Axe skill tweaks

TLDR is at the bottom (this got longer than I had intended originally).

So to pre-empt this whole discussion, I'm not a great mesmer player and probably not even a great GW2 player in general. I don't know all the intricacies of base/chrono mesmer and sure as heck don't know enough about the other professions to comment on counter-play and the like. What I do know is that for some reason, the mesmer class resonated with me from day 1 and I still enjoy playing it, often to the detriment of actually performing well (I didn't realize how much faster I could kill things while being nearly unkillable until I tried out reaper recently). With that said, mirage sounds so interesting on paper and sounds like it should be so much fun to play (and it can be), it's a bloody shame it just feels so clunky as many people have said already.

My focus is the axe weapon as seen in the title and while I do enjoy using it, like the overall elite spec, it just feels a bit janky. I won't talk too much about skill 1 which I think functions fine in it's auto-attack chain but will focus more on skill 2 and 3.

The issue I have with skill 2 (lingering thoughts) is the mirage/clone generation bit. The whirl, the condis, the dmg is ok, but having a mirage left behind you that may/may not spawn a clone that I may/may not want is not. The unpredictability makes the skill almost useless in my mind. If I want condis, then it's simpler to auto-attack to apply them. If I want a clone, I have other skills including generation on dodge (should you spec for it) that is predictable. So in my mind, this leaves the skill with no real purpose other than a measly 130 range of distance.

My thoughts on how the skill could be better is this. Drop the clone generation, give the whirl a knockback so enemies stay with you (like revenant staff 5) and then drop a mirage mirror at the spot the whirl stops. This likely would need an increase in the recharge time but accomplishes a couple things. First, no more unpredictability with clone generation. Two, it provides some survivability that I find can be a bit lacking with the axe (via knockback/mirage cloak). Three, the knockback aspect makes the skill have a purpose.

Skill 3 (axes of symmetry) is actually quite good already in its implementation and gave us something we've never had before, an opportunity to keep clones around. However, with the loss of clone generation on skill 2 with the proposed change above, skill 3 would need to pick up the slack. Also, while this skill allows us to shift our clones from one enemy to another, it doesn't change the fact that if the mob/player dies before we switch/have any targets to switch to, the clone dies leading to a ramp up time for damage the next mob/enemy that other classes don't have.

For this skill, my proposed change would be to simply add a clone generation on use. This solves the issue of the loss of clone generation on skill 2 and also gives this skill its intended purpose (confuse the enemy) by always ensuring that there's at least 1 other clone that looks like the PC.

Anyways, in the end, these changes might be too OP or most of you may think they're not necessary but I just can't help but feel like there's so much opportunity with this spec that isn't being realized. Let me know what your thoughts are veteran mesmers! I'll still plug on with my mesmer till the end probably so I'll see you all on the other side!

TLDR;Drop clone generation on skill 2, add knockback and drop mirage mirror at the end of the whirl.Add clone generation on activation to skill 3

Oh dear, I appear to have screwed something up with the formatting. I apologize and will endeavor to fix it...