User:Awesumness/Low Intensity/Condi Virtuoso

Executive Summary

The goal of this build shows we can create a more-than-viable build that does decently well in the PUG landscape at low APM.

The Build v3

Highlights

1. The Build has a high DPS baseline for 0 APM and easily scales up to 24 APM.
   1. 19k DPS at 0 APM with just auto attacks.
   2. 28k DPS at 12 APM with just using a Bladesong every ~5 seconds.
   3. 32k DPS at 24 APM with casting Dagger2 after a Bladesong every 5 seconds.
   4. X DPS pressing a lot of buttons.
2. The Build provides 100% uptime with at least one stack of  Stability.
3. The Build provides stacks of  Illusionary Defense which will provide up to 25% incoming damage reduction.
4. The Build passively heals about 1200 health per second
   1. 530 per blade stocked though   Signet of Illusions
   2. ~750 per second through  Jagged Mind. (3% of outgoing condi damage which is roughly 25K)
5. The Build has a free Utility Slot that defaults to   Signet of Illusions.
   1.   Signet of Illusions to burst Bladesongs and refresh them.
   2.   Phantasmal Disenchanter for 5 boon strip.
   3.   Arcane Thievery for 3 condi cleanse + 3 boon steal.
   4.   Mantra of Distraction for more CC.
   5.   Mantra of Concentration for 5 ally  Stability.
6. The Build has a free Elite slot that defaults to   Thousand Cuts.
   1.   Thousand Cuts for damage.
   2.   Signet of Humility for big CC.
   3.   Time Warp if quickness is super scuffed.
7. 1200 range on DPS attacks and most CC.
8. Piercing on most DPS. This allows for BIG cleave on MO statues, Bears, Kaineng, etc.
9. PUGs are lacking   Banners and  Spotter these days, so the default build eats precision food. If either bonus is available, another food can be eaten to contribute ~1k dps.
10. No expensive writs for food/util consumables required.
11. Gear mostly includes Core stats, so gear is relatively easy to acquire. Check out Version 1 if you are pressed on gold and/or expansion gear stats.

Lowlights

1. Max DPS relies on 100%  Regeneration, though it's not required for the build to function.

Glossary

I use some short hand in the guide so this section will break down abbreviations and references.

1. In general, I tend to reference weapon skills as "Weapon#" signifying the weapon and the slot on the skill bar. Focus4 means the forth skill on the skill bar when a focus is in the offhand (because 4 and 5 skills are tied to offhands). "Focus4" ->   Temporal Curtain
2. As a long time mesmer player, I use "shatters" and "bladesongs" interchangeably. They both map to the same keys.
3. In general, I tend to reference class skills as their default "F#"/function keys. For instance F1 ->   Bladesong Harmony.

Background

I wasn't really interested in Virtuoso until the Accessibility Challenge. One of the first things I noticed was how little interaction is needed on Virt to get value. The typical raid build has access to Focus4, 4 signets, and quickly builds blades for the shatters, even at low APM.

So let's start with the raid build: https://snowcrows.com/builds/mesmer/virtuoso/condition-virtuoso and dps log: https://dps.report/mFi9-20220319-014029_golem (~55 APM) Looking at the raid build and dps log, we can immediately see the phantasm casts are largely infrequent and thus traits dedicated for them are likely bringing less value than other options.

The log for the golem has 8 casts of   Phantasmal Swordsman, 8 casts of   Phantasmal Warden, 8 weapon swaps, and 4   Signet of the Ether (SoE) to support phantasm DPS. Over 1:36 of the fight, that's 28 actions or roughly 17.5 APM before even getting to other key aspects of the build like Bladesongs or other weapon skills. On top of this, casting all the phantasms requires certain sequencing to ensure each phantasm is cast before SoE in order to get the most value from SoE's refresh.

When looking at the damage incoming to the golem of course bleeding is top, but also the attacks from the phantasms represent about 7% of the overall damage done. The phantasms do contribute to bleeds/blades, but even if they contributed 20% of overall damage, that's still ~32% (17.5 of 55) of APM and particular skill sequencing for a minority of damage.

So now that we've established phantasms are not a great investment for a Low Intensity build, we can start moving traits around.

Traits

1.  Virtuoso
   1.   Phantasmal Blades ->  Sharpening Sorrow. We blades and  Fury on phantasm casts, but  Fury is assumed 100% coverage and now we get 150  Expertise for 0 APM.
2.  Illusions
   1.   Phantasmal Force ->  Master of Fragmentation. Again, we lose phantasm synergy for a small bump to our Bladesongs. The biggest net benefit here is the increased target cap on F3   Bladesong Dissonance (making it easier to CC multiple enemies) and increased block duration on F4   Bladeturn Requiem, adding some survivability to an OH SHIT button.
3.  Dueling Brings a lot of dps for higher APM builds but this build is focused on low APM and PUGing, where more utility and sustain will be rewarded. We are going to completely switch to  Chaos 2-3-3.
   1.  Critical Infusion ->  Metaphysical Rejuvenation. Not a huge change. Loss some  Vigor. Gain some  Regeneration.
   2.   Phantasmal Fury ->  Illusionary Defense. Trading Phantasm synergy for a near permanent -25% incoming damage buff (more on this later).
   3.  Sharper Images ->  Illusionary Membrane. Lose bleeds on illusions (as a virt without any clones, this is only phantasms), for +10% outgoing condi damage and -10% incoming condi damage as long as we have  Regeneration. Hug your Druids and supports for this MASSIVE value MINOR trait.
   4.  Fencer's Finesse ->  Chaotic Potency. Lose Fencer's Finesse for a permanent 120  Condition Damage. For higher APM builds this would be a huge blow but we are not casting phantasms that frequently. 120 in stats is roughly the equivalent of another ring's mainstat. Huge.
   5.  Master Fencer ->  Chaotic Persistence. Losing some  Fury (assumed to be 100% uptime anyways) for 250  Concentration and 250  Expertise as long as we have  Regeneration. That's like wearing two additional earring trinkets in terms of stat bonuses.
   6.  Superiority Complex ->  Bountiful Disillusionment. We give up critical hit damage for some nice boons per Bladesong and 5 seconds of  Stability on every Bladesong. More on the  Stability later.

Weapons

Offhand focus is one of the best utility offhands and will likely stay in our kit for every fight. Focus4 is decent CC and mob gathering while Focus5 is projectile destruction.

Offhand sword can be kept for the block though it will only block one attack so be careful on fights like Deimos where adds can consume the block.

Utilities

Utilities will remain signets and we'll take Moa, granting a lot of CC when needed and passively providing some CC mitigation on ourselves.

In general, the first util to drop for any fight specific mitigation is Signet of Illusions. It can be replaced as follows:

1.   Phantasmal Disenchanter for boon rip.
2.   Blink for mobility.
3.   Mantra of Distraction for more CC.
4.   Mantra of Resolve for 5 target condi cleanse.

It is possible to Pylon kite on Qadim2 by swapping some gear to Celestial. I only tested twice in 2 kills: cele armor+trinkets and cele trinkets. The druid threw some regen on me which was a huge help. I changed my utils to Blink + Mimic to grab orbs and Arcane Thievery to steal boons from Qadim and cleanse myself. These logs are not my best showings and I think staying on the original build gear and swapping Chaos to Inspiration might be easier for people without legendary armor and kiting in general thanks to Restorative Illusions and Illusionary Inspiration. I need to do more testing!

Gearing and Food

With traits out of the way and massively bumping our baseline stats, the next step was optimizing gear. I used the Discretize gear optimizer tool to speed this up. I had multiple iterations of the build and I am including them all since they each cater to different gearing capabilities. Version 1 has zero infusions and mostly core gear stats. Version 2 includes infusions and some variety based on group comp. Version 3 includes infusions and opts for different food options depending on the group's composition. Version 3 is strictly better than Version 2, but Version 1 still remains as a super budget build.

Version 1

The sharing link is not working so here is what I did to setup the tool:

1. Open https://optimizer.discretize.eu/?m=raids
2. Select the condi virtuoso build.
3. Flip the traits over as per above traits section.
4. Remove  Superior Sigil of Agony from the sigil options (our bleed duration is already so close to cap that Agony would be overkill). Thus removing options likely reduces permutations and thus calculation times.
5. Change Nourishment to only include  Rare Veggie Pizza. Pizza's @ … vs  Plate of Kimchi Pancakes @ … and  Bowl of Fancy Potato and Leek Soup @ ….
6. Change Enhancement to only include "Master Tuning Crystal / Tuning Icicle."  Tuning Icicle @ … vs  Writ of Masterful Accuracy @ …!
7. Change Jade Bot Tier to 1. This has a little impact with  Quiet Intensity but I don't expect everyone to be on core 10 and this can be pumped later.
8. Reduce Infusion Slots to ZERO as we don't expect to invest in them for a Low Intensity build.

This was my resulting build (v1)

We only have two pieces of gear with expansion stats (helm and pants are VIPER) while everything else are core stats of Sinister or Rampager.

Version 2

I personally do not have a legendary dagger but I have legendary armor and offhands, so I set my mainhand to always be Rampager (since I'm sure this build will always reward precision). I ran the optimizer with Precision and Expertise infusions to see which it would prefer and the top performers preferred Precision infusions. Precision also tends to be valueable on my chrono builds and I have a ton of WvW currency, so I splurged on Precision infusions. Rerunning the optimizer, I got this build (v2):

1. Bench version assuming Spotter and Discipline Banner (v2.0)
2. Pug version assuming NEITHER Spotter nor Discipline banner (v2.1)

Version 3

I looked at some of the pugs I was joining and realized Spotter+Banners are quite inconsistent, so I opted to make a flexible build for any pug occasion at the expense of slightly more pricey food. With this build, you eat Bowl of Fancy Potato and Leek Soup when you cannot get Banners or Spotter. If you can get either of those, swap to any other food with  Condition Damage; ideally someone drops ascended Salsa-Topped_Veggie_Flatbread or Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread.

1. Food Flexible, PUG consolidated build (v3)

If you don't have spotter, eat  Bowl of Fancy Potato and Leek Soup @ …. This is needed to crit cap.

If you have spotter or banners or both, eat  Meaty Asparagus Skewer @ …. This food will buff your torment (second highest DPS condi after bleeds) with 15% duration along with 70 more  Condition Damage.

Gameplay Fundamentals

1. Just auto attacking is 19k DPS. 11.5 APM -> 28k DPS. 23 APM -> 32k DPS
2. Try to cast a bladesong every 5 seconds in the sequence   Bladesong Sorrow ->   Bladesong Harmony ->   Bladesong Harmony. This will get you to the 11.5 APM breakpoint. High alacrity uptimes should make this possible but feel free to use F3 and F4 as filler if they are not needed for CC or blocks, respectively. If neither are needed for mechanics, use F4   Bladeturn Requiem first as it does more damage.
   1. Each bladesong will refresh  Deadly Blades for 5 second, boosting DPS.
   2. Each bladesong will provide some boons and a stack of stab for over 5 seconds. Permanent stability!
   3. Each bladesong will clear out stocked blades...
3. The build should be restocking blades a little faster than 5 per 5 seconds from   Signet of Illusions, auto attacks, and  Bloodsong in conjunction with  Jagged Mind.
   1. Since bladesongs scale with blades consumed, they should always be consuming 5 blades and hitting hard.
   2. Every time a blade is stocked, you get a stack of  Illusionary Defense, reducing incoming damage 5% per stack.
   3. Every time a blade is stocked, you get a stack of  Compounding Power, increasing  Condition Damage by 30 and strike damage 2% per stack.
   4. Every time a blade is stocked, you heal 530 from   Signet of the Ether passive.
4.  Jagged Mind gives 3% of outgoing condi damage converted to healing, so roughly 25k dps (out of ~32k total DPS) should result in ~750 heals per second.
5. Dagger2 and 3 can be used as filler for quickly restocking blades after a bladesong and extra DPS. Using Dagger2 after every Bladesong (every 5 seconds) will get you to the 23 APM breakpoint.
6. CC Skills:
   1. 200 break from Sword4. 12s CD.
   2. 100 break (up to 500) from   Bladesong Dissonance. 25.5s CD.
   3. 150 break from Focus4. 25s CD.
   4. 300 break from   Signet of Domination. 45s CD.
   5. 600 break from   Moa. 120s CD.
7. Active Survivability:
   1. Stunbreak   Signet of Midnight. 30s CD.
   2. 3 second block   Bladeturn Requiem. 25.5 CD.
   3. Single attack block Sword4. 12 CD.
8. Util Skill swaps for   Signet of Illusions
   1.   Phantasmal Disenchanter for boon rip.
   2.   Blink for mobility.
   3.   Mantra of Distraction for more CC.
   4.   Mantra of Resolve for 5 target condi cleanse.
   5.   Arcane Thievery for 3 condi cleanse + 3 boon steal.
   6.   Mantra of Concentration for 5 ally stability.
9. Other Utility
   1. Focus4 for gathering enemies (VG Seekers, Gorse adds, Sab adds, Sloth Slubs, etc.)
   2. Focus5 for projectile destruction (Aetherblade CM, Adina hands, etc.)

12 APM Loop

1.   Bladesong Sorrow
2. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
3.   Bladesong Harmony
4. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
5.   Bladesong Harmony
6. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
7. Repeat.

24 APM Loop

1.   Bladesong Sorrow
2.   Bladecall
3. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
4.   Bladesong Harmony
5.   Bladecall
6. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
7.   Bladesong Harmony
8.   Bladecall
9. Auto Attack for ~5seconds, until  Deadly Blades is about to expire.
10. Repeat.

Results

1. 100%  Stability uptime.
2. ~95%  Deadly Blades uptime for 5% increased strike and condi damage. This could be higher uptime with better timed Bladesongs.
3. 100%  Compounding Power uptime with an average 4.97 stacks or +9.9% strike damage and 149.1 condi damage. Free damage and stats!
4. 100%  Illusionary Defense uptime with an average of 4.5 stacks or ~22.5% incoming damage reduction.

Encounter Specific Tips and Tricks

Qadim 2 Pylon Kiting

Gear and food can remain the same. Though you can use some cele gear if you need an easier time sustaining.

Swap the following traits:

1.  Bountiful Disillusionment ->  Chaotic Interruption - This is needed because the pylon will supply your  Might,  Fury, and  Alacrity. If the pylon detects you have  Might from another source (Bountiful Disillusionment gives you might on F1   Bladesong Sorrow), it will cease to supply more  Might. During a pylon phase, the pylon should pump you up to 25  Might while the traited F1 can only maintain around 8.

Swap to the following utility skills:

•   Blink
•   Mimic
•   Arcane Thievery
•   Thousand Cuts.

Tips:

1. When your orb is up, cast   Mimic, then   Blink to your orb. Once caught,   Blink back. This is 1200 range so very adaptable even if fires are inconvenient.
2. If you accidentally get the ranged attacks from Qadim, you can use F4   Bladeturn Requiem for a sustained block to mitigate the heavy damage.
3. Try not to use your heal. The passive heals from creating blades should let you sustain. If you use your heal skill, you'll instantly recover health but might not be able to sustain while its on cooldown.
4. If you are low on health, rapidly generate blades via Dagger2/Dagger3 and elite   Thousand Cuts while using bladesongs to clear them out and make room for more. Remember you cannot generate blades (which heal AND generate  Illusionary Defense) if you are maxed out on blades, so try to rapidly generate -> bladesong -> repeat.
5. If you get stacks of Vulnerability or other conditions while kiting, use   Arcane Thievery on Qadim to steal 3 boons and give him 3 conditions. This can be useful if and orb drops and you need to cleanse vulnerabiliy quickly.
6. After the pylon kiting phase you can   Mimic +   Arcane Thievery to help strip Qadim of his boons while buffing yourself.

Kaineng Overlook CM

We can tank the mech easily and mitigate knocks with  Stability from  Bountiful Disillusionment.

If tanking the mech, drop   Signet of Illusions for   Blink. Use blink to quickly get back to mech after its push. Be careful because the ring around the mech on the floor is a No Port. Stay within that ring and within mech hitboss to avoid losing aggro. Since you already bring blink, you can use it for spreads like Enforcer's palm or getting back to stack/green after Minister Li's spread (VOD).

Tips for enforcer tank:

1. You can start the phase by cleaving all 3 targets, then just drag Enforcer a bit further away from the team to ensure no link/tether.
2. F4 into the his first taunt while everyone is still stacked on the edge of the platform. This should ensure you get aggro.
3. F4/Sword4 the palm attack. This reduces the risk of rolling into others and I think both will be able to block palms when people roll into you.

Tips for mech tank:

1. Mech spawns facing Li's platform. Stand right in front of it to ensure aggro and keep it facing that way while tanking.
2. Stay inside the ring surrounding the mech. The rim of the ring is a No Port and seems to mess with mech's aggro when crossed. Clip showing the no port.
3.   Blink back right after mech push to avoid losing aggro and letting mech barrage the team. Again, be wary of the No Port ring rim.
4. Sniper might focus you when she's on platform. If this happens be aware that she fires ~3 autos with  Vulnerability, then a purple fancy attack with  Crippled. The cripple will make tanking just that much harder.
5. You can roll through mines to clear them.
6. You have Sword4 and F4 for blocks. I recommend saving F4 for when you get barraged or if you get green.
7. If you get a green, tell your team so people can come in. once they are close you can F4 to stationary tank mech hits while they fulfill the green. This will prevent mech from swinging all over them.
8. In split strat your damage will suffer because you may not have boons. This means you should be able to focus on tanking and continuously casting bladesongs+Dagger2/3 to keep up  Illusionary Defense while   Signet of the Ether +  Jagged Mind heal you. Without any CC pressure, you can even use F3 to clear out blades.   Thousand Cuts can be used to burst heal right after a bladesong. Your damage is likely not enough to interfere with Equalizer, whether you are going for the title or not.
9. Cast Focus4 next to you, but do not detonate it. This will leave up   Temporal Curtain. Try to cast it in such a way that you can wiggle in and out of it to procc it multiple times and stack  Swiftness (good for resisting push). The field also acts as a Light Field, which when paired with all of our Projectile Finisher attacks will cleanse conditions. This may help quickly cleanse Sniper autos which give  Crippled.
10. Ask your team for  Regeneration so you can keep up  Illusionary Membrane,  Chaotic Potency,  Chaotic Persistence and the healing, of course :). This is not mandatory!
11. Try not to cast   Signet of the Ether. Let the passive heal you over time.

Example DPS logs

These tables show the APM, DPS, and CC for each encounter, with each compared to top DPS or next highest DPS if I was top DPS (in parenthesis).

Version 3

Encounter	Mechanics	APM	DPS	CC	Log	Notes
Golem (only autos)	-	0	19349	-	https://dps.report/CFU0-20220502-104017_golem
Golem (Bladesong every 5 seconds)	-	11.5	28407	-	https://dps.report/jOgH-20220502-104349_golem	These Bladesongs can line up better for higher Deadly Blades uptime.
Golem (Bladesong+Dagger2 every 5 seconds)	-	22.6	32012	-	https://dps.report/gXdC-20220502-103433_golem	These Bladesongs can line up better for higher Deadly Blades uptime. Used Rare Veggie Pizza. Bleed damage 2,610,444 (65.237%), Torment damage 429,198 (10.726%)
Golem (Bladesong+Dagger2 every 5 seconds)	-	22.3	33150	-	https://dps.report/17JH-20220502-142600_golem	These Bladesongs can line up better for higher Deadly Blades uptime. Used Meaty Asparagus Skewer which boosted Torment duration. Bleed damage 2,611,156 (65.093%), Torment damage 450,740 (11.236%). That's 21k more torment damage compared to the above log AND using cheaper food!
SH CM	-	36.7 (40.5)	30210 (34017)	2200 (1300)	https://dps.report/4EjQ-20220502-014213_sh
CA CM	-	29.2 (40)	24583 (24568)	400 (300)	https://dps.report/0xEV-20220502-150956_ca
Samarog	-	29.3 (85.3)	13105 (15089)	7650 (2782.6)	https://dps.report/xpmM-20220503-225245_sam	I unbound Jump and Dodge to see if I could mitigate all the knocks with just the stability from Bladesongs. I also tried to avoid using Sw4 as a block. VOD. My Lock gets slightly knocked up at 395s and we technically fail Lock&Key, so we both ate Inevitable Betrayal. I had 5 stacks of Illusionary Defense and only took 13,041 damage while my lock took 16,820 (they also had -10% damage reduction from asc food).
Qadim2	Pylon Kite	30.1 (29.6)	11054 (12296)	3050 (2732)	https://dps.report/AWhf-20220427-204913_qpeer	Pylon kiting is such a specific role so I am comparing my DPS to the other kiters, NOT anyone on the stack. I had some celestial gear on this pull because I was unsure of the sustain and didn't want to wipe the group. I also ran Bountiful Disillusionment which negatively affected my might for most of the fight.
Qadim2	Pylon Kite	27 (28.4)	9637 (12480)	4350 (1592)	https://dps.report/7qBs-20220427-220139_qpeer	Pylon kiting is such a specific role so I am comparing my DPS to the other kiters, NOT anyone on the stack. I had some celestial gear on this pull because I was unsure of the sustain and didn't want to wipe the group. I also ran Bountiful Disillusionment which negatively affected my might for most of the fight.
Qadim2	Pylon Kite	28.7 (22.8)	12975 (8886)	1915.8 (600)	https://dps.report/63zS-20220514-155708_qpeer	Pylon kiting is such a specific role so I am comparing my DPS to the other kiters, NOT anyone on the stack. I was also testing staff on swap to see if I could pump regen between capturing pylons and Qadim being targetable but the duration was not long enough.
Qadim2	Pylon Kite	29.7 (28.8)	13341 (11864)	2721.9 (2400)	https://dps.report/FXTG-20220516-193508_qpeer	Pylon kiting is such a specific role so I am comparing my DPS to the other kiters, NOT anyone on the stack.
Qadim2	Pylon Kite	32.9 (36.6)	13487 (13189)	2700 (1300)	https://dps.report/BPZH-20220516-211858_qpeer	Pylon kiting is such a specific role so I am comparing my DPS to the other kiters, NOT anyone on the stack.
Deimos	Tank	29.7 (53.9)	17726 (11725)	0 (100)	https://dps.report/zW3V-20220514-192535_dei	We actually failed this pull at 11%, which was right before phase. I'm including it to show the self sustain possible on the build while still getting decent DPS... mostly due to 100% DPS uptime because tank doesn't typically take greens ;3 I swapped some trinkets to trailblazer. In other pulls with the same group I also swapped the rest of my gear to rampagers to try to crit cap again. This had the added effect of stealing Saul aggro from people that refused to stack on Deimos, thus we cleaved way better.
Mai Trin CM	-	30.4 (35)	12474 (12466)	12850 (2900)	https://dps.report/itXg-20220519-205652_trin
Bears	-	34.7 (31.7)	35673 (28118)	- (-)	https://dps.report/SJzF-20220517-000115_falln	Enrage started with 10 people up. Enrage lasted for 30 seconds. I was the only one still standing when we killed.
Bears	-	36 (37.2)	44930 (31489)	- (-)	https://dps.report/G03w-20220517-160435_falln
Bears	-	36.7 (49.8)	41209 (33388)	- (-)	https://dps.report/ivOn-20220519-002342_falln
Bears	-	32.9 (67)	39321 (21604)	- (-)	https://dps.report/OslE-20220520-235137_falln
SH	-	34.1 (33.3)	28290 (27297)	1167.9 (62)	https://dps.report/37m2-20220521-130942_sh
Dhuum	Green1	24 (18.6)	11604 (10151)	- (-)	https://dps.report/gg6b-20220521-142514_dhuum	I hadn't done Green1 in ages and previously understood it to be a substantial DPS hit, but I still got top DPS. Maybe the debuff from taking a green prevented me from getting other mechanics like bomb? I'm pretty sure the debuff reduces the suction and bomb damage, so maybe ignoring those makes DPS not so bad in the end.

Version 1

Encounter	Mechanics	APM	DPS	CC	Log	Version	Notes
Golem (Only Autos)	-	0	20191	0	https://dps.report/mTrl-20220413-121755_golem
Golem (Bladesong every 5 seconds)	-	11.6	29319	0	https://dps.report/uSGn-20220413-114349_golem
Golem (Bladesong every 5 seconds)	-	11.5	29292	0	https://dps.report/8qeM-20220413-112339_golem
Samarog	1 Fixate/Jump	28.3 (31.0)	8979 (11798)	5270.3 (2150)	https://dps.report/Xmd0-20220412-203351_sam	I was trying to weaponswap for CC but ultimately don't think it was worth the APM cost.
MO	Claim (only once and not in APM?!)	30.0 (43.6)	23762 (28137)	-	https://dps.report/AWzc-20220412-201744_mo	I was trying to cast a Bladesong every time I had 5 stocked blades. Not really sure it was worth.
Cairn	-	29.8 (34.1)	28092 (28316)	-	https://dps.report/H5ZY-20220412-200227_cairn	I was trying to cast a Bladesong every time I had 5 stocked blades. Not really sure it was worth.
Sabetha	Cannon	21.4 (?)	10505 (?)	0 (?)	https://dps.report/IA6O-20220412-192948_sab
Gorse	-	22.4 (?)	16355 (?)	1950 (?)	https://dps.report/HguZ-20220412-191921_gors
Sabetha	-	23.4 (?)	18220 (?)	300 (?)	https://dps.report/x5Tb-20220412-185354_sab
Gorse	-	26.6 (?)	13022 (?)	2200 (?)	https://dps.report/qfK1-20220412-184304_gors
VG	-	27.0 (?)	14492 (?)	2150 (?)	https://dps.report/u81R-20220412-182047_vg
Icebrood Construct	-	27.6 (?)	22856 (?)	-	https://dps.report/inwE-20220412-180050_ice
Fraenir of Jormag	-	23.4 (?)	17989 (?)	-	https://dps.report/MwVV-20220412-175546_frae
Bears	-	29.9 (?)	32035 (?)	-	https://dps.report/9uQ1-20220412-175122_falln
Fraenir of Jormag	-	13.7 (?)	14568 (?)	-	https://dps.report/Vt7S-20220412-174227_frae
Harvest Temple	-	18.2 (?)	8987 (?)	2850 (?)	https://dps.report/IvCt-20220412-173128_void
Kaineng	-	13.8 (?)	7386 (?)	-	https://dps.report/fsD5-20220412-140933_li

Next Steps

If you enjoy the build and want to push it further, you can iterate on the Gear + Food section quite easily. Add extra sigils, extra food options, and infusion slots as you can afford them and just recalculate!

The build scales decently up to X APM -> Y DPS, but after that it plateaus and more APM results in diminished returns. If you are able to hit that APM, I recommend playing the Snow Crows build, or at the very least experimenting with the original Dueling traits and Phantasm sequencing as they have a higher skill cap.

2022-09-28 Balance Patch

Bladesong Sorrow Will lose its innate bleeds. SnowCrows folks anticipate about a 1k drop in DPS for their virt builds so I expect the same for this build.

However,  Fury will go up to 25% base crit and Quiet Intensity will also get another 5% buff to crit chance. Since this build already assumes no banners to crit cap and eats precision food by default (for flexibility), this build will be able to drop precision food altogether and get ~100 stat points to work with, meaning fewer Rampager pieces and more Viper/Sinister pieces.

I will try to update the build on the 27th with some theory craft to be ready for the patch (and my HT CM prog). If you have legendary gear you can tinker at patch time by swapping rampager for viper/sinister and going for 60% crit without  Fury. If you do not have legendary gear, and can't commit to gear changes, just drop precision food and go with torment food or happily eat asc food people drop.

Thank Yous

1. Big thanks to Snow Crows for their Condi Virtuoso build and frankly every build, guide, record, and all the community support they provide.
2. Big thanks to REMagic.8937 for providing feedback on the build/wiki. Check out their Youtube which has SC Condi Virt benches as well as Low APM Mirage builds.
3. Big thanks to Stayster for testing the build as a new mesmer player and providing feedback.

Questions, Comments, Concerns?

Feel free to leave comments on the discussion page or contact me in game at Awesumness.1823 or discord at Awesumness#2402 or twitch where I regularly play the build and walk through its gameplay.

Appendix

First Draft Feedback

1. Less ranty on phantasms.
2. Add Mantra of Concentration to SoI alternative skills.
3. Create "Burst" section describing how to burst with SoI.
4. For more APM->DPS scaling datapoints, layer on:
   1. 1 Phantasm off CD (~2 APM)
   2. Both phantasms off CD (~5 APM)
   3. Thousand Cuts off CD (~1 APM)
5. Better clarify the importance of restocking after Bladesongs to replenish Compounding Power and Illusionary Defense

Random Scratchpad of Ideas

1. Maybe offhand torch for a blast finisher and stealth? May not be GREAT, but may be interesting to test stealth mechanics on fights since I haven't really tried stealth on any build.
2. Maybe tormenting runes for more consistent self regen and swapping sigils/traits to help cap on bleed duration.
3. Preemptive build for 2022-06-28 Patch: https://optimizer.discretize.eu/?s=_LM07UzIv1
   1. Second iteration with fixed builder? https://optimizer.discretize.eu/?s=PKdEx5pfv1