Guild Wars 2

As the title states, Should Impact Strike Chain be buffed?

Strictly speaking from a WvW view, I’m so tired of my elite skill being negated by the ungodly amount of stability and blocks in this game.

And not only that, but the fact that all a person has to do is walk away from the very short distance made by the first strike! What? Use Steal to get to the target? Two things answer that: 1 you’ve probably already used Steal during the fight and it’s on CD, 2 ungodly stability access.

So I ask again, should the Impact Strike chain be buffed?

I try to push a few counters first to prep them for Impact Strike but sometimes it’s not worth the effort getting that first one to connect, BV is just better in general but I like IS animation. It’s not bad though really if you’re awake enough to prep for it, it will just feel like it doesn’t land when it needs to because that’s what we notice.

Nope. It’s not meant to be a CC; BV is. Its true power is the finisher, and there are plenty of guides out there on how to make Impact Strike work almost perfectly every time.

Like Dagger Storm and TG, it has a niche, and it can be an absolute monster of a skill when played into it. BV is more or less the all-purpose thief elite, but it doesn’t really excel at anything except providing CC.

The boon steal with Steal + Impact Strike chain are one of the most deadly combos to a player who isn’t expecting to get CCed (a druid with his elite shout for example).

Tomiyou.3790:

The boon steal with Steal + Impact Strike chain are one of the most deadly combos to a player who isn’t expecting to get CCed (a druid with his elite shout for example).

now you just need to get lucky to steal stability as druid pours dozens of other boons into himself every second

Steal will always strip stab (traited obviously)

If there’s a buff it deeply needs it’d be for PvE since the last hit is 100% useless there.

As for PvP it’s underwhelming on it’s own unless you support it with other skills, as mentioned~ it’d be nice it the timer between combos wasn’t so short.

DeceiverX.8361:

Nope. It’s not meant to be a CC; BV is. Its true power is the finisher, and there are plenty of guides out there on how to make Impact Strike work almost perfectly every time.

Like Dagger Storm and TG, it has a niche, and it can be an absolute monster of a skill when played into it. BV is more or less the all-purpose thief elite, but it doesn’t really excel at anything except providing CC.

…Except the IP chain has two hard CC in it. Isn’t what you said a bit of an oxymoron? But, I get what you mean and agree with what you say here to an extent. The skill is about finishing off, the CC attached with it is only supposed to help you do that.

I’m familiar with some of the techniques to land it, but in practical use, most of the gimmicks you have to use for it are already needed just to get to the point of lowering the health enough for the skill to be of actual use. The problem in my experience though is that the skill inherently fails on its delivery, 8 out of 10 times, even with these gimmicks.

And the biggest problem is that short little distance does squat to get you to the target. Uppercut also misses half the time because of simply walking away; a dodge isn’t even needed to negate it.

The skill is very underwhelming in use. I’m actually okay with the amount of stab and blocks, it’s not being able to land the chain from simple walking away that I’m not okay with. The stabs and blocks basically negate the CC on the chain, and with the amount of it available, the skill chain might as well not even have it. Sticking to the target is the biggest violater here. Making IP and Uppercut shadowstep and giving them a range increase would do a world of wonders for the skill.

Lexander.4579:

Tomiyou.3790:

The boon steal with Steal + Impact Strike chain are one of the most deadly combos to a player who isn’t expecting to get CCed (a druid with his elite shout for example).

now you just need to get lucky to steal stability as druid pours dozens of other boons into himself every second

VciouSidewinder.4029:

Steal will always strip stab (traited obviously)

this all assuming you don’t use steal at all in the fight, saving it for just this skill.

Let me ask everyone another question, what skill is on your Elite slot now? Yep, Basi.

Doggie.3184:

If there’s a buff it deeply needs it’d be for PvE since the last hit is 100% useless there.

As for PvP it’s underwhelming on it’s own unless you support it with other skills, as mentioned~ it’d be nice it the timer between combos wasn’t so short.

Agree with the PvE thing.

I also have a problem with having to support an Elite skill with others. That says the skill isn’t good enough to stand on its own, and as an Elite, it should.

Impacting Disruption (ID) has two “issues” currently. If an attack is performed between any sequence, it puts ID on cool down. Players can dodge but any attack including an AA, resets ID. Bandits Defense’s sequence does not work this way.

The second is that players that go into a downed state become invuln for a second. This makes timing ID’s final blow difficult. This was fixed in sPvP but not in WvW.

Beyond that, I really like the skill just wish it worked a little smoother.

Straegen.2938:

Impacting Disruption (ID) has two “issues” currently. If an attack is performed between any sequence, it puts ID on cool down. Players can dodge but any attack including an AA, resets ID. Bandits Defense’s sequence does not work this way.

The second is that players that go into a downed state become invuln for a second. This makes timing ID’s final blow difficult. This was fixed in sPvP but not in WvW.

Beyond that, I really like the skill just wish it worked a little smoother.

I really like the skill chain, even with its glaring flaws. I still think sticking to the target with the first two strikes is a big issue.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I’m familiar with some of the techniques to land it, but in practical use, most of the gimmicks you have to use for it are already needed just to get to the point of lowering the health enough for the skill to be of actual use. The problem in my experience though is that the skill inherently fails on its delivery, 8 out of 10 times, even with these gimmicks.

My experience is totally opposite but mine is a PvP perspective. I don’t play thief outside PvP. And it lands 9/10 times. This skill already incredibly useful. Any changes to it must be for non-PvP.

Yannir.4132:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I’m familiar with some of the techniques to land it, but in practical use, most of the gimmicks you have to use for it are already needed just to get to the point of lowering the health enough for the skill to be of actual use. The problem in my experience though is that the skill inherently fails on its delivery, 8 out of 10 times, even with these gimmicks.

My experience is totally opposite but mine is a PvP perspective. I don’t play thief outside PvP. And it lands 9/10 times. This skill already incredibly useful. Any changes to it must be for non-PvP.

Mind sharing your strategy?

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

DeceiverX.8361:

Nope. It’s not meant to be a CC; BV is. Its true power is the finisher, and there are plenty of guides out there on how to make Impact Strike work almost perfectly every time.

Like Dagger Storm and TG, it has a niche, and it can be an absolute monster of a skill when played into it. BV is more or less the all-purpose thief elite, but it doesn’t really excel at anything except providing CC.

…Except the IP chain has two hard CC in it. Isn’t what you said a bit of an oxymoron? But, I get what you mean and agree with what you say here to an extent. The skill is about finishing off, the CC attached with it is only supposed to help you do that.

I’m familiar with some of the techniques to land it, but in practical use, most of the gimmicks you have to use for it are already needed just to get to the point of lowering the health enough for the skill to be of actual use. The problem in my experience though is that the skill inherently fails on its delivery, 8 out of 10 times, even with these gimmicks.

And the biggest problem is that short little distance does squat to get you to the target. Uppercut also misses half the time because of simply walking away; a dodge isn’t even needed to negate it.

The skill is very underwhelming in use. I’m actually okay with the amount of stab and blocks, it’s not being able to land the chain from simple walking away that I’m not okay with. The stabs and blocks basically negate the CC on the chain, and with the amount of it available, the skill chain might as well not even have it. Sticking to the target is the biggest violater here. Making IP and Uppercut shadowstep and giving them a range increase would do a world of wonders for the skill.

It has CC, but that’s also dependent on your opponent not negating the attacks and disables weapon skills + needs to be cast in combat. BV prior to the change had pretty much identical disruption potential (now not so much) and made two attacks unblockable (also not so much now), making it’s CC much more consistent and enabled higher damage. The hits and CC are meant to happen on BV, while IS’s CC component is extra frill to again make an already-weakened foe (no stab or blocks/etc.) be more susceptible to an instant spike.

Again, its “use” is a finisher. It’s not a chain-CC-high-damage-burst+auto-spike on a 40s cooldown. You work for the down and get a spike for free, maybe with a little bit of extra if you have the opportunity to punish them. That’s the point of the skill. If it got buffed, there’d be zero reason to take anything else at all.

I have a feeling you’re not familiar with the techniques to make it land, otherwise you wouldn’t be requesting a buff to make it more consistent. I find the skill particularly strong in small-group play, which is what it was designed for. With the D/P meta, it becomes very easy to make the skills land because you can Shadow Shot/Steal/Step/IS/Trap the individual hits by stowing, use it halfway inside people like backstab, etc. Good positional play is necessary, as it should be, and as the thief was prior to HoT. Throwing in a shadowstep effect baseline would be pretty ridiculous since then positional requirements would mean absolutely nothing for what’s already such a powerful ability. We’ve already seen a huge drop on this with the Daredevil and most elites already. I can’t fathom making it even easier and dropping the required competency for consistent effectiveness even lower. It’s a good elite that successfully serves a very powerful and unique niche. It doesn’t need more.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Yannir.4132:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I’m familiar with some of the techniques to land it, but in practical use, most of the gimmicks you have to use for it are already needed just to get to the point of lowering the health enough for the skill to be of actual use. The problem in my experience though is that the skill inherently fails on its delivery, 8 out of 10 times, even with these gimmicks.

My experience is totally opposite but mine is a PvP perspective. I don’t play thief outside PvP. And it lands 9/10 times. This skill already incredibly useful. Any changes to it must be for non-PvP.

Mind sharing your strategy?

It’s situational. D/P meta thief has 3 safe(-r) stomps. Pistol 5, Shadowstep and IS. Shadowstep is the best one, yet hardest to execute. IS/P5 are better to use when the enemy is alone, IS can be used if there’s 1 resser as well since it’ll delay rally too while stomping. I personally use Blinding Powder for stealth stomping too, which works in teamfights as well, usually Stealing/Shadow Shotting to the target beforehand. Guards/Scrappers won’t interrupt you if they don’t know you are there.

Hard to explain. It’s a gut feeling mostly.

That elite is fine as it is.

It’s quite easy to land if you use it in the ~5-7% heal range. Traited with pulmonary impact, you have even more chance to succeed a instant stomp or at least a downed state. The end of the chain is around the proc of pulmonary impact. YOu get two scenarios, either you down the guy with the third part of the chain and he insta die, or you get him downed with the second part → he falls in downstate → the third skill cast time bypass the invuln frame → stomp.

The removal of invulnerability on downed in pvp, made that skill even easier to land, which is a sad thing. That feeling when you bypassed invulnerability was great and made the skill special…. Sometimes I use it around 50% hp for the damages and the surprising interrupt ( nice again thieves ).

I don’t know what you play in WvW, if you complain about stab it should be in blobs, then you should only use it on downed people. They can’t have stab on them, and it’s a quick way to stomp. You can even do chain 1 & 2 on the rezzing guy and stomp on the downed with retargetting. Or you can just use your head, watch the enemy toolbar and look at the stab amount. headshot spam and/or distracting dagger should be enough to get rid of the stab. else there is signet of nullification or signet of Absorption.

Anyway signet of nulification + bountiful theft is should rip 4 boons. isn’t that enough ? Let’s go further, if you trait rending shade + backstab + nulification + bountiful theft it’s 6 boons removed. That should be enough now…

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I really like the skill chain, even with its glaring flaws. I still think sticking to the target with the first two strikes is a big issue.

I like that the skill doesn’t stick to target. This allows me to interrupt a player resurrecting, knock him up in the air and then stomp his buddy. Allowing it to switch targets across each chain is more flexible.

For me it really is the inability to attack once the chain has started. Sometimes I fail to estimate that last sliver of life in a target so it would be nice to interrupt, knock them up in the air and then attack to kill them followed by the stomp. As it is now ID has to completely kill a target in the first two strikes and then we have to wait a second and then we can use the final blow assuming they don’t teleport, interrupt, etc.

Sounds like maybe it’s just me having difficulties with it then.

I don’t run meta or use d/p.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Sounds like maybe it’s just me having difficulties with it then.

I don’t run meta or use d/p.

It is a touchy skill and I still miss with it but I attribute most of those to Action Camera misses on my end. For me, I wouldn’t want to give up the flexibility for those occasional misses.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Sounds like maybe it’s just me having difficulties with it then.

I don’t run meta or use d/p.

Just train with it in the pvp lobby with bots, first npcs then beasts, then go for the lord, he has a breakbar. That should put you in the same situation as a guy with 4-5 stab stacks

Wargameur.6950:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Sounds like maybe it’s just me having difficulties with it then.

I don’t run meta or use d/p.

Just train with it in the pvp lobby with bots, first npcs then beasts, then go for the lord, he has a breakbar. That should put you in the same situation as a guy with 4-5 stab stacks

My biggest issue is just sticking to a target that’s moving around. The stab/blocks helps them basically just walk away, resulting in just hitting, maybe, with the first strike and missing the second.

Because of the build I use, I only have steal for a shadow step. I’ll sometimes use scorpion wire, and SB 5 too.

Lexander.4579:

Tomiyou.3790:

The boon steal with Steal + Impact Strike chain are one of the most deadly combos to a player who isn’t expecting to get CCed (a druid with his elite shout for example).

now you just need to get lucky to steal stability as druid pours dozens of other boons into himself every second

Stability is prioritized. Steal will ALWAYS rip stab. Oh and remember, saving Steal is a strategy. Not saving steal to either interrupt or steal might/protection/stab is considered a bad play in my mind. Plus, steal only has 20s CD. When it comes off of CD and the druid is below 50%, especially in Celestial avatar with his elite shout stability, he’s not gonna expect to suddenly get interrupted, chain CCed and killed.
Trust me, I did this all the time in the previous season.

only buff i would like to see is the chain does not break when you cast another skill that deal dmg(beside dodge)

Taobella.6597:

only buff i would like to see is the chain does not break when you cast another skill that deal dmg(beside dodge)

That would make it feel great to use, but I’d probably only then use it to prep some nasty combos to compound other skills. I’d likely go back to a DA build and cook up a nice sequence around Steal or something.

Edit: I’m thinking about locking them down to land a full Fist Flurry, which I already use to pressure anyway but that’s another one I rarely finish, but still has it’s use.

Taobella.6597:

only buff i would like to see is the chain does not break when you cast another skill that deal dmg(beside dodge)

I would add that Bandit’s Defense already does this on its chain so no reason IS shouldn’t as well. It would certainly make the skill a bit easier to hit that instant stomp.