Guild Wars 2

I love my torch. “The Prestige” has to be one of the best abilities we have. And then there’s iMage. The sniveling, worthless weakling tugging at my sleeve. Of all the Phantasms I can summon, iMage is the most pitiful. iDuelist being the strongest. Lucky for iMage, I like the underdog. I keep summoning that little underachiever in the hopes that one day he’ll prove his worth. The main concept of iMage was that he would deliver confusion to the enemy while granting retaliation to allies. After the tragic confusion nerf, his already dismal damage has been completely castrated. The retaliation is nice, but because it’s a bounce and not an AOE it rarely affects more than one person before iMage wets his pants and dies. iMage is little more than a glorified clone, but worse because he takes up a phantasm slot.

This new big balancing patch is the PERFECT opportunity to give this runt some love. Specifically incorporating “Torment”, or upping damage, or the like. Since he is part of torch, why not a phantasm that has a flamethrower? Or that can cast an AOE like firestorm? He is supposed to be an elementalist type, so what’s he doing spreading confusion? At LEAST have him spread burning!

Write your suggestions for an iMage buff. Maybe Anet will hear our pleas.

He’s still good Shatter Fodder at least… well, not even that, since he has base a 30 second (!?) cooldown.

I think an area of effect pulse of its abilities might make it a slightly more useful phantasm, rather than a bouncing, low velocity projectile. The rate of fire on the Phantasmal Mage is the second-slowest of the on-land Phantasms, (after the Phantasmal Warden,) which also has a semi-AoE attack.

An AoE pulse of Retaliation for allies and Confusion (or Torment… or Burning, or both?) for enemies would be fantastic. Perhaps it would be stationary like the iWarden or something like that, and maintain its relatively slow rate of fire to compensate for providing an AoE. I’m not sure what kind of Misty weapon it would hold instead of a scepter, but it really does need to be adjusted in order to actually be useful.

I would be content even if they just increased condition stacks or duration… the phantasm attacks every 6s and the confusion only lasts 3s, dealing irrelevant damage too.

In pve its usage is even more limited: it only counts as a normal clone with less health, since the 3s confusion aren’t enough to tick even once, taking into account mobs’s attack speed.

there was a time in beta where the iMage was totally overpowered and destroyed everything! therefore they have to be very very carefull not to make it too powerfull again!

but yeah torment or burning would be sweet

Hells … just up his attack speed some, and that’d increase his general usability a lot.
However, this would also require that bouncing logic is reverted, or better still, enhanced for clone/phant attacks.
/shrug

It’s hard think what is the right to improve this phantasm. With burn in the prestige, is hard think that they can add burn in the iMage, torment? I’m not sure. Perhaps purple poisonous smoke.

In one or another way this is great opportunity to improve him to a desirable and balanced level. At the end, actually , the torch is more used like a utility/defensive weapon with a loved Prestige and something more there…. iMage, almost undesirable against other phantasms.

Anyway, if they do something with iMage, it’s because they already had planned it, today is the last day, there is hardly time for testing. And we know well that there is nothing in the leaked notes. With the improvements in the weakest areas, general balance, etc, tomorrow could be a sad day for iMage.

AoE retaliation pulsing to nearby allies?

Torment/confusion on bounce?

Burning on bounce?

Lower CD?

I think the iMage would do well if the confusion was replaced by torment. Three stacks of confusion with a long cast time on a skill with the longest cooldown of all the phantasms has always been lackluster, even before the confusion nerf. If not torment, then any other condition (besides vulnerability) would be more appealing than the confusion stacks. Burn or blind would fit the theme of the torch, a few stacks of bleeds would be appreciated in a condition build, poison would be great since Chaos Storm is our only other access to it, and cripple/chill/immobilize would be nice for stopping runners (something condition mesmers are very bad at). Honestly, I would take pretty much anything over its current state; It’s just that bad.

The iMage can be fixed in a number of ways, but none are truly useful.

The core issue is Confusion, not the Mage. If Confusion were to be re-thought (which honestly it needs to be, it just doesn’t work out as a burst condition, see previous vs current balance in WvW), then the iMage would fall into place on its own.

Carighan.6758:

The iMage can be fixed in a number of ways, but none are truly useful.

The core issue is Confusion, not the Mage. If Confusion were to be re-thought (which honestly it needs to be, it just doesn’t work out as a burst condition, see previous vs current balance in WvW), then the iMage would fall into place on its own.

I think replacing his confusion application with torment or burn would work for me. And adding an additional bounce to his attack.

Carighan.6758:

The iMage can be fixed in a number of ways, but none are truly useful.

The core issue is Confusion, not the Mage. If Confusion were to be re-thought (which honestly it needs to be, it just doesn’t work out as a burst condition, see previous vs current balance in WvW), then the iMage would fall into place on its own.

I disagree. The problem is both.

The Mage is tied with the Phantasmal Defender for the longest cool down period at 30 seconds. (Phantasmal Warden comes in next at 24 seconds)

The Mage last the second slowest attack base attack period for on-land Phantasms at 6.3 seconds, after the Phantasmal Warden.

The Mage utilizes a bounce attack, which with current bounce mechanics means thakittens Retaliation buff has the potential to land on itself or another Phantasm, essentially wasting the bounce if the the Vengeful Images trait was already chosen.

The Mage has sub-par and unpredictable range, apparently choosing somewhere between 800 and 1000m. (Compared to to the 900-1200 attainable with the Warlock or Duelist)

The Mage’s projectile has low velocity, making it relatively easy to avoid.

It’s overall very flawed compared to other Phantasms, even the currently bugged Berserker. Fixing Confusion (or reverting confusion to its previous strength) won’t make it more useful, especially with only three seconds of duration.

grimmson.9154:

there was a time in beta where the iMage was totally overpowered and destroyed everything! therefore they have to be very very carefull not to make it too powerfull again!

but yeah torment or burning would be sweet

iMage may have been overpowered at one point, but this is not binary “don’t feed him after midnight” scenario. It’s not like a little buff will turn the iMage into a monster.

The iMage is objectively pathetic and could use some kind of love.

Now unless you want to sink 20 points in dom for torch cooldown, or 25 in illusions, iMage is going to be on a kittenly long cooldown.

30s is way too long, it needs to be reduced to around 20s base.

Replace the fire blast with torment. That would be a awesome combo.

Stealth up to target, torment blast, they choose whether running away or not is worth it considering the memser doesnt’ have tons of direct damage in a condi spec.

TooBz.3065:

grimmson.9154:

there was a time in beta where the iMage was totally overpowered and destroyed everything! therefore they have to be very very carefull not to make it too powerfull again!

but yeah torment or burning would be sweet

iMage may have been overpowered at one point, but this is not binary “don’t feed him after midnight” scenario. It’s not like a little buff will turn the iMage into a monster.

The iMage is objectively pathetic and could use some kind of love.

grimmson is completely wrong. There was absolutely no point in the betas that the mage was overpowered and destroyed everything. It used to apply 1 stack of confusion for 8 seconds or something like that. That’s the only difference. It was exactly the same through all 3 beta weekends and through the first few months of the game. The mage was never good.

Actually, I have a question about the iMage.

How does it work when you have the Cleansing Conflagration (Domination IX, 20% reduced Torch Skill cooldown, and Torch Skills remove conditions) trait?

I understand that you clear a condition on yourself when you use the Prestige, but do you also get a condition removed when you cast the iMage? Or does the iMage’s auto attack clear conditions on targets too?

I’m at work so I can’t really test this right now, but I’m curious as to how that trait works exactly… it might make it a slightly more viable Disenchanter-like Phantasm if he actually cures stuff too when traited.

(Thanks to Kate Austinmer on Crystal Desert for pointing this out!)

Edit: Even if it does clear conditions with its attack, the Phantasmal Disenchanter’s attack rate is far superior in general.

Sinaya.4201:

Actually, I have a question about the iMage.

How does it work when you have the Cleansing Conflagration (Domination IX, 20% reduced Torch Skill cooldown, and Torch Skills remove conditions) trait?

I understand that you clear a condition on yourself when you use the Prestige, but do you also get a condition removed when you cast the iMage? Or does the iMage’s auto attack clear conditions on targets too?

I’m at work so I can’t really test this right now, but I’m curious as to how that trait works exactly… it might make it a slightly more viable Disenchanter-like Phantasm if he actually cures stuff too when traited.

(Thanks to Kate Austinmer on Crystal Desert for pointing this out!)

I believe that it cleanses on the cast, and the bolt will cleanse as well.

Basically it becomes a disenchanter on a 3x longer cooldown that attacks 3x slower, clears half as many conditions, doesn’t remove boons, and requires 20 trait points + a major trait.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Sinaya.4201:

Actually, I have a question about the iMage.

How does it work when you have the Cleansing Conflagration (Domination IX, 20% reduced Torch Skill cooldown, and Torch Skills remove conditions) trait?

I understand that you clear a condition on yourself when you use the Prestige, but do you also get a condition removed when you cast the iMage? Or does the iMage’s auto attack clear conditions on targets too?

I’m at work so I can’t really test this right now, but I’m curious as to how that trait works exactly… it might make it a slightly more viable Disenchanter-like Phantasm if he actually cures stuff too when traited.

(Thanks to Kate Austinmer on Crystal Desert for pointing this out!)

I believe that it cleanses on the cast, and the bolt will cleanse as well.

Basically it becomes a disenchanter on a 3x longer cooldown that attacks 3x slower, clears half as many conditions, doesn’t remove boons, and requires 20 trait points + a major trait.

Oooh… sign me up.

TooBz.3065:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Sinaya.4201:

Actually, I have a question about the iMage.

How does it work when you have the Cleansing Conflagration (Domination IX, 20% reduced Torch Skill cooldown, and Torch Skills remove conditions) trait?

I understand that you clear a condition on yourself when you use the Prestige, but do you also get a condition removed when you cast the iMage? Or does the iMage’s auto attack clear conditions on targets too?

I’m at work so I can’t really test this right now, but I’m curious as to how that trait works exactly… it might make it a slightly more viable Disenchanter-like Phantasm if he actually cures stuff too when traited.

(Thanks to Kate Austinmer on Crystal Desert for pointing this out!)

I believe that it cleanses on the cast, and the bolt will cleanse as well.

Basically it becomes a disenchanter on a 3x longer cooldown that attacks 3x slower, clears half as many conditions, doesn’t remove boons, and requires 20 trait points + a major trait.

Oooh… sign me up.

I thought you might like it.

Hello

After a bit test, yes cleanse one condition when you cast him and can clean with bolt, if he survive enough and you have the luck to be bounced with the actual bounce logic. But usually he dies before do more than one attack. Of course, with Cleansing Conflagration trait.

About his damage, well, we all know it. Luck to get retailation plus confusion and pray to be fighting with a no brain skill spammer…