User:Masel/Builds/Virtuoso

Condition Virtuoso

Build Rating (Subjective)

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

Skill Type	Skills
Dagger + Torch (Chaos)
Offhand Sword (Dueling)
Offhand Focus (Dueling)
Utility (Chaos)
Utility (Dueling)

Blades and Related Traits

• 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

•   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

• 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

Utility Skills

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)

• The Chaos variant includes a very simple rotation that involves using the following skills on cooldown:

1.   Unstable Bladestorm
2.   Bladesong Sorrow - Only use with 5 Blades.
3.   Bladesong Harmony - Only use with 5 Blades.
4.   Bladeturn Requiem - Only use with 5 Blades. This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
5.   Thousand Cuts - This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
6.   Bladecall
7.   Rain of Swords

• With  Chaos, your damage scales with having Chaos Aura. You have two sources for it:

1.   Bladesong Sorrow triggers it due to  Illusionary Membrane.
2.   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)

• 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:

1.   Unstable Bladestorm
2.   Bladesong Sorrow - Only use with 5 Blades.
3.   Bladesong Harmony - Only use with 5 Blades.
4.   Bladeturn Requiem - Only use with 5 Blades. This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
5.   Thousand Cuts - This is instant cast and can thus be used during other skills.
6.   Bladecall
7.   Rain of Swords

Opener

• 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

• 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

• 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

•   Bladesong Dissonance
•   Counter Blade
•   Into the Void
•   Signet of Domination

Gear

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. At least 60% Critical Chance: with  Quiet Intensity,  Fury gives 40% for 100% in total.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Shoulders	Rampager's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Chest	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Gloves	Rampager's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Legs	Rampager's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Boots	Rampager's	Superior Rune of the Krait
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Sinister
Ring 1	Rampager's
Ring 2	Rampager's
Accessory 1	Rampager's
Accessory 2	Rampager's
Backpack	Rampager's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Dagger (Main Hand)	Sinister	Superior Sigil of Bursting
Torch (Off Hand 1 - Chaos)	Sinister	Superior Sigil of Earth
Sword (Off Hand 1 - Dueling)	Sinister	Superior Sigil of Earth
Focus (Off Hand 2- Dueling)	Sinister	Superior Sigil of Earth
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Plate of Beef Rendang
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters Gnashblade
Damage	Utility	Toxic Focusing Crystal
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic (Chaos)	Relic of the Fractal
Damage	Relic (Dueling)	Relic of the Aristocracy
Survivability	Relic	Relic of Durability

• 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

Dueling Variant

Dueling
Illusions
Virtuoso

Chaos Variant

Chaos
Illusions
Virtuoso

DPS Rotation Showcase

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here (includes Chaos & Dueling).

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

Link to the Open World Build

Increasing General Survivability

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:

1. Sword includes self- Might coverage in melee range and another Block.
2. Shield gives you another Block, a Stun and Boons to allies ( Protection,  Might and  Fury).
3. Focus grants  Swiftness to allies and the ability to group up enemies with   Temporal Curtain &   Into the Void.
4. Pistol retains full range and includes additional  Confusion and Defiance bar damage.

Boon Coverage

•   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

•   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.