PvE Condi Mirage w/o Viper's

Sup,

I'm currently in the process of gearing my condi mirage, and I do know that Viper's gear is the most effective one for mirage, however, I do not have HoT xpac, so I cannot get myself full Viper's gear except some pieces coming from the elite specs collections.

Thus, I am a bit confused about which stats are "second best" after Viper's. Right now I'm considering two options: Sinister/Rampager and Grieving, although I am not entirely sure which one is going to be the most efficient. Also I suppose the rune choices might be different as well, as I won't have 100% condi duration. I'm running berserker's rune and tried out the x4 nightmare x2 trapper option, but the results did not impress me, so I decided to stick to the berserker's variant.

I do all kinds of content at the moment, from open world roaming to T4 fractals and I am planning to go raiding soon as well (Not talking about WvW or sPvP). Would be nice if you could help with the right stat choice.

Thank you.

Grieving is great on paper, my actual testing with it has yielded mixed results tho. Can’t speak for sinister/rampager mix. I believe either @Curunen.8729 or @Jace al Thor.6745 had some thoughts on the subject of sinister.

Can't speak for pve sadly - I run suboptimal for t4 fractals for economical use of gear (ie same gear as wvw, beyond a few trinket changes for increasing damage output). Though I can't even be bothered to play fractals now as I don't care for the rewards.

In my opinion grieving is more wvw gear where condi duration isn't as good due to cleanse. I'd guess Sinister is probably second best behind Viper for pve - but please anyone more knowledgable can correct me if grieving is better than sinister - I don't actually know for pve.

I do know that rampager is kitten, don't use it. Only benefit is for Sharper Images, but it's not worth losing the extra damage stats. But again anyone more knowledgable about pve dps can correct me if there's some kind of sweet spot mixing in rampager with something. I just don't think it's worth it.

Edit - case in point - shows how much I know about pve dps min maxing! xD

I can’t speak for PvE much but I’d have to say sinister over grieving. But you’re going to struggle in static fights without the expertise and I’m not see the best way to make it up either.

Rampager is the second best condi gear for PvE Mirage actually. But to compensate for the loss of Condi Duration, you will have to use 4 Nightmare +2 Trappers into your runeset instead.

@Refia Montes.3205 said:Rampager is the second best condi gear for PvE Mirage actually. But to compensate for the loss of Condi Duration, you will have to use 4 Nightmare +2 Trappers into your runeset instead.

Thanks for enlightening me! :)

I imagine that must be Pistol with duelling/SI for more bleeds?

@Curunen.8729 said:

@Refia Montes.3205 said:Rampager is the second best condi gear for PvE Mirage actually. But to compensate for the loss of Condi Duration, you will have to use 4 Nightmare +2 Trappers into your runeset instead.

You use still use the same PvE Miragge. IH and Duelists provide a lot of bleeds through Sharper Images.

Sinister's or Grieving would be the best options.Rampager is a Precision Major. I don't know if it's worth it using that, i mean crits can be useful with a couple of Minor Traits in dueling, but i think the loss of condi damage is outweighed heavily by the improvement from crits.

Do use 2 Trapper + 4 Nightmare Runes, for extra duration.

If you want to capitalize on Sharper Images like Refia suggests, you can use full Rampager Armor and Earrings, and replace your trinkets and weapons with Sinisters. That should give you ~200 more condi damage and ~10% less crit chance.