User:Masel/Builds/Chronomancer

Power Dagger Chronomancer

Build Rating (Subjective)

Criterion	Rating
Burst Damage	4/5
Sustained Damage	4/5
Utility Options	5/5
Survivability	2/5
Difficulty	3/5

Power  Chronomancer is known to be a fairly difficult build to execute well due to Clone micromanagement and the additional complexity layer through   Continuum Split. In this guide, I want to make it as easy as possible while still retaining good damage! This build can be played as full DPS and boon DPS without gear adjustments and it can bring all the utility of a mesmer (e.g.   Blink,   Signet of Humility,   Mimic and   Portal Entre). It always provides some  Superspeed,  Might and  Fury around it and can be adjusted to supply either  Quickness or  Alacrity without changing gear or the rotation at all, which is unique to Chrono and makes it very flexible to fill roles.

Link to the Build on the Editor

Playstyle & Skills

Skill Type	Skills
Shatters
Dagger + Sword
Focus
Utility

The range from using Dagger feels great to play in any game mode and massively helps with survivability in open world.

  Continuum Split

•   Continuum Split deserves its own section, as it is one of the unique aspects of  Chronomancer.
• It reverts time, in that it will save the skill cooldowns, health and position when you activate it.
• Then, for each Clone you shattered with it, it gives you more time to use skills and have them reverted.
• In this build, the highest damaging skills are Phantasm skills, i.e.   Phantasmal Disenchanter,   Phantasmal Warden and   Phantasmal Swordsman, so ideally, we would revert their cooldowns. I provide an example in the rotation showcase down below.

Rotation Guidance & Showcase Video

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Link to Damage Log

Rotation Flow

Section	Notes
General Stuff	Careful:This build scales with having  Fear and  Taunt on the enemy. For guidance on setting up the training area, see my guide for it You want to use the following skills on cooldown while following the rotation flow:   Bladecall   Unstable Bladestorm   Well of Calamity   Well of Action   Split Second with 3 Clones (you can use   Rewinder with no clones right after for free damage)   Phantasmal Disenchanter   Gravity Well (save it for massive CC when needed)
Opener	In the opener, we're making use of Continuum Split in a simple way to reset phantasms: Cast   Continuum Split Immediately after that, use   Phantasmal Warden +   Phantasmal Disenchanter Continuum Split will then reset the two phantasms Then use   Phantasmal Warden +   Phantasmal Disenchanter again Swap to Dagger + Sword
Section 1: Dagger + Sword	Always start Sword with   Phantasmal Swordsman, then reset it with   Signet of the Ether and cast it again. Stay on sword until you used   Phantasmal Swordsman a third time, then swap to focus
Section 2: Dagger + Focus	Always start focus with   Phantasmal Warden. Swap back to sword as soon as possible.
CC Skills for Breakbar Damage	Time Sink   Temporal Curtain, then   Into the Void   Illusionary Riposte, then   Counter Blade   Gravity Well does 550 Breakbar damage, so save it when necessary.

Utility Skills

Default Skill	Notes
Signet of the Ether	heals you for every Clone or Phantasm you create. More importantly, this can be used to reset your Phantasms, which is particularly powerful when using   Chronophantasma. Ideally, cast this right after   Phantasmal Swordsman while   Phantasmal Disenchanter is on cooldown.
Well of Calamity	High damage skill, use on cooldown. Is also an Ethereal field that grants you Chaos Aura when you use   Phantasmal Swordsman inside of it.
Well of Action	Technically,   Mantra of Pain is a tiny bit more damage, but it does not provide  Superspeed,  Might and  Fury to allies. I found this to be the much more consistent and easy to use choice, since a misclick on   Mantra of Pain costs a lot of damage. Like   Well of Calamity, this is an Ethereal field.
Phantasmal Disenchanter	Strong Damage against foes with no Boons and strips Boons off the target. Use on cooldown.
Gravity Well	Strong damage and massive amounts of Breakbar damage.

Gear & Traits

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. At least 75% Critical Chance:  Fury gives 25% for 100% in total.
2. Maximize Power
3. Maximize Ferocity

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Berserker's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Shoulders	Berserker's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Chest	Assassin's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Gloves	Berserker's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Legs	Assassin's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Boots	Berserker's	Superior Rune of Infiltration
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Assassin's
Ring 1	Berserker's
Ring 2	Berserker's
Accessory 1	Berserker's
Accessory 2	Berserker's
Backpack	Assassin's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Dagger (Main Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force
Sword (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Accuracy
Focus (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Accuracy
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro Lime Sous-Vide Steak
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters with Zesty Sauce
Damage	Utility	Potent Superior Sharpening Stone
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of the Thief

Traits

Dueling
Domination
Chronomancer

• For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces of Berserker's and Assassin's with rare/exotic Berserker's and Assassin's, respectively.
• Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.
• If you want more damage at the cost of more complexity, you can use Relic of Fireworks.
• Since Shatter skills count as weapon skills, all Shatter skills with a cooldown of at least 20 seconds will trigger Relic of Fireworks. Aside from those, Phantasmal Warden and Into the Void will trigger the relic.
• Ascended Food is always ideal, but never required.

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

Link to the open world build in the editor

Increasing General Survivability

For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.

•  Chronomancer (similar to all power Mesmers) does not have a large amount of passive healing or innate survivability. You will not be able to facetank a lot of damage with  Chronomancer without making larger changes to gear.
• That is why it is best to use your Clones as decoy and stay behind them to avoid taking damage. They will gain aggro from many foes. Use Phantasms and   Bladecall on cooldown to keep a constant flow of new Clones up that absorb damage for you.
• Use Rifle as a secondary weapon. It provides consistent healing, Barrier,  Vulnerability and retains the range from Dagger. Use Dagger and Sword as the primary weapon and swap to rifle when things get iffy.
• Use the survivability food and utility item listed above for another -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness!
• Use   Continuum Split to reset   Signet of the Ether and   Distortion in cases where you might need it.
• Use Relic of Nourys. It has a neat interaction with   Persistence of Memory, since the boons transferred from your Phantasms stack the Relic up. This is allows you to trigger it every 15-20 seconds, which makes it stronger in damage than Relic of the Thief and great for survivability.

Boon Coverage

• As a first step, you can increase the self-coverage of essential offensive boons by using  Illusions instead of  Domination.
• With the traits of choice, this will allow you to cover  Quickness, more  Fury and  Might on yourself without relying on Jade protocols and/or Relic of the Cavalier.

Tier	Trait		Description
Minor Adept	Cry of Pain		Shatter skill 2 inflicts more stacks of confusion for an increased duration.
Major Adept	Persistence of Memory		When a phantasm becomes a clone, it transfers its boons to you.
Minor Master	Compounding Power		Creating an illusion increases your outgoing damage and condition damage for a short duration. Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade.
Major Master	Phantasmal Haste		Phantasms spawn with quickness. Gain quickness when you create a phantasm.
Minor Grandmaster	Master of Misdirection		Shatter skills gain recharge reduction.
Major Grandmaster	Phantasmal Force		Phantasms deal increased strike damage for each stack of might you have. Gain might when your phantasms become clones.

• If you want to solo harder content, make use of   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge for 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from  Stability,  Resistance and  Resolution on entering combat. The  Protection from this is a massive gain in survivability, as  Power Mesmer does not have good native sources for it.
• Use  Stretched Time to cover  Alacrity on yourself.
• The utility skills are meant to help cover boons on yourself and creating as many Phantasms as possible to benefit from  Illusions and  Stretched Time.

Utility Skills (Open World)

Skill	Notes
Signet of the Ether	Used to recharge all Phantasm skills. Use this when   Phantasmal Defender,   Phantasmal Disenchanter and   Phantasmal Swordsman are on cooldown to regain access to them.
Signet of Inspiration	Extends all boons on you by 3 seconds. Especially useful when using Relic of the Cavalier and/or   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge since it extends all boons they provide.
Option 1:   Phantasmal Defender Option 2:   Well of Action	Summons a Phantasm that applies  Taunt and thus takes the focus away from you. Deals a lot of damage when it blocks attacks. Proivides boons and damage.
Phantasmal Disenchanter	Summons a Phantasm that deals a lot of damage.
Gravity Well	Make use of this for Breakbar damage.

Dealing with Conditions and Control effects

• In case you need frequent condi cleanses, getting a cheap rifle (can be exotic) with Superior Sigil of Generosity or Superior Sigil of Purity is worth looking at. Charrzooka costs …. Simply swap to it whenever you encounter condition-heavy enemies and stay on it for as long as necessary.
•   Abstraction cleanses conditions in an area. Swapping to Rifle for condition-heavy fights can therefore be a viable option.
•   Well of Precognition is a Stun break and applies pulsing  Stability and  Aegis.