Duelist's Discipline: a core issue for condi Mirage in PvE

[Agent Noun.7350]

A condition damage Mirage build for PvE (specifically, fractals and raids) is heavily reliant on Phantasmal Duelists. This isn't all that remarkable on its own--power Mesmer relies heavily on a specific phantasm, too--but what's odd about it is that it isn't the phantasm itself that's important, but one specific trait. Duelist's Discipline gives your Phantasmal Duelists a 50% chance to inflict bleeding with each bullet. In practice, this is a lot of bleeding, and as a result, having three pistol phantasms out is by far the best way to do sustained condition DPS.

This strikes me as odd.

It's possible that I'm not knowledgeable enough about other builds, but are there any other condi builds that rely almost entirely on a single trait for sustained DPS? Perhaps a single trait line, but I can't think of any other builds that rely completely on one trait to be able to inflict a respectable amount of condition stacks in the first place.

I don't have a solution to suggest right away, but I'm curious if I'm missing something and this isn't that uncommon of a situation, or if this is something that has a possible solution.

[Carighan.6758]

Reaper with bleeds on Chill want to have a word. Or Burning Eles (those were a thing but I think they no longer are, with their 50k just-burning stack). Or a fair few others, it's usually always one trait which is the lynchpin.

Plus, you're not exactly being honest there. A substantial amount of the possible damage comes from the faster attack speed, the damage ramp-up and the extra crit, so that's 3 more traits.

[FaboBabo.3581]

The real question is ; Why is a power weapon better in Condis, then an actual Condi Weapon (Torch) ?

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

The phantasm mirage build does around 13% more damage than the clone mirage build. I wouldn't say the mirage is wholly dependent on the trait for condition damage, but that particular build is mostly dependent. Hopefully if Infinite Horizons becomes baseline the clone build will be even stronger.

[musu.9205]

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:The phantasm mirage build does around 13% more damage than the clone mirage build. I wouldn't say the mirage is wholly dependent on the trait for condition damage, but that particular build is mostly dependent. Hopefully if Infinite Horizons becomes baseline the clone build will be even stronger.

just curious about that clone mirage build and did you include axe 2 in rotation ?

[zealex.9410]

and im here wanting them to make it so axe 2 wont spawn clones if im full on phantasms.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

@musu.9205 said:

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:The phantasm mirage build does around 13% more damage than the clone mirage build. I wouldn't say the mirage is wholly dependent on the trait for condition damage, but that particular build is mostly dependent. Hopefully if Infinite Horizons becomes baseline the clone build will be even stronger.

just curious about that clone mirage build and did you include axe 2 in rotation ?

Yes, on both the shatter build and the sustained clone build. Axe 2 can be a bit inconsistent since it is hard to position, but against large targets it is reliable, and with combo fields the skill is much more useful.