Support Chronomancer's niche needs to be more specific

First, I just want to say that I am a huge fan of the Mesmer changes. I love the new phantasms, I love that Power Chronomancer DPS is in a good place and that Condi Mirage DPS is doing pretty well, too. Overall, I love the spot Mesmer is in.

But I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about Chronomancers being able to do DPS now because their support is so good. Yes, support and DPS builds are mutually exclusive, but it doesn't change the fact that you could load your raid with Mesmers and do extremely well. It seems like most posters' gut instinct is that Chronomancer DPS needs to be nerfed back down, but I don't think that's the right call, because it doesn't solve the underlying problem: support Chronomancers fill too many support roles at once.

Right now, support Chronomancers can tank, keep up quickness and alacrity, and provide great access to other boons--all with the same build. That's taking up several niches at once, and that's an issue. As much as I love being a Chronomancer, its ubiquity isn't healthy for the PvE meta.

In my opinion, the answer is that support Chronomancer's role needs to be more specific. It's clear that quickness and alacrity are intended to be its best assets, so maybe the answer is to reduce Chronomancer's ability to share boons like might, fury, and protection while preserving quickness and alacrity. It still has an in-demand support role then, but leaves room for other professions as well (and, crucially, keeps its new-and-exciting DPS build viable).

But I'm interested in what you all think. Every time I've posted a thread like this I usually find that the discussion leads to a way better solution than any I thought up before posting, so I'd love to read other Mesmer players' ideas for how to preserve Chronomancer's niche while making room for other support professions as well.

I'm not sure that a support chrono that load it's gear with concentration and toughness (needed for tanking and keep up the boons) have top dps on top of that.I suppose that a power dps chrono use a gear akin to "zerk" which effectively prevent him from filling the support and the tank niche.To be honest, I expect a chronomancer to have as much dps as a PS power warrior that would take a bit of toughness to tank.But I might be wrong thought.

@"Dadnir.5038" said:I'm not sure that a support chrono that load it's gear with concentration and toughness (needed for tanking and keep up the boons) have top dps on top of that.I suppose that a power dps chrono use a gear akin to "zerk" which effectively prevent him from filling the support and the tank niche.To be honest, I expect a chronomancer to have as much dps as a PS power warrior that would take a bit of toughness to tank.But I might be wrong thought.

They don't, but I wasn't claiming that. You can build for either great support or great DPS, but not both. That's a really good thing! Really, really good! The problem is that the "great support" actually trends more towards "incredible support that can do anything other than spirits and banners." My point is that, yeah, you're sacrificing a lot of DPS to get that support, but that support is so good that it squeezes out other supports.

I have no issues at all with Chrono DPS specs. I adore the fact that they exist, and the fact that you have to sacrifice support to achieve that DPS is exactly as it should be.

The problem is the same that Warriors has a few patches ago: Warriors were the only ones capable of providing Might to a raid group. Chrono is the same but with Quickness/Alacrity.

The second issue, tanking, is not really the Chrono’s fault but rather the fact that most other classes are woefully incapable of straight up tanking. I mean, Druid can “tank” some fights like Cairn and Sabetha but that’s about it.

That’s what you get for throwing a trinity-based boss fight in a game where the classes are otherwise designed around a game where the trinity was never a thing.

@Agent Noun.7350 said:

@"Dadnir.5038" said:I'm not sure that a support chrono that load it's gear with concentration and toughness (needed for tanking and keep up the boons) have top dps on top of that.I suppose that a power dps chrono use a gear akin to "zerk" which effectively prevent him from filling the support and the tank niche.To be honest, I expect a chronomancer to have as much dps as a PS power warrior that would take a bit of toughness to tank.But I might be wrong thought.

IMO the solution isn't to nerf chrono support, but to make other classes have similar levels of support, with new mechanics. Which would be a plus overall, the boon/condi system is depressingly simple and limited. Expanding that with interesting class specific mechanics should be the design goal anyways.

The problem is that people will sit around and say Chrono is too strong but none of them will bring the alternatives into a raid anyway. DPS benchmarks go up after a patch and you will have a long line of people posting that it doesn't matter who is at top because you can do a raid with any dps classes, tell these people to bring a Firebrand or Renegade for support instead and learn to not rely on Inspiring Distortion and watch their brains melt.

@atlashugged.7642 said:

@Agent Noun.7350 said:

@"Dadnir.5038" said:I'm not sure that a support chrono that load it's gear with concentration and toughness (needed for tanking and keep up the boons) have top dps on top of that.I suppose that a power dps chrono use a gear akin to "zerk" which effectively prevent him from filling the support and the tank niche.To be honest, I expect a chronomancer to have as much dps as a PS power warrior that would take a bit of toughness to tank.But I might be wrong thought.

Yeah, I think that's also a good solution--making other professions' support stronger is going to make those other professions more fun to play, too. I'm hesitant to want to put more profession-specific support mechanics into the game, but if it can be balanced, then I could definitely see the appeal of it.