Guide to defeating doppelganger

The following tactics have been suggested to beat the Doppelganger:

General Tips:

 * In general, the doppelganger will equip the same skills you equip, so don't equip any skill you wouldn't want used against you.
 * Think very carefully before bringing any skill that can be used to heal yourself.
 * Equip lots of slow-casting self-buffs: the less useful in the one-on-one fight, the better. The AI will waste time at the beginning of the fight casting every buff on itself.
 * For all ranged attackers, stay on higher ground. Ranged attacks from higher to lower ground do more damage.
 * Cast any self-buff enchantments before stepping on the third stone that starts the cutscene. It will last into the match.

Elementalist Tips:

 * Equip ranged area-of-effect damage-over-time spells such as Fire Storm and Meteor Shower. When these are used against you, you can just move out of the area of effect, while the AI is often not smart enough to do so.
 * Bring lots of skills with very long cast times and only one or two "spammable" skills. The Doppleganger will usually focus on the longer skills and allow you to gain the advantage by wise use of the spammable skills. This is not foolproof, but the AI tends to use all of its skills relatively evenly, whereas a human is smart enough to focus on different skills at different times.
 * Bring a lot of skills which cause Exhaustion and one or two which do not. Don't use any skills which cause Exhaustion, but let the AI do so. It will run out of energy before you do.

Mesmer Tips:

 * Bring Backfire and Empathy. The AI is not smart enough to refrain from casting / attacking while hexed with those skills and will quickly kill itself. However, be wary of them being casted on you, as they can hurt you just as much as the monster if you're not cautious.
 * Illusion of Haste is often a good idea. The Doppleganger will waste time casting it (and give itself an Enchantment you can Shatter), but since neither of you is likely to be chasing the other, it will do it little good.
 * Don't bring a lot of interrupts. The AI almost always has faster reflexes than you, so you'll get interrupted more than it will. Only bring interrupts if you have also equipped a skill with a very lengthy cast time (let the AI use this skill, ignore it yourself).
 * Be careful if you bring any skills which damage the opponent's energy, such as Energy Burn or Energy Tap. Although the exact amount of energy that the Doppleganger has is unknown, it's almost certain to have more than you.
 * Ether Lord can be extremely effective or completely worthless, depending upon luck. If the Doppleganger casts it early on, it will have a distinct energy disadvantage. You may wish to combine it with Mind Wrack in hopes of the AI draining its own energy with Ether Lord, thereby triggering Mind Wrack.

Monk Tips:

 * Consider bringing Healing Breeze. The AI currently will not use Healing Breeze for ordinary healing, however it does use Healing Breeze to counter health degeneration from conditions or hexes.
 * Bring smiting spells. You can reportedly cast them faster than the AI will. You can easily defeat the Mirror Self by only using Zealot's Fire and Reversal of Fortune.
 * Bring useless maintenance spells. If you bring at least 4 then the AI will cast them all on itself and have no energy regeneration (or even negative if you have more than 4). Divine Boon will cost them extra energy when they heal, when they run out of enery they will stop healing and have no benefit. Life Attunement will make them deal less damage and since they can not heal due to lack of energy they get no benefit. Blessed Aura is good too since they can not cast enchantments anyway. Holy Veil is good if you don't plan to use hexes.

Necromancer Tips:

 * Equip hexes such as Malign Intervention which take time and energy to cast but which won't accomplish anything useful in the one-on-one fight. The AI will waste time and energy casting them on you.
 * Bring spells which require a health sacrifice: the less useful in the one-on-one fight, the better. The AI will waste its own health casting these.
 * If you bring lots of health sacrifice skills, bring Awaken the Blood so the doppelganger damages itself even more through sacrifice.
 * Don't bother with Life Siphon or Life Transfer. The AI will likely cast them on you, also, so at best it will be an even trade and cancel out.
 * For a necro warrior, equip a sword and shield. The doppelganger will have an axe and bow.  You will have a distinct armor bias.
 * Even though it carries a healing component, Order of the Vampire is one of the most effective skills to bring, because it carries a relatively high health sacrifice and only lasts 5 seconds, so the Doppleganger will usually recast it very frequently, damaging itself in the process far more than it damages you. Dark Fury also works in much the same manner, but is exceedingly difficult to obtain by the Doppleganger battle.
 * If you find that the Doppleganger attacks more than it casts, bring Enfeeble and Shadow of Fear. If you find that it casts more than it attacks, bring Desecrate Enchantments and a lot of worthless enchantments.
 * Take all points out of Soul Reaping before you go in to battle. They won't do you any good.
 * If you have a reliable way to regain energy (like many Inspiration Magic skills, or certain Elementalist skills), bring Malaise. The health degeneration will hurt the Doppleganger more than the Energy degeneration will hurt you.
 * If you are a Monk secondary (or a Monk primary and Necro secondary), Rend Enchantments is very risky but can be very effective. Give yourself a lot of Enchantments which will not benefit the Doppleganger when it uses them on itself, then allow yourself to be hit with Rend Enchantments. The resulting "recoil" from Rend Enchantments will do a very large amount of damage to the enemy. It is important, though, to make sure that you bring enchantments which will not benefit the Doppleganger when it casts them on itself, as you do not want to bring any other methods of Enchantment removal (lest the Doppleganger cast them instead of Rend Enchantments).
 * On top of skills which sacrifice health, skills which inflict conditions upon yourself are great opportunities. You are smart enough to stay away from Signet of Agony and Chilblains (not to say that those skills are not useful, merely that they do not help in this particular situation), but the AI is not, thereby cursing itself with Poison and Bleeding while you only take a small amount of damage.
 * All in all, the most important thing to remember as a Necromancer is that the Doppleganger will hurt itself more than you will be able to. Human necromancers have a difficult enough time balancing the proper blend of sacrifice and benefit; the AI will not realize that it is killing itself and will merrily spam the sacrificial skills as fast as it can for the entirety of its short life. It is rumored that certain builds can induce the Doppleganger to kill itself without the player doing a single thing, but these are unconfirmed.

Ranger Tips:

 * Bring slow-casting Nature Rituals like Winter and Quickening Zephyr: the less useful in the one-on-one fight, the better. The AI will waste time casting them while you apply the beatdown.
 * Bring traps. Cast them at the beginning of the fight while the Doppelganger is busy casting them himself, then run back. The Doppelganger will follow you in a straight line and is not smart enough to avoid your traps.

Warrior Tips:

 * Equip Frenzy but don't use it. The AI will use it, putting itself at a significant disadvantage in the one-on-one fight.
 * Bringing Hammer Mastery or Swordsmanship skills exclusively does not work. Despite wielding an axe, the Doppelganger will be able to use those skill nonetheless.
 * Activate skills in the most effective order for a fast take down. You know that Gash works best before Sever Artery but your opponent doesn't.  Similarly, you know not to use Final Thrust until your opponent is below 50% health, but your Doppelganger doesn't and will waste a lot of adrenaline by using it prematurely.