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Open World Domination: Mirage


AliamRationem.5172

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@Lady Vanithy.6495 said:Love my Mesmer and now completed getting her HP for Mirage! Huge thanks to @AliamRationem.5172 .Right now for gear I'm getting Dires and wanted to ask about runes. Seems undead or affliction would be the choices but leaning more to undead. Sound about right?

Undead runes are a good, inexpensive choice for a dire setup, especially doubling up with the Chaos traitline to gain 17% of toughness as condition damage. This translates into well over 300 additional condition damage on a full exotic set.

For inexpensive sigils that work well for open world play, corruption and stamina are good options. You can add another 250 condi damage with the stacking bonus on corruption and stamina will make you virtually invincible while also pumping up your damage as long as there are easy kills to be had.

If you get to the point where you start putting some gold into your gear and crafting ascended, Viper is a great option. Pair with 4 nightmare/2 trapper runes and malice/energy sigils for more damage. If open world is more your speed, Trailblazer is great, too. There's just not much reason to sacrifice the extra damage from Viper outside of solo play in PvE.

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Lady Vanithy.6495 said:Love my Mesmer and now completed getting her HP for Mirage! Huge thanks to @AliamRationem.5172 .Right now for gear I'm getting Dires and wanted to ask about runes. Seems undead or affliction would be the choices but leaning more to undead. Sound about right?

Undead runes are a good, inexpensive choice for a dire setup, especially doubling up with the Chaos traitline to gain 17% of toughness as condition damage. This translates into well over 300 additional condition damage on a full exotic set.

For inexpensive sigils that work well for open world play, corruption and stamina are good options. You can add another 250 condi damage with the stacking bonus on corruption and stamina will make you virtually invincible while also pumping up your damage as long as there are easy kills to be had.

If you get to the point where you start putting some gold into your gear and crafting ascended, Viper is a great option. Pair with 4 nightmare/2 trapper runes and malice/energy sigils for more damage. If open world is more your speed, Trailblazer is great, too. There's just not much reason to sacrifice the extra damage from Viper outside of solo play in PvE.

I figure while I'm going back and starting at the beginning with core Tyria/LW2 I could test out different gears/runes. Came across 2 pieces affordable Dires gear with affliction runes so going to give that a shot. I did change the staff I got in a chest to Mathilde Spire in the forge and put energy/malice sigils in it. Thanks for all you do! I really enjoy my Mesmer gal and feel this will be a fun experience trying out different skills as I explore before I set in stone and craft the higher end stuff.

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@CallousEye.5018 said:One thing I've noticed is that some precision is very important for bleeding from sharper images, I tested a couple different amulets in the PVP lobby and the difference between wanderer vs sage amulet was tremendous.

Not to say that precision isn't important for damage output, but you're also comparing an amulet with expertise to one without. The other thing to note is that even with a precision set like Viper, bleed damage only accounts for around 15-20% of your damage output with Sharper Image bleeds being only a portion of that. In a group PvE scenario where damage is multiplied and DPS is the only consideration, that's not insignificant. In open world, however, it's pretty negligible and particularly where it really matters in solo play (e.g. taking on a tough boss), you can actually deal comparable or even better damage with a set like Trailblazer by virtue of being able to play more aggressively.

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@NASATT.3678 said:I was playing viper mirage open world and found it pretty easy to get one shot by some bosses. I looked around and found this trailblazer build and am happy with it. It's very durable and does about the same damage. Thanks!

Glad to be of assistance. I was surprised by it myself. I had been using Viper for quite awhile and I was able to defeat all of the HoT champions, the bandit champions + legendary executioner, as well as a majority of the PoF bounties. It worked great! But when I tried Trailblazer in those types of scenarios I found the damage was surprisingly competitive and bosses that were difficult or even seemed impossible using Viper were easily doable. It's a pretty remarkable stat set for open world, really.

It probably works so well for Mirage in particular because so much of our damage output is condi based. Even in Viper only about 15% of damage came from power-based attacks directly. As I said, that's not a small amount in a raid scenario but when you're solo it can easily be made up for with more aggressive play (e.g. spending more time in axe than staff, soaking damage to land key abilities, etc.).

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My DPS Chronomancer has been going through an identity crisis lately with all the boon changes. Finally I got fed up with debating if I should bother building a boon set with things as they are now, and am in the process of converting her to Mirage using this build. Right now I'm in a mix of exotic Dire and Rabid gear, with a few pieces of ascended Trailblazer; eventual goal is full Trailblazer once I have more time for farming. Haven't tried anything like soloing champs yet, but I can say that tough veterans like the jade constructs in Ember Bay are much easier with this build than what I was using before. Kills do come a bit slower, but it's nice to feel like I can take a hit and outlast enemies instead of being fearful of a single mistake. Thanks much for this thread and all the effort you've put into this; bookmarked for future reference.

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@"Habanero.9384" said:Please allow me, to kindly point you at my thread:"new mesmer needs advice: Best Route to unlock Elite Professions Chronomancer + Mirage"

I think you are the right people who can possibly help me a lot :-)Thank you

It's hard to tell how much difficulty you have picking these things up, but I do have a build for the type of player that is never going to "git gud" (no offense intended to anyone here!) . The build is specifically designed to be 1) Inexpensive to gear, 2) As uncomplicated as possible, and 3) As forgiving as possible.

I've basically taken it to the limits from using the most defensive weapon available and not including a weapon swap to utilizing a passive healing skill. With this setup you can literally stand in the fire and just push buttons at random. As long as you keep dodging and pushing 1 you should find making your way around PoF/HoT easy (Although soloing champions might still require you to step up your game a little bit from just pushing 1/dodge and buttons at random!).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQFAWnsICNohFMDWoBMMjlZjqMAutkxf+3//3sC2tWC-jByCABQoEMgLAQTK/Ea/BAeAAAqDwAzf+o+DpAoS0G-e

Here's a video of a similar setup where I actually just took all signet passives for utilities, stood in fire, and basically made every attempt to play like a cat is walking across my keyboard:

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This is the build I'm using to get use to moving/dodging. It gives me the time I need to watch what's going on around me and react. I love this build because it let's me still play the game and have success completing content.I now have 2 mesmers - love them so! The first one I use axe/torch and Staff but was still not very good at the skills needed to avoid damage in melee and would get beat up/downed quite a bit. Now I switch to GS/Staff during events and able to stay alive lolI love that Mirage has plenty of ways to adapt to the level of player skills and is still very much enjoyable.

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Habanero.9384" said:Please allow me, to kindly point you at my thread:"new mesmer needs advice: Best Route to unlock Elite Professions Chronomancer + Mirage"

I think you are the right people who can possibly help me a lot :-)Thank you

It's hard to tell how much difficulty you have picking these things up, but I do have a build for the type of player that is never going to "git gud" (no offense intended to anyone here!) . The build is specifically designed to be 1) Inexpensive to gear, 2) As uncomplicated as possible, and 3) As forgiving as possible.

I've basically taken it to the limits from using the most defensive weapon available and not including a weapon swap to utilizing a passive healing skill. With this setup you can literally stand in the fire and just push buttons at random. As long as you keep dodging and pushing 1 you should find making your way around PoF/HoT easy (Although soloing champions might still require you to step up your game a little bit from just pushing 1/dodge and buttons at random!).

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer me. This is indeed a very good and helpful build for beginners with the profession.I had this kind of build in mind, when posting in this thread. My problem with this build is just, that I haven't unlocked Mirage!What I had in mind, when posting here, was if this build can be adapted for core Mesmer?I haven't unlocked neither Mirage nor Chronomancer yet.I have to use a core mesmer build to get through HoT or PoF to unlock both Elite professions...

The standard GS POWER build here ( https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Greatsword_Burst ) that I used for levelinghas really bad personal sustain. I often felt very squishy.

Can you help?Thanks a lot!

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@Habanero.9384 said:

@Habanero.9384 said:Please allow me, to kindly point you at my thread:"new mesmer needs advice: Best Route to unlock Elite Professions Chronomancer + Mirage"

I think you are the right people who can possibly help me a lot :-)Thank you

It's hard to tell how much difficulty you have picking these things up, but I do have a build for the type of player that is never going to "git gud" (no offense intended to anyone here!) . The build is specifically designed to be 1) Inexpensive to gear, 2) As uncomplicated as possible, and 3) As forgiving as possible.

I've basically taken it to the limits from using the most defensive weapon available and not including a weapon swap to utilizing a passive healing skill. With this setup you can literally stand in the fire and just push buttons at random. As long as you keep dodging and pushing 1 you should find making your way around PoF/HoT easy (Although soloing champions might still require you to step up your game a little bit from just pushing 1/dodge and buttons at random!).

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer me. This is indeed a very good and helpful build for beginners with the profession.I had this kind of build in mind, when posting in this thread. My problem with this build is just, that I haven't unlocked Mirage!What I had in mind, when posting here, was if this build can be adapted for
core Mesmer
?I haven't unlocked neither Mirage nor Chronomancer yet.I have to use a core mesmer build to get through HoT or PoF to unlock both Elite professions...

The standard GS POWER build here (
) that I used for levelinghas really bad personal sustain. I often felt very squishy.

Can you help?Thanks a lot!

Pretty sure this is what I used before Mirage.http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQFAWnsICNohFMDWoBMMjlZjqMAutkxf+3//3sC2tWC-jByCABQoEMgLAQTK/Ea/BAeAAAqDwAzf+o+DpAoS0G-e

Basically I used GS/Staff and wanted to generate as many clones as possible. I didn't shatter much at first till I got use to knowing when I could get more clones out fast. This is how I intend to level up my 3rd Mesmer lol.I'm on my phone so I think I chose the correct traits. I'm sure someone with better help will come along. Just look at the traits and pick the ones that generate clones, gives you some defense through range. For me, I didn't much care about pumping out mass damage so much as being able to stay alive.

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@Habanero.9384 said:

@Habanero.9384 said:Please allow me, to kindly point you at my thread:"new mesmer needs advice: Best Route to unlock Elite Professions Chronomancer + Mirage"

I think you are the right people who can possibly help me a lot :-)Thank you

It's hard to tell how much difficulty you have picking these things up, but I do have a build for the type of player that is never going to "git gud" (no offense intended to anyone here!) . The build is specifically designed to be 1) Inexpensive to gear, 2) As uncomplicated as possible, and 3) As forgiving as possible.

I've basically taken it to the limits from using the most defensive weapon available and not including a weapon swap to utilizing a passive healing skill. With this setup you can literally stand in the fire and just push buttons at random. As long as you keep dodging and pushing 1 you should find making your way around PoF/HoT easy (Although soloing champions might still require you to step up your game a little bit from just pushing 1/dodge and buttons at random!).

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer me. This is indeed a very good and helpful build for beginners with the profession.I had this kind of build in mind, when posting in this thread. My problem with this build is just, that I haven't unlocked Mirage!What I had in mind, when posting here, was if this build can be adapted for
core Mesmer
?I haven't unlocked neither Mirage nor Chronomancer yet.I have to use a core mesmer build to get through HoT or PoF to unlock both Elite professions...

The standard GS POWER build here (
) that I used for levelinghas really bad personal sustain. I often felt very squishy.

Can you help?Thanks a lot!

@Habanero.9384 said:Please allow me, to kindly point you at my thread:"new mesmer needs advice: Best Route to unlock Elite Professions Chronomancer + Mirage"

I think you are the right people who can possibly help me a lot :-)Thank you

It's hard to tell how much difficulty you have picking these things up, but I do have a build for the type of player that is never going to "git gud" (no offense intended to anyone here!) . The build is specifically designed to be 1) Inexpensive to gear, 2) As uncomplicated as possible, and 3) As forgiving as possible.

I've basically taken it to the limits from using the most defensive weapon available and not including a weapon swap to utilizing a passive healing skill. With this setup you can literally stand in the fire and just push buttons at random. As long as you keep dodging and pushing 1 you should find making your way around PoF/HoT easy (Although soloing champions might still require you to step up your game a little bit from just pushing 1/dodge and buttons at random!).

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer me. This is indeed a very good and helpful build for beginners with the profession.I had this kind of build in mind, when posting in this thread. My problem with this build is just, that I haven't unlocked Mirage!What I had in mind, when posting here, was if this build can be adapted for
core Mesmer
?I haven't unlocked neither Mirage nor Chronomancer yet.I have to use a core mesmer build to get through HoT or PoF to unlock both Elite professions...

The standard GS POWER build here (
) that I used for levelinghas really bad personal sustain. I often felt very squishy.

Can you help?Thanks a lot!

Unfortunately, the gimmick that makes this build so easy and effective is based on mirage cloak. You generate damage while avoiding damage simply by dodging and autoattacking and, with sigil of stamina, every kill refills the endurance bar creating a bit of a snowball effect. Thus you don't strictly need to know any sort of rotation at all to succeed. On top of that, the extremely high condition damage achieved with 17% toughness converted to condi damage and stacking condi damage on kills helps to make up for using a set that stacks survivability stats. The result is a build that evades a ton of damage and on top of that can easily afford to take damage as well. And it still deals surprisingly good damage in return!

Core mesmer doesn't have the ability to increase damage by dodging and it's more effective with a power setup, which makes it harder to stack vitality and toughness without giving up even more damage. The result is you're going to be less tanky while dealing less damage and you'll need to have some idea of what you're doing to succeed. In short, there is no magic build for core mesmer that's going to let you roll your face across the keyboard and win like you can with the mirage build I listed.

Having said that, if you see me in game feel free to send me a message. If I'm not busy I'm usually happy to run people through some hero points in HoT.

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I just started Mirage, and am running Carrion exotic gear to start, with a few pieces of Vipers. I noticed that even with evade frames I was taking more damage than was comfortable. Granted I'm still learning Mesmer/Mirage and at times I'm just pushing buttons, but I decided to take a gamble and invested in Superior Runes of Tormenting. (I'm also running Illusions for Main the Disillusioned). Wow what a difference. The tooltip suggests the heal is 'small', but you are literally crapping out torment at every turn, and with no ICD on the rune, the bigger the group the more heals you will see. I was taking on Veteran Djinn in PoF with zero effort, never dropping below 85%.

Now I'm not taking on champs/legenadary mobs solo so it's hard to compare, but those runes might allow for more DPS gear (Vipers) vs. Trailblazer.

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@Turkeyspit.3965 said:I just started Mirage, and am running Carrion exotic gear to start, with a few pieces of Vipers. I noticed that even with evade frames I was taking more damage than was comfortable. Granted I'm still learning Mesmer/Mirage and at times I'm just pushing buttons, but I decided to take a gamble and invested in Superior Runes of Torment. (I'm also running Illusions for Main the Disillusioned). Wow what a difference. The tooltip suggests the heal is 'small', but you are literally crapping out torment at every turn, and with no ICD on the rune, the bigger the group the more heals you will see. I was taking on Veteran Djinn in PoF with zero effort, never dropping below 85%.

Now I'm not taking on champs/legenadary mobs solo so it's hard to compare, but those runes might allow for more DPS gear (Vipers) vs. Trailblazer.

Funny you should mention that. I was taking a little break from GW2 when the rune changes went through and only found out about this one the other day. I haven't had a chance to play much since then, but I did a few hours in WvW and the results were quite good. I expect in PvE it will be even better as you can much more easily stay in axe fighting multiple opponents. Obviously, if boss solos are your goal, the effect will be somewhat diminished by the fact that you have only one target, but the healing should still be significant (really any healing is significant for a class that avoids damage as well as mirage!).

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@Turkeyspit.3965 said:I just started Mirage, and am running Carrion exotic gear to start, with a few pieces of Vipers. I noticed that even with evade frames I was taking more damage than was comfortable. Granted I'm still learning Mesmer/Mirage and at times I'm just pushing buttons, but I decided to take a gamble and invested in Superior Runes of Tormenting. (I'm also running Illusions for Main the Disillusioned). Wow what a difference. The tooltip suggests the heal is 'small', but you are literally crapping out torment at every turn, and with no ICD on the rune, the bigger the group the more heals you will see. I was taking on Veteran Djinn in PoF with zero effort, never dropping below 85%.

Now I'm not taking on champs/legenadary mobs solo so it's hard to compare, but those runes might allow for more DPS gear (Vipers) vs. Trailblazer.

Sounds interesting. Could we see that build please?

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@Jimbru.6014 said:

@"Turkeyspit.3965" said:I just started Mirage, and am running Carrion exotic gear to start, with a few pieces of Vipers. I noticed that even with evade frames I was taking more damage than was comfortable. Granted I'm still learning Mesmer/Mirage and at times I'm just pushing buttons, but I decided to take a gamble and invested in Superior Runes of Tormenting. (I'm also running Illusions for Main the Disillusioned). Wow what a difference. The tooltip suggests the heal is 'small', but you are literally crapping out torment at every turn, and with no ICD on the rune, the bigger the group the more heals you will see. I was taking on Veteran Djinn in PoF with zero effort, never dropping below 85%.

Now I'm not taking on champs/legenadary mobs solo so it's hard to compare, but those runes might allow for more DPS gear (Vipers) vs. Trailblazer.

Sounds interesting. Could we see that build please?

It's a standard build: metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mirage_-_Axe/x_Infinite_Horizon

As I dislike Pistol and prefer Focus, I'm running Phanstasmal Fury (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Fury) in Illusions trait line for more bleeds from my clones, and instead of runes of Nightmare, running Superior Rune of Tormenting. (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Tormenting). Even with 0 Healing Power the massive amount of torment applications gives you a steady stream of healing. I suppose if you were struggling with survivability, you could run some Marshal's gear, but between constant heals, your clones taking aggro, and mirage cloak I don't think it would be necessary.

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Sure enough, the extra healing on torment runes was enough to make the difference on some bosses I previously couldn't beat. First Mate Pekknik, Safiri the Carver, Zawadi the Turncoat, Lord Hanif, Embalmer Eweje, and Troopmarshal Olori Ogun are all pretty easy to do with these runes. You can afford to take a lot more damage, which is handy with these guys because they all have a lot of area effect damage and/or many adds to deal with.

Sorry, no videos. I think whatever updates have happened to the game over time have gone beyond the limits of my meager hardware. I can't seem to get a usable framerate in recordings.

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Thought I would try it too! I went back to full viper, scepter/torch/pistol, and torment runes. The setup does more damage but is more squishy than trailblazer, dual staff, undead runes. Happy with it thanks! Have the trailblazer gear in pack for times like in dragons stand or some solo story where I need to be more tanky.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Post-Patch Update:

Not much has changed for the open world PvE build. Evade uptime is down a bit, but survival still feels quite effortless even against powerful enemies. Sustained damage remains remarkably strong given how tanky the build is. I even added the Legendary Forged Rampager to my list of solo kills!

Here's the latest build, which hasn't changed significantly since the addition of torment runes:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnELDNohFMDupBMMjlZjqMAutkxsC2tWyv+7//H-jxxHQBxT9HadKACn+gAq8DAPBAKqEEX7PQKgqEtB-e

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  • 2 weeks later...

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Post-Patch Update:

Not much has changed for the open world PvE build. Evade uptime is down a bit, but survival still feels quite effortless even against powerful enemies. Sustained damage remains remarkably strong given how tanky the build is. I even added the Legendary Forged Rampager to my list of solo kills!

Here's the latest build, which hasn't changed significantly since the addition of torment runes:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnELDNohFMDupBMMjlZjqMAutkxsC2tWyv+7//H-jxxHQBxT9HadKACn+gAq8DAPBAKqEEX7PQKgqEtB-e

Hi Aliam! I've loved following this thread.

I'm not very mathematically inclined and I have a couple of questions I was hopeful you could help me with.

At what point does Bursting sigil become better than Malice?

And, I like to run the Staff/Staff variant. I have full Vipers and was thinking about switching to Trailblazer. How much of a dps loss would I be looking at for Staff/Staff? Would it be less of a loss than if I were running Axe/Torch?

Thanks!

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@Toku.5972 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Post-Patch Update:

Not much has changed for the open world PvE build. Evade uptime is down a bit, but survival still feels quite effortless even against powerful enemies. Sustained damage remains remarkably strong given how tanky the build is. I even added the Legendary Forged Rampager to my list of solo kills!

Here's the latest build, which hasn't changed significantly since the addition of torment runes:

Hi Aliam! I've loved following this thread.

I'm not very mathematically inclined and I have a couple of questions I was hopeful you could help me with.

At what point does Bursting sigil become better than Malice?

And, I like to run the Staff/Staff variant. I have full Vipers and was thinking about switching to Trailblazer. How much of a dps loss would I be looking at for Staff/Staff? Would it be less of a loss than if I were running Axe/Torch?

Thanks!

Glad you found this thread helpful!

Honestly, as I'm not a raider and maximizing damage output is not my focus, I'm not much of a number cruncher myself. However, without knowing everything that could potentially apply to this comparison, my guess is that bursting can never quite be as effective as malice unless you're above 200% condition duration or in cases where you don't expect your conditions to run their full course. Example: 100 base condi over time x 200% = 200 damage. Take away malice and it's 190. Add bursting 190 x 1.05 = 199.5. At lesser values of condition duration, malice will only be more effective in this comparison. Again, assuming this is how it works and there are no other factors I'm unaware of, which there certainly could be as I'm not a number cruncher!

I can't precisely quantify the answer to your second question, but I can tell you that when I ran viper only about 15-20% of my damage output came from power damage. And since we're talking solo play, I find that the amount of damage lost is negligible because you can play so much more aggressively using trailblazer. In fact, against tougher enemies it can actually be a damage increase. Where you will likely notice the loss most is in short engagements where quick damage has more of an impact and your conditions don't run their full course.

Having said that, if I had to guess I'd say that using only staff without axe/torch is more of a damage loss than switching from viper to trailblazer. If you're really concerned about increasing your damage output, I'd recommend using axe/torch with staff as your defensive backup (which, of course, is exactly what I run in open world as well as WvW/PvP!).

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  • 1 month later...

As my focus has changed lately to WvW where the latest patch brought some significant changes to my build (the open world PvE build remains unchanged), I thought I'd share my latest WvW build which is an adaptation of the open world setup.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnsnBlphFMDWLDcrhlZjqMAutkxcEGmNwv+7//H-j1xHQBK7UAEO9BUUJY8U/BAPBgAq8DX7PQKgqEtB-w

My favorite thing about Mirage (and what drew me to the class) is the mobility and misdirection. This build has everything you need to be a confusing nightmare on the battlefield! But if you're familiar with my open world build, it should feel quite similar in terms of playstyle. It's basically the same general idea, but trades some damage for several highly useful defensive skills (e.g. double distortion on Auspicious Anguish, 9s stealth on mass invis, extra teleports with mirage advance/retreat and blink).

It's too early to tell if changes to other classes will have a major impact from the perspective of a WvW roamer, but my preliminary experience is that this setup strikes a great balance between sustain, mobility, and damage.

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