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Mesmer/Mirage Mechanic Idea: Skipping Frames


Whiteout.1975

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Sooo I've been playing Mesmer as my main now for over 5 years and have been trying out Mirage. To be blunt, It just doesn't feel very Mirage like to me. I have to build myself to deceive my opponent, usually by stealth and some clones. In order to get anything close to a Mirage like feel. That's fine... but it doesn't really make Mirage unique in how it deceives it's opponent's from what has already existed before. I was hoping Mirage would have you guessing, more so, on who is who... and if they are truly there or not... I realize that as a Mesmer, that is initially what your about... I just thought Mirage would be more unique in how it would go about it...

I see they attempted to make it unique with skill's that can Break Enemy Targeting. It just feels too meh to me. Usually when I pick a Skill, it's for the skill itself. Not because of the Break Target from enemies... So it just sort of becomes a little cherry on top of your ice cream. That half the time you don't even care to have. I'm am speaking from a WvW perspective mostly... but I feel similar in 1v1's as well... It was a good attempt to make it unique and useful, but it feels so "meh". So with that said... I'm gonna offer an Idea that I would like done personally... If done right, I believe it will keep my opponent guessing. If not, make it to where I feel they're actually losing me as a target... Not just re-targeting me right away after said skill is said and done....

The Idea: Skipping Frames

To start off, a visual...
https://media.giphy.com/media/10IwdNYTrarDpK/giphy.gifSo The Idea would look similar to that. As if your Mesmer is skipping from one frame to a completely separate frame down the line. As they are moving.

The Question becomes... How would you do this? I'll tell you...

  • The Duration of the Effect: Make it probably close to about 3 seconds at least. You wanna give the mesmer enough time to move. To make the effect noticeable/useful, but not long enough to make the effect "OP", of course.
  • The Sequence of the Effect: It would go Something like this - The Mesmer... Removes Reveal -> Stealth's (1/2 - 1 Sec) -> Reveal's itself (1/2 -1 Sec) -> Removes Reveal -> Stealth's (again for 1/2 - 1 Sec) ->... etc. for the duration of it's effect ultimately ending in a Finale Stealth for the same as the previous duration's.
  • Explaining the Sequence of the effect: The effect should give the Illusion... that the Mesmer is skipping from one frame a whole other frame. That being said, it gives the Mesmer the opportunity to loose enemy targeting... Through the stealth applied and is done in such a way where the feeling of breaking target is more useful... since stealth already does that. Also is done in such a way to where the Mesmer isn't directly granted a long duration of stealth. So you can still overall follow where the mesmer is going... It will Just look like the Mesmer is moving Frame to Frame in game... Image after Image...
  • Preferably have the effect shared with your illusions. It would give the Mesmer more opportunity to mix themselves up among their Illusions. Depending on how you play it.

Lastly, I just think that it would look cool... I believe it really fits into what the Mesmer is about at the end of the day

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I think it would be a programming nightmare. Also, if it actually uses stealth, does PU affect it?

That aside, I think it would be impossible to balance. If the duration isn't long enough, it would be trivial to follow the mesmer. If it is too long, it would be trivial for the mesmer to setup a burst "from stealth", despite our already easy access to stealth.

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@"OriOri.8724" said:I think it would be a programming nightmare. Also, if it actually uses stealth, does PU affect it?

That aside, I think it would be impossible to balance. If the duration isn't long enough, it would be trivial to follow the mesmer. If it is too long, it would be trivial for the mesmer to setup a burst "from stealth", despite our already easy access to stealth.

It should not be much of a nightmare at all to program tbh. As the mechanics are already in game (Reveal, Stealth, Reveal Removal). Also, they are already used in relation to one another in game. I'm just asking for it to be ordered together in the Sequence mentioned before. To give the Illusion that the Mesmer is moving from frame to a later frame and so forth. Until the effect ends.

Also, it should not be impossible to balance at all. Certain Professions have the capability to remove stealth for a reason themselves. However, the effect is one that does that itself... So you do not need to worry about actually removing the Mesmer from the stealth.

  • Example: If I'm under the effect on my Mesmer... It would be pointless to do say, torch#4 overall for the stealth aspect of that particular skill... because under the effect, I would get removed from stealth anyways due to the Sequence in which the Reveal(s) would take place. Basically wasting torch 4 if I do not at least get the burn off from it. So it should add more skillful play if anything around stealth.

The appropriate duration can be found through testing like every other skill or ability in the game. So I rather not go too far into this... because that should just be a given, but yes as with anything else; they should strive for an appropriate duration.

The Idea is to use stealth as "a" part of a way of creating the Illusion of moving from frame to another frame. Not to use stealth for stealth in that of itself... I would had not added the reveals to the sequence if that were the case haha. It is however used so that your opponent can still overall follow you. As the times between the stealth and reveals are very short between one another... Only now they have a harder time directly targeting you overall for the duration of the effect because of you appearingin and out stealth. Each for a very brief amount of time.

  • Example: If I take a movie and play it for you... Every action would generally transition smoothly between every other corresponding action. However, If I take 1 piece of that film strip (30 Frames) from the very same movie. Then I cut out say maybe 15 total Frames between that 1 strip. Then discard those 15 frames somewhere. Then put what remains back together in the best original order possible and play that part for you... You would notice those parts start to skip from 1 starting frame to a whole other frame all together.That's basically the effect I'm looking for on the Mesmer. Because I think it would look cool and be a unique/more helpful way of breaking target... and as I said before, perhaps even mixing yourself up among your illusions, if your illusions could share the effect with you.

Now I can answer your PU question, I'm glad you asked btw...The answer overall all is NO... PU should not effect it overall initially because of the sequence of reveals taking place. As their timing is a constant, so you would get cut out of any extra stealth given to you such as PU under the effect. However, I did say the sequence would end with a Finale Stealth... So in that Case it "could" effect that last stealth given, but the boost would be so small as the duration of the stealth given (in intervals) only would range from (1/2 - 1 Sec) originally. To a maximum of 1 1/2 a Sec because of PU.

  • Though, the reason I say "could" is because it would depend how the effect is implemented. They could make the effect a thing of it's own nature and not actually related to the skill even if the skill is what caused it in the first place.
  • The second thing, is if they just added a Reveal to the end of the Sequence instead of the Finale Stealth. It would crush any benefit of extra stealth from PU. Even if it was small...
  • Lastly, The Mesmer could still get boons just from entering stealth. If, they allow PU to affect the effect given... I would be fine with it personally though, because the boons are random and fairly short in duration...

Thanks for the Reply :)

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