Guild Wars 2

May I ask why I never see this skill used in any build?

I just can’t get rid of it. With its duration and cooldown you have a pet about 80% of the time. A pet that draws aggro of you, makes backstabing easier, casts blinding power, and does dps.

It’s not a massive pet like an elemental, but like I said, it has 35sec cooldown and lasts 20 secods.

My problem is, I want to use ambush, shadow refuge and signet of shadows, and that leaves me with no slot for anything else. So I was wondering why nobody used ambush in the builds they post

I use it in place of SoS in WvW when I get close and have no need for the passive speed anymore. It’s hilarous. You can’t choose which Thief you get though (Pistols or Daggers), which is a shame.

I use it all the time in WvW, along with Shadowstep and Signet of Shadows. I run a no-stealth acrobatic build and I rely on it heavily if I find myself in a 1v2/1v3. Ambush also works really well as a sort of early detection system to protect your rear if you’re running a treb or cata.

I’ll post a video of it in action later this week once I can sort through some clips.

Use 100% in pve. Dont need in in wvw, since to much aoe just drops them or on smaller battles prefer other things.

I’m glad to see other players find it useful. I never see it in build guides and each time I try to leave it out of my build, I feel weaker.

I dislike ambush because it’s a free target for enemy thieves to CnD and then the npc thief goes off to attack a random mob. Keeping you slowed.

It seems signet of shadows and shadow refuge are must haves. Whilst there is more useful skills than ambush for the third slot such as a stun breaker in WvW.

Ambush is a blast with Thieves guild for small fights and I hear ya. They can however attack mobs as said so be careful where you pop them. SIGNET OF SHADOWS some day friends you’ll realise what a waste of a slot that is. Took a while but I kicked the habit too. Till then keep chasing you won’t catch me. Slots change but my general WvW is s/p and sb with Hide in Shadows, Shadowstep, Shadow refuge and Signet of Agility. Coupled with feline grace and expeditious dodger the removal of condition and refill on endurance through the Agility Signet is a nice escaping balance to its Precision boost for crits in attack. Seriously few people catch me and I’m always last man standing to res my group after we’ve been zerged. That’s an optional 2 nontarget shadowsteps and a target shadowstep to shadowstep around wvwvw with roughly 7 consecutive – 14 secs swiftness boost every 30 seconds and whatever in between. Very few catch me if I have to escape and that doubles as getting there first to any map point. Sorry got kind of off topic there when SOS was also mentioned.

kal.4350:

May I ask why I never see this skill used in any build?

Because it is probably the best trap in most situations, but it is still a trap, and traps are very poorly implemented for thieves.

Tulisin.6945:

kal.4350:

May I ask why I never see this skill used in any build?

Because it is probably the best trap in most situations, but it is still a trap, and traps are very poorly implemented for thieves.

Also consider that:You have 3 UI slots! Shadow Refuge is absolutely mandatory.Whoever claims opposite is re**rd.OK,that leaves you with 2 slots,and between Shadowstep,Assassin’s Signet,SoS,Inf Signet,Blinding Powder and Roll for Initiative there is just no place left for Ambush.

ZLE.8293:

Also consider that:You have 3 UI slots! Shadow Refuge is absolutely mandatory.Whoever claims opposite is re**rd.OK,that leaves you with 2 slots,and between Shadowstep,Assassin’s Signet,SoS,Inf Signet,Blinding Powder and Roll for Initiative there is just no place left for Ambush.

Except for some specific situations, Shadow Refuge is a crutch you use to pull out bad team mates out of their mistakes. It would be better to play without it if your group doesn’t need it.

stof.9341:

Except for some specific situations, Shadow Refuge is a crutch you use to pull out bad team mates out of their mistakes. It would be netter to play without it if your group doesn’t need it.

Well,i can’t imagine any group doesn’t need it…just the possibility to save a live every 60 sec is enough.Not to mention if Precasted it gives you 10 seconds to open a fight first.My opinion is that you must have Shadow Refuge and you must have Stunbreaker(of your choice).And for the third slot,whether Ambush is the top candidate or not is a matter of choice.

stof.9341:

ZLE.8293:

Also consider that:You have 3 UI slots! Shadow Refuge is absolutely mandatory.Whoever claims opposite is re**rd.OK,that leaves you with 2 slots,and between Shadowstep,Assassin’s Signet,SoS,Inf Signet,Blinding Powder and Roll for Initiative there is just no place left for Ambush.

Except for some specific situations, Shadow Refuge is a crutch you use to pull out bad team mates out of their mistakes. It would be better to play without it if your group doesn’t need it.

SR has such a wide range of applications it is probably the only utility I’d still recommend taking even if you feel your group is good enough to not “need” it. In a pinch it pays for itself offensively with most builds, even if your group is the kind to never need any healing. Worst case scenario its potential to AE blind with cluster bomb makes it better than fully half of thief utilities even if it did nothing else.

Tulisin.6945:

SR has such a wide range of applications it is probably the only utility I’d still recommend taking even if you feel your group is good enough to not “need” it. In a pinch it pays for itself offensively with most builds, even if your group is the kind to never need any healing. Worst case scenario its potential to AE blind with cluster bomb makes it better than fully half of thief utilities even if it did nothing else.

Wide range, it’s rather limited. The situations where it’s really useful aren’t randomly happening so you can switch to it before hand.

As for AoE blind, I’d like to remind you about an instant cast ranged AoE blind we got with a rather low CD. This one is also situational in where it’s useful but it did save lives in my groups now and then since you can throw it on reaction to cancel some big attack.

I’ve used ambush in sPvP before…infact the build I run (which is super cheesy) utilizes ambush.

But

In WvW its all about mobility. Ambush works great against certain classes’ builds, but in 85% of your PvP encounters in WvW ambush is more of a hindrance than help.

Elmuerto.9840:

SIGNET OF SHADOWS some day friends you’ll realise what a waste of a slot that is

that realy depends on your build. most people (probably you to) see it as just a 25% speed increase. well it can be used for more than just that. its also an instant blind. this is usefull in so many situations. if you see a knockback/knockdown comming or for example when you downed a ranger, warrior, engineer or necro downed and your finishing them, you can use this blind to let them miss their stun, knockdown, pull or fear.

anyway, the ambush trap is realy awesome and i use it alot. im not using it in my build but when im fighting a boss with a group its a nice bit of added dps. ive thought about doing something awesome with this trap. gather about 20 thieves who all have this ambush trap unlocked and put them all on the same spot in the WvW jumping puzzle. than all hide and watch the fun as one person triggers them all :p

SoS is awesome for the insta blind.

You can also use it if you get knocked down and don’t have stun break up to avoid whatever massive attack is coming.

Elmuerto.9840:

Ambush is a blast with Thieves guild for small fights and I hear ya. They can however attack mobs as said so be careful where you pop them. SIGNET OF SHADOWS some day friends you’ll realise what a waste of a slot that is. Took a while but I kicked the habit too. Till then keep chasing you won’t catch me. Slots change but my general WvW is s/p and sb with Hide in Shadows, Shadowstep, Shadow refuge and Signet of Agility. Coupled with feline grace and expeditious dodger the removal of condition and refill on endurance through the Agility Signet is a nice escaping balance to its Precision boost for crits in attack. Seriously few people catch me and I’m always last man standing to res my group after we’ve been zerged. That’s an optional 2 nontarget shadowsteps and a target shadowstep to shadowstep around wvwvw with roughly 7 consecutive – 14 secs swiftness boost every 30 seconds and whatever in between. Very few catch me if I have to escape and that doubles as getting there first to any map point. Sorry got kind of off topic there when SOS was also mentioned.

Kind of off-topic, but I’ll go to the funny farm with ya. I’ve often thought about ditching Signet of Shadows. The only thing that keeps it on my bar is having an insta-blind as a panic button. If I were to replace it, my top choices would be Signet of Agility or Infiltrator’s Signet because both would fit with my build.

My question to you: Would you still feel mobile enough to drop SoS if you weren’t running a short bow?

Toversletje.9345:

ive thought about doing something awesome with this trap. gather about 20 thieves who all have this ambush trap unlocked and put them all on the same spot in the WvW jumping puzzle. than all hide and watch the fun as one person triggers them all :p

And have each of those thieves drop tripwires and needle traps all around the area as well.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

And have each of those thieves drop tripwires and needle traps all around the area as well.

And have all those traps proc but apply no effect because they are bugged.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

Elmuerto.9840:

Ambush is a blast with Thieves guild for small fights and I hear ya. They can however attack mobs as said so be careful where you pop them. SIGNET OF SHADOWS some day friends you’ll realise what a waste of a slot that is. Took a while but I kicked the habit too. Till then keep chasing you won’t catch me. Slots change but my general WvW is s/p and sb with Hide in Shadows, Shadowstep, Shadow refuge and Signet of Agility. Coupled with feline grace and expeditious dodger the removal of condition and refill on endurance through the Agility Signet is a nice escaping balance to its Precision boost for crits in attack. Seriously few people catch me and I’m always last man standing to res my group after we’ve been zerged. That’s an optional 2 nontarget shadowsteps and a target shadowstep to shadowstep around wvwvw with roughly 7 consecutive – 14 secs swiftness boost every 30 seconds and whatever in between. Very few catch me if I have to escape and that doubles as getting there first to any map point. Sorry got kind of off topic there when SOS was also mentioned.

Kind of off-topic, but I’ll go to the funny farm with ya. I’ve often thought about ditching Signet of Shadows. The only thing that keeps it on my bar is having an insta-blind as a panic button. If I were to replace it, my top choices would be Signet of Agility or Infiltrator’s Signet because both would fit with my build.

My question to you: Would you still feel mobile enough to drop SoS if you weren’t running a short bow?

Not a question directed at me obviously, but I’ll say that when I was not running a shortbow I wasn’t comfortable without it. Then I ditched it for caltrops after I finally broke down and just started backing a shortbow swap. Caltrops when used properly just had much more overall team utility with my bleed build.

Ambush I’ve only ever screwed with a bit. I like the idea of traps and venoms, and I’ve toyed around with them, but they’re just never worth giving up caltrops, roll for initiative, or shadow refuge in my build.

I’ll commonly switch from trops to the signet for running between fights (because keeping up with the pack otherwise requires me to waste endurance or initiative, and also because I’m lazy) , or to scorpion wire if I’m in a wall-fight to try and yank.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

My question to you: Would you still feel mobile enough to drop SoS if you weren’t running a short bow?

Three things:
1. Decent Acrobatics synergy negates much of the use of SoS’ passive for combat purposes.
2. Heartseeker is arguably superior for mobility to shortbow’s IA in flat out speed. So your question should really be “if you weren’t running a short bow or a main hand dagger”.
3. Arguably the most useful attribute of SoS’ passive, its ability to be used for lazy long-distance travel, doesn’t require it to continue to be slotted when you’re actually ready to fight. There’s no reason not to slot in SoS any time you have to run a long distance and slot it back out for a superior combat utility when you’re ready to fight.

The debate about SoS usually ends the same way: With signet synergy and skill at using the active it can be a combat asset, but the vast majority of thieves aren’t using it that way, and the ones that are using it that way have enough skill to make other utilities better. The primary reason people slot it is for laziness, and that is just fine.

Tulisin.6945:

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

My question to you: Would you still feel mobile enough to drop SoS if you weren’t running a short bow?

With signet synergy and skill at using the active it can be a combat asset, but the vast majority of thieves aren’t using it that way, and the ones that are using it that way have enough skill to make other utilities better.

This is exactly the answer I was hoping to hear. Thanks!

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

Tulisin.6945:

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

My question to you: Would you still feel mobile enough to drop SoS if you weren’t running a short bow?

With signet synergy and skill at using the active it can be a combat asset, but the vast majority of thieves aren’t using it that way, and the ones that are using it that way have enough skill to make other utilities better.

This is exactly the answer I was hoping to hear. Thanks!

I’d put it in the same vein as using no-offhand weapon sets to destroy people. If you’re good enough to make it work, you’ll do even better with something else.