Alacrity chrono in fractals (feel bad)

[Requiem.9648]

We have tested the new alacrity chronomancer in fractals and it feel kind of bad now. DPS wise seem a bit better but trying to bring permanent alacrity without having a target is not possible anymore now since they have it removed alacrity from wells and tide of time (shield 5). So basicaly Anet killed chronomancer alacrity pre buffing/outisde fight. So in a open world or fractals that nealy impossible to keep good alacrity uptime.

[Omegacide.8649]

For a myriad of reasons, as seen in other forum posts (and my own), the Chronomancer changes were very hard hitting. ANET claimed they wanted to reduce the amount of utility dependency by altering how you generate Alacrity. This change was made so players could have more variety? Anyways, they changed Chronomancer so that you're forced to be in combat, constantly rotating through Phantasms and Shatters to replicate what Chronomancers used to do with 2-3 simple activations.  

ANET wanted to make Chronomancer more fluid in combat, but in reality, forced an aggressive play style somewhat reminiscent of core Mesmer.

[Pie.2167]

I’d like to add that in WvW Zerg setting Chrono is now negligible at producing party/group Alac.   It doesn’t even make sense to try to spec for it.  If you trait Escape Artist, Chronophantasma is the better option over Stretched Time.  No point in using any wells except Grav in WvW now.  Chrono went from being one of the top specs for producing alacrity to not doing it at all. Druid has essentially replaced them after patch in this role.

[Waffles.5632]

Quote

Alacrity Willbender 

A big pain point with alacrity willbender is its inability to provide alacrity during phase transitions or other times where it can’t strike an enemy. We’re hoping to mitigate this by updating Phoenix Protocol to grant some alacrity on the activation of resolve, which can also be shared via Battle Presence. We’ve also cleaned up some aftercasts and made general improvements to animations for a few key damage skills with the goal of making the overall gameplay feel a bit more fluid. 

CMC addresses WB concerns while more 💩 for chrono. Mesmers really just aren't allowed to have nice things anymore.

 

[Leonidrex.5649]

being unable to pre-cast buffs makes the spec kitten by default in fractals.

[Zarathustra.1458]

13 hours ago, Waffles.5632 said:

CMC addresses WB concerns while more 💩 for chrono. Mesmers really just aren't allowed to have nice things anymore.

 

This is just nuts. What the hell are they thinking when you take the time mage class, and make it the worst at applying the time manipulation effects.

[Mell.4873]

On 7/2/2023 at 4:02 PM, Requiem.9648 said:

We have tested the new alacrity chronomancer in fractals and it feel kind of bad now. DPS wise seem a bit better but trying to bring permanent alacrity without having a target is not possible anymore now since they have it removed alacrity from wells and tide of time (shield 5). So basicaly Anet killed chronomancer alacrity pre buffing/outisde fight. So in a open world or fractals that nealy impossible to keep good alacrity uptime.

When do you ever need Alacrity when not fighting a target in Fractals. Given if you said WvW I would agree but fractals, Wells we're a nightmare to aim at the best of time and impossible to heal with. 

Right now the best combo is to stack Phantasms Skills and use Illusionary Inspiration. You can also flip between Quickness and Alacrity which before you could not do. 

[Uete.3805]

Hey, I might be a bit late to the party but whatever happened to:

Well of Action: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.5 in PvE only. The final pulse of this skill now grants alacrity instead of superspeed.

The final pulse now gives a kitten ton of might and fury, which is great, but where is the alac?

[Requiem.9648]

Well best example is the Deep stone fractal. Only few class like mech or Ren can give permanent alacrity outside the fight to be able to give proper alacrity for special action key. recharge. Chrono was able to when wells was doing alacrity but now they cant.

[Leonidrex.5649]

9 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

When do you ever need Alacrity when not fighting a target in Fractals. Given if you said WvW I would agree but fractals, Wells we're a nightmare to aim at the best of time and impossible to heal with. 

Right now the best combo is to stack Phantasms Skills and use Illusionary Inspiration. You can also flip between Quickness and Alacrity which before you could not do. 

umm... always?
people that pre-cast want it, inbetween phases people want it for cooldowns to tick down, during trash clear you want it for both mobility and to have aoe up for the new packs of mobs.
playing qfb and not having alac inbetween phases in 100 cm makes me not want to play fb xd

[Mnemesis.8257]

9 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

When do you ever need Alacrity when not fighting a target in Fractals. Given if you said WvW I would agree but fractals, Wells we're a nightmare to aim at the best of time and impossible to heal with. 

Right now the best combo is to stack Phantasms Skills and use Illusionary Inspiration. You can also flip between Quickness and Alacrity which before you could not do. 

I think the major point that was highlighted is that it was directly quoted as being an issue for one profession (Guardian) being unable to provide Alacrity outside of combat and suggesting an intent to correct that issue, while simultaneously removing the ability of another profession (Mesmer) to provide Alacrity outside of combat (thus saddling them with the same problematic issue that was expressed as a concern to address for the other party). This is not only a slap to the face, but the epitome of what feels wrong with Mesmer at the moment; an ever growing string of slights feeling like death by a thousand paper cuts.

As to why Alacrity is useful outside of a fight, cooldowns exceeding the time between encounters would obviously benefit from such an interaction by reducing the CD remaining and restoring/prepping optimal rotations.

[Mell.4873]

On 7/4/2023 at 4:49 AM, Leonidrex.5649 said:

umm... always?
people that pre-cast want it, inbetween phases people want it for cooldowns to tick down, during trash clear you want it for both mobility and to have aoe up for the new packs of mobs.
playing qfb and not having alac inbetween phases in 100 cm makes me not want to play fb xd

Unless you want to complete them based on some sort of time trial (I remember there was a website you could post times to, and it was not Wingman). I have never had anyone precast Alacrity in CM fractals, generally you would never run Chronomancer since it is to squishy. 

Given pre-casting with Firebrand is fine but that's because it provides more than just quickness and it actually helped them, since It is hard to maintain Quickness stacks due to there small AoE. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Leonidrex.5649]

4 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

 

Unless you want to complete them based on some sort of time trial (I remember there was a website you could post times to, and it was not Wingman). I have never had anyone precast Alacrity in CM fractals, generally you would never run Chronomancer since it is to squishy. 

Given pre-casting with Firebrand is fine but that's because it provides more than just quickness and it actually helped them, since I was hard to maintain Quickness stacks due to there small AoE. 

I run 10k +UFE lobbies.
precasting is just common sense

[Mell.4873]

1 hour ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

I run 10k +UFE lobbies.
precasting is just common sense

Well I think you are the exception, most pug CM runs just want you survive. 

Even normal T4s it's not very advisable to use anything close to squishy Elites like Chronomancer. I mean even Druid prior to this patch was not a good idea since the healing builds available where so inconsistent on preformance. 

Basicly acceptable classes for T4/CM are as follows. 

DPS: Power Warriors or Condi Berserker, Power Herald/Vindicator, Power Dragon Hunter/Willbender or Condi Firebrand, Any Necromancer, Condi Mirage/Virtuoso or Power Virtuoso, Power Catalyst, Power/Condi Mechanist or Holosmith, Power Soulbeast 

Quickness Support: Firebrand, Scrapper, Herald, Harbinger

Alacrity Support: Staff Mirage, Revenant, Mechanist

Healing Supports + one boon: Firebrand, Scrapper, Mechanist

Edited July 4, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Nephalem.8921]

10 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Well I think you are the exception, most pug CM runs just want you survive. 

Even normal T4s it's not very advisable to use anything close to squishy Elites like Chronomancer. I mean even Druid prior to this patch was not a good idea since the healing builds available where so inconsistent on preformance. 

Basicly acceptable classes for T4/CM are as follows. 

DPS: Power Warriors or Condi Berserker, Power Herald/Vindicator, Power Dragon Hunter/Willbender or Condi Firebrand, Any Necromancer, Condi Mirage/Virtuoso or Power Virtuoso, Power Catalyst, Power/Condi Mechanist or Holosmith, Power Soulbeast 

Quickness Support: Firebrand, Scrapper, Herald, Harbinger

Alacrity Support: Staff Mirage, Revenant, Mechanist

Healing Supports + one boon: Firebrand, Scrapper, Mechanist

Chrono squishy? Are you ok? Weaver is also very good in fractals.

Alacs are currently ren or specter. Mech is bad but still played a lot by pugs. Most pug CMs definitely want more than just your pure existence unless you play in unholy NA lands where people are not even asking for kps. Origin of 4 necro 1 druid "meta".

Rens always precast 30sec alacrity in fractals.

But chrono overstacks quick and alac so hard that the target limitation not really matters. You spike to 30sec uptime after cs opener basically.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Nephalem.8921

[rotten.9753]

11 hours ago, Mnemesis.8257 said:

I think the major point that was highlighted is that it was directly quoted as being an issue for one profession (Guardian) being unable to provide Alacrity outside of combat and suggesting an intent to correct that issue, while simultaneously removing the ability of another profession (Mesmer) to provide Alacrity outside of combat (thus saddling them with the same problematic issue that was expressed as a concern to address for the other party). This is not only a slap to the face, but the epitome of what feels wrong with Mesmer at the moment; an ever growing string of slights feeling like death by a thousand paper cuts.

As to why Alacrity is useful outside of a fight, cooldowns exceeding the time between encounters would obviously benefit from such an interaction by reducing the CD remaining and restoring/prepping optimal rotations.

To be frank, that alacrity outside combat that willbender gets is not really permanent, you still need to hit enemies for that. Chrono can also give alacrity outside combat but even less amount.

[Mell.4873]

5 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

Chrono squishy? Are you ok? Weaver is also very good in fractals.

Alacs are currently ren or specter. Mech is bad but still played a lot by pugs. Most pug CMs definitely want more than just your pure existence unless you play in unholy NA lands were people are not even asking for kps. Origin of 4 necro 1 druid "meta".

Rens always precast 30sec alacrity in fractals.

But chrono overstacks quick and alac so hard that the target limitation not really matters. You spike to 30sec uptime after cs opener basically.

I do play in NA and I do use Chronomancer in fractals but finding a someone who can play them well is to few and far between. 

I have had to often kick Chronomancers for either have low DPS or not having full boon coverage. Druid was in the same boat before this update, now it's a really good DPS but it needs an Alacrity duration buff. 

Honestly fractals for the wider Pug and even organise population is such and inconsistencies mess. You either do amazing with your Group or you default carry and remove players when you spend way to long on a fight (1h to 30min for a boss fight normally results in me kicking a lowest dps player, or leaving myself).

Edited July 4, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Mell.4873]

17 hours ago, Mnemesis.8257 said:

I think the major point that was highlighted is that it was directly quoted as being an issue for one profession (Guardian) being unable to provide Alacrity outside of combat and suggesting an intent to correct that issue, while simultaneously removing the ability of another profession (Mesmer) to provide Alacrity outside of combat (thus saddling them with the same problematic issue that was expressed as a concern to address for the other party). This is not only a slap to the face, but the epitome of what feels wrong with Mesmer at the moment; an ever growing string of slights feeling like death by a thousand paper cuts.

As to why Alacrity is useful outside of a fight, cooldowns exceeding the time between encounters would obviously benefit from such an interaction by reducing the CD remaining and restoring/prepping optimal rotations.

Again who was ever pre-buffing with Chronomancer, I have played since launch and I have never seen it except for then they provided both boons. 

I will say they should change the current quick/alac Grandmasters so they include Wells since it so niche. Just don't allow it in PvP, if their concern is WvW permanent Boons. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Leonidrex.5649]

10 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Well I think you are the exception, most pug CM runs just want you survive. 

Even normal T4s it's not very advisable to use anything close to squishy Elites like Chronomancer. I mean even Druid prior to this patch was not a good idea since the healing builds available where so inconsistent on preformance. 

Basicly acceptable classes for T4/CM are as follows. 

DPS: Power Warriors or Condi Berserker, Power Herald/Vindicator, Power Dragon Hunter/Willbender or Condi Firebrand, Any Necromancer, Condi Mirage/Virtuoso or Power Virtuoso, Power Catalyst, Power/Condi Mechanist or Holosmith, Power Soulbeast 

Quickness Support: Firebrand, Scrapper, Herald, Harbinger

Alacrity Support: Staff Mirage, Revenant, Mechanist

Healing Supports + one boon: Firebrand, Scrapper, Mechanist

I honestly dont know what most classes do.
me and my friend play whatever we want to play and grab random pugs that can will the rest of the roles.
I couldnt care less if chrono or untamed or rev provides alacrity as long as he does it, but its very noticable when trying to speedrun that rev is plain better due to the fact he can pre-cast

[Roadkizzle.2157]

9 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

Chrono squishy? Are you ok? Weaver is also very good in fractals.

Alacs are currently ren or specter. Mech is bad but still played a lot by pugs. Most pug CMs definitely want more than just your pure existence unless you play in unholy NA lands where people are not even asking for kps. Origin of 4 necro 1 druid "meta".

Rens always precast 30sec alacrity in fractals.

But chrono overstacks quick and alac so hard that the target limitation not really matters. You spike to 30sec uptime after cs opener basically.

I always hear it but how is the Chrono not squishy? It only has a Shield which has always seemed to be a poor weapon. Lowers DPS, slows down phantasm generation and provides no more Blocks than the Sword does with a CD half that of the Shields. And the same Distortion shatter everyone else has.

It has zero healing or Regen that it can use because it can only slot the Signet for healing which is a DPS button not a heal.

Mirage is constantly gaining Mirage Cloak meaning it is gaining Evade frames every couple of seconds. 

[Nephalem.8921]

10 minutes ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

I always hear it but how is the Chrono not squishy? It only has a Shield which has always seemed to be a poor weapon. Lowers DPS, slows down phantasm generation and provides no more Blocks than the Sword does with a CD half that of the Shields. And the same Distortion shatter everyone else has.

It has zero healing or Regen that it can use because it can only slot the Signet for healing which is a DPS button not a heal.

Mirage is constantly gaining Mirage Cloak meaning it is gaining Evade frames every couple of seconds. 

you have sword 4 which is a block and f4 which is distort and you could take aegis well for a minor dps loss too. It also has medium health. It is as squishy as power virt which nobody calls squishy for some reason. And you are not supposed to get hit in the first place and if you do most people play with a healer anyways who heals way more than whatever the dps specs have as self sustain.

Dungeon solos are easier on chrono than on reaper btw because active defenses beat passive facetank crap like shroud in instanced pve.

[Nephalem.8921]

10 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

I do play in NA and I do use Chronomancer in fractals but finding a someone who can play them well is to few and far between. 

I have had to often kick Chronomancers for either have low DPS or not having full boon coverage. Druid was in the same boat before this update, now it's a really good DPS but it needs an Alacrity duration buff. 

Honestly fractals for the wider Pug and even organise population is such and inconsistencies mess. You either do amazing with your Group or you default carry and remove players when you spend way to long on a fight (1h to 30min for a boss fight normally results in me kicking a lowest dps player, or leaving myself).

30min Bossfight in fractals? That sounds unholy. The full run including cms should not take longer than 1h. The inconsistency issue is also exactly why people gatekeep with kps in eu.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Nephalem.8921

[Endaris.1452]

On 7/3/2023 at 5:10 AM, Uete.3805 said:

Hey, I might be a bit late to the party but whatever happened to:

Well of Action: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.5 in PvE only. The final pulse of this skill now grants alacrity instead of superspeed.

The final pulse now gives a kitten ton of might and fury, which is great, but where is the alac?

This already didn't make it to the notes on the balance preview stream.

The preview threads were posted way in advance and then just moved into the visible forums so this is just something they had axed before preview stream but never updated in the threads. Imo it would have been a good change because wells are pretty much dirt now if you don't need precog for whatever weird reason.

[Noodle Ant.1605]

im personally not a fan of the change, but here are some objective problems with the current implementation:

1. phantasm skills can be invulned or blinded (and probably also obstructed). apart from obtaining profession resource, im not aware of any other quick/alac application that fails because "the skill didnt land" (different from the skill not being castable in the first place). additionally when the phantasm doesnt spawn, neither does the clone, so the boon on shatter is also affected
2. with improved alacrity traited, you give a completely different alacrity uptime to your allies compared to yourself. flow of time originally filled in this gap, but is now part of that gap
3. the two boon traits actually give 3s of the boon on phantasm creation instead of 2s (although it does give 2s alac with improved alacrity traited with 0% boon dura)

these are just my opinions:

• phantasms are currently far too rotation-defining in pve. there doesnt need to be even more reasons to have signet of ether locked on the skillbar
• there are reasons why low clone shatters are used, but {(linear) effect per clone shattered} greatly devalues these decision choices. if shattering is the main focus, then it should be a fixed amount on shatter. if clones are the main focus, then it should apply on clone creation - not later when they may not be there anymore

[Mell.4873]

6 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

you have sword 4 which is a block and f4 which is distort and you could take aegis well for a minor dps loss too. It also has medium health. It is as squishy as power virt which nobody calls squishy for some reason. And you are not supposed to get hit in the first place and if you do most people play with a healer anyways who heals way more than whatever the dps specs have as self sustain.

Dungeon solos are easier on chrono than on reaper btw because active defenses beat passive facetank crap like shroud in instanced pve.

You kind of answered your own question, “And you are not supposed to get hit in the first place". Most players get hit, even if Mesmer has okay health it has the lowest armor in the game so it's far more likely to get one shot much like Elementalist.

Im not really saying it can't be played either, it's just extremely Rare for anyone to attempt it in T4. Even me a Mesmer main doesn't bring a Chronomancer to CMs. I just use Staff Mirage support.

But with the recent changes, I might finally be able to bring it to CM. It got a bit of a Damage buff and with some previous shield changes so it's a little more viable. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Mell.4873