Guild Wars 2

This is my proposal:
Make illusions spawn near the mesmer.

Reason: Illusions are pets. They act on their own set of behaviour and the mesmer only retains a small amount of control over them(shatter). They have an ability and a cooldown on this ability. They have an health pool and can be killed. They cannot be dispelled. Their attacks can be dodges. They can be controlled, booned or afflicted by conditions. They can be slowed, outrunned, immobilized and be countered. They have a line of sight and a range by which they are effective.

Illusions are not conditions, HOWEVER, using them out of line of sight, blind or dodged will result in a failure. They deal damage regularely. Some of them spawns on the target. They end their effects upon the target’s death.

While I fully agree and understand that iBerserker was broken because it could spawn in inaccessible areas(behind walls), the recent patch made them more akin to conditions than pets. Yet, they are not conditions. So, to elaborate on my proposal and hopefully fix the whole line of sight/range issue make:

1. Illusionary leap create a clone that jumps 600 toward the ennemy. If the ennemy is not inbound, the first crippling attack fails and the clone behaves like any other afterward.
2. Illusionary bersereker create a phantasm at the mesmer’s location and using whirlwind toward the target. If the target is not reachable by the berserker when he spawns, he misses. If the target is obstructed by a wall, he will not cross it.
3. Illusionary desenchanter create a phantasm that launches an attack who will miss if the ennemy is not within the 900 unit distance.
4. Illusionary warden create a phantasm that will close in on the ennemy and use his attack when at the right distance and then remain immobile for the duration of the attack.

I believe this would fix any problems regarding illusion spawning problems.
Objections? Comments? Support?

Fundamentally (most) phantasms serve as a mesmer’s heavy hitting ranged attack. Even iZerker, which is (was?) our mainstay spam AoE attack. Spawning them next to a mesmer and setting them off on their way would further reduce our already pretty badly crippled ranged damage as then we’ve have even less ways to shoot back against targets on elevations like castle walls.

Additionally, this reintroduces to some extent the issue of non-LoS casting. Walls were an extreme example, in sPvP another common problem was mesmers hiding behind cover and sending their phantasms out from safety even when reachable; allowing you to cast and then track around corners reintroduces at least some of the problems people had with iZerker in the first place (No way to dodge out of LoS)

Illusions are definitely not pets, most don’t survive long enough to attack a second time, what you have an is an exotic ranged attack; you deploy the attack, it activates it’s ability and then you’re left with a class specific resource, like a thief’s init or warriors adrenaline – for us, it’s in the shape of a clone or phantasm.

You then decide to either:
a) Leave it alive to serve as a decoy/hope that it attacks a second time for more damage
b) Shatter it, and convert it into another skill (Damage, condition, interuppt or defence)

Your proposal might work around some of the bugs, but I’d rather they properly address the bugs, then implement another slap-dash “fix” that breaks more than it resolves.

iZerkers, iSwordsman, iDefender and iWarden are melee phantasms. Sure, you can cast them within a certain range exceeding the melee reach, but that’s just the nature of pets. Treating them as range attacks means their summoning can be block, blind and dodge, which is currently possible and hardly makes any sense.
As I stated earlier, illusions are pets. They act on their own set of behavior and the mesmer only retains a small amount of control over them(shatter). They have an ability and a cooldown on this ability. They have an health pool and can be killed. They cannot be dispelled. Their attacks can be dodges. They can be controlled, booned or afflicted by conditions. They can be slowed, outrunned, immobilized and be countered. They have a line of sight and a range by which they are effective.
Range attacks does not fit any of these characteristics.
Furthermore, pets like jagged horrors may die in one hit and they aren’t any less a pet because of their short life span.
Pets can attack people out of line of sight of their owner. Illusions may still attack out of line of sight of their owners, but may not spawn[obstructed]. No other pets behave like this. For instance, if a necromancer attacks a player that runs out of his line of sight, his undead army will track him.
The obvious problem that the recent patch up attempted to fix was to summon them in places inaccessible to their owners like through walls and on higher ground like castle walls . Having them summoned at the mesmer’s location would negate this issue without shifting their nature to something more akin to a living range attack or a living condition.
As for the class specific resource argument, wouldn’t you agree that a ranger’s pet would be their class specific resource?
As for the summoning of illusions while remaining under hiding in sPvP, it is still easily feasible using decoy.

The main issue related to illusions behavior upon summoning is regarding their failure state that both engages cooldown, applies no effect and places no illusion on the field which is highly frustrating and unreliable, bugs aside.