double KO

So the zaishen mission cycled back around to Augury Rock, the Prophecies ascention mission which must be completed solo.

I went through and took it on all my characters, even the ones from foreign continents that haven't gotten to the crystal desert yet.

Did it in Hard Mode on my ranger (balls easy), necromancer (balls easy), mesmer (kinda easy), and elementalist (tricky, but still fairly easy).  Tried fruitlessly on my warrior and monk.  If only they hadn't changed Renewing Smash in the hammer update, then my old build would still work...  I can't even remember how I ascended my monk to begin with except that it involved smiting prayers.

In the process of doing this, I got not just one, but two double KOs.  My mesmer got one when mistakenly going in on Normal Mode, and my elementalist got one on Hard Mode.  Naturally, as I was laughing my ass off, I took screenshots.  So here they are.

I went from never having gotten a double KO to two in one day.

As far as quest and mission progress goes, since I killed the doppleganger in both cases, the quest counted it.  Since I killed the doppleganger within the time limit in both cases, I got the bonus, which got counted by both the quest and the mission.  But since I died it didn't count the mission as complete (only verified in HM, but no reason to think it acts any differently in NM).

My mesmer went on to beat it in HM with a minor skill change (swapping in Empathy in place of Shatter Enchantment, if you recognize skill icons), and my elementalist beat it on her very next try with health to spare, changing nothing.

Working build templates for the four classes I've done on HM after the break.

Elementalist: OgBCsMz06QkoZ10g6w1wxA0A
Mesmer: OQNCAswBH0gKQI+eI9kC
Necromancer: OAZCQzxSesHC9Z8GIDAAAA
Ranger: OgASc5MPYnnTvs7cd2OvyLD

Note that for the Mesmer, only the first three skills matter and the rest can be changed around (as long as they're still spells and don't provide healing or extra damage that you can't avoid), and for the Ranger, the first six can be replaced with any non-elite nature ritual. If you don't have access to some of the skills (due to not having captured the elite, not having gotten the skill from a trainer/quest, or not owning the campaign), either remedy that or make due with what you've got.

As far as usage goes:
Elementalist: Use Water Attunement followed by Glyph of Energy before stepping on the last rune. Kill the cutscene. Use Maelstrom, then Energy Blast, then Blurred Vision. Use remaining spells and re-use everything as it recharges. Make sure the doppleganger is hexed before re-using Freezing Gust (so it deals damage rather than slowing), and only re-use Glyph of Energy just before re-using Maelstrom (so you don't suffer Exhaustion and so it costs less).

Mesmer: Use the first three skills as quickly as you can. Strafe to cause ranged attacks to miss, use another Energy Burn to finish him off if need be.

Necromancer: Use Awaken The Blood followed by Glyph of Lesser Energy just before stepping on the last rune, then use all four hexes and let the doppleganger autoattack himself to death.

Ranger: Use Glass Arrows just before stepping on the last rune. Kill the cutscene. Use Point Blank Shot repeatedly until the doppleganger is dead. This works because the doppleganger's AI will focus on using the nature rituals. This gives you a full 30 seconds to get damage in before he can deal any back to you. Generally speaking he'll also use Glass Arrows at some point, making it 32 seconds you have to kill him before you start taking damage, which is way more than you need. If for some reason you can't get it to work, go beast master. The doppleganger doesn't have a pet and therefore can't use pet attacks.