Chronomancer tracking boons

Just started playing chrono in fractals. As I understand it, my main job is to provide boons (quickness, alacrity) to my party

There are 3 skills that buff quickness (shield 5, SoI, and well of action). Do their durations stack if you use them instantly/together?

If duration doesnt stack, then I should ideally be using them one after another, as soon as the previous quickness boon ends.

Whats the best way to keep track of the boon duration? Ive been trying to look at the boon icon to watch for when it ends, but it jumps around and is hard to see if boons are constantly changing on you

And there doesnt seem to be a strict rotation that I can find anywhere, but even then I dont think following a rotation would prevent overlapping quickness boons

They stack. But quickness only 5 stacks at a time. For example using Well of Action, Tides of Time, SoI and Illusionary Inspiration will net you 4+1.5+1.5+3+3= 13 seconds of total quickness. Then adding another stack will overwrite the duration of the 5 stacks. So in this case if there's another Chrono they will overwrite one of the ToT quickness stacks.

ah I see. is there any advantage to using individual abilities as soon as they come off cooldown vs. waiting for all 3 and using them together?

I guess all of this is true of alacrity as well?

isnt it more like an additional 6th stack will not apply? thats what i think is more correct.

but its 5 "stacks" and you can get perma-quickness with the right build and gear (you dont even need 100% boon duration). search it on the internet (youtube), there are plenty rotations and descriptions.

I meant that the next stack will overwrite the shortest duration XD. If you've got lots of boon duration, it's easy to upkeep perma quickness. You can actually just spam all your quickness skills once theyre off cool down if you can't memorize the perfect rotation. Add in time warp if you have a probelm with your party not stacking well.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon

Stacking in durationBoons that stack in duration will cap out at 5 stacks and will increase the duration of the boon. Reapplying the boon while at the maximum number of stacks will overwrite the stack with the lowest duration. (e.g. having 15 seconds of Protection.png Protection (5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1) and reapplying with one that lasts 10 seconds will replace the stack that lasts 1 second, increasing the duration to 24 seconds)

Boons that stack in duration will start using the strongest application before using the others regardless of when it was applied.

• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon

If you check your individual quickness applying skills base duration:Tides of Time - 1.5 secondsWell of Action - 4 secondsTime Warp - 2 seconds per tick, 5 ticks over 10 secondsSignet of Inspiration - 3 seconds

You will soon realise which skills are your main quickness providers (with 100% boon duration in mind). Most notably Signet of Inspiration.

Very simply put:ToT and WoA are there to provide base quickness so you can copy it with SoI (or any phantasm cast which applies SoI).Time Warp will cap your quickness duration stacks but not overwrite longer duration stacks provided by WoA or copied with SoI.

As Refia said, with enough boon duration you can upkeep perma quickness with just casting skills off cooldown. Since the quickness base duration is often low, chances are high you will not be constantly at 5 stacks anyway.

More important is to memorize the correct order of skills:

• ToT gets cast before SoI or a phantasm
• WoA gets cast ideally before SoI or a phantasm and not during TW
• TW will give you a good base amount of quickness and its huge area will mean most players are affected
• SoI will provide the 2nd longest quickness stacks (3s base) but ONLY if you are already affected by quickness, thus try casting this after gaining quickness and towards the middle or end of a TW.
• Phantasms, while providing quickness, are more important for rotation and alacrity (especially shield phantasms). If possible cycle or recast them when you have quickness up (usually not hard with permanent quickness) but it's more important to have enough shield phantasms up (2+) than use them for quickness.

EDIT: The synergy between SoI, phantasms and boon copying is one of the main reasons why mesmer rotations are more of a priority system and smaller rotations within a big rotation setup where most other classes stick to 1 fixed rotation. Add in distortion, continuum split and occasional encounter specific skills which will mix up the priorities and you'll soon realise why many people avoide the class. Once mastered it can be a lot of fun though.