Mirror images sucks?
What? :o
Mirror Images is awesome for instant shatter fodder now they reduced it’s base cooldown to 30s – especially when also traited in Illusions and with alacrity, it cools down very fast.
It is useful in power, condi and hybrid builds for either instant/unpredictable burst, cc via F3, or for example fodder to cover F4 into mass invis or similar.
It is especially useful when in combination with F5 as you can execute an F5/blink/Mirror Images/shatter combo extremely fast and surprise enemies.
Not to mention a handy stun break.
It’s not awful, it’s just not usually worth a spot on your bar.
So lets say you’re playing a shatter build, either power or condie. What utilities do you take?
First, you start with blink. You’ve got offensive utility, defensive utility, and mobility all wrapped up in one skill.
Next, you’ll often take portal. The team utility and mobility it provides is massive.
Now you’ve got an option for your third skill. If you’re a condie build, the impact of any individual shatter is on the lower side, and so it’s more important that you sustain your damage or yourself. You’ll pick Signet of Illusions or perhaps the mantra cleanse for those reasons. If you’re a power build, landing the burst successfully is the most important thing, and Mantra of Distraction enables successful burst far more effectively than any other utility.
And now you’re out of slots.
Mirror images is a handy skill that allows you to do some interesting burst, but in most normal situations it’s just not as good as the other options. You’ll see it more often in WvW where portal isn’t taken as much, though usually decoy will be picked in that case.
There is a build that seems to have been making the rounds in EU WvW where you run blink, decoy and mirror images. FeintFate shows the build off nicely as it’s more about sustained fights than burst and run.
Not seen other people using it the last few weeks though but I see more condi mesmers or thieves tbh.
It’s a nice skill just doesn’t quite compete with decoy because of how strong stealth is.
It’s not on metabattle so it sucks? Jeez, what ever happened to figuring things out on your own? It’s fine and it has it’s uses.
Still voting for Mirror Images to stealth and Decoy to taunt to make them more unique. Currently I would never use MI over Decoy in any pvp scenario.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
There is a build that seems to have been making the rounds in EU WvW where you run blink, decoy and mirror images. FeintFate shows the build off nicely as it’s more about sustained fights than burst and run.
Not seen other people using it the last few weeks though but I see more condi mesmers or thieves tbh.
It’s a nice skill just doesn’t quite compete with decoy because of how strong stealth is.
I use blink, mirror images and decoy in wvw and also in pvp (solo player) and it is quite something having 3 low cooldown stunbreaks as well as the ability for unpredictable burst through this skill. I’ve been using it ever since Inspiration got buffed for so much condi cleanse so running Mantra of Resolve was no longer necessary as well as realising Deceptive evasion was no longer necessary thanks to Chrono.
Before that how many power shatter builds ran Blink/MantraofResolve/Decoy in wvw? Many of them. So personally swapping Mantra for Mirror Images is a great think as it allows for more flexible gameplay. And it’s useful no matter whether power or hybrid.
Tbh I don’t actually play pure condi so yeah I will concede that it’s not as amazing when using two things:
- Shield (because easy phantasm spam)
- Scepter (easy clone spam)
But I suppose anyone using Sword/Torch and Greatsword or Staff, it’s great to have that instantaneous burst available especially when not using Deceptive Evasion.
Sure in a tpvp portal is necessary, and sure signet of illusions or mantra of distraction are good if not better. But Mirror Images allows for a good deal more offense and contributes to gameplay being more offensive/faster and overall more fun.
Finally, Anet reducing the cooldown to 30s has been hugely beneficial for me, especially when traited with IC so it’s on 24 seconds and then alacrity generally means it is back up in under 20 seconds. That is game changing compared to the past – in the past you could use it for burst but the cooldown was prohibitive. Now it is more encouraging to be used for burst given you can have it available much sooner and (Ignoring chrono illusion traits for the moment) almost offsets the loss of illusion generation from DE.
(edited by Curunen.8729)
2 clones on 40 sec cd. That’s really bad, and not useful at all. Mesmer relies heavily on utility skills, due to the difficult mechanics of the class, and blink, decoy, portal or daze mantra are so much better.
You have plenty of clone generation as it is. After HoT came out, we gained so much more clone generation, making this skill kitten -tier. If you think this skill can replace any of the skills listed above, you’re either using them wrong, or not landing your phantasms properly.
TL;DR:
This skill is bad, and every other meta skill vomits in its face.
You might want to get your facts straight before railing against a skill. Mirror Images had its CD lowered to 30 seconds the patch before last, which means that you can pop it every 24 seconds traited. Its also a stunbreak.
So stunbreak every 24 seconds, as well as it allows you to instantly get 3 clones up for a 4 illusion shatter (since they count yourself now too) using a single weapon skill and MI to get off a very nice burst. While not the most useful skill on the bar, its not nearly as bad as you make it out to be
Yeah – with alacrity and Illusions traitline, the cooldown is very low and can be used for burst combos.
Not to mention that F5 → Blink → Mirror Images+shatter is great at catching people off guard.
It’s not on metabattle so it sucks? Jeez, what ever happened to figuring things out on your own? It’s fine and it has it’s uses.
This
i don’t see it on metabattle at all. also, any recommendations on utility/ elite skills on damage mesmer?
For you and all other who thinks metabattle is always right, your wrong. You can make good builds, you can make sustain builds with good dmg, you can run pretty much every utility if you want (except these which are unusable since launch) and you can use other gear than pure power gear. Metabattle is just saying whats currently most used not whats good and whats not.
Pale Raiders united.
9 Sylvari, 9 unique Builds.
9 Sylvari, 9 unique Builds.
(edited by InsaneQR.7412)