The tank was alive and I did not pull agro. I try not to use cool downs if I know I will surpass the tank in threat.

I just found it odd that it has happened two times to me while Mirror Image was being used on the KT fight on two separate occasions.

I have experienced in some bosses (like DTK frostmage boss, dont remember the name) that dont target mirror images in his random target frostbolts, he only targets the mage.

Based on that, and what Kludge shared, could he just have passed tanks agro with his mirror images (133% threat thing), and the boss casted the 28k frostbolt (usually directed to the top threat raider) on him??

and another thing: what happens to the threat if the mage casts invisibility while the MIs are up? or while the 30s is over?

Your threat is wiped completely when you cast Invisibility during MI. If I am afraid of pulling threat when the aura fades, I make sure to cast invisibility before my CD on MI is under 2:30.

(Having the omen change helps a bunch when judging whether to invis or get a salv)

Update: I have just released Omen v3.0.6 which contains the MI/Fade changes.
Convenient download links:
Omen Threat Meter : WoWInterface Downloads : Combat Mods
Omen Threat Meter - Addons - Curse

updated the main post with the change to Omen 3.0.6.

Latest patch notes:
WoW -> Test Realm Patch Notes

Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.

Anyone have a PTR character copied to see the new MI threat values?

It seems to me since 3.08 that mirror image no longer effectively takes me off the threat table. Anybody else notice this?

Still working as a threat suppression for me.

hmmm. That is possible but I highly doubt it. If you see your threat in grey in omen its because the new update was hacked in to display what your threat would be at if you did not cast mirror image. It still reduces your threat.

I am pretty sure I have seen this as well and will try to test it this evening. It could however be an Omen issue and not necessarily a threat issue.

I haven't had any problems with MI in a group setting. The main difference is that you can't "taunt" (the 133% bug) using the mirror images, like you used to be able.

Playing solo, threat seems equal among the images and the mage, so mobs seem unable to decide what to target and can shift frequently. The water elemental is capable of grabbing aggro from the images & the mage, so whatever the threat level is, it seems relatively low.

Since Omen still appears to work correctly, I assume the reported threat still has the same offset value - at least when you are in a group. I don't think I looked at Omen when I popped MI while playing solo.

Also the images work correctly now, if you pull agro and use MI, the mobs just go to someone else, I haven't checked how much threat the images inherit but it's enough to make it a second IB for instant escape from death.

I'm fairly confident the images inherit *no* threat at the moment. This is fine in group situations, where other party members are sure to be on the mob's threat table, and so the 'fade' mechanic properly drops you below them.

The trouble comes during solo play. The images spawn with 0 threat, and they are not artificially placed onto the mob's threat table. Therefore, the mob will continue attacking the mage even though you're at some extremely negative threat value -- there's nothing else in that mob's table to attack. Once an image makes a hostile action against the mob, it then has something above the player on its table, and will divert to the image. Previously, you could use MI as an oh shit button for overpulls while soloing to buy time for an invis. This no longer works since it is unlikely that the images will attack every single angry critter that is after you within a reasonable timeframe.

Zero threat would be just fine in solo play, too... just so long as they are immediately placed onto all mobs threat tables.

Speaking as Omen's author, I would like to clarify the following, because some of the posts above this one are incorrect.

1. The images that you summon each inherit 100% of your threat when you casted it. This also includes inheriting 0 threat (that is, you are on a mob's threat table via body pulling at 0 threat). This also means mirror images do not attack mobs you are not in combat with.

2. There are no other changes apart from the above with regards to Mirror Image.

3. Omen is unable to obtain the threat value of any of your images unless one of the following is true
A) Your target is targeting an image (obtained as "targettarget" unit)
B) One of your party/raid members is targetting one of your images (obtained as "partyXtarget" or "raidXtarget" unit)
C) You mouse is hovering on an image (obtained as "mouseover" unit)

This is why Omen usually does not show the threat of your images - because it is unable to get a valid unit handle on them. They do not count as pets hence "pet" does not work.

From yesterday experimentation on solo play (Solo instance rush for the ancients). I'm not using Omen (just the standart % from Blizzard UI).

I pull one single mob with a damaging nuke, wait until it's in melee range, cast Mirror image. The mob stay at 100% threat and hit me until an image's frostbolt hit it , then it switch to the images.

I pull one pack of 4 mobs (damaging only one) and cast Mirror image, then it's chaos, images start attacking random targets, and even after 10 sec I still have one mob hiting me (still at 100% threat) because the images didn't attack it.

If I kill every target and the images are still up they DO attack targets that are nearby but not in combat with me.

Hmmm, ok I wish I had taken the time to read this thread earlier as I’ve been a victim (stupidly) of a misconception about how MI works. I actually believe it was a genuine aggro dump whereby you’d lose an amount of your threat (upon cast) but your threat would be split among your images. But this thread says that each Image actually inherits 135% threat which means that if you use it as your “oh shit” button, the boss/mob will move to target your image. This might save you but it pisses off the tank because of positioning.

However, the only post I have seen about this being ‘fixed’ is that of Maje’s above, which is contradicted by the most recent post by Lileith (or at least, to the distinction of whether your aggro fades on cast or on your image's hit). Can anyone else confirm/deny this? Is MI now usable as a valid aggro dump (because in which case, it’d be the first aggro dump of choice before IB).

Secondly, I’d also like to clarify that upon the fading of the 30 sec MI buff, you will have your original (pre-cast) threat returned back to you, plus any threat you’ve accumulated during that time? Also, the threat that your Images accumulated is not added back to the player upon their death/disappearance?

Even now, I use MI as a buffer quite early on in the fight (where I’m at 60-80% of tank’s threat). I’d pop my CDs and then use MI to give me sort of a vacuumed zone to do intensive burst damage without having to worry about threat. However, the posts here changes my opinion of this slightly, as it seems that I may only have prolonged my life for 30 seconds as during the expiration of MI, I risk having out-aggro’d the tank when all threat has been returned to me. Am I right or wrong in using MI the way I have described here?


As far as personal experience goes, I have yet to have an issue in using MI as a ‘buffer’ for periods in which I know I will be doing a lot of burst damage. In fact, during boss fights it’s something that is generally on CD for me (hey every bit of extra dps helps) and to me, there wasn’t any harm in having it there – especially since I still had IB and invisibility for my use.

I take from that it also means it is possible to pull aggro directly after the duration of the buff?

Thanks for that

Need to d/l the new omen then.

According to my experimentation it seems that the images start with 0 threat, (actually not even on the mob agro list until they perform an action, such as frostbolt) Which mean that even if you have -4M threat you will still be attacked until the images enter the mob's agro list (only when in solo situations).

Of course when in a raid the mob will switch to another player on the agro list as soon as you use the images.

I did a few quick runs of this against Dr Boom, I want to write an addon for a more exhaustive set of data collection on it before I do a full write up, since theres definitely some funky mechanics at work (since I can maintain aggro over them in some cases, but not others (did Baron Rivendare always have twitchy aggro?)).

But in short, Images inherit 100% of your current raw threat on all targets you are currently in combat with when you cast it, and your threat is set to the ridiculous -40 number, the mob won't detarget you until something makes a hostile act on it, however, but their fireblast reaction can take care of that in most cases.

It might have to do with the delay upon spawning before they get any buffs. For example, I noticed while testing for the scaling of MI that sometimes their first cast is not affected by our coefficient (ie: does the same base damage you would if you had 0 spell damage on). Its happens from time to time. It might be related.

This is not true. The images enter the threat table of the mob immediately. What you are probably missing in your experimentation is that you *cannot* obtain the threat value of an image unless

A) Your target (the mob) is targeting an image (obtained as "targettarget" unit)
B) One of your party/raid members is targetting one of your images (obtained as "partyXtarget" or "raidXtarget" unit)
C) You mouse is hovering on an image (obtained as "mouseover" unit)

and hence you thought that they aren't on the mob's threat table. They are in fact on the mob's threat table, its just that you can't query for it. Currently, you cannot just ask the mob for its threat table. To rephrase that, you can't say "give me your threat table". You can only ask "Is X on your threat table?" And X must be reachable through your focus/target/party/raid/mouseover.


I think perhaps more research is needed on WoW's mob targeting system. For example, how often does a mob check whether it needs to switch targets to attack the person that has just pulled aggro? We know that every player's health is throttled to 0.3s or so on the server side, the targetting system might also be on such a throttle, and its side effects when combined with mirror images spawning and being artificially injected into the threat table on their spawn (or maybe it is injected 0.3 seconds after their spawn?) is unknown.

This might be related to Manly's observations on delayed spell coefficients inheritance from the mage.

It's interesting though, since the behavior has changed. Pre-3.0.8, the images snapped aggro... from everything. Now it has changed. This is why I postulated that they are no longer artificially added to the threat table, requiring a hostile action to gain the attention of a mob. It had nothing to do with actual Omen tests.