Arcmage Chronomancer - Tanky with fast clear

Hello,

I've been working on this arc chronomancer since release of EA and really enjoy the playstyle. It's tanky with strong damage and a great oh shit button on a short cooldown. The chronomancer ascendancy is very defensive and this lets us build our character offensively without getting annihilated.

Videos:

Cursemancer version:

T15 Ritual/Breach
https://youtu.be/wBlspeJzNlU

T15 Boss/Breach+Boss
https://youtu.be/jZKTPTYy4z8
https://youtu.be/sUjz6QzHyxw

Archmage Version:

T15 Deadly boss/Breach
https://youtu.be/zXqfyHDVOlM
https://youtu.be/lD3kh9s16oc

T15 Deadly boss/Delirium
https://youtu.be/4uNYVwO7POA

Pros:

Good clearing, able to keep up with getting swarmed in rituals/breaches
Can take consistent damage well and will be difficult to get 1shot
Heavy freezes and slows makes enemies including bosses much easier to deal with
Able to quickly clear T16 maps and the handful of pinnacle bosses I've encountered so far

Cons:
Not a 1 button build, will have to use 3 at a minimum and ideally 5-6
Dealing with mana tempest can be awkward
Reliant on mana flask to continue peak damage, mana drain helps with long boss fights

Playstyle

Use mana tempest and arc for killing most things. If starting to get swarmed then use DD. Work in 2 lightning rods on a weapon swap to maximize single target dmg (arc requires 3 targets to bounce indefinitely). Temporal chains for hard fights and temporal rift as a get out of jail free card.

Gems

Arc+Arcane Tempo+Chain+Inspiration+Shock Siphon+Lightning Mastery
Mana Tempest+Lifetap+Premeditation+Murderous Intent+Mobility (if you have extra dex)
Detonate Dead+Spell Echo+Fiery Death+Magnified Effect+Heft (I think Heft works?)
Elemental Conflux+Cold Mastery+Fire Mastery+Cannibalism
Orb of Storms+Font of Mana+Expanse
Temporal Chains+Heightened Curse+Hex Bloom
Lightning Rod+Persistence


Then depending on how much spirit you have from gear:

Grim Feast and/or Mana Remnants are great for clearing
Cast on shock with temp chains+eye of winter for the crit vuln should be great for bossing though I haven't gotten to use this much yet.

Items:

Atziri's Disdain is a great defensive option and works perfectly with our 30% recoup from ascendancy. Look for a roll that is 25%+ damage taken bypasses energy shield as we want our life to be taking a constant trickle of damage.

Painter's Servant gloves splits our damage to all 3 elements applying constant freezes which makes things much cleaner and easier to deal with.

After those 2 things look for getting +lightning skill on wand and a high block chance shield and good life/resists while getting as much of the following as budget allows:

Chaos Resist
Cast Speed
+% lightning damage
+% spell damage
+Gain % of dmg as extra ___ damage (cold is the most valuable as it applies freeze)
Critical chance
Critical bonus
Spirit
+stats


Level 90 Passive tree:
There's a number of changes I'm considering but I'm using this:

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/8d77i01e


Edit: I've recently changed some things like dropping the Tri-Ele gloves and getting cold damage on my wand while running Archmage instead of Conflux. This setup doesn't freeze as much and is a bit more mana intensive but does way more damage and allows me to easily get ele penetration. Another option for pen would be to lean into freeze more and get Heavy Frost/Thin Ice on the top right of the tree.

Also dropped some of the ignite/crit nodes to get lightning pen/Arcane Intensity.

Edit2: Dropped even more of the crit nodes to pick up Whispers of Doom and Zone of Control. Running these with Blasphemy+Temporal Chains/Enfeeble makes the build feel very safe without sacrificing much clear speed. For boss fights I've started running Comet on the Cast on Shock to get more chills/freezes out though mana is still an issue. Dropping Winter's eye on the CoS helps. Can swap out one of the curses for Conductivity for more damage too.

Also pretty sure Apex of the Moment (20% slow) doesn't work so swapped that with Time Freeze.

Thanks for posting this. I had respecced my chronomancer to try cold eb mom archmage as a test and wondered how it would've been if I was all lightning. Looking at this makes me think about it more. I've had a lot of post map respecs but looks like another one is coming up.

Why not just play Stormweaver?

I changed the build a good amount in the past few days. Dropped the tri-ele gloves and got cold damage on my wand. This doesn't apply as many freezes but does much more damage and allows me to get penetration easily. Also dropped Conflux and went with Archmage. I'll leave the OP in place for now as this new version may require decent gear to run and be smooth.

"

cckatiel#1224 wrote:

Thanks for posting this. I had respecced my chronomancer to try cold eb mom archmage as a test and wondered how it would've been if I was all lightning. Looking at this makes me think about it more. I've had a lot of post map respecs but looks like another one is coming up.

Glad you like the concept, I've always enjoyed Arc and think it's in a very strong place right now with how strong Mana Tempest is.

"

mobblz#4115 wrote:

Why not just play Stormweaver?

The build already has so much damage I like the survivability of Chronomancer. Temporal Rift especially is a life saver while bossing.

After spending the past few days doing T15/16 and a few pinnacles I definitely like the Archmage version once you have enough spirit to run it with Grim Feast+Mana Remnants. It kills map bosses quickly enough to not need to do anything special but it does run out of mana when fighting pinnacle bosses.

Many possible solutions but the one I'm using right now is to replace Shock Siphon on Arc with Considered Casting as well as change our spirit setup. I drop Archmage/Grim Feast/Mana Remnants and am using Cast on Shock with Eye of Winter for the crit vuln and Lightning Conduit. Also using Blasphemy with Conduction since not having to cast it saves a boatload of mana.

One other issue is how best to apply Lightning Exposure without using up the bounces of the Lightning Rods. Orb of Storms is what I'm mostly using now but looking for something that fits better.

lightning rod needs a lot of dex? what i can do? 164 dex not real

Updated OP with a different option that uses blasphemy+temp chains and enfeeble with zone of control. Not as much damage but feels very safe.

"

Roksonix#1182 wrote:

lightning rod needs a lot of dex? what i can do? 164 dex not real

You'll have to downrank it. I'm currently using lvl 3.