Guild Wars 2

Does anyone actually use this skill over the other two? I like the 15 sec cooldown, but I don’t think I’ve actually seen another Mesmer utilize it over Ether Feast or Mantra of Recovery.

Is there any Mes who swears by this skill, or should it simply be avoided entirely?

Mirror is best used if you are fighting a boss that uses ranged skills a lot. A lot here meaning that you are unable to survive with dodge evades and feedback already. I have personally never seen a purpose to using mirror yet in game as Ether Feast is simply far more amazing.

I use Mirror all the time in WvW, since the majority of damage there is ranged, it makes a big difference. It’s also very easy to get use to the 15 second recharge time, making it kinda hard to return back to Ether Feast. But Mantra of Resolve, with the trait Restorative Mantra, is the absolute best healing skill/combo the Mesmer has (it’s probably even the best healing skill/combo in the game, but don’t tell the other professions that..).

I also use Mirror in WvW. One reason is that I run 6 superior runes of the centaur, giving me a min. 12 sec speed boost every 16 sec or so. So I am very mobile in WvW. Other reason, as stated above this post already, it is of great use in WvW for many players use projectile attacks. Sometime I use it solely to reflect an attack, when I see for example a warrior going on his knees and aiming his rifle towards me. I’ll stick them their bullet back in their faces^^

For me it’s also my WvW heal of choice. There’s so very much ranged projectile stuff flying around, any time I press it, I end up reflecting something. So on average, I actually heal more with it.

- rune of Centaur
- small CD
- reflects projectiles

Ether Feast is simply far more amazing What does it do? It just heals … woah amazing for a healing skill.

I hadn’t realized its WvWvW utility, thanks for that bit of information. Would anyone use it for sPvP or PvE?

Mirror is very situational.

Mirror is 3,915 healing per 16.25 seconds, or 240.92 Health Per Second

Ether Feast is, without any Illusions, 5,560 per 21s, or 264.76 HPS, this HPS goes up by 30.47 per Illusion. So 295.23/325.71/356.18 with Illusions included.

In order for Mirror to match a zero illusion Ether Feast you would need to block 387 damage during your one second window of reflect. To match a full Ether Feast you’d need to block 1,872 damage. In addition, mirror requires a reactive action to gain this advantage, which is unlikely to always be opportune when the CD is off. You can manage Illusions for EF far easier than managing an enemy throwing a projectile at you every 16.25 seconds for a 1s interval.

So unless you are reliably blocking Mirror is inferior. However, it should be noted that unlike other Heals mirror essentially scales off the enemy’s power since the damage prevented is based off their damage, this also doesn’t take into account the offensive aspects.

It’s not bad for WvW situations where you can afford to use your heal offensively, but it’s poor in situations where you really just need to stay alive… Unless the enemy is doing an extreme projectile attack every 16.25 seconds that you can reliably catch with a 1s reflect.

I was sold on Mirror when I was testing it out one day in Frostgorge Sound, tried to run through that narrow pass on the way from the Claw of Jormag battlefield to Slough of Despond and got attacked by the massive worms.

One blindsided me with a massive boulder that almost one-shot me, so of course I had to heal up immediately as soon as the knockdown effect was over. As I was healing I was hit with another boulder by another nearby worm, but this time the entire boulder got reflected back at the worm and knocked it down instead.

Was hilarious, I escaped, and have stuck with Mirror ever since.

Also, all of this:

TyPin.9860:

I also use Mirror in WvW. One reason is that I run 6 superior runes of the centaur, giving me a min. 12 sec speed boost every 16 sec or so. So I am very mobile in WvW. Other reason, as stated above this post already, it is of great use in WvW for many players use projectile attacks. Sometime I use it solely to reflect an attack, when I see for example a warrior going on his knees and aiming his rifle towards me. I’ll stick them their bullet back in their faces^^

With 20% boon duration food you can get 14.4s of Swiftness on a 16.25s cd. But that is AoE swiftness, so it’s hugely useful for powering small strike groups around the map and letting them save their swiftness utilities for actual combat, dolyak ganking, supply camp flipping, etc.

It is not great, not because mirror sucks, but because ether feast is just so much better.

It has great synergy with centaur runes though.

Ether Feast is just too good to use any others (unless you want the mantra for a full mantra build). In terms of the percent of your hp it recovers, I think it’s only beaten by the guardian signet heal (3 illusion heal ofc).

I just use ether feast with the trait that makes distortion grant reflection. Low HP need a heal? Have the best healing heal, and give yourself more reflection that mirror anyway.

I’m totally making a zombie out of this thread :P (Recycling FTW!)

It’s almost been a year so, what are your thoughts on Mirror now? Some of the comments up there are really interesting which is why I decided to use this thread rather than make a new one, also it was the first one that popped up in Google so I assume is the one people look at when they search the skill.

Since Mimic is probably going to get some changes, do you guys think Mirror should too? I feel like it’s a little lack luster compared to the other healing skills, even with a 15 second CD, or is it? Do you guys think that suggesting a little extra healing would make the skill OP? Is it too niche? Also I think the skill should be treated as a Manipulations skill since it feels like one, and will have at least some trait synergy, even if it is just one.

GreenLentil.3927:

It’s almost been a year so, what are your thoughts on Mirror now?

Same exact thing. As was stated above:

Mirror is 3,915 healing per 16.25 seconds, or 240.92 Health Per Second

Ether Feast is, without any Illusions, 5,560 per 21s, or 264.76 HPS, this HPS goes up by 30.47 per Illusion. So 295.23/325.71/356.18 with Illusions included.

(and Mantra traited is ~600hps, but lets just ignore that like everyone always does. I want my Mantras for myself, I dont want enemy Mesmers to start using it)

The thing with mirror is that while the cooldown and reflect is good, the actual healing part just isnt on par with the other heals. Even the new Ether Signet will out-hps it, which says alot about its effeciency. You could potentially reflect ALOT of damage (15K killshot ftw) but still, situational. Given that the Mesmer already has strong reflect (ie focus and feedback) those extra 2 seconds of reflect generally isnt more important than healing twice as much. In a duel with a medium cooldown strong hit opponent I see a use but that’s about it.

PvE bosses.

You won’t need the extra healing if you reflect.

Some scenarios:

Dungeons:
Alphard in Arah.
Belka in Arah (or is it Dessa? I can never tell).
Uncategorized Fractal (the entirety, even the stairs).
Grawl Fractal (both boss fights).
Kholer.

Open world:
Anything that shoots you.

Generally I still find Mirror my go-to heal. Most situations in PvE and WvW are filled up with projectiles. Mirror is always the strongest heal here unless for an external reason I need the dual-Disenchanter and hence use the Signet.

When Mirror isn’t useful, I generally go with Mantra in PvE (got HM there) or Feast in WvW as Feast is just more powerful in a DE-setup. Phantasm-setups would go for the signet in that case, ofc.

But still, Mirror is amazing. It’s difficult to notice just how much it heals for at first, and it takes getting used to to not use your healing skill based on health alone. But it can do a ton of damage on top of avoiding a lot of it.

It’s not so much the heal as the prevention of damage.

Effective healing at its’ finest.

Basically what Esp and Carighan are saying. I only ever swap it out if people want duels. More often than not, you’re outnumbered when small group roaming, with the combination of blinks, staff and stealth melee isn’t an issue. However, the risk of having your heal rupted, having projectiles hit you, deal damage etc. is much higher risk. Not only do you mitigate more often than not more damage effectively healing more than ether, if you’re built zerker, your damage output is still very nice.

I run mirror primarily. The short CD, condi removal and perma swiftness on centaur runes but without having to worry about charging mantra and so on, even though the mantra is more non stop swiftness lol. The short CD is great, it feels like i have a crazy regen going on, i’m almost always spamming it, when my health is even slightly past perfect and it keeps me at full health all the time. Sort of like the new signet except manual lolol. The reflection is great as well. I don’t feel i’m missing anything by choosing mirror over the others.

I love Mirror and basically run it all the time. While other heals might have higher HPS Mirror easily outperforms them because of the reflect effect. I also enjoy the low cooldown because I run Centaur Runes for Swiftness.

In PvP, Mirror quite obviously is best against ranged enemies while Ether Feast is a lot better against melee focussed foes. Mirror is pretty nice when escaping because of the reflect and I sometimes even use it offensively to make them eat their own arrows.

I usually do not use the Mantra or the Signet. I sometimes switch in the Mantra in dungeons when I feel the need for more (mobile) condition cleanses but I rarely do it because I do not run 30 Domination for HM. I really dislike the new Signet. In PvP it is okay-ish in 1vs1 but I feel that Illusions die way too fast in 1vs2+. For open world PvE I simply do not need it. In dungeons I prefer having timed heals rather than passive regen.

Xaylin actually made me appreciate mirror. It saved me a lot of times, as people in this game don’t really all the time the stuff they throw at me is being reflected. It also counters condi warriors so hard, which is popular in the meta. I do think it needs to be a manipulation or something that can be traited to make it better, along with ether feast.

Pretty fun if you can make use of more reflection like the harpy fractale or the fire shaman.

The one thing I like about Mirror (I don’t use it btw) is that, if I’m running and using my heal, and someone wants to interrupt me with a ranged attack, they can’t. The heal is, essentially, protected. Ether Fest on the other hand can be, and has :/

Also, it gives better synergy than Ether Fest with any runes that proc an effect on heal.
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsf7dlwzKqHTzmGb9IipHEXwBckUYavWJF22FC-jUDBYhYohDiGpBhWYZ0EIBKHqIas1PFRjVbDTFbR16YAmcp2uDwcWRTIgFTAA-w
This utilizes 6s chills on weapon swaps and heals. Mantra heal obviously allows for a chill every 10s, but given it can be hard to time that while keeping your heal on hold for any length of time, Mirror provides a more solid means to time the chill on heal effect.

Mirror;

Reflects Projectiles
Has 15Sec CD
Synergy with ‘On heal’ Runes
Synergy with Mender’s Purity (2 Condition Removal)

that is all :-)