Virtuoso should lose phantasms and instead perform phantasm skills themselves

[Sodeni.6041]

Title.

The Virtuoso is supposed to be a selfish spec without clones. But why do they still have phantasms?

It's a weird design decision in my opinion that should be changed. Virtuoso lacks mobility, sustain, identity and needs more "new things" since the shatters are pretty the same as the default ones.

So I think the Virtuoso should execute phantasm skills themselves.

It has a few advantages: They would get needed mobility with greatsword 4 and offhand sword, a proper sustain (block) ability with taunt form our utility phantasm, an instant on demand projectile block with focus 5 and so on. They could even get creative and change the phantasm skills a bit to give them more dmg in return for a (probably slightly) longer casting animation and some other effects. All the traits that affect phantasms would now affect the mesmer themselves, opening up a lot a lot of new interesting builds and playstyles.

In a perfect world Virtuoso would also have an offhand dagger with some mobility and condi cleanse/sustain on it but we should at least get some mobility from our existing weapons. I mean, every other EoD elite spec got a lot of mobility and sustain except for mesmers... The Untamed got new ambush skills for each weapon too so I think they could adapt the already existing phantasm skills for Virtuoso as well.

It would be more in line with the design of the elite spec and really pushed the entire theme of the Virtuoso while giving us more new ways to play and needed mobility.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Sodeni.6041

[Tseison.4659]

 

[Yoci.2481]

It would at least be more interesting than what we have now.

[agrippastrilemma.8741]

I've said this too

[Ombras.2853]

+1

[Salt Mode.3780]

With how Virtuoso is right now it most likely could make things worse if they tempered with phantasms. Its bad enough anything clone related traits don't work as it is or how weapons are lackluster because the absence of clones. I shutter to think how much worse things can get if they tried tempering with phantasms.

[Sodeni.6041]

5 hours ago, Salt Mode.3780 said:

With how Virtuoso is right now it most likely could make things worse if they tempered with phantasms. Its bad enough anything clone related traits don't work as it is or how weapons are lackluster because the absence of clones. I shutter to think how much worse things can get if they tried tempering with phantasms.

Clone traits work and I like that they now affect blades. Yeah, some traits or skills are worse but I appreciate the attempt at least. Phantasms are way simpler, phantasm traits are also much better than clone related ones, they usually give you better buffs and stats, same with the utility phantasm. I'd love if they tried it out and made it work because of the theme of the spec.