I’m going to make a quick talent guide for chromie bc Narha’s guide is only outdated in this area. She’s also meta again and I want people to learn how to play her. I will only be discussing talents and I will say optimal, viable, and not recommended.
Level 1:
Timewalkers Pursuit: Optimal pick here. The spell power affects both q/w and you get it instantly. Both Chromie’s w/q have their own seperate issues so its best to not talent into one of them. Q can be blocked easily and the 3rd w shot can be easily avoided to mitigate its dmg. The reduced wind up on time traps is also a big reason to take this talent bc it makes it pretty viable to place them in the middle of fights. Also vision is gamewinning in any league above silver.
Deep Breathing: Viable. I like this talent vs melee comps. Unless your enemies are potatos you’ll never land the third shot, but sl is filled with potatos. The dmg and cdr is just enough to make it worth picking. You’ll notice its winrate is lower than timewalker’s though and for good reason.
Once Again the first time: Niche. Q is easily blocked and you need to be careful when picking this. Avoiding picking it into summoner heroes (azmodan, zagara, arthas) who can deflect q shots until 18. Anubarak is another big counter
Level 2: (just copying Narha’s exactly for this)
they’re all good. But Andorhol Anomaly is very situational and weird to use. It can be combined with Timewalker’s Pursuit to reduce the Time Traps arming time down to 1.25 seconds (or so), which allows for quicker time trapping and can make for some fun chain-trapping of people.
The problem with the multiple time traps is that you rarely every need to timetrap multiple people at the same time with multiple time traps. Chances are you’ll use time traps to trap a designated target, but also time trap some allies or enemies that you didn’t intend to trap and messing them up in one way or another, cuz they happened to stand on the trap at the same time. (Or you trap yourself…). It feels chunky and unnecessary. It feels better to focus on one trap that actually debuffs the enemies and buffs you/your allies when trapped.
Level 5:
A proper Greeting: This talent is overpowered atm. It needs some nerfs. You should pick this talent. Dmg bonus is absurd. At 8 you can combo this with slowing sands.
Mobius Loop: Viable. This will probably become the meta talent after APG gets nerfed (id guess by 5% in a coming patch). Its good and if you can land center hits you can secure the 2nd w shot. I would pick this with w build right now. Can also be good with a strong frontline who can ensure you can get center hits.
Bronze Talons: Not recommended unless you want to remember the good ole days. You should always be aaing with chromie, but this just doesn’t offer the same dmg boost as the other talents do. Also Q build is the one that gets the most value from this talent.
Level 8:
Both are optimal unless enemy has cleanse, then just get slowing sands. I would recommend slowing sands always be the pick in lower ranks. Enemies have no idea how to play around it and will take too long to get out of the slow. You also wont be punished for getting in range to place your sands down aggressively. Temporal Loop vs noncleanse teams is stronger in higher ranks bc your team knows how to focus. Only gameplay recommendation that I will give and thats to spam abilities once you use it to get value off cdr. Dont be that chromie that waits for the loop to end to combo. Also as this was the go to ult for a long time enemy tanks know how to counter it. They will rush you to eat the hits. Be prepared for this.
Level 11:
Time Out: Optimal Pick. Its a very long iceblock. Just place slowing sands around yourself and then enter timetrap. Whatever fool dove you is now dead. If you got out of position your healer can prepare to bail you out. It is also a self cleanse so any cc is gone. (Think hard burst like tyrael or illidan)
Gnome Speed Ahead: Optimal. This talent is good if you aren’t worried about divers so much. The health regen isn’t to be slept on and can mitigate poke dmg. The speed boost allows you to play much more aggressive with your q.
Here and There: Not recommended. I normally play pretty near my clones so the tp distance isn’t long. If you go q build it can be a great pick however it is hard to get value out of.
Level 14:
Quantum Overdrive: Optimal Pick. You get instant value out of it and it should be out for every teamfight. Good for short fights
Shifting Sands: Optimal. This talent is good too! It wont really become deadly until 18 when you get piercing sands, but it provides a nice dmg boost until then. You should be landing your q’s regardless. Good for longer sustained fighting.
Fast Forward: Not recommeneded. Meh. The mana comes far too late in the game to be useful. the cdr is nice but unnecessary on such a short ability. Also its the only one here that doesn’t impact your w which is probably the only thing the enemy tank is letting hit their backline.
Level 18 (Again some copied straight from Narha):
I hate this tier because all of the talents are good, very very good. Piercing sands is the only one that I can say is optimal though. It gives chromie the best waveclear in the game so if you’ve fallen behind for some reason you can survive alot longer (seriously this talent let me win even after losing 2 late game zerg waves on braxis. ) It completely reverses the rule of “enemy tank should block q shots”. Its just a massive dmg boost. The other talents can be alot of fun to mess with (the double tp and the blessings of the bronze especially). I would recommend trying them in coordinated play.
Upgraded Temporal Loop can be hilarious if you got good aim and you don’t have some annoying jerkface in your gnomeface. 6 seconds of 700% CDR allows for a crazy burst.
Upgraded slowing sands can also be great as you can have 100% uptime on Slowing Sands even if you wish to move it around. (The Sands stay around for the same duration as the CD; slowing sands disappear the second it gets ready again.) It also reduces the enemies magic armor.