Guild Wars 2

While fooling around with Mimic in the Mists, I noticed that I was getting Echo: and the subsequent Blocking effect: without my opponent using any ranged attacks.

After some testing, I realised that Mimic was actually absorbing my own Winds of Chaos that were bouncing back at me. Further testing revealed that all friendly projectiles: Winds of Chaos, Siren’s Call, Mirror Blade, iDisenchanter, iMage… all of them are capable of proccing Mimic.

Casting Echo after absorbing a friendly projectile will apply the projectile’s effect on yourself. As with absorbing enemy projectiles, the initial projectile still applies its effect on you; essentially giving you a second helping of its effect.

Perhaps this has been discovered already (in which case I feel stupid for not realising and making such a big deal about it), but… well, I know I’ll be seriously considering adding Mimic to my builds.

Too bad you can’t reflect reflected attacks.

Ohh, that’s really interesting, very interesting indeed.
Thanks for sharing!

The implication of this is that the 4s Block + Reflect, which I previously thought gimmicky because it doesn’t activate until you’ve been hit by a enemy projectile (which could mean you getting hacked away in melee while stupidly channelling a useless skill), is actually highly reliable as you can easily proc it yourself. With the Staff you don’t even need to do anything, your Clones will likely proc your Mimic for you.

It can also mean another 3x Might from Mirror Blade, a stored 2x condition removal from iDisenchanter, and so on.

EDIT: On further testing you don’t get any Might from echoing Mirror Blade, but you do get a boon from WoC/Siren’s Call, Retaliation from iMage and a 2x condition removal from iDisenchanter.

:: perks an eyebrow and smiles villianiously ::

So basically we have a reliable 4sec “invulnerability” with 25sec CD. Even guardians don’t have that ! :-)

Thanks for the sharing!

Oh, that is too cool. I will definitely give it whirl.

Well, it’s not totally reliable, because you still need to send out a bouncing projectile first (and it might not always bounce back to you), so it isn’t an instant “oh crap” button. It does make it far more reliable than was initially believed however.

And if you have three asynchronised Staff Clones then chances are it will proc almost immediately in a 1 vs 1.

Oh kitten I had hoped for it to remain a secret for a while longer XD
But yeah, when using a staff you more or less have a 4 sec invincibility on demand. I suspect even more so with 3 clones out. Works really great. Also you get an excuse to walk around with the little glowing orb on your hand ^^

Seems like a bug. As a guardian and having to suffer 90 sec of CD to gain invul for a meager 3 sec i demand this to be fixed.

So I was playing around with this idea some more. The long channeled block procs Retaliatory Shield trait (3s Retal per block) and 6pc Rune of the Guardian (1s burning per block). I think this might have potential as part of a bunker build. Still playing around with it. Anybody else find any other tricks/uses for this?

Now only if this really were invulnerability. It’s close, but blocks are channeled and mean you can’t do other effects while it’s going. So it’s close, but not quite invulnerability.

There lavra, you can feel better now. = )

Delofakitten.4231:

Now only if this really were invulnerability. It’s close, but blocks are channeled and mean you can’t do other effects while it’s going. So it’s close, but not quite invulnerability.

There lavra, you can feel better now. = )

Mix it with F4 shatter and you now have invulns 1/5 uptime.

Delofakitten.4231:

Now only if this really were invulnerability. It’s close, but blocks are channeled and mean you can’t do other effects while it’s going. So it’s close, but not quite invulnerability.

There lavra, you can feel better now. = )

Though Guardians only have their invulnerability whilst channeling it as well…

Embolism.8106:

Casting Echo after absorbing a friendly projectile will apply the projectile’s effect on yourself. As with absorbing enemy projectiles, the initial projectile still applies its effect on you; essentially giving you a second helping of its effect.

Perhaps this has been discovered already (in which case I feel stupid for not realising and making such a big deal about it), but… well, I know I’ll be seriously considering adding Mimic to my builds.

Already mentionned in the post about which skilled ared underused

About the effect of echoed bouncing projectiles : behaviour depend of the projectile and of Illusionnary Elasticity.
- Siren’s call w/o IE (3 targets) grant you a boon and that’s it. With IE (4 targets), it gives a boon then strike the foe. Given you capture at the second strike, without IE it should do the same as with IE, and with IE it should hit one more target.
- WoC w/ and w/o IE (2 and 3 targets) : gives you a boon, no projectile fired.
- Mirror Blade : can be caught, but do nothing, with or w/o IE.
- Magic Bullet, with mimicer and shooter having IE : you “lose” one bounce. You catch the stun, you inflict daze, blind and confusion. You catch confusion : you get nothing.

Other cool facts :
- mimic reload while echo is active. You can fire echo and catch another missile immediately if you waited long enough.
- echo doesn’t seem to have a timer, or a very long one. I kept a projectile more than 30 minutes for the test, fired alright.
- echo isn’t split between underwater and on land. A projectile can’t be fired outside of it’s natural environment, but you can still get the side effects. You can catch a WoC and get a boon from it underwater. A Siren’s Call will give you the boon too, but even with IE it won’t fire anything.
- echo display a 1200 range, but for boucing projectiles, you need to be slightly under bouncing range to get the shot, so more like 400 in most cases.
- mimicing a bouncing projetcile prevent the original one from bouncing any further. Catch a magic bullet as first target (with stability, obviously), and no one will get dazed or blinded. Exception : Mirror Blade. Because Mirror blade is just weird.
- you can mimic reflected projectiles, and reflect echoed projectiles. Seems obvious, but mesmers knows what “unexpected behaviour” means :P
- echoed projectile get it’s own critical roll (verified) and critical bonuses (to be tested further). You can catch a standard killshot and make it a critical one. If you survived, that is. Try it on snipers in Caudecus Manor, you can do more than 10k on trash mob
- you can catch projectiles while under stability (necessary to catch stunning or KDing missiles), and you can catch at least friendly boucing projectiles while invulnerable.
- for targetted projectiles, merely getting in the way won’t do. You have to be the target to catch the missile. Can’t stress enough the importance of having the aggro for an efficient use of mimic.

Now, more tests can be done :
- Effects of all boucing projectiles of the game, to consolidate the behaviour. Is it really on a projectile basis, or can a trend be determined ?
- Can we catch an ennemy missile while invincible ? If yes, can we catch and echo Moa Morph ? (for maximum trolling capability)
- While catching ennemy mesmer bouncing projectiles, is the opponent having IE relevant ?
- Are the modifiers from traits conserved by mimic ? Does an opening strike from a ranger keep the vulnerability when echoed ? Does an ennemy Siren’s Call with IE strikes back the ennemy even when you don’t have IE ?

@Elidath, try catching the lazers in Asuran Fractal then going to WvW. If you hold it and manage to shoot it against a zerg…

Esplen.3940:

@Elidath, try catching the lazers in Asuran Fractal then going to WvW. If you hold it and manage to shoot it against a zerg…

I’m pretty sure Echo resets when you change zones just as Mantras do.

Embolism.8106:

Esplen.3940:

@Elidath, try catching the lazers in Asuran Fractal then going to WvW. If you hold it and manage to shoot it against a zerg…

I’m pretty sure Echo resets when you change zones just as Mantras do.

Wrong, I was able to contain the Echo through Fractal change. I just never went to WvW since it means ditching a group, or surviving through a few more fractals, potentially. I’ve never done an odd finishing on Asuran Fractal since I found out about it (heck, with the new system, I only do evens, even to level up).

Esplen.3940:

Wrong, I was able to contain the Echo through Fractal change. I just never went to WvW since it means ditching a group, or surviving through a few more fractals, potentially. I’ve never done an odd finishing on Asuran Fractal since I found out about it (heck, with the new system, I only do evens, even to level up).

All fractals are in the same instance, like you teleport to various zones in LA.

Fanolian.8415:

Esplen.3940:

Wrong, I was able to contain the Echo through Fractal change. I just never went to WvW since it means ditching a group, or surviving through a few more fractals, potentially. I’ve never done an odd finishing on Asuran Fractal since I found out about it (heck, with the new system, I only do evens, even to level up).

All fractals are in the same instance, like you teleport to various zones in LA.

Fair point. Would still be nice to shoot a zerg for 20k non-crit or 40k crit.

Well, you can use a stability buff in order to catch knockdowns at least. And you can swap out echo for something else and still not lose it until you leave the zone.
When you have something stored, it is marked with a glowing orb on your hand.
However, be aware that catching the one projectile you actually want is very hard, since most auto-attacks are also projectiles. Also, anything that is nor specifically marked projectile can’t be caught either.

Chiriam.1549:

Well, you can use a stability buff in order to catch knockdowns at least. And you can swap out echo for something else and still not lose it until you leave the zone.
When you have something stored, it is marked with a glowing orb on your hand.
However, be aware that catching the one projectile you actually want is very hard, since most auto-attacks are also projectiles. Also, anything that is nor specifically marked projectile can’t be caught either.

But you lose them on down.

In beta I remember being able to catch the allied bounce from the iMage and Disenchanter, but it felt like I was wasting too many slots just to store retribution or a condition removal. This was before it was changed to continue to provide an effect after the initial skill was grabbed.

I never considered using that trick to trigger the new effect of blocking everything after the first projectile was stored, or that one could use the staff’s bounce.

Nice find.

I feel like this underused skill is going to get a nerf soon, sadly.

Lol, nerf Mimic. It would be a funny addition to the pyroperson’s tank retaliation build.

Yes, I think it’ll get fixed. But I hope they actually balance it instead of just fixing the bugs so that it can actually be used to capture skills properly. Now the useful component is the reflect and block. I thought it was supposed to be mainly a skillsteal

Chiriam.1549:

Yes, I think it’ll get fixed. But I hope they actually balance it instead of just fixing the bugs so that it can actually be used to capture skills properly. Now the useful component is the reflect and block. I thought it was supposed to be mainly a skillsteal

I feel like it would be a useful skill if it could, for the cooldown duration, let you cast the skill/projectile multiple times.

Absorb Kill Shot, shoot 3 Kill Shots?

I wonder if you can mimic Siege Projectiles from Trebs/Katas.
Swirling Winds from mage destroys them so they have to be projectiles ^^

Siege can be blocked, but that’s it. No reflect, no capture. They are projectiles, but follow their own rules. They don’t trigger retaliation either.

Gonna try that for sure, i was looking for a 3rd nice utility maybe i found it

EasymodeX.4062:

Absorb Kill Shot, shoot 3 Kill Shots?

No it only absorb the first projectile, but the other are reflected, but I think the first projectile is also reflected not sure.

also it would be nice if you was able to reflect moamorph(unsure if possible), and then echo(if possible(unsure)) it again after, and then make your moamorph

UnknownFreak.2805:

also it would be nice if you was able to reflect moamorph(unsure if possible), and then echo(if possible(unsure)) it again after, and then make your moamorph

I doubt you can reflect it, since ANet stance on Elite is that they can’t be reflected (Dagger Storm was adjusted for that). As for the capture, you’ll need to try to catch it while invincible, and tell us the results, as that’s the only case I didn’t try (silly me). Disclaimer : no other case worked.

UnknownFreak.2805:

EasymodeX.4062:

Absorb Kill Shot, shoot 3 Kill Shots?

No it only absorb the first projectile, but the other are reflected, but I think the first projectile is also reflected not sure.

also it would be nice if you was able to reflect moamorph(unsure if possible), and then echo(if possible(unsure)) it again after, and then make your moamorph

He was responding to the idea of absorbing a projectile giving you multiple casts of that projectile.

Only projectiles can be absorbed/reflected, Moa Morph is not a projectile.

You can also use Mirror Blade to trigger Mimic’s Blocking. However, it doesn’t actually capture the Mirror Blade. The skill will continue to bounce between you and the enemy. Activating the Echo does nothing.

But still a nice way to trigger the block on demand.

Elidath.5679:

UnknownFreak.2805:

also it would be nice if you was able to reflect moamorph(unsure if possible), and then echo(if possible(unsure)) it again after, and then make your moamorph

I doubt you can reflect it, since ANet stance on Elite is that they can’t be reflected (Dagger Storm was adjusted for that). As for the capture, you’ll need to try to catch it while invincible, and tell us the results, as that’s the only case I didn’t try (silly me). Disclaimer : no other case worked.

Dagger Storm was adjusted to not be reflectable because Daggerstorm is also a projectile reflect. That means if you tried to reflect it the daggers would fly at the Thief then bounce right back. A smart thief could insta-down a Mesmer by dagger storming inside his feedback bubble.

Don’t ask me how I know this….

Would you bother traiting Illusionary Elasticity for mirror blade/WoC with this, or is it unnecessary given the extra bounce is always going to finish on hitting someone/thing other than you?

I had no idea you could self trigger mimics block. Going to try this out with the retaliatory shield trait.

Esplen.3940:

Chiriam.1549:

Yes, I think it’ll get fixed. But I hope they actually balance it instead of just fixing the bugs so that it can actually be used to capture skills properly. Now the useful component is the reflect and block. I thought it was supposed to be mainly a skillsteal

I feel like it would be a useful skill if it could, for the cooldown duration, let you cast the skill/projectile multiple times.

Would rather it block and catch multiple projectiles ready for release.
Rather than catch one projectile then trigger the block.
However the CD would need to be increased.

Think about reflecting a entire zergs worth of projectiles at one person. (Ok, maybe a projectile absorption limit)

To in total have it Block everything and absorb projectiles for 3 secs OR 7 projectiles (which ever limit it hits first). on a 30-45 sec CD.

Dastion.3106:

You can also use Mirror Blade to trigger Mimic’s Blocking. However, it doesn’t actually capture the Mirror Blade. The skill will continue to bounce between you and the enemy. Activating the Echo does nothing.

But still a nice way to trigger the block on demand.

Elidath.5679:

UnknownFreak.2805:

also it would be nice if you was able to reflect moamorph(unsure if possible), and then echo(if possible(unsure)) it again after, and then make your moamorph

I doubt you can reflect it, since ANet stance on Elite is that they can’t be reflected (Dagger Storm was adjusted for that). As for the capture, you’ll need to try to catch it while invincible, and tell us the results, as that’s the only case I didn’t try (silly me). Disclaimer : no other case worked.

Dagger Storm was adjusted to not be reflectable because Daggerstorm is also a projectile reflect. That means if you tried to reflect it the daggers would fly at the Thief then bounce right back. A smart thief could insta-down a Mesmer by dagger storming inside his feedback bubble.

Don’t ask me how I know this….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaGw1DOzQhE

That is nuts.

On topic: Mimic needs more functionality. Aside from this bug it one of our most useless skills. It’s not outright bad it’s just that with three utility slots there are MUCH MUCH better choices in almost every scenario.

Mimic is the #1 utility for running into 40 enemies and trolling them.

Then you SigInsp to spread the retaliation from the “ret on block” trait to 39 of your closest friends and lay waste to the opposition.

It’s also humorous that the first projectile coming at you will either damage you or not damage you (either way, you still capture) depending upon whether you’re equipping a 1h or 2h weapon at the time — at least, operates this way when karka farming. Perhaps the size of the weapon impacts whether mimic’s shield can cover your knees.;)

Kashaar.1529:

It’s also humorous that the first projectile coming at you will either damage you or not damage you (either way, you still capture) depending upon whether you’re equipping a 1h or 2h weapon at the time — at least, operates this way when karka farming. Perhaps the size of the weapon impacts whether mimic’s shield can cover your knees.;)

Care to elaborate a bit more on this?

I hope that mimic gets fixed underwater – it channels for about 1 second and is completely useless.

I’m starting to like it on land, but a shame having to swap it out for something else underwater.

Well I’ve been abusing the hell out of mimic in tPvP after reading this thread. 4.5s channeled block/reflect every 25s or 20s traited? Yes plz!

But seriously this will get nerfed to the ground.

All skills are bugged underwater: they all take much less time to cast than they would on land. Anet completely missed the point when they “fixed” Mantra underwater channel time when it’s actually ALL cast times underwater that are bugged. Including harvesting.

I don’t really care if it gets nerfed as long as Anet turns Mimic into something that isn’t a mess. Even if it is OP now it is still a poorly designed skill that shows a lot of tacked on “fixes”.