Augury Rock

This is the area in the Mesa you access during the mission Augury Rock. To get here, talk to Great Ritual Priest Zahmut. Here you can find your Doppelganger and the key to ascend. This is a solo-mission. To access the mesa, you have to light the three shrines by walking into the circle so you have the Divine Fire enchantment on you. You can only do this if you have completed Dunes of Despair, Thirsty River and Elona Reach.

Objectives

 * Defeat your Doppelganger.
 * *BONUS* Defeat the Doppelganger in under 10 minutes. (in Normal mode)
 * *BONUS* Defeat the Doppelganger in under 2 minutes. (in Hard mode)

Reward
In Normal mode:
 * 1,000 XP for mission completion.
 * 1,000 XP for completion of the bonus objective.
 * 50,000 XP Ascension bonus for a character completing this mission for the first time; unless that character had already completed Nahpui Quarter (Factions) or Hunted! (Nightfall).

In Hard mode:
 * 2,000 XP, 500, and 1 skill point for mission completion.
 * 2,000 XP, 500, and 1 skill point for completion of the bonus objective.

Walkthrough


Your only objective is to defeat the Doppelganger; you meet the bonus objective by killing it within 10 minutes (2 minutes on Hard mode).

To reach your opponent's location, speak to Great Ritual Priest Zahmut, who will take you to the area with the ghosts you met during the previous three missions. Walk past them and step on each of the three stones marked with ascension runes (the order does not matter). After a brief cinematic (showing the rock break open), you will be face to face with the doppel.

Understanding the Doppelganger

 * The Doppelganger is level 20 (Normal mode) or level 30 (Hard mode); it has 12 in each attribute and equips the same skills as you.
 * It uses maximum damage weapons without any mods. It uses a spear and switches to an axe when in melee range. In Hard mode, its axe appears to deal lightning damage.
 * It generally casts protections and invokes spirits before turning to attacks.
 * It generally heals itself and interrupts more effectively than you can.

General strategies
The key to defeating the Doppelganger is to bring skills that you can use more intelligently than it can; you cannot outperform it.

Your advantages

 * You may cast enchantments just before you are warped to the arena.
 * It uses health regeneration skills to counter degeneration, but not to counter health loss.
 * It wastes energy casting useless buffs (e.g. Air Attunement even if it lacks other Air attribute skills)
 * It does not bring a pet or a shield (and cannot take advantage of the related skills).
 * Although you can dodge, your opponent rarely will.
 * The Doppel does not manage skill combos well; it tends to prioritize the skill bar from left to right, so you can benefit by arranging sequences or chains oddly.
 * It will foolishly use skills that remove useful enchantments or stances.
 * It does not use title-based skills (e.g. Asuran skills), except for Winds.
 * Both you and the Doppel are under the effects of the Divine Fire enchantment for the duration of the mission.

Tactics

 * Employ special builds and/or tactics; general purpose builds and techniques will not work in this mission.
 * Avoid bringing your most powerful skills, since your opponent will use them against you.
 * Bring skills that you can use more efficiently than than the Doppel.
 * Employ only two attributes and use runes, so that your rank in those attributes is higher than the Doppel's (which is always 12).
 * You are not required to bring a full set of 8 skills.
 * Ensure you have max armor. If you do not have it yet, you can obtain it quickly through collectors in the Crystal Desert.

Gimmick builds
There are many builds that take advantage of your opponent's inability to use most PvE-only skills. One reliable combination is to bring Ursan Blessing, Pain Inverter, and an Asura summon. Alternatively, Ebon Vanguard Sniper Support plus Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support can kill the Doppelganger within seconds.

Warrior

 * Do not bring any healing skills such as Healing Signet, only spammable melee attack skills. You should be able to attack faster, and the Doppelganger will not be able to heal.
 * Bring Frenzy, but do not use it. Instead, just attack the Doppelganger and let it use Frenzy.
 * Bring Wild Blow and a number of adrenal skills. Use only adrenal skills while letting the Doppelganger lose its adrenaline from Wild Blow.
 * Any build with a couple of skills you don't use, i.e. Wild Blow, Frenzy and Sprint mixed with Enraging Charge, Galrath Slash and Sun and Moon Slash offset the Doppelganger because the adrenaline of Galrath Slash and Sun and Moon Slash will be lost by the Doppelganger using Wild Blow.
 * Bring Deadly Riposte and Dolyak Signet. Set your Strength to 15 so Dolyak Signet can be kept on constantly, and max out Tactics so that Deadly Riposte will do a lot of damage. Do not attack, simply keep Dolyak Signet active and use Deadly Riposte when it recharges and the Doppelganger will do the rest for you.
 * Move within melee range so the Doppelganger changes to axe, as Deadly Riposte only triggers on melee attacks.
 * A very good idea for any level is to bring Dolyak Signet, Frenzy, Riposte, Deadly Riposte, and "For Great Justice!". Put as many points in Strength and Tactics as possible and equip a sword. Stay in melee range and use "For Great Justice!" and Dolyak Signet. Use Riposte/Deadly Riposte as much as possible and it will be dead quickly.
 * Use an elemental damaging weapon and the complementing Elementalist "Conjure (Flame/Frost/Lightning)" spell. The Doppleganger does not have an elemental weapon, so you will out-damage it.
 * A very simple combo is Flurry and Whirlwind Attack. Use a shield with an axe or sword and it will go down in 15-20 seconds at a comfortable health difference.
 * Hard mode - Dolyak Signet as soon as you are in its melee range, Deadly Riposte quickly after that, and then Gladiator's Defense. When it ends use Disciplined Stance, then Shield Stance, and the signet to receive as little damage as possible. Do not melee attack it. Keep using Deadly Riposte and Gladiator's Defense to deal damage. Attribute points should be divided between Strength and Tactics.
 * Hard mode - Bring Mark of Rodgort, Dolyak Signet and Defy Pain with a fiery weapon. Start using Mark of Rodgort, and then come and just attack it and use Defy Pain every time you can. The Doppelganger does not have an elemental weapon, so you will not be affected by Mark of Rodgort.
 * Hard mode - Take Flurry, Disciplined Stance, Shield Stance, Deadly Riposte, Riposte, "Watch Yourself!", Gladiator's Defense and Empathy. Put Empathy on it and just use the defensive skills to keep yourself alive while it kills itself.
 * Hard mode - Bring Empathy, Signet of Midnight and Flurry. Put Empathy on it and then Signet of Midnight. Keep using these 2 skills. He'll attack with Flurry and die within a minute without you getting hit.
 * Hard mode - Bring Empathy, Shield Stance and Frenzy. Cast Empathy and use Shield Stance whenever available. Do not attack him. Instead, let him use Frenzy and attack you. Recast Empathy when required. The Doppelganger should kill itself well within the 2 minute mark.

Ranger

 * Bring Troll Unguent and an interrupt skill; it will not interrupt you, while you can easily prevent it from healing.
 * Bring an animal companion and use pet attacks. The Doppelganger will not have an animal companion if you have Charm Animal or Comfort Animal equipped.
 * Bring several spammable attack skills. You should be able to activate them more quickly than the Doppelganger.
 * Bring only bow attacks and any preparation (except Apply Poison, since it can affect any weapon). Activate the preparation before the cinematic. Move within melee range of the Doppelganger. It will change to a melee weapon for which it has no skills equipped. Attack the Doppelganger with the bow attacks.
 * Bring several traps and plant them along the side walkways. Avoid and lure the Doppelganger into them, and it will eventually die.
 * Use spammable blocking skills, a pet, and Otyugh's Cry to render them all useless on the Doppelganger.
 * Bring a large number of Nature Rituals. The Doppelganger will waste time activating the rituals which will help or harm both sides equally.
 * Hard mode - Bring 5 Nature Rituals, Predatory Bond, Rampage as One and a pet, attack until dead. Using Predatory Bond if you feel that you need healing.
 * Hard mode - Bring 5 Nature Rituals, Troll Unguent, an area of effect skill, and Distracting Shot. The Doppelganger will waste time activating the rituals. Make sure to bring Quickening Zephyr so the Nature Rituals recharge quicker. On about the third Nature Ritual, the Doppelganger will use Troll Unguent. Use Distracting Shot on it at that moment. When all five Nature Rituals are done, the Doppelganger will use the area of effect skill. Just move out of the way. After this use your area of effect skill (it may be interrupted). The Doppelganger and its rituals should be in the same area. This will destroy its Nature Rituals so it has to make new ones. Heal when you need to, just continue attacking it until it is dead.
 * Hard mode - Bring 6 Nature Rituals, Melandru's Arrows and Penetrating Attack. Since you both have an enchantment on you (Divine Fire), your attacks will inflict constant bleeding and deal +24 damage. Every two attacks you can use Penetrating Attack. This should kill it very quickly.
 * Hard mode - Bring the rituals Lacerate or Toxicity, and pet attacks that inflict conditions such as Poisonous Bite or Feral Lunge. With no way to inflict conditions on you, only the Doppleganger will suffer from heavy health degeneration.

Monk

 * Since Monks are mostly support characters, strategies for your secondary profession may work better.
 * The Doppelganger will only use Healing Breeze to counter health degeneration, not health loss. Bring this as the only skill and wand it to death.
 * Bring Blessed Aura, Divine Boon, Life Attunement, Holy Veil and four damaging skills from Smiting Prayers. Use only the Smiting Prayers skills, while the Doppelganger wastes its energy on maintained enchantments it cannot benefit from.
 * A 55 Monk build works well in Normal mode.
 * The AI currently does not consider Ray of Judgment as an area of effect skill, therefore it will not run from your rays. Evade the incoming rays and you should eventually be the one left standing. Combine with Arcane Echo for a faster fight.
 * Hard mode - Bring Retribution, Shield of Judgment, Holy Strike, and Dismiss Condition. Precast Retribution. As soon as you enter cast Shield of Judgment. A weapon with an of Enchanting upgrade and/or Blessed Aura will help keep Shield of Judgment up longer. Use Holy Strike whenever the Doppelganger is knocked down. You will be enchanted and the Doppelganger won't use Dismiss Condition to heal itself (unless you inflict a condition on it), so spam Dismiss Condition for healing.
 * Hard mode - As Monk/Necromancer, bring Scourge Sacrifice, Awaken the Blood, and several skills that require health sacrifice (e.g. an Orders skill and Blood Renewal work pretty well). Enter the area, cast Scourge Sacrifice and let it kill itself.
 * Hard mode - A 55 Monk build combined with a fitting damage-dealing skill, such as Spoil Victor, Insidious Parasite, Empathy or Shield of Judgment.

Necromancer

 * Max out Curses, bring Insidious Parasite. Do not attack; maintain the curse, wait for it to kill itself. Do not run to melee range, its axe will do more damage than its spear. Necrosis, Empathy or Spiteful Spirit can speed up the process if available, but aren't needed. Another skill to consider, since you won't be attacking is Enfeebling Blood - the Doppleganger will cast this with every opportunity, sacrificing 10% of its health.
 * Hard mode - As above, but add defensive curses like Price of Failure or Enfeeble. Some protective (monk) enchantments work, too, since life stealing isn't affected by most of them.
 * Hard mode Secondary Mesmer: Price of Failure, Reckless Haste and Empathy. Some blocking or blinding skills can be added, too. As you get a lot of damage with every hit, the result might be pretty close but in any case the battle ends quickly.
 * An interesting, but unreliable tactic is based around sacrifice. Equip Masochism, Awaken the Blood and some semi-useless sacrifice skills, such as Blood Renewal and Dark Fury. The AI will sacrifice almost all of its life, but will not kill itself unless you add Scourge Sacrifice. Add further curses from the previous tactics to finish it off.

Mesmer

 * Bring Empathy. Do not attack, maintain the hex, wait for it to kill itself. If you take too much damage, add Distortion, Physical Resistance and/or Spirit of Failure.
 * Hard mode - Bring Empathy and Signet of Midnight. This might be combined with a secondary Warrior and Frenzy - however, do not use Frenzy yourself, just for the enemy.
 * Hard mode - Bring Backfire, Shatter Enchantment and many long-casting enchantments that won't benefit it (Attunements work well for this). Place Shatter Enchantment in slot 7, and Backfire in slot 8. When the battle starts, the Doppelganger will prioritize spells from left to right, allowing you to cast Backfire while it is still casting enchantments on itself. After casting Shatter Enchantment, the Doppelganger may try to cast Backfire on you, so it is often best to wait until the Doppelganger is starting to run low on health before casting Shatter Enchantment.
 * Hard mode - Combine Backfire with Wastrel's Worry and Cry of Pain. Use Cry of Pain to interrupt Backfire. Spam Wastrel's Worry to trigger Backfire on the Doppelganger.

Elementalist

 * Bring many worthless, slow casting skills, like Attunements, Conjure spells, a Glyph and maybe enchantments from your secondary profession. Place a simple damaging spell (like Flare) in the rightmost skill slot. Cast the enchantments you need before the cinematic. Then kill the Doppelganger while it's busy setting up enchantments and glyphs.
 * If you have an elemental weapon, bring Conjure Flame, Conjure Frost, or Conjure Lightning depending on your weapon and (if available) Glyph of Elemental Power. Cast the Glyph and then Conjure before the cinematic. The Doppelganger does not have an elemental weapon, so its weapon will not be boosted; you should win by simply attacking.
 * Bring only Blinding Flash. When you begin, use Blinding Flash and activate it every time Blindness wears off. Wand or staff it to death. Equipping a martial weapon will make the Doppelganger use Blinding Flash on you.
 * Hard mode - same as the first tactic, but you need to bring a stronger damage-dealing spell or multiple spells. Also bring Lightning Orb to offset the Doppelganger's higher armor rating in Hard mode.
 * Hard mode - Bring only Blinding Flash and either Empathy (secondary Mesmer) or Insidious Parasite (secondary Necromancer). Maintain blind and the hex. It will kill itself while doing virtually no damage to you. You can add Armor of Earth, Armor of Frost, Enfeeble, Mist Form, or Ward Against Melee to make it even safer.
 * Hard mode - Use Elemental Lord skill to heal yourself and increase your attribute skills. Remember to precast all enchantments before the cinematic so you will have time to cast your spells on him.

Assassin

 * Bring Unsuspecting Strike, Wild Strike, Horns of the Ox, Falling Spider, Critical Strike and Desperate Strike. Activate the skills in order. If you have 30+ energy, you can replace Critical Strike with Twisting Fangs. Using Critical Eye in advance also helps with energy.
 * *An alternate build to the one above for a A/W is this skill line: Frenzy, Critical Eye, Way of Perfection, Golden Lotus Strike, Fox Fangs, Death Blossom, Flourish(Elite). Run in, do not use Frenzy but cast everything in order, once Flourish has been used start again at Way of Perfection, it goes down faster than any other way.
 * Set Dagger Mastery at 16 and Critical Strikes at 15 and bring Critical Eye, Way of the Assassin,   Wild Strike, Death Blossom, and "You Move Like a Dwarf!". Wait until you are almost in melee range and knock him down with "You Move Like a Dwarf!" then spam your skill bar in this order: Jagged Strike, Fox Fangs, Critical Strike, Jagged Strike again, Wild Strike, Death Blossom and repeat if needed. As you have a 65% chance to critical with every attack, energy management is taken care of. It is possible to kill within 10 seconds.
 * Bring Unsuspecting Strike, Wild Strike, Repeating Strike, Twisting Fangs. Before the cinematic, use Critical Agility then go in. Activate the first two skills and then hit it with Repeating Strike twice, then use Twisting Fangs and you should kill it.
 * Hard mode - Bring any dagger combo that starts with Shock and includes Horns of the Ox. Moebius Strike and Critical Agility are helpful but not required. With fast fingers and luck you can interrupt the Doppelganger's Shock with your own, and then kill it.
 * Hard mode - Bring Sneak Attack, Wild Strike, Shattering Assault, and Critical Strike. Use Critical Defenses and Critical Agility before entering. The Doppleganger will not be able to start a combo, it will be blinded, and its defenses will be removed with Shattering Assault.
 * Hard mode - Bring Locust's Fury, Critical Eye, Critical Agility, Asuran Scan, Strength of Honor, and Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support. Set attributes to 11 Smiting Prayers, 10 Dagger Mastery, and 10 Critical Strikes. Before entering the arena, activate all of your enchantments and Critical Eye and wait for energy to refill to at least 15, then enter. Cast Asuran Scan and Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support on it and attack. If done right it will kill in less than 10 seconds.
 * Hard mode - Bring any lead and off-hand attack with Death Blossom, Moebius Strike, and 4 Nature Rituals. Start the attack chain and use Death Blossom and Moebius Strike until dead.

Ritualist

 * Bring Dissonance, Shadowsong, Painful Bond, Brutal Weapon, Earthbind, Shelter and Union. After the cinematic cast Dissonance, Shadowsong, Painful Bond and Brutal Weapon, then start attacking the Doppelganger. Dissonance should prevent the Doppelganger from summoning spirits, and Earthbind, Shelter and Union should waste the Doppelganger's time.
 * Bring any Signet of Spirits build. At the start of the fight, run as far back as you can and cast all your spirits. The Doppleganger will cast its in the middle of the map, so you will be outside of the range of its spirits. It will then run towards you. Cast Painful Bond and the spirits will kill it.
 * Hard mode - Bring only Vengeful Weapon and Vengeful Was Khanhei (or Xinrae's Weapon or Weapon of Remedy). Move within attack range of the Doppelganger and spam Vengeful Weapon on yourself without attacking. The Doppelganger will kill itself attacking you. This method easily works for a secondary Ritualist as well.

Paragon

 * Bring nothing but chants (excluding Ballad of Restoration, Chorus of Restoration, Defensive Anthem and Song of Restoration). Do not use any skills, just attack the Doppelganger while it wastes time activating chants it cannot benefit from.
 * Bring only spear attacks (such as Disrupting Throw, Cruel Spear, Harrier's Toss, and Slayer's Spear) and chants (such as Anthem of Flame). Move within melee range of the Doppelganger. It will change to a melee weapon for which it has no skills equipped. Attack the Doppelganger with the spear attacks.
 * Bring Soldier's Fury, "There's Nothing to Fear!", and Spear of Lightning, the Doppelganger should die in less then 30 seconds.

Dervish

 * If you have a form up before activating the final glyph, it will be removed before entering the hall with the Doppelganger.
 * Bring spammable scythe attacks. You should be able to use them more quickly than the Doppelganger.
 * Bring no skills and just attack. Your scythe will deal more damage than its axe most of the time.
 * Hard mode - Change secondary profession to Mesmer, set both Earth Prayers and Domination Magic to 12. Equip Mirage Cloak and Empathy. Maintain Mirage Cloak and Empathy without attacking until the Doppelganger dies. You can alternately use Signet of Midnight instead of or supplementally with Mirage Cloak to decrease the Doppelganger's chance of a successful attack.
 * Hard mode - Ebon Dust Aura with an earth-damage scythe (such as Bubahl's Grasp).

Allies

 * 20 Lord Valodor
 * 20 Commander Joziah
 * 20 General Mendoza

Foes

 * 20 (30) Doppelganger

End cinematic

 * Narrator
 * "Reach out and take hold of your destiny."
 * "Your ascendance is now complete."