Guild Wars 2

Yep. I’m whining—but I would like an answer. I know any offensive action breaks stealth, so why doesn’t stealth break until the hammer’s been dropped? Maybe beginning an execution should be considered a hostile action? Or is this intentional?

Being a thief who stealth executes I’m probably biased. I think there are merits to having it both count as a hostile action and not count as a hostile action.

On 1v1 I can see how it could be very annoying (okay, I can see how it would be annoying either way XD). Mostly in that there isn’t much you can do if you can’t aoe in downed state (guardian).

In major, multi-person engagements though I think that it can make things interesting. The thought of having of having to watch for stealthing thieves and try to coordinate to save downed allies appeals to me I guess :P).

if you down and your opponent isnt, i do see how it makes a difference, either they stab you with the flag and get badge of honor, or they cut you up with normal attack.

either way you dead.

theifs stealth, so they going to stealth finish. in comparison warriors got hp and armor plus lots of way to use stability so they can afford to finish without stealth.

I dont see this as any worst then for example Haste stomping (double cast speed), Stability stomping (unable to be CCd) or just chucking a Blind before you start a stomp (you’d be amazed how well this works). Tossing a wall to prevent allies to get in. (Guardian’s Hammer 5). Stomping while immune to damage (mistform, endure pain, elixir X, etcetc)

And then there is Stealth stomping.

Every class has some kind of mechanic to assist in finishing opponents. Thieves stealth. Rangers, Mesmers, Engineers, and Guardians use pets/illusions/turrets/spirit weapons to attack you in downed state while they focus their attention elsewhere. Eles and Necros throw down some aoes with conditions and can pretty much take a nap while you bleed out. Warriors just brute force through your downed abilities with Balanced Stance or sheer hp.

Yeah. I can knock down every single person with my hammer as a Warrior except the stealth thief.

Berkut made a good point though: In PvP en masse, I don’t think it’s a big deal, but in 1v1 or 2v1 or any small-scale battles, it really doesn’t make much sense that a thief can mop up the competition with just a few seconds of stealth, while his teammates continue thinning out the numbers.

Mostlikely this will not contribute to the thread, but I just wanted to mention, that being a thief myself, I prefer interrupting downed enemys before sending them to the spawn.

I will rarely stomp unless I’m stealthed, even 1v1. Trying to stomp unstealthed is death most of the time.

It’s not that big of a deal. I have, at best, a 50% stealth stomp success rate, probably less. One player can rez faster than I can stomp. If players are laying down AoE’s and attacks I’ll bail on the stomp. One knockdown and it’s over. If I’m low on health stealth stomping is very risky and I’ll usually heal first and stomp if I can but usually by then they’re rez’d and/or I’m taking loads of AoE damage.

Not a thief, but never considered it an issue that they stealthed before finishing me. Mind you, Id often fire off the Illusion before they stealthed anyhow :-p

I guess maybe it’s just a class issue. I need a target and LoS to be able to knock over my assassin.

arenta.2953:

if you down and your opponent isnt, i do see how it makes a difference, either they stab you with the flag and get badge of honor, or they cut you up with normal attack.

either way you dead.

theifs stealth, so they going to stealth finish. in comparison warriors got hp and armor plus lots of way to use stability so they can afford to finish without stealth.

If your opponent was almost down, you have a chance to rally by downing and then outplaying them. Stealth removes that.

I’m not complaining — I’m indifferent. I’m just pointing it out.

stealth is not even the strongest free-stomp mechanic.

other classes have abilities that allow them to finish people that are completely uninterruptable.

as usual, people just like to pick on stealth.

This isn’t an issue.
OP needs to stop crying.

Stealth breaks/reveals you at the end of an action when it actually does the damage, not at the beginning of an action, why should stomping be any different.

Stealth I don’t mind as I can still pull a thief off my friend if I know he is going to get staked.

Mist form on the other hand usually breaks channeled abilities. (go do churning earth and enter mist form and tell me if it works) yet it doesn’t break a stomp. Is that intended? It’s not like ele’s don’t also have access to stability too and most guys that run cantraps use both.

Jaldy.6285:

I know any offensive action breaks stealth, so why doesn’t stealth break until the hammer’s been dropped? Maybe beginning an execution should be considered a hostile action? Or is this intentional?

The simple answer is that stealth breaks on a damaging attack, and finishers are neither damaging, nor an attack, they’re a channeled “F” action.

Even if finishers were an attack, stealth would break only upon successful completion of a finishing blow that actually hit and killed, which would do very little to solve the issues people seem to have with it.

More fun to shadowstep-stomp, or triangular stomp (Infiltrators strike, start stomp, shadowstep away, inf return, shadow return for the stomp). Plus they are wayyy more sexy. Or for eles, mesmers, and other thieves theres good ole steal-stomping.

Jaldy.6285:

Yep. I’m whining—but I would like an answer. I know any offensive action breaks stealth, so why doesn’t stealth break until the hammer’s been dropped? Maybe beginning an execution should be considered a hostile action? Or is this intentional?

There is a easy solution for that. If they think they gonna make easy kill while you are downed and they doing it in stealth do a magic trick called perma stealth) – alt F4 Both of those actions are legal until they are claimed to be illegal and bannable. hf

when thief stealth stomp press alt-f4

u get last laugh

declan.3968:

when thief stealth stomp press alt-f4

u get last laugh

You also become “that guy”. If someone beats you at least be a good sport about it.

This is one of the trashiest things you can do in wvw right now. It isn’t as though running a single supply dolyak pays for half of your repair bill or anything. Oh wait, it is.

Most complaints for being downed come from engineers and guardians because, to be frank, they’re absolutely terrible when down. Really, they can’t do anything short of die most of the time, so they get to see all the stomp action right up close. Other classes like elementalists, thieves, and mesmers all get to port around and escape, but not the stationary classes.

That being said, stealth thief/mesmer finish isn’t the only issue that’s weird, even if it’s largely one of the most annoying. Consider that an elementalist can go mist-form in the middle of the flag-planting animation to become completely invulnerable, and that an engineer can do the same with elixir S (neither skill interrupts the animation). Even if I don’t like seeing stealth finishes, even I must acknowlege those are just as frustrating to the downed player.

Everyone always jumps in with “other classes have abilities that help you stomp too.” This is absolutely true, but these abilities have long cool downs, and you are generally sacrificing important “Oh crap” or burst damage abilities. Invulnerability, Haste, and Stability are all hard boons to come by. You can’t just pop them all the time.

On the other hand, a thief can stealth stomp, and still have several additional stealths available. He sacrifices much less for the stomp.

I’m not necessarily saying that stealth stomping has to go, but in the interest of a useful discussion, lets at least admit that stealth stomping is very powerful for how inexpensive it is.

LegoTechnic.5910:

Most complaints for being downed come from engineers and guardians because, to be frank, they’re absolutely terrible when down.

Which works out perfect for supreme idiots like me who have an engi and guardian.

It’s extremely frustrating how large the usefulness gap is between class downed skills. All classes should have the same downed skills in PvP, and the chance to rally should be predicated on actual player skill. I guess stealth stomps are just an added frustration when it negates the small usefulness of a downed interrupt and sometimes allows players to nab kills at a lower risk.

Guardians should be able to at least delay it with their aoe knocback skill. Should be enough time for at least most thief stealths to end unless they use the aoe stealth skill. I would say some classes have more difficulties like the Warrior. Their disrupting skill is a single target attack, so they cannot stop a thief in stealth as they cannot target the thief to use the skill.

LegoTechnic.5910:

Most complaints for being downed come from engineers and guardians because, to be frank, they’re absolutely terrible when down.

Although in this case, the guardian knockback bubble is better against stealth-stomping thieves than most other abilities, since you don’t have to target it. I’ve seen too many guardians just pop it as soon as a guy comes towards them instead of waiting until he’s 3/4 of the way through the stomp, though.

Now, a thief can stomp guardians on the first go by popping Signet of Shadows when they go for their bubble, but:
1. That is actually a utility skill, with a cooldown and stuff.
2. Timing!
So that seems pretty fair to me.

titanlectro.5029:

Everyone always jumps in with “other classes have abilities that help you stomp too.” This is absolutely true, but these abilities have long cool downs, and you are generally sacrificing important “Oh crap” or burst damage abilities. Invulnerability, Haste, and Stability are all hard boons to come by. You can’t just pop them all the time.

On the other hand, a thief can stealth stomp, and still have several additional stealths available. He sacrifices much less for the stomp.

I’m not necessarily saying that stealth stomping has to go, but in the interest of a useful discussion, lets at least admit that stealth stomping is very powerful for how inexpensive it is.

Most of the abilities I listed are regular skills (pets and aoe/conditions). Perhaps I should have just said, “Stealth stomping for thieves is ok because several other classes don’t even NEED to stomp to finish people off effectively.”

When I’m playing my thief alt, I usually just shortbow people to death. I save the stealth stomps for if I’m deep into the enemy lines and need to assassinate someone and get the hell out.