Chronomancer - Inspi/Chaos Chrono

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Crowd control and Utility

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 25, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

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

Skill Bar

Sword/Focus

Rifle

Utility

Variants

Weapons

• Focus ⇒ Shield

Utility

• A group needs 1-2 mesmers on Veil as well as some Illusion of Life before other utilities should be considered
  • Veil
  • Illusion of Life
  • Mantra of Resolve
  • Signet of Illusions - with Mental Defense

Elite

• Gravity Well

Template Code

[&DQctOhcuKCltAQAAhQEAAJMSAAAAAAAAvAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

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Specializations

Variants

• Ego Restoration - with Gravity Well
• Mental Defense provides substantial Resistance at the start of fights with Continuum Split but with much less Condition Clear

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

Rifle
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x12

Infusion
x6

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relic

• Relic of the Flock
• Relic of Cerus - for boon removal

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Frenzy
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Life
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Nullification

Rune

• Worse than Rune of Superior Rune of the Water, but by a small amount and much cheaper
  • Rune of Superior Rune of Radiance
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Herald
  • Rune of Superior Rune of Leadership

Usage

Quick Guide

• Chronomancer supports its group by maintaining critical boons, particularly Stability
• Keep Stability on your group for each push by spreading out your cooldowns

Stability Skills

• Mantra of Concentration
• Well of Precognition

• Use Continuum Split to reset the cooldown of your elite skill and Mantra of Concentration
• Keep important boons up with Weapon Skills and Shatters + Bountiful Disillusionment
• CC enemies on your groups spikes

CC Skills

• Temporal Curtain ⇒ Into the Void
• Illusionary Leap ⇒ Swap
• Phantasmal Sharpshooter
• Tides of Time (with Shield)

Surviving

• This build has high passive defense
• This build has low mobility skill access
• This build has moderate active defenses

Defensive Skill List

• Blurred Frenzy
• Distortion

• 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

Priorities

High

• Illusion of Life
• Veil
• Stability

Moderate

• Boon Support
• CC

Low

• Healing and Condition Clear

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.

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

Stability

Stability priority

1. Mantra of Concentration
2. Well of Precognition
3. Continuum Split + Bountiful Disillusionment

• Apply Stability before allies get caught by enemy CC
  • Enemy CC is most likely to land when they spike your group, your group is moving through theirs, or your group is moving away from theirs
    • It is better to use your Stability too early than too late
• Avoid overlapping multiple Stability sources on your party, both your own and other players
• Keep Mantra of Concentration charged before a fight starts
• Prioritize recharging Mantra of Concentration over everything other than survival if it is uncharged and off cooldown
• Use one charge of Mantra of Concentration before using Continuum Split then use the second charge inside Continuum Split. This will reset the recharge of Mantra of Concentration
• When using Stability skills cover the application by applying other boons immediately after the cast
  • Your Shatter skills with Bountiful Disillusionment other than Continuum Split are ideal for this because they are instant, but any boon application is worth doing
  • This is done because boon strips (which are the most common type of boon removal) always work on a first in, last out priority
    • This means boon strips will always remove the most recently applied boons first
    • Boon corrupts remove a random boon which this technique can still mitigate by ensuring you have as many unique boons as possible
• The Stability from Continuum Split + Bountiful Disillusionment is generally not worth considering, since Mantra of Concentration will always be used with the first Continuum Split, but in longer fights where Continuum Split comes off cooldown it can be used as an alternative application

Boon Support

Non-Stability Boons Per Skill

• Quickness
  • All Shatter skills via Seize the Moment
• Time Warp - Quickness + Resistance (Temporal Enchanter)
• Split Second - Might (Bountiful Disillusionment)
• Rewinder - Vigor (Bountiful Disillusionment) + Protection (Illusionary Defense)
• Time Sink - Fury (Bountiful Disillusionment)
• Distortion - Regeneration (Bountiful Disillusionment)
• Journey - Regeneration
• Singularity Shot - Resistance
• Mantra of Recovery - Swiftness (Relic of Febe)

• Make sure to cast your Phantasms as often as possible to proc Stretched Time
• Use your Shatters as often as possible, with the exception of Continuum Split to give boons with Bountiful Disillusionment and Seize the Moment
  • Since Continuum Split resets all CDs, you should try to use all Shatters while inside it
• Use Mantra of Recovery to proc Relic of Febe off cooldown for Swiftness
  • There is no in-game tracker for the relic cooldown
• Your Rifle skills should be cast as often as possible while engaging the enemy group
  • Always cast the flip skill Abstraction when using Inspiring Imagery
  • You should almost never use Dimensional Aperture since it increases the CD of Singularity Shot
• Save Time Warp until Continuum Split is ready unless the cooldown on Continuum Split is very high
• Use Continuum Split when casting Time Warp 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 Shatter skills as possible since 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

CC

CC skill List

• Temporal Curtain - AoE Pull
• Gravity Well - AoE Pull
• Illusionary Leap - AoE Immobilize
• Phantasmal Sharpshooter - AoE Stun

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike such as Wells (Well of Corruption)
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive enemies are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups move defensively while your group is pushing
• Use Temporal Curtain to pull targets into other CC and spikes, including your own Gravity Well if you're using it
  • Temporal Curtain is particularly important when your group range spikes
• The CC of Phantasmal Sharpshooter is unreliable, use it primarily to proc Seize the Moment and don't worry too much if the CC lands
• 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 Illusionary Leap

Healing and Condition Clear

• Your Rifle skills should be cast as often as possible while engaging the enemy group
  • Always cast the flip skill Abstraction when using Inspiring Imagery
• Most of your condition clear comes from using Shatter skills with Restorative Illusions
  • Prioritize using shatters for boon uptime, but keep this trait in mind. If you expect to need condition clear soon you can delay casting them

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