Guild Wars 2

The staff phantasm Illusionary Warlock was switched with torch phantasm Illusionary mage? Is this a viable switch?

Some observations: Torch is affected by the Domination Trait Line

- Warlock even with the % additive increase of damage per condition benefits tremendously from power.
– Staff Conditions do not really last long enough to maximize the potential of Illusionary Warlock. For effective use I rely on my parties conditions for consistent damage most of the time.

Staff is Affected by the Chaos Trait Line Retaliation synergizes well with Toughness and Toughness with condition builds.

- Illusionary Mage has less initial power but does add a x3 Confusion Stack with Retaliation which would further supplement the boons and conditions that are consistent with Staff. I’ve never understood why this skill has a 30s cool down… but it would need to be lowered on staff.

TL;DR Should ANET Switch the Staff Phantasm with the Torch Phantasm?

Not really… Because the staff phantasm shines in dungeons… And there it can crit for 7-8k depending on the conditions of the target… And putting the torch into where the staff is would prolly just tick people off… What they need to do to make the torch phantasm a better confusion weapon is up the duration that is applied AND allow our phantasms to inherit our condition dmg/duration from our armor set because currently… they don’t.

I understand why torch phantasm is frowned upon in PvE but in PvP? i can counter a thief with that thing, not only that in pve if you time it right you can get big attack reflected.

back to topic though, no don’t switch them staff works fine as it is so do NOT fix something that isn’t broken, if torch needs a different or updated phantasm then what needs to be done is a re-design of that skill, leave other well alone.

In either case, the iMage would need a buff. 3 stacks for 3 seconds is only situationally useful… and even then those situations tend to be rare and another phantasm/skill could handle them better.

The thing about iWarlock working well in staff is that with Chaos Storm + a few staff clones, you can actually stack quite a few conditions on enemies. Having 2 staff clones out, dropping chaos storm on an enemy (wielding Chaos Armor at the same time for even MORE conditions), and dropping iWarlock inside the storm not only buffs the warlock with Retaliation/Aegis, but should leave the enemy with 3-5 conditions on the warlock’s first hit.

None of the Mesmer weapons are strictly for one type of playstyle, power/precision could get use out of staff. Condition damage could use a pistol, ect. Putting the iMage in staff takes away much of the use a power/precision build could get from it.

Do i want to have the worst phantasm on my fav mez weapon? NO. They should rework image and let him attack every 7sec, give it 5 stacks of confusion for 5 sec

While the iMage concept makes more sense with the staff, being a condition damage phantasm for a condition damage weapon, right now having the iMage on a weapon means that weapon is crippled because the iMage is the worst skill in the entire game, a topic I’ve been over several times.

Switching the phantasms around wouldn’t change anything significant, other than be a swift kick to the balls for a lot of staff builds.

(clutches Imryldyeen to his chest …) Get. Your. Failtastic. IMage. Away. From. My. STAFF! >_<
Ahem – sorry about that one. But, seriously … IMage is terribad. And I use Torch on occasion. +9001 for the idea of reworking IMage to no longer suck at existing.

Advent.6193:

(clutches Imryldyeen to his chest …) Get. Your. Failtastic. IMage. Away. From. My. STAFF! >_<
Ahem – sorry about that one. But, seriously … IMage is terribad. And I use Torch on occasion. +9001 for the idea of reworking IMage to no longer suck at existing.

5 stacks for 5 seconds… That would really make the torch scepter SHINE…

For the record, I find it so amusing how some people attempt to defend the iMage in threads for the torch sometimes, but the moment someone mentions putting it on the staff…..the true colors of that skill shine through.

Pyroatheist.9031:

For the record, I find it so amusing how some people attempt to defend the iMage in threads for the torch sometimes, but the moment someone mentions putting it on the staff…..the true colors of that skill shine through.

Never ever switch those two… One because the torch only applies two conditions… staff clones+chaos storm+iWarlock=plenty of damage… They just need to fix the torch and make it so mesmers can at least compete with engi’s in the confusion department. Cuz right now just