How to best support now?

[Veluna.7316]

The support idea with boons on Chrono was fun while it was around, so now I am not really sure how to support best in PvE.

Inspiration seemed the most ideal route in the past since passing boons from 5 to 10 allies with Signet of Inspiration was really good. Easily worth taking Inspiration spec along with the other stuff for boon removal (self and party), passing aegis with any signet usage and Distortion Shatter, and improved healing to people nearby. Since Chrono can only apply Alacrity and Quickness reliably with Wells and Time Warp to a party which caps at 5 people it seems like Inspiration is not completely necessary to boost from 5 to 10 allies. The healing is pretty weak and aegis is not commonly spammed in any way with this. Unless boon generation is strong enough where the extra 5 seconds is worth it on +5 allies, but I am not sure.

Chaos does not really seem worth it now. It provided a ton of boon creation from protection, regeneration, stability, might, fury, vigor, resistance from healing and shatters. All of which could have been passed on and increase the boon duration, but since it cannot really be passed on and high boon duration can be achieved without Chaos it seems like its not providing much party support. Lesser Chaos Storm for Aegis and Protection is nice, but its a 35 sec cooldown.

If anything it seems like with SoI, Well of Recall and Action and high boon duration you'll be doing the most party support you can possibly be doing and anyway. In which case, it seems best to just optimize your own damage with Dueling/Illusions. I suppose one might still try to run Inspiration for boon removal, some aegis generation at the cost of some damage. Another idea that comes to mind is forget Well of Recall and just pour it into quickness. Action, Mimic, and SoI and that way Inspiration would be more useful.

What's anyone else come to the conclusion with beyond just not supporting :p

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

There are multiple ideas. The safest would be illusion/inspiration for best uptimes.Domination/inspiration for ccDueling/illusion for best dps i think.As skills you can run 2 wells or you can run mimimic. With mimic you coppy first well of action before cs (so soi in cs can give quickness) and after that you mimic soi on cd.

[alchemist.6851]

i am trying a mimic, Soi, alacrity well and shield. With shatter and Cs, it’s possible to give perma alacrity but very odd rhythm. two chrono easily works this way

using choas and illusion trait

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

@alchemist.6851 said:i am trying a mimic, Soi, alacrity well and shield. With shatter and Cs, it’s possible to give perma alacrity but very odd rhythm. two chrono easily works this way

using choas and illusion trait

But if i read correctly you have no quickness

[alchemist.6851]

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:

@alchemist.6851 said:i am trying a mimic, Soi, alacrity well and shield. With shatter and Cs, it’s possible to give perma alacrity but very odd rhythm. two chrono easily works this way

using choas and illusion trait

But if i read correctly you have no quickness

I do have quickness with skill 0 but it’s mediocre.. i figured i need to prioritize the core skill of mesmer the alacrity .. quickness could come from firebrands..

i was playing my boonshare healer ranger in lair of snowmen and when a chrono came up with alacrity recharge, it made everyone’s live a lot easier because now i can increase my boon uptime thanks to chrono recharge

[Grogba.6204]

Just stack more SoIs once you have boons.https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/a6t623/the_new_secret_op_power_of_soi/

[Veluna.7316]

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:There are multiple ideas. The safest would be illusion/inspiration for best uptimes.Domination/inspiration for ccDueling/illusion for best dps i think.As skills you can run 2 wells or you can run mimimic. With mimic you coppy first well of action before cs (so soi in cs can give quickness) and after that you mimic soi on cd.I am confused how illusion's stacks up times. I suppose I could see it helping with quickness up time on yourself since phantasms -> quickness -> clone transfers boons to yourself. Plus, I am not really sure what boons a phantasm might get in a short period of time. Though that was the only two ideas I had with utility skills. Wells + SoI or just spam quickness. Its easier to get (Time Warp) and even running SoI/Mimic is nice for the 10 seconds to 10 allies compared to just 5. Getting to alternate CS and Mimic on SoI still.

@"Grogba.6204" said:Just stack more SoIs once you have boons.https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/a6t623/the_new_secret_op_power_of_soi/So, basically your saying Chaos/Inspiration is still the way to go?

[Sigfodr.9576]

You just go full damage, no boon duration. You have 8 chronos (2 of them have wells and traited SoI and all 8 have SoI), Then you drop the wells and all press SoI. You now have 30 sec of extended boons every 24 sec (cd of SoI with full alacrity). Last 2 spots are a druid for heal/spirits/might/fury and a war for banners. Done easy.... TY anet for the deversity (not sure if to laugh or cry)

[Veluna.7316]

I suppose I do not actually expect people to play that except in a few rare circumstances. I am more under the impression that you might at most be the only Chrono support of like 1/5. Maybe 2/10 at best just since other people want to play different stuff.

With that idea you do not even need 8 chronos since all Mesmer's have access to Signet of Inspiration and Mimic. You really just need like 1 to apply wells with say 100% boon duration to make the window for others to cast SoI later on easier without much coordination. it in that case to keep it going.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

@Veluna.7316 said:

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:There are multiple ideas. The safest would be illusion/inspiration for best uptimes.Domination/inspiration for ccDueling/illusion for best dps i think.As skills you can run 2 wells or you can run mimimic. With mimic you coppy first well of action before cs (so soi in cs can give quickness) and after that you mimic soi on cd.I am confused how illusion's stacks up times. I suppose I could see it helping with quickness up time on yourself since phantasms -> quickness -> clone transfers boons to yourself. Plus, I am not really sure what boons a phantasm might get in a short period of time. Though that was the only two ideas I had with utility skills. Wells + SoI or just spam quickness. Its easier to get (Time Warp) and even running SoI/Mimic is nice for the 10 seconds to 10 allies compared to just 5. Getting to alternate CS and Mimic on SoI still.

@"Grogba.6204" said:Just stack more SoIs once you have boons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/a6t623/the_new_secret_op_power_of_soi/

So, basically your saying Chaos/Inspiration is still the way to go?

Lower cd on Continuum split

[alchemist.6851]

is it just me or is it insane to consider beyond two chrono?

and why is quickness more focused than alacrity?

[Jimbru.6014]

Chronos need to do what support scourges are doing: find what you're good at and max it out, and let others fill the blank spaces.

In the case of support scourge, our only boons were some might, some regen, some stability. And we couldn't even maintain 25 stacks of might, so we basically were just filling gaps in others' rotations. Now, the meta on support scourge says to Cleveland with boons entirely. Harrier? Forget it; we don't have enough boons to make a big investment in boon duration worthwhile. Max out healing power for barriers and secondary healing, with as much DPS as we can muster while doing so; my own scourge runs full Marshal.

Chronos are still meta; their role is just more condensed. Find your specialty and fill it to the max. Y'all will figure it out. Improvise, adapt, and overcome.

[Veluna.7316]

@alchemist.6851 said:is it just me or is it insane to consider beyond two chrono?

and why is quickness more focused than alacrity?I don't understand the question. In general, there are more sources of Quickness generation than Alacrity generation and hence its easier to set-up. Plus, I would say quickness is in general more valuable than Alacrity. Alacrity only shaves 25% on cooldowns if always up. Quickness on the other hand will cut down on cast/activation times. I am not sure how often other classes spend not activating skills with 25% up, but in general there are droughts for primary attacks and cutting the cast time from 0.75 seconds to 0.375 seconds is a pretty nice DPS boost on that damage source.

For something like Mesmer Staff where it has a long primary fire cast time being able to double the rate of fury/might/bleeding/burning/torment application is nice.

[cylin.7048]

Someone please add me ingame for this, I REALLY want to try a 7-8 Chronos run :D !