Runs of the Chronomancer Vs Leadership
So, Chronomancer runes seem to be winning in terms of community acceptance and overall I’d agree. However, here’s a summary of the pros and cons:
Chronomancer
- Allow for more quickness sharing to the group when used with sig of inspiration
- With the right build, you can also utilize Sig of Insp as an on-demand group distortion, which has allowed groups to bypass the green circle mechanic of VG (example here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3xhs8k/king_5_man_vale_guardian_kill/cy4rnpj)
- Higher dps stats since chrono is still a power build
Leadership Runes
- Provide the most boon duration of any rune (30% vs 20% from Durability or Water, the next highest options)
- Since no sig of insp is needed, you can take Mimic, which allows you to provide more alacrity than a Chrono/Sig of Insp build could provide.
- Provides some degree of healing power, which is somewhat helpful if you run Well of Eternity and/or Restorative Illusions.
Whether you’re running as tank or utility/dps, both runes are equally valuable, although you could argue that the toughness from the all stats portion of Leadership runes is more useful there.
From a price point perspective, Chronomancer runes are definitely cheaper/easier to attain. However, if you go with Chronomancer runes, you’ll probably need to use a Sigil of Concentration for your boon duration if you want to get boon duration capped and that’s about 150g on the trading post at the moment (may be cheaper if you have it crafted for you). If you’re already farming DS and aren’t bothered by dropping 600 crystalline ore on a set of runes, that may be easier, but I think for most people 150g is easier to obtain. =P
(edited by Dahkeus.8243)
This is the same conclusion I had came to, this is a good break down.
Commander’s gear has also been used in conjunction with Chrono runes to meet the boon duration needs. Obtaining the Inscription/Insignia recipes is cheap enough at 50 Crystalline Ore a piece. Though unless you have some Ascended boxes set aside that you can transmute you’re also looking at purchasing the armor/weapon recipes for each individual slot.
Ultimately, the decision should be based on what you do, what you have, and what you’re willing to grind/spend.
Personally. I use Assassin/Chrono as my “catch-all” gear and just switch around traits and nourishments to meet my needs based on the situation: Raids, fractals, open world, etc.
If I was more dedicated as a Chronotank my preference would be to made a set of Commander’s gear. Though, that decision is primarily based on I have the Insignia/Inscription recipes already on hand as well as spare ascended gear I can transmute.
(edited by savacli.8172)
I personally decided to just grind DS for a week during the holiday break to get the leadership runes, I rather not put something in that I know will be replaced later.
Sanctum of Rall
Pain Train Choo [Choo]
Mind Smack – Mesmer
Pain Train Choo [Choo]
Mind Smack – Mesmer
Commander’s gear has also been used in conjunction with Chrono runes to meet the boon duration needs. Obtaining the Inscription/Insignia recipes is cheap enough at 50 Crystalline Ore a piece. Though unless you have some Ascended boxes set aside that you can transmute you’re also looking at purchasing the armor/weapon recipes for each individual slot.
Ultimately, the decision should be based on what you do, what you have, and what you’re willing to grind/spend.
Personally. I use Assassin/Chrono as my “catch-all” gear and just switch around traits and nourishments to meet my needs based on the situation: Raids, fractals, open world, etc.
If I was more dedicated as a Chronotank my preference would be to made a set of Commander’s gear. Though, that decision is primarily based on I have the Insignia/Inscription recipes already on hand as well as spare ascended gear I can transmute.
Eh, even as tank, it still seems like you can use assassin’s gear and just swap your trinkets for Knight’s. That frees you up to swap back to zerker when you get to Sabetha. However, if you’re ok either having two sets (assassin and commander) or are ok in using commander’s gear everywhere, then it can definitely save you from the high cost of a Concentration sigil.
If u want to go the path of Leadership runes u can also use 4xTraveler + 2xWater resulting in 25% boon duration and some stats. Thus learning the playstile on the progress.
I personally swapped to chronomancer tho.
In fractals/raids it offers more offensive stats.
In raids it also offers more chances to spread quickness on more random ppl coz the rotations adds SoI.
Leadership runes rotation contains TW, 3xWoA, 4xToT
Chronomancer runes rotation adds 3xSoI on top of that.
The cap on boon duration is being ignored massively here it seems. Also the fact that leadership runes add unnecessary stats which can interfere with the tank is overlooked.
From a raid perspective, ironically, leadership runes are a lazy man’s runes. The point that ‘SoI is no longer necessary’ when using them is not at all true and Im not sure where the idea comes from.
When comparing chrono runes+ concentration sigil with leadership you are essentially comparing 2sec quickness per well, 100% boon duration,better stats at the condition of complicating your rotation, with 100% boon duration, worse stats compensated by a subpar sigil choice like air/accuracy, but less effort.
At this point I would even recommend surging over leadership, as you reach the same result without the extra farming/ bad stats.
(edited by Sanderinoa.8065)
The cap on boon duration is being ignored massively here it seems. Also the fact that leadership runes add unnecessary stats which can interfere with the tank is overlooked.
From a raid perspective, ironically, leadership runes are a lazy man’s runes. The point that ‘SoI is no longer necessary’ when using them is not at all true and Im not sure where the idea comes from.
When comparing chrono runes+ concentration sigil with leadership you are essentially comparing 2sec quickness per well, 100% boon duration,better stats at the condition of complicating your rotation, with 100% boon duration, worse stats compensated by a subpar sigil choice like air/accuracy, but less effort.
At this point I would even recommend surging over leadership, as you reach the same result without the extra farming/ bad stats.
1) No one is ignoring boon cap. Boon cap only comes into play depending on the rest of your gear (which is why I noted that one of the benefits is that you don’t need Sigil of Conc).
2) Leadership won’t interfere with a tank. The amount of toughness from these runes is less than a single toughness trinket. Check out the comparison:
Leadership Runes – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQBAA-TZQABAw+DAA
Single Toughness Ring – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQBAA-TRQYAAgSBA-e
Eh, even as tank, it still seems like you can use assassin’s gear and just swap your trinkets for Knight’s. That frees you up to swap back to zerker when you get to Sabetha. However, if you’re ok either having two sets (assassin and commander) or are ok in using commander’s gear everywhere, then it can definitely save you from the high cost of a Concentration sigil.
Multiple armor sets. The selling point in Commander’s being the boon duration, the toughness from that armor set being more along the lines of “it’s a package deal”.
Sigil of Concentration has never been appealing to me due to the conditional buff only being applied during weapon swap. In a perfect world being able to meet those rotation requirements to nail the boon boost would happen every time, but I’d much rather prefer a boon duration solution that’s more consistent.
As far as boon duration caps? Goes back to using what you have. I happen to have Commander and all 3 of the Bountiful recipes. So that’s a baseline 31% ish boon duration. In raids, we always have a rev on the team for the Chrono’s so that’s another 50%. So to top that off I just need for Spring Rolls or something with 20% boon duration, and voila, I’m at 100%…..okay, so I’m a tiny bit over.
With Leadership runes I could cut back the Bountiful utility, but the extra effort of going for the runes is not at all appealing to me. The wonky stats from leadership further the “meh”. I agree that they won’t necessarily interfere with anything, but I feel like I’m wasting stats here.
The Surging + Platinum combination is an interesting budget choice, and I like the dedicated Power stat.
Yea, there’s a lot of ways to get to 100% boon duration, especially when running with a rev. If you already have commander’s gear, then good for you.
Leadership runes, however, are a bit different since using them means you aren’t using Chrono runes and can’t share the extra quickness from inspiration.
If you’re just trying to avoid a sigil of concentration, you can do that with Commander’s armor. It’s a dps loss to use that instead of zerker/assassin, but everything is if you don’t use chrono runes and it’s at least useful if you tank.
If you absolutely aren’t a tank and are against sigil of conc, then you can still go full zerk/sin armor with boon food/utility and 5x Surging (you don’t even need the plat since this puts you at 45%). You’ll lose the extra quickness from chrono runes, but at least you get the extra alacrity from the well or mimic that replaces Sig of Insp.
The more I think about it, the less reason I see to take Leadership runes, even if you don’t take Chrono runes.
The more I think about it, the less reason I see to take Leadership runes, even if you don’t take Chrono runes.
It’s the +x to all stats that kills it for me. The +10% condi duration is rather odd, and the condi->boon conversion doesn’t occur frequent enough to make it the worthwhile. If it had a more meaningful stat contribution + 30% boon duration I could see the rune getting more attention.
Underwhelming Stats and Effect + hiding the rune set behind a grindfest = no thank you
With the info provided I am glad I decided to keep my Assassin’s/ Saphir armor and get the Chrono Runes and with my Zerker weps and trinkets.
So just as a thought would Insp: 3-2-2 Illus: 2-2-2 and Chrono: 3-3-2 be a decent build with Assassin’s and Chrono Runes? Or would it be more beneficial to take Chronophantasm?
without chronophantasma you will have nothing to shatter from time to time, thus loosing alacrity, alse chronophantasma goes nuts in combination with persistence of memory from illusions.
Im using focus often so I prefer insp:3-1-2 in most situations and 3-2-1 in raids, that iDefender soaks dmg from others great and thus doing some more dmg via retaliation.
So just as a thought would Insp: 3-2-2 Illus: 2-2-2 and Chrono: 3-3-2 be a decent build with Assassin’s and Chrono Runes? Or would it be more beneficial to take Chronophantasm?
Well, it depends what you’re building towards. As a blanket statement I would say Chronophasma is just too good of a Trait to give up.
If you have already come across this, I would recommend taking a look at Sandy’s Guide and drop down to the builds sections for the Chrono Spec. There’s not a one build wins all, so it would be beneficial to have multiple builds on reserve to tackle “x” content.