What's the current chrono build and rotation after the recent nerf?

Hi,

I was playing chaos chrono when the nerf happened and now I just don't know what to do. I main ranger but I love mesmers and I play it almost as much as I play my ranger. Can anybody share a build that revolves around keeping up alacrity and the gear specs? Thanks a lot upfront guys!

Depends upon the situation, but in general the few classic ideas have not changed much as far as I can tell. Since it was chaos I assume you are interested more in a supportive role than self damage output completely and I am assuming PvE.

Utility/EliteYour only sources of alacrity and quickness to apply to allies are Well of Action, Well of Recall, Time Warp, and Tides of Time. You can still run on utility Well of Action, Mimic, and Signet of Inspiration, but alacrity application suffers as its linked to Tides of Time for at most 9 seconds. Though you can try to maximize other boon generator's up times while still providing quickness and some alacrity. CC as needed for the elite skill with Moa for single target or the well for group.

GearIn terms of gear you still need some higher boon duration. I have read people not needing 100% boon duration and only ~70%, but I am not sure if that was with 2 chrono or not. Overall, providing quickness/alacrity to allies still means high boon duration and that means there is a need for Commander's gear for boon duration and increasing damage output. Superior Sigil of Concentration and Superior Rune of Leadership is 35% and with all commander's gear for weapons, armor, and trinkets included you get about ~80% boon duration. Throw in food and infusions and you might have overkill on the boon duration particularly since you are applying so few boons anyway to take advantage of the boon duration. Not sure what the optimal balance between them and push for more damage.

SpecializationsThis one will vary a ton, but the typical Chrono lineup. Time Catch Up, Improved Alacrity, and Chronophantasma.

Chaos/Inspiration can still be run though probably the least optimal though synergistic. Chaos is not as good anymore since all the boons it provided can't be passed on, but your own survival is super easy, you can still apply alacrity/quickness, free boon duration, healing to allies, condition removal to allies, and Aegis application. F4 shatter, Signet of Inspiration, Staff 5, and healing (lesser chaos storm) all apply aegis to allies (some randomly and multiple times). Plus, the inspiration line still makes signet of inspiration better from 5 to 10 allies though only useful in larger parties.

Dueling/Illusions still provides the best damage output for yourself at the cost of reduced survival from inspiration/chaos once provided easily, but you can still provide alacrity/quickness due to the utility skills. You really do not provide much more beyond that.

Inspiration/Illusions is a nice balance between damage increase and extra support and ease of survival. Inspiration will give you the aegis application, condition removal, 10 allies on signet of inspiration, and healing. Illusions will provide increased damage output on clone/phantasm creation along with might on yourself phantasm becomes clone which pairs well with Chronophantasma and Sword 5. The long duration of these work well with the 100% boon duration too. Plus, the free 15% reduction on shatters means continuum shift comes off faster.

WeaponsSword + Shield with xx/Sword is still probably the best default.

First of all, thanks a lot for your thorough reply @Veluna.7316 , I really appreciate that! I suppose I forgot to say that I was looking for a build to play in fractals as a support-ish build. My goal is to provide 100% alacrity uptime (leaving quickness to fb), and use everything else (if anything) for dpsing. So, it brings up the question: is there a way to keep alacrity up 100% of the time? If there is, how much boon duration do I need to have on my gear to achieve that, excluding food/utility and stat infusions?I believe those questions are not very easy to answer but, do you have any idea about those? (I'm not an exceptional build maker)...

Thanks upfront, as always!

@Onu Mya.9817 said:First of all, thanks a lot for your thorough reply @Veluna.7316 , I really appreciate that! I suppose I forgot to say that I was looking for a build to play in fractals as a support-ish build. My goal is to provide 100% alacrity uptime (leaving quickness to fb), and use everything else (if anything) for dpsing. So, it brings up the question: is there a way to keep alacrity up 100% of the time? If there is, how much boon duration do I need to have on my gear to achieve that, excluding food/utility and stat infusions?I believe those questions are not very easy to answer but, do you have any idea about those? (I'm not an exceptional build maker)...

Thanks upfront, as always!I thought it an interesting question to figure out for my own usage too, but I think I have the theory and math right.

This comes with a few assumptions. You somehow always have quickness on you when casting Well of Recall, Tides of Time, and Signet of Inspiration. In addition, you choose Improved Alacrity and Tides of Time's return wave always hits you for the -10 second cooldown on Tides of Time. Also, you press the buttons the absolute fastest to come out and all applications of Alarcity you provided hit yourself as well.

If you cast Well of recall, Tides of Time, then Signet of Inspiration after the WoR activates (3 second delay), then you will just barely be able to keep Alarcity up 100% of the time on allies with 66.6% boon duration as a rotation as this rotation occurs every 20.375 seconds since all 3 moves have a 30 second cooldown and 0.375 cast time with quickness. The caveat to this is that with Improved Alarcity you would not have 100% up time on yourself unless you are able to shatter yourself and clones 8 times in that 30 second period. If you can, then you would keep alarcity up on yourself and allies that you can still hit with tides of time and well of recall and signet of inspiration.

Personally, that 8 clone/shatter is really tight to make in 20.375 second period. With Phantasmal Swordsman and Illusionary Leap you can generate 4 clones in that time period. With Illusions you can double buffer Mind Wreck, renew it once, and get off Cry of Frustration. That meets that 8 shatters requirement at 66.6% boon duration to apply 100% alacrity up time on yourself and allies. With 100% boon duration you only need 5 shatters in that period of time which is a bit easier to manage and gives some more head room for trying to aim Tides of Time, Well of Recall, and possibly some other things like dodging.

Either way, its pretty tight timing trying to do it with just SoI, WoR, and ToT on its own. Throw in Continuum Shift by shattering 3 clones and you can refresh SoI, WoR, and ToT to activate again which gives you plenty of alacrity head room for some time to come. Replace say the 3rd utility slot of Well of Action with Mimic and you get even more head room for mistakes for stacking in a long fight. Not sure what it works out as, but in the end I would say 66.6% boon duration is the minimum. Going up to 100% boon duration in total just makes the rotations more forgiving and less reliance on say needing Sword 5 and Illusions spec line.