ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Assassin/Shadow Form


 * (last update: December 11th, 2008)
 * (last update: May 22nd, 2008)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHADOW FORM! Boro 17:54, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Boro [[Image:User_Borotvaltgandalf_Sig.jpg|10px‎]]'s Issue

 * issue: Abusable in solo farming, making underworld a solo-heaven (people in UWSC solo parts of UW), while it's garbage in PvP form.


 * solution: Make it more like nightmare refuge:


 * PvE:
 * Skill. for seconds spells against you have 50%chance to fail and attacks against you have 50% to miss and you gain  health when shadow form ends.


 * PvP:
 * Stance. For seconds you take half damage from spells and move 33%faster. (not sure 'bout this one)

Lann's Issue -- 10 June, 2008
Perma is inbalance Make it into a form, similar to dervish with similar recharge.
 * Issue
 * Solution

Gordon Ecker's issue -- 01:04, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Discussion
 * Issue
 * Abusable in solo farming.
 * Gimmicky all or nothing skill. If you can keep it up 100% of the time, it's overpowered. If your build can't keep it up 100% of the time, you're pretty much dead when it ends.
 * Suggestion
 * Change to 10, 2, 10 "Elite Form (or Elite Skill). For 5...25...30 seconds, you cannot be targeted by hostile spells and you take 50% less damage. This skill is disabled for 30 seconds.".

Ninjas In The Sky's Issue --28 June, 2008

 * Issue
 * It rapidly ruined a big part of Gild Wars' economy. Globs of Ectoplasm drop for perma SF's often, thus become underpriced. People actually used those instead of money for trades bigger than 100k due to the limit.
 * GW is a CORPG. Not a soloable game. You can actually do most of GW with Glyph of Swiftness, Deadly Paradox, Shadow Form and damage skills, such as Sliver Armor.
 * Suggestion
 * Simply make it like Dervish Forms. Disable it instead of recharging it's that simple. There would still be an imbalanced part, met with its current state too, but you can't use it in high-end PvE areas: Morale Boosts recharge it. But in most high end PvE areas MB's are a rarity or not met, so you'd have to waste your items giving morale boosts.
 * Another one is to highen the duration to much higher levels, such as 120-180 seconds.
 * My last suggestion, although very different, is to Block (75% chance) attacks or changes in the spells failing issues. This makes some attacks succeed, which makes you risk getting interrupted by the Grasping Darknesses.

Gordon Ecker's issue -- 02:10, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Discussion
 * Issue
 * Gimmicky all or nothing skill. If you can keep it up 100% of the time, it's overpowered. If your build can't keep it up 100% of the time or the monsters can strip it, you're pretty much dead when it ends.
 * Suggestion
 * Change to 10, 2, 10 "Elite Form (or Elite Skill). For seconds, you take % less damage and deal 50% less damage. This skill is disabled for 30 seconds.", making the skill reliable for tanking and useless for solo farming.

Psychiatric Consultant's Issue --13:10, 14 August 2008
Issue: Perma-form farming, mostly spellcaster farming, is stupid without the damage reduction. But, the new shadow form opened up alot of possibilities for perma-forms that weren't there before.

Solution 1: As of right now farming with shadow form using elementalist damage spells is just as fast as pre-nerf dagger farmig was. So, make the damage reduction only apply to spells but make it 75%. This would keep spell farming slowed to a crawl while allowing the cool perma-form tanks to be around that we were seeing right after the buff. Honestly, the dagger farmers were never really overpowered. I mean it still took like an hour to clear the chaos plains which is like slower than it takes the REDUCED DAMAGE spell farmers right now.

Solution2: Revert to pre-buff/nerf status. I know you don't really want to do this but honestly you never should have touched the skill in the first place.

Chaos Messenger's Issue

 * Issue
 * Discourages team playing, makes farming so much easier.


 * Suggestion
 * Just make it non-perma-able without ruining the whole skill. Give tanking back to Warriors and Bonders. I want to see many QQ's.


 * Or rerout is as an stance, or let allied spells fail as well.Joetjah 14:37, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Hong's Issue -- 12:56, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
As above.
 * Issue

Consider health degen as an alternative to losing a fixed amount of health on ending. Eg - pips for either a fixed duration, or varying duration.
 * Solution

123.200.252.210 15:57, 10 June 2009 (UTC)'s Issue

 * Issue: 15min to clear Underworld? did someone say OP?

New functionality: When Shadow Form is used you cant cast any SPELLs. So there is a tiny gap when using it for the second time as they have to wait for the enchantment to end (a little similar to Vow of Silence). This also means perma sins dps spells wont be useable. This allows them to POSSIBLY still tank in HM but not as effective as current perma sins because of possibility of death in between each cast and much lower dps.
 * Suggestion


 * PvE:
 * Elite Enchantment Spell. For, you can not use any spells, all hostile Spells that target you fail and all attacks against you miss, but you deal 33% less damage. When Shadow Form ends, lose all but 5...41...50 Health.

Joetjah's Issue -- 14:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
They can solo farm, and even more fail, they can sc UW
 * Issue

Not only enemy spells should fail, but also the allied spells/enchantments! That would mean the selfheal is neglected or mitigated. As a result, I expect the assassins to still be able to run some parts of the game, but not solo the 'hard' parts anymore..
 * Solution

Y0 ich halt's issue -- 14:22, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
Issue

This is an extrema skill. That is to say, it is either totally overpowered and therefore useful (when it's possible to maintain, i.e. current PvE form), or it is totally worthless and anyone intelligent enough not to use Mending won't use this either (when it can't be maintainted, i.e. current PvP form). The last nerf has made it less useful to farm, but it's still abused for tanking and running, which is not much better.

Suggestion

Elite 'Stance. (5...30...35 seconds.) You take half damage from all sources and attacks against you have a 75% chance to miss. If you are not enchanted, you move 25% faster. Ends if you deal damage. (50' ) (not split anymore) - Y0_ ich_halt  14:18, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Mith's issue -- 09:58, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
Discussion
 * Issue
 * If it is maintained all the time, the skill is too much except in areas with counters like signets or touch skills.
 * If it can't be maintained all the time, the skill doesn't last enough to cope for it's huge downside of losing so much HP. A huge downside in an elite skill is never a good idea.
 * Suggestion
 * Change it to:
 * PvE: 5 1⁄4 30 Elite Form. For seconds, you cannot take damage from attacks, are immune to health steal skills, take % less elemental damage and dark damage heals you. This skill is disabled for 120 seconds.
 * PvP: 10 1 30 Elite Form. For seconds,  you cannot take damage from attacks and take % less elemental damage. This skill is disabled for 120 seconds.

This way it's a great skill for tanking were you are in trouble, and the downsides are just time between activations. And still requires something against holy damage and degeneration and waiting 30 (60 PVP) seconds between recharges. Although it would require Echoes and Assassin's Promise to be changed not to affect Forms so Arcane Mimicry can't be used to copy Echo or Assassin's Promise and then recharge it all the time (Turning it into a form would prevent Arcane Mimicry from working directly to copy Shadow Form). MithTalk 20:57, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Sparky's Issue

 * Issue
 * Shadow Form is useless unless you can maintain it and too powerful when you can.
 * (See all above)


 * Suggestions
 * Make it protect you for a very short time, allowing you to get a powerful combo off. Make it protect you for a slightly longer time (not invincible or maintainable) while not allowing offensive abilities. Allow it have less drawbacks and more counters.
 * Elite Form. ( seconds.) Shadow step to target foe. You cannot be seen or targeted, your attacks deal shadow damage, and you move % faster. This skill is disabled for 45 seconds. End effect: return to your original location.  Notes: You cannot be targeted by allies or foes, but you can be hit indirectly with AoE. You cannot be seen, but your shadow can. If the targeted foe dies, SF will no longer consider them 'nearby,' therefore SF will end. 
 * Elite Stance. ( seconds.) You move 33% faster and take 66% less damage.
 * Elite Enchantment Spell. ( seconds.) You have +10 Health regeneration and +80 armor. You shadow step to a random nearby location whenever you take damage.
 * Elite Enchantment Spell. ( seconds.) Shadow step to target foe and you are cured of blindness. Attacks against you have a 90% chance to miss.
 * I would like this skill to see use outside of PvE (while not being broken in PvE), offering a means of self-defense to an otherwise frail character; either for a short offensive burst, or as a longer-term recovery skill.

82.173.131.5 10:56, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

 * Issue
 * Read all the above issues :P


 * Suggestion
 * Elite Stance. ( seconds.) Whenever a foe hits you with an attack, that foe is blinded and dazed for 5 seconds.