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Talon Trinket
Mana Potion
Purification Beads
Bancroft's Talon
Shoes of Focus
Witchblade
Telkhines Ring
Toxic Blade
Obsidian Shard
Blink Rune
Elixir of Speed
Demonic Grip
Divine Ruin
Rod of Tahuti
Shaman's Ring
Bancroft's Talon
Demonic Grip
Witchblade
Telkhines Ring
Toxic Blade
Obsidian Shard
You could substitute Obsidian Shard with Divine Ruin if they have a lot of healing, keep in mind you'll need Demonic Grip last item (or Obsidian Shard) as you really need penetration as Chronos late game.
Bancroft's Talon
Demonic Grip
Witchblade
Telkhines Ring
Toxic Blade
Divine Ruin
If you really want more power and to be sure to secure kills with abilities, depend on the enemy team comp (high sustain squishies that can heal fast like Thanatos or Ne Zha for example)
Bancroft's Talon
Rod of Tahuti
Witchblade
Telkhines Ring
Toxic Blade
Obsidian Shard
Y
B
A
X
INTRODUCTION
Here is my Chronos build I want to share with you to help new players or people that are not familiar with Chronos. He is sometimes overlooked at because I believe often he seems to under perform when not built properly. But he has always been a favorite among duelist in the past and still is a very powerful God that provides amazing boxing potential and damage burst with more than decent sustainability (because of his ult of course). An overall favorite of mine because of the high skills plays he can provide and that are so much fun to pull-off. He might be tricky at first but when you get a good understanding of his mechanics and get used to land his abilities properly, he is very powerful and fun (I would compare him to Ullr in this regard).
BUILD EXPLANATION AND PLAYSTYLE
I've tried many things recently with Chronos as a carry in Conquest as I had not played him a lot recently and I didn't know how to build him properly in the current meta. I tried the Hunter's Blessing start with tier 1 Bancroft and potions, which in theory should be good (I thought) but it didn't provide good early clear anyway and the MP5 from the blessing was insignificant. It then becomes hard to catch up against other carry that has better early clears because the build I was going for is expensive (Shoes of Focus, Bancroft, Telkhines) and it takes too long before you can achieve anything. And with Hunter's Blessing, you get the extra attack speed too late for it to be useful anyway, you get it with building something else instead so I figured out it was a waste of 700 gold. That is why I start with Bancroft tier 2 (same reasoning applies to Freya by the way). Early clear is actually better because you mostly clear with your abilities anyway and the extra 20 basic attack damage gets compensated by the added magical power.
First back, I finish Bancroft and get a mana potion. I usually always get one mana potion every time I back because Chronos is very mana hungry.
Second back, I try to time it properly so that I can get finished boots if I can.
Ok now into mid-game. Why Witchblade, someone might ask ? Well, I usually go for Witchblade as third item before Telkhines because it's cheaper, provides good sustain early (200 health, 10% movement speed, 10% cooldown) and an appreciable boxing potential edge (20% attack speed & passive). It's an overall great utility item on Chronos in my opinion. But the order may vary depending on the situation, you could rush Toxic Blade instead if really needed or get Telkhines right away if you can afford it for some reason.
Of course, it depends on your playstyle. I think this build is crazy good but that's because it works for me. I don't like Book of Thoth on Chronos, even Chronos Pendant I don't think is good because I don't need max cooldown. Late game after selling boots I can still get 20 % cooldown with a 500 gold potion or even 30 % if I can sneak on a blue buff sometimes and it's enough for me. But if I would ever go for Chronos Pendant and if the enemy team are tanky and have a lot of health, I would finish with Soul Reaver, that way I could spam abilities and shred them (with Obsidian Shard too of course). But that's a totally different playstyle which I'm not a fan of but it could work for you. Doom Orb is also an item you could consider, but I don't find it useful enough compared with everything else in the build.
Anyways, back on track. Now when you get Telkhines your auto-attacks becomes to be significant and with Witchblade + Telkhines + Toxic Blade trio, you get very good boxing potential, movement speed and added sustain. You can definitely shine in mid game and that's why I get Blink as second relic. I just chase an enemy trying to escape, Blink on them, 3 + 1 combo, boom easy kill. If I get ganked, ult, see ya later ! And no one can catch you with all that movement speed and your 2 activated.
Late game : You need real penetration (either Obsidian Shard or Demonic Grip or both). It's very important because if you get anything else (like a Spear of Desolation for example) you don't get enough penetration and thus you don't do enough damage. It's very important that you can shred enemies and objectives fast and secure kills.
QUICK GUIDE
How to play Chronos :
How to clear :
Use your 2 on the second quadrant (first quadrant being at top, going clockwise, thus second quadrant is on the right). This quadrant gives you a 100% mana refund on abilities for the next 7s. So you activate it, you 3 on the wave, and 1 and the archers (or frontline if your 3 clears archers by itself) and auto attacks for last hits on lit melees. The cooldown on your 1 is very low so you can use it a lot but keep in mind you won't have a stun for a few seconds. And that's basically how you clear with Chronos so that you don't spend much mana at all.
Even for attacking enemy Gods you can use the second quadrant if you are low on mana (be sure you have enough mana to cast any abilities after you'll use your 2, because it's a refund, it's not a free ability thing like Chaac's passive). But most of the times you want to use your fourth quadrant to shred enemies and objectives because it's a massive +35% magical power to auto-attacks. Combined with Demonic Grip stacks for example, and you just delete your opponent fast.
You usually tend to avoid the third quadrant, unless you aiming to secure a kill with a 1 skill shot on a far escaping enemy that you need extra ability damage to kill because he's lit but quite tanky for instance (or for objective secure / steal). But it is also very useful for high damage ability burst pokes (in ganks or soloing someone). Don't underestimate it.
You use the first quadrant for healing when needed or just to escape and be extra cautious.
CONCLUSION
That's all folks ! Thanks for reading, hope you like the build. Comments are appreciated, feel free to share your thoughts and other builds that you might prefer or any suggestions. I can comment it if you want me to. GLHF
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I do want to say, build order is an issue. You're building almost purely basic-attack focus, but you have 0 pen (as gulf said) until late.
Another thing is that you probably shouldn't get 2 items that provide 0 power. 1 item is okay (situationally, as both are specifically built to counter something), but 2 is just going to hurt your damage potential a ton.
Yeah regarding 0 power items, not only is 0 power really bad for Chronos' Section IV steroid, it hurts the Telkhines passive too as it scales from magical power.
https://smite.gamepedia.com/Chronos#Changelog
"SMITE Version 6.9.5607.4 (August 20, 2019)
Accelerate
Decreased initial Movement Speed from 25% to 15%."
>"and get used to land his abilities properly, he is very powerful and fun (I would compare him to Ullr in this regard)." - Ullr is useless if you can't hit his stun. He's not really comparable to Ullr, and Ullr kind of falls off lategame compared to Chronos, and Ullr is great in the early game compared to Chronos.
>"And with Hunter's Blessing, you get the extra attack speed too late for it to be useful anyway" - What? Too late to be useful? It's directly useful for boxing the enemy adc in lane and for contesting gold fury in teamfights...
>"and I didn't know how to build him properly in the current meta" -
>"but it didn't provide good early clear anyway and the MP5 from the blessing was insignificant." - Chronos early clear is fine, not amazing but fine. And the mp5 from blessing early game is enough unless you were missing your 1 (or 3) a lot and/or were not using
>"That is why I start with Bancroft tier 2 (same reasoning applies to Freya by the way)." - Bancroft tier 2 start works a little better for Mid than ADC because for ADC you want a little more sustain. And funny you mention MP5 from blessing being insignificant but you start tier 2 bancrofts...
>"Early clear is actually better because you mostly clear with your abilities anyway and the extra 20 basic attack damage gets compensated by the added magical power." - you get magical power from
>"Ok now into mid-game. Why Witchblade, someone might ask ? Well, I usually go for Witchblade as third item before Telkhines because it's cheaper, provides good sustain early (200 health, 10% movement speed, 10% cooldown) and an appreciable boxing potential edge (20% attack speed & passive)." - Witchblade has no power or pen though, so your attacks hit for the same amount as before but faster, while the enemy hunter (or mage ADC) who's building properly is going to deal much more poke damage with their abilities and have harder hitting autos that will hurt you a lot during boxing. Also Chronos isn't Freya, Freya doesen't need magical power as much as Chronos does, Freya scales much better from Attack Speed due to her kit.
>"Late game after selling boots I can still get 20 % cooldown with a 500 gold potion or even 30 % if I can sneak on a blue buff sometimes and it's enough for me." - I wouldn't actively focus towards picking up blue buff because lategame you should be grouping up with teammates pushing lanes or contesting objectives, or at the very least split-pushing (risky).
>" Doom Orb is also an item you could consider, but I don't find it useful enough compared with everything else in the build." - Doom Orb would only be considered for him in mid lane if you're doing that tier 2 shoes tier 1 orb start that has been common in SPL recently.
>"You usually tend to avoid the third quadrant, unless you aiming to secure a kill with a 1 skill shot on a far escaping enemy that you need extra ability damage to kill because he's lit but quite tanky for instance (or for objective secure / steal)." - I wouldn't ever recommend using Third quadrant unless you're going a weird, ability based off-meta build.
I think picking up both
Picking up Blink on Chronos is a bit troll-y, but it has a shred of viability and could've been a worse relic so i'll ignore that. Ideally it should be
Here's how I would build Chronos:
Mid:
Build 1:
(If you plan on building
Build 1 (Toxic blade variant):
Build 2 (
ADC:
Build:
(Can swap
(If enemy team comps is squishy swap
Unmentioned situational / alternative items:
Other sources:
I don't agree with Hunter's Blessing + Trinket start still. I MUCH prefer Bancroft tier2 start on him. You get 40 more magical power this way and the auto attacks are roughly the same. With Chronos you clear waves with abilities (at least in early game), your 1 hits more with this over Hunter's + Trinket.
Bancroft is better on Chronos than Pythagorem in my opinion because of his ult, the added magical power when it procs gives him so much more boxing potential as it gives you the edge to finish your opponent when you both are low hp. In worst case, you ult after. I don't like Pythagorem, even though in theory it seems good, I never found it useful. I much prefer the boxing potential and power spike Bancroft gives.
I believe Obsidian Shard is much better on Chronos than Demonic Grip is. In ganks, you tend to avoid being in the frontline and there's more chance you gonna end up hitting abilities from behind than autos most of the times. I don't disagree with you about getting pen earlier, swapping Obsidian Shard with Toxic Blade in the purchase order would be a good option to consider (I would admit, probably a more serious approach) but anti-heal is also to consider earlier I think. Lifesteal and high sustain builds are common on any God in any roles and it does make a difference.
About getting Blink instead of Aegis : A bit trolly. Well, I rely on my ult instead of Aegis. Blink is a totally viable option with this build because it gives the possibility to dive in a fight aggressively, also gives an escape possibility, you can Blink in a buff to steal / secure, an objective, a punish against lazy backs, etc. I definitely prefer Blink over Aegis but it all comes to playstyle preference, I won't argue about the "bit trolly" part, even though it is viable in high skills plays I believe (as some high skills players get Blink on Scylla for example). I really like this kind of playstyle and it works for me.
I would encourage you to actually try my build and than comment about it. It's a fun build and I believe it's viable.
> I think picking up both Toxic Blade and Witchblade in the same build is a big no-no for Chronos.
Why ? I guess because it gives you less magical power than you would with another build. Well, as I said, it was the original idea of the build and I came up with this with trial and error. It does work, try it out. If for any other reason you still think Witchblade + Toxic Blade combo is a big no-no on Chronos, please explain further.
Thank you for your suggestions. Happy Christmas.