a Possible PSA about "s" keybinded as backwards

So i understand this game is very movement based, however in WoW alot of players remove/change their "S" keybind to something else. In most games WASD is movement keybinds, and S is backwards or backpeddling which is frownd upon massively in WoW. I did an experiment with removing my S keybind in gw2 and I gotta say, after I got used to it, I felt like my kiting, and general movement got better. I switched back to my S keybind to moving backwards, but now it feels really foreign.. I might just end up not having S keybinded at all, or maybe to something important since its a ez button to press. Thoughts?

In general, backpedaling in mmos is the sign of a bad player, but gw2's targeting system is so trash that it is sometimes worth it to backpedal just to keep target on some channeled skills while kiting. Certain skills like Life Siphon and Ghastly Claws will break or fail to cast on targets who move outside of what seems like a 90 degree window in front of the player. It's just arbitrary tab-target nonsense. Aside from that, most skills in the game can be cast from any position and strike with berths so huge and forgiving that rebinding "s" wouldn't probably hurt anyone.

All that said, I can't imagine what good movement looks like in gw2, since everyone depends so much on scripted movement skills and teleports that when I do see people try to pursue targets with manual WASD, it looks like a drunken stumble. Thieves in particular seem to have some atrocious WASD.

S is kind of nice to have in very few situations in this game (e.g. as tanking in raids), otherwise you don't really need it since you can strafe anyway.I have W and S keybinded to weapon skills 1 and 5 respectively.

In WoW you ran at maxspeed when running forward and strafing, backwards had reduced speed. That paired with a 180 degree angle on abilities meant you could use strafe to run backwards while attacking like normal.In gw2 you run at full speed forward, at reduced speed strafing and at turtle backwards. Abilities on animation stop and turn your character to face the enemy most of the time. So during an ability cast you might not be able to move any othe way than backwards to get distance.I prefer gw2 movement, but id love to get a keybind to do what “backwards movement” does in action camera mode. (Run towards camera)

I use "s" all the time to kite on the point as menders druid in erratic figure 8's while spinning playing dont step in the red circles, to prevent the enemy from deciphering a pattern, generally while using Rejuvenating Tides, getting out from the melee range of hundred blades by a millimeter is super troll. It is also useful as a ranged character to jump up jumping puzzles backwards while continuing to dps. Its also useful as a slower movement option for when precise jumping is required, such as jumping on top of the skyhammer portal from mid, there is a very small ledge and you can take the portal from the top of it, if you miss it from being all jacked up from swiftness you will take falling damage.