Chronomancer - Power 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: Strike damage and Defense

Designed for: Open WorldOpen World General and [[|]]

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on May 09, 2023 and is up to date for the November 28, 2023 patch.

Overview

Power Chronomancer is a powerful solo build with great boon uptime and damage. It has access to plentiful utility, including evades and blocks, making it a great solo build. This build has a high skill floor, which can be off-putting for some, but investing time into learning it can be very rewarding as its potential is some of the highest in the game.

This build revolves around spamming Phantasm skills to both do damage and gain boons. Namely, permanent Fury Fury, Quickness Quickness, and 21~ Might Might, with 0 boon duration, thanks to the Illusions trait line.

Template Code

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Skill Bar

Sword/Sword
X/Focus
Utility

Weapon Variants

You can replace the focus with other weapons:

  • Greatsword - range and tagging potential with about the same damage as focus. But you lose access to the extremely helpful pull of focus' .
  • Shield - allows you to block, twice if you do block at least one attack.
  • Pistol - deals its damage faster than focus, but less damage overall. Useful in very short fights. Stun instead of pull.

Skill Variants

Utility skill

If you want/need to use other skills, replace Mantra of Pain. Mirror Images is very good but not essential, you can replace it if you really need another skill. Phantasmal Disenchanter is key to the build as a source of damage and boons through traits.

  • - very strong defensive utility that provides Aegis Aegis per pulse and stunbreaks on cast.
  • - condition cleanse for yourself and nearby allies.
  • - projectile reflection.
  • - mobility + stunbreak.
  • - personal stunbreak and AoE stability.
  • - defensive option with some CC.

Elite skill

  • - niche option to provide 6 seconds of quickness to nearby allies if you need to burst something very fast. Also deals a little bit of CC through conditions. However, the cooldown is absurdly long for what the skill does.
  • - slightly less cc than Gravity Well but it happens immediately if you need to break a defiance bar really fast.

Specializations

  • - extremely minor dps gain if you don't need the extra CC of Slow from Delayed Reactions.
  • - group Quickness Quickness uptime at a cost of personal DPS and boons. Never use this when solo.
  • Note that your only source of Alacrity Alacrity towards is . Despite this, it ends up being always better than , which relies on Slow Slow, the rarest conditions in the game.

Domination

Domination can be taken over Illusions if you are playing in a group providing you permanent Quickness Quickness and Might Might.

  • - for higher clone generation if using greatsword


Equipment

This build uses the same gear as Build:Chronomancer_-_Power_DPS for raids for ease of gearing. Infusions are completely optional.

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Assassin
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Assassin
Accessory
Assassin
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Assassin
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Focus
Berserker
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • This set provides 100% critical chance with Fury Fury and food. Or 96.71% without food.

Sigils

  • - budget DPS sigil, replaces Impact.
  • - very strong defensive sigil.
  • Do not use because Phantasms and Clones do not gain the extra critical chance.


Consumables

Food
  • Ascended power food is the best option, but really not needed for open world.
  • - magic find and extra gold for farming
  • / - ascended dps food
  • - dps
  • Oysters with Coktail Sauce / - affordable dps food, perfect for open world
  • Minotaur Steak / Griffon Egg Omelet - budget options.
Utility
  • / / - magic find for farming
  • - dps

Usage

Continuum Split

is the profession mechanic of the chronomancer specialization that allows a player to "rewind" time. Specifically, it tracks the chronomancer's position, health, endurance, and skill recharges, and returns the chronomancer to that point at the end of the split. As this is a Shatter, it will consume active clones, with the duration of the split increasing with each clone shattered.

This extremely powerful skill is used to spam your Phantasms four times in a row.

  1. Generate 3 clones with and .
  2. Cast your phantasm skills while entering Continuum Split.
  3. Reset your Phantasm skills with .
  4. Cast your Phantasm skills again.
  5. Continuum Split ends.
  6. Cast your Phantasm skills.
  7. Reset your Phantasm skills with Signet of the Ether
  8. Cast your Phantasm skills again.

Use your elite skill inside the Split. Due to its low cooldown, you can use it again after the Split. If using the niche skill , note that its cooldown is longer than Continuum Split but, since you're only ever using this very niche skill for burst, you should use it both inside and outside the split to help nearby allies burst something down fast.

Damage

The following is a general priority of which skill to use.

  1. when you have 2 charges of Power Spike. You can use the 2nd charge if the enemy is about to die.
  2. with 3 clones.
  3. /
  4. Fill with auto-attacks; try not to interrupt them as the last attack, , deals a lot of damage.

Rotation

The majority of your damage comes from casting your phantasms then using Signet of the Ether to reset their cooldown and casting them again.

Opening rotation

Against durable enemies like meta event bosses, try to start the fight with this rotation:

Start on Sword/Focus.

  1. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  2. - enter near the end of the cast of this skill.
  3. /
  4. and manually end Continuum Split with .
  5. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  6. Proceed to Loop rotation
  • This might look long and complicated, but it's simply using phantasms twice thanks to your heal skill, then doing it again because you used Continuum Split.
  • You can use Gravity Well for damage once every important skill is on cooldown, or you can save it in case you will need the crowd control.
  • You actually only need a 2-clone-Continuum-Split to do this rotation. alone is enough, but a 3-clone-Continuum-Split with is safer in case you're a bit slow.
Loop rotation

The loop is very simple and revolves around your phantasm skills. Fill the gaps with and auto attacks but never interrupt the chain as the damage is heavily loaded into .

  1. Weapon swap Weapon swap - if you have alacrity you can squish a second Blurry Frenzy before weapon swap
  2. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  3. Repeat
  • Mastering of this skill priority will provide you with permanent quickness, permanent fury, an average of 21 stacks of might, and about 31% of alacrity uptime.

Defense

  • dodges incoming attacks for up to 1 second depending on quickness. Use this to avoid attacks instead of dodging.
  • is a block.
  • If you need condition cleanse, slot .
  • Let your clones and phantasms tank for you when needed.

Crowd Control

Video examples

Please note the gear and traits shown in these videos are not updated. Use the gear and traits recommened in this guide.

Phantasmal Defender helps cc the boss. It is possible to squeeze Defender inside the Continuum Split rotation, but the timing is very tight, I was unable to in this example. Shield helps blocking this boss' dangerous attacks and has nice CC. Thanks to shield 4, sword 4, sword 2, and normal evades, the boss only hit me with one attack, which was not worth evading because I was in the middle of spamming my phantasms and was going to use my heal skill shortly after anyway.

Feedback makes the archers shoot themselves to death. The boss has a devastating melee dagger combo which is why I'm always hanging back, letting my illusions tank, and only engage in melee when the boss is using the bow or is stunned.

Portal is used to teleport away from the arena-wide wipe attack at 50% since the boss' breakbar had bugged. Otherwise, Bouncing Mushrooms can also take us to safety.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 3 votes.
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5 stars
Warming Hearth gave this build 5 stars • June 2022
The best chronomancer build for open world. With great damage, utility, crowd control, and boon generation. Definitely not easy to learn, but very rewarding once mastered. Most of its damage comes from Phantasms, which are mostly single target, so it needs to pack enemies together with focus before bursting. Its weaknesses are having its survivability tied to its evades and blocks that must be timed, and the skill required to successfully play this build mainly since the heal skill is an integral part of the DPS rotation.
5 stars
Linera gave this build 5 stars • January 2021
An incredibly fun and satisfying build to play. This build is capable of summoning an army of illusions so large, that your minimap will start to resemble the night sky. If running a full glass cannon, and if you survive long enough to carry out a full rotation, even champion health bars will crumble before you. Shield provides very good damage mitigation, and traits make sure that you almost always have a source of quickness available. 5/5
5 stars
Onlywrin gave this build 5 stars • November 2020
An extremely fun roaming build capable of soloing most content in the game, provided your timing is good. While it has low burst, its DPS is very high. A very high skill ceiling is the only thing keeping this build from being top tier.

Comments

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