Tank Chronomancer

Tank Chronomancer (2393 Toughness) has a lot of damage evasion built into its weapons and traits making it one of the easiest tanks to play mechanically in the game. This build can upkeep Quickness easily for the party while providing very solid CC. As the build doesn’t focus on dealing damage, it can be configured to have access to a lot of utility skills and boon extension.

While this is a mechanically easy build groups will often expect you to make many utility and weapon changes for different encounters. Be prepared to have an inventory filled with alternative weapons!

Build fundamentals

Tanking

As tank, you are responsible for positioning the boss correctly. This means positioning so your squad can avoid dying while maximizing DPS on the boss. Find a safe spot to tank the boss, point it away from your squad, and keep it as stationary as possible so your squad can layer DPS fields and stack tightly for boons.

While your DPS players can stand behind the boss and avoid the majority of its attacks, you must rely on evades, blocks, dodges, and positioning to avoid taking catastrophic damage. Chronomancers have many options to this effect.

• Blurred Frenzy is an evade.
• Illusionary Riposte is a block. Succesfully blocking generates a clone.
• Echo of Memory is a block. Succesfully blocking allows you to re-cast the block. Additionally, this is a phantasm skill, which means its cooldown is refreshed with Signet of the Ether
• Well of Precognition applies Aegis to your party. It can be cast within Continuum Split or after Mimic for a double or triple cast.
• Signet of Inspiration and Signet of the Ether applies invulnerability to your party thanks to Blurred Inscriptions.

In summary, you have many options for blocking or evading damage, but you must be prepared prior to the damage being applied. This makes tanking tricky for beginners – aim to prepare for the boss’s attacks and tanking pattern! For boss specific attacks and tank patterns check out our raid guides.

Many raid bosses are toughness tanks, fixating on the player with the highest toughness. Most DPS builds have 1000 toughness, but Soulbeasts and Catalysts often have 1150 or 1200. Additionally, some supports choose to take additional toughness on encounters without a toughness tank. This build has very, very high toughness – your squad will have to be seriously trying to beat your toughness. If nobody in your squad has any toughness, feel free to decrease your toughness or use the 1255 Toughness variant if comfortable.

Usage

Seize the Moment allows you to provide Quickness by using your shatter skills. This means your rotation consists of loops of generating three clones then shattering them.

You have many clone generation options. These will passively generate through executing your rotation, or can be deliberately generated using:

• Illusionary Counter Counterspell Scepter 2 generates 2 clones.
• Illusionary Leap Sword 3 generates 1 clone.
• Illusionary Riposte Sword 4 generates 1 clone if it blocks an attack.
• Phantasmal Swordsman Sword 5 generates 1 phantasm, which converts to a clone.
• Phantasmal Warden Focus 5 generates 1 phantasm, which converts to a clone.
• Echo of Memory Shield 4 generates 1 phantasm, which converts to a clone.
• Echo of Memory Deja Vu If Shield 4 blocks an attack, it can be reused. The second use generates 1 phantasm, which converts to a clone.

In addition to your shatter skills, Well of Action and Time Warp help maintain your Quickness uptime. These skills are both wells, and affect players standing in their areas of effect. This means that they should be saved for when your squad is stacked and stationary. Time Warp is often used at the start of phases before you’ve had a chance to generate clones. For example, dropping Time Warp at the start of a boss encounter provides your squadmates with Quickness for their openers instead of forcing them to wait for you to generate clones to shatter.

Continuum Split allows you to duplicate your skills. This allows you to double cast your utility skills, and should be used mostly off of cooldown. Additional clones increase its duration, so aim to have at least one clone available before using Continuum Split. Don’t wait too long for your clones at the start of encounters – you are your party’s source of Quickness, which is pivotal for your DPS players to execute their openings. Waiting for two or three clones to execute your Continuum Split opener can seriously harm your squadmates’ opening bursts. Additionally, remember that Continuum Split returns you to your initial location. As tank your positioning is critical! Be ready to end Continuum Split early if you need to.

Prioritize using Well of Action, Tides of Time, and Signet of Inspiration as much as possible. Use these skills off cooldown unless Continuum Split is coming off of cooldown soon. If Continuum Split has <20 seconds left on cooldown save Signet of Inspiration, Tides of Time, and Time Warp to use during Continuum Split instead. Time Warp can also be duplicated by Continuum Split, but should be otherwise saved for the starts of phases to deploy Quickness to your party. Your other shatter skills can also fit within Continuum Split for even more Quickness generation.

Outside of Continuum Split, use one of your shatter skills as soon as you have three clones available to provide Quickness through Seize the Moment. For encounters where you’re tanking near your squad your shatters are sufficient for maintaining Quickness on your party. For other encounters where you’re tanking further from your squad you will need to rely on Well of Action and Time Warp instead.

Tips

• Mind Spike (the last Sword auto-attack) boon strips.

CC (Crowd Control)

• Time Sink (scales with number of clones)
• Tides of Time
• Illusionary RiposteCounter Blade
• Temporal CurtainInto the Void
• Signet of Domination

Alternatives

Weapons

• Scepter / Sword, x / Shield: This is the “default” weapon set-up.
• Scepter / Focus, x / Shield: Swapping your off-hand Sword for Focus allows you to use Temporal Curtain for pulls.
• Sword / Sword, x / Shield: Swapping your Scepter for a Sword allows you to use Mind Spike (the last Sword auto-attack) to boon strip.
• Sword / Focus, x / Shield: This allows you to use Temporal Curtain for pulls and use Mind Spike for boon strip.

Utility Skills

Signet of Domination is essentially a free slot. You can replace it with:

• Feedback for reflects.
• Mantra of Concentration for party-wide Stability.
• Mantra of Resolve for party-wide condition cleanse.
• Portal Entre for portals.
• Null Field for boon strip.
• Well of Precognition for Aegis.
• Well of Recall for Alacrity.
• Mimic to double cast Signet of Inspiration. Note that Mimic does not duplicate within Continuum Split.

Additionally, you can replace Signet of the Ether with:

• Well of Eternity for an AoE heal.
• Mantra of Recovery for an instant cast self-heal.

Finally, you can replace Time Warp with Signet of Humility for massive CC.