Guild Wars 2

Shadow Trap – Set a trap. The first enemy to trigger this trap becomes marked. You may activate Shadow Pursuit to shadowstep to the marked enemy.

Duration: Duration: 120s
Range: Range:10,000
Miscellaneous effect: Unblockable

I currently am unhappy with how this trap works. Besides the obvious (Gets obstructed, by any rock, pebble, feather, etc) in your way.

But what really makes me unhappy is the ICD. I don’t know, but I feel as though this trap should work similar to how our Ambush trap works, (Where you can lay down the trap, and the ICD will renew in the background). So when you’re ready to lay down another trap after destroying your previous one you are able to, but if triggered goes on full CD. I don’t like the fact that when you destroy the trap you have to wait the 45 secs to place it down again, then when you don’t successfully port back and it gets obstructed same long CD occurs.

I also feel as though the cast time is a bit lengthy, and easily telegraphed (Although to be fair many other class skills are easily telegraphed). But the 1.5 cast time to actually destroy the trap is too long, and can be interrupted easily. What I would suggest should happen is change the cast time to 1s, which would make it worth while taking, the trap.(Although I main it already)

And Lastly I feel as though when the trap gets interrupted or when there is no path to port back and it is obstructed when you try to cast “Destroy Trap” it should not go on CD. Just like how our initiative doesn’t get drained when we use Infiltrator’s arrow on terrain that we can’t get to or when infiltrator’s signet doesn’t go on CD when something cannot be ported to,the same concept should be applied to shadow trap. Make the fail-safe teleport fix that you applied to our porting abilities universal

Suggestions
1. Have an ICD running in the background after trap is placed down. (Similar to Ambush Trap)
2. Reduce Cast time from 1.5-1s
3. Don’t let Interrupts or Obstructed/Unavailable Paths put trap on CD
4. And for Godsake, I don’t want to trip over pebbles

Feel free to make suggestions or discuss. Thank you for hearing me out.
Hopefully these suggestions will make it to Anets ears.

As someone who would love to run this but due to the stated problems will not, I wholeheartedly agree.

I love this trap, as it can get you out of a serious bind when played right. My main gripe is that it’s unreliable unless you plan to port along a road or a location you’ve already tested and proven to work. That’s more of a shadowstep issue in general though.

I still run it sometimes, like when my guild trebs hills from the wall outside the bottom right camp, I leave the trap on the wall so I can port up from the tunnel by the tower or just outside the camp. I’d love it to be more reliable tho, the other changes you suggest would be icing on the cake.

Jrunyon.3012:

As someone who would love to run this but due to the stated problems will not, I wholeheartedly agree.

Thank you for hearing me out, and Feedback.
-I really actually feel like the trap would be perfect if it had a 3/4 cast time. But a guy can dream.. And on gw2 wiki, it states the cast time is 1/2 not 1 1/2. Honestly I just miss the old OP shadow trap. :p

Jugglemonkey.8741:

I love this trap, as it can get you out of a serious bind when played right. My main gripe is that it’s unreliable unless you plan to port along a road or a location you’ve already tested and proven to work. That’s more of a shadowstep issue in general though.

Yeah I agree sometimes just 1 hair to the left or 1 small incline or decline is enough to throw it off. But I still run it to this day, because it saved me more than its killed me 1, and 2 when fighting other thieves with refuge this trap can provide for some good counter play.You can’t rely on shadow refuge to get you out of all situations. And if you know how to use it, shadow trap has the ability to counter a refuge users (sometimes) It’s done simply by placing the trap inside the refuge, waiting about 2-3 seconds (Shave off some refuge time) then trigger shadow pursuit to disappear, and then you’ll be behind the back of your foe, (stealth or not). I feel as though if thieves don’t rely on refuge, and SA trait line, it’ll challenge their skill, and in time increase their skill level. (My opinion)

I still run it sometimes, like when my guild trebs hills from the wall outside the bottom right camp, I leave the trap on the wall so I can port up from the tunnel by the tower or just outside the camp. I’d love it to be more reliable tho, the other changes you suggest would be icing on the cake.

Where is that location you are talking about ?0_o I really only am in Eternal Battlegrounds

AikijinX.6258:

Jrunyon.3012:

As someone who would love to run this but due to the stated problems will not, I wholeheartedly agree.

Thank you for hearing me out, and Feedback.
-I really actually feel like the trap would be perfect if it had a 3/4 cast time. But a guy can dream.. And on gw2 wiki, it states the cast time is 1/2 not 1 1/2. Honestly I just miss the old OP shadow trap. :p

Jugglemonkey.8741:

I love this trap, as it can get you out of a serious bind when played right. My main gripe is that it’s unreliable unless you plan to port along a road or a location you’ve already tested and proven to work. That’s more of a shadowstep issue in general though.

Yeah I agree sometimes just 1 hair to the left or 1 small incline or decline is enough to throw it off. But I still run it to this day, because it saved me more than its killed me 1, and 2 when fighting other thieves with refuge this trap can provide for some good counter play.You can’t rely on shadow refuge to get you out of all situations. And if you know how to use it, shadow trap has the ability to counter a refuge users (sometimes) It’s done simply by placing the trap inside the refuge, waiting about 2-3 seconds (Shave off some refuge time) then trigger shadow pursuit to disappear, and then you’ll be behind the back of your foe, (stealth or not). I feel as though if thieves don’t rely on refuge, and SA trait line, it’ll challenge their skill, and in time increase their skill level. (My opinion)

I still run it sometimes, like when my guild trebs hills from the wall outside the bottom right camp, I leave the trap on the wall so I can port up from the tunnel by the tower or just outside the camp. I’d love it to be more reliable tho, the other changes you suggest would be icing on the cake.

Where is that location you are talking about ?0_o I really only am in Eternal Battlegrounds

Ah, sorry, I only really play in the borders so I forget EB exists sometimes ^^ Any border, water camp (south east) below hills, there’s a wall along the entrance to it. Walking along the wall away from the ramp up to it, you’ll see a ridge about 2/3 of the way along. As long as the trap is set in that third of the wall furthest from the ramp up, you can port there from the bridge to hills, the tunnel entrance by the tower, and from just outside the camp (watch for LoS with the hill from the water on that last one). It’s funny, you only used to be able to port on the other side of the door, but since the shadowstep changes you can now only port on the side I described.

I agree with your comments with learning to play without refuge and SA, I did exactly that when I swapped to S/D over a year ago and my play improved dramatically. I ran shadowstep, blinding powder and shadow trap for a long time, the juking potential is ridiculous ^^

I do think that shadow trap should have a fairly lengthy cast time, given how strong the effect can be. I tend to deliberately place it somewhere it won’t be triggered when roaming though, so a CnD>shadow trap is an effective disengage without burning refuge or shadowstep. The cast time is much more of a bind in a dire situation, but other ports don’t break the animation, so it’s pretty funny to use steal and shadowstep combos when it’s casting and go all nightcrawler on someone.

The 120s timer on that can be a pain, but out of combat (and kitten after you placed the trap) you can swap the utility then reselect shadow trap to reset the skill and place it again. Having that kitten internal cooldown for swapping utilities but not for destruction is a bit harsh, but I expect they would nerf the boons granted if you could double trigger like that (20 stacks might from double trigger, yes please).

But yeah, if they fixed the kitten ports, I’d be a much happier thief. The rest of what you propose would be nice, but I’d sooner have a strong but reliable skill than a potentially OP skill that may or may not save my kitten depending on whether I feel lucky that day.

Edit: On re-reading your OP, I agree with the change you suggest to not waste the trap if the port fails. The only problem I can see with that is the cast time, even if you could cast it, you could LoS behind grass while it casts.

I’ve enjoyed the trap, but it definitely is rare that I actually choose the skill. I’d think the most natural use of it would be to place it on a road near a tower, then head to the other end of the tower to take care of other things, but it simply does not work this way. If it were a pure teleport I’d carry it far more often.

Tera GX.8149:

I’ve enjoyed the trap, but it definitely is rare that I actually choose the skill. I’d think the most natural use of it would be to place it on a road near a tower, then head to the other end of the tower to take care of other things, but it simply does not work this way. If it were a pure teleport I’d carry it far more often.

I would like to hear some of your suggestions to make this skill better. Or do you agree with my stated suggestions above?