Support Chronomancer

August 2023

Chronomancer is an elite specialization for the mesmer class, bringing some of the best utility, crowd control, boon removal and some condition cleanse for large WvW battles. While it is meta class, only a few Chronomancers are needed per squad.  This build is hard to master because of Continuum Split, which gives you a short window to essentially use your key abilities twice! Continuum Split offers incredible combo potential to get the most out of.

Build Fundamentals & Priorities

The build is best described as unique utility, simply put you will  provide mass stealth for your squad via Veil , burst boon removal via shatters due to Shattered Concentration combined with crowd control thanks to Vicious Expression and your final third auto attack on sword Mind Spike, generate quickness on shatters and  last but not least revival of allies with Illusion of Life .  Commanders will often call for specific skills during an encounter, be prepared to communicate your skill cooldowns and adapt to their commands or any given situation.  You’ll have the best success by casting your skills synchronizing your crowd control with damage during boon removal phases ‘bombing’ i,e on spike calls ‘wells’ Well of Corruption .

You will need to follow a simple rotation of skills in order to do this (find an example of the rotations above/to the right).

Staying alive should be prioritized above all else, you can help to keep your HP above zero through tactful use of skill rotation, positioning, timing and finally dodging.

If you need another dodge, swapping weapons will activate Superior Sigil of Energy

Profession Mechanic

Chronomancer’s shatters are powerful instant-cast skills that will not interrupt any action that the mesmer is performing.  Due to their range shatters must be used as soon as you are in melee range to burst remove boons.  Each shatter skill is enhanced by the number of clones available however clone generation is unreliable in large-scale encounters.  Each shatter skill has a unique active, thanks to the traits Shattered Concentration and Rending Shatter this makes all shatter skills remove boons and apply Vulnerability to up to five targets on impact.

Split Second Strike nearby foes damaging them after a small delay hits again.  Thanks to the trait Shatter Storm  this skill becomes an ammo skill that can be cast twice, removing up to 10 boons per use!.  Due to the low cooldown this skill can be used on range spikes for alacrity and quickness depending on if you are running .  This shatter will be used with other shatters to remove as many boons as possible.

Rewinder applies Crippled and Confusion.  Again this shatter will be used with other shatters to remove as many boons as possible, whislt providing some condition cover for important skills such as Immobilize  Chilled

Time Sink applies Slow and Daze. Vicious Expression and Superior Sigil of Absorption allowing your interrupts to potentially remove and steal boons respectively, removing up to 25 boons in total.  The sigil has been nerfed recently with a 3 second internal cooldown against other players, but it is still the best in slot sigil for chronomancer.

Distortion Distortion is back! Gain immunity to conditions and damage for 1 second, for each clone you destroy gain an additional 1 second of distortion.  This skill can be used during moments where you either need to survive and have other defences on cooldown or you wish to guarantee the success of casting a skill and ensure its not interrupted. i.e during the cast of Illusion of Life

Continuum Split allows you to duplicate your skills for a short time, you can use multiple skills and have their cooldowns reverted to the state before entering Continuum Split.  Continuum Split is by far the trickiest to master, as when casted the skill forms a rift which is visible to and vulnerable to enemy players. If you are killed or your rift is destroyed during combat you will be teleported back prematurely to where you originally cast the skill. In addition to resetting your skill cooldowns, your health, endurance, and position will revert to their previous state.

If you find yourself in a bad situation during Continuum Split you can close the rift early using Continuum Shift, reverting you back to your original position. 

Continuum Split resets the cooldowns for any skill whose cast ends during it. This means that you should always be casting a skill as you are activating Continuum Split. Commonly, Continuum Split is activated during the cast times of Gravity Well, Illusion of Life, or Tides of Time.

The duration of Continuum Split is extended by your number of active clones. Master of Fragmentation adds one second to your original Continuum Split duration. This brings your zero clone duration to 2½ seconds and one clone duration to 4 seconds.

Weapon Skills

Sword

Mind Spike (third skill in the auto-attack chain) strips boons. This is primarily used to quickly finish downstate enemies.

Blurred Frenzy is a one-second evade that fixes you in place. This can help you survive while casting shatters in melee range, be careful not to use when your group is moving as you may get left behind, finding it hard to get back to your group.

Illusionary Leap summons an illusion that leaps at your target. Activating this skill again swaps you with the clone and applies Immobilize on nearby enemies. Following up this skill with shatters will strip boons from nearby enemies and apply cover conditions.

You may also try to use this prior to your Continuum Split combo in order to gain 1 clone increasing the window duration on which you can use skills.

Focus

Temporal Curtain is a 600 ranged field that provides Swiftness to allies and inflicts Crippled on enemies. Activating it a second time activates Into the Void, a 600 radius pull. Altogether this makes you able to pull from up to 1200 range!  Use this skill to pull enemies towards your squad, putting them within attack range of your squad.

Phantasmal Warden summons a phantasm that blocks some projectiles.  With the recent patch thanks to Escape Artist this will help mitigate damage due to the invulnerability.

Shield

Echo of Memory is your main block. If you are hit during its cast you will gain a new block – if you’ve misjudged your Continuum Split and need to return to your zerg you can chain together Continuum Split casts to safely reach your Commander.

Tides of Time is a great crowd control skill, casting a slow moving shield that stuns enemies and blocks projectiles before returning to your location. Thanks to synergy with Vicious Expression and Superior Sigil of Absorption this skill can be a massive boon counter, with each interrupt stripping and stealing boons.

Utility Skills

Well of Eternity  Is a pulsing cleanse light field, that initially heals yourself and allies on the last pulse.

Null Field Place a ranged field up to 900 range away, that rips boons from foes and cures conditions on allies.  Pulses five times! can to be used on clashes or used during ranged spikes, be flexible depending on what will bring most value.

Illusion of Life is high-value and one of the best revive utilities in battle, allowing you to temporarily revive up to three players to 80% health via Superior Rune of Mercy.  Revived allies have 15 seconds to kill an enemy, allowing players to either re-enter the fight and rally or to reposition to a safe revive location. Failing to kill an enemy within 15 seconds will return them to downstate.  Hold onto this skill to revive multiple players rather than casting it on a single individual. When using it, communicate with your squad to avoid doubling up with another resurrection utilities.

If needed use this in combination with Continuum Split. During the cast of Illusion of Life quickly enter Continuum Split. Once Continuum Split has closed you will have another cast of Illusion of Life available.  You may even wish to use Distortion to further guarantee success

Veil generates Stealth on any allies that pass through it and has no target limit.  One of your main responsibilities is to grant Stealth to your squad. At the request of your commander, place Veil  just slightly in front of him unless otherwise directed.

Gravity Well is one of the best crowd control skills in the game, knocking enemies down, then floating them and pulling them in. Use this in combination with Continuum Split.  Commanders will often call for a bomb explicitly, so you may want to save it for when it’s called for on voice.

Alternatives

Traits

Stretched Time can be swapped in to gain and give alacrity if your party should need more utility, you lose quickness so you will struggle to Continuum Split combo.

Having only one reliable phantasm on this build you may wish to swap in for more self Phantasmal Haste quickness.

Utility Skills

Signet of the Ether Heal yourself whenever you summon an illusion passively,  when activated heal yourself and reduce the recharge of phantasm skills by 50%.  This means you can reduce the cooldown of your shield block Echo of Memory

Mimic  can be great if you are the only chrono in the squad and you need to either double up on Veil or Illusion of Life

Mantra of Concentration  If you need access to stability, this tends to be used if your firebrand or party is struggling or you have no firebrand in your party.

Phantasmal Disenchanter This can be swapped in if valued over other skills.  Unblockable strips more mitigation thanks to Escape Artist you may even wish to combine it and also use the trait Chronophantasma

Gear

Celestial is also a great choice should you wish to contribute more in damage and longer condition duration (Swap)

Sigils

Superior Sigil of Energy can be swapped for Superior Sigil of Nullification for more boon strips at the cost of some survivability.

Utility Food

 Sharpening Skull Upon reviving your ally, both of you receive Feline Fury for 30 minutes, increasing all attributes +75.