Guild Wars 2

So I’m pretty sure that at some point in the past, we had a patch implementing the 1s block on skill use when downed, so that players wouldn’t accidentally use up their defensive skills immediately.

It doesn’t work.

I very frequently find myself in Vapor Form as soon as I’m downed, since I was trying to cast a #2 weapon skill – and it just so happens that a good number of my kills come from using Lava Tomb effectively by waiting out its internal cooldown on it while downed then triggering it through Vapor Form.

Because of this, the delay seems to be utterly useless, since it’s really quite easy to activate the skill immediately on getting downed… and should I actually want to Vapor Form immediately (for example, to get closer to allies, or into a capture point) then I’m stuck waiting for that whole second.

I expect this affects Elementalists more than most, particularly those of us running Lava Tomb, but none of these skills have particularly long cast times and are designed to really help prevent a stomp in most situations.

I’m not sure if it is even implemented because the skill has no cool down when you get into downstate. They should fix it or increase its initial cool down to 2 seconds.

slsharpshooter.5631:

I’m not sure if it is even implemented because the skill has no cool down when you get into downstate. They should fix it or increase its initial cool down to 2 seconds.

Aha, found the patch notes:

Made it harder to accidentally waste the player’s downed 2 skill when the player becomes downed while trying to use their weapon 2 skill.

And there’s a definite delay on skills when you get downed, it just doesn’t stop you from casting your #2 straight away.

actually there use to be a delay for mist form, but a lot of the time you would die before the delay ended, so they reduced it so you can mist form away and possibly survive a battle. I prefer it this way. Just pay attention to your health more, dont bring back a delay in mist form.

Oh, no, that’s the restructuring of the Ele downed skills, because Grasping Earth is utterly useless for preventing a stomp - the #2 and #3 skills got swapped over, and Grasping Earth got given more damage and some bleeding.

Everyone gets the delay on all skills when they get downed, though - it covers the period for which you’re invulnerable. I’m not even asking for this to be extended - just for there not to be a moment in which you can trigger the #2 before the lockout.

Paying attention to health more might work if there weren’t so many heavy-hitting skills, by the way. Or if combat wasn’t so fast-paced. Not using the #2 skills just in case something hits you? That shouldn’t be an issue that we have to deal with.

I think Vapor Form might actually be excepted from this mechanic, because it is an instant-cast skill and possibly also a stun-breaker. (Since it seems to act like a carbon copy of Mist Form.)

Instant-cast skills are never affected by crowd control, which the skill delay upon being downed amounts to. (In fact, the skill delay could actually be a standard daze, stun or knockdown effect that simply triggers on being downed.)

If this is correct, the only way to fix this would be to give Vapor Form a casting time, and I’m not sure I would support that…

Jornophelanthas.1475:

I think Vapor Form might actually be excepted from this mechanic, because it is an instant-cast skill and possibly also a stun-breaker. (Since it seems to act like a carbon copy of Mist Form.)

Instant-cast skills are never affected by crowd control, which the skill delay upon being downed amounts to. (In fact, the skill delay could actually be a standard daze, stun or knockdown effect that simply triggers on being downed.)

If this is correct, the only way to fix this would be to give Vapor Form a casting time, and I’m not sure I would support that…

I would rather give it half a second recharge upon downed. So that you can’t use it straight into downed state.

Y’know how there’s that bug that Necromancers have, where on losing Death Shroud their heal/utility/elite skills are all locked out (even stunbreaks)?

If that effect isn’t currently what happens to downed skills for a second when you get downed, it probably should be - a lock on all skills, not letting you use them, from the moment of getting downed until the 1s of invuln has worn off.

this is annoying, i always waste my down skill casting my #2 weapon skill as well