Guild Wars 2

It seems Symbol of swiftness will only grant me the full 8 3/4 seconds of swiftness if I am not already currently buffed with swiftness. Now I usually will pop “retreat!” then lay down the symbol and then wait 15 seconds and pop the symbol and etc etc. But for some reason when I run over the symbol or even just stand in it with swiftness already applied I’ll receive 1 second of swiftness rather than the full 8 3/4 quarters I deserve!

I can confirm this. When switfness is already up, i don’t get the “stack duration” when I pop the symbol.

thanks for confirming it, glad to know it’s not just me! hopefully this gets fixed

symbol of swiftness also sometimes wont apply swiftness at all

I guess this is as bump? Need dev’s to see this as SoS is really borked..

orangeman.1704:

symbol of swiftness also sometimes wont apply swiftness at all

I’ve noticed this too, specifically when I’m casting on the run. It seems that the symbol “pulses” every second, so if you are in the symbol between the pulses, you won’t get the Swiftness boon. If you stop and stand still for a sec, you’ll receive the boon.

I also have noticed that if I have Swiftness from “Retreat!”, and it’s about to run out, and I cast the symbol, it doesn’t add on top of my time left. It actually just gives me a very short duration Swiftness boon.

K <><

Kindayar.1209:

orangeman.1704:

symbol of swiftness also sometimes wont apply swiftness at all

I’ve noticed this too, specifically when I’m casting on the run. It seems that the symbol “pulses” every second, so if you are in the symbol between the pulses, you won’t get the Swiftness boon. If you stop and stand still for a sec, you’ll receive the boon.

I also have noticed that if I have Swiftness from “Retreat!”, and it’s about to run out, and I cast the symbol, it doesn’t add on top of my time left. It actually just gives me a very short duration Swiftness boon.

K <><

Even when I stand in the SoS and it pulses it will add 1 second to my boon. So say I cast retreat and I pop SoS while I still have 20s left of switness every pulse will send me back to 21s as I stand in the symbol. It will not bump me up to 28s and then pulse from there. I also have realized that casting it on the run will not always grant me swiftness due to the second pulsing but I believe that isn’t a bug. I just cast it on myself as I run for it to work.

Hi, I just noticed the issue too and this thread came up when I did a search. I can reproduce this as a Guardian using a staff. Symbol does not stack properly on top of other speed boosts. Other speed boosts stack properly on top of Symbol. Symbol only adds one second if applied while a speed boost is already activated. My current values on a Guardian:

“Retreat!” (R!) : 23s
“Save Yourselves!” (SY!) : 11.5s
Symbol: 9.25s

Here’s what I observe when using these in immediate succession while standing still:

• “R!” + Symbol = about 23 seconds
• Symbol + “R!” = just over 32s
• “SY!” + Symbol = 11.5s
• Symbol + “SY!” = just under 22s
• Symbol + “R!” + “SY!” = over 43 seconds.

Then I tried this combo:
Symbol + “R!” = 32s. -12s recharge = 20s. +Symbol = 21s. Naturally that one second refreshes until the symbol is depleted, at which point the countdown continues normally.

I’ve also observed what others do about Symbol not hitting at all while the character is running.

• If I target the symbol just right, so that I’m passing over the circle as it’s drawn on the ground, the speed bonus gets applied.
• If I target the symbol ahead of the character and run through it, there is a chance that I will pass through the circle before the speed boost is detected and not receive any bonus. (This is evidenced by the timer for the foot speed indicator not resetting to 12 o’clock. Even when receiving a bugged speed boost from the staff, the countdown outline on the haste indicator will still reset to the top and wind down clockwise from 12 o’clock.) If I take a skill that widens symbol diameter, it significantly lessens the possibility that this will happen.

I’m sorry to kind of dig out this thread, but i’d like to know if this bug is going to be fixed one day, because it’s still here.

Or maybe it works as intended to ?

I confirm, both issues still present.

Bug is still happening today. Symbol doesn’t stack if you already have the swiftness buff going.

Indeed still present. I noticed this on my new guardian today.

Both that it won’t stack properly if you already have swiftness, and that sometimes it won’t apply right away.

Symbol of swiftness is designed in such a way to prevent stacking (I assume this was intended to prevent it from stacking with itself), so I don’t think that it will be fixed.

It is probably more beneficial to get in the habit of using the symbol first.

WonderfulCT.6278:

Symbol of swiftness is designed in such a way to prevent stacking (I assume this was intended to prevent it from stacking with itself), so I don’t think that it will be fixed.

It is probably more beneficial to get in the habit of using the symbol first.

After thinking more about this and the fact that this problem happens also with the focus wall of the mesmer, i suppose it’s intended to avoid swiftness stacking in WvW.

But these skills should definitely work correctly in PvE, where swiftness stacking happens rarely and where losing 10-12 sec of swiftness because of having 1 sec of it left (and then swiftness skill not triggering) can clearly pull a player out of his group while running.