Chronicon Ultimate 100% Guide (Builds, Stats, Items, Skills, Mastery)

At start i want say i am from Poland and English language isn’t my main language so i hope you will forgive me all grammar mistakes 🙂

I am huge fan of Path of Exile and most time since game release i spent on playing Cast on Crit builds.

What does it mean? Whenever you crit with your attack you cast a spell that damage your enemys.

In example you can use your melee movement skill to trigger spells with critical attacks ( cyclone + cospri malice + frost nova + frost bolt FTW <— PoE fans know what that mean 😉 ).

Idea of this build was created after testing other Thorn Templar builds from other guides.

I can say that from my tests it is already strongest Templar Thorn build that is known.

I added my own ideas to focus on spawning as many Tornados / Hellfires as possible after i found out they real potential.

I did everything to min/max cooldown reduction/effect duration synergy to get full potential of this build.

On top of that i decided it will be good to explain all stats,synergys and decisions behind some choosed options.

I tested alot options that aren’t in this guide. Sadly some things looks promising but don’t really work with this build.

I will like to see some suggestions about upgrading this build 🙂

After all my tests here you are reading my guide 🙂

• Great damage and area of effect: if you move fast between packs of monsters tornados and hellfires are on your whole screen

• Great mobility: one of attack is mobility skill, you can move away from targets while alot tornados and hellfires still attack them

• Good survival: high hp, shields based on max hp and maxed out block chance + damage blocked. In 1.0 there are more high hitting monsters but build have no problems with survival anyway still survival went down abit compared to 0.98 game version.

• Great crafting materials and crowns farmer: hymn aura skill increase Pickup Radius by alot

• Lazy build: can be played with just 1 button LOL

• Defence is power for this build: damage based on hp 😀

• Stats used by this build: Most stats focus on increasing Templar HP. That’s mean easy itemisation and no need to choose between damage or defence.

• No infinite damage scaling: this build isn’t DoT build that can stack damage forever with every attack but still it scale alot with Mastery levels

My templar build is based on creating with critical attacks as many Tornados and Hellfires as possible that deal thorns damage on hit around them (AoE). That way it’s not typical Templar Thorns build because it focus on creating Tornados and Hellfires.

With 2x 15% chance to create Tornado on crit and 1x 15% change to create Hellfire on crit this build on bosses can easy create 20+ Tornados + some hellfires and on packs of monsters …. hard to count because screen is full of Tornados and Hellfires 😀

Keep in mind Tornados ( TWISTER ) enchant from weapon and ring don’t stack so it’s not 2×15% = 30% total. Both Tornados enchants are separate 15% so that’s mean every attack have 2 x 15% chance to spawn Tornado on crit.

Tornados are better than Hellfire because they can move. When target is moving tornados follow it and if target is dead tornados move to next target. That’s why Tornados ( TWISTER ) enchant is choosed on weapon.

Tornados and Hellfires are created by:

• 3 Hydras from Hydraloop

• 4 skulls from Quadruplets

• Phantom Shield

• Magnetic Blades

• Tackle

There can be added to this list Magnetic Orbs or Magnetic Field if you drop Hymn Aura. It’s easy to respec since build have acces to both of skills so respeccing is about removing 5 points from 1 skill and add it to second one. Still i suggest to keep Hymn Aura 🙂

Skulls from Quadruplets respawn very fast if they die. So investing into minion HP is pointless.

This build have 0 resistances but very high HP.

Every way of healing and all shields are based on % of max HP.

Even if monsters can hit high on 370+ Endless Anomalys it’s not a problem because healing / shields are based on % of max HP. To be fair Grace and Salvation should be more than enough for killing monsters. Anyway Codex of Healing Touch is used on bosses and can help when killing normal monsters.

Anyway if you want have more survival use on amulet rune made from amulet: Star of the Pure. Rune increase power of your barriers up to 60%.

• Healing – Codex of Healing Touch

• Shield – Grace

Keep in mind % chance in skill info include % bonus from Mastery.

Grace Mastery

• Healing + Shield – Salvation

Salvation Mastery

Base Salvation is 5%.

Next 5% come from Masterys:

• Aura Affinity (25% Aura Effect)

• Empowered Blessings (25% Aura Effect)

• Strong Aura (20% Aura Effect)

• Beacon of Hope ( Holy Auras increase Aura Effect by 10% for each active Aura )

This Mastery make Salvation being 10%. Here is screen with that Masterys.

• Masterys increasing Healing

Increased Healing from all sources

Increased Aura effect

Again even if resistances are set to 0 because of high HP this build don’t have survival problems.

Difficulty setting ( lower resistances for player ) don’t affect max HP for this build. I say that because someone asked question about it. This question suprised me because i was never thinking about difficulty affecting max HP because of lower resistances on high difficulty. Now i see that higher difficulty don’t lower your current resistances but make lower starting point. In example starting point isn’t 0 resistances but let’s say -25% so your resistances on items aren’t affected so max HP is same on all difficultys.

Very important part of this build is min/maxing synergy between cooldown reduction and effect duration. In this build i skipped few cooldown reduction lines to get effect duration lines. It is better to cast buffs less often and still have them active.

• This way recasting buffs takes less time of gameplay and time is spend on using attacks and moving around the map.

You can find out that cooldown of spells is bigger than they effect duration. Here kick in Magnetic Blades passive named Reloaded that reduce active cooldowns by 15% when Magnetic Blades skill is used.

Great thing for this build is fact that it really focus on few stats 🙂

• Health – one of main sources of HP, power of shields based on HP and Thorns damage

• All resistances – one of main sources of HP, power of shields based on HP, Thorns damage and Holy Damage ( because all res gives shadow res )

• Shadow resistance – source of HP, power of shields based on HP, Thorns damage and Holy Damage

• Increased effect of all gems – gems are BIG part of this build for: 100% crit chance, max block, max hp, Thorns damage etc. so increasing they power is very important

• Critical Hit Chance – for 100% crit cap

• Critical Hit damage – increase damage of Thorns because they can crit

• Damage vs crowned foes – slowed, stunned etc. enemys takes more damage

• Effect Duration – for min/max synergy between cooldown reduction and effect duration

• Cooldown reduction – for min/max synergy between cooldown reduction and effect duration

• Frost resistance – increase HP and there was no better stat to choose for boots slot

Reckoning’s Sight for 3 set piece bonus with Lesser rune of Critical Thorns.

Gems – 3 x Shadow Resistance gem

Rune – Critical Thorns – build have 100% crit chance and this rune increase Thorns by alot after doing crit attack. There is no better rune for this slot.

Accessory

Quadruplets with Hearthstone rune.

This way you get bonus elemental damage from Quadruplets. Health regen from Hearthstone is pointless. So keep in mind to do it this way.

4 skulls from Quadruplets attack fast and can spawn Tornados. If they die they respawn very fast.

Other important thing is lightning skull create bonus Static Overload orbs that slow enemys.

Gems – 1 x Holy damage and 1x Extra Block chance – i suggest put block chance gems in transmuted slot because it’s mandatory gem here. This way you can change Holy gem whenever you want for something else like bonus experience that need different gem slot.

Rune – Hearthstone rune. This rune increase Health by alot based on resistances.

Retaliator’s Choker with Lesser rune of Phantom Shield. This build need 2 set bonus from this set because it’s really powerfull.

DIFFERENT OPTION: Rune made from amulet: Star of the Pure. Use it if you have low Mastery and problems with survival. Rune increase power of your barriers up to 60%. Anyway even without it build is really tanky even on low Mastery levels.

Gems – 3 x Holy Damage – build use block chance gems for cap in other slots

Rune – Lesser rune of Phantom Shield. It increase max number of bounces for Phantom Shield. Phantom Shield spawns Tornados so it’s great for packs of monsters and bosses too because Phantom Shield bounce between player and 1 target if one Mastery is picked up.

Vindicator with Nemesis shield rune.

Vindicator is important because it increase Thorns damage dealt by 500% and it makes Thorns do damage in radius. Nemesis rune made from Nemesis shield increase Thorns based on our HP so it’s great.

Gems – 2 x Critical Hit Chance gems for 100% crit

Rune – Nemesis rune made from Nemesis shield. Great Thorns damage increase based on HP.

Reckoning’s Cage with Elementium rune

Reckoning’s Chest for 3 set piece bonus with Elementium rune.

Gems – 4 x Shadow Resistance gem

Rune: Elementium rune made from Elementium Armor. All resistances are increased by 60% of highest resistance. Since this build stack shadow resistance for increased Holy damage ( rune on boots ) it increase in same time HP and Thorns damage because of Hearthstone rune.

Reckoning’s Instrument for 3 set piece bonus with Lesser rune of Slicing.

Gems: 3x Critical Hit Damage

Rune: Lesser rune of Slicing is good for 100% reduced mana cost and cooldown reduction on Tackle. Great mobility for this build.

DIFFERENT OPTION: If you have low HP and problems with survival change critical damage stat line into Health. Damage will be abit lower but survival will be higher.

Retaliato’s Striders with Lesumbra’s rune

Gems: 2 x Shadow Resistance

Rune: Lusombra’s rune from Lusombra’s Path boots. Shadow resistance is added to Holy Damage. This rune is reason why shadow resistance is choosed to stack instead other resistances.

Aspect of the Ethereal with Hydraloop rune.

1.0 update added amazing ring called Aspect of the Ethereal. This ring is really strong for this build because it have tornado and hellfire proc stats. Keep in mind Tornado (Twister) from weapon and ring don’t stack so that’s mean every attack have 2 x 15% chance to spawn Tornado.

Gems – 1 x Holy damage and 1x Extra Block chance – i suggest put block chance gems in transmuted slot because it’s mandatory gem here. This way you can change Holy gem whenever you want for something else like bonus experience that need different gem slot.

Rune – Hydraloop rune made from Hydraloop ring. Hydras are great for creating Tornados. This ring spawn up to 3 Hydras. If Templar move away from already spawned Hydras new ones can be spawned. It’s great that they don’t stay for full duration few screens away.

DIFFERENT OPTION ( worse but still will work fine ).

Kingsrock with Hydraloop rune

Gems – 1 x Holy damage and 1x Extra Block chance – i suggest put block chance gems in transmuted slot because it’s mandatory gem here. This way you can change Holy gem whenever you want for something else like bonus experience that need different gem slot.

Rune – Hydraloop rune made from Hydraloop ring. Hydras are great for creating Tornados. This ring spawn up to 3 Hydras. If Templar move away from already spawned Hydras new ones can be spawned. It’s great that they don’t stay for full duration few screens away.

1) Twister – on weapon – Spawn Tornados
2) Critical Hit Chance
3) Block chance ( max it on shield and on gems )
4) Thorns ( it’s base stat on items this build use so just max it with enchanting )
5) All resistances
6) Shadow Resistance
7) Increased effect of all Gems
8) Cooldown reduction / Effect Duration

Cooldown and Effect Duration will give pretty same ending result. If you max out first cooldown reduction you will cast buffs more often but they will be shorter. If you max out first effect duration your buffs will last longer but they will be casted less often.

9) Health

This build get already alot Health from All resistance and Shadow Resistance stats so it’s better to max out Cooldown Reduction and Effect Durtion first to make gameplay better.

10) Damage to Crowned Foes

It’s powerfull enchant but this build need first 100% crit to make build work as intended and alot Health to easy survive high difficultys that’s why i put it last. Anyway if you will be lucky rerolling stats and get it save it because it’s great 🙂 Just it’s not most important stat at start.

1) Critical Hit chance
2) Shadow Resistance
3) Extra Block Chance
4) Holy Damage

Items priority in general:
1) Aspect of the Ethereal
2) Vindicator
3) Reckoning’s Instrument
4) Reckoning’s Cage
5) Reckoning’s Sight
6) Retaliator’s Striders
7) Retaliator’s Choker
8) Quadruplets

Items Priority for new players that start the game:

Most important items for this build to make it work are in order:

1) 3 set bonus from: Reckoning’s Instrument, Reckoning’s Cage, Reckoning’s Sight
2) Vindicator

This will be enough to make build work. Than items that i suggest next are:

3) 2 set bonus from: Retaliator’s Striders, Retaliator’s Choker (Get boots first to put later rune on them.)

Since 2 other items are True Legendarys you can’t gamble for them so they are put last on this list. They are great damage boost but not needed to make this build work and you can get the only from drops.

4) Aspect of the Ethereal
5) Quadruplets

Hard to say what runes should be used first because they are random drops, come from Legendary or True Legendary items drops. Anyway if someone will have runes but no currency to put them on items here is list of most important runes in order:

1)Heartstone rune on accessory
2)Elementium rune on armor
3) Lusombra’s Path rune on boots
4) Critical Thorns rune on Helm
5) Nemesis rune on Shield
6) Phantom Shield rune / Star of The Pure rune on amulet
7) Slicing rune on weapon
8) Hydraloop rune on ring

This build can be played with just 1 button. Since skills are used from right to left order when they are on same button i will explain them in same order.

• Salvation – it’s Aura skill and is used in this build for it’s passive NOT active effect. That’s mean it need to be keybind to any button but NOT set to 1 button gameplay because it isn’t casted.

Here start 1 button gameplay:

• Thorn Maiden – increase HP, Thorns damage and reduce by 25% base cooldown of Utility and Aura skills

• Bolster – increase HP and Thorns damage

• Hymn Aura – increase Pickup Radius by alot – great for collecting materials, crystals and crowns.

• Magnetic Blades – AoE lightning attack that trigger Magnetic Overload.

• Tackle – skill used for fast movement around map and attacking monsters in same time.

Tackle is great mobility skill. It’s better option than Slice because it can “stick” to the target in example boss. While Tackle is spammed in group of monsters it move from monster to monster instead just rushing whole pack and attacking once. It’s also better to control your movement. Charge knock back targets so it’s very bad.

In my opinion Bolster is better than Reprisal. It still gives nice damage boost becaue it gives nice health boost. In same sytuation this skill increase survival and damage of the build. Reprisal gives more damage but no health bonus. Anyway both skills are in same skill button so you can try it out.

Thorn Maiden is fantastic skill for few reasons.

• Increases max HP

• Increase Thorns damage by alot

• Lowers base cooldown of Utility and Aura skills. Must have for min/max cooldown reduction and effect duration.

Magnetic Blades is great skill because of few reasons:

• It trigger Magnetic Overload – because of Mastery Magnetic Overload slows targets so damage vs crowned foes increase damage of this build

• It is casted once and stay around character for some time so it doesn’t need to be casted all the time

• It got nice AoE so works really nice on groups of monsters. If you Tackle into group of monsters all of them are attacked by Magnetic Blades and there is chance that few Tornados will spawn from one attack.

• Magnetic Blades passive named Reloaded reduce active cooldowns by 15% when Magnetic Blades skill is used. Great for min/max cooldown reduction and effect duration.

Haste Aura: I don’t use it and it’s just point waster here for me but points needed be spent somewhere in skill tree. Anyway main reason for it is attack speed. Attack speed means shorter animation for casting spells. Still Hymn aura is better in my opinion.

Salvation is really amazing passive skill. It gives 50% chance to restore 10% Health on kill. Lingering Liberation Mastery gives nice shield based on Salvation skill. This skill gives great passive survivability. With this skill any ways of healing doesnt matter while clearing maps. It isn’t that usefull on most bosses but for bosses this build use Codex of Healing Touch.

Hymn is great aura for collecting materials. It is increasing Pickup Radius by alot.

To make best use of this skill change settings.

Settings -> Loot Filters -> Radial Loot key toggles Auto-loot

This way character is Tackling around and auto picking up loot from very long distance 🙂

Keep in mind some Masterys can be set in few different places. If you set this kind of Mastery in wrong line just right click it and set different Mastery in that place. This way you will make previous Mastery “free” so it can be set in different line. Simple example is Imrpoved Thorns Mastery in Conviction Mastery line.

Diminishing returns: every 100 points you hit breakpoint where next point added gives less HP in example:

• 1-100 = 10 Health each point

• 101-200 = 9 Health each point

• etc.

Even with this decrease investing into Health alone is best option with current gear. This is cool because in same time this build increase damage and survival.

• Phantom Flurry: +30% chance to trigger Phantom Shield.

• Phantom Beacon: Phantom shield can bounce between Templar and target if there is only 1 target. Great for bosses.

• Heavy Shield: for Damage Blocked cap

• Supporter: All auras increase element damage based on auras element

• Aura Affinity: increase Auras effect by 25%

Voltaic: +30% Chance to trigget Static Overload. This build use just one Lightning spell so this Mastery is very important for slowing enemys.
Static Cling: Static Overload slows all foest struck by 50% (that’s important for damage vs crowned foes)
Thundering Wrath: Lightning Auras increase the proc rate of Magnetic Overload (easier to gather enemys in one group if you use Haste aura instead Hymn).
Overloaded: For each active Static Overload Orb attack speed is increased by 3%. More attack speed means faster animation for casting buffs and other skills.

Improved Thorns: +60% Thorns
Lingering Liberation: Salvation provides a protective barrier on the Templar equal to the amount healed. Stacks up to 30% max HP.

Protective Beliefs: +30% Chance to trigger Grace
Holy Thorns: Thorns is now considered Holy damage.

In this screen you can see suggestion about most important Masterys and suggestion what Masterys you should get first.