Guild Wars 2

For solo roaming, should I go with Withdraw or Signet of Malice, instead of Hide in Shadows? Since stealth doesn’t break aggro, it seems that HiS is not so good.

It depends on your condition removal. If you’re already running other sources, then HiS might not be worth it. This question also applies to your current Stealth capabilities. Can you normally go into Stealth without your heal?

On my S/P Venomous Aura build in Knight’s gear, I desperately need HiS. I’m paranoid about conditions, so the removal is much appreciated. Also the potential use for Stealth as I retreat is still useful even if it doesn’t drop aggro.

Now if you were running a Dagger in your off-hand and had Shadow’s Embrace traited, then my opinion would be different. In that case, Withdraw or SoM would start to look really attractive to me.

Signet of Malice is good vs. groups of NPCs because it heals per hit. So if you went up against 3-4 and heal for 100 per hit, that’s 300-400 a hit. Combine it with pistol whip and you heal ~20% each attack.

withdraw is amazing 90% of the time. Just have to get used to using it as dual purpose. If you don’t you’ll feel like it’s junk.

i rarely use anything but signet of malice, it’s the best soft damage mitigation Vs bosses with unavoidable light damage.

The heals are balanced. Use the heal you need to suit your build and play style. Don’t be afraid to change the heals around if you’re using different tactics for different enemies.

Hide in shadows is not about breaking aggro. To break aggro you get out of an enemies roaming area and stealth could help you do that. Stealth gives you a brief respite from mobs targeting you with new attacks, lets you get trait benefits from going into stealth (shadow arts), and gives you a free powerful attack on weapon skill 1.

tbh it almost entirely depends on your build and playstyle.

If your playing as a high shadow arts backstab user than hide in shadows is almost always going to be better for you while if your doing an AoE build or a rapid fire build that gets lots of hits Signet of Malice is going to be better than either of the other 2.

Withdraw is a good middle ground that works well if your doing something like an acrobatic build or doing heavy kiting (at which point its a toss up between SoM’s better healing or withdraws mobility and cc remover)

I should agree with Dasorine, but right now I’m just too fond of Hide In Shadows stealth and condition cleaning.

Uruz Six.6594:

I should agree with Dasorine, but right now I’m just too fond of Hide In Shadows stealth and condition cleaning.

Doesnt it heal you the most too? And as for the aggro dropping, Ive said this before, I dont get why people are still worried about this. The enemies wont continue to attack you while you are in stealth, this just means they wont walk back to thier spawn anymore when they dont see you, and you have 3 seconds to escape or reposition

RedSpectrum.1975:

Uruz Six.6594:

I should agree with Dasorine, but right now I’m just too fond of Hide In Shadows stealth and condition cleaning.

Doesnt it heal you the most too? And as for the aggro dropping, Ive said this before, I dont get why people are still worried about this. The enemies wont continue to attack you while you are in stealth, this just means they wont walk back to thier spawn anymore when they dont see you, and you have 3 seconds to escape or reposition

That sort of depends, it heals you the most for a single click at 5760 every 30 seconds (with regen counted), withdraw in 30 seconds can heal 8668 with 2 activations, signet of malice heals hits over 30 seconds Number of hits x 100 (at level 80 with no healing power)

However once you start traiting stealth hide in shadows can potentially heal a lot more in the same way using AoE’s and multi-hit attacks will make SoM heal a lot more.

For example a D/D thief using death blossom after bottoming out on initiative, dagger auto attack and caltrops can potentially heal 7600 over the 30 seconds with an additional 2800 for each additional target in range (upto 5 limit of course)

They all have a use and i use all of them depending on the situation. I generally run around with SoM though, but withdraw offers reliable and high self healing that’s also very good at kiting, just remember to switch out this skill if you need to heal while doing a jumping puzzle :P

SoM can offer the most self healing, but this also relies on actively attacking the target to proc the signet. If you’re fighting a single enemy that is difficult to continuously attack then the healing from this skill may be worse available to you.

Hide in shadows sacrifices some healing for the ability to stealth and remove conditions. This is probably your best all-round heal, but there are situations where the other two skills can be more beneficial.

I usually use HiS because it’s decent everywhere, and you don’t have to worry about poison killing your healing off.

I would go with either HiS or Withdraw, SoM is very situational and useful only in certain builds (i.e. you’re running a sustained damage build, or running a signet build).

HiS is probably the “safer” alternative and is more applicable of the 3, because it offers the most heal, takes you to stealth to get some of your stealth boons (i.e. remove a condition, regen initiative, heal in stealth, blind people in AoE when you go to stealth, whatever you traited in SA). Also it is a condi cleanser which is always helpful.

As someone said above, withdraw is very good (short cooldown of 15s, built in evade, remove cripple and chill I believe) but kind of awkward. You have to get used to the lunging backward roll.

I will also add that SoM is good at lower levels, not very good at level 80. The heals doesn’t scale proportional to the damage you will take by enemies of that level. Also, thieves have tools to avoid a lot of damage, thus you are generally “topped off” anyway. But every so often you take the big shellacking and need a burst heal, for this SoM is all but useless, withdraw is helpful and HiS is the best.

in PVE for me no question SoM.