| abstract | - The doppelganger will have the same skills you equip and has 12 in every attribute. The key to winning the battle is to bring skills that you can use more intelligently than it can. The following tactics are effective or helpful in defeating the doppelganger: Punish the doppleganger for attacking Hexes, enchantments, stances, and weapon skills that do damage to your opponent when it attacks can be useful if you use them and then do not attack yourself. Use ranged weapon attacks at melee range The doppelganger will use a melee weapon when in melee range and a ranged weapon when not in melee range. This prevents kiting, but does mean that if you're in melee range and use a ranged weapon, the doppelganger will use a melee weapon, and will be unable to use ranged weapon skills. Use weapons that inflict a type of damage required for certain skills The doppelganger's weapon will not have any special mods. If you bring skills that trigger on a particular type of damage and use a weapon mod to make your weapon do that type of damage, the doppelganger will not have the same type of weapon and will be unable to take advantage of the skills. Use a pet and equip mostly pet skills The doppelganger will have no pet, even if you have one, and will be unable to take advantage of pet skills. Bring useless skills If you bring skills that are of no use in this fight and do not use them yourself, the doppelganger will sometimes waste time and energy casting them. This can be particularly useful for ranger spirits with long casting times. The doppelganger is especially fond of spamming Lively Was Naomei as often as possible. Activate buffs early You can cast enchantments, use preparations, summon item spells, and activate other similar skills before stepping on the third stone to start the cut scene. This saves casting time and prevents the doppelganger from interrupting them. (Stances can also be activated early, although this is less beneficial since they have no activation time.) The only exception to this is forms, which are removed when the cutscene begins. If you aren't attacking, try dodging The doppelganger generally will not dodge, but you can if you keep your distance. Dodging means you have to go a while without attacking, but this can be useful if you're not attacking. Bring skills the doppleganger is likely to remove quickly Skills that are removed when you attack or use another skill (for example Restful Breeze) can be useful, as the doppelganger will likely remove the skill immediately after using it, denying itself the benefit of the skill that you get. Strongly consider not bringing any self-healing Self-healing skills can be dangerous, as if you can heal yourself and the doppelganger can also heal itself, that can easily lead to a stalemate in which neither of you can kill the other. Use PvE-only skills The doppelganger cannot use PvE-only skills, giving you advantages that it cannot copy. In normal mode with max equipment, no skills are needed A level 20 character can usually clear the mission and bonus in normal mode using "max" armor for their profession and a max damage weapon with a fulfilled attribute requirement (both available from various collectors in the Crystal Desert), and an empty skill bar. Bring armor-ignoring damage In hard mode, the doppelganger is level 30, which greatly increases both weapon and spell damage for any damage affected by armor. Armor-ignoring damage does not scale up, so it can help to use quite a bit of it to neutralize the doppelganger's advantage here.
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