Chromie Abilities and Strategy

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Quick Reference for Chromie
  • 2. Chromie's Overview
  • 3. Chromie's Strengths
  • 4. Chromie's Weaknesses
  • 5. Chromie's Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. ChangeLog
• ×Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Tips on Chromie's Ability Usage
  • 2. Sand Blast
  • 3. Dragon's Breath
  • 4. Time Trap
  • 5. Slowing Sands
  • 6. Temporal Loop
  • 7. Timewalker
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Talent Build
  • 1. Chromie's Talent Build
  • 2. Chromie's Common Talent Paths
  • 3. Level 1 Talents for Chromie
    • 3.1. Discussion
  • 4. Level 2 Talents for Chromie
    • 4.1. Discussion
  • 5. Level 5 Talents for Chromie
    • 5.1. Discussion
  • 6. Level 8 Talents for Chromie
    • 6.1. Discussion
  • 7. Level 11 Talents for Chromie
    • 7.1. Discussion
  • 8. Level 14 Talents for Chromie
    • 8.1. Discussion
  • 9. Level 18 Talents for Chromie
    • 9.1. Discussion
  • 10. ChangeLog

General Information

Below, we give you an overview of the abilities that Chromie has access to. We also explain how to best your these abilities.

The other pages of our Chromie guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About the Author

KendricSwissh is a Master League Warrior and Support player in Hero League. He has been playing Heroes of the Storm since the early stages of the Alpha version and has mastered a large number of Heroes. He is also creating Heroes of the Storm related content on YouTube, most notably his series called Epic Plays of the Week, which focuses on video clips submitted by his viewers. He is also a streamer on Twitch where he will gladly answer all of your questions about the game.

1. Tips on Chromie's Ability Usage

• 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.
• 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.
• Bronze Talons is an incredibly effective talent against mobile Heroes like Tracer or Zeratul who are hard to hit with your Basic Abilities.

2. Sand Blast

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 1-second delay, which requires you to carefully anticipate your target's movement path. This becomes even more meaningful, because after successfully landing 60 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 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. However, Dragon's Breath comes with a major advantage: the enemy team cannot see where you aimed it to land. This allows you to surprise your opponents by casting Dragon's Breath from vision-obscured terrain like bushes or walls for example.

We found the both Mobius Loop and Dragon's Eye at Level 6 to be an 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 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 adds more crowd control to Chromie's kit, which can be quite impactful during prolongued 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 one 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 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 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.

8. ChangeLog

• 21 Sep. 2017: Updated Sandblast's description in accordance with the latest balance update.
• 15 Sep. 2017: Updated Chromie's abilities in accordance with the Kel'thuzad update.

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