Guild Wars 2

I love sword/dagger, more so than sword/pistol, but I can’t stand Flanking Strike. It either needs to work better, or switched out. I’d prefer Nine-tailed Strike honestly, it’s got much more damage and defense potential than a broken dodge.

100% agreed. Id love to use sword/dagger, but flanking strike is just too horrible to use right now. Its OK in PvP, but in PvE it is just… puke.

Yeah I was dissapointed long ago with that skill. It feels like they decided to tack on boon removal and call it a day.

If it did just a bit more dmg, and the 2nd strike hit sooner it would such a huge improvement.

The way it is now, you flank, strike with dagger, then sit there waiting for that 2nd strike so that it even does dmg.

You’re actually able to interupt the 2nd hit if you spam it back to back which is just awful. The main reason the delay on the 2nd hit is bad is because you’re not evading.

Yes, there is a lot wrong with Flanking Strike.

in PvP i prefer to spam the auto-attack instead of using flanking strike.

It’s horrible how much more effort you need to put into good and difficult builds like S/D or D/P when you could simply make a bleed thief or a S/P pistol whip spammer and own anything.

Flanking Strike is most useful as a dodge that doesn’t use Endurance. I find it extremely good in 1on1 fights for this reason. It lets me keep evading while my endurance is still regenning.

The ability itself is just ok though. It actually does pretty high damage so no complaints there. It also has the unique property of stripping a boon off the opponent, which is yet more emphasis on its strength in 1on1 dueling situations.

I see plenty of usefulness for this ability in the right context but that context is maybe a little narrow. 1on1 duels don’t happen all that often really. It is very good at its job though.

There’s a separate issue related to terrain modelling and all automatic movement abilities (leaps, evades, shadowsteps, and teleports are all affected by this) where if you are on the border of two “tiles” of terrain the auto-move ability kinda screws up and gets stuck on the tile border instead of crossing the border properly and ending up a the spot you think it should. This issue does detract from the usefulness of Flanking Strike, but its not specific to Flanking Strike. its a problem with alot of abilities.

Honestly, I NEVER use sword for anything.

I find sword to be completely and utterly garbage on thief…and pistol whip is not an excuse to use it.

Sword has more control than a dagger, by a long shot, and has more movement and survivability.

Really, even if they fixed the pathing issue of flanking strike it’s far too useless still. It’s the worst of all of our dual skills. I suggested Nine Tail Strike because it’s far less situational and still fits the theme they seemed to want with sword/dagger. It’s a counter attack with a block and several hits if you block. You can also stop the block mid-action to regain the initiative spent using the ability.

That one ability is so good it makes me love playing Capricorn and just defending the ruin, just so I can use it. It’s more utility than anything flanking strike could ever offer.

but sword doesnt have backstab, i <3 backstab heh

But it does have a blind/daze. It’s a lot more fun to watch your enemies flounder around because they can’t do anything.

veritech.1048:

I love sword/dagger, more so than sword/pistol, but I can’t stand Flanking Strike. It either needs to work better, or switched out. I’d prefer Nine-tailed Strike honestly, it’s got much more damage and defense potential than a broken dodge.

Nine-Tailed Strike is downright broken. I can put it on auto-attack and get afk kills.

Flanking Strike definitely needs some work, though. My suggestion would be to have it cause a few stacks of bleed (maybe 2 per strike), since this weapon set is completely void of condition damage. Also fix the positioning of it so it puts you behind the target more reliably.

“Sword has more control than dagger” hahaha, what a joke.

Weakness is more useful than half a second of stun.

The sword has weakness on auto.

veritech.1048:

The sword has weakness on auto.

so does dagger if you have 15 points in Deadly Arts for the passive Lotus Poison (enemies are inflicted with 3 second weakness when you poison them). the dagger’s 3rd strike in the 1,1,1 chain inflicts poison, so there you go.

What sword really has, that dagger absolutely doesn’t have any equivalent of, is Infiltrator Strike. If you open all of your fights from range and close the gap with Infiltrator Strike you can gtfo anytime you want by tapping 2 again. This is unbelievably useful for succesfully staying alive while melee attacking hard hitting dungeon mobs.

I don’t really find infiltrator’s strike to be all that useful. It takes a bunch of initiative for something that you can almost always do by just running away. If you really, really need to you can dodge or stealth. Infiltrator’s strike also won’t help you get out of there if you’re in the fight for any length of time, since it’ll switch back over to the first skill in the “chain”.

I personally like my S/D set. I use Infiltrator’s Strike and Flanking Strike more then any other skills. I find Flanking Strike great because a lot of enemies have obvious tells before they attack. Also good for getting rid of pesky boons. As for the sword itself as a weapon, I like the wide sweep of it’s attack.

Flanking Strike is awesome in PvP, especially 1 vs 1.

First of all, it removes boons. So, if you duel a greatsword warrior with 11 stacks of might, one flanking strike removes it… lol. Same goes with regeneration. If you remove their regeneration, you hurt them even more, am I right?

Second, you can dodge with it while being rooted. Both away from target, and in melee range.

Third, it’s an endurance free dodge.

sad stories tell that every enemy with half a brain will avoid this move by simply moving on his side.

I can’t understand people nowdays, really.

Mrbig.8019:

sad stories tell that every enemy with half a brain will avoid this move by simply moving on his side.

I can’t understand people nowdays, really.

All melee skills in this game can be avoided by movement, unless crippled, rooted or stunned, but nevermind.

First strike, which strips boon, is instant.
Dodge cannot be avoided, because it isn’t even an attack.

But your enemy can avoid second strike (damage), because you don’t have cripple on auto attack, nor on another skills, and your teammates don’t have it either. Not to mention 2sec root from infiltrator’s strike… oh, wait.

Dagins.5163:

Mrbig.8019:

sad stories tell that every enemy with half a brain will avoid this move by simply moving on his side.

I can’t understand people nowdays, really.

All melee skills in this game can be avoided by movement, unless crippled, rooted or stunned, but nevermind.

First strike, which strips boon, is instant.
Dodge cannot be avoided, because it isn’t even an attack.

But your enemy can avoid second strike (damage), because you don’t have cripple on auto attack, nor on another skills, and your teammates don’t have it either. Not to mention 2sec root from infiltrator’s strike… oh, wait.

1 sec root on inf strike
cripple only on the third autoattack, lasting for 2 secs

if you’re using the root for flanking strike instead of C&D, you’re playing the set wrong.

FS is a waste of ini in its current state, good only for PvE.

It’s not like devs aren’t playing this game. If Flanking Strike was designed to be hard to land in PvP, it is meant to be. By using some tactic, you can improve this moves effectiveness by a mile. Another good example is using warrior’s Hundred Blades with Bull’s Charge. This is perfectly clear for me, and I will keep using FS in PvP as a viable move, knowing its pros and cons.

Dagins.5163:

It’s not like devs aren’t playing this game. If Flanking Strike was designed to be hard to land in PvP, it is meant to be. By using some tactic, you can improve this moves effectiveness by a mile. Another good example is using warrior’s Hundred Blades with Bull’s Charge. This is perfectly clear for me, and I will keep using FS in PvP as a viable move, knowing its pros and cons.

Only because YOU are using it, it doesn’t mean the skill doesn’t have issues.
And there’re tons of clunky things about thief (and other classes): saying “the devs made it on purpose” is uncostructive.
If a thing doesn’t work, it must be addressed.

As things stand now, FS is unnecessarily hard to land, slow, predictable, and can be easy used AGAINST you, due to its predictability. Even more, since in this game there’s a thing called “autofacing” that automatically counters every effort you put to use this skill.

FS is bad, and needs some help.

My opinion wasn’t constructive, because there is nothing to ,,construct". Questioning this moves effectiveness is not necessary.

I think, that our discussion is over, so it’s just up to reader whose opinion to agree with. Thank you for your feedback.

I would love the sword dagger combo but yea the skill makes it not worth it compared to many of the other dual skills being stronger and more consistent.

ye this is soo true… flanking strike is most useless skill i have seen… always misses unless ur target happen to be standing still for 2 secs and the skill happens to actually put you back in the area u started in.

As a sword/dagger user in most situations I simply don’t use flanking strike that much. S/D’s strength lies heavily in being initiative efficient and fighting groups anyways. I wouldn’t mind seeing flanking strike change for the better, but S/D is still a competitive weapon without it. The other weapon setups seem to revolve around the dual skill so much that people don’t know what to do when it isn’t key to effectiveness here.

came here to post a similar thread lol. about flanking strike.

it rarely hits as it should, and >>rarely puts you on the correct path.<<
very unreliable.

i would love that skill and use it all the time if they fixed it.

it NEEDS to be fixed ASAP. atm its BROKEN.
this is not an opinion. its a fact.

and while they’re at it, they should also fix everybody’s “teleporting” skills.

I would like to see the old Flanking Strike back where it used to put you BEHIND your target instead of to the side. Some times even using it on a stationary target misses.

And while they are at it, please fix Spear: Flanking Strike as well. It NEVER EVER HITS in the water cos it displaces you too much.

They just need to improve the evasive part of it, imo.