Guild Wars 2

is Soul Reaping adept trait “Speed of Shadows” worthless? It looks like it only adds the 25% movement boost when out of combat. If this is true, then we have to burn Life Force to save a utility slot, then stop and fight something to recharge it again.

Can we get a Dev response on the intent of this trait? Was it meant to work in combat? Can it be fixed to work in combat? I don’t see that as being OP. It would be a finite combat buff at the expense of our DS life force.

Have you accounted for the global speed decrease that happens when you enter combat?

I tried different methods. the run speed in Death Shroud with Speed of Shadows trait in combat looks the same as out of Death Shroud while in combat.

I just want to know if this is working as intended, what’s the point of a trait that is very limited in use and situation? And would it be possible to make it work during combat?

Edit: Is there a movement reduction for being in Shroud?

The only reduction I know of based on Shroud is that you lose SotL’s passive. I’ll do some testing myself, since I’m curious now if it’s just never worked and went unnoticed due to lack of usage.

If it doesn’t work in combat, then that trait is a complete waste indeed. You’re not going to use DS while out of combat.

I wanted to submit this as a bug but could not decide if it was either A; blocking progress or B: exploitable issue.

XD

Exploitable issue clearly. Wasting your life force and running away really fast! No good sir! We shall have none of that funny business!

I’m seriously not seeing it in my tests: I move noticeably faster in DS than without, even while in combat. Are you making sure to do these tests without Signet of the Locust or swiftness active?

I wish I knew how to video capture.

using the bridge from the Dps Trials waypoint to the Lions Arch Gate in the Mists as a measured distance these are my times. I positioned just after I stepped down off the bridge by the golems and hit stopwatch and forward key at same time. stopped when I crossed the white stones on the last plank of bridge.

Out of Combat:
minus SotL/ minus Death Shroud; 5.7 seconds
minus SotL/ DS plus Speed of Shadow; 4.6 seconds
plus SotL/ minus DS; 4.6 seconds
plus SotL/ plus DS untraited; 5.7 seconds

In combat;
minus SotL/ minus DS; ~7 seconds (exited combat at the end of bridge)
plus SotL/ minus DS; ~7 seconds (same issue above)
minus SotL/ Plus DS traited Speed of Shadows; 6.5-7 seconds
minus SotL/ Plus DS untraited; 6.7-7 seconds

Absolutely bizarre. You should at the least be seeing a big difference when using / not using SotL. Can you tell me what your full trait set-up is, in case there’s a hidden conflict somewhere?

Streets.2705:

I wish I knew how to video capture.

Try something like Fraps or Xfire. Be aware that video recording at high quality takes considerable CPU usage though.

Only traited Soul Reaping 30 points. PvP light coat and Light pants, PvP makeshift staff and Steady Axe, no amulet.

and the difference between SotL and no Sotl is about 20%. I ran it 5 times each and was never off by even .1 second, eyes glued to screen so didn’t see time until I looked at phone. Of course, lag could be creeping around.

edit: after typing that had a thought, what if the signets are broken too…….

refreshment post.

refreshment post.

You get a movement speed reduction while in combat. If you are in combat then your movement speed + swiftness equals your out of Combat movement speed.
That is the first issue, people are experiencing with Speed of Shadows. They compare ooC movement speed to in combat, which is not the same.
Another issue with SotL is, that signets are not active while in shroud. Since shroud is a transform it deactivates our utility bar and thus our signets.
Also movement speed increases don’t stack, so movement speed with SotL and SoS wouldn’t even increase your speed, when SotL would work in DS, the only working addition would be swiftness because the highest movement speed increase overwrites all lesser ones.
Source: gw2wiki and half knowledge
Hope that clears things up.

Bellamy I posted that with my time runs couple posts above with the varied setups. I have never noticed swiftness ever increasing my movement speed while in combat but I was never really looking at that. I thought no speed movement buffs worked in combat, swiftness included.

My point with original post was if Speed of Shadows is worthless and/or is it working as intended. Why would anyone waste a trait, albeit adept trait, for 25% movement increase in our Death Shroud at the cost of our Life Force and only usable while out of combat. Answer is no one will ever take that trait when they can just slot SotL or blast warhorn #5

Now if it was fixed to work while in combat and had a significant improvement on our speed, that would be a useful “oh kitten, run!” escape option. It wouldn’t be OP because we have to burn our Life Force to use it.

Bellamy.9860:

You get a movement speed reduction while in combat. If you are in combat then your movement speed + swiftness equals your out of Combat movement speed.

A little less, actually. OOC unmodified movement is 300 units/second. In combat, this drops to 210 units/second. Swiftness gives +33%, for +100u/s OOC and +70u/s IC. In combat with Swiftness is 280 u/s, which is still about 7% slower than unbuffed OOC.

This is the reason why Swiftness will never let you escape from a zerg in WvW.

Streets.2705:

My point with original post was if Speed of Shadows is worthless and/or is it working as intended. Why would anyone waste a trait, albeit adept trait, for 25% movement increase in our Death Shroud at the cost of our Life Force and only usable while out of combat. Answer is no one will ever take that trait when they can just slot SotL or blast warhorn #5

Now if it was fixed to work while in combat and had a significant improvement on our speed, that would be a useful “oh kitten, run!” escape option. It wouldn’t be OP because we have to burn our Life Force to use it.

It works in combat, just tested it today in the mists by using 100% accurate science tools (my eyes) and comparing the movement speed in death shroud with traited SoS to the movement speed out of death shroud.

Read my post again or look at drarnors post for an in depth explanation why you FEEL that it doesn’t work. It works in combat and it probably works out of combat.
Again, your base movement speed gets decreased while in combat (see drarnors post) so the bonus in movement doesn’t SEEM that noticeable, because it is a percent based increase.
The trait works everytime you meet the requirements (slot the trait and be in DS) but it is nonetheless a crappy trait (welcome to gw2, where crappy traits make up 50%).

Edit: Also just glanced over your numbers the first time but ummm, that SotL thing is strange.
If you want to directly see the impact of SotL on in combat movement speed i suggest attacking some golem/target dummy, walk a bit and then activate the signet. You should instantly notice the decrease in speed.
Also make sure that the signet works (icon is displayed in buff bar) they sometimes bug out, esp when loading in an already running hot join match and you dont get passive signet effects till you use them, die or switch them out and back in.

Ok, you two have shown that it works in combat. I did not notice the difference because, as you pointed out, it’s minute.

SoS is a bad trait. It’s trumped by SotL, it’s badly limited in use time and situations.

So now I guess I can let this topic die and we’ll leave a worthless trait stay on our rather long list of broken mechanics. No need to try to be vocal and get Dev attention to fix/change this trait to be something more since it has potential.

And thanks, glad to be back after my 6 month break. Things have certainly changed since launch.