The Absolute State of Boon Support Chrono

[Delta.1526]

Finally worked up the willpower to log back onto Chrono after the patch (being a chrono main is suffering), and I think before I talk about what sucks, I should mention the good things. Well, the good thing -- removing the delayed skill-shot aspect from boon support Chrono is a great step in the right direction. Having to predict where your party will be in 3 seconds time was certainly thematic, but terrible for boon uptime in more modern encounters that expect a lot of mobility.

Okay, now that's out of the way -- the two 'reworked' Wells are pathetic to the point of absurdity. Well of Action asks you to stand still for 3 seconds, so you can run faster for 5 seconds. Well of Senility is at least a good name for it, because clearly those responsible for designing it have forgotten Null Field exists. Their only use case in PvE are as vehicles for the Stretched Time trait.

The push to make Chronomancer provide either Quickness or Alacrity with the Grandmaster traits has killed the only niche Chrono had left in PvE, and it wasn't even a problematic one. Alac/Quick Chrono wasn't even a thing in strikes/raids, it had such terrible personal DPS that it wasn't worth the role compression. It was nice to have in Open World metas, and in 10-man squads where there's one too many DPS and the tag is too polite to kick anyone.  Making them mutually exclusive means Boon Chrono doesn't bring anything to the table that couldn't be done better by Mechanist, Firebrand or Harbinger.

It seems like the August update to Chrono will mostly be looking at improving their personal DPS. Which is welcome, and might help Quick Chrono out a fair bit -- but Wells and Support Chrono in general kind of just needs a serious overhaul at this stage, their function and identity has been watered down so much that we're now at the stage where Well of Calamity is best in slot for Alac uptime, and the literal time wizard isn't just outclassed by all other professions for alacrity builds, it's not even the most viable Mesmer spec. 

There's no shot there will ever be a real Mesmer update that doesn't make me sad, but anyway, here's my balance patch fan-fic because I still live in hope:

 

1. In addition to its current effects, Stretched Time causes Wells to be centered on the Chronomancer for their duration. 

Having more control over whether your squad is in your well would be huge for boon Chrono, and could potentially open up a heal build using All's Well That Ends Well. I don't think the Gyro-style Well should be baseline as it would limit your ability to use Gravity Well offensively.

2. All's Well That Ends Well's heal is split into two parts, with a third of the base heal applied immediately, and the remainder when the Well expires. 

I think this trait has so much potential, but it's impossible to be a reactive healer with it as is; in 3 seconds time the person you're trying to heal will be away from the thing that's hurting them, or they'll be dead. I think the big payoff at the end of Wells is awesome and should be kept, but when that's all there is, there's a big chance of it being totally wasted if the humans you're trying to support don't stand exactly where you think they will.

3. In addition to its current effects, Well of Action now pulses escalating stacks of Might: (example: 2 stacks, then 3, then 5.)

Pretty sure the only way Mesmer has ever been able to provide non-random group Might was back when Signet of Inspiration copied all your boons and gave them to your party. The 5 stacks on Tides of Time are a good start. I figure lean into that; most boon support roles can maintain 25 stacks accidentally. 

4. Well of Senility has been replaced by Well of Persistence, which breaks stuns on allies when cast and pulses Resistance on allies every second. When it expires, foes are damaged and Immobilized. Cooldown increased to 50 seconds.

Neither of the 25 second cooldown Wells have a clear reason to exist anymore, but at least the Slow from Well of Action enables Chrono's kit somewhat. Well of Senility's 'big payoff' is the same boon strip as two sword auto-attack chains. Put it in the bin and try again. I'm suggesting a group stun break on a long cooldown because I think that'd be neat, but honestly I just want it to be literally anything with a purpose. Stretched Time has potential, but right now Alacrity on Wells is just the same homogenous design as Quickness on Banners and Facets: the utility skills have been gutted of their actual utility, you're just spending skill slots and pressing buttons on cooldown to try and maintain a boon that a Mechanist could keep going during their bio break. 

 

Anyway, there's my manifesto: feel free to post yours or tell me I'm wrong, keen to hear what other people think. 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Delta.1526
removing excess line breaks

[Tseison.4659]

54 minutes ago, Delta.1526 said:

Finally worked up the willpower to log back onto Chrono after the patch (being a chrono main is suffering), and I think before I talk about what sucks, I should mention the good things. Well, the good thing -- removing the delayed skill-shot aspect from boon support Chrono is a great step in the right direction. Having to predict where your party will be in 3 seconds time was certainly thematic, but terrible for boon uptime in more modern encounters that expect a lot of mobility.

Okay, now that's out of the way -- the two 'reworked' Wells are pathetic to the point of absurdity. Well of Action asks you to stand still for 3 seconds, so you can run faster for 5 seconds. Well of Senility is at least a good name for it, because clearly those responsible for designing it have forgotten Null Field exists. Their only use case in PvE are as vehicles for the Stretched Time trait.

The push to make Chronomancer provide either Quickness or Alacrity with the Grandmaster traits has killed the only niche Chrono had left in PvE, and it wasn't even a problematic one. Alac/Quick Chrono wasn't even a thing in strikes/raids, it had such terrible personal DPS that it wasn't worth the role compression. It was nice to have in Open World metas, and in 10-man squads where there's one too many DPS and the tag is too polite to kick anyone.  Making them mutually exclusive means Boon Chrono doesn't bring anything to the table that couldn't be done better by Mechanist, Firebrand or Harbinger.

It seems like the August update to Chrono will mostly be looking at improving their personal DPS. Which is welcome, and might help Quick Chrono out a fair bit -- but Wells and Support Chrono in general kind of just needs a serious overhaul at this stage, their function and identity has been watered down so much that we're now at the stage where Well of Calamity is best in slot for Alac uptime, and the literal time wizard isn't just outclassed by all other professions for alacrity builds, it's not even the most viable Mesmer spec. 

There's no shot there will ever be a real Mesmer update that doesn't make me sad, but anyway, here's my balance patch fan-fic because I still live in hope:

 

1. In addition to its current effects, Stretched Time causes Wells to be centered on the Chronomancer for their duration. 

Having more control over whether your squad is in your well would be huge for boon Chrono, and could potentially open up a heal build using All's Well That Ends Well. I don't think the Gyro-style Well should be baseline as it would limit your ability to use Gravity Well offensively.

2. All's Well That Ends Well's heal is split into two parts, with a third of the base heal applied immediately, and the remainder when the Well expires. 

I think this trait has so much potential, but it's impossible to be a reactive healer with it as is; in 3 seconds time the person you're trying to heal will be away from the thing that's hurting them, or they'll be dead. I think the big payoff at the end of Wells is awesome and should be kept, but when that's all there is, there's a big chance of it being totally wasted if the humans you're trying to support don't stand exactly where you think they will.

3. In addition to its current effects, Well of Action now pulses escalating stacks of Might: 2 stacks, then 3, then 5.

Pretty sure the only way Mesmer has ever been able to provide non-random group Might was back when Signet of Inspiration copied all your boons and gave them to your party. The 5 stacks on Tides of Time are a good start. I figure lean into that; most boon support roles can maintain 25 stacks accidentally, at least this way Chrono would have to Continuum Split.

4. Well of Senility has been replaced by Well of Persistence, which breaks stuns on allies when cast and pulses Resistance on allies every second. When it expires, foes are damaged and Immobilized. Cooldown increased to 50 seconds.

Neither of the 25 second cooldown Wells have a clear reason to exist anymore, but at least the Slow from Well of Action enables Chrono's kit somewhat. Well of Senility's 'big payoff' is the same boon strip as two sword auto-attack chains. Put it in the bin and try again. I'm suggesting a group stun break on a long cooldown because I think that'd be neat, but honestly I just want it to be literally anything with a purpose. Stretched Time has potential, but right now Alacrity on Wells is just the same homogenous design as Quickness on Banners and Facets: the utility skills have been gutted of their actual utility, you're just spending skill slots and pressing buttons on cooldown to try and maintain a boon that a Mechanist could keep going during their bio break. 

 

Anyway, there's my manifesto: feel free to post yours or tell me I'm wrong, keen to hear what other people think. 

Thank you for the write up Delta and loved your ideas as well.
I will agree that Wells need to be reworked. Now that I personally have taken some time to look at Chronomancer again and some unique/cool ideas that could work are as followed below:

All Wells on initial cast should grant both quickness and alacrity. 
Then for a grandmaster trait that's more support oriented, it could increase the effectiveness of alacrity  and quickness on allies but those boons would have a reduced duration on you.

For the next idea which can either be baseline or traited, but I still think it would be best if it was baseline. Is have it so that the final pulse for Wells not only going off at the  targeted location but ALSO at the Mesmers location. This would help in nearby allies receiving healing/superspeed and aegis from the appropriate Wells, and come in handy for removing boons/damage and a mini gravity well/less powerful gravity well against nearby enemies  at the mesmers location.

Other than what I suggested, some other honorable mentions are: I would've made Time Catches Up baseline, as illusions/Clones being fast enough to catch up to their targets without being killed before reaching would be helpful.

And lastly, Illusionary Reversion could honestly be reworked into something else as it just reminds me of Self Deception in the Mirage line.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Tseison.4659

[Delta.1526]

37 minutes ago, Tseison.4659 said:

All Wells on initial cast should grant both quickness and alacrity. 
Then for a grandmaster trait that's more support oriented, it could increase the effectiveness of alacrity  and quickness on allies but those boons would have a reduced duration on you.

This is the only one of your points I'm going to totally disagree with, but unfortunately it's the first one lol. If Chrono could maintain both easily and deal comparable DPS to other Boon DPS builds, then there's no reason for any of those builds anymore. If Chrono can maintain both but can't do enough DPS, it'll just be the same as before the balance update where the role compression isn't enough to make Chrono viable. It also doesn't help resolve the identity crisis of the individual skills, you'd just take the wells with the lowest cooldown so you could skimp on Concentration. 

Increasing the effectiveness of alacrity and quickness would make Chronomancer not just overpowered, but mandatory. I don't think that's necessary to make them worthwhile, they just need to bring enough to the table to compete on an even playing field with other boon support roles.
 

37 minutes ago, Tseison.4659 said:

For the next idea which can either be baseline or traited, but I still think it would be best if it was baseline. Is have it so that the final pulse for Wells not only going off at the  targeted location but ALSO at the Mesmers location. This would help in nearby allies receiving healing/superspeed and aegis from the appropriate Wells, and come in handy for removing boons/damage and a mini gravity well/less powerful gravity well against nearby enemies  at the mesmers location.

This is an interesting idea, actually. It'd be a cute way to guarantee the effects without just doing Gyros again. Might mean each well ends up getting nerfed though...seems like it'd allow for 10 man Alac and the only thing allowed to do that is Mechanist.

 

37 minutes ago, Tseison.4659 said:

Other than what I suggested, some other honorable mentions are: I would've made Time Catches Up baseline, as illusions/Clones being fast enough to catch up to their targets without being killed before reaching would be helpful.

And lastly, Illusionary Reversion could honestly be reworked into something else as it just reminds me of Self Deception in the Mirage line.

 

Yeah, I agree with both of these. The first line of traits are honestly pretty lacklustre, but I used to run Time Catches Up in PvP and liked the feel. Illusionary Reversion felt too strong when it needed 2 clones, and feels useless at 3 -- it's hard to find a middleground between that, maybe it needs something extra.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Delta.1526

[Tseison.4659]

39 minutes ago, Delta.1526 said:

This is the only one of your points I'm going to totally disagree with, but unfortunately it's the first one lol. If Chrono could maintain both easily and deal comparable DPS to other Boon DPS builds, then there's no reason for any of those builds anymore. If Chrono can maintain both but can't do enough DPS, it'll just be the same as before the balance update where the role compression isn't enough to make Chrono viable. It also doesn't help resolve the identity crisis of the individual skills, you'd just take the wells with the lowest cooldown so you could skimp on Concentration. 

Increasing the effectiveness of alacrity and quickness would make Chronomancer not just overpowered, but mandatory. I don't think that's necessary to make them worthwhile, they just need to bring enough to the table to compete on an even playing field with other boon support roles.

Agreed and I respect that opinion. However, when it comes to ideas, concepts, theory crafting etc... it'll always look powerful or beyond Anets means on paper, but in game numbers and functionality can be changed. So the alac + quick idea, yeah sounds 'strong' but with anet they could easily give it a base duration or 1sec and then have concentration not affect it that much to prevent 100% uptime, so stuff like that we have to keep in mind/be open minded about.

The effectiveness part, yes it does seem strong, but again, just an idea or perhaps could be changed to not affect allies and just affect the mesmer themselves since they already have a trait for alac, this would just have it also for quickness.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Tseison.4659

[Delta.1526]

4 hours ago, Tseison.4659 said:

Agreed and I respect that opinion. However, when it comes to ideas, concepts, theory crafting etc... it'll always look powerful or beyond Anets means on paper, but in game numbers and functionality can be changed. So the alac + quick idea, yeah sounds 'strong' but with anet they could easily give it a base duration or 1sec and then have concentration not affect it that much to prevent 100% uptime, so stuff like that we have to keep in mind/be open minded about.

 

Hmmm...Like, that's definitely something that could be done, but I suspect if Chrono could only provide say, 33% uptime on both of them, it would either not meet the standards of what players define 'viable boon support' as, or it'd be able to do that while also doing solid DPS and groups may just run 3 Chronos for 100% uptime.

The issue is, Chrono could maintain permanent Quick/Alac up until the last patch, but they were still outclassed by other supports because Quick/Alac was all they could do. Firebrand can only do Quickness, but the condi DPS variant does more damage than Quick DPS Chrono while also having access to three kits worth of free utility. Power Alac Mechanist deals more damage than Quick Chrono, but along with perma Alac they provide like 15 stacks of Might and Barrier...without touching their keyboard. If they're not AFK, they get the rest of the Might stacks, Protection, Fury, Stability...

I did enjoy maintaining Quick and Alac permanently as an open world carry, but that's not really good enough for 10 man content when you could just bring a Firebrand and a Mechanist that provide the same boons, and nearly every other boon, while either doing respectable damage or reliable healing, and having solid utility options. I'm also fairly certain that trying to balance around a class that can bring Quick and Alac at once is probably why Chrono's been nerfed to hell and back since release. Now it's gone there's an opportunity to give Chrono new tools; I'm just concerned that the tools they've landed on to replace the Alac/Quick Wells are "bad Null Field" and "bad Temporal Curtain" XD

Quote

The effectiveness part, yes it does seem strong, but again, just an idea or perhaps could be changed to not affect allies and just affect the mesmer themselves since they already have a trait for alac, this would just have it also for quickness.

I'd actually be all for there being a Quicker Quickness option for the Chronomancer themselves; I've been experimenting with Heal Alac Chrono, running Inspiration for Illusionary Inspiration and Scepter/Shield to generate clones as quick as possible, but discovered that Malicious Sorcery's 20% attack speed on Scepter doesn't stack with Quickness. I'd kind of like to see Improved Alacrity switch places with Time Marches On, 25% movement speed just doesn't hit the same now we have mounts, and it'd be a solid place to put in a Quickness effectiveness modifier.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Delta.1526

[anbujackson.9564]

Chrono was the spec that introduced alacrity as one of its gimmicks and now you have to trait for it to provide alac for your group. Big ouch.

Anyway... Going back to the old support chrono is borderline impossible at this point since they slapped everything:

- Shield 5 is now 5men. No more help for the other subgroup.

- Signet of inspiration is a pathetic shadow of what it once was and you need to take inspiration to make it useful for support, which is now a nogo. Back then, a 10 target signet was another huge help for your other subgroup.

- Timewarp is a cruel joke for what it does.

- No more key boons from wells, its spec utility. This means that you have lost your ability to provide these on range and are forced to be in melee range. Another niche gimmick gone.

Not much else to say here. I can only quote Mela again when he told Emi (for someone who played a lot of mesmer I cant understand her view at all) how these changes are not good. No1 really played chrono anymore before the patch. Why should it be played now?

Edited July 9, 2022 by anbujackson.9564

[SaferMurderweapon.7143]

I've already given up hope and stopped playing the game entirely. Trying to enjoy Chrono now is like kicking a dead dewinged horse in denial while pretending it's still the majestic unicorn it once was. I spent 30-40 USD on bag slots for my Mesmer and spent a long time getting my ascended gear. I am not investing in another class just to repeat that entire process only for the same thing to happen again. I just check back every now and then to see if maybe the devs come to their senses and give this class what it needs. But then again, given the changes over the past 3 years, I wouldn't be surprised if any of the devs responsible for Chrono balance didn't actually play the spec. Remember when they gave us a trait that would let us shatter without clones only to then remove that almost a decade later and then gave that back to us after the backlash? Honestly, that's what this class and game needs. Is for people to just stop playing

Edited July 24, 2022 by Vincenzo.3145

[SaferMurderweapon.7143]

As a Chono main on a 3 year hiatus and going, I feel you