Mirror Image - What is it good for? (Some answers inside)Follow

Mirror image (MI), as many know, is one of our new "cool" abilities at level 80. Overall it/the images lead to a paltry amount of DPS and they die so easily (seems like they have around 2k hp a piece) that it is useless in some fights.

The main point for Mirror Image?
-- To act like the old-school priest Fade ability for 30 seconds. Basically it/they offset your threat (you basically can't even see your current threat [one poential downfall]) for the 30 seconds that it lasts, when MI finishes your new threat is equal to old threat + threat generated by you and your images (T = X + (Y + Z))

The downside to this is that if you were already riding the tanks aggro and you go even farther above it after mirror image you will not know what hit you when the boss aggros as soon as the fade-effect wheres off (assuming you are >130% and in ranged distance of the boss, less if closer, of course).


So there are a couple of questions that are occurring a lot with this spell: When and How should I use it?

A couple differing opinions come out about it. One option is to use the ability when you pop all cooldowns at the beginning of the fight, therefore giving you almost limitless threat for those 30 seconds, but at the end hoping that the tank has generated enough threat to not be below you. Of course when there are 3 seconds left you can always pop invis and start fresh (although for some fights this may not be an option when they are extreme dps tests [Sarth3D for example]).
- Should you want to add it to your cooldowns macro, add it to the end of it as it causes a GCD thus breaking the rest of the abilities to be used
eg:
/use Potion of Speed
/use Mana gem (with 2pc T7
/cast Combustion
/Cast Icy Veins
/Cast Mirror Image

Another option is to use it when/if you pull aggro some how from a tank (or tanks). For that brief moment it should give enough time for the tank to taunt and get the aggro back from the mobs(s).


A few downsides to the ability is that the images have been known to taunt (somehow) and possibly lead to wipes (Image taunted Slagg off of our tank on Thaddius and began running down the ramp towards the other guy, wiped us because of the distance the guy ran). They can also sometimes randomly target a mob/player and polymorph them (obviously healing them can be a problem).

Edited, Dec 19th 2008 11:18am by Anobix

There is only one true use for this spell, dance party's with yourself.

They do love to poly dont they?

I have experienced a bug where on some bosses popping Mirror Image causes instant aggro. (Faerlina for example, cannot remember the other one)

Also on Faerlina it isnt recommended using it unless the raid is nicely geared, the mirror images will start shooting the boss´s adds also and if they die too soon before using them for sacrifice the enrage might wipe the group.