Power Chrono

February 2023

Power Chronomancer  is one of the highest damage and highest skill floor builds in the game. Power Chrono is unique in its ability to ‘oneshot’ multiple opponents in a row with Continuum Split.

Contrary to popular belief, power Chrono isn’t a oneshot build. Instead, its best to think of it as a roamer like Herald, but with the added ability to frontload almost all its damage by using Quickness and Alacrity.

Build Fundamentals

Power Chronomancer is played as a high-damage Roamer, meaning your job is to +1 a duelist or to get quick kills in teamfights. Avoid taking 1v1s or staying in extended fights, once Chrono starts running out of cooldowns its lack of defensive utility and condition cleanse makes it easy to focus. Always have a priority target in mind before you engage in any fight, and be proactive about leaving before you feed and die.

Chronomancer changes the standard mesmer shatters and gains new ones. The relevant changes for us are Split Second and Continuum Split . Split Second  splits the damage from Mind Wrack into 2 parts; Continuum Split lets you set up a Continuum Rift. You can use all your dps skills then take Continuum Shift for a COMPLETE RESET on all skills used. While any damage taken in Continuum Split is reverted after the skill ends, conditions applied to you will persist, meaning an opponent can apply conditions to you in Continuum Split and kill you with them once the skill ends. Also, if you die in Continuum Split , you will still go down and the end of the skill does NOT revive you.

Your unique utility for teamfights comes from Power Block . Power Block allows you to put skills on an increased cooldown by interrupting their cast with skills like Mantra of Distraction . The increased timer is invaluable if you interrupt important defensives like a heal skill, elite skill, or revive utility such as Glyph of Renewal or Signet of Mercy .

Make sure you’re holding a charge of Mantra of Distraction at all times to be ready to commit for a kill given an opportunity.

Note: Power Block has an Internal Cooldown (ICD). Be careful that it isn’t on cooldown when you need to interrupt key abilities

Damage

The single thing Chronmancer does better than any other class is burst damage. See the CS Burst in the Rotation section for an idea of how to do this. Where does Chrono’s damage come from?

Power Chronomancer is one variation of Shatter Mesmer, a build type which has existed for years. Broadly speaking, all shatter mesmer builds revolve around the same 3 skill combo: Mirror Blade  Blink  Mind Wrack . These skills for the core of a shatter burst, and Chrono is no exception; all the other shatters, interrupts, and skills only add damage onto the core combo.

With Power Chrono, we add a sequence of skills such as Mind Stab and a precast of Phantasmal Berserker which should all align for a massive damage spike. Coordinating this spike with your team is vital, either by using the target system ingame or using voice communication.

Chronomancer’s incredible damage is enabled by its access to Quickness and Alacrity. Seize the Moment gives you Quickness on every shatter, while the combination of Seize the Moment and Improved Alacrity gives you 50% skill recharge and a 10% critical damage buff.

Tip:  Seize the Moment can be used defensively as well as for damage – you can use Rewinder for Quickness to get your heal or elite off faster and speed up important skill recharges with Alacrity while rotating between fights.

A major concept to understand when playing Chrono is Trading. Trading is a concept across the game, and its when two players trade damage and skills back and forth in a quick succession. Chrono’s major advantage is that with Distortion, nothing in the game can trade with your Continuum Split . As long as you can properly execute your burst and understand how to follow it up, every class and build will have to respect your damage and play around you.

While this is a huge advantage, it is entirely dependent on your cooldowns.

Crowd Control

Chronomancer has good access to area-of-effect CC from a number of sources. Your best CC comes from Gravity Well . Gravity Well (usually shortened to grav well) is a pulsing knockdown, pull, and float which gathers enemies together and keeps them controlled. Gravity Well can be used in conjunction with Continuum Split in two ways: either in sequence to keep a cc chain going on a target or group of targets, or in parallel to counter abilities with pulsing Stability such as Lich Form from a Necromancer.

Note: Certain evade abilities such as Withdraw can be timed to escape the pulse of Gravity Well without using a stunbreak.

You also have access to daze on Mantra of Distraction and Time Sink as well as a stun from Tides of Time and a knockback on Illusionary Wave . Managing your CC is vital to your sustain and survivability as well as your damage.

Mantra is your best source of interrupts which proc Power Block .  Power Block has several uses outside of the increased cooldown. It can also be used as an excellent defensive tool into power-based classes since it also applies Weakness. You can use this either for yourself or to peel for a pressured teammate.

Tip: When fighting a Herald, you can Power Block their Facet of Chaos . This forces them to swap out of Legendary Dragon Stance since the Facet will be draining all of their energy, leaving them unable to use weapon skills.

Always catch the return of Tides of Time the cooldown reduction is massive since this skill has a fairly long recharge.

Time Sink acts as an effective stunbreak in many situations since it’s an instant-cast AOE daze, meaning if you’re CCd you can interrupt whatever damage your opponent tries to unload and wait out the stun duration.

Sustain

The biggest drawback of chronomancer is its complete lack of sustain. Signet of the Ether is a good heal that resets your phantasm skills, but it has a relatively long cooldown and is your only source of healing. It is vital that your manage your Echo of Memory Deja Vu to block incoming attacks.

Tip: Using Signet of the Ether resets your Phantasmal Berserker for more damage but it also recharges Echo of Memory . Using both charges of Echo of Memory and immediately healing will give you a fast recharge with improved Alacrity.

You are especially vulnerable to condition damage, particularly Burning and Poisoned as you have no way to counterplay or clear them. Your best bet is often to swap weapons and hope the cleansing sigil will save you.

Your best defense comes from Distortion . Distortion allows you to ignore power and condition damage, letting you trade with other classes safely or wait for conditions to tick out while invulnerable. Remember that while it is a powerful defensive, Distortion is also used offensively, especially during Continuum Split for an extra layer of safety.

Signet of Illusions reset all of your shatter cooldowns except for Continuum Split . This is excellent for getting another Distortion and Time Sink , but don’t make the mistake of thinking you can CS again.