Guild Wars 2

Just a question. I mostly think about PvP. Can you do a good build and not use this skill? I seem to have a LOT of situations where I think to myself “bah, he won only becouse of SR”. So how is it?

I run primarily WvW with a guild of fellow thieves. So my input on this is based on personally being a “stealth lite” thief.

I run S/D, typically with valk/zerker mix gear. I am our guild’s “visible tank/kill bait” in most situations. Most everyone else is 20 to 30 into shadow arts and heavily utilizes SR.

My view is, it rarely saves you, but it often saves you the trouble of running away forever. By that I mean, if you don’t have Shadow Refuge, you should have Infil Signet, Shadowstep, Withdraw, or Roll for Initiative (or all of them), and dagger mainhand or shortbow, cause you’ll be spending a lot of time running.

Most of the time, I gain so much distance they just stare at me for a second and turn around. This gives me front row seats to the AOE fest over my poor comrade, some 3000 distance away, getting pummeled in their SR, dieing a painful, albeit invisible, death.

Much like shadow signet, SR is really nice to have, but not necessary. However, if you go away from it, you should be compensating somewhere. (When I don’t run shadow sig, for instance, I am 15 in acro for the endurance and swiftness).

I never have it equipped, there is no reason for spec to use it. I don’t rely on it. I feel it is a bad crutch when used in fights vs. utilizing other abilities on my bar.

It’s a great skill, but you definitely don’t need it. Personally, I almost always PvP with my wife, so I keep it on my bar for the stealth rezzes, but lots of high end PvPers run without it.

Sword builds don’t gain as much from it as backstab builds do and a lot of good PvPers know to just come and attack in your circle to keep pressure on you anyways.

Awe.1096:

Just a question. I mostly think about PvP. Can you do a good build and not use this skill? I seem to have a LOT of situations where I think to myself “bah, he won only becouse of SR”. So how is it?

SR is a must in WvW.

Benefits

- Stealth Rez
- Basically another heal. With SR+heal in stealth (~700 a tick), 4-5K health regen.
- Surprise attack (stealth your other teammates before going in)
- Recover to reset Cooldowns
- Recover to reposition
- Escape

Its up to you if you want to use it or not but you will miss out on a lot of good stuff if you dont.

Yes, it can work.

I never, EVER run SRefuge, because it Reveals you so easily and generally just sits on your bar doing nothing.

Let’s not forget that with Cloaked in Shadow, it is an AOE blind as well. :)

SR is typically my “oh kitten!” button. Like an emergency button, it sits there doing nothing until it is deem necessary to use. Some people don’t like it because it takes up a slot.

The only times I switch it for something else is when I ’m in a group.

Never run it in PvP
Occasionally run it in WvW
Always run it in PvE

Arganthium.5638:

Yes, it can work.

I never, EVER run SRefuge, because it Reveals you so easily and generally just sits on your bar doing nothing.

This.

SR is amazing against people who have no idea what they’re doing, and merely decent anywhere else. Something like Shadowstep is a far better escape whereas SR is just likely to get you killed as the enemy knows exactly where you are.

You can use it with more advanced tactics (IE, dropping it as a diversion as you shadowstep away), but the vast majority of thieves use it very predictably and therefore don’t get much out of it against a skilled opponent.

It does work.

It doesn’t work for me, for whatever reason. I think just having it on my bar is like a security blanket, without which I am less confident in my play. Very useful in some group scenarios too since it can literally be the difference between half an enemy zerg rallying or not.

My thief is completely fraudulent though, so take that for what you will.

Shadow Refuge is a death trap against experienced players. Great for getting away from groups of bad players, horrid when dealing with good players. Either way, it’s not a necessity.

In WvW I usually roll blinding powder, shadow step and signet of shadows. I find most of my opponents are smart enough to pull me out of SR so I don’t use it all that much. With hide in the shadows, CnD and steal I still get alot of stealth. Its pretty borderline though, SR is so tempting to take, but what to give up. I need 25% mobility, an instant stealth (blinding powder) and a gap closer/decreaser/troller (shadow step).

I never use it, ever. Against anyone who knows what they’re doing, it’s either a “knockback/pull/push here” or “AoE here” button.

PvE, I MIGHT have it equipped if I’m in a PUG and I don’t know if people can keep themselves alive.

If you run a stealth build it is very likely SR will be on your bar. It has many uses and is more beneficial than a lot of other utility skills for this type of build. However, I do not think a thief is useless without it. There are many other options available and you can easily make an effective build without it.

SR is definitely less effective against more experienced players, but it’s still far from useless. The best example of this is stomp prevention for allies:

Even if an enemy knows exactly where you and your downed ally are, they still can’t land a stomp while your ally is down. If your enemy has stability up (as is wise when going for the stomp), then stealthing your ally is one of the few ways you can prevent a stomp and rez your ally at the same time.

I have a gut feeling that SR is next on the chopping block… or was it the carne asada burrito last night?

I’m predicting that they will call SR bugged that it shouldn’t be stacking stealth because the tooltip says stealth only for 3s.

realistically most people in WvW can’t break me out of the field. i think it’s something like 1/10 times when i would get pulled out of the SR field.

Excalibur.9748:

realistically most people in WvW can’t break me out of the field. i think it’s something like 1/10 times when i would get pulled out of the SR field.

I find the danger isn’t so much that they’ll break you out but that you’re confined to a small circle if you want the benefits of the skill. This means you can’t fully utilize the thief’s main defensive mechanic, mobility. Enemies don’t even need to AE the circle, simply wading in and using melee attacks will usually either down the thief or force them to exit the circle and thereby waste a 60s cooldown. While something like Blinding Powder might facilitate an actual escape, SR will almost always result in the thief being downed or wasting the skill against good opponents.

It is a great skill in a lot of respects, but an escape mechanism isn’t really one of them.

you have choices to go with SR…..

AOE blind
full init regen
6-7 conditions removed
stealth 15 seconds roughly
10,400 hp heal (WITHOUT ANY heal stat gear lol)
sets you up for backstab/run/TS/suprise shot/sneak attack
revive a dead ally usually guaranteed almost
and resets cooldowns.

will you get hit in SR? maybe. me? usually not. i usually have endurance regen/gain on roll so i just cast SR at the edge of where im standing then soon as im invis i roll into it so they dont know im rolling then stand on the farthest edge of where you started….idk if most thieves know this but you can stand outside of SR once ur invis…..its a fine line but ur feet dont have to be in the circle once ur stealthed.

if u dont take SR its a mistake…even if u dont run SA it gives u 1 more chance if ur about to die plus a nice heal and time to reset. its a must in any build any PVE PVP SPVP TPVP WVW ….i always take it….its too good not to….. its a thieves saving grace.

shadow refuge has so many uses, i use it in both pve and spvp

although like others have said, it’s not as great against experienced players

exp player vs exp player SR is still fine…..even pull skills can be avoided with a timed roll….push skills are a little tougher but basically only guardians can really get you out at will IF and ONLY IF they have the skill not on CD

SR – dodge – dodge -stealth – dance.

I’m a kind thief, I res lots.