Sand Through Glass improvments

Been having fun toying with this skill on a few unique (clearly not meta defining) builds.

It's been pretty nice but I can't help but feel it's a bit clunky, and that is a significant factor with how contested our utility slots are.

Many times I have used this skill and I'm unsure of it's just lag on my end, but it often inconsistnatly delays it's activation.May need further testing but it almost seems as if it's just failing to break certain types of CC, or takes a second to realize it's a stun breaker. Again this may be something on my end.

Another thing I'd like to address is how it functions with immobilize. It works when snared, but the result just forces the roll to stay in place. I don't know if that is intentional but I find it hard to consider the skill strong enough for this to be intentional counter-play? I propose much like how Withdrawal functions it actively clear immobilize. I don't think it needs to clear the other control effects, and one could argue it being to powerful if it did. However clearing immobilize would make the skill function more consistently.

It's just not worth using in its current state. The evade is so minimal so that you basically only create a mirage mirror every 25 seconds.

Illusionary ambush gives you instant mirage cloak as well but on a 20 seconds cooldown, and all your clones are affected by it, regardless if you traited infinite horizon.

So I think that sand thorugh glass has to be buffed a lot to be actually worth using. Maybe make it an ammonition skill with 2 charges on a 25 sec recharge timer with 3-4 conditions lost on activation.

I'm glad you posted this because I have been using this skill regularly now in my build (and for the record it is a decent skill in the build I play and has been beneficial now on a number of occasions, though on its own it is still mediocre and could do with improvement) and find similar issues sometimes:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/36750/sand-through-glass-stunbreak-not-always-working#latest

What I have been noticing since then is it doesn't always seem to break your casts when not using it to stunbreak - eg Decoy will interrupt your cast and function immediately whenever you use it, same with other stunbreaks. StG seems to delay until whatever you are currently casting finishes, then activates. It should forcibly interrupt anything and work immediately on pressing the button.

Also I agree it should clear immobilise, because otherwise it immediately breaks the mirror which isn't helpful - just becomes a 25s cooldown evade.

In another thread I mentioned that I would like to see StG be a detarget skill, although this is debatable whether it is the correct buff needed.

Otherwise I think simply having it function more reliably like lightning reflexes or withdraw, clearing movement impairing conditions such as immobilise/cripple/chill, and always immediately functioning no matter what you are doing or what kind of cc effect you have been hit by.

Breaking down the skill, its a stunbreak, evade, mirage mirror and small mobility tied into 1 skill. Sounds like quite a lot, and it is, but in order to keep it balanced it does everything pretty poorly. Look at what it competes against:

For mirage mirrors:

• Crystal sands gives you a mirage mirror on a 20 second CD (5 seconds faster), but you get to pick where the mirror appears.
• Illusionary ambush gives you mirage cloak on a 20 second CD, taking away the requirement to go and pick up the mirror later to get mirage cloak.

For mobility:

• Phase retreat has less than half the CD, gives shatter fodder, and is also a combo finisher
• Blink. Enough said.

For stunbreak:

• Blink. Slightly higher base CD (30 seconds vs 25), but it can be traited for CD reduction to be on a lower CD, even if its just 1 second. But allows for full control of where you end up, along with significantly higher range. Blink is also instant
• MI. 5 second longer CD, but summons 2 clones for shatter fodder and also breaks enemy targetting

For evades:

• BF, again less than half the CD, and a significantly longer blur
• Crystal sands and illusionary ambush both give evades via mirage mirrors as well

For everything that sands through glass does, there is another skill or two that does it significantly better, either because its more usable, its on shorter CD, or both. It just tries to do too many things, and ends up being just mediocre at most of them. Its a fun skill, but functionally phase retreat is almost as strong, at less than half the CD, and that frees up a utility slot for another stunbreak skill that is just simply better.

Thanks for the incite @Curunen.8729 That makes a lot of sense for what I've been experiencing.

On top of fixing the lack of cast canceling and adding an immob cleanse, what if it gave 50% (30% in PvP) endurance return? With the recent change to elusive mind it might offer something that other utilities don't. If after those changes it was still useless or underwhelming we could give it a 5 second shave off it's cooldown.

Instant guaranteed 1/2 second backwards evade, with 30% endurance refill, and a mirror on a 20 second cool down might fit into more builds?

I'd like to use IA and STG together, but then I'm either dropping Portal or Blink... Which it's hard to justify bringing this into ranked. But pretty fun to mess with people in duels, WvW, and messing around in unranked. Would still probably get little to no serious use in PvE though.

Another less complicated suggestion I have is it dropping 3 mirrors that last at least 10 seconds in a line and increasing the range to 400 - 500 units.

@Daishi.6027 said:Thanks for the incite @Curunen.8729 That makes a lot of sense for what I've been experiencing.

On top of fixing the lack of cast canceling and adding an immob cleanse, what if it gave 50% (30% in PvP) endurance return? With the recent change to elusive mind it might offer something that other utilities don't. If after those changes it was still useless or underwhelming we could give it a 5 second shave off it's cooldown.

Instant guaranteed 1/2 second backwards evade, with 30% endurance refill, and a mirror on a 20 second cool down might fit into more builds?

I'd like to use IA and STG together, but then I'm either dropping Portal or Blink... Which it's hard to justify bringing this into ranked. But pretty fun to mess with people in duels, WvW, and messing around in unranked. Would still probably get little to no serious use in PvE though.

Another less complicated suggestion I have is it dropping 3 mirrors that last at least 10 seconds in a line and increasing the range to 400 - 500 units.

Oh my god that would be awesome if StG gave a small percentage (ie 30%) direct endurance regain.

@Daishi.6027 said:Thanks for the incite @Curunen.8729 That makes a lot of sense for what I've been experiencing.

On top of fixing the lack of cast canceling and adding an immob cleanse, what if it gave 50% (30% in PvP) endurance return? With the recent change to elusive mind it might offer something that other utilities don't. If after those changes it was still useless or underwhelming we could give it a 5 second shave off it's cooldown.

Instant guaranteed 1/2 second backwards evade, with 30% endurance refill, and a mirror on a 20 second cool down might fit into more builds?

I'd like to use IA and STG together, but then I'm either dropping Portal or Blink... Which it's hard to justify bringing this into ranked. But pretty fun to mess with people in duels, WvW, and messing around in unranked. Would still probably get little to no serious use in PvE though.

Another less complicated suggestion I have is it dropping 3 mirrors that last at least 10 seconds in a line and increasing the range to 400 - 500 units.

Change the evade to a mirage cloak, remove the mirror, add in 15-20 endurance regen and it would be good. You could use it for mobility while also giving your clones the ability to counterattack as you get out of the way. Don't have to worry about picking up a mirror later

I like the single mirror though - both for gameplay and for aesthetics, so would prefer to keep it. As long as the movement is guaranteed to move you away from the mirror position (either by clearing immobilise or something else) such that the mirror isn't immediately broken and can be used later, then it's nice to have.

But I do like the idea of giving mirage cloak rather than just an evade on the initial activation/movement, in addition to dropping a mirror as it currently does.

If you removed the mirror, wouldn't you then need to rename the skill?