User:Masel/Builds/Virtuoso
Condition Virtuoso[edit]
Criterion | Rating |
---|---|
Burst Damage | 3/5 |
Sustained Damage | 4/5 |
Utility Options | 3/5 |
Survivability | 2/5 |
Difficulty | 1/5 |
Condition Virtuoso is a build that is simple to play and provides very consistent damage with high range. That allows you to freely position yourself and maintain your damage output, even when mechanics force you into range. There are two variants that you can play: the Chaos variant deals lower damage than Dueling, but provides Boons to allies around it in return and is easier to execute well. Through that, it is also able to provide many important Boons to itself in open world gameplay: ( Might, Stability, Aegis, Regeneration, Fury and Protection). This makes it a very strong and straightforward choice for open world gameplay.
Link to the Chaos Build on the Editor
Link to the Dueling Build on the Editor
Playstyle & Skills[edit]
Skill Type | Skills | |||||
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Dagger + Torch (Chaos) |
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Offhand Sword (Dueling) |
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Offhand Focus (Dueling) |
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Utility (Chaos) |
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Utility (Dueling) |
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Blades and Related Traits[edit]
- Blade skills deserve their own section, as it is one of the unique aspects of Virtuoso.
- They replace Clones and related traits 1-to-1, with the exception that they are not linked to the target they are used against. Every Blade stocked remains above you as a floating dagger, empowering your Shatter skills.
- You stock one Blade every 10 seconds when out of combat.
- Through Bloodsong, you will stock a blade on every fifth stack of Bleeding you apply.
- Paired with Jagged Mind (and Sharper Images on Dueling), you will stock up Blades very fast. This relies on Critical hits, making Precision and other sources of Critical chance an important stat on Virtuoso.
Dagger Mainhand[edit]
- Flying Cutter is a very strong ranged auto attack that will do another attack on every third hit with this ability. Simple, strong, great! Applies tons of Bleeding via Jagged Mind, just like the next two skills.
- Bladecall is the bread and butter for damage. It creates a Blade when it hits. Use on cooldown, great skill!
- Unstable Bladestorm is a ground-AoE that will launch blades at nearby foes. Also great damage, use on cooldown.
Offhand Options[edit]
- On the Chaos variant, we're gonna use Torch for The Prestige. This is instant cast and free damage. More explanations below in the rotation section.
- The two offhand choices for Dueling are Sword and Focus because they include Phantasm skills with the highest single target damage: Phantasmal Warden and Phantasmal Swordsman.
Utility Skills[edit]
Default Skill | Notes |
---|---|
Mantra of Recovery (Chaos) Signet of the Ether (Dueling) |
Mantra of Recovery is instant cast and used to trigger Method of Madness every other cast. Signet of the Ether allows you to reset casts of your Phantasms for higher damage. |
Rain of Swords | I use this instead of Signet of Illusions to simplify the rotation. This increases your cleave damage and costs a little bit of single target damage. Signet of Illusions allows you to reset your Bladesongs, making it a dps increase when timed well. |
Signet of Domination | Just there for the passive Condition Damage, but you should use the active cast for Defiance bar damage whenever necessary. Don't hesitate to do so! |
Signet of Midnight | Just there for the passive Expertise. Don't use this! |
Thousand Cuts | Easy damage and instant cast. |
Rotation Concept (Chaos) [edit]
- The Chaos variant includes a very simple rotation that involves using the following skills on cooldown:
- Unstable Bladestorm
- Bladesong Sorrow - Only use with 5 Blades.
- Bladesong Harmony - Only use with 5 Blades.
- Bladeturn Requiem - Only use with 5 Blades. This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
- Thousand Cuts - This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
- Bladecall
- Rain of Swords
- With Chaos, your damage scales with having Chaos Aura. You have two sources for it:
- Bladesong Sorrow triggers it due to Illusionary Membrane.
- Mantra of Recovery paired with The Prestige - Mantra of Recovery places an Ethereal Field every other cast due to Method of Madness and The Prestige is a Blast finisher with a 3 second delay. The two skills share the same cooldown, so you can always pair them.
- Note that The Prestige puts you into Stealth, so press another skill right after to not disrupt your rotation!
Rotation Concept (Dueling) [edit]
- In contrast to Chaos, Dueling involves a full rotation flow that anchors on Phantasms and resetting them with Signet of the Ether: Phantasmal Warden and Phantasmal Swordsman. In turn, we have two sections in the rotation after the opener.
- In the entirety of the rotation, use the same skills as in the Chaos variant on cooldown:
- Unstable Bladestorm
- Bladesong Sorrow - Only use with 5 Blades.
- Bladesong Harmony - Only use with 5 Blades.
- Bladeturn Requiem - Only use with 5 Blades. This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
- Thousand Cuts - This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
- Bladecall
- Rain of Swords
Opener[edit]
- This involves casting you damage skills as fast as possible while casting your damaging Bladesongs with 5 Blades.
- Start on Sword with Unstable Bladestorm, Phantasmal Swordsman and Bladeturn Requiem. These will stack up Blades fast on their subsequent hits, allowing you to use Bladesong Harmony and Bladesong Sorrow quickly after this.
- Swap to Focus and follow the general rotation concept.
Section 1: Focus[edit]
- For the first cycle, start with Phantasmal Warden, reset it with Signet of the Ether and use another Phantasmal Warden.
- After that, try to reset casts of Phantasmal Warden via Signet of the Ether to maximize the damage output.
- The cooldown of Signet of the Ether is longer than the total rotation cycle: it will therefore be available at different points in the rotation.
- Once the cooldowns diverge so much that you cannot reset Phantasmal Warden, resetting Phantasmal Swordsman instead is completely fine.
Section 2: Sword[edit]
- Always start and end this section with Phantasmal Swordsman. This will maintain stacks of Fencer's Finesse through large parts of the rotation.
- In case you reset Phantasmal Swordsman with Signet of the Ether, use three casts of Phantasmal Swordsman in one rotation. This will slightly extend the duration of the rotation cycle.
CC Skills for breakbar damage[edit]
Gear[edit]
Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):
- At least 60% Critical Chance: with Quiet Intensity, Fury gives 40% for 100% in total.
- Reach 23% overall condition duration in your hero panel without Boons. On the Chaos Variant, Superior Rune of the Krait, Sharpening Sorrow and Chaotic Persistence provide the remaining 77% for Bleeding; on the Dueling variant, Relic of the Aristocracy replaces Relic of the Fractal to cover the loss in Expertise.
- Maximize Condition Damage.
Note: The gear I suggest makes sure that you can a) use standard food with Condition Damage and Expertise and b) does not require any infusions to reach 100% Critical chance. The damage loss compared to the ideal gear setup is statistically insignificant in actual gameplay.
- For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces with rare/exotic pieces. Note that you will need to replace some pieces of Sinister with Rampager's to make up for the loss in Precision.
- Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.
- Ascended food is always ideal, but never required.
Traits[edit]
Dueling | ||||||
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Illusions | ||||||
Virtuoso | ||||||
Chaos | ||||||
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Illusions | ||||||
Virtuoso | ||||||
DPS Rotation Showcase[edit]
You can find my most recent rotation showcase here (includes Chaos & Dueling).
Open World Build[edit]
You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
Increasing General Survivability[edit]
For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.
- Using Chaos improves Boon coverage (especially for Protection), making the build more resilient.
- Swap to Chaotic Persistence and Illusionary Defense
- Jagged Mind will always heal you for a fraction of the damage you deal, rewarding an offensive playstyle.
- Twin Blade Restoration heals you for large amounts, includes two Blade hits and grants Aegis, which is particularly strong against tougher enemies.
- Use the survivability food and utility item listed above for another -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness!
- Use Distortion in cases where you might need it for long-lasting invulnerability and area Stability.
- Replacing the Viper's pieces with Celestial and Sinister pieces with Rabid gives you additional Concentration, Toughness, Healing Power and Vitality while retaining the Precision and Expertise.
- You can use any off-hand weapon you like with Chaos, as it does not rely on casting Phantasms for its functionality:
- Sword includes self- Might coverage in melee range and another Block.
- Shield gives you another Block, a Stun and Boons to allies ( Protection, Might and Fury).
- Focus grants Swiftness to allies and the ability to group up enemies with Temporal Curtain & Into the Void.
- Pistol retains full range and includes additional Confusion and Defiance bar damage.
Boon Coverage[edit]
- Signet of Inspiration extends all boons on you by 3 seconds. This is crucial for self-boon coverage, so use this on cooldown.
- Protection is covered by swapping out Method of Madness for Illusionary Defense and using Twin Blade Restoration on cooldown with a Relic of Durability.
- Regeneration is crucial for damage and Boon coverage on the open world build due to Chaotic Persistence: Relic of Durability, Metaphysical Rejuvenation and Chaotic Transference cover a good uptime on it.
- The same applies to Fury, both for its 40% Critical chance and 150 Expertise via Sharpening Sorrow. This is covered by Bladesong Sorrow, Psychic Force and Bladesong Dissonance.
- A few Might stacks are covered by Bladesong Harmony. For more Might, you can make use of Phantasmal Force and Phantasmal Swordsman.
- If you want to solo harder content, make use of Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge for 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from Stability, Resistance and Resolution on entering combat. The Quickness and Alacrity from this are a massive gain in damage too!
- These will further apply 30 seconds of Regeneration every time you enter combat, allowing you to stack up several minutes of it by using an Enchanted Snow Diamond Tonic repeatedly when out of combat. You can change to Chaotic Potency when using protocols.
- Note that they get removed when you enter story instances, fractals, raids and strikes.
- In story instances (or if you don't want the hassle of reapplying protocols), you can abuse the synergy between Relic of the Cavalier and Blast from the Skyscale to apply lots of Aegis, Resistance, Might and Quickness to yourself. It applies the boons on every hit of Blast.
Dealing with Conditions and Control effects[edit]
- Twin Blade Restoration cleanses two conditions, one per Blade.
- For additional frequent condition cleanses, make use of another offhand weapon with a Superior Sigil of Purity or Superior Sigil of Generosity.
- Bountiful Disillusionment applies Stability to you every time you use a shatter skill and additional Stability to allies when you use Bladesong Distortion.
- Signet of Midnight is an emergency Stun break.
- Psychic Force is another Stun break, but is used as part of the general gameplay loop, so prioritize Signet of Midnight for breaking stuns.