omono.2035

Improved Alacrity is BiS for Heal Chrono, but Heal Chrono is kinda bad...

For Mesmer, they put the bonus crit chance on Virtuoso only? So now Chrono just looses 5% crit in groups when its already lower dps than Virtuoso with much more conditional damage? Not sure why Chronophantasma exists if it's not going to be supported. If it's not going to have a full DPS option at least give it regen so it can be a healer. It would make sense for a class about altering time to have a boon that heals over time, and then it could use the Chaos line more effectively too. Chronomancer has 15% crit on slowed enemies, which I guess matches the 15% bonus crit when Virtuoso has Fury, which is nice because you can use the same gear on both builds? But its unfair because Slow is a much harder condition to meet and Virtuoso has more additional damage modifiers, so DPS Chrono needs another buff if it is going to exist in a more meaningful way than core Mesmer. The Well changes are great though, aside from losing some of the flavor of taking time from enemies to give it to your allies kinda equivalent exchange that was going on being missing a bit now. Being incentivized to use Shield is cool though. If the Jade Mech gets unbreakable Defiance in PvE, can Continuum rift also be unbreakable there?

The Illusions trait Master of Fragmentation reads that it increases the block duration of Bladeturn Requiem from 3 seconds to 4. In reality doesn't effect the block duration at all. The tooltip is also incorrect in the first place, as it blocks for less than 3 seconds. The Illusions trait Maim the Disillusioned does not apply torment when a Bladesong is reflected. It's probably better this way, but it's a bug none the less.

I believe this is a bug because Compounding Power in Illusions does work correctly when stocking blades. I'm pretty sure it's the only trait that works properly with on clone summon traits right now.

The reason that only Ether Clone stops stocking blades is because the ability is set up to have a different effect when there are already 3 clones. It becomes a different skill entirely which applies a long duration of torment instead of not attacking at all and creating a clone. It's technically not a bug but it would make more sense to change the clone cap to 5 when on Virtuoso.

I also want to point out that Heal Scrappers currently do, also, have a powerful but small niche in pve. It's a little bit like boon thief, where it's only strong in very specific encounters. While in any encounter with enough chill/slowness, they can provide both permanent alacrity and quickness to a group. One place this works especially well is during the Deathbranded Shatterer fight, where the boss consistently pulses out slow, chill, and torment, converting into full alacrity, quickness, and might application. If more encounters like this are added to the game in non-openworld fights, this niche could give it more space to prosper. Having built-in quickness added to it's kit in the patch will help fill in any potential downtime, with bosses being stunned etc. To make Scrapper feel more different to Healbrand, increased quickness/alacrity/protection duration (in pve only, I know it's already too strong in wvw) could make it even stronger in the right encounters. I know most people would hate this, but I would've loved to see a strike during the Icebrood Saga which had permeant pulsing chills applied to everyone for a significant segment; it would spice up rotations and builds a lot.

I know underwater combat isn't a major priority, but it continues to concern me seeing build for classes which open up certain roles, without functioning at all underwater. Seeing mirage staff ambush now grant alacrity is amazing, but it seems like trident should also do the same, as staff traits already affect trident, and it has similar boon application with its attack chain. If we see concentration builds on Mirage, it would be a shame for one of our major stat investments (concentration) become nearly useless the second out feet touch the water. We already have an issue with many support builds not functioning underwater due to missing weapons or utilities (no ranger healing weapon, ele water skills don't heal underwater, etc.), and I'd rather not see another role be unavailable in this content, forcing someone else in the player's party to take the role of applying alacrity, or necessitating them swapping toons. In the case of the mirage, this could be resolved by applying a similar change to trident ambush as staff ambush is getting.