Guild Wars 2

So as the title suggest I am an experienced player but lately I just cant get enough of Chronomancer, i love the idea of wells and “alacrity”. I’ve always loved a team player kind of role and Chronomancer just suits me I guess. The idea of clones and all is great, and I wont lie purple butterfly’s with purple aura and Sunrise look perfect together So onto the real question; I seem to have a problem using my wells, I dont really know what situation to use them in and which ones to use in general. I also dont really know when to use the shatter abilities. Continuum Shift I understand how to use and how to works but all i’m using it for is to use it then sword 2 and shield 5 so I can use it again when the cooldown refreshes.
So in general i would just like any tips anyone can give me for chronomancer, i play zerk chrono with assassin trinkets to clarify if anyone was wondering

Thanks in advance, grim

Is this for pve or pvp?

During CS you want to drop your elite and all your utility skills first: most common are well of alacrity, reflects (feedback) and maybe a second well (precognition or action) and shatter, shatter, shatter.

Use this build as a starting point: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Utility_DPS

The trait you want to pick is Illusionary Reversion. This will summon an additional clone if you shatter at least 2 illusions and eliminates the problem of not having enough ilusions to get max value of your shatters. If you combine this with Chronophantasma that resummons phantasms after first shatter, you will always have 3 illusions ready for your ultimate CS wombo combo.

If you are stacking for dungeons or fractals, this is the most simple way: Summon both phantasms on skill #5, mind wrack (you now have 3 illusions), CS, drop all your wells, feedbacks and elites, drop more clones and keep spamming all shatter skills. Each time you shatter, you also get additional alacrity on yourself. So you can shatter more illusions while you’re shattering your additional shatters to get more alacrity to cast shatters and clones even faster (it’s almost like inventing a wheel; perpetuum mobile). The more you cast and shatter with chrono, the more value you get. So be active.

I don’t use shield, it has zero damage value in pve compared to other phantasms, and you can get enough quickness from your well castings. Shield is used in extreme niche cases when you really want to focus on blocking first. The problem with this build is you spend a lot of time casting, and holding down block to get a iDefender is adding additional time when you’re not dpsing, so it’s faster to just cast your offensive wardens instead which also do damage.

If there is need for a lot of reflection I usually run Feedback with Mimic for triple Feedback (if someone gets downed you can use this for a quadriple with your res trait), combined with iWarden you have infinite reflection uptime and can face tank all CM bosses and stacks ez pz, no dungeon tricks required. If you don’t need reflect you can simply pick wells for value on stacking, and can use the trait that procs signet of inspiration whenever you cast a phantasm so you can have more utilities. If you need stability or additional condition removal, you can still pick some mantras and just keep well of alacrity, so for a dungeon like AC I ussualy run one of the wells, resolve, and switching feedback/stability depending on encounter. If your party has stability and condition removal already covered, than you could also go full well build.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot NeoCodex, it really helped! 90% of the time I play pve but i will consider pvp when the ranked season comes out

The build and playstyle in pvp is similiar to this, except it has less wells and it’s based on condi and you use a staff, just follow the pvp build on that website it has all the instructions.

In open world pve however, this style with wells is not something you should use. If you go read some threads in the HoT section a lot of players have problems adapting to the jungle. I suggest switching to Chrono/Domination/Dueling/Inspiration for open world pve with focus on some GS and survival traits (get might on gs aa) and utilities like create a clone on dodge can be useful. One skill that’s rarely used by anyone is Mirror Images. I like this skill in open world because it instantly gives you 2 illusions to shatter and is also a stun break without any cast time, so what I do if I’m say running mining nodes and have mobs following me, I go into their face with one phantasm and mirror images instantly clears groups of weak mobs with mind wrack, most often don’t even have to auto anything as your illusions will either distract or finish them off (also great wherever mobs use cc). And blink of course, one of the best skills that should always be on your bar, great for mobility and outmaneuvering mobs when you’re using your gs to position yourself back into max range for max damage and out of harms way, playing open pve is just entirely different compared to the build I mentioned above, it is actually suited better for a classic style Mesmer but Chrono traits are too good to pass up.

Thanks again I will try this out and see what i like