Guild Wars 2

It really bothers me that I charge into battle while shouting retreat.

Incoming, however, is versatile to more meanings. One as in, “get the hell out of there”, or “watch out for that attack!”

If anything, Retreat should be a shout skill for Rangers to be used a survivability pet skill. but that is getting off-topic.

I agree, I doubt many guardians use this skill to really retreat ^^ Hey a guardian never flees, a guardian dies where he is…

Perhaps the best way to do this, but I doubt it is doable, is to shout “retreat” if you’re going away from monsters, “charge” if you’re going to the enemy, and “be ready” if you’re not moving, so a way to have the vocal change depending on the situation…

hithlain.4385:

Hey a guardian cant flee, a guardian dies where he is….

- fixed lol.

But really the name was pretty fitting within the scope of what I assume was the devs intention; I.e you slam it on to apply aegis, and a route of escape on the front lines when things start to go south as a way of getting your possibly nearly dead allies the hell outta there.

The fact its used as a mobility tool rather than for purpose is because guard has kitten all choice. That and the condition removal and stability that guardians give out along with retreat is rarely noticed in the zerg with many people not really noticing what boons they have been given (granted thats players fault) So alot of guardians stopped synergizing and just blow utilities for AH or other self centered gains.

Personally alot of times I’d have loved for people to actually be able to hear my characters shout ‘retreat’ because they might then realise that the reason im saying it is because its time to gtfo and not die to that sneaky flank that they havent noticed.

Normally I then presume to try my best to blow all my cooldowns, shield bubbles and other things so they can actually flee. Some do, but im just a corpse on the floor

I have two suggestions.
1. Retreat should be renamed to “Assume Logan Formation”
2. And that also fixes your “hey a guardian cant flee, a guardian dies where he is…”

Changing “Retreat!”s name has been suggested at least 4 times already. Suggestions that I’ve liked were “Move It!” and “With Haste!”. You don’t want the name to imply any specific behavior apart from running, since at some point you’re not going to use it to retreat/advance and it’s going to look silly.

Really? Others don’t hear when we shout aloud? I didn’t know…

Seeing as this ability also provides Aegis I think the shout being named ‘Through the Breach’ however that name would be suitable for WvW only. Another name that would work is ’Drive Them Back! or maybe even “To Victory!”

hithlain.4385:

Really? Others don’t hear when we shout aloud? I didn’t know…

I always assumed they did myself, then saw many on the forums say otherwise. So I watched in game and often you’ll see guardians do the animation with that plume of air or whatever it is shooting out from them but they wont make a sound it’ll just grant you aegis and swift.

Yet now and then I will hear ‘for great justice’ and other things from warriors but it seems quite random and in between. Either its semi glitched and only works from time to time or its limited to prevent mass spam. Maybe they arent ment to be heard at all. Not something that comes up often but as mentioned this topic has been braught up and I think even a person there said the name didnt matter because you didnt hear the shouts anyway.

I think being able to hear them would add a good tactical element to them in terms of awareness as I said. Still I suppose most still wouldnt notice lol.

How ’bout calling it Charge?

I think warriors might have an ability called charge but I may be wrong and also Charge has been used so often for abilities like this so it’d be nice to see something new.

Vitu.3580:

How ’bout calling it Charge?

+1

my thought exactly. if’s pretty fitting. but “watch out” is also really good.

How about “Double Quick!”

How about, " Unass the A-O"…

but “retreat” actually sounds pretty cool

Part of why guardians make the best commanders

We’ve got good lines with retreat , stand your ground,
Hold the line, and save yourselves

And I always chuckle a bit when warrior commanders tell us to
“shake it off”

Having given it some thought I think ‘retreat’ is still fitting. Whilst swiftness from it is used for mobility randomly and it does grant an aegis I think its still a tool for the retreat overall.

Mainly I think of the guardian in the role he shines – small group skirmish.

In opening in these fights everyone is fresh and sure buffs of any kind help against openers as you run into the battle. Yet really id probably use SYG instead to prevent them controlling/breaking the charge. Or hold the line, to reduce incoming focus. In general. I could ofc spam all shouts at once but again – would be a waste for my own personal synergy; such as cure condition on shout.

So then im left with why use it on retreat? well people usually fall back for various reasons. Lack of cooldowns and Hp, overall awareness that we are losing, things like that. Often this results in a few things.

They make a run for me or others in the group/try and bunch up and also expect everyone to be ‘retreating’

If they have low health, often people have heals already on cooldown, for myself ive often been killed within mere moments of my signet being off cooldown – a quickly applied aegis would have given me just long enough to recover.

Coupled with the long swiftness it gives me and my friends the speed we need to gain ground away from those chasing us- with what should be a mix off warriors blowing warhorns and me using line of warding and other abilities, our chance of a retreat goes up!

Then there’s the fact that during mobility, or opening we already most likely have our passive aegis active. So popping it before contact wastes the additional aegis granted by the ability as far as we are concerned.

When our team flees and health is low remember that some are glass cannons, if a thief is on them/has been for some time – likely his initiative is fairly low but he could have just enough for that last HS that would do maximum damage to your fleeing comrade. That aegis, combined with your own shield bubble and other abilities is whats allowed many a person I’ve duo’d with to actually make it inside a fort door rather than get left to die yards short of it.

So yeah despite varying circumstances and this wall of text based on me using it in real time :p I think the name retreat is fine.

Others can hear you, at least I’ve hear a lot of times shouts comming from my allies (for great justice!!). Maybe you need to be close to them or it’s random when you hear them, but I’ve heard shouts from allies.

I like the “Incomming!” idea, and it has 1 advantage over other replacement ideas: There are sound files of multiple races (if not all) shouting it, so it can be easily implemented (and anyway some races lack the audio for some shouts, like Sylvari with Hold the Line being mute).

Anyway, I got used to Retreat using this reasonement:

- I’m telling my allies to retreat because I WILL (and maybe some other valerous ally too) take care of things for them so they don’t need to stand fighting anymore. I shout retreat to save their lives (I often follow it with “Save Yourselves!” lol) and take care of the problem myself.

For me, it would be more appropriately called “On My Way!” Since I rarely use it in combat.

As far as the ‘incoming’ idea goes, terrible in my opinion. The only people who shout that as far as im aware is people running from artillery fire in war films, as a form of retreating..xD

So yeah same sentiment with a different word in its place. Plus if you actually shout ‘incoming’ out loud you sound pretty kitten lols.

hithlain.4385:

I agree, I doubt many guardians use this skill to really retreat ^^ Hey a guardian never flees, a guardian dies where he is…

Perhaps the best way to do this, but I doubt it is doable, is to shout “retreat” if you’re going away from monsters, “charge” if you’re going to the enemy, and “be ready” if you’re not moving, so a way to have the vocal change depending on the situation…

Hehe so true, a guardian never flees! He dies where he stands! ^^

runeblade.7514:

It really bothers me that I charge into battle while shouting retreat.

Incoming, however, is versatile to more meanings. One as in, “get the hell out of there”, or “watch out for that attack!”

If anything, Retreat should be a shout skill for Rangers to be used a survivability pet skill. but that is getting off-topic.

Only if you read it as a self/team shout. I’m telling mobs to retreat before I steamroll them!

“CHARGE! to the rear!”

A neutral statement: “With Haste!”

How about “OH KITTEN!”

You’re right; I really like using retreat for charging.
Especially with the 5 points in virtue; applying the aegis now grants protection.

Kind of odd how Warriors ge the line “For Great Justice”. I know that its a nod to the GW1 warrior skill. I just think it would fit better for the Guardian. After all, one of our virtues is called “Virtue of Justice”.

Well since the Guardian is at least in part based on GW1s Paragon I would change it to one of the Paragons old skill names.

Incoming http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/%22Incoming!%22
Make Haste! http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/%22Make_Haste!%22
Lead the Way! http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/%22Lead_the_Way!%22