Alac Chrono is outdated

[Xionor.8963]

I love playing as Power/Boon classes but the alac chrono feels a bit outdated compared to all the other ones because:

- Most of those builds for the other classes have mostly the chest, legs and trinkets with concentration to keep their alac/quick uptime to 100%.

If I want 100% alac for the party I need gear that gives me 100% boon duration. None of the other classes need to invest so heavily into concentration. On the other hand if you want to give perma quickness you don't even need concentration at all? Why is that even the case. Also why do I need to take a specific core traitline to upkeep my alac. That is so odd as no other Dps/Boon build needs core traits to achieve that. You also need to take 2 utilites instead of 1 compared to quickness Chrono so alac Chrono feels really odd and inferior to quickness.

 

So my idea was that the trait Chronophantasma should make it that each time you shatter your clones you give alac to your party in addition to it's original effect. The alactrity and the resummoning of the phantasms were what made me really interested in Chrono back in HoT and I would like that this build could come back now that we have so many other dps/boon builds that exist.

 

It wouldn't shake any of the existing metas up and so it isn't clearly superior to the quickness trait (Seize the moment) you could compensate that by making the alac trait (Chronophantasma) give you 0,5 seconds of alac compared to the 1 second of quickness. So you would need concentration for the upkeep compared to the pure dps gear of the quickness build.

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Xionor.8963

[Mungo Zen.9364]

I am betting that the summer update will find Chrono focus on 5 target Quickness and Mirage as 5 target Alacrity. Virtuoso may end up being some form of 5 target Might/Fury share. 
 

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Chrono was no longer going to be the go to 5 target Alacrity provider for Mesmer.  Which is fine, as I doubt we will see any eSpec be able to put up 100% duration 5 target Quickness and Alacrity at the same time after June. 

[Xionor.8963]

15 minutes ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

I am betting that the summer update will find Chrono focus on 5 target Quickness and Mirage as 5 target Alacrity. Virtuoso may end up being some form of 5 target Might/Fury share. 
 

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Chrono was no longer going to be the go to 5 target Alacrity provider for Mesmer.  Which is fine, as I doubt we will see any eSpec be able to put up 100% duration 5 target Quickness and Alacrity at the same time after June. 

I just hate that you have to give up Chronophantasma if you want to buff the party. That trait is like the only difference between Chrono and Core Mesmer (and Continuum Shift but that one has a lenghty cooldown.)

[Mungo Zen.9364]

12 minutes ago, Xionor.8963 said:

I just hate that you have to give up Chronophantasma if you want to buff the party. That trait is like the only difference between Chrono and Core Mesmer (and Continuum Shift but that one has a lenghty cooldown.)

Chronophantasma is such a boring trait too. But ultimately I think we see support builds (Quickness and Alacrity) having DPS lower than Pure DPS by maybe 15-20% across the board. At least, that seems to be the goal Anet is putting in place for the summer balance patch. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Mungo Zen.9364
Spels r hrd

[Mell.4873]

3 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

I am betting that the summer update will find Chrono focus on 5 target Quickness and Mirage as 5 target Alacrity. Virtuoso may end up being some form of 5 target Might/Fury share. 
 

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Chrono was no longer going to be the go to 5 target Alacrity provider for Mesmer.  Which is fine, as I doubt we will see any eSpec be able to put up 100% duration 5 target Quickness and Alacrity at the same time after June. 

That is the dream, I think Chrono will still have its Wells for some Alacrity and even now Improved Alacrity provides a good trade off for having a some higher than alacrity duration.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Mungo Zen.9364]

7 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

That is the dream, I think Chrono will still have its Wells for some Alacrity and even now Improved Alacrity provides a good trade off for having a some higher than alacrity duration.

I keep wondering where the Chrono trait Improved Alacrity will be used after the summer update. If all groups will have an Alacrity provider, what Chrono build will make use of this trait that it will be a better choice than the other options?  
 

Put another way, I’d expect PChrono and QChrono to not require Imp Alac for any end game content as there will be a base Alac provider grouped with them in most cases.  It would be pretty sad if Quick or Power Chrono would need Imp Alac to do their job. 

[Mell.4873]

Just now, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

I keep wondering where the Chrono trait Improved Alacrity will be used after the summer update. If all groups will have an Alacrity provider, what Chrono build will make use of this trait that it will be a better choice than the other options?  
 

Put another way, I’d expect PChrono and QChrono to not require Imp Alac for any end game content as there will be a base Alac provider grouped with them in most cases.  It would be pretty sad if Quick or Power Chrono would need Imp Alac to do their job. 

I only use it on my Quickness Chrono Support, I have okay DPS for a Support and some burst with phantasms. If needed I run the wells if no one has any Boons.

I use Greatsword for my opening then Scepter + Sword. This means my clone generation is high enough to spam all shatters off cooldown. I think Golem numbers are like 15k (with Wells) which is not great when Mirage is something like 25k.

[Zenith.7301]

The problem is both chrono and mirage have been overnerfed and don't stack up to other quickness and alacrity providers anymore.

 

Staff alac mirage to begin with could not maintain 100% alac solo, which is why you brought 2 staff mirages and it was 10 man application, which was subsequently nerfed.

 

Now you have ritualist staff mirage, but the already nerfed DPS puts it far below the alacrity specter, machinist, or condi ren.

 

Power chrono is 5-6k DPS behind the other quickness suppliers while being a high skill floor and skill ceiling spec.

[Ombras.2853]

1 minute ago, Zenith.7301 said:

 

 

Staff alac mirage to begin with could not maintain 100% alac solo, which is why you brought 2 staff mirages and it was 10 man application, which was subsequently nerfed.

 

 

…which is not true at all.

Eggs Benedict + Toxic Manteinance Oil keeps perma alacrity.

The fact we have a lot of mediocre Mirage player doesn’t mean the build is flawed (it isn’t).

 

I partially agree about Chrono quickness. It’s still a fine build, cuz it brings high cc, Mesmer skips and utilities like Feedback, possibility to go Inspiration for aegis, but dps numbers should be reworked a bit. Quick Harbinger has significantly more dps and still provides some other boons. If we had 2-3k more I would be satisfied.

[Mell.4873]

2 hours ago, Zenith.7301 said:

The problem is both chrono and mirage have been overnerfed and don't stack up to other quickness and alacrity providers anymore.

 

Staff alac mirage to begin with could not maintain 100% alac solo, which is why you brought 2 staff mirages and it was 10 man application, which was subsequently nerfed.

 

Now you have ritualist staff mirage, but the already nerfed DPS puts it far below the alacrity specter, machinist, or condi ren.

 

Power chrono is 5-6k DPS behind the other quickness suppliers while being a high skill floor and skill ceiling spec.

Yeah pretty much but on the bright side you can provide some Alacrity and have okay healing on super long cooldowns(Wells).

[agrippastrilemma.8741]

I wish they would nuke chrono and rework every trait except Time Catches Up, Seize the Moment and maybe Delayed Reactions

Edited April 18, 2022 by agrippastrilemma.8741

[Crossroads.5174]

17 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Chrono was no longer going to be the go to 5 target Alacrity provider for Mesmer.

 

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Anet has absolutely no idea what to do with Chrono.

Just like with Signet of Inspiration. 👀

Sue me. 

[rune.9572]

Everything chrono is outdated. If we wanted to keep the time mage allegory: someone please replace this clock's batteries. XD

I think it's finally time to let HoT specs go, all the signs are showing that anet isn't interested in making them on par with PoF/EoD. Druid and Berserker, the last 2 HoT specs being semi popular due to providing unique buffs, are getting gutted in the June patch. It seems pretty deliberate to maintain <current expansion> being top powercreep.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by rune.9572

[mortrialus.3062]

I mean for class design, you can either go old school where classes do very specific things that you absolutely need which is really restrictive but often extremely flavorful, or casual where it's very easy for any class to adjust itself towards the group's needs.  Honestly I'm surprised its taken Anet so long to brute force the game to the latter camp given their overall philosophy. 

Glad I got to do progression raiding and getting my legendary armor on Chrono back when it was unique as the permanent quickness and alacrity bot.  Just in terms of flavor there's basically never been anything like Chronomancer back when HoT released.  Some people hated chrono jail but personally I loved it. 

On one hand I do get why Anet is going this route but one of the biggest weaknesses of the elite specs from End of Dragons is how they brute forced so many of them into "quickness bot" or "alacrity bot".  Harbinger, Mechanist, Willbender, Catalyst, Specter.  5/9 are just brute forced into quickness / alacrity bot in ways that really do not make sense like Chronomancer did when HoT released. Like maybe it's simpler balance wise for the dev team if everything just just pick a trait and a utility combo and fart out permanent boons.  But I think there's something to be said about how significantly less flavorful the latest generation of elite specs were compared to the last gen. 

Reaper and scourge both super super flavorful and cool elites.  Harbinger... a elixir drinking gunner who has a kungfu shroud that gives quickness?  Catalyst, an aura heavy melee bruiser spec with an engineer gadget for it's unique mechanic that provides permanent quickness for some reason?  This latest gen just doesn't hit the way the last two did. 

Chrono wells in general need a rework.  Like how easy it is for tons of specs to passively throw quickness around like candy, while still Chronomancer needs to drop a well and hope no one moves out of it before it finishes its final tick is just not great or competitive in this environment.  There's also been so much absolute gutting of mesmer as a whole in an attempt to break chrono dominance in Raids like Signet of Inspiration that just still feels especially bad in an era where everything is now outpacing chrono. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by mortrialus.3062

[Nezekan.2671]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:26 AM, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

I am betting that the summer update will find Chrono focus on 5 target Quickness and Mirage as 5 target Alacrity. Virtuoso may end up being some form of 5 target Might/Fury share. 
 

I think that moving Alacrity to Mirage was the signal that Chrono was no longer going to be the go to 5 target Alacrity provider for Mesmer.  Which is fine, as I doubt we will see any eSpec be able to put up 100% duration 5 target Quickness and Alacrity at the same time after June. 

That doesn't feel good at all. Chronomancer brought alacrity into the game, it even has the icon of it. The clock class provides the clock boon. Classes like Mechanist do healing/alacrity, so Chronomancer providing both alacrity and quickness is not overpowered, so long as it also can't heal (which it can't). They need to make the wells pulsing instead of being at the end, and increase duration of it gained from the well. The wells already have a pulsing animation and have 3 pulses.

[Mell.4873]

7 minutes ago, Nezekan.2671 said:

That doesn't feel good at all. Chronomancer brought alacrity into the game, it even has the icon of it. The clock class provides the clock boon. Classes like Mechanist do healing/alacrity, so Chronomancer providing both alacrity and quickness is not overpowered, so long as it also can't heal (which it can't). They need to make the wells pulsing instead of being at the end, and increase duration of it gained from the well. The wells already have a pulsing animation and have 3 pulses.

Yeah I agree, have the boon pulse at the start and heal at the end. I would be happy with that. 

[Lethion.8745]

Or make it so that Lost Time gives group Alac. You know, the trait that absouletly no one ever uses. 

[anbujackson.9564]

On 4/17/2022 at 9:34 PM, Xionor.8963 said:

I love playing as Power/Boon classes but the alac chrono feels a bit outdated compared to all the other ones because:

- Most of those builds for the other classes have mostly the chest, legs and trinkets with concentration to keep their alac/quick uptime to 100%.

If I want 100% alac for the party I need gear that gives me 100% boon duration. None of the other classes need to invest so heavily into concentration. On the other hand if you want to give perma quickness you don't even need concentration at all? Why is that even the case. Also why do I need to take a specific core traitline to upkeep my alac. That is so odd as no other Dps/Boon build needs core traits to achieve that. You also need to take 2 utilites instead of 1 compared to quickness Chrono so alac Chrono feels really odd and inferior to quickness.

 

So my idea was that the trait Chronophantasma should make it that each time you shatter your clones you give alac to your party in addition to it's original effect. The alactrity and the resummoning of the phantasms were what made me really interested in Chrono back in HoT and I would like that this build could come back now that we have so many other dps/boon builds that exist.

 

It wouldn't shake any of the existing metas up and so it isn't clearly superior to the quickness trait (Seize the moment) you could compensate that by making the alac trait (Chronophantasma) give you 0,5 seconds of alac compared to the 1 second of quickness. So you would need concentration for the upkeep compared to the pure dps gear of the quickness build.

 

The whole hybrid dps stuff being the norm nowadays just feels bad to me. No offense, but saying that its odd that you need 100% boon duration to upkreep a...boon just sort of shows how screwed the balance in this game is.

The rework of seize the moment to apply high amounts of quickness was a massive failure. You could blame firebrand for that.

Support Q+A chrono is actually the only spec that requires somewhat a rotation to upkeep your two boons (it was arguably harder and more fun back in the days, remember that weapon swap concentration sigill?). It was almost never played anymore, even before EoD release since the hybrid dps classes (fb, ren,...) did so much dps while upkeeping their boons with no effort that no one bothered to use them anymore.

With EoD release, signet got pretty much kittened if not traited. I mean for real, single target three seconds??

One of the most important aspects of running two support chronos was that you can help your fellow chrono in the other sub group or carry bad supports with a lot of boon extention (fury, might, protection and so on). The cost was doing little damage.

Now running two support chronos is actually worthless. Only shield five ignores your 5 target cap, SoI is 5men only, timewarp is worth less than well of action even though its an elite skill. Without the coverage of your second chrono, it hurts really hard if your team is not standing in your wells, you cant carry mechanics as easily and so on. 

The wells are outddated and cant even compete with the other boon applications, which also require less gear investment. 

Two support chronos (old chaos even after distortion nerfs) were more balanced than the sorry state we have now. Change my mind.

Edited May 3, 2022 by anbujackson.9564

[Puck.3697]

On 4/18/2022 at 4:12 PM, rune.9572 said:

It seems pretty deliberate to maintain <current expansion> being top powercreep.

Tbh I disagree. 

These specs were originally launching as a downgrade to pof and hot specs.

The issue came when people were actively refusing to buy the expansion due to it. 

So we saw then get buffed immensely in some cases and now it's a power creep (granted not near as much as PoF was however)

EoDs power creep is to appease the player base because of how badly the players reacted to them not being. And likely they didn't have enough time to rebalance everything immediately so quickly buffed them up. 

I'm expecting the June patch to be a nerf to most things though tbh. 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Daddy.8125

[Nephalem.8921]

On 4/18/2022 at 2:01 AM, Zenith.7301 said:

The problem is both chrono and mirage have been overnerfed and don't stack up to other quickness and alacrity providers anymore.

 

Staff alac mirage to begin with could not maintain 100% alac solo, which is why you brought 2 staff mirages and it was 10 man application, which was subsequently nerfed.

 

Now you have ritualist staff mirage, but the already nerfed DPS puts it far below the alacrity specter, machinist, or condi ren.

 

Power chrono is 5-6k DPS behind the other quickness suppliers while being a high skill floor and skill ceiling spec.

I might be a little late to this but i hope you are joking.

Mirage is one of the most broken alac builds currently. As long as you arent fighting bosses like ca or kc stax is basically a dps with alac and 25 might for the group. Its also very strong on all strikes except aetherblade. alac specter only works with a might source. same for ren.

chrono needs small buffs for sure but mirage is underrated and underplayed.

[Zenith.7301]

On 5/3/2022 at 10:46 PM, Nephalem.8921 said:

I might be a little late to this but i hope you are joking.

Mirage is one of the most broken alac builds currently. As long as you arent fighting bosses like ca or kc stax is basically a dps with alac and 25 might for the group. Its also very strong on all strikes except aetherblade. alac specter only works with a might source. same for ren.

chrono needs small buffs for sure but mirage is underrated and underplayed.

 

 

lol

 

"alac specter only works with a might source" is such a pointless statement, every single meta support build is a might supplier.

 

And stax isn't even good on most strikes. It's garbage in Harvest Temple, it's basically a raid single target boss build only. Any encounter with adds immediately tanks its performance. Every encounter with phase shifts also tanks its performance and alacrity provision.

 

Why even argue other specs are reliant on a boon when stax relies on regen and vigor supply just as well. Not to mention the humongous ramp up and the immense opportunity cost to its performance if you choose to contribute your mediocre amount of cc from chaos storm+heal chaos storm+diversion+stun signet. If you bring moa that's another hit to performance on top of a 120 sec cd cooldown for what is basically a Willbender elite on double the cd and none of the aoe cleave.

And let's not even mention its performance in Dragon's End or any kind of open world where you organize alacrity providers. It's an absolute niche spec and chronomancer had to die for that pointless gimmick.

It says something when the meta quickness chrono build doesn't even use the kitten shield anymore because they took a sledgehammer to the phantasm skill and made it absolutely worthless as a result. It only gets used in a few fights where you choose to tank over a tank HB for some reason if you just want to do more work for the same or inferior results.

The previous support chronomancer was a much more complete and engaging support build and what we have now is a power quickness chrono that's miles behind the alternatives for a ton more effort and now an alacrity provision gameplay experience of pressing dodge every two autos in between your cry of frustration jaunt loop. Much wow, totally worth losing old chrono for that.

Then they go and make virtuoso have a condition spec for some reason that completely eclipses condi axe mirage, with full range flexibility, less ramp up, no reliance on boss swing attack timers, and superior target switching and cleave since it doesn't rely on ramping clones on a targe and condi virtuoso vomits blade generation compared to mirage clone generation (and axe 2 is a dps loss still). The supposed power dedicated virtuoso spec ends up worse than its condition variant with lesser blade generation, lesser sustain, more range restriction, and reliance on finishing auto chains or lose out significantly on dps from missed the 3rd sword AA.

Anet's design approach to this all has been garbage. Power vindicator, a spec with a single dodge, barely any CC, doing power reaper levels of bad DPS restricted purely to melee range while specter, condi virtuoso, condi mechanist, condi willbender and condi harbinger are doing what they are. Won't even mention how Untamed has been unusable in PvE since FEBRUARY. They've sat for 4 months doing nothing to bring the spec into use in PvE.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Zenith.7301

[Nephalem.8921]

2 hours ago, Zenith.7301 said:

 

 

lol

 

"alac specter only works with a might source" is such a pointless statement, every single meta support build is a might supplier.

 

And stax isn't even good on most strikes. It's garbage in Harvest Temple, it's basically a raid single target boss build only. Any encounter with adds immediately tanks its performance. Every encounter with phase shifts also tanks its performance and alacrity provision.

 

Why even argue other specs are reliant on a boon when stax relies on regen and vigor supply just as well. Not to mention the humongous ramp up and the immense opportunity cost to its performance if you choose to contribute your mediocre amount of cc from chaos storm+heal chaos storm+diversion+stun signet. If you bring moa that's another hit to performance on top of a 120 sec cd cooldown for what is basically a Willbender elite on double the cd and none of the aoe cleave.

And let's not even mention its performance in Dragon's End or any kind of open world where you organize alacrity providers. It's an absolute niche spec and chronomancer had to die for that pointless gimmick.

It says something when the meta quickness chrono build doesn't even use the kitten shield anymore because they took a sledgehammer to the phantasm skill and made it absolutely worthless as a result. It only gets used in a few fights where you choose to tank over a tank HB for some reason if you just want to do more work for the same or inferior results.

The previous support chronomancer was a much more complete and engaging support build and what we have now is a power quickness chrono that's miles behind the alternatives for a ton more effort and now an alacrity provision gameplay experience of pressing dodge every two autos in between your cry of frustration jaunt loop. Much wow, totally worth losing old chrono for that.

Then they go and make virtuoso have a condition spec for some reason that completely eclipses condi axe mirage, with full range flexibility, less ramp up, no reliance on boss swing attack timers, and superior target switching and cleave since it doesn't rely on ramping clones on a targe and condi virtuoso vomits blade generation compared to mirage clone generation (and axe 2 is a dps loss still). The supposed power dedicated virtuoso spec ends up worse than its condition variant with lesser blade generation, lesser sustain, more range restriction, and reliance on finishing auto chains or lose out significantly on dps from missed the 3rd sword AA.

Anet's design approach to this all has been garbage. Power vindicator, a spec with a single dodge, barely any CC, doing power reaper levels of bad DPS restricted purely to melee range while specter, condi virtuoso, condi mechanist, condi willbender and condi harbinger are doing what they are. Won't even mention how Untamed has been unusable in PvE since FEBRUARY. They've sat for 4 months doing nothing to bring the spec into use in PvE.

Stax can self apply vigor and regen so it doesnt rely on other builds. Renewing oasis is a very minor dps loss over crystal sands and guarantees perma regen. The sc2 bench person himself wrote that he uses that trait in most situations over riddle.

Lets go back to the might issue: Im not sure if you have played since the 10 target cap patch but might is a very big issue in better groups. Meta HEALERS give might but you have only one per group usually. So how do you get might in the other sub?

The situation is so bad that you sometimes play tempest or ps warr again. Alac mech and mirage are the only alac builds that can solo 25 stacks. Technically ren could aswell with f2 but thats also lowering dps.

Funny that you mention DE meta. its actually quite insane on it. confusion is also completely destroying the minibosses. you can get 70k dps on those. 

CVirtuoso does not eclipse axe mirage. that depends on boss. On SH and largos mirage is still leagues ahead. axe 2 is not a dps loss if you exploit whirl finishers. big dps gain with smoke fields. axe mirage is a torment spec. it can do 40k dps without confu proccs. those are just a bonus.

[draxynnic.3719]

On 4/21/2022 at 9:44 AM, Nezekan.2671 said:

That doesn't feel good at all. Chronomancer brought alacrity into the game, it even has the icon of it. The clock class provides the clock boon. Classes like Mechanist do healing/alacrity, so Chronomancer providing both alacrity and quickness is not overpowered, so long as it also can't heal (which it can't). They need to make the wells pulsing instead of being at the end, and increase duration of it gained from the well. The wells already have a pulsing animation and have 3 pulses.

Yeah, in the current balance context, I don't think chrono giving out quickness and alacrity again would really be that unbalancing, as long as it didn't really do anything else. We have quickness/heal, quickness/DPS*, alacrity/heal, and alacrity/DPS*, so why not quickness/alacrity if it has low damage and little healing? Maybe it'd open up space to pair it with heal/DPS* builds that use healing and offensive stats, but don't need concentration.

 

*Albeit less than pure DPS.

[Zenith.7301]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:51 PM, Nephalem.8921 said:

Stax can self apply vigor and regen so it doesnt rely on other builds. Renewing oasis is a very minor dps loss over crystal sands and guarantees perma regen. The sc2 bench person himself wrote that he uses that trait in most situations over riddle.

Lets go back to the might issue: Im not sure if you have played since the 10 target cap patch but might is a very big issue in better groups. Meta HEALERS give might but you have only one per group usually. So how do you get might in the other sub?

The situation is so bad that you sometimes play tempest or ps warr again. Alac mech and mirage are the only alac builds that can solo 25 stacks. Technically ren could aswell with f2 but thats also lowering dps.

Funny that you mention DE meta. its actually quite insane on it. confusion is also completely destroying the minibosses. you can get 70k dps on those. 

CVirtuoso does not eclipse axe mirage. that depends on boss. On SH and largos mirage is still leagues ahead. axe 2 is not a dps loss if you exploit whirl finishers. big dps gain with smoke fields. axe mirage is a torment spec. it can do 40k dps without confu proccs. those are just a bonus.

 

99% of raid groups will run 2 healers, because consistency and a small safety net is valued over some tiny gain in clear time that is quickly lost if you experience downs or even a wipe as a result of being short on heals. The vast majority of raid groups, including the experienced groups, will clear with 2 healers. Most groups are neither Discretize or SC or CnD.

 

You picked out two niche bosses where confusion shines to prop up mirage. By that account you could make the argument condi is not strong compared to power by handpicking SC or Amalgamate to prop up power, but anyone with a clue will be able to tell that's not a realistic representation of most encounters in the game.

 

The only way to discern between cvirtuosos and cmirage is simply by looking at an encounter where the meta was previously mirage and is now cvirtuoso. Like 100CM, since it's not a fight that is skewed by confusion, unlike SH, Largos, or Cairn.

[Nephalem.8921]

3 hours ago, Zenith.7301 said:

 

99% of raid groups will run 2 healers, because consistency and a small safety net is valued over some tiny gain in clear time that is quickly lost if you experience downs or even a wipe as a result of being short on heals. The vast majority of raid groups, including the experienced groups, will clear with 2 healers. Most groups are neither Discretize or SC or CnD.

 

You picked out two niche bosses where confusion shines to prop up mirage. By that account you could make the argument condi is not strong compared to power by handpicking SC or Amalgamate to prop up power, but anyone with a clue will be able to tell that's not a realistic representation of most encounters in the game.

 

The only way to discern between cvirtuosos and cmirage is simply by looking at an encounter where the meta was previously mirage and is now cvirtuoso. Like 100CM, since it's not a fight that is skewed by confusion, unlike SH, Largos, or Cairn.

Stax does comparable dmg to pure dps cvirtuoso in 100cm.

https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/log/20220402-113359_drkai_kill

Top dps cvirtuoso: https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/log/20220413-185655_drkai_kill. also had pinpoint and a way faster kill. Thats a support vs dps build btw. this playerbase always chooses braindead over harder rotations. thats why scourge is played more than harb in fractals.

https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/log/6ejP-20220505-213501_ai this is pure dps mirage btw.

Or elemental: https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/log/xqAs-20220427-214152_ai which has sunspirit and vulture stance vs https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/log/20220511-011215_elai_kill no sun. 

Mirage is underrated. especially stax. Its also very strong on the new strike cm. The best alac by far unless you go for double alac healer. cvirtuoso deserves a nerf but mirage is by no means bad. and how many people even know stax?

Mirage was once the most broken CA build. they had to disable confusion there. they dont do this in open world. mirage destroys some bounties or the DE meta minibosses.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Nephalem.8921