Guild Wars 2

There have been dev posts previously confirming that swiftness was capped at 9 stacks. I know for a fact that swiftness was either not capped, or the cap was much higher than 9 stacks when the game was first released, due to being able to hit 4+ minute durations on my engineer using a combo of speedy kits (when it was 5 secs vs 10) and elixirs/drop stimulant.

Recently I’ve been able to reach 14 minute durations of swiftness on my engineer with a Superior Sigil of Speed. Would like dev confirmation on whether this is an intentional change or a bug. And if it’s a bug, I’d just like to add my input that it should remain as-is. Swiftness should not be subject to capped stacks/durations, in my opinion, given it only facilitates map travel, and speed increase is subject to a 25% cap when in combat anyways. Even in WvW/sPvP swiftness is lost upon death or a relog/rezone, so large durations should not be considered a balance issue in these modes.

Also, I never really bothered to test before, but I’m not sure whether the previous max cap system was “smart” in that it would override shorter duration boons, say from Symbol of Swiftness, with ones of a longer duration, for example, Superior Sigil of Speed. This is another issue that needs to be considered if we’re reverted back to the 9 cap system.

If there is indeed an intended cap – it would seem that it’s never been working.

I’ve reached 5 minutes on my elementalist, and I frequent 3-5 minutes on my engineer.

Highest I’ve done is about 8 and a half minutes.

I’ve been stacking swiftness on my engineer at least for a year like this.

Edit: Speaking from a PvE/WvW perspective. I don’t sPvP much at all, but it’s not hard for me to get up to 5 minutes in WvW either.

My sluggish mesmer with their TC feels envy hearing that :P
Mesmers have almost no source of swiftness and the only one available that doesn’t require any additional upgrades isn’t reliable, it only provide 7 secs and never stack.
+1 for a source of longer swiftness.

shadow.6174:

My sluggish mesmer with their TC feels envy hearing that :P
Mesmers have almost no source of swiftness and the only one available that doesn’t require any additional upgrades isn’t reliable, it only provide 7 secs and never stack.
+1 for a source of longer swiftness.

I use Centaur runes + mirror and Signet of Midnight on my mesmer with a power PU build (Full boon duration tree). Even before they added Swiftness to PU, I was achieving 1-2 minutes.

But yeah, Mesmers are sadly very much the slowest class, without resorting to a dedicated runeset, or allies.

Halcyon.7352:

I use Centaur runes + mirror and Signet of Midnight on my mesmer with a power PU build (Full boon duration tree). Even before they added Swiftness to PU, I was achieving 1-2 minutes.

Sorry if it’s a dumb question but, what do you mean with PU?

Halcyon.7352:

But yeah, Mesmers are sadly very much the slowest class, without resorting to a dedicated runeset, or allies.

Hehe, that’s what I was talking about. If not resorting to runes and stuff it’s hard for mesmers to get a decent swiftness duration.

shadow.6174:

Sorry if it’s a dumb question but, what do you mean with PU?

Prismatic Understanding – a grandmaster Chaos trait that’s pretty popular for sPvP builds. I find it fun in open world PvE as well.

Also in an effort to stay on topic: Year old picture of my elementalist achieving 3:39 of swiftness via weapon skills, combos and glyph traits.

Halcyon.7352:

Prismatic Understanding – a grandmaster Chaos trait that’s pretty popular for sPvP builds. I find it fun in open world PvE as well.

Oh duh lol, I knew that one but I couldn’t recall it when I saw the abbr. Thanks for the info.

Halcyon.7352:

If there is indeed an intended cap – it would seem that it’s never been working.

I’ve reached 5 minutes on my elementalist, and I frequent 3-5 minutes on my engineer.

Highest I’ve done is about 8 and a half minutes.

I’ve been stacking swiftness on my engineer at least for a year like this.

Edit: Speaking from a PvE/WvW perspective. I don’t sPvP much at all, but it’s not hard for me to get up to 5 minutes in WvW either.

It’s definitely been working for the last several months because I often top out between 1-3 minutes on my engineer who farms with a Superior Sigil of Speed so I can use chocolate MF foods (while under boon + boon duration). Sometimes I cap at only 1.5 minutes or less because of Speedy Kits (10 sec) plus Drop Stimulant (10 sec) as opposed to my theoretical max cap of just over 3 minutes using only the Superior Sigil of Speed bonus (20 secs). But I have reached closer to my 3 minute max cap as well at times. I’ve watched the boon duration not increase on several occasions despite gaining swiftness because the cap has been reached. Someone with a lot of boon/swiftness duration increase would’ve been able to see just under 5 minutes on occasion.

SKATE.1394:

Halcyon.7352:

If there is indeed an intended cap – it would seem that it’s never been working.

I’ve reached 5 minutes on my elementalist, and I frequent 3-5 minutes on my engineer.

Highest I’ve done is about 8 and a half minutes.

I’ve been stacking swiftness on my engineer at least for a year like this.

Edit: Speaking from a PvE/WvW perspective. I don’t sPvP much at all, but it’s not hard for me to get up to 5 minutes in WvW either.

It’s definitely been working for the last several months because I often top out between 1-3 minutes on my engineer who farms with a Superior Sigil of Speed so I can use chocolate MF foods (while under boon + boon duration). Sometimes I cap at only 1.5 minutes or less because of Speedy Kits (10 sec) plus Drop Stimulant (10 sec) as opposed to my theoretical max cap of just over 3 minutes using only the Superior Sigil of Speed bonus (20 secs). But I have reached closer to my 3 minute max cap as well at times. I’ve watched the boon duration not increase on several occasions despite gaining swiftness because the cap has been reached. Someone with a lot of boon/swiftness duration increase would’ve been able to see just under 5 minutes on occasion.

I’ve noticed that once in a while, when I should have swiftness (or any boon that’s stacked high) applied, it simply poofs, and I get nothing. This is probably the reported ‘cap’.

The thing is, it seems incredibly inconsistent: I’m often able to keep stacking anyway.

Here’s a screenshot of my engineer with 7 min 10 s of swiftness, from just running around Malchor’s for T6 mats, waiting for temples. No gimmicks, no tricks, a pretty standard 6/0/0/6/2 build with Altruism runes and 40% boon duration. (20% more if I use my MF food). I also had about 3 mins 20 seconds of fury.

I’ve similarly stacked Vigor to 2-3 minutes using certain racials, engineer skills and traits.

The cap is pretty clearly not fully working, and it’s been functioning this way as long as I can remember.