Mirage vs Chrono pros and cons?

First character leveled to 57 then decided to get the expansions and boosted to 80. I'll get both eventually, but which between the two would be the best to start as for a new player? I plan on trying to 100% all of the areas with this character so mostly for open world pve stuff for now.

Both Chronomancer and Mirage have their own specific niches. Chronomancer is a defensive, supportive, quality of life spec. Mirage is a pure DPS specialization.

Chronomancer provides a lot of nice quality of life abilities like it's utility Wells, which let you AoE groups and a passive 25% movement speed increase. It also currently has Chronophantasma, which summons a second Phantasm when your first one would turn into a clone. Power Damage Chronomancer is comparatively really easy to gear.

The real amazing aspect of Chronomancer though is the Boonshare Chronomancer build. This build let's you pulse out permanent Quickness and Alacrity for your party. It is always in demand in group content and in raids two of them are basically mandatory. Support Chrono can be a nightmare to gear up, requiring a specific mix of Commanders / Berserkers gear, specific Runes which require a lot of Dragonstand and a highly expensive sigil. If you want to eventually tank as a Boonshare Chrono, it'll require the extremely expensive Minstrel's armor set.

Mirage however provides excellent condition damage, and is surprisingly survivable in PvE content because of the ungodly number of evades. If you just want to do damage and have little responsiblity, Mirage is for you. Mirage is medium tier difficult to gear out, requiring Viper's gear.

My suggestion is that you go Power DPS Chrono at first, use that to gear out a more effective Mirage. And then eventually work up gear for a Boonshare Chronomancer if you have any interest int hat.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/438478#Comment_438478

In this thread i am explaining how to gear support chrono cheaply if you want to try it in dungeons/lower fractals

If you want open world pve i guess power dpschrono is best for you

I've played a bit of chrono, but Mirage made me stick to Mesmer.The class/ spec i can deal more damage and survive better than any other class for open world PvE content, wich is what i play most of the time.

@Malafaia.8903 said:I've played a bit of chrono, but Mirage made me stick to Mesmer.The class/ spec i can deal more damage and survive better than any other class for open world PvE content, wich is what i play most of the time.

I'll second this. Mirage is probably the most effective class I've played for solo open world play. It features a unique combination of high damage and superior active damage avoidance.

So far I've been able to solo every HoT HP champ, all of the LS3 bandit champs plus the executioner, and I'm currently working on PoF/LS4 bounty solos with 70 percent of the champions completed so far. It's a strong spec!

Chrono = tinnitus via alacrity.

Mirage = headache via phantasmal axes (unless you make astralaria).

;)

@Curunen.8729 said:Chrono = tinnitus via alacrity.

Mirage = headache via phantasmal axes (unless you make astralaria).

;)

Sheesh, you’re really attached to that axe. :lol:

@Arlette.9684 said:

@Curunen.8729 said:Chrono = tinnitus via alacrity.

Mirage = headache via phantasmal axes (unless you make astralaria).

;)

:D I love it so much! My character's entire gameplay and fashion revolves around it.

Oh on that note I'm gradually plodding along with gear for my NA account - just been logging in to accumulate daily laurels for trinkets as it's by far the easiest thing to do and tbh will easily be done before the alliance rework. Just need to have a kick up the kitten to finish crafting exotic weapons/armour - got weaponsmithing done at least! :)

Try both, I love mirage but always despised chrono, even though it's very strong. I have friends who are the opposite.

To me mirage just feels very smooth playing, the combat mobility makes you extremely slippery for your damage potential. The build diversity is second to none -can make nearly ANY combo of 2 trees work with mirage, and therefore are not stuck into any particular style or weapon set or damage rotation. Portal suddenly becomes optional since you can mirage thrust/blink between points so fast.

I always felt stuck with sword/shield and usually staff on Chrono. Usually felt like I had to take Insp for sustain, that leaves one tree to play with for your build. Shield phant is filler, it's the double block you need, which means a lot of time stalling for continuum split/gravity well to come off CD so you can drop your one big, predictable burst.