Chromie Abilities and Strategy

1. Chromie's Tips and Tricks

• Sand Blast can only hit enemy Heroes, so do not be hesitant to aim it through Minion Waves and Structures.
• Enemies cannot see where Dragon's Breath is going to land. Use this to your advantage and surprise them from unexpected angles.
• Time Trap freezes enemy Heroes for 2 seconds. Make sure to sync the 1-second delay of Sand Blast and 1.5-second delay of Dragon's Breath accordingly.
• When the Bronze Talons component of Timewalker is primed, make sure to deliver Basic Attacks whenever it is safe to do so.
• Slowing Sands is most efficient on narrow choke points.
• Do not be afraid to miss Sand Blast. It is better to cast this ability too often rather than to wait too long.

2. Sand Blast

Sand Blast (Q) Chromie

• Mana: 15
• Cooldown: 2 seconds

After 0.8 seconds, fire a missile that deals 315 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy Hero hit.

Quest: Hit 50 Heroes with Sand Blast. Consecutive hits without missing count as hitting 2 Heroes.

Reward: After hitting 50 Heroes, casting Sand Blast leaves an Echo behind. The next time Sand Blast is cast, the Echo also casts an untalented Sand Blast that deals 40% damage.

Chromie is an Assassin who excels at damaging and finishing targets from a large distance. As such, Sand Blast is her go-to ability, since it has a low cooldown and decent damage numbers. However, Sand Blast comes with a major twist: its projectile gets activated after a 0.8-seconds delay, which requires you to carefully anticipate your target's movement path. This becomes even more meaningful, because after successfully landing 50 Sand Blasts on enemy Heroes, Chromie unlocks a Sand Echo that fires a second Sand Blast at your target location, dealing 40% of its original damage.

As a rule of thumb, it is important to note that you should not be afraid to use Sand Blast whenever it is off cooldown. Its Mana cost and its cooldown are very low, which makes missing your target quite forgiving.

3. Dragon's Breath

Dragon's Breath (W) Chromie

• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 8 seconds

Fire a blast into the air that lands after 1.5 seconds, dealing 390 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in an area.

Dragon's Breath is Chromie's only source of waveclear. It has a longer cooldown and a casting delay than Sand Blast, which requires you to use it very diligently.

We found both Mobius Loop and Dragon's Eye at Level 5 to be good upgrades to Dragon's Breath. It comes down to how comfortable you feel at landing your abilities and how much time have to aim them.

4. Time Trap

Time Trap (E) Chromie

• Mana: 25
• Cooldown: 18 seconds

Place a Time Trap that arms and Stealths after 2 seconds. The first enemy Hero to touch it is placed in Time Stop for 2 seconds. Only 1 trap can exist at once.

Time Trap is Chromie's only means of self-protection. Despite its activation time of 2 seconds, Time Trap proves to be a quite useful ability, as it can disable engaging threats like Warriors and melee Assassins for 2 seconds. You should always have a Time Trap near Chromie when you notice that a larger team fight is about to erupt. In the case of an emergency you can bait an enemy Hero into it and run away to safety.

Another good way of using Time Trap is to place it at choke points near Map Objectives, such as Shrines, Temples or Tributes. This way you can scout an enemy target and time your Sand Blast and Dragon's Breath to damage it as soon as it comes out of Stasis.

5. Slowing Sands

Slowing Sands (R) Chromie

• Heroic
• Mana: 4 per second
• Cooldown: 5 seconds

Place a sand vortex that greatly Slows enemies inside it. The longer it is active the more it Slows, up to 60% after 3 seconds.

Slowing Sands adds more crowd control to Chromie's kit, which can be quite impactful during prolonged team fights. One of Slowing Sands' biggest advantages is its extremely short cooldown and low Mana cost. Furthermore, Chromie can deactivate this Heroic Ability even while mounted, which makes it very flexible and easy to re-locate.

The best way to use Slowing Sands is on narrow choke points or around Map Objectives. Doing so will force the enemy team to either take a different path or fight in an unfavourable position.

6. Temporal Loop

Temporal Loop (R) Chromie

• Heroic
• Mana: 60
• Cooldown: 70 seconds

Choose an enemy Hero. After 3 seconds, they will teleport back to the location where Temporal Loop was cast on them.

Temporal Loop needs careful timing and anticipation in order to unfold its maximum value. However, it has the potential to lock down and kill a single enemy target in an instant, especially if your teammates follow suit.

When using Temporal Loop, make sure to carefully watch the 3-second time window. It is important to time Sand Blast and Dragon's Breath very precisely, since they both come with a short delay before getting activated. The ideal way to follow up on Temporal Loop is to cast Dragon's Breath while having 1.4 seconds left before your target gets re-located by Temporal Loop and follow up with Sand Blast when there are 0.9 seconds left on the clock. In a best case scenario both spells will impact on the target location at once to deal a heavy amount of damage immediately after Temporal Loop has expired.

7. Timewalker

Timewalker (D) Chromie

• Passive

Chromie has traveled to the future, and as such, will learn her Talents 2 levels earlier than her teammates!

Bronze Talons

Hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability increases the damage of Chromie's next Basic Attack by 140%.

Timewalker is an incredibly useful passive trait, since it allows Chromie to reach power spikes earlier than any other Hero in the game. The ability to gain access to one of her Heroic Abilities at Level 8 alone is enough for Chromie to dominate mid-game team fights, especially while the enemy team is stuck at Level 8 or 9 as well. Bronze Talons provides a lot of extra damage throughout the game. This additional damage will be applied to anything Chromie delivers Basic Attacks to, and should not be underestimated.

8. Changelog