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Mirror Image

From WoWWiki

Mirror Image
  • Mirror Image
  • Instant cast
  • 10% of base mana
  • Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the mage's enemies. Lasts 30 sec.
Usable by
ClassMage
Properties
TypeOffensive, Utility
SchoolArcane
Cooldown3 min.
Related buff
  • Mirror Image
  • Copies of the caster that attack on their own.
  • Duration: 30 seconds
"How do you know which one is real?!"
—DudemonaTCGSW 56

Mirror Image is a Mage spell of the Arcane tree. Casting it creates three copies of the Mage around him that cast spells at his current target and have a fraction of his health and spell power. This ability was added in Wrath of the Lich King and is trainable at level 80.

Contents

Details

This spell is not affected by the global cooldown nor triggers it, making it a universal DPS increase to cast. However, it triggers a GCD on every other Mage spell that doesn't have a cooldown such as Cold Snap, Icy Veins, Combustion and damage trinkets. Why it does this is unknown. So, you have to use your trinket-bomb macros twice. First time to cast "MI + Nuke spell", second time to cast "Trinkets/CDs + Nuke spell".

The images created do low damage and receive a percentage of the Mage's spell power. They cast 3.0 second Frostbolts and occasionally shoot Fireblasts. Mirror Images inherit the spell hit rating on their master's gear (but not that of talents like Elemental Precision).

Mirror Images inherit 33.33% of their master's spell power each. their Frostbolts do 163-169 + 30% of that spell power as frost damage and crit for 150% of their normal damage (aside from snaring their target by 40% for 4 secs), while the Fireblasts do 88-98 + 15% of that spell power as fire damage and crit for 150%.[1]

Tips and tactics

The Mirror Images inherit the Mage's threat lists, and the Mage also gains a 90M threat reduction debuff like Fade. This makes it useful as a last-ditch threat dump. The images do an average of 15k damage over 30 seconds with no spell power, which is highly useful for single-target DPS in raids and sustained PvP burst.

Known bugs

At recent moment (Patch 3.2.2a) there are multiply reports, that Mirror Images still sometime break crowd control even with instant spells (Fire Blast), whereas Patch 3.1.2 notes say that Images "should no longer cast Fire Blast or Frostbolt on targets that are affected by crowd control debuffs that break immediately on damage unless they are already casting these spells when crowd control is applied.". Considering that Fire Blast has no cast time, Mirror Image must acquire already crowd controlled target to cast it and break control.

Proof from recent worldoflogs.com report (translated): [23:35:49.605] Mirror Image's Fire Blast breaks Maz'dinah's Polymorph[2]

Patch changes

  • Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.
  • Patch 3.1.2 (2009-05-19): The images summoned by this spell will now target the creature that most hates the Mage, and should no longer cast Fire Blast or Frostbolt on targets that are affected by crowd control debuffs that break immediately on damage unless they are already casting these spells when crowd control is applied.
  • Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Mirror Image will no longer cast Polymorph.
  • Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Mirror Image now triggers a global cooldown on all spells. (possibly a bug).

References

  1. ^ Roywyn 2009-11-04. WotLK - Complete Mage Compendium (3.2 Updated). Elitist Jerks. Retrieved on 2009-08-05.
  2. ^ Report (Query - spell id 28271, "Interrupt/Dispel" checkbox) (2009-11-18).

External links