Potential fix for mirrors (which we all agree is an awful mechanic)

So at the moment we have these new skills that leave behind a mirror on the ground for like 4 seconds. If you walk to and touch this mirror, it shatters giving you mirage cloak and giving weakness to nearby enemies. Take a skill like "Sand Through Glass". You evade backwards and leave behind a mirror at the initial location. So its a movement utility that then requires you to walk back to where you initially were to get the full effect? Its absolutely bonkers in design. So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

Easy fix would be a new F5 skill that shatters every Mirage Mirror around giving you 1s of Mirage Cloak for every Mirror shattered so 3s maximum. Duration of Mirage Mirrors must be increased as well.

I suppose that would allow them to keep their current mechanic of dropping mirrors on the ground (which I suspect was only added because pretty). Honestly I'm cool with either route, but something needs to change regarding this piss poor mechanic.

Dropping them on the ground is working for a mobile melee spec (=Axe) but not for ranged specs. That's why I just want to have an F5 Shatter Mirage Mirrors skill.

I've been playing a very mobile power mirage spec for wvw roaming and honestly the build is a lot of fun, the added mobility from mirage thrust makes it very viable. Even with that amazing sword leap, the mirrors on the ground just do not cut it. It feels like I'm forced to go out of my way and move in a really punitive fashion to pick up the mirrors, or (what I usually do) just disregard them completely and if I happen to walk over one, cool.

The Mirage Cloak/ambush ability should be always given to the Mesmer when a mirror is generated. The shattered mirror object should just be considered an immobile clone that has damage and an effect of which is currently weakness and small amount of damage (kind of like old clone death traits but very limited, not mobile, etc.) but is now triggered by an enemy coming near it (i.e. like Engineer mines).

Ideally, weakness and small amount of damage of mirage mirror on trigger is replaced with a short daze or stun CC so it does not break stealth and has more value synergy value to other mesmer traits. But I'd be happy just with the first part.

I think an easier fix is to give the mirrors a bit larger trigger radius, something like 240 radius.

It also triggers whether you or your opponent touches it but have different effect. If you touch it, you get benefit of mirage cloak. If enemy touches it, he will be damaged and weakened.

At this point, anything would be better than the current mirror's implementation.

@Jables.4659 said:So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

It is a bit of an improvement, but I'm not sure having to depend on an enemy's positioning is much better that depending on our own. Especially in PvP, it's really easy for someone to make sure they stay away from the big, shiny diamond and we really have no way of luring them closer. It also might not be very useful against ranged enemies.

Can't really say as I have much better of a suggestion though. I wouldn't mind if it also functioned like Illusionary Ambush, so running into a mirror automatically put us back in range of our target. I wouldn't mind chasing them down if that was the case (providing it actually worked right). Right now chasing down mirrors just seems like too big of a dps loss for too little benefit.

They are 8 seconds currently , should be 10, and should proc shatter traits, for every illusion u currently have.Thats all

I like the Mirrors, I'd be up for buffing them but I wouldn't change their mechanics.

The easiest way is give mirage a third dodge and have the mirrors restore endurance.

I think the mirror durations should be lowered back down to 5 seconds. Then change mirrors to always grant its effects on expiration. So, if you do not pick it up, it will shatter on expiration inflicting AoE dmg and weakness at its location and also grant you mirage cloak You can still pick it up earlier than its expiration, like you can now, to proc its effects.

That way its almost a prophetic/clairvoyant theme to the mirror. A delayed dodge that still requires timing not to waste, but doesn't demand you go chasing after them.

Also, at 5 secs, the mirror expiration lines up perfectly with the end of the HoT on healing oasis. Which is fairly inconsequential, but cool.

Honestly, I think the mirrors should be turned into these burst land mines that can be detonated early by walking into them or they detonate after they expire in 5 seconds. You gain mirage cloak when you spawn them.

I honestly just want to see mirrors pulse their damage and weakness every second until you shatter it. Then I'd be more than happy with how they are right now.

@Nyel.1843 said:Easy fix would be a new F5 skill that shatters every Mirage Mirror around giving you 1s of Mirage Cloak for every Mirror shattered so 3s maximum. Duration of Mirage Mirrors must be increased as well.

That would be ridiculously overpowered.

I think all Mirrors need is that they need to last ~15 seconds, and that all Deception skills produce them in some way.

In other words, if I can stay in an area, I can litter it with mirrors. Good luck hitting me while I'm in there. Force me to move away, and I become vulnerable.

An f5 to shatter mirrors would be amazing and completely worth the time investment. One of the main reasons why i don't play mirage is because the mirrors are super clunky to use.

@rank eleven monk.9502 said:

@Nyel.1843 said:Easy fix would be a new F5 skill that shatters every Mirage Mirror around giving you 1s of Mirage Cloak for every Mirror shattered so 3s maximum. Duration of Mirage Mirrors must be increased as well.

Then reduce it to 3/4 seconds per mirror or whatever. I mean overpowered? Because you could chain 2 or 3 Ambush attacks into one Mirage Cloak window? It's not like you can constantly keep this.

@Nyel.1843 said:

@rank eleven monk.9502 said:

@Nyel.1843 said:Easy fix would be a new F5 skill that shatters every Mirage Mirror around giving you 1s of Mirage Cloak for every Mirror shattered so 3s maximum. Duration of Mirage Mirrors must be increased as well.

No, because 3s of Mirage Cloak would mean 3 sec of invulnerability. Add the double dodge to that which makes it 5 sec + any skill that gives you MC (Illusionary Ambush only at the moment I guess). That chained with enough Vigor would make you invulnerable for around 8 seconds.

I'm talking about PvP now obviously.

I suggested the F5 mechanic for Mirrors after the BWE, and I still think this is a very logical way to improve Mirrors and make them actually useful.

The current implementation is clunky and more often then not, counter productive to survival, especially in point-focused sPvP. The F5 mechanic would also fix the issue with Desert Distortion of Mirrors being placed too close to one another, and thus end up being wasted on many occasions. Inadvertent triggers is what make DD not nearly as good a trait as we all thought when we first saw it. I'm back to Mirage Mantle because it's more reliable and useful far more often. With a "shatter on F5" mechanic, DD would also become more reliable.

I'd still also like to see Ambush activation time increased another second or two, I don't understand why an "Ambush attack" needs to be so easy for the enemy to anticipate. What is wrong with allowing me to hold off for a few seconds even? Of course here the ugly design of piggy-backing Ambush to AAs rears it's ugly head, and actually makes a counter-argument to F5 shattering Mirrors. Really F5 should probably activate an Ambush attack, thus freeing up the activation time to be at least 3 seconds. Besides, all of the Ambush attacks are over-telegraphed anyway, especially for the weak effect they offer in most cases!

Mirage is overall pretty cool, but it is sad that I literally use none of the Deception skills aside from Jaunt, and I also literally have 0 Mirrors in my Power Mirage build. The Mirror mechanic, the F6 Heal, and all of the Deception utilities need significant improvements to be used over existing choices. Only Jaunt comes close, but really only because the other 3 Elites are so terrible and non-offensive! Even Jaunt still needs at least another 50-100 range to really call it an Elite. It's barely useable now, again mainly because literally no other Elite fits the Mirage play-style at all!

@Carighan.6758 said:I think all Mirrors need is that they need to last ~15 seconds, and that all Deception skills produce them in some way.

In other words, if I can stay in an area, I can litter it with mirrors. Good luck hitting me while I'm in there. Force me to move away, and I become vulnerable.

I kinda like this idea...

What if F5 or even the current F4 was updated so that turned your illusions into mirrors? You'd have at least some control for favourable placement: like for example, after Axe3 or Illusionary Ambush, you can turn your clones into mirrors for some added survivability (probably having the cloak at a reduced duration or something for how many clones you turned into mirrors).

Or maybe a Hall of Mirrors kind of ability that spawns a decent number of them nearby.

I like the mirrors as they are. The OP doesn’t speak for me, thanks. If he can’t figure out how to make Mirage work, then he can roll another class.

@Mercurias.1826 said:I like the mirrors as they are. The OP doesn’t speak for me, thanks. If he can’t figure out how to make Mirage work, then he can roll another class.

I assume from your choice of forum avatar that you main a Necromancer. Is it possible that you are worried that an improvement to this very lacking component of Mirage would make the Mirage more viable in PvP or WvW, and that is why you hope it will stay just how it is now?

This would be my idea on how to rework the mirror mechanic.First of all, move the four existing shatters to the right one so that distortion is in the f5 slot.The mesmer can no longer summon illusionsNew f1 "shatter" : create mirage mirror. Three mirrors can be active at once.
Summoning a mirage mirror delivers a damaging attack that inflicts weakness on nearby enemies, this attack is repeated around existing mirage mirrors when a shatter skill is used. Enemies can only be affected by this once per shatter.Shatter skills now use a resource to cast that's filled by skills that would normally summon illusions.F2: Mind WrackDeal damage to enemies around you and your mirrors.F3: Cry of FrustrationInflict confusion on enemies around you and your mirrors.F4: DiversionDaze enemies around you and your mirrors.F5: DistortionGain distortion, pulse torment around you and your mirrors.

Secondly I'd remove the axe weapon and have the spec alter the offhand torch.Skill 4 creates a wave that inflicts confusion and burning, filling up your mirage resource bar.Skill 5 torments and enemy, and stuns them if they don't leave the area, granting might to allies based on the number of condis on them.

Deception skills no longer summon mirrors. Instead each one converts a boon on enemies around you into weakness and confusion when used.

Also, rename it "Scourage"