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Mirage - Condi Mirage

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

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required: Path of Fire Builds

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on September 14, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Staff-staff mirage is a very simple yet effective build that revolves around spamming the Ambush Chaos Vortex to both deal damage and generate boons. The build provides permanent 25 Might Might, Fury Fury and Alacrity Alacrity to yourself and nearby allies, while dealing good Torment Torment, Bleeding Bleeding, and Confusion Confusion damage.

While the build has a very prominent lack of burst damage, staff-staff mirage is very simple to play, capable of soloing champions and bosses with ease thanks to its evasiveness, clones tanking for you, and its mobility.


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Skill Bar

Staff
Staff
Utility


Weapon Variants

In order to play staff-staff mirage you must equip one staff in your first weapon set, and a second staff on your second weapon set. Both staves must have a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy.

  • Axe Axe+Pistol Pistol can replace one staff, this build is called staxe mirage (staff+axe). It sacrifices boon generation and ranged damage in exchange for better burst. When playing in groups providing boons, staxe will outperform staff-staff. But staff-staff is better for solo content.
  • Greatsword Greatsword can replace staff to provide long range tagging (hitting enemies for weak damage to earn kill credit) when playing in groups farming events. Equip the greatsword with a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Stamina and spam Split Surge.


Skill Variants

Utility skills

Signet of Midnight and Signet of Domination provide the highest sustained damage through their passive, so only use their active skill in emergencies.
Crystal Sands provides damage and more Ambushes. Crystal Sands can be replaced by other skills if the need arises:

  • Sand Through Glass - evade, stunbreak, and Mirage Cloak. Removes Immobile Immobile which prevents you from dodging.
  • Mantra of Resolve - if conditions are a problem.
  • Feedback - to reflect projectiles.
  • Mimic - situationally powerful.
  • Portal Entre - can be useful, especially when playing in groups.
  • Blink - stunbreak and movement.

Elite skill

Jaunt deals good damage, can teleport you out of danger, cleanses 1 condition, and is a leap finisher (See also:Guide:What are Combo Fields).

  • Signet of Humility - sacrifices damage for the ability to delete a defiance bar.
  • Mass Invisibility - very situational to run past enemies or commune with Hero Points in stealth, use together with Prismatic Understanding for longer stealth, but change the trait afterwards.


Specializations

Variants

  • On fights against boses, you will not be constantly changing target so you require less clone generation and Deceptive Evasion is wasted. In these scenarios you can instead use Blinding Dissipation + Ineptitude for more damage through Confusion Confusion.
  • Illusionary Defense - you don't Shatter too often with this build, but some occasional Protection Protection can be useful.
  • When playing staxe, use Mirrored Axes and Duelist's Discipline. You sacrifice boon generation and ranged damage in exchange for better burst. When playing in groups providing boons, staxe will outperform staff-staff. But staff-staff is better for solo content.


Equipment

This build uses the same gear as Mirage - Alacrity Support Condi DPS. Infusions are not mandatory.

Head
Viper
Shoulders
Viper
Chest
Viper
Hands
Viper
Legs
Viper
Feet
Viper
Backpiece
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Amulet
Viper
Ring
Viper
Ring
Viper
Staff
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Trapper can only be crafted. If you can't acquire them right away, you can use Rune of Superior Rune of the Afflicted while you work on acquiring the much better Trapper runes.
  • If you require extra defense, a few pieces of Trailblazer Trailblazer can be used.
  • Note that you require 0% boon duration from your gear to provide permament Alacrity Alacrity. This is because Renewing Oasis provides permanent Regeneration Regeneration to enable Chaotic Persistence and gain 250 concentration (16.66% boon duration), which is all you need.
    • You will not generate permanent alacrity when playing staxe, which is why you use Mirrored Axes instead.


Consumables

Food

If you or another player shares an ascended feast, eat the Flatbread food. For normal open world you can use cheap basic food:

Utility

There's no budget utility items. If you need them, use:

  • /

Farming

  • + (and variants)


Usage

Mirage Cloak

Mirage Cloak is the profession mechanic of the mirage. Whenever you dodge or pick up a Mirage Mirror, you enter Mirage Cloak for 0,75 seconds, dodging incoming attacks. You also gain access to Ambush skills for 1,5 seconds, which replace your first weapon skill. Mirage Cloak does not have a cast time, allowing mirages to dodge at any time, such as when casting a skill, when reviving someone, but cannot be used while under the effects of hard crowd control or immobilization.

Clone generation

Clones are essential to playing condition mirage. Try to always have 3 clones attacking. These are your sources of clones:

  • Phantasms become clones after attacking, so Phantasmal Warlock will summon 2 clones.
  • Phase Retreat summons 1 clone, but be mindful of the forced teleport, don't teleport into enemy AoEs.
  • Dodging while in combat will summon 1 clone at your location that attacks the nearest target due to Deceptive Evasion, and it will immediately use its Ambush skill due to Infinite Horizon.
  • Since your clones are very important in this build, you can time your dodges to make your clones dodge dangerous attacks thanks to Infinite Horizon. This trait also stunbreaks your clones when you dodge.
  • For staxe, Phantasmal Duelist and Lingering Thoughts summon 1 clone.

Damage

The vast majority of your damage comes from auto attacking and casting Chaos Vortex with 3 clones up, thanks to Infinite Horizon. Try to always have 3 clones attacking.

  • You should allow yourself and your clones to use one Winds of Chaos inbetween each Chaos Vortex, as it does more damage than spamming Chaos Vortex. Infinite Horizon forces the clone to cast the Ambush, interrumpting whatever they might be doing, so the player casting one auto attack after each Ambush also prevents the clone's Ambush from getting interrupted by casting another Ambush. For staxe, be careful to not interrupt Axes of Symmetry.
  • Since clones are so important for your damage, this build only uses Cry of Frustration when you can immediately generate 3 clones again. If your target is about to die, you can finish them off with Mind Wrack.
  • Use Chaos Armor, Crystal Sands and False Oasis off cooldown.
  • Weapon swap any time you're under 50% endurance to restore endurance thanks to Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy. If you are at full endurance, dodge before weapon swapping. This can be done even with autoattack on, but you have to be fast to not interrupt your character automatically using Chaos Vortex.

Boons

  • This build provides permanent 25 Might Might and Alacrity Alacrity to yourself and nearby allies through Chaos Vortex. The duration of these boons scales with the number of clones that use this skill (which is only possible thanks to Infinite Horizon), so try to maintain 3 clones up.
  • Winds of Chaos will also provide Might Might and Fury Fury to allies it bounces to. Master Fencer also helps with fury. And the increased critical chance enables Sharper Images.
  • Renewing Oasis provides permanent self Regeneration Regeneration. This enables Chaotic Persistence.
Priority
  1. Phantasmal Warlock
  2. Dodge + Chaos Vortex + Winds of Chaos
  3. Chaos Armor
  4. Chaos Storm
  5. Phase Retreat - only if clones are needed

Defense

  • You can use your dodge Mirage Cloak at any time, even during other actions, but not while under the effects of hard crowd control.
  • Use Jaunt to reposition and cleanse 1 condition.
  • Abuse your Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy for frequent dodges. You dodge so often that you'll dodge some attacks without even trying.
  • Distortion sacrifices your clones for invulnerability.
  • Chaos Armor blinds trash mobs.
  • Against enemies with projectiles, hide behind your clones.
  • Thanks to Bountiful Disillusionment, your Shatters provide stability stability. However, do not rely on this as this build wants to have high clone uptime.
  • Phase Retreat - to reposition or gain distance
  • Sand Through Glass can provide a strong stunbreak.

Crowd Control

  • Chaos Storm - 1 second Daze Daze
  • Diversion - 1 second Daze Daze from you AND each clone shattered, so up to 4 seconds of Daze.
  • Signet of Domination - 3 seconds of Stun Stun (as a last resort)
  • Magic Bullet - 2.5 seconds of Stun Stun (staxe only)
  • Signet of Humility - (variant option)

Video examples

Build showcase


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 4 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Klay gave this build 5 stars • September 2024
I underestimated this build at first but after getting the necessary equipments (full armor set is a bit expensive for early game) it works wonders, it does take some time to get used to it, but with the proper rotations it outpreformed most of my already full built characters, overall very good for mid and late game.
5 stars
Devinci gave this build 5 stars • November 2023
Condi Mirage, both staff and axe, is my overall favorite. Pick which to use based on your taste and what you're doing. This is easy since they're identical except for weapons and talent tweaks. Staff, because it's simple, ranged, and has decent group support, is better for people new to the class, against enemies you find challenging, in groups, or for people who just don't like melee. It's the first build I had success with against harder enemies when starting the game. Axe, with much stonger burst, better cleave, and higher overall damage, is better for soloing less challenging enemies and mowing down packs. I also find it more fun--the staff version is so simple it can get boring. The biggest drawback for both is clone management. Clones die when their target dies, are easily killed by stronger enemies, and are used up when you shatter, so you constantly have to make more. Some people don't like this.
5 stars
AshaGus2020 gave this build 5 stars • October 2023
I've been running the same Occam's based mesmer/mirage build FOREVER. This one completely trounces it. I slapped it together with just exotic and a Mabon relic (can't get Akeem yet) and it still kicks butt. SO easy. Toyed around with White Mantle in Doric, they might as well have been Harathi in Kessex lol. Can't wait to build this completely to spec (Ascended with infusions). Five stars.
5 stars
Starlitjupiter gave this build 5 stars • March 2023
Re-evaluating this build in 2023 after major balance patches, it's clear this build's power hasn't diminished at all. It is still one of the most versatile open world builds. It maintains high DPS, high utility, easy tagging with a Greatsword (I run full viper), and is very simple to actually play. A simple build with very high returns on investment. To me, this is one of the top 5 builds in the open world section.

Comments

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