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Open World Domination: Mirage


AliamRationem.5172

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I don’t have the right gear yet, and I don’t even have a full trait line on mirage yet, but I see the survivability. I took down a champion wolf solo in old Tyria. Since I am not geared right it took quite some time. The fact that it kept calling adds that also called adds added to the difficulty, but I prevailed. That was seriously satisfying.

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@schmots.6803 said:I don’t have the right gear yet, and I don’t even have a full trait line on mirage yet, but I see the survivability. I took down a champion wolf solo in old Tyria. Since I am not geared right it took quite some time. The fact that it kept calling adds that also called adds added to the difficulty, but I prevailed. That was seriously satisfying.

Nice work!

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This is the first time I've really ever truly enjoyed Mirage at end game for open world stuff, so thank you all.A few questions please:

  1. Is there any reason to rely on the staff, which to me is a nice ranged but rather lackluster weapon, instead of swapping to scepter/pistol as the second weapon combo? Seems to me that that gives me far more reliability.
  2. Infinite Horizon over Dune Cloak? I don't get this at all.
  3. Finally... I just do not get the point of using Crystal Sands... any input?
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@Cameryn.5310 said:This is the first time I've really ever truly enjoyed Mirage at end game for open world stuff, so thank you all.A few questions please:

  1. Is there any reason to rely on the staff, which to me is a nice ranged but rather lackluster weapon, instead of swapping to scepter/pistol as the second weapon combo? Seems to me that that gives me far more reliability.
  2. Infinite Horizon over Dune Cloak? I don't get this at all.
  3. Finally... I just do not get the point of using Crystal Sands... any input?
  1. Scepter. I don't think it does better damage than staff, has shorter range, grants no boons, no mobility, and it relies on confusion which is pretty much useless in PvE since the patch. I don't even think the ambush skill is any good. As far as I'm concerned, it's a broken weapon in all game modes. Also, staff phantasm > pistol phantasm.

  2. IH is superior in every way to DC. It deals more damage and protects your clones.

  3. Me neither. I expect it's slightly better damage than anything else you could use in that slot. However, for solo play Illusionary Ambush is a fantastic skill...not to mention very fun and mirage-y!

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@"AliamRationem.5172" said:

  1. Scepter. I don't think it does better damage than staff, has shorter range, grants no boons, no mobility, and it relies on confusion which is pretty much useless in PvE since the patch. I don't even think the ambush skill is any good. As far as I'm concerned, it's a broken weapon in all game modes. Also, staff phantasm > pistol phantasm.

Okay, I just hate losing the pistol because I love playing with it, even if the torch is a bit better. :) But I think you're right in that you need some sort of ranged weapon in the open world... staff is probably the best option.

  1. Me neither. I expect it's slightly better damage than anything else you could use in that slot. However, for solo play Illusionary Ambush is a fantastic skill...not to mention very fun and mirage-y!

I am playing with Illusionary Ambush and the two signets (condi dmg, condi duration). I see on your last gw2skills link you are foregoing the condi duration one in place of Arcane Thievery?

I don't really care for any of the elite skills, because I hate reticles (when there's a lot on the screen it's hard to see the cursor) which rules out Jaunt, and Signet of Humility is really only good for breakbars. Which one would you recommend?

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@Cameryn.5310 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:
  1. Scepter. I don't think it does better damage than staff, has shorter range, grants no boons, no mobility, and it relies on confusion which is pretty much useless in PvE since the patch. I don't even think the ambush skill is any good. As far as I'm concerned, it's a broken weapon in all game modes. Also, staff phantasm > pistol phantasm.

Okay, I just hate losing the pistol because I love playing with it, even if the torch is a bit better. :) But I think you're right in that you need some sort of ranged weapon in the open world... staff is probably the best option.
  1. Me neither. I expect it's slightly better damage than anything else you could use in that slot. However, for solo play Illusionary Ambush is a fantastic skill...not to mention very fun and mirage-y!

I am playing with Illusionary Ambush and the two signets (condi dmg, condi duration). I see on your last gw2skills link you are foregoing the condi duration one in place of Arcane Thievery?

I don't really care for any of the elite skills, because I
hate
reticles (when there's a lot on the screen it's hard to see the cursor) which rules out Jaunt, and Signet of Humility is really only good for breakbars. Which one would you recommend?

The condi duration signet is better damage than arcane thievery, but AT does a lot. Condi transfer, boon strip, CC, quickness, and reflect on a very reasonable cooldown. I just find it an extremely versatile skill for solo play. I used to use the two signets along with IA like you're doing, but input from another player turned me on to the idea of using Arcane Thievery and I've never looked back since trying it (again, for solo open world play).

Honestly, I don't know what to recommend aside from jaunt in the elite skill slot for mirage. The cooldowns are obnoxiously long on the other mesmer elites and even if they weren't I'd have a hard time justifying taking anything else for my build. Jaunt is just a very useful skill that suits mirage very well, in my opinion.

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@Oneira.7691 said:This is really great Aliam. After getting kind of burnt out on fractals, doing PvE open world like this looks like a nice change. Unfortunately all my ascended armor and weapons are Berserker, my Vipers stuff is exotic.

It's no big deal. I've seen entire threads where they debate whether the difference between exotic and ascended is closer to 5% or 10% in actual play. Exotic should work perfectly well and you can craft ascended if/when you feel like it.

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@Oneira.7691 said:This is really great Aliam. After getting kind of burnt out on fractals, doing PvE open world like this looks like a nice change. Unfortunately all my ascended armor and weapons are Berserker, my Vipers stuff is exotic.

If it makes you feel better, till I get a viper set I’m running exotic carrion. And the 50s each set, not the 3g50s each set.

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@"ghxst.5749" said:i don't have any ascended items, if i were to buy rabid/rampager exotics to gear up, what would be the best build for solo open world?

Reposting the build link:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnsnBNohFMDupBMMjlZjycEWhPoMAutkxv+7//H-jxxHQBDU5HAOFA7Y/h5p+z40HQrnAQGVCSGgq1A-e

Don't overthink it. This is an open world build. Using the exotic version of any condition-based stat set will work with this setup. You will just deal less damage than you would using Viper stats (Ballpark around half the damage of Viper for Dire stats in open world play, based on the testing I've done).

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@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Reposting the build link:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnsnBNohFMDupBMMjlZjycEWhPoMAutkxv+7//H-jxxHQBDU5HAOFA7Y/h5p+z40HQrnAQGVCSGgq1A-e

Don't overthink it. This is an open world build. Using the exotic version of any condition-based stat set will work with this setup. You will just deal less damage than you would using Viper stats (Ballpark around half the damage of Viper for Dire stats in open world play, based on the testing I've done).

And this is a great open world build. I have exotic Viper gear and I'm rarely, if ever, dying (except in the strongest meta events, mostly because I have trouble avoiding things!) The thing I love most about this is that I spend so much of my time avoiding incoming damage because I run it with the Orrian Truffle & Meat Stew food... that and the Sigils of Energy on my weapons allow me a LOT of time in the mirage cloak. :) I was previously having the most fun on my pistol-pistol thief, but I think I'm liking this Mirage the most now!

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@Cameryn.5310 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Reposting the build link:

Don't overthink it. This is an open world build. Using the exotic version of any condition-based stat set will work with this setup. You will just deal less damage than you would using Viper stats (Ballpark around half the damage of Viper for Dire stats in open world play, based on the testing I've done).

And this is a
great
open world build. I have exotic Viper gear and I'm rarely, if ever, dying (except in the strongest meta events, mostly because I have trouble avoiding things!) The thing I love most about this is that I spend so much of my time avoiding incoming damage because I run it with the Orrian Truffle & Meat Stew food... that and the Sigils of Energy on my weapons allow me a LOT of time in the mirage cloak. :) I was previously having the most fun on my pistol-pistol thief, but I think I'm liking this Mirage the most now!

I used to play thief (daredevil) as well. I really seem to enjoy the fast, mobile playstyles based on active defense. Mirage is fast and mobile like thief, but a bit more complex and even more reliant on active defenses. I just love it! The fact that you can practice up and do such crazy things with it makes it even better!

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@Cameryn.5310 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Reposting the build link:

Don't overthink it. This is an open world build. Using the exotic version of any condition-based stat set will work with this setup. You will just deal less damage than you would using Viper stats (Ballpark around half the damage of Viper for Dire stats in open world play, based on the testing I've done).

And this is a
great
open world build. I have exotic Viper gear and I'm rarely, if ever, dying (except in the strongest meta events, mostly because I have trouble avoiding things!) The thing I love most about this is that I spend so much of my time avoiding incoming damage because I run it with the Orrian Truffle & Meat Stew food... that and the Sigils of Energy on my weapons allow me a LOT of time in the mirage cloak. :) I was previously having the most fun on my pistol-pistol thief, but I think I'm liking this Mirage the most now!

I used to play thief (daredevil) as well. I really seem to enjoy the fast, mobile playstyles based on active defense. Mirage is fast and mobile like thief, but a bit more complex and even more reliant on active defenses. I just love it! The fact that you can practice up and do such crazy things with it makes it even better!

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They seem to have removed the Awakened Ambushes from bounties on the Sandswept Isles, so I've put up some videos of several of the bounty bosses on my channel. This guy is tons of fun to fight!

Viper Mirage vs. Champion Magneton Manipulator

I also put up videos of Emogg the Soulbeast, Ironshell, Crystalwing, and Vebis. I plan to do Oakenscorn as well, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting him by himself for a few minutes for a good solo video! I was super close on the Choya duo (that's a legendary one, isn't it?), but I went down at 2%... Try, try again!

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This topic inspired me to try Axe Mirage. So I'm brewing my own version, aiming for high synergy between various mesmer and mirage traits, namely illusions, shatter, critical hit, conditions, and endurance.

First my experimental build for reference:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnELDVohNoBeoBMMjFcjycBitRqMAWtfxP9n/6H-jBCBQB+TfjDV/JCnABA8kCa3hEgLK/ky+DUSJYAAEgN2it4FDsxNuxLexL2114G34Fv4F34F34FLDQ1aA-e

Now explanations:

  • Trait lines are Dueling 113, Chaos 233, & Mirage 131.

  • Gear is somewhat budget and more fitting my style (e.g. I don't like to swap between axe and staff regularly, so the on-swap proc is unnecessary to me.)

  • Endurance and vigor: obviously Mirage's main attraction is to keep up endurance for continual dodges, evades, and ambushes. Coincidentally, Dueling line grants a free trait (Critical Infusion) that gives vigor on critical hit; thus incentive to raise precision to very high. Mirage also has a free trait (Nomad's Endurance) that when vigor is active, you also get bonus condition damage. Thus, more critical hits lead to renewed vigor and more condition damage without extra effort.

  • Precision: Dueling line partially involves improving and benefiting from critical hits. These benefits are passed on to your illusions. Free trait (Sharper Images) allows illusions to inflict bleeding on critical hits; if they crit a lot, that's a lot of stacks of bleed. Dueling trait Phantasmal Fury will grant additional 20% crit chance to phantasms; in this build, it's close to 100% crit chance for your phantasms.

  • Illusions: unique to mesmers, I think any mesmer build should consider a reliable method of generating a stream of illusions due to their versatility and importance to mesmer's game plan and survival. In this build, illusions will be useful in both offense and defense. As mentioned above, illusions will get to stack a bunch of bleeds on critical hits.

    As for defense--besides illusions naturally taking aggro and tanking for you--Chaos trait Illusionary Defense grants a buff that negates 5% of incoming damage whenever an illusion is summoned. This includes when a phantasm expires and is replaced by a clone; thus a phantasm would create two stacks of this effect over time. This trait stacks up to five times, for up to 25% less damage taken by you for 5 seconds. If you can keep making new illusions, theoretically that's permanent -25% 'shield'. Note you don't have to keep the clones around, so you can shatter without worrying about diminishing this defense.

    The steady stream of illusions will be generated by weapons skills, Signet of Illusions (every 10 seconds a new clone), Dueling trait Deceptive Evasion (makes a clone when you dodge), and Mirage trait Self-Deception (activating Deception skill creates a clone if another clone is active). In particular, Jaunt (Deception elite skill) has three charges, so practically full squad of clones at will; hence Jaunt single-handedly begets +2 clones and +10% damage reduction. (Moreover, Jaunt also removes one condition from you; perfect, since you definitely want some cleanse.)

  • Shatter: the main reason for clones to exist. Shattering clones provides various effect, including burst damage, CC (daze), and defensive buff (distortion). Furthermore, shatters can be improved markedly with traits. Dueling trait Blinding Dissipation adds blinds, Mirage free trait Nomad's Endurance adds vigor, Chaos trait Bountiful Disillusionment adds boon.

    With steady generation of clones, you should have plenty of clones to shatter at all times.

  • Survival: between dodge, evade, illusion tanking, healing, blind, distortion, interrupts, damage reduction, lose targeting, shadowstep, and even stealth, Mirage's survival is through the roof. Without losing any offense due to the high synergy as laid out above. Every action is both offensive and defensive in some way.

Conclusion: Just played this for a few days, and I can already feel this is the most overpowered solo class I've played. I've soloed champ, vets, group of mobs--all at once--without trouble. I don't even fear anything any more; just rush headlong into any situation and mobs just drop like flies. I got burst, sustain damage, survival, CC, mobility, etc. Top notch offense and defense simultaneously.

Reminder to self: I should also record my gameplay for post-game analysis. e.g. check dps, vigor up-time, etc.

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@"Zin Dau.1749" said:This topic inspired me to try Axe Mirage. So I'm brewing my own version, aiming for high synergy between various mesmer and mirage traits, namely illusions, shatter, critical hit, conditions, and endurance.

First my experimental build for reference:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnELDVohNoBeoBMMjFcjycBitRqMAWtfxP9n/6H-jBCBQB+TfjDV/JCnABA8kCa3hEgLK/ky+DUSJYAAEgN2it4FDsxNuxLexL2114G34Fv4F34F34FLDQ1aA-e

Now explanations:

  • Trait lines are Dueling 113, Chaos 233, & Mirage 131.

  • Gear is somewhat budget and more fitting my style (e.g. I don't like to swap between axe and staff regularly, so the on-swap proc is unnecessary to me.)

  • Endurance and vigor: obviously Mirage's main attraction is to keep up endurance for continual dodges, evades, and ambushes. Coincidentally, Dueling line grants a free trait (Critical Infusion) that gives vigor on critical hit; thus incentive to raise precision to very high. Mirage also has a free trait (Nomad's Endurance) that when vigor is active, you also get bonus condition damage. Thus, more critical hits lead to renewed vigor and more condition damage without extra effort.

  • Precision: Dueling line partially involves improving and benefiting from critical hits. These benefits are passed on to your illusions. Free trait (Sharper Images) allows illusions to inflict bleeding on critical hits; if they crit a lot, that's a lot of stacks of bleed. Dueling trait Phantasmal Fury will grant additional 20% crit chance to phantasms; in this build, it's close to 100% crit chance for your phantasms.

  • Illusions: unique to mesmers, I think any mesmer build should consider a reliable method of generating a stream of illusions due to their versatility and importance to mesmer's game plan and survival. In this build, illusions will be useful in both offense and defense. As mentioned above, illusions will get to stack a bunch of bleeds on critical hits.

    As for defense--besides illusions naturally taking aggro and tanking for you--Chaos trait Illusionary Defense grants a buff that negates 5% of incoming damage whenever an illusion is summoned. This includes when a phantasm expires and is replaced by a clone; thus a phantasm would create two stacks of this effect over time. This trait stacks up to five times, for up to 25% less damage taken by you for 5 seconds. If you can keep making new illusions, theoretically that's permanent -25% 'shield'. Note you don't have to keep the clones around, so you can shatter without worrying about diminishing this defense.

    The steady stream of illusions will be generated by weapons skills, Signet of Illusions (every 10 seconds a new clone), Dueling trait Deceptive Evasion (makes a clone when you dodge), and Mirage trait Self-Deception (activating Deception skill creates a clone if another clone is active). In particular, Jaunt (Deception elite skill) has three charges, so practically full squad of clones at will; hence Jaunt single-handedly begets +2 clones and +10% damage reduction. (Moreover, Jaunt also removes one condition from you; perfect, since you definitely want some cleanse.)

  • Shatter: the main reason for clones to exist. Shattering clones provides various effect, including burst damage, CC (daze), and defensive buff (distortion). Furthermore, shatters can be improved markedly with traits. Dueling trait Blinding Dissipation adds blinds, Mirage free trait Nomad's Endurance adds vigor, Chaos trait Bountiful Disillusionment adds boon.

    With steady generation of clones, you should have plenty of clones to shatter at all times.

  • Survival: between dodge, evade, illusion tanking, healing, blind, distortion, interrupts, damage reduction, lose targeting, shadowstep, and even stealth, Mirage's survival is through the roof. Without losing any offense due to the high synergy as laid out above. Every action is both offensive and defensive in some way.

Conclusion: Just played this for a few days, and I can already feel this is the most overpowered solo class I've played. I've soloed champ, vets, group of mobs--all at once--without trouble. I don't even fear anything any more; just rush headlong into any situation and mobs just drop like flies. I got burst, sustain damage, survival, CC, mobility, etc. Top notch offense and defense simultaneously.

Reminder to self: I should also record my gameplay for post-game analysis. e.g. check dps, vigor up-time, etc.

Thanks for sharing!

I decided to try out some of your ideas. I was able to improve my performance against this boss using Self-Deception along with Deceptive Evasion. However, I think I prefer Master of Manipulation and Mirror over Illusionary Defense and False Oasis. That reflect is extremely useful and I would rather heal for half as much, twice as often! Also, I run Arcane Thievery for my open world build, which also benefits from Master of Manipulation. The uptime on Illusionary Defense was decent, though. Paired with protection, this could mitigate a lot of damage.

I'm calling your build the "Many Man" build! I'll be trying it out on some bosses I haven't beaten yet to see if I can pull a breakthrough. I think Aszar, Swinging Pendulum will make a good test. I have gone the distance with him before, but due to Djinn damage reduction and a poor unstable magic draw, I was only able to get him to 25% before time ran out. If this variant really does produce better damage, I think I have a good shot at pulling off a victory as long as I get a little luck on unstable magic. And Aszar will definitely test my defenses with this build as well!

Here is my failed attempt on Aszar using my earlier build. We'll see if I can do better with this setup.

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I also tried out using Signet of the Ether along with Illusionary Defense in the Many Man build. I actually broke 10k DPS with that! Not bad for such a defensive setup!

Update: Unfortunately, when I moved up to bosses that can put a lot more pressure on me (i.e. Aszar), I wasn't able to get by on the heal-on-summon effect and 35 seconds is an awfully long time to stretch for a heal! I think I'm still leaning toward Mirror here. Mirror with Illusionary Defense? Master of Manipulation is probably better, but it's worth a try!

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So, I tried a few variations to see what I could come up with in open world play.

Chaos 2-3-1Dueling 2-2-3Mirage 2-3-1

This setup is only one trait different from my previous build, but it seems a little bit more survivable without sacrificing damage. I also tried it with Mirage 1-3-1. I didn't notice a big difference in terms of damage or survivability, so I'm thinking I would prefer the 2-3-1 setup for regen uptime and a little condition defense.

I also gave the illusions line a try again. As expected, it didn't feel as survivable (Although it was more than adequate!). Damage seemed comparable. So I'm not ready to recommend illusions over chaos for open world.

Basically, I did a lot of running around in circles and the only change I'm still considering is Illusionary Defense. I wasn't expecting it to have much of an impact, but I've been surprised by the impact of minor defensive traits on Mirage in solo open world play before. The fact that you don't take a lot of hits makes the impact of even 15% damage reduction a lot easier to notice!

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I haven't managed my Aszar kill yet, but I did put up a new one using Illusionary Defense. Damage seemed pretty decent considering how dangerous it is to stay close to this guy. Illusionary Defense may have helped take the edge off of any damage that made it through my defenses, but I'm not going to commit to that interpretation just yet! All in all, a pretty easy kill of what can be a very dangerous boss. The build is good!

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@"AliamRationem.5172" said:I haven't managed my Aszar kill yet, but I did put up a new one using Illusionary Defense. Damage seemed pretty decent considering how dangerous it is to stay close to this guy. Illusionary Defense may have helped take the edge off of any damage that made it through my defenses, but I'm not going to commit to that interpretation just yet! All in all, a pretty easy kill of what can be a very dangerous boss. The build is good!

I love watching your videos they are all awesome, I don’t have the gear, skill, or experience as you and struggle with melee against bosses but I do use your builds as inspiration. I currently use gs/staff the most so I can stay away and kite, and live lol, but am thinking of swapping gs with scepter and maybe pistol just to try. I am working on viper gear and once I get more pieces I will work on ax/torch again. Keep post videos cause I always learn something when watching them.

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@kyllar.6907 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:I haven't managed my Aszar kill yet, but I did put up a new one using Illusionary Defense. Damage seemed pretty decent considering how dangerous it is to stay close to this guy. Illusionary Defense may have helped take the edge off of any damage that made it through my defenses, but I'm not going to commit to that interpretation just yet! All in all, a pretty easy kill of what can be a very dangerous boss. The build is good!

I love watching your videos they are all awesome, I don’t have the gear, skill, or experience as you and struggle with melee against bosses but I do use your builds as inspiration. I currently use gs/staff the most so I can stay away and kite, and live lol, but am thinking of swapping gs with scepter and maybe pistol just to try. I am working on viper gear and once I get more pieces I will work on ax/torch again. Keep post videos cause I always learn something when watching them.

You might consider the staff/staff setup if you're going for a survivable condi ranged build. Unfortunately, scepter...needs some love. But then again, it never hurts to try something different even if you've tried it before! Sometimes it's the just the right time! I'm always tweaking things to see if maybe there's an angle I hadn't considered previously.

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I have done staff/staff and yes from a survival standpoint it’s great but I enjoy the dps burst when dealing with trash mobs although people can say what they want staff dps isn’t all that bad. I am really wanting to get into being able to survive in melee range but just not there yet although I am getting better.

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@kyllar.6907 said:I have done staff/staff and yes from a survival standpoint it’s great but I enjoy the dps burst when dealing with trash mobs although people can say what they want staff dps isn’t all that bad. I am really wanting to get into being able to survive in melee range but just not there yet although I am getting better.

It all depends on context. When you're able to hang in at melee range, axe does far better damage. But in solo play, that isn't always feasible. That's where staff comes into play and I completely agree that for how powerful it is defensively, the damage is decent.

If you haven't already, take a look back through this thread. I did some explanation of how to use the build including some tips on axe survival.

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For 'Many Man' build, could consider replacing Staff and Chaos line, with Scepter/Sword and Illusions line. S/S will give two great burst damage skills, two blocks, and clone generator AA. You can stay at mid to long range in fights.

Illusions traits 1-1-3. Mind Wrack shatter becomes ammo, so you can do more shatter bursts. Create clone when you stealth (e.g. torch 4 and signet of midnight). Then faster recharge on scepter (more blocks and burst).

Dueling traits 1-3-3. Phantasms gain fury. Illusionary Swordsman hits 8 times, so 8 chances to crit and cause bleed from Sharper Images. Faster recharge on sword; cast iSwordsman every 12 seconds, twice as often as iMage from the torch.

Without Chaos, you lose passive protection, but rely on blocks that may also return damage. Fits the MO of offense and defense with a single action.

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