Guild Wars 2

Please post feedback relevant to mirage PvP performance in this thread. I’ll try to keep the op updated with the general thoughts that are posted here.

Nowhere near enough survivability compared to meta chrono and clones die too easily. Unable to contest a point for as much time as Chrono but also unable to reliably focus and burst targets to make up for it. Not sure what role it is intended to fulfil.

Inspiration not great with Mirage however because less frequent shattering (RI has less synergy). Would be nice to see a direct small heal on dodge trait, rather than just the regen from renewing oasis.

1. The ambush skills are too telegraphed and clunky to use for mesmer.

Mesmer is a very squishy class in PvP. It is really risky to cast these skills as they have long cast time and easy tell. Some even root you in place. And naturally they are very easy to avoid. One extreme is the staff ambush which can’t hit any moving target.

2. Another concept is clone casting ambush skills through infinite horizon trait. However, clones die way too quickly in PvP fights. It is really not worth the effort to wait for them to cast these not-so-strong ambush skills.

Current PvP meta favors rapid shatters to do damage so that you don’t need to worry about keeping clones alive. But mirage has very little synergy with that. Many of the core mesmer traits also interact with shatters. The mirage mechanics just doesn’t blend well.

3. Last, the mirage mirror mechanics is useless in PvP. They spawn at locations where you don’t want to be. Walking into those for a mere 1sec evade is just not worth it by any means.

Why bring another condi spec and on the top make it weaker in most of the cases is chrono?

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

Why bring another condi spec and on the top make it weaker in most of the cases is chrono?

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but yeah. From the lack of a cohesive theme or a lack of cohesive skill design (the type “Deception” has no common element like the wells or signets or so have) over the lack of a unique functionality (mirage cloak is a weaker dodge, which would make sense if it wanted to make up for something like strong ambush skills, but those don’t exist), Mirage feels like it was done by someone who is insanely scared of PvP as a whole.

And hence made every number 40%-50% of what it actually should have been.

Carighan.6758:

Mirage feels like it was done by someone who is insanely scared of PvP as a whole.

It feels like anet didnt really do enough informed testing of pvp. By that I mean they didn’t bring in experience pvp players who know the core classes inside and out. Instead it seems like a dev shot at a stationary target golem for a bit, which is how we end up with funky staff ambush that has horrible tracking. Because who needs tracking for a stationary target?

Apart from the other deficits on the other feedback topics, and even more in pvp, mirage mirror mechanic is clunky.
Having to move to a beacon on the ground, when they often spawn at the opposite location of your movement is bad, harmful, and very predictable to enemies.

Suggestion: make mirrors shatterable by enemies that touch them. Increase mirros lifetime.

If you don’t use the specialization as intended, say: you just use it for the defensive utility of Renewing Oasis, Mirage Mantle and Elusive Mind and go straight basic Shatter from there while forgoing all new mechanics, it works kinda fine, but you can also do that with Chaos, so: back to the drawing board, pretty please.

i think it’d be better with clone death as an added trait to the mirage spec

Even though i was able to play fine in PvP, i don’t see why i should bring Mirage over Chrono (or even base condi mesmer at this point). The ambush skills are easy to telegraph and evade and the only one that actually do something is the Scepter one, the staff one at 1 second cast is not good.

The whole concept of Mirage is buggered.

With Chrono, you ditch one Core trait line for Chrono traits and get a whole lot more in return (team support wells, alacrity, clone and phantasm support, faster base speed w/ reduced conditions, an elite that can replace Moa, and continuum split). With Mirage, you ditch one Core trait line for mediocre Mirage traits and new dodges that are situational and a cumbersome mirror mechanic. All of the Core mesmer trait lines are better than Mirage’s.

You don’t get enough good stuff to make taking Mirage worth it. Elusive Minds is really nice, but that and vigor giving +Condi is about it. Mirage cloak can actually work against you and costs an evade to use offensively. Deception skills are slow and lack what every other shadow step has. The mirrors are difficult to use and more likely to be wasted or drive you toward bad positions. And Jaunt makes you sad every time you use it.

Mirage is an elite spec that makes mesmer’s weaker.

I spent a good 2 hours trying to play with Mirage, with axe main hand and eventually gave up. However, I had no idea about the ambush changes to many of the weapons 1 skills.

I’m thinking when the game is released, I will avoid using the axe as a main hand with the Mirage. But use the scepter / sword and staff and I think everyone will be more effective at dealing damage in general.

Wielding the axe felt like I was giving out free experience lol. Literally jumping into fights only to be condition nuked or focus fired by 2 people. I think the Mirage with some balance changes (with specifically the Axe) the class may closer to what the game designers intended.

I play a lot of thief vs mesmer match ups in WwW and noticed how easy it is to spot the real mesmer between illusions and clones. What I would hope at the very least for the Mirage specialization is to take make it even harder for players to determine who is the real Mirage. Right now it looks like the changes to the scepter skill 1 will make it one of the best weapons choices the Mirage will have access too.

For more illusion, players should pick scepter/x and staff.

For more traditional Mesmer game play, sword/x and greatsword should be picked.

I tried mirage for a few hours. I tried several condi builds using dueling/dom, dueling/chaos, and dueling/inspiration. Nothing worked. I just got completely wrecked when fighting on point, and usually ended up trying to run away with blink and jaunt ineffectively. Fighting a player requires precise positioning, controlled movement (pretend to be a clone), and precise timing to set up a complex stun + burst. It’s a lot of effort for pitifully bad damage that gets ignored by sweeping condi cleanse.

On the flip side I rolled a scourge and basically just drop shades on point and roll my face across the keyboard. Holosmith is the same. Roll face across keyboard, stuff dies. Mirage needs to figure out what the hell it is supposed to be if it wants to see any use in pvp.