Build:Chronomancer - Boon Support Healer

This is a rough draft. Once adequately written, it will progress to the testing stage, where it can be rated by the community. You can help by proposing changes with a comment.

Focused on: Support and Utility

Designed for: Raids

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on March 29, 2023.

Overview

Due to the incredible range of utility and active defense that Chrono can bring, it remains a good choice of tank and boon support in raids.

However, many players will lean so hard into the defensive/utility aspects that they end up dealing no damage. If you find yourself DPS-racing a healmech, you might as well be a healer yourself!

Due to the difficulty providing key defensive boons such as Regeneration and Protection, this build may struggle to be a solo healer on some encounters but is a great choice for secondary healer.

Chronomancer provides EITHER 100% Quickness uptime or 100% Alacrity uptime as well as Fury and 25 Might. Both variants can dedicate multiple slots for utility skills, though the Quickness is slightly more flexible as its boons come from shatters rather than wells. On the other hand, Alacrity Chronomancer is one of the few builds that can provide its key boons at long-range, making it an excellent choice on encounters that require it to be a long way from the stack.

Due to the sheer range of options available, there is no "default" build for heal chrono, but rather a framework into which you can slot what you want for each encounter.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Shield

X/X

Utility

Weapon Variants

Sceptre/Shield Should be considered mandatory, but the other set can be what you like:

• Greatsword (coupled with the Domination traitline) provides some burst healing and boon rip.
• Staff can provide similar burst healing to Greatsword without the need to trait into Domination. It can also be used to improve personal Regeneration uptime and provide some random extra boons via Chaos Storm. Be aware that you should often NOT use Phase Retreat if tanking as you want the boss to remain still rather than chase you.
• Offhand Focus can be taken if you need Temporal Curtain to pull adds into the boss.

Skill Variants

Healing

• Well of Eternity is a massive group heal that can be boosted even further if using All's Well That Ends Well.
• Mantra of Recovery provides more consistent healing, as well as being able to trigger Mender's Purity frequently. Crucially, as the charges are instant cast it can be used to provide an AoE condi cleanse to counter Fear or Taunt.
• Mirror doesn't provide any group healing, but does offer a short projectile reflect, and if running Chaos with Master of Manipulation it can also be used to provide AoE Aegis.
• Healing Seed (Sylvari only) is the only way you have to reliable provide Regeneration to allies, which will be very helpful if you're the only healer.

Utility

Well of Action provides ~12 average Might to your subgroup. Combined with Tides of Time, this is sufficient to provide over 20 average Might. Mantra of Pain is taken as standard to fill in any gaps, but can be swapped out if you have other sources of Might in the group.

Quickness variant: Only shatters are needed for Quickness so you can bring any utility skills you need.

Alacrity variant: You need 2 wells (other than Gravity Well) to maintain Alacrity, otherwise you can bring whatever you need.

• CC options:
  • Well of Senility does decent CC and also removes boons.
  • Mantra of Distraction is not as strong as Well of Senility but recharges on a much shorter cooldown, which may make it better on encounters that require very frequent CC. When charging the mantra, it also reduces the cooldown on Time Sink.
  • Signet of Domination has a long cooldown, but is instant cast and could be taken along with the above if you really want to go overboard on CC.
• Aegis:
  • Blink if running Chaos with Master of Manipulation - short cooldown and instant cast, but be aware that the Aegis triggers at the location you activate the skill, not where you end up.
  • Well of Precognition can be used less frequently, but the duration of the Aegis is longer, which may be useful if you have concerns about your timing.
  • If running Blurred Inscriptions, any signet will also provide Aegis.
• Feedback provides a long-duration reflect.
• Mantra of Concentration provides Stability to your group.
• Portal Entre if you need a portal.
• Mimic allows you to get a second use out of a key skill if you'll need it more often than the cooldown. Often used together with Portal Entre.

Elite

• Time Warp is not required to maintain quickness, but it provides an easy way to start fights with quickness and can be used to cover up any mistakes in the rotation.
• Gravity Well should be used if an encounter requires heavy CC, and it can also be used to pad Alacrity if running that variant.
• Signet of Humility bigger and faster CC than Gravity Well but on a longer cooldown, which may be more suitable for some encounters.

Template Code

Note: Due to the aforementioned variety, these codes are incomplete. In particular the grandmaster trait in Chronomancer has not been selected.

Chaos variant

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Copy Template Code

Domination variant

[&DQcKFRcqKA/wEm0BaQFpAc8SAAAAAAAAvAG8AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Quickness variant: Use Seize the Moment.

Alacrity variant: Use Stretched Time.

Trait Variants

• Warden's Feedback can be taken if running Focus and the reflect will be valuable.
• Blurred Inscriptions gives you greater access to Distortion and Aegis, but you lose your main source of healing.
  • If taking this, you can constantly spam Mantra of Pain to trigger Restorative Mantras as your sustained healing instead.
• Delayed Reactions - if not bringing any wells, you can slightly increase your CC with this.

Specialization Variants

Chaos
Chaos offers more personal survivability, higher boon duration, and perhaps most usefully Master of Manipulation.

• You could bring Bountiful Disillusionment to give yourself more Stability.

Domination
With Bountiful Blades Greatsword has the highest illusion generation of any weapon and so can be used to rapidly trigger Illusionary Inspiration for burst healing on demand. You should be able to trigger this trait 11 times in a single weapon swap.

Equipment

Any combination of Minstrel stats or Harrier stats (or even Giver stats) will provide more than enough concentration to maintain boons. The setup below is merely a suggestion.

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Harrier

Chest
Harrier

Hands
Harrier

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Harrier

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Scepter
Harrier

Shield
Harrier

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

• This setup will hit ~100% boon duration with Chaos and +100 Concentration food, but neither of these is necessary.

Consumables

Food

• or any Healing Power/Concentration ascended food with the 10% outgoing healing effect.

Utility

Usage

As a healer, you don't really have a fixed rotation beyond using certain skills off cooldown, but consider the following guidelines.

Quickness

Quickness provision comes from Tides of Time and Seize the Moment so frequent clone generation and shattering is key. Open with your offset phantasm, then Echo of Memory for some opening clones for Continuum Split. Within CS spam shatters and use Well of Action, Tides of Time and/or Time Warp to give yourself a large buffer of Quickness.

Outside of CS, autoattack on sceptre to generate clones and use Split Second and Rewinder as soon as you have three clones.

Use Well of Action and Tides of Time off cooldown for Might and Quickness.

If you have Time Warp, you can use it should you notice Quickness dropping.

Alacrity

Thanks to Stretched Time, Tides of Time and all your wells generate Alacrity. Open in much the same way as the quickness variant.

Outside of CS, autoattack on sceptre for healing and use your chosen wells off cooldown.

Greatsword Burst

If using a Greatsword and Domination, you can spam illusions to trigger Illusionary Inspiration using a rotation very similar to the DPS one:

1. Weapon Swap
2. Phantasmal Berserker
3. Mirror Blade
4. Autoattack and use Mirror Blade when it comes off cooldown
5. Phantasmal Berserker
6. Mirror Blade
7. Weapon Swap

Healing

You have two options for sustained healing:

• Illusionary Inspiration heals in an AoE every time an illusion is generated. Phantasms will trigger this trait twice (once when they appear, and again then they become clones).
• Restorative Mantras provides a moderate AoE heal every time you charge a mantra. Mantra of Pain has practically no cooldown after its charges are expended so you can spam it constantly for healing.

Both of these options provide roughly equivalent healing per second, and due to the downtime on Mantra of Pain from having to expend charges, you can get in a full auto chain on sceptre. However, having to constantly activate Mantra of Pain will be quite awkward and the Quickness build needs consistent clone generation, so relying on sceptre autos is better in practise, leaving Mantra of Pain uncharged in case extra healing or Might is required.

If playing with All's Well That Ends Well, you will have regular healing from your wells. If you don't need it for Alacrity, you can save Well of Eternity for an emergency as it has an inherent heal on the final pulse as well as triggering the trait.

Tanking

You have many options to deal with incoming damage. Aside from your inherent healing you have the following:

• Illusionary Counter - a two second channeled that blocks an attack and causes you to evade afterwards. Also generates two clones so you are immediately healed via Illusionary Inspiration. The cooldown is very short so you can use it liberally even if you're not tanking.
• Echo of Memory - A lengthy channeled block that will provide AoE Protection after use, as well as triggering Illusionary Inspiration twice from the phantasm. If you block an attack, it flips to Deja Vu for 10 seconds, allowing you to repeat the skill.
• Distortion - Up to four seconds of invulnerability with three clones, allowing you to completely ignore the majority of attacks. Activating it also provides Aegis in an AoE.
• Well of Precognition - three pulses of Aegis in an AoE and personal Stability, which is enough to prevent a lot of incoming damage.

Continuum Split

Aside from providing an opening buffer of boons, you can use Continuum Split to get extra uses out of skills, either for the utility or for healing.

Crowd Control

Always have:

• Time Sink - Daze. Even on the Quickness build you shouldn't need to use this for boons, and so can save it for CC.
• Tides of Time - Stun

On off-set:

• Temporal Curtain ⇒ Into the Void - Pull (focus only)
• Illusionary Wave - Knockback (greatsword only)
• Chaos Storm - Daze (staff only)

Optional utility:

• Well of Senility
• Mantra of Distraction
• Signet of Domination
• Gravity Well
• Signet of Humility

Encounter Specific Tips

Spirit Vale

Vale Guardian

• If tanking, consider taking extra toughness as the boss's autoattacks hit fairly hard.
• Bring Gravity Well for the breakbars.
• Maintain a sword clone in the split phase to help with boon removal.
• Use Temporal Curtain to help with seeker control.
• Save Blurred Frenzy to evade through blue AOEs while keeping up DPS.
• Save Distortion to negate the damage of a Green in high preasure situations. If it's really needed, take Inspiration with Blurred Inscriptions and Signet of Inspiration to negate the damage of all Greens.

Ghost events

• Feel free to bring Feedback for some reflects. Blink and Portal Entre can be used for more mobility.
• Abuse the adrenal mushrooms to reset your Blink and Portal Entre.

Gorseval the Multifarious

• Bring Gravity Well for the breakbars.
• You can use your signets (if you're using Blurred Inscriptions) to Aegis Gorseval's knockback or the black zones during the CC phase.
• You can use Illusionary Leap and Swap to immobilize Charged Souls.
• Use Temporal Curtain to pull the adds. The pull works best if you place the curtain just behind his hitbox.

Sabetha the Saboteur

• Bring Time Warp as there is only one breakbar which your teammates can easily cover.
• Use Temporal Curtain to pull the bandit adds for easier cleaving. You can do this when Sabetha starts her flamewall.
• Be careful of teleporting into flamewalls with Continuum Shift. You might have to abort CS early or delay it to avoid this.
• You might need to abort Continuum Split if you have to throw a bomb.

Salvation Pass

Slothasor

• Bring Gravity Well for the breakbars.
• Use Temporal Curtain to pull some slublings but always make sure you don't pull your friendly slubling.
• You can use Temporal Curtain without the pull (or delay the pull) to provide more projectile defense.
• If you are using Feedback keep in mind where your group will stand in the next few seconds. When you're about to move don't place it on your current position.
• Distortion can be used to destroy the projectiles from the unblockable shake attack by jumping inside the boss when it shakes like a wet dog.

Bandit Trio

• Bring Gravity Well for add control.
• Use focus to pull mobs together.

Matthias Gabrel

• Bring Gravity Well as failing to CC will result in a squad member's death.
• Be careful with your reflects! You should only use Feedback to break Bloodstone Shield. If you reflect his slam attack Matthias will get a damage buff for each projectile you reflected.
  • Also be careful with Tides of Time as this skill will eat the shards needed to break Bloodstone Shield.

Stronghold of the Faithful

Siege the Stronghold (Escort)

• Bring Gravity Well for add control.
• The most popular strat for this encounter is "all up" or "insta cap", where one chronomancer solos the cave, tanks the tower mobs, and uses Portal Entre to taxi the group up to every tower. This lets you effectively have 9 people on both the main path and the towers. If you are filling this role consider running extra toughness to make it easier to survive the tower mobs on your own.
  • If your group is fast you might need to Mimic your Portal Entre, or ask another mesmer to bring Portal Entre and help you port the 4th tower.
  • If your team is okay with you not giving quickness in order to make sure you can reliably solo the skip part, you can bring Blink and Mass Invisibility.
• Use focus to pull mobs together.

Keep Construct

• Bring Gravity Well for the breakbars.
• Make sure to have Quickness ready for the burn phase.
• Use Temporal Curtain to help pull the core through the rifts. Coordinate with other players on who is going to pull and when.

Xera

• If tanking, consider running extra toughness as there is a lot of random damage on this fight and your healer will have their hands full.
• Bring Gravity Well for the breakbars.
• Well of Eternity can be useful for condition cleanse and Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar uptime.
• Use your Temporal Curtain to pull adds into the boss.
• You can use Temporal Curtain to pull orbs. Make sure to pull the last orb to make sure you're not pulling more than one orb.
• If you're tanking, make sure to keep Xera facing away from your group as her Blurred Frenzy will deal massive damage to your DPS. You can use Blurred Frenzy or Echo of Memory to protect yourself from the attack while staying in place.

Bastion of the Penitent

Cairn the Indomitable

• Bring Time Warp as there are no breakbars here.
• You can use Blurred Frenzy to evade through red AOEs while keeping up DPS.
• If doing greens, you should delay your Quickness until everyone is back in the center.

Mursaat Overseer

• Bring Time Warp as there are no breakbars here.
• You should take either Claim or Dispel to get Improved Alacrity on the special action key.

Samarog

• Bring Gravity Well as Samarog has a huge breakbar and failing to CC will result in a squad member's death.
• Coordinate your CC with your teammates; try not to burn too many big CCs on the same breakbar.
• Use Into the Void to pull Rigom under Samarog during the split phases.

Deimos

• Bring Time Warp as the breakbars are small and easily broken by your teammates.
• You can block the pizza attacks and Mind Crush with Inspiring Distortion.
  • Note that a player standing in two pizza slices at the same time will still get hit.
• If tanking, save Blurred Frenzy to dodge the pizza attack while staying in place.
• You can use any of your blocks or Well of Precognition to block Mind Crush.

Hall of Chains

Soulless Horror

• If tanking, consider taking extra toughness as the boss's autoattacks hit fairly hard.
• Bring Signet of Humility as failing to CC will wipe the group and Gravity Well is risky with the Tormented Dead around.
• Take care when using Tides of Time as it will freeze Tormented Dead in place and interrupt knockbacks.
• Try to block the AoE attacks for your team with Inspiring Distortion.
• If you're tanking, coordinate the aggro swap with the other tank. Aim to swap aggro as soon as your current stacks expire.
• If you're tanking, move the boss near the wurms at the start so your DPS can cleave them down (with Epidemic or otherwise).
• Make sure to stand behind Soulless Horror if possible. If you're the tank, keep her facing in the same direction as her attacks deal massive damage to anyone who isn't the tank.