Guild Wars 2

I feel one of the main annoyances I have is that the Mirage’s Mirrors just seem really… unnecessary and detached from the Mesmer, and really lack any explanation for why they exist in the Mirage’s kit other than “somebody made this effect, so we kinda squeaked it in there”. We don’t even have any traits which really effect Mirrors, which is a whole new mechanic to our profession. I propose this:

Mirrors are a unique type of Illusion to the Mirage. In which case, anytime we pass through them, we can gain Mirage Cloak, but they reform after a set time, 5 seconds or so. Mayhaps they can reflect damage dealt to them, or have an effect upon death. Or they can act as re-useable Illusions that survive after being shattered. I don’t know, how they work is unlimited.

At least then, we can trait them, make Mirage synergize with the rest of Mesmer.

Thoughts on this, or anything else regarding the nature of the Mirage’s Mirrors in general?

You’re doing exactly what the devs did- trying to FORCE a mechanic to work.

Change every trait/ability that produces a Mirage Mirror by removing the mirror and doing one or more of the following-

Reducing its cooldown
Granting Vigor
Granting endurance

Give Mirage the control back. The mirrors do not work.

I wouldnt mind a whole Mirage mirror build and have mirrors scattered all over the field therefore sort of like creating an illusionary world around us that the enemy is caught in. the mirrors can be placed and would have different effects. clones maybe could come from some types of these mirrors if the enemy runs into them. other mirrors could be boons or condi damaging. some can give Mirage cloak evasion and some provide immediate ambush attack. some of these or all might be usable by allies in support build. having multiple up can have different effects as well. having too many might have disadvantages too. we could maybe have traits or skills to stealth the mirrors for a time so the enemy would accidentally run into them. like a trap build. it would be quite interesting game play by letting things be less purely reactionary and require outsmarting and strategic positioning and planning in advance.

right now as it stands anet tried to put in the Mirage cloak and mirrors half heartedly as a gimmick and then the clones and ambush attacks as another half hearted gimmick. if clone deception is core then we need more convincing clones too like if we could have three or four clones surround us and change positions and replicate every motion we do even if not all of them hit for same damage, that would be much more deceptive. but which one is it? I don’t see it being able to do both well.

and to the precious reply, I feel just giving us more dodges for Mirage cloak plus some axe and ambushes is not worth an entire spec and does not offer anything new. we already have evasion, distortion, blinks, stealth and a whole lot of other traditional mesmer things. ambush bursts are not so spectacular either.

I’d rather not have the mirrors disappear. They have so much potential and unique flavor they could add to mirage, their implementation is just very weak.

Removing the mirrors would reduce Mirage’s mechanic(s) to “a glorified blurr you can attack out of”. And as soon as that would be the case, people would start complaining that mirage doesn’t really offer anything new and is just uninteresting to play.

Mikkel.8427:

You’re doing exactly what the devs did- trying to FORCE a mechanic to work.

I disagree. I don’t think the devs tried to force a mechanic to work.

If they had, Mirage would have much more focused on a certain task.

But if you actually look at the mirage trait line, and abilities, it’s all over the place.

For instance, there’s literally 1 ambush trait, and all it does is add some confusion to it.

Illusionary Ambush is a blink that doesn’t even put you and your clones in sword range, often resulting (because clones won’t have superspeed due to no chrono) in your clones not actually shattering on a target.

Not to mention it places you randomly around them.

This, in a nutshell, means that axe 3 is better than illusionary ambush, because:

1. It won’t mess up the distances of my illusions if I’m baiting the opponent into a favorable position.

2. It WILL put me in sword distance.

Except for that I’m sacrificing a weapon slot that could’ve been greatsword or staff sigh.

It tries to do too many things, and fails spectacularly at getting any results in those things.

Other than dodges and stun breaks. You have dodges and stun breaks for days.

what if.. the mirrors could copy abilities fired into them? and when ran over you temporarily gain the ability yourself…. like spell copy from gw 1

say an ele used a fire attack on a mirror and you picked it up then you would gain the fire attack as your own in the f5 slot… if it were a weapon attack that requires a weapon summon a phantasmal weapon temporarily to replicate the attack…

this would make the mirrors function as actual mirrors by allowing you to copy (and store) and reflect the attacks back (by using f5) you could then bait people into using powerful abilities and hitting the mirrors giving you a copy of their ability for your own use.

this would also make that backwards evade utility useful… as you could evade and store an enemies attack as you dodged it.

That may work in pvp but how do design that in pve? What happens if an raid boss fires it death attack into that mirror – do the mesmer get then that overpowered abillity?

Takashiro.8701:

I’d rather not have the mirrors disappear. They have so much potential and unique flavor they could add to mirage, their implementation is just very weak.

Removing the mirrors would reduce Mirage’s mechanic(s) to “a glorified blurr you can attack out of”. And as soon as that would be the case, people would start complaining that mirage doesn’t really offer anything new and is just uninteresting to play.

Thats all its mechanic is now

Gomes.5643:

That may work in pvp but how do design that in pve? What happens if an raid boss fires it death attack into that mirror – do the mesmer get then that overpowered abillity?

They could always just make it a certain ability based on enemy type rather than ability used for monsters sorta like how thief steal works since we obviously cant use monster only abilities.