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Open World Domination: Mirage


AliamRationem.5172

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Thanks for the input I am always looking to improve and thanks again Aliam I always enjoy reading your post and yes I read the very detailed post and tried it out with some success, my biggest problem I believe is timing but that comes with practice. Thanks again

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Can you recommend me a good Mirage build for the open world especially for the stories, living worlds and such? I am new to mesmer but I liked how Mirage plays out so far. I am having a hard time staying alive and dealing with so many trash mobs during HoT story path. After 2 dodges and a heal skill, I'm dead unless I kill the group of mobs before that. Maybe I am missing a crucial part of the Mirage DPS rotations or something? I am a casual player playing on and off for a while so my overall knowledge about GW2 is pretty limited. Can you recommend me a beginner friendly build for Mirage and tell me how to play that build? I am not even trying to solo some bosses like you are.

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@"Horan.7013" said:Can you recommend me a good Mirage build for the open world especially for the stories, living worlds and such? I am new to mesmer but I liked how Mirage plays out so far. I am having a hard time staying alive and dealing with so many trash mobs during HoT story path. After 2 dodges and a heal skill, I'm dead unless I kill the group of mobs before that. Maybe I am missing a crucial part of the Mirage DPS rotations or something? I am a casual player playing on and off for a while so my overall knowledge about GW2 is pretty limited. Can you recommend me a beginner friendly build for Mirage and tell me how to play that build? I am not even trying to solo some bosses like you are.

Well, this build would obviously be good for anything open world. You can see in some of my videos that I take on the boss while handling plenty of adds. In fact, my very first bounty solo (Forged Punisher) features a forged raiding party event mid-fight! But you can also check out videos such as Zintl Inquisitor, which has lots of adds to begin with. Although my gear is "glass cannon" (Viper stats), my trait choices are mostly defensive in nature as opposed to the raid meta, which uses the same trait lines but makes choices that maximize damage output.

Having said that, the build still very much relies on actively avoiding damage. So, if you aren't very quick on your skills and don't have the timing down, you can take a lot of damage very quickly and end up face down in the dirt like any other glass cannon build. I provided some examples of how to handle this in an earlier post in this thread, but if you're just not getting it down then there are modifications you could make to become more survivable that shouldn't really hurt you too much in normal open world play (i.e. not soloing bounties and other unnecessary activities).

For starters, you might try adding some tankier stats. As I've mentioned before, I did a little testing and came up with around half the damage of Viper using Dire stats. Dire has both vitality and toughness, so you will take less damage while having more health. You could go full dire or just swap in some pieces until you find your comfort zone.

If that still isn't enough, consider changing your weapons. Axe is by far the best damage and it's extremely elusive when played correctly, but it is still a melee weapon and you are going to take more damage at close range. I use staff as my ranged backup, but some players use staff/staff and just hang out at range. This is a very easy way to stay alive with mirage because you're constantly spawning clones and you have access to target breaks and stealth, which usually cause the boss to get distracted by one of your clones. You also have tons of reflects, which makes it difficult for ranged attacks to hit you and you have more time to see attacks coming.

The downside is you deal less damage, which may become an issue for you if you also choose tanky stats for your gear. But ultimately, where you find your comfort zone is up to you. This is open world. Use this thread as a guide if you like, but don't get too focused on copying what works for me because it may not work for you! Find your thing.

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@Horan.7013 said:Chaos 2-3-1Dueling 2-2-3Mirage 2-3-1Is your open world build right?And any reason using mirror instead of false Oasis?

Well, I dabbled with that build, but ultimately decided I liked the earlier setup better. So, currently I am using:

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

I strongly prefer the Mirror heal in open world. The short cooldown is great, especially with adventurer runes. Making it even shorter and doubling the reflect is nice, too! And then I get the same treatment for arcane thievery. It's particularly strong for ranged defense due to the reflects, but a 12s cooldown heal that gives a free dodge is nothing to sneeze at either!

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Horan.7013 said:Chaos 2-3-1Dueling 2-2-3Mirage 2-3-1Is your open world build right?And any reason using mirror instead of false Oasis?

Well, I dabbled with that build, but ultimately decided I liked the earlier setup better. So, currently I am using:

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

I strongly prefer the Mirror heal in open world. The short cooldown is great, especially with adventurer runes. Making it even shorter and doubling the reflect is nice, too! And then I get the same treatment for arcane thievery. It's particularly strong for ranged defense due to the reflects, but a 12s cooldown heal that gives a free dodge is nothing to sneeze at either!

Got it! Thank you for the explanation. I will give it a try.

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@kyllar.6907 said:Crafting viper gear is the only way to get it and it is expensive.

Just as a reminder, that's not the only way to get it - it's completely free to get exotic armor in WvW of any stat via the triumphant reward track. Weapons are considerably more expensive in addition to the time it takes to get the marks though, especially if you dont already have memories of battle. 25g + the marks I think it was last I checked. If you already got both, only 5g.

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@"aspirine.6852" said:Wow that is some, well for me, elite mesmer gameplay. I do not have any of the gear, and by that I mean nothing. Can you even craft viper exotic gear?

Thanks! Glad you liked the videos. I have over 100 videos up on my channel if you want to see more!

Viper stats are account bound, so you can't buy them. Crafting a full set of Exotic Viper gear including weapons, armor, and trinkets, etc. along with the runes/sigils used in this build will cost you a little over 100g at the moment. If that's too steep a price, I recommend crafting your rings/accessories/amulet first. They are cheaper to craft than the weapons and especially the armor. Buy a cheap set of something with condition damage as the primary stat in the mean time. It will work just fine. You'll just have lower damage output than you would using Viper stats (Expect about half the damage output using Dire stats, for example).

Besides, if you take something with some toughness and/or vitality paired with condition damage, you will likely find it more forgiving as you're first learning the build. The feedback I'm getting from friends and forum contributors suggests that full Viper feels a bit squishy for beginners. So if that sounds like you, it might even be a good thing to try the build out with tankier (and cheaper!) stats first to see what kind of results you get. Remember that the survivability of this build is largely based upon actively avoiding hits. There's nothing really "tanky" about it. When you get hit, you're going to feel every bit the light armor/medium health class that you are!

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@Dawdler.8521 said:

@kyllar.6907 said:Crafting viper gear is the only way to get it and it is expensive.

Just as a reminder, that's not the only way to get it - it's completely free to get exotic armor in WvW of any stat via the triumphant reward track. Weapons are considerably more expensive in addition to the time it takes to get the marks though, especially if you dont already have memories of battle. 25g + the marks I think it was last I checked. If you already got both, only 5g.

Thanks! Good to know! I don't really WvW, so I wouldn't have known that.

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@aspirine.6852 said:Wow that is some, well for me, elite mesmer gameplay. I do not have any of the gear, and by that I mean nothing. Can you even craft viper exotic gear?

Start with Carrion gear and replace piece by piece as you can with viper. Carrion isn't as good as viper, but you can buy it on the marketplace for around 80s or 3g. The 3g is slightly more armor, and about 2 points higher in each stat add, but again, do it as you go. The survivability is pretty much there, the fights just take longer.. I am speaking from experience.

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I use a similar build for open world PVE:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAncWnsnBNohlpBWoBMMjlZjycEWhPwv+7//vMAqtkB-jByCQBtUJ4FV+RhHBQBPBA3TfwBV/5J7PAgjAAZAqWDA-e

The main difference is I use Blinding Dissipation (blind on shatter) over Evasive Mirror (reflect on dodge) as I feel it offers a bit more flexible protection and saves you some dodges (at the expense of shatters). Also, I prefer the Sword off-hand (with Sigil of Draining) over Torch as it provides better defense while up close and clone Sword Ambush attack helps with ccing mobs. The shorter cooldowns are also nice.

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@"Leodon.1564" said:I use a similar build for open world PVE:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAncWnsnBNohlpBWoBMMjlZjyv+7//vMAqtkxcEWhPA-jByCQB3TfQBPBAA4IA0Slg7Z/hLq87gq/QhHBAZAqWDA-e

The main difference is I use Blinding Dissipation (blind on shatter) over Evasive Mirror (reflect on dodge) as I feel it offers more flexible protection and saves you some dodges (at the expense of shatters). Also, I prefer the Sword off-hand (with Sigil of Draining) over Torch as it provides better defense while up close and clone Sword Ambush attack helps with ccing mobs. The shorter cooldowns are also nice.

I don't find blinding dissipation all that useful, honestly (and shattering for the effect makes it even worse!). The situations where blind on shatter can be useful (mainly tightly packed groups of normal enemy units), I am already incredibly strong against. See this video of a recent Zintl Inquisitor test I did. I jump right into a pile of what looks like 7 mixed melee/ranged normals, a veteran, and a champion and only take two minor hits before all of the trash is dead. I also just focus the boss for the most part and basically ignore the adds, killing them with area damage, cleaves, and reflects. There's not much opportunity for blinds to help me here, and shattering my clones is a significant price to pay!

Meanwhile, evasive mirror is a great skill for nullifying the bigger threats. It works particularly well in situations where you have multiple enemy attacks occurring from range. It also works on bosses like Zelke, Ruye, Forged Ambusher, etc. that spam rapid-fire ranged attacks! Here are some videos of Evasive Mirror where it really shines!

Matriarch Shrilliss:

Zelke the Shameless:

Forged Lurker:

As for sword, I tend to dislike block & counter moves (just personal preference!). I do like the shorter cooldowns and that might stack on the phantasm, though. I am just not willing to give up torch for it! The torch 4-5 combo is pretty nice. You can stealth + blind to cover the phantasm summon, which then delivers an area CC - all while burning the heck out of everything unfortunate to be standing in range!

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@"Horan.7013" said:How is the Mirage after the balance patch? Is change to the confusion really that bad?

Here's a video I recorded shortly after the patch dropped:

And here's one from a month ago of the same boss:

The damage output is almost exactly the same. I was worried initially, especially when I saw some evidence from other players that suggested this could be a 10% damage nerf. But for open world players like myself, Mirage feels just as strong as it did prior to the patch. The situation could be different in raids, but as I don't raid I haven't really looked into it at this point.

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Okay, not an open world video but an unranked PvP video this time. But I am using the PvE build. The only changes I made were swapping Chaotic Interruption for Bountiful Disillusionment and swapped out Sigil of Malice for Sigil of Cleansing. I'm not a PvP player and this is obviously not strong competition. Just thought I'd share for fun!

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  • 3 weeks later...

@aspirine.5839 said:Are you just bringing staff for chaos armour btw? The rest of the skills seem really weak.

Staff ambush with IH melts stuff in open world - especially with deceptive evasion and the easy clone production from staff with low cooldowns when traited. It's a beautifully Zen like playstyle that also happens to be functionally efficient.

Also aim to line up clones and stand in front of them to build high stacks of might and essentially perma fury (you will have Duelling for DE anyway so also benefit from free Fury minor trait there) from all the ambushes. Just be aware Evasive Mirror can reflect staff projectile away from enemies and not proc the boons on you (but on the flipside you can stand on the other side of a target and reflect a clone's ambush back through it, if you proc mirror via evade).

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@Curunen.8729 said:

@aspirine.5839 said:Are you just bringing staff for chaos armour btw? The rest of the skills seem really weak.

Staff ambush with IH melts stuff in open world - especially with deceptive evasion and the easy clone production from staff with low cooldowns when traited. It's a beautifully Zen like playstyle that also happens to be functionally efficient.

Also aim to line up clones and stand in front of them to build high stacks of might and essentially perma fury (you will have Duelling for DE anyway so also benefit from free Fury minor trait there) from all the ambushes. Just be aware Evasive Mirror can reflect staff projectile away from enemies and not proc the boons on you (but on the flipside you can stand on the other side of a target and reflect a clone's ambush back through it, if you proc mirror via evade).

Hmm I dont get it. So you changed it a bit and took Deceptive evasion or is it more for noobs like myself?

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@aspirine.5839 said:

@aspirine.5839 said:Are you just bringing staff for chaos armour btw? The rest of the skills seem really weak.

Staff ambush with IH melts stuff in open world - especially with deceptive evasion and the easy clone production from staff with low cooldowns when traited. It's a beautifully Zen like playstyle that also happens to be functionally efficient.

Also aim to line up clones and stand in front of them to build high stacks of might and essentially perma fury (you will have Duelling for DE anyway so also benefit from free Fury minor trait there) from all the ambushes. Just be aware Evasive Mirror can reflect staff projectile away from enemies and not proc the boons on you (but on the flipside you can stand on the other side of a target and reflect a clone's ambush back through it, if you proc mirror via evade).

Hmm I dont get it. So you changed it a bit and took Deceptive evasion or is it more for noobs like myself?

I don't get what you don't get? Staff ambush with IH and clone/player autos add up a lot of damage for open world play (open world - ie not raids/high level or cm fractals where dealing most damage with axe).

Put on some viper gear, take a staff, trait IH and DE at the least, and watch pretty pink orbs melt stuff while pressing one button (dodge). It's both therapeutic and effective. Anything else is personal preference.

Changed what? I play my own build created for wvw solo play, which also allows me to chill in open world or do fractals with one set of gear and a single trait change (EM to IH), other than AR infusions... The function in open world happens to be similar between any hybrid/condi build that uses IH so discussion here can be applied to all of them with small variations. Chill and kite in staff while ambushes melt things, swap to axe for more efficient melee burst (or if feeling bored with staff). :)

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