Mixed feeling on this patch. Some of the relic changes are really nice. I like we're nerfing instead of straight buffing everyone up to the top level currently seen. I dislike some of the nerf decisions' impacts on other builds. For context I'm a PvE main (mesmer - heal and boon chronos, chaos cvirt, pvirt and hqh) who mostly does raids/strikes/fractals (training, normal clears and CM clears).
Playing hchrono in fractals has made me try to find ways to fit resistance into my build without sacrificing too much utility (taking glamours - could the uptime of resistance on glamours be increased as it's basically only feedback you can fit into your skill bar?) or healing (taking the GM trait with resistance on distort instead of the heal/cleanse on shatter trait) to try and keep up with people's expectations from the firebrand meta. The new resistance relic will really help with that as hchrono tends to run heal mantra anyway. If Flock relic turns all excess healing, not just that from the relic, into barrier then I think it might be a little overpowered on certain specs depending on the level of barrier it gets turned into.
I don't suppose standardising the range of a relic's effect would be a thing on the list anywhere? Knowing my boons are 360 but my relic is 300 (also why is chrono aegis on distort 300 not 360?) means I have to keep track of several different ranges at once. But then some relics are 360. The 600 range for mesmer f2 chaos aura regen is weird but nice and I don't have to worry about that.
I'm not a fan of the nerf to the heal herald might ramp up (which is slow compared to a lot of other healers). Yes herald will still have great boons, but if its alacrity support doesn't do much might, it will take much longer now to get to 25 stacks.
My main concern is the chaos nerfs. I've played chaos virtuoso since nearly EoD release. I won't lie, it has been my favourite build in the game for a long time because I can do a lot with it (comes from being a mesmer main for 80% of my over 10k hours playtime). It doesn't do as much damage as dueling condition virtuoso, but has more utility (some small boons, access to aegis, some other niche use cases) and is more low intensity/safer for those who need something that can do ok dps in instanced endgame PvE content. It's being hit harshly by these "mirage nerfs" and will no longer be anywhere near close to its dueling counterpart (needing a gear change and also having a nerf to its damage traits), which is compounding the "needs other people to help with chaos aura to do its best damage" thing from the last patch.
The mesmer mantra change is nice. I really like the mantra of pain change and restorative mantras change, which has been needed since mantras got "reverted" to their worse state of having to charge them. I'm concerned about the change to mantra of distraction and it no longer ccing if you accidentally untarget before you press it but wasting the charge. Or is it now going to be an aoe around you for ccing? With Mantra of Resolve being changed to 360, is the trait (Mender's Purity) also going to be changed to 360 to bring Lesser Power Cleanse in line with its skill counterpart? Power Cleanse is already 360.
Might as well also mention that the balance design where some classes can do "roaming boons" like herald, firebrand and renegade and don't need a target, compared to some like berserker and chrono who need a target to do their boons (by boons I mean quickness and alacrity) along with the various ranges makes some of them not so appealing in the vast majority of groups. Any group can take a herald (as long as they have a heal alac), but you have to build around taking a berserker or a catalyst say and they aren't great if the fight moves or there is a long "waiting" phase.
Any chance we can have more Slow sources in the game so I can take Danger Time again instead of Improved Alacrity constantly? All PvE chronos are basically stuck with IA right now as even trying super hard to do slow themselves, they won't do a decent amount of it 😞