Chronomancer - Utility Boon Support

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Focused on: Boon supportUtility and Direct damage

Designed for: Raids

Difficulty:
TBD

Overview


Note: this build has not yet been updated for the 28th July 2022 patch that introduced significant changes to how chronomancers share boons. The information in this guide does not apply to the current version of the game.


This version of Support Chrono is a boon support that provides 100% Quickness Quickness and Alacrity Alacrity uptime for its party. This massively increases the group's damage and healing output due to faster cast times and lower cooldowns. In addition, it can increase group wide boon uptime through , and cheese certain raid mechanics using , , and .

This iteration of Support Chrono has been largely superseded by other sources of Alacrity Alacrity. A higher-DPS version that provides only Quickness Quickness is now the common choice, which can be found here: Chronomancer - Power Boon Support.

This build is more pug-friendly as it doesn't require your group to stack within 240 units of you for , and it assists players outside your subgroup with 10-target . also means that you generate twice as much Protection Protection for your subgroup with .


Skill Bar

Sword/Shield
Sword/Focus
Utility


Weapon Variants

Sword/Shield is mandatory but Focus can be replaced if there's nothing to pull with .

  • Sword provides higher damage and a personal block.
  • Pistol provides 250 extra breakbar damage from (325 with ). This is useful if you have really bad CC or if you need to CC a lot (e.g. Samarog).


Skill Variants

Healing

  • sacrifices a small amount of personal DPS to provide group healing and condition cleanse. In high pressure fights can maintain uptime for your DPS which makes it easily better than .


Utility If you need a utility skill you can swap out :

  • gives you more Alacrity Alacrity.
    • Note that you are a poor primary source of Alacrity Alacrity as you can only provide it to five targets at once, and to maintain it solo requires at least 90% boon duration, , and (using Mimic on the well).
  • helps with reflects.
  • provides Aegis Aegis to your subgroup, useful for fights like Deimos CM.
  • is a selfish DPS option (only if you're using )
    • If you're not using , bring for damage.


Elite

  • should be used if an encounter requires heavy CC.


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Specializations


Specialization Variants

  • if you're using a focus offhand.
  • if your group needs some extra minor healing.
  • in case Slow Slow uptime is already permanent.


Illusions Variant

You take illusions to decrease the cooldown of . This doesn't particularly help phase boon uptime, as your cooldowns already fit fairly neatly, but it can be very useful when it makes the difference between starting a new phase with available or not. also extends the length of , making it a good choice for newer Chronomancers.

Replaces Domination.


Chaos Variant

Chaos is most valuable on event-style encounters such as Escort, where an easy source of Stability Stability is useful, or lowering the cooldowns of or . It could also be used as a quick way to gain extra boon duration if you feel you are lacking and can't quickly regear.

Replaces Domination.


Equipment

There are many variations of gear for Chronomancer and some of them can be difficult to acquire, however they all share a common goal in their stat choices which is to reach enough boon duration to maintain sufficient boons for their group. The required boon duration will depend on the skill of you and your group, as well as whether you're running with builds such as Build:Firebrand_-_Quickness_Support_Power_DPS and Build:Renegade_-_Boon_Support_Power_DPS.

Remember to get a sword, focus, and shield offhand.


Standard Variant

The suggested gear here provides you with enough boon duration to comfortably sustain boons on your group, while allowing you to vary runes, sigils and consumables as necessary.

You can use dT's gear optimizer to decide what combination of gear will be best for you to use.

Head
Diviner
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Diviner
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Diviner
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Diviner
Accessory
Diviner
Amulet
Diviner
Ring
Diviner
Ring
Diviner
Sword
Diviner
Shield
Diviner
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Diviner
Focus
Diviner
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • With , this build will reach exactly 100% boon duration.


Gear Variants

Sigils

  • can be used for 60 extra breakbar damage from , or . Note that Stun Stuns and Daze Dazes always deal a minimum of 100 breakbar damage, so this sigil has no effect on .
  • is the highest damage sigil option.


DPS Runes

  • can be used for a DPS boost if your group doesn't need the boons from . deals practically the same damage, but the 6th bonus can be lost (especially if you're tanking).
  • is the highest DPS rune set available, but pointless if you're tanking.


Tanking Runes

Due to the amount of active defence Chrono has, it won't always need a specific rune set for tanking, but there are some powerful options:

  • adds a good amount of bonus healing every time you block an attack. Against some multi-hit boss abilities, this can even proc multiple times off a single shield block.
  • or both provide 15% boon duration and 175 toughness, while applying a small amount of supplementary Protection Protection to nearby allies.
  • are cheap and can save you from getting downed once every 90 seconds, making them a good starter option.


Minstrel Variant

Sometimes all you really need to do in an encounter is survive and provide boons. In such a case you can bring tanky gear such as Minstrel stats Minstrel stats or Giver stats Giver stats:

Head
Minstrel
Shoulders
Giver
Chest
Minstrel
Hands
Giver
Legs
Minstrel
Feet
Giver
Backpiece
Minstrel
Accessory
Minstrel
Accessory
Minstrel
Amulet
Giver
Ring
Minstrel
Ring
Giver
Sword
Minstrel
Shield
Minstrel
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Minstrel
Focus
Minstrel
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • This set is designed to hit 100% boon duration with +100 concentration food and .
  • You can swap the runes out for one of the Tanking Runes above, or a more heal-focused set such as .
  • As you won't be doing any damage, you should run and a more support-focused traitline such as Illusions (or Chaos) in place of Domination.


Tanking and Toughness

If you're the tank in an encounter with toughness-based aggro, you will need to add toughness so that you have the highest toughness in your squad. Do a toughness check before pulling the boss and adjust your gear accordingly.

Here are some important toughness thresholds that you may need to take into account when gearing:

  • 1000: the baseline toughness of all builds
  • 1150: Soulbeasts with
  • 1380: Minimum toughness of a Soulbeast Hand Kiter at Deimos

If you only need a small amount of toughness, you can add one toughness infusion, replace one Berserker stats Berserker stats piece with Knight stats Knight stats, or use /. If someone has an absurd amount of toughness consider running the Minstrel stats Minstrel stats variant or similar. To beat 1150 toughness, you can swap your amulet for a toughness-major stat combo (make sure that your boon duration doesn't go too low).


Consumables

Food:

  • or ascended versions


Utility:

  • if you don't need extra boon duration


Usage

Rotation

The main role of Support Chronomancer is to provide permanent Quickness Quickness to your group. You can provide these boons directly with the following skills:

The final part of Chronomancer's boon-sharing arsenal is , which extends the duration of boons that have been previously applied to whomever it hits (it will not apply boons that the player didn't already have). This is used to bridge the gap between boon applications from your other skills, and if you're using it will affect all 10 players in your squad. In some cases you may need to copy for extra boons.

When all your boon sharing skills are on cooldown, just deal DPS with , phantasms, and autoattack chains until your skills are available again.


Example Rotation Videos


General Tips

  • Coordinate with other boon support classes in your group (most likely another chrono or a renegade/firebrand pair) to ensure there aren't any gaps in boon coverage - remember that if traited your will affect everyone in the squad!
  • Remember to press to proc , as well as for the extra free damage.
  • Proper well placement is crucial for boon uptime. Make sure you throw your wells where your teammates will be standing, not under your own feet. As a general rule of thumb, you should throw wells at the back of the boss, as this is where the DPS are usually stacking in melee range.
  • and only provide boons when they expire, 3 seconds after the initial cast. Make sure to keep this in mind if your squad is moving around during the fight.
    • This is especially important to keep in mind when starting a fight or a new phase after boons have expired - don't waste your before boons have been applied to people!
  • When possible you should use to increase your boon uptime. See "Continuum Split" below.
  • You can delay if you need to Aegis Aegis a specific mechanic. This may cause you to briefly drop boons, but it's better than wiping because you didn't do your job.


Continuum Split

  • is a very powerful skill for boon uptime. While in , you can cast any of your boon-sharing skills "for free" without expending a cooldown. Use to double up on boonsharing whenever possible.
    • It's worth delaying skills by a few seconds if is coming off cooldown.
    • You should save your clones if you're going to soon so that you can get a longer . is helpful for generating clones here.
    • Remember that also makes you teleport to your original location when it ends. Be wary of your positioning when using it. Abort it if it's going to kill you on the return teleport (e.g. teleporting you into spikes on Mursaat Overseer).
  • Another use of is to get a shorter cooldown on and . Because these skills have a longer cooldown than , you should only cast these skills inside if possible. This effectively reduces their cooldown to the cooldown of .
  • Always activate as late as possible in the cast animation of whatever skill you want to . This is because skills only go on cooldown when their cast animation ends, allowing you to fit more skills inside your .
  • If you use as your final skill then immediately cast it again upon exiting , you can catch both walls as they return and reduce the cooldown by 20 seconds instead of 10.


Other Tips

  • Unless you will be entering soon you can shatter your clones with for extra damage. is worth using to generate a clone for shattering if you don't have 3 already.
  • If possible, use to mitigate damage instead of dodging.
  • -> can be used on mechanics such as Gorseval's Charged Souls or Deimos' Prides to immobilize them in emergencies.
  • Use to pull up to 5 enemies and allow your team to cleave them down at the same time.
  • You have boon strip on the third skill of your AA chain . You can increase your boon stripping abilities by maintaining sword clones rather than shattering them, which use the sword AA including the boonstrip.
  • If you don't need healing make sure to use to cast extra phantasms for more damage.


Breakbar

  • Easily accessible CCs:
    • (1-2 hits)
    • (1-4 hits)
  • Other CCs:
    • is a weak CC and is better used for pulling mobs into the boss.
    • if running sword.
    • if running pistol.
    • or


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 6 votes.
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2 stars
Keyaelamor gave this build 2 stars • July 2020
Currently not a great pick as alacrity renegades (both power and 2x condi RR) are ubiquitous and having to provide alacrity leads to a huge dps and utility loss. Offensive StM-based 5-man quickness Chronomancer builds are superior in just about in way these days, so this is only a reasonable pick in case you have trouble finding a renegade for your alacrity needs.
5 stars
Screaming gave this build 5 stars • April 2019
Still mandatory, always, and still by far the best option for casual and meta clears alike. No alternatives come even close to the utility of a Chrono-based composition, nor the reliability of chronomancer's boons. Nerf it, and you just take more chronomancers.
5 stars
Chinkeeyong gave this build 5 stars • January 2019
Chrono is no longer the meta-defining monster it used to be but is still an immensely powerful boon support in raids. Deals high personal DPS and has a ton of useful utility too.
5 stars
Forgotmypasswordlulz gave this build 5 stars • August 2017
Staple mesmer build, backbone of raiding comps and will never be replaced looks like not even with new elite specs.
5 stars
Coolyellow42 gave this build 5 stars • December 2016
mandatory in any raid group. only source of unqiue boons quickness and alacrity which increase the group's dps (hello eles) hugely.
5 stars
Gale gave this build 5 stars • November 2016
Rotation and build may have changed but the demand for Chronomancers will remain until Quickness and Alacrity are deleted from the game. The rotation is less forgiving than pre-patch but still offers strong boon coverage that are key staples in any composition.

Comments

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