Guild Wars 2

Ever since they changed how invisibility works, the decoy skill just seems useless in PvE now. It’s supposed to create a target for the enemy and let you escape, right? But the enemy just keeps attacking you instead.

I use it on gathering runs to distract enemies. Dualed with Crippling Dissipation (cripples enemies when a clone is killed) it was really useful – especially since mesmers don’t have a reliable speed boost.

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Use Decoy and move.

Esplen.3940:

Use Decoy and move.

Try that with karkas and their spam-happy ranged crippling attacks.

As I run threw dangerous areas, I use decoy to distract and get through them. But recently, I either don’t go invisible and possibly die, or go invisible and they still hit me, and possibly die lol. Really annoying to be honest.

maybe it was the way i always used Decoy but personally i don’t notice a difference.

as for karka’s feedback and they kill themselves more or less, you also have a dodge button too, use that while you invis and all is good.

they havent changed anything to how invis works. channeled abilities have always been able to hit stealthed targets if they use the skill before you stealth.

wads.5730:

they havent changed anything to how invis works. channeled abilities have always been able to hit stealthed targets if they use the skill before you stealth.

But they don’t lose target on the caster, and move to the clone anymore.

I’ll try to give feedback another try. I tried casting decoy before they aggro, but then the clone dies off too quickly to be helpful. And even while still invisible, they attack.

I’ll probably just drop decoy from my skill bar altogether. Meh.

Zaqq.8724:

As I run threw dangerous areas, I use decoy to distract and get through them. But recently, I either don’t go invisible and possibly die, or go invisible and they still hit me, and possibly die lol. Really annoying to be honest.

OMG I think I got this too!

One of my ‘skipping’ set ups is blink, decoy, veil and off-hand torch but I noticed that for the stealths, the only one that seems to ‘work’ (and by work, I mean stop the NPCs from attacking me) is veil. The prestige doesn’t seem to stop them from chasing me and hitting me while I’m invisible nor does decoy.

The only way I can make those stealth skills work is to use them before getting aggroed (and therefore they won’t aggro >_>) but yeah, that’s not quite deal when the stealths are so short. You either have to chain them, them not working or they drop when you’re right in the middle of them.

Or maybe it’s just me…I’m not expecting them to leave me alone, but I sort of expect them to chase after the decoy instead of an invisible me

Yea, stealth no longer resets the aggro table so once you become visible again mobs retarget you immediately. Which makes decoy in PvE less useful. It’s still good in WvW, when it works. Seems more and more frequently that the stealth portion of decoy doesn’t really work, but it could be how I’m using it. There’s probably some sort of ability that is on it’s way to an enemy and when I decoy it then hits them causing it to break stealth. Thinking of dropping this utility all together for something more reliable.

it works for its primary purpose of target dropping, and gap making/ repositioning.

The agg drop is a bit lame but honestly if you didn’t use the stealth time to make some space you used it wrong.

only time it fails completely is if I failed my timing and used it at the start of a channeled skill.

Yea, we no longer dump aggro and enemies that started an attack when you hit decoy still finish it by hitting you. This was a silly change that happened because of the stealth of thieves and we got caught in the middle of it. The purpose of Decoy is to do EXACTLY what it used to, invis you so you can get away while the bad guys hit the clone. It’s a… ya know… DECOY. As it stands now, it’s largely just a clone generator or perhaps a straight invis skill so you can run past things before they actually see you.

Let’s be honest. Only part of the issue (PvE) is the agg-change. The other, and worse issues are:
1.) Generated clones going off after the wrong target.
2.) The channeled attack business (Which I honestly hope gets dealt with, post culling-fix. It’s -IMO- all kinds of silly.)

I expect a “Decoy” to do what it says: appear, look smexxy, and take the hit I’m
trying to avoid. But of course, all the stealth-haters went rampage, and (as as others have mentioned) we got egg on our faces too.