Time to make some room, Necromancers, it looks like ArenaNet is giving mesmers the ability to crease ground wells with the elite specialization for mesmers, a time-based elite class called the Chronomancer. This specialization is part of the upcoming expansion to Guild Wars 2, Heart of Thorns, and will introduce special classes for every current profession in the game. chronomancers will also give mesmers access to a new weapon: the offhand shield.
The new chronomancer specialization adds a set of skills to mesmers to allows them to manipulate the forces of time. The first new skill adds a boon called alacrity–the opposite of chill–which will speed up cooldowns rather than slowing them down, only chronomancers will receive access to this boon. With an offhand shield the chronomancer will be able to fire a wall of compressed time that flies forward and then returns, with each pass the wall delivers quickness to allies and freezes enemies.
As mentioned above, chronomancers will also be able to use wells, similar to Necromancers, which will affect the movement of time in an area. Fitting the time-based theme of the chronomancer, wells will display a clock face on the ground, that will even animate clock ticks and each tick will coincide with effect ticks. Three in total, and when the tree are exhausted, the wells explode with a powerful effect.
Finally, chronomancers are capable of sacrificing their illusions (with a shatter skill) that splits them from the normal flow of time. After triggering Continuum Split, mesmers act normally–triggering spells, fighting, healing, taking damage, moving–but once the effect ends or it is terminated the chronomancer is taken back to when the shatter was triggered, resetting health, location, and even skill cooldowns to what they were at the time. This means that a tactically minded chronomancer can trigger an elite skill (or others) and even charge into a dangerous situation, only to vanish from the enemies maw and ready to trigger their elite again.
No doubt, this skill could also leave a chronomancer accidentally in a bad situation if used poorly.
How this affects the current gameplay of mesmers
In Guild Wars 2, mesmers come in a number of varieties, but it’s also a common conception that they are good for PvP, due to the confusion of multiple illusions, but not so great in PvE, because illusions rarely distract enemies. Damage output from mesmers in PvE can certainly be tweaked, but as a class they’re considered a bit too needy of micromanagement and spend a lot of time on utility than attack. Illusions and phantasms make for a very interesting mode of play, but it’s been two years for mesmers and no doubt they want to be seen as more than portal spawners.
The chronomancer class continues the utility side of mesmers in teams by spreading boons around and making the onslaught of the enemy more difficult. Especially with the addition of wells, mesmers will find themselves more tactical than simply hiding behind illusions to distract and do damage.
Adding the shield offhand provides chronomancers with another tactical-positioning skill that stops enemies, and boosts teammates, but at the same time provides for another positional-thinking ability. Add wells and suddenly the ability to briefly freeze enemies can become even more interesting–throw down a timebomb clock well on the ground in the path on oncoming enemies, hit them with a freeze right before the last tick.
Tick. Tick. Boom!
Looking through the time-based abilities and the offhand shield, chronomancers will dramatically change the gameplay already expected out of mesmers. While the chronomancy side adds a lot of tactical thinking and positioning, of course, it takes advantage of illusions and does not replace them. This means that players who rely on phantasms and clones will just be adding onto their toolsets instead of totally giving up on their friends.
It’s also obvious that the chronomancer specialization keeps up with team-focused utility that mesmers have already had. Time-based powers that reduce cooldowns, wells to crowd control enemy movement, and a wide variety of approaches means that chronomancers are not specializing into an inescapable niche.
There will certainly be time on Vox Ex Machina‘s table to play a chronomancer when Heart of Thorns releases.
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