Mirage - Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on April 05, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS Mirage build. This build provides very high single target damage with the ambush skill

Imaginary Axes

. It excels against bosses that attack a lot due to a large portion of its damage coming from Confusion. It is also highly survivable and can easily avoid boss attacks because it is in

Mirage Cloak

for most of its rotation.

Skill Bar

Axe/Pistol

Staff

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Torch can replace Staff for a pure axe build. This build deals very similar damage and is more flexible (particularly in encounters where clones die, as the build can use
  Self-Deception
  ). However, the rotation is more difficult, and necessitates a gear change and switching to the Illusions traitline (see below). The greater focus on Confusion can result in the build pulling ahead on some encounters.
  • Running a Focus instead of a Torch generates more Confusion if you're able to consistently get the
    Phantasmal Warden
    to combo with an ethereal or smoke field. The phantasm will not prioritise your own fields however, so this may be ineffective if your group is dropping a lot of "bad" combo fields (such as light or water fields).

Skill Variants

• Feedback
  over
  Crystal Sands
  if you need reflects.
• Signet of the Ether
  will be higher damage if running the Axe-only build.

Template Code

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Specializations

Trait Variants

• Bountiful Disillusionment
  provides your group with incidental Might and Vigor, and yourself with some Stability. Use if your Vigor uptime is low, but be careful on encounters featuring boon corruption, as the Stability can be corrupted into Fear.
• Renewing Oasis
  can be taken for if your Regeneration uptime is low.

Specialization Variants

If using the axe-only build, you cannot benefit fully from

Illusionary Membrane

or

Chaotic Potency

. This makes Illusions pull ahead of Chaos:

This build's rotation is a bit more flexible, and

Malicious Sorcery

incentivises actively timing your evades to avoid enemy attacks. Lacking

Chaotic Persistence

also means you'll need to make some adjustments to the gear (see below).

You can run

Self-Deception

with this variant to make clone management better.

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Axe
Viper

Pistol
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Non-SotO Relics

There aren't any reliable core damage relics for mirage, though there are a few options that might be good:

• Relic of the Mirage
  - depending on the boss, you might be able to trigger this a lot, and it is theoretically stronger than the recommended relic.
• Relic of Durability
  - Regeneration is important thanks to
  Chaotic Persistence
  , so this can help with the uptime somewhat.

Axe Variant

If running Axe with Illusions, you'll need to make up for the lack of expertise from

Chaotic Persistence

:

• Swap
  Superior Sigil of Bursting
  to a
  Superior Sigil of Demons
  • It would be optimal to use 18 Malign infusions and
    Toxic Tuning Crystal
    with this setup
• Alternatively, swap
  Superior Sigil of Bursting
  to a
  Superior Sigil of Malice
  • It would be optimal to use 18 Malign infusions,
    Meaty Asparagus Skewer
    and
    Toxic Tuning Crystal
    with this setup

Consumables

Food

• Koi Cake
  ,
  Rare Veggie Pizza
  ,
  Red-Lentil Saobosa
  , or ascended alternatives

Utility

• Tuning Icicle
  or
  Potent Master Tuning Crystal

Usage

Staxe Rotation

A big part of this rotation is maximising the uptime of Chaos Armor for

Illusionary Membrane

. This can be applied with

Chaos Armor

,

Cry of Frustration

, or by leaping in an ethereal field:

• Ethereal Fields:
  Chaos Storm
  , and the Lesser Chaos Storm triggered by
  False Oasis
  (via
  Method of Madness
  )
• Leap Finishers:
  Axes of Symmetry
  and
  Jaunt

Opener
Begin on Staff

1. Phantasmal Warlock
   , and
   Phase Retreat
   and Dodge during the cast
2. Chaos Vortex
3. Jaunt
   back into position
4. Chaos Armor
5. Chaos Storm
6. Dodge
7. Weapon Swap

Axe

1. Imaginary Axes
2. Phantasmal Duelist
3. Axes of Symmetry
4. Lingering Thoughts
5. Cry of Frustration
   and
   Mind Wrack
   during Lingering Thoughts - always use Cry of Frustration first and you can skip Mind Wrack if you find it easier as it is a very small DPS increase
6. Magic Bullet
7. Lingering Thoughts
8. Jaunt
   - you want to leap inside your Chaos Storm before it disappears to trigger Chaos Armor, but make sure not to use it too early and cancel the clone from Lingering Thoughts
9. Crystal Sands
   and Dodge during the cast - make sure not to drop the Mirage Mirror on yourself
10. Imaginary Axes
11. Lacerating Chop
    ⇒
    Ethereal Chop
    ⇒
    Mirror Strikes
12. Move into the Mirage Mirror from Crystal Sands
13. Imaginary Axes
14. Lacerating Chop
    ⇒
    Ethereal Chop
    - this gives your clones time to finish using Imaginary Axes
15. Axes of Symmetry
    and Dodge during the cast
16. Imaginary Axes
17. Weapon Swap

Staff

1. False Oasis
   and Dodge during the cast
2. Chaos Vortex
   and
   Chaos Armor
   during the cast
3. Autoattack in place and let the Mirage Mirror from False Oasis trigger another dodge
4. Chaos Vortex
5. Autoattack, and Dodge ⇒
   Chaos Vortex
   when you have enough endurance (make sure to leave at least two autos in between ambushes to allow your clones time to finish)
6. Phantasmal Warlock
   just before Weapon Swap is ready
7. Chaos Storm
   and Dodge during the cast
8. Weapon Swap
9. Return to the start of the Axe section

Video example

Axe Rotation

Opener

1. The Prestige
2. Phantasmal Mage
3. Dodge and use
   Imaginary Axes
   and
   Mind Wrack
4. Weapon Swap
5. Magic Bullet
   and
   Diversion
6. Phantasmal Duelist
7. Lingering Thoughts
8. Jaunt
   as soon as the clone from Lingering Thoughts appears
9. Dodge and use
   Imaginary Axes
10. Lingering Thoughts
11. Cry of Frustration
    and
    Distortion
    during Lingering Thoughts - always use Cry of Frustration first and you can skip Distortion if you want as it is a very small DPS increase
12. Crystal Sands
    and Dodge
13. Signet of the Ether
14. Imaginary Axes
15. Phantasmal Duelist
16. Axes of Symmetry
17. Dodge and use
    Imaginary Axes
18. Lingering Thoughts
    and
    Mind Wrack
19. Jaunt
20. Dodge and use
    Imaginary Axes
21. Weapon Swap

Rest of the Rotation

After the opener above you want to be dodging as often as you can to trigger

Imaginary Axes

. Try to complete an auto-attack chain between each cast of

Imaginary Axes

to ensure that all your clones have time to cast it as well as they probably won't have Quickness.

• Try to cast
  Cry of Frustration
  off cooldown, and immediately recover three clones. The best way to do this is to shatter during the cast of
  Lingering Thoughts
  and immediately follow up with
  Crystal Sands
  or
  Jaunt
  .
  • It is worth slightly delaying skills that generate clones in order to guarantee you can get back to three as soon as possible.
• If
  Cry of Frustration
  is on cooldown, you can instead use
  Mind Wrack
  provided you can get back three clones immediately.
• Use
  Axes of Symmetry
  off cooldown, but make sure you have three clones
• Use
  Phantasmal Duelist
  ,
  Phantasmal Mage
  and
  Magic Bullet
  off cooldown.
• Use
  The Prestige
  off cooldown and be sure to press autoattack immediately to remove your stealth and continue attacking.
• Use
  Crystal Sands
  off cooldown. Be mindful of your where you place the
  Mirage Mirror
  , as you will want to be able to access them later. The
  Mirage Mirror
  spawns in the center of the skill's AoE marker.
• Keep a charge or two of
  Jaunt
  for mobility or in case you run out of clones for some reason.

Video example

Video example (Riddle of Sand)

General Tips

• Dodge as much as possible while leaving yourself endurance to evade attacks. Be sure to only weapon swap when below 50% endurance so as not to waste any of the endurance gained from
  Superior Sigil of Energy
  .
• Make sure to never break your auto-attack chain that includes:
  Lacerating Chop
  ,
  Ethereal Chop
  and
  Mirror Strikes
  .
  • Entering Mirage cloak and casting
    Imaginary Axes
    will not interrupt your auto-attack chain
  • All your skills other than
    Jaunt
    and shatters will interrupt your auto-attack chain.
• Jaunt
  can be cast during other skills' channels.
  • Make sure to never use
    Jaunt
    during
    Imaginary Axes
    and
    Axes of Symmetry
    as this will create new clones due to the
    Self-Deception
    and will cancel the clones attack.
• Make sure to never Weapon swap during the animation of
  Imaginary Axes
  as this will cancel the Ambush attack.
• If your target is about to attack, you can slightly delay
  Chaos Storm
  ,
  Phantasmal Mage
  or
  Magic Bullet
  in order to trigger
  Chaotic Interruption
  . This trait will trigger even against foes with defiance bars, provided they are using a skill. The cast time of
  Phantasmal Mage
  might make it difficult to time.