[mat13295]

Okay rapidly dying memes aside, we need to talk about the tree in general. It's kind of ridiculous right now.

So, let's go through and list the current issues i feel currently make it a massive issue right now.

1: Diplussion:

Every spell except for one is a BASIC. The attunement to unlock every other meta tree is also within illusion meaning you can easily pair it with 4 other trees that are also rather strong. So we have 5 basic spells and one interm. And you can pick whichever of these 5 spells you want. It is the very definition of a dip tree. You only want the blind? 20 rpp. You only want what is arguably the strongest public aura at the moment? 20 rpp. A curse to deal with sustains? 20 rpp. And for 65 rpp you get flurry, a ranged stun. Sure, it self roots but it's a homing instant stun so it's always going to be good

2:  Crowd control, crowd control, crowd control

Illusion is another one of those trees like metal, bone or old sand. It's a tree with multiple spells design to inflict status effects that keep a player from approaching or holding them in one place. We've got darkness, a spell that completely blinds a player for a couple seconds, we have illusion flurry, the self rooting stun that can interrupt a combo or be paired with spells like cacophany or meteor to get a full spell's worth of ticks off and finally, Mind fray, a confuse spell to keep a player from properly aiming spells or moving.

Again, only one of these spells is an intermediate 

3: Meta in general

So i mentioned dipping but here's another problem that i kind of already mentioned: Illusion unlocks 4 other trees that pair extremely well together. Illusion/gravity aka the "Don't even bother using your arrow keys" combo. Illusion/time, you can barely move without being punished and also your spells are on cooldown forever now. Illusion/shadow. You have CC and a couple of spells to chunk someone with. Also, an invuln so now nobody can reliably touch you. Illusion/light: Multiple blinds. You may as well shut your monitor off and verb like that. 

Fun fact: most of those trees are also facing the same "This is a basic but really should be an interm" issue



These are three major issues that simply feed into each other and make the other problem even worse. So let's talk potentially solutions

1: Make each meta tree have its own attunement to prevent dipping into each other so easily
2: Add an extra spell or two to illusion that ISN'T a status afflicting spell and start raising costs
3: Rework illusion to not be all status afflictions
4: Make darkness a 20 RPP cost spell
5: Make flurry either a master or turn it into a slow. We yeeted hemo for the exact same reason but the only reason illusion has gotten away with it is because people cried about the self root

[Lammy]

Mechnically, Illusion is a powerful tree that gets the job done that also gives access to the Shadow Tree that makes Illusion all the more stronger.

But the thing is, it's boring. It's the most boring tree that anyone could ever play for a free, cheesy notion of just winning most of your fights for you without thinking. And me playing Illusion a lot and knowing the ins and outs of it can say that it needs an entire revamp that would make it all the more fun.

The only, truly fun skill in Illusion that requires any modicum of thought to use is Distortion. Everything else is an autohit that gives good damage. Illusion Aura is one of the better auras in the game, because it offers a lot of agility that also helps reduce cooldowns and in exchange make Illusion the most disgusting thing to use without a care in the world.

I am not going to say nerf the tree, I will say revamp it with new skills that would make the tree itself more enjoyable, though. An autohit here or there is fine, but being able to make it more interactive would make a lot of people happy.

... but do yall have money tho o_o

[Xaldian]

... but do yall have money tho o_o

Yes, yes I do. Happily slap a few dollars to make the tree different

[AbstractTraitorHero]

I enjoy illusion personally, I don't have the aura or like end stuff, just have it for the status effects and ic, I enjoy the things I've been able to do with it and the control of the field that it gives me, allows me to react, even if I still lose a lot of the time/most of the time.

[Oyster.]

I really can't understand this insane notion of trees being boring because they have autohits, when the majority of used spells are either waves so fat you'd have to be blind to miss them or stuns/cc that combo into landing abilities. it's an illusion (heh) to suggest that there is a huge skill gap between these abilities, as every illusion homing has the unfortunate effect of making you stand still for half a second and potentially get slammed if you use it improperly.

Illusion's CC is also something of an illusion (on a roll). Mind fray lasts for 1-2 seconds unless they fixed it. Darkness doesn't actually slow you down but people get extremely mad over it. Flurry CCs both parties. Sure you can get out an extra aoe tic with flurry but that's not exactly game breaking.

I do agree that the attunement being in illusion is somewhat of a problem. And I don't know why scout immunity isn't removed, it also doesn't work half the time, and is unnecessary.

edit: controversial opinion but i don't understand the notion of some spell trees being boring at all, like how fucking often do u have to verb per day to build up a mindset like that . shouldn't it be the ic of magic that carries the appeal? when you are in the fight of your life against the dark lord alkhabaros, sitting in a deadly 3 with all your friends awaiting the destiny of the city, do you really have room to think 'gee i wish my blood ball did a fucking loop da loop before it hit'