Guild Wars 2

In light of the expansion and the apparent condition focus on mirage I wanted to try some condi-power burst for WvW roaming. I came up with the following build: click me

Now keep in mind that the shield and trinkets stats are only the way they are, because I took stuff I had lying around in in my bank. I am not sure yet, if I should go for full viper on everything… However, I have been struggling with a choice for runes. Currently I use Berserker runes. I kinda feel, unless I hit a very good shatter, that the condies have not much impact on the fight and I am contemplating switching the runes (also maybe food… not sure). But I am unsure what to go for.

I know things might change with new runes and the grieving stat combo, but I wanna get some practice and feeling for it, before I really commit to it…

Also, if anyone want to suggest using scepter… I don’t really like that weapon. Despite it having consistent condition pressure, I wouldn’t really wanna use it.

Oh my kitten god I typed up a HUGE detailed response, took me nearly half an hour and the forum killed it/ate it up!!! >:(

Sorry I’m too kitten irate right now to retype that so I’ll just say for now build link in sig. Runes = Antitoxin, Food = Sweet Bean Buns.

Edit: going to post full build here in case I change anything that affects the GW2E link…

Inspiration – Restorative Mantras, Restorative Illusions, Mental Defence
Illusions – The Pledge, Maim the Dissilusioned, Master of Fragmentation
Chrono – Time Catches Up, Improved Alacrity, Chronophantasma

Land: Mantra of Recovery, Blink, Mirror Images, Signet of Midnight, Mass Invis
Underwater: Swap Blink for Decoy

Staff – Viper, Sigil of Energy & Sigil of Cleansing, wvw Resilient Infusions
Sword – Viper, Sigil of Energy, wvw Resilient Infusion
Torch – Viper, Sigil of Cleansing, wvw Resilient Infusion

Head – Celestial, Rune of Antitoxin, wvw Resilient Infusion
Shoulders/Chest/Gloves/Legs/Boots – Viper, Runes of Antitoxin, wvw Resilient Infusions
Amulet – Celestial, whatever enrichment
Rings/Accessories/Backpiece – Celestial, wvw Resilient Infusions (attuned/infused rings and infused backpiece for extra slots)

Utility – Toxic Focusing Crystal
Food – Sweet Bean Bun

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the hunger of the forum^^

I was actually also trying out torch and sword offhand, since mirage won’t have shield. I must say, maybe it’s due to being used to it, I prefer the sword.

I was also eye balling the runes of antitoxin. But honestly I feel with the inspiration line conditions aren’t really that much of a problem. Same with the food. The condi duration might be nice, but the defensive condi reduction seems a bit overkill to me. Personally I die more often to a power thief bursting me than to a condi user. Only problem sometimes is necros, even when they are power, and their long chills…

That’s the reason I run with Sweet Bean Buns – in total it is a 69% reduction to cripple/chill/immobilise which is amazing. Together with sigils of cleansing, mender’s purity (with mantra of recovery and restorative mantras), restorative illusions and the pledge, I have very little problem managing conditions in most situations. Can even facetank full transfers from condi necros and mop them all off you. Also have a very favourable matchup vs other condi mesmers in 1v1 because you have more cleanse than them, equal sustain (because your armour is irrelevant if they’re running dire/trailblazer) and more damage output via burst – you can pressure them more than they can pressure you. In fact power mesmers are more dangerous vs this build, although they are squishy and melt fast when you surprise burst them.

That’s the way I like playing it – aggressive and in your face. Eg, F5 into F3, Mirror Images, F1/F2, exit F5 and repeat for almost instant unpredictable burst. Can change shatters depending on necessity (ie Mirror Images into F3 for more daze). Of course in outnumbered situations if there are no obvious squishies then I’ll play more conservative/patient.

I should add I use Tuning Icicles to buff the condi damage if it looks a little low on the build link – and with wvw bonuses it pushes it up a little more.

Regarding GS – I used to experiment with GS + Sw/T with the same stats but found it very lacking vs enemy power mesmers – they have better burst and almost equal sustain and good enough condi removal… The trouble is GS lacks any kind of sustained damage pressure which is necessary. Once you’ve unloaded your GS burst it’s a dead weapon – sure Mirror Blade can proc some nice might/vuln which helps hybrid stats, but it’s too limited and weak in outnumbered because you can’t 100-0 squishies unlike if you had marauder/zerker gear.

Staff is far superior both for defence (can’t count the number of times phase retreat has saved me from being pulled into traps for example) and also offence with hybrid stats, weird as that might seem – the auto does good damage, iWarlock can hit surprisingly hard and the fast shatter fodder together with mobility allows you to move around to unload your burst. The might/fury/vuln/bleeding/burning on the auto are all great because everything boosts/is boosted by your stats.

Torch is also in my opinion far superior to Shield in wvw – the burn on 4 and 5 is now non-negligable and can be synchronised into shatter burst for even more damage. Nevermind the stealth being great for juking enemies. It’s also nice when you proc the Fury from iMage (obviously not relying on it) to boost F1 crit chance to around 80% with MoF.

That’s the thing – there’s no one single big source of damage – but there are a lot of good sources of damage, both direct and condi from many skills such that you can maintain a solid output.

Biggest challenges are probably certain druid builds and certain warriors, because of their sustain ability. Power thieves are annoying when they gank, condi thieves can be managed with the many sources of cleanse/passive resistance unless in an outnumbered situation.

Only trouble is the price of that food currently, and whether it may see a nerf next week with all the other foods. I stocked up on about 15 stacks of it during Lunar New Year when it was around 17s, so have enough for a couple of years of casual wvw!

Oh also, persisting images is kitten – take restorative mantras and mantra of recovery – far more heals and condi removal than ether feast, can be channeled under stealth or while phase retreating/blinking.

Alright, thanks for the detailed response. The forum obviously was still full from the last time it eat your post^^

Gonna try Staff. Always found it lackluster with pure power or pure condi, but with hybrid, it might be actually good (when the game released I actually always used GS and Staff with full rampager gear^^). I probably won’t use torch. Although you make good points and I see it’s value, it’s just a weapon I can not get used to. I think I’ll go offhand Sword, because, as I said, I am used to it already^^ You make also good points for the heal, gonna try that too.

Regarding runes, for now I’ll keep berserker runes, but I’ll keep antitoxin in mind, and who knows what is also added with PoF. Tried out the Sweat Bean Buns. Seemed legit… the price is a bit off-putting, as you mentioned, so I’ll keep experimenting with other food too.

Thanks again and I’ll update my experience, once I got more to say

Honestly I was surprised also at how good staff is with viper/cele. The auto attack is actually good unlike GS where it barely tickles unless using full power gear.

Sure I can understand if you prefer Shield. I’ve always been a Sword/Torch guy and loving the recent buffs to torch damage output. If taking Shield then I’d go for Persistence of Memory.

Yeah sadly Lunar New Year is a long way off, but if you know you’re going to want to roam in Chrono next year then good idea to plan and save for the drop in price of that food. In my opinion it’s the best roaming food for hybrid or condi chrono.

Of course with Mirage not having the innate -25% to cripple/chill/immobilise I’m likely going to make a second set of roaming gear with different runes/food if stacking passive condi duration reduction isn’t as effective as it is on chrono.

Curunen.8729:

Honestly I was surprised also at how good staff is with viper/cele. The auto attack is actually good unlike GS where it barely tickles unless using full power gear.

Sure I can understand if you prefer Shield. I’ve always been a Sword/Torch guy and loving the recent buffs to torch damage output. If taking Shield then I’d go for Persistence of Memory.

Yeah sadly Lunar New Year is a long way off, but if you know you’re going to want to roam in Chrono next year then good idea to plan and save for the drop in price of that food. In my opinion it’s the best roaming food for hybrid or condi chrono.

Of course with Mirage not having the innate -25% to cripple/chill/immobilise I’m likely going to make a second set of roaming gear with different runes/food if stacking passive condi duration reduction isn’t as effective as it is on chrono.

Thank you for your explanation. I just returned to this game after a long break and started doing the HoT living story and stuff. Is your build also good for that? I’ll try your build in WvW, I think I’ll like it after reading everything. Do you think this hybrid is more fun/better than a full power or full condi build?

Adonisis.9736:

Curunen.8729:

Honestly I was surprised also at how good staff is with viper/cele. The auto attack is actually good unlike GS where it barely tickles unless using full power gear.

Sure I can understand if you prefer Shield. I’ve always been a Sword/Torch guy and loving the recent buffs to torch damage output. If taking Shield then I’d go for Persistence of Memory.

Yeah sadly Lunar New Year is a long way off, but if you know you’re going to want to roam in Chrono next year then good idea to plan and save for the drop in price of that food. In my opinion it’s the best roaming food for hybrid or condi chrono.

Of course with Mirage not having the innate -25% to cripple/chill/immobilise I’m likely going to make a second set of roaming gear with different runes/food if stacking passive condi duration reduction isn’t as effective as it is on chrono.

Thank you for your explanation. I just returned to this game after a long break and started doing the HoT living story and stuff. Is your build also good for that? I’ll try your build in WvW, I think I’ll like it after reading everything. Do you think this hybrid is more fun/better than a full power or full condi build?

I can only speak from my own experience of iterating over the last few years, and oscillating between power and condi – from glamour confusion, moving to power phantasm, then to power shatter, then to condi shatter, back to power shatter and so on… I finally feel over the last year or so since I made this build that I reached the peak of what I have been aiming for over the course of this game.

I don’t think I’ll ever play pure condi again because it’s so slow and boring, and most likely not play pure power again for mesmer, unless there’s an elite spec that provides a kitten good reason to play pure power such as sustained power damage.

I love supplementing the burst potential of direct damage with the sustained damage of condis – it makes up for not having enough sustained direct damage and similarly not having enough burst damage while playing pure condi. It’s fun to aim for reasonable mind wrack crits while watching condis tick away maintaining pressure on your opponent. It also fits my playstyle of light bruiser with a bit of burst, rather than full yolo shatter or full attrition.

As said previously, the main weakness of this build is not quite excelling at doing any one thing, whether tanking damage or dishing it out. You may run into the odd player (arbitrary statistic) who you’ll just have to walk away from (eg one or two druids I can recall), and equally you won’t be able to facetank damage as you might be able to in full trailblazer or dire so must be more evasive (you have the luxury of making mistakes and eating the odd bit of damage here and there) – but the good thing is any player who is tanky enough to mitigate most of your damage will also have a very difficult time killing you – you’ll have the luxury of deciding to walk away from an encounter whenever you feel overwhelmed, unless badly outnumbered or in unfavourable terrain.

But overall it’s difficult to describe how to play and also does kind of require maximising every stat to be efficient (ie getting those attunements/infusion slots from fractals and getting ascended everything – though I still haven’t bothered with ascended underwater weapons…) – the nature of hybrid does demand squeezing out as much stats as possible, hence my reason for mixing in cele trinkets and headgear. So it’s a difficult one for me to say craft exotic and test, because you won’t get the same experience from exotic and will feel noticably weaker – I can recall it wasn’t amazing at the time but I had an idea of what to aim for so worked through it. You can get a flavour of the playstyle from exotic, but you’ll be slightly squishier and deal less damage (food and utility will be crucial) which prevents the build from performing as well as it is able in maximised gear.

So yeah I’m a huge proponent of this build and find it far more fun and less gimmicky/one-trick than pure power or pure condi. The only gimmick I suppose is shatter spam, but that’s the nature of chrono in pvp/wvw anyway so can’t be avoided.

I personally feel for people starting GW2 “late”. I started out in WvW shortly after release and before I used Staff/GS with a Staff + Sword/Pistol build and rampager gear to be able to dish out bleeds and (when glamor still was a thing) combine it with confusion (like pistol phantasm shooting through feedback bubble to apply it). And because everyone just started out you could slowly grow into things. These days, especially if you want to roam in WvW you need to be near optimal if you don’t wanna get stumped all the time. Hybrid dmg on mesmer was always a bit odd imo, but it was smth I intuitively wanted to do until I was so impressed by osicat’s shatter videos that I was lured into going full zerker^^

However, I was thinking today, why not try that GS/Staff combo I liked so much before… and I must say, that is the thing I’ll be doing now. I had so much fun with it this afternoon and could even take this one annoying bursty thieve, that kept slaughtering me before^^ It allows for some descent burst dmg with GS and nice mobility and sustained damage with Staff. Only downside: it is absolutely full glass and you have to be aware of possible burst surprises.

Here is the adapted build I currently use (and you can see, where I included your suggestions^^: click me

Kudos to you for going double ranged in the current state of the game – I’d be petrified of not having enough ways to avoid all the damage out there! I kind of feel naked whenever I try other weapons than Sword/Torch! xD

I see what you’re going for – looks fun, even more bursty/aggressive than I prefer, and tbh this looks like it would suit GS better because you can bring down the hammer with some nice burst. I mean it is kind of a sustained alternative to full zerker you’ve got going there. Glad to know it’s successful so far.

Edit: yeah there’s a lot of overpowered stuff floating around in wvw and tough for anyone to start off in this environment unless you have tons of money/gold to burn on maximised gear, nevermind some stuff being locked behind pve currency or timegates…

Curunen.8729:

Adonisis.9736:

Curunen.8729:

Honestly I was surprised also at how good staff is with viper/cele. The auto attack is actually good unlike GS where it barely tickles unless using full power gear.

Sure I can understand if you prefer Shield. I’ve always been a Sword/Torch guy and loving the recent buffs to torch damage output. If taking Shield then I’d go for Persistence of Memory.

Yeah sadly Lunar New Year is a long way off, but if you know you’re going to want to roam in Chrono next year then good idea to plan and save for the drop in price of that food. In my opinion it’s the best roaming food for hybrid or condi chrono.

Of course with Mirage not having the innate -25% to cripple/chill/immobilise I’m likely going to make a second set of roaming gear with different runes/food if stacking passive condi duration reduction isn’t as effective as it is on chrono.

Thank you for your explanation. I just returned to this game after a long break and started doing the HoT living story and stuff. Is your build also good for that? I’ll try your build in WvW, I think I’ll like it after reading everything. Do you think this hybrid is more fun/better than a full power or full condi build?

I can only speak from my own experience of iterating over the last few years, and oscillating between power and condi – from glamour confusion, moving to power phantasm, then to power shatter, then to condi shatter, back to power shatter and so on… I finally feel over the last year or so since I made this build that I reached the peak of what I have been aiming for over the course of this game.

I don’t think I’ll ever play pure condi again because it’s so slow and boring, and most likely not play pure power again for mesmer, unless there’s an elite spec that provides a kitten good reason to play pure power such as sustained power damage.

I love supplementing the burst potential of direct damage with the sustained damage of condis – it makes up for not having enough sustained direct damage and similarly not having enough burst damage while playing pure condi. It’s fun to aim for reasonable mind wrack crits while watching condis tick away maintaining pressure on your opponent. It also fits my playstyle of light bruiser with a bit of burst, rather than full yolo shatter or full attrition.

As said previously, the main weakness of this build is not quite excelling at doing any one thing, whether tanking damage or dishing it out. You may run into the odd player (arbitrary statistic) who you’ll just have to walk away from (eg one or two druids I can recall), and equally you won’t be able to facetank damage as you might be able to in full trailblazer or dire so must be more evasive (you have the luxury of making mistakes and eating the odd bit of damage here and there) – but the good thing is any player who is tanky enough to mitigate most of your damage will also have a very difficult time killing you – you’ll have the luxury of deciding to walk away from an encounter whenever you feel overwhelmed, unless badly outnumbered or in unfavourable terrain.

But overall it’s difficult to describe how to play and also does kind of require maximising every stat to be efficient (ie getting those attunements/infusion slots from fractals and getting ascended everything – though I still haven’t bothered with ascended underwater weapons…) – the nature of hybrid does demand squeezing out as much stats as possible, hence my reason for mixing in cele trinkets and headgear. So it’s a difficult one for me to say craft exotic and test, because you won’t get the same experience from exotic and will feel noticably weaker – I can recall it wasn’t amazing at the time but I had an idea of what to aim for so worked through it. You can get a flavour of the playstyle from exotic, but you’ll be slightly squishier and deal less damage (food and utility will be crucial) which prevents the build from performing as well as it is able in maximised gear.

So yeah I’m a huge proponent of this build and find it far more fun and less gimmicky/one-trick than pure power or pure condi. The only gimmick I suppose is shatter spam, but that’s the nature of chrono in pvp/wvw anyway so can’t be avoided.

I always enjoyed the condi roamer but played against Osicat with full zerker before and could best him sometimes. But I always thought full zerker or full condi missed something, that’s why I think your build would be nice to try.

About your build: what do you think about the berzerker runes with +power and + condition damage instead of the antitoxin runes you have now? And do you think the Chronomancer traitline is a must or replaceable?

Adonisis.9736:

I always enjoyed the condi roamer but played against Osicat with full zerker before and could best him sometimes. But I always thought full zerker or full condi missed something, that’s why I think your build would be nice to try.

About your build: what do you think about the berzerker runes with +power and + condition damage instead of the antitoxin runes you have now? And do you think the Chronomancer traitline is a must or replaceable?

Berserker runes are definitely a solid choice, though as said I like the passive reduction against cripple/chill/immobilise so I don’t have to necessarily waste cleanses on them. If you feel confident of managing condis with the multiple sources of cleanse we have in skills, traits and sigils, then sure you can go for more damage oriented runes and damage food – which will probably be better in some fights. Depends whether for example you care about maybe letting a player run away from you on the odd occasion or maybe having the ability to run away yourself. I place more value on survival so prefer the passive soft cc reduction.

Chrono is definitely a must – because of 25% movement speed, alacrity, F5, superspeed shatters and chronophantasma (synergy with mental defence as well). It just means more skills available more often and more illusions available. The F5 also allows doubling up burst with Mirror Images to unload more damage, which allows you to put a lot of pressure on enemy glass cannons, often destroying most of their hp with the right F5 shatter sequence plus other skills. Chronophantasma synergises with this because you don’t have to regenerate more illusions when executing F5 into Mirror Images into another shatter – you automatically get the full shatter. Very useful to have in order to catch and burst squishies.

But if you prefer 25% from runes or want to run focus/SoI/certain sigils then sure you could experiment with core mesmer.

I have tried running Domination for Rending Shatter and the damage output with that and Mental Anguish is beautiful (all that vuln just boosts all your sources of damage and staff becomes pretty powerful) – but I’d rather drop Inspiration to do that – but then the biggest loss is actually Mender’s Purity. You will likely need to take Well heal for condi removal or take Mantra of Resolve in that case.

It’s the usual tradeoff between survivability and offence – but if you excel at the glassier playstyle (assuming so if you could best Osicat with full zerker) then maybe something like TyPin’s build with GS a couple of posts up might be more fun? For me I like to survive as much as possible, even if it means accepting I might not down an opponent or secure a kill – often the most fun fights are the ones where you spend half an hour juking with opponents with constant plays and counterplays but neither able to best the other. That’s not to say I like the full condi attrition playstyle – I am certainly fragile enough to be burst down if +1 by a thief or something, so there is definitely a big element of risk with this gear.

Having said that I do feel you need some sustain for hybrid to work – because the damage isn’t all instant compared with zerker where you can burst, kill, stomp and run.

Edit – I should add, if you run with another player who can share might (eg rev or ele), watch the damage output! Might is amazing for hybrid if you can roam with someone playing a might sharing class/build.

Interestingly sweet bean buns have now tanked in price to around 26s buy orders.

I can see the outgoing 15% condi duration being converted to expertise and nerfed, but I can’t see the defensive aspect of the food being nerfed as there’s no respective stat for minus condi duration.

Curious to see what tuesday’s balanace changes will bring and how it could affect this build.

The good news is hybrid is more resistant to nerfs than pure power/pure condi because whatever gets nerfed you’ll still have something to fall back on. I’m not anticipating the need to change gear at all, though I am curious to see if the rune/food/Time Marches On synergy remains intact.

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Tseison.4659:

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Thanks for aiding anyone else reading this, although I think everyone who’s posted in here along with the majority of this forum are already aware of that.

Curunen.8729:

Tseison.4659:

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Thanks for aiding anyone else reading this, although I think everyone who’s posted in here along with the majority of this forum are already aware of that.

I’ve tread through 8 other mirage based topics and not many do sadly…

Tseison.4659:

Curunen.8729:

Tseison.4659:

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Thanks for aiding anyone else reading this, although I think everyone who’s posted in here along with the majority of this forum are already aware of that.

I’ve tread through 8 other mirage based topics and not many do sadly…

Honestly I’m surprised given it was one of the main features of introducing specialisations, that you could only choose one. Anyway the builds in this thread are pretty focused on Chrono and any similar hybrid play on Mirage will likely have some significant differences – runes and food for one.

Our meta PvP chronophantasm shatter is already a hybrid damage build.
Condition and power damage are roughly split in half for that build.

You can simply copy past that as your WvW build.

Stats wise, you benefit the most from power and condition damage. Focus on maximizing those two. Precision and expertise are decent but not essentially. You want to invest in some toughness and vitality first. Once you feel you have enough survivability, you can put in more damage stats like precision and expertise.

For runes, the best choice is perplexity. Passive damage modifiers are not as good in PvP orientated game mode. Instead, you want more sources of condition application.

Do you think a hybrid build like this one could work with Mirage? Or will a pure condi spec work better?

Adonisis.9736:

Do you think a hybrid build like this one could work with Mirage? Or will a pure condi spec work better?

Well from looking at some videos and images of the skills and utilities that we get – which in my opinion seem lacklustre compared to what other classes are getting BUT i’m not gonna jump to conclusions just yet until I get to properly test the new Elite this weekend.

BUT the mostly will be running: PWR/VIT/COND/TOUGH for pvp since it’s come to the point where theres just way too much cleansing abilities, foods etc… to grab vipers for increase condition duration when they’ll just slide right off immediately AND also in the mirage traits, theres points that increase duration anyways so.

Build would be something a little like this: (Sword will be axe)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRArf8akknhyrBhGgvckyK87oB-TByHABAcQAEU9ny0PUkyPlfAADcGAqTJIv7PQKAmEbB-e

Take in mind everyones play style is different and unique to said player so – a build can work for some and not work for others. Play how YOU want to play. I also don’t shatter much in pvp since I like the whole deception that comes with this new elite. IF chrono and mirage were able to be selected at the same time then sure i would shatter but I don’t believe shattering will be necessary anymore for the mirage elite. But that’s my opinion.

PVE i’d probably run: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRArf8qkknxC0QR1gQ7SaiCZAGxOB-TByCQBLb/Bv9AAuwZA4gq/kIlgZR5HAOIA3T/ApAgYZF-e

Again, these are just ideas nothing solid yet until I get to test out everything this weekend.

From what we know so far I think I will likely swap all Viper for Grieving stat on Mirage, to boost direct damage crits at the expense of condi duration. And then change runes/food for something to boost endurance to maximise dodges rather than the passive anti soft cc that is possible with chrono. But of course it’s impossible to say for sure until having played it.

In pvp I don’t know – the healing power from Sage only really benefits Restorative Illusions right now so if Mirage builds don’t end up using Inspiration then I don’t know if Sage will be the most effective amulet. Will have to wait and see.

I was worried about the Mantra of Recovery/Mender’s Purity/The Pledge changes in regards to this build, but it seems so far that the changes have minimal effect.

The healing nerf on power return above 50% is harsh, but fortunately we’ve got Restorative Illusions to supplement that. The nerf to Mender’s Purity and The Pledge aren’t so bad given the other sources of condition removal and passive condition resistance. Thankfully MoR still has 10s cooldown so we can make use of Restorative Mantras often. The ammunition change only really serves as a quality of life change out of combat so you can just let them recharge themselves – in combat it’s still better to burn through all the charges into recharging for Restorative Mantra heal and repeat – because alacrity cools it down so fast anyway.

The flat -20% cooldown to torch and extra burning is actually pretty good though – more burst burning when synchronising prestige/image cast with shatters, and more consistent fast cooldown of prestige.

Edit: however regarding food/utilities, the reduction in condi damage from tuning icicles and reduction of duration is noticable sadly.
And secondly survivability is definitely a bit lower with the mantra healing nerf and mender’s purity nerfs – not as much sustain as previously.

I’m feeling a little… jaded I suppose. It still functions but it feels a bit flat and not as effective as it could be.

If anything Anet are succeeding in incentivising the use of Mirage, because I think I might switch and use 25% movement speed consumables or something instead.

I have actually abandoned Inspiration to focus on the new nice confusion + blind application of dueling. Here is the new build (the traits must obviously be switched with their patched counterparts, if applicable).

So far it works out, the dmg output is greatly increased (due to longer and more condition application and better buffs from power food). I have not yet had the chance to really test it out rigorously, but it feels nice… and let’s put it nicely… thrilling^^

TyPin.9860:

I have actually abandoned Inspiration to focus on the new nice confusion + blind application of dueling. Here is the new build (the traits must obviously be switched with their patched counterparts, if applicable).

So far it works out, the dmg output is greatly increased (due to longer and more condition application and better buffs from power food). I have not yet had the chance to really test it out rigorously, but it feels nice… and let’s put it nicely… thrilling^^

Yeah this looks more fun. Good shout on replacing Decoy with Signet of Midnight – I think it is certainly objectively better for us now given the passive effect and active stealth.

I’m glad in a way the Mender’s Purity is nerfed because it’s one less anchor to Inspiration.

Trouble is right now I’m in limbo – half of me wants to wait for Mirage before shaking everything up, half of me wants to redesign my build. Ah, at least it’s not too far away. :/

Actually given the signet of midnight access to stealth, how about a Domination/Signet build?

I mean that gives access to Rending Shatter and Mental Anguish which are huge damage boosts for this build.

edit: It’s fun but signet cast times other than midnight are painful – and Blurred Inscriptions distortion with master of fragmentation reflection breaks signet of midnight stealth… :/

So I’ve kept almost everything the same with Inspiration but changed decoy for SoM. Even with the mantra nerfs, the sustain from Inspiration is useful in surviving tough situations.

edit 2 – Also while Sweet Bean Buns have been nerfed (no more +15% duration, only 70 expertise…), they’re still just about useable for the passive reduction. Tuning Icicles are negligable though, debating what utility to replace them with, maybe power.

edit 3 – looks like toxic focusing crystals might be the most beneficial stat conversion so going to swap tuning icicles for those. Unfortunately I can only get a few stacks because the price is much higher.

I think you’ll have to wait till next weekend to test things out with Mirage. Right now I’m really confused as to what kind of Ascended gear I should make. Viper? Mayne just wait till more things are clear maybe?

Adonisis.9736:

I think you’ll have to wait till next weekend to test things out with Mirage. Right now I’m really confused as to what kind of Ascended gear I should make. Viper? Mayne just wait till more things are clear maybe?

Yes I do feel like I am in some kind of mid-life build crisis! xD

The change to mantra of recovery, menders purity, and both utility/food items has thrown me a bit.

I’ve tried different combinations of traitlines, heals and utilities (having to take mantra of resolve instead of mirror images if not taking inspiration), and my favourite has been Duelling with deceptive evasion/evasive mirror plus ether feast and mantra of resolve, which has a much better damage output at the expense of some sustain.

Anyway I do agree that things are in a state of flux right now. I’m not entirely happy with this build as I was pre-patch and believe once mirage comes I will be transitioning with some changes.

I can say though in preparation I am beginning to hoard Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew because unless a new endurance food is released with pof I expect this to go up in price as it seems likely to be the best food for mirage, especially hybrid due to might on dodge as well as endurance regen.

In addition I am hoping the Rune of the Lynx makes it to wvw – currently it is a pvp exclusive rune, but if it is released to wvw/pve then it seems like it could be the best choice for movement speed in addition to power/condi damage, to make up for the lack of Time Marches On.

Curunen.8729:

Adonisis.9736:

I think you’ll have to wait till next weekend to test things out with Mirage. Right now I’m really confused as to what kind of Ascended gear I should make. Viper? Mayne just wait till more things are clear maybe?

Yes I do feel like I am in some kind of mid-life build crisis! xD

The change to mantra of recovery, menders purity, and both utility/food items has thrown me a bit.

I’ve tried different combinations of traitlines, heals and utilities (having to take mantra of resolve instead of mirror images if not taking inspiration), and my favourite has been Duelling with deceptive evasion/evasive mirror plus ether feast and mantra of resolve, which has a much better damage output at the expense of some sustain.

Anyway I do agree that things are in a state of flux right now. I’m not entirely happy with this build as I was pre-patch and believe once mirage comes I will be transitioning with some changes.

I can say though in preparation I am beginning to hoard Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew because unless a new endurance food is released with pof I expect this to go up in price as it seems likely to be the best food for mirage, especially hybrid due to might on dodge as well as endurance regen.

In addition I am hoping the Rune of the Lynx makes it to wvw – currently it is a pvp exclusive rune, but if it is released to wvw/pve then it seems like it could be the best choice for movement speed in addition to power/condi damage, to make up for the lack of Time Marches On.

Awww I feel all of you guys pain as well when it comes to builds and itemization!! </3
But I’m currently prepared for the expansion now as I have delved in deep for a new mirage build and I believe I have found THE one that best fits MY play style ^.^ (taking in mind we get to test out the elites next weekend, so won’t know official numbers but the wiki provides me with enough to get an understanding of the route I wish to take)

So I’ll be having 2 sets, one which is pure berserker/Boon for when I run DOM/INSPIR/CHRONO for dungeons, fractals, WvW and just overall open world shenanigans.

Then my newest build will be full sinister,condition,clone and dodge focus. Taking ILLU/DUEL/MIRAG. I WAS going to take Viper or Grieving set but I’ll be having clones constantly up and only shattering when I’m in pvp.

ARMOR
Full Sinister & Trinkets
with rune of adventure (for the endurance on heal)

WEAPONS
Sinister
I’ll be taking AXE+TORCH and SCEPTER+PISTOL.
with Sigil of Cleansing and Sigil of Energy.

DUELING
Critical infusion for obvious reasons. Every crit we get vigor which means more mirage cloak, dodges, evasive mirror, elusive mind and deceptive evasions.

Duelists discipline for our pistol and to work alongside the Sharper Images trait.

And the last traits I’ll weave between either Superiority Complex for PVE and/or Deceptive Evasion for PVP/WvW since I’ll be shattering more in those modes.

ILLUSIONS
Compounding power for PVE and my focus is just on having illusions up at all times without shattering. Then I’d take The Pledge for PvP just so The Prestige is on a shorter cooldown for escaping.

Shattered Strength OR Maim the Disillusioned whichever you prefer.

Malicious Sorcery would be my final trait to grab as scepter will give me more blocks. Master of Fragmentation could be optional too but I won’t be using it.

MIRAGE
Riddle of Sand since we’d be popping in and out of mirage cloak often to proc an ambush assault. Or can grab Renewing Oasis to help with reducing conditions but I don’t feel that it’s that great of a trait. But depends on your style.

Shards of Glass for when I’m shattering but if I’ll be in PVE then I’ll take the Mirrored Axes.

Elusive Mind since it will hands down be the bread and butter for survivability.

Will test things out better during the next beta weekend xoxo

^Thank you, I like your ideas.

For myself I’m imagining the extra ferocity bonus from grieving stats might be better for my bursty playstyle rather than the expertise from viper, so will likely be swapping all viper pieces.

Definitely going to be rolling with orrian truffle and meat stew, energy/cleansing sigils, and hopefully runes of the lynx. If rune of the lynx doesn’t make it into pve/wvw then I might just go with traveler again.

And yeah very likely to do similar traits, though in Duelling I will definitely be taking Evasive Mirror and Deceptive Evasion (adept tier majors are all kitten if not using Pistol), Illusions will be identical to now and the only Mirage trait I am pretty much 100% certain of is Elusive Mind – before it gets the inevitable nerf after everyone in pvp/wvw complain about it. :p

Oh weapons will likely be Axe/Torch and Staff, unless I can’t stomach the long cooldowns on staff 4 and 5 without alacrity (I tried with core mesmer today and those cooldowns are painfully long), in which case I might go full melee with Axe/Torch and Sword/x.

TyPin.9860:

In light of the expansion and the apparent condition focus on mirage I wanted to try some condi-power burst for WvW roaming. I came up with the following build: click me

Now keep in mind that the shield and trinkets stats are only the way they are, because I took stuff I had lying around in in my bank. I am not sure yet, if I should go for full viper on everything… However, I have been struggling with a choice for runes. Currently I use Berserker runes. I kinda feel, unless I hit a very good shatter, that the condies have not much impact on the fight and I am contemplating switching the runes (also maybe food… not sure). But I am unsure what to go for.

I know things might change with new runes and the grieving stat combo, but I wanna get some practice and feeling for it, before I really commit to it…

Also, if anyone want to suggest using scepter… I don’t really like that weapon. Despite it having consistent condition pressure, I wouldn’t really wanna use it.

I know scepter isn’t for everyone… but I really like scepter/sword as a backup weapon set… those 2 hard blocks with short cooldowns are fantastic.