Phantasm Sucks

[Fusaokek]

I think Phantasm is one of THE worst pets in the game. It's supposed to be a blaster type pet yet so many times this dumb ass pet will run into a mob behind my Phantom army or just run ahead into a mob. Is it a blaster or is it a tank? Because it will run right into mobs as if it were a tank and get wrecked like the ineffective glass cannon it is. Moreover the damage it does is outclassed by other damage pets like  fire imps which more than make up for their fragility with good, effective damage.

So why not either overhaul phantasm so that it acts more like a blaster attacking from a distance save for if an enemy gets too close and instead of the energy wave why not the overhead strike ? 

An alternative if changing the Phantasm attack pattern is not an option is upping its  defense/resistance to that of a sentinel. It wouldn't be a tank but it would be able to take a bit more damage when the pet decides to do stupid and run right behind PA into the mob. 

I've also wondered for a long time, why energy and not fire?  Since the illusion is supposed to be the damage dealing control set why not give the phantasm the best dealing damage in the blaster set (before later additions) and go with fire? Personally I'd love to see phantasm hit a crowd with fire rain.  My last suggestion for phantasm involves customization. I love how the players can make the PA look like their character. Is it possible to do the same for Phantasm? That was part of a concept I had for an illusion/rad character I made in which the PA and phantasm were supposed to be pieces of their psyche given physical form expressing the superpowers the primary cannot.

Anyway I just think the phantasm pet gets so outclassed by all the other pets. It doesn't have control, it can't tank and its outclassed in damage by other pets.

 

Edited Friday at 06:10 AM by Fusaokek

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, Fusaokek said:

I think Phantasm is one of THE worst pets in the game. It's supposed to be a blaster type pet yet so many times this dumb ass pet will run into a mob behind my Phantom army or just run ahead into a mob. Is it a blaster or is it a tank? Because it will run right into mobs as if it were a tank and get wrecked like the ineffective glass cannon it is. Moreover the damage it does is outclassed by other damage pets like  fire imps which more than make up for their fragility with good, effective damage.

So why not either overhaul phantasm so that it acts more like a blaster attacking from a distance save for if an enemy gets too close and instead of the energy wave why not the overhead strike ? 

An alternative if changing the Phantasm attack pattern is not an option is upping its  defense/resistance to that of a sentinel. It wouldn't be a tank but it would be able to take a bit more damage when the pet decides to do stupid and run right behind PA into the mob. 

I've also wondered for a long time, why energy and not fire?  Since the illusion is supposed to be the damage dealing control set why not give the phantasm the best dealing damage in the blaster set (before later additions) and go with fire? Personally I'd love to see phantasm hit a crowd with fire rain.  My last suggestion for phantasm involves customization. I love how the players can make the PA look like their character. Is it possible to do the same for Phantasm? That was part of a concept I had for an illusion/rad character I made in which the PA and phantasm were supposed to be pieces of their psyche given physical form expressing the superpowers the primary cannot.

Anyway I just think the phantasm pet gets so outclassed by all the other pets. It doesn't have control, it can't tank and its outclassed in damage by other pets.

 

 

The main issue the Phantasm has, I think, is that its AI tells it to get Close so that its CONE attack will hit more mobs. The AI needs to be changed so that it doesn't get closer than necessary.

[Vanden]

Phantasm has two major issues that hinder its effectiveness:

 

1. Energy Torrent. This cone power has a range of 40 feet. NPCs are programmed to use ranged cone attacks at half the max range, to increase the odds that it'll hit more than one target. Apparently 20 feet is close enough that the Phantasm will decide it might as well close to melee range. Replace Energy Torrent with Explosive Blast and this issue goes away.

 

2. Decoy Phantasm dies immediately if the target the Phantasm summoned it against dies. Since Decoy Phantasm is a huge portion of Phantasm's total damage output, the pet's total effectiveness can vary wildly depending on what it chooses to summon the decoy against. If the Decoy were made to not die with its target, Phantasm would have much more consistent damage output.

 

Also, its powers should really be changed to do knockdown instead of knockback. AoE knockback is bad enough, but AoE knockback in the hands of an NPC that is completely incapable of using it judiciously? No thank you.

Edited Saturday at 01:17 AM by Vanden

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, Vanden said:

Phantasm has two major issues that hinder its effectiveness:

 

1. Energy Torrent. This cone power has a range of 40 feet. NPCs are programmed to use ranged cone attacks at half the max range, to increase the odds that it'll hit more than one target. Apparently 20 feet is close enough that the Phantasm will decide it might as well close to melee range. Replace Energy Torrent with Explosive Blast and this issue goes away.

 

2. Decoy Phantasm dies immediately if the target the Phantasm summoned it against dies. Since Decoy Phantasm is a huge portion of Phantasm's total damage output, the pet's total effectiveness can vary wildly depending on what it chooses to summon the decoy against. If the Decoy were made to not die with its target, Phantasm would have much more consistent damage output.

 

Also, its powers should really changed to do knockdown instead of knockback. AoE knockback is bad enough, but AoE knockback in the hands of an NPC that is completely incapable of using it judiciously? No thank you.

 

NO pet should be doing Knockback by default. That was recently fixed for MMs, it should apply to ALL pets, including Epic and Lore pets.

[Skyhawke]

If it's rushing in and dying quickly, it IS acting like a Blaster. 

 

 

[laudwic]

Back in the days of Live where being a Ill/Rad Controller was an amazing thing, the original Phantasm was much better than it is today.  Then, it stayed at range and didn't close like it does now.  You could also have multiple copies of it out.  

 

They reduced the summons to one (admittedly, teaching it to ride an elevator is a plus) and changed the AI.  I wish they would just give the AI for the pet in Symphony control as that stays at range.  In my mind, the only real downside of that one is it would also increase the effectiveness of the Phants summoned by Carnie.

[Fusaokek]

11 hours ago, Vanden said:

Phantasm has two major issues that hinder its effectiveness:

 

1. Energy Torrent. This cone power has a range of 40 feet. NPCs are programmed to use ranged cone attacks at half the max range, to increase the odds that it'll hit more than one target. Apparently 20 feet is close enough that the Phantasm will decide it might as well close to melee range. Replace Energy Torrent with Explosive Blast and this issue goes away.

 

2. Decoy Phantasm dies immediately if the target the Phantasm summoned it against dies. Since Decoy Phantasm is a huge portion of Phantasm's total damage output, the pet's total effectiveness can vary wildly depending on what it chooses to summon the decoy against. If the Decoy were made to not die with its target, Phantasm would have much more consistent damage output.

 

Also, its powers should really changed to do knockdown instead of knockback. AoE knockback is bad enough, but AoE knockback in the hands of an NPC that is completely incapable of using it judiciously? No thank you.

Well damn! It's clear you thought this through. Your suggestions are far better than mine

[Fusaokek]

6 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

If it's rushing in and dying quickly, it IS acting like a Blaster. 

 

 

A very bad blaster

[Riverdusk]

12 hours ago, Wavicle said:

 

NO pet should be doing Knockback by default. That was recently fixed for MMs, it should apply to ALL pets, including Epic and Lore pets.

 

While we are fixing pets, I'd also add in that all pets should be pushable or walk through like MM henchmen were made to be.  It is especially bad with phantom army as you have 3 immovable pets that still end up trapping or blocking me or teammates in certain spots (sewer map chokepoints or small office rooms can be especially bad).  

 

Not sure why that improvement was made to MM henchmen but not to controller (and others) pets.  It isn't a power improvement thing, it completely a quality of life thing.

 

Back to original poster, I'd still vote electric control's gremlins as the worst pet of all, but yeah, phantasm is down there.

[Shin Magmus]

+1 for changing Phantasm's KB to KD by default.  The fact is, even disregarding the other issues with this pet, Phantasm is actively detrimental to you and your teammates until you waste a slot and convert its KB.  This is a weak pet that asks you to waste a slot for no reason, which is terrible when directly compared to other pets.  Lots of Illusion Doms just skip Phantasm cus it's not worth it.  Illusion Controllers are more incentivized to take Phantasm and try to keep him alive but that is a tall order most of the time. 

[Ghost]

On 2/7/2025 at 1:37 AM, Wavicle said:

 

NO pet should be doing Knockback by default. That was recently fixed for MMs, it should apply to ALL pets, including Epic and Lore pets.

I disagree.

 

All pets should have only 2 powers.

1. Knockback

2. Group fly

 

and every few minutes they should yell out “sitter looking for farm”

 

 

 

[arcane]

Problem with this thread is twofold:

 

(1) Illusion Control as a whole is easily one of the best powersets in the game, and it could easily be considered to be in “Should not be buffed under any circumstances” territory as a result.

 

(2) The sub-issue of Knockback has obviously been dealt with over and over on this forum, and, until the developers signal a major shift in their thinking, we have already established that “Slot a Sudden Acceleration Proc” is the appropriate way to address any player’s aversion to Knockback.
 

That being said, it sounds like there is room for improvements to the Phantasm’s AI, which I would certainly support.

[Fusaokek]

8 hours ago, arcane said:

Problem with this thread is twofold:

 

(1) Illusion Control as a whole is easily one of the best powersets in the game, and it could easily be considered to be in “Should not be buffed under any circumstances” territory as a result.

 

(2) The sub-issue of Knockback has obviously been dealt with over and over on this forum, and, until the developers signal a major shift in their thinking, we have already established that “Slot a Sudden Acceleration Proc” is the appropriate way to address any player’s aversion to Knockback.
 

That being said, it sounds like there is room for improvements to the Phantasm’s AI, which I would certainly support.

Except I wasn't asking for Illusion to be 'buffed'. I was asking to make 1 of 2 changes, either A give phantasm the defense/ resistance of a sentinel to compensate for the broken AI when it runs into fights instead of hanging back and gets obliterated or change the AI to make it smarter and hold back in order to do damage from a distance with a better KB if the enemy gets closer. Granted I did suggest changing it from energy blast to fire so that it could possibly have fire rain. The other suggestion I made was the ability to customize so that I could have phantasm look like my character in the same way as PA.   Actually what most chimed in with was AI changes not 'buffs.'

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, Fusaokek said:

Except I wasn't asking for Illusion to be 'buffed'. I was asking to make 1 of 2 changes, either A give phantasm the defense/ resistance of a sentinel to compensate for the broken AI when it runs into fights instead of hanging back and gets obliterated or change the AI to make it smarter and hold back in order to do damage from a distance with a better KB if the enemy gets closer. Granted I did suggest changing it from energy blast to fire so that it could possibly have fire rain. The other suggestion I made was the ability to customize so that I could have phantasm look like my character in the same way as PA.   Actually what most chimed in with was AI changes not 'buffs.'

 

Any improvement is a buff. Those suggested changes to Phantasm would improve its damage and survivability, making them buffs. I happen to agree that Phantasm should hang back, and that its attacks should all be knockdown instead of knockback, but I'm not going to deny that those would be buffs. Obviously they are buffs. You were in fact asking for Illusion to be buffed, you were just specific about what exactly you wanted buffed.