Guild Wars 2

I known many people have written off the Phantasmal Mage as “bad”, but I wanted to do a quick look at the actual numbers for it.

Skip to the bottom for summary of information in bold

First, let’s see what it does…

Phantasmal Mage

• Inflicts 3 seconds of confusion on enemies
• Inflicts 3 seconds of retaliation on allies
• Skill use every 6 seconds with a cast time of 0.75 seconds.
• Skill use every 4.8 seconds with Phantasmal Haste.
• The skill bounces twice.

Now let’s look at the up-time of that confusion/retaliation…

3 second duration / 6.75 seconds (cd + cast) = 44.444…% up-time on retaliation and 3 stacks of confusion without Phantasmal Haste.

3 second duration / 5.55 seconds (cd + cast) = 54.054054…% up-time on retaliation and 3 stacks of confusion

Now let’s look at the numbers for confusion and retaliation at level 80.

Confusion - PvE and WvW: 10 + 120 + (0.15 * Condition Damage) per stack

Retaliation - 198.45 + (0.075 * Power)

If we just take rabid gear and undead runes with no food/oils, gw2buildcraft.com shows us having 1633 condition damage and it says (since I’m lazy) that the confusion will do 375 dmg per stack per skill use.

375 * 3 = 1125 dmg. This ignores toughness/armor/protection. So it will be that amount per skill used for 3 seconds.

Using the spreadsheet from the recent Mesmerized podcast, the average is 1.408 attacks per second. So in 3 seconds we have 1.408 * 3 = 4.224 attacks. So let’s just say 4.

1125 * 4 = 4,500 damage. This is comparable to a crit from one of the power-based phantasms in a build with decent power/crit/crit_dmg.

However, since it bounces twice, there are other scenarios that can be looked at.

Confusion hits 2 targets … this could do 4,500 * 2 = 9,000 damage total.
Confusion hits 3 targets … this could do 4,500 * 3 = 13,500 damage total.

There is also the chance of retaliation being factored in here. With the build provided (a Rabid-geared condition mesmer with 30 in illusions), the power is only 916. This means that retaliation will be doing 267.15 damage. 267* 4 hits = 1068 damage.

So, if it gave confusion to your foe and retaliation to you, and your foe hit you 4 times, the total damage would be 4,500 + 1,068 = 5,568.

If it hit two people, gave you retal, and they both hit you 4 time each, it would do 5,568 * 2 = 11,136 total damage.

Now, we have to look at the fact that the enemy could attack less or not at all (putting less pressure on you) or remove the condition. Let go from 0 attacks to just the average for 3 seconds, 4 attacks … this will low-ball the numbers for the effectiveness as some enemies will easily use 6 attacks in 3 seconds and/or multi-hit skills.

0 attacks w/ confusion only = 0
0 attacks w/ confusion & retal = 0
1 attack w/ confusion only = 1125
1 attack w/ confusion & retal = 1392
2 attacks w/ confusion only = 2250
2 attacks w/ confusion & retal = 2784
3 attacks w/ confusion only = 3375
3 attacks w/ confusion & retal = 4176
4 attacks w/ confusion only = 4500
4 attacks w/ confusion & retal = 5568

So we have 10 numbers here whose sum is 25,170.
25,170 / 10 = 2,517.

So the average from this is 2,517 damage to one target.

This damage is not reduced by toughness/armor, protection, nor any other damage mitigation

This damage is reduced through the use of runes of melandru and lemongrass which reduce the duration by -65% … since condition duraiton doesn’t affect this, an enemy using this will be barely affected by the confusion (3 * 0.35 = 1.05s) and primarily affected by the retaliation damage

Well, let’s clear up some things right quick.

The averages used on the podcast are for a zerg situation only. That’s because in a zerg, people will spam skills like there’s no tomorrow. The mage doesn’t work in a zerg, like all phantasms.

Additionally, the bounce doesn’t quite work like that. In my testing, I was able to get it to bounce from 1 enemy to myself, and that’s it. I couldn’t get it to even touch more than 2 targets.

Doesn’t change the fact that this phantasm is on a ridiculously long cooldown. Even traited the cooldown is longer than the cooldown of any other of our phantasms untraited. Add to this that it might as well do (almost) zero damage if your opponent decides to wait out the confusion, and you know why most people can’t get to like it.

It does make me curious though.. Wouldnt two iMages on one target be rather effective? Especially with a traited attack rate increase? ESPECIALLY with other confusion traits and scepter?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

It does make me curious though.. Wouldnt two iMages on one target be rather effective? Especially with a traited attack rate increase? ESPECIALLY with other confusion traits and scepter?

The problem is that the mage cooldown is stupidly massive, and the cooldown trait is in a horrible spot. This means that you’ve got 30some seconds to wait inbetween casts. If your mage hasn’t been killed by then, your opponent is doing something horribly wrong.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

It does make me curious though.. Wouldnt two iMages on one target be rather effective? Especially with a traited attack rate increase? ESPECIALLY with other confusion traits and scepter?

The problem is that the mage cooldown is stupidly massive, and the cooldown trait is in a horrible spot. This means that you’ve got 30some seconds to wait inbetween casts. If your mage hasn’t been killed by then, your opponent is doing something horribly wrong.

the phastasm is so weak that player rather have this phastasm on the field than the bugged iberzerker

Pyroatheist.9031:

Additionally, the bounce doesn’t quite work like that. In my testing, I was able to get it to bounce from 1 enemy to myself, and that’s it. I couldn’t get it to even touch more than 2 targets.

confirmed. bounce only affects an ally after initial hit. doesnt bounce to nearby enemies

It would be nice if they rethought this phantasm. Maybe replace confusion with burning damage or some other useful condition. Also reduce the cool down.

I’ve been using the traited iMage in PvP lately and the C/d is around 16 seconds I believe (have to double check). Which isn’t bad considering what he does traited (confusion+retal+condi cleanse) not bad imo.

Traited torch still makes the iMage pretty nice. I really like a single skill that does four things. Confusion, retaliation, condition-removal and shatter fodder. Even with confusion and retaliation hitting for less I still really like him.

One thing though: ANET PLEASE MAKE PHANTASMS AND CLONES GET THE EXTRA BOUNCE FROM THE ILLUSIONS TRAIT FOR SAKES ALIVE.

jportell.2197:

I’ve been using the traited iMage in PvP lately and the C/d is around 16 seconds I believe (have to double check). Which isn’t bad considering what he does traited (confusion+retal+condi cleanse) not bad imo.

It should be 18 seconds, which is far better than untraited to be sure.

In PvE, if you can get 3, or even 2 iMages up on a boss, the damage ticks are incredible. It adds up big time.

iMage is really good with the right build (like my iProc build), but it could still do with some tweaks. Lower CD, bit more duration on confusion (maybe another second since mesmers duration effects now), 4 or 5 stacks for the hell of it.

Ross Biddle.2367:

jportell.2197:

I’ve been using the traited iMage in PvP lately and the C/d is around 16 seconds I believe (have to double check). Which isn’t bad considering what he does traited (confusion+retal+condi cleanse) not bad imo.

It should be 18 seconds, which is far better than untraited to be sure.

In PvE, if you can get 3, or even 2 iMages up on a boss, the damage ticks are incredible. It adds up big time.

iMage is really good with the right build (like my iProc build), but it could still do with some tweaks. Lower CD, bit more duration on confusion (maybe another second since mesmers duration effects now), 4 or 5 stacks for the hell of it.

That’s why when I use the torch I have it traited because it is in the condition duration line… I am up in the air at times between runes of nightmare and undead.

For WvW / PvE

• 2 Superior Runes of Lyssa = 10% Condition Duration
• 2 Superior Runes of the Mad King = 10% Condition Duration
• 2 Major Runes of Lyssa = 7% Condition Duration