Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure if many others already know this combo (although I rarely see sword rangers use it) but you can cover double the distance with your Hornet Sting by using Lightning Reflexes immanently after, then either turning your character or About Face to use Monarch’s Leap quickly before it resets back.

I personally find rotating the camera much easier that using About Face since the animation duration of sword #2 and LR is just long enough to re-position yourself to the direction you want to go in.

Sorry if it’s already well known, I only discovered it myself accidentally about a month ago. Now I use it all the time after Tequatl’s burn phases to make it to the megalaser and it always gets me to the mobs much earlier. ^^

If you’re in to WvW you can combo that with hunter’s shot and then go in a different direction than expected. For example, run through the enemies rather than back to your tower, which effectively doubles the distance between you and them (assuming they take the logical path of chasing your invisible self back towards the tower.)

Yep,alot of melee based rangers use that to open or close gaps. In my build thread its referred to as a pop twist.

Ive always hoped they would make both parts of the move a leap finisher. It would really add a new dynamic if you could leap finish twice in rapid succession.

This is my main escape mechanic when using longbow. I also put a hydromancy sigil on my sword/warhorn so I can slow them down while opening a gap. You can even cast Hunter’s Call after the Lightning Reflexes but before the Hornet Sting to apply a little damage/pressure while moving away.

What makes sword a better secondary to longbow is that the leap can be used twice on a swap with an 8 second cooldown compared to the 12 second cooldown on swoop. Gives you the chance to create a little extra room.

It’d be really nice though if LR cleared cripple/chill. It would make it so much more effective as an escape mechanic.

It’s a great tip. Combine that with a Greataword and you have one of the farthest escapes in game.

Lightning Reflexes
Sword #2.1
turn 180 and clear target
Sword #2.2
Swap to Greatsword
Greatsword #3

Welcome to mobility :-)

Another thing to add is there are tons of skills out there like this. It’s not just a sword thing and it’s not just a ranger thing. Any movement skill can be used for something.

On ranger we have the obvious spear 3, but also about-face harpoon 5. Sword 3 and dagger 4 can move you surprisingly far in the right circumstances, which can be used to LoS or get out of an AoE circle or melee range.

And on every class except necro (as far as I know) there is a perhaps non-obvious movement skill to be taken advantage of. Mesmers can about face staff 2 (can even change elevation with that one), eles about face dagger 5… Even the engi rifle 4 can be used to blow yourself out of entangle.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot the biggest movement skill of all, untargeted sword 1.