Mirage Alacrity: Issues and Possible Solutions

[Micah.3789]

First of all, I know there are already a few similar posts, but I wanted to start fresh. So, I made my own post with the intention of discussing the problems with Alac Mirage more extensively, as well as considering more creative solutions. 

As I see it, the source of the problems is alacrity on Chaos Vortex:

• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex is too hard to balance because of the risk of overperformance in optimal conditions. Originally, Chaos Vortex applied 2.5sec of alacrity sourced from the mesmer. This was appropriate for 2x staff builds, but staff/axe could abuse this design. Because of 'Mirrored Axes', a staff/axe build could significantly increase damage while still maintaining alacrity by combing axe clones with staff ambush attacks. To remedy this, alacrity was split between the mesmer and clones, at 1sec each for a total of 4sec. This was generous, likely to compensate for the unreliable nature of clones, but it turned out to be too generous. In optimal conditions, 2x staff no longer needed any boon duration AND staff/axe could do even more damage: it could now utilize axe clones AND axe ambush attacks without sacrificing alacrity because of the incredible surplus. The only way to balance damage while keeping the 'alacrity on Chaos Vortex' design, is to eliminate staff/axe entirely; which means forcing 2x staff use. And the only way to effectively force 2x staff use is to make the alacrity supply so low that even in optimal conditions, there's little to no slack. That brings us to the latest May 2 patch: alacrity from clones was reduced to .5sec, eliminating staff/axe as a sole provider, but exacerbating other existing issues with the design: this was widely regarded as a bad move.
• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex requires too much investment and maintenance. In order to provide consistent alacrity, you need ~25% boon duration, a minimum of 7 mirage cloaks on staff every 20 secs and 3 clones up for every single one (roughly every 3 secs). First off, 25% boon duration is totally reasonable and even a bit generous, IF the other issues were addressed (though it is a little annoying  to have some of it tied to regen uptime). As for the mirage cloaks: this requires BOTH of your weapon slots to be staff (no other boon spec requires a specific weapon at all), 2 of your sigils (energy), 2 utility slots, and permanent vigor. All of these mandatory elements constrain creative buildcraft. Not to mention, you'll spend most of your time spamming Chaos Vortex, which leaves little time for other skills (like mantras). 
• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex is unreliable in all but the most optimal conditions. Clone uptime can be problematic and, for each one missing, you lose a whopping 20% of your potential alacrity. They disappear without a target and are affected by AoEs and CC; so they die pretty easily and they may be unable to act during the mirage cloak window. Some have argued that you can just make more clones, but quickly recovering 3 clones requires specific traits (dps loss) and/or relatively long CDs (12-20sec) that are already part of your dps rotation, so likely won't be available immediately. It also takes a bit of time waiting for phantasms to finish attacking to convert to clones. You will usually at least have 'Phase Retreat', but it only summons one clone and sends you far out of position. With such a tight rotation, even a few seconds summoning clones or getting back in position will dramatically affect your alacrity uptime. Speaking of position, if the group is unstacked for even a couple seconds, alacrity falls off and they miss subsequent applications. This differs from every other boondps, which can, to some degree, time/throttle boon application around group movement. While none of this is problematic on a golem, it's sub-par to downright brutal on a significant amount the game's content.

Possible Solutions:

Surely, the solution is to add alacrity through a trait and remove it from Chaos Vortex. The exact nature of that trait and which tier it should be in is debatable though. I do think alacrity should remain on mirage cloak in some way, since that is the mirage's special feature, but I don't think it needs to be strictly on staff. 'Mirage Mantle' would be an ideal candidate to replace: it's underused, has an effect on mirage cloak, and it competes with Mirrored Axes. Simply adding a trait with alacrity on mirage cloak would only fix the damage balance and clone issues though. Plus it would effectively nerf staff, which would then have to take a trait just to recover its alacrity. To truly improve the flow, reliability, and diversity of the spec, it needs a slightly more creative twist.

I think granting an additional boon to allies based on your weapon(something like catalyst's 'Spectacular Sphere') would be reasonable to balance and would recover some of mesmer's long lost identity as a boon provider. I can't take full credit for the idea though; I did read something like it suggested in a reddit comment. I'm not sure which boon each weapon should provide, though it should probably be based on their overall themes, but balanced around their potency.

• Sword is clearly the weakest mirage weapon, but with protection or resistance could see some niche play. 
• Greatsword could be ok, but mirage does nothing for strike damage. Maybe might or fury? Could also be resolution or resistance for pvp/wvw.
• Staff should probably be the premier support dps weapon. Maybe regeneration or protection in line with the chaos aura theme.
• Scepter has a bit more damage, but not too much. Regeneration or vigor would be nice.
• Axe will be a lot weaker without Mirrored Axes, but it would still do the most damage. Just swiftness or vigor maybe?

Additionally, to address reliability and flow, the trait should be able to provide alacrity even when the group isn't permanently stacked. This could be as simple as being generous with the duration, such that a little extra boon duration could build a cushion of uptime for movement phases. I do have some more creative ideas though. First and easiest, would be to put an internal CD on the trait and a longer duration. Something like a 10sec CD and a 7.5sec base duration. The point is to keep alacrity on mirage cloak and require a bit of boon duration(33% in this case), without being overly punishing if you can't stack and spam. The second idea is a bit more complicated, but has the same philosophy. Mirage Cloak would apply a unique buff to nearby allies (Mirage Mantle perhaps?) for let's say 5sec. This buff would function similarly to elementalist's 'Soothing Mist', but it would apply alacrity every interval instead of healing. If it applied .75sec of alacrity every second, you'd still need at least 33% boon duration to maintain 100% uptime. However, maintaining the "Mirage Mantle" buff would be significantly more comfortable. It could cap at 10 sec duration, to give a cushion for separation and other mechanics, and would only require a minimum of one mirage cloak every 5sec instead of the current 3sec.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Appreciate you if you actually read all that. ❤️ I'd love some feedback and suggestions.

 

[Moradorin.6217]

2 hours ago, Micah.3789 said:

First of all, I know there are already a few similar posts, but I wanted to start fresh. So, I made my own post with the intention of discussing the problems with Alac Mirage more extensively, as well as considering more creative solutions. 

As I see it, the source of the problems is alacrity on Chaos Vortex:

• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex is too hard to balance because of the risk of overperformance in optimal conditions. Originally, Chaos Vortex applied 2.5sec of alacrity sourced from the mesmer. This was appropriate for 2x staff builds, but staff/axe could abuse this design. Because of 'Mirrored Axes', a staff/axe build could significantly increase damage while still maintaining alacrity by combing axe clones with staff ambush attacks. To remedy this, alacrity was split between the mesmer and clones, at 1sec each for a total of 4sec. This was generous, likely to compensate for the unreliable nature of clones, but it turned out to be too generous. In optimal conditions, 2x staff no longer needed any boon duration AND staff/axe could do even more damage: it could now utilize axe clones AND axe ambush attacks without sacrificing alacrity because of the incredible surplus. The only way to balance damage while keeping the 'alacrity on Chaos Vortex' design, is to eliminate staff/axe entirely; which means forcing 2x staff use. And the only way to effectively force 2x staff use is to make the alacrity supply so low that even in optimal conditions, there's little to no slack. That brings us to the latest May 2 patch: alacrity from clones was reduced to .5sec, eliminating staff/axe as a sole provider, but exacerbating other existing issues with the design: this was widely regarded as a bad move.
• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex requires too much investment and maintenance. In order to provide consistent alacrity, you need ~25% boon duration, a minimum of 7 mirage cloaks on staff every 20 secs and 3 clones up for every single one (roughly every 3 secs). First off, 25% boon duration is totally reasonable and even a bit generous, IF the other issues were addressed (though it is a little annoying  to have some of it tied to regen uptime). As for the mirage cloaks: this requires BOTH of your weapon slots to be staff (no other boon spec requires a specific weapon at all), 2 of your sigils (energy), 2 utility slots, and permanent vigor. All of these mandatory elements constrain creative buildcraft. Not to mention, you'll spend most of your time spamming Chaos Vortex, which leaves little time for other skills (like mantras). 
• Alacrity on Chaos Vortex is unreliable in all but the most optimal conditions. Clone uptime can be problematic and, for each one missing, you lose a whopping 20% of your potential alacrity. They disappear without a target and are affected by AoEs and CC; so they die pretty easily and they may be unable to act during the mirage cloak window. Some have argued that you can just make more clones, but quickly recovering 3 clones requires specific traits (dps loss) and/or relatively long CDs (12-20sec) that are already part of your dps rotation, so likely won't be available immediately. It also takes a bit of time waiting for phantasms to finish attacking to convert to clones. You will usually at least have 'Phase Retreat', but it only summons one clone and sends you far out of position. With such a tight rotation, even a few seconds summoning clones or getting back in position will dramatically affect your alacrity uptime. Speaking of position, if the group is unstacked for even a couple seconds, alacrity falls off and they miss subsequent applications. This differs from every other boondps, which can, to some degree, time/throttle boon application around group movement. While none of this is problematic on a golem, it's sub-par to downright brutal on a significant amount the game's content.

Possible Solutions:

Surely, the solution is to add alacrity through a trait and remove it from Chaos Vortex. The exact nature of that trait and which tier it should be in is debatable though. I do think alacrity should remain on mirage cloak in some way, since that is the mirage's special feature, but I don't think it needs to be strictly on staff. 'Mirage Mantle' would be an ideal candidate to replace: it's underused, has an effect on mirage cloak, and it competes with Mirrored Axes. Simply adding a trait with alacrity on mirage cloak would only fix the damage balance and clone issues though. Plus it would effectively nerf staff, which would then have to take a trait just to recover its alacrity. To truly improve the flow, reliability, and diversity of the spec, it needs a slightly more creative twist.

I think granting an additional boon to allies based on your weapon(something like catalyst's 'Spectacular Sphere') would be reasonable to balance and would recover some of mesmer's long lost identity as a boon provider. I can't take full credit for the idea though; I did read something like it suggested in a reddit comment. I'm not sure which boon each weapon should provide, though it should probably be based on their overall themes, but balanced around their potency.

• Sword is clearly the weakest mirage weapon, but with protection or resistance could see some niche play. 
• Greatsword could be ok, but mirage does nothing for strike damage. Maybe might or fury? Could also be resolution or resistance for pvp/wvw.
• Staff should probably be the premier support dps weapon. Maybe regeneration or protection in line with the chaos aura theme.
• Scepter has a bit more damage, but not too much. Regeneration or vigor would be nice.
• Axe will be a lot weaker without Mirrored Axes, but it would still do the most damage. Just swiftness or vigor maybe?

Additionally, to address reliability and flow, the trait should be able to provide alacrity even when the group isn't permanently stacked. This could be as simple as being generous with the duration, such that a little extra boon duration could build a cushion of uptime for movement phases. I do have some more creative ideas though. First and easiest, would be to put an internal CD on the trait and a longer duration. Something like a 10sec CD and a 7.5sec base duration. The point is to keep alacrity on mirage cloak and require a bit of boon duration(33% in this case), without being overly punishing if you can't stack and spam. The second idea is a bit more complicated, but has the same philosophy. Mirage Cloak would apply a unique buff to nearby allies (Mirage Mantle perhaps?) for let's say 5sec. This buff would function similarly to elementalist's 'Soothing Mist', but it would apply alacrity every interval instead of healing. If it applied .75sec of alacrity every second, you'd still need at least 33% boon duration to maintain 100% uptime. However, maintaining the "Mirage Mantle" buff would be significantly more comfortable. It could cap at 10 sec duration, to give a cushion for separation and other mechanics, and would only require a minimum of one mirage cloak every 5sec instead of the current 3sec.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Appreciate you if you actually read all that. ❤️ I'd love some feedback and suggestions.

 

IMO the big issue is that they added Alacrity to Mirage for the wrong reasons. That is, They added alacrity to staff to nerf running staff Mirage in wvw after one dodge when some ppl still tried to run it. Sounds odd but I bet u dimes to dollars that was envolved in the motive that lead to the choice to add alac to Mirage + make it on staff vs a trait.

Therefore, if you plan to suggest a change for Mirage and alac traits it should include a baseline of 2 dodges in all 3 modes as a starting point. Otherwise, TBH nothing they do will fix Mirage and at best it would make it functional in one of the 3 game modes.

 

That said, I appreciate the time and thought you put into posting a suggestion to fix the alac issue.

[HotDelirium.7984]

5 hours ago, Moradorin.6217 said:

IMO the big issue is that they added Alacrity to Mirage for the wrong reasons. That is, They added alacrity to staff to nerf running staff Mirage in wvw after one dodge when some ppl still tried to run it. Sounds odd but I bet u dimes to dollars that was envolved in the motive that lead to the choice to add alac to Mirage + make it on staff vs a trait.

Therefore, if you plan to suggest a change for Mirage and alac traits it should include a baseline of 2 dodges in all 3 modes as a starting point. Otherwise, TBH nothing they do will fix Mirage and at best it would make it functional in one of the 3 game modes.

 

That said, I appreciate the time and thought you put into posting a suggestion to fix the alac issue.

The devs are balancing specs based on internal factors. They aren't balancing per the community created 2 alac 2 quickness 6 dps groups so it would not surprise me if they overhauled alac and quickness in the next huge balance which they did hint at on the roadmap.

[Moradorin.6217]

41 minutes ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

The devs are balancing specs based on internal factors. They aren't balancing per the community created 2 alac 2 quickness 6 dps groups so it would not surprise me if they overhauled alac and quickness in the next huge balance which they did hint at on the roadmap.

Ok, but my point was that they need to normalize the base function of the spec across the 3 game modes badly and that will alter how any alac or quickness balance is done. Therefore, IDC about alac or quickness changes untill they deal with Mirage's variable number of dodges so that it has basic continuity between game modes. At this point, its trash because of that no matter how much or how little alac it outputs.

[Micah.3789]

24 minutes ago, Moradorin.6217 said:

Ok, but my point was that they need to normalize the base function of the spec across the 3 game modes badly and that will alter how any alac or quickness balance is done. Therefore, IDC about alac or quickness changes untill they deal with Mirage's variable number of dodges so that it has basic continuity between game modes. At this point, its trash because of that no matter how much or how little alac it outputs.

I hear your point, but in the interest of productivity, maybe let's not derail the post into another protest to return the second dodge. While I agree that the issue should be looked at from a broader perspective, it shouldn't be put off in favor of the wvw dodge issue. That said, the alacrity changes I've suggested could actually pave the way for returning the second dodge. While I didn't directly state it in the original post, I think excessive mirage cloaks exacerbate balancing issues for mirage in general, including alacrity. Mirage mirrors are the biggest culprit. My trait suggestion would not only reduce the number of mandatory mirage cloaks necessary to maintain alacrity, but also compete with 'Desert Distortion', one of the most OP sources of spammable mirage cloaks. This would allow for revision or possibly even removal of the mirage mirror mechanic, which would allow for the return of the second dodge, AND improve the reliability and flow of alacrity supply in all game modes. 

With all that in mind, I think approaching mirage endurance similarly to revenant energy would be wise. Perhaps 2 or even 3 max dodges in all game modes, but only 1-2 recharge out of combat. This would allow the mirage more freedom to bank dodges, without giving a huge dump of them at the start of an encounter. These changes would go very well with the revision of mirage mirrors. Instead of immediately granting mirage cloak, they could generate endurance instead. This would also streamline mirage cloak into a more focused endurance bar management function, with the extra max endurance to accommodate this generation. I'd probably have mirage mirror only generate 25 endurance or so, as opposed to the 50 it would take to constitute a whole dodge. Less mirage cloaks does mean less damage and synergy with traits, so some modifications would be necessary to not unintentionally nerf anything else.

[Moradorin.6217]

2 hours ago, Micah.3789 said:

I hear your point, but in the interest of productivity, maybe let's not derail the post into another protest to return the second dodge. While I agree that the issue should be looked at from a broader perspective, it shouldn't be put off in favor of the wvw dodge issue. That said, the alacrity changes I've suggested could actually pave the way for returning the second dodge. While I didn't directly state it in the original post, I think excessive mirage cloaks exacerbate balancing issues for mirage in general, including alacrity. Mirage mirrors are the biggest culprit. My trait suggestion would not only reduce the number of mandatory mirage cloaks necessary to maintain alacrity, but also compete with 'Desert Distortion', one of the most OP sources of spammable mirage cloaks. This would allow for revision or possibly even removal of the mirage mirror mechanic, which would allow for the return of the second dodge, AND improve the reliability and flow of alacrity supply in all game modes. 

With all that in mind, I think approaching mirage endurance similarly to revenant energy would be wise. Perhaps 2 or even 3 max dodges in all game modes, but only 1-2 recharge out of combat. This would allow the mirage more freedom to bank dodges, without giving a huge dump of them at the start of an encounter. These changes would go very well with the revision of mirage mirrors. Instead of immediately granting mirage cloak, they could generate endurance instead. This would also streamline mirage cloak into a more focused endurance bar management function, with the extra max endurance to accommodate this generation. I'd probably have mirage mirror only generate 25 endurance or so, as opposed to the 50 it would take to constitute a whole dodge. Less mirage cloaks does mean less damage and synergy with traits, so some modifications would be necessary to not unintentionally nerf anything else.

They should just ditch the mirrors totally tbh. they are very predictable and unneeded. It would make balancing MC allot easier if they didnt calculate mirrors into best case MC uptime. It would also give the player better agency because they dont have to create or use mirrors. I hear what ur saying and dont disagree. I just see it a little differently priority wise, but I dont rly want to derail the post talking about it. I just wanted to drop the seed.

[Micah.3789]

2 hours ago, Moradorin.6217 said:

They should just ditch the mirrors totally tbh. they are very predictable and unneeded. It would make balancing MC allot easier if they didnt calculate mirrors into best case MC uptime. It would also give the player better agency because they dont have to create or use mirrors. I hear what ur saying and dont disagree. I just see it a little differently priority wise, but I dont rly want to derail the post talking about it. I just wanted to drop the seed.

I'd be cool with mirage mirrors being removed, but it would take a lot of power out of the spec that would need to be put back somehow. Here's a thought: skills and effects that create mirage mirrors could instead activate sand shards. Desert Distortion would need a rework though: maybe something like "Shatter skills activate sand shards if you have enough clones(3) present. Gain endurance(50?) whenever you grant distortion to yourself." Then I'd add a little bleeding back on sand shards to make it a modest hybrid damage effect (remove the boon strip if necessary). If balanced well, this could recoup the damage lost on mirage mirrors, and even open up some new playstyles. It could incentivize shatter skills, for both condition and strike builds, while also providing a damage alternative to mirrored axes, opening up more weapon options.

[HotDelirium.7984]

On 5/18/2023 at 12:52 PM, Moradorin.6217 said:

Ok, but my point was that they need to normalize the base function of the spec across the 3 game modes badly and that will alter how any alac or quickness balance is done. Therefore, IDC about alac or quickness changes untill they deal with Mirage's variable number of dodges so that it has basic continuity between game modes. At this point, its trash because of that no matter how much or how little alac it outputs.

Fair and then hopefully they can have their own shatters and since mirage is more condi focused I think all ambushes should be more condi rather than just strike dps.

[Moradorin.6217]

4 hours ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

Fair and then hopefully they can have their own shatters and since mirage is more condi focused I think all ambushes should be more condi rather than just strike dps.

I have been thinking maybe they should rework Infinite Horizon (IH) to let Mirage choose between a shatter focused or Ambush (via clones) focued build. It could be done a few ways I guess. Like maybe if IH is selected ambush effects come from clones and then the focus is to preserve clones for the extra ambush effects, at the cost of a reduction to shatter damage. Although, a better way might be to make clones performing ambush baseline and balance with it in mind then add a GM trait in place of IH that boosts shatter skills but turns off clones ambush effects. This would make the most sense to me and seems easiest to balance because it gives the most consistent base Mirage function for its ambushes unless the shatter focus was selected.

 

Then as far as alac goes it seems like it should probably not be generated by ambush skills because they just seems problematic for balance accross the board due to how it just piles more things onto a thing that they already said was hard to balance.

 

Maybe alac could just pulse from a skill slot or be tied to a utility slot skill or a special trait that again alters how ambushes in general function that reduces the damage of the ambush effects in exchange for alacrity generation when traited.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Moradorin.6217