Build:Chronomancer - Power Chrono

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage and Defense

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 15, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

Power Chronomancer is a powerful solo build with great boon uptime and damage. It has access to plentiful utility, including invulnerability, blocks and teleports, making it a great solo build. This build has a high skill floor, which can be off-putting for some, but investing time into learning it can be very rewarding as its potential is some of the highest in the game.

This build revolves around spamming Phantasm skills to both do damage and gain boons. Namely, permanent Fury, Quickness and 25~ Might, with 0 boon duration, thanks to the Illusions trait line. The Chronomancer trait line also provides permanent self- Alacrity.

Additionally, this build can sacrifice some of its damage to provide its party with permanent Quickness from Seize the Moment or permanent Alacrity from Stretched Time by making little changes.

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Skill Bar

Dagger/Sword

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

• If you don't have access to dagger with Weaponmaster Training from Secrets of the Obscure, use mainhand sword instead.
• If you don't have access to land spear with Janthir Wilds, use focus or greatsword.

Alternative weapons:

• Mainhand sword - for players without access to dagger. It deals slightly less damage and is melee, but it has a helpful evade.
• Greatsword - good ranged damage and tagging potential, but it requires Bountiful Blades to truly shine, and this build does not run that traitline by default.
• Focus - good damage, extremely helpful pull with Temporal Curtain and the phantasm blocks projectiles.

Skill Variants

Heal skill

We default to Signet of the Ether for its ability to reset the recharge of phantasm skills, making it an integral part of this build. In extremely rare situations, another option can be considered:

• Ether Feast - in extremely rare situations where you'd like to trade damage and boon generation for extra healing or condition cleanse, use Ether Feast.

Utility skill

We default to:
Phantasmal Disenchanter is a good source of damage and boons. Never replace it.
Well of Calamity good AoE damage and soft cc, can be replaced if needed.
Blink is a generic stunbreak and movement skill, can be replaced if needed.
If you want or need to run other skills, here are some suggestions:

• Mantra of Pain - extra damage with no cast time.
• Well of Precognition - very strong defensive utility that provides Aegis per pulse, Stability on cast and first pulse, and stunbreaks on cast.
• Well of Action - more Might and Fury for yourself and allies, good option for groups.
• Mantra of Resolve - condition cleanse for yourself and nearby allies.
• Feedback - projectile reflection.
• Mantra of Concentration - personal stunbreak and AoE stability.
• Portal Entre - utility for teleporting to previous places.

Elite skill

We default to Gravity Well as it provides good damage and great CC. If required, it can be replaced by:

• Signet of Humility - slightly less cc than Gravity Well but it happens immediately if you need to break a defiance bar really fast.

Specializations

Variants

• Delayed Reactions - extremely minor dps loss (Time Catches Up only affects the first hit of Split Second, so it's actually a 5% increase) and your clones will take longer to reach their target to shatter without Superspeed, but the Slow of Delayed Reactions can help a lot with breaking defiance bars.
• Improved Alacrity or Danger Time - when playing in groups and someone is providing you with Alacrity, consider using Danger Time for burst damage against Slowed enemies (take Delayed Reactions for Slow uptime), or Improved Alacrity for better damage over time and utility.

Domination

Domination can be taken over Illusions if you are playing in a group providing you permanent Quickness and Might.

• Bountiful Blades - if using greatsword.

Boon support

Click to Expand

When playing in groups, you can drop Chronophantasma and take the trait Seize the Moment to provide yourself and nearby allies with Quickness. If the group already has quickness, you can instead provide Alacrity through Stretched Time. Quickness always takes priority over alacrity.

When doing this, make the following changes.

1. Replace the Illusions traitline with Domination.
2. Use a greatsword or Spear. On the other weapon set either use dagger-sword for damage, or dagger-focus for the pull of Temporal Curtain.
3. Change your utility skills to Well of Action, Well of Calamity, and Mantra of Pain.

Feel free to change Mantra of Pain to whatever other skill you might need, like a stun break.

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Dagger/Sword

Spear

Utility

• Bountiful Blades if using greatsword instead of spear.
• Seize the Moment to provide Quickness.
• Stretched Time to provide Alacrity.
• You can use any of the three adept traits: All's Well That Ends Well for minor healing since you run 3 wells anyway, or Delayed Reactions for a little bit more CC, or Time Catches Up for an extremely minimal damage gain.

Do not play these boon support builds when soloing, the strength of these boon support builds comes from providing your party with either quickness or alacrity. However, when playing solo, you already have permanent self-quickness from the Illusions traitline, and giving only yourself alacrity is never worth losing the extremely strong Chronophantasma.

Equipment

This build uses the same gear as Build:Virtuoso_-_Power_DPS for raids for ease of gearing. Infusions are completely optional.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Assassin

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Dagger
Berserker

Sword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Spear
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Zhed" armor, "Uzoku" dagger, "Bonetti" sword, "Impaler" spear, and "Ebonblade" greatsword. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.

• We default to the same gear set as power virtuoso for ease of gearing. If you want to min max your chronomancer damage for open world, you can replace the Superior Sigil of Accuracy with Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact, replace the runes to Rune of Superior Rune of the Deadeye, and use full Berserker gear. Suplement with any food that provides 70 precision.
• If you don't have access to Weaponmaster Training with the Secrets of the Obscure expansion, use sword instead of dagger.
• If you don't have access to land spear with Janthir Wilds, use focus or greatsword.
• This set provides 100% critical chance with Fury and Alacrity, since Alacrity is improved by Flow of Time.
• As for the boon variants, you don't need any boon duration. With 0% boon duration, you provide about 140% uptime of quickness/alacrity.
• You can use Relic of Zakiros to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, Relic of the Cavalier to start combat with boons, or Relic of Durability for a little extra defense.
• For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food or skills if required.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• /

Farming

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• (and variants)

Usage

Continuum Split

Continuum Split is the profession mechanic of the chronomancer specialization that allows them to "rewind" time. Specifically, it tracks the chronomancer's position, health, endurance, and skill recharges, and returns the chronomancer to that point at the end of the split. As this is a Shatter, it will consume active clones, with the duration of the split increasing with each clone shattered.

This extremely powerful skill is used to spam your Phantasms four times in a row.

1. Generate 2 or 3 clones.
   1. Cast your phantasm skills while entering Continuum Split.
   2. Reset your Phantasm skills with Signet of the Ether.
   3. Cast your Phantasm skills again.
   4. Continuum Split ends.
2. Cast your Phantasm skills.
3. Reset your Phantasm skills with Signet of the Ether.
4. Cast your Phantasm skills again.

Note that your phantasms will attack a second time thanks to Chronophantasma, and even deal slightly higher damage this second time.

Boons

Most of your boons come from the Illusions traitline. Phantasmal Haste gives you and your phantasms Quickness. When the phantasm becomes a clone, you gain their remaining Quickness thanks to Persistence of Memory. Phantasmal Force also gives you Might. Phantasmal Fury also gives Fury to your phantasms, but you already have permanent Fury from Master Fencer.

Note that these boons are personal only. To provide boons to nearby allies when playing in a group, check the boon variant below.

Dagger/Sword

On dagger/sword you want to spam all your skills except Illusionary Riposte which should be saved for blocking.

If using sword instead of dagger, Illusionary Leap deals no damage and should only be used if you're missing a third clone before shattering.

Spear

On spear, try to always hit your target with the outer edge of Mind the Gap to deal more damage, if you hit with both the outer and inner halves it will count as an outer edge hit, so it's easy to always deal empowered damage. Hitting with Mind the Gap gives you Clarity, which empowers your next spear skill. You want to always cast Phantasmal Lancer empowered by Clarity. Imaginary Inversion should be saved for an extra dodge or to cleanse conditions.

If using greatsword instead of spear, use all skills except Illusionary Wave which should be saved for defiance bars.

DPS variant

The majority of your damage comes from casting your phantasms then using Signet of the Ether to reset their cooldowns and cast them again. In open world, it is generally better to reset Phantasmal Lancer for more boons since it spawns 2 phantasms when empowered by Clarity.

Try to always hit your target with the outer edge of Mind the Gap to deal more damage, and always cast Phantasmal Lancer empowered by Clarity. When you swap to dagger, Phantasmal Swordsman is the first skill you want to cast, and you will cast it a second time before going back to spear. Use Phantasmal Disenchanter off cooldown when every other important skill is on cooldown. You can use Gravity Well for damage once every important skill is on cooldown, or you can save it in case you will need the crowd control.

Opener

To get the most out of Continuum Split, try to follow this opening when fighting durable enemies like meta event bosses. You want to enter Continuum Split during the aftercast of Mind the Gap, before it goes on cooldown but has already created a clone. The timing for this is tight, but it is worth practicing it.

1. Phantasmal Disenchanter
2. Phantasmal Swordsman
3. Bladecall
4. Unstable Bladestorm
5. weapon swap
6. Mind the Gap and Continuum Split after it creates the clone but before it goes on cooldown.
7. Phantasmal Lancer
8. Mental Collapse
9. Signet of the Ether
10. Mind the Gap
11. Phantasmal Lancer and Split Second
12. Well of Calamity and Imaginary Inversion to help cancel the aftercast. Continuum Split ends here.
13. Mind the Gap
14. Phantasmal Lancer
15. Mental Collapse
16. Signet of the Ether
17. Mind the Gap
18. Phantasmal Lancer
19. weapon swap

• Try to always hit your target with the outer edge of Mind the Gap to deal more damage.
• The idea is to use Phantasmal Lancer three times in the spear loop.
• Each sword loop starts and ends with Phantasmal Swordsman.
• Bladecall and Unstable Bladestorm should be cast off cooldown.
• Phantasmal Disenchanter has the lowest priority and is used in both sets once.
• You will generate so many phantasms that you can fit a 3-clone Rewinder during the spear loop while spamming 3-clone Split Second off cooldown.
• Mastery of this skill priority will provide you with permanent Quickness, permanent Fury, permanent Alacrity and an average of 25 stacks of Might.

Boon variant

Click to Expand

Since the boon variant build has to sacrifice Chronophantasma, Phantasms become significantly weaker. For this reason, the opening instead focuses on wells.

1. Phantasmal Swordsman
2. Bladecall
3. Unstable Bladestorm
4. weapon swap
5. Mind the Gap and Continuum Split after it creates the clone but before it goes on cooldown.
6. Mental Collapse
7. Mind the Gap
8. Phantasmal Lancer
9. Well of Action
10. Well of Calamity
11. Continuum Shift.
12. Mind the Gap
13. Phantasmal Lancer
14. Mental Collapse
15. Signet of the Ether
16. Mind the Gap
17. Phantasmal Lancer
18. weapon swap
19. Phantasmal Swordsman
20. Well of Action
21. Well of Calamity

• Try to always hit your target with the outer edge of Mind the Gap to deal more damage.
• The idea is to use Phantasmal Lancer three times in the spear loop.
• Each sword loop starts and ends with Phantasmal Swordsman.
• Cast your wells off cooldown.
• Bladecall and Unstable Bladestorm should be cast off cooldown.

Defense

• Never stop moving, get out of enemy attacks or dodge them.
• Clones and phantasms will tank some hits for you.
• Imaginary Inversion is an extra dodge, heals and cleanses conditions.
• When using sword, Blurred Frenzy dodges incoming attacks for 1 second. Use this to avoid attacks instead of dodging.
• Illusionary Riposte is a block plus evade.
• If you need condition cleanse, slot Mantra of Resolve.
• Distortion makes you immune to damage.

Crowd Control

• Gravity Well - knockdown, float and pull.
• Illusionary Riposte ⇒ Counter Blade - daze.
• Time Sink - daze.
• Mental Collapse - Stun if used with Clarity.
• You can use any of the above in Continuum Split to potentially cast them twice.

Video examples

Note that these videos are outdated but still somewhat show how the class looks and is played.

• vs. Egg Clutch hero challenge

Phantasmal Defender is completely unnecessary, I just wanted to do a 6-phantasms-Contiuum-Split. Thanks to our blocks, evades, and Distortion, we should be pretty safe from this boss. Should have saved the second Gravity Well to break the boss' defiance bar instead of using it for dps.

• vs. Coztic Itzel Belongings

Feedback makes the two archers shoot themselves to death, and the boss too. When the boss switches to daggers, I stand back and let my illusions tank his deadly combo. If you get hit, like I did, use Distortion to survive it.

• vs. Champion Avatar of Balthazar

Used an Adrenaline Mushroom to reset my cooldowns. The Avatar hits like a truck so I used Well of Precognition to block some hits. This fight is really a race to see who bursts who first. Breaking his defiance bar close to 50% stops the oneshot attack he tries to do.