Guild Wars 2

if mesmers can summon phantasms without a target?

how about without a target while in combat?

thieves counter mesmers so hard
although i can beat a thief 1v1, when a group fight occurs and my utilities are down, there’s just no way for a mesmer to fight a thief since u can’t target him or use your skills.

Rather than “OP,” I can see one immediate problem with that idea. As it is, we escape a lot of the issues other professions have with AI, simply because Phantasms are target-locked. Unfortunately, with how AI is in this game, if we were to be granted targetless
Phantasms, I could see them kitten ing about, like how Minions or Ranger pets do on occasion.

I think this is less a problem with balance and more a problem with implementation. Phantasm targeting is already pretty buggy when opponents stealth. I imagine it’d be an even bigger headache to implement proper targeting when you summon them without a target. More likely than not, they’d probably go off chasing a moa or something instead of whatever you intend to hit.

hmm…can’t their ai just be another red named npc like those in wvw?

i’ve seen my phantasms attack another player after the one i targeted ran off/died/stealthed

I’ve even seen them(phantasms) remain after a while then redirect their aggression on someone else after they’ve been out of combat