Build:Chronomancer - Support Chronomancer

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Crowd control, Boon removal and Utility

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on January 20, 2024 and is up to date for the April 16, 2024 patch.

Overview

Support Chronomancer WvW build focusing on revival, utility and crowd control.

Skill Bar

Sword/Focus

X/Shield

Utility

Variants

Weapon

• Sword/Shield ⇒ Staff more Chaos Aura
• Sword/Shield ⇒ Greatsword more phantasms for Quickness or Alacrity

Heal

• Well of Eternity
• Mantra of Recovery efficient for proccing "on heal" effects

Utility

• Mantra of Concentration if veil isn't needed or you have a party without a guardian

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Bountiful Blades with Greatsword

Variants

• Seize the Moment trade Alacrity for Quickness, worth taking if quickness uptime is low in party

Equipment

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Minstrel

Chest
Minstrel

Hands
Minstrel

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Minstrel

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Sword
Minstrel

Focus
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Minstrel

Shield
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Stats

• Minstrel can be replaced by Wanderer or Celestial

Relic

• Relic of Cerus - for extra boon removal

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy ⇒ Sigil of Superior Sigil of Concentration
  • Swapping the energy sigil on Sword/Shield out lets you keep 100% duration on both sets

Consumables

• • Any 100 concentration personal food is viable, since most commanders won't drop this feast

Usage

General

• If using Mantra of Concentration make sure to recharge as often as possible since the skill recharge is much lower than the count recharge

Priorities

High

• Illusion of Life
• Veil

Moderate

• CC
• Boon rip

Low

• Supporting allies

Surviving

• This build has high passive defense
• This build has low mobility skill access, staying very close to your tag and group is critical
  • Target isolated players to reposition with Illusionary Leap/Swap, the clone will die before Swap can be used if it is summoned into damage
    • Be ready to Dodge as soon as you press Swap
• This builds has moderate active defenses
  • Deja Vu will not activate if you are not hit during the cast time of Echo of Memory
    • Signet of the Ether will reset the cooldown of Echo of Memory but not if Deja Vu is active

Active defense priority

• Dodge
• Echo of Memory
  • Deja Vu
• Distortion

Detailed Explanations

Illusion of Life

• Focus on reviving allies who are far away with Illusion of Life, don't waste the skill on players that can be hand rezzed.
• Normally Continuum Split should be saved for Gravity Well, but resetting Illusion of Life is also an acceptable use

Veil

• Save your Veil for the commanders call
  • If you aren't using voice communication, use it as your group pushes into melee, avoid wasting it for a range spike
• Place your Veil as close to the front of your group as possible without letting the line spawn on top of any allies

CC

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike:
    • Winds - Winds of Disenchantment
    • Wells - Well of Corruption+Well of Suffering
    • Shades - Desert Shroud
    • Traps - Procession of Blades+Test of Faith
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing
• Your CC skills also remove boons with Vicious Expression
• Use Continuum Split when casting Gravity Well to reset the cooldown
  • Use Continuum Split while out of the way of enemy damage and pushes so you aren't brought back in an awkward spot or have your split ended early by damage
  • While inside the split, use as many skills as possible such as Null Field and Shatter skills as the cooldowns reset
  • You can cast Continuum Split as another skill cast is finishing instead of before the cast to give yourself slightly more time in split
• Use Temporal Curtain to pull targets into other CC and spikes, including your own Gravity Well
  • Temporal Curtain is particularly important when revenants range spike with Phase Smash
• Use Illusionary Leap as your group pushes into the enemy or when trying to catch an enemy that is lagging behind
  • Do not put yourself out of position trying to use it

CC skill priority

• Temporal Curtain - on range spikes
• Tides of Time - in melee
• Gravity Well
• Temporal Curtain - general usage
• Illusionary Leap

Boon rip

• Your shatters (Split Second, Rewinder and Time Sink) proc Shattered Concentration
  • Since your shatters are melee range, use them when crossing through enemies
    • Don't go out of your way to hit enemies with shatters if it would put you out of position
• Land Null Field just before an allies spike when possible. Try to place it so one edge is on the enemy group and the other edge is in the direction they are moving

Boon rip skill priority

• Time Sink - when in range and targets lack Stability, to proc Vicious Expression
• Split Second/Rewinder - when in range
• Null Field

Supporting allies

• Make sure to cast your Phantasms as often as possible to proc Stretched Time
  • Be careful using Echo of Memory since it is valuable defensively
  • Use Signet of the Ether to reset your Phantasms cooldowns for more application
• If possible, hit allies as well as enemies with Null Field, but prioritize enemies

Settings

• Under General Options / Combat/Movement turn on Allow Skill Retargetting and set Ground Targetting to Instant Cast, this will make Illusion of Life cast at the location your cursor is at the end of the cast, instead of where you initially targetted
• Under General Options / User Interface check Always show squad health bars and Always show party health bars. These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support
• Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars and Thick squad health bars
• Under Squad Options check View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' health, enabling better decision-making and skill management

Tips & Tricks

Wall Pulling

• Place Temporal Curtain at the lowest point of a wall that is horizontally in line with the top edge (But not further than 600 range on desert BL walls)
  • Since Into the Void activates in a radius, this will not reduce the range of your pull but will hide its position and increase the chance of pulling people off walls
• Use Illusionary Leap ⇒ Swap to give Immobilize to pulled targets
  • It is easier if you pre target enemies likely to get pulled before casting Into the Void

Portal Bombing

• Portal bombing is a very high risk strategy and is never recommended
• Try to open Portal Exeunt behind terrain with respect to the enemy group if possible
• Swap your skills to Blink Portal Entre and Veil and Mass Invisibility
• Equip a torch for The Prestige
  • Optionally equip the Chaos traitline for Prismatic Understanding

1. Cast Portal Entre at your groups feet
2. Start running towards the location you want to open the portal
3. Use The Prestige while casting Mass Invisibility
4. Cast Blink at any time to get closer
5. Once in position open Portal Exeunt
6. Cast Veil directly on the center of the portal