The Scrying Pool continues its look at revealed Specializations with the Chronomancer.

There are some more interesting things going on with traits, such as the ability to keep a newly created phantasm alive during a shatter and another trait that spawns a clone at the Chronomancer whenever a shatter skill is used. The biggest reveal however, is the new shatter skill that Chronomancers gain access to: Continuum Split.

When you use this shatter, it saves the state of the Chronomancer including their health, cooldowns, energy bar and even their location. Continuum Split will then become Continuum Shift. Using Continuum Shift or letting the Continuum Split effect expire will revert the Chronomancer back to the state saved by Continuum Shift. An example of this is using Split, using my Elite skill and using Shift to revert back to the time before my Elite skill went on cooldown. The Elite skill will still be present as if it had fired, but will not be on any cooldown. This sounds incredibly amazing, to the extent that many people are thinking it is overpowered.

There are some counters to the Continuum Split, such as the ability to destroy the time rift created Continuum Split, reverting the Chronomancer unwillingly back to the location and, I am speculating, will not trigger the reversal of state on health and cooldowns. Even if it does revert the health and cooldowns back to the previous state, the early shift might have made the Chronomancer not get full effect on the skill which can be pretty devastating with its long cooldown (shown to be 60 seconds during the livestream but commented as currently being rebalanced to a longer cooldown).

I think Continuum Split could be really powerful, but in a way similar to Alacrity + cooldown reduction traits I mentioned earlier. Sure, using split to double time warp during a boss will be really powerful, but the true power of this ability I imagine will reveal itself in truly skillful play. Then again, maybe it doesn’t seem that overpowered to me as this isn’t far off from what I was speculating.

Back when I was speculating the Chronomancer, making notes for what would have been its own speculation article here for the Scrying Pool, it was before we knew that ArenaNet was looking to rehash old utility types for the Elite Specializations. While some of my speculations involved a new set of a new utility type (as seen with my Engineer’s Mechanic speculation), other speculations involved adding a new skill to each existing utility type. My idea of the Chronomancer was the latter.

The heal skill, for example, was a Mantra. Mantras are skills that have a long cast time to create multiple charges of a skill. These charges can then be instantly cast to use their effects with the skill not going on cooldown until all the charges are consumed. My idea for Chronomancer’s heal was Past Life:

Past Life — Meditate, charging up a single-use spell. On charge use: Return health to the amount present when the meditation was charged. Heals some additional health. Recharge based on amount of health restored. (Utility Type: Mantra, Heal)

So when I saw Continuum Split, it seemed really close to this idea I had speculated as a skill. In a way, Past Life is potentially more overpowered with the ability to use Mantras twice once charged (three times with a trait or by default once the trait changes go live). The only balance to this skill was the additional effect of the cooldown being increased based on the amount healed. Used Past Life as a near-death escape multiple times? Then you were going to be going a while without a heal skill. Unlike Continuum Split however, the idea of Past Life was purely affecting the Chronomancer’s life.

There were also a couple other skills I thought of that, while not exactly like what the Chronomancer is doing, keeps with the same design and feel of the spec.

Time Dilation Field — Pulses, granting swiftness to allies while damaging and slowing enemies. (Utility Type: Glamour)

Phantasmal Berserker — Summon a phantasm that attacks multiple times quickly. Whenever it takes damage it gains quickness and recharges its skill faster. If killed (not shattered), explodes giving quickness and reducing cooldowns on nearby allies. (Utility Type: Phantasm)

Time Dilation Field actually ended up close to what the Chronomancer Wells became. It pulsed and had the duality that is present throughout much of the Chronomancer. In this case it was taking speed from enemies and granting it to allies.

The idea behind Phantasmal Berserker was like a Hundred Blades phantasm, doing a bunch of hits that by the end of its skill would have done damage similar to other phantasms. What makes this stand out is its ability to grant Alacrity, though I hadn’t even thought to give the buff a name or spread it out to the rest of the Chronomancer skills.

That is the end of my skills that ended up similar to the actual Chronomancer skills. There is one other skill I had speculated about that I wanted to share, as I still think it is a really cool idea for a Mesmer skill.

Illusion of Healing — Put target’s healing skill on cooldown. If already on cooldown, deals damage equal to the amount of health it would heal. (Utility Type: Manipulation)

A really interesting Manipulation that forces the heal skill to go on cooldown, preventing your opponent from healing, but also doing something if the heal was already on cooldown. I don’t know which would be worse to have happen to me. Being without a heal skill could be pretty devastating, but taking a large chunk of damage while my heal is still on cooldown could be even more deadly.

This skill also fit into the idea that I thought Mesmers were lacking in offensive utility skills. Most of the utilities available to the Mesmer are support in nature. If anything, I am a little sad that the Chronomancer still appears to keep Mesmer as a more supportive class.

What do you think? Did Chronomancer end up being everything you wanted out of the Mesmer’s Elite Specialization? Does it sound too powerful, or maybe a little too underpowered? What profession are you most looking forward to hearing more about its Elite Specialization?

Matt "Mattsta" Adams is digging the Dragonhunter!

This was a week of little Guild Wars 2. No meaningful progress made on any of my goals. My current goals remain the same on the dungeon front while outside of the dungeon I have shifted to finishing the Jormag Defense Guide collection. I previously mentioned that I finished crafting the Corrupted Weapon skins which are the majority of this collection and now just need to craft Jormag's Breath and Jormag's Needle. What are you working on while we wait for Heart of Thorns?

If you have a question for me or a topic you would like to see talked about here, leave a comment below. You can also tweet your question and topics to me on twitter @MattstaNinja. Also, check out my site Mattsta.Ninja that focuses on guides and more for Guild Wars 2.