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Viable power Chrono or core mesmer builds for PVE post nerfs


Burningg.5749

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Hey guys I’m pretty much a new player to the game and I’ve been playing for 2 months regularly. I was leveling with Gs/St core power mesmer and recently unlocked Chronomancer. Now I’ve been hearing/reading up that Chrono has been nerfed recently and is unplayable and/or too weak. Also most guides I looked up online are from before the February patch. I would appreciate it if some of my questions were cleared up.

  1. Is chronomancer too weak for fractals and eventually raids going forward?
  2. What are some viable power builds for fractals and open world? (I’m down to play core)
  3. Are ranged greatsword builds too inferior to sword builds in terms of dps?

Cheers!

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1) Chronomancer has been in a good position dps wise for a bit. Both Sw/Sw + Sw/F and Sw/x + GS are fine (GS being only slightly lower dps than Sw to slightly better situationally). It's great for most all raid bosses (some fights require condi builds, though, in which Mirage will be your better choice). Kind of mediocre for fractals because of the fast paced progression though.

2) Snow Crows or Metabattle are good places to find builds. ( https://metabattle.com/wiki/Mesmer )( https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/mesmer/chronomancer/power/ ) At the end of the day, though, these are just starting points. Read your skills and traits, learn how they function with each other and in each encounter, and improve on your own. That will always get you farther than trying to imitated guides.

3) Greatsword is, for the most part, lower dps than Sw/x (When looking at the golem); but with enough practice, and knowledge of each encounter you can do around the same dps with both.

I'm pretty sure most of the people claiming chrono is too weak are talking about PvP and WvW and possibly fractals. Open world PvE just about anything goes. Fractals, as said above, moving from group to group your best bet is to stick with Sword in both sets because of the cleave on auto and low cd on Blurred, but for bosses you'll be fine with GS in your rotation. Raids chrono is one of the better choices as it has an easily maintained dps rotation. (Mind you: I don't pug anything, so I don't know how widely accepted power chrono is in any content pug wise, but among my groups I can top, or tie for top, dps with chrono on most encounters [Raids {non-condi meta} and fractals]).

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PvE: chrono is a great damage+support spec, and a decent base for casual open-world builds. The full rotation is pretty involved but you're durable, powerful, and lay down a lot of valuable boons for your team. Sometimes "off-meta" but seldom actively bad.

PvP/WvW: Chronophantasma does -50% damage compared to the PvE version, boon-sharing group comps don't usually focus on Alacrity/Quickness quite so much, not being able to use Diversion or self-shatter (for blind/interrupt) means you are probably even more fragile than a normie mesmer. Also the "competitive mode" version of Gravity Well does zero damage.

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Hmm I don't quite agree on all of this.1.Chronomancer is very weak in fractals especially when new players play it. If I get a power chrono in a t4 pug, I will just leave the group. Reason for that is that I myself play power chrono in t4s sometimes, even while I am really experienced with pchrono rota, I admit I am trolling when I pick pchrono in fractals... But it doesn't matter in the end because pugs sometimes are worse lol. It might be a lil difficult for newer players to play already non meta class with difficult rota in fractals (however you will never be experienced if you don't try it). What about raids, it is a whole another story. Power chrono is very good in raids, but you need some specific teammates who provide slow condi for you. And don't be fooled by the snowcrows benchmarks on golems. It does 40k dps on an immobile golem that has permaslow condi and nothing kills/interrups your phantasms there. In real raids it is not as easy to maintain an already difficult rotation and dealing with all that. If you are experienced with raids however chrono is very strong, if not I am sure you will do more damage with reaper (which has 31k benchmark but you can actually hit that benchmark as a new player)

  1. Well as I said power chrono in fractals is troll.. If you still wanna do it use this build: https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/mesmer/chronomancer/power/Several notes here. 1stTake Delayed Reactions and Danger Time (which give much damage to you but require use of slow which is an extremely rare condi) on chrono line when you run Time Warp. If you wanna go for Gravity Well you can't use the slow sinergy so take the other traits (Time Catches Up and Illusionary reversion), Chronophantasma is always a must, that trait is the reason chrono does damage (double damage on phantasms) and sucks at fractals (because it is too slow, normally before a phantasm ends his 2nd attack anoter dps class would already be done and the boss would already be phased). When I play chrono in fractals I change between 4 build templates and as much as I try being efficient, I could just swap to a soulbeasst and do the same thing so much easier and better.For open world, go whatevr pleases you, it doesn't matter as open world is very easy. For core go 1 3 1 dueling, 1 2 1 domi if u use gs (2 2 1 if you use focus), 2 2 1 illusions. It is worse than chrono, but is ok for open world I guess, it has better burst.
  2. New players always want to be ranged. It gives some false sence of safety. Try learning to awlays play melee. In Pve I use greatsword in melee range most of the time. You should be stacking with your team even with ranged weapons so you get boons heals etc...About focus or gs: Noodle Ant said it all in a recent post, here it is: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/103977/greatsword-or-focus#latestIt is not about more or less damage, and again people just look the snowcrows benchmarks and assume that focus build does more damage. While it is kinda true vs single targets that die very slowly (ex: raid bosses), it is not true in every situation. Greatsword is better for burst cleaving which is kinda useful in fractals and mesmer sucks at cleaving so a lil cleave with gs helps, focus has pull (which is even better in fractals). I even end up sometimes using gs with sword/focus for utility. My advice to you is to start playing with sword/sword; sword/focus not because it has more damage but because it has an easier rotation. Then you can learn gs rota when you master the focus one. One thing people also forget is that greatsword adds more boon corruption where it is relevant.
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PChrono is fine in fractals and CMs and raids. I’ve been running it for ages and the DPS is more than acceptable. Burst can be in the low 30s with sustained DPS in the 20s... only if the boss doesn’t move or moves very little. I’d stick with sword/sword/focus for fractals and raids, only switching to great sword in open world when needed.

Just keep in mind that most groups won’t care about your DPS if you’re not under 10k and more importantly, you’re doing the mechanics of the fights correctly.

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@phokus.8934 said:PChrono is fine in fractals and CMs and raids. I’ve been running it for ages and the DPS is more than acceptable. Burst can be in the low 30s with sustained DPS in the 20s... only if the boss doesn’t move or moves very little. I’d stick with sword/sword/focus for fractals and raids, only switching to great sword in open world when needed.

Just keep in mind that most groups won’t care about your DPS if you’re not under 10k and more importantly, you’re doing the mechanics of the fights correctly.

I tested condi mirage with axe, just by having clones autoattack with me on axe and using ambush from time to time I got something like 18-19k dps. 20k dps is tragic for ammounts of effort it takes, its doable but almost anything will give you more for less hussle.

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@Leonidrex.5649 said:

@phokus.8934 said:PChrono is fine in fractals and CMs and raids. I’ve been running it for ages and the DPS is more than acceptable. Burst can be in the low 30s with sustained DPS in the 20s... only if the boss doesn’t move or moves very little. I’d stick with sword/sword/focus for fractals and raids, only switching to great sword in open world when needed.

Just keep in mind that most groups won’t care about your DPS if you’re not under 10k and more importantly, you’re doing the mechanics of the fights correctly.

I tested condi mirage with axe, just by having clones autoattack with me on axe and using ambush from time to time I got something like 18-19k dps. 20k dps is tragic for ammounts of effort it takes, its doable but almost anything will give you more for less hussle.Sure no denying that the effort on Chrono is higher but the damage isn’t low according to some. I still like the play style but probably because I’ve been playing it since day one of its release.

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@"phokus.8934" said:

Sure no denying that the effort on Chrono is higher but the damage isn’t low according to some. I still like the play style but probably because I’ve been playing it since day one of its release.Damage is low because before chrono gets his "burst" do damage it is already too late, bosses would phase with another dps. Chrono lacks burst damage, not damage. That is why it is a good dps in raids and bad in fractals. It is not unplayable ofc. But if you play chrono, you should know that you are a weight for your team to carry. Chosing any other class (literally all other classes) are better choices for dps than mesmer :anguished:

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@Armen.1483 said:

@"phokus.8934" said:

Sure no denying that the effort on Chrono is higher but the damage isn’t low according to some. I still like the play style but probably because I’ve been playing it since day one of its release.Damage is low because before chrono gets his "burst" do damage it is already too late, bosses would phase with another dps. Chrono lacks burst damage, not damage. That is why it is a good dps in raids and bad in fractals. It is not unplayable ofc. But if you play chrono, you should know that you are a weight for your team to carry. Chosing any other class (literally all other classes) are better choices for dps than mesmer :anguished:

this, bosses have phases where chronos dps gets wasted, chrono has NOTHING for small pack of mobs, big dps part is packed into F4 that cant really be used against trash mobs, and even skills that are "good" can betray you, if you use GS 4, the BEST mesmer aoe, and the mob you used it on dies first? tough luck, others wont eat the aoe, same with clones, dissapear before you can shatter, CC will stop their attacks too. Many many disadvantages

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@Armen.1483 said:

@"phokus.8934" said:

Sure no denying that the effort on Chrono is higher but the damage isn’t low according to some. I still like the play style but probably because I’ve been playing it since day one of its release.Damage is low because before chrono gets his "burst" do damage it is already too late, bosses would phase with another dps. Chrono lacks burst damage, not damage. That is why it is a good dps in raids and bad in fractals. It is not unplayable ofc. But if you play chrono, you should know that you are a weight for your team to carry. Chosing any other class (literally all other classes) are better choices for dps than mesmer :anguished:Certainly your opinion but you’re not dead weight.

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When we say ‘chrono is bad/weak in fractals’, we say it in the same way that other people like to say ‘condi is bad in fractals’.

If you think condi is fine, then chrono is definitely fine. If not, then chrono shouldn’t be.

It is also addressed as a reminder to the people who are too obsessed with raid benchmarks, where chrono is listed at the top. Raid benchmarks do not translate 100% everywhere, with chrono being one of the most affected. In this case, chrono is definitely not the top in fractals.

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