Suggestion: Dopple Elite Spec in next expansion

[Yg Dosst.3860]

I'm probably way overstepping my bounds making this suggestion here, and of course the next x-pac may be years away, but this is just a really cool Idea I had suddenly pop into my head, and I HAVE to share.

 

More or less, the main gimmick to the elite spec is basically being the mesmer equivalent of the Scourge's Sand Savant option, with a pinch of a Ranger Pet.

One Clone, but it's much more powerful, and doesn't die. Sounds nuts, but hear me out:

 

Instead, during combat, a percentage of damage it takes is reflected to you, and Disables that effect it have a fraction of the duration sent to you as well and vice versa. Stun Breaks breaks will break stuns on both.

Condition damage is sent in fraction as well, thought the condition isn't shared. Non-Disable Conditions like Immobilize, Frost, Cripple, Weakness etc. aren't shared. But Boon Sharing and even non-boon square-buffs, are inherit as anything that the Mesmer's Dopple gets, is shared in full duration and vice versa.

Kinda like being in two places at once.

 

The way that this interacts with the other Mesmer mechanics is that anything that would summon a clone, causes the Dopple to shadowstep to where the clone would spawn --whether at the Mesmer or at the target-- trigger things like "Compounding Power", and then swap to and begin attacking with the relevant weapon. Phantasms no longer become clones, but still pass boons to both the Mesmer and Dopple in the case of "Persistence of Memory". Shatters are changed to be 1.5x as strong as the 3 clone version, and don't break the Dopple. Distortion applies to both the Mesmer and the Dopple. As well a 5th "Shatter" appears, triggering effects based on the weapons you and the Dopple are currently wielding, and then making the Dopple switch to having the weapons you have currently equipped, enabling it to use an offhand or 4/5 ability on a two-hander. Typically a Phantasm or a centered-on-self ability like Chaos Armor or Vortex. For a few seconds after the 5th skill is activated, it enables a flip skill to actually Shatter the Dopple, dismissing it and summoning a Unique Phantasm.

 

The main pros and cons are that you'd need to build tankier or more supportive builds, or just deal with the inherit risk of being easier to hit and disabled as most of your escape, distraction, and redirection no longer works effectively. But in Return you can essentially rapid fire Shatter skills early in the fight, quickly amass boons in groups or from bounce abilities, and double your number of phantasms in play.

I think this is a really cool mechanic that would make for a pretty unique playstyle with the Mesmer, and open up a massive toolkit for inventive techniques.

 

That's the end of the main suggestion, I don't really have as detailed a suggestion for the traits or weapon abilities or other Skills. However, Primary hand Pistol would be really cool, to allow Mesmers to finally be able to Dual wield the Ancient Mesmer Goddesses, Lyss and Ilya. A more supportive style would be cool, like a Phantasm Healing skill, and a "fan the hammer" Rapid-fire pierce ally Heal and enemy Chill, since the mesmer doesn't actually have any kind of solid healing weaponry like most support capable classes do.

 

Thoughts? Any ways to expand or improve this idea?

[derd.6413]

sounds like the type of elite spec that anet employees see in their nightmares. it's a pain to implement and maintaining it in both a technical aspect and balance wise on top of an AI heavy spec. (anet has stated AI specs are unlikely unless they do an AI overhaul which is in itself unlikely)

[Yg Dosst.3860]

> @"derd.6413" said:

> sounds like the type of elite spec that anet employees see in their nightmares. it's a pain to implement and maintaining it in both a technical aspect and balance wise on top of an AI heavy spec. (anet has stated AI specs are unlikely unless they do an AI overhaul which is in itself unlikely)

 

I definitely get how it could end up being painful with mechanical implementation on interaction with some other Mesmer features, but it's less like pet AI and more of just inserting exceptions into current Clone triggers. I don't exactly have the coding experience to say, but it couldn't be too much harder than the pet trait interactions of the Soulbeast.

Damage link abilities between phantasmal defender could be borrowed and reversed for the Dopple, as well at training dummy code for the invulnerability yet still reading conditions. Things that would summon clones would behave very much like summoning clones while at the current max of 3 clones. If you're a Dopple Mesmer, summoning one clone sets your clone count variable to 3. If you're a Dopple Mesmer, the trigger for clone destruction on summoning a clone instead uses an "Illusionary Ambush" style Shadow Step and Target Change. If you're a Dopple Mesmer, Shatter effects don't trigger the deletion.

 

In fact, it doesn't even have to literally be the same clone, object-wise, it just has to give the player the illusion of being such. Cheat by letting the clone delete itself with disabled particle effects, create one with an appropriate weapon where the clone was standing, THEN have it Shadowstep appropriately.

[Refia Montes.3205]

see my signature.

[Hot Boy.7138]

Pretty sure this was my idea i posted about twice before in the past