Guild Wars 2

Good morning,

retaliation is one of the things in GW2 I still do not understand completely. There is a wiki, but the information there looks a bit strange and it feels like it does not work as it should in certain situations. Maybe some of you can enlighten me:

1.) Wiki says it reflects damage, but does not reduce the damage you receive. English is not my native language, but afaik reflection means you change the direction. Confused.

2.) Wiki says the damage dealt depends on the power of the source of retaliaton. Does that mean:
Guradian casts retaliation on Elementalist
Elementalist gets hit by Thief

Retaliation damage is calculated with Guradians power?
Or does it mean, target as source:
The damage is calculated with the Elementalists power?
The logical path would suggest:
The damage is calcualted with the Thiefs power?
That would be a true reflection. But I do not think that is the case. Confused.

3.) It is technically possible to die from retalaiation, if you are a human player. I’ve experienced this in pve and pvp/wvwvw. But when I have the boon applied and fight any kind of boss (legendary, champion, elite) it does feel like a waste. While I can knock myself out with a few very bad timed attacks, the damage dealt to npcs seems to be … lower than it should be. Is there a border which prevents npcs from receiving retaliation-damage higher than 0.0xxx % of their max hp maybe? I have no proof, but the boon feels completely useless in pve.

4.) Or is retaliation just some sort of extra aura that hits everyone who touches you. The damage your attacker receives has nothing to do with the hit he has dealt to you. It only checks if he touched you, not how hard? And the damage he gets depends on your power because, the boon is yours. Like you hit him with an imaginary sword of yours? – I know that sounds very weird. I hope that is not the case.

Anyone can cure the confusion?

Retaliation doesn’t directly reflect damage back on an attacker. IN this case reflection means ‘returning damage back on an attacker’. Mechanically, when you apply the boon, the attacker takes damage when they attack you, scaling with your power. It ticks only once per attack, so it’s generally less useful against bosses, since a lot of their attacks are slow.

When a mob has an attack that ticks often, Retal procs more often. Retal is way more effective in WvW/PvP where attacks come in wat faster. It’s quite easy to kill yourself by casting an AoE on several players all with Retal up.

Pretty Pixie.8603:

1.) Retaliation doesn’t directly reflect damage back on an attacker. IN this case reflection means ‘returning damage back on an attacker’.

2.) Mechanically, when you apply the boon, the attacker takes damage when they attack you, scaling with your power.

3.) It ticks only ]once per attack[/], so it’s generally [u]less useful against bosses, since a lot of their attacks are slow. When a mob has an attack that ticks often, Retal procs more often. Retal is way more effective in WvW/PvP where attacks come in wat faster. It’s quite easy to kill yourself by casting an AoE on several players all with Retal up.

Thank you for your answers. I just marked the answers I needed to my questions.

So my assumption in 4.) is technically correct. Retaliation is basically a counter attack function. If I want to deal good damage with retaliation, I need high power. But as it only scales with 7.5 % of power and the base damage is 200, I won’t be able to deal higher blows than 500 damage each hit (approx).

But I’m not done yet, there is more:

When retaliation strikes, is it possible to dodge/block these “counter attacks?”
No.

When retaliation hits me, does it work like a regular attack? Does it use my defense ratings and reduce the damage or does it go straight through everything?
No.

If two people have retaliation active. And one of them attacks the other, once. Will there be a retaliation-bounce between them as long as the boon lasts? Or is there a function which prevents retaliation from triggering another retaliation?
No.

Retaliation dmg does not count as an attack (unlike true reflection). The dmg goes through everything afaik (it definitely ignores toughness and other dmg reductions and it can’t trigger retal dmg itself).

Thank you very much. I updated my previous post with the answers.