Gearing a chronotank

[polvere.2805]

I want to gear in full ascended my mesmer and play a chronotank/chronosupport.

The guides on Snow Crows or Qtfy shows various combination of commander/zerker or the full ministrel one. Since i am not interested in playing a full dps build (like the mirage or the chrono one) which gear should be optimal ? Honestly ministrel to me it seems a little bit overkill for passive defenses since you have a lot of active.

I am inexperienced though so it could be an help. What would you suggest ? Why ?

[Ojimaru.8970]

As the patches roll in, I've become more and more disinclined to run a Berserker or Commander build considering the quickly growing gap with the damage potential of a the top-tier DPS builds. When the ideal DPS/Support hybrid is 14,000 damage per second behind the top ten DPS builds, does your chronotank/support's DPS really matter?

 

Rather, I've just shifted towards a mix of Minstrel and Giver to push my Boon Duration to 100% without the Sigil of Concentration just so I can sit in more damage while focusing on my rotations, and be have a more flexible rotation that isn't tied to the Sigil.

[Oglaf.1074]

Pretty sure the tankier gear is NOT taken to mitigate a ton of damage, but to have top Toughness in your Raid group.

[Pyroatheist.9031]

> @"Oglaf.1074" said:

> Pretty sure the tankier gear is NOT taken to mitigate a ton of damage, but to have top Toughness in your Raid group.

 

It's kinda both. If your group is running perfectly optimized gear, then you can get away with a very very slim margin of tougheness to come out on top. Obviously this isn't always the case though.

 

On the other hand, some fights are just a lot smoother if you run tanky to get extra mitigation. In particular desmina, xera, and kinda deimos are fights that go a lot smoother if your druid doesn't have to use heals on the tank.

[Exciton.8942]

I suggest you go for a mixture of minstrel/giver/harrier.

 

The goal should be reach 100% boon duration w/o sigil of concentration(taking food into account as well). This will make it much easier to maintain high quickness uptime in all circumstances.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

I am using berzerker variant. From minmaxing point of view if you do t get hit then you dont need defensive stats. On the other hand snowcrows have writwon on their chrono guide something like this "if you are dieing exchange gear to be tankier - your first objective is to provide buffs and dead chrono cannot do that"

 

Its up to you but if you go tanky version dont facetank damage just because you can and use the variant on snowcrows with sigil of concentration so you have free choice of traits and can swap to berzerker if you want to.

[RabbitUp.8294]

> @"polvere.2805" said:

> I want to gear in full ascended my mesmer and play a chronotank/chronosupport.

> The guides on Snow Crows or Qtfy shows various combination of commander/zerker or the full ministrel one. Since i am not interested in playing a full dps build (like the mirage or the chrono one) which gear should be optimal ? Honestly ministrel to me it seems a little bit overkill for passive defenses since you have a lot of active.

> I am inexperienced though so it could be an help. What would you suggest ? Why ?

 

So, I take it that you are new to chronotank, since you are just gearing one up. If that's the case, you have to familiarise yourself with the mechanics and maintain your rotation, why make keeping yourself alive another one of your worries? Going for berserkers to squeeze out that extra dps and shave a few seconds seems pointless if you get downed/die and the pull is ruined. Or if you drop your rotation and suddenly everyone else is doing less dps.

 

You won't be going for speedruns anyway, and what you don't see in those speedrunning videos are the failed pulls, because everyone is geared for max dps, so mistakes cost. Instead, go for reliability, so you can clear the boss on the first try.

 

After all, SC themselves have put a toughness varient on their site. Minstrels is not used just for its passive defences, it also provides healing power, and especially now with the reworked Well trait, you can act as an off-healer.

[EnchantixAqua.5327]

Wouldn’t Giver be the best since it provides more boon duration while also giving some toughness?

[ReaverKane.7598]

If you want to be **the** tank, full minstrels.

Otherwise go commander's/giver's/minstrel's combinations.

 

Also Minstrel's IMO is better for learning the rotations since you won't be hurting as much.

[RabbitUp.8294]

> @"EnchantixAqua.5327" said:

> Wouldn’t Giver be the best since it provides more boon duration while also giving some toughness?

 

You can save yourself getting a Sigil of Concentration by going givers, not to mention the cancer of Freshwater Pearls, but you are sacrificing the vitality you get from minstrels, and the extra toughness doesn't make up for it. Though, you do become a slightly better healer.

 

Thee are other viable choices, but I think minstrels is the more well-rounded build.

[Bloodgruve.6038]

I just signed up to be my guilds Chronotank. Spent a lot of cash getting to full Minstrel's and I am using Sigil of Concentration.

 

Minstrel's allows me to learn and make a few mistakes without going down. If you're going in fresh and are looking to learn class and content its a great but expensive set. Chronotank is very fun but be aware that your DPS is 'just the worst'...

 

If you're building it, don't craft it strait away. Craft something cheap and switch stats in the Mystic Forge, buy the Fractals gear with select-able stats and farm LWS3 for trinkets.