Stray

Occassionally when shooting with a bow, this message comes when target dodges the projectile. Does anybody have any idea what causes "stray" instead of the usual "dodge"? Even wikis have no information about this issue.

Thanks in advance!

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Stray

people have many guesses as to what it is but no definate answer.

From what ive seen stray comes up more when using long bows/flatbows/spears.

But there is no definate answer yet,anet may have just put it in to confuse people.

I think it means the projectile (arrow or spear) strayed off course and, thus, missed the target. Dodge means you missed because the target moved.

from what i can speculate, dodge and stray are like this:

Dodge: enemy was not moving when the arrow was fired, and enemy moved from the position casung it to miss

Stray: enemy was moving when arrow was fired, and changed course or stopped causing it to miss

stray most often happens on melee targets who moved to chase a kiting/running enemy

your speculation is wrong

Would you care to expand on that, since you seem to know more about the subject

It's probably due to the accuracy of the bows themselves...like the flatbow or something I forgot has a crap accuracy. Different from dodge, as that requires the target itself moving.

It's probably due to the accuracy of the bows themselves...like the flatbow or something I forgot has a crap accuracy. Different from dodge, as that requires the target itself moving.

You can also get this with a wand. My necromancer got a "stray" twice and several "dodge" when I attacked a flamingo or two today. Happened while the birds were running around my white moa to get to me.

yeah bows dont miss when the target stands still. bows naturally have a 100% hit rate on targets that are standing still. every type of bow.

its caused by a moving target, that much is certain.

all that is left to find out is why each comes up...nobody did enough research on it yet because it just plain doesnt matter. miss is a miss is a miss. who cares what its called and why. just aim for non-moving targets, use a + arrow speed, or choose a target that likely wont change course while moving.

If its a animal youre after, you can do what I do, and leave a trail of scraps of Moa bird, and when the tryptophan kicks in, they'll be nice and sluggish, making them an easy target.

Serioulsy, slows are helpful, as is a cripple shot, after using a +arrow speed.

It's simple really....

Dodge or Block - the target dodged the arrow (by moving, etc.) or blocked it (with a shield or skill, etc.)

Stray - you just plain missed, or the arrow went astray because of a defect (like a feather falling off or bent shaft).

Good god, I hope you are joking. If not, pass me whatever you are smoking.
Feathers and bent shafts.......

Stray seems to happen when you try to hit a moving target as opposed to dodge which happens when the target moves after the shot was fired.

Well, it's a "virtual" feather or bent shaft - just like it's a virtual world, with virtual bows, virtual people, virtual targets, etc., etc.

But, here - take it, it's local grown.

I would hazard a guess that it's all about how close to the target the projectile hits. The GW engine must calculate that anyway since many projectiles have target area effects. Thus a 'dodge' would be when the projectile doesn't hit the target but is still inside 'adjacent' range, and a 'stray' goes wide of that.

Reminds me of a few dates Ive been on...

I think Winston may be onto something, but I think we need more testing to find out for (reasonably) sure.

Its simple move your character left to right when getting shot at from a ranged enemy. You can stray his shots, it's over speculation just move left and right quickly... God people take things too far now a days.

Ok, I'll suggest an experiment to potentially falsify my hypothesis: Ignite Arrows deals extra damage to foes adjacent to the target. This extra damage is applied even if the arrow misses the target. Therefore, if the difference between dodge and stray is the distance by which the arrow misses, then when you shoot at a target while using the preparation and get a dodge the extra damage from IA still triggers but if you get a stray it doesn't.