How Not To Be a Terrible Chloromancer

I'm going to guess you're here because you think you could use some help with playing Chloromancer, in which case I'm proud of you for seeking out help. If you came here instead to say "im better cloro than u", well, I can't stop you. Go ahead.

Gear

There are a couple of different ways you can build a Chloromancer, but I'm going to list mine, since it's worked well for me for a long time (if you play it right you can easily solo hard DOTM, provided you don't get cocky and stay alert).

Hat:

Maximum Health

Attack Speed/Critical Damage

Maximum Health %

Attack Speed/Critical Damage

Weapon:

Magic Damage

Energy Regeneration/Attack Speed

Jump

Energy Regeneration/Attack Speed/Critical Damage (depending on your preference)

Face:

Maximum Health

Attack Speed/Critical Damage

Magic Damage

Attack Speed/Critical Damage

Ring:

Magic Damage

Energy Regeneration

For Chloro specifically, I tend to prefer AS over CD, and I put Jump for the third stat. There are a couple of reasons for this:

• Chloromancer has a high base attack speed, and it benefits more from high attack speed. With this build and a radiant staff with S5 hat/face, I easily do 4-5 shots a second. Without AS on the staff, there is a noticeable reduction in attack rate.
• Chloro relies on its basic attack to heal its plants. Your M2 skill grows fairly quickly, but what you're going to want attack speed for is your 1 skill. More on this later.
• Chloro can get by without the extra crit damage because of how frequently it hits, between its plants and its fast basic attack.
• I put jump on the staff instead of on the ring, because this frees up a slot on the ring for more energy regen. You will need this to keep up healing in shadow towers.

I'm using CD instead of AS at the moment because I'm sharing this staff with my Fae and Ice Sage, where it's a more important stat.

Flask: Valourous Vial

Emblems: Surestrike Emblem, Arcane Emblem

Chloro hits very often, and it has a very large potential area of effect. Toss a few lashers into a crowd of adds, use your flask, and watch it refill.

Playstyle

So, how are you actually supposed to use the class?

A few basic tips, first:

• No matter how many lashers you have out, an enemy can only be affected by a lasher hit once per half-second. This means that in a small area you only need one lasher at a time.
• Try to throw your lashers where enemies will be in a couple of seconds rather than where they are.
• Pollinators aren't as useful while soloing as they require enemies to stand near them at the exact moment they explode, but if you're in a tight space, they can be very useful to deal burst damage and heal you.
• On its own, a pollinator isn't much to look at, but three or four of them deal some serious damage and heal nicely. This will come into play later.

Soloing

When soloing, try to toss a few lashers around an area and stay airborne (hence the jumps on the staff). Move so that the enemies are on the far side of the lashers when you land, giving you time to regenerate energy and throw down some more lashers. If you have SS+VV use your flask freely, since against groups you rarely if ever run out of flasks. Don't forget your passive, either - if needed you can take a couple of hits and let your passive absorb a few more while you regenerate energy.

Don't discount your basic attack, either. It might not deal a ton of damage, but it hits fast. and it's useful for getting lashers up more quickly.

Use your ultimate when you're low on energy and you can't afford to stay on the ground.

In Groups

Honestly, you can just throw some plants down and watch. People kill things so fast anymore that you barely have time to throw down plants before a bunch of melees swarm in like bees and everything dies (thanks, crit meta). Just try to act useful.

Shadow Towers

Chloro really shines in Shadow Towers due to its area control and potential for very high DPS (I hit roughly 300k DPS in hardmode at level 39 between my lashers and basic attack, and this doesn't include the 1.2 million burst from four stacked pollinators) as well as healing. Lashers also provide area control, slowing enemies so that people can back off if needed.

This is where pollinators really become useful. Seeing as most good groups will have a revenant in a corner or against a wall where they don't move much while taking hits, you can stack 3-4 pollinators on top of one another and then use your basic attack so that they all go off at once, restoring a considerable amount of health and dealing high damage (the latter mostly if you have your flask up - as stated in the above paragraph, I deal over 1.2 million damage with SS+arcane and 4 pollinators and I'm only level 39).

The basic attack's healing is kind of lacklustre (equivalent to one hit if your target were to use  Samantha/Prowling Shadow), so I never rely on that, though I will shoot through teammates if possible just to help out a little.

With TR: Chloromancer and Tomb Raiser makes a great combo for tanking, seeing as pollinators are the only thing that can heal Goliaths. Each Pollinator will heal the Goliath for 5k health (I don't know what the max health of a Goliath is offhand but 3 pollinators at a time will keep the Goliath alive as long as it stays near them). If possible, throw down 3 pollinators on top of one another and use your basic attack to grow them as fast as possible (this is where all that attack speed becomes useful).

That's kind of it for now, if you have any suggestions for improvement or extra sections let me know.