I take it all back: Chrono tank is fun.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

I'd assumed for a long time that it was this mega stressful slog... but I felt invincible. Way less stress than a support chronomancer with 3dps.

 

Boons down, block up, SoI, attack until it's weapon swap time.

 

I realize VG is one of the simpler raid bosses, but... it was almost peaceful. My janky mishmash of minstrels, wanderers and nomads with dolyak runes felt like quality armour (thanks), unlike my glass cannon zerk/diviner stuff.

 

 

[Xstein.2187]

It was a lot more fun when you could distort greens. A lota skill has been taken out of the game. But I suppose everyone has a different opinion of what is fun.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

> @"Xstein.2187" said:

> A lota skill has been taken out of the game.

 

When you've finished raining on my parade, could you explain what about it has lost skill requirement? The fact that you can no-longer spam distortion for aegis for greens?

[Teefy.5016]

some people enjoy rolling their head on the keyboard and still achieve what a class is supposed to do. im glad you like the new mesmer.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

> @"Teefy.5016" said:

> some people enjoy rolling their head on the keyboard and still achieve what a class is supposed to do.

 

Okay, I enjoyed playing tactically and having to save my skills to use when needed, such as the evade on sword 2 to counteract the teleports. I enjoyed playing a different role than I'm used to with and using defensive skills and positioning while still maintaining a level of boon provision, DPS and healing. I enjoyed having to lead the boss around the arena to ensure the party's survival and play both actively _and_ reactively in order to get the best result, unlike off-chrono, which always felt very reactive to me as I felt like I was split between watching cooldowns and having to deal with adds.

 

But yes obviously I did most of this while just bashing random buttons and shouting "hur dur I am tank" with my trousers on my head then sat down to draw pictures of myself as a dinosaur with crayons, only two of which I ate this time. I'm proud of me.

 

If someone says they enjoy something, how is saying "yeah but it used to be harder" going to do anything other than make you look condescending?

 

However, you did say...

 

> im glad you like the new mesmer.

 

Thanks!

[Xstein.2187]

> @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

> > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > A lota skill has been taken out of the game.

>

> When you've finished raining on my parade, could you explain what about it has lost skill requirement? The fact that you can no-longer spam distortion for aegis for greens?

 

Apologies, when I say it was a lot more fun, I meant I had a lot more fun. From your first post, you did nothing but insinuate that you enjoyed a more passive, stress free play style, which is fine. I am happy for you. However, if someone then says that they enjoy a more interactive/high skill experience instead, that doesn't necessarily mean they are just trying to be rude or rain on your parade. They may actually enjoy more of an interactive/skillful experience, or at least an experience where they can improve and move up in skill level. There is nothing wrong with this.

 

Chrono was more fun for me when you could actually distort your allies instead of just giving them ageis. This required very precise timing while also having to worry about other things. There was nothing close to 'spam' involved with this. If you don't like this play style, that is ok. I am not trying to deride you by saying I don't enjoy it being more passive or less stressful. I didn't write it because I felt like making fun of you. I wrote it because I firmly disagree with you. I enjoy playing a class or build where you can constantly improve and try to get better in, seeing better results from your endeavors in the process. That doesn't mean that you can't improve with any class in the game. It just means that if you play XXXX amount of hours on a class, you may hit a ceiling in your improvement process relatively quicker than you wish.

 

I personally don't like passive game play in this game at all, whether it is PvP, PvE, or WvW. In the end I also believe it makes balancing rather more controversial since you may have one class that presses 3 buttons to get X results while you have another class that only presses 1. In PvP it also leads to a sense of unfairness when a class can do something without the player even pressing a button just because they are traited into it.

 

"If someone says they enjoy something, how is saying "yeah but it used to be harder" going to do anything other than make you look condescending?"

 

Because you pretty much literally said you enjoyed it BECAUSE it is easy to play, or at least that was the impression I got. If not, I am misunderstanding you. I haven't played in a long time, but I wouldn't even necessarily say it was harder. However, IMO, to get optimal results did require more skill, and that was the fun part about it for me, constantly improving and pushing for more optimal results.

 

 

 

 

[Gulbasaur.1865]

Thanks for your response. I think we both got the wrong end of the stick.

 

I think I enjoyed the different pace, and to be honest I did find it easier than off-chrono, partly because it was more engaging to play.

[mortrialus.3062]

I've always loved it personally. I just wish anet would stop forcing us to learn new rotations and regear outselves every. single. patch. Like yeah Chrono needed to be brought in line but do it in one chunk not every freaking patch.

[Pyroatheist.9031]

Chrono was definitely much more enjoyable when you had agency to do, well, anything really. Distortion share gave Chrono the agency to skillfully let the squad avoid a variety of different attacks; this was both very technical play and fun to do. Previous incarnations of boonshare gave the Chrono agency to apply boons as needed, when they were needed.

 

Now, Chrono has most of that agency taken away. You can't give boons, you just have to kinda leave them on the ground and hope somebody picks them up. You can still share aegis, but the effect of that is much weaker, and the mechanic is many times easier to pull off because of how long aegis lasts. All of these changes have simply made Chrono both less effective, less technical to play, easier to play, and less fun.

 

Maybe you enjoy the current mindless playstyle where you basically just use skills off cooldown and ignore everything else, but those of us who played when it was different think otherwise.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

> @"Pyroatheist.9031" said:

> Maybe you enjoy the current mindless playstyle where you basically just use skills off cooldown and ignore everything else, but those of us who played when it was different think otherwise.

 

As I said above, I like how focussed it is and how calculating you have to be compared to illusion spam chrono or well spam chrono. It's not mindless at all and that's what I enjoyed.

[Pyroatheist.9031]

> @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

> > @"Pyroatheist.9031" said:

> > Maybe you enjoy the current mindless playstyle where you basically just use skills off cooldown and ignore everything else, but those of us who played when it was different think otherwise.

>

> As I said above, I like how focussed it is and how calculating you have to be compared to illusion spam chrono or well spam chrono. It's not mindless at all and that's what I enjoyed.

 

With all due respect, that's categorically wrong, and you even say as much in your original post.

 

> @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

> Boons down, block up, SoI, attack until it's weapon swap time.

 

That doesn't really sound like a "focused and calculating" playstyle to me. And, indeed, it is not. You don't need to worry about illusion management because they don't matter. You don't need to worry about swapping weapons to gain boon uptime because that's gone. You don't have to worry about properly timing shatters to share boons like stability because you can't do that.

 

Literally all you have to do is drop Wells and use shield 5 and SoI off cooldown. Everything else is basically just normal tanking stuff like walking in a circle with VG, hardly the height of calculated play.

[Teefy.5016]

> @"Pyroatheist.9031" said:

> > @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

> > > @"Pyroatheist.9031" said:

> > > Maybe you enjoy the current mindless playstyle where you basically just use skills off cooldown and ignore everything else, but those of us who played when it was different think otherwise.

> >

> > As I said above, I like how focussed it is and how calculating you have to be compared to illusion spam chrono or well spam chrono. It's not mindless at all and that's what I enjoyed.

>

> With all due respect, that's categorically wrong, and you even say as much in your original post.

>

> > @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

> > Boons down, block up, SoI, attack until it's weapon swap time.

>

> That doesn't really sound like a "focused and calculating" playstyle to me. And, indeed, it is not. You don't need to worry about illusion management because they don't matter. You don't need to worry about swapping weapons to gain boon uptime because that's gone. You don't have to worry about properly timing shatters to share boons like stability because you can't do that.

>

> Literally all you have to do is drop Wells and use shield 5 and SoI off cooldown. Everything else is basically just normal tanking stuff like walking in a circle with VG, hardly the height of calculated play.

 

some might refer to that as 'rolling your head on the keyboard'. certainly not me though ^^