Chronomancer - Condition Chronobunker

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: Condition damage, Control and Utility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on November 12, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A tanky PvP Chronomancer build with great boon and condition application, made to either win smaller skirmishes or stall capture points until help arrives.

Skill Bar

Staff

Scepter/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Blink - extra mobility plus a stun break is never a bad option.

• Mirror Images - instant clone generation on top of being a stun break and a target break could be used both defensively and offensively to fuel Shatters.

• Feedback - an instant source of AoE projectile reflection could be invaluable against certain builds (but also useless against others).

• Null Field - if you're struggling against conditions or want to soften up targets for your team to pressure.

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Specializations

Variants

• Auspicious Anguish offers better sustain against conditions.

Equipment

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Scepter

Shield

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Runes

• Rune of Divinity - makes the build a bit more tanky.

• Rune of Aristocracy - highest damage option, great synergy with Well of Calamity.

Sigils

• Sigil of Doom over Sigil of Cleansing

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Chronomancers gain access to brand new Shatter skills that are more or less the same as the old Shatter skills. F1 is still the power damage one, F2 still has Confusion and F3 Dazes targets.

• In the F5 slot Chronos gain a new Shatter that's unique to them: Continuum Split and its chain Continuum Shift. More about these later.

• Time Marches On provides a passive movement speed bonus, rendering movement focused runes unnecessary.

General

• Role: spend most of your time in duels and smaller skirmishes. Your role first and foremost is to survive and hold the point. The damage of the build isn't amazing, but there are plenty of CC tools for setting up kills once help arrives. Against tankier opponents you'll often have to wait for allies to wrap up fights.

• Shatters grant Stability and Alacrity plus one other boon depending on the Shatter used (see Bountiful Disillusionment for more details).

• Stretched Time causes your Wells to give Alacrity upon use. For this reason always try to drop the Well beneath you unless you have to do something like providing emergency support for a teammate or securing a kill with Gravity Well.

• Use Phase Retreat to make travel easier between points, and not just vertically. We recommend that you set up a bind for about face (Options ⇒ Control Options ⇒ Movement). With it you can make the skill teleport you "forward" (assuming you're not targeting an enemy player) by using about face ⇒ Phase Retreat ⇒ about face. The quicker you do it, the better.
  • Make sure you don't have a target selected whilst doing this.

• Split Second should be used on CD for its Alacrity while out of combat, preferably after you've used Phase Retreat for movement. Alacrity will make your skills recharge faster, making the travel time with PR a bit shorter while recovering other CDs as well.
  • You could even consider throwing in a Well of Calamity for the same reason.

Damage

• Scepter is the main source of damage as far as weapons are concerned, the rest of your kit is mostly defensive or low damage.

• Illusionary Counter followed by a Shatter the moment the clone spawns from the block is great for instantly putting on pressure.

• Confusing Images remains the main burst skill in the build especially when combined with Shatters. Use your CC skills to make it harder to avoid, but try not to stunlock them once you've stacked up Confusion.

• Rewinder is your best Shatter as far as condition damage goes. Try to land it with 3 clones whenever possible, as each clone shattered reduces Rewinder's CD on top of causing more damage.

• Split Second could be considered filler here. It has 2 charges and a short CD so feel free to use it even when you're low on clones, it should be back up soon enough.

• Use Well of Calamity on CD, there's no reason not to.

• Illusionary Counter + Mirror Images into a Rewinder is a great way of delivering instant burst damage.

Sustain

• Condition cleansing is rather low, on certain variants limited only to Well of Eternity. Sitting inside the Well can make you an easy target, use your blocks and interrupts to stay safe. Well of Eternity's final pulse heals for more than the first one, so even if you don't stand in it for the cleansing at least try to be there for the last tick.
  • If condition damage is starting to overwhelm you use Distortion as a time-out button.
  • Using Phase Retreat in WoE's Light field combos a Light Aura which helps you mitigate incoming condition damage.

• All's Well That Ends Well makes every Well's last pulse do an AoE heal, so even Well of Calamity's worth waiting out.

• If you get CC'd and your stun breaks are on cooldown bail out with Phase Retreat or Distortion. Chaos Armor's Protection and Weakness can also help mitigate the pressure.

• Phase Retreat should be used inside combo fields whenever possible as it's a Leap finisher. All of your Wells are combo fields and so is Chaos Storm, using it inside a Chaos field produces an Aura called Chaos Armor.
  • Chaos Armors override each other and don't stack in duration, so try not to use Staff #4 and Phase Retreat too close to each other.

• Stability from Bountiful Disillusionment has a very short duration but that doesn't make it any less valuable. With proper timing you could prevent getting stunlocked even when you can't dodge or block an incoming attack. This is especially handy when you're channeling Echo of Memory and someone attacks you with an unblockable CC - throwing in a Split Second at the right time could allow you to keep blocking.
  • As Shatters recharge very quickly in this build you can use them more freely, especially Split Second (F1). Don't hesitate to use it to sefeguard any important casts while under pressure such as your heal or elite with the Stability.
• Same goes for Well of Precognition. This Well offers extremely powerful defensive boons, so even though the skill itself is a stun break you could use it proactively to negate incoming CC, or damage in general.

• Chaos Storm dazes enemies on its initial impact and continues to pulse both boons and conditions useful for your survival, so standing inside it is never a bad idea.

• Echo of Memory has a chain skill: Deja Vu. This is basically an identical skill, allowing you to channel 2 blocks back-to-back but ONLY if Echo of Memory successfully blocked an attack. Always make sure that happens, for example briefly move into enemy AoE if you have to, or wait for them to fire a projectile at you and use Echo of Memory while it's mid-air.
  • The Phantasms summoned by these skills can be dodged! If that happens the Phantasm won't be summoned, which is something worth remembering especially for mirror matches. If you see someone dodging near the end of your block you might want to change targets to summon the Phantasm on a different enemy. This can only be done if you have "Skill retargeting" enabled in the options menu under Combat and Movement.

Continuum Split (CS)

• Continuum Split allows you to use your skills twice.

• It's best used for double elite/Well activation. Press CS just before Gravity Well finishes casting, then unload as many Shatters, Phantasms, Wells and skills in general as you possibly can while CS is active.

• Important: CS prevents capture point contribution, same as Distortion. If you're the only one holding a point, sometimes you might want to try keeping the time spent in CS to the bare minimum.

• Phantasms, Wells, and applied boons will still persist after CS has ended. This is very important because it lets you double up on things like Well of Eternity - while you'll lose the healing from the initial cast, you're still going to benefit from all the cleansing (and the final big heal if you catch it once CS is no longer active). Spamming every Well and Shatter while CS is active for the extra Alacrity is also highly recommended.

• If you absolutely have to, even Continuum Split itself could be used defensively. It reverts your HP back once it ends, so if you can activate it right before taking damage then it acts like a healing skill with a delay. You'll also be returned to your original position, allowing you to pull off things like using CS before jumping off a wall and teleporting back with Continuum Shift once the enemies jumped after you. This however is a bit predictable and could even backfire, as you're inevitably going to return to your starting position in a few seconds so they could just wait it out and burst you when CS ends.