Which would you choose if you could only take one?
Mirror Image is more effective, with a minimum of 66% miss chance, up to 85% chance. However, every time the miss chance works, the effectiveness goes down, and if used for a heated battle, it will run out before the duration ends.
Blur however, while stuck at 20% miss chance, will likely last for the full duration.
So which is more worth it?
Combats usually don't last that long, so for personal protection, Mirror Image. However you can buff an ally with Blur but not Mirror Image, so if you feel safe you can put Blur on a friend.
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Context helps, as different spellcasters use these for different things. For instance, a magus might prefer Blur as he will be drawing a bunch of melee attacks with his uber-duber-d6-damage crits, so that it stays up, meanwhile a witch could prefer Mirror Image because they won't be targets because all of their stuff just makes parties better, and a Bloodrager would prefer blur if he takes Arcane bloodrage just because he can use it as a free action. What spellcaster are you asking about, revaar?
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Mirror Image. Casting Mirror Image is often likely to save me more hit points than spending that action to attack and kill the monsters one attack action sooner. Blur may have some corner case uses but in many battles it won't even turn one hit against you into a miss. Blur is a terrible spell; if it were 1st level, it not be obviously better than Shield. (Shield gives you +4 AC which will usually turn more than 20% of the potential hits against you into misses). Since Blur is second level, the only reason to have it in your spellbook is if you need it to make a magic item.
@ArmouredMonk13 I'm running an Archaeologist Bard, who just hit 4th level. I'm taking animal messenger for my first 2nd level spell for RP reasons, and debating over blur and mirror image for a defensive spell.
@Petty Alchemy I realize that combats won't last the 4 minutes of the duration, but our group tends to fit 2 or even 3 combats in before the GM says that the minutes are up.
Power > Endurance. Take Mirror Image.
If I could cast a spell that guaranteed that the 5th attack against me would always miss, or the next 3 attacks against me would miss, I'd always choose the latter. Hence, mirror image is my vote as well.
Which would you choose if you could only take one?
Mirror Image is more effective, with a minimum of 66% miss chance, up to 85% chance. However, every time the miss chance works, the effectiveness goes down, and if used for a heated battle, it will run out before the duration ends.
Blur however, while stuck at 20% miss chance, will likely last for the full duration.
So which is more worth it?
Mirror Image. Always. Just works better. It's one of the three go-to modes of defense for arcane casters, ever.
like zoidberg said... why not both?
i have an almost-tank magus that runs both and laughs at enemies. its really fun when i get my wand of blur, scroll/wand of mirror image, and displacement pre-cast before a combat we all saw coming. then i can just walk in and laugh. until the gm rolls low, high, 1, and 19, then 20, and crits me to death with one unlucky streak of dicerolls.
I found blur to be more effective and versatile.
As others mentioned you can put it on allies and it stops precision based attacks such as sneak attack. Enemies focusing on you will quickly bring down the mirror images, e.g. an archer will get them off you fast. Also, blur has a much longer duration than mirror image, so it's good for prebuffing and not wasting a round of combat. Finally, mirror image effectively is 5 easier to hit since an image goes away even when they miss you by 5, so it's not as strong as blur IMO.
But when you can get both, you should :-)
It takes roughly 10 attacks against you for blur to even out with a minimum rolled Mirror Image in # of hits prevented. And it takes 25 attacks to even it up if you roll max.
At CL 6, it takes 15-30 attacks to even em up.
CL 9 takes 20-35.
CL 12 takes 25-40.
CL 15 30-40.
CL 18 35-40.
So... a semi-reasonable scenario, with a rapid shooting full bab archer of 6th level shootin at ya at CL 6 cast minimum rolled Mirror Image;
Round 1 he eats off 2 images and pegs ya with a hit. Round 2 hit eat off the last one and gets 2 hits in. You've stopped 3 attacks.
For blur to even out (on average), and stop 3 attacks, he'd have to full attack you for 5 rounds (15 attacks).
You, or your party, are doing something very wrong to let him attack you without any hindrance for that long.
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The only ‘real’ advantage Blur has over Mirror Image is that it can target others. And it stops precision based attacks.
I found blur to be more effective and versatile.
As others mentioned you can put it on allies and it stops precision based attacks such as sneak attack. Enemies focusing on you will quickly bring down the mirror images, e.g. an archer will get them off you fast. Also, blur has a much longer duration than mirror image, so it's good for prebuffing and not wasting a round of combat. Finally, mirror image effectively is 5 easier to hit since an image goes away even when they miss you by 5, so it's not as strong as blur IMO.
But when you can get both, you should :-)
Blur doesn't have a longer duration than Mirror Image. (unless the images are all destroyed) They are both 1 min/level.
Mirror Image helps more if the enemy archer focuses you than Blur. By a lot.
Blur is not as powerful as Mirror Image period. Blur can be nice with the moonlight stalker feats, and has the utility of being used on an ally. In all other situations Mirror Image wins by a mile.
One sided contest this, mirror image every day of the week and twice at the weekend.
I found blur to be more effective and versatile.
As others mentioned you can put it on allies and it stops precision based attacks such as sneak attack. Enemies focusing on you will quickly bring down the mirror images, e.g. an archer will get them off you fast. Also, blur has a much longer duration than mirror image, so it's good for prebuffing and not wasting a round of combat. Finally, mirror image effectively is 5 easier to hit since an image goes away even when they miss you by 5, so it's not as strong as blur IMO.
But when you can get both, you should :-)Blur doesn't have a longer duration than Mirror Image. (unless the images are all destroyed) They are both 1 min/level.
Mirror Image helps more if the enemy archer focuses you than Blur. By a lot.
You are right about mirror image having the same duration as blur, I misremembered... :-)
But I stand by my opinion. Mirror image can simply be beaten away, particularly when fighting many enemies, and then it's gone. Blur does not work the same way.
Just tonight the guy with mirror images was hit 2 out of 3 rounds, and he had to recast because the enemy started to focus on the obviously magic using guy.
Last time with blur he did not eat that much damage. But that's just an anecdote :-P
I find blur better, mirror image comes after that for me. If mirror image works better in the OP's situation and the ability to buff an ally is not important, then he should choose it :-)
It takes roughly 10 attacks against you for blur to even out with a minimum rolled Mirror Image in # of hits prevented. And it takes 25 attacks to even it up if you roll max.
At CL 6, it takes 15-30 attacks to even em up.
CL 9 takes 20-35.
CL 12 takes 25-40.
CL 15 30-40.
CL 18 35-40.So... a semi-reasonable scenario, with a rapid shooting full bab archer of 6th level shootin at ya at CL 6 cast minimum rolled Mirror Image;
Round 1 he eats off 2 images and pegs ya with a hit. Round 2 hit eat off the last one and gets 2 hits in. You've stopped 3 attacks.
For blur to even out (on average), and stop 3 attacks, he'd have to full attack you for 5 rounds (15 attacks).
You, or your party, are doing something very wrong to let him attack you without any hindrance for that long.
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The only ‘real’ advantage Blur has over Mirror Image is that it can target others. And it stops precision based attacks.
Can you please elaborate on these calculations? I am interested in seeing them :-)
What AC and attack bonuses did you include?
How did you model the effectiveness of mirror image when the figments are destroyed?
*curious*
One item I see people keep forgetting about mirror image is that a image can get *POPPED* even on a miss. That miss still has to be within 5 of the target's AC but that still usually means if you're being attacked, a image will be *POPPED* on every swing.
So, lots of attacks against you, Blurr is better. A few big attacks against you, Mirror Image is better.
My thoughts exactly :-)
So I am really looking forward to the calculations I asked for above :-D