Technical question about clones survivability

[Melancholy Forever.3965]

I had to give up infinite horizon for sand shards in order to make my mirage interrupt work.

So now its harder to have clones that don't instantly die cuz i can't give them mirage cloak.

Does anyone know the optimal minimum toughness to have to give clones enough survivability to survive one hit in most matchup ? idk if anyone else is having trouble shattering even with one active clone vs a willbender for instance 😕

[DeanBB.4268]

Are you asking about illusions in general, phantasms and clones, or clones specifically? Clones are always fragile, by design. You can help that with traits, as you know.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

I'm not sure I have a lot to contribute here but I don't usually shatter my clones, using them as more of a mob tactic since I primarily use staff and I use them to stack conditions. Because of that, my clones see a lot of uptime and take a lot of damage, and one thing I've never really complained about is their durability. I'm not sure where they take damage from. It seems like they're immune to AoEs, and they seem to be immune to all enviromental hazards, so that just leaves strike and condition damage. And even then, one clone is usually able to hold aggro for a fairly long time, usually getting either shattered or replaced before it actually dies. So I'm not sure where the problem is with clones instantly dying.

Now, full transparency, I run full Celestial, which means that I'm naturally decently tanky, at least compared to Viper players and the like. I don't actually know if my clones get ANY benefit from my own vitality and toughness, but if they do that might be your answer right there. You'll need to get an answer from someone more numbers-savvy than me though.

[DeanBB.4268]

On the wiki, under "illusions," clones do not inherit vitality from the mesmer, but do get armor. OP may want to peruse that page.