Zero.6725

Healspecter was dead on arrival in large-scale WvW. Shroud does not last more than 2 seconds in fights. The last-minute group support additions to the shadow arts trait line were clunky. Instead of going for “nearby allies gain x upon entering or exiting stealth”, they chose a detrimental approach. Did you ever try to catch up to a fighting ally, drop a smoke field and blast it? The recent balance patch put even more emphasis on the glaring issue: Specter lacks reliability. The change to Well of Bounty added stability to a skill with cast time, that suffers from pathing issues. Thus making it unreliable. Heal through shadow step forces you out of position each time. Infiltrator’s Strike is as bad as Measured Shot in fights that are not stationary. The old 1.5 conversion was not remotely enough for large-scale WvW. The best option to support was to take Shallow Grave and ignore the shroud entirely. In your shroud, you are supposed to go ham on the enemy and cleave in order to maximize the support. The incoming damage does not allow you to do that at all. Shroud health is a limiting factor. Consume shadows was only working during the beta without the 5 second penalty. Even Siphon is unreliable. Do you want to build up Shadow Shroud, strip boons or give boons, then use it on an enemy and pray your allies do not need it. You should add another f-skill for the allied tether and make the 33% revive baseline. Specter is supposed to be an offensive barrier support like scourge and not a boon heavy healer like Firebrand, Tempest or Druid. Currently it is barely hanging on in small-scale and roaming. Almost every other spec outshines it, because its niche is non-existent. Single target healing without additional value is bad. Thief is severely lacking in that regard. The shroud nerf is slightly annoying for DPS Specter in PvE. Shroud is unreliable for people that do not dodge. IMO it was a mistake to nerf it in PvE, sPvP and WvW if the issue was only in sPvP. It is the game mode with the least amount of damage, which made Specter tankier as it was supposed to be. Just get rid of the shroud health and add vitality to a minor trait. Buff Specter’s life to the likes of Warrior or Necromancer. While you are at it, make the shadow force generation abundant or get rid of it as well and turn shroud into a kit like photon forge.

Specter feels underwhelming in its current iteration. The Endless Night nerf destroyed the most interesting synergy with Rot Wallow Venom as well as any little position play the class had. Wells have no impact and are only used as Alacrity sources. It is no fun to spam all your utility skills to get this boon. Shroud does not feel rewarding and the only skills that see regular usage are Grasping Shadows and Eternal Night. I do not know whether the scepter is too strong or shroud itself is too weak. Targeting allies still feels bad, especially in WvW. Here are some ideas to improve the spec: Make Rot Wallow Venom stack on Specter whenever healing an ally in shroud (max. 15-25 Stacks for 10 seconds – torment from your own RWV stacks can only be used on enemies when not in shroud). This change could turn every current weapon as well as the wells into an interesting condition DPS choice with some cleave damage. Remove Alacrity from wells and turn it into a baseline pulsing effect during shroud (like Harbinger) – only the thief and the tethered ally are affected. This would be another reason to stay in shroud. You could increase the CD of shroud skills accordingly. Give shroud skills some minor boons on successful hits that get shared with your tethered target (Haunt Shot → 1 stack of Might for 10 seconds, Grasping Shadows → Regeneration for 4 seconds, Dawn’s Repose → Resolution or Resistance for 3 seconds, Eternal Night → Protection for 3 seconds). Increase the power damage on Grasping Shadows and Eternal Night slightly. This change allows viable power builds. Remove the CD reduction of Siphon on allies. This change would allow interaction with Thrill of Crime and Bountiful Theft (Specter could steal two conditions and turn them into boons.) on Specter without it being too strong. Remove Measured Shot. Forced movement to the vicinity of your pressured allies is bad, especially for a squishy class. Shadow Sap is a waste of Initiative and has no rewarding interaction with RWV. Turn it into a Shadowstep to a ground-targeted destination (like 300 distance). Change Endless Night so that Specter gets the Quickness and not the ally. Quickness supports both healing and DPS options. Increase CD on all wells and buff them accordingly, e.g. revive 5% per pulse or barrier or plain (condition) damage buffs. Remove Shallow Grave. Neither you nor your tethered ally should need it anyway. Nerf the overall healing potential of Consume Shadows, but turn it into an instant cast healing skill again at the cost of a fixed (percentage) amount of your overall Shadow Shroud health. At the moment you want to avoid damage thus combat if you want to use this trait. Merge Traversing Darkness and Shadestep, but remove the revival effects of Siphon and Shadestep. Make a new trait, that allows Specter to tether itself to four allies, if the thief has no siphoned ally. Boons generated during shroud get shared with the allies. Nerf the overall Barrier and Healing if this trait is equipped (either minus fixed amount of healing power or minus percentage of outgoing healing). Healing and barrier to tethered allies is reduced to one-fourth each. Some of these changes can turn Specter into a more aggressive and engaging spec, that fits the thief theme. Heal through relentless attacks on your enemy. Do fast-paced attacks on your ally for support and healing.