Interface QoL

Mesmer has historically been a class with somewhat confused purposes, full of trade offs. Do you focus on phantasms at the expense of shatters and clones? Do you focus on shatters, at the expense of any kind of meaningful dps from illusions? Or do you focus on clones, killing your dps from shatters and phantasms?

There are a few ways to do two of these things, but the primary issue isn't with these "conflicting" play styles. (I mean, Mesmer is one of the very few classes with multiple good traits, and multiple good traits lines where the "same" build idea can be constructed in many ways.)

The core of this issue is seeing what your clones and phantasms are actually doing at any given moment. If I knew when my axe clones had auto-attacked, I'd know when to shatter where it wouldn't be a dps loss. If I knew 2 of 3 phantasms had just activated, then I know to wait another moment for that last phantasm to activate before shattering.

At the moment, this kind of micromanagement requires an extremely keen eye, and is generally a game of counting seconds to allow enough time for clones and phantasms, rather than knowing... Which has been the thorn in the lion's paw for a long time.

Simple fix for the UI:

• the 'pips' that show a 'summoned illusion' should show in different sizes and colors for phantasms and clones. Clones as normal, phantasms are a 50% larger circle.
• when clones or phantasms perform attacks, please have each icon show a countdown clock style effect, and a tiny flash each time an effect goes off.
• color code the 'summon phantasm' spells with thier corresponding 'pip' (ie: phantasmal mage is red, phantasmal defender blue, phantasmal swordsmen yellow... Etc)

The point here is so that at a glance, you can look down and see let's say, two large pips one red and one yellow, one small pip. Instantly telling you, you have a phantasmal mage, phantasmal swordsman, and a clone out.

Then, looking at the same readout you could see at a glance 'the clone and swordsman just attacked, .5 sec left until the mage attacks'

Thus allowing you to know at wait just another moment before shattering.

Thoughts from the collective?

I think we're better off asking for smaller changes. 3 colors for the pips, 1 for clones, 1 for phantasms, and a third for phantasms that have the chronophantasma effect. This is more likely to be implemented than a full overhaul of that UI scheme, especially since it doesn't affect everyone

I see what you're saying, but it strikes me that I should put forward a complete idea, because if the devs do listen, they won't just implement anything I say. So, I might as well birth a complete concept than hope the devs will like my idea out of simplicity.

It would definitely be nice to see at a glance of the UI how many clones you have out compared to phantasms, although I'm sure some people would argue that you should know based on what skills you have activated and that you shouldn't need more coloured pips on the screen to tell you that.

I agree generally.

You probably do know which clones and phantasms you have out. But you don't know whether or not they are attacking. So it's more important to have feedback on what clones are doing so you can time your shatters without dps loss.

This was asked many times in the past. Even a simple improvement to UI would be better than nothing. But so far we got nothing so I really doubt we will ever see anything in this regard. Sorry