Hi I'm Rage. I'm a rank 1 Chromie player, currently hovering around 70% winrate. My team is Sunder & Lightning and are within the top 5 win rates on Chair League.

Pros

- Highest burst damage in the game
- Longest range for sustained burst damage in the game
- Greatest vision (when talented) for a damage in the game

Cons

- No escape tools (worth taking)
- Wave clear is fairly weak (but not as bad as people think)
- Skillshots are one of (if not the) hardest to land of any hero
- Squishier than a bag of chicken livers

Level 1

Good Choices

Compounding Aether is a straight up damage increase to your most used ability, and most often what I take. Sand Blast is going to be the bulk of your damage with its low cooldown, faster cast time, and high range. Because of the lower cooldown, completing your Compounding Aether quest is going to (generally) be faster than Deep Breathing. Also has Excellent synergy with Piercing Sands (level 3).

Deep Breathing is a great talent. The increased vision, higher damage increase (per cast) than Compounding Aether makes Chromie an amazing sniper. However, because of the greater cooldown (12 seconds untalented), longer cast time (1.5 seconds versus 1 second on Sand Blast], this quest will generally take longer to complete, and provide a less reliable damage increase for Chromie.

I take Deep Breathing if I have multiple heavy CC / Roots on my team (Xul, Arthas, etc), or if I have strong vision (Medivh, Zagara, etc).. Or if Chen is on the other team and I can just freely stack my quest (if you get an opposing team Chen, you can get your quest done in the first 4-5 minutes).

Bad Choices

Timewalker's Pursuit is bad for three reasons.

One - The damage / value increase isn't as good as your other quest talents.

Two - trying to fish for globes as Chromie is a bad idea. Chromie needs to stay at range at all times to protect herself. If you're not in the dumpster leagues, your opposing laners know this. Fishing for globes requires you to put yourself in potential harms way, telegraphing your intentions.

Three - Chromie isn't a mana*****, if you're playing her correctly. If you're casting Sand Blast and Dragon's Breath every time it's up whether you can hit someone or not, you're going to run out of mana real fast. If you cast your abilities to zone effectively and to punish enemies for not respecting your damage, you will not have mana problems.

Peer Into The Future is a significant damage loss for a limited use vision enhancement. Don't facecheck as Chromie and take a quest talent instead.

Level 3

Good Choices

Piercing Sands.. Pretty much always. Your range (especially when talented) and the ease of lining up shots that hit multiple people (especially when combined with other CC effects) makes this a no brainer.

Bad Choices

Bronze Talons increases your auto attack damage (after using Sand Blast) and increases your range. Sounds great right? The problem is its lack of synergy with your later talents, and removing the wombo combo ability of Piercing Sands. At 12, Reaching through Time should almost always be taken, which means that even despite your increased range with this talent, it's not going to match the range of your abilities. The effect of this is that you will need to reposition Chromie closer (increased risk) to get your autoattack off.. When what you should be doing is focusing on lining up your next cast (every 3 seconds + gcd) in a safe position.

It's the best single-target damage talent at level 3, and when HOTS comes out with ranked 1v1 play, I totally suggest you take this. But until then, you're better off taking Piercing Sands.

Enveloping Assault is tempting, but the reality is that if you're casting Dragon's Breath correctly, you shouldn't need it. And the damage loss from Piercing Sands is significant in AOE situations. You can take it when you're learning Chromie but honestly I suggest you learn to play with the smaller (but already generous) hitbox Dragon's Breath already provides.

Level 6

Good Choices

Dragon's Eye is a 25% damage increase to Dragon's Breath. It's why I hear "oh my god" from my teammates or casters. If you are 1-2 levels higher than your opposing team and you hit an enemy with Sand Blast and in the center with Dragon's Breath, they will be deleted from the map. I can't tell you how many team fights we've been able to start as 5 versus 4 because I was able to delete a squishy dps or healer from the map. Even if you don't kill them, they will have no choice but to back up and re-evaluate.

Yes it means that you will have less sustained damage versus Mobius Loop, but you will have less mana problems and more kill power.

Situational Choices

Mobius Loop is a burst damage decrease and a sustained damage increase. I honestly suggest you take it when you're first playing Chromie as you learn to time your Dragon's Breath. However, the mana / cooldown reduction doesn't replace Chromie's ability to delete players off the map, and the mana reduction in particular isn't enough to stop you from having mana problems if you cast Dragon's Breath constantly. It also helps increase your siege / lane clear potential, but again, if that's your objective, you shouldn't be playing Chromie.

Where Mobius Loop does shine is defending or attacking bases (with your entire team). You don't need it to zone objectives, and it's a significant burst damage loss. However, Chromie (with Piercing Sands) is *the best* hero at causing the enemy to retreat by blasting them away (either at your base or theirs). Mobius Loop increases that Base defending/attacking ability as you can just bombard their enemy heroes and force a retreat (or cause them to get the balls to dive you, it's one or the other). Basically if you can't hit a high % of your Dragon's Breath, take Mobius Loop.


Bad Choices

Chrono Sickness reduces Time Trap cooldown by 1/2 (somewhat pointless early game and unless you take Andorhal Anomaly late game) and slows the enemy by half. Since you can see the entire timer while someone is timetrapped, this ability doesn't really help Chromie hit her abilities, it helps your team assist you in getting the kill. Unless you badly time your abilities, you'll hit your Sand Blast and Dragon's Breath off every Time Trap. It's not that it's a bad talent, it's just that Dragon's Eye and Mobius Loop are better.


Level 9

Good Choices

Temporal Loop is Chromie's calling card. It's range is sizeable and allows you to delete (or do 75-99% of the work and allow your team to finish off) a hero off the map. It can be used defensively but is strongest used offensively. A couple levels up and/or have a squishy that isn't at 100% health? Loop him and hit him with both your Sand Blast and your Dragon's Breath. He'll be dead or extremely close too it.

Bad Choices

The biggest problem with Slowing Sands is its cast range. Somewhat Like Tassadar's wall, it allows you to slow the attack or retreat of an enemy team. However its cast range is low, its ramp up speed takes too long, and its radius is small enough that except in very rate tight corridors, its just not worth it.

Level 12

Good Choices

Reaching through Time is a HUGE range increase. It allows you to outrange every other hero in the game (with the exception of across the map abilities like Owl), and allows you to secure kills or defend from a distance. Assuming you are playing Chromie correctly, you should take this talent 99% of the time (and 100% of the time on hero league / unranked).

Situational Choices

Time Out puts you in stasis for up to 7 seconds. It's the anti Illidan Hunt / Nova / Zeratul ability. However.. It does require your team to help you within that 7 second period. If the enemy isn't challenged by another opponent, they can just wreck your face after that 7 seconds. Also, losing the range from Reaching through Time is a huge damage loss. I generally only take this if the enemy has multiple stealth heroes OR a stealth and I think their Illidan will take Hunt.

I'd also Only ever take it playing with a team on comms. If your team can't or won't help you, you're just taking a damage loss and delaying your death.

Bad Choices

Bye Bye! The ultimate troll talent. Stealth or Illidan going to kill you? Just hearth back to base! Hilarious to leave after you should have died... But if you take this, you're giving up huge range and lane presence. Not to mention if you use it during a team fight..

The better solution is to ensure you're not overextended. Even if the enemy has multiple stealth, Time Out is almost always a better option.

Level 15

Good Choices

Shifting Sands gives you an 8% AP increase every time you hit an enemy hero with Sand Blast, stacking up to 40%. This has amazing team fight potential and synergy with your other talents and should be taken most of the time.

Bad Choices

Fast Forward is a DPS increase if you're hitting your Sand Blasts at range consistantly. But it's a mana hog, and to use it effectively it forces you to take bad shots (unless the enemy team just doesn't move). It also doesn't buff your Dragon's Breath like the AP increase from Shifting Sands does.

Quantum Overdrive's only real use case is for short team fights where you are guaranteed a kill. It offers half the maximum AP increase that Shifting Sands provides (which is fairly easy to stack with your other talents), and lasts only 10 seconds.

Level 19

Good Choices

Past and Future Me provides an additional untalented Sand Blast at your previously casted position (so if you don't move, it will cast exactly where you're standing). While it won't benefit from any of your other talents, it's incredible for zoning, and the damage is still significant at low-medium range. It also can assist in punishing enemies who get too close to you!

Situational Choices
Andorhal Anomaly is interesting and significantly increases the value of Time Trap. However, it still requires you to plant them in advance (time traps can easily be wiped out by AOE or by autoattacks before they get stealthed). Useful for setting traps around objectives or for jungle kills.

Bad Choices

Pocket of Time is just pointless. Mana isn't an issue the issue with Slowing Sands, it's the ramp up time. The slow can be brutal at 70%, but unless you're in a very tight corridor consistently, isn't worth it.

Loophole can be useful when combining with other AOE ults (ring of frost, maw, etc), but requires the enemy team to put themseves in that kind of position in the first place.

Chromie is incredibly squishy, and has no real escape option.

So how do you play her effectively?

DO play at or near max casting range
DO setup

Time Traps to provide you vision, and protect yourself from ganks
DO try to to predict your enemies movements and punish them for it
DO NOT facecheck bushes / camps / etc as Chromie


Tips:

You can use Dragon's Breath for lane clear or siege but because of it's (relatively) high mana cost, your focus should be on hitting/zoning the enemy team. This will help preserve your mana. If the enemy team is dead or mana isn't an issue, go nuts.

Normally your Sand Blast does no damage to minions / monsters, however if the enemy team is controlling them (Terror / Dragon), Chromie does fairly decent damage to them. This has additional synergy with Piercing Stands as you can hit both the enemy team and your

Use your Time Trap to primarily protect you from ganks (corridors, bushes, etc).

Use Temporal Loop to initiate a gank or secure a kill (see combos below). You can generally kill all squishies by yourself with the temporal loop combo if you are 2 levels ahead and fully quested out, or if they are at ~75% health or lower. On the offchance you don't kill them, let your team know you've looped someone (microphone!) and they can finish the job.

You can generally clear most waves in one shot of your Dragon's Breath (or close to it) by corralling minion waves in a tight circle once they start attacking.

Standard Combo: Cast Dragon's Breath then immediately cast Sand Blast at the location.

Timetrap Combo: Once you see an enemy hit your Time Trap, immediately Cast Dragon's Breath then immediately cast Sand Blast at the location.

Temporal Loop Combo: Cast Temporal loop at enemy. Once time is about halfway, cast Dragon's Breath and then Sand Blast.