Guild Wars 2

This has been bugging me for a few days now. I love Retreat! its a great skill. gives Swiftness and Aegis, pretty useful in a lot of situations. The only problem is…

… Does anyone actually use it to retreat?

Im sure in WvW and sPvP the time comes when you need to get away, but even there I doubt its used to for actual retreating.

any thoughts?

I’ve used it plenty of times to “Retreat”… when I’m doing map completion and can’t be bothered to kill every enemy in my way.

It is kind of weird to be in combat and use it for the aegis and have my character shout out “Retreat!” while we’re still burning down the enemy. Certainly is something to think about.

Charge is a warrior warhorn skill already.

If you really want to change it’s name, take a look at its GW1 predecessor, “Fall Back!” and “Incoming!”

Fall Back was also used for its speed boost (party wide) and more often than not, used to engage enemies faster

Incoming would be a better name because it’s kind of ambiguous. “Incoming!!!!” okay should I retreat or charge them? Or it could also mean you / you’re group would be incoming.

I doubt their going to change the name of a skill though.

Or “Take Cover!” , “I’ll Cover You!” … along those lines.

But a cowardly “Retreat”…? That’s the last thing I would imagine a courageous, honorable knight of faith and virtues in brilliant heavy armor would ever utter in battle, or anywhere else.

My guardian will NEVER retreat! >:E

Or something more vague like “Onward!”

Change it to “Double time!”

Why? Because the icon is a leg. It boosts speed!

“Make haste” is the best.

I say change it to, “Incoming !” Incoming can be used simultaneously as a defensive retreat shout or an offensive shout. Imagine shouting "incoming " as you race in and use your greatsword leap or hammer swing.

Trei.5203:

Or “Take Cover!” , “I’ll Cover You!” … along those lines.

But a cowardly “Retreat”…? That’s the last thing I would imagine a courageous, honorable knight of faith and virtues in brilliant heavy armor would ever utter in battle, or anywhere else.

My guardian will NEVER retreat! >:E

I’d rather live to fight another day while protecting my teammates rather than stand and fight, only to die soon after (this is assuming the situation means certain/high probability of death). After all, I am “Guarding” them.

OP: I could see a name change being effective. Something like Virtue’s Rush, “Fly!” (easy mode reference for Anet to make regarding LotR), or something similar. Though I do use the shout for its intended purpose most times, I’m more often using it to just run around the map or to get to battles faster.

Lets be real here: Guardians aren’t scared of anything > : D

“Retreat” shouldn’t even be in their vocabulary.

I’m partial to “Fall Back!” because I’m a sucker for GW1 nostalgia.

As mentioned, “Charge!” is already used as a Warrior warhorn skill.
That being said, I never did understand the reason to use “Retreat!” on Guardian in GW2. In Guild Wars 1 “Retreat!” was also a Warrior skill. Surely it would have made more sense to draw from the Paragon skill-line up instead as a nod to old game instead? I don’t think anybody ever actually used “Retreat!” in GW1 as it was, it wasn’t a very good skill. The Paragon equivalents, on the other hand…

Anyway, I think “Incoming!” would suit the skill more than “Retreat!” or even “Fallback!”. It’s a GW1 legacy skillname and it’s application was actually similiar to what we see with “Retreat!” in GW2.

In GW1, in it’s first incarnation, “Incoming!” used to reduce damage to all party members by 50% for 3 to 5 seconds (it was an incredibly powerful ability when chained which is why it got its functionality changed). Anyway, that means “Incoming!” in GW1 had a damage reduction element – something we see in GW2 “Retreat!” via Aegis, which reduces incoming damage by blocking an attack.

The second incarnation of “Incoming!” in GW1 (and it’s present incarnation still in the game), was mostly used as a mobility skill – it offered a speed boost to the entire party and some passive health regeneration while moving. While we don’t get the passive regeneration in “Retreat!” in GW2 (though you could argue you sorta can via Altruistic Healing due to the boon application, or the Aegis Heals on removal trait), it does offer a speed boost to your party via Swiftness application, the same way “Incoming!” v2.0 did in GW1.

Due to the legacy of the skills abilities, you can see “Incoming!” would be a far better choice of name for the current GW2 “Retreat!” or even “Fallback!” would be.

“Retreat!” probably would have been a better name for a minor trait or something that would have granted Swiftness to all allies up resurrecting someone, which would have had more in common with it’s GW1 incarnation (which used to offer a Speed Boost to the party, but only if a dead party member was in earshot).

Its already used/recorded as a general utterance for female Norn, but I like “To Battle!” as a general outcry for swift conflict.

‘Get to teh choppaaa!’

I was going to bump one of the recent ones to make a point :p

I agree! Retreat needs a different name that doesn’t sound like i’m deliberately telling my team to run away. Such cowardice is not in my vocabulary!

“Charge!”
“Regroup!”
“Make Haste!”

There’s a million changes Anet should do but… they wont change something unless they absolutely have to. Unfortunately.

Saiyan.1704:

There’s a million changes Anet should do but… they wont change something unless they absolutely have to. Unfortunately.

To be fair, pulling in 10 prominent voice actors for every language the game supports for a recording session is not something they can do lightly. Even if this has made the ‘to do’ list it still could not possibly happen until enough needs to be recorded all at once to prompt such a major undertaking. Full voice acting has been a corner they’ve painted themselves into for a long time now.

Speaking of voice acting, I run a female norn guard, and when she shouts “Retreat” it really does sound like a command. It’s short and to the point. When I hear a female human guard “Retreat” it’s high pitched, drawn out, and sounds panicked.

Just a little difference between the voice acting that I always found hilarious.

We’re not retreating. We’re advancing in a different direction!

Just pretend you’re telling the enemy to retreat. :p

mickey.2816:

Change it to “Double time!”

“One Third Faster Time!”

Eggs.3142:

This has been bugging me for a few days now. I love Retreat! its a great skill. gives Swiftness and Aegis, pretty useful in a lot of situations. The only problem is…

… Does anyone actually use it to retreat?

Im sure in WvW and sPvP the time comes when you need to get away, but even there I doubt its used to for actual retreating.

any thoughts?

It does seem weird using Retreat! when heading into a fight. That’s like saying pulling out of a fight is a tactical charge.