Guild Wars 2

Why do Mesmer Illusions (Weapon-Attacks) attack BETTER than Minions (Utility/Elite Skills)?!

Illusions almost never mill about – only when their target is invisible, and even they they attack as soon as the target is visible again.

Minions always mill about, ignoring the fact that their master is being beaten to death. And should their target go invisible, forget it, that target is lost for good.

Why are simple, weapon-based illusions better attackers than skill-based minions?

Is it too much to ask for Minion AI to be AT LEAST as good as Illusion AI? Actually, Minion AI should be better – since, again, they ARE slot skills (requiring skill points to purchase & having a longer cool-down time)!

It’s a completely seperate concept. Illusions have their own issues, such as running into walls and getting stuck, being trapped and shooting at where the guy was and not where he is, and they used to run really slow.

Illusions are more like weapon abilities.

You also missed the one part about Illusions, they disappear if you change targets, and you ahve to start over again. If the trade off for keeping my Minion longer is that occassionally they bug out I will take it.

If you are comparing similar utilities please choose the correct ones to compare – Guardian Spirit Weapons, Ranger Spirit Pets, and Elementalist Elementals.

Compared to those three abilities which are our closest comparison we win.

Illusion AI is better because they don’t have AI at all. They are single target abilities. Once their target dies they die.

Illusions are bound to their target and ONLY their target. They only have 1 attack and you only have one of four commands you can give them (shatters).

Necro minions can attack different targets at will. It’s nearly impossible for you to direct individual ones to separate targets if you wanted to. Which is why I think they need a pet bar with your summoned minions listed and a few basic commands: attack, stay, passive, and un-summon.

Illusion AI is also broken…

Illusions will frequently attack mobs that the Mesmer did not summon them on, or they will run and shatter on a completely different mob. Case and point: I was fighting a Champ DE boss with my Mesmer, summoned 3 illusions on the boss, and yet when I told them to shatter one of them decided it would rather kill the bunny behind me (and no I wasn’t targeting the bunny when I summoned or shattered the clones, I’m not an idiot =p).

I still contend that illusions attack more reliably than minions do. I have NEVER seen an illusion just mill about.

And, Bas, you are wrong. I have assigned at least 1 illusion to 2+ targets on numerous occasions. Also, I have gone around corners or over walls & been chased by illusions in PvP. The instances described in these first 2 sentences happened today. I have also been inside a fortification in WvW & been attacked by an illusion on top of the wall.

Noble.3647:

I have assigned at least 1 illusion to 2+ targets on numerous occasions

This only happens when the Illusion AI bugs out. It is not an intended mechanic. ANet has explicitly stated multiple times that Illusions are not meant to be able to target more than one mob/player, and when that mob/player dies the Illusion is supposed to die as well.

Also, Mesmer being my main, I can recount multiple times where I would summon an Illusion and it would just sit there doing nothing, or (as I mentioned before) it would attack some completely random target instead of the target it should have attacked.

These problems happen less frequently than they do with Minions, but that is because (as also mentioned before) the AI between the two is deliberately different. Illusions are only meant to attack one target and so their AI is a much more simplified code and so is less prone to bugs. This is why Illusions perform better than Minions.

Prism.5649:

Noble.3647:

I have assigned at least 1 illusion to 2+ targets on numerous occasions

This only happens when the Illusion AI bugs out. It is not an intended mechanic. ANet has explicitly stated multiple times that Illusions are not meant to be able to target more than one mob/player, and when that mob/player dies the Illusion is supposed to die as well.

Also, Mesmer being my main, I can recount multiple times where I would summon an Illusion and it would just sit there doing nothing, or (as I mentioned before) it would attack some completely random target instead of the target it should have attacked.

These problems happen less frequently than they do with Minions, but that is because (as also mentioned before) the AI between the two is deliberately different. Illusions are only meant to attack one target and so their AI is a much more simplified code and so is less prone to bugs. This is why Illusions perform better than Minions.

Thank you for explaining it much more clearly than I was able too. I have a couple questions for you about mesmers but I will send you a pm about it ;p.