Mirage's own professional skills

[Loic.9657]

The good news is that the devs are finally planning to give us a second dodge back. (Though it probably takes forever long...)
As one of the most vulnerable light armor classes, dodge, evade, and distortion is our main sustain.
The devs also nerfed everything in pvp that was about evasion, like ambush skills, elusive minds, etc.
Let's be honest, we all know the second dodge is what we deserve.

And it's the only class in the entire game using same boring professional skills as core which doesn't fit the essence of Mirage but just a means of consuming clones.

Professional skills should in line with the characteristics of the mirage, mysterious, elusive, flexible and fast.

and whether the developer can fix some bugs, such as

• The Axe Ambush skill cannot be cast normally with the Mirror Ax trait.
• Selecting the Bountiful Disillusioned trait in F1's tooltip would show wrong stats in pvp. (5 stacks of might in 8 seconds, this is the value of pve)

Edited December 19, 2022 by Loic.9657

[ShaoLun.1953]

If they hate Condi Mirage that much, they could just nerf clone damage (as they already did) or just nerf Infinite Horizon, but they choose the worst way.

 

IMO, there is another way to nerf dodge while keeping it seems balance: 

Create a mirage behind you after dodge.

Then player has to consider positioning and there is a gap to CC.

[Loic.9657]

On 9/17/2022 at 6:57 PM, ShaoLun.1953 said:

If they hate Condi Mirage that much, they could just nerf clone damage (as they already did) or just nerf Infinite Horizon, but they choose the worst way.

 

IMO, there is another way to nerf dodge while keeping it seems balance: 

Create a mirage behind you after dodge.

Then player has to consider positioning and there is a gap to CC.

That's right.

But I would say if they don't nerf anything about dodge right now, just give back our second dodge, it'll still be fine, won't go too crazy.

And the professional skills should have our own version.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Loic.9657

[pninak.1069]

blade renewal isn't a signet, why should it provide reflect aswell? unless you mean bladeturn requiem in which case the block duration is increased. master of frag works differently on bladeturn requiem.

[Loic.9657]

5 hours ago, pninak.1069 said:

blade renewal isn't a signet, why should it provide reflect aswell? unless you mean bladeturn requiem in which case the block duration is increased. master of frag works differently on bladeturn requiem.

Thanks for your remind, I corrected it. 

[Salt Mode.3780]

Sadly if they nerf IH it will still be the only trait anyone uses because its the only viable one.

[Loic.9657]

When CMC took over the lead of class balance design, mesmer getting worse and worse year by year.

He don't know how to do or what to do with the class.

He just balance the classes base on his favor, but not from equitable.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Loic.9657

[MithranArkanere.8957]

Keeping separate profession skills for core and elite specs allows giving them some love when they greatly underperform compared to elite specs, and that's always a good thing, at least in PvP.

[Mell.4873]

In a funny way the introduction of new elite specialization creates balance in the simple fact that there are many OP builds. With Mirage and its second dodge there is no way you will be able to dominate like before since someone could just turn up with a Vindicator and just land on your face one shotting you.

I'm not saying its a bad thing, I'm all for this meta shift.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Mell.4873

[HotDelirium.7984]

I thought I read years ago mirage was going to get it's own type of shatters like chrono. Maybe they scraped that because of ambushes?

[Terrorhuz.4695]

On 10/12/2022 at 7:10 AM, HotDelirium.7984 said:

I thought I read years ago mirage was going to get it's own type of shatters like chrono. Maybe they scraped that because of ambushes?

Mirage clock + mirage ambush + mirage mirrors are great mechanics without adding new shatters on top of that tbh

Edited October 13, 2022 by Terrorhuz.4695

[Flow.2947]

i just think it needs an f5 wich is restoring 25 endurance per shatter. 35s cd could be ally restore aswell

Edited October 15, 2022 by Flow.2947

[Salt Mode.3780]

On 10/14/2022 at 12:29 AM, Flow.2947 said:

i just think it needs an f5 wich is restoring 25 endurance per shatter. 35s cd could be ally restore aswell

Mirage playstyle is to have clones up at all times to make use of detargetting + ambush skills. Shattering for Mirage is only to cleave so no this is not a good idea.

[Flow.2947]

On 10/16/2022 at 2:27 AM, Salt Mode.3780 said:

Mirage playstyle is to have clones up at all times to make use of detargetting + ambush skills. Shattering for Mirage is only to cleave so no this is not a good idea.

well you could add an mirrage cloak to it in pve. But i mean you have other traidlines aswell beside infinite horizon. in wvw zerg fights you are not able to use your clones. in pvp in 2 vs 2+ its sometimes hard to keep them up.  Endurance gain or share is extreamly strong. 1 clone a doge for  someone else 3 clones a doubble doge. 

[apharma.3741]

Mirage does not need it's shatters changing tbh and it certainly doesn't need an uninspired F5 giving endurance regen.
Mirage really needs is reversion of some of the vigor nerfs it's received (critical infusion) and Nomad's Endurance. Nomad's Endurance should be changed to grant vigor per clone summoned not shatter, this means it will work with shatter builds and clone builds, 2s would give a consistent amount of vigor however being a boon you can corrupt or strip it. This will be strong with deceptive evasion, signet of illusions and a general good clone output but there's already classes with perma vigor and it will benefit power builds with extra dodges.

 

I'd also say some of the deception skills need a look at:
Mirage advance: Reduce cast time to 0.25s or 0.5s and 30s.
Sand through glass: make 25s.
Illusionary ambush: make 30s.

 

Then look at giving 2nd dodge back, however this will give multiple sources of vigor, better deception utilities which can compete with core providing vigor and clones for either shatter or clone builds.

Edited October 17, 2022 by apharma.3741
Wrong value for sands through glass

[phokus.8934]

They were so worried about Mirage dodging and vigor uptime that they completely forgot about it and created Vindicator.  Which, is absolutely more bonkers than Mirage ever was.

[Bigpapasmurf.5623]

On 10/17/2022 at 8:25 AM, apharma.3741 said:

Mirage does not need it's shatters changing tbh and it certainly doesn't need an uninspired F5 giving endurance regen.
Mirage really needs is reversion of some of the vigor nerfs it's received (critical infusion) and Nomad's Endurance. Nomad's Endurance should be changed to grant vigor per clone summoned not shatter, this means it will work with shatter builds and clone builds, 2s would give a consistent amount of vigor however being a boon you can corrupt or strip it. This will be strong with deceptive evasion, signet of illusions and a general good clone output but there's already classes with perma vigor and it will benefit power builds with extra dodges.

 

I'd also say some of the deception skills need a look at:
Mirage advance: Reduce cast time to 0.25s or 0.5s and 30s.
Sand through glass: make 25s.
Illusionary ambush: make 30s.

 

Then look at giving 2nd dodge back, however this will give multiple sources of vigor, better deception utilities which can compete with core providing vigor and clones for either shatter or clone builds.

 

+1 for Illusionary Ambush. Even when CD was nerfed I just couldnt get rid of that skill.

[HowlKamui.5120]

Just give us the second dodge back. No need to change anything else.

[Loic.9657]

In addition to the familiar problems of Mirage, whether it is a bad one dodge or a few years of bugs, I personally think there are still some areas that need to be improved:

• The casting time of Mirage advance is too long
•  Illusionary ambush too long cooldown
•  Bad trait design, like Nomad's endurance's 1.5 second vigor, Dune cloak etc.
• It's the only class in the entire game using same boring professional skills as core which doesn't fit the essence of Mirage but just a means of consuming clones.

If the Mirage class is to be what it is, swift and elusive, then shatters must change.

Shatters become additional means of adding clones, and combine with mobility, break targeting and swap the position with clones, distortions, even stealth for a short time like winking.
And all ambush skills become a means of consuming clones, which will have different performances according to different weapons, and have different values according to the number of clones.

In this way, Mirage's mobility, speed, elusiveness, and more interactions with clones (more manufacturing methods, higher frequency consumption) are what Mirage should be like.
In this way, Mirage's ambush skills become something truly unique and powerful.

Problems solved.

Rather than a handicapped core mesmer with an extra ambush skill.
And these ambushs are nothing special, just an extra skill that can be used after dodge, has its own casting time.

These are my opinions.
Professional skills should be in line with the nature of the profession.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Loic.9657

[Batalix.2873]

Hmmmm I do think there is some potential here, I just think it is difficult to have a "shatters, but also adds clones" not be overly broken.

 

But here's a thought. What if Mirage shatters only shattered *one* clone at random, and teleported you to its location? That way:

 

* You are encouraged to use shatters in a way that doesn't lose clone uptime.

* Each shatter functions as a dodge/shadowstep, in line with mirage's general "jumpiness" with axe3 and jaunt.

* Balancing unique mirage shatter effects might be easier because the tradeoff (one clone only) is smaller and could focus more on evasion/mobility that straight-up damage.

[apharma.3741]

On 9/18/2022 at 1:31 PM, Loic.9657 said:

When CMC took over the lead of class balance design, mesmer getting worse and worse year by year.

He don't know how to do or what to do with the class.

He just balance the classes base on his favor, but not from equitable.

Actually mesmer has been getting worse and worse every year that the devs were listening to the PvP discord. Think about it, other than expansions the only time I remember mesmer getting meaningful changes to bring it back into the meta was reworks and this last round where for some dumb reason they gave distortion back to the specs.
There are soooo many mesmer players I don't see and who have rerolled since the chrono nerfs way back near the end of HoT, even myself I just don't feel like playing the class and running into some raid boss player spamming skills with auto target and cast to target on. Yes they're usually necro players, yes I can beat most that aren't cele harbinger, no I still don't enjoy climbing a mountain while everyone else is taking the cable car.