Guild Wars 2

The torch has long suffered from polarizing opinions within the community. At launch, I recall most players outright dismissing it in favor of the more powerful pistol/sword or the superior utility of the focus. All three of these alternatives have worthwhile skills that can be made to work in most situations.

The torch, while it has increased in usage with the rise of stealth builds, suffers from the longstanding weaknesses of the phantasmal mage. As far as I can tell, the phantasmal mage is never weighed into a build’s usefulness, rather it is a liability one must take for the privilege of using the torch 5 skill, the prestige.

In every calculation, estimation, guess and guesstimation I have come across, the mage is ranked far at the bottom in terms of damage, not even reaching a level of damage comparable to the next highest, which is usually recognized as being the phantasmal warlock. Because unlike the warlock, there is no devisable build to make the Mage strong, not even confusion builds. The mage will seemingly be weak independent of player choice.

I’d like to use this thread to talk about just why the mage is so weak (if it is at all) and what could be done to fix or change it.

I figure it could be re-designed completely, either moving toward becoming a fully fledged utility phantasm, in the vein of phantasmal defender or phantasmal disenchanter, or become a hybrid damage phantasm that would retain its ability to apply retaliation to nearby allies. The former would work toward solidifying the weapon as a choice for utility, not outright damage and the latter would give it diversity from the condition applying mechanics of the prestige.

I personally like the torch a lot. Stylistically, the prestige is a super cool ability and amazing with stealth builds. I would really love the mage to come into its own and make the torch a more popular choice in a greater number of builds.

Well, the torch always strikes me as a magician’s tool to create the illusion when used by the mesmer, why not let the mage make a few bleed stacks the owner of the mage applied on the target disappear and converted to instant dealt damage or changed into torment stacks (dealing the damage the bleed stack would have done)? But that would probably be OP XD

The Mage itself is fine, it’s just the Confusion stacks could probably stand to go up a little. I think people are also a bit spoiled by our other rather spectacular phantasms and expect too much from iMage.

I’ve never been much one for Retal, though, so perhaps going in line with the cleanse theme of the torch, it could convert one condition into a boon (and a boon into a condition on the target). For how telegraphed and simple to dodge the Mage’s attack is, you could really double this effect and still sit comfortably.

Or perhaps you could keep the Mage’s current attack, but tack on a Defender-like property where it reflects half of any damage to the Mage itself back to the attacker.

iMage is really strong, but it could do with a review. Confusion and retal have both been nerfed in WvW. All manner of things from iMage cd, attack rate, stacks applied, and duration of stacks can all be taken into consideration. That said, I regularly see people comparing it to other phantasms, which doesnt mean it’s weak, just that arguably iy might not have as much dps. Then again from what ive seen, the procs add up.

Sometimes I encounter enemies with massive sustain, and I find I can’t burst them down. Given they can’t take me down either, one tactic I switch to is taking my time, and spawning 2-3 iMages on them. Once you have 3x iMages pumping out 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds every 6 seconds, they’re done for no matter how much sustain they have.

I feel like a goal of getting three of a single phantasm on the board at any given time, during PvP, will always be a flawed strategy. These days, roaming solo or small group, I’ll more often than not have just one phantasm on the field seconds before the end of the fight, regardless of the outcome.

Dorkopotamis.1497:

I feel like a goal of getting three of a single phantasm on the board at any given time, during PvP, will always be a flawed strategy. These days, roaming solo or small group, I’ll more often than not have just one phantasm on the field seconds before the end of the fight, regardless of the outcome.

I wouldn’t set out with that goal either. But if it comes about due to the nature of the particular encounter, then it comes about. If it becomes the winning factor of the fight, then it’s counted as a win.