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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Guild Wars 2 - SC’s Chronomancer “Guide”/ What you should know for raids! by Axias

Introduction

Hello, I'm Axias and I’m from Snow Crows. I’ve been playing “Chronomancer” since HoT came out. It’s my favorite profession and practiced it a lot in raids to get better at it. So with the help of few friends I started making a “guide” about a month ago. So this guide was made for players who are not completely sure about certain things, want to know more about Chronomancer in raids or maybe you just want to learn! (even then, there isn’t everything). I might be repeating myself, so I'm sorry for that. I tried my best to make the post as readable as possible (my first reddit post).

Glossary

Continuum Split (F5) : Continuum Split Shift
SoI: Signet of Inspiration
SoI T: Illusionary Inspiration (trait)
WoE: Well of Eternity
WoA: Well of Action
WoR: Well of Recall
ToT: Tides of Time (Shield skill 5)
Avenger: Phantasmal Avenger (Shield skill 4)
Warden: Phantasmal Warden (Focus skill 5)
Swordsman: Phantasmal Swordsman (Sword skill 5)
Warlock: Phantasmal Warlock (Staff skill 3)

Subgroups

C-Squad (4-2-4) : 2 Berserkers, 2 Druids, 1 Revenant, 1 Chronomancer, 4 DPS Professions
F-Squad (7-2-1) : 1 Berserker, 6 DPS Professions, 1 Revenant, 1 Chronomancer, 1 Druid
Mirror Comp (5-5) : 2 Berserkers, 2 Druids, 2 Chronomancer, 4 DPS Professions
Commander Chronomancer (5-1-4) : 2 Berserkers, 2 Druids, 1 Commander Chronomancer, 5 DPS Professions

C-Squad
Pros:
  • Perma Prot from Revenant
  • More CC since Revenant
  • Chronomancer and Revenant will get Banners, Might, etc.
  • More reliable fury access due to revenant
Cons:
  • Less DPS than 5-1-4 since you have 1 DPS Profession less
  • Less Alacrity uptime than 5-5 since you only have 1 Chronomancer
Recommended Bosses: Matthias/Full Wing 2

F-Squad
Pros:
  • Easier to organize
  • Perma Prot from Revenant
  • More CC since Revenant
  • More reliable fury access due to revenant
Cons:
  • No Boons on 2nd and 3rd Subgroup
  • Less DPS than other Team Compositions

Mirror Comp
Pros:
  • High Alacrity uptime since 2 Chronomancers
  • Boons covered on all party members
Cons:
  • 1DPS Profession less (Chronomancers instead of Revenant/DPS Profession)
  • No Protection
  • Less CC
Recommended Bosses: Slothasor
Note: If you play mirror comp on a boss where you don’t need wardens, you change Inspiration into Domination for more DPS

Commander Chronomancer
Pros:
  • 1 More DPS Profession - > most DPS
Cons:
  • Can cause survivability problems on high pressure bosses (Vale Guardian, Matthias & Xera) due to low protection uptime
  • Less CC
  • Nearly no boons for Chronomancer
  • You will most likely have to tank, since you are having toughness (reaper can tank by gettin higher toughness with corrupter's Fevor) but I'm not really sure, it can also be a pros
Recommended Bosses: Wing1, Wing 3

Trait Line

Chronomancer
  • for Continuum Split/Wells/Shield skills/Alacrity & to roleplay as the master of time
Inspiration
  • Illusionary Inspiration is needed for quickness uptime on 10 people (if you are the only Chronomancer)
  • Can be useful for reflect
Domination or Illusion ?

Domination
Pros:
  • Distortion on every signet of inspiration, can be handy on some bosses
Cons:
  • Don’t have the phantasm CD reduced (Illusionist’s Celerity this trait can save you if you mess up your rotation).
  • The skills CDs difference (35 30 24 30 without alacrity) kind of forces you to not wait for Well of Recall so you give less quickness per Signet of Inspiration but you share more often. Resulting in a messy rotation..
  • You have a waiting time between your last quickness rotation and when your Continuum Split is about to get off CD (Slightly less alacrity due to this waiting time)
  • Continuum Split CD, which helps you recover more easily if you mess up one of your quickness rotation.
  • Slightly less alacrity due of the Continuum Split CD (Continuum Split more often with Illusion > Gets the extra alacrity from Continuum Split more often)
Domination rotation
Illusion
Pros :
  • Slightly more quickness
  • Slightly more alacrity (even more when avenger gets unbugged HYPE)
  • Rotation is straightforward and feels smoother
  • CD reduced on Continuum Split and all phantasms
  • Almost no waiting time between the last quickness rotation and when your Continuum Split is about to get off CD
  • While reflecting with a focus, you have higher uptime of reflect warden due of phantasmal haste
  • IF YOU CARE: With perfect rotation on both setup it’s approximately between 200 and 2k DPS more difference for Illusion (#1). With 2 Swordsmen Illusion is better, but if you use 2 Avengers Domination gets better (post patch fix)
Cons :
  • TBD :> (F5 almost match with Matthias sacrifice, so...It can get annoying)
Illusion rotation (2 avengers 1 swordsman)
Illusion rotation (2 swordsmen 1 avengers)
Rotation / Text Version
What I think & Conclusion:
I would say the Domination trait line is really good for lowman (distortion on SoI). On the two setups you normally have quickness all the time. The CDs on illusion make the rotation smoother/easier (and more forgiving) and distribute more alacrity. The DPS is slightly higher on Illusions but your role is mainly keeping up quickness and alacrity (while tanking if needed) .

Which Phantasm I use

When you have a Revenant:
  • Always at least 1 Avenger
  • Rotating between 2 Avengers (and 1 Swordsman) and 2 Swordsman (and 1 Avenger)
  • Warden if you need reflects/block projectiles
When you don’t have a Revenant and that you are the only Chronomancer (Commander setup):
  • If you don’t need reflects, you can go triple Avenger (your damage is so insignificant, that it’s much better to have more Avengers for higher alacrity uptime)

Food & Gear

All my setups use:
  • Sigil of Concentration on my main hand and Sigil of Force on the offhand
  • 6 Superior Rune of the Chronomancer
With a Revenant (50 % boon duration) :
You want to reach 100 %, for that you have 50 % from your Revenant 20 % from your nourishment/gear and 33 % from your sigil of concentration whenever you weapon swap.
What gear is the “best” gear when you have a Revenant in your squad (by that I mean in the same subgroup)?

1st Option: The go to go build
Food
Utility
2nd Option (Nico’s try hard build)
You don't have to use 20 % boon duration food, since you can get 18 % boon duration if you use exotic trinkets (platinum doubloons) + 10 % Boon duration Utility.
Food & Utility
If you want to tank (toughness tanking: Vale Guardian, Gorseval, Keep Contruct or Xera) you can use a +5 toughnes infusion, Loaf of Candy Cactus Cornbread or get a cavalier trinket (1,2 or 3 depend how much toughness you want)

Without a Revenant :
Without a Revenant you want to reach 67 % boon duration (100 % with the sigil of concentration ).
This setup with exotic trinkets and platinum doubloons gives more effective power than the ascended Commander setup and while also being much cheaper. (Even more with Zerk Armor, if you feel like doing a 2nd set for the damage "increase"

Food
Utility
Just so you know the Commander’s recipe names are bugged, those are the right ones

Should I shatter or not ?

Shattering (mind wrack) is a dps loss and will mess up your Chronophastama order.
How does Chronophantasma work:
When you summon a phantasm it gets this buff & the phantasm will be re summoned the first time you shatter them (F1 to Continuum Split)
How does the order work if you replace a phantasm by another:
So basically the last phantasm summoned will be the last one to be replace if you don’t shatter. If you shatter your phantasm, the order will be decided by the distance between the phantasm and their target(First one to reach the target will be the first one to get replace if you summon a new phantasm).
Example: you have a phantasmal warlock (from precasting), swordsman and an avenger up so if you shatter the order is going to be n°1 Avenger, n°2 Swordsman & n°3 Warlock

Theorycraft Stuff

I’ve done the calculation for the alacrity/DPS, also one for the quickness which I deleted (not relevant) so I took Tobi’s sheets for the structure and changed with my numbers.
  • Alacrity & Quickness
  • Since theory and reality is always different I decided to not really care about the damage but I’ve done it. Depends of what you do, it can be either Domination better or Illusions.
For the gear, I checked the effective power with gw2power.com.
What you should know!
  • Things I did and didn’t use in my calculations:
  • That the builds are X/Inspi/Chronomancer
  • The waiting time between the last rotation and the F5
  • The time in F5
  • Quickness/Alacrity on others (not me)
  • Before your last rotation and when the F5 get off CD, there is a waiting time on both build (higher on domi) This is what causes a huge difference “with the F5 CD” between Domination and Illusion
  • Tides of Time “always” has 30 s, only does if it comes back to you
  • For the alacrity I calculated only wells and not with avenger (s) (since both attack rates are the same atm, FIX HYPE)

Useful Tips

Signet of Inspiration
  • If you don’t have to stand still (tanking) you can run around and spread quickness equally Cancel casting can be useful to trigger Illusionary Inspiration without having to change any of your phantasm if you don’t want to
Precasting (out of combat) a phantasm
Precasting is good because it allow you to use your first Continuum Split faster (get quickness and alacrity faster)
  • If you play with swordsman, precast a warlock.
  • If you play with warden, precast a swordsman.
  • If you feel like try harding, you can precast 3 phantasm without getting in combat (warlock, duelist then swordsman/warden)
Boss Specific Changes
  • On Matthias you should run Domination instead of Illusion (if you run feedback) because the quickness difference is much bigger because you have only two wells. The distortion on SoI can help a bit, giving you ”and your team” a higher sustain.
  • In a Pug Scenario when you lack quickness on Slothasor you can go Domination instead of Illusion because you only have two wells. Taking Feedback over WoR makes you lose the additional Spins of your Wardens so if you lack a lot of reflects you should keep Illusion (and stay with Feedback).
Portals
CC’s/Breakbar

Cancel casting
  • When you are on shield, your F5 is ready. You are about to use F5 and weapon swap (for concentration sigil), do your F5 rotation then before it ends, start casting swordsman/warden (in F5) and interrupt it with stow weapon. This will trigger SoI T without getting on CD after F5. Pretty much gives you an extra SoI proc.
Using F4(Distortion) on Slothasor
  • You can absorb the shake attack of Slothasor by standing in middle of his hitbox and jumping, it can save some people (or the group) that can’t/don't dodge this attack.

Useful Links

Written guide:
Youtube’s :

Credits

  • Nico & Yui for their constant help
  • Tobi (The master blaster guy) for structure on some calculations and the help
  • Andy/Subi & Casual for checking what I’ve done, and correcting the mistakes
  • Thanks to Deathly & Fennec, for letting me use their PoV
If you have any question feel free to write down below or whisper/mail one of us in game
Axias / Shattered Orion - OrionXnAsh.3064 (English / French)
Nico (Lynn Van Gherwen) - Habataku.5214 (English / German)
Tobi (Mareika) - MasterBlaster.6827 (English / German)
Yui (Phantasmal Yui) - BlackDragon.3752 (English / German)

Snow Crows

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