Guild Wars 2

Yes, there should be counters to Shadow Refuge (knockbacks, etc.) to force the Thief out of the area of Shadow Refuge, thus revealing the Thief.

However, shouldn’t a Thief have some benefits in return for the risk of staying inside a limited boundary for the duration?

I propose the following…

Shadow Refuge lasts for 4 seconds. For those 4 seconds, if the Thief (or anyone inside) exits the boundaries before the duration is complete, they will immediately lose Stealth (if you must apply Revealed as it currently is, fine).

However, while inside Shadow Refuge during that 4 second duration, the Thief (or anyone inside) cannot become Revealed. Not only will this protect the Thief from enemy-based reveals (such as the absurd Lock On trait), but it will also act as a deterrent for melee opponents to follow the Thief into its Shadow Refuge, knowing they would be at risk of multiple Backstabs and other Stealth Attacks. They could still do so, but it would have a higher risk.

Once the 4 second duration is over, everything works as normal.

Too op.

Engineer whinebait since lock on would be useless.

Good idea though. If it was up to me id say yes.

I liked the idea of it until you specified it would work on the reveal using stealth attack applies to you.
Maybe in your head the idea of it being a zone people wouldn’t want to stay in so the thief can stay safe is good, but it would make refuge th emost OP offensive skill in the game.

That’s 4 to 5 backstab in a row if it worked like this.

The Thief would still be vulnerable to AoE’s, CC, Knockbacks, and Conditions. Shadow Refuge would still be a “Here I am, please bomb me” sign.

But yes, if used offensively, it may give an opposing bunker a second or third thought about staying on point for those 4 seconds. It’s not as though the Thief can cap while Stealthed… or that it can drop Stealth at will if there’s nothing on point to attack after Shadow Refuge ends.

The bunker would probably just AoE the point anyway. And the Thief may end up just playing mind games as it leaves to lick its wounds after the duration is over. There’s only one way to find out! :-D

I ran with an engi the other day- our quest was to kill the frogs on EB.
Hammer engi… he clearly had no idea what to do, but 10 frogs and a necro on his kitten while being constantly invulnerable as it seems.
I killed some frogs and the necro, thinking about adopting him as my pet.
Point: I don’t know too much about elite specs but engis should survive even if a thief becomes invulnerable after being revealed (reversed argumentation somehow).

Thieves need buffs, not a lower skill cap.

This would really mostly help thieves that aren’t evading properly in their refuge. Meanwhile, the major problems that thieves have would persist.

Dahkeus.8243:

This would really mostly help thieves that aren’t evading properly in their refuge. Meanwhile, the major problems that thieves have would persist.

The initial thought was for this change was to avoid Revealing skills. Especially something like Lock On which isn’t very dodge-friendly.

Oh yes, the Thief has other problems that should be fixed. This is simply a little counter to Reveals. And it would make the skill more fitting for the name of Shadow Refuge :-)

Might be interesting if SR prevented external Reveals.

It definitely, certainly, absolutely, positively should not prevent stealthed allies from applying Reveal to themselves by attacking, though. Stealth skills are balanced around the understanding that they cannot be used in quick succession. Breaking that would be incredibly foolish, plus massive machine-gunned damage from out of nowhere would be intolerable to play against.

Blaine Tog.8304:

It definitely, certainly, absolutely, positively should not prevent stealthed allies from applying Reveal to themselves by attacking, though. Stealth skills are balanced around the understanding that they cannot be used in quick succession. Breaking that would be incredibly foolish, plus massive machine-gunned damage from out of nowhere would be intolerable to play against.

Wow! I can actually see it! People may actually want more than one Thief on a team just for Shadow Refuge! :-D

Picture it… the beginning of a match. One player from each team goes for their home points. The other 4 (Thieves included) rush mid. 8 players clash at the point!

Opposing Thieves each throw down Shadow Refuge in the center of the point. All of the players dash inside!

We have 4v4… everybody invisible and silent. Everybody swinging wildly in the air. AoE’s getting stacked on that one spot. For 4 solid seconds, the mid point literally looks like a ghost town. But if you could put on special goggles, you’d see the war of the ages happening! :-D

Add a second Thief to your team, and you’d have the advantage of another 4 seconds of invisibility… but you would be allowing the opposing visible team to cap the point. What to do? What to do??? :-D

Wow, wow, wow, WOW!!! It’s like this scene… but imagine right after the initial clash, everybody vanishes!!! :-D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FixGtngBdhE

I think SR is still fine, it just got quite unreliable. I don’t think Herald needed a reveal, to be honest.

Or let the field pulse faster so it doesn’t take hours for the effect to kick in.