrier) and my mesmer, with can i be arsed to do the storry again, grab the hero points. mesmer is struggling more than engi, with all the mobs determined to be right in my face every fight.

@Sindrela.1846 said:atm im struggling between my scrapper (just got barrier) and my mesmer, with can i be kitten to do the storry again, grab the hero points. mesmer is struggling more than engi, with all the mobs determined to be right in my face every fight.

I keep Phantasmal Defender in my Utility Skills for most Chrono builds to reduce pressure on myself. Opening with any clone or phantasm can cause mobs to target the illusion first, and Phantasmal Defender’s taunt adds another layer to that.

I do primarily play Chrono as I enjoy Continuum Split as a Prof mechanic over anything Mirage offers. Learning how to use it effectively to double up on defensive or offensive plays or leaning into the health and position reset it offers can give you a great many options to work with in any scenario.

PS: Mesmer isn’t bad, it can be challenging to maximize its potential, but in a vacuum it is a good profession. It would benefit from some attention to bring it to the level of say Necro or Guardian.

love how my mesmer looks, so tomorrow will be on a hero point hunt, as my engi just ulocked the skimmer :)

First off, no class is bad in pve! Both elite specializations are good in their own way and have a very different playstyle.

With mirage you will find ways to generate as much endurance (the fuel for dodging) as possible. Start with a build such as this one. It is a very safe, simple, ranged build because you get to dodge so much and dodging is a dps increase. It deals damage over time. You can freely spice it up by using scepter with either torch or pistol instead of a second staff. If you go for this, you could eventually go full axe and learn how to play the best confusion based dps builds in the game, which is very good for certain bosses which fire of skills very fast. However, the axe build has a more complicated rotation and is only really used for a couple of raid bosses.

Chronomancer has a more complicated rotation, even for a simplified open world build. Chronomancer focuses on resetting cooldowns to spawn as many phantasms as possible in a small time window. In my opinion, chronomancer is one of the strongest elite specs for open world because it is very self reliant. You can give yourself powerful boons (quickness and alacrity) that normally require a boon support. This makes it one of the strongest solo dps builds in the game. You can also customize the chronomancer to give quickness to many people, making it a very useful build in open world events (it really speeds them up). Chronomancer is also very useful in end game content because of their dps, boon support and tanking abilities.

atm i got access to chrono, going to run arround finding pof hero challenges, im rotating between the mesmer and engineer.

can see i need to get so much stuff, got 500 tailor, but looked at what i need to make my first piece of pink (assended) armour and wow... but now i know why some folk are simply swatting mobs that take me a good fight.

@Sindrela.1846 said:atm i got access to chrono, going to run arround finding pof hero challenges, im rotating between the mesmer and engineer.

can see i need to get so much stuff, got 500 tailor, but looked at what i need to make my first piece of pink (kitten) armour and wow... but now i know why some folk are simply swatting mobs that take me a good fight.

The difference between Exotic and Ascended gear should be about 3-5% overall, while upgrading the weapons will provide more of a boost than armor.

My Mesmer in full Ascended is very strong but, not as strong as my Necro in Exotics with Ascended weapons.