Potential fix for mirrors (which we all agree is an awful mechanic)

[Carighan.6758]

@Deifact.3095 said:I'm suprised there isn't more interesting traits for mirrors... Like why not have a projectile reflect trait? They are mirrors afterall! Or a trait/skill that will make the mirage immune to damage but destroy a mirror with each block. Just something to make it feel like the mirrors are actually a core part of the spec not just some side thought...

You'd think with the third selection of traits being all about enhancing Mirage Cloak, the first or second would be all about spawning Mirrors, yeah?

Could go even further:

• First tier is a choice of spawning more mirrors. On illusions being destroyed (in whichever way, shatter or damage!), as a by-product of attacking with an axe, when using a utility/healing/elite which displaces you (Blink, Portal, Jaunt, etc).
• Second tier is a choice of secondary mirror effects. Further on-trigger damage/conditions, reflect projectiles, also spawn a clone when triggered.
• Third tier stays a choice of enhanced cloak effects.

[Cantatus.4065]

@zealex.9410 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@Jables.4659 said:So at the moment we have these new skills that leave behind a mirror on the ground for like 4 seconds. If you walk to and touch this mirror, it shatters giving you mirage cloak and giving weakness to nearby enemies. Take a skill like "Sand Through Glass". You evade backwards and leave behind a mirror at the initial location. So its a movement utility that then requires you to walk back to where you initially were to get the full effect? Its absolutely bonkers in design. So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

How would that work with having lots of mirrors around the place lets say from traited f4.

Or if you want to play it more stategically, w8ing on those mirrors while biting your chances.

I wish we could do that better. I'd like if I could use mirrors more strategically, but they last for such a short time that I often feel like if I don't get them as soon as they appear they'll go to waste.

[Warlyx.6732]

if Anet adds F5 im afraid of the huge CD >.<

[zealex.9410]

@Cantatus.4065 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@Jables.4659 said:So at the moment we have these new skills that leave behind a mirror on the ground for like 4 seconds. If you walk to and touch this mirror, it shatters giving you mirage cloak and giving weakness to nearby enemies. Take a skill like "Sand Through Glass". You evade backwards and leave behind a mirror at the initial location. So its a movement utility that then requires you to walk back to where you initially were to get the full effect? Its absolutely bonkers in design. So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

How would that work with having lots of mirrors around the place lets say from traited f4.

Or if you want to play it more stategically, w8ing on those mirrors while biting your chances.

I wish we could do that better. I'd like if I could use mirrors more strategically, but they last for such a short time that I often feel like if I don't get them as soon as they appear they'll go to waste.

15 seconds traited is short eh? How much would you like? A minute?

[FaboBabo.3581]

@zealex.9410 said:

@Cantatus.4065 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@Jables.4659 said:So at the moment we have these new skills that leave behind a mirror on the ground for like 4 seconds. If you walk to and touch this mirror, it shatters giving you mirage cloak and giving weakness to nearby enemies. Take a skill like "Sand Through Glass". You evade backwards and leave behind a mirror at the initial location. So its a movement utility that then requires you to walk back to where you initially were to get the full effect? Its absolutely bonkers in design. So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

How would that work with having lots of mirrors around the place lets say from traited f4.

Or if you want to play it more stategically, w8ing on those mirrors while biting your chances.

I wish we could do that better. I'd like if I could use mirrors more strategically, but they last for such a short time that I often feel like if I don't get them as soon as they appear they'll go to waste.

15 seconds traited is short eh? How much would you like? A minute?

Only those created from F4 last 15 seconds, all others are still 8 seconds.The trait synergy ! (Flat out BS)

[extremexhero.9178]

@zealex.9410 said:Necro is bugged and his aoes dont shoot u from afar ir come after u with a leap daze. Or load u with vuln from afar. Clones spowning and doing ambush from the mirrors can do all that.What I am saying is that to avoid a necro you don't go onto his aoes just like you would try to avoid the mirrors, just like you want to dodge warriors big attacks. You can't get mirrors often so I don't see a problem with this. The clones only spawn if the enemy touches them, they don't move and are easy to avoid, it would be difficult to make you move into them in the first place.

[zealex.9410]

@FaboBabo.3581 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@Cantatus.4065 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@Jables.4659 said:So at the moment we have these new skills that leave behind a mirror on the ground for like 4 seconds. If you walk to and touch this mirror, it shatters giving you mirage cloak and giving weakness to nearby enemies. Take a skill like "Sand Through Glass". You evade backwards and leave behind a mirror at the initial location. So its a movement utility that then requires you to walk back to where you initially were to get the full effect? Its absolutely bonkers in design. So, how do we fix this? Its actually really simple and I have no idea why Anet didn't think about this from the start. Mirage has no f5 ability, and people were disappointed by that. So, what I suggest is that for every skill that "leaves behind a mirror", you would instead "Gain access to Mirror Shatter", a new f5 ability that does the exact same thing as touching a mirror. F5 Shatter Mirror: Shatter your mirror to gain mirage cloak and give weakness to nearby enemies. Opinions?

How would that work with having lots of mirrors around the place lets say from traited f4.

Or if you want to play it more stategically, w8ing on those mirrors while biting your chances.

I wish we could do that better. I'd like if I could use mirrors more strategically, but they last for such a short time that I often feel like if I don't get them as soon as they appear they'll go to waste.

15 seconds traited is short eh? How much would you like? A minute?

Only those created from F4 last 15 seconds, all others are still 8 seconds.The trait synergy ! (Flat out BS)

Ok that is flat out bs lul.

[Mina Ion.7852]

Honestly, I really dislike mirage mirrors and feel all the skills that spawn mirage mirrors should just give you mirage cloak straight up rather than force you to touch those mirrors. My own Mirage PVE build has no mirage mirrors whatsoever.

[Ildrid Ildhjertet.2489]

Some nice ideas here, I want to add my own.

F5 - Draw Mirrors. Draw your active mirrors to you. The first mirror give Mirage Cloak. If you have Mirage Cloak the additional Mirrors give additional effects. Hitting a Mirror while under Mirror Cloak adds 5 stacks of might, 2nd Mirror adds quickness, eventual 3rd mirror adds alacrity. If the Mirror(s) hits an opponent before the mesmer they break and apply conditions - 1st Mirror Bleeding, 2nd Mirror Torment, 3rd Mirror confusion. 20 Second Cooldown. Alternatively apply weak cc's, like 1/4s daze or whatever, per mirror.

Edit: No shatter effect on F5, your illusions/phantasms stay alive

[Agent Noun.7350]

@Levetty.1279 said:The easiest way is give mirage a third dodge and have the mirrors restore endurance.

I like this suggestion, personally. It's the easiest one to understand and it's consistent with the other elite spec with special dodge mechanics (Daredevil). It also preserves what Mirage Mirrors currently do, which is enable more evasion if you can position yourself to take advantage of it.

[Ithilwen.1529]

How about: Mirrors untarget you and retarget on any existing clones. This is on theme for mental magic and "smoke and mirrors" and would also be useful.

[Miroe.2054]

I'm gonna re-post this here because I still think it would be a good idea.

5th Class ability

Assemble Crystals CD: 90sCreate a Mirrage Mirror in a random position within a range of 600

(Whenever you have a Mirage Mirror active the ability transforms into the next ability, no matter whether it is on cooldown or not.)

Mirror Cloak CD: 1sConsume the Mirage mirror closest to you to grant yourself Mirage Cloak for 1s

(Also whenever you get too far away from a mirage Mirror, it despawns similar to how clones do. Depending on how far that distance is, this mechanic could still serve as an indicator for enemies to where the real Mirage is.)

[Agent Noun.7350]

If Mirage Mirrors shattered like illusions that'd be really cool. You could functionally have more than three illusions shattering at once if your target was close to one of your mirrors, and that would be sweet.

We'd probably need a hard cap on how long Distortion can last, though, because having like a six- or seven-second Distortion would be stupid. It lasts as long as it needs to already.

[TheVindelator.8239]

My answer:Attempting to dodge shatters a mirror (located anywhere) and doesn't come endurance.

[Tseison.4659]

I feel Mirrors should deal a lot of damage and cause weakness to an enemy who runs through it and automatically grant the Mesmer mirage cloak OR generate a clone.

[Cantatus.4065]

The issue I see with that is mirage cloak triggering ambushes. Having it happen on an enemy walking through mirrors makes it unpredictable and takes some control out of our hands. This could be especially annoying with sword ambush and something that could even potentially be used against us in PvP. Might also might not be great with scepter's channel time and staff's aim requirement.

[Coulter.2315]

They should remove a boon at least.

[flog.3485]

If they intend a mesmer player to chase and shatter a mirror, at least it would be great to have a damage boost when shattering it (personal DPS of 5% that last for 5s that you can stack, kind of like mantra traits before)

[bart.3687]

Mirrors are completely awful as a mechanic, but if Anet really wants them to stay, we should be given more options of generating them. I'd also like them to be invisible to foes, because right now they basically say "look, the Mirage is likely to come here to grab me, lay down your aoes!"

EDIT: Someone posted an idea earlier in this thread that Mirrors should shatter when you use your F skills. I'd be happy with it, but still, there are too few skills/traits/whatever that create them. My build, for example, doesn't have a single way of making the mirrors. It's silly.

[Curunen.8729]

Crystal Sands is the only "fun" mirror generating skill. Just needs a damage buff for the shards and it'll be decent. Solid on open world currently anyway.

Sand through glass is a mess - at the very least this ought to be 10-15s cooldown similar to Withdraw or Bandit's Defence - makes up for lack of backwards dodge, allows reasonable stunbreak access if not traiting Elusive Mind, and more frequent mirror access to jaunt back onto.

False Oasis is just... I'm fed up with overusing this word but... it's clunky.

Mirrors are really beautiful and fun to use with IH clone ambush spam builds. But they really ought to be more accessible and have additional effects.

For example Mirage Advance should spawn a mirror at the initial location - so when you port back you break the mirror. Jaunt could leave mirrors behind at the initial location. Deserted Distortion is a stupid trait tbh - they should just make it so every Phantasm that's shattered has a 100% chance of turning into a mirror. If IH is moved to minor there ought to be a new GM major trait that directly enhances mirrors.