Chronomancer - Power DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on July 14, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A power DPS Chronomancer build for raids and fractals. This build deals decent burst and decent sustained damage against single targets. In addition, it has very good CC, utility, and versatility, and is capable of generating its own Fury Fury and some Alacrity Alacrity, and even remove boons.

This build greatly benefits from a high uptime of Slow Slow on your target. Time Warp, Time Sink and general crowd control through Delayed Reactions contribute to a decent slow uptime.


Skill Bar

Sword/Sword
X/Focus
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Pistol: can replace focus when there are too many adds, since the Phantasmal Warden from focus attacks random targets in range.

Skill Variants

  • Phantasmal Defender instead of Phantasmal Disenchanter if your target has more boons than can be removed.
  • Gravity Well instead of Time Warp for more CC, but you will lose a big source of Slow.
  • Signet of Humility if extra CC is required. Be aware of the long cooldown.

These are the skills suggested for full DPS, but if the situation requires, you can slot utility skills like Feedback, Portal Entre, Mantra of Distraction or other.


Template Code

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

  • Time Catches Up extremely situational, if the boss already has 100% Slow Slow uptime.
  • Improved Alacrity on encounters where Slow Slow uptime is too low (~30% or less).

Illusions

If your group has terrible boon uptime and you are barely getting Quickness Quickness and Might Might, you can replace Domination for Illusions. This is obviously a DPS loss, but you lose even more dps if you don't have those 2 key boons.


Equipment

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Assassin
Feet
Assassin
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Assassin
Accessory
Assassin
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Assassin
Ring
Assassin
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Focus
Berserker
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • This set provides exactly 60% critical chance. With Fury Fury and Danger Time you reach 100% critical chance.
  • Alternatively, use full Berserker stats Berserker stats gear with Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Force and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact for 59,1% critical chance, reaching 99,1% with fury and Danger Time.
    • This berserker eagle set has the exact same ferocity, 19 more power, 0,9% less critical chance, and doesn't need to worry about staying above 95% health.

Equipment Variants

Danger Time accuracy

As your illusions do not gain the benefits of your Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy, the variant below is more subject to RNG and will have a lower burst for players that are able to perform the illusion-heavy continuum split opener. It is easier to gear and should provide high long-term DPS

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Assassin
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x14
Infusion
x4
  • If you do not have stat infusions, switch one accessory to Assassin stats Assassin stats.

Improved Alacrity

If running with Improved Alacrity because Slow Slow uptime is extremely low, use the following gear.

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Assassin
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Assassin
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Assassin
Backpiece
Assassin
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Focus
Berserker
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • Only a single mainhand sword is required


Consumables

Food

Utility


Usage

The goal of the rotation is to use Signet of the Ether and Continuum Split to cast your phantasm 4 times in short succession. This is achieved by casting your phantasms inside Continuum Split, casting them again thanks to Signet of the Ether, and repeating this process after Continuum Split ends.

Opening burst

Start on Sword/Focus.

  1. Phantasmal Warden
  2. Mirror Images
  3. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  4. Phantasmal Swordsman enter Continuum Split at the end the cast of this skill.
  5. Time Warp (if using Time Warp)
  6. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  7. Illusionary Leap Signet of the Ether to cancel the aftercast of Illusionary Leap.
  8. Phantasmal Swordsman and begin casting the 2 charges of Mantra of Pain
  9. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  10. Blurred Frenzy - Continuum Split should end during Blurred Frenzy.
  11. Phantasmal Swordsman and begin casting the 2 charges of Mantra of Pain
  12. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  13. Signet of the Ether
  14. Phantasmal Swordsman
  15. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  16. Gravity Well (if using Gravity Well) Weapon swap Weapon swap to cancel the aftercast of Gravity Well.
  17. Phantasmal Warden
  18. Proceed to Loop rotation

Loop

This is a simplified loop rotation, you should use Mirror Images and Illusionary Leap when needed to spawn 3 clones and shatter them with Split Second.

Fill the gaps with auto attacks. Try to not interrupt your auto attack chain as the damage is heavily loaded into Mind Spike.

  1. Phantasmal Warden
  2. Blurred Frenzy
  3. Blurred Frenzy Weapon swap Weapon swap to cancel the aftercast of Blurred Frenzy.
  4. Phantasmal Swordsman
  5. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  6. Blurred Frenzy
  7. Phantasmal Swordsman
  8. Signet of the Ether
  9. Phantasmal Swordsman
  10. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  11. Phantasmal Disenchanter
  12. Repeat from step 1

As the fight progresses, you will have to think whether it would be better to cast Continuum Split right off cooldown during the focus set rotation, or delay it briefly until you swap to sword. If the boss is going to die or phase soon, don't delay CS. If the boss is not going to phase/die, or is going to phase very soon, delay CS until you swap to sword or until the boss phases in again.

Crowd Control

  • Gravity Well
  • Time Sink
  • Illusionary Riposte Counter Blade
  • Temporal Curtain Into the Void
  • Your CC will also Slow thanks to Delayed Reactions, with an internal cooldown of 3 seconds

Notes

  • Fill gaps in between skills listed in the rotation with auto-attack chains and Blurred Frenzy.
  • Use Split Second whenever you have 3 clones up.
  • Make sure not to interrupt your autoattack chain as the damage from it is heavily loaded into the final strike, Mind Spike.
  • Blurred Frenzy and Signet of the Ether will interrupt your current skill cast. That is why the Continuum Split burst rotation ends with Blurred Frenzy, to ensure you finish the casting time (by cancelling its aftercast) of your last phantasm inside the split, so that it is off cooldown after the split.
  • Save clones to shatter with Time Sink if you will need to CC in the immediate future.
  • You can use Temporal CurtainInto the Void to pull adds onto the boss if needed.
  • Mantra of Pain should be cast as soon as there is a charge available.
  • In the initial burst inside Continuum Split, slightly delay Mantra of Pain to first get some stacks of Fencer's Finesse, but ensure you can still cast it twice inside the Split.
  • If the boss does not have Slow, it might be worth to cast Illusionary RiposteCounter Blade to daze the enemy and trigger Delayed Reactions to inflict 3 seconds of slow if you are going to be doing significant damage in those 3 seconds (such as having phantasms attacking and using Blurred Frenzy and Mind Spike).


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 5 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
3 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 3 stars • November 2022
Recent weapon buffs have made power chrono viable once more, but it's harder, easier to interrupt and deals less damage than virtuoso, so very difficult to recommend to anyone but chrono fans.
4 stars
Warming Hearth gave this build 4 stars • August 2022
Compared to power virtuoso, this build is much much harder to play, with a slightly higher (but delayed) burst, but lower sustained dps. This makes power chronomancer worse pretty much everywhere. The only advantage of this build is Continuum Split, making chronomancer pull ahead on fights that end shortly after CS.
4 stars
Chinkeeyong gave this build 4 stars • September 2018
A strong, self-sufficient power DPS, but has worse burst than most power classes thanks to the "delayed burst" nature of its phantasms, and suffers on any fight where you have to switch targets.
5 stars
AlekSeven gave this build 5 stars • June 2018
Finally a good DPS build for Chrono/Mesmers.
5 stars
Nacho Replay gave this build 5 stars • April 2018
This is a great power DPS build for Chrono, really good CC, strong burst, and really good damage output thats consistent. 9/10

Comments

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