[PVP] GM Mirage Traits

I believe the three traits are in a good spot right now, so I would like to ask you guys, what is your preferred trait?

My personal experience after using them all consistently is that initially, although Elusive Mind may seem OP, I do not think it is and can be even overlooked. I started using it when PoF came out, but I soon ditched it in favor of Infinite Horizon first and then Dune Cloak now: sigils on both weapons and mantra provides plenty cleansing and thus I can focus on more damage, which the other 2 traits provide.However, I am not 100% sure which one of the two is better, in a pvp environment, because they both have their pros and cons. Is the decision just down to personal taste or playstyle?

• Infinite Horizon. Definitely strong, but it can be good or very good depending on which weapon you are using and which situation you find yourself in. I won’t be talking about all our weapons in details however, after an initial state of awesomeness, I started to realize that axe and staff, my preferred weapons, have ambushes that can be easily avoided, thus nullifying the trait. This highly depends on the skill level of the opponent, the range at which you are trying to hit the target and how long your clones survive. Although it theoretically increases your DPS and helps putting pressure with some spike damage, this is a trait not 100% reliable, which you need to be aware of.

• Dune Cloak. This trait is plain and simple. If your target bleeds, all your conditions will last 20% more. It’s a flat damage increase over time, which is completely negated by professions/builds with good cleansing. Reliable yes (it always provides a duration increase), but it can be hard countered like all condition builds.

Despite the last point, lately I find myself quite comfortable with dune cloak. It lets you save one utility spot (which I eventually would be using for Signet of Midnight), and if you manage a steady flow of conditions application the trait will do its job even vs firebrands, druids and so on.

What’s your feedback? Are you one of those “Elusive Mind is so OP that I cannot play without” or like myself prefer to ignore that trait altogether because it is irrelevant to my play?

Edit: I am aware there is a lot of talks about EM lately. My intention is not to move the attention away from it. I genuinely disregard the talent to be a good talent, no more than that. Please, consider this post just as a poll where to measure the popularity of the 3 GM Mirage traits.

For me the Dune Cloak vs IH boils down to “Would I rather have some extra bleeds, or would I rather get more confusion?”For PvE I would most certainly pick Dune Cloak as mobs don’t spam attacks as often.PvP and by proxy WvW, well... With the amount of kids button bashing the keyboard these days, extra confusion is hard to beat.

Elusive mind seems hardly worth it, if:

1. You are running Mantra of Resolve (a bit embarrassing if that isn’t the name of the cleansing mantra), and get your condi cleanse that way.
2. You are running Jaunt (let’s face it, most of us are), which allows you to reposition yourself away from harm when CCed and wait it out. That paired with 1-2 utility stun breaks(blind, decoy, midnight, etc.) should be more than sufficient to solve your stun lock problems.

For me the only time EM really shines is, if you’re being chased by an armada and need to Usain Bolt away, but then again that’s not smething you should be building for anyway.

I don't see how you can live in a pvp match without EM unless you run Mantra of resolve. If you are just killing people who are bad sure you can get away with not using EM to get more damage but in that case you will be melting ppl anyway extra damage is not really needed.

Dune cloak is a bad PvP trait. What is strong in PvP is always multiple condition spam so it is very hard to cleanse the damaging ones. A few stacks of bleeds don't really do much.

IH goes well with axe ambush and sword ambush. However, you give up important condition cleanse in elusive mind and have to trait for it else where. The other thing is keeping up clones goes against the idea of shattering. So it is not necessarily a sheer offensive increase and somewhat limits your playstyle.