Guild Wars 2

When attempting to run pass a couple of mobs to get somewhere quicker, why does my character slow down when hit by a projectile? I don’t see any visual sign on the screen telling me why.

I think the slower running triggers anytime you’re in combat.

You’re slightly slower in combat. If you dodge/evade the attacks, you will not enter combat and will not slow down.

Characters who are in combat move at a slower speed. When you get hit, you’re automatically put into combat (including if you get “hit” by taking fall damage), and thus your movement speed is reduced until you get out of combat.

There’s no specific indicator on-screen to show whether you’re in combat, but if you look at the bottom right side of the combat bar (where your utilities / healing skill is) you can see that when you’re in combat, that part of the screen is surrounded by a yellow highlight and you’re unable to switch healing / utility skills during that time, so you can use that as a sort of pseudo-indicator.

I take it as soon as you are spotted by a mob, you automatically enter combat mode? But you still run at the correct speed, it’s only when you get hit that you slow down somewhat.

This annoys me to no end. This essentially gives mobs (but not me) a “magical first attack” called slow or cripple.

If I am slowed during combat the mobs should be slowed by my attacks as well.

Actually this is really annoying for rangers as the pets also slow you down twice as much as classes with no pets…

Works both ways. They don’t run normal speed when you hit them either. It’s combat speed. Keeps things even for combat. If you could just run at normal or buffed speed through mobs…that’s when it would get ridiculous.

So…they are slowed. Slowed to your speed. Which makes sense.

Most people have nailed it. To add a little bit, it’s especially tougher for rangers, mesmers, and necros, anything with a pet ( as they also have it tough in Jade Maw). The rangers pet will attack and pull random stuff, so will necros, and as a mesmer I have spawn clone on dodge, so even if I dodge a random projectile to keep my speed up, my clone will usually aggro the closest thing and slow my speed (which is already slow enough!).

Devilcryforu.7328:

I take it as soon as you are spotted by a mob, you automatically enter combat mode? But you still run at the correct speed, it’s only when you get hit that you slow down somewhat.

I don’t think you’re actually in combat mode until you get hit. Then you slow down and don’t speed up again until enemies have stopped attacking for like 5 seconds. Taking falling damage is similar… you’re put into combat mode for a few seconds, move slower, and don’t regen health automatically.

Gestankfaust.4216:

Works both ways. They don’t run normal speed when you hit them either. It’s combat speed. Keeps things even for combat. If you could just run at normal or buffed speed through mobs…that’s when it would get ridiculous.

So…they are slowed. Slowed to your speed. Which makes sense.

Could you please forward this to the Risen in Orr? I have never seen them slowed by any of my attacks. I have also never seen in film or otherwise Undead that have speed boost on them at all times. Most are lumbering slow creatures. The undead of Tyria seem to have a completely different physiology than any world I have ever read about, or experienced.

ElenaDragon.8401:

Devilcryforu.7328:

I take it as soon as you are spotted by a mob, you automatically enter combat mode? But you still run at the correct speed, it’s only when you get hit that you slow down somewhat.

I don’t think you’re actually in combat mode until you get hit. Then you slow down and don’t speed up again until enemies have stopped attacking for like 5 seconds. Taking falling damage is similar… you’re put into combat mode for a few seconds, move slower, and don’t regen health automatically.

I have screenshots of myself laying on the ground sleeping waiting for my combat mode to shut off. The longest I have remained in combat mode not even close to anything actually attacking me is greater than 10 minutes. These screenshots with bug reports have been sent in via in-game bug reports.

Nalora.7964:

Gestankfaust.4216:

Works both ways. They don’t run normal speed when you hit them either. It’s combat speed. Keeps things even for combat. If you could just run at normal or buffed speed through mobs…that’s when it would get ridiculous.

So…they are slowed. Slowed to your speed. Which makes sense.

Could you please forward this to the Risen in Orr? I have never seen them slowed by any of my attacks. I have also never seen in film or otherwise Undead that have speed boost on them at all times. Most are lumbering slow creatures. The undead of Tyria seem to have a completely different physiology than any world I have ever read about, or experienced.

Yeah…Im there with ya. But the system still is as I said. Maybe they just have a better run speed cause they want your brains

:P

Its a horrible mechanic. Enough said.

Sahfur.5612:

Its a horrible mechanic. Enough said.

No…it is not. It’s the same in most MMOs that want you to not be able to run through the world naked. It works as intended.

WTF is up with you people? You think you should actually not break stride after bring hit? What do you think the other side would post? “WTF!!! I hit the prick and he never slowed at all!!!”

nuff said.

I noticed this playing my engineer; when I throw down a turret at an event spot and go do something else I always know when it’s being attacked/attacking because I slow down.

In real world, we have “non combat” speed / “combat” speed / “flee” speed 3 status.
Normally flee is the fastest, combat speed being the slowest.

In GW2, we got only 2 status, non combat speed and combat speed. This is a great step from “outdated” game that only 1 speed status inside or outside of combat, but it is also far from perfect. Possibly in future, other games will give us all 3 choices, who knows, but the 2 speed level is widely used in nowadays games.

imo, flee speed could be there: ignoring incoming attack but focus on the run which as a result of receiving extra damage for more movement speed.

Crossaber.8934:

imo, flee speed could be there: ignoring incoming attack but focus on the run which as a result of receiving extra damage for more movement speed.

See…sometimes I get a different point of view and it makes me think.

^This

Some sort of “flee” does make sense.

These others that just cant get why you slow…I dunno

It’s more like people run faster out of combat. The only alternative is taking away the out-of-combat run boost. Does anyone agree to that?

Nalora.7964:

Could you please forward this to the Risen in Orr? I have never seen them slowed by any of my attacks. I have also never seen in film or otherwise Undead that have speed boost on them at all times. Most are lumbering slow creatures. The undead of Tyria seem to have a completely different physiology than any world I have ever read about, or experienced.

Ungh, this. They don’t do rigor mortis like they used to.

Is it fun? No.

Does it keep people from doing content they normally wouldn’t? Not really, it just annoys them while experiencing the content and causes them to end up experiencing less content over more time.

Does it favor classes with evade and sustain? Yes.

Does it make sense? No. Adrenaline does not cause people to suddenly walk at half speed. If anything you become faster.

-> Bad mechanic.

There are better ways to gate content to stop “naked people from running” who wouldn’t accomplish anything from doing so anyway. They already have mobs focus lower leveled players in high level content, they aggro from further away or at least seem to. They definitely prioritized me when I ran to orr at low level just for the fun of it. It was easy enough to evade attacks and avoid combat so its not like the mechanic really holds any serious purpose to stop runners.

A bandage does not equal a surgery.

Edit: It also hasn’t exactly stopped me from running out of combat to survive. We have enough evades that it just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even help with l2p stuff. Its just annoying and ends up causing us to take longer to do anything in the game.