Mell.4873

I only used the storm Spirit, and I'm sure they will buff the spirits boon duration. 100% boon duration plus traited spirits should provide you with full party uptime which currently they don't. Honestly it seems bugged since they Slam the ground but don't shake again.

I mean that is not entirely correct. All the EoD specs suffering from essentially Crunch. They didn't have long to come up with a new theme and mechanic for each Elite so instead they provided every Class with a simplified core version. Virtuoso is essentially a Ranged Spellcaster with a somewhat unique spin. It's the only Elite in the game where its core mechanic and damage boost come from piercing enemies. Rather than using a cooldown reset (Continuum Split) like Chronomancier or Dodging (Ambushes) like Mirage. It really easy to overlook but during Strikes/Raids this really comes becomes apparent, with the ability to essentially inflict the same DPS on two or more enemies via piercing attacks. Finally, the damage immunity made some encounter much easier since Virtuoso could take some agro from certain PvE boss mechanics.

I wouldn't even say the Devs need to be called out. I have many times posted in the Mesmer forum about the posts that vilified the Damage immunity. The PvP forum was filled with people who wanted Virtuoso straight up removed since they didn't know what animations to watch for and bursted into a Wall.

Yeah pretty much, I means sometimes people bring Raid/WvW builds into Fractals. That never goes over well, seen some pretty nonsense stuff. It is extremely easy to over-cap boons with the Grandmaster you have selected. Shatters also provide you with your own Alacrity regardless of the selected Trait. Im all for them adding boons back to Wells for PvE only since it won't mean much. DPS Chronomancer will still be hard to play regardless of how much pre-casting it has.

You kind of answered your own question, “And you are not supposed to get hit in the first place". Most players get hit, even if Mesmer has okay health it has the lowest armor in the game so it's far more likely to get one shot much like Elementalist. Im not really saying it can't be played either, it's just extremely Rare for anyone to attempt it in T4. Even me a Mesmer main doesn't bring a Chronomancer to CMs. I just use Staff Mirage support. But with the recent changes, I might finally be able to bring it to CM. It got a bit of a Damage buff and with some previous shield changes so it's a little more viable.

You will have more blades than F1 and F2 shatters even if you trait an extra charge on F1.

Again who was ever pre-buffing with Chronomancer, I have played since launch and I have never seen it except for then they provided both boons. I will say they should change the current quick/alac Grandmasters so they include Wells since it so niche. Just don't allow it in PvP, if their concern is WvW permanent Boons.

I do play in NA and I do use Chronomancer in fractals but finding a someone who can play them well is to few and far between. I have had to often kick Chronomancers for either have low DPS or not having full boon coverage. Druid was in the same boat before this update, now it's a really good DPS but it needs an Alacrity duration buff. Honestly fractals for the wider Pug and even organise population is such and inconsistencies mess. You either do amazing with your Group or you default carry and remove players when you spend way to long on a fight (1h to 30min for a boss fight normally results in me kicking a lowest dps player, or leaving myself).

Well I think you are the exception, most pug CM runs just want you survive. Even normal T4s it's not very advisable to use anything close to squishy Elites like Chronomancer. I mean even Druid prior to this patch was not a good idea since the healing builds available where so inconsistent on preformance. Basicly acceptable classes for T4/CM are as follows. DPS: Power Warriors or Condi Berserker, Power Herald/Vindicator, Power Dragon Hunter/Willbender or Condi Firebrand, Any Necromancer, Condi Mirage/Virtuoso or Power Virtuoso, Power Catalyst, Power/Condi Mechanist or Holosmith, Power Soulbeast Quickness Support: Firebrand, Scrapper, Herald, Harbinger Alacrity Support: Staff Mirage, Revenant, Mechanist Healing Supports + one boon: Firebrand, Scrapper, Mechanist

They should just include Wells in both Grandmaster traits. Wells, Shatters, Phantasms all produce either Quickness or Alacrity depending on the trait.

Unless you want to complete them based on some sort of time trial (I remember there was a website you could post times to, and it was not Wingman). I have never had anyone precast Alacrity in CM fractals, generally you would never run Chronomancer since it is to squishy. Given pre-casting with Firebrand is fine but that's because it provides more than just quickness and it actually helped them, since It is hard to maintain Quickness stacks due to there small AoE.

Yeah it definitely is a work in progress, but it should be okay by next patch.

We probably do need some number adjustments here and there but right now make no mistake it's alot better and easier to play. No longer do you need essentially two build slots dedicated to Alacrity or Quickness support. The build you can currently play is very similar if not identical to Power DPS Chronomancer minus maybe a few things. Even if you can can't provide Alacrity out of combat, it was in such a messy state with its last effecting being after the Well finished. This made it impossible to gets it's full effect as a support.

When do you ever need Alacrity when not fighting a target in Fractals. Given if you said WvW I would agree but fractals, Wells we're a nightmare to aim at the best of time and impossible to heal with. Right now the best combo is to stack Phantasms Skills and use Illusionary Inspiration. You can also flip between Quickness and Alacrity which before you could not do.

Exactly I would even let off-hand Sword slide for not being a blade since you never really switch it, just block and summon a phantasm. Just let main-hand sword count.

They were worried about making OP so this time around they made it super weak and then buff it. Rather than pulling an Engineer Rifle on us and making it to strong that they needed to nerf it. Kinda sucks though if you actually were using it though. They should have beta tested it first but hey, so much is on the way.

Yeah can't wait for that. It's not to tricky but you can get lost in what state you are in the heat of the moment. After next pack you will only need to change Unleashed state at most once to get you ambush back after weapon swapping not like now where its 1-2 times.

I will agree but it's mostly becouse Ranger is missing mechanics and flexibility of the other Elites. Its not bad and can be played really well but to be a good DPS/Support providing the team with more buffs or utility seems to win out. It's funny since other Elites like Thief or Warrior are even worse in terms of providing something unique to the team so it's not like we are the worst but still. Take Mesmer's Virtuoso for example, my main for end game PvE. It's very easy to slot in Inspiration and feedback to provide party wide resurrections. This helps way more than similar dps numbers on Ranger.

I will agree it suffered from crunch and it didn't arrive with the ambushes just the flip mechanic on Hammer but. I love Untamed it's a silk my most played Elite outside Mesmer. I really loathe the Soulbeast playstyle, if you really want clunky then trying merging and unmerging all the time in PvP. Now I can unleash my pet, teleport them, unleash myself and start my massive combo chain. In terms oh hammer, it fine especially if you select the skills you want. The main complaint was you had to flip to get access to the other set of skills, now that is no longer the case. You can run let's say normal 3, 5 and then the unleshed 2, 4 for either lots of stability stacks or lots of quickness. Looks like a well thought out weapon to me

I think there plan is to let you ambush while unleashed off-cooldown but might only be for weapons swaps

@Beddo.1907 @zaswer.5246 I can see your points but honestly Ranger is pretty easy to play compared to some of the other Elites so having Untamed be a little more difficult for better sustain is much better. In terms of Raw damage Soulbeast will always be better but that requires the perfect set-up. A pro Untamed player can easily match them. The only real difficulty is committing the muscle memory of unleashing and ambushing. Everything else is the same as core Ranger.

Well in that case you would play it much the same as when you had FF, engage with a stun the switch for a big hit on a CC'd player. Now you can even slot everything in with the Unleashed form so more DPS.

So this would now include both main-hand Sword and Axe. This would open up another Condition and Power optional for Virtuoso. Currently daggers benchmark is very high so these extra options won't really make much of a difference. At the very least Sword/Axe would give back some of the invulnerability removed from Bladeturn Requiem.

As I predicted once the dust has settle the devs due to all the weapon combo's they introduced have overly nerfed the new playstyles or boon supports. Once they touch up on the numbers it does seem like this balance is really focused on the more casual/new players. In particular the Scourge with its shorter duration on Shades definitely lends itself to a more casual player since this was the main problem I heard about in Discord discussions. I guess it's more forgiving around placement but does need some number adjustments. Untamed Fervent Force removal also helps newer players get into the class without it being overly focused on spamming stuff along with the ability to select the Hammer skills (even on Untamed).

I was not very hopeful about them removing Fervent Force especially for PVP since it was my go to Dueling Build trait. BUT this Trait Let Loose doesn't really remove the spammy gameplay of FF rather replacing it with something that allows you to start some crazy combo's, even for PvE. Running Two Axes with lots of CC still trivialises most PvE encounters. Now on top of the stability I'm able to stack I can now life steal an absurd amount. Duel Longbow in WvW with either Let Loose or Restorataitive Strikes can give you a crazy amount of healing during a Zerg Clash. Finally the Hammer Changes bring some much needed AoE and CC to most encounters in the game which was lacking on Ranger before.