Possible Mirage wvw roamer

Possible Mirage wvw roamer

in Mesmer

Posted by: eldenbri.1059

eldenbri.1059

It’s ridiculously early, but I like theorycrafting, so here’s an idea.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7PlsnhC1YBawMNUeNIzVM8aiGgceEA-TFyCQBFU9nns/AKVCWPdDA4CAURlfT4gAQhnAQAAEAm5Mn5Mn5MLEwi1A-w

To go along with this, I think I would take:
- Renewing Oasis
- Shards of Glass
- Infinite Horizon

Some high-level concepts:
- No passive run speed is a real pain for a roamer. So the signet is taking care of that.
- Without the chrono traits, I would shatter less often. So trying Chaos instead of Inspiration.
- Without Inspiration condi removal, the condi duration reduction from regen matters (and so chaos trait line and the signet have some synergy)
- The deception utilities don’t look great to me. The elite is cool because it’s blink and condi removal (and presumably stunbreak)
- Axe 3 looks great. But the clone generation of axe 2 doesn’t seem as reliable as scepter or staff. It’s going to be tricky to get clones out quickly enough to use ambush. Plus, torch is the only great condi offhand. So no axe in this build.

Things I don’t know:
- Do phantasms get the ambush attack?
- What are all the deception abilities?

In concept, the goal is to get the clones (and maybe phantasms) out as early as possible and trigger mirage cloak as frequently as possible. Adventurer runes plus a short cooldown heal give an extra dodge/ambush.

Have fun

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I was wondering about synergy between regen condi reduction trait and stacking regen and boon duration from chaos. Or maybe even trying Illusionary Inspiration for regen from phantasms. With Sweet Bean Buns and Antitoxin runes that would be a -64% duration on damaging conditions while under regen which isn’t too bad.

Only problem is how bad the boon hate from Spellbreakers and Scourges will be…

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Posted by: eldenbri.1059

eldenbri.1059

Yeah, I thought about a really high condi duration reduction idea. I haven’t really looked at what other professions got, but my assumption is that everyone is more dangerous.

It feels a little weird to make a build that doesn’t use the weapon of the elite spec, so probably I’m missing something here.

It’s also possible that the Mirage rune set really makes the Deception utilities more powerful.

One thing that seems pretty clear to me. If you don’t take the Infinite Horizon trait, every time you dodge, you’re basically going to pointing out your character pretty clearly because you’ll be the only one who’s doing the special Ambush attack (and at least for staff, that attack looks pretty obvious).

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Coming back to this, tbh I wouldn’t leave home keep without Elusive Mind traited, as it seems like an essential survival trait for roaming.

In terms of theorycrafting for hybrid play, assuming Illusions is going to be an essential traitline, right now I’m split between two survival/win conditons:
1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.
2. Regen/Boon spam and stack passive condi duration reduction – ie use food and runes plus maintaining high regen uptime to reduce damaging condi durations. Bonus of tratng Staff, Mirror heal and even PU or BD.

I’m very likely to go with one of those two options, but not sure which until testing next week.

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Posted by: eldenbri.1059

eldenbri.1059

Yeah… so many things to balance out – that’s what makes theorycrafting fun.

@Curunen My latest thinking is to pick the middle ground of your ideas (and usually middle-ground approaches are not optimal). But still, here’s the idea:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7PlsnhC1YjawMNUeNI0A8ljYuihXTA-TFyCQBPZ/BAcEAqoyPkdBAQpSwCq+DFeIA1T3QAAEAm5Mn5Mn5MLDAzeA-w

The Decoy trait is optional right now. My guess is that I would go with one of the Deception traits that gives another Mirage Cloak. Take the Mirage elite

The Mirage traits would still be the same:
- Renewing Oasis
- Shards of Glass
- Infinite Horizon

As far as condi defense goes, there’s one removal on Prestige and one on each charge of the elite (so pretty much just for those cases where I have a ton of burn stacks)

But, since I’m planning to shatter very, very rarely, the Phantasmal Disenchanter will be casting every 2.2 seconds (because of Phantasmal Haste – it will be amazing if that trait comes back). Since I use Disenchanter regularly now, I’m aware of all the fun ways it can fail.

So to back all that up, I have the constant 20% condi reduction food and 40% reduction on damaging condis when I have regen (which should be frequent).

Right now, I love the synergy between the Mirror heal and the Adventurer Runes to get an extra dodge every 13 – 15 seconds. So I’m trying to keep that.

Really the biggest problem is going to be mobility. I’ve done the focus swap for years, so I don’t mind that. But to make good overall speed, I’m going to have to use blink, phase retreat, the elite, and probably even dodging for .75 seconds of superspeed. Potentially, I will just swap in and out the Signet of Inspiration… and hate it if I get stuck with that in battle.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying this out next weekend.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I’m hoping the Rune of the Lynx gets put into wvw/pve because that would be so perfect for Mirage. Otherwise I’m going to use Traveler because I can’t be bothered with other ways of maintaining movemement speed.

Yeah the disenchanter is a good idea and I do agree the synergy with traited Mirror and runes of the Adventurer is very nice.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Having taken a facefull of Unload as my most recent death, I cannot wait to be using Evasive Mirror with Mirage Cloak.

Yeah it might reveal me on the odd occasion, but kitten with max vigour uptime, endurance regen food, energy sigils and Evasive Mirror, I can’t wait to see how many projectile users kill themselves. xD

Might be especially fun if Deadeyes end up hunting people, but I’ll settle for returning a face full of Unload or Rapid Fire. The thought of the trolling potential gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Feel like adding to this because currently theorycrafting Mirage is more fun than playing Chrono! :p

On looking at all the skills further, I am thinking that while Sword has been my go to weapon for pretty much every Chrono build, I don’t think I will be using it with Mirage.

The main reason for using it is Blurred Frenzy – but given we’ll have plenty of access to evade, I don’t think BF is going to be as crucial a survival skill as it currently is. Sure it’s great to have more evades, especially when outnumbered, but looking at other weapons (Scepter and Axe) the damage output far outweighs the benefit of an extra 2s evade.

So overall I’m most likely to settle on Axe/Torch + Staff.

I would love to use Focus, I really would, but I’m not going to trait Inspiration and then ignore Restorative Illusions in order to trait it. The day Anet move Warden’s Feedback from that nonsensical position in Inspiration to somewhere more accessible will be a day of celebration as I really really miss using traited focus in wvw especially.

Anyway I do want to use staff because I think the ambush animation looks cool, although I’m not looking forward to long cooldowns on Chaos Storm especially if untraited.

Most likely utility setup:
Mirror, Blink, Sand Through Glass, Decoy, Jaunt

I might use False Oasis if it provides more evade through the mirage mirror and vigour, but given we can dodge while casting Mirror heal it’s going to be a reflect and evade if necessary anyway. I may use Ether Feast if Evasive Mirror provides sufficient reflects and shattering will be less frequent such that there should always be 3 illusions up to get maximum healing. Will have to wait and see.

Traits most likely:
Duelling – Desperate Decoy*, Evasive Mirror, Deceptive Evasion
Illusions – The Pledge, MtD, MoF
Mirage – Renewing Oasis, Mirrored Axes, Elusive Mind

*I hate this trait but the other two options are kitten for the choice of weapons… it’s a choice between bad or worse. :/

I want to take Elusive Mind so I don’t have to waste a utility slot on condi cleanse, especially because Blink is still unchallenged as the best utility in the context of this thread, Sand through Glass looks awesome (I managed to see the snippet of it being used in AuroraPeachy’s video, and the reverse dodge followed by walking into the mirage mirror will give even more evade plus reactivating ambush), and Decoy because I like having two stealths (the only other option is Signet of Midnight). There just isn’t space to take any of the other Deception utilities tbh. But the other option is to take Mantra of Resolve instead of Sand through Glass and then take Infinite Horizon instead of Elusive Mind. Will try both options and see where the condi clear feels most comfortable.

Gear – I will stick with Viper/Cele for this weekend’s test, although time will tell whether Griever or Viper is better, depending on playstyle. Will replace my antitoxin runes with traveler runes, although this means I won’t be able to play chrono afterwards in wvw (doesn’t matter as I doubt I’ll play mcuh between this weekend and release if I end up preferring Mirage to Chrono). At least runes of the Lynx are available in pvp. Not sure which amulet to use there though. Sage is kitten as I’d rather have precision for Sharper Images and vigour, so may try going glassy with Viper there too.

(edited by Curunen.8729)

Possible Mirage wvw roamer

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Posted by: eldenbri.1059

eldenbri.1059

Yeah, I agree theorycrafting is pretty fun at this point

I started thinking about likely skill rotations and realized that I am planning to shatter very rarely (which I think is part of the concept of Mirage).

So even though I’m planning on a full condi build, I’m not planning on having Maim The Disillusioned.

Since I believe that all illusions (including phantasms) will perform Ambush attacks if you have the grandmaster trait, I’ve been considering having both Disenchanter and Defender slotted as utilities.

Lots to test out this weekend

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Yeah I hear you, definitely not going to be shatterspam like Chrono which is great.

However certain combos like Axe 3 into mind wrack potentially proccing both vigour on shatter and critical infusion vigour thereby also increasing condi damage by 150 makes me want to use F1 and F2 as often as possible, though not spamming but more carefully timed.

I’d like to try and maintain perma vigour, both for the condi damage increase and endurance regen, so having two sources of proccing it is nice, especially if things like Spellbreakers might easily remove it.

And yeah a lot is hinging on whether phantasms get some kind of ambush or even just a simple cast reset. I’m not keen on the Defender but I would like to try the Disenchanter more, though I’ve never got on with it in the past due to it only being good in fairly stationary fights and I prefer a more mobile playstyle.

Regarding utilities I’m really torn between Sand through Glass and Illusionary Ambush. More evade is great but the latter is an insane gap closer to complement axe 3, especially if it also detargets – and I would be happy to have two detarget skills plus two stealths (prestige and decoy) to mix things up and force enemies to play the retargeting minigame.

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Posted by: msalakka.4653

msalakka.4653

Dodge dodge dodge dodge while spreading conditions.

Sounds…fun?

Gutter Rat [cry] | Gandara | Roaming nuisance
~ There is no balance team. ~

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Posted by: Exciton.8942

Exciton.8942

Little condition cleanse.
Lacking clone generation.

These are the two major flaws in your build. It won’t work well.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Dodge dodge dodge dodge while spreading conditions.

Sounds…fun?

More fun than no brain one shotting people from stealth with GS + F1. At least they have a chance to fight back. :p

(just messing with you. )

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Posted by: CrashTheGrey.1492

CrashTheGrey.1492

Ugh. Condi is looking to be optimal with this spec.

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Posted by: Artaz.3819

Artaz.3819

1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.

This is the probable winner. Add in stealth (Decoy, Signet of Midnight) or mobility (Blink, the new Mirage Advance utility, and Jaunt elite) for getting in/out of trouble. Both options have their benefits.

Boon corruption/strip will be much higher so the harder part will be not using a default speed +25% rune if you don’t have have multiple Swiftness options. Although Mirage does have Speed of Sand at 1s, it’s just too short in duration to be that useful (this needs to get buffed to 3s duration).

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.

This is the probable winner. Add in stealth (Decoy, Signet of Midnight) or mobility (Blink, the new Mirage Advance utility, and Jaunt elite) for getting in/out of trouble. Both options have their benefits.

Boon corruption/strip will be much higher so the harder part will be not using a default speed +25% rune if you don’t have have multiple Swiftness options. Although Mirage does have Speed of Sand at 1s, it’s just too short in duration to be that useful (this needs to get buffed to 3s duration).

Yeah definitely seeing the advantages of Duelling more than any other tree.

More crit = more bleeding (sharper images) = more vigour = more dodge = more reflect (evasive mirror) = more condi damage = more regen (renewing oasis) = more clones (DE) = more condition removal (Elusive Mind) = more stunbreak… list probably goes on even longer.

The synergy is great.

Regarding movement speed: pvp = rune of the lynx, no contest. pve/wvw I’m going with traveler unless rune of the lynx is introduced there as well.

(edited by Curunen.8729)