User:Endaris/Maximizing defiance bar damage in Open World Events

The following is an exercise to maximize personal CC on breakbars in Open World events.

The original motivation was carrying the CC on the Shatterer for the No-Fly Zone achievement as even with United Legions Waystation, groups fail to break the bar more often in not. In part this is likely related to DPS now being so high that many squads can bring the Shatterer below 50% health before the first breakbar, causing the healing crystals to spawn first. As those incite CC use as well, it seems likely that crowd control with longer cooldowns will be on cooldown for the Shardstorm breakbar and   Electromagical Pulse 2.0 is either not sufficient or not being used by enough people to break the bar.

Gear

There are only a few gear pieces able to contribute to defiance bar damage so they should be assumed as default:

• Superior Rune of the Mesmer improves .
• Superior Sigil of Paralyzation improves and and   Signet of Humility.
• Relic of Dagda inflicts a 2s Daze; although Relic of the Citadel can technically inflict up to 3s of Stun, the only elite skills that do so are racials which generally have long cast times and are otherwise awful.

Race + Class selection

The primary drivers for the selection are quantity, speed and accessibility. For race,   Technobabble makes Asura the clear winner as it is ranged, instant cast and has a high base value affected by both Superior Rune of the Mesmer and Superior Sigil of Paralyzation.

For class, two options immediately catch the eye:

• with its  Moment of Clarity trait and the ability to effectively use some CCs simultaneously by having some animation and cast time offloaded onto the pet.
• due to the ability to use crowd control twice, the ability to assure personal quickness and access to   Signet of Humility.

Both also benefit from large amounts of CC being available at range.

It is of course always possible to compensate with powerful CC bundles such as Metal Bar, however, accessibility is worse as they are often slightly slower due to the extra need to click and the fact that they are often melee or otherwise have longer animations.

Chronomancer

Continuum Split resets not only active skill cooldowns but also trait and relic cooldowns, so Chronomancer can make use of Relic of Dagda twice.

List of defiance bar breaks

Unlike the list on the Defiance bar page, these are listed assuming the mentioned gear to improve defiance bar damage. Decimal values are floored. Skills are roughly ordered by how good / important they are.

Chronomancer defiance bar break of utilities / elite skills

Skill	Defiance bar damage	Cast Time
Signet of Humility	780	1
Technobabble	489	0
Power Lock	244	0
Lesser Chaos Storm	163	0 (via   Power Return)
Time Sink	100 + (number of clones) * 100	0
Signet of Domination	390	0.25
Electromagical Pulse 2.0	360	1
Well of Senility	489	0.75 (huge delay!)

Some weapon skills are left out as their CC is too weak to consider.

Chronomancer defiance bar break of weapon skills

Skill	Defiance bar damage	Cast Time
Counter Blade	326	~0.8-1.0 (losing time on the initial activation)
Magic Bullet	325	0.5
Mental Collapse	390	1.25 (including the necessary cast of   Mind the Gap)
Tides of Time	260	0.75 (second hit delayed!)
Phantasmal Sharpshooter	260	0.75 (delay!)

Trait selection

Take  Chaos for  Method of Madness.  Bountiful Disillusionment can help to ensure you won't be interrupted.

In  Chronomancer taking  Illusionary Reversion can give you an extra clone for   Time Sink. Use  Seize the Moment to assure you have quickness. Pick  Delayed Reactions if you think  Slow won't be fully covered.

For the last traitline,  Ego Restoration in  Inspiration will generate another clone for   Time Sink if it is being cast before.  Mental Defense can be used to circumvent  Blinded whereas  Blurred Inscriptions grants you additional distortion and, if relevant, strip  Resistance with   Signet of Domination to make sure conditions affect the bar.

Alternative you can pick  Illusions and  Master of Fragmentation to make Continuum Split available more often and increase the time you have.

Combos

Mesmer is good at fast CC, possessing 3 instant cast dazes in   Time Sink,   Power Lock and   Method of Madness (if used with   Power Return) on top of Technobabble.

The order of the instant casts does not matter besides   Power Return coming before   Time Sink.

3 second combo

For very short break bars you can cast

Short breakbar combo

Skill	Defiance bar damage	Cast Time
Signet of Humility	780	1
Continuum Split (when beginning to cast of Moa)	0	0
Technobabble (during Moa)	489	0
Lesser Chaos Storm (during Moa)	163	0 (via   Power Return)
Power Lock (during Moa)	244	0
Time Sink (during Moa)	200 (300 if CS was cast with 3 clones)	0
Continuum Shift	0	0
Signet of Humility	780	1
Technobabble (during Moa)	489	0
Lesser Chaos Storm (during Moa)	163	0 (via   Power Return)
Power Lock (during Moa)	244	0
Time Sink (during Moa)	200	0
Relic of Dagda (from first Moa)	326	0 (hitting briefly after second Moa)
Relic of Dagda (from second Moa)	326	0 (hitting about a second after)
Total	4404	2s cast time (~3s total)

While this takes some practice to pull off cleanly with all the instant casts during Moa, the lack of cast times makes it relatively easy to land and small delays only cause the second Relic hit to be late.

An additional advantage is that no clone is needed to fit all skills into   Continuum Split.

If your Chrono is not an Asura, replace Technobabble with   Signet of Domination and start the Continuum Split a bit later to make sure it still fits in a 0 clone cast.

10 second combo

When you really have time, Chrono becomes unmatched. Ideally start with three clones but you can fit everything with just two as well.

Being good at the 3s combo already takes away most of the difficulty. The instant casts are not specified as during Moa as they can be cast any time during Continuum Split.

Delaying the cast into the second half of Moa can give you more time to press all the buttons if you struggle landing it with only two clones.

Long breakbar combo

Skill	Defiance bar damage	Cast Time
Signet of Humility	780	1
Continuum Split (during cast of Moa)	0	0
Technobabble	489	0
Lesser Chaos Storm	163	0 (via   Power Return)
Power Lock	244	0
Time Sink	300 (400 if CS was cast with 3 clones)	0
Well of Senility	489	0.75
Counter Blade or   Magic Bullet	325	0.75
Relic of Dagda (from first Moa)	326	0 (hitting briefly after second Moa)
optionally use CC bundles, e.g. Stunning Strike	optional 650+	0-2.5
Continuum Shift	0	0
Well of Senility first to make sure it pops	489	0.75
Signet of Humility	780	1
Technobabble	489	0
Lesser Chaos Storm	163	0 (via   Power Return)
Power Lock	244	0
Time Sink	300	0
Counter Blade or   Magic Bullet	325	0.75
Relic of Dagda (from second Moa)	326	0
Weaponswap and   Counter Blade or   Magic Bullet	325	0.75
Repeat optional CC bundles, e.g. Stunning Strike	optional 650+	0-2.5
Total	6557 (7957 with Metal Bar and CS with 3 clones)	7s cast time (8.5s with Metal Bar)

With some practice you can comfortably fit one bundle even with only 2 clones.

Untamed

is the shoe-in for thanks to its improved control over pet abilities and access to personal quickness.

Traits

Besides  Moment of Clarity, you can pick between multiple trait lines for either  Quick Draw to use a weapon CC twice,  Nature's Vengeance for use with   Storm Spirit or even  Beastly Warden as  Taunt is the only condition scarce enough to not expect coverage from random players.

Skills

Ranger's skill selection is unfortunately not that good so without Asura's Technobabble you are losing a lot of value. Use   Storm Spirit and   Spike Trap to fill out your utilities.

Take Maces to maximize weapon CC. The second weapon set can use either Warhorn or Greatsword. When using  Quick Draw, Warhorn makes things easier as   Oaken Cudgel will be available on either weapon set.

When fielding  Nature's Vengeance, make sure to open with   Storm Spirit to ensure the second slam hits before the breakbar is locked again.

Use pets that have two crowd control skills like Juvenile Rock Gazelle, Juvenile Lightning Wyvern or Juvenile Siege Turtle. Make sure you get familiar with their animations so you can pet swap in a timely manner and use the other one's CC skills.

Precast   Entangle so that Relic of Dagda hits immediately when it becomes available.

With practice and coordination, Untamed should be able to get up to 4000 defiance bar damage within 5 seconds without use of CC bundles, making it a lot slower than Chrono.

The main advantage is that the trait selection for Untamed remains favorable for DPS builds whereas the ideal traitlines for CC on Chronomancer suggest a healing build.

Additionally Untamed is more consistent in its output as it does not rely on huge cooldowns like Continuum Split or Moa for the bulk of its CC but rather a lot of hard hitting abilities with low to moderate cooldowns and daze/stun based consumables like Stunning Strike hit like a truck.