Sons.5493

Just use invigorating precision.

Oh, so that's how shadestep actually works. I never bothered checking the actual numbers and just assumed it actually shared your exact amount of barrier to all your allies. My bad! I don't fully agree on the Infiltrator strike issues, since you have so many wells you can choose what kind of step fits the best in different scenarios. I Think Sword 2 should not be used to engage but rather use it during phases you know everyone is gonna be grouped. Stability is deffo a problem and I think Shroud 5 should pulse stability while its channeling. We probably still are a bit far away from actual healing numbers but the main point i wanted to showcase with this topic is how much better Specter feels if you dont have to worry about single targeting and keeping an eye on the UI. Glad you tried the build 🙂

I think losing some barrier to damage may be an issue but unlike with scepter you are generating a lot of barrier so if you lose some its not the end of the world as you still have a lot of options to provide healing. When I started running this the idea was to just spam 2 as cmc mentioned tho I quickly realise it just doest work, while the heal is decent I think generating barrier with cnd has a lot more value; it generates more healing and it gives you stealth which gives you back ini with shadow rejuv. Also i think minstrel could work maybe for a more tank build but I think cele does a really good job.

Honestly, i thought it would be worse. It's still pretty kitten strong, specially if you know when big damage may be incoming.

I forgot to mention this was mostly from a 5man PvE content point of view tho I'm sure it could also work fine in 10man. I designed this build idea to be and AoE healer and alac buffer, monk runes work really well tho I could consider chrono runes for like 80% quickness uptime at the loss of some Boon duration and healing. The more I play this build the more I like it. Its sort of forgiving but also very dynamic, you have so many options at any given time and AND you are able to heal yourself with the shadowsteps, something that I feel is lacking with scepter (the ability to heal yourself) Also thanks to shadestep you have the big siphon revive on a 5 second cooldown which comes suuuper clutch!

I highly disagree. This game is not like wow, this game works the best when different builds can fill a certain role and its ultimately what is being asked here. If you are designing a role such as alacrity buffer (which they are according to cmc) then its counterproductive to have a build that will 100% be picked over the other just because it does the thing way way better.

After getting more and more frustrated and how incridibly cluncky Sc/P is and playing with the UI I tried full cele monk runes S/D meme. To my surprise it was working incredibly well. Scepter suddenly becomes really fun since you dont have to worry about playing with the UI and u have a lot of mini combos that provide pretty kitten good healing. S/D has insane synergy with Panaku's and Shadestep. Here are some combos i've been playing with: Siphon enemy > CnD > stealth attack > infiltrator's strike or any well = Aoe 6k barrier 1k heal Cnd > Stealth attack > well = Aoe 4k barrier 1k heal Cnd > stealth attack > infiltrator's strike > siphon enemy > Healing well > stealth attack > infiltrator's return = Aoe 8k barrier 3k heal Basically, you wanna gain barrier and share it with a heal step, and S/D seems really good at it with all skill having minimal cast time. You also bring a decent ammount of CC with 2 CC wells + daze from sword stealth attack Provides perma alac, fury, vigor, and swiftness and has a ton of boon removal And Consume shadows is also there if you expect big damage. Biggest downside is that you do absolutely no damage. I just find it ironic that i'm enjoying this borderline meme build more than using the weapon designed to support just because you dont have to play with the UI. I hope Anet sees that and moves Specter to a more healthy playstyle rather than trying shoehorn the single target niche.

Imo this is the only good change, feels a lot more useable now

I think my biggest gripe is how bad Shroud 1 and 2 are, if consume shadows is gonna "reward us for staying in shroud" then shroud in general should be our big button moment. Make it tether to more targets, make it pulse healing (which would make it wvw viable), make it do more damage and drain a bit faster. Right now we can stay in shroud for really long but there's just no point. Also as others have mentioned, why do we need to sacriface 3 utilitites to achive what renegade can do with 1 button. I think it's fine that scepter has the niche solo target healing but Shroud should be able to pump better numbers than it currently is.

Following the recent comments made by cmc in tpots stream I would disagree, I think they do atleadt when it comes to support roles

Yeah it is as you said, but that is no longer the case. Come EoD we will have more sources of pretty much all the relevant boons but in a world where 10 man exists, 5 man will never thrive. Making either 5 o 10 the standard is the only way to solve this issue.

Either make all boon applications 10 man or 5 man but it makes no sense that some boon classes do 10 and some do 5. The 10 ones will always be favored by the meta leaving the 5 ones to rot or to fill certain niches but never to thrive... I know this has been mentioned a million times but I think ita specially relevant with all the new specs taking shape and seeing how some will just be completely outclassed by the existing 10 man boon classes or FB which is insanely broken.

I mean i don't disagree with you that the other traits are slightly underwhelming, specially the top one but consume shadows is super super super strong, you sre pumping 27k heal/barriers with the double press of a button, a button that's also your main spec mechanic, you see how that can be a design flaw? It promotes skipping shroud and that's fine maybe but I would very much prefer a trait that converts shroud into this massive healing moment by actively deciding what to do withing this window by assessing the situation instead of just double pressing f2 and go back to "spaming 3 and wells"

After running specter in different PvE groups I'm really liking it, I think its the spec thief needed. I only have one problem: Consume Shadows. Consume shadows is way too strong to the point that is absolutely not worth doing anything in shroud in Pve, except maybe cast mind shock and instantly leave shroud which in turns devalue all of the shroud skills. The idea of consume shadows is to sacrifice your shadow force for aoe healing, I think a decent way to translate this to a more interactive iteration would be to make consume shadows tether you to 4 targets and increase the healing you do while in shroud while at the same time making it consume more shroud. You still get to enjoy the shroud and provide aoe healing while at the same time giving this trait a more active approach, do I wanna cleanse conditions? Do I wanna give barrier? Do I wanna heal? Do I wanna stay in shroud the whole duration of mindshock to give party stability? As it stand right now you just dip in an out insta for an insane heal and its not really interactive. I also think this change would open more possibilities for WvW zerging because as it stands right now Specter healing in Large scale fights has a hard time finding its place.

I think that's gonna be the real issue for specter, in wvw zerg fights it feels extremely underwhelming. I could see it working with the old meta where there was a very defined backline. That said last night I was roaming a doing some small scale fights and it was prolly the most fun I've had with thief since release, it was impactfull, it was fast paced and reactionary so I think ppl who enjoy those kinds of fights will really appreciate what specter brings to the table. Maybe specter stacking on commander with a guardian for defensives and calling bombs with Mind Shock and the Elite, lots of cc. Or backline ressbot, siphon with shape + shadow savior seems strong, i was able to pull some crazy reuses yesterday