FelsPinguin.5902

I just noticed that the allied Malicious Shadowsquall is single target although all other ally scepter skills are 5 targets. Even the regular Shadowsquall is 5 targets. I guess the skill was forgotten...

I really Like that Suggestion. Because as I demonstrated Here: The current Handling of the healing is lackluster. I would even suggest a fixed amount of base healing (ofc influenced by healing Power). this would encourage staying in shroud even If damage deplenishes your shroud health. If that is to passive (I am well aware that Devs got rid of Most of the passive traits) you could build the mechanic in a way that only If you Exit shroud yourself you gain the healing and you will gain nothing If your shroud ends because your shroud health is Zero. This would lead to a Playstyle in which you can stay in shroud as Long as you want before activating the healing by leaving shroud. On the other Hand If you mess Up and shroud ends due to Lack of shroud health you gain nothing. To make the shroud health maintaining easier I also Like the Idea of shroud skills giving barrier to the specter.

Also scepter on deadeye or daredevil offer clear benefits over the Vice versa combinations. The weapon trait from specter for scepter ist only minor and therefore quite neglectable. Also you benefit from more Initiative Baseline and additional Initiative traits Like Maleficent seven. Therefore the combination is better. However, in Order to offer real build variety in all combinations imho there needs to be certain adjustments: Specter needs to get rid of the Initiative reduction. Maybe while toning down scepter. The weapon improvement traits need to be incorporated into the weapon itself. E.g. raising the damage of staff instead of giving extra Power to daredevil builds or placing the stat buffs on other traitlines.

The core Problem why you cannot use staff and rilfe efficiently on other specializations is that you Miss Out the specific weapon traits. If you Take rilfe without deadeye you Miss Out 240 precision and stealth on Dodge. If you Take staff without daredevil you Miss Out 240 Power and endurance on Initiative. This alone makes the weapons way worse without their specialization and very hard to get Something useful Out of it. I Had high hopes that they would adjust the weapons specific traits in Order to make the weapons more useful without them but also to make Elite specializations useful without the specific weapon. However, sadly they did nothing to Change that.

You are Not the only one! 🤗

Totally agree there. After they introduced the stack mechanic in combination with the reduced health to shroud scaling of 0.69 this trait has become nearly useless in wvw and PvP. If you calculate generously with 20k health your shroud ist only 13.8k. For 5 stacks of consume shadows you already lose 5x4% totaling to 20% in wvw and PvP. Considering you are not attacked once (which is in a Combat scenario Not realistic) you remain with 11.040 shroud health. Now 32.5% gets transfered to healing by consume shadows resulting in an amazingly Low heal of 3.588 for losing 11k shroud health. If you calculate realisticly (17k health, being Hit for 2k within the 5 Seconds) you end Up with a heal of only 2.399,8. Which throws the question why the hell WE would need the overheal mechanic with these small numbers. Just as a comparison a single measured Shot traited with traversing dusk and Shadow savior heals 3.392 for your primary target and 2.316,5 for the Rest. Not calculating any healing Power.

But you have to keep in mind that the heal and boon duration ist Generally shorter in wvw.

I agree. Although we have to keep in mind that thieves did Not participate in many previous buff rounds. Therefore, IT might be justified that we did Not Receive a Nerf hammer this time. Overall I am quite Happy with the new Balance Route. For a Long time there was No theory crafting possible, because the balance Patches Had No real Impact. But this Changed for the better.

For the new weapon / specialization combinations I do See some use cases also for daredevil. Imagine a condi scepter daredevil making use of measured Shot/endless night and Lotus Training. But No doubt you have to become creative in Order to geht Something useful Out of it. The specialization are so strongly tied top the weapons.

Did a short Test Run Yesterday and quickness ist really easy to maintain. There should be a Lot of Options to combine the quickness Generation for the Party with meaningful damage choices.

I also wondered why they did Not use the existing quickness trait. But in the other Hand the combination of constant quickness uptime and the stat bonuses would have been too much. Now you have to make a tough choice. Either constant quickness for you and your Party or an occasionally buffed quickness solely for you.

If you want to command a real Zerg and lead your people you have to beef up by a lot as a Thief. Something like sentinels gear is well advised. You should Not rely on shadowsteps,otherwise you will lose people with every shadowstep you do. In my opinion you have two Options. Either daredevil with Blocks, dodges and stunbreaks or specter with shroud as a second Life bar. Overall I would Not recommend to command a Zerg as a Thief. Because you have to sacrifize so much of your Power and useful traits in Order to survive Standing and leading the Squad under damage pressure that you do Not Bring anything Else to the Party besides your lead.

Shieldless Thief is sad.

Especially since critical strikes is meant for crit and damage builds an focus in benefits for crit and damage would make huge sense. Using a general approach with initiative regain is just nonsense, because not a single condition build would chose critical strikes. A general approach Like Initiative on Dodge would have been a great path for the hard to catch trait from acrobatics which is meant for condition as well.

As a Thief Main who made a build with the sole purpose to be faster than a warclaw Rider i can tell you: on the long distance no thief is faster than a warclaw. You are only faster if you switch between warclaw and your Thief shadowsteps constantly.