Guild Wars 2

When I outfit my Thief with a short bow, some of my skills have red reticles on them indicating they are ranged and subject to accuracy parameters. When I use them they will turn from red to purple. I do not know what the change in color signifies.

Also, the reticle will occasionally change and instead of being down low in the center of the skill box, to acutally covering it. I don’t understand this feature either. I’ve asked several people, Wiki’d it, Googled it and have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. Could someone please explain ?

Thanks !

My guess is that when the reticle covers the skill , the target is “in Range” and that when my skill is in cooldown, it is designated such that it has the international sign for prohibition ( a circle with a diagonal slash through it) or a purple lightning bolt.

I still do not understand what the purple reticle means though, if I am correct about this.

Please attach pictures if you can. It’ll take my laptop an hour or two to patch so I can take a look myself >_>

Although, in the meantime, the reticle means it’s a ground-targeted aoe, not ranged. The color change probably comes from the skill cooldown, or for some thief skills (I think) lack of Initiative.

thank you Aidan.
I’ve done a little more reading and two more terms keep coming up that I bet have some relevance to these reticle changes. The terms are interrupt and preparation.
These are fundamentals that Rangers use all the time and since I am a novice they are virtually meaningless to me. I just need to use my Thief more and get a little better acquainted with him and these fairly intricate skills.

A purple reticle shows that you don’t currently have enough Initiative to use the skill.