How to not suck: Chronos

Hey guys, GingahBread here with my first guide. We'll be looking at Chronos in this guide.

Currently I'm a Rank X Chronos, and during my journey to this point I've tried and tested many different item builds on Chronos, listening to some good advice, and some not so good. I am confident that my experience will help you if you're struggling to learn this god.

Chronos is an extremely powerful god. He has a rough time before hitting level 5, but not so bad that it can't be managed. Once he gets past that point, it only gets better.

Chronos is extremely versatile, able to blow up squishies, stun multiple targets, or simply tear down structures and Rewind his way to safety as a split pusher. Mastering this god will give you a very solid pick in many situations.

Pros

Good sustain

High burst

Low CD on Time Rift makes for easy poke

High sustained damage

High mobility

Relatively safe

Doesn't fall off, gets stronger later the game goes

Easy to gank pre-5

Takes some time to come online

Must manage the Wheel of Time carefully

Can be mana hungry

Squishy

Damaging abilities can be harder to confirm than other mages

Requires good aim to land basic attacks

Now that we've listed some pros and cons of Chronos, let's take a better look and explain a bit about them.

Good sustain

We've all heard the term "sustain" thrown around a lot in our time playing Smite, even when we're just starting out. But what do people mean when they say a god has good sustain?

In essence, it means the god can stay in lane for extended periods of time without having to go back to base. This allows them to poke more, farm more, and rotate more than the opposing mid laner.

Now you may be wondering how this applies to Chronos. After all, you've probably heard all sorts of horror stories about his early game, right?

Truth be told, those are mostly exaggeration. Understanding Chronos' sustain requires understanding his passive, the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time has four sections which are activated by using Chronos' second ability Accelerate. Depending on when you activate Accelerate the Wheel of Time will stop on a different section, giving you the corresponding benefits.

"Okay, great, but what does this have to do with sustain?", you may be wondering. Well sit the **** down and let me finish. Chronos' sustain comes from the first two sections of the Wheel of Time. The first section will allow Chronos to regen 1.5% of his maximum health per second, for 7 seconds. This equals a 10.5% heal over 7 seconds, plus his natural hp/5. It may not seem like much, but it can be a very powerful tool when used properly.

The second sections of Chronos' passive is even more potent. When activated it refunds 100% of the mana used to cast a spell. This means that if you activate section 2 and then spend 70 mana casting Time Rift you will then receive 70 mana after casting the spell. It is important to note, however, that this is a refund, not a reduction. You will still need to have the 70 mana in order to cast your Time Rift.


High Burst

Even early on in the game Chronos is capable of putting out some mean damage. The scaling on his Time Rift is very strong, and when combined with Soulstone's passive can make for some very high damage. Now add Stop Time's damage and stun to the mix and what you get is a very unhappy enemy laner. Use Chronos' stun with caution, however: If you use the ability to harass the enemy laner and don't kill him you're a prime target for a gank.


Low CD

The combination of Chronos' sustain as explained above and the very low cooldown on his Time Rift allows him to outpoke and outlast his opponent in lane, allowing him to get more farm and rotate more than them. This provides a very strong advantage to Chronos, who lives and breathes for his farm.


High sustained damage

Alright, we've looked at sustain, and we've talked about burst damage, but now we're getting into sustained damage. This means we're talking about damage dealt over an extended period of time, of course. This is achieved through Chronos' passive, once again. Section four of Chronos' passive gives him an additional 35% scaling on his basic attacks. No, not an increase to 35%, but an increase of 35%. This means his basic attacks will be hitting for 55% of his magical power for seven seconds, without any movement penalty for attacking. You don't even have to hit your target for the immunity, though it definitely helps. This is what allows Chronos to be the monster he is in the late game, and what gives you some of the highest structure damage in the game.

Of course, he doesn't have nearly as much damage at the start of the game, so his basics hurt a lot less. That doesn't mean they don't still hurt though. In reality, 55% is still a lot for a mage, especially when most everyone else only gets 20% scaling on their basics. This allows him to deal a large amount of damage with only his basics, allowing him to use his spells on the wave without losing harass potential.


High Mobility

This once again comes from Chronos' Accelerate. Upon activating the ability Chronos immediately gains 20% movement speed, as well as 15% attack speed at level one. Additionally, he also gains an extra 4% movement speed over time until the ability ends, for a total of 24% at rank 1. Both of these bonuses scale up as you level the ability, up to a total of 40% movement speed and 35% attack speed. Note that the initial movement speed increase does not scale from 20%, only the extra speed over time scales. Additionally, it is this ability that removes the movement penalty for attacking from Chronos, giving you the freedom to swing as you please for an entire seven seconds.


Relatively safe

This stems not only from Chronos' Accelerate, which gives him the ability to retreat quickly, but also from his third ability Stop Time. Though it looks unimpressive at first, this ability is more than just a delayed stun. The hitbox is deceptively big, which can cause unsuspecting enemies to lose their focus as they're stunned by something they thought had missed them. It also does quite a bit of damage. While the tooltip shows it only doing 110 + 40% scaling you must remember that the ability does damage twice. That means it actually does 220 + 80% scaling! Last, but certainly not least, he has what is essentially a second life in the his ultimate ability.


Doesn't fall off

Chronos is a late game god. His abilities have very high scaling, and his passive allows him to deal 55% of his magical power with his basics. The later the game goes, the more power Chronos gets. The more power Chronos gets, the better his scaling becomes. A late game Chronos is a terrifying sight to behold.


Easy to gank

While Chronos is relatively safe, he is still an easy target before he gets his ultimate. His cooldowns on his third and second abilities are somewhat high, which can leave him defenseless if one isn't careful.


Takes a while to come online

Chronos isn't like Freya who gets three items and starts tearing everyone's **** up. He requires a bit more than that, as his power comes from his scaling, not raw base damage and attack speed.


Must manage the Wheel of Time carefully

This is really only an obstacle when you're starting out on Chronos. The Wheel of Time is always moving, which means you need to know where it's at before you go off using your Accelerate and ending up with 1.5% healing instead of your bonus 35% scaling. Knowing where the wheel is at while staying focused on what's happening around you is an important step in learning Chronos.


Can be mana hungry

This ties into managing the Wheel of Time. If you fail to make the most of your mana refunds Chronos can go oom very quickly. It's also important not to hit 2 every time the wheel is on the mana refund, as you do not get refunded for activating Accelerate.


Squishy

As we all know, Chronos is a mage despite his highly damaging basics. This means that he has the base stats of a mage, which in turn means he has lower base health and protections than other classes, making him easier to kill. This is why you must be careful when playing Chronos in the early levels. There's only so much a one second stun and a speed buff can get you away from.


Damage can be hard to confirm

In the world of mages, most have big AoE spells, or long skillshots. While Chronos does have a skillshot, it moves a bit slower than other spells, which means you'll have to lead your target appropriately. His Time Rift is also smaller in size than other spells, with a small delay on it that can make it easy for new players to miss.


Requires good aim

That 55% scaling on basics won't do you much good if you can't actually land any of the hits. It is recommended to practice hitting ranged basics, making the Hunter class a good group to practice with.

Now that we've gone over the pros and cons of Chronos, let's take a look at his kit in detail.

The Wheel of Time: The wheel of time is always spinning and for Chronos, it is no different. Depending on where the wheel is when activating Accelerate, it provides a different benefit to Chronos.

Section 1: Heal 1.5% of max health per second

Section 2: 100% Mana refund on abilities

Section 3: 20% Magical Power

Section 4: 35% additional scaling on basic attacks

Despite requiring a spell cast in order to activate, this is honestly one of the best passives in the game. The first two sections we've already talked about, but I'll talk about them a little bit more here.

Section 1: Though the healing isn't a lot at first glance, it tends to rack up over time. As you sit in lane longer and longer you'll start noticing yourself healthier and healthier than your lane opponent, assuming you've been poking and trading properly. That's already a big advantage. It won't negate big burst, but it will help a lot against poke. Be warned, however, that using this too much can run you dry on mana very quickly. This can be solved somewhat with a blue buff, but if you decide to play mid Chronos or duo lane Chronos you will not have blue available to you. Finally, this ability now counts as healing instead of regen. This means Lotus Crown will grant protections, and Ah Puch can stun off of it.


Section 2: This is possibly the best part about Chronos' passive. This allows you to poke and clear without draining your mana reserve. The mana saved with this passive, plus your mana regen from Soulstone/Vampiric shroud will let you outlast and out-trade many opponents with proper management. Keep in mind that you still need mana to cast your spells -- you only get refunded mana, not reduced mana costs. Additionally, the mana cost for activating Accelerate will not be refunded.


Section 3: This is the only section we haven't talked about yet. That's because this doesn't have all that much use. This sections grants 20% extra magical power, giving his abilities more damage. Unfortunately, 20% extra power really isn't much to write home about early game, and when it's actually noticeable late game you're better off with the last section and boosting your basics. Generally you'll be skipping this portion unless you're certain that the extra damage will be enough to secure a kill you wouldn't otherwise be able to get.


Section 4: This is your main focus when late game rolls around. It has its uses early on, but the real power is when it turns your standard mage basics into 500+ hunter basics without the need for crit. If you're taking a tower you use this. If you're boxing the enemy you use this. If you feel like scaring the **** out of the enemy tank you use this. This is your bread and butter late game. This section gives your basics an additional 35% scaling, bringing the total up to 55% scaling. Yes, you're hitting for more than half of your total magic power with basics with the press of one simple button.

Time Rift: Chronos creates a rift in time, damaging all enemies in the area.

Damage: 80/125/170/215/260 (+85% of your magical power)

Cooldown: 5 seconds

Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 mana


This here is your main damage ability. You'll use it to poke, to clear, and to blow up enemy squishies. It's fairly cheap to cast, and the cost only goes up by 5 mana with each rank. This is your first ability to max.

Accelerate: Chronos accelerates himself over time, allowing him to move faster initially and gain speed over time. While active, his Attack Speed is increased and he is not affected by the attacking movement speed debuff. This ability also stops the Wheel of Time.

Movement Speed: 20% initial + 4/8/12/16/20% over time

Attack Speed: 15/20/25/30/35%

Duration: 7 seconds

Cooldown: 17 seconds

Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana

This ability is what really makes Chronos, Chronos. It provides great mobility and boosts his trade potential, making it easier for Chronos to deal damage while also avoiding what the enemy is throwing. The best part is that it triggers Chronos' passive, granting a different bonus depending on where the wheel is stopped. For more information, see above where I went through the trouble of going through each of his different passive bonuses.

Stop Time: Shooting forward spinning gears of time, any enemies hit by Chronos' attack have their Attack and movement speed slowed to a Stun, taking damage on the initial hit and again when they are stunned.

Damage (applied twice): 30/50/70/90/110* (+40*% of your magical power)

Attack Speed reduction: 20%

Stun Duration: 1 second

Cooldown: 18/17/16/15/14 seconds

Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 mana


This is an important part of Chronos. It's his only hard CC so it should be used carefully. It's perfect for setting up his Time Rift, making the damage much easier to confirm through the stun, but this leaves him defenseless against ganks. Only do this if you're sure you can either get the kill or that it will send them back to the base.

Because this is a line ability that goes through units you can stun multiple targets, including an entire minion wave. This makes it a potent defensive tool, as well as an offensive one. The ability moves somewhat slowly, so you'll have to practice leading and predicting a bit in order to land the skill consistently.

* Remember, the damage is applied twice. This means the damage of this ability is actually 60/100/140/180/220 + 80% scaling.

Rewind: Chronos travels through time to where he was 8 seconds ago, gaining Health and Mana back to the values of that time. All of his Cooldowns are instantly reset as well.

Cooldown: 120/110/100/90/80

Cost: 100 mana


This is the other ability that defines Chronos. This allows him to pull off some crazy plays, both offensively and defensively. The ability resets your health and mana back to what it was 8 seconds prior to the activation, and also repositions you to the spot you were 8 seconds ago. While this is an extremely powerful ability you must remember that there are drawbacks to it as well. It has a fairly long windup during which you can be killed very easily, as you are entirely defensless during it, other than the CC immunity it grants. You'll need to use it before the enemy team collapses on you, and when you still have enough health to survive the animation. Additionally, it does not give you back the mana you spent using the ability. This means if you had 550 mana 8 seconds before using the ability you'll end up with 450 once the ability ends.

Other than that, it's very potent. It can be used to escape ganks and save your life with relative ease. The reset on your cooldowns will make the enemy hesitant to dive your tower, as they now know that your stun is off cooldown, and you're ready to go ham with the rest of your abilities. It can also be used while the enemy is diving you, forcing them to take tower shots and potentially turning the fight in your favor by resetting your CDs and putting your own health higher than the enemies who just took tower aggro.

It can also be used to pull off some riskier offensive moves more safely. You can dive a low health enemy, kill them while taking tower aggro, then quickly ult back to reset your health and move you out of harm's way if the enemy jungler is trying to take advantage of your dive. It's also very potent while 1v1ing enemies, allowing you to use your abilities twice and assuring you have more health than the enemy you're currently fighting and granting you a free kill.

I'm sure you've seen lots of other Chronos guides with different max orders. I've seen some maxing the 3 first, others maxing everything equally.

Both of those are wrong.

You will always want to max your Time Rift first.

"But GingahBread, I'm being camped and really need the stun! The lower CD should help me survive more."

No, it won't. If you're being camped then you need to not waste your Stop Time on baits or the wave, make sure you're healing and saving mana, and make sure you max that 1 so that you can clear the wave. If you max your 3 you will have no way of preventing the enemy from shoving the minions into your tower and diving you, not to mention depriving you of valuable gold. The stun does not scale, and the CD only goes down by 1 second with each rank, while also increasing in cost. You need your Time Rift maxed quickly.

"But what about my Accelerate? Surely the bonus move speed will be helpful, and the attack speed will help me clear."

Again, no. Remember, only the movement speed over time scales with rank. If you need to move quickly out of harm's way then that will not help you. The 20% you get for activating it is what you'll be relying on to get you out, not the extra speed you get afterward. Additionally, you're still a mage. Early game your basics will not be enough to clear the wave. You'll be using them to stack the wave and Soulstone's passive, but your real clear is still in your Time Rift.

"Okay, but what about my ult? Why only one point in such an important ability?"

Because the only thing you get out of leveling your ultimate is a lower cooldown. You're already going to be building CDR, and the benefits for leveling your other abilities simply outweigh the benefits of leveling your ultimate. However, if you're being camped by the enemy jungler then the decreased cooldown will be more useful. If you're not being camped then you won't really need it, so you'll focus on your other abilities.


If you have any questions you'd like to ask, feel free. I'll do my best to answer them adequately.

Season 3 is here, and it has brought a lot of changes with it. Generally these changes are favorable for Chronos, as he is a mage, and mages really love this patch so far. Some important items to look at are Doom Orb and Spear of Desolation. Both work great on Chronos, especially with the mass nerfs to defensive items.

With all the changes to items and the map, Chronos' home has shifted slightly. He's now far more comfortable in the ADC role, shifting over from solo. He's still viable in mid as well, but the duo lane lets him stack up that Doom Orb with a bit more safety due to the presence of a Guardian watching his back.

In this guide, you may notice that Book of Thoth is no longer present. It's still a good item, but it's currently being overshadowed by other items. Some are cheaper, and offer similar power, such as the returning Doom Orb. Also stealing the good book's limelight is the [Spear of Desolation]], with its enormous base stats and staggeringly strong passive. Until farther notice, the Book of Thoth seems to be pushed to the side.

Now that we've gotten our skills out of the way, let's take a look at our items. No matter what you'll be wanting a lot of power as Chronos. In a perfect world you could build full damage and never worry about defensive items. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, so there will be times when you'll need to change your build up for the sake of survivability.

Core Items

These are really a no-brainer. Boots are always important, especially on gods that don't have leaps and dashes. These give you valuable power, penetration, and the movement speed allows you to dodge abilities more easily, as well as rotate around the map faster. Never skip out on boots.



Demonic Grip is a very niche item, but it fits Chronos to a T. It gives you a decent amount of power and comes with additional attack speed as well. More importantly, however, is the passive which lets you shred enemy magical protections with your basic attacks, stacking up to three times. Each stack reduces their magical protections by 7% and an extra flat 5, which scales up to a total of 21% plus 15 flat. This makes your late game basics even more terrifying to behold. The downside is that it doesn't really give that much power, so it isn't an item you'll want to be rushing straight out of the gates.



Doom Orb is extremely potent on Chronos now. He can stack it up very easily, and his kit allows him to avoid death to prevent the loss of stacks. Unless you're losing lane very hard, you should be picking this thing up. The best part is that it can be bought very early due to the cheap price, and it should be in order to maximize effectiveness.

Power Items

---

With the release of Spear of Desolation, Rod is no longer they must-have mage item. Rod still grants more overall damage, and is still a very strong pick up on Chronos due to the passive. It's absolutely possible to get both this and Spear of Desolation, but such a route is expensive. If the game is going on for a long time though, or if you're just that far ahead, feel free to take that route.

Talking more specifically about Rod, most of you should know what it does. It gives you 125 magical power, which is bumped up to roughly 156 when you account for the passive, and some mp/5. The real draw to the item is that the passive increases your magical power by 25%. That's a pretty big increase, especially when you're using Chronos' fourth Wheel of Time quadrant.



This is another item you'll be wanting to pick up whenever possible. Chronos' Pendant gives a good chunk of power along with 20% CDR and some pretty decent MP/5, making it a very good item on most mages. Since you're not leveling your ultimate the CDR will be even more useful to you, and the mana regen makes your passive even more potent.

Pendant got a small nerf this season, bringing the CDR is grants down by 5%. This means you can no longer get 40$ with two items unless you grab Breastplate of Valor. The CDR was the only thing touched though, and all other stats remain intact. Still worth picking up.




This is generally something you'll pick up if your team is heavier on magic damage. The passive is pretty good, it gives a nice chunk of damage, grants CDR, and gives you a bit of lifesteal. However, this item will almost always be overshadowed by the alternatives of Doom Orb and Spear of Desolation. Unless you have a mage in mid, Chronos ADC, Guardian support, and an Ao Kuang jungle, you'll generally be skipping this item. Moreover, the combination of Chronos' Pendant and Breastplate of Valor will allow you to hit the CDR cap and grant protections, making one stat on this item pointless, and reducing the need for another.

Now we finally come to the Spear of Desolation. You've probably heard about it, and everything is true. This spear is an incredibly powerful item, coming with a huge 120 magical power, plus 20 flat penetration. These stats alone would make it a good item, but it gets better. Every 30 seconds, when you kill an enemy all of your cooldowns are reduced by 8 seconds. Lower cooldowns, more ults, less deaths, more kills. Unless you're behind and struggling to stay in the game, you should always be considering this item for your build.

---

Defensive Options

---

Breastplate of Valor has had some changes this patch. It now grants a hefty 75 physical protections, 300 mana, and a reduced 20% CDR. This is actually a pretty good change. The protections can make you very hard to kill early on, and its low price allows you to pick it up in that time frame. The CDR stacks nicely with Pendant, letting you hit the cap with two items without sacrificing much in the way of damage. Very good pick up, always keep it in mind.



This is a more defensive alternative to the Doom Orb. You won't get as much damage out of it, and you'll need to spend more time actually farming it, but you'll get much more survivability from Warlock's Sash. This is a good pick up if the enemy team has a lot of CC, your lane opponent can outclear and outbox you, or if you're just having trouble getting damage off without taking harass yourself.




This will generally be built later in the game if you want more power but feel like you need more survivability as well. This pairs nicely with Warlock's Sash, and while it can be used on its own the recent nerfs have made such a decision much weaker. A solid item all around, but it is a more situational pick.


It's been nerfed quite a bit, but we're moving into a very, *very* CC heavy meta right now, and with the nerf to Beads, now known as Purification, you're going to want as much CC immunity as possible. Enter Magi's Blessing. This thing offers a fair bit of health, some meager protections, but most importantly it offer a sanctuary. Once every 70 seconds a bubble will surround your god, protecting them from the next hard CC that would hit them, and granting one single second of CC immunity. Not as strong as it once was, but stronger than it had been, Magi's Blessing is an important item to keep in mind when you're playing in season 3.


Now we meet Magi's brother; the Spirit Robe. Offering more protections than its brother and replacing the health for 15% CDR, the Spirit Robe may seem to be a simple step sideways. Once again, however, we must look to the passive to find the real power of this item. Like Magi's Blessing, Spirit Robe deals with CC, but it does so in a much different way. When you get hit by hard CC Spirit Robe provides 15% damage mitigation for three seconds, once every ten seconds. This is much more useful against CC heavy teams, as the passive is up far more often, and provides you with true mitigation. In case you're not familiar with how mitigation works, it essentially reduces incoming damage by a percentage before your protections kick in. This means that if you have 15% mitigation against 100 damage, the incoming damage will be reduced to 85, and then reduced farther during damage calculation when your protections kick in.

---

Penetration Options

---

Spear of the Magus is an incredibly powerful item on Chronos. Landing your Time Rift will reduces magical protections, allowing your basics to deal more damage. More importantly though your Stop Time will apply both stacks of Spear's passive, making the following Time Rift and clean-up basics deal maximum damage. No matter who gets hit by this it will hurt.

Spear of the Magus has recently hit by the nerf bat, friends. It's not useless now, but you will probably be looking at Obsidian Shard and Spear of Desolation for penetration. Spear is still more effective against squishy targets than Shard, but Shard lets you hit towers, warriors, and tanks harder, while Desolation grants enormous power and a potent passive. Keep Spear of the Magus in mind, but don't be afraid to pass it up.

Yep, it's this guy again. Remember, this still builds off of the Enchanted Spear tree, which means it gives penetration in addition to its other stats. With how much this item gives, it's actually worth using in place of Spear of the Magus, but that decision is ultimately up to you and your situation.


Obsidian Shard is an alternative option if you find yourself doing a lot of split-pushing, or if the enemy is stacking 200+ magical protections. It comes with a nice chunk of damage and 33% magical penetration, making it a fairly potent item. Never build both Shard and Spear, as Spear of the Magus will reduce the effectiveness of Shard's percentage-based penetration. Most often you're going to be picking up Spear of the Magus, as it's more effective until the enemy hits around 150 magical protections, which most of your targets will not have. However, this does not mean you should rule Obsidian Shard out completely, as there are still instances where it will be more powerful.


This is only here so I can tell you not to build it. The power isn't very much, the passive isn't that great for Chronos, and you generally won't need the magical protections it grants. You can pass this one by in almost every game.

Now that we've gone over the tools of Chronos it's time we looked at his playstyle. It's important to know when to be aggressive and when to play safe when playing Chronos, as he's a squishy God, making him easy to kill when his ult and stun are on CD. Warding is important. For reference, I've included a ward map below.


This map assumes you are on the Order side at the bottom. The dots all represent warding positions, with the colors signifying the risk/reward in placing them.

The dark red dot is the deepest, being placed so that you can see the enemy jungler move from his Speed buff to the Blue buff, or vice-versa. It also allows you to see the enemy laner if they go to Blue, and then allows you to see if they head over to Speed to help their jungler, or if they move to return to lane. Placing this ward can help you track enemy movements within their jungle, especially paired with another ward below it. If the mid laner and your jungler are both warding you should have complete vision on the enemy as they move around the solo side jungle. This ward can be dangerous to place, however, as it is within enemy territory. You should be aware of the positions of both your lane opponent and the enemy jungler before placing this ward.


The red dot below is slightly safer to place, and still gives you pretty good vision. It still allows you to see the enemy laner moving to the blue buff, but it may not catch the enemy jungler heading there. It can catch the enemy moving between Blue and Speed to position themselves for a gank, or see them if they move from the center of mid-lane through the jungle straight to Blue. It's a valuable ward to have if you're pushed up, but it doesn't prevent the enemy from circling around the front side of Fire Giant from the Speed buff and ganking you from behind. Caution advised when placing this ward.


The blue wards are safer to place, but they don't get quite s much vision, and they don't offer you any insight into the enemy's movements within their jungle. These can allow you to be somewhat aggressive, but they're more defensive than the red wards.


The green wards are purely defensive, placed when you're having a particularly rough time and the enemy is making rotations into your jungle. These offer no offensive advantages, and are purely defensive, as their only purpose is to keep your buffs safe and preventing you from being ganked from your own jungle.


Remember, warding is an important part of the game. Vision can win matches, whether it's by exposing an isolated enemy in your territory or by informing you that a situation may not be as safe as you think it is.

Now that we have warding out of the way, let's get started on your actual laning phase.

During the early game your main focus will be farm. You'll want to try and poke when you can, but you don't want to lose too much farm while doing so. The best situation would be to hit both the enemy laner and the minions at the same time with your Time Rift. You may need to use your Stop Time during the early levels depending on who you're against, and if this is the case then you will need to try and hit your opponent at the same time, otherwise it's like holding a neon flashing sign over your head that reads "Come Engage On Me! I'm Helpless!". That's a bad sign to be holding.

Assuming you've picked up a Soul Stone, you'll want to try and stack up the passive before using your Time Rift. Always try to kill the archer minions first, as they do the most damage. Taking them out means you'll be able to trade/poke the enemy laner more easily, and your own wave will not die as quickly.

Additionally, use of the Soul Stone and the blue buff allow you to use your first and fourth passive bonuses, granting you increased sustainability with the first, and better wave clear with the fourth. During this time you can use the third section of your passive in combination with Soul Stone's passive to give your wave clear an extra "oomph!", but this will quickly become sub-par, and your sections will be more useful.

Always bear in mind that if you've picked up the Soul Stone you will want to use your Accelerate before stacking the passive, as it will be consumed upon activating Accelerate, despite the ability not dealing any damage.

Safe warding is imperative in this stage of the game, and you should generally not try to fight your lane opponent. You are simply too squishy at this point, and you don't have a lot of damage. Your poke, however, is still decent, so make the most of it.

Once you get your ultimate you can be a bit more aggressive. If you've both been in lane for a while and you've been able to successfully poke your opponent without taking too much damage yourself this could be your first opportunity to get a kill. Poke a little more, and when the time is right you can zoom in, burst him down, and ult out if necessary. Be mindful of the long windup and your map if you choose to do this, as if you attack carelessly it can spell disaster. Additionally, if you don't get the kill you'll likely have to return to base, and the both of you will return with full health -- the difference between you two being that one of you does not have their ultimate. This puts you in a very bad spot, as you are now much more vulnerable to ganks, and your lane opponent doesn't have to worry about your second life if he chooses to engage.

Now you've leveled up a bit, you grabbed a few items, maybe scored a kill or two. You still want to get as much farm as you can, but you're not the same as you were early game. You're a threat now, a real threat. By this time you'll be able to put out some serious damage on towers, and your abilities will have some real weight to them. Your wards can become more aggressive, but you'll still want a defensive ward to watch your back. You can start looking for kills more readily. If you notice your opponent leaving lane you'll need to decide how to respond quickly.

If you know that his blue buff is up you should try to clear the wave and get the rest of your farm. If you're not sure you can try to follow him, or simply call MIA and check your map.

If your midlaner is pushed up there's a chance that your own opponent is looking to gank. This calls for a rotation and an MIA call. If your jungler is with your mid laner you can simply call the MIA, finish the wave off, and then rotate over. If the enemy tower is low, however, you may be able to put some pressure on your opponent by clearing the wave and making a move to finish off the tower. There's no best option here, as it's all situational. You'll need to make the call for yourself what is best at what time.


However, you are also able to make your own rotations. If you've shoved the wave up and there won't be another for a bit you can rotate to your Blue buff, or help your jungler with Speed or back harpies. If the enemy mid laner is pushing up you could also rotate to gank mid.


Overall, mid game is the point where you can start becoming aggressive, but you must do so intelligently. You'll still want to get as much farm as you can, but never at the cost of missing opportunities like a free kill in mid, stopping the enemy jungler at your Speed buff, etc.

This is where it all comes together. This is where Chronos is at his absolute strongest. At this point you'll be doing one of two things; split pushing or team-fighting. Split-pushing is best done if you picked up Obsidian Shard, as the percentage penetration it gives does affect towers. On the other hand, if your team is peeling well enough you can stick with them for the team-fights and tear through the enemy team from the backline.

If you're team-fighting it's very important to be in a safe spot for the fight. Let the Warriors/Guardians engage and tank at the frontline, while you nuke-powered basics and drop enemies with your spells. Don't activate your Accelerate right away in a fight, make sure you can actually hit an important target so that you don't waste it. You can simply shred the enemy frontline's protections a bit if you can't get to a priority target, and that will make it easier for your team to bring them down. When the time is right and you're in position you can throw out your Stop Time, hopefully hitting both the front line and at least one of the enemy team's backline gods. Landing your 3 on a squishy at this point in the game is almost always going to guarantee you a kill, provided you're positioned properly. Now you can quickly Accelerate and follow up with a Time Rift and a couple of basics and the enemy team is one god down, and hopefully it's an important one. You'll probably still have plenty of time left on Accelerate so it's time to really go to town with those basics. Locate the other squishy and start wailing on them.

With your fourth passive bonus active you should be able to outbox the enemy ADC with proper movement, and pretty much anyone else on the enemy team, but you should only try boxing an enemy if you know where the rest of their team is, otherwise they may just come out of the jungle and goon squad you.

Despite how powerful and dangerous you are you must still exercise caution. You're still incredibly easy to blow up, and if you get caught out there's very little chance of surviving through your ult's wind-up to get to safety. Even if you do, that means your ult is down for the next fight, so you'll have to be that much more careful.

That just about wraps things up. As we can see, Chronos is a versatile god with a lot of options open to him, and is an extremely high threat in the later stages of the game, both to enemy health bars and enemy structures, though careful play is still required. If you take the time to learn Chronos well it will pay off, as he's a very entertaining god to play in addition to how powerful he is. He might seem tricky at first, but just keep at it and you should pick up the nuances of his kit.


I hope this guide helps you in some way, and I'll continue to update it as the game progresses so that it stays as up-to-date as possible. I'll try to add in more as I go to provide more information, but for now this will have to do or I don't think I'll ever actually publish it.

VVT, VVGL, VVGF, VVGB.