Guild Wars 2

Backpedaling: moving backwards and away from your target. Basically, holding “S”.

I rebound my WASD-movement. I only use “A” and “D” for my strafe, and I let go of my “W” for my weapon skill so I move with LMB+RMB. “S” is now bound as Dodge.

I’m not sure if this is efficient and if I’m gimping myself. As a Thief, I don’t need to backpedal since I spam dodge on my current build. But as a Mesmer, I feel that backpedaling is needed because of kiting. For my Mesmer, I try to move backwards in an angle by strafing and pointing my camera towards the target. It works sometimes, but it fails when I’m completely ganged up in PvE.

Anyone can advise on backpedaling in general? Is it useful in PvP, WvW or PvE?

on my mesmer, I combine dodge-back with other defensive skills like clones, knockbacks and freezes to keep melee foes at ranged distance. I’m only level 20 on my mesmer but it works great. (greatsword, decoy and mirror image. I only just unlocked skill 9, so im still deciding what I want there).

It probably shouldn’t be your first choice for avoiding damage, but I’m a ranger and sometimes it doesn’t hurt to simply walk backwards if a mob is starting to come after me. It buys a little extra time, especially when I cripple/chill the target and their movement speed is significantly reduced. If you’re going to kite, you might as well walk backwards instead of turn your back to the mob. Depends on the situation, though.

Backpeddling is essential as a Ranger, the pet is usually dead as a doorstop, limping back and dragging all the mobs with it.

So it’s great to be backpeddling into more mobs that just respawned behind you, with a pet thats back to 80% health but still does nothing, great fun.

Moving backwards also slows you down, I find it hard to avoid being hit by relying on the backwards movement alone. I like to use get-out-of-the-way skills in addition to dogging.

If you decided to go into Duelling with the Mesmer, at 10 trait points you can unlock the trait that drops a clone every time you doge, so dogging have another purpose. I don’t like to walk backwards in a straight line either, so I step side to side while I move back at the same time…

Solid Gold.9310:

Backpeddling is essential as a Ranger, the pet is usually dead as a doorstop, limping back and dragging all the mobs with it.

So it’s great to be backpeddling into more mobs that just respawned behind you, with a pet thats back to 80% health but still does nothing, great fun.

My bears (polar & brown) tank for me in Orr. Honestly, if your pets are dying, put a few trait points in them. Doesn’t take more than about 10 to make them really useful.

That said, they are not “fire n forget” either…you have to manage them. Rein em in and hold them when you need or send send them out to tank. Pet mgmt 101.

But to the original question…backwards movement in imo is every bit as important as any other direction. Why short yourself an option?

leet pro gamers will tell you to never backpeddle. If you’re going to kite then you need to strafe and turn. Backpeddling just slows you down and is less effective.

Really it’s up to you. I do it sometimes on my ranger to just help increase lbow distance or whatever. I never do it on my ele or thief.

While I prefer to kite with some manner of strafing and turning to avoid the slow speed of backpedaling, I like that it’s an option for movement in general.

There are times where I like to use it when wandering around or to slowly keep out of range of an enemy.

I also like being able to use it to quickly aim a dodge backwards.

It also lets you stay on target longer, such as for ranger as mentioned above or while casting most spells. Oh, sure, you are still on target when strafing and kiting, but sometimes you might turn enough to interrupt yourself or lose sight on target.

That said I do not think you are really hurting yourself by unbinding it. As long as you are comfortable with how you move and are capable of avoiding damage and getting attacks on target, more power to you if that leaves you free to ignore it. I just wouldn’t, personally.

With certain ranged auto-attacks (especially the slower ones, such as the infamous guardian scepter orbs) strafing usually causes some attacks to miss. Backpeddling will not, assuming the target remains still.

I can’t think of any mesmer attacks that are like that off the top of my head, but if there are you should take that into consideration.

Never limit yourself. Even if back peddling is not the ideal way of handling a situation, you’ll still find yourself needing to do it from time to time.

Personaly, I back pedal a lot. :p

Ethics.4519:

leet pro gamers will tell you to never backpeddle. If you’re going to kite then you need to strafe and turn. Backpeddling just slows you down and is less effective.

Really it’s up to you. I do it sometimes on my ranger to just help increase lbow distance or whatever. I never do it on my ele or thief.

Funny, because all the leet pro gamers I see backpedal at the start and randomly in fights (wvw, not spvp).

I only do it on my ranger like mentioned above.

As I ranger I usually do to line up multiple enemies for Poison Volley and sometimes traps. To get away from enemies, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Backpedaling is the lowest on the movement speed chart.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_speed

backpedaling is usually not efficient in combat as other pointed out however there are times when it is needed, like defending a keep shotting stuff down at enemies from top of wall and well they begin shoot back, you might want to consider moving backwards a bit with backpedaling OR maybe even dodge backwards, which you wont be able to either if you unbind it