What do you do as Mirage on Viirastra/Artsariiv?

I'm not sure about the exact cause (I think it's the purple goo killing the clones), but it's hard to maintain clones on this fight. Is there any trick that works? Or do you just give up on clones and do your normal rotation without clones?

@Kundry.1249 said:I'm not sure about the exact cause (I think it's the purple goo killing the clones), but it's hard to maintain clones on this fight. Is there any trick that works? Or do you just give up on clones and do your normal rotation without clones?

I defer judgement to the PvE gods @Pyroatheist.9031 @AliamRationem.5172 @OriOri.8724

Help the kids!

I haven't played fractals in a couple months now, I don't recall off the top of my head what would cause this

@Arlette.9684 said:

@Kundry.1249 said:I'm not sure about the exact cause (I think it's the purple goo killing the clones), but it's hard to maintain clones on this fight. Is there any trick that works? Or do you just give up on clones and do your normal rotation without clones?

LoL I don't know if I qualify! I'm more of a solo open world player. I think this is a fractal boss we're talking about. I don't do enough fractals to say. Sorry!

bring mirror images.

Well I haven't done this fight in a while, but as I recall it has a ton of movement and disengage, which can be rough on clones sometimes. If you're really having too much difficulty with clone upkeep, a viable option is always to spec power chrono instead. On that build you're shattering clones pretty much immediately as they're produced, so you don't have to worry about them dying. It's definitely not worth using mirage if you can't upkeep clones though, it just doesn't have the damage in that case.

Jaunt and blink are pretty handy to ball bounce if for some reason you're out of position with special skill on cool down.

Every time I've played 100 it's been with hybrid mirage, IH, DE and axe with plenty of shatters timed between endurance to pop out more clones for IH ambush and it's very easy to pop out a few clones whenever needed.

Tbh the main difficulty I've experienced with this fight is when the second ball bounce phase fails due to either the group not coordinating or designating a bouncer or them dying for whatever reason.

Otherwise actually damaging her isn't much of an issue. Play more like wvw when you're chasing an opponent - aggressively port to them and unload (repetitive) burst.

I think if you just plan to sit back and IH ambush spam with clones it's not going to work out - DE is a fantastic generator in this situation, or use things like self deception with jaunt and deceptions, mirror images and other skills to have easy access for popping out more clones. And do use shatters between ambushes, especially if you can get more clones out immediately afterwards.

Personally I just don't upkeep DPS. If I'm on mesmer, mirage or not, I handle the ball. The clone generation on Artsariiv is buggy and doesn't work, and the axe skills can spin you off the edge, so the best strategy is to leave other people to it. But, if you insist on doing damage, the easiest way to get clones out is to spawn them on one of the elites/vets that are running around, then re-target Artsariiv with Axes of Symmetry.

I mostly only find she doesn't register as a mob for Axe 2. If I want to get a clone out to start comboing with Deceptions, I just use Pistol 4 or Torch 5 to spawn a phant that turns clone. If I find she's running away, I'll shatter for the lulz and just reset at her new location.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try Deceptive Evasion and/or Mirror Images (Crystal Sands doesn't really do much anyway), or just do balls.