Guild Wars 2

I tryed not having this signet take up a utility slot but, a constant 25% movement speed increase seems indispensable. I never activate the signet. Ever.

Do you guys think this is good game design? I’m looking at it from a class mechanics perspective. It feels like this signet is actually removing 1 utility slot from my belt.

Do any of you NOT use it?

I always use it, it’s an instant blind.

I don’t use it but instead I use Infiltrator’s signet because I like having a skill that can shadowstep to the enemy, break myself out of stun if I need to, and increases my initiative by 1 every 10 seconds. I mostly use it for the shadow step though.

I honestly don’t think it’s good design.

The problem is it renders many other effects like Swiftness obsolete as they prove to be a very minor boost.

It also has this addicting nature that playing without it feels clunky and slow.

It also sucks that it takes up one of our already very limited utility slots.

People may argue that you have a choice, but it’s not the good kind of choice. It’s a choice between playing slow-mode and what you’ve become accustomed to.

I’d much rather have a trait that grants a passive 25% speed and pick another active ability.

Some builds I would use signet of shadows and its all about timing for the blind to avoid danger.

When I don’t equip it, i have swiftness on dodge traited in acrobatic tree

Dee Jay.2460:

I honestly don’t think it’s good design.

The problem is it renders many other effects like Swiftness obsolete as they prove to be a very minor boost.

It also has this addicting nature that playing without it feels clunky and slow.

It also sucks that it takes up one of our already very limited utility slots.

People may argue that you have a choice, but it’s not the good kind of choice. It’s a choice between playing slow-mode and what you’ve become accustomed to.

I’d much rather have a trait that grants a passive 25% speed and pick another active ability.

I agree, you become accustomed to having it. Even on my other toons I feel slow now. But having it as a trait that grants it as a passive is a great solution DeeJay.

They could also make the active a little more interesting.

Dee Jay.2460:

I’d much rather have a trait that grants a passive 25% speed and pick another active ability.

I agree. Also, since other professions got the 25% speed signets it no longer makes us the masters of mobility that we once were.

Btw, Infiltrators Signet can be used as an alternative to steal if you pre-load CnD or PW, making it harder for the enemy to avoid. I prefer Infiltrator Signet for this purpose.

I feel like it’s a curse because backstab build just sucks without it in pvp. Signet of agility is my favorite signet but I can’t always use it.
I never find it necessary to use the blind. I more preferred when it’s active was a long range immobilize but Anet thought it was OP and changed it.

The active on Signet of Shadows is rather weak and far too situational. It’s very rare that I want to activate it for its effects.

I do wish that the Thief had better access to swiftness to lower the dependency on Signet of Shadows for a mobility boost.

Lofat.2406:

I always use it, it’s an instant blind.

For instance, this means you can cast it while you are CC to blind the next attack coming (like Blinding Power )

I don’t use it.

But I use a 30 Acro dodge spamming build so have decent uptime of swiftness.

I did used to use it (While leveling and WvW) but I decided that another utility would help me out more (I started leveraging mobility from HS, IA and Dodge)

The only times I use it now are: Long distance running where I can’t be bothered to keep pressing my roll button and some JP’s where it is infinitely easier to have the passive movement speed.

Since SoS is insta cast I usually use it half way through stomp. Works great on those annoying guardians and their buble (they can’t push your character while blinded). Same goes for finishing warriors, engies and necros, basically anything that uses cc in downed state.

I always have it equipped while moving/roaming. As soon as I smell combat, I switch it to another utility.

However, if combat surprises me, it’s always an instant-cast blind. Not specially powerful, but not totally useless either.

For the blinding part, I use “Cloaked in shadow” trait. More spammable, though not instant
The speed buff is addictive yes, but just play without it for a while, and you’ll get used to the normal speed again. I only use SoS when I know I can run a long distance in PvE/WvW without facing enemies. But in sPvP I’d never even think about using the skill. Infiltrator’s signet does a far much better job in most circumstances imo.

SoS’s active is the best we have for stomps because it’s targetable and ranged. Besides using it on the stompee if a Guardian/Mesmer bro is coming to save them you can target them and blind them just before they get in knock-back range.

Signet of Shadows on its own isn’t powerful, but when you use the Shortbow it makes you one the most mobile classes ingame.

It makes Thiefs great scouts in WvW. Commanders get all the glory, but scouts on VOIP help lead them to victory.

Yep, it’s bad design. I was floored when they announced they were buffing the Elementalist’s and Ranger’s signets to 25%. What they should have done is buffed them to 15% and nerfed ours to 20%. That way they wouldn’t feel as necessary and wouldn’t render other movement speeds buffs as obsolete. And, Thieves would still be the fasted class, which they should be.

Einlanzer.1627:

Yep, it’s bad design. I was floored when they announced they were buffing the Elementalist’s and Ranger’s signets to 25%. What they should have done is buffed them to 15% and nerfed ours to 20%. That way they wouldn’t feel as necessary and wouldn’t render other movement speeds buffs as obsolete. And, Thieves would still be the fasted class, which they should be.

The thief is still by far the most mobile class. Stop whining. Only the mesmer and the elementalist can come close to the thief’s mobility.

It depends on the situation. If I run around WvW, I like having on SoS. Once I start to fight though, I’d much rather swap it out for a more battle specific utility.

Agadar.4931:

Einlanzer.1627:

Yep, it’s bad design. I was floored when they announced they were buffing the Elementalist’s and Ranger’s signets to 25%. What they should have done is buffed them to 15% and nerfed ours to 20%. That way they wouldn’t feel as necessary and wouldn’t render other movement speeds buffs as obsolete. And, Thieves would still be the fasted class, which they should be.

The thief is still by far the most mobile class. Stop whining. Only the mesmer and the elementalist can come close to the thief’s mobility.

That’s not really the point. The more important point is that it’s bad design. It’s bad design because it forces you to use a utility slot to get something that should either be passive or baseline, and that the skill brings you close to the movement speed cap by itself, rendering lots of other things pointless and obsolete.

Einlanzer.1627:

Agadar.4931:

Einlanzer.1627:

Yep, it’s bad design. I was floored when they announced they were buffing the Elementalist’s and Ranger’s signets to 25%. What they should have done is buffed them to 15% and nerfed ours to 20%. That way they wouldn’t feel as necessary and wouldn’t render other movement speeds buffs as obsolete. And, Thieves would still be the fasted class, which they should be.

The thief is still by far the most mobile class. Stop whining. Only the mesmer and the elementalist can come close to the thief’s mobility.

That’s not really the point. The more important point is that it’s bad design. It’s bad design because it forces you to use a utility slot to get something that should either be passive or baseline, and that the skill brings you close to the movement speed cap by itself, rendering lots of other things pointless and obsolete.

I agree it’s bad design. If it were up to me I’d remove any and all signets providing speed buffs. Hell, I would remove any and all traits providing any sort of passive speed buffs as well. The only speed buff I would allow would be the swiftness boon. Nothing else.

Yeah, I kind of agree.

All these passive speed increase force you into something of an arms-race. It’s already hard to land a Backstab successfully at times and it gets really difficult when people have constant speed boosts.

This and the fact that these speed boosters take up the place of an active ability slot which could otherwise provide more combat depth is pretty bad design.

I too would be much happier if we lost all these passive speed boosters and were left with Swiftness.

This thread is Signet of Shadows is to good to say no to!

Same as above poster, if I don’t have Sig of Shadows I trait 15 into Acrobatics for the swiftness on evade and extra endurance. Pair this with the shortbow and orrian truffle stew and you’ve got 2 might per dodge, near perma swiftness, and shortbow to fill the gaps. It makes you just as fast (faster) but agreed it’s clunky, and takes more work.

Yep everyone is just mad we have a utility that is so good we feel like we have to use it. Every time I try to break myself of it I go back 15 minutes later when I fail a stomp I would have completed if I had SoS.

I like signet of agility better.

Yeah I’ve kicked the habit, I think SOS is a waste of a slot now tbh. I quite like Signet of Agility also as its nice for the crit extra and also the endurance refill and condition removal is useful in defence when needed. SOS can be slotted for mindless travelling over terrain and thats about it for me.

Kinda wish that they removed all the passive run speed increases from all classes.

• Make the out of combat run speed faster by 25%
• Make more interesting signet passives.

Don’t worry. Thieves will still be the most mobile class, with near 100% uptime on swiftness and an almost infinite number of shadowsteps/teleports.

This change would put everyone on a base run speed.

How do you get 100% uptime of swiftness on a thief? I can maintain a swiftness for maximum of 10 seconds or something.
On my engineer I can maintain swiftness forever (change kit every 5 seconds = swiftness for 5 seconds, no cooldown) but not on my thief ..

I tried to kick the SoS habit last night and was it tough. It is one of the hardest things to get rid of when roaming Wv3. I feel so slow and its harder to escape, even spec’d Acro 15. I don’t run SB (i used to) so escaping is super hard if I dont have SoS.In the end, I kept it I will try again tonight.

Trying to kick the habit in Wv3 is a tough call Killafu .. I suggest trying it in dungeons, spvp and pve first .. Once you get accustomed there, try it in wvwvw..
Though ye, without shadowsteps I still feel slow in wv3

I suppose it could be tough. I always equip Shadow Step and SB – just cant do WvW without them so those coupled with Swiftness on evade means I move about quicker than with a flat 25% boost.

D/P Thieves do not need Signet of Shadows. We simply take up Fleet Shadow and stealth our way across the map (alternate between dodge swiftness and stealth).