So what are Chronos running in CMs now?

I haven't touched FOTM since the changes hoping to see what the meta changes will be...but I am itching to get some FOTM in. What have you guys been running?

A different class.

;)

I'd hate to be actively playing the game in the raid scene right now. Chronos ATM are not expected to do anything due to the uncertainty of recent changes, yet they're expected to do everything in spite of having no clear way of accomplishing such a task.

Until some more solid builds go up, I would just run the boonshare build, except instead of mimic I would run double wells. It won't give permanent boons, but it'll give decent uptime if other players hit the wells. For adds, prioritize the signet, but for bosses wait until enough illusions are up to double cast everything under continuum split. The primary boons are quickness and alacrity, everything else is just dressing on the cake.

This would also be done because I don't want to spend hundreds of gold until we know what those vague future changes will be.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:I'd hate to be actively playing the game in the raid scene right now. Chronos ATM are not expected to do anything due to the uncertainty of recent changes, yet they're expected to do everything in spite of having no clear way of accomplishing such a task.

Until some more solid builds go up, I would just run the boonshare build, except instead of mimic I would run double wells. It won't give permanent boons, but it'll give decent uptime if other players hit the wells. For adds, prioritize the signet, but for bosses wait until enough illusions are up to double cast everything under continuum split. The primary boons are quickness and alacrity, everything else is just dressing on the cake.

This would also be done because I don't want to spend hundreds of gold until we know what those vague future changes will be.

This.

It's mostly double wells with SoI in fractals and still somewhat works simply because fights are not that long or are interrupted with mechanics.

In raids it makes more sense to run FB+Renegade if you have access to these classes with people who can tank. Most groups still run double chronos who are performing way worse now (mostly due to mobility not working well with wells).

It will be interesting to see if damage mesmer (power chrono/ condi mirage) will find their way into raid squads as SoI boon copy machines. In an organized squad this would allow for FB and Renegade to not wear boon duration gear at all. A Warrior, FB, Renegade, (healer of choice), 6 mesmer setup should be able to clear just about all raids without issue.

@Einsof.1457 said:I haven't touched FOTM since the changes hoping to see what the meta changes will be...but I am itching to get some FOTM in. What have you guys been running?

I'm running Harrier FB, either + Chrono or Renegade, although I haven't found a Renegade yet..I've been doing Chrono + FB for a while before the change, and it always worked well. Much safer but very slightly slower than with a Druid. Even then I preferred that setup.Now I try to actively avoid Chrono + Druid. Those haven't been going well at all, mostly due to people being terrible at stacking and lack of defensive boons.

E:/Full Viper FB with Firebrand Runes for perma Quickness and about 20-25k DPS with a Support Renegade, BS and 2 pDPS, might be worth thinking about for Fractals as well.

As per the last balance patch I'd say you're golden if you just run 4 DPS chronos with danger time trait and a BS hehe..

Stopped doing that content.

@Asum.4960 said:

@Einsof.1457 said:I haven't touched FOTM since the changes hoping to see what the meta changes will be...but I am itching to get some FOTM in. What have you guys been running?

Firebrand was the superior healer (with quickness and aegis spam) for a couple of patches already. Lacking druid utility certainly was not great, but also not a big deal (unless going for the absolute best setup speed wise). It's a bit like healing scrouge. Any player who has seen what a healing scourge can do in wings 1-4 instead of a 2nd druid would have refused to every leave without one, yet most PUG groups did not catch on. Doesn't mean it wasn't an insane addition to the squad and ease of kill.

People still don't seem to understand that the main reason chrono was prefered was due to ease of use and chaos all boon provision. Based on purely quickness and alacrity, Firebrand and Renegade were pretty much viable alternatives to 2 chronos (except that chronos were geared and people had experience). What killed chrono was basically making them able to share all boons (with the 2nd previous patch) only to then shred everything they could do.

Chrono + druid + war has always been a curb to support only 2 DPS. Won't say it's not effective, it's a safe compo but it can easily be better.PS war/Spb + chrono support/healer have always give better and faster result in 5man compo. Why ?Because every patchs, every nerfs, people still want to stuff chrono with berserker and commander equipement, but they never reach more than 5k DPS because they don't care about DPS and they're right, so why the F equip berserker/commander ? If you need a healer, Harrier chorno heal enough in fractals. And druid healer* now, yes gives power buffs, does it worth the lost of 1 slot to give the 2~3 others +2k dps ? PUG are so shut in old habits they can't think otherwise, it's a pity.

Now FB (well, since some months already) is in a good spot. Easy to play, strong healing, strong regen, Aegis is just OP against half the encounters, and perma quickness, stab, fury, mights etc. It is worth the lack of alacrity in 5man combo and short phased fights if you gain more DPS slots in the party .Chrono is still very good, and because people always would like chrono everywhere; but i'm pretty sure they all should set in harrier or minstrel and avoid a second healer.

Still pugging with Chrono/Druid/BS + 2 DPS, running Dueling 1-3-1, Illusions 1-2-1, Chrono 3-3-3, prestack with Mistlock and you should get 25s~ of Quickness/Alacrity, bring Time Warp on all encounters and CC with bundles if needed, still 90-100% uptime and more dps, just can't do boonshare as quick as old SoI when you're not prestacked.

Chrono is still more than fine in fractals. You just have less stability/aegis so you need to play smarter around Skorvald and MAMA's last phases and maybe bring some reflects for Artsariv.

I've found that most of the people complaining have to L2P because these are usually the people who join the group on a druid or guardian and don't bring elite spirit with nature's vengeance and stone spirit or Stand Your Ground or fail to activate F3 for group blocks/aegis and then complain about how it's impossible to stay alive.

I've had to play a druid a lot this patch as most druids in PuGs are utterly incompetent and were being carried by chronos in keeping the group alive. What kind of garbage druid doesn't bring Healing Spring for Afflicted or forgoes stone and the elite spirits when perma stab/prot on the group is massive for keeping them alive. Run Harriers with Windborne Notes and the group simply cannot die unless they're triggering lethal mechanics.

The chrono changes did make it a lot harder to be an effective elementalist, however. Weavers are just totally lacking in defense and unlike thief don't have easy endurance regen nd their self healing signet is way worse than the thief version. You can dodge a lot on daredevil and it's a part of your rotation whereas weaver suffers greatly if your rotation is interrupted because the chrono can't let you turret by feeding you aegis/stab.

I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

Renegade has Staff 5 which is massive CC (almost as much as pre nerf Moa, on a 20second CD), as sup FB you take Bane Signet, which is then also shared to your group for a DPS increase via Perfect Inscriptions (216 extra power with almost 50% uptime), in addition to that you have Shield 5 Knockback, Justice Tome pull, Axe Pull etc.

Resolve Tome is mass condi cleanse, otherwise Staff can combo skills for condi cleanse finishers frequently.

FB brings Perma 25 Might, Quickness, Fury, Swiftness, Regen and Retaliation, since the nerf to Tome CD's only almost perma Protection, some Vigor, and Aegis and Stability spam.Additionally both have enough projectile mitigation with Courage Tome and and Ventari to essentially delete any red orb mechanics.

All together, vastly superior utility and healing when compared to a Druid.But you don't get Frost Spirit, well, unless you run a dps Soulbeast.

I would hardly call that stupid.

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

Renegade and revenant weaponskills for that matter costs massive amounts of energy (especially staff skills) which dips into the reserves to either heal or maintain alacrity, it's one of the main design flaws of revenants (they essentially have a worse version of initiative since their resource is not only shared across weaponskills but spec skills and utilitties and elite; with only legend swap as a source of replenishment whereas thief has many trait sources to replenish initiative and much of their performance is not tied to initiative use to begin with).

Resolve Tome has a significantly higher cooldown than traited healing spring let alone CA seed. Afflicted instab doesn't just happen as infrequently as the tome, and combo fields are wholly unreliable for cleansing for the same reason reaper's chill fields are.

Won't even mention missing spotter or 10% increase to burst during a breakbar from druid's glyph on fractals which alone overshadows anything else the competition offers given the value of burst.

Raids might be a different story.

@Zenith.7301 said:

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

The CC is 15 energy, you can comfortably use that and maintain Alacrity and heals. But thank you for the lesson on their Profession mechanic.Considering both FB and Renegade heal more than a Druid if they could permanently be in CA, both, or even one of them makes condi cleansing a lot less important. For the few moments when condis do actually get dangerous, the ability to spam mass removals is more than enough. And if you are really struggling that much with conditions, you can always grab the Condi cleanse mantra, as you have a free utility to play with on FB, although I never felt the need for that in 30+ CM's + T4 runs on FB.

Yes, you do lose Spotter and Glyph of Empowerment in favour of Shared Signets with Perfect Inscriptions (216 Power and Condition Damage with higher uptime) and Assassin's Presence and Soulcleave's Summit.

The Stab and Aegis spam also allows the DPS's to skip a lot of dodges, leading to higher DPS uptime.

Raids are indeed a different Story, with Druids 10 man might generation actually having high value, as well as Spirits affecting ~6, not 2 DPS players.

I'm not saying Druid can't clear the content, obviously, and at least before the latest patch, with very good players, it was slightly faster than with a FB, yes.But it's one of these 99% of groups would actually benefit much more from support FB, but nobody runs it because the 1% published what gave them the best results in coordinated and practiced speed runs by a small margin, and everybody just looks at that and copies it, situations.

As an endgame chrono main, I'm... looking for a new game.

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

People refusing to accept chrono druid days are over :(

@theory.3580 said:As an endgame chrono main, I'm... looking for a new game.

Yeah I tried but screw it. I am going to go work on some single player backlog games and hope anet makes my profession fun again.

1 guy told me to run domi illusion as chrono 112 121.in this setup, bs can always go core, while chrono strip boons with shatters. But in longer fights u need to take time warp and pistol for cc. Missing cc is taken from rocks and planks. He was using this build, and all ccs were good on both 99 and 100. The problem comes with stab, and here is my lack of knowledge cuz i didnt play dh. Can dh share stab without a big dps lose?

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

Can somebody share what they have built with FB and Renegade . FB is kinda clear but I'm no sure because they use much more harrier stats so far I heard which means hybrid dps/heal/ support built ? I have a minstrel FB which I can swap 5 pieces to harrier for max boon duration.( or just for being less tanky)

Renegade I haven't seen any built yest.

Problem with ren + fb : you have two healers.
FB is a good package of utilities, heals and boons, except alacrity ; equip and build Ren to provide a good amount of alacrity (boon duration/concentration + Ventari legend) make it redundant with FB on many aspects.

But it's close to the same issue with chrono : trying to set with commander and berserker but DPS close to non-existent.

@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

You can build both with full Harrier, although for Fractals due to the bonus Boon Duration from potions, I'm running a few Magi Pieces on my FB. You could do the same for renegade, or I have also seen zerker weapons for that build, if you want to squeeze in more DPS.

If you run Renegade+FB though, since you already have a dedicated healer in form of the Renegade, you can also go Full Viper on the Firebrand and use Firebrand runes with he elite shout to maintain quickness permanently, while doing 20-25k dps, for substantially more group DPS, rivaling the old Minstrel Chrono, BS, 3 DPS setup, while still also having one of the strongest healers and therefor being much safer.

That said, boon support would suffer a bit in that setup, but should be fine for better groups, and still perform much better than Chrono + Druid.

@Asum.4960 said:

@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:

@Asum.4960 said:

@Zenith.7301 said:I find it pretty stupid to run FB/Ren on fractals as they are truly lacking in CC which is immense for breakbars and neither of them bring the useful utility like spirit rez or as easy condi cleanse as healing spring, not to mention fury provision from druid's warhorn. All FB brings is aegis which has some uses and renegade is just a pure healbot with better DPS than druid, but neither FB/ren bring Glyph of Empowerment for breakbars.

Going to mark the relevant part.

You can also run full harrier/heal FB for pug groups and forfeit alacrity. You will carry a lot better on FB without alacrity than with chrono and druid (one of which will be a pug).

Since Signet of Inspiration no longer shares boons. how does chrono work now?Is there any build that I can study? With written rotation and/or video it would be appreciated

What is the pre-stacking singularity?

Domi 122(112 if boon rip is needed), illu 122(not sure) chrono 233.ur job is to cc with metal rods, planks and rocks, and boon rip with shatters so bs can always go core. Soi, double well, time warp

@KazModan.5364 said:Since Signet of Inspiration no longer shares boons. how does chrono work now?Is there any build that I can study? With written rotation and/or video it would be appreciated

What is the pre-stacking singularity?

Pre stacking on a singularity we did before druid and chrono spiting all their boons out + SoI then taking the singularity and do it again.The funny thing is you can add a dps chrono with SoI to the meta when then everyone does it you have a good half minute of boonsWith FB + rev +Dps chrono you will properly have increasing boon duration during the fight( Dps Chrono with a bit of might I saw doing 16K dps so it is not that bad)

On the other hand a chrono alone has not enough juice to give constant up time to all the boons you usually expect in the endcontent now.

About built its super silent at the moment the only thing you could use is I believe the support rev built form SC and metabattle . For FB I don't know any PvE built and chrono using 2 wells now and everyone using harrier stats this is as far I can help.