Talk:Critical Defenses

The note

Isn't this true for every enchantment? —ZerphaThe Improver 05:35, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

It means that it benefits contrary to Kinetic Armor from the modification if refreshed automatically (not manually).Noctarch 17:18, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Covering Critical Defenses

I've been trying to use Critical Agility to cover Critical Defenses since both refresh after a critical hit. Some of the times it works, but there are also times where the skills switch places and Critical Defenses becomes the covering enchantment. And for some strange reason, they never ever switch back so that Critical Agility becomes the covering enchantment. Does anybody know what is going on? PegasusHoplite28 06:18, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, since it gets re-applied, it takes the "most recent" enchant spot, until another is applied, so this will almost always be the covering enchant. Chiyu! 15:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I was under the assumption that Critical Agility did the exact same thing as Critical Defenses in terms of refreshing. They both would get re-applied, hence both would take the "most recent" enchant spot, but still keep the order that Critical Defenses and Critical Agility were cast in. I don't know if I'm still not explaining myself clearly. Oddly enough it seems that the two skills switch their order when I use a dual strike like Critical Strike. It is as if both Critical Defenses and Critical Agility refresh on the first critical hit, but only Critical Defenses refreshes on the second critical hit. This would explain why Critical Defenses always ends up on the "most recent" enchant spot even though it was cast before Critical Agility. Is this actually the case? Is this a bug? Is it presumptuous to assume that this may be fixed in the near future? I don't know. PegasusHoplite28 15:26, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

You have yourself a point there. I'll test it as soon as I can. (I've been lazy on my sin) Chiyu! 18:25, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Mk, I just ran a few tests, and I see what you mean. I applied Crit defenses then Agi, and when I looked at my enchants a little later, they had swapped places and kept refreshing in that order.. I don't have the faintest on how that works.Chiyu! 23:17, 24 June 2008 (UTC) Forgot to sign><

Any suggestions on the best way for me to bring this up with ANet and at least get a response/explanation (I'm not expecting a fix)? I guess I should start accepting the fact that Critical Agility is probably the more important enchantment of the two and should be covered, not the other way around. Thanks for taking the time to help. PegasusHoplite28 16:41, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

No need to thank me, it's very important to me too. The only way I can think of is to talk to Izzy, Regina, or just send them a support request from their site... Chiyu! 23:31, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Now, i know this is 2 1/2 months later, but did any of you think that maybe it might have been alphabetical? If they are re-applied at the same time then maybe it lists them alphabetically, and thats why Critical Agility is covered by Critical Defenses. ~

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe if someone tests it with a 3rd enchantment that reapplies itself with a critical hit, if there is a third one. Nicoli20 02:47, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I just did some testing. Critical Defenses always covers Critical Agility on critical hits because CA has a longer duration, regardless of casting order. However, at 0 ranks of Critical Strikes, both enchantments have the same duration and they will refresh in the order that you originally cast them. So it looks like priority is given to the longer enchantment. And if game mechanics were actually dependent on the UI language, the ramifications would be astounding. --Dash 05:14, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Why This Needs Nerfed

I Thought sins were supposed to be hit and run spikers, not tanks with better blocks than a warrior. With this skill i found it quite possible to wade through mobs of melee taking barely any signifigant damage, yes a simple enchantment removal will get rid of it, but with all the enchanments you are likely to have up the chances are good it will not be removed. I realise too that assasins dont have the same armour rating as warriors or armour boosing skills like Defy Pain or Dolyak Signet but as a supposed hit and run attacker should they? I think A-net would do well to adjust sin skills so sins were forced to deliver a combo or two before shadow stepping out of there and kiting back before the enemies attention was attracted to them. I just think its so easy for an assasin to jump right into the thick of it apply crit def and fire out the combos, maybe give it a 20 second duration and a 30 second recharge, so atleast the sin was made to kite out of there a bit. It seems that they are only fullfilling the "hit" and being allowed to disregard the "run" of the hit and run proffesion they were hyped to be. Shogun 20:57, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Enchantment removal will still work because every time critical defences is removed it becomes the last enchantment on the list again. and assassins arent just hit and run. ever heard of shadow form? Shroud of distress? All the classes have multiple purposes, and the assassin is no exception. Kaida 06:51, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes i have, and thats what im saying about them not being hit and run, they are barely hit and run at all, but before factions came out they were hyped up to be hit and run characters. Anyway, warriors are supposed to be the tanks, and with a block like this assasins can tank physicals far far better than a warrior could, they also generally deal more damage than a warrior so what does being a warrior really have going for it over sin. It just seems to me that sins can really do anything, often better than other classes which before would have been able to do their own task better than a sin, metaphoricaly its like you have one thing you are really good at, then some new guy comes along masters it in 5 minutes and moves on to master something else 5 minutes later. You must admit, go and look around a busy outpost and you will see a disproportionate number of assasins. Shogun 03:09, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Shadow Form is a hit and run skill. There's a reason why it nearly kills you at the end. (Hint: Run before it ends.) Shroud of Distress is an escape skill, adding some survival against attacks when you need to run (under 50% Health). Critical Defenses is not a hit-and-run skill, since it only lasts for a meaningful time if you relentlessly attack, giving you survivability against other attackers (though vulnerable to enchantment removals). Of course, when Critical Defenses is stripped, you'd better run. <>Sparky, the Tainted 05:13, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget that critical defenses doesn't do anything against casters. Paddymew 12:13, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

"Shadow Form is a hit and run skill" But Critical Defenses is not, and it is in many ways better than any Warrior blocking skill. 83.163.223.50 08:47, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Does Warrior have any kind of blocking that works against casters? 83.163.223.50 08:47, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

No, but let's see, wars have better armor, they have shields, they can improve their tanking ability with unstrippable (or nearly unstrippable) skills like shouts and stances, and they have mods to their shields that improve their tanking yet further by adding big bonuses, especially health. Who's afraid of critical defenses? It's easily stripped and does nothing against spells.--71.185.41.90 21:36, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

pic

What is the pic of? looks like a fat man Zachariah Zuan. 19:11, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

File:Critical Defenses (large).jpg Paddymew 19:33, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

I always thought it was a pig looking up at the sky.84.92.169.252 16:51, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

lol, looks like Anet loves taking pictures of their employees doing nothing and using it in skill pics --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 41.233.218.207 (talk).

Nerf This

Way too strong in RA... where your team most likely wont have enchant removal. WotA sins can run around all day just raping shit... remove the 9 second duration at 13 crit so they can maintain this but when they try to switch targets or the target they are after starts to kite it is removed. Making smart use of this skill.97.112.100.186 08:26, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

How about you just take an enchantment removal skill instead? People often use those in RA. Paddymew 11:43, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Or you could always kite the WotA sin. Its not that hard, most of em dont bring a run skill lol. Fantil Swift 13:10, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Back in time assassins

And here you can see the nerf crying babies which have no idea about skill balancing and have their heads so far up their asses that they're blocking their views on actually understanding the problem and affair of events.

This cataclysm started by anti-fun nerfers that made Factions' skills so weak and almost ruined Shadow Form, only to turn it into a better Obsidian Flesh. These crybaby nerfers ran off to Guild Wars 2 aimlessly playing it like the stupid bunch of plebs they are. Hence their nine year old vocabulary, lack of compelling arguments and lack of game skills which makes them incapable of adding at least 1 skill to bypass all the sin's weak defenses. Hence these newbies are whiniest most obnoxious children which didn't get their asses beaten by a belt mercilessly and properly.

Assassins are probably the weakest profession ever. The most niche, hardest to master and with little to make up for. Yet these mentally deranged lunatics for some reason come up with these poor arguments and exaggerated vitriol against this poor profession which desperately needs to be buffed and remade completely. Yet for some reason the elementalists got a huge update, same for the necromancers, yet not to the extinct assassins which get overshadowed by a dervish profession.

A mesmer just like the assassin is a very hard profession to master, but unlike the sin the mesmer gives the expert skilled player an actual pay-off for his hardwork of understanding the profession and figuring out builds around it.

An assassin has a total of 1 deadly arts build to effectively work in PvP and 1 tank build(shadow form) to use in PvE. The rest are null. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.121.112.36 (talk) at 16:22, 13 January 2015‎ (UTC).