Guild Wars 2

Killer’s Verdict Signet
Passive: When entering combat, your first critical hit on a target deals 10% more damage.
Active: Remove revealed debuff from yourself.

Cooldown 60 seconds. #Discuss?

I like the passive, but it’s a bit… Lacking

How about:

Passive: Your critical attacks apply 2 stacks of vulnerability.

This way, the passive is strong enough to make you consider not using it instead of reveal reset in some circumstances.

And removing the reveal is strong but 60s sounds quite harsh. Maybe 45ish. This way you’d get to use it twice in a drawn out fight, but a quick burst-off you wouldn’t.

But I’d have to say, I’d prefer a nice fully defensive skill like Invulnerability for 3 seconds and making yourself a mobile dark-field for the active.

This would be defensive too. Shadow Arts works with this (and Crit Strikes to an extent) with the Precision signet working with DareDevil (and Acro to an extent). DA synergizes with Assassin, Trickery with Infil. Movement sig needs something else (Ele’s have our signet and a stunbreak. Compare em). Malice works in CS too.

I just wanted something that might effectively bring P/d and D/d back. Maybe:

Passive: Your first critical hit on a target deals 10% more damage and applies 5 vulnerability. Cannot be applied more than once every 10 seconds (in case you spam combat disengages).
Active: Remove Revealed debuff from yourself. Your next attack transfers 3 boons from first target hit (so if you aoe, the first one to get tapped. if impossible to calculate, the closest to you perhaps?) and 3 conditions.

So essentially, an engage passive with an incentive to activate. Like Arcane Thievery/safety. Maybe? I just want an elite signet. Seems dumb that all utils have an elite, but signet for us does not. :C

Edit: Or it could remove Revealed and grant a lightning, smoke, or dark field (rng-esque).

Here’s a question that needs to be answered. At its current state, why would anyone take this instead of BV or IS?

Here’s my suggestion;
- No Passive
- Active: Remove Revealed and you cannot be Revealed for 3s. 60s CD.

This one is worth not taking the other Elite skills.

But then it is not a signet. Signet’s have passives.

Serious Thought.5394:

But then it is not a signet. Signet’s have passives.

Since that’s the case, here’s what I propose;
- Passive: Critical hits restores 1 initiative. 10s CD

As a signet thief I’d rather not see it push stealth. We really don’t need more of it on the thief as it is, and it really won’t do anything for signet builds at all.

I don’t really have an idea for one, though. All I can think of would be to let its active strip a boon or two on the next attack or something.

So I give up an instant spike, a projectile reflect, two stuns that are unblockable, and minions for this passive/active. Why was my previous version of first crit gets 10% or first hit gets 10% not ok? It had a single revealed removal as well.

meepeY.2867:

I like the passive, but it’s a bit… Lacking

How about:

Passive: Your critical attacks apply 2 stacks of vulnerability.

This way, the passive is strong enough to make you consider not using it instead of reveal reset in some circumstances.

And removing the reveal is strong but 60s sounds quite harsh. Maybe 45ish. This way you’d get to use it twice in a drawn out fight, but a quick burst-off you wouldn’t.

But I’d have to say, I’d prefer a nice fully defensive skill like Invulnerability for 3 seconds and making yourself a mobile dark-field for the active.

60 seconds untraited it would be. We do have a signet related trait, although it also could use a buff (I’ve suggested giving us the active of assassin’s signet on killing a foe with an ICD, so yolo thief can transition to the next target with a punch.)

I’d love the idea of a remove revealed effect given the amount of it that’s being tossed onto professions. +1

Serious Thought.5394:

So I give up an instant spike, a projectile reflect, two stuns that are unblockable, and minions for this passive/active. Why was my previous version of first crit gets 10% or first hit gets 10% not ok? It had a single revealed removal as well.

IMPO, I rather not see more damage boosters. Also, it seems that ArenaNet’s idea of a spike damage has to come from multiple sources and not just from one (the Thief), so it is unlikely that it will be implemented.

EDIT: In addition, keep in mind that his will sync with Signet of Power so yeah, that’s just too much power/damage/

NinjaEd.3946:

(I’ve suggested giving us the active of assassin’s signet on killing a foe with an ICD, so yolo thief can transition to the next target with a punch.)

I’d love the idea of a remove revealed effect given the amount of it that’s being tossed onto professions. +1

Again, I dislike the removal of Reveal due to what I think right now is an excess of stealth game-wide, including the thief), and it lacks synergy with signet builds.

That said, this concept could have amazing potential. How about the elite signet refunds two initiative on activation and it gives a short buff effect on activation which when the thief kills a player, the cooldown resets? This could make SoP a viable trait choice for racking up lots of might after repeated kills in a short period at the cost of BV and DS, but would remove the need for stacking a full bar of utils to blow for the sake of might stacking for signet builds. This also lets signets push into sustained-fight viability or build around it with the remaining utilities instead of just being solely a burst-or-burst trait choice.

This way, cooldown could also be reduced to 45 seconds or less since its gains aren’t huge but offer a lot of niche use for a new build.

The passive is still tough to think about what would be useful and balanced.

DeceiverX.8361:

NinjaEd.3946:

(I’ve suggested giving us the active of assassin’s signet on killing a foe with an ICD, so yolo thief can transition to the next target with a punch.)

I’d love the idea of a remove revealed effect given the amount of it that’s being tossed onto professions. +1

Again, I dislike the removal of Reveal due to what I think right now is an excess of stealth game-wide, including the thief), and it lacks synergy with signet builds.

That said, this could have amazing potential. How about it refunds two initiative on activation and it gives a short buff effect on activation which when the thief kills a player, the cooldown resets? This could make SoP a viable trait choice for racking up lots of might after repeated kills in a short period at the cost of BV and DS, but would remove the need for stacking a full bar of utils to blow for the sake of might stacking for signet builds. This also lets signets push into sustained-fight viability or build around it with the remaining utilities instead of just being solely a burst-or-burst trait choice.

This way, cooldown could also be reduced to 45 seconds or less since its gains aren’t huge but offer a lot of niche use for a new build.

The passive is still tough to think about what would be useful and balanced.

I just think the masters of stealth should have a little more control over the mechanic, and a reveal removal is only a direct response to revaled applications. I don’t recall ever seeing posts about revealed removals until skills like the sneak gyro and DH trap came about, and even a little mention when sic’em was updated.

As for the signet I don’t think it should be dependent on a “signet” build. Elite skills should be able to stand alone given their generally long cooldowns. A cooldown reset tied with SoP would make any thief wanting this signet basically require SoP because a potential heavy might stack would be too great to pass up, the signet would hardly be worth it without SoP.

It could definitely tie to initiative that way its good on any thief build. The initiative on activation could be increased to something like 6 in addition to maybe stun breaking, passive could be something like critical hits remove a boon with 3 second ICD or reduce incoming condition duration.

DeceiverX.8361:

NinjaEd.3946:

(I’ve suggested giving us the active of assassin’s signet on killing a foe with an ICD, so yolo thief can transition to the next target with a punch.)

I’d love the idea of a remove revealed effect given the amount of it that’s being tossed onto professions. +1

Again, I dislike the removal of Reveal due to what I think right now is an excess of stealth game-wide, including the thief), and it lacks synergy with signet builds.

That said, this concept could have amazing potential. How about the elite signet refunds two initiative on activation and it gives a short buff effect on activation which when the thief kills a player, the cooldown resets? This could make SoP a viable trait choice for racking up lots of might after repeated kills in a short period at the cost of BV and DS, but would remove the need for stacking a full bar of utils to blow for the sake of might stacking for signet builds. This also lets signets push into sustained-fight viability or build around it with the remaining utilities instead of just being solely a burst-or-burst trait choice.

This way, cooldown could also be reduced to 45 seconds or less since its gains aren’t huge but offer a lot of niche use for a new build.

The passive is still tough to think about what would be useful and balanced.

But the thing is, no one really uses Assassin Signet. I do, but I play mad yolo PK TDM bs. Here’s what we have:

Malice- attacking heals.
Shadow- move faster, blind someone (weaker signet of air)
Infiltator- init/time with a tp
Agil- crit/dodge/endu
Assassin- damage

So we have what looks to be chase set up with some stickiness (malice just needs some help… so bad… like Shiro Heal style rework maybe?). Run after, tp to, burst. Heal if they counter burst. Signets are built to end things faster on Thief.

Passives: We have heal on hit, movespeed, init per second, precision, and power.
Actives: Heal, blind, endurance100, +15% damage over kittens.

Brainstorming hurts >.< But I still vote revealed. How does it make sense to have a signet for every line except Shadow Arts? :C Poor thing, it wants a friend.

I’ve suggested malice be reworked to gain health on (unnautural) initiative gain, since it is a lot easier to balance than trying to make the skill not become blatantly OP against multiple targets, where it currently is at its highest. Of course if you are at 100% initiative you get nothing, but that’s where the resource management comes into play to require a little thought rather than, “use something and heal yourself” or “sit there and heal”.

You got upper hand, rfi, kleptomaniac, quick pockets (which could use love, like -5 sec on weapon swap to compete with SoH), infiltrator’s signet and shadow’s rejuvenation. They are fairly spread and tied to cooldowns versus being dependant on the number of targets nearby.

I just had an idea to make it “elite”:

Passive: If you would use initiative, the ability is free. ICD 10.
Active: Removed Revealed Debuff.

60s cd, no cast time.

:D Yay ideas.

How about revamping signet of shadows? Someone made a thread about the “upcoming changes” before the last patch and surprise; half of it was true and one of the changes was that SoS would remove revealed when activated. It doesn’t have to be an elite?

ETA: But someone else said that SR should be immune to revealed – and I think that is the smartest approach to get revealed into line (I’d rather have them take it out of the game altogether with all the stealth other classes have – I’m not jealous but it doesn’t make sense. “A mesmer will now outstealth you, chances that you hit him are low anyway as all the clones get into the way, so good luck with your backstab, mkay?!” and I hate engis stealthing me each and everywhere).

Just seems too strong to do so. SoS and Blinding Powder would allow for double backstabs and that’s just straight up unreasonable.

I also kinda like the clutch blind AoE blind. I’d use it more if the cooldown wasn’t so long, though. Putting it on 15s like SoM would be enough such that SoP could let it stack 5 might near-permanently and have more frequent sustained use in a fight while keeping its passive available when most swiftness sources (ToTC comes to mind) end/come close to ending.

As far as Shadow Refuge and the removal of reveal; it’s a very important mechanic to have in the game. It was implemented for a reason, because the thief was wildly OP when it wasn’t in the game.

SR is a powerful utility but shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all solution to stealth/safety. If it removed revealed, there would be no way to deal with a thief using it aggressively, as stealth attacks inflicting self-reveal would get the effect removed and the thief could just keep using stealth attacks with free stealth pulses, and the utility is already considered to be quite strong; there’s no real justification in buffing it more.

Other classes certainly have too much stealth. It doesn’t mean we should get power-creeped more, though. They should be brought down in accordance and made similarly-counterable, instead.

Then how about making two revealed? Forced and self inflicted. You can remove the forced with SoS (or any revamped signet) but not the self inflicted.

ETA. And yes, most other classes need some tweaks here and there. Revealed is really something I don’t get – right now none of the classes that have it needs it.

Any chance we can chat it up in game tomorrow? I’d be willing to add anyone who mails me to talk. I mean, we know it’d never happen- but it sure is fun to dream.

DeceiverX.8361:

As far as Shadow Refuge and the removal of reveal; it’s a very important mechanic to have in the game. It was implemented for a reason, because the thief was wildly OP when it wasn’t in the game.

SR is a powerful utility but shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all solution to stealth/safety. If it removed revealed, there would be no way to deal with a thief using it aggressively, as stealth attacks inflicting self-reveal would get the effect removed and the thief could just keep using stealth attacks with free stealth pulses, and the utility is already considered to be quite strong; there’s no real justification in buffing it more.

Saw this too late, sorry.
With the revealed skills as they are and SR – SR is useless as it is as it’s a gigantic red circle which is in most cases covered by the AoE that reveal. So, if you think SR is “OP” then it has been since launch. And people always had enough AoE to hit into the circle. Surprise, I backstabbed a thief hiding in it today – he was surprised and ran out of it. (He was no noob so he hid in a corner which I guessed) – once upon a time not everything has been called OP but people learned how to play.

I never said it was “OP” I said it was quite strong. It’s always been a strong contender for a utility skill and offers a lot of utility such as preventing stomps on critical targets or allowing a long-duration stealth effect when used before entering combat to really enable getting the jump on someone due to the extended stealth gained with zero indicators once casted. It also heals and is a dark field, enabling more healing for a group or yourself depending on your build.

Half of the battle of playing defensively is knowing when to use those defensive abilities through knowledge of your opponent. You don’t cast/rely on SR in front of a GS mesmer which hasn’t used its knockback yet, or hide in an AoE circle if a necro hasn’t dropped its marks (especially fear on staff) and wells. Knowing when and where to place the effect is simply part of smart play, and not being smart in a combat environment is what gets you killed. This should be applicable to every class.

And that’s the thing; SR has never been a get-out-of-jail-free card against skilled players. It was against only against unskilled ones, and the basis for asking for such massive buffs is extending to “My enemies have gotten better and I don’t want to switch my utilities or adapt to their counterplay.” SR is textbook of the old (superior) systems in GW2 and well-designed mechanics that were in the game in that in order to counter it, quick-thinking through the use of the right skills would put a monkey wrench into someone’s strategy or skill use. Asking for more buffs by the removal of counterplay will only help contribute to the downwards-spiraling of the game’s combat and the thief as a whole into more linear build paths through the use of blatantly superior/power-creeped abilities and overall trivialization of combat.

Having the skill remove the revealed debuff is just completely and wildly overpowered. I’d never not run this utility on any build, from P/P condi to S/P power. I’d drop signets for it because it’d be better burst, better sustain, and better reliability over quite literally everything. Five consecutive backstabs over the course of five seconds would just be so incredibly overpowered and you know it would.

DeceiverX.8361:

I never said it was “OP” I said it was quite strong.

DeceiverX.8361:

As far as Shadow Refuge and the removal of reveal; it’s a very important mechanic to have in the game. It was implemented for a reason, because the thief was wildly OP when it wasn’t in the game.

Not one of this discussions again
Give me 5 minutes before I read the rest – I need to get my head off the desk before I can go on…

Another Idea for an elite signet:

Swindler’s Signet

Passive: your attacks steal boons. 10 ICD
Active: your next 5 attacks transfer a condition from you to your foe

As for OP’s idea on an elite signet, I like your first idea for a passive, but would it not be simpler for it to just increase the thief’s overall ferocity by 180 points? As for the active, I agree with DeceiverX I believe that a skill that could remove the reveal debuff would prove to be too strong. Especially with the trait Improvise.(yes I know the chances of signets getting recharged are slim with this trait, but still I dread the idea that an enemy thief has the chance to get off two or three Sneak attacks in quick succession.)

(edit: changed some words that could have been misinterpreted)

It’s simple;
Passive: 1 second longer stealth
Active: enter stealth for 6 seconds. CD 40 seconds.

Thief really needs a simple button that makes it enter stealth and nothing more. And no, shadow refuge, CnD, HS, steal etc. are not that.
Stealth like this should be baseline F3, but I guess elite would be acceptable as well.

martin.1653:

It’s simple;
Passive: 1 second longer stealth
Active: enter stealth for 6 seconds. CD 40 seconds.

Thief really needs a simple button that makes it enter stealth and nothing more. And no, shadow refuge, CnD, HS, steal etc. are not that.
Stealth like this should be baseline F3, but I guess elite would be acceptable as well.

Steal used to have Hidden Thief as base line and you can see this in their Thief Profession preview prior to release. Somewhere before release, they’ve decided to make the stealth part a trait instead and give Steal shadowstep ability. So I really doubt that ArenaNet is willing to give Thief a stealth button even if it comes as an Elite skill.

Kinda meh.

I’d rather have Signet of Deadly Corruption back from GW1 as our Elite Signet.

Passive can either raise condition damage/duration, transfer conditions periodically, or convert enemy boons to poison~ whatever’s sexy.
Active would be a 1200 Range direct damage super nuke with damage scaling off how many conditions they have on them and leaves a field of radiation fallout that ghoulifies them.

I loved that Signet.

martin.1653:

Thief really needs a simple button that makes it enter stealth

Blinding Powder – that’s usually enough. All my other chars have got their invulnerabilities on that utility slot, so whenever I get into a “OH KITTEN” situation I use that – works. But if you want to kill someone you have to work for it – Assassin’s 101.

Doggie.3184:

I loved that Signet.

I loved GW2

Doggie.3184:

Kinda meh.

I’d rather have Signet of Deadly Corruption back from GW1 as our Elite Signet.

Passive can either raise condition damage/duration, or transfer conditions periodically.
Active would be a 1200 Range direct damage super nuke with damage scaling off how many conditions they have on them and leaves a field of radiation that ghoulifies them.

I loved that Signet.

I can back this. There are times that I’m looking for something to pop the conditions as a way to counter a cleanse.

I wouldn’t mind something like this;
- Passive: Conditions last 2sec longer.
- Active: Remove all conditions from target. Deal xx damage per condition (not per stack) removed.

That would be an awesome Elite.

Jana.6831:

DeceiverX.8361:

I never said it was “OP” I said it was quite strong.

DeceiverX.8361:

As far as Shadow Refuge and the removal of reveal; it’s a very important mechanic to have in the game. It was implemented for a reason, because the thief was wildly OP when it wasn’t in the game.

Not one of this discussions again
Give me 5 minutes before I read the rest – I need to get my head off the desk before I can go on…

Please re-read or there was a mis-understanding? I was referring to the thief being OP when the Revealed effect didn’t exist in the game (on the topic of Reveal). I wasn’t referring to SR in that statement but the proposal of anything removing the Revealed debuff, especially SR. I said having SR remove the Revealed effect would make the thief OP again becausse of how ridiculously overpowered the class was before Revealed was added to the game.

I then discussed how SR doesn’t need a buff but that the skill isn’t OP, and that SR as a skill is in a pretty good spot.

Yeah alright.
I guess you get how I thought you meant it and why I didn’t read on afterwards =)
(Also I’m tired)

I really like the idea of an elite signet. So what about this:

Blah blah killer signet
Passive: Regenerate health (150hp/s) or transfer one condi every 10 sec
Active: Your next attack cannot be blocked
Cd: 15 sec (so you could keep 10 stacks of might if you were so inclined)

Health regen is on malice. The unblockable could be nice though. Passive ferocity perhaps?

like i mentioned it in ninjaeds thread, I would just rework thieves guild into an Elite Signet Skill, herei n this thread now actually proposed as concept to talk about it here directly…

Signet of Twilight Recharge Time: 120 Seconds
Functionality of Thieves Guild has been changed. Thieves Guild is now this Elite Signet Skill.
Passive Effect: While this Skill is passive, do you gain +180 Toughness while being not in Stealth and Weakness on you reduces only your Energy regeneration, but doesn’t let you do anymore Glancing Blows
Active Effect: Summons two Shadow Clones of you for a Duration of 30 seconds that attack nearby enemies.

Shadow Clones
Shadow Clones are similar to the Illusions of the Mesmer’s Clones. they look identical like a Mesmer’s Phantasms to the original, but in case of a Shadow Clone, they have a dark bluish/blackish smokey aura around themself and their moves look more like shadows that distort the space, leaving shadow trails while moving as its not their intention like a Mesm’ers Clone to trick the enemy into believing that they are the original. Shadow Clones from this Skill are clearly made for distraction.

Shadow Clones use the same Skills as like Thieves in general do, however, what kind of Shadow Clone Builds you summon is based on the two weapon sets that the original is using.
If the player uses for example D/D and Shortbow, then this Skill will summon a D/D and a Shortbow Shadow Clone. If it is D/P and Staff, then you summon a D/p and a Staff Shadow Clone for 30 seconds. So simple.

Shadow Clones unlike Mesmer Clones deal also significantly more damage just like Thieves Guild’s summoned Thieves so far did that already too.
The difference now between summoned Thieves and my proposed Shadow Clones that come from activating the Signet of Twilight is, that defeating a Shadow Clone before the duration of 30 seconds ends, should heal now the Original!!

Every Shadow Clone that gets killed before its Duration of 30 seconds is over, heals on defeat the player by a certain amount of heals and removes a Conmdition from the player.
This way becomes the summoning of those minions a better defensive skill, while givign the thief a little bit more sustain from the heals and condi removal when the Shadow Clones get early defeated and the Thief gets its own Elite Skill Signet, that will be alot more useful, than Thieves Guild is right now, because as Thieves Guild is right now, it is a total underwhelming Elite Skill, because all minions in this game die way too quickly before they could be of any use for the durations they are up.

Thieves Guild is there no exception and with its 3 Minute Cooldown its just garbage.
2 Minutes is more than enough for a skill that lasts maximum 30 seconds, where in most cases the minions get even killed before they had a chance to last for 30 seconds at all…

Passive trait boosts on signets honestly kitten me off. Its the laziest way to make a skill.

@ Orpheal

TG is already a deception skill, and as far as a stealth elite goes that would probably be the best place to put it (at the end of the channel) so you can lay down some distracting thieves and either slip away or turn back on the fool who chased you.

An elite signet would be a nice addition, not reworking an already existing skill category into it.

If we are dreaming:

Passive: Reveal is 1s shorter
Active: Next 5 attacks cannot be blocked

Serious Thought.5394:

DeceiverX.8361:

NinjaEd.3946:

(I’ve suggested giving us the active of assassin’s signet on killing a foe with an ICD, so yolo thief can transition to the next target with a punch.)

I’d love the idea of a remove revealed effect given the amount of it that’s being tossed onto professions. +1

Again, I dislike the removal of Reveal due to what I think right now is an excess of stealth game-wide, including the thief), and it lacks synergy with signet builds.

That said, this concept could have amazing potential. How about the elite signet refunds two initiative on activation and it gives a short buff effect on activation which when the thief kills a player, the cooldown resets? This could make SoP a viable trait choice for racking up lots of might after repeated kills in a short period at the cost of BV and DS, but would remove the need for stacking a full bar of utils to blow for the sake of might stacking for signet builds. This also lets signets push into sustained-fight viability or build around it with the remaining utilities instead of just being solely a burst-or-burst trait choice.

This way, cooldown could also be reduced to 45 seconds or less since its gains aren’t huge but offer a lot of niche use for a new build.

The passive is still tough to think about what would be useful and balanced.

But the thing is, no one really uses Assassin Signet. I do, but I play mad yolo PK TDM bs. Here’s what we have:

Malice- attacking heals.
Shadow- move faster, blind someone (weaker signet of air)
Infiltator- init/time with a tp
Agil- crit/dodge/endu
Assassin- damage

So we have what looks to be chase set up with some stickiness (malice just needs some help… so bad… like Shiro Heal style rework maybe?). Run after, tp to, burst. Heal if they counter burst. Signets are built to end things faster on Thief.

Passives: We have heal on hit, movespeed, init per second, precision, and power.
Actives: Heal, blind, endurance100, +15% damage over kittens.

Brainstorming hurts >.< But I still vote revealed. How does it make sense to have a signet for every line except Shadow Arts? :C Poor thing, it wants a friend.

Signets as a whole push for aggressive play/constantly hitting things, though. They’re not really built or designed for intermittent in/out effects. Deception skills are more or less what SA pushes for, since these abilities are usually bolstered through the use of stealth to throw off opponents or simply directly give stealth; 2 of the utilities give stealth, 1 enables it, and the heal directly gives stealth as well. Signets conceptually push more or less into sustained combat bonus via the passives and spiking with the active effects.

We also don’t have any sustained-combat-oriented elites. TG is just generally-speaking bad. Getting initiative refund on a kill with a cooldown reset on kill would enable aggressive thief builds to just keep on killing, rather than being forced into retreating to recover initiative even if fine on health. Basically, it’s Kleptomaniac on a signet, which could also help reduce the dependency on Trickery.

Maybe OP as a buff effect for the thief in general (changed perhaps to a debuff which “marks” the target, and has a timer that starts on the first target hit and only refunds initiative/cooldown if that target is killed).

So for the sustained approach to signets as a whole with big-money actives to aggressive and kind of combo-centric play they offer as a whole, I’ll propose this:

Ravager’s Signet
Cooldown: 20s
Cast time: 0
Passive: +180 Ferocity
Active: Your next attack made marks the opponent for six seconds. If the target dies within this period, the cooldown is refreshed and you gain two initiative. This effect cannot be negated.

I would like to improve the melee effectiveness of X/D and give a little love to P/P. I’m also hoping the active will help the thief in team fights without giving complete damage immunity.

Signet of Dexterity
Passive: Increase weapon range by ~15%. This will give melee attacks 150 range like some two handed weapons and give ranged weapons 1050 range. Hopefully this will allow you to potion yourself to hit targets and avoid AOE.
Active: Grant immunity to AOE damage for a short duration.