Changes for Mirage [ Edited ]

[SciFiKid_1701]

In my personal experience and opinion, Mirage seems to be the weakest hero in the game. I hardly ever get fooled by an enemy decoy, except in very specific circumstances, and I hardly ever fool anyone with mine. So I had a couple ideas on how to change Mirage for the better.

#1: Give him multiple decoy charges at base. Having just one decoy makes it hard to fool people. Throwing your decoy out in a smart direction will only sometimes fool people, but having more than one decoy available at a time could make a difference *if* used properly. I'm thinking he could behave similarly to Alibi from Rainbow Six Siege, but a more active playstyle.

#2: Increase the duration that a decoy stays up, as well as lower the timer if a decoy dies from tripping. Having a longer lasting decoy can lead to some high IQ plays, tricking the enemy into choosing which Mirage is the correct one. Also, it always sucks when you send out a decoy, only to see it trip and fall and you have to wait the whole cooldown to try again, so I'm thinking if you send the decoy out, and it dies to terrain while it's still moving, the timer should be reduced, or reset. Which leads me to my next point.

#3: If these changes are made, increase the timer for decoys. I believe the timer is currently 12 seconds? If he were to have multiple decoys that stay up longer, he shouldn't be able to use them as often. Maybe like, twice per gunfight. Putting the cooldown to 20 seconds for each decoy makes it so he can't use these as often, and keeps him from getting too strong.

#4: Reset the cooldown of his decoys upon ultimate usage, and allow him to send decoys while invisible. Having this change means that your ultimate is more than just an escape tool. You could also use it to try and trick the enemy even more, by sending a ton of decoys in every which way. As for the second idea in this point, what if he could go invisible behind cover, and then send out his decoys? His enemies would most likely shoot them, since they know he just got away and is probably running either away or somewhere else. But I dunno. Just an idea.

All of these are just some ideas I have to make Mirage a more interesting, balanced, and fun character to play. Please tell me what you think.

[ProbablySinning]

@SciFiKid_1701

Wow, so week old post, but these are the one's that I really enjoy formulating answers to.

So to start, I agree. I feel like Mirage is a little weak in terms of how his kit was intended to be played. I enjoy the whole "trickster" vibe that he has going on but you're right - it definitely falls short in earlier levels of play.

A response to #1: Adding more base charges of his decoy is a great idea. It would add to the theme of his kit, and would increase his play ability. The only thing I would add is that there would need to be an internal CD between the use of decoys. Maybe like 2 seconds or so.

A response to #2: I think this would tip the scales on Mirage and push him over the edge to become unbalanced if it was done concurrently with #1. If he has an increase in base charges, they shouldn't stay up for any longer.

A response to #3: YES. Balance. *-for-tat. If he has more base charges, an increase in recharge rate of each charge should definitely be implemented.

A response to #4: I feel like this would also just push him over the edge to become unbalanced and OP. He already deploys a large amount of decoys (that you can make run if done right) in every direction. Resetting the CD on his tactical would honestly just make WAY too much happen on screen all at once.

My opinion: I love the creativity that you had when coming up with solutions to Mirage's current "feelsbadman" predicament when you play him. I personally think that his ultimate should totally make him untraceable (outside of Digital Threat and Blood Hound Ult). The fact that it's supposed to be used as an escape or "stealthy" engage and you can see his footsteps in the dust on the ground is mind-boggling.

Awesome advocacy for potential change. Your post was well constructed and displayed actual thought. Nice job OP

[DYSPROssium]

Great suggestions! I've been playing with Mirage a lot in season 2, but never in ranked. He is the only character that has about 0 of teamwork ability. I'll provide my feedback as well per ability he has.

passive

His passive makes him disappear once he is downed, which is fundamentally only useful AFTER you lost the fight. It's a nice extra for his kit, but definitely not strong enough.

I think the devs thought the same, that's why they also added the ability to send out decoys when dropping down. However, these have been bugged since forever and never had a proper use. It is quite easy to see if there are 2 lonely solos approach an area in a straigth line. Also, sometimes they bug out or fly way in front, making it very clear its a decoy.

In addition, his passive also adds the ability to see the position of the enemy that just shot your decoy. Instead of giving Mirage a good passive, they have stacked different abilities to make up for it.

I think his passive needs even an additional buff, something that has to make mirage a better team player. Something like displaying created decoys as a character of a random teammate, which would truly trigger a bamboozle on enemies.

tactical

His tactical is his main ability, but the decoys only run in a straight line, which requires Mirage to do some proper planning with the decoy. I agree with @SciFiKid_1701 that sending out 2 decoys would be nice (with an increased cooldown of course) as it allows for more bamboozles.

ultimate

I still don't understand his ultimate. Why are there 8 or 9 mirages spawned? The main ability is to go invisible, the mirages spawned don't help with that, they only give away that you just got invisible. I see people suggesting to make the 8 decoys run in different directions, but that would still be a dead give away that mirage turned invisible.

The sound is the main problem with going invisible, as people can still hear that you are there, which is fine for me. It is the best counter for him being invisible.

Maybe the ultimate should produce more decoys, surrounding the two teammates? I'm not sure. 

[jonesy0218]

I love using Mirage, so any time I see a post with some creative ways to make him better, I'm tuned in lol. I think having a few decoys at the beginning would be great - like Caustic's traps or Wattson's posts. His passive is pretty useless, IMO, so I thought it would be cool to create 2-3 decoys that are crawling away. Maybe give them a white knockdown shield but treat them as his tactical where they get shot once and disappear. This would give you a few seconds to successfully crawl away. His Ult was made a lot better by going completely invisible, but I think they could take a little step further... What if the decoys turned invisible with you and then popped back up? I don't know how it would affect gameplay or if it would take too long to set everything up (decoys appear, then disappear with you, then reappear with you)... but it would be cool to see. He's almost great, but he still needs a little something.

[Redstevo]

I would like if the decoys would interact with the environment more depending on how you aim them. 

an example would be if you send one to a zip line it would start going up, or run it into a ledge and it would climb it, or run it into a boulder and it would start climbing and keep running. Or run it into a supply bun and he will open it. I can see lots of fun ways to use that, although maybe it would be hard to implement