Chronos the Facemelting, Invincible Avoidance Tank

I'm not sure how novel this build is, but at least from what I've seen, he tends to be played more as a glass cannon than a front line character, which is really what this build/play style enables.

Item-wise, this Chronos build falls somewhat in line with other Chronos builds, but it really seeks to emphasize speed and skill spamming over magical power. With Chronos's speed buffs and healing, I find this to be a much more effective way to go about dealing damage. With this build you can basically act as an avoidance tank, running through the middle of the enemy team, causing chaos and doing a ton of damage while taking very little. And the beauty is that when they do eventually manage to catch you and dps you, firing off your 4 takes you back to full health. With your maxed CD times, you can feel free to jump right back into the fray, because your 4 should be up again by the time the opposing team can deal significant damage to you.

Please excuse the formatting, I haven't figured out how to link items yet. Any suggestions would be great!

The Shoes of Focus are essential and, though you lose some magical penetration, the ability to spam your skills from mid-game on more than makes up for this 15 penetration.

Warlock's Sash should be built second so that you can build up your stacks as early as possible.

By about level 10, the MP5 and mana buffs from Warlock's Sash, Chronos' Pendant, and Rod of Tahuti should keep your mana bar near full at all times, even after you complete the Pendant and no longer have to wait for cooldowns.

Demonic Grip works really well with this build because, though you're spamming skills, the buffs you gain from Accelerate mean that you'll also be spamming auto-attack in-between skills (and doing a ton of damage from them too!).

Polynomicon compliments Chronos' heavy reliance upon auto-attacks.

I'm sure some people play this way, but I wanted to take this chance to share my idiosyncratic techniques that I think make Chronos a really fun god to play.

Time Rift can do a ton of damage, but I think relying on it too much can be a real downfall. As you can see from my skill order, I really deprioritize leveling this skill. Often times I buy it at an even slower rate than I indicated above. This is because it has such a small area of effect and such a slow firing time, it can detract from the uber dps that a hyper speed Chronos can inflict.

Basically, attack order goes Accelerate (for buff; III is preferable because it will add a significant amount of DPS to your attacks, but because you're so focused on speed in this build, I don't suggest actually trying to get a specific buff: just press 2 as you close in on your enemies). Once you have fired off Accelerate, immediately fire off Stop Time.

I try to catch as many minions as possible with this attack in order to build up my Warlock's Sash stacks, but I also simultaneously look to catch an enemy god in my sights. If you've only caught minions in your Stop Time, fire off a flurry of auto-attacks. This should effectively melt a wave in a half-second or so and net you 5+ stacks to Warlock's Sash.

If you do catch an enemy god, then quickly queue up your Time Rift and wait for him or her to be stunned by your Stop Time. As soon as they drop, fire off the 1. I find that this is the only reliable way to hit with Time Rift since, as I mentioned, it's got such a small target area and such a long firing time. Once you hit with Time Rift, it should only take a few quick auto-attacks to finish off the enemy god.

This strategy works best when you're in the thick of the action. Note that you should play cautiously until about mid-game, because this build relies heavily upon a steady supply of mana and the ability to spam your skills, both of which won't be possible until you complete Chronos' Pendant. Sometimes I build this before Rod of Tahuti to enable a more aggressive play style, but I find that Chronos is severely lacking in DPS out of the gate, so the Tahuti evens out the early game build.

Though this build has no defense, I play it as a sort of avoidance tank, taking Chronos into the thick of the action and relying upon his speed to avoid damage. With the movement speed buff from Demonic Grip and the buff from Accelerate, most enemy gods have a hard time hitting him. You'll be amazed at the chaotic situations you can go through and emerge with a full health bar.

He is susceptible to large AOE attacks and slows/stuns, both of which can burn his health down pretty fast. The Purification Beads, along with Rewind, counteract this though. If you simply get stunned or slowed, fire of the purification beads and be on your way. However, any time you catch a significant fire off Rewind and start the whole process over again with a full health bar. With a non-CD focused build, you'd then have to wait a full two minutes to use this again. With this build, it's cut to about one and a quarter minutes. Rarely will you take damage quickly enough that this will be a problem. Since you're using your ult primarily to counter the significant damage you take from enemies' large AOE ults (like the Kraken, say) your ult will be available long before enemies get their ability back.

Cons

-This is a somewhat slow developing build. It only really starts paying off in the mid to late game. As such, I'd only really suggest it in a conquest or assault game, but you can also really carry the last 100 or so points in an arena game if you level fast enough.

-You can be very squishy. However, if you stay in motion and keep your speed buffs up, you should not be hit very often. Rewind can also be used regularly enough that you can counteract any significant dps.

-Time Rift tends to go underutilized. I'm not sure this is really a con, though, as it tends to work contrary to Chronos' major advantages, his speed and attack buffs. I really only use this skill for occasional creep clears and to burn stunned enemy gods.



Pros

-This build takes advantage of Chronos' unique skill set. It emphasizes his insane attack and movement speed, keeping enemy gods under a constant barrage of auto attacks and leaving them unable to land abilities or attacks of their own.

-In late game, you can melt an enemy god in about a second by hitting Accelerate, landing Stop Time and Time Rift, and then firing off a salvo of auto-attacks.

-As long as you keep a finger ready on Rewind, you're almost unkillable.

As previously mentioned, from the mid-game on, you best serve your team in the front lines. If you make yourself sufficiently pest-like, enemy gods can't help but try to focus you, leaving your teammates free to DPS the heck out of them. Chronos should play his usual role as a mid (or solo laner if necessary), playing cautiously at first but ratcheting up the pressure as he grows more powerful. At a point your MP5 will outstrip your ability usage, so spamming Accelerate to get around the map can also make you a powerful ganker/reinforcer. Being alone in a lane will greatly benefit you since the increased XP will counteract the slow-developing nature of this build.