ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Assassin/Shadow Steps

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Readem

• Issue: No one cares about snaring. Nor telespike really (although it is extremely gay). People hate how shadow steps bypass obstacles. This is what makes sinsplit so powerful. Its mobility unmatched. The ability to leave "back doors", on maps such as Imperial, is just fail.

• Possible Solution: Simple. Make shadow steps adhere to obstacles.

Discussion

Kite's Issue

• Issue: Shadow Steps don't require any attribute investment to run them. There are certainly other issues with shadow stepping, but this is a big one, at least in my mind. Warriors can use them effectively without having to divert any of their resources into Shadow Arts or Deadly Arts in order to use them to their advantage. If W/A's or D/A's had to lessen their damage output to shadowstep, and monks their healing output, it would make the choice to bring a shadow step a bit more difficult, I think.

• A Solution: Put "(50% failure chance with [Attribute] 4 or less.)" on most of or all of the shadow stepping skills, so attributes would have at least some effect on the mobility freedom of the shadow step. This would likely involve making Aura of Displacement a Shadow Arts skill, though.

Discussion

Erasculio's Issue 02:21, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Issue

In PvE, shadow stepping is almost useless. It's used for a few gimmicks (such as some runner builds that use shadow stepping to make shortcuts along the way), but other than that it has little application in that game mode. Monsters don't pre-prot, don't kite when a melee character is approaching, and splitting is pointless against them - which means, the element of mobility that makes assassins overpowered in PvP doesn't matter in PvE. To make it worse, an assassin that shadow steps in the middle of an enemy group that has not engaged his party is simply going to draw aggro by said group and die. The only application for those skills in common PvE would be maneuvering once the assassin's party and the enemy group are already engaged, circunstance in which the distances are so small that speed boosts are better than shadow stepping. Dash, for example, has the advantage of being useable for both offense and defense, unlike most shadow stepping skills, not to mention a much smaller recharge and a low energy cost.

Suggestion

In PvE only, reduce the recharge of the following skills to zero:

• Aura of Displacement
• Dark Prison (lower the duration of the hex)
• Death's Charge (lower the healing)
• Death's Retreat (lower the healing)
• Return (lower the duration of the crippling effect, increase energy cost to 10)
• Shadow Meld
• Shadow Prison (lower the duration of the hex)
• Shadow Walk
• Spirit Walk

This would truly give assassins mobility, as they would be allowed to jump from one enemy to the next almost instantly, being limited only by their energy. While this change would destroy PvP, in PvE it would only give a small incentive for shadow steeping to be used by assassins.