Talk:Viper's Defense

My first thought when I read the skill description was: struck with what? So I did some investigating. The following do trigger it: The following do not trigger it: This leaves a few skills that mention being "struck for damage" but which I have not verified. A pair examples to prime the investigation: There are also a few skills that cause damage but it is not clear whether they "strike" for damage. Examples: 85.25.136.135 05:22, 19 May 2006 (CDT)
 * Any attack
 * Projectile spells (tested Lightning Orb and Flare)
 * Touch skills
 * Shatterstone
 * Deathly Chill
 * Whirling Defense (when you're knee-to-knee with the bloke who's whirling)


 * Can this teleport you so that you get stuck? I'm thinking about UW mainly. :) --[[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 05:57, 19 May 2006 (CDT)
 * It's a shadow step, I think
 * 1. Just take A/Rt or Rt/A with at least one spirit (not attacking) (Shelter would be the best).
 * 2. Cast the spirit.
 * 3. Use Recall on the spirit.
 * 4. Use Viper's Defense.
 * 5. Use Dark Prison, Death's Charge or Aura of Displacement on foe (if you choose Aura of Displacement, you can skip the steps 1,2 and 3.
 * 6. Stop maintaining Recall, or replace recall with Spirit Walk and use it on the spirit.
 * Alternative 6. (if you chose Aura of Displacement) Stop Maintaining Aura of Displacement
 * 7. Remember to take running skill(s) with you (such as Dash and/or Dark Escape) to outdistance the enemies. --I Follow The Blind 06:28, 10 July 2006 (CDT)

I think that is waste of time but it may work :D. Aura of Displacement is much easier and more safe.--I Follow The Blind 06:28, 10 July 2006 (CDT) Spirits cant be hexed enchanted recall wont work.
 * It'll work now with the recall change; enchant is on the caster.--Carmine 16:44, 29 May 2007 (CDT)

Where can I find this skill?
 * Kaineng Center has it for sure.

Poison foe on strike
Does this poison the "next time" over every time?
 * just once. --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 15:25, 7 August 2006 (CDT)

Getting stuck
I have had situations where I am surrounded by enemies and I am unable to shadow step out. My character will disappear, someone will get poisoned, and then I reappear in the exact same spot while the bad guys beat me to a pulp. Does anyone know if there is a limitation to shadow step that requires you to have an "opening" to step through? Glenn Gladewarden 18:12, 23 August 2006 (CDT)
 * check out Shadow Step; you can only step to places you could normally walk. --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 19:08, 23 August 2006 (CDT)
 * I've had situations like these before and i would say it's about 30-40% of the time when i use it. I don't mean using this in a battle though, because my assasin is a runner, and sometimes i may get cornered and such, I will bring along both heart of shadow and viper's defense. If heart of shadow doesn't work, viper's should be able to (unless I'm really unlucky =.
 * Thats the entire reason i use it on my dervish (through VoS). i have noticed that alot of the time you will end up in the same spot. sometimes its how you want it, way outside the enemies. and sometimes it pushes an enemy out of your way, and you only move a few feet.--Coloneh RIP[[Image:Coloneh.png]] 20:20, 19 December 2006 (CST)

Shadow of Haste
If you use Shadow of Haste, run away a little, then use Viper's Defense, do you go to a nearby location, or where you used Shadow of Haste? Friend of Chaos 18:46, 5 March 2007 (CST)
 * Where you used shadow of haste. When you activate a stance with one already up, the new stance activates first and then the old one ends.  --Fyren 19:51, 5 March 2007 (CST)
 * Actually, I guess I was mixing this up with heart of shadow anyway. Viper's won't do anything till you get hit.  --Fyren 19:55, 5 March 2007 (CST)

Gtfo
Use with grasping was kuurong for a nice, "back the hell away from me", effect. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.166.103.91 (contribs).
 * Wow, that was creative! (not being sarcastic) --Gimmethegepgun 03:37, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Buff
This could be pretty good in PvE now. High spread of conditions with only a cost of 5 energy and now its not a stance so it won't end any of yours. This could be interesting...--Manbeast15 23:12, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * not to mention it's gone from a purely defensive stance to an offensively useful one. Unconditional potion for DA sins or th end of an attack chain as a cover.198.28.92.5 15:15, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Minor Debuff
One reason I liked the old Viper is because it often took me out of range of any ranged damage (casters, parallelagons, rangers), and tossed poison at them as well, so I could get out of the way, let them degen a bit, heal myself a bit, then jump back in the fray at them. It would have been nice if they left ONE of these two skills as an effect-on-damage skill.--Carmine 15:48, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

range
Just for proof:

--Shadowcrest 00:22, 18 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Hardly proof...you could activate it and run 20 feet. : )   ...but we trust you.--Carmine 07:57, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Look at what he's targeting -- target on the outer ring. It's still "nearby." Now, if he targeted the target in the center of the range rings then it'd be odd. >.> 71.50.202.178 18:13, 19 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It's in the area of HIM, not his target. He can land out of earshot from his target. [[Image:Entrea Sumatae.png|Entrea Sumatae]]Entrea Sumatae  [Talk]  18:47, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * And you never know where he started...but yes, we know it's earshot. : ) --Carmine 15:43, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Stance to Spell
I found this skill to be most useful in RA on my monk. This is when hammer Rangers were popular and used Strike as One to buff their attack speed. With stances, you can activate them even knocked down; this isn't the case with spells however :(
 * I prefer Return on a monk. Crippling your enemies is better than poisoning them when you want to get away from them :P And with return you can choose where you want to shadow step to. If you want to use a stance for protection though, there are still some pretty good warrior ones to choose from. Silver Sunlight [[Image:SSunlight.jpg|19px]] 07:07, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Smoke Powder Defense is a stance. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:08, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Spell limitations?
Now that this skill is a spell and not a stance, how do targeting restrictions work with it? I understand that with no enemy targeted, it reverts to it's "Shadowstep to a random place" mechanic, but can it still function if the target is using Spellbreaker or Shadow Form? I know that the PBAoE effects work if not targeting, I'm curious if it does when targeting.Lord Twitchiopolis 20:11, 21 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, when you target nothing it uses the autotargetting mechanism to get a target. 'Only' when targetting yourself and using it without enemies nearby gives the random sstep.
 * The SF/SB question got me to firing up GW again to try it out. Targetting Anton under SF works, and Tahlkora under SB gives me normal results, too. The spell is cast on you, and the game only uses your target for the shadowstep, most likely. I haven't tested enemy spell immunity, though, but 5k that's no different. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG|Ohaider!]] -- (contribs) &emsp;(talk)  22:17, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * SB and SF don't prevent friendly spells. The only thing that does is VoS, which would really be a testing point (unless i'm interpreting you wrong)  Ad Victoriam  05:32, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It doesn't work, vipers defense is a spell you cast on foes. Roland Cyerni 02:43, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * Since it's usable when no foes are near, I'd say it's a spell that requires any target (you when nothing's near). --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]] -- (contribs) &emsp;(talk)  13:56, December 2, 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing Roland meant you can't cast it on a target using Vow of Silence, which I just confirmed. I don't know about SF or SB when they are used by foes.  Nwash  [[Image:User-Nwash-Eyes.png|link=User talk:Nwash]] 14:12, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * Just tested on both SB and SF (Blessed Griffons, Afflicted Assassins), failed on both. Which makes sense, considering it does say "target", and the ability to use it non-targeted is an anomaly/bug.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 15:43, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * So, it completely fails when cast on a protected foe? You do not poison any foes (adjacent or targeted) and you do not shadow step at all? How annoying.


 * @Lord Twitch: what did you mean by now that this skill is a spell and not a stance? Hasn't it been a spell for at least a year (well, for 6 months at the time of your note)?  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 19:30, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * Isn't that what I said?. &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 21:35, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * I wasn't sure if you meant "completely failed" or "partially failed." ANet has created a lot of anomalies; sometimes skills partly trigger, sometimes they trigger inappropriately, and sometimes they do something odd.   &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 23:03, December 2, 2009 (UTC)
 * i.e. enchantments used by someone with Shadow Walk on them before they fixed it, remember that? Was kinda-fail, caused the old Cultist's Fervor to trigger and so Dark Bond fired, yet you didn't get any cast or cooldown and didn't sacrifice anything or something? Didn't take em all that long to fix is because it was so terribly overpowered. I tried that for the first time (and last time) against some stupid forest things when my friend was at my house, we both "holy shit!"'d --Gimmethegepgun 23:22, December 2, 2009 (UTC)