Guild Wars 2

Hi!

The scope of my testing of this bug is specific to Guardians and shouts. It seems to only happen under very specific conditions, and I’ve been trying to nail it down for months. I finally found some decent steps to reproduce the issue, and have created a video to illustrate it.

Basically, I like to get set up on Guardian to run and will use the combo “Retreat!” and “Save Yourselves!” to stack up quickness. What I noticed is that once in a while, when my skill bar is set up wrong and I realize this after I’ve activated 7 and 8 to stack up swiftness, I try to switch 9 to Save Yourselves in order to get swiftness stacked up properly.

What ends up happening is that Save Yourselves automatically inherits the countdown timer of the last skill used, and flips over as if it’s cooling down.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set utility skills to 7) Retreat; 8) Wall of Reflection; 9) Stand Your Ground
2. Activate 7) Retreat
3. Activate 8) Wall of Reflection
4. Switch 9) Stand Your Ground to Save Yourselves

Observe how Save Yourselves inherits the remaining cooldown timer for Wall of Reflection, and will not activate.

Next, do this:

1. Allow all skills to cool down.
2. Activate 7) Retreat
3. Activate 8) Wall of Reflection
4. Switch 9) Save Yourselves to Stand Your Ground

Observe that the same issue occurs.

Okay, so the #9 skill slot is being toggled between skills within the Shout discipline. What happens if it’s moved to a different discipline?

1. Allow all skills to cool down.
2. Activate 7) Retreat
3. Activate 8) Wall of Reflection
4. Switch 9) Stand Your Ground to Purging Flames, a Consecration.

No bug, like this is a problem with Shouts only.

Another thing: depending on what skill occupies slot 8, and possibly the order in which the skills are activated, this bug won’t repro.

Here’s my loadout:
Guardian 80
25 III VII
25 IV VI
0
10 II
10 VI

I’ve done a quick FRAPS video to illustrate the bug. The example video is here:

http://youtu.be/IX6Fz57eHU4

Thanks for doing this, I thought I was going crazy on my Guardian but yes I have noticed this.

Very detailed analysis you’ve gone into and thanks again for the video and highlighting the issue at hand!

Very much appreciated

This bug happens with all classes as far as I have encountered. Had it happen on guardian, mesmer, and warrior. Very annoying on warrior after placing banners (100 second cooldown) and swapping the 3rd utility, the swapped utility could be FGJ or Balanced Stance that will go on a 100 second cooldown like the banners.

Never have seen anyone reproduce it however. Great job on that.

Edit:
On warrior here is what I found:
Use Skill 8: Signet of Might
9: Banner of Strength, swap to Frenzy, no CD
9: Banner of Strength, swap to Shake it Off, goes on CD
9: Bolas, swap to Frezny, goes on CD
9: Signet of Stamina, swap to Frenzy, no CD
9: Signet of Stamina, swap to FGJ, goes on CD

This actually seems to only cause cooldowns on FGJ, SIO, and Frenzy. The order of skills in the utility bar does not seem to matter either. FGJ and SIO always go on cooldown when swapped to if another utility is on cooldown. Frenzy seems to depend on the starting utility or the utility used (ie use Bolas, swap Signet of Might to Frenzy or use Signet, swap Bolas to Frenzy has same effect).

Mesmer is harder to pin down and sometimes requires using 2 utilities before swapping 3rd. Use Feedback, Null Field, swap Mantra of Resolve to Mirror Images and you’ll get a cooldown. Clone skills seem to be the culprit here.

Thank you very much for the encouragement, and for confirming that I’m not just seeing things. I hope this is something they’ll be able to get to. It’s not a show-stopping issue, but it can definitely be a drag when you try to swap skills between fights.

Striker, thank you for the additional examples. Hopefully this is a very low-cost fix that the Developers can see to. I didn’t realize it would hurt Warriors at all, let alone quite that much. Ouch!

Speaking of Devs… thank you for making Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet! It’s a great game.

I have seen this on other characters, but when entering / exiting swimming with a skill on CD (same basic issue as the skills change at the enter / exit underwater). I don’t actually swap skills much in the field (as I guess a majority of players do not).