Guild Wars 2

now don’t get me wrong, i love shadow step and I think its a gr8 skill 10/10 would use it again:

but I run into many situations where I need conditions off me ASAP, and in order to do this I need to use shadow return, essentially making me waste my shadowstep and turn it into an untraited 50 second CD to remove 3 conditions

many times i find myself in one of these situations:

immobilized and being kited where I need to shadow step to kiter, but they can still kite me because immobilize. if I return back to remove immobilize, they can still kite me because distance o_O

i have bleeds on me, I need to get out since the LZ is too hot, I shadow step away but j/k i have conditions on me that will eventually kill me. Either I die to conditions or their effects (ie a slow that will allow them to catch up to me eventually) or I chance it with shadow return to remove 3 of them (hopefully the right ones, but usually they are the right ones so this is moot) but put me back into an angry group of people

I would like to know why is it better to have the condition removal on return? I’m not saying it isn’t useful, but it feels like it would be better to have the removal on shadow step

c u

Because Steal is such an easy and available closer, many thieves use shadowstep as a retreat option where they engage with Steal and then SS to get out of a sticky situation. I think the condition removal on return points to the intent to use shadowstep as a closer, then drop all of the conditions you’ve accrued in combat when you use return to escape. The same method is used with Infiltrator’s Strike, but since IF is an obvious closing attack people actually use it to do so.

Try using SS to close and you’ll realize that it works great in that role. The issue isn’t so much with the design and intent with SS as it is with the fact that nobody actually uses SS like that because Steal works better.

First off, the ability is set up that way to force that tactical decision out of you. It’s about maximizing the benefit by making smart decisions quickly.

I use the stealthing heal ability as it removes all damaging conditions. This helps escapes.
I also run sword/pistol as my secondary to my current d/d build (I keep a bow on hand for certain situations). The shadowstep in that build is spammable for initiative and can be useful for removing immobilize and still stepping to your target.

When I don’t have my S/P out, however, I find that I’m rarely having these troubles even as a d/d thief with no shadowstep. Getting caught by an immobilize means you’ve already failed on one note and didn’t dodge ;P as d/d I am using a build to evade roll/lotus strike pretty consistently, with the stealth heal for whenever I make a mistake or just need the extra stealth.

I like to run with the heal skill withdraw. It’s a 15 second cooldown, evades backwards and removes chill, immobolize, or cripple (the heal is instantaneous). Of course it doesn’t heal as much as the other upon using it but it’s 15 seconds! When im immobolize/cripple/or chilled and dont feel like healing cuz im at full hp or w/e, I just use my Bow to teleport until the time runs out. It’s either that or i infiltratorstep spam effortlessly to remove conditions. It works like wonders. But remember, when you’re entering battle, make sure you always have a getaway car.