Guild Wars 2

Has there been a nerf or is this trait skill broken? I finally got it tonight, and while testing it out, I found that it wasn’t snaring any enemy, and only applying 1 stack of bleed. Hardly seems worth it. About 40% of the time it did nothing at all.

Edit, I managed to see it snare once now.

it has a 0.7 second duration.

Daecollo.9578:

it has a 0.7 second duration.

but it should at least apply every time, correct, or at the least, apply a bleed even if there are DRs? I was just kiting around some mobs and dodging, and they ran right through them and they didn’t get a bleed or snared at all.

the caltrops it drops isnt like the caltrops you can manually use, or else that would be OP.

It’s pretty much the caltrop effect from where you were when you dodged

The caltrops field lasts 4 seconds and pulses once a second for a maximum possible application of 4 bleed stacks. I believe the bleed stacks last 4 seconds as well, but I’m unsure to what extent they can be affected by condition duration increases. If you play around with it a bit you can test this yourself by getting 4 bleed stacks out of a single dodge once you can get the target to stand right on the field for the duration.

However, the field is really small, and an enemy coming straight towards you over it is only going to experience one second of the effect. It takes a bit of skill and timing if you want to effectively keep an enemy on dodgetrops, and you’re only really going to be able to pull off a full 4 hits in PvE or against an inattentive player.

The tradeoff for the relative weakness of the caltrops is that they’re incredibly cheap to deliver, especially if you’ve traited into Acrobatics, have the Vigor boon, or are using Signet of Agility. Along with all of that dodge synergy, they also work well with Signet of Malice, each bleed application triggers the on-hit heal. Obviously, since they’re an AE, they’re also going to be more effective against clusters of enemies.

So…happening to catch one enemy for one second in your caltrops after you dodged away? Probably not worth the trait.

Dodging 6-8 times in a row through a crowd of mobs or players? Now we’re talking literally over a hundred bleed stacks being applied (4 stacks per target per dodge), and consequently Signet of Malice triggering over a hundred times. Doubly impressive because you did it via dodging and were invulnerable for almost all of the duration.

It is just one of those traits that doesn’t really shine without some synergy.

Tulisin.6945:

The caltrops field lasts 4 seconds and pulses once a second for a maximum possible application of 4 bleed stacks. I believe the bleed stacks last 4 seconds as well, but I’m unsure to what extent they can be affected by condition duration increases. If you play around with it a bit you can test this yourself by getting 4 bleed stacks out of a single dodge once you can get the target to stand right on the field for the duration.

However, the field is really small, and an enemy coming straight towards you over it is only going to experience one second of the effect. It takes a bit of skill and timing if you want to effectively keep an enemy on dodgetrops, and you’re only really going to be able to pull off a full 4 hits in PvE or against an inattentive player.

The tradeoff for the relative weakness of the caltrops is that they’re incredibly cheap to deliver, especially if you’ve traited into Acrobatics, have the Vigor boon, or are using Signet of Agility. Along with all of that dodge synergy, they also work well with Signet of Malice, each bleed application triggers the on-hit heal. Obviously, since they’re an AE, they’re also going to be more effective against clusters of enemies.

So…happening to catch one enemy for one second in your caltrops after you dodged away? Probably not worth the trait.

Dodging 6-8 times in a row through a crowd of mobs or players? Now we’re talking literally over a hundred bleed stacks being applied (4 stacks per target per dodge), and consequently Signet of Malice triggering over a hundred times. Doubly impressive because you did it via dodging and were invulnerable for almost all of the duration.

It is just one of those traits that doesn’t really shine without some synergy.

Awesome reply, ty. That explains a lot. I am wondering if this one enemy I am pulling through manages to get through them in between those pulse. This is why I hate abilities that pulse every second, there is actually a big gap for it to fail.

I’ll keep it for now and just keep leveling. After a few days, if I find that I am not getting anything out of it, I might switch it out until I get some of those other traits.

I think uncatchable is a lot better on paper then reality. I keep going back to it, then switching away. The aoe is just to small to be that effective in 1vX kind of fights, imo.

Niim.9260:

I think uncatchable is a lot better on paper then reality. I keep going back to it, then switching away. The aoe is just to small to be that effective in 1vX kind of fights, imo.

Really depends on what you’re hoping to get out of it and how well you synergize with it. There are several really solid Trickery traits that you could be losing in opportunity cost by taking Uncatchable. One of the less-mentioned benefits that I rather enjoy is that Malice + Uncatchable gives me notifications when something is chasing me directly in the form of heal ticks, it works as a feedback mechanism for fighting stealthed enemies as well.

When I was running other sets I didn’t find it very useful, but it’s got superb synergy with P/D

1: You’re already running a condition build, so the trops are outputting something resembling respectable damage

2: You will often want to dodge directly after applying C&D at face-range, which ensures at least one tick hits, as your start point of dodge is directly on top of the target.

3: Dodging after C&D puts the enemy exactly where you want them, and the dodgetrops help keep them outside of melee range, but close enough to be shot in the favce seven times and then hit with a dagger again. The short cripple isn’t that useful for sustained retreat or as a gap closer, but for the in-and-out P/D fighting style its helps greatly with making sure you’re far enough to not take melee hits, but close enough to deliver one during the time between sneak attacks.

4: It’s an extra tick (or more) of Signet of Malice, and P/D loves more ways to shoehorn another SoM tick in to the sneak attack loop without spending extra time.