Guild Wars 2

Shadow Refuge: This skill’s stealth removal tripwire has been updated to properly match the skill’s effects.

What exactly does that mean?

Maybe the notes are supposed to reference Shadow Trap rather than Refuge?

I’m still updating my client so I haven’t been able to test it yet, but could it be talking about the AoE ring that indicates the barrier of Shadow Refuge?

i’ll have to test it, but this sounds like a bugfix.

previously, it was possible to exit your own shadow refuge before the last pulse, and gain the “revealed” condition, so you would not restealth if you entered your refuge again. it sounds to me like they’re trying to correct the issue of becoming incorrectly revealed if you exit before the last pulse. at least i hope thats what it is.

I’ve just tested it and it’s even better than I had hoped… you can now leave the refuge with all 10 seconds of your stealth* without breaking stealth* or getting the revealed debuff. This is a seriously powerful buff considering that I just ran from Henge to Keep completely stealthed.

Skill was useful before, now its even moreso. Ok metaphorm, here is a question, I havent tested it due to a ban, but you can now cast shadows refuge, then leave it immediately and have the full 10 sec stealth? Or do you have to wait till the combo field goes away?

You have to stand in it to stack the stealth, still. It’s just that you no longer lose those stacks when you leave SR’s aoe. Awesome stuff

The time you have to stay in it was basically halved from 8s to 4s. That is really OP if you compare it to Mesmer’s Elite and take cast time, duration and cd into consideration.

this skill could now be usefull…

It has always been useful. I would never make a build without it, personally. I don’t see why they thought it needed to be changed at all. Why didn’t they do something useful, like making body shot less worthless?

good thing i changed yesterday my thief build to stealth one >_>

one of the easiest things to do is kill a thief in his refuge.
inside = take damage
outside = get revealed
now it is a bit different, but i’m not sure if i’ll use it.

Anyone else hitting a stealth duration hardcap? I never noticed it but maybe because I never tested before. If I let refuge tick up, hit blinding and my heal my stealth doesn’t go above 12sec or so. Anyone verify?

Stiv, I heard there was a “stealth nerf” to the stealth cap. It seems it went from 30 seconds to about 15 cap, or so I have heard.

one of the easiest things to do is kill a thief in his refuge.
inside = take damage
outside = get revealed
now it is a bit different, but i’m not sure if i’ll use it.

The area is pretty large. I very rarely die in a Shadow Refuge, and if I do I am stealthed while dead and a lot of times can rez myself before I am revealed. Maybe you should try hanging out near the edge of it? The only thing that causes trouble for me is people knocking me out of it. Very rarely does a Ele or Ranger AoE my Refuge, maybe because there aren’t many of them running around.

Ashanor.5319:

Stiv, I heard there was a “stealth nerf” to the stealth cap. It seems it went from 30 seconds to about 15 cap, or so I have heard.

Ah well. Not a huge deal. Just need to stagger sheath skills to get a longer duration. Going to miss the solo stealth rez though. Before when you knew you were going down, you could pop refuge then blinding on top of the 25% blinding trait and have like 20+ seconds of stealth to self rez yourself. Usually after 10 or so people figured you ditched and stop auto attacking the area.

This is the most useful skill a thief has, and it is now better?

The “Tripwire” is that invisible barrier that removes the stealth and gives you the “Revealed” debuff after you leave the shadow refuge area.

They just adjusted it to match the animation.

Hey guys, back after a forum ban, lol.

Shadow Refuge is now much better in terms of usability.

Before, the Stealth would stack up to 14 seconds (+1s Stealth trait), but you could only move out of the Shadow Refuge AOE circle at 4 seconds without being revealed. If you moved out at 5 seconds, you got Revealed. Meaning, you had to stay put, and eat a ton of AOE damage if you were fighting anyone good.

Now, the Shadow Refuge Stealth stacks up to 10 seconds – not including the time it takes to tick that high, at which point you can immediately move out of the circle without triggering revealed. If you try to move out at 8 seconds, you drop stealth triggering revealed. So it’s basically a 5-second build up for 10 seconds of usable Stealth.

In effect, this is a buff and a nerf at the same time. This is the kind of balance that is going to make GW2 great.

Pros:
- Stealth stacks up to 10 seconds of usable Stealth where you can run away out of the Refuge without triggering Revealed.
- The ability to move out of the Shadow Refuge circle after 5 seconds/pulses, compared to the old 8-10 seconds of waiting (yielding 4 seconds of usable Stealth), means you can escape/survive much better.
- You are more mobile, reducing the amount of AOE you have to eat before leaving the Shadow Refuge circle.
- The Shadow Refuge circle, while still being an AOE magnet, is no longer a guarantee that the Thief is still nearby.

Cons:
- Sometimes an extended amount of time in Shadow Refuge Stealth was useful. The overall duration is now much shorter, by at least 4 seconds.
- The ‘pulses’ end much faster, so it no longer allows allies to benefit from a delayed entrance into the Shadow Refuge circle.
- No longer can you get mutltiple re-stealths out of one Shadow Refuge; i.e. if someone was fighting you in the Shadow Refuge, you could get an extra tick of Stealth→Backstab if you timed your attacks well.

The Unmentioned and Undocumented Nerf:
- Stealth now only stacks up to 12-13 seconds maximum, where before it was 25.

This last nerf is the most kitten of them all. You could before stack two Shadow Refuge with a teammate and gain 24-25 seconds of Stealth, with a total Stealth time of 30 seconds or more. Now it’s limited, and double-casting yields no benefit. Plus, as mentioned, skills which stack stealth when downed, or other skills which stack stealth, are less effective as they will cap out much sooner.

Why does edit sometimes not show up?

I was going to mention that the Shadow Refuge starts stacking on cast, so it’s actually 4 seconds before being able to move out with 10-10.99 seconds of stealth. Meaning, you actually get 3 stacks x 5 pulses of Stealth over 4 seconds.

On Cast:
0 – 3 (instantly shows 2 as the timer shows 2 seconds for 2.99 seconds)
1 – 5 (shows 4 for 4.99 seconds)
2 – 7 (shows 6 for 6.99 seconds)
3 – 9 (shows 8 for 8.99 seconds)
4 – 11 (shows 10 for 10.99 seconds)

At that point, you can move out of Stealth. You overall have 15 seconds of Stealth, 4 of which you must be in the circle.

This also means the +1 Second of Stealth trait does not apply to this skill any more, because it should stack to 20 seconds total if that were adding in per pulse as it did before.

Ashanor.5319:

Stiv, I heard there was a “stealth nerf” to the stealth cap. It seems it went from 30 seconds to about 15 cap, or so I have heard.

one of the easiest things to do is kill a thief in his refuge.
inside = take damage
outside = get revealed
now it is a bit different, but i’m not sure if i’ll use it.

The area is pretty large. I very rarely die in a Shadow Refuge, and if I do I am stealthed while dead and a lot of times can rez myself before I am revealed. Maybe you should try hanging out near the edge of it? The only thing that causes trouble for me is people knocking me out of it. Very rarely does a Ele or Ranger AoE my Refuge, maybe because there aren’t many of them running around.

There’s a ton of rangers, most of them just aren’t very bright. Unfortunately that class is closer to the WoW huntard than the GW1 ranger.

I think this is a welcome change. I didn’t like the fact you lose stealth leaving the refuge even after the pulse had finished. Now its different where you keep your stealth when leaving refuge after the pulse finishes and it pulses much faster.

I believe this is a more viable skill in PVP now if you are using shadow arts build. The stealth you keep when leaving the area allows you to lose your pursuers more effectively while you regen your health, per sec of stealth thanks to shadows rejuvenation, imo it greatly increases your survivability.

I always loved this skill but now it is awesome! I literally can stealth through hordes of zergs now.

Yea, after playing last night, this change is really great.

Very strong now. Was great before, now it’s one of those abilities that will never leave your utility bar.

With the Helloween patch shadow refuge changed the way it was stacking with other stealth effects for me. Some days ago I could easily get 21s stealth, now it’s down to 12s max.

I still have to test what you all wrote here, but so far the last patch is a huge(!) nerf to stealth for me. This or I miss something very basic.

They had an undocumented nerf to the stealth duration cap. You can only get 12 or 15 seconds or so now. Just stagger your stealth abilities so that you don’t go over 12. Refuge itself did have some duration removed due to this with traits but now you can move with 10 seconds so it more than makes up for it imo.

I would gladly take a stealth stack cap if it mean I can move freely with 10 secs of stealth and not camp in one place with 21 secs of stealth only to be revealed when I move outside the circle

Yes. Also note, the instant the Refuge graphic disappears – or begins to disappear – is the moment you can move out of it. I used to go by watching my Stealth time, but now you can watch the graphic, and move out the moment the graphic is gone.

If done right, you get just over 10 seconds of moving Stealth.