When you activate Phantasmal Duelist, for example, all that you do is summon a Phantasm. Your character performs no action – the only thing that actually does something is the phantasm. This is intentional, but it’s poor design to have your character do nothing every time you summon a phantasm (and it occurs this way with some illusion abilities too).
Mechanically and thematically, I would argue it would work much better for your character to also perform that action – i.e. If you use Pistol #4, then you unload your pistol on your target, summoning a Phantasm that simultaneously performs the same action. Your Phantasm still persists, continuing to perform that action intermittently as usual, but it makes the initial summon more active. What do you think about that idea?
OK, I get you now. Looking at your idea….it would be a great way to add some burst to our repetoire. It sounds GREAT for iDuelist, Swordsman, Warlock, and Mage. How would it work with Disenchanter? And it would probably be too broke with Warden.
Frankly I don’t see the change as necessary to balance, but I wouldn’t complain it it happened.
See, your description of Phantasms is essentially as a semi-mobile version of turrets. Yes, I agree that the other abilities and functions that you list are great, and they’re exactly what I love about the Mesmer. But I often feel far more like a pet class than a caster class – that I get far more effectiveness out of my Phantasms than a lot of my other abilities.
I’m curious as to what weapons you use. Sword has amazing power and a very useless debuff. Staff has Chaos Storm. Nuff said. GS looks a lot better with the fixes to #s 2 and 3. Needs a little bigger aoe range though IMO. Scepter…OK Personally I think sceptre’s useless, but that’s because I hate shatter builds. Focus is a control/defense/chase set. Temp curtain is great when used properly. Torch is ALL about Prestige. And Magic Bullet is still one of the best CC in the game. My phantasms are a heavy source of damage, but I get a LOT of use out of other abilities.
The more I describe it, the more evident it becomes that my argument is entirely just my own opinion, but hear me out. If you were to make a profession that summoned spirits that haunted the target, they would be largely uncontrollable, make up a heavy portion of your damage and you would have ways of expending said spirits for additional effects. That, to me, is exactly how a Mesmer feels (with additional utility abilities to round it out). I feel like I’m summoning spirits, not creating illusions. There is a level of interactivity that is missing.
I can get behind that. I’m not entirely sure how to change it without major AI improvements though.