"How would you create Mirage?"

[Dondagora.9645]

Well, how would you? This is just a game to see whether or not we could do better than the Mirage created by the Dev team. Now, I'm not saying our half-hour of thought can compare to the work that game developers put in, but... haven't you thought "if I was a dev, I'd do this differently"? Well, here's your chance to throw your ideas into the void that is this forum!

Keep in mind, this is focused on what you'd do with the concept of "Mirage" and not just any Elite Spec that came into your head. Try to think from a balance perspective as well, though numbers are adjustable, but fundamental flaws are not (see Mirage Mirrors).

And, for inspiration, from the Wikipedia page for "Mirage":

A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirari, meaning "to look at, to wonder at". This is the same root as for "mirror" and "to admire".

Mirages can be categorized as "inferior" (meaning lower), "superior" (meaning higher) and "Fata Morgana", one kind of superior mirage consisting of a series of unusually elaborate, vertically stacked images, which form one rapidly changing mirage.

In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical phenomenon that can be captured on camera, since light rays are actually refracted to form the false image at the observer's location. What the image appears to represent, however, is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind. For example, inferior images on land are very easily mistaken for the reflections from a small body of water.

[Esplen.3940]

To be fair, I don't think definitions mean much in this game as Aurora consists of orbs that circulate overhead.

[Incognito.3529]

To be honest, I'd rather make Eldritch based elite spec, limitless potential.

Mirage...

General idea: Avoiding damage (especially flawless) should be more rewarding in terms of DPS. Provide new set of F skills and energy management.

1) Fancy looking dodge, character's body become blurred between initial and finish position. (Can be traited, so enemy will lose his targeting, ICD included).

2) Dagger mainhand.

3) Efficient dodging, specific skills and other damage negation actions (distortion, blur, aegis) increase your special resource - Mirage Mass. The more MM you have, the more new "F" effects you can place on battlefield. Mind Wrack becoming a Whirling Glass Dervish (power damage + whirl finisher), Cry of Frustration will become a poison/confusion/cripple DoT.

4) Elite Phantasm.. I know I ask too much but.. doppelganger?

It should be possible to get initial burst of MM via utility skill(s) in order to have decent options for short fights in open world/WvW.

False Oasis should be strong elite/utility support skill, while Jaunt will be healing skill (weak, unless you have conditions on you) but allow you to blink around.

[Velektrian.5491]

F1 Ambush. Effectively making IH baseline.

F2 Illusionary Ambush.

F3 Stun then Launch an Ambush

F4 Distorted Desert.

Each F skill uses a secondary Cost, tied to Mirage Cloak. When you gain Mirage Cloak you gain a Charge of Ambush Max 3 Charges. UI located above the dodge similar to Deadeye.

Phantasms Attack once then despawn and Spawn a clone. (Possibly as a trait, replacing DD)

Adjust all Ambushes to be stronger, Clone Power on Ambushes increased to Phantasm Levels.

[Bod.8261]

I would have used to opportunity to get rid of the biggest bore to mesmer pve: Phantasms.Mesmer in PvE for a large part is "Summon 3 phantasms and then avoid using half your skills as they would replace your phantasm with a clone, create an unwanted phantasm or outright destroy all of them for minimal gain."

With that in mind, here is my idea of Mirage 2.0:

Minor Traits (All of these):Mirage Pledge: You can no longer generate phantasms, whenever you would, summon a clone instead. Your maximum endurance threshold is encreased by 50%. You can now use Deception skills.Mirror Master: Summoning a clone gives you 15 seconds of "Mirror Master" which increases your power and condition damage while decreasing the damage you receive by 2% each. Stacks up to 5 times.Speed of Sand: When you start moving, your movement speed will gradually increase over 10 seconds up to 25%. Loose this bonus when you stand still for more than 1 second. Shattering grants Vigor.

Major Adept Traits (Choose one):Army of One: Increases the maximum number of clones to 5.Unstable Images: When a clone is destroyed by anything other than shattering, it will create an unstable explosion. (Effect is equal to a 1 illusion mind wrack with an additional stack of confusion thrown in. Counts as a shatter for other traits.)Perfect Illusion: Your clones have increased health, receive far less area-of-effect damage and copy all your boons and other effects. They will also weapon swap when you do and will always mirror your attack speed.

Major Master Traits (Choose one):Powerful Clones: Your clones deal increased damage scaling with your power and ferocity. They will be affacted by all phantasm-specific traits.Mirrored Axes: Reduce recharge of Axe skills by 20% and increases condition damage by 3% for every condition the enemy has.Slippery Deception: Reduce recharge of Deception skills by 20% and leave a clone behind when using a deception skill.

Major Grandmaster (Choose one):Phantasmal Embrace: When using a phantasm skill, you and all clones will perform the phantasms effect once. Clones will deal 33% of the damage.Mirage Cloak: Instead of dodging, you gain Mirage Cloak, evading in place. For up to 3 seconds you can use an Ambush skill (F5), which is a high damage / high utility skill dependent of the weapon. Clones will mirror both the evade and the ambush, but deal no damage.Jaunt: You can no longer dodge. Instead you gain access to Jaunt (F5) which costs an equal amount of endurance. Jaunt is a 600 range teleport that removes all movement impairing effects and decreases the cooldown of all shatter skills by 3 seconds.

Obviously the deception skills would need a redesign, getting rid of the terrible mirror mechanic, and we need a different elite.

[bart.3687]

@Bod.8261 said:I would have used to opportunity to get rid of the biggest bore to mesmer pve: Phantasms.Mesmer in PvE for a large part is "Summon 3 phantasms and then avoid using half your skills as they would replace your phantasm with a clone, create an unwanted phantasm or outright destroy all of them for minimal gain."

With that in mind, here is my idea of Mirage 2.0:

Minor Traits (All of these):Mirage Pledge: You can no longer generate phantasms, whenever you would, summon a clone instead. Your maximum endurance threshold is encreased by 50%. You can now use Deception skills.Mirror Master: Summoning a clone gives you 15 seconds of "Mirror Master" which increases your power and condition damage while decreasing the damage you receive by 2% each. Stacks up to 5 times.Speed of Sand: When you start moving, your movement speed will gradually increase over 10 seconds up to 25%. Loose this bonus when you stand still for more than 1 second. Shattering grants Vigor.

Major Adept Traits (Choose one):Army of One: Increases the maximum number of clones to 5.Unstable Images: When a clone is destroyed by anything other than shattering, it will create an unstable explosion. (Effect is equal to a 1 illusion mind wrack with an additional stack of confusion thrown in. Counts as a shatter for other traits.)Perfect Illusion: Your clones have increased health, receive far less area-of-effect damage and copy all your boons and other effects. They will also weapon swap when you do and will always mirror your attack speed.

Major Master Traits (Choose one):Powerful Clones: Your clones deal increased damage scaling with your power and ferocity. They will be affacted by all phantasm-specific traits.Mirrored Axes: Reduce recharge of Axe skills by 20% and increases condition damage by 3% for every condition the enemy has.Slippery Deception: Reduce recharge of Deception skills by 20% and leave a clone behind when using a deception skill.

Major Grandmaster (Choose one):Phantasmal Embrace: When using a phantasm skill, you and all clones will perform the phantasms effect once. Clones will deal 33% of the damage.Mirage Cloak: Instead of dodging, you gain Mirage Cloak, evading in place. For up to 3 seconds you can use an Ambush skill (F5), which is a high damage / high utility skill dependent of the weapon. Clones will mirror both the evade and the ambush, but deal no damage.Jaunt: You can no longer dodge. Instead you gain access to Jaunt (F5) which costs an equal amount of endurance. Jaunt is a 600 range teleport that removes all movement impairing effects and decreases the cooldown of all shatter skills by 3 seconds.

Obviously the deception skills would need a redesign, getting rid of the terrible mirror mechanic, and we need a different elite.

Congratulations, you've just created a far more interesting elite spec than Anet did :cookie:Seriously, i'd love to play it. The only thing I dislike is the third GM: it feels clunky. The rest looks great imo.

[Dondagora.9645]

Without getting into utility skills or weapon skills, here's what I think would have made a cool Mirage trait line:

Minors:

• Trait that makes you a Mirage. Gain “Mirage Ambush” as an F5
• Evading an attack with Mirage Cloak refunds some of your Endurance (25)
• Infinite Horizon

Adept:

• Clones have Retaliation.
• Apply 1 stack of Confusion to enemies you evade. (0.5 iCD on enemy)
• Gain Mirage Cloak after using Deception skills. Cooldown Reduction of Deception Skills.

Master:

• When a clone dies, it becomes a Mirage Mirror. After 5 seconds, a Mirage Mirror spawns a clone. Mirage Mirrors will break if an enemy moves through it, causing weakness and a low amount of damage.
• Dodging will teleport you [Range 300] in whatever direction you’re moving. Acts as a Leap.
• Mirage Cloak is replaced by Distortion. Distortion will now carry all the properties of Mirage Cloak.

Grandmaster:

• When Clones die, they shatter with a Lesser Cry of Frustration.
• Teleporting causes Confusion in an area around you. [2 Confusion]
• Mirage Cloak increases your Condition Duration and Power for a 1.5 second duration.

I split the line into three main parts: Clones, Evasion, and Ambush. Clones, obviously, deals in traiting Clones to be more punishing to kill, making AoE more dangerous against a Mirage and, thus, give Clones more survivability. Evasion line focuses more on making Mirage Cloak more powerful and confusing to play against, as well as open synergy with the rest of the Mesmer traits by having a reward on evasion, ondoing the loss of mobility, and also making use of our wide array of blinks. Ambush is more open to various uses, but mostly focuses on giving the Mirage more access to Mirage Cloak and making our attacks in Mirage Cloak more powerful.

As for the Minor Traits, you'll see that I made Mirage Ambush an F5, since it seems pretty central to the Mirage's identity, though I wouldn't mind keeping it a Utility. Endurance on Evasion via Mirage Cloak is essentially a clever way of giving us a conditional third dodge, and maybe more depending on how you trait everything. This second one is much more dangerous, as it could create a Mirage with perms-distortion when coupled with the Master trait (the secret being, if you don't attack the Mirage for a bit, it will stop being able to Distort so much), so perhaps it'd need an iCD. And then I made Infinite Horizon baseline, since that seems also central to the Mirage themed.

I kinda threw a lot in here, so it may be OP in this iteration, but hopefully you can appreciate the vision of it.

[Artyport.2084]

@bart.3687 said:

@Bod.8261 said:I would have used to opportunity to get rid of the biggest bore to mesmer pve: Phantasms.Mesmer in PvE for a large part is "Summon 3 phantasms and then avoid using half your skills as they would replace your phantasm with a clone, create an unwanted phantasm or outright destroy all of them for minimal gain."

With that in mind, here is my idea of Mirage 2.0:

Minor Traits (All of these):

Mirage Pledge: You can no longer generate phantasms, whenever you would, summon a clone instead. Your maximum endurance threshold is encreased by 50%. You can now use Deception skills.Mirror Master: Summoning a clone gives you 15 seconds of "Mirror Master" which increases your power and condition damage while decreasing the damage you receive by 2% each. Stacks up to 5 times.Speed of Sand: When you start moving, your movement speed will gradually increase over 10 seconds up to 25%. Loose this bonus when you stand still for more than 1 second. Shattering grants Vigor.

Major Adept Traits (Choose one):

Army of One: Increases the maximum number of clones to 5.Unstable Images: When a clone is destroyed by anything other than shattering, it will create an unstable explosion. (Effect is equal to a 1 illusion mind wrack with an additional stack of confusion thrown in. Counts as a shatter for other traits.)Perfect Illusion: Your clones have increased health, receive far less area-of-effect damage and copy all your boons and other effects. They will also weapon swap when you do and will always mirror your attack speed.

Major Master Traits (Choose one):

Powerful Clones: Your clones deal increased damage scaling with your power and ferocity. They will be affacted by all phantasm-specific traits.Mirrored Axes: Reduce recharge of Axe skills by 20% and increases condition damage by 3% for every condition the enemy has.Slippery Deception: Reduce recharge of Deception skills by 20% and leave a clone behind when using a deception skill.

Major Grandmaster (Choose one):

Phantasmal Embrace: When using a phantasm skill, you and all clones will perform the phantasms effect once. Clones will deal 33% of the damage.Mirage Cloak: Instead of dodging, you gain Mirage Cloak, evading in place. For up to 3 seconds you can use an Ambush skill (F5), which is a high damage / high utility skill dependent of the weapon. Clones will mirror both the evade and the ambush, but deal no damage.Jaunt: You can no longer dodge. Instead you gain access to Jaunt (F5) which costs an equal amount of endurance. Jaunt is a 600 range teleport that removes all movement impairing effects and decreases the cooldown of all shatter skills by 3 seconds.

Obviously the deception skills would need a redesign, getting rid of the terrible mirror mechanic, and we need a different elite.

Congratulations, you've just created a far more interesting elite spec than Anet did :cookie:Seriously, i'd love to play it. The only thing I dislike is the third GM: it feels clunky. The rest looks great imo.

Plz ANET GET RID OF THEM PHANTASMS!!!!I don't want them.Give me actual skills.

[Velektrian.5491]

@Dondagora.9645 said:Without getting into utility skills or weapon skills, here's what I think would have made a cool Mirage trait line:

Minors:

• Trait that makes you a Mirage. Gain “Mirage Ambush” as an F5
• Evading an attack with Mirage Cloak refunds some of your Endurance (25)
• Infinite Horizon

Adept:

• Clones have Retaliation.
• Apply 1 stack of Confusion to enemies you evade. (0.5 iCD on enemy)
• Gain Mirage Cloak after using Deception skills. Cooldown Reduction of Deception Skills.

Master:

• When a clone dies, it becomes a Mirage Mirror. After 5 seconds, a Mirage Mirror spawns a clone. Mirage Mirrors will break if an enemy moves through it, causing weakness and a low amount of damage.
• Dodging will teleport you [Range 300] in whatever direction you’re moving. Acts as a Leap.
• Mirage Cloak is replaced by Distortion. Distortion will now carry all the properties of Mirage Cloak.

Grandmaster:

• When Clones die, they shatter with a Lesser Cry of Frustration.
• Teleporting causes Confusion in an area around you. [2 Confusion]
• Mirage Cloak increases your Condition Duration and Power for a 1.5 second duration.

I split the line into three main parts: Clones, Evasion, and Ambush. Clones, obviously, deals in traiting Clones to be more punishing to kill, making AoE more dangerous against a Mirage and, thus, give Clones more survivability. Evasion line focuses more on making Mirage Cloak more powerful and confusing to play against, as well as open synergy with the rest of the Mesmer traits by having a reward on evasion, ondoing the loss of mobility, and also making use of our wide array of blinks. Ambush is more open to various uses, but mostly focuses on giving the Mirage more access to Mirage Cloak and making our attacks in Mirage Cloak more powerful.

As for the Minor Traits, you'll see that I made Mirage Ambush an F5, since it seems pretty central to the Mirage's identity, though I wouldn't mind keeping it a Utility. Endurance on Evasion via Mirage Cloak is essentially a clever way of giving us a conditional third dodge, and maybe more depending on how you trait everything. This second one is much more dangerous, as it could create a Mirage with perms-distortion when coupled with the Master trait (the secret being, if you don't attack the Mirage for a bit, it will stop being able to Distort so much), so perhaps it'd need an iCD. And then I made Infinite Horizon baseline, since that seems also central to the Mirage themed.

I kinda threw a lot in here, so it may be OP in this iteration, but hopefully you can appreciate the vision of it.

i'll just use a list for each trait

1. I don't understand everyones fascination with adding an F5, it would just make it clunky. changing all the F skills would make more sense, then Shatter Traits could proc F Ambush skills
2. I like this trait, definitely need Endurance regain for Mirage
3. as it should have been
4. kind of crappy, needs more
5. Nice
6. should be baseline.
7. not bad, Mirage Mirror should apply a damaging condition and medium damage for the risk you take
8. Should be Baseline (no directions pressed no blink, blink with and movement pressed)
9. Distortion would suck for sPvP as that prevents Capping. a high evade Mirage would never cap a point. Anet would never allow one class to cap through invuln either.
10. like it, Mirage should have something to prevent mindlessly cleaving down clones
11. like it
12. 1.5 second duration sucks balls, Mesmer has a enough shitty traits with short duration buffs.

A few good ideas, like endurance regen, stopping people from mindlessly cleaving clones, blink on dodge, damage buff. Only real problem with the whole thing is, you designed more of a Tank than a DPS and Mirage is meant to be for DPS. A couple more Damage Mods, increased duration on those mods and it should be good.