Guild Wars 2

Phase Retreat seems to be behaving differently recently. Different in that I no longer am retreating in the direction i think.

Used to, it would phase retreat away from where I was looking, but now seems to be from “away” from my target. Several times now (especially in the MK dungeon), I’ve gone seemingly forward or to the side as opposed to backwards.

Anyone else noticed this or am I just making things up? It’s not a drastic change, but enough to throw off someone that’s been using a staff for 380 “levels”….

It changed like last week. I used staff for the whole day yesterday and it felt weird. Especially that time where I Phase Retreat’d INTO the group of mobs instead of backward…

Yeah it does go in the direction away from your target. Makes running away potentially easier. Other than that its kind of a pain to not have the reliability factor it once had.

I phase retreated and ended up on a cliff above my target. I phase retreated and ended up above in some locked cell that is normally not reachable by a player (luckily blink got me out). I often phase retreat and end up facing away from my target. Often.

I like it better now.

If you do the normal kite and strafe in a circle, it acts as a bounce forward. Very predictable to use with PVE mobs and assures distance.

In PVP it can leap you forward when being chased.

When facing your opponent in PVP it does the thing we all remember, hop backwards.

The movement possibilities are now more versatile whether intended or not.

It is better for new users, but since I’ve become fully adept at facing opposite of my intended leap and could use that to go wherever I wanted immediately, it is more restrictive for me now.

It is a minor convenience that I can keep running and just pop it without missing a beat when I’m trying to escape, but it loses the potential for confusing enemy pllayers (not the condition, real confusion) because now it will always, predictably, make me the furthest from the enemy, every time. Before I could choose whichever direction I wanted to go then immediately blend in.

Being a point holding mesmer in pvp, i can no longer control my blink within a point. And since most other point holders just stand right in the middle of the point, if i blink, its off the point.
i think that this change was to give mesmer more of a distance builder when kiting a target. the thing is that this could of done before. its just bad choice of change to help lower skilled players.
i would love to see arenanet change it back but we all know thats highly unlikely.

I’m in the “it’s a PITA now” camp. It’s rather downgraded Staff play for me.

I like it when I suddenly appear up cliffs.

I used it the other day when doing a story mission, and ended up stuck on a cliff, which a mob followed me to and then became invulnerable because I couldn’t hit it while it was stuck in the cliff wall…

In no less than 3 occasions I’ve used phase retreat and ended up stuck IN THE CEILING… I’m not sure whether to call this a net improvement on getting stuck in the floor.

Ceiling Asura is watching you…

I use staff always and forever and while the facing is annoying the skill is now much improved.

You go further, you don’t tele into objects now.

The old phase retreat was a shorter range and would put you into objects way way too much.

BTW, people think the staff is weak? Keep thinking that while I own people with it.

1500 condition damage is nothing to laugh at when all of your clones apply cond’s and it generates clones super fast.

Godmoney.2048:

You go further, you don’t tele into objects now.

I still get teleported into walls/objects? Though it is way less often than before.

I was fighting in a building the other day and it “retreated” me to other floors about 25% of the time. i wonder if it was because I was near the stairs at that time? I played it…..was kinda cool.

I use it still, sometimes it puts me up on a bridge, sometimes it puts me in a tree, sometimes it puts me under the world, sometimes it puts me in a place I can’t get out of and have to waypoint out (if I can get out of combat).

This is all post patch so again it’s still like russian roulette. Often times I survive and everything is fine but occasionally I bite the bullet and pay the price of using it.

It’s actually great for just running away cause you don’t need to change facing to know where you’re going.

I’ve only tested it in PVE so far, not yet in PVP, but for PVE, I defintely love this change, allows to teleport further than previously, and it happens less when you don’t move at all. For the moment, never been undermap after using it. Thanks Anet

I used it during a story mission and got stuck in a weapons cart. Didn’t have blink yet so had to restart cause I was stuck