Guild Wars 2

This thread is for consolidated feedback on the aesthetics of Mirage. In other words how things look and sound, not their viability/function.

Example: The Mirage sometimes shouts “mirror mirror made of sand.” Please remove this Disney reference.

I really like all the shouts of the mirage.

I really like the animations.

Deception Skills effects:
When a legendary weapon is equipped, the shadowsteps and backward rolls should leave a legendary effect trail. For example shadowstepping while having Bolt equipped should leave a lightning trail. It would be beautiful to see.

Good topic – sound and visual effects are for me one of the primary motivators for enjoying a class or game and one of the main reasons I enjoy mesmer. It also happens to be why I’m attracted to playing Firebrand, even though I don’t like core guardian.

Visual effects:
+ Axe animations are all beautiful Including the throwing of the Imaginary Axes and the whirling axe projectiles (bear in mind I play asura). I love the auto attack, especially the twirl/flourish on the 3rd hit of the auto. I love axe 2’s animation and I love the overall misty/sandy pastel pink hue on all the trails of all the axe attacks. The devs have done a fantastic job with how axe skills look.
+ Mirage Mirrors are beautiful and the shattering looks good.
+ The colours following Mirage Cloak are beautiful (fit with my Bifrost quite nicely).
+ Staff Ambush animation is beautiful (I always wanted the rev’s staff spin animation on mesmer)
+ Jaunt seems to have been toned down from videos pre-demo, so I like that (no bright flash to hurt the eyes).

- Scepter ambush animation in superspeed looks ridiculous, like Blurred Frenzy under quickness and then on steroids. It’s too frantic for mesmer, especially an elite spec that is all about subtelty and deception.
- Maybe a bit too much beige sand effects in some places, detracts a little from the core theme of mesmer. What if we are playing a Mirage in the Shiverpeaks somewhere – the beige sand wouldn’t quite fit.

Sound Effects:
+ Mirage Mirror shattering sound is fantastic
+ Mirage Cloak has a beautiful sound effect
+ Axe autos and axe 3/Illusionary Ambush sound good.

+/- Axe 2 has a weird “bubbly” sound (best I can describe it) that isn’t as smooth/whooshing/flowing as I’d imagine it to be. It doesn’t bother me but it could be better.
+/- Jaunt also has a weird bouncy/bubbly sound to it that isn’t as appropriate as it could be. Again maybe less percussive beats and more smooth transition.

- Imaginary Axes – it hurts my ears and I seriously hope it is changed. Worse than Alacrity, don’t know what the audio devs were thinking with this one.
- Some of the voice lines are really cheesy (as you said in the OP). I can’t remember all of them but I recall some were good but there were one or two that made me cringe a bit.

Generally I really like the animations, for example the dodge blur or the Illusionary Ambush or axe3 jump/teleport. Some of them could be smoother though, like ambushs (sword, scepter) and axe2.

Other than that I could definitely go without the voice lines like “I’m neither here nor there”, but that is personal taste.

All in all, style-wise, really well made

I really enjoyed all of the voice lines and visuals. I’d like to see the jarring noise that sounds when a Deception skill with a shadow step is activated toned down.

I think pretty much everyone finds aesthetics the best thing of Mirage, and it’s quite discouraging xd

Personally, I love axe visuals and how they look on the Astralaria. If only it wasn’t that bad… Sounds are also very cool.