Guild Wars 2

I was fooling around with D/D thief and death blossom’s evade. Is it the aftercast of the autoattack (last one in the chain, I think) that causes it to sometimes not activate instantly?

And if so, is there a reason for this mechanic?

There is a short aftercast on dagger and sword auto for thief that doesn’t allow another skill to be used for fractions of a second.

Reason: because anet? They could have extended the duration of the actual skill slightly which would allow you to interrupt it more easily, but still have taken the same amount of time to hit the damage and finish the aftercast.

Are you asking about this specific aftercast or about aftercasts in general?

Yes, it’s because there is an aftercast delay on each of the auto attacks. For the dagger auto chain, Double Strike has the least aftercast delay, then Wild Strike, then Lotus Strike. For the Sword, Slash (second hit) has the least aftercast delay, then Slice (first hit), then Crippling Strike.

As for is there a reason? Yes. Think about it this way; imagine two different attacks, one that has a one second cast time with one second aftercast delay and one with a two second cast time. Overall they have the same total time to activate, but which one would be harder to hit on a moving target/easier to interrupt? The two second cast time.

The best way to get around this is to just not continuously press your auto attacks if you anticipate needing to use a dodge skill shortly.

Stompy.1387:

Yes, it’s because there is an aftercast delay on each of the auto attacks. For the dagger auto chain, Double Strike has the least aftercast delay, then Wild Strike, then Lotus Strike. For the Sword, Slash (second hit) has the least aftercast delay, then Slice (first hit), then Crippling Strike.

As for is there a reason? Yes. Think about it this way; imagine two different attacks, one that has a one second cast time with one second aftercast delay and one with a two second cast time. Overall they have the same total time to activate, but which one would be harder to hit on a moving target/easier to interrupt? The two second cast time.

The best way to get around this is to just not continuously press your auto attacks if you anticipate needing to use a dodge skill shortly.

IMO aftercast makes things needlessly complicated. Too many mechanics makes things harder to balance; this game already has too many mechanics as it is.

Anyway, for a pretty major mechanic, aftercasts aren’t even documented in the game, WTF?