Guild Wars 2

To any and all Staff Mesmers everywhere! Are you only phase retreating backwards? Do you have a hard time phase retreating forward without having some poor NPC shmuck targetted behind you? Well worry no more! It’s time we…

LEARN TO PHASE DASH!

Its a simple process, but one that takes a few minutes of practice. After a while you’ll be flashing around Tyria in style, leaving butterflies and jealous Necros in your wake!

1) In Settings under movement controls, there’s an unregistered “About-Face” key. Set this key to “V” (If you use V to dodge, then set it to uh… “C”?)

2) When running forward, double-tap V as if you would to dodge. Press Phase Retreat at the SAME TIME as the second ‘V’ tap.

3) /laugh (or /dance) As you set yourself apart just a bit more from average Mesmer!

Mind you, my computer kind of sucks and my internet kind of sucks.. and even with a bit of lag I was still able to pull this off, running laps around the Mists and cackling at my own greatness. If anyone else has another method of doing this trick, please post ’em!

Yeah, one note about lag. This (for me) is nearly impossible to pull off with lag, and I usually end up running backwards a few paces. Without lag though, it’s very smooth and effective.

Note that this is easiest to pull off if you have auto targeting off, but you can do it with auto targeting. Zooming in and looking down will keep yourself from accidentally targeting anything during the dash.

I bound my about face to shift E, so to phase retreat forward i just:

1. hold shift all the time
2. press e
3. press 2
4. press e
5. done :P

Sometimes my second about face doesnt work… so i run a bit back.. does anyone else get that? I press the button, but it doesnt turn :/.

I just tried phase retreating at the same time while doing about face, but it jsut teleports me backwards :P. Maybe its because i didnt lagg, hmm…

Alissah, the pattern I use that avoids that (when lagless) feels like this:

About face+phase retreat, tiny pause, about face.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Alissah, the pattern I use that avoids that (when lagless) feels like this:

About face+phase retreat, tiny pause, about face.

That is exactly what I do as well. Works like a charm.

@Pyro: Have you tried doing it at the exact same time? For me, pressing about-face excactly as I press Phase Retreat made it work like a charm consecutively.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

@Pyro: Have you tried doing it at the exact same time? For me, pressing about-face excactly as I press Phase Retreat made it work like a charm consecutively.

I’ve been working with it for a while, and that seems to be the pattern that works best. I would have issues where the second about face wouldn’t properly activate, but the first and the phase retreat would, so that tiny pause gives it time to do whatever, and allows the second one to work correctly.

When using combat mode and the crosshair is active, about face will not work.

Have to either toggle crosshair off, do phase retreat combo, toggle crosshair on – or simply manually mouse turn.

Because of having skills 1-4 bound to left+right click (shift) this is not an option. Already have to toggle off to ground target blink/chaos storm which is a bit awkward but I’ve gotten used to it (using two keys to toggle on and off).

I have my mouse at high sensitivity to flick around for forward phase retreat – it’s not pretty but it works.

Edit: I should say – phase retreat is on right click for me, so its a case of swinging the camera and hitting right click (with some side strafing).

@Curunen: When I first started playing gw2, I tried combat mode because I had just came from Dragon Nest, and that was the playing type I was used to. However, I quickly realized that while combat mode was sorta fun for pvp, it just was far too restrictive with movement, camera, and targeting to work effectively for high level play in a game that isn’t designed around that type of camera. I’d highly recommend trying to limit your use of that mod.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Curunen: When I first started playing gw2, I tried combat mode because I had just came from Dragon Nest, and that was the playing type I was used to. However, I quickly realized that while combat mode was sorta fun for pvp, it just was far too restrictive with movement, camera, and targeting to work effectively for high level play in a game that isn’t designed around that type of camera. I’d highly recommend trying to limit your use of that mod.

Yeah you’re right, but sadly I don’t think I could play without it now – having skills #1-5 on the mouse and not having to hold right click is the only thing keeping me playing.

Been using it for the past year or so (of course when I’ve actively been playing gw2), and have managed to tweak it to be pretty effective:
- I have the camera zoomed all the way out
- ground targeting is now second nature – can toggle off and move the cursor anywhere as normal (knowing it is in the centre of the screen to start with)
- my movement and positioning is more fluid than without
- I don’t actually use the crosshair at all – use target nearest/next/previous (X, shift+X, shift+Z) with promote target for lock.
- use lock target key to drop target ( C ), and call target on shift+C
- can easily toggle on/off (two keys – F and back thumb mouse button) and manually select target with mouse.

Oh, also I have camera position set to far right (so the character is shifted slightly to the left of the screen), with the crosshair at head height. But as I said I never use the crosshair for anything other than fixing the cursor starting point (would never use the crosshair for targeting – that is very bad in pvp).

I believe it can work for high level play – my skill is definitely not up there at the moment, but that’s largely down to my lack of knowledge and awareness of all the skills of every class in the game rather than with controls. I don’t find the way I’ve set it up to be more restrictive than the base game, other than with forward phase retreat.

Edit: Forgot – I either use look behind to see behind when mouselook is on, or toggle off the crosshair and manually rotate with left click – I have some skills on mouse clicks also bound to keyboard so can still use them when the crosshair is toggled off.

@Curunen: Interesting, sounds like you sorta play with it half off almost. I will say that being able to bind the mouse clicks was really nice, but ultimately not absolutely necessary.

Since phase retreat now always phase you away from whatever you have targeted, I imagine it would feel kind of pointless to run around in an open field doing something that never works in combat.

@Pyro – cheers, I find the key thing with it is to be able to toggle mouselook/crosshair on and off fluidly, to gain the cursor back on demand. The crosshair just tells me mouselook is on – it’s a bit ugly, I’ve been thinking of creating some custom image for it but it does the job at the moment.

Nice thing is I’ve never got any finger strain with splitting abilities between right and left hands – for example I have #3 on E and shift+left click – typically use E→E for ileap/swap and shift+left click for the iwarlock/confusing images.

If I can get the hang of toggle off → about turn → phase retreat → pause/about turn → toggle on, then that could work nicely. I just haven’t found a suitable key configuration for that yet.

I could do with spacebar split into two or three sections tbh!

Dawdler.8521:

Since phase retreat now always phase you away from whatever you have targeted, I imagine it would feel kind of pointless to run around in an open field doing something that never works in combat.

A simple left mouse click in the air will leave you target-less.

And even then, most people complain about Mesmer not getting around fast enough, so using it in an open field could be beneficial :P.

Alissah.9281:

Dawdler.8521:

Since phase retreat now always phase you away from whatever you have targeted, I imagine it would feel kind of pointless to run around in an open field doing something that never works in combat.

A simple left mouse click in the air will leave you target-less.

And even then, most people complain about Mesmer not getting around fast enough, so using it in an open field could be beneficial :P.

Yep. Occasionally when I’ve had the need to purely move fast (usually running supply) I’ll toss on a set with centaur runes, use a staff with cooldowns traited, and have blink traited both for 1200 range and 20% reduced cooldowns. The speed that you can move is incredible. I’ve blown right through fights and had thieves and such try to chase me, just to be left behind in seconds.

When gw2 first came out and i saw about face i bound it to one of my razer keys and attempted to do stuff like this, seemed to work every once in a while but not every time for me….then i figured out you can’t have the right mouse clicked when you about face (i’m usually holding it down while running). So ya- if anyone had any problems with it not always working, may be because of you unconscious mouse clicking :P
Now question for anyone who uses this, does it actually make you go faster than just constant running would do? i tried testing it once with a guildie running with no speed. It had seemed to me i gained only a tiny amount, add in that some times i would run backwards it didn’t seem worth it to me. But alas, maybe it was just lag

B is my turn back keybind

- as for me it works on auto run ,B Staff#2, B B (last B B should be faster than first
- best but hardest S(back walk) and B and staff#2 all together and fast B and W(front move) S #2 B , B W(mouse left + right)

Hm right; I should try this in open field as well. I mean… I’ve tried it with several other skills before (namely Ranger sword 2 or the Thief heal Withdraw), but never did so with Phase Retreat. Funny, since Mesmer is my main and I love staff. I’ve often used it to run away from zergs (while I’m still in combat), though. But then not with about-face, but with looking backwards (you can keybind that too), selecting nearest target and then phase retreating while looking forwards again. Always funny if a group of like 10 people (including Warriors, Eles with offhand daggers and Thieves) chases you over half the map and can’t catch you.

Moaning Marv.2194:

When gw2 first came out and i saw about face i bound it to one of my razer keys and attempted to do stuff like this, seemed to work every once in a while but not every time for me….then i figured out you can’t have the right mouse clicked when you about face (i’m usually holding it down while running). So ya- if anyone had any problems with it not always working, may be because of you unconscious mouse clicking :P
Now question for anyone who uses this, does it actually make you go faster than just constant running would do? i tried testing it once with a guildie running with no speed. It had seemed to me i gained only a tiny amount, add in that some times i would run backwards it didn’t seem worth it to me. But alas, maybe it was just lag

It is only a slightly faster way of moving compared to regular running, but it becomes more effective the lower the cooldown on Phase Retreat. What makes it so valuable is the fact that it works similar to Blink in that you can phase dash up terrain to get to spots that you would normally have tp run some roundabout way to get to.

PvP is a great example as theres a number of places you can try this trick at. Battle of Kyho, Legacy of the Foefire, and Spirit Watch come to mind off the top of my head.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Moaning Marv.2194:

When gw2 first came out and i saw about face i bound it to one of my razer keys and attempted to do stuff like this, seemed to work every once in a while but not every time for me….then i figured out you can’t have the right mouse clicked when you about face (i’m usually holding it down while running). So ya- if anyone had any problems with it not always working, may be because of you unconscious mouse clicking :P
Now question for anyone who uses this, does it actually make you go faster than just constant running would do? i tried testing it once with a guildie running with no speed. It had seemed to me i gained only a tiny amount, add in that some times i would run backwards it didn’t seem worth it to me. But alas, maybe it was just lag

It is only a slightly faster way of moving compared to regular running, but it becomes more effective the lower the cooldown on Phase Retreat. What makes it so valuable is the fact that it works similar to Blink in that you can phase dash up terrain to get to spots that you would normally have tp run some roundabout way to get to.

PvP is a great example as theres a number of places you can try this trick at. Battle of Kyho, Legacy of the Foefire, and Spirit Watch come to mind off the top of my head.

ahh very true, i’ll def have to get in the habit of using this for terrain use

^you have a very nice id. hahaha

StickerHappy.8052:

^you have a very nice id. hahaha

lol thank you :P

Pyroatheist.9031:

Alissah, the pattern I use that avoids that (when lagless) feels like this:

About face+phase retreat, tiny pause, about face.

Mine is strangely enough:

1. X (aboutface)
2. 2
3. X
4. X

Works every time.