Guild Wars 2

So, iMage, from what I’ve seen, has gone downhill from after ANet has changed its boon and condition. For those of you who never bothered with it, iMage used to have 4 stacks of Confusion [4s] and Retaliation [3s]. This, at least, had its own niche use.

Now, however, they’ve reduced iMage to being on the level, or worse, of a bunch of staff clones. It gives a stack of Burning [6s] and Fury [3s]. Staff clones do even more in number. In essence, just stupidity. Why the hell would we want Fury from our phant? And why make it even weaker than before with some weak burning?

I have no idea what ANet was thinking at the time of this nerf, but it was mistaken. I’d rather have the old iMage back with its Confusion and Retaliation then this current muck up.

tl;dr The current iMage is extremely weak and has little synergy with current Mesmer play and I’d request to see it revised/reverted.

Thoughts?

Even with our more high-sustain builds, retaliation still doesn’t make sense as a boon for Mesmer. I’d prefer they bring back the 4 stacks of confusion and give it a 1s Resistance. This would make its insanely high CD of 30s worth it imo.

Literally the only reason to ever take torch is for open world PvE content (even this is debatable) and PU builds for WvW roaming.

I ok with it having burning it nice have burning as the torch condi. But yes I agree it lackluster and needs 2 stacks of burning at least for the duration. The boon I not really fussed about I be lucky if that stupid projectile even gets to me half the time for me to care what it gives out.

on the subject of phantasms the illusionary disenchanter would be the perfect one to grant resistance maybe 2 seconds worth since it using an utility slot.

Retaliation was removed because Anet decided it didn’t fit the Mesmer. It’s not just iMage, we used to have Retaliation on Block, revive and F2.

I think Burning fits the Torch just fine, it just needs to be stronger. I agree with Resistance instead of Fury, although Fury would be fine if its duration was greatly extended. Disenchanter has enough going for it, all it needs is reduced cast time (same with Defender) and it would be great.

No need to get so caught up on the burning just because the weapon is a torch. We have burning on the Prestige. The question is if it matches the Mesmer playstyle more than the aesthetics of the weapon.

The point is confusion, the mesmer’s main condition. So far, this phantasm has the least synergy with our traits due to its condition nature. Unless we just change the way this phantasm attacks all together, I don’t feel like having burning will be to our benefit.

As for the boon, well, that’s secondary, but I feel like Fury is simply too weak for a phantasm to be purposed for.

It is very bad right now, yes.

I would like to see the projectile get a big speed boost (same with iwarlock).

Also perhaps each bounce could proc a small radius aoe explosion on impact (similar to the iAvenger’s aoe pulse, just at range)? So enemies directly hit by the bounce could take 4 stacks of confusion and the aoe pulse could do 1 stack of burning to other enemies in range; allies hit by the bounce could get 2s resistance and the aoe pulse could give a few seconds of fury to other other allies in range?

How many bounces should it have?

Dondagora.9645:

No need to get so caught up on the burning just because the weapon is a torch. We have burning on the Prestige. The question is if it matches the Mesmer playstyle more than the aesthetics of the weapon.

The point is confusion, the mesmer’s main condition. So far, this phantasm has the least synergy with our traits due to its condition nature. Unless we just change the way this phantasm attacks all together, I don’t feel like having burning will be to our benefit.

As for the boon, well, that’s secondary, but I feel like Fury is simply too weak for a phantasm to be purposed for.

Burning is ascendent because it’s better, not because classes have synergy with it.
Torment has no synergy, but we don’t complain that it’s not “mesmery”.
Let burning have its place, just make it…you know…worthwhile.

2 Stacks or GTFO.

I agree. The iMage is just too week. The fury also definitely needs to go as it does not fit in much with torch game play. Like someone mentioned, resistance would be nice. Mesmer is lacking in the condi removal department and the choices we have now are not that steller….also having that on torch would give me an incentive to run it more.

Increase burning stacks, increase fury duration, instead of a bounce attack have it fire an aoe attack, delete PvP.

I’d suggest they rework this phantasm completly. Maybe give them 2 new abilities like:

• whenever the mesmer stealths near them, they get stealth too
• whenever they attack from steaht, they do a special attack

Levetty.1279:

Increase burning stacks, increase fury duration, instead of a bounce attack have it fire an aoe attack, delete PvP.

Yes, yes, maybe, yes.

Xyonon.3987:

I’d suggest they rework this phantasm completly. Maybe give them 2 new abilities like:

• whenever the mesmer stealths near them, they get stealth too
• whenever they attack from steaht, they do a special attack

Not meant to be a personal attack, but you’ve actually managed to suggest something that is more junk than what we already have. A situational phantasm that mandates a specific set of utilities, and hinges upon a mechanic that is already so controversial that the value of the phantasm itself will be wrecked every time they give in to the qq and nerf stealth? No thank you.
I recognize the gist of your point, that they could do something very different, but this specific suggestion just isn’t good at all.

Personally, I like what iMage is supposed to be, it’s just trash as it is right now. Make the burn competitive, and I think it’ll be decent.

Up it to 2 stacks of burn, reduce cooldown to 23-24s, and I’ll be happy.
(seriously, why is the cd 30s in the first place? There’s no point to it, The Pledge isn’t going to magically make it OP at a lower cd, because you have to spend time in stealth to get even reasonable cdr, at which point you’re not doing damage anyway. Meanwhile, the highest-dps phantasms are at 12s and 16s cooldowns after traits.)