Chronomancer & Mirage Question

[Purecura.1795]

Hello fellow Illusionist,

 

I’ve been reading the Mesmer forums as of late and I have a few questions regarding some of the things I’ve read.

 

I was wondering if Chronomancer is meant for those Mesmer players who desire to focus more on Power and support play, and Mirage is for those Mesmer who want to focus more on Condi play?

 

Thank you!

[Bod.8261]

You don't need to read the forums to get to this conclusion:

Mirage traits benefit condi and axe is clearly a condi weapon, while chrono offers no benefits to (damaging) conditions and is all about support and defense.

 

Nontheless, Mirage can still be played as an effective power build and condi chrono was popular for quite some time.

The meta is quite different depending at the game mode you are looking at.

[Refia Montes.3205]

In PvE:

- Chronomancer provides a lot to Mesmer's Power damage through Chronophantasma, support through Wells and doubling those up, with Continuum Split, speeding it up with Improved Alacrity.

- Mirage provides the tools neccessary to improve Condition Damage. Infinite Horizon is often the main trait of Mirage, allowing your clones (specifically Axe clones) to do Ambushes. It also provides a much better Condition weapon.

 

In PvP/WvW, it's different since more things matter other than damage, support and healing. Both builds can be played with either Power or Condi, in this case you'll be looking at their utility and what they provide for Mesmer. Mirage gives you tons of mobility and defense through Mirage Cloak, while Chronomancer gives you more shatter spam.

[Bloodgruve.6038]

In PvE

For Power damage Chronomancer is where you want to be. The high dps builds push out a lot of Phantasms and supplement with Shatters and melee. There is a lot going on here but its fun and rewarding if you can master it. Pretty much Berserker/Assassin gear, check the meta build sites for the best setup.

 

For Condi you want to go Mirage. This is focused on getting three illusions up and 'dodging' a lot supplemented with phantasms but rarely shatters. I really like Mirage, tons of mobility and evasion with great damage output. Not a lot of support here though. This is full Viper gear.

 

Chrononmacer is where you want to be for support. Great boons and boon sharing. Depending on your build you can be tank/heal/boons or you can go more dps/boons. Concentration is an important stat here. I started with Minstrel's gear for healing and boon duration but there are a lot of options for support builds.