Power Chrono: Salvage Leadership runes or Re-stat & Firebrand?

Hey all,

I'm running the pre august 8 power chrono build with leadership runes.I'd love to restat & Firebrand cause of how cheap it'll be to change at new metas.

However I'm afraid of the incoming firebrand nerf and meta rolls back to Leadership.I don't WvW a lot, so that's actually really time consuming for me to get.

What would you do and why?

you could buy extracts on gemstore to preserve your leadership runes.

Don't do it. While the firebrand are cheap, you end up losing duration on the other boons you are handing out. You net gain around 1% of total damage, it's not worth it if you already have the Leadership runes.

You talk about "new meta" but I think you need to fully read build guides. Here is a direct quote from quantifyEU's guide:

The Firebrand variant of this build will give you the highest effective power, however the difference between it and the Leadership variant is less than 1%. This means that if you already have the leadership variant, there is very minimal gain from updating your gear, you need to decide for yourself if it’s worth the gold.

Also you need to keep in mind that chronomancer contributes significantly to uptime of other boons that are very important for group DPS - fury, retalitation+aegis (power DH), vigor (condi mirage) and possibly some others. Firebrand runes give a selective boost to your quickness duration, but that means you're losing out partially on other boons. Not worth it IMO. Warriors get straigth up DPS boost for every unique boon on them.In some very specific scenarios with classes that don't get much/any benefit from extra boons, firebrand runes might be slightly better, but IMO overall leadership is still better.

@Ojimaru.8970 said:You talk about "new meta" but I think you need to fully read build guides. Here is a direct quote from quantifyEU's guide:

The Firebrand variant of this build will give you the highest effective power, however the difference between it and the Leadership variant is less than 1%. This means that if you already have the leadership variant, there is very minimal gain from updating your gear, you need to decide for yourself if it’s worth the gold.

There's a thread on Reddit reviewing the options in more detail. With the same advice:

• If you have leadership already, it's almost certainly not worth it to swap.
• If you're going for your first set and you own PoF (and have made good progress on it), it's worth starting out in Firebrand runes.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ojimaru.8970 said:You talk about "new meta" but I think you need to fully read build guides. Here is a direct quote from

quantifyEU's guide

:

The Firebrand variant of this build will give you the highest effective power, however the difference between it and the Leadership variant is less than 1%. This means that if you already have the leadership variant, there is very minimal gain from updating your gear, you need to decide for yourself if it’s worth the gold.

• If you have leadership already, it's almost certainly not worth it to swap.
• If you're going for your first set
  and
  you own PoF (and have made good progress on it), it's worth starting out in Firebrand runes.

Absolutely, go Firebrand runes if it's the first set, considering how much easier they are to obtain.

@Ojimaru.8970 said:Absolutely, go Firebrand runes if it's the first set, considering how much easier they are to obtain.

Easier? Let's see ...

• Can buy Firebrand Runes from the TP (or even craft from easily-obtained/craftables)
• Can buy Leadership Runes for Crystalline Ore, which requires running Dragon Stand meta about ten times.

(WvWers of course have another alternative, which is equally easy for both.)

Okay let me clarify a little:I've got a full set of zerker armor with leadership runes.I'm not new to raiding, just my power gear is outdated.

Thing is if I keep my leadership, I'll have to salvage those armor and get new ones (120g +/-) or extract 2x (120g +/-)

So no matter what way, I'll have to spend gold/adjust.

However, when the meta changes again, I'll have to salvage more pieces and buy new pieces.Wouldn't it be much more future proof to go firebrand? (With the hope that the rune won't be nerfed in any way)

@Tarasicodissa.7084 said:Also you need to keep in mind that chronomancer contributes significantly to uptime of other boons that are very important for group DPS - fury, retalitation+aegis (power DH), vigor (condi mirage) and possibly some others. Firebrand runes give a selective boost to your quickness duration, but that means you're losing out partially on other boons. Not worth it IMO. Warriors get straigth up DPS boost for every unique boon on them.In some very specific scenarios with classes that don't get much/any benefit from extra boons, firebrand runes might be slightly better, but IMO overall leadership is still better.

Ah didn't see the 20% quickness specific there. Thank you

Not sure why you'd even consider to swap out runes with 35% boon duration and + all stats on power chrono for runes with 20% quickness and 10% boon duration. What about condi dmg and condi duration from firebrand, why would you need that on power build? Even if the 20% on firebrand wasnt quickness specific, thats still 5% less from leadership runes, so no. I doubt Firebrand will become new meta for chrono. At most Firebrand would be good for players who havent got the leadership runes yet and are farming for them.

@Rain.7543 said:Not sure why you'd even consider to swap out runes with 35% boon duration and + all stats on power chrono for runes with 20% quickness and 10% boon duration. What about condi dmg and condi duration from firebrand, why would you need that on power build? Even if the 20% on firebrand wasnt quickness specific, thats still 5% less from leadership runes, so no. I doubt Firebrand will become new meta for chrono. At most Firebrand would be good for players who havent got the leadership runes yet and are farming for them.

Incorrect.

Superior Rune of the Firebrand

• +25 Condition Damage
• +5% Boon Duration
• +50 Condition Damage
• +10% Boon Duration
• +100 Condition Damage
• +20% Quickness Duration; When you use an Elite skill inflict Burning on nearby enemies

5 + 10 + 20 = 35

Superior Rune of Leadership

• +8 All Stats
• +5% Boon Duration
• +12 All Stats
• +10% Boon Duration
• +16 All Stats
• +15% Boon Duration; When you use an Elite skill, convert up to 2 conditions into boons on nearby allies.

5 + 10 +15 = 30

35 is 5 more than 30.

@Ojimaru.8970 said:

@Rain.7543 said:Not sure why you'd even consider to swap out runes with 35% boon duration and + all stats on power chrono for runes with 20% quickness and 10% boon duration. What about condi dmg and condi duration from firebrand, why would you need that on power build?

Even if the 20% on firebrand wasnt quickness specific, thats still 5% less from leadership runes,

so no. I doubt Firebrand will become new meta for chrono. At most Firebrand would be good for players who havent got the leadership runes yet and are farming for them.

• +25 Condition Damage
• +5% Boon Duration
• +50 Condition Damage
• +10% Boon Duration
• +100 Condition Damage
• +20% Quickness Duration; When you use an Elite skill inflict Burning on nearby enemies

• +8 All Stats
• +5% Boon Duration
• +12 All Stats
• +10% Boon Duration
• +16 All Stats
• +15% Boon Duration; When you use an Elite skill, convert up to 2 conditions into boons on nearby allies.

Thank you for the correction. I missed the +5 boon duration on the Firebrand rune. However that doesnt really change much. Condi damage and duration are still useless on power build, even more so on Chrono and the 20% quickness specific part, means you'll have less duration on all of the rest of boons you share through SoI and thats a huuuge drawback imo. Leadership is far superior either way.

@Rain.7543 said:Thank you for the correction. I missed the +5 boon duration on the Firebrand rune. However that doesnt really change much. Condi damage and duration are still useless on power build, even more so on Chrono and the 20% quickness specific part, means you'll have less duration on all of the rest of boons you share through SoI and thats a huuuge drawback imo. Leadership is far superior either way.

The extra quickness duration is actually enough that even though Firebrand runes has condition damage that goes largely unused, it enables the Chronomancer to use better DPS food which recuperates all of the damage and then some. The damage of the Firebrand rune set is actually marginally better than the Leadership set overall. Plus, for most encounters in an optimized group the only things the Chronomancers are sharing are Fury/Regen/Swiftness, which doesn't need extra duration. If you need Protection for some reason, Stone Spirit already provides 100% uptime. You really don't need 100% all boon duration.

@Rain.7543 said:

@Ojimaru.8970 said:

@Rain.7543 said:Not sure why you'd even consider to swap out runes with 35% boon duration and + all stats on power chrono for runes with 20% quickness and 10% boon duration. What about condi dmg and condi duration from firebrand, why would you need that on power build?

Even if the 20% on firebrand wasnt quickness specific, thats still 5% less from leadership runes,

so no. I doubt Firebrand will become new meta for chrono. At most Firebrand would be good for players who havent got the leadership runes yet and are farming for them.

• +25 Condition Damage
• +5% Boon Duration
• +50 Condition Damage
• +10% Boon Duration
• +100 Condition Damage
• +20% Quickness Duration; When you use an Elite skill inflict Burning on nearby enemies

• +8 All Stats
• +5% Boon Duration
• +12 All Stats
• +10% Boon Duration
• +16 All Stats
• +15% Boon Duration; When you use an Elite skill, convert up to 2 conditions into boons on nearby allies.

I don't think damage is ever a consideration when building a Support Chronomancer; no matter what we do, our damage output is atrocious and we don't care. :) On the other hand, while I agree the Leadership Runes, in terms of boon sharing, is better overall, Firebrand Runes are much more accessible to those that are just starting to gear up (and want to jump into the Raids/Fractals as soon as possible.)

A little "disclaimer" i would like to make here, is that Firebrand runes are better ONLY in a certain case. For starters chrono does not do burning damage on its own. So you potentially already loose half of the rune bonuses. This is only superior when you have a (permanent) player in your party that drops continuously firefields/aura's. Lets say a guildy/friend. At least someone reliable that always joins you. If you're running with pugs or that person likes to play different classes. Then you'd be better off with leadership runes

@GWMO.4785 said:A little "disclaimer" i would like to make here, is that Firebrand runes are better ONLY in a certain case. For starters chrono does not do burning damage on its own. So you potentially already loose half of the rune bonuses. This is only superior when you have a (permanent) player in your party that drops continuously firefields/aura's.

You want to reread those runes, yo.

@Maunzi.3764 said:You want to reread those runes, yo.

My apologies. I'll dive a little bit more into details:

Superior rune of the Firebrand:1) +25 condition damage2) +5% boonduration3) +50 condition damage4) +10% boonduration5) +100 condition damage6) +20% Quickness duration: when you use an elite skill, inflict burning on nearby enemies. (Cooldown: 45s)

For starters, lets talk about about the 6) bonus. extra quickness. nice but we can already upkeep this with the leadership rune setup. so not really needed. Burning when you use elite skill. well.. we dont use our elite that much. Then the additional boonduration which is why we're considering this rune ofc. But then there is the condition damage... The boonshare build DOES NOT apply condition on its own. unless you shatter but that is not part of our rotation nor is it recommended. So the source of that has to come from outside, like a party/squad member that drops fields. As far as i know there are "meta classes" that drop firefields like the condi warrior or tempest. But other conditions are applied by those classes themselves from a direct attack. Sure there are also poison fields and what not. But these are kinda rare if not barely existing (in the current pve meta). Which is why i mentioned burning and not the other conditions