TheKearth: I played as chrono heal and druid heal before the expansion, but now i just stay on trubadur, and I'm in love. Also in my opinion you do so little dmg that you shoud go full giver and never die.

ThucNguyen-cw9hu: As a Mesmer main, I’m so underwhelmed with this elite spec. It plays almost identical to heal chrono and for dps almost identical to virtuoso. The gameplay loop gets boring after a few hours. There should’ve been more interactivity with the instruments and not just them being a new set of shatters

repapeti98: I love Miguel in the thumbnail

wuzzle5261: Hi Muk! I know you largely stick to PvE for these demos while you're trying these. I was kinda underwhelmed by troub in pve, there's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't really differentiate itself in playstyle in anyway I cared about, despite actually, GENUINELY loving the music you play. Just mechanically it felt like a blander chrono.

Hoooooooooooowever, I also tried it in WvW. Good. Golly. Miss. Molly. I have never had more fun healing WvW. The F4 burst was fun in both small group and blobs, and the ability to refresh it with the shatter-recover signet active was SO funny, every single time. Strong recommend.

WingyLalka: As a chrono heal main, troub just feels like a less flexible version of chrono. Same kit, same buttons to press, except you're stuck to quickness (for some reason they've changed the boon between beta and release) and dont have double moa cc with continuum split. And also dont have precog well

hipoglouton6602: That music "feature" is why I stopped playing troubadour so fast. Nostalgia is a b**ch, and it reminded me too much of my half a decade as a bard in Dark age of Camelot.

After a few sessions with the spec, I don't if what I hate most is the melody of the instruments as it's completely out of touch with the game's music, or the fading out/mute effect you described. At least they should make it a checkbox in the sound parameters.

Fardolah: I played chrono a lot. In terms of gameplay, you give away CS (that, talking honestly, only needed for min-maxing the build in very specific situations - healing/boons are great in chrono even without F5) for even more healing and boons. Also, no flexibility in alac/quick with one trait change.

Probably, dps is higher with chrono… but who cares about healers dps in casual gaming?

The key problem is that (except music) they could’ve done the bardicization with any other spec of mesmer and noone would have seen a difference.

“Oh, wow, my clones are musicians now!”

Slarkreef: thanks muck, i really love your videos. im pretty new to gw2 and your videos have taught me quite a bit. i've always thought mesmer was cool but the clone management intimated me so i was thrilled to give troubadour a play and have been loving it. would love to see more videos on it! you da man

thedoodelydo: As a mesmer main I appreciate you bringing up the background music issue, would love to get my boss fight music back!

lyokhamishukov3513: Holy skritt Dragonlance mentioned! I haven't read those books in a LONG time

framinthor: I'd say the only mesmer builds that feel different to play is the 3 elite specializations, and not Troubadour. We can discount it into generator spender, but I think the way you generate is what makes them feel unique enough, but troubadour doesn't really feel unique in its way of generation...

Virt generates based on bleed stack or how many you spent

Mirage generates by dodging / casting mirage abilities

Chrono is a pain in the ass to generate with

Troubadour just feels like a slightly easier to use Chronomancer with less CC

Leafycoke: Heal mantra also generates notes because of Ego Restoration. It should be spammed off cooldown.

Athiette: I find Troubadour a lot more enjoyable to play than Chronomancer because it has a number of ways to generate notes without a hostile target, so you don't lose all your boons when the boss goes immune or vanishes. It's not a huge drawback in PvE but it's a personal pet peeve that has always frustrated me about chrono, so I love troubadour partially because it lets me play with the mesmer toolkit without needing to put up with that. That factor also helps it a lot in WvW where it's a blast to play.

nopehah6906: They just need to make a 'Disable Audio Ducking' function

msampson3d: So far I have literally not seen a single troubadour out in the wild

toddwittie4421: Your point on the Troubadour not feeling very different from the other Mesmer specs is why I'm not upset at the spec getting rid of Clones.

When I started playing GW2 a couple of years ago I really loved the Mesmer because I thought it was so unique generating clones and then using them to distract before shattering them.

But over the last two years I've really started feeling like Clones really don't do much of anything unless you're on Staff Mirage.

Mesmers don't have any boons, or damage unless the clones are constantly getting Shattered . They don't stay out long enough to hold any aggro from me... And if I do keep them alive then I can't do diddly squat because I have no boons and my damage is low.

I've long felt my Chronomancer had an abstract resource builder and spender mechanic so I'm not upset when they remove the clones so I don't lose the resource from them being killed or losing their targets.

I think as a support Troubadour will be better for beginners than Chronomancer because it'll be a lot easier to keep the boons up without them being fully tied to how MANY clones you have available for every shatter.

xbsidesx: I didn’t know about the player instrument thing and it’s now an issue for me too. I was finding it odd when I was in a map that I like the music and suddenly I’m not hearing it. It’s a big thing as music and sfx are one of the biggest things that makes you immerse in the games environment. Having said that I also think it’s something they can fix in the nearby feature easily. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the video, very good as usual!

bowenmadden6122: My favorite thing about Signet of Humility is pairing it with Chrono's Continuum Split for double the CC. Especially useful if my rotation is messed up (leaving me with no clones but no cooldown left on continuum split) or to save people from Barbed Vale's insta-kill grab.

pfd1970: INSTANT thumbs up for the Tasslehoff (Kender), Dragonlance reference!

cameirusisu1024: I think your comment on it feeling very similar to other mesmers is valid, and also applies to a fair few of the new elites, like amalgam, which every pve spec seems to go out of its way to avoid using any amalgam utilities and just takes the standard kits on, or ritualist which plays very much like other necros esp scourge.....Its why I think antiquary and galeshot and luminary are the best new elites, whether you like them or not, as they do fundamentally offer a new style of play for that profession (luminary slightly less so as its got some cross over with firebrand tomes).

chavian0: Pretty sure that elite skill is pronounced Aww-GUST, as in the adjective, not the month (well, in theory, both are credited to the same person, the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar). It means to be awesome.

StavSaad: I approve the dragonlance mention.

BackwardsCombatable: I really like Troubador in terms of its kit, but I wish mechanically they had taken a Firebrand tome style approach to the instruments.

KalTaron: Good example for portals is Q1 (Qadim, W6 final reid boss). Makes it so much easier.

Ashendal: I run Scepter/Shield still on the weapon swap just like Heal Chrono for the same reasons as Heal Chrono runs them. More CC, clone (note) gen on the auto, and three instance of damage mitigation through blocking to deal with some mechanics. Yes, you will still want to be in Rifle most of the time for the actual healing that it does, but Sc/Sh is still a great off set like it's been for Mesmer heal setups for years at this point.

Nov 26 2025

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