Zypp.7921

First off, no class is bad in pve! Both elite specializations are good in their own way and have a very different playstyle. With mirage you will find ways to generate as much endurance (the fuel for dodging) as possible. Start with a build [such as this one](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mirage_-_Condi_Mirage). It is a very safe, simple, ranged build because you get to dodge so much and dodging is a dps increase. It deals damage over time. You can freely spice it up by using scepter with either torch or pistol instead of a second staff. If you go for this, [you could eventually go full axe](https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/mesmer/mirage/condition/) and learn how to play the best confusion based dps builds in the game, which is very good for certain bosses which fire of skills very fast. However, the axe build has a more complicated rotation and is only really used for a couple of raid bosses. Chronomancer has a more complicated rotation, even for [a simplified open world build](http://https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Phantasmal_Duelist). Chronomancer focuses on resetting cooldowns to spawn as many phantasms as possible in a small time window. In my opinion, chronomancer is one of the strongest elite specs for open world because it is very self reliant. You can give yourself powerful boons (quickness and alacrity) that normally require a boon support. This makes it one of the strongest solo dps builds in the game. You can also customize the chronomancer to give quickness to many people, making it a very useful build in open world events (it really speeds them up). Chronomancer is also very useful in end game content because of their dps, boon support and tanking abilities.

A berserker thief can carry the entire game with minimal damage and kills. Something like 200k damage can represent 8 unfavorable duels that the thief won. It could also be the amount of damage a trap dh did in three midfights that were won due to some critical interrupts and stomps by the thief. You can get a lot of damage/healing by 1v1ing on a point that's owned by the enemy team. Which is not a good thing to do. As far as I know, kills is just how many people died that you tagged at some point before that. How is a berserker roamer supposed to compete with a support for kills? This 'feature' will just make people throw more because they believe they are the best on their team and so they will start playing for top stats instead of the win when their team starts losing. I don't think implementing a system sophisticated enough to properly detect game throwing is worth the resources it will cost to implement. It would probably take a machine learning team a couple of years to do this.

I played a disgusting mesmer phantasm build before the trait rework in 2015 (which was a few months before HoT). At this time phantasms still stick around, attacking over and over until they are killed. They also take up one of your 3 illusion slots. This is where 3 inconspicuous little traits come into play: 1. [Crippling Dissipation](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crippling_Dissipation): Clones cripple nearby foes when they are killed. 2. [Confusing Combatants](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Confusing_Combatants): Your illusions cause confusion to foes around them when they are killed. 3. [Debilitating Dissipation](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Debilitating_Dissipation): Clones apply a random condition to nearby foes when they are killed. (bleeding, vulnerability or weakness). The thing is. When you have 2 phantasms and 1 clone and you create a new clone, it always replaces the clone and keeps your 2 phantasms while triggering all 3 traits. Rest of the build: rampager stats (power, precision, condi damage), blink, mirror images and decoy to stay alive and generate clones. I forgot most of the other traits but I did use deceptive evasion to create a clone on dodge. Staff and sword/pistol. Pistol gives a really good hybrid damage phantasm when traited to bleed on crit and the staff phantasm deals more damage for each unique condition (which is a lot). Staff and sword are great kiting weapons. It may not seem like much, but imagine playing a core build against this mesmer. They don't need line of sight to attack you, they can hide and kite while phantasms do the work. If you do get close (especially as melee), you will automatically cleave clones and get cripple, confusion, bleeding, vulnerability and weakness. Both f1 and f2 shatters deal a lot of damage with rampager stats and can be used when phantasms are off cooldown or just to finish the fight. It's a very strong build for going far and winning 1v1's and kiting 1v2's for a long time.