Illusionary Defense

Gain a stacking damage reduction whenever you summon an illusion. Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade. — In-game description

Illusionary Defense

Specialization

Chaos (trait list)

Tier

Adept

Type

Major

Training cost

3 Hero points

Game link

API

API

“

Gain a stacking damage reduction whenever you summon an illusion.

Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade.

  Illusionary Defense (5s): -5% Incoming Damage

  Illusionary Defense (5s): -2% Incoming Damage

  Maximum Stacks: 5

— In-game description

Related skills

Weapon skills that are improved by this trait

•   Phantasmal Duelist — Pistol
•   Ether Clone — Scepter
•   Illusionary Counter — Scepter
•   Counterspell — Scepter
•   Illusionary Leap — Sword
•   Illusionary Riposte — Sword
•   Phantasmal Swordsman — Sword
•   Phantasmal Warden — Focus
•   Phantasmal Mage — Torch
•   Mirror Blade — Greatsword
•   Phantasmal Berserker — Greatsword
•   Phase Retreat — Staff
•   Phantasmal Warlock — Staff
•   Feigned Surge — Spear
•   Phantasmal Mariner — Spear
•   Imminent Voyage — Trident
•   Phantasmal Whaler — Trident
•   Echo of Memory — Shield
•   Deja Vu — Shield
•   Lingering Thoughts — Axe
•   Bladecall — Dagger
•   Blade Leap — Sword

Utility skills that are improved by this trait

•   Decoy — Clone
•   Mirror Images — Clone
•   Phantasmal Defender — Phantasm
•   Phantasmal Disenchanter — Phantasm
•   Blade Renewal — Psionic

Downed skills that are improved by this trait

•   Deception
•   Phantasmal Rogue

Drowning skills that are improved by this trait

•   Deception
•   Phantasmal Rogue

Trait skills that are improved by this trait

•   Decoy — Desperate Decoy
•   Lesser Phantasmal Defender — Mental Defense

Related traits

Traits that are improved by this trait

Dueling

• Deceptive Evasion — Create a clone at your current position when you dodge.

Illusions

• Escape Artist — Create a clone when you gain stealth.

Virtuoso

• Psychic Blades — Whenever a clone would be summoned, you instead stock a blade. Blades persist indefinitely until used. Your shatters are replaced with Bladesongs that consume your stocked blades, but still count as shatters for the purposes of core traits. While out of combat, you will automatically stock a blade every 10 seconds.
• Psychic Riposte — Blocking or dodging an attack stocks blades and causes your next Bladesong to be unblockable.
• Infinite Forge — Automatically stock blades while in combat.
• Bloodsong — Bleeding you apply deals increased damage. Stock a blade after applying enough stacks of bleeding to foes.

Notes

• This specifically reduces incoming strike damage.

Version history

For a detailed trait history, see here.

Patch	Changes
November 30, 2021	Added clarifying text stating that for Virtuoso, this trait triggers when stocking a blade.
October 26, 2021	Multiplicative damage reduction enhancements have been updated to display how much damage was reduced by rather than displaying how much the damage is multiplied by. For example, protection now displays "-33% Damage" instead of "67% damage." This is not a change to functionality; it is only a change to display the bonus in a more intuitively understandable way.
October 05, 2021	All effects that provide a percentage reduction to incoming damage have been standardized to stack multiplicatively.
May 22, 2018	The damage reduction per stack this trait applies is now split between game modes and has been reduced from -5% per stack to -2% in PvP and WvW.
February 06, 2018	This trait now grants a stacking 5% damage-reduction enhancement (maximum of 5 stacks) for 5 seconds whenever you summon an illusion.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Updated this trait to reflect the introduction of the specialization mechanic.
October 15, 2013	Fixed this trait to properly decrease damage taken by 3% per illusion.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Illusionary Defense has been added to the game.