Rending Shade

[Exitus.3297]

I wanted to share an opinion on Rending Shade and see where people stand on this. I read in the patch notes that the damage reduction from boonless targets on the Rending Shade trait went from 10% to 15%. I saw that and immediatel thought "this will do literally nothing." The reason being is that it is a trait best utilized in PvP/WvW for the boon steal, but it is very rare for someone attacking the Thief to be completely boonless for more than a second or two. You would only really notice in PvE, but who seriously takes it in PvE? Do people tank with it and I just don't know about it? Let me know.

Anyways, I think that ANet is trying to see more people pick up this trait, which is fine, but I don't think they are going about it the right way. The few times I used this trait was for the boon steal, and while I took into account the damage reduction, in modes like WvW where boon spam is real, I can expect it to not be applicable 99.99% of the time. The only times I would hit a boonless target is if I opened with Steal -> Backstab and stole 5 boons at once. Targets will usually gain a boon or so before going on the offense.

I think if ANet wants to see this trait get more use, they may need to rethink it. I was just thinking that they could turn it into a damage buff of 10% against boonless targets instead. Or, rather, something cool happens whenever the Thief removes a boon from a target (similar to traits in the Scourge traitline). I'm not sure what exactly but I'm hoping everyone gets what I mean.

[MechVampyre.2903]

10 or 15% damage reduction for 3(?) seconds after a successful boonsteal could be a thing.

[bq pd.2148]

i personally would use it, if they change it to stealing the boons when attacking from stealth, not just on stealth attacks.many SA users are DEs anyway in pvp / WvW and so we need to safe our stealth attacks cause of malice. but being able to boonstrip your opponent with stealth weaving before using that stealth attack burst would be awesome.

[alejandro.2093]

If only they can code an effect for rending shade, whenever you steal boons, the stolen boons cannot be reapplied for 3 secs.

So far the damage reduction is useless on its current iteration since most classes poop out boons like no tomorrow.

[MechVampyre.2903]

@"Oldgrimm.8521" said:So far the damage reduction is useless on its current iteration since most classes poop out boons like no tomorrow.

the good thing about rending shade is, that no matter what the circumstances are, this trait will work one way or another.either you get the damage reduction, or there are boons to strip.although there are a hell lot of boons flying around in this games current state, it's not reason enough to change this trait too much.

when having a second thought, its damage reduction could also just get splitted into like 8% reduction from boonless enemies and another 7% after boonsteal.after all, it can just stay as it is to be honest.

[roamzero.9486]

A life steal per boon stripped would fix the trait I think. I also like the suggestion of getting X-seconds of damage reduction per boon stolens.

[babazhook.6805]

RS stealing boons is a good skill. Stealing boons to get to zero is VERY hard to do. I have tried in a variety of builds and there just too much boon app.

The problem with more times effects based on a per boon strip is just more in the way of calculations but that one route to take.

What I would rather see is RS act omewhat like Cursed bullet did. on use STEAL one boon , corrupt a second boon and revert damage mitigate back to 10 percent.

[Exitus.3297]

@roamzero.9486 said:A life steal per boon stripped would fix the trait I think. I also like the suggestion of getting X-seconds of damage reduction per boon stolens.

I agree completely. Having some kind of lifesteal on boon removal would be neat. I can see people coming up with some whacky builds with it.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Exitus.3297 said:but who seriously takes it in PvE?

Rending Shade is a good damage mitigation when doing the HoT map wide events, especially in Dragon's Stand. Getting almost 50% damage reduction while in stealth is a big deal. Healing is not a problem during these events, so SR is not needed, nor you can receive crit hits thus CiS is also not needed.

However, in general PvE, it is a toss-up between SA and Acro.

However, in Dragon's Stand, it's more important to lose aggro instead of having more dodges. This is the same in every map-wide events.

[MechVampyre.2903]

@babazhook.6805 said:What I would rather see is RS act omewhat like Cursed bullet did. on use STEAL one boon , corrupt a second boon and revert damage mitigate back to 10 percent.

i like that idea a lot.if then the boon corruption strictly followed a list of priorities (don't know if any boon corrupts in this game do this), i would totally love such a change.i much rather welcome anything that provides opportunities for some more tactical play/ stuff that can be utilizied in different ways and situations, than too simplistic straight forward things.

[Turk.5460]

Since an overwhelming majority of roamers use https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Orrian_Truffle_and_Meat_Stew - Rending Shade's damage reduction is pretty much non-existent. It's even worse in group-battles as everyone is applying some sort of boon to each other just by walking, and even if it's just swiftness, BAM, no damage reduction.