User:Arual/Guide to defeating doppelganger:Hard Mode

General
This build is proven to kill the doppelganger in sufficient time to complete the secondary mission objective on all character classes.

Switch to a Necromancer secondary and max out your Curses attribute to 12, the others can be left at zero. Equip the following spells Enfeeble, Insidious Parasite, and Spiteful Spirit. Leave the rest of your skill bar empty; this will increase the amount of time the doppelganger spends attacking. Do not attack the doppelganger yourself, just stand still and let his attacks hit. As long as both Enfeeble and Insidious Parasite are cast then even an armour rating of 60 should give you a net health gain, even if only by a small amount.

It is advised that, for a couple of reasons, a Staff or Wand/Off-Hand combination be used during the fight. Firstly the enemy AI will constantly use Enfeeble against certain character classes using martial weapons, such as a Monk with a Totem Axe, to counter this simply use any spellcasting weapon. The second reason is related to energy. If the three spells are cast as soon as possible then the fight will be over in less than 20 seconds; ie. before any of the hexes have the chance to expire and they will not need to be recast. This means that energy regeneration is not particularly important, the main factor to control is the initial energy pool of the character fighting. A full cast of all three spells costs a relatively mediocre 35 energy, if you do not have that much energy (ie. a warrior with no Radiant Insignia) then you must use a combination of weapons that raises your energy by over 10, preferably 15; a Staff or a Wand and Curses Focus is advised for this. If you already have the required energy, for example on an Elementalist with some points in Energy Storage then consider taking a shield for a small amount of extra armour, even if you don't meet its requirements.

This build has the advantage over any other in that not just will it work for any Primary profession but that the three spells required are all from the Prophecies campaign. A perhaps added difficulty would be that this build uses an Elite Skill that people may not have learnt on the ascending character. As a boon though Spiteful Spirit is very easy to cap from Nighh SpineChill near Camp Rankor; the other two spells can be learnt before the Crystal Desert is even reached.