Phantasmal Warden summoning
Would be great for utility purposes (even BETTER Defensive prediction, ability to place outside of damaging AoEs), but sadly unlikely going to happen. Though if this did change, there would be complaints when trying to fight some enemies like say … Dragons and casting Phantasmal Warden/Zerker on its head?
Even with that said, any changes to Phantasmal Warden would change how I currently use him in PvE … for good or ill. Thats discounting players who have learned to love using Into the Void while casting I.Warden as a combo of better insured damage.
I know they could change the Phantasmal Warden AI to emulate the various Turret skills, Ground Targetting. Skill is casted, and the I.Warden does the AI bit to decide which enemy to lock onto (and die with).
If the Mesmer has an enemy targetted, the I.Warden locks onto that enemy and proceeds to follow its normal (and admittedly strange) AI.0
If the Mesmer does not have an enemy targetted, it picks the closest hostile mob to ITSELF and locks onto it. If it locks onto a nearly dead mob … oh well.
Just a few details exist before this can be implemented.
What happens when you spawn the I.Warden on a vertical surface?
Stuck warden, can’t shatter on target, only replaced by being the oldest of 3 phantasms, and various other annoyances that would pop up.
Would you alter/fix the AI so that the I.Warden no longer believes its attacks are 900 Range, and thus only moves after the enemy when it moves that far away?
If you change the AI, then there will be complaints about how its no longer capable of being Defensive in blocking Missiles taking away from the Defensive method … and likely having the I.Warden spin MUCH less then before. If you don’t change the AI, it keeps the Defensive option of spawning it on allies and making it likely to do it spin but earn the ire of the more offensively oriented players who want the damage.
(Idea to appease both? Keep AI as is, and fix I.Zerker … everyone mostly goes home happy =P)
Just having it exist though without it being “Locked” onto a target to die with? Bad idea that goes against how Phantasms currently function and will be the source of many sPvP and WvWvW rages until its completely flattened via a nerf the next day.
- (Death, Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)
Not only does it go against how all other phantasms function, but it also goes against design and lore. From my understanding, phantasms are supposed to be the physical manifestation of hexes from GW1- an illusion of the memory of a past enemy. Mesmers are giving physical form to an opponent’s own memories, and use them against them.
No target means you have no memories to conjure and manipulate. As much as I’d love to place a Warden exactly where I want to guarantee damage/whirl finisher/projectile manipulation, it just doesn’t make sense. And if you could guarantee those things, I’d place a lot of money on the phantasm being nerfed.
I think it’s fine as it is.
-Look, look with your special eyes!
-My Dragonbrand!
Not only does it go against how all other phantasms function, but it also goes against design and lore. From my understanding, phantasms are supposed to be the physical manifestation of hexes from GW1- an illusion of the memory of a past enemy. Mesmers are giving physical form to an opponent’s own memories, and use them against them.
No target means you have no memories to conjure and manipulate. As much as I’d love to place a Warden exactly where I want to guarantee damage/whirl finisher/projectile manipulation, it just doesn’t make sense. And if you could guarantee those things, I’d place a lot of money on the phantasm being nerfed.
I think it’s fine as it is.
making the skill ground target will stop making this untraited warden nearly useless
In fact, spawning to the side of the enemy will be more useful than its current design of summon behind
summon behind is a pve thing.
Its how you make the phantasm survive….
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
Its not behind, its just randomly within range of the target.
Which is silly since it cant move.
Either it needs to follow its target, or be ground targeted.
It would be nice if the summon didn’t bug a good 25% of the time too, but that’s probably asking to much.
yet for pve iwarden position almost Always correctly….
Hving freedom would be better, but summoning in front would make warden die in 1 second.
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
Its not behind, its just randomly within range of the target.
Which is silly since it cant move.Either it needs to follow its target, or be ground targeted.
It would be nice if the summon didn’t bug a good 25% of the time too, but that’s probably asking to much.
learn 2 immobilize. iWarden is fine as it is.
learn 2 immobilize. iWarden is fine as it is.
I at no point in my post made mentions of having trouble keeping people in the whirl.
Just gonna throw that out there.
The point is that since it doesn’t move, where it gets placed is very important and as of yet, you don’t have control over this.
Now don’t get me wrong, iWarden is my waifu, but its really hard to make use of it as best as it can be like this, in a drawn out fight its not as good as other phantasms due to its lack of movement, but as a utility its lacking because you cant place it.
It would be lovely to get just one of those, the skill just feels incomplete as it is.
The Warden not running to target is a bug:
“Focus:
“Temporal Curtain” – This was changed so that it could not stack with itself by players running back and forth through the wall. However it no longer stacks with any Swiftness Boon in duration like the boon itself suggests it should. Spell does not reflect arcing attacks or attacks from a different z-axis position.
“Phantasmal Warden” – Not running to melee range of the target between attacks."