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[Feedback] Mirage Traits

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Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

Please post feedback regarding the mirage traits in this thread. As with the others, I’ll try and keep the op updated to reflect the thoughts posted on this thread.

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Posted by: Sodeni.6041

Sodeni.6041

Infinite horizon (clones gain mirage cloak) should be baseline. Isn’t the entire concept of the mirage that enemies should not immediately know who the mesmer is? Also, the main “improvement” this elite spec got is mirage cloak so it should be obvious that clones can do ambush attacks as well. Its the main DPS source this spec gets and it sacrifices a kitten lot of utility and support for it.

It’s weird that there are traits that encourage shattering illusions, yet they are the main source of dps and should not be shattered as a mirage.

Superspeed when gaining mirage cloak should be 1 1/4 seconds because 3/4 sec is way too short. Mirage cloak should also last longer & the ambush attack window as well.

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Posted by: Infusion.7149

Infusion.7149

Self-Deception = completely awkward to use
Renewing Oasis = ok, I guess vs condi pressure… I’d rather have mainline chrono’s Time Marches on
Riddle of Sand = rework ambushes first

Shards of Glass = RNG & zero control over mirror position, really? Fix needed
Mirage Mantle = too short of a duration probably
Mirrored Axes = fix axe first…

Infinite Horizon = should be mainline for Mirage instead of Nomad’s Endurance or Speed of Sand
Elusive Mind = only standout trait
Dune Cloak = meh

Desolation (EU) → Yak’s Bend (US)
In your backline: Elementalist+Mesmer+Necromancer

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Posted by: Carighan.6758

Carighan.6758

Infinite Horizon
This is a weird band-aid. Assuming 3 clones are up, this makes ambush attacks not hit like a wet noodle.

But, why do they hit for nothing at all to begin with? And why can clones deal damage with them.

Proposal

  • Remove Infinite Horizon.
  • Remove damage/conditions from clone ambush attacks. They still do them, for looks only.
  • Increase ambush damage significantly, from ~3x-4x on the Scepter to 7x-8x on the Greatsword. These attacks hit for ~nothing right now, and seem clearly balanced to strike the enemy 4 times at once.
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.

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Posted by: Refia Montes.3205

Refia Montes.3205

Too condi focused. You can pick up some defensive traits for Power builds but, make some traits that fit well with GS and Sword Ambushes. For now not one of them synergises with those two weapons.

Mirage DPS HYPE

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Infinite Horizon – baseline

Elusive Mind – 20s ICD on stunbreak, but removes all movement impairing conditions (cripple, chill, immobilise) plus a single additional condition.

New trait that gives clones a second life if killed (not shattered).

New trait that provides small direct heal on dodge (not regen).

(edited by Curunen.8729)

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Posted by: Ryouzanpaku.1273

Ryouzanpaku.1273

Infinate Horizon – current wording baseline, new wording: Doubles duration of mirage cloak and Ambush
Speed of Sand or Elusive mind – add 200 range blink in the direction dodge would go
Nomad’s Endurance – add movement speed +25% when axe is equipped

Player plays the game. MetaKitten plays the DPS meter on the golem.

(edited by Ryouzanpaku.1273)

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

First you need to be able to either spec into damage or condi.

Nomad’s Endurance should also provide bonus Power and Precision or maybe even a % buff to power and condition damage, to bring it up to par with other specs similar traits.

Speed of Sand is a band aid fix, and them admitting, that Mirage cloak is worse then a normal dodge. We shouldn’t lose a second minor trait to try and fix a problem the first minor trait causes. Since they will be keeping Mirage cloak then roll it into that trait.

I don’t know if I want Infinite Horizon baseline anymore. Ambushes are definetly balanced around the idea we pick this and should definetly be buffed whether this becomes baseline or not. Either buff the ambush attacks and make this baseline or vastly buff the ambush attacks and keep this a GM trait.

A new trait to go either in the 3rd minor or a new GM depending on what they do with Infinite Horizon should be to make clones do the same damage as Mesmers, at least with thier ambush attacks. I’ll accept just a straight damage buff triat for Mesmers which would probably be more useful in more areas though due to the problems of illusions but damage on clones could be more interesting since we are forced to use them in this spec anyway.

Self-Deception: CD reduction on deceptions too.

Shards of Glass: RNG with an ICD and the not very good mirror mechanic? No. Change it so it gives Endurance back when we shatter. Still has the problems of shatter vs Illusions but its better then what it currently is.

Dune Cloak: Radius is too small, hard to hit people with it. The power damage should also be much higher, at least in PvE.

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Posted by: Tseison.4659

Tseison.4659

Traits:

  • Self-Deception: Using a deception skill will break enemy targeting and grant quickness and vigor for 2s
  • Renewing Oasis: No Change
  • Riddle of Sand: Triggered upon gaining Mirage Cloak
  • Nomads Endurance: Added Power Attribute Adjust: 150
  • Shards of Glass: Baseline and have a 66% chance to create a Mirage Mirror
  • Mirage Mantle: Daze nearby foes and Gain Protection and Stability when Mirage Cloak ends.
  • Mirrored Axes: No Change
  • Speed of Sand: You move 25% faster. Now has a 1s duration when you gain Mirage Cloak.
  • Infinite Horizon: Baseline
  • Elusive Mind: No Change
  • Dune Cloak: Moved to Major Master Trait and replacing Shards of Glass
  • I also wanted to add that since Mirage is all about keeping our clones up and not shattering and giving us some form of deception with having them up – PHANTASMAL HASTE needs to affect both Phantasms and Illusions/Clones. Since our clones deal 1 damage and having them attack faster will help with giving the class more of that deception feel since it’s easy to find the real Mesmer when we are the only one attacking faster.

(edited by Tseison.4659)

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

Yeah Phantasmal haste effecting clones is a great idea.

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Posted by: Refia Montes.3205

Refia Montes.3205

Self Deception has no place, cause it’s horribly weak. Make it so that every Deception skill summons a clone and regardless how many you currently have. Or change the whole thing, and make it so that it gives you additional damage % whenever you activate Deception skills for 5 seconds.

Nomad’s Endurance shouldn’t focus on Condi only. True Axe is a condi weapon and this spec looks like a condi Spec thematically, but you can still use Greatsword and Sword with this spec. Change it so it benefits both builds.

Shards of Glass chancey mechanic that’s contradicting with the Mirage’s concept. Are we really supposed to Shatter clones for more ambushes? I get that we need a trait that makes more Mirage Mirrors, but wouldn’t it be better if it was just summoned Mirage Mirrors on some intervals in combat? though Mirage Mirror’s concept is clunky to begin with.

Infinite Horizon is really useful… making your clones a lot stronger, but from tests. Obviously Phantasms are superior to them in every way. So in the end this won’t be even picked over Dune Cloak in PvE just because Phantasms are always better. Phantasms need ambushes too/work with Mirage Cloak. If they can’t make ambushes altogether, just make it so that it resets their skills.

Other traits are fine, just needs some number adjustments so that they don’t feel underwhelming.

Mirage DPS HYPE

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Posted by: glenndevis.8327

glenndevis.8327

First of all… core mesmer traits lack a lot of synergy just because of the large amount of shatter & phantasm traits. 2 mechanics that don’t go well with Mirage at all.

Now about the Mirage traits:

Minor Adept:
Mirage Cloak: Merge this with Speed of Sand. This trait technically takes away the mobility we get from dodging. Might as well get it back in the same trait and not make us waste a minor on something that was initially taken away from us by another trait.

Minor Master:
Nomad’s Endurance: A Minor… A trait we can’t even choose that requires us to shatter. Bad idea. This trait should trigger off Mirage Cloak. Also increase power by 150 as well.

Minor Grandmaster:
Speed of Sand: This trait should be merged into Mirage Cloak and be replaced with Infinite Horizon.

Major Adept:
Self Deception: Nobody would want to use a deception to get an extra clone out. Or at lest nobody would pick this trait for that…
Add a 20% cooldown reduction to deception skills and any deception skill spawns a clone. No silly requirements.

Renewing Oasis: I like this trait for he condi duration reduction part. The regen isn’t very useful but it’s alright. I’d like to see a “lose a condition whenever you gain Mirage Cloak” effect to this.

Riddle of Sand: I like this trait. Would just prefer it if it wasn’t bound to shatters but just stayed active all the time.

Major Master:
Shards of Glass: This trait needs to be replaced. Having annoying mirrors spawn at random with a cooldown on it… yeah no thanks. Even if it wasn’t rng and didn’t have a cooldown it would still be enough because of the Mirage Mirrors.

In one of my other posts I thought of a diffirent trait in case Mirage gets a F5 ability on a 15-20 sec cooldown that grants us Mirage Cloak.
I thought of a Trait that whenever the Mirage or a clone/phantasm dodges an attack we get a few second cooldown reduced of the F5 skill & blinds, torments & confuses the enemy we dodged. This trait would have a 2-5 second cooldown.

Mirage Mantle: Nice trait. Just needs a little duration increase imo. 2,5-3 seconds sounds good.

Mirrored Axes: Seems solid. Would be nice if it granted 2 stacks of torment instead with that 1 extra axe.

Major Grandmaster:
Infinite Horizon: Amazing trait. So amazing that playing without it makes Mirage weak. This trait should replace Speed of Sand as our Minor Grandmaster trait and be replaced with a trait that has a clone death effect applying cripple, torment & confusion.

Elusive Mind: Feels underwhelming. It sounds overpowered on paper but it really isn’t. Increase the condi cleanse from this trait by 2 (up to 3) but give it a 10 second cooldown.

Dune Cloak:
Nice trait but feels a bit underwhelming too. Add another bleed stack to it and increase its radius to 240.

Mirage is a spec that is not based around shatters. Having traits in the Mirage line that boosts shatters is just contradictory.
Playing a shatter based Mirage should still be possible but then you would have to spec into shatters in one of the base mesmer trait lines. There’s already plenty of shatter traits available. The last thing mesmer needs are more shatter traits.
Mirrors are a nuissance too.

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

1. Infinite Horizon should be baseline.

2. Self deception should be changed to: Produce a clone for every phantasm you shatter.

3. Shards of Glass should not be RNG. Remove the 33% chance and make it always trigger on a 20 second cooldown.

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Posted by: Trigr.6481

Trigr.6481

Infinite horizon shouldn’t be baseline. It would be counter productive for skills like confounding suggestions.

But anyways here’s my list of changes that I thought would be good for mirage.

There’s a imgur link in the description in case you don’t wanna watch the video of me explaining why.

Countless

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Posted by: FJSAMA.2867

FJSAMA.2867

Self-Deception: No one will wait to have 2 clones to use a deception skill and benefit from this trait. Ppl will use Deception skills when the circumstances say so. (in need for a heal or a break stun) and not to spawn clones.
Change: Reduce CD of Deception skills by 20%. Deception skills restore 10 endurance on use. If endurace full, heal instead (400 hp).

Renewing Oasis: Dealing with damaging condis must be reactionary.
Change: Gain regeneration when Mirage Cloak is active. Cure damaging conditions when you gain regeneration. (1 condi, 5s icd to the cleanse part)

Shards of Glass: Low chance and very high ICD.
Change: Shattering 3 Illusions spawn a Mirage Mirror. Mirage Mirrors shatter into a water field that remove movement impairing conditions (1 condi). Water field, small radius, 2 or 3s duration.

Mirage Mantle: This trait is at minor traits lvl. Completly lacking for a master trait. Note ranger Companion’s Defense or necro Beyond the Veil. Both minors, both give more protection and have similar functions.
Change: When you shatter a mirage mirror you gain stealth (1s) and protection (1s).
Proper reward picking up mirage mirrors pls.

Speed of Sand: Increase superspeed from 0.75s to 1s. Gain swiftness when you dodge. 5s. (Note, dodge, not mirage cloak from other sources)

Infinite Horizon: Meh… Clones are not a big deal apart from shatter fodder. Ambushes are not a big deal in it current state. Ambushes on clones even have smaller bonuses.. This trait is so meh it could be baseline without noticeable impact. Or could be deleted (no one would miss it) and replaced with a GM with proper impact. I remember devs saying GMs to be by design line defining traits

(edited by FJSAMA.2867)

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

Infinite horizon shouldn’t be baseline. It would be counter productive for skills like confounding suggestions.

But anyways here’s my list of changes that I thought would be good for mirage.

There’s a imgur link in the description in case you don’t wanna watch the video of me explaining why.

Countless

Giving phantrams an ambusha ttacks could likely kitten up their own already existing skills. I think just goving them the evade cloak would be good.

Even better on top of it giving the cloak make it so the phantasm skills tuen into a diff skill during cloak that we can use. For that increase the time we are allowed to use all the ambush skills as fay suggested in a diff thread.

(edited by zealex.9410)

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Posted by: Beautilation.7915

Beautilation.7915

no clone death, useless spec tbh

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Posted by: Menaka.5092

Menaka.5092

Self-Deception: the description was so underwhelming I haven’t even tested it.

Renewing Oasis: I’m trying hard not to compare this with Unhindered Combatant and Escapist’s Absolution from Daredevil, but I can’t. And it’s definitely not as good as either of those.

Riddle of Sand: I didn’t test it. Does it apply only on the mesmer’s first Ambush or are the clones affected too? If the latter, it could be good, if it only applies on the mesmer attack it’s poor, again.

Shards of Glass: I played with this for a while, but from what I understand this only applies to clones that actually reach their target and manage to shatter properly and on top of that, we already said elsewhere that the whole mirror mechanic is so clunky it doesn’t even make sense to try and reach them.

Mirage Mantle: this is like… 12% uptime on protection? And it’s a master tier trait…

Mirrored Axes: I didn’t test it but seems on par with the other weapon traits.

Infinite Horizon: many asked for this to be baseline, but I’m not sure it would be good for PVE. Someone suggested to greatly increase the effects of Ambush skills for the mesmer, to make this trait feel less mandatory, maybe that would be a better option.

Elusive Mind: I’ve seen strongly polarized ideas about this trait… I don’t think it’s as good as some people think it is. I find it’s actually quite underwhelming considering the amount of conditions and condi-covers there’s in game at this moment.

Dune Cloak: again, I compare this to what other classes have, for example take Demonic Lore or Feed from Corruption from the Scourge… how can this be considered in the same tier? ANet, you need a reality check.

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Posted by: Hackuuna.4085

Hackuuna.4085

I loved Elusive Mind and Self Deception but all 3 major traits felt pretty underwhelming.

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Posted by: Vague Memory.2817

Vague Memory.2817

Only thing I have to say is make Mirage traits compatible with power builds. I honestly don’t know what the devs were thinking when they made this elite spec. Why make a heavy condi spec and leave power in the cold. If you prefer power builds this spec offers you nothing at all. Seems very lazy to not have added versatility. Why are they trying to make Mes a condi only class?

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Posted by: Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Elusive Mind is the only trait out of any of them I considered a draw for the traitline. However, I have no useful remarks to make on the rest since my hope – and the only hope for this spec – is that it is reworked so completely that the current traits will, by necessity, cease to exist.

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Posted by: Mikkel.8427

Mikkel.8427

Minor Master:
Nomad’s Endurance: A Minor… A trait we can’t even choose that requires us to shatter. Bad idea. This trait should trigger off Mirage Cloak. Also increase power by 150 as well.

I like unlinking the trait from shatters, but I believe it should be changed to enhance the effect of vigor instead of granting a stat bonus. Like-

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endless_Stamina

Infinite Horizon-

I would love to see this deleted and then have all ambush attacks enhanced. I want to be LESS dependent on my Illusions.

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Posted by: Exciton.8942

Exciton.8942

I suggest to completely rework the following traits

Self-Deception: Your next ambush attack applies 2 stacks of confusion after using a deception skill

No more unreliable clone generation. Make it a simple offense boost.

Riddle of Sand: When entering combat, your first ambush attack that hits creates a clone. The ability refreshes when you use a shatter skill?

You need clone generation at the start of battle and after you shatter. This also encourages usage of ambush attacks and tries to land the hits.

Shards of Glass: Create a mirage mirror at your current position when using a shatter skill. No more random trigger chance. Keep th 20sec iCD.

Touching mirage mirror spawned at faraway position is high risk/low reward. All skills spawning mirage mirror should be reconsidered. Also mirage mirror should be buffed in general.

Mirage mantle:When your mirage cloak ends, apply protection to both yourself and all your illusions.

Protection is not that good on mesmer to begin with since we focus on being not hit at all. And current trait gives so little uptime of it. So why not apply the protection to clones as well. They do need better survivability.

(edited by Exciton.8942)

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Posted by: NICENIKESHOE.7128

NICENIKESHOE.7128

Personal favorites from this list so far…

Adept trait

  • Self-deception (Xenon): Each shattered phantasm produce clone.
  • Renewing Oasis (FJSAMA): Gain regeneration when Mirage Cloak is active. Cure damaging conditions when you gain regeneration. (1 condi, 5s icd to the cleanse part)
  • Riddle of Sand (Exciton): When entering combat, your first ambush attack that hits creates a clone. The ability refreshes when you use a shatter skill.

These 3 on major adept sets up the illusion generations for mirage, allowing mirage to be chosen without the near-must requirement to invest into dueling. They also provide very competitive choices that each player must decide, though I’d argue self-deception needs to have 20% CD reduction like glenndevis suggested. Top one provide sustain ambush damage after shatter, middle one provide heavy cleanse that allow mirage to stand without inspiration (and even mantra of resolve), and lower one provide burst damage for consecutive shattering when mesmer want to blow all CD for that instant kill like old shatter builds.

  • Nomad’s endurance (Tseison): This trait should trigger off Mirage Cloak. Also increase power by 150 as well.

Vigor is the most important aspect of mirage so I wouldn’t recommend remove it completely, but obtaining it through shatter contradicts with you wanting the clone to do ambush. In this case Tseison gives pretty good way of generating vigor though the duration should be much shorter for mirage cloak to avoid too much dodging. As for power…it’s almost unprecedented for a minor trait to provide both power and condi damage.

Master traits

  • Shards of Glass (Exciton & Xenon): Create a mirage mirror at your current position when using a shatter skill. No more random trigger chance. Keep th 20sec iCD. In addition to that (FJSAMA): When you shatter a mirage mirror you gain stealth (1s) and protection (1s).
  • Mirage mantle (Exciton): When your mirage cloak ends, apply protection to both yourself and all your illusions.
  • Mirage Axes: No change.

Everyone’s suggestion for major master is tricky to pick, as mirage mirror currently is too rare to get yet reward too little with no clear directions. I think having these 3 people’s idea together allow mirage mirror to be a competitive choice that people actually would take 30s CD skills for, though mirror actually damages so that damage component needs to be removed for stealth. Mirage mantle I’d definitely prefer Exciton’s one since illusions die too easily if you left them standing for ambush.

  • Speed of sand (almost everyone): should be merge with infinite horizon, no brainer. You want mirage to be thematically utilizing clones yet you force players to trait for it in major?

Grandmaster

  • Infinite Horizon: should be merged with speed of sand as suggested. This leaves a vacant.
  • Elusive Mind (glenndevis): Increase the condi cleanse from this trait by 2 (up to 3) but give it a 10 second cooldown.
  • Dune Cloak (glenndevis): Add another bleed stack to it and increase its radius to 240.

Elusive mind is a tricky one, it is true that current cover conditions made this trait not as strong as it seems, but on the other hand allowing it to remove too much will create a super daredevil that no one can stop. Personally I’ll just go for 2 condi removals on 5s CD so you can’t weasel out of condi burst and your condi cleanse is still gated by your endurance.

Surprisingly not many people come up with suggestions for GM traits outside of baseline IH. Personally I think the vacant space should be replaced with something that can boost phantasms during mirage cloak such as gaining 5s alacrity on their skills. This will allow mirage to utilize phantasm during their ambush window as well as promoting mirage use in PvE, which is GW2’s main gamemode that has been completely neglected by mirage traits. The duration seems a lot, but with alacrity down to 33% effectiveness it’ll only reduce phantasm CD by 1-2 seconds depending on which.

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Posted by: Medatius.6092

Medatius.6092

Minor

Mirage Cloak
What’s there to say, the new dodge felt a bit weird at the start, but after a while it’s amazing and the possibilities of dodging whilst casting/stomping is just neat
(I wish there was something in the description of this trait that said something about a new or changed shatter mechanic though or something that would help with clone deaths)

Nomad’s Endurance
Should also give power damage or if not that then precision, why limit a traitline to conditions so much, make it hybrid or give it a better option of going power as well. Also I think this need to give a higher endurance regeneration (50%) like Endless Stamina from Thief or Adrenal Implant from Engineer. The on shatter part is fine tough, so that there’s at least some incentive to use the shatters and produce more clones afterwards

  • Could use power/precision buff, higher endurance regeneration (50%)

Speed of Sand
Maybe make it a second of superspeed, considering it won’t benefit us backwards, at least have the option to run out of AoE forwards, especially crictical in wvw. Also as a minor grandmaster I would have expected a bit more than just this to be honest, but it’s alright

  • Could use a duration buff to 1 sec and maybe a little extra something on top

Adept

Self deception
I’m all for clone production especially considering that they usually just die in one hit as soon as you fight something with the tiniest aoe damage, which is almost everything nowadays. Making use of this mechanic on purpose is rather difficult or would just be a waste of a valuable cooldowns, so maybe it would be good to add a deception skill cooldown reduction (hey I’d even take one condition cleanse per deception skill used, worth a try right?)

  • Could use a buff, see above

Renewing Oasis
Well, yea, I mean, that doesn’t change anything about the way I play, so a bit bland, but definitely not a bad trait

  • Could use more flavour if anything

Riddle of Sand
Could be somewhat decent if ambush skills would work properly, so a bit difficult to say

  • Could use ambush skills to better and then it might be fine

Master

Shards of Glass
This and mirage mirrors in general got a lot of hate it seems, I do actually like this a lot at least in duels, having to look out for the mirrors and blinking in. Granted it should have a little more use though, the internal cooldown should be lower. The randomness is nice and part of the fun and paying attention to your surroundings, but in heat of the battle missing one can happen easily, at least 50% of the time, so a lower cooldown should make up for that. It is very satisfying to Jaunt/Blink/Axe2 into them when you do notice them in time though

  • Could use a much lower internal cooldown

Mirage Mantle
See Renewing Oasis … bit bland, although If you’d want a boon build combined with chaos traitline it might be alright, I find it not worthy of a master trait though

  • Could use some love

Mirrored Axes
Adding a bit more torment and lowering already really low cooldowns, hm… I’d like to see as an improvement a little more utility being added to axe by giving this trait a little bit of boon strip or soft cc in some way

  • Could use a more utility based mechanic

Grandmaster

Infinite Horizon
Should be baseline and be replaced with something else as long as the ambush skills won’t get overtuned, which from the current point of view they aren’t in the slightest. I didn’t see any reason to use it in pvp/wvw

  • Could use a an overhaul

Elusive Mind
Worthy of a grandmaster trait I’d say definitely makes up for the lack of stability on mirage

  • Could use not to be changed

Dune Cloak
Didn’t really test it, maybe a tad too weak

  • Could use whatever Fay proposed

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Posted by: Tracy.2865

Tracy.2865

I also posted this on the Mirror thread.

I felt like giving us mirrors and giving us a dodge that let’s us stand still, was very counter intuitive. The dodge is great if you’re using a play style where you try your best to blend in with your clones. But if you’re using that play style, the mirrors are pretty much useless because they’re always so far away from you.

So here’s an idea on how to improve mirrors:

Let the mirrors be able to be shattered by allies (including your own clones etc.)

However, since some people aren’t playing the ‘stand still and blend in’ style, they may like to be in control of shattering the mirrors themselves, instead of an ally touching it.

So what if, instead of changing it completely, just put this ability as a trait. This way, players can decide how they want to use their mirrors. My suggestion is to replace the Major Adept trait, Renewing Oasis, with a trait that allows allies to be able to shatter mirrors.

Playing with player allies is more obvious on how this would work. Leave a mirror, player ally shatters it to help your own damage. It creates a nice team oriented ability and would probably be a lot of fun to play.

As for playing alone, while trickier to use, I still think it could be a lot of fun figuring out the best ways to get your clone to the mirror. One example is to use a skill that creates a clone on top of you, and then use the Sand Through Glass skill, which should instantly shatter your mirror. Because currently, it doesn’t make much sense for you to create something you’re supposed to touch, and then jumping away from it.

Instead, I think it would be more rewarding to have the option to create team play and skillful play within your own clone system.

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Posted by: Allarius.5670

Allarius.5670

General – Most are conceptually workable and require mostly tweaks and adjustments.

Minor Traits

  • Mirage Cloak – Fine.
  • Nomad’s Endurance – Mirage feels like it needs improved access to Mirage Cloak by improved integration of Mirage Mirrors (F5?) or improved endurance regeneration or supply. Having shatters return endurance based on number of illusions shattered is a possibility.
  • Speed of Sand – Increase super speed to 1 sec and add swiftness in duration of 5 sec or higher to improve mobility in and out of combat.

Adept Traits

  • Self-Deception – Decrease deception cool downs (20%) or deception skills always grant a clone on a short cool down.
  • Renewing Oasis – Needs something. Maybe share the healing you receive from regeneration with others in a radius around you, similar to Healing Prism, turning the Mesmer into an “oasis”, or convert into a non-regeneration healing buff.
  • Riddle of Sand – Fine.

Master Traits

  • Shards of Glass – Remove random chance altogether; internal cool down is sufficient and would require a buff notification to the player when available like Riddle of Sand.
  • Mirage Mantle – Increase base duration of protection. Have it grant protection to your illusions as well.
  • Mirrored Axes – Fine.

Grandmaster Traits

  • Infinite Horizon – Fine.
  • Elusive Mind – Fine.
  • Dune Cloak – Increase attack radius of Sand Shards and have it trigger around all of your illusions as well. Functional use in a PvE rotation and plays well with phantasms.

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Posted by: Ansau.7326

Ansau.7326

Mirage clock: The new dodge is weird to deal with, but eventually we will get around it. I think it should give full 1s of evasion since we lose so much mobility.

Nomads endurance: Instead of more vigor (we have been able to perma vigor since ever) this trait should restore endurance with shatters.

Speed of sand: Again superspeed should be increased to 1s to match full evasion.

Self deception: Since deception skills are so bad, there’s not good feedback of this trait.

Renewing oasis: Condi duration reduction is pointless nowadays when lots of stacks are applied. This trait should reduce condi damage instead.

Riddle of sand: Not a fan of this trait, since I sacrifice utility or passive defense for meaningless damage.

Shards of glass: Remove RNG and limit it to phantasms.

Mirage Mantle: I feel protection doesn’t match with the elite. Mirage is all about avoiding damage and confusing the enemies, not tanking damage… Aegis fits much better.

Mirrored axes: The issues are with the axe itself, not this trait.

Infinite Horizon: Fine. A lot of people ask it to become baseline. I instead prefer to buff Ambush skills and let this s an option.

Elusive mind: Probably my favorite trait.

Dune cloak: Lesser trait compared to the others GM, might need some more damage or radius. Not a fan neither of its mechanics.

Ansau – Sylvari Mesmer – Exiled Warriors [wE] – Gandara

i7 5775c @ 4.1GHz – 12GB RAM @ 2400MHz – RX 480 @ 1390/2140MHz

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

Most of the traits only need small tweaks in my opinion.

Mirage Cloak – Increase ambush attack window to 1.5 seconds
Nomad’s Endurance – Add 50% enhanced effectiveness to vigor. Consider adding power or ferocity.

  • Speed of Sand* – 1s of superspeed. Gain 3 sec swiftness when dodging.

Self Deception – I honestly don’t know. Generate a clone on every deception skills is way too strong considering jaunt’s ammo system, and 20% CD reduction on deception skills is just a boring copy paste trait = no fun (I bring those up because I see those ideas thrown around a lot). Probably something along the lines of using a deception skill spawns an ambush skill at your currently selected target/closest target?
Renewing Oasis – Its ridiculously strong if you have a build dedicated to regeneration uptime. If not then so far it just seems pretty average, which to me means its in a pretty good spot. Only change I’d like to see is adding poison to that list, other than that maybe just increasing it to 25% if it needs to be improved further.
Riddle of Sand – Reduce to 1 stack of confusion, but have it apply to every ambush attack.

Shards of Glass – Shatters generate a mirage mirror at you or the target’s location. No RNG.
Mirage Mantle – Increase it to at least 3 seconds of protection, if not 4. Mirage loses chrono shield, along with having a design that goes against shattering also has much less synergy with RI, so 1.5 sec of protection isn’t all that great on a master trait.
Mirrored Axes – Remove the delay on Phantasmal Seeking Axe. And, if it doesn’t already, make it affect axe clones entirely (meaning both their regular and ambush attacks).

Infinite Horizon – Current functionality should be made baseline (and consequently, personal ambush skills should be buffed significantly and clone ambush skills either left the same or toned down slightly depending on weapon). New functionality:
Elusive Mind – Really strong, but balanced in the clusterkitten of skills/traits now that just fart out conditions and stuns all over the place. Once that is fixed then this trait would be extremely OP and will need an appropriate ICD (5-10 seconds).
Dune Cloak – Sand Shards sucks. Increase the radius to at least 240, if not 300, increase the power damage significantly (1.5 coefficient).

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Posted by: Xstein.2187

Xstein.2187

Infinite Horizons – Make baseline or add to Speed of Sand. Its apparent that the ambush skills are limited in power/effectiveness because of this trait to begin with anyway.

Speed of Sand – Increase super speed duration to 1.25 sec. The 3/4 sekittenerally just makes up for not being able to dodge to begin with. Therefore, this can basically be thought of as gaining 1/2 of super speed when you dodge.

Mirror-on-Shatter – Move up to replace Infinite Horizons. Remove RNG. You now gain mirage cloak when you use a shatter skill instead of mirrors.

Trait Replacement – Trait to replace Mirror-on-Shatter. Ambush attacks remove boons on hit (Synergizes with weak GS ambush attack).

Nomads Endurance – Endurance produces some power damage as well. If the condition damage needs to be lowered in this trait for this, so be it. Being forced to take increased condi damage from this trait when you are just looking for power leaves a terrible feeling in your stomach.

Protected Phantasms – change to protected illusions. Clones should also gain distortion upon creation.

Persisting Images – should now work on clones as well.

Liked Exciton’s ideas for Self-Deception and Riddle of Sand. I don’t think all the major adept traits should be for illusion upkeep as if you take deceptive evasion or aren’t aiming for illusion upkeep than you won’t get a different option.

Liked Ansau’s idea of changing condition duration in Renewing Oasis to condition damage, but perhaps too powerful at 20%.

Lägertha Lothbrök: PvE Mesmer
Schrödingers Clone: PvP Mesmer

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

I was thinking a good way to increase the mirror generation and gove them more value would be to change the “self deception” and “shards of glass” traits.

The way i went about it was:
Self deception: when you shatter 2 or more illusions spawn a mirror (x sec idc)

Shards of glass: consuming a mirror spawns a clone (x icd)

Imo this would increase the mirror output making them a more reliable tool and it would give mirrors more value since they help with out cline generation.

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Posted by: Ryouzanpaku.1273

Ryouzanpaku.1273

Mirrors should not stay on spot but should move increasingly faster during its lifespan to you/clone /whoever is closer/ and never just dissipate – either it will during its duration hit enemy or you/clone and does its effect.

Player plays the game. MetaKitten plays the DPS meter on the golem.

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Posted by: Daishi.6027

Daishi.6027

Minor Traits

  • Mirage Cloak – Pretty fine, should have “speed of sand” baseline to it, if “speed of sand is left” untouched.
  • Nomad’s Endurance – 3 seconds of vigor for a shatter doesn’t amount to much on a doge class. We need more quick and reliable ways to access our doge, and this trait seems like it’s trying to be it, but doesn’t accomplish it.
  • Speed of Sand – This just needs to do more. It blows a GM minor fixing an issue the elite spec creates. I would be fine with it’s existence this far down the line is to serve a PvE progression purpose. But for a complete build it’s like not getting a GM minor unless they add something to it.

Adept Traits

  • Self-Deception – Should always grant a clone, or be buffed in another way. The asking price of already having 2 illusions up, to get a clone when using a relatively long cooldown, isn’t very good and almost not worth the slot.
  • Renewing Oasis – This is fine.
  • Riddle of Sand – I really of like how it uses shatters as it’s cooldown and want more of this.

Master Traits

  • Shards of Glass – Remove random chance, if mirrors last longer so you can use multiple that will allow us to mass ambush on a set c/d, would offer us more reliable doge that is sorely needed for a doge spec, and be a decent trade off for axe users, or the easy consistent defensive option from a buffed mirage mantle.
  • Mirage Mantle – Increase base duration of protection. OR apply AoE weakness at 180 radius when mirage cloak ends, and double the weakness range of Mirage Mirrors.
  • Mirrored Axes – Fine.

Grandmaster Traits

  • Infinite Horizon – This is fine. But if it wasn’t for scepter, and my hope for GS ambush viability, I’d say this should be part of Speed of Sand.
  • Elusive Mind – This is actually pretty great. <3
  • Dune Cloak – I don’t have enough experience with this to give solid feedback.
“I control time and space; you can’t break free.~”
“Maybe I was the illusion all along!”

(edited by Daishi.6027)

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Posted by: FaboBabo.3581

FaboBabo.3581

I was thinking a good way to increase the mirror generation and gove them more value would be to change the “self deception” and “shards of glass” traits.

The way i went about it was:
Self deception: when you shatter 2 or more illusions spawn a mirror (x sec idc)

Shards of glass: consuming a mirror spawns a clone (x icd)

Imo this would increase the mirror output making them a more reliable tool and it would give mirrors more value since they help with out cline generation.

looks sweet tough!

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Posted by: FaboBabo.3581

FaboBabo.3581

Just a quick Thaught

Mirage Mantle; Barrier maybe? Protection gives me less dmg , but i dont want any dmg at all.

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Posted by: Blood Red Arachnid.2493

Blood Red Arachnid.2493

I think of this mostly from a PVE standpoint. Take of that what you will. But overall the mirage traits leave me confused as to how I’m supposed to play this class. The class mechanic wants you to sustain clones, but a bunch of the traits give bonuses to shatters, and yet the bets way to play the base class is to keep phantasms up and never shatter. This leaves me with traits that contradict each other in three different directions.

Adept Tier:

Self-Deception. Using the phantasm style of play, this trait is utterly useless. If you sustain clones and spam ambushes this trait is useful once. Shattering frequently is when this trait is at its best, but shattering focus is still a pretty terrible way to play.

Renewing Oasis. I can definitely see the PVP use of this skill. Though I do wonder how it works exactly. But in PVE this trait is basically a situational and minor reduction in condi damage. In general, if you’re in a place with conditions you’ll bring a cleanse, not loiter around taking 80% of the damage you already would’ve.

Riddle of the Sand. AKA the only trait that will be used in PVE, regardless of what build you run. Not sure how this interacts with all of the skills, though. Is it confusion per hit? Does the confusion apply to clones as well? No idea. But still, confusion on ambush is good, and unlike most entry skills you can get it back. Just wait for the illusion generating skills to recharge, activate Cry of Frustration and spawn them all again. Though if you’re running a phantasm build, shatters aren’t an option and you won’t have clones to copy the confusion, so this trait is pretty sub-par in that regard.

In PVE, there isn’t a single one of these traits that I want to take. I just have to take one, and no matter how it works the answer is always going to be Riddle of the Sand.

Master Tier:

Nomad’s Endurance: This trait is mediocre. It pairs well with the Dueling Line, but the association between condition damage and vigor is obtuse. But unlike most flat buff traits, this one contradicts with phantasms.

Shards of Glass: Mirrors are terrible, so likewise this trait is terrible. It is inconsistent, contradicts with phantasms, and gives you an ambush skill + dodge right when all your clones are dead. There’s nothing good about this trait.

Mirage Mantle: Simple. But Impotent. It does barely anything. 1 second of protection is almost no protection.

Mirrored Axes: AKA the only trait you’ll take. It’s an all around buff for the axe. Simple, and effective. But useless for power builds.

Again, most of these are terrible. Mirrored Axes is good, but the other traits are distinctly not.

Grandmaster Tier:

Speed of Sand: This trait exists just to compensate for the limitations of the mirage cloak. There is much to be said when the grandmaster minor trait exists solely to compensate for a weakness inherent to the class mechanic.

Infinite Horizon: This trait… probably should’ve been innate. The ambush skills aren’t that good. In order to make them good, you have to maintain clones and take this trait. Then, ambush skills are a good option. Is it a better option than phantasms? I don’t know. It would take extensive testing to figure that out. Depending on the answer, this trait is either really good, or pretty terrible.

Elusive Mind: Finally, a trait that is universally good. It isn’t super useful for PVE, which will have you taking the other grandmasters for damage bonuses, but only a simpleton wouldn’t see the applications for this trait in PVP and WvW. Power builds will probably end up taking this trait by default.

Dune Cloak: AKA the trait you’ll be using. Comparisons to the Lotus Training trait reveal this one to be underpowered in damage application, range, availability, versatility, but superior in flat damage buffs. This trait will work regardless of whether you shatter or use phantasms. The duration buff is basically a flat bonus, and at least the dodge does something to nearby enemies.

The grandmaster tier has good traits, but sadly the minor and one of the majors boils down to “make the class mechanic work”. From the PVE standpoint, Dunecloak is the superior trait. The 20% condi buff is going to be far more useful than clones dodging and ambushing, and if you aren’t running a condi build then you shouldn’t be a mirage.

Overall, the traits continue the contradictory nature of mesmers by emphasizing shatters and clones when phantasms are the superior playstyle. There is nothing for power builds. There is no big mechanic or trait to draw the people in to play the mirage.

Unfortunately, I am not the best at fixing problems insomuch as I am at explaining them. If I were to give a few suggestions:

#1: Make Shards of Glass innate.
#2: Make Infinite Horizon innate.
#3: Get rid of Mirage Mantle.
#4: Give Self-Deception another effect besides clone generation.
#5: Fill the now empty 3 spots in the trait line with power or phantasm friendly build options.

That is a good place to start.

I don’t have opinions. I only have facts I can’t adequately prove.

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Posted by: FaboBabo.3581

FaboBabo.3581

Mirrage should have a little more synergy with other traitlines, and further give u something when u shatter, cause shatter is still Mesmers Class Skills.

I’ve thaught about the traits lastly very much and here are my suggestions.

First ; Make infinite horizon Baseline. It’s the core of Mirrage as most ppl already said ; If only u are doing a special attack after dodging, everyone knows who the Mesmer is, which would counterplay against the Mirrage theme. Additionaly in WvW and PvP it’s really hard to get full 3 clone Ambush value. In Pve its 100% ok if Mesmer gets some dmg. Mirrage cloaks should stay way longer (8s-12s) to get a tactical Part of it and the ability to zone.

Self deception ; Produce a clone when u use a deception Skill (12 sec iCD), reduce CD of deception Skills. 20% Reduce.
→minimize the abuse by giving it an iCD, and optimize the use by cutting the “2 clones” – part

Renewing Oasis and Riddle of Sand are well designed i think, im not 100% sure about tweaks here.

Normad’s Endurance ; Now it get’s interesting; Critical Strikes restore Endurance. Gain 20% Crit Chance. Endurance gained ; 1(PvE)/2(PvP,WvW). We get Vigour from duelling, which synergys with Crit Chance, so this would make Mirrage + Duelling a top Combo. Additionaley Crit Chance is nice with power, so this would help both sides ; Condi and Power.

Shards of Glass; Every Shatter creates a Mirrage with forms A Mirror at ur position. 20 Sec CD per Shatter. Increase the Range of Mirrage Cloak effects. Range increased to 360. Lets u create 4 Mirrors when using all 4 Shatters, but then leaves u without the Chance of creating a Mirror in the following 20s, cause every shatter has its own iCD. Mirrage now synergyses with Shattering better and Mirrors get more Tactical.

Mirrage Mantle; It’s simple ; Get Barrier after Mirrage Cloak. Dont know about scaling, shouldn’t be that high.

Mirrored axes; Reduce recharge of Axe Skills. Axe “2” spawns 2 Clones.
Pretty much buffing all 3 traits to competet with other classes and each other. Make it hard to decide what u want.

Speed of Sand ; 1,5-2 Seconds Superspeed to balance out the “no-dodgeroll” thing. Gaining Mirrage Cload reduces the CD of ur skills by 1s. (Loads Charges too), cause this is a Grandmaster Minor. Basically this shows that Mirrage wants to spam a lot. Bombs, bombs bombs.

New trait ; Mirrors Illusion; Shattering a Mirror produces a clone(who gets mirrage cloak through the mirror), and interrupts enemys. 0,5s Daze. (Same Range as all ur Mirrage Cloak effects – >Shards of Glass)
More Clone generation, harmonizes well with the theme of deception. (somebody allready made this suggestion before, walking into a mirror splitting himself just sounds amazing)

Elusive Mind ; Perfect

Dune cloak ; More direct Dmg , More Conditions, probably 1 stack of all ; torment , confusion, burn, cripple and bleed. → Needs to compete with other traits, had a bad range (which now can be buffed with shards of sand), should either act as cover condibomb in Pvp and WvW, or add dmg in PvE since u dont lack clone generation there.

Now the last Thing which i need to say in regards of Mirrage upcoming.

Sharper Images should proc on UR Crits too, not only on Illusion Crits.

Just my 2 Cents.

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Posted by: mortrialus.3062

mortrialus.3062

Mirage Cloak: Mirage Cloak and ambush skills are immensely underwhelming. First of all it’s very hard to tell exactly when the invincibility frames for Mirage Cloak are active in the heat of the moment. Mirage cloak should give your character a a move obvious tell for the evade frames.

Second, Mirage Cloak prevents you from being able to evade to the side or away from where you are facing without wasting invincibility frames doing an about face, running away, and doing another about face to reface your opponent. Mirage Cloak is supposed to be the defining characteristic of the Mirage. It should be a better evade in every way. Mirage Cloak either needs to allow you to strafe / backpedal at full super speed or the entire thing should be tweaked to have you instantly shadowstep the distance of the evade if you were using a movement speed.

Also, if the class mechanic is going to be a new type of evade it absolutely should have longer evade frames so that you’re actually gaining something potentially powerful and useful. It’s currently .75 seconds, the same time as a standard dodge roll. I think it should be bumped up to 1.25 seconds of invincibility frames to make it compatible to Daredevil’s third dodge roll.

Next up, the window to use Ambush Skills should not only be longer by several seconds but should be spread out with other skills. Any mesmer skill that gives blur, distortion or stealth should open up the ambush attack window as well. Endurance is an extremely important defense resource that cannot be understated for how important it is. It is far too important of a resource to be worth spending on the current Mirage Skills. As it stands now, Mirage Ambush Attacks need to be either immense high damage blow outs if they’re only tied to Mirage Cloak and shattering Mirrors. Like condition damage equivalent to the Deadeye’s insane crits for how much they cost and what you give up to use them.

Daredevil dodges are a great comparison again. They got a pick of three dodges all of which are important to different unique play styles. One of which turns the dodge into a condition attack and increases condition damage, another is a 4k crit that increases power damage, another breaks all slows and mobilizes, grants swiftness, reduces incoming damage, has increased ranged for the dodge (And Invincibility frames I think? Not 100% certain on this.) and grants them swiftness. And they have three dodge rolls so that using one of these for the bonus isn’t so painful.

Next up are the ambush skills which are all have serious problems, are all really awkward to use, and almost all of them are hot garbage. Compare to a thief’s ambush skills; Thieves gain ambush skills while stealthed. So they’re already less vulnerable trying to execute them. In addition, the attacks themselves are super quick. Bam! Backstabbed. Bam! Knocked down.

Mirage ambush skills are all really weak and leave you way too open to attack while using them, especially considering they cost a dodge roll to use or a utility skill. Mirage ambushes leave you extremely vulnerable the entire time. The scepter and sword having blur evasion is a no brainer. I also still don’t understand why scepter has to root you. The shadow step away from the target is really awkward and often times blinks me out of range. This is probably a “get good” issue, but it also seems really problematic in PvE where you want to stack with the group. It would make more sense if it blinked you away after you performed the attack, not before. Scepter projectiles have terrible tracking and have a difficult time hitting moving opponents.

Sword ambush is boring and uninspired. You just do the same attack your sword phantasms do but for basically no damage and barely any daze. This should be a really big, meaty attack and probably shadow step you to your target in keeping with the Mirage theme.

Staff has this loooong wind up before shooting a mediocre but impressive looking projectile. With the wind up it seems like its begging for block while you’re spinning the staff. The conditions on this need to be increased quite a bit. Also the projectile tracking is again terrible. If you enemy is circle strafing around you it will never hit them.

Axe barely feels like you’ve done something different from your auto attack.

Greatsword has terrible damage and is interrupted by the fact that the attack lasts longer than the mirage cloak. So you’ll stop doing the attack before the attack has even finished and go back to the standard greatsword auto. It’s also begging for projectile reflection or destruction.

With how Mirage Cloak is a complete downgrade from standard dodge rolling, and how weak Ambush skills are, the big selling point of the Mirage is fundamentally bad. I can’t imagine it having any place in any game mode. Picking Mirage requires giving up so much for so, so little that it’s not worth taking.

(edited by mortrialus.3062)

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Posted by: mortrialus.3062

mortrialus.3062

Self Deception: Overall a solid concept for a trait. But the tuning is very low especially considering it has to compete with Chronophantasma and Illusionary Reversion from the Chronomancer. Overall clone / phantasm output needs to be increased substantially. You can say “Grandmaster vs Not Grandmaster” to justify the lower tuning for Self Deception but the end cumulative result of the trait lines ends up with Mirage feeling starved for shatter ammo.

Also compare with the Daredevil equivalent, which makes it grant 10 endurance every time they use a physical skill.

Renewing Oasis: It seems alright. It’s very passive and not very interesting. I have very little to say about this.

Riddle of Sand: Interesting, but very very undertuned. This is general proof leading to the fact that Mirage is designed as a shatter spec. Which is interesting as Infinite Horizon feels like it’s telling you the opposite, that you aren’t supposed to use Shatters or Phantasms but clones. We’ll get more into this later.

Nomad’s Endurance: More evidence that this is supposed to be a Shatter spec. It’s okay, but considering Mirage greatly parallels the Daredevil and just how much that class as access to not just Vigor but raw endurance generation through it’s healskill and various traits that it just doesn’t compete. Daredevil is loaded with getting tons of free endurance and Mirage has basically nothing and only a few sources of vigor thanks to this trait. Overall very underwhelming.

Shards of Glass: Mirage mirrors are an awkward mechanic that just doesn’t work, especially in pvp. It’s just not worth hiking your way over to this tiny thing on the ground for a tiny bit of evade. The entire concept needs to be reworked. Perhaps something where you gain mirage mirror on yourself and the next time you’re attacked it activates. Almost like a Mirage style Aegis. The tool type is confusing and it feels like it should have a 100% chance of spawning a mirror if you use a three clone shatter. Again, it’s just one more trait poorly performing compared to Chronomancer that leads to Mirage feeling really starved for Shatter ammo.

Mirage Mantle: Okay despite being too passive.

Mirrored Axes: 0 complaints.

Speed of Sand: Should not only be baseline, but said baseline needs to remove the problem of being unable to evade properly in 50% of possible directions.

Infinite Horizon: A lot of people are clamoring for this trait to be made baseline. I 100% disagree with this. Between Shards of Glass, Riddle of Sand and Nomad’s Endurance Mirage is clearly supposed to be a shatter spec. Especially since everything else about the Mesmer is built for Shatters. It’s not supposed to to have it’s basic clones out there doing damage by copying the Mesmer’s attacks and so many people have come to that conclusion.

I think this trait should be replaced by a new trait: Every time you summon a clone or phantasm you summon and additional version of that clone or phantasm. That would eliminate the confusion over what the mirage is supposed to do. It would also solve it’s problem with being starved for clones and phantasms compared to the Chronomancer and pave the way for it being a great spec for shatters.

Not only that, but it could potentially create a more active PvE damage spec as now DPS mesmers can potentially shatter for additional damage and quickly get their phantasms out again instead of just setting up and never touching the shatter button.

Elusive Mind: This is a heavily underrated trait. It’s quite possibly the best thing the Mirage gets. If Mirage Cloak’s issue with reducing your mobility and the Mesmer and Mirage’s lack of vigor and Endurance generation were fixed this would be an incredible trait in PvP and WvW.

Dune Cloak: Potentially good trait but the 20 second internal cooldown on this is ridiculous, especially since with so little vigor and endurance generation it’s not like Mirages are popping Mirage Cloak nonstop. The condition duration increase is really powerful though and in fact much better than Infinite Horizon.

TLDR: Mirage Cloak limits you just as much as it helps you. All of the Mirage Skills are far, far too weak considering they require a bar of endurance or a utility skill to use. Mirage does not have the clone/phantasm generation to compete with Chronomancer. Mirage and core mesmer lack vigor and endurance generation to allow for a play style that demands spending endurance for offense. Infinite Horizon while a fun and interesting trait seems to have caused a lot of confusion about what the Mirage is supposed to do as a class.

(edited by mortrialus.3062)

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Posted by: Alchimist.4738

Alchimist.4738

Speed of Sand - It seems they added Super Speed to cover the fact that dodge can’t be used for mobility as a Mirage, but it also makes the minor grandmaster lackluster. It should have another effect such as +15%/20% Boon Duration while under Super Speed in order to keep the Vigor from Nomad’s Endurance up longer. The rework on Speed of Sand also improves Renewing Oasis among other traits.

Self-Deception - It should summon a Clone no matter what, but in return should have an internal cooldown around 3sec., because right now it lacks a lot compared to Chronophantasma, which has the same idea of illusion sustainably behind, but with Phantasm. With Jaunt you’ll have an easy access to Clones, and it’d also make Infinite Horizon better because the dilemma between keeping your Clones alive and Shattering them would be less hard.

Shards of Glass - I’m not a fan of being forced to move in a position which may be compromised in order to get something important, it’s the same issue with the healing fragments on Ventari and the Aegis on Fragments of Faith. Shattering should give Ambush, or create a Mirror in front of the Mirage, and this trait should have an internal cooldown around 5sec instead of using chance.

The other traits are either fine or the reworks above enhance some of them, for instance the new Self-Deception would fix Infinite Horizon.

(edited by Alchimist.4738)

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

Another suggestion regarding Elusive Mind.

I’d be happy if they remove the stunbreak entirely, but make it like DareDevil’s Unhindered Combatant – ie dodge removes all movement impairing conditions (cripple/chill/immobilise). And have it remove an additional condition, maybe a damaging condition like Ranger’s Evasive Purity does.

That would be cool – they could also make a trait that gives swiftness on dodge.

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Posted by: keenlam.4753

keenlam.4753

While our middle trait is very well-designed imo, the other 2 traitlines lack clarity of purpose.

There are 3 mechanics introduced with mirage: cloak, mirror, and ambush skills with mirage cloak being the most central.
At the most basic level, their synergy can be seen as:
Mirror —> Cloak --> Ambush.

So why I said the mid line is well -designed. Its theme is about utilizing mirage cloak to mitigate dmg, make you very tanky regardless whether you are power or condi spec. This line is a defensive line pure and simple. And the gm trait is certainly a game-changer, worth its GM status. Maybe Mirage Mantle could use some tuning with longer duration of protection. Renewing Oasis is fine.

So let’s see whats wrong with the top and bottom lines:

Looking at the topline, the gm trait Infinite Horizon seems to be the selling point of Mirage where you truly specilize in the art of blending in amongst your clones. This strategy might not work 100% in-game, but the playstyle is fun nevertheless. This obviously requires a good clone upkeep supported by the GM trait and Adept trait.
The Master trait, Shards of Glass, is a serious offender here, a bad trait that encourages shattering and make you stand out as you run around collect those mirrors (more in mirrors later). Very anti-synergistic.
Self-Deception is good for clone upkeep, fitting with the theme, but it is very restrictive. The requirement should be at least 1 illusion or no illusion at all with an ICD.

Bottom line is clearly a more offensive one. With the GM trait Dune Cloak encourages the proactive use of mirage cloak for condition dmg. In fact, with just a bit of tuning, this entire traitline can be tuned to support a condi shatter build because of traits like Riddle of Sand and Nomad’s Endurance.
Riddle of Sand follows the concept and is itself a good trait. But it is held back right now by how weak ambush skills are.
Mirrored Axes is a good trait but again, held back by how weak axe skills are right now.

Mirror right now is a very clunky mechanic and offers little reward vs risks. Imo, mirrors should be more offensive by design and play into proactive positioning. Then it makes sense that mirrors should be our way to use mirage cloak offensively as opposed to defensively “dodge rolling”. And there should be more access to it, make it more integral to the mirage class. One example could be shattering a mirror inflicts more dmg/debilitating conditions to enemies around (10 vuln. stacks, 5 bleeds. etc.).

If mirage mirror can be adjusted to offer condi dmg, or dmg boost rather than just being a defensive tool, then Riddle of Sand, Shards of Glass, and Dune Cloak can together make a really awesome condi shatter build.

[Feedback] Mirage Traits

in Mesmer

Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I’m wondering if dodging could simply be changed to give 1 second of Mirage Cloak and 1 second of superspeed.

This means each dodge will proc a slightly longer evade duration than a normal dodge, but at the expense of no movement other than running – I think that’s a fair trade off.

I mean it’s not a normal dodge that moves you, so having the 3/4s evade time restriction shouldn’t apply in this case. 1s could make it a lot smoother, also covering the ambush cast window a little and allow a little more survivability when moving out of aoes.