Guild Wars 2

Hello there mesmers. As stated in the topic title I am new to the mesmer class.

My main question is about what happens to phantasms / clones when your target is killed.

• Why don’t illusions stay until you are out of combat? (ex. pull 3 mobs, 1st one dies, all 3 phantasms go poof)
• Is there a balance reason to make them go away when the original target is no more?
• Will swapping targets stave off impending illusionary doom?
• Anything important but not readily known about phantasms & clones I should know? (General tips & tricks so to speak)

Illusions (general term) are target locked. When you summon them, you summon them on a target, and when that target dies, they will die as well. You can help this by summonin them on different targets, or killing groups of mobs rapidly with aoe phantasms.

This makes them different from other types of pets. While it can be annoying sometimes, it ultimately makes playing much better due to how the AI works. With pets, the AI is complicated and doesn’t work very well. With illusions, the AI is simple and flawless: kill the target. They don’t run around aggroing random mobs, they don’t sit around not attacking (well, the warden does, but that’s a big bug that is getting fixed) and they always kill their target.

General info:

Clones are mainly just for shattering. They don’t do damage by themselves without trait support, and even then it’s indirect damage.

Phantasms are your damage, and PvE builds focus on phantasms to provide dps, as they attain a far higher sustained dps than shatter builds, where shatter builds are all about burst.

All illusions inherit your basic stats directly. They have their own secondary stats though. What this means is that direct stat modifiers like precision buffs or might will affect the damage they do, but fury (crit rate is secondary to precision) will not. Fury on the phantasms themselves will work though.

The one exception is vitality. Illusions all have a static amount of health that can be modified only with 1 trait or 1 signet.

Really, there is a lot to be said about Illusions, both good and bad.
Hate or love them, they are definitely one of the weirder and more unique MMO mechanics I have encountered. It’s what keeps me coming back to the class because let’s face it, several of our utility skills are lackluster or gimmicky (some are also really good and fun/creative).
Illusions can be used to attack directly, apply conditions, confuse your enemy, be decoys that apply conditions when killed, shattered offensively, shattered defensively, shattered for conditions, shattered for condi removal, shattered for healing etc. Not all at once of course, and not all options are equally viable right now, but the potential is there.
The mehcanic can be annoying at times because it is complex and therefore vulnerable to bugginess. But learning how to use clones effectively, in whatever way you choose to use them, is integral to the class.