skills locked behind specific uniques/ascendancies are worst. They provide zero diversity
Lol You might as well write same about ascendancies and everything providing even little uniqueness. While build diversity should be priority there has to be space for unique things. If everybody would be able to get everything meta would be even more narrow than it is now. I really love that time freeze or smith masterwork are gatekept behind ascendancies and now it would feel really really weird if everybody would be able to time freeze.
Chrono probably has the most fun/unique actives. Don't get why it's such an unpopular ascendancy.
1. People don't like more buttons. People like less buttons. And that is a result of adaptation, as with such low visibility in the end-game people'd rather ignore danger than try to react to it. 2. Chrono Abilities are mostly unnecessary and really situational. You may not even need to use them ever. You cannot build around them really. 3. Besides active abilities, Chrono Tree is kinda bad. Cast speed roulette is unreliable (Chonk issue syndrome), Curse bomb is poorly designed and does not synergize with anything well. Recoup boost is lackluster and a slow aura has diminishing and gives nothing if you have proper offensive.
Chrono in current form has one job - Time Freeze the boss. That is the only reasonable point of this Ascendancy.
If we add more active abilities to other specs, those would need to be more synergistic with the stuff we got. Chrono is an example of how not to do it imo.
I think there is way easier explanation. People simply are about damage. That`s why in wow, you struggle to find party as dps but as a tank/healer its insta find. Same goes for dota2. That`s why d4 shows bilions of damage. Easiest dopamine hit you can address. People skip incredibly fun ascendancies like chrono just because it is not about damage.
You're not wrong. Clips that show a 1000 divine build with 1M sheet DPS which gets 75% resisted by a boss and has spectacular screen-wide fireworks doesn't get as many views on YouTube as a 175k sheet DPS and inverted resistance build that doesn't lag out the gpu.
Who am I to say anything, I don't respect my time either.
Last edited by karsey#2995 on May 5, 2026, 10:26:07 AM
I'm hoping since Ritualist is still down a node because the headhunter-at-home ability hasn't been great that they'll give it new actives. As far as hitting the theme goes, the only thing that really feels ritualistic about the Ritualist is Ritualist Sacrifice. Blood Boil kind of hits the mark.
I'm not sure if these forums even get read. In the chance they do, I just wanted to add that I enjoy the active abilities you get from ascendancies. They're easily my favorite part about any ascendancy and would like to see more.
I'm with you OP and it blows my mind to see negative reactions to this, or ridiculous on their face assertions that these ascendency specific skills hurt build diversity when it's easy to argue the complete opposite is true.
Open up all skills to all ascendancies and you'll just see the game devolve into fewer meta builds.
This game needs more ascendency specific skills, and all ascendancies should have at last 1 if not 2 that are active skills, not just passives. The key is balancing them, so if you think GGG can manage that then, this would be my preference.
Chrono probably has the most fun/unique actives. Don't get why it's such an unpopular ascendancy.
1. People don't like more buttons. People like less buttons. And that is a result of adaptation, as with such low visibility in the end-game people'd rather ignore danger than try to react to it. 2. Chrono Abilities are mostly unnecessary and really situational. You may not even need to use them ever. You cannot build around them really. 3. Besides active abilities, Chrono Tree is kinda bad. Cast speed roulette is unreliable (Chonk issue syndrome), Curse bomb is poorly designed and does not synergize with anything well. Recoup boost is lackluster and a slow aura has diminishing and gives nothing if you have proper offensive.
Chrono in current form has one job - Time Freeze the boss. That is the only reasonable point of this Ascendancy.
If we add more active abilities to other specs, those would need to be more synergistic with the stuff we got. Chrono is an example of how not to do it imo.
1. Not true, I despise 1 button builds and chrono is easy to juggle 5 to 6 actively used skills on a controller if that suits your style like it does mine.
2. Not false, everything other than time freeze, which is amazing, is not reliable enough/way too high risk for the limited reward to be functional. What good does it do to have a random 1/3 chance a cooldown isn't used, you can't plan around 'maybe it'll work this time'..., or to warp yourself back in time to a state where you might actually have lower hp/es/mana, inevitable agony totally useless when everything dies in a heartbeat...
3. Not true. Pretty much all the passives have great synergies if you build into them properly.
Chrono probably has the most fun/unique actives. Don't get why it's such an unpopular ascendancy.
1. People don't like more buttons. People like less buttons. And that is a result of adaptation, as with such low visibility in the end-game people'd rather ignore danger than try to react to it. 2. Chrono Abilities are mostly unnecessary and really situational. You may not even need to use them ever. You cannot build around them really. 3. Besides active abilities, Chrono Tree is kinda bad. Cast speed roulette is unreliable (Chonk issue syndrome), Curse bomb is poorly designed and does not synergize with anything well. Recoup boost is lackluster and a slow aura has diminishing and gives nothing if you have proper offensive.
Chrono in current form has one job - Time Freeze the boss. That is the only reasonable point of this Ascendancy.
If we add more active abilities to other specs, those would need to be more synergistic with the stuff we got. Chrono is an example of how not to do it imo.
You points are actually all valid.
The thing is, I don't think chrono is badly designed. The game, as of now at least, is actually the problem. Reacting to danger, timing casts (for example to sands of time), synergies, hitting buttons etc, these are all things that make the game engaging and fun. 1 button afk map clearing builds is something GGG should try to actively prevent, or at least make extremely hard to achieve.
Nodes like sands of time for example should be the way to go, instead of just flat passive nodes most people have been requesting. The 1st is engaging, the latter is boring.
Last edited by thegm963#6343 on May 5, 2026, 4:05:36 PM
All in all Chrono seems to be suffering from the Chonk Syndrome, where engaging Notables execution went not-ideal because of randomness/unreliability applied.
As for the design, or mechanics that suit Chrono tree (inc duration, cd redu) we seem to be still waiting to get those xd.
And even though Recoup boost is nice, when compared to something like Spell Leech, it looks pale. So relative Notable value between Ascendance(s?) needs balancing evidently.
Is that... agreeable?
PS. we kinda went off the rails so to keep it on point:
Active abilities could be cool if applied in moderate amounts and designed as a skillful/synergistic ability (not random, or stuff you gotta trace on the buff bar every 7 seconds).
Open up all skills to all ascendancies and you'll just see the game devolve into fewer meta builds.
I'd say that's a problem with the players more than a problem with the game. Opening everything up would just give everyone unlimited options, and loads of ways to make awesome builds.
If people would rather look at someone elses build and copy everything they did than use that creatively... that's sad and honestly pretty pathetic.
