Mirage - Condi DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. 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 December 24, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 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:

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 very important thanks to Illusionary Membrane and 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 Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting to a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Demons
  • It would be optimal to use 18 Malign infusions and with this setup
• Alternatively, swap Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting to a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Malice
  • It would be optimal to use 18 Malign infusions, and with this setup

Consumables

Food

• , , , or ascended alternatives

Utility

• or

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 Warden 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
4. Weapon Swap
5. Phantasmal Duelist
6. Signet of the Ether
7. Jaunt as soon as your first clone appears to generate a second via Self-Deception
8. Lingering Thoughts
9. Jaunt as soon as the clone from Lingering Thoughts appears
10. Dodge and use Imaginary Axes as soon as you reach 3 clones
11. Lingering Thoughts
12. 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
13. Crystal Sands and Jaunt to quickly get back to three clones
14. Magic Bullet
15. Phantasmal Duelist
16. Dodge and use Imaginary Axes
17. Axes of Symmetry
18. Lacerating Chop - one auto to give your clones time to finish Axes of Symmetry
19. Dodge and use Imaginary Axes

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 Sigil of 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.