Guild Wars 2

First, I’ll preface this by saying I’m hoping Jon or others can chime in on this as well, possibly with some changes worked from it.

Alright, to get to the point, does anyone have solid information about the behavior of this skill’s forced shadowstep? From what I remember of the beta weekend, it didnt always displace the targets in the direction you’re facing, the direction they’re facing, or in the shortest direction based on center of field. At best it’s an unpredictable shadowstep, at worst, it shoves things into places they shouldnt be able to get into.

From what I could tell in tests the direction seems pretty random, as mobs can re-enter the field and get moves anywhere, from the opposite side to only a few feet from where they entered the field.

Regarding shadow stepping, this has got better over the years, as I am not getting stuck in things anywhere near as much as I used to. Can’t remember the last time I shadow stepped into a rock! So hopefully they will iron out any shadow stepping glitches with UA.

I do think it should teleport them to the nearest edge, rather than randomly. Mainly because this would add an extra skill level to aiming and using the skill better, and would allow you to more predictably push foes in the direct you want and more easily land your attacks on them. Random placement is ok if the foe is in the center of the field, or enters from the edge, but it should move them to the nearest edge if the field is places on them off center.

I feel in its current form, glitches aside, it can be useful sometimes a pain in the butt other times.

My biggest concern with this skill though, is how it has the potential to be used by trolls to make things difficult for allies, such as moving a foe out of stomp range. I hope Anet can make adjustments to prevent this kind of thing, as I think the skill is an interesting one and fun to use, when it works how you want it to.

If it provided more control over the direction of the shadow step (shortest distance to circle edge) and did not move downed opponents, I think it would be a really good skill.

From what I’ve seen, due to it being a forced (this being the key point) shadowstep, it’s more likely to force enemies into places since it might be ignoring path validity, or simply by virtue of shoving them into a rock/wall that much.

From what others have mentioned as well, it does seem to not affect stomping, as it’s failed to stop someone from being stomped in the beta. Maybe, cant remember where I read it.

As for feedback on UA, I personally would prefer the INITIAL forced-step to continue in the direction you traveled on skill use. (IE p→……ooeoxoooo→e) Harder to explain with ascii crap than I want, but basically irregardless of where an enemy is within the field, they’re all ’stepped to the edgepoint of the field if you kept running after you jumped. Afterwards the following pulses should punt them to the closest edge.