The State of Chrono

[Shenkopp.6317]

I'm just trying to figure out what Chrono's role is supposed to be. It's been infamously bad for years now. It doesn't give fury, might, really any boons, healing on it has been extremely sub par, no regen, it's alac was bad, it's quickness was decent with enough utilities, and it's damage is okay.

In WvW, it's been a strip/utility bot for a long time now because of this. I was really hoping these changes were going to give it a better spot, or at least give some options? But it seems like they only made it worse in WvW "in exchange" for some power in useless stuff. Anet has done this a lot. Pulling power from weaker classes in exchange for stuff that is not used anyway. Chrono certainly didn't need any nerfs at all, and these shield nerfs hurt the class a lot in WvW (from a fun perspective too).

The alac changes make sense, I think it's a good direction, except it requires people to take wells in the first place. In WvW none of the wells are useful, they don't do damage, have effects tied to the end of the well, and heal basically nothing (also on end). On top of that, you have to drop slots for other powerful mesmer utils. Alac builds in WvW are getting weaker and weaker which doesn't make sense. I thought they would give some more options for Chrono but that's not the case. If you want to give quickness on the other hand, you don't need any wells! That's so inconsistent. Your whole grand master trait has no synergy with any of the spec utilities. Now in WvW, your quickness build just got a shield nerf, and lost quickness and alac. It now gives swiftness... That boon is hard to come across. How useless is the well that strips 2 boons on last pulse. Standing still for 3 seconds in a well in WvW is grief and doesn't happen, so you wont use it. Not to mention null field is strictly better? If you cast it on an ally or on an enemy your splitting the value of the already weak ability. Superspeed on one ability after 3 seconds is super useful too lmao....

In PvE it's not even better. Chrono is really only played as quickness and tank. You can barely heal with it anymore, and even if you do make a heal alac chrono build, compare it to other healers and it's useless. You again, drop utils that are core reasons to play the class in the first place, provide worse healing than mech, and wayyyy less boon uptime. Why play chrono at that point? The quickness build is relatively unchanged, except a huge consistency part of the build was running the quickness well. Now that well gives super speed? A random and nearly useless buff in PvE. And the alac well, which would give a lot of build diversity, now strips boons. A useless well now, no damage, no boons, no strips in WvW because they can walk out and in pve your sword autos strip any meaningful enemy boons. There are quickness chrono builds with boon duration that use mirror images instead of the well, but now they just got a strict nerf as build diversity tightened up. Because quickness chrono was really strong, for sure.

I really hope there are a ton more changes in this patch, because this is nowhere near where chrono should be. Why don't they play to it's theme. Super speed, quickness, alac giving boon class. It can have a heal theme I guess, but no other class can give quickness and alac, and it certainly cant heal without regen or other boons. Or give it more super speed or something. These were fun things that made the class interesting, it's theme is stripped so bare now.

Also, why nerf fractal pot. I don't need vitality in that easy gamemode. And the top tier fractal players who this changes matter to, dont need build restrictions in an easy gamemode. Let them greed more precision, these chnages are not making these easy encounters harder thats for sure. Just limits build comp.

Note: all these comments are made prior to seeing the final notes. So lets keep this discussion about before then. But that's some copium if the final notes are big enough to fix chronos whole identity.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Shenkopp.6317
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[Blumpf.2518]

If i was Anet i would make Chrono like this:

 

Shield Skills:

Shield 4: Its good as it is now. No changes.

Shield 5: When cast buffs 1 Second of Alacrity and Quickness in a 360 Radius. When the Wave returns to the Chrono, buffs 1 Second of Alacrity and Quickness again. Enemies hit by the wave are Crippled, Chilled and Slowed for 2 seconds.

 

Well Skills: (Damage listet here= Damage without any items equipped)

- Well of Eternity: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse heals 1500 and removes 1 Condition. Combo Field: Water, Cooldown 25 Seconds. 5 Friendly Targets

- Well of Calamity: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse does 299 Damage, 1st Pulse: Cripple 1 Second, 2nd Pulse: Cold 1 Second, 3rd Pulse Slow 1 Second, 4th Pulse: Immobilize 1 Second, Every Pulse removes an enemy Boon. Cooldown 20 Seconds, Combo Field Ice, 5 enemy Targets.

- Well of Precognition: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse gives Aegis 1 Second and Stability 1 Second and breaks Stun, and gives 10 Endurance. Combo Field Ethereal. Cooldown 30 Seconds. 5 friendly Targets.

- Well of Recall: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse does 149 Damage, 1st Pulse: Cripple 1 Second, 2nd Pulse cold 1 Second, 3rd Pulse slow 1 Second, 4th pulse Cripple+cold+slow 1 second. Every pulse gives 1 Second Alacrity to 5 friendly targets. Combo Field Etheral, Cooldown 25 Seconds. 5 enemy Targets and 5 friendly Targets

- Well of Action: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse does 149 Damage, Every Pulse gives 1 Second Quickness, 2 Seconds Superspeed and 4 Seconds Swiftness. 1st Pulse: 5xVulnerability 5 Seconds, 2nd Pulse, Weakness 1 Second, 3rd Pulse Blindness 1 Second, 4th Pulse 5x Vulnerability 5 Seconds + Blindness 1 Second + Weakness 1 Second. Combo Field Ethereal, Cooldown 25 Seconds. 5 enemy targets and 5 friendly targets.

- Gravity Well: Pulses 4x, Duration 4 Seconds, Every Pulse does 399 Damage, 1st Pulse: Pull+Cripple 1 Second, 2nd Pulse: Float+Cold 1 Second, 3rd Pulse: Knockdown+Slow 1 Second, 4th Pulse: Knockback+Daze 1 Second.

 

Traits:

 

1st Minor Trait:

Gain Access to Shield + Wells + Continuum Split

 

First 3 Traits to chose from.

1. Disabling a Foe applies 1 Second of Slow, Cold and Cripple

2. Shattering gives your Illusions Swiftness, Superspeed and Quickness. Shatters deal 10% more Damage and have 10% more Critchance vs movement impaired enemies.

3. Wells heal for 299 per Pulse

 

2nd Minor Trait:

You gain 1 Second Alacrity and 1 Second Quickness for each Clone you shatter

 

Next 3 Traits to chose from:

- Whenever a Well Pulses it buffs Quickness to 5 targets for 1/2 Second. Increased +10% Critchance and +10% Damage vs Enemies that stand in a well.

- Whenever a Well Pulses it buffs Alacrity to 5 targets for 1/2 Second. Shattering a Clone reduces the Cooldown of F1-F2-F3-F4 by 1/2 Second.

- Alacrity applied to you is stronger, but has shorter Duration. 50% Cooldown Reduce instead of 25%, but Duration Decreased by 33%

 

3rd Minor Trait:

Movement Speed +25%, Incoming Condition Duration of Cripple, Slow, Chill and Immobilize reduced by 25%.

 

Last 3 Traits to chose from:

- Shattering a Clone Applies 1 Second of 5xVulnerability, Weakness and Blindness to Enemies and 1/2 Second Swiftness, Superspeed and Quickness to friends.

- Shattering a Clone Applies 1 Second of Slow, Cold and Cripple to enemies and 1/2 Second Regeneration, Protection and Alacrity to friends.

- Whenever a Phantasm would become a Clone for the 1st Time, it resummones itself again and attacks again, but deals only 50% damage. When it becomes a Clone, the cooldown of all skills is reduced by 1 Second.