Guild Wars 2

Personally I would very much prefer if Shadow Return was removed completely from the skill Infiltrator’s Strike. I am a PvE player and typically destroy my targets rather quickly, and want to keep the flow going by rapidly jumping to my next target. However I find that while Infiltrator’s Strike is an excellent lead-in, Shadow Return simply gets in my way as it takes far, far too long to reverse back into Infiltrator’s Strike. This slows me down considerably, or forces me to waste two initiative on Shadow Return before I can use the skill I actually want again. Thus far I’ve been compensating with Steal, but that has its own cool down, making it only good for one extra target.

Now while I would prefer ditching Shadow Return, I understand that my thief play-style isn’t the most common (I hate daggers and refuse to use them, same for stealth), and other players my prefer to keep the skill, or even depend on it. So rather than flat out calling for its removal I decided to open up discussion on the topic. Perhaps the majority will agree with me, perhaps not. Either way it should prove enlightening.

No one has any opinions on this?

No.

15char.

I like Shadow Return the way it is, stop trying to nerf it.

Daecollo.9578:

No.

15char.

I like Shadow Return the way it is, stop trying to nerf it.

“So rather than flat out calling for its removal I decided to open up discussion on the topic. Perhaps the majority will agree with me, perhaps not. Either way it should prove enlightening.”

You could at least read the full post before you make an kitten of yourself.

I also like to use a sword on PvE, even with the daggers being usually considered superior, and I totally understand why you are asking this.
In PvE, Shadow Return is not that useful, since it actually gimps your mobility, not allowing you to teleports between your multiple targets without interruption.

But it’s not meant to allow you to do that. As it stands now, the sword 2nd ability is the best engager / disengager from the Thief, even rooting your target in place.
In WvW / PvP, it’s a really interesting ability, allowing for the smoothest hit and run tactics.

So it can’t just be removed like that, or PvP / WvW Sword Thieves would be basically nerfed to ground in the process.

I don’t know how it may be done, maybe with a Trait totally changing the ability if you actually make that choice?

Aethyl.7519:

I also like to use a sword on PvE, even with the daggers being usually considered superior, and I totally understand why you are asking this.
In PvE, Shadow Return is not that useful, since it actually gimps your mobility, not allowing you to teleports between your multiple targets without interruption.

But it’s not meant to allow you to do that. As it stands now, the sword 2nd ability is the best engager / disengager from the Thief, even rooting your target in place.
In WvW / PvP, it’s a really interesting ability, allowing for the smoothest hit and run tactics.

So it can’t just be removed like that, or PvP / WvW Sword Thieves would be basically nerfed to ground in the process.

I don’t know how it may be done, maybe with a Trait totally changing the ability if you actually make that choice?

Actually there has been talk of splitting skill functionality between PvP and PvE, so perhaps it could have both functions, with the classic style in PvP and the altered (no shadow return) in PvE.

Hm. I find Shadow Return to be situationally useful, so I wouldn’t want it removed. It would be nice if you could somehow disengage it without spending 2 more init, though. =/

I don’t have a solution, but I’d rather have it left as it is than have it removed. Perhaps reducing the init cost in PvE to 1 would make it more palatable?

Yeah, that’s why I suggested the possibility to make a choice, instead of totally removing it from PvE. Some players (and sometimes me actually) find Shadow Return to be useful sometimes.

I disagree. I find Infiltrator Strike/Shadow Return, great for initiating strong enemies and enemies with heavy CCs, and Sword builds would lose a lot of survivability without it.