Delofasht.4231

Honestly, I expected the changes to be much worse than what we have seen previewed in this patch. Try setting your expectations to “They are going to delete Mesmer”, and then basically any change is pretty much a free pass to change your build and keep winning. I have to do it every few months myself.

I usually avoid these forums, because people tend to feel they are always right and anyone who disagrees with them is wrong, but I really did want to help the devs with some input that is less extreme. I do not want nerfs, but most of the changes in this patch will be more like adjustments to playstyle, disruptive maybe, but maybe Chrono will feel less clunky... maybe the CD on C/S will not be as long as it is now.

From what I have seen in other games, more frequent balance patches results in a more balanced game and content introductions come with big patches. Big balance patches are usually a big mistake, where things can get pretty messed up, changes end up being too big or too small. Better to work fast and small, with the ability to tweak it further, than large and dramatic.

Just like DPS, small chunks happening frequently result in less variance over a shorter duration and hit the end goal or mark more efficiently. A big change could nail the mark outright, but more often will overshoot or undershoot by a large margin.

Well, they certainly have set an expectation of not changing things in a timely fashion. A lot of the most recent changes look like variations on our requests of recent though, people asked for Chrono to be altered so they wouldn't just be Core++, likewise they suggested Dune Cloak for Mirage be changed... both things have happened in the last 3 months. This is an unprecedented change in development response, we have never seen suggestions be posted and go through in the same balance patch sequence like this. Either they have figured out what they need to do, or they read the response on the boards that resonated with their design philosophy well enough to try implementation.

Should we continue to provide feedback, we may see another wave of changes in the not so distant future. One such proposition was making the Ambushes on Mirage be linked to the Shatters (replacing them), this is a pretty good idea actually. Core and Chrono are much more focused on shattering in general, and approach it in different ways, it would be quite interesting to have an elite spec that is focused on keeping clones and illusions around while being deceptive and surviving (how they seem to have thought Mirage should be anyhow).

What is absolutely staggering to me is that many of the players complaining here are also the ones that wanted to see gameplay changes to the Chrono elite specialization. The changes to Chrono make the gameplay different, significantly so, from Core. By decoupling the gameplay from Core and Chrono, many of the shatters of core can be buffed directly without becoming broken by Chrono shatters. They are likely to do a set of renaming for Mirage shatters with subtly different functions as well, to make it so they can directly buff or nerf each version of Mesmer without negatively impacting others. This would reduce the number of potential changes with each patch and allow them to focus their efforts.

Example: Chrono is suffering, buff their shatters, instead of Mesmer traitlines, no longer risks breaking Core or Mirage.

Another potential option is that of making skills that produce clones now work outside of combat, so we could actually start combat with clones, or generate them for various shatters without requiring a target (this is wishful thinking I am afraid... but possible).

Good players will adapt, poor ones will cry (until a new popular build is found that is easy to play and strong).

> @"Lincolnbeard.1735" said:

> Strafing will still cover less distance than a regular dodge. Plus what Leonidrex said.

> So it is more of a nerf than a buff.

> @"Leonidrex.5649" said:

>

> but when you get slowed/chilled and you use mirage cloak, you are still slowed/chilled so you cant leave aoe. might be a pain against scourge

Alright, just to be clear here, Strafing under the effects of Mirage Cloak after the patch will cover more distance than it currently does, so in that respect it is a buff. As has been noted, it is more of a lateral shift in function and can only benefit anyone has access to Superspeed from other sources (where overwriting with Mirage Cloak results in a loss of Superspeed duration). If you are always only ever running forward under Mirage Cloak, then you may notice this as a nerf, but, if you have ever, for any reason, needed to strafe while it is active, then you will actually be benefiting from the change.

In response to being chilled or crippled, previously, we would take the full duration of an AoE while strafing under a Mirage Cloak, now we will take 2 ticks. Moving forward, while under the effects of Mirage Cloak will now result in also taking 2 ticks. Before the change you had 0 ticks in one direction and full ticks in any other. This limited the functionality of Mirage Cloak, making forward the only acceptable motion to take with it active. The change makes all directions except back much more consistent. So, one again, the change is only a benefit unless you ALWAYS ran forward when facing those enemies. I am betting most players strafed so they could cast some weapon skills like Magic Bullet and Confusing Images... while under a Mirage Cloak, in combat, while enemies were dropping AoE.

Is it a buff? Kind of. Is it a nerf? Kind of. So I guess it's really more of a lateral shift.

IP obsession is what lead to it being core anyhow, it was not the only viable build, just by far the most common because it was easy to play (dodge, press an illusion button, press a shatter, repeat).

Distance travelled is only relevant in the question of AoEs, where we will now take potentially one tick if we time our dodge well in nearly any AoE, in ALL directions except backward. This seems like a significant buff in a lot of ways, if we consider alternative methods for acquiring superspeed, and couple that with the fact that both can be active, resulting in more forward movespeed AND more strafing and backward movement speeds. We need to stop just viewing everything as a nerf, often it is a lateral shift, meaning a change in function with the same, or nearly so, end result.

I hate that my favorite builds no longer exist, that year after year I have to give up playing what I have found to be strong in favor of what is popular and thus have to spend months figuring out a new build. Currently, the build I play, or a very slight variation of it, has seen strength in sPvP, which means it is likely to either stay for awhile and be adopted in other game modes, or be deleted completely through serious nerfs (though it is not particularly overpowered because it relies on some condi focused traits).

You may try Null Field, removes more boons and conditions off and pairs with combo finishers to give Chaos Armor with your current weapons. I certainly liked it as a combo field, probably better with sword and pistol finishers for Mirage though.

> @"Kylden Ar.3724" said:

> > @"Delofasht.4231" said:

> > > @"penguin zombies.9305" said:

> > > > @"Lincolnbeard.1735" said:

> > > > > @"everyman.4375" said:

> > > > > Chrono aside why did they nerf mirage cloak again ? After the mirage cloak duration nerf, jaunt nerf and now superspeed nerf AOEs are now mirage's worst nightmare ... nice ...

> > > >

> > > > I'm just going to say that mirage will get nerfed every patch to calm down the hordes of crying monkeys. If mirage doesn't get any nerf they will give birth to a thousand threads asking why the godmode mirage didn't get nerfs. Heck even this way they say its a buff.

> > >

> > > How could this be seen as a buff? Genuinely asking, not meaning to be mean.

> >

> > Welp, superspeed is a buff that does not stack but replaces the existing version, when used in combat, a longer lasting superspeed was often replaced with a shorter duration .75 sec version. So the change to 66% movespeed is a net zero change out of combat, and only worse in combat when you happen to be chilled or crippled and trying to dodge.

> >

> > Is this to say that the changes for Mirage are buffs? I feel it is pretty much a null change, the difference in Auspicious Anguish looks interesting though, I will have to see how it functions in game, but could certainly be exciting to have a nice defensive option outside of staff cooldown reduction. I would like a change to be made to Desperate Decoy, as it tends to break casts of important skills when it goes off, so I do not end up using it even if I really do need a passive % health defensive.

> >

> > Edit: Also, Dune Cloak change has potential as well, but not sure it is a strong enough utility or not, boon stripping from everyone in range could be useful, but means being in the thick of danger. They really have avoided IH being baseline to the elite specialization for some reason, but I guess there was a time where it was not mandatory though, so maybe it is just common perception and not really necessary but only our self deceptions.

>

> Currently [speed of Sand](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Speed_of_Sand) gives Superspeed, which is a 100% increase to movement speed (So 200% movement). +66% speed instead will be 166% speed, or a 34% nerf.

>

> As we'll still have to move ourselves during that, that is effectively making the dodge movement less area.

>

> However, Superspeed is forward only, not when strafing or moving backwards. Other [movement speed boosts](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_Speed) apply to all movement, so this will actually make Mirage Cloak while strafing a little better.

Interesting to note is that 166% movespeed is 83% as effective as Superspeed was at doing the same thing. Meaning, the nerf to forward movement is definitely there, but as you mentioned, the gains in strafing movespeed might make up for that loss. There is some potential to completely avoid a tick of damage while dodging during a strafe out of AoE, where before it was guaranteed we would be taking some of the effect. Of course, I can't math that out for sure, and there are a number of possible placements where evading will not get the Mirage out of it anyhow (depending on direction headed as the AoE lands). The math says we will take at least one tick of damage when trying to evade a 600 range circular AoE and running straight out of the middle, where before we would have been able to avoid all of it. The difference only affects us if we were running straight when the AoE was centered on us though, because if we were strafing we would have definitely taken two ticks. So it's basically a zero sum change and QoL buff to accidentally overwriting our Superspeed buff. /cheer for being a nerd.

> @"penguin zombies.9305" said:

> > @"Lincolnbeard.1735" said:

> > > @"everyman.4375" said:

> > > Chrono aside why did they nerf mirage cloak again ? After the mirage cloak duration nerf, jaunt nerf and now superspeed nerf AOEs are now mirage's worst nightmare ... nice ...

> >

> > I'm just going to say that mirage will get nerfed every patch to calm down the hordes of crying monkeys. If mirage doesn't get any nerf they will give birth to a thousand threads asking why the godmode mirage didn't get nerfs. Heck even this way they say its a buff.

>

> How could this be seen as a buff? Genuinely asking, not meaning to be mean.

Welp, superspeed is a buff that does not stack but replaces the existing version, when used in combat, a longer lasting superspeed was often replaced with a shorter duration .75 sec version. So the change to 66% movespeed is a net zero change out of combat, and only worse in combat when you happen to be chilled or crippled and trying to dodge.

Is this to say that the changes for Mirage are buffs? I feel it is pretty much a null change, the difference in Auspicious Anguish looks interesting though, I will have to see how it functions in game, but could certainly be exciting to have a nice defensive option outside of staff cooldown reduction. I would like a change to be made to Desperate Decoy, as it tends to break casts of important skills when it goes off, so I do not end up using it even if I really do need a passive % health defensive.

Edit: Also, Dune Cloak change has potential as well, but not sure it is a strong enough utility or not, boon stripping from everyone in range could be useful, but means being in the thick of danger. They really have avoided IH being baseline to the elite specialization for some reason, but I guess there was a time where it was not mandatory though, so maybe it is just common perception and not really necessary but only our self deceptions.

Personally, I feel that Core Mesmer just needs to get a passive effect that is turned off when choosing an Elite specialization. Maybe a static reduction to Illusion creating skills, so many skills from a Core Mesmer would happen more frequently, but they hit less hard overall. Could be good for all the skills like Phase Retreat and Leap/Swap, even better with weapon traits to reduce cooldowns further.

@"Whiteout.1975" I think we moved on from your initial idea overall and to the somewhat easier to idea I proposed, but @"Swagger.1459" didn't keep up with the transition. That is actually fine though. As to why the load become heavier for multiple check AoEs that auto change in size after a certain threshold is reached is simply because the system has more lines of code for each and every instance of an AoE with such checks. Several AoEs are already fairly heavy with checks as is it, (especially in the case of long lasting ones).

Big thanks to @"joneirikb.7506" for the recap and analysis, there is a trade off on any number of these ideas it is true. We can hope that the devs read this thread, get some ideas, and maybe even implement some. The problem is, to do new abilities like this might end up with them not being used, where existing instant gratification is already so good, unless the effects were entirely too strong on the backend (which would cause an entire different set of problems). In order for them to try this they would have to play with the code and see about doing it across the board in big sweeps. I wonder if AoE skills are actually built from a kind of style sheet, where certain keys are used to change the base function. Meaning changes to the basic AoE sheet would affect all the AoEs at one time and a little fine tuning could be used across the board. Who knows! /shrug.

Mesmer has a lot of different build options that work fairly nice with these two traitlines, I prefer Sword over Scepter with Ineptitude myself. Clone generation is largely linked to using Mirage Thrust and Mirrors to enable more thrusts and thus more clones. It ends up feeling very similar, if a bit more agressive and with a touch more mobility. Illusionary Counter on Scepter I like better than Blurred Frenzy, but they both fill a very similar role; counter sometimes glitches if another skill is queued and fails to make clones on occasion (which greatly reduces it’s reliability to me).

I think one or the other is very much preference, based on how one plays. Feels like the skill cap with Sword is higher, with better potential payoff, though perhaps more risky since it does put one in melee range.

My hope is that they actually learned which professions are significantly lacking in decent utilities, maybe learn which could receive tweaks. Basic boring teleports are less strong than they are given credit for in an environment where everyone can have a ranged weapon to hit their enemy from afar. Overly niche utilities are weak as well, and difficult to use effectively makes for a weaker utility; the strongest are direct, strong, and low-medium CD.

Cross profession worked in the first game to fill weaknesses, but honestly none of the professions have extreme weaknesses that are fixed by another professions utilities, but they do often gain some strengths they may lack (like a strong CC and mobility skill, or a good boon generation skill). Not exactly weaknesses, as other options to achieve them exist, but not in an easy one button press skill.

As noted above, AoEs having a flight time before landing at the location marked on the ground already exists in the game. This does not add any more lag, and is actually less intensive on the system because it is not a persistent effect. It instead does one shot of damage or application of conditions to targets that did not move out of the circle after 3/4th or a second of delay. Adjusting player AoE fields to not be persistent ticking effects would greatly help reduce the glowing fields that last 5 to 15 seconds or autoupdating ticks of conditions (durations and strength all need to be checked each tick, then applied, and so on).

The proposed idea of one shot, all the damage or conditions applied at once, doesn’t change or add damage to any of the abilities. It does improve expectation of damage when you can keep an opponent in it for the time it will take for the skill to land and adds value to landing immobilize, cripple, slow, or chill effects. Compressing the effects into one duration for multiple tick effects also means cleanses become more powerful, and less individual instances of boons with varying durations (for some fields that do both conditions/damage and boons currently). A few persistent fields are not bad, but every AoE in the game right now seems to be a persistent field.

Also, far too many of our skills are targeted, instant reward button presses, I personally like having to try to land skillshots and feel rewarded when doing so. The reward is setting up a shot with a number of actions or predicting where an enemy is going to be; it just feels good to land something that is not a targeted one button press easy win. Not every skill has to be such, but the stronger effects should be a skill shot or have a travel time to land, instant targeted effects should be less rewarding as they are more reliable to land.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"joneirikb.7506" said:

> > @"nthmetal.9652"

> >

> > * Reduce AoE

> >

> > Hmm, if they're carefula bout it, I think this could work. Say they reduce all the "spammy" aoe's down to a very small circle, so it's basically just a non-refectable attack that can hit the peopel standing right next to you. While still keeping a few attacks like Meteor Storm as large aoe's, it would give them different roles entirely, and change how you used for example Lava-Font.

>

> It would require alot of rebalancing though.

>

> I mean, in theory they could **delete all duration/pulsing AoE** and just rely on power/condi combos.

>

> Instead of a field that today last 6s and does 6x power damage, it would be a field with no duration, apply higher power damage directly and say bleeding for the remaining damage. No AoE field at all on the floor.

>

> Want to go power? You up your instadamage, but get lower residual damage.

>

> Want to go condi? You do less instadamage, but the residual damage lasts longer and hits harder.

>

> Even something like meteorshower works, just hit fewer meteors once individually and apply burning.

>

> Such AoE would be kept in check by gear since you have to focus on power *and* condi to maximize damage (ie be a glassy twig).

This may be a clearer explanation of my wall of text further up. Though it neglects to mention telegraphing the CC and particularly devastating AoE that currently exist and have no visual tell long enough before being affect by it. Some effects should be larger but with more preparation time, others smaller, effects should be visible above where the field is going to take place prior to it hitting by at least a .5 sec (and .75 sec is better). Some can be fire and forget, but the field effect animation is long enough to respond to, this would allow players to self combo, and combo field effects can still be utilized but maybe on more selective effects (or maybe a field can remain but with no persistent effects being applied to enemies or allies).

The list:

1. Individual Player Agency

2. Zerg-centric reward scheme

3. AoE

4. Profession Balance

5. Map populations

This about sums it up, and hits all the major concerns really. Individual player impact is extremely low, a roamer flipping camps is a minor annoyance and has little impact on what is achieved by the Zerg or Blob running about taking everything else. There is little that a single player can do against any number of enemies more than a couple enemies against them, thus holding anything is always a matter of numbers. This leads to everyone grouping up into massive groups to roll over everything. AoE makes this possible as point and click, after a short cast time a field appears and boom everyone is taking damage or crowd control in that field, no time to react, cannot see casts. The balance of each profession is thus centered on what they can bring to the Zerg, as roamers have little impact at all. Contrary to popular opinion, a full map is not very interesting, there are far too many outnumbered fights taking place, and individual agency is even further reduced on a full map, medium populations create situations where everyone grouping together is the best choice but here roamers can have some marginal impact.

Individual and small group impact on the mode needs to be more highly rewarded, and not taking about loot, but actually the impact they make on the mode, maybe longer flips for groups consisting of 5 or less. To enhance the value of having small groups taking camps and towers while larger groups are focused on bigger targets (keeps and garrisons). An individual in a group of 5 is way more impactful, and feels so, and roamers and soloists being able to force longer camp flips increases the value of their contribution by a lot. Maybe individual players running a dolyak provide extra speed to it, or a bonus to defending a tower while outnumbered by double the enemies, handicaps and stuff.

Also, minor point, but Warclaw should be something that can be rented by players without one or that are still working on the achievement, cost some Badges of Honor or something cheap so basically everyone can at least run with the team/friends without penalizing them for getting back into the game. Mount is a bit of an annoyance, without a dismount capability (bar a few ranged damage options).

So many of the AoE effects are persistent, which is the issue here. Just have more of the skills create the field, warn you to move out of it before it hits, and if you manage to not make it out then you take the effect of the hit and eat the damage, conditions, or control effects, then the field disappears. So many of them have lingering effects that check on whether an enemy is in it every tick, applies effects, rechecks, and so on. That creates lots of negative time. Most skills in the game are fire and forget, focused on targets, and are generally not about avoiding incoming skills actively.

This is a cost reward analysis issue, AoE effects are highly rewarding and generally difficult to miss, easy to land, hard to avoid. A Chaos Storm from Mesmer has no warning before the first tick hits, because of this, each tick is really low damage, if instead that storm hit after a small delay (with the circle being able to be seen before it hits) then you get a chance to move out, THEN the field can actually be a bit bigger, and effects that can get you out of the field become even more valuable. It also means the effect can be stronger since it can be avoided. Same for a number of AoE crowd control effects, once again, goes down nearly instant, immediate effect, boom large pay off, low effort. Putting the burden on players to see small character models, and see animations on them through damage numbers floating off their heads, status effects, and particles is just too difficult, and all the while guessing where the field is about to appear at.

In short, if they were to adjust AoE effects, it would be a large overhaul, many would need field animations and less cast animations, higher payoff, but harder to slightly harder to reliably land. Result is a shift in active gameplay in large fights where fields can be seen and avoided long before the damage hits (like the jungle tendril shots so common in HoT, easily avoided, but if you got immobilized in one and a few hit ya, ouch).

The main things in active combat games that needs to be telegraphed are hard Crowd Control effects, and Area of Effect skills, in such a manner as to avoidable without relying on using skills unless the effect is meant to be hard to avoid (and thus less pay off). Far too many crowd control effects are near instant with no animation to prepare for avoiding them. Thus combat devolves into trading breaks for CC effects and waiting on cooldowns again. Power gets taken out of positioning, but there again defensive stats are also too weak in this game, and focusing on pure damage is general the correct answer to most situations.

Short of a huge overhaul, the likelihood of seeing any of these changes for AoE is just flat unlikely. There have been a few games that have learned the power of correctly balancing telegraphed CC, AoE effects, and visual cues while also utilizing active avoidance... the most successful ones seem to be MOBA style games, but the lessons they learned and apply in their games apply to all player versus player environments. Instant targeted slows into hard CC AoE or skillshots make for way better gameplay, high damage AoE that can be avoided but comboing that with other people firing off abilities to trap the enemy in a bad spot... all this kind of stuff is good. It is already in the game with siege, just a matter of not being extended onto player abilities for some reason.

Have to echo the sentiments regarding Warrior utilities, absolutely feels amazing having access to strong reliable utilities. They are surely iconic and useful, regardless of build; even being cherry picked, the other utilities available to warriors are quite decent.

They chose odd utilities from Mesmer to share, ranged reflection is not specifically a Mesmer skill, many other professions have easier and more readily available access to it. The elite is the only functional choice as the Moa and Time Warp have entirely too long of cooldowns and are not particularly well suited for PvP encounters (just run out of range until it goes away). Mantra of Concentration is difficult to really make use of in a lot of fights, unless running some specific weapons that can create an opening to be able to cast it (Mesmers’ themselves lack much in the way of CC on weapon skills though). Arcane Thievery is quite good, but the cooldown is just a touch on the long side in my opinion (fine when traited as a Mesmer... but gives up other active defenses instead).

Generally speaking the assessment of many of the utilities is spot on. I am disappointed that I can’t choose to swap only one or two utilities though. I would love to grab the Warrior heal and Bull Charge, but keep my other profession’s utilities (Signet and Arcane Thievery). Overall few of the utilities are necessarily broken, but the inherent value of them varies quite a bit from profession to profession, I do not see many players seeking out to beat a Ranger, Mesmer, or Elementalist to hold their abilities. Revs, Warriors, and Thieves though are probably going to be the utilities most sought by other professions I would think.

Traited versus untrained skills are definitely a thing. Of course, you could opt for a different trait than one modifying a utility... I picked up interrupt traits and used thief Scorpion Wire to add a +2 on a relatively short CD to the long list of Mirage interrupts for fun. Also helped with keeping enemies in a Chaos Storm. Many of the utilities of other professions are quite strong for Mesmer, as many of the utilities of Mesmer are very niche or independently very weak.

More reason to play core would be good, once a player has upgraded to HoT or PoF there does not seem much reason to ever notice Core anymore. This is especially true for Mesmer, where none of the profession skills change, they just become additions and current gameplay remains fairly static (okay Mirage dodge is better in some situations).

I would love using clones out of combat for all sorts of operations on Core only, would play Core for PvE all the time then.

Most of the professions without the Elite specializations are pretty rare. Last time I saw Core Mesmer was on my own character before upgrading to HoT and PoF, have not seen one since, they are probably an illusion and do not really exist at all.

There are quite a few odd utility choices given to players, some skills are quite strong, particularly several of the heals when compared to what is usually available to my main profession. Would love to see more choice in the utility skills, but I understand there are probably a huge number of interactions that could fully break the game.

What does everyone else think of the utilities, did you find there were any far more useful on another profession than on the profession it came from?

Engaging gameplay involves counterplay, without some on each side of a fight, the gameplay is going to become stale and repetitive. That is what one shot builds do, make the gameplay stale, there is no build up or anticipation in a fight, it is completely one sided.

If you are getting one shot by, or doing so to, an enemy all the time, is that really fun? The gameplay is completely binary, devoid of interaction by either party beyond that initial button mash. The key to any multiplayer game is interactions between the players, all the best games have figured this out, a look at any of the highest viewed games streamed involves player interactions that are nuanced and have build ups. Instant one shots get a few views, but never as much as when players have to make decisions about positioning, timing, and interactions.

Several of the builds existing right now are devoid of interactions from the enemy, many are not even reliant on landing a crowd control mechanism at all. Press this button when red nameplate appears, either win, or disengage and try again in 30 seconds, the general population does not find this interesting. Those who do like that gameplay probably only do when they are piloting it, if they have to face it themselves all the time it is not fun or interesting. I have never seen a gameplay video where someone is walking into a player vs player situation and saying, “Gah I hope I get one shot by the first enemy to see me!” That does not happen.

> @"Kylden Ar.3724" said:

> All stealth within 240 units needs to look like it does to allies for enemies.

This would be fine if stealths actually broke channeled skills on use. Love popping a stealth just as my enemy hits a targeted channel skill and eating the whole thing in spite of being invisible to the enemy and a mile away.

Personally, I would like all the Mesmer mainland sword skills to get reworked. Auto chain to remove boons is too slow for practical use ever, even under the effects of quickness, adjust to make the strip the second and a 3 stack of vulnerability all applied at the last hit. Blurred Frenzy creates so many balancing issues but now days is just a poor self root most of the time, players just drop traps and ground targeted AoE on the Mesmer when it is used. Illusionary Leap/Swap is so telegraphed and requires the clone to exist when Swap is used, it is so clunky and almost never gets to be used as an actual gap closer or positional adjuster of any kind at all.

Blurred Frenzy should be a channeled Evade while moving for 1.5 sec that then finishes with a projectile attack (sword throw) that does some base damage and addition for a portion of the damage avoided. This allows the skill to have enough time to avoid some damage but also gives the return of damage a bit more reliability.

Illusion Leap/Swap needs reliability fixes as well, have the clone apply immobilize for a second when spawned, also it could make a circle ont he ground as the Swap location. That makes Swap work even if the enemy kills the clone, and makes the immobilize more reliable but shorter, so it really can be used to slow enemies down that half second or so (there is a delay before Swap can be used that is fine to remain). Maybe get one auto or start an ability, coupled with the change to Blurred Frenzy this does not create a massive burst window, but does allow for at least a way to use sword and get in an instant point blank Mind Wrack. The major benefit is that it provides a skill with massive options, quick spamming it out makes for a gap closer, carefully timed usage could make for an evasive tool (allowing the immobilize to wear off and them run at you to port to the spot they were at sounds fun and since it doesn’t drop targeting, totally fair as a gap creator).