I know this kind of ridiculously huge rework isn’t going to happen, but I felt like typing it as a thought exercise of what could potentially be done with mesmer, if not for Mirage then maybe for a future elite specialisation, at least on paper – I am no developer so have absolutely no idea as to the difficulty of implementing these ideas in practice. I’m making that clear so if any of these ideas seem nonsensical/impossible then they can be ignored.
Anyway, for Mirage I think it would have made sense if shatters were changed to illusion control and retargeting mechanics, providing a totally different playstyle to Chrono while encouraging us to make full use of the class mechanic and all function skills. Chrono does normal shatter better, and I don’t think any future elite spec will be able to complete with Chrono when it comes to any kind of normal shatter based play.
So:
- Mirage could have (had) the following – let’s call them “Mirage Shatters”.
- In order for these to work, ambush mechanics would need to be removed from auto attack (they are moved to F1).
- Instead, Mirage Cloak reduces cooldown of Mirage Shatters by 3 seconds every time it is gained (from dodging, utility skills, traits, or Mirage Mirrors).
-Mirage Mirrors now provide aoe blur in addition to Mirage Cloak on self when broken (walked into), for up to 3 allies in the radius (240 radius) – allows making plays of supporting allies.
Important – All F1 to F4 skills retarget all illusions to your current target.
F1 “Ambush” (12s) – You and each of your clones casts the current effect of each mainhand weapon’s ambush skill. Of course each ambush skill would need to be significantly buffed in terms of damage output to match with the damage capabilities of Mind Wrack (power and/or condition). Any active phantasms respawn on your target and restart their attack cycle.
F2 “Demoralise” (25s) – You and each of you illusions emit a pbaoe pulse that damages and debilitates up to 5 enemies, 240 radius around self and each illusion (eg, 500 base damage with 1.2 modifier, 4 seconds of confusion and 4 seconds of torment).
F3 “Disorientate” (38s) – You and each of your illusions fires of a bolt of energy that dazes your target (1s). Instant cast but has travel time (takes time to reach target), and is not a projectile. This is still really clunky/I don’t like it but I don’t want another simple pbaoe, nor have illusions running to the target
F4 “Non-Existence” (50s) – Stealth self and up to 5 allies (600 radius). If revealed, Detarget self instead. Gain 1s stealth and 1s distortion for each active illusion including self.
Regarding synergy with Shatter traits:
- Rending Shatter, Shattered Concentration, Blinding Dissipation, Illusionary Retribution, Maim the Disillusioned all proc on successful hit of each illusion’s attack from F1 to F4. Each can proc multiple times if used on multi hit phantasms or multi hit clone ambush attacks. Of course that would need significant balancing so as not to either be totally overpowered or utterly pathetic.
- Protected Phantasms still procs on phantasms when using any Mirage Shatter, Persistence of Memory still causes any active phantasms to transfer their boons to you, Master of Misdirection still reduces the recharge on Mirage Shatters.
- Mental Anguish… this is a tough one. I’m thinking reworked to also boost condition damage for 5 seconds for the player following use of any Shatter (applies to core, Chrono and Mirage). If used with Mirage, provides 15% damage bonus to phantasms for 5 seconds on using Ambush.
- Bountiful Disillusionment, Shattered Strength and Restorative Illusions proc directly on the player. The heal of RI and the Might stacks of SS still depends on the number of active illusions.
- Inspiring Distortion can be made to procby illusions as well! This could provide some interesting mass distortion when using Non-Existence, as each active illusion would proc 1s Distortion to up to 5 allies in 300 radius around each illusion.
- Master of Fragmentation still boosts all Ambush (F1) crit chance by 25%, all Demoralise (F2) cripples on hit, all Disorientate (F3) causes the bolt to trigger an aoe daze proc on the target it hits dazing up to 5 other enemies in a radius about the target (240 radius), all distortion gained by you and any illusions from Non-Existence (F4) provides reflect as normal, BUT, in order for this to function properly reflects should be changed to not cause reveal if stealthed otherwise this trait could make F4 worse. Anyway the Detarget function of F4 could remedy that a little.
In addition Mirage could then have two key traits somewhere in the line that would enable some of the above:
- “Refraction” – Using a Mirage Shatter provides 1s Mirage Cloak to yourself (minor trait). The effect of this would automatically provide 3s reduction to every Mirage Shatter skill, which can then be further reduced through repeatedly dodging or gaining Mirage Cloak by other means.
- “Trick of the Light” – All clones have 2 lives (respawn if killed) (Major Trait)
- Infinite Horizon can stay the same because it would provide a lot of utility in enabling illusions to survive – eg every time you use a Mirage Shatter all illusions would gain Mirage Cloak, as well as when you dodge or get Mirage Cloak in any other way, which also synergises with giving them all superspeed (including phantasms) which would significantly buff Ambush (F1) (eg imagine iDuelist shooting in superspeed).
tl;dr – shatter’s changed to illusion “pet” control, shatter traits still synergise, ambush moved on to F1 among other things.
tl:dr2 – yes I already said in the opening paragraph this is not going to happen, but just an exercise in thought to see if future elite specs could work with similar mechanics.
(edited by Curunen.8729)