Some mirage redesign suggestions

[Curunen.8729]

Everyone's going to have a different view on this but I felt it worth writing something that may help to provide mirage with a bit of choice as well as balance. I'm expecting to have not thought about many things, so there are likely problems I haven't considered yet - so for that reason I'm only like 50/50 about any of these suggestions and there's probably better ideas out there. But anyway so far here are a few things that could be beneficial.

Mechanic Change:Mirage Dodge baseline can no longer be used when stunned/immobilised etc.

Skill Change:Jaunt spawns a Mirage Mirror at the previous location (if you Jaunt on the spot you immediately break the mirror for Mirage Cloak. Intended for synergy with new grandmaster major trait)

Trait Changes:1, Speed Of Sand merged with Adept Minor trait.

2, Infinite Horizon moved to Grandmaster Minor position (Infinite Horizon is such a game changing trait that it makes sense both thematically and for gameplay, for the whole Mirage spec to be designed around it as a minor trait. Hopefully this will also allow for easier balance of ambush attacks)

3, Renewing Oasis changed to "gain regen and remove one condition whenever you dodge" (only dodge, not all mirage cloak, so not Mirrors or Illusionary Ambush)

4, Delete all three current Grandmaster Major traits and replace them with:Top. Hall of Mirrors - breaking a Mirage Mirror gives aoe Blur (1 second, up to 5 allies) and aoe Daze (2s, up to 5 enemies) in a 240 radius, prioritising players (Mirage Mirror trait focusing on team support and control. Allies would get the Blur, the player gets normal Mirage Cloak. This trait I'm most conflicted on - could be far too powerful given how they've nerfed things like Well of Precognition and Inspiring Distortion in the past. Whatever the case it is intended to be a trait focused on the Mirror mechanic. Maybe there need to be more sources of Mirrors for this to be properly viable, but the change to Jaunt should help a bit)

Middle. Elusive Mind - You can now dodge when stunned/immobilised etc (simply restores current base mirage dodge functionality, does not break hard or soft cc)

Bottom. The Real Mirage - Clone ambushes now have the same effectiveness as the player's ambush (damage, duration etc. Yes this is disgustingly powerful without changes, but given IH is a minor trait the entire set of ambushes can be rebalanced around this - eg the player's ambush damage could be reduced and spread around clones similar to how the Greatsword trait reduced individual iZerker damage but spawns two of them. Many options, but overall it's meant to be a damage increase that puts clones on the level of the player - maybe offloading some of the current damage/cc from IH onto this)

The idea of these grandmaster major traits is a choice between team support/control (the Mirror trait), defence/survivability (simplified Elusive Mind) and damage (the clone buffing trait), hopefully giving reasons to use any of these traits depending on the content/situation/build/allies etc such that there isn't a clear cut choice for any one of them.

Anyway as said at the top, I'm only 50/50 regarding these and there's many other possibilities including leaving most things as they currently are. :)

[Allarius.5670]

Initial reaction.

Daze on Hall of Mirrors is unacceptable. Recall Dragon Hunter trap daze spam, now add more of it, now combine it with all the various interrupt traits available to Mesmer. This would not be healthy.

The Real Mirage suffers the same problem outlined to justify the move of Infinite Horizon to the grandmaster minor slot.

Otherwise, fun stuff!

[Curunen.8729]

@Allarius.5670 said:Initial reaction.

Daze on Hall of Mirrors is unacceptable. Recall Dragon Hunter trap daze spam, now add more of it, now combine it with all the various interrupt traits available to Mesmer. This would not be healthy.

The Real Mirage suffers the same problem outlined to justify the move of Infinite Horizon to the grandmaster minor slot.

Otherwise, fun stuff!

Thanks, yeah I was worried there could be problems with these two. Difficult when trying to make something compete with/worth taking over the new EM listed above and not have them be completely overpowered.

Maybe it could be 2s Immobilise on Hall of Mirrors instead of Daze?

I think with The Real Mirage it would heavily hinge on a total rebalance of all ambushes for baseline IH - eg removing cc from clones. Also if it was a case where instead of clones being buffed up to 100% player ambush, the player ambush could be diminished to say 75% damage/condiduration and clones brought up to this. So overall the player ambush would be slightly weaker on its own, but all clone ambushes would be equal to it in effect.