Jugglemonkey.8741

If they reworked haste into 50% more ini regen while under the effects of quickness, I'd be down for that.

Ignore this, wrong button.

Not going to say you're wrong, I just can't agree with that. The range on rifle is janky to begin with and that's the one problem I have with using Kneel, we still mostly have to be within someone zone so we can be responded to faster than if we had real range. Yep, shots not hitting reliably at long range really does get annoying sometimes. Kinda miss cursed bullet. Cursed Bullet was a neat idea but I hated the weird pathing it ended up getting obstructed from terrain half the time. Maybe they should have given DE two stealth attacks (one for kneel and one for standing) and made Cursed Bullet one of the two. I would be fine with that tbh. I liked cursed bullet, but I found it more reliable than DJ is at max range, so maybe it is a matter of preference there. Your suggestion would be the best of both worlds for sure, and also give DE more boonrip which is never bad. If you time the sequence right like old version you could have Cursed Bullet curve in from one side and have the standing Stealth Attack and everything else roll in soon afterwards. That all could be too strong though now with current Silent Scope, Binding Shadow, and Shadow Meld. Old CB and BS timed to land one right after, both ripping stuff to open target up for the other, with whatever else rolling in with them were unassuming. Todays DE/SA build might get a little bursty but then, any amount of time before any of our stuff lands is a very long time for us.Possibly. I used to cast cursed bullet then use three round burst so it all landed at once, made for a nice spike. It could be too strong combined with backstab etc now, but remember that you used to be able to spam DJ as long as you had the initiative as well, which if you timed for the end of the reflexive dodge people do once cursed bullet hit it was pretty effective. To be honest though, the spec has changed that much since the initial release it's hard to say how any revert would play out now. Edit; it wouldn't actually be that bad using cursed bullet with any sneak attack now, assuming that cursed bullet when implemented also spent all your malice like current sneak attacks do, so the follow up malicious backstab/DJ would have noodle damage. Like I say, a lot has changed in the spec since release, it's not as straightforward as it first looks. Edity edit; On topic, I don't have much of a problem with kneel in concept. The issue for me is that the kneel skills aren't as impactful as they could be, which is due in large part to DJ now being the sneak attack. Having DJ as kneel 4 gave kneel much more reward for the risk, and while it made the burst more clunky, honestly I think it worked better than it does now. As things stand, three round burst is now trash so you only ever use 2 for malice and 4 for utility, whether you kneel or stand. Is that really a good use of an extra skill set on the weapon, when 1/2 of the skills (auto and two/three round burst) are almost never used? Sniper's cover is good, but it is utility, and if anything the standing skills should have the defensive utility and the kneel skills the damage pressure to give you some reason to use it. If it was down to me, I would do something like put cursed bullet back on the sneak attack (it would do 3-6k damage depending on what you're hitting, rip boons based on malice, and use all malice on a hit), DJ would be kneel 4 (and it would still use all malice on a successful hit like it does now, so you have to choose between damage or boonrip for your malice spender), sniper's cover would be a small smokescreen field instead of a line and would be on standing 3 (I would probably also remove stealth on dodge, since you now have the smoke field combo on standing 3 & 4 skills) and kneel 3 would be something that does reasonable damage and/or a 2s stun if you mark the target within 3s of it hitting (so you can kneel 3, mark for the stun, then DJ for the kill). Sure, might be slightly OP and not very thought out (I did come up with this on the fly), but at least you'd feel like you had more skills than 2 for damage/malice and 4 for utility.

Not going to say you're wrong, I just can't agree with that. The range on rifle is janky to begin with and that's the one problem I have with using Kneel, we still mostly have to be within someone zone so we can be responded to faster than if we had real range. Yep, shots not hitting reliably at long range really does get annoying sometimes. Kinda miss cursed bullet. Cursed Bullet was a neat idea but I hated the weird pathing it ended up getting obstructed from terrain half the time. Maybe they should have given DE two stealth attacks (one for kneel and one for standing) and made Cursed Bullet one of the two.I would be fine with that tbh. I liked cursed bullet, but I found it more reliable than DJ is at max range, so maybe it is a matter of preference there. Your suggestion would be the best of both worlds for sure, and also give DE more boonrip which is never bad.

Honestly I'd rather have the old traps back, if only for the interaction with trapper runes. Less salt, and with the exception of portal the old traps were actually more useful.

Not going to say you're wrong, I just can't agree with that. The range on rifle is janky to begin with and that's the one problem I have with using Kneel, we still mostly have to be within someone zone so we can be responded to faster than if we had real range. Yep, shots not hitting reliably at long range really does get annoying sometimes. Kinda miss cursed bullet.

Never seen that before. So either it's the computer, or necros finally got stealth. (just imagining a necro sat in that dome going "YOU CAN'T SEE MEEEEE" haha)

8k Mind Wrack, what was he? A level 60 character? Probably an ele that got caught without protection

Not really. Especially if you broaden your horizons from purely "Thief" into more of "Rogue". Which was done for Deadeye. DE isn't "Thief". You don't even steal anything. You mark targets and get a spell to cast from it (As opposed to Core Thief and Daredevil which still steals items from enemies) Under the "Rogue" archetype, there's tons of stuff that can be done with Thief that would be thematically appropriate:Bard (Minstrel, Dirge, Troubador)Pirate (Swashbuckler, Brigand, Corsair)Bandit (Marauder, Outlaw, Mercenary)Scout (Vanguard, Wanderer, Pathfinder)Gambler (Cardsharp, Scoundrel, Swindler) Etc. That's fair enough, I guess my thoughts were more along diversity of game mechanics rather than themes. You are correct that thematically there are several places they can go, but how would they feel different mechanically to what we already have, while also feeling like a rogue? If the diversity comes from new steal mechanics and weapon sets, then I could see Bard for a support themed spec. That said, Pirate/Bandit would almost certainly get offhand sword or shield, both would have too much overlap with current acro sword builds to be distinct imo. Gambler could be a chance to go into totally new territory with no worries tho, I like that idea. The problem with elite specs imo is that the more you add to a class, the more redundancy you create (think vanilla acrobatics/feline grace vs daredevil, or basically anything in kits for engi vs scrapper or holo). It's also possible I'm a bit jaded, having played this game for years and currently being on a break to replay the elder scrolls games for nostalgia. So take what I say in that light haha. Yeah, boon rip that isn't spammed to heck like Mesmer Sword clones is almost useless these days what with classes like Firebrand and Herald farting out boons left and right... Meanwhile, boon rip is actually useless in PvE because barely anything even generates boons (Heck, it's one of the contributing factors to Necro's anemic performance in PvE, the lack of anything for their ~12 billion boon corrupt effects to do anything on) Yeah, you're not wrong, the mechanic and numbers of boons ripped are not balanced well between modes. Rending shade for instance, it steals two boons in PvE where boons are scarce, but since the big patch it only rips one boon in WvW and PvP where ripping protection for a decent spike is pretty necessary.

The problem is, most of what you have written can currently be done on a deadeye if built correctly, with the advantage of 1500 range. I really think ANet have painted themselves into a corner with elite specs, as honestly there isn't much more you can add to thief while keeping the thief flavour. Edit; the other problem is that boons should be rare but powerful, but instead they are just powerful. You'd have to see an overall decrease in boon application for boon rip to shine, especially since the last big patch that nerfed our boon rip options from what they used to be. Pre patch you could reliably create windows to damage boon builds, now it's very hit and miss.

How do they have infinite kite? Even with food they still only have 2 dodges. And reveal is still a thing. They only have 1 port skill generally. Cripple doesn't really have an effect against several builds, particularly ones that have leaps, ports, removal, can dodge to where they want to go, etc. Most people conflate both deadeye and daredevil abilities into one uber build in order to feel better about complaining about it.

I used to do the same sort of thing on daredevil with trapper runes and needle trap. Have fun ^^

Most of my fun in this game is making builds then testing them inappropriately on anyone who passes by. PvP amulets would kill that fun. Also, as others have pointed out, this isn't exactly a new topic.

Time gained Initiative still looks like a coold down to me. I feel like the Initiative cost keeps going up not so much because our Ini was out of wack or too generously given but more as an easy, right now, way to nerf individual skills. That's not a healthy way to balance our profession especially since most of the Ini cost had felt pretty good and fair for awhile. The alternative would be putting a CD on the problematic skills, but it seem ANet is against that solution. Whatever skills are decided to be problematic for reasons aren't going to be resolved by slapping on a cd though or by pricing us out of using all aspects of that skill instead of resolving whatever the problem was that people were crying about. ^ this. I'd rather have skills have weaker effects but to be able to use more than one initiative consuming skill at once than to have each weapon skill being so powerful that they lock me out of all other weapon skills with each use due to ini costs (see choking gas for a prime example, just remove the daze and make it cost 4 ini again, problem solved). Here we go anet nerfed condi thief too. Now we can throw it away Honestly the condi nerfs weren't bad, my WvW condi build could get a 5k combined tick pre patch from sneak attack and shadow strike alone which is nuts when you think about it. Condi ought to be attrition, not burst. Well the thief is not really about attrition tho. True, most thief builds aren't about attrition. But that's a strange thing to complain about in a thread asking for more diversity of builds, don't you think?

It's kinda entertaining watching people say that warclaw, the thing that gave every character the best defensive attributes of daredevil, regardless of their class and build, is too weak because of daredevil mobility. A wee case of the grass calling the clover green, don't you think?

Time gained Initiative still looks like a coold down to me. I feel like the Initiative cost keeps going up not so much because our Ini was out of wack or too generously given but more as an easy, right now, way to nerf individual skills. That's not a healthy way to balance our profession especially since most of the Ini cost had felt pretty good and fair for awhile. The alternative would be putting a CD on the problematic skills, but it seem ANet is against that solution. Whatever skills are decided to be problematic for reasons aren't going to be resolved by slapping on a cd though or by pricing us out of using all aspects of that skill instead of resolving whatever the problem was that people were crying about. ^ this. I'd rather have skills have weaker effects but to be able to use more than one initiative consuming skill at once than to have each weapon skill being so powerful that they lock me out of all other weapon skills with each use due to ini costs (see choking gas for a prime example, just remove the daze and make it cost 4 ini again, problem solved). Here we go anet nerfed condi thief too. Now we can throw it awayHonestly the condi nerfs weren't bad, my WvW condi build could get a 5k combined tick pre patch from sneak attack and shadow strike alone which is nuts when you think about it. Condi ought to be attrition, not burst.

I'd prefer it being purely an evade and mobility skill personally, they can drop the damage entirely. I have a preference for power D/D tho, so that's prob why I'm saying that.

This is a fair comment tbh. The skill is pretty overloaded for what it is.

Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah. Factual and civil.

As a thief main: Magebane tether is fine. It's punishing, but 1) I should be punished for attacking into a full counter, 2) it rewards unpredictable/skilled play on a very telegraphed class, and 3) if I'm tethered and the warrior goes for the pull I can either just stay close to him (not hard as a thief) or wait for the pull then stunbreak the moment it starts, meaning I stay more or less where I was. Classes with stability should have even less problems: save your stab for if you get tethered, since CC no longer does high damage.

Time gained Initiative still looks like a coold down to me. I feel like the Initiative cost keeps going up not so much because our Ini was out of wack or too generously given but more as an easy, right now, way to nerf individual skills. That's not a healthy way to balance our profession especially since most of the Ini cost had felt pretty good and fair for awhile. The alternative would be putting a CD on the problematic skills, but it seem ANet is against that solution. Whatever skills are decided to be problematic for reasons aren't going to be resolved by slapping on a cd though or by pricing us out of using all aspects of that skill instead of resolving whatever the problem was that people were crying about. ^ this. I'd rather have skills have weaker effects but to be able to use more than one initiative consuming skill at once than to have each weapon skill being so powerful that they lock me out of all other weapon skills with each use due to ini costs (see choking gas for a prime example, just remove the daze and make it cost 4 ini again, problem solved).

Pretty sure Bolt is a bit buggy. I have it myself, and I often get the effect when riding my mount for no reason, even when it's not the weapon I'm currently using.

This made me laugh a lot, scarily accurate xD I actually like the bear thing, just simply because it's not a cat. I will put up with it looking unBEARably goofy and hearing scooby do say "srraaaggy?" in my head every time I see it for that reason haha ^^

It's appropriate for skills like Pistol Whip and Headshot to cost more initiative than your average skill, but the reward/risk should be balanced as well. Right now you can punish far more with a well-timed Black Powder or Headshot, than PW. A light armor class shouldn't be able to tank multiple PWs without an issue. On the other hand, skills such as Shadow Shot had their initiative costs raised for a good cause, because being perma-blinded while soaking a decent quantity of damage wasn't exactly engaging or fun gameplay (despite what some other thief players may say, imo). Well, in HoT they went the route of increasing the auto attack damage instead. I can't help but feel that if the autos did more damage like they used to, we would be ok with these changes as the ini costing skills could then be more used for their utility than for their damage.