Mirage - Chaotic Condition

The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Under construction.webp Welcome to the Builds Archive. See the ones that gathered dust, were orphaned by their original writers, or became obsolete by balance patches. We keep the orphan builds together and salute the veteran builds that held a position in the good, great, or meta categories. Click here to view current builds.

Focused on: Condition damage and Sustain

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:
Easy


Overview

An easy to play duelist Mirage spec for sPvP focusing on clone generation and ambush attacks.


Skill Bar

Scepter/Pistol
Staff
Utility


Slot Changes

Utility

  • Signet of Midnight or Illusionary Ambush over Arcane Thievery


Template Code

[&DQctPQE7OxruFQAAggEAAGUBAACKFgAARhcAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADWQBWADYAAA==]
Copy Template Code


Specializations

Variants

  • Auspicious Anguish - better defense against conditions.
  • Chaotic Transference - better Regeneration Regeneration access and causes all your illusions to gain Chaos Aura Chaos Aura too.


Equipment

Scepter
Pistol
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Relic


Equipment Changes

Runes

If you don't need the passive mobility boost of Lynx, there are other viable options too:

  • Rune of Orr - better sustain against condition builds.
  • Rune of Necromancer - higher damage and HP.


Relics

  • Relic of Leadership - adds more condition removal to Jaunt, worth considering when you're only playing with 1 Cleansing sigil (less Antitoxin value).
  • Relic of the Fractal - adds Burning Burning and Torment Torment to your Phantasmal Duelist bursts.


Sigils

  • Sigil of Cleansing over Sigil of Confusion - helps you out a lot in condition matchups but makes your Scepter bursts slightly worse. Also has Antitoxin synergy.


Usage

Elite specialization basics

  • Dodge rolling is replaced by Mirage Cloak, which is more or less the same thing but allows you to cast skills and grants access to ambush attacks for its duration: Chaos Vortex for staff and Ether Barrage for scepter. Ambush skills replace the autoattack of the weapons for 1.5 seconds.
  • Pressing dodge grants +66% movement speed and Regeneration Regeneration (which reduces incoming condition duration while it lasts thanks to Renewing Oasis). Infinite Horizon makes it so that whenever you gain Mirage Cloak, your clones are also going to receive it with all benefits including access to ambush attacks - it can even make your clones evade skills such as Full Counter or "Chilled to the Bone!", denying your opponent various bonuses.


General

  • Playstyle: the basic gameplan is simple, dodging spawns clones via Deceptive Evasion while also granting you and your clones Mirage Cloak for ambush skill access.
    • The spawned clone will immediately do its ambush attack.
    • Creating 1-2 clones before dodging increases your burst damage on both sets and improves Alacrity Alacrity acces when using Staff.
    • Dodging with 3 active clones is a bit of a waste because one of your fresh clones will just override an old one, but it's still worth doing because a 3 clone ambush is quite strong. You could also use Illusionary Ambush in this situation, not wasting any dodges while still making all of your clones do their ambush attack.
  • The build has very poor access to condition cleansing, limited only to Jaunt, Sigil of Cleansing and Arcane Thievery. Try to play it safe against condition specs: outrange them with staff, chain block / evade frames in melee, use your interupts to prevent them from casting while there are gaps in your defense, etc.
  • Use Distortion to prevent conditions from overwhelming you if other sources no longer suffice. You may even consider using Signet of Illusions just to get a second Distortion if things are looking grim.
  • The Scepter auto attack chain progresses if you keep attacking even while out of combat with no target selected. By using the first 2 skills of the chain you can start combat with Ether Clone for a free clone.
  • Besides cleansing conditions while at the same time pressuring your opponent with them, Arcane Thievery is also useful for boon removal/stacking in general, for example getting rid of their Resistance Resistance or stealing Vigor Vigor for Nomad's Endurance synergy.


Staff

  • Staff is what you use for sustain, ranged poking, mobility, boon stacking and sustained damage.
  • Chaos Armor is a great defensive tool against direct damage, it inflicts AoE Blind Blind nearby targets and Confusion Confusion. The Weakness Weakness and Protection Protection are also worth noting.
    • Note: This skill can be used while stunned!
  • Chaos Storm is the strongest skill on this weapon. Standing in it supplies allies with defensive boons including Aegis Aegis while inflicting several conditions that can mitigate damage like Weakness Weakness or Chill Chill (Chill makes it harder to reach you while slowing down their skill recharge rate). It even interrupts enemies with Daze Daze when first placed. Excellent skill to use when you need area denial for downed cleave, sustain and other such scenarios.
  • Phase Retreat is good for building some distance between you and your target, and can even be used while stunned, potentially allowing you to save dodges for later.
    • When used in Chaos Storm PR grants Chaos Armor. Keep in mind that this doesn't stack in duration, so try not to overlap Chaos Armors from different sources.
  • Phantasmal Warlock summons a Phantasm that's stacking Torment Torment on your target which is great for additional pressure.

Mobility

  • Use Phase Retreat for mobility while traveling between capture points. Phase Retreat teleports you in the opposite direction of where you're facing, so to teleport "forward" turn around to use it and then turn back. We recommend that you set up a bind for about face to do this in a fluid manner (Options ⇒ Control Options ⇒ Movement).
    • Make sure that you don't have an enemy targeted when doing this!


Damage

  • The build heavily relies on keeping pressure up constantly by spawning clones through Deceptive Evasion and making them unload ambush attacks via Infinite Horizon.
  • As for burst damage a multi-clone Cry of Frustration is your best skill.
  • Illusionary Counter should be used as often as possible, it's excellent for setting up burst or even avoiding attacks. Not only does dodging after a successful block immediately generate a total of 2 clones, but also makes them all (including you) unload their ambush attacks.
    • If you have 2-3 active clones before using Illusionary Counter you should probably shatter them before the new ones spawn, as otherwise some of the previous clones will just go to waste.
    • Note: there's a small evade frame after the block which can proc Evasive Mirror too.
  • Sharper Images synergy plays a big part in this build and significant part of the build's pressure comes from this trait.
    • With a little luck Phantasmal Duelist could stack nearly ~15 stacks of bleeding on its own.


Example #1 of a scepter/pistol burst

  1. Phantasmal Duelist
  2. Magic Bullet
  3. Dodge
  4. Cry of Frustration
  5. Confusing Images


Example #2 of a scepter/pistol burst

  1. Illusionary Counter
  2. Dodge + ambush
  3. Cry of Frustration


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 6 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
3 stars
Angrybanana gave this build 3 stars • August 2019
Not the best sidenode build. Low condi cleanse. Elixir holo beats this pretty easily.
5 stars
Black117 gave this build 5 stars • July 2019
Don’t know why people are downvoting this based on what I’ve seen below, but this is an AWESOME build for dueling and teamfights if you know how to interrupt people who are casting correctly. This build succeeds at being a good burster and helping people get their bursts off since you have multiple dazes. Ignore the haters below if you a good player looking for something fun on this site that can actually do great in games.
4 stars
Dexam gave this build 4 stars • July 2019
The problem with this build is that it has no real sustain at high levels where a scourge is almost always there. While the control aspects are good, I prefer inspirations instead of chaos for better healing sustain and condi cleanse. You still have great control, and a tankier condi rune will ensure you don't get knocked out by revs/thieves/burst shatter mesmers. Pistol/scepter burst can still bring down heavy hitters if you can land them. It's no longer faceroll easy, but experienced mesmers should have a lot of fun. Axe is a little better for damage, but if you choose that, it's better to use axe/torch scepter/pistol and forget the staff. Use scepter for sustain instead and axe for burst. I personally don't like it in platinum due to high scourge condi pressure. Even with decent condi cleanse, you can't out heal scourge corruption. You need range for that.
5 stars
Artificial.Optimism gave this build 5 stars • July 2019
I'd recommend Axe than scepter, it's hard to fight with mes without stealth or target-breaking skills. Overall, this bd is funny and easy to play in low ranks.
5 stars
Forgotmypasswordlulz gave this build 5 stars • July 2019
Mirage haters trying their best to keep this build downvoted. This is an absolute beast in ranked lmao what are you on Played well this shouldn't have trouble beating anything the only thing which can mess with it is +1 by a rev or thief without CDs left to disengage Condi mirage is not a meme at all, just not as broken OP as it used to be One of the best sidenoders with crazy rotational speed from all the ports even even in tf this can melt the enemy Can't tell me 20 stacks of torment bleed and confusion in 2 seconds while target is immob is somehow bad
5 stars
Hanz gave this build 5 stars • June 2019
One of my top 3 favorite ranked builds at the moment. Very annoying to play against and has a rather decent toolkit.

Comments

Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium