Virtuoso - Power 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: Direct damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on October 02, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

Power virtuoso is a simple yet effective build that deals great burst and sustained damage. It has access to evades and blocks, permanent Fury, and inflicts large amounts of Vulnerability.

There are two variants of this build. The standard one with dagger/sword - greatsword, another with dagger/sword - sword/focus. The greatsword version has higher burst and Blade generation, while the focus version has access to the pull from Temporal Curtain.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Sword

Greatsword

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Taking Sword/Focus instead of Greatsword provides access to the pull from Temporal Curtain. Focus favours long fights with little to no phases, while greatsword has higher burst so it favours short phases, and has superior Blade generation which makes it less punishing to use your Blades for CC with Bladesong Dissonance.

Skill Variants

• Mantra of Pain or Rain of Swords may be swapped out for other utilities as desired.

Template Code

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Specializations

Trait Variants

• Use Empowered Illusions when running focus and not greatsword.
• Jagged Mind is a small DPS loss and generates many more blades with Bloodsong - allowing you to reliably use Bladesong Dissonance or Bladeturn Requiem without losing damage.
• If you're not able to start phases with five blades, Infinite Forge may be more useful.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Assassin

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Dagger
Berserker

Sword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x14

Infusion
x4

• You need 4 Precise infusions to reach the crit cap. If you don't have infusions, you can use an Assassin headpiece while working on getting infusions.
• The gear is the same whether you use focus or greatsword, the weapons should be Berserker stats with Accuracy and Force.

Impact Variant

If you want to run this build on encounters where the boss can be stunned, you may benefit more from running a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact instead of the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy. To make up for the lost crit chance, the most convenient method is to make the following gear changes:

• Swap your runes to Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle - Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar is theoretically higher DPS, but requires you to run a lot of Assassin stats pieces as well as stay above 90% health near permanently.
• Use full Berserker stats gear, with 14 Mighty infusions and 4 Precise infusions.
  • If you don't have stat infusions, take an Assassin stats head piece instead.

Consumables

Food

• or ascended versions

Utility

Usage

Greatsword Rotation

Opener

Try to start with five blades stocked and begin on Dagger/Sword.

1. Phantasmal Disenchanter
2. Phantasmal Swordsman
3. Bladesong Sorrow
4. Thousand Cuts and Mantra of Pain once you have the Deadly Blades buff from Bladesong Sorrow - both are instant cast and can be used during other skills
5. Bladecall
6. Unstable Bladestorm
7. Weapon Swap

Greatsword Loop

Each Greatsword Loop is opened and closed with Phantasmal Berserker and Mirror Blade, using other skills off cooldown in between.

1. Phantasmal Berserker
2. Signet of the Ether
3. Phantasmal Berserker
4. Mirror Blade
5. Mind Stab
6. Bladesong Harmony
7. Rain of Swords
8. Phantasmal Disenchanter
9. Spatial Surge until Mirror Blade is available
10. Mirror Blade
11. Spatial Surge until Mind Stab is nearly off cooldown
12. Bladesong Dissonance - feel free to skip this if you will need the CC
13. Mind Stab - Make sure to only cast this once you get the Deadly Blades buff (see the note in General Tips)
14. Mirror Blade
15. Phantasmal Berserker
16. Weapon Swap

Dagger/Sword Loop

Steps 1-3 of the Dagger/Sword loop are important to perform quickly to avoid delaying the swap back to Greatsword, you also need to be sure to use Bladecall off cooldown so that you can fit 3 of them in.

1. Unstable Bladestorm
2. Phantasmal Swordsman
3. Bladecall
4. Bladesong Harmony
5. Flying Cutter and Bladecall until Phantasmal Disenchanter is off cooldown
6. Phantasmal Disenchanter
7. Bladesong Sorrow
8. Unstable Bladestorm
9. Bladecall
10. Phantasmal Swordsman
11. Weapon Swap
12. Return to start of Greatsword Loop

Video example

Video example - more optimal, but less "neat"

Sword/Focus Rotation

Opener

Try to start with five blades stocked and begin on Sword/Focus. The dagger section of the opener is broadly the same as the Dagger/Sword loop below.

1. Phantasmal Warden
2. Weapon Swap
3. Bladesong Harmony
4. Thousand Cuts and Mantra of Pain once you have the Deadly Blades buff from Bladesong Harmony - both are instant cast and can be used during other skills
5. Weapon Swap
6. Bladecall
7. Phantasmal Swordsman
8. Phantasmal Disenchanter
9. Unstable Bladestorm
10. Signet of the Ether
11. Phantasmal Swordsman
12. Bladesong Sorrow - make sure you're at five blades
13. Bladecall
14. Rain of Swords
15. Phantasmal Disenchanter
16. Mantra of Pain
17. Flying Cutter and Mantra of Pain until Bladesong Harmony is ready - Mantra of Pain should come off cooldown when you still have the deadly Deadly Blades buff, but before you start losing stacks of Fencer's Finesse
18. Bladesong Harmony
19. Bladecall
20. Flying Cutter until Unstable Bladestorm is off cooldown
21. Unstable Bladestorm
22. Bladesong Dissonance - this is mostly to maintain Deadly Blades, so skip if you think you'll need the CC
23. Phantasmal Swordsman
24. Bladecall
25. Weapon Swap

Sword/Focus Loop

The Sword/Focus loop is very simple, just be sure to use Blurred Frenzy early and weapon swap immediately after using it a second time.

1. Phantasmal Warden
2. Blurred Frenzy
3. Autoattack until Bladesong Harmony is off cooldown
4. Bladesong Harmony
5. Autoattack until Phantasmal Disenchanter is off cooldown
6. Phantasmal Disenchanter
7. Blurred Frenzy
8. Weapon Swap

Dagger/Sword Loop

Steps 1-5 of the Dagger/Sword loop are important to get in the correct order to avoid delaying the swap back to Sword/Focus, you also need to be sure to use Bladecall off cooldown so that you can fit 4 of them in. If you reach step 15 and Bladecall is still on cooldown, just skip that step and weapon swap.

1. Bladecall
2. Phantasmal Swordsman
3. Unstable Bladestorm
4. Signet of the Ether
5. Phantasmal Swordsman
6. Bladesong Harmony
7. Bladecall
8. Phantasmal Disenchanter
9. Flying Cutter until you have five blades stocked
10. Bladesong Sorrow
11. Bladecall
12. Flying Cutter until Unstable Bladestorm is off cooldown
13. Unstable Bladestorm
14. Phantasmal Swordsman
15. Bladecall
16. Weapon Swap
17. Return to start of Sword/Focus Loop

Video example

General Tips

• Use Rain of Swords and Thousand Cuts off cooldown
• Make sure Mantra of Pain doesn't reach maximum charges - ideally while under the effects of both Deadly Blades and Fencer's Finesse
• Bladesong Dissonance can be used to provide higher uptime of Deadly Blades, but make sure not to use up your stock of blades just before you want to use Bladesong Harmony or Bladesong Sorrow
• If you cancel the aftercast of your Bladesongs too soon (such as with Blurred Frenzy, Signet of the Ether or Mind Stab), it will not apply the Deadly Blades buff