Guild Wars 2

In beta I loved this skill. It had a larger range and flowed so nicely with the fight. Then they nerfed (or fixed) it to 600 range and I’ve lost count of the amount of times the skill has failed because of it.

But more annoying is when you spawn a clone successfully a lot of times it doesn’t make it to the enemy target either at all or in a timely manner. I’ve noticed it spawns, runs a few yards away from you then pauses before running to the target. Why can’t we have the clone spawn at the target player location instead? Or give us back a 900 or 1200 range.

I have to admit, the 600 range feels very unnatural to the rest of the mesmer’s playstyle. AI could use some tweaking, but normally I am happy if the clone itself spawns… ^^

The skill is a clunker, that’s for sure. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes it seems to have a range far bigger than 600, and sometimes you can be at 300 range and the clone takes a leisurely stroll to the target.

On the other hand, it didn’t work better in beta. It acquired the name illusionary casual walk in beta for a reason.

To use it properly, you really just have to watch the clone carefully. If it makes the leap, you’re set to go. If not, then you still have a free stunbreaker for the next few seconds.

You are not the only one, but once you learn how to place it, you will like it, but also what I hate more is the Ill-leap pathing, sometimes it runs away from foe, or sometimes in a triangle towards the foe.

I personally think the skill is backwards, it should be a dash to the target, leaving a clone at your position, like a reverse phase retreat, that way, even if you’re at 601 range, you’re at least getting SOMETHING from the skill, rather than “lolol ur 2 far awai, no skill 4 u, but u can has this cooldown if u want lolol”

Its one of the abilitys who give a random toucth to mesmers, you never realy can predict how a attack will play out. It make us extremly unpredictable and confuses the enemy alot…. tobad it do the same to us aswell lol.

Tbh its a cluster kitten but I guess as mesmers we need to learn to live with it.

A alternative fix I see would not let the clone walk/run/crawl to the target but simply spawn and use same mecanics as blink (if you cant get there by walk it fails). Also I not sure if it would be to op but if they made the tier 3 stealth trait instead of increase stealth time to instead make you invis for 1 sec after you used abilitys like blink, leap and phase retreat. Would give a interesting opening for additional playstyles (no perma invis but more target drop options.

/Osicat

/Osicat

Calcifire.1864:

I personally think the skill is backwards, it should be a dash to the target, leaving a clone at your position, like a reverse phase retreat, that way, even if you’re at 601 range, you’re at least getting SOMETHING from the skill, rather than “lolol ur 2 far awai, no skill 4 u, but u can has this cooldown if u want lolol”

Please have my Like ! Best idea to fix it and shouldn’t be difficult to program.

Calcifire.1864:

I personally think the skill is backwards, it should be a dash to the target, leaving a clone at your position, like a reverse phase retreat, that way, even if you’re at 601 range, you’re at least getting SOMETHING from the skill, rather than “lolol ur 2 far awai, no skill 4 u, but u can has this cooldown if u want lolol”

The skill was like this at one point in beta. The clone just ran up beside you and died. Though I did like the ability to leap to cover more ground while moving, and in fights I would leap in, rotate the mob away from my clone, then swap to avoid his attack.

I’d rather it conjured a clone from the opposite side of the opponent which ALSO leapt at him and then let you swap places with that clone. At least then you still get the movement while out of range, just like every other leap/charge skill.

Calcifire.1864:

I personally think the skill is backwards, it should be a dash to the target, leaving a clone at your position, like a reverse phase retreat, that way, even if you’re at 601 range, you’re at least getting SOMETHING from the skill, rather than “lolol ur 2 far awai, no skill 4 u, but u can has this cooldown if u want lolol”

Yessss, this would be a great way to fix it. Worse than using it out of range (something I can improve myself) are the pathing issues, especially in pvp. Unless I’m getting the drop on a totally stationary target, I don’t expect the clone to get there.

The skill is great in PVE. I use it on rotation in melee range for a double combo finisher and an immobilize (you often don’t get the double benefit if you use this at range). I use Sword/Sword, so I usually get past the range problem by casting the iSwordsman first while running in. Usually results in the clone arriving first, followed by myself, then the phantasm.

The skill is definitely awkward if you primarily play at range and use it to periodically leap in to do some sword damage. However, if you play full melee the skill is perfect.

kodesh.2851:

Calcifire.1864:

I personally think the skill is backwards, it should be a dash to the target, leaving a clone at your position, like a reverse phase retreat, that way, even if you’re at 601 range, you’re at least getting SOMETHING from the skill, rather than “lolol ur 2 far awai, no skill 4 u, but u can has this cooldown if u want lolol”

Yessss, this would be a great way to fix it. Worse than using it out of range (something I can improve myself) are the pathing issues, especially in pvp. Unless I’m getting the drop on a totally stationary target, I don’t expect the clone to get there.

In response to both kodesh and Calcifire:

The problem with this is that the Clone is still a Clone wielding a Sword. By design, all Clones will attempt to attack with their current weapon, meaning that the Clone will attempt to walk forward and attack with it’s sword. Any other AI would involve breaking the current “meta” so to speak for current Clones, causing a possible forced re-write of all Clones, thus creating too much workload for such a simple problem.

I had thought of that as a fix, for a while, but not only does it create a worthless Clone (assuming you do bypass natural Clone AI), you’re also blatantly copying a Thief skill with a much shorter duration of “return-cast”.

Illusionary Leap is probably the buggiest skill (animation wise) that the mesmer has (that I can think of). As already mentioned clones like to suddenly halt a moment for no apparent reason. Get stuck behind the slightest deviation on the ground. If someone runs directly away from you they keep stopping and moving making the ability miss entirely half the time.

They really need to fix this somehow it’s doing my head in yet it’s such an important and useful skill. I rather the clone spawned at the enemy than run there so it’s far less likely to miss.

Yeah, the thing that gets me about this skill is how inconsistent it is. Sometimes I thi k that terrain has something to do with it, but it really doesn’t. I’ve used this skill so much, and I’ve seen it work 2 ways in almost every imaginable situation. The first way is the clone sorta derps around and might get to your target eventually. This second way is the clone seems to be shot out of a cannon, barely touching the ground before smacking your target in the face, and sticking on them for the duration of the swap.

I have found absolutely zero correlation between any factors that cause these two different behaviors, and it annoys the hell out of me.

iLeap is sooo freaking weird. Sometimes I will be on a little bit lower ground but there is a path to the left to get to the enemy. And it is like a little super speed ninja with how fast it traverses the U shape path to get to the enemy and then I can swap and instantly be higher! Times like that its TRULY epic. Then there are times where the enemy is just on slightly higher or lower ground and you run do the ileap and swap and you are 600 units behind where you started its like WTF????

IMO. I think the clone should come out leaping and have the leaping clone range be 1200 even if triggers at 600.

It would be nice if they changed the animation of it to the Warrior’s #2 mainhand sword skill. That is a legitimate leap rather than “i’ll slide to you and call it a leap” move.

I’ve said it here and on the gw guru forums that Illusionary Leap is a broken skill that is too finicky and temperamental to work most of the time. Not only are you fighting to be within range of an opponent (and we lack speed of other classes, so it can be a feat sometimes) but you are also fighting against terrain issues, the skill simply not even working issues, clone not leaping to the target fully, clone dying upon spawn for no apparent reason, and/or the immobilize part of the leap not functioning correctly or at all when it should. It all combines to make it a big mess that is highly, highly situational.

Also, unlike other classes, our leap/gap closer skill cannot be used outside of combat and can only be used when a target is visible. Which further limits the use of the skill, imo. At least with other gap closers for classes like Warrior, Thief, Guardian, etc. they can use their leaps out of combat and without a target needed so they can gain increased mobility on the battlefield. All such classes can use those skills to expedite travel over maps, jump across obstacles/jump onto nearby platforms, and especially in leaping away from combat/opponents to get quickly get out of range of attacks and retreat. I really wish Mesmer could use their leap skill like Warrior sword #2. It’d help mobility.

Of course, I also believe that Illusionary Leap should be a 1200 or at least 900 range skill. Not this 600 stuff. If you’re that close to your opponent, then you may as well be in melee range and start #2 and #1’ing your enemy.

[Pyroatheist.9031:]Yeah, the thing that gets me about this skill is how inconsistent it is. Sometimes I thi k that terrain has something to do with it, but it really doesn’t. I’ve used this skill so much, and I’ve seen it work 2 ways in almost every imaginable situation. The first way is the clone sorta derps around and might get to your target eventually. This second way is the clone seems to be shot out of a cannon, barely touching the ground before smacking your target in the face, and sticking on them for the duration of the swap.

Again, thanks a lot for that. Having followed the discussion on Scepter I decided to try out a sword and found this particular skill extremely baffling. It kind of works as it pleases and even my Brother playing wvw with me noticed the erratic behaviour of my clone. So now I can tell him ‘hey, it’s not JUST me doing something TOTALLY wrong’

Esplen.3940:

The problem with this is that the Clone is still a Clone wielding a Sword. By design, all Clones will attempt to attack with their current weapon, meaning that the Clone will attempt to walk forward and attack with it’s sword.

Yeah. Except there’s anything closer to you than your current target, in which case it’ll happily attack that because of its great “AI”.

Iruwen.3164:

Esplen.3940:

The problem with this is that the Clone is still a Clone wielding a Sword. By design, all Clones will attempt to attack with their current weapon, meaning that the Clone will attempt to walk forward and attack with it’s sword.

Yeah. Except there’s anything closer to you than your current target, in which case it’ll happily attack that because of its great “AI”.

that’s because of Anet’s bizarre obsession with keeping their insane targeting system.

also, to be fair, I play a necro with a mesmer as main, it’s a breath of fresh air to play as a mesmer, because at least I know the clones will actually ATTACK the target (and ONLY the target) as opposed to aggroing everything in a 3000 meter range, then running back to you with a manner that just screams “derr, mastar I maed sum fwends look dey wan to play wiv yoo =D”

…except there’s anything closer to you than your current target. Including yellow mobs, which can become quite frustrating when it’s one of those huge veteran tree creatures rooting you all the time, just forgot their name.

Calcifire.1864:

also, to be fair, I play a necro with a mesmer as main, it’s a breath of fresh air to play as a mesmer, because at least I know the clones will actually ATTACK the target (and ONLY the target) as opposed to aggroing everything in a 3000 meter range, then running back to you with a manner that just screams “derr, mastar I maed sum fwends look dey wan to play wiv yoo =D”

yeah…my personal favourite: me teamed up with a Necro. He aggroes absolutely EVERYTHING on the map and than outruns it leaving me struggling with hordes of pink moas and siamoths

Can we just mega bump a thread listing all our bugged weapon skills?

I feel like A-net is mostly paying attention to the posts at the top but that’s 10 pages long and not much has changed for the longest time.

I get its an MMO and will always need bug fixes but a lot less skills than other games and I get unviable or bugged utilities but our weapon sets should have been working since release. We keep getting be content but what’s the point if your skills don’t work? (This is not just for mesmer)

Iruwen.3164:

Esplen.3940:

The problem with this is that the Clone is still a Clone wielding a Sword. By design, all Clones will attempt to attack with their current weapon, meaning that the Clone will attempt to walk forward and attack with it’s sword.

Yeah. Except there’s anything closer to you than your current target, in which case it’ll happily attack that because of its great “AI”.

Working as intended. If I am in combat with my target and a thief jumps me from close range, I do a dodge roll and WANT a clone to be generated that aggros the thief. Again, this is working as intended.

Also for Illusionary Leap, I find if you perform your leap too soon after you create your clone, the chance of the leap failing is higher. Try waiting a split second longer to ensure your clone gets to the target before leaping. Of course this won’t fix the problem when your clones doesn’t even leap but just slowly runs after your target.

i really have problem with leap , first generally cannot reach second is when going to jump him after pushing 3 again i never jump true area just the areas where the phantams go before 5sec (and hes tracking player place i jump there is no phatasm and player interesting and even phamtasm still live and tracking player) third is SPELL cannot work even close even straight area and going cd….this is boring

Yeah this skill annoys me to. It’s so kitten effective when it works but I’m always afraid of using it and just seeing it go on cooldown. I really wish it just wouldn’t activate if you are out of range (Like Blink doesn’t activate if you try to blink out of range) but I guess that’s part of skill of knowing the range of your spells.

I completely agree. This ability seems to work only when it wants to. If the terrain is even a bit bumpy, then you’re out of luck. Sometimes it spawns the clone, but it doesn’t charge like it’s supposed to like you said.

This ability makes me want to rip my hair out.

Xavi.6591:

Iruwen.3164:

Esplen.3940:

The problem with this is that the Clone is still a Clone wielding a Sword. By design, all Clones will attempt to attack with their current weapon, meaning that the Clone will attempt to walk forward and attack with it’s sword.

Yeah. Except there’s anything closer to you than your current target, in which case it’ll happily attack that because of its great “AI”.

Working as intended. If I am in combat with my target and a thief jumps me from close range, I do a dodge roll and WANT a clone to be generated that aggros the thief. Again, this is working as intended.

While this may be true in this specific situation, and even that could be discussed, it is highly annoying in many other situations and even more in PvE. So, while I cannot say if ANet intended to make it work the way it does, it still doesn’t seem right to me and obviously I’m not alone with that feeling.