Guild Wars 2

I know the skill blink isn’t on very many bars. But I felt it was so flawed it needed to be addressed. The main issues with blink I’ve noticed is it won’t teleport you to anywhere that you can’t jump to, that includes a platform you could reach with a ramp next to the player and choose to walk up but when you attempt to teleport up to save time the spell fails even though it’s accessible by foot… not very fun. It also won’t teleport you to a location you could easily jump to such as a stepping stone with a small chasm in between you and the stone, the teleport will fail which kinda takes you out of the immersion of the fantasy :/ And as a skill that functions solely for the purpose of teleportation and offers no other benefits or damage I believe these are pretty major flaws. I’ve included a picture of just how short of a distance the blink spell will fail at, it will actually fail to teleport you to an even more level platform if there is a chasm there as well than displayed in the picture. Also an additional note is that the Guardian teleportation skill Judge’s Intervention actually teleports more successfully than the Mesmer’s Blink spell as it will some times but not always teleport you across certain chasms. Once again I understand that this isn’t the most important issue at the time but I feel it still needed to be brought to attention.

no dev in his right mind would read let alone take to heart that block of unformatted QQing. Blink is not meant to be used to to circumvent terrain. It is meant to be an escape ability, and that is what it does very well.

Still, in my eyes 30s CD is too high.
For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars. Especially since Mesers have no reliable swiftness buff.
And to be more fair, make a 2s (33% ?) CD when the skill fails. It just fails too often … and then 30s CD …

no dev in his right mind would read let alone take to heart that block of unformatted QQing.

Forget the devs, I just read the topic sentence. At least, what I assumed to be the topic sentence. Blink shouldn’t be used to circumvent terrain like you’re describing — it sucks to have it fail on some geometry, but after the hundreds of blinks I’ve done, there haven’t been more than 5 instances where I thought I should be able to blink, but it failed. It’s significantly more forgiving than other games where a blink ability is available, in fact.

For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars.

I think 5s is way too fast. As it is, 30s is pretty good — I have this ability perma-slotted. Positioning is so important in PvP, that I wouldn’t trade it for a phantasm. Escape, chase, dodging spells and attacks, getting out of binding roots, getting out of any immobilization; stack on the dodges, and I’m frequently invincible. I’ll grant you that in PvE, the rules could be bent a little more, as it certainly cuts down on how badly it sucks to be without any runspeed, but 5s is still too much. I wouldn’t scoff at a 20, though. A shorter cooldown when the blink doesn’t take us anywhere would be cool, though.

I guess teleporting would be the wrong word to use for this skill. It seems to accelerate your character across the terrain at a very high speed towards the selected location. This means any obstacles in the way will hinder this, including walls, ledges, gaps, rocks, trees etc. All because your simply moving towards the selected area and not actually disappearing and reappearing there. A lot of games treat their ‘teleport’ skills like this.

Uhaen.9876:

For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars.

I think 5s is way too fast. As it is, 30s is pretty good — I have this ability perma-slotted. Positioning is so important in PvP, that I wouldn’t trade it for a phantasm. Escape, chase, dodging spells and attacks, getting out of binding roots, getting out of any immobilization; stack on the dodges, and I’m frequently invincible. I’ll grant you that in PvE, the rules could be bent a little more, as it certainly cuts down on how badly it sucks to be without any runspeed, but 5s is still too much. I wouldn’t scoff at a 20, though. A shorter cooldown when the blink doesn’t take us anywhere would be cool, though.

if you say it like this, ANet needs to implement a system which distuguishs between skills in pvp and pve, like DragonNest has. Every skill can have different CD, duration and damage modifier values in pvp (maps) and pve (maps).
If they’d implement this, they’d have to rebalance almost every utility and elite skill of mesmers.

Budg.3064:

I guess teleporting would be the wrong word to use for this skill. It seems to accelerate your character across the terrain at a very high speed towards the selected location. This means any obstacles in the way will hinder this, including walls, ledges, gaps, rocks, trees etc. All because your simply moving towards the selected area and not actually disappearing and reappearing there. A lot of games treat their ‘teleport’ skills like this.

as said above you can teleport over gaps and i also teleport up some parts of the map (to ledges etc) mostly with forts and walls etc. and i also more or less every day teleport over fences rocks and the like.

5s would be ludicrous. It’d equate somewhere between 100%-150% extra character movement speed. Heh. I want that!

Nretep.2564:

ANet needs to implement a system which distuguishs between skills in pvp and pve, like DragonNest has. Every skill can have different CD, duration and damage modifier values in pvp (maps) and pve (maps).
If they’d implement this, they’d have to rebalance almost every utility and elite skill of mesmers.

No they really don’t need to do this. They brought it in in GW1 and it was a complete mess. Skills need to be balanced equally for all purposes, not least because WvW is a hybrid PvP/PvE model. Having two versions of every skill is horribly confusing to the average player, and psychologically spoils immersion.

Having said that, I do think Blink needs to get some love in general, it’s not exactly most people’s first choice skill, and this kind of fast confusing movement is a perfect example of the Mesmer’s art.

Carighan.6758:

5s would be ludicrous. It’d equate somewhere between 100%-150% extra character movement speed. Heh. I want that!

well, the distance I can blink (assuming it’s a completely plain way) I can walk (w/o boons) in ~2.5s. with 5s CD, you could move 3 distance units in 5s (2x walking, 1x blinking) instead of 2 units. That’s be +50% speed. And that assuming your reaction and timing is 0ms.

Dashwood.3215:

Nretep.2564:

ANet needs to implement a system which distuguishs between skills in pvp and pve, like DragonNest has. Every skill can have different CD, duration and damage modifier values in pvp (maps) and pve (maps).
If they’d implement this, they’d have to rebalance almost every utility and elite skill of mesmers.

No they really don’t need to do this. They brought it in in GW1 and it was a complete mess. Skills need to be balanced equally for all purposes, not least because WvW is a hybrid PvP/PvE model. Having two versions of every skill is horribly confusing to the average player, and psychologically spoils immersion.

Having said that, I do think Blink needs to get some love in general, it’s not exactly most people’s first choice skill, and this kind of fast confusing movement is a perfect example of the Mesmer’s art.

If that’s the case, I hope Meserms as as much better in PvP than they suck in PvE. I have the feeling that 60% of the utility spells are PvP only (like most aoe fields).

And for blink, I barely see a reason for it, since Decoy does the same trick + summons a clone. It also breaks stun (blink doesn’t, does it?)

Blink is way better than Decoy. This thread is basically insane.

Blink is way better than Swiftness for PvP.

Ridiculous.

Why do many profession have a some sort of leap that can be used to cross gaps and our blink stops working when there is a small bump in the terrain….

Thats what the OP is saying.

Blink does not stop working when there is a “small bump in the terrain”. It can also teleport up hills. It also doesn’t require a target. It also breaks stuns. It can also work during knockdowns or immobilize.

There is so much troll in this thread and I didn’t start it.

EasymodeX.4062:

Blink does not stop working when there is a “small bump in the terrain”. It can also teleport up hills. It also doesn’t require a target. It also breaks stuns. It can also work during knockdowns or immobilize.

There is so much troll in this thread and I didn’t start it.

Leap doesnt require a target aswell… and the problem is that Blink makes a path over the ground, so hills that are accessible walking are no problem. Problem is that blink has no Z axis. So when there is small difference in hight and no way arround you well end at the edge of the hight difference.
Now for leap, Leap supports X,Y and Z axis. Because the person moves up (Large jump?) in the air it has the ability to cross gaps and even useable to create short cuts (Engineer with rifle?)

So before you say this is a troll thread, please do your homework. Read what its about and then cast your judgement.

Same goes for Thief !

Leap doesnt require a target aswell…

Several Leaps and Leap-like abilities require a target. Most notably at least 2 of the 3 Guardian leaps require a target; I remember this specifically because I was testing how well a Guardian could escape with said leaps, and being annoyed that they were unusable.

and the problem is that Blink makes a path over the ground, so hills that are accessible walking are no problem. Problem is that blink has no Z axis. So when there is small difference in hight and no way arround you well end at the edge of the hight difference.

1. I’ve used Blink for about 40 levels in PvE and about 100 hours in sPvP and WvW.

2a. The Z-axis is fine. You can teleport up hills as long as there is a valid pathing up the hill in your frontal arc the vast majority of the time (note: the pathing does not need to be directly ahead of you). In fact, it has a stronger uphill z-axis capability than the leap you envy.

2b. Going downhill, Blink will save you fall damage and the snare, which can be significant depending on the circumstances. Leap will get you killed.

3. The one you thing you have to avoid doing is trying to Blink at the very edge of a vertical cutoff.

4. Leap’s only benefit is that it can traverse short chasms.

5. Leap can’t be used while stunned or knocked down, feared or dazed. Not positive, but pretty sure it can’t be used while Immobilized. Blink is so much better at basically everything except for jump puzzles. Le sigh.

So, yes, do your homework.

And jumping puzzles are the easiest for us (of all classes) due to Portal.

Why Blink is an underused ability, I can’t understand. I absolutely adore the ability in sPvP. It’s brilliant for those last minute escapes, just have to be careful with how and where you use it. Anyone that uses decoy over this, so much shame.

It’s useful in WvW, from a positioning point of view too. And that stun break, oh man. There are sometimes pathing issues, I’ve found. That may just be due to my placement sometimes though. Just watch your terrain, and it’ll be fine. The CD of 30s is maybe a bit too steep, maybe 20s would be a better figure – although, it’s hard to say what would keep it balanced, or bring it into realms of “over-powered”.

Khallum.1249:

Why Blink is an underused ability, I can’t understand. I absolutely adore the ability in sPvP. It’s brilliant for those last minute escapes, just have to be careful with how and where you use it. Anyone that uses decoy over this, so much shame.

It’s useful in WvW, from a positioning point of view too. And that stun break, oh man. There are sometimes pathing issues, I’ve found. That may just be due to my placement sometimes though. Just watch your terrain, and it’ll be fine. The CD of 30s is maybe a bit too steep, maybe 20s would be a better figure – although, it’s hard to say what would keep it balanced, or bring it into realms of “over-powered”.

It could be people not being used to a ground target for Blink. (i.e. people too used to WoW)

I know I don’t like to use Blink here, as well.

1) If you can’t walk there on foot without jumping, you can’t Blink there.
- That would be the first reason why I would have taken Blink. Sadly, it doesn’t do this. In fact, when I wanted to use Blink is when Blink would fail to deliver me to the desired spot.

2) For CC Break, I’ll use Decoy over Blink. It too has the Stun Break, Stealths to break targeting (And Marking), and Leaves behind a Clone. Said clone traited to Cripple in an AoE when killed.
- The only time Blink would be superior for me in these situations, is when in an area with an AoE or about to have one. Of course for a Twitch Reaction, I’m likely going to teleport closer to the enemy or teleport past into likely further danger. Even then, Decoy→Dodge Roll does the job I need (And leaves behind another Clone).

That leaves one thing I would use Blink for. Chasing someone down to get into Leap→Swap range when using the Sword, as I’ve found that Mesmers tend to be the slowest on foot-speed class most of the time >.>;

@EasymodeX.4062

clearly your again not reading what people say…

>>>>>> ITS ABOUT THE GAP CROSSING <<<<<<<<<

You cant do it…

• We didnt argue about Stun breaking…
• We didnt talk about fall damage reduction
• We didnt talk about escape machanism
• We didnt talk about how long you’ve been using blink

I love my blink saved my ars countless times and got me kills countless more . I never leave the keep in WvW without my Decoy+Mirror Image+Blink

2) For CC Break, I’ll use Decoy over Blink. It too has the Stun Break, Stealths to break targeting (And Marking), and Leaves behind a Clone. Said clone traited to Cripple in an AoE when killed.

Generally speaking, the majority of CC events occur with the enemy immediately following up with:

- a melee AOE (bull’s rush → hundred blades is a common example; immobilize + pistol whip is another)
- a ranged burst sequence, often involving a channeled stream attack (rifle/ranger volley)
- dive/chain AOE CC (Guardian Hammer AOE, Symbol of Wrath→spin2win)

In these events, Decoy won’t do much and you’ll still eat a lot, if not most of, the damage. Blink, on the other hand, will get you out of range of the exact combo they were setting up with the CC.

A lot of the issue is that Decoy will break stuns, but not knockdowns or immob or daze. So you’ll still be in the same spot taking the damage. Blink bypasses that restriction.

Somna.5168:

It could be people not being used to a ground target for Blink. (i.e. people too used to WoW)

Yeah, I can understand that actually. Ground targeting in this game has to be quite a bit more pre-emptive, and fast-paced than in a game like WoW.

skip to 2.09 and watch for about 5 seconds, is that not a Z axis? i personally do stuff like this all the time up walls.

all credit for the video goes to the creator.

edit: am i the only one with ground targets turned off, so it goes to wherever my cursor is?

I agree completely with the OP. As a teleport, it should teleport you to anywhere the targeting circle can go. It’s a teleport, whether used as an escape or an easier way to get around. Also, it would make the ability a lot more fun if you could use it as the OP mentioned. I actually thought it would work like that and was very disappointed and I used the ability first hand.

It’s a great ability for escapes. But it is highly limited by terrain and that makes it a lot less fun.

I don’t even know where to start honestly. There are many places where blink will work when it shouldn’t. For example the two platforms @ keep in forest can be blinked between even though the run around would be more than 900 range. If people aren’t using blink then no wonder most of the mesmers I run into are terrible. It’s our best effect break and the cd is shorter than the spec’d ele counterpart. It has some issues, but nothing a week of playing the class won’t school you on.

I use both Blink and Decoy for sPVP. Blink is better in certain situations and Decoy is better in others. I use to slot for Blink only but have come to really appreciate Decoy as well for its ability to increase your survivability.

Yeah no doubt decoy is awesome. I use both for spvp unless up against multiple heavy condition builds, otherwise I depend on traits for condition removal.

For wvw I use blink exclusively since I run a mantra build for max damage.

i dont play mesmer, and while i do think that the cooldown is fine, (20-30s seems right)
i think that such skills in general should allow you to teleport across gaps or on higher/lower terrain.
it is just too much fun to be able to climb something or cross a big gap using one of your spells.

many of the thief skills (i play thief) include teleporting, either like Blink or on your enemy.
but it fails if the terrain isnt smooth or if there is a small obstruction like a twig or a rock.

such skills would have been so much fun if they worked across gaps and elevations.
and it wouldnt be imba since most classes have such skills.

Oke… i’ll try to explain the differance one more time. Between a Leap (with Z axis) and Blink (with nearly no Z axis)

Below is a drawing made with MAD paint skills.

Situation 1

Pink is the mesmer which will be using Blink. When he uses it in situation 1 blink will create a path leading to the other location. First it will do a check if there is a way to walk there, if thats true then it will check the distance. If both checks are oke (as seen in situation 1) the person will blink to the other location.
what the game ACTUALY does.. is move the player with rapid speed using the path shown on the picture.

Green is a guardian using Leap of Faith as this is a skill which has a Z axis build in (Cause the character will actualy jump) it doesnt care about pathing. It will just jump a set amount forward.
What the game does is basicly make the character jump and then give it a push

Situation 2

This time there are no stairs nor anyway to walk there. Mesmer will once again try to blink but because there is no pathing the game will try to put you as close to the destination as possible, thus ending on ledge. You will never fall down.
Why? cause blink has no Z axis so your character will not be lifted from the ground like in a jump.

For the guardian, his leap doesnt give akittenabout pathing or not. So it will still move the set amount of distance forward.
Why? Cause leap has a Z axis and lifts the character up and moves it forward

Now… i hope you finaly understand what a Z axis is. Just because you sometimes can move up a mountain doesnt mean you actualy travel in the air.
And now for the grand conclusion.. this is what the OP ment. If you are lucky you can blink on a mountain, if your cursor is 2 cm off and the game cant make a path your blink will fail.

Also see this movie about blink tests:

Credits go to movie maker and i do not own it.

Blink is the best mobility skill in the game, just like how a good amount of Mesmer utilities are the the best in the game. Seriously..

Nretep.2564:

Still, in my eyes 30s CD is too high.
For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars. Especially since Mesers have no reliable swiftness buff.
And to be more fair, make a 2s (33% ?) CD when the skill fails. It just fails too often … and then 30s CD …

You realize this is a PvP ability right, an extremely good one i would think almost every mesmer would have.

5 seconds on a stunbreaker? Lol, I dont think you understand what this ability is meant for.

I always have Blink and Decoy on bars.

Zylo.6597:

Oke… i’ll try to explain the differance one more time. Between a Leap (with Z axis) and Blink (with nearly no Z axis)

Below is a drawing made with MAD paint skills.

Situation 1

Pink is the mesmer which will be using Blink. When he uses it in situation 1 blink will create a path leading to the other location. First it will do a check if there is a way to walk there, if thats true then it will check the distance. If both checks are oke (as seen in situation 1) the person will blink to the other location.
what the game ACTUALY does.. is move the player with rapid speed using the path shown on the picture.

Green is a guardian using Leap of Faith as this is a skill which has a Z axis build in (Cause the character will actualy jump) it doesnt care about pathing. It will just jump a set amount forward.
What the game does is basicly make the character jump and then give it a push

Situation 2

This time there are no stairs nor anyway to walk there. Mesmer will once again try to blink but because there is no pathing the game will try to put you as close to the destination as possible, thus ending on ledge. You will never fall down.
Why? cause blink has no Z axis so your character will not be lifted from the ground like in a jump.

For the guardian, his leap doesnt give akittenabout pathing or not. So it will still move the set amount of distance forward.
Why? Cause leap has a Z axis and lifts the character up and moves it forward

Now… i hope you finaly understand what a Z axis is. Just because you sometimes can move up a mountain doesnt mean you actualy travel in the air.
And now for the grand conclusion.. this is what the OP ment. If you are lucky you can blink on a mountain, if your cursor is 2 cm off and the game cant make a path your blink will fail.

Also see this movie about blink tests:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90PyR3Qp4rE

Credits go to movie maker and i do not own it.

yes, well, they should make all such abilities work like the guardian’s.
ANET stop denying us the fun!!
(from a thief who is fed up with this “bug”)

the issue i have with blink is when it occasionally fails to work while moving from one type of terrain to another. example: running over slightly rocky terrain (without needing to jump across it), trying to blink to another terrain texture like grass or onto a bridge, and blinking in place instead of covering the ground.

while i do like the suggestion to reduce the cd, i think it’s fine as it is. taking -5s from it to make it a 25s cd wouldn’t hurt, but also isn’t a necessity.

another instance of gap/z-axis jumping using abilities: watched an engineer with a rifle blast themselves across a gap to a ledge above them in a jumping puzzle, and while i was afking there to finish a phone call , i watched a warrior and guardian come up afterwards, and they did similar abilities to get across the gap… i didn’t mind having to make the extra jump (with the potential to fall) to get across, but it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing is blink also worked in this way. the ability name and description would lead one to believe it could.

i think the cooldown in okey with blink.
But it needs fixing.
Sometimes blink just bugs and doest teleport where you pointed. Gets stuck on some slight bump on tetrain.
You can’t blink down from “cliff” tetrain. you can jump off with no damage.
You can’t blink to “cliff” where you can jump on.
Sometimes you fail to blink on ramp.

Basicaly it is good skills and you can learn to work around its quirks but it in unrealible if your not on flat ground and haven’t learned all the places where it fails.

It would be nice if the ground target circle turned red not only for out of range, but for “Hey, looks like you should be able to do that, but you can’t” blinks. Sometimes its not obvious that you can’t blink somewhere. Sometimes I’m amazed that it let me blink somewhere. It’s just going to take some getting used to.

Zylo.6597:

Now… i hope you finaly understand what a Z axis is. Just because you sometimes can move up a mountain doesnt mean you actualy travel in the air.

The OP said that Blink has no Z-axis. He didn’t say that Blink wouldn’t let you fly in the air.

We know Blink doesn’t let you fly in the air.

However, it’s not stopped by Z-axis, because that implies you cannot move upwards or downwards using Blink.

But you can.

Right… everybody understands it now exept you. It uses the X and Y axis to get there, not a Z axis.

Given that it displaces you vertically in the game world, it’s pretty misleading to claim it has no z-axis, when you really mean it won’t let you fly over terrain where there is no valid x-y path.